The death of actor/comedian Andy Griffith recently brought the little town of Mayberry back to the minds of everybody.

Well, maybe not everybody, but it did for those of us who were watching TV back in the ‘60s, and those who spent time watching reruns since then.

It’s always fun to get a glimpse inside the mind of a 5-year-old.

Well, almost 5, anyway; the actual birthday is about a month away, but 4 11/12 years old is a bit tricky to type.

There seems to be a big controversy these days about the size of soft-drink servings.

At the center of the controversy is Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, who wants to ban servings larger than 16 ounces from being sold in the city.

In just a few days, Karen and I will observe our wedding anniversary.

One summer afternoon in 1952, I watched my mother go a bit wacko.

Mom was ironing, but she was a rather distracted by a guy on the radio who was calling off the names of the states. There was a lot of cheering after he called each name, and eventually, there was huge cheer that dissolved Mom’s anxiety into pure joy and sent her bouncing around the room in elation.

With all the stuff in the news these days, it’s a little difficult to focus on one subject for this column. So here are a few musings about this and that.
Republicans have been rejoicing over President Obama’s mistaken statement that the Supreme Court has “never overturned a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically-elected Congress.” The president obviously didn’t do all his homework before making that statement.

I’m not much of a movie watcher anymore, but a couple of days ago, I got the urge to watch one.

Not just any movie, though. I wanted to take an oldies trip and watch an old Alfred Hitchcock thriller, “Rear Window,” and thanks to iTunes, this film was readily available via my trusty desktop computer.

Paul Cardwell was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Cheyenne for charges relating to his alleged embezzlement of nearly $850,000 from Powell Valley Healthcare. That’s welcome news, but it’s only one step toward dealing with the problems he created as chief executive officer for Powell Valley Healthcare.

A new chief executive officer, Bill Patten, is on board now, but fallout from Caldwell’s behavior continues to be a problem for two boards that govern the hospital.

As happens every few years, people who want to be elected president are out there promising me that I will receive huge benefits if I just pull the right lever next November.

Consider the current quartet of Republicans squabbling over convention delegates. Newt Gingrich, for example, promises that he will bring the price of gasoline down to $2.50 per gallon. All it will take, according to Mr. G, is increasing production here at home so we don’t have to import oil any more. According to the old law of supply and demand, he says, the increased supply will just naturally bring down the price of gas.

I received some big news while talking to my daughter last week.

It seems my grandson Arun, a precocious 2-year-old, has been promoted at his day care, where they deemed him advanced enough to move from the toddler room to the big kids room.