Paul Kengor stories, Page 4

Paul Kengor: Surviving Egg Armageddon

A reader and friend from Wexford ribs me about raising chickens. She finds it cute, funny, but also appreciates my philosophy behind it. She especially appreciates it right now, given the soaring price of eggs. The Avian flu outbreak in the poultry industry has sent the cost of a carton...
Paul Kengor: A new year and one pope, indisputably

For the world’s largest group of Christians, Roman Catholics, 2023 brings a big change. For the first time since the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in February 2013 and the subsequent election of Pope Francis, there will be, at last, and indisputably, one pope. The key word is “indisputably.” Unfortunately,...
Paul Kengor: ‘Home Alone’ — a truly Christmas movie and message

If you’re looking for a family Christmas movie this year, I’d like to suggest an obvious favorite, but for reasons perhaps less obvious. The movie is “Home Alone,” and the unexpected reasons? Well, read on. And as I share these explicitly Christian elements, please understand that it is, well, a...
Paul Kengor: Deer days in Western Pa.

“Do you actually eat the deer after you shoot it?” So asks an incredulous friend who lives in a large city. It’s a rhetorical question, with a sharp degree of derision. The expected reply: “Oh, no, no. We’d never do that. Instead of eating the deer we, well, well …...
Paul Kengor: A Non-American’s take on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is quintessentially American, as is the Black Friday that follows. The former is about the virtue of giving thanks, whereas the latter is about, well, something else entirely. Let’s ponder the first, with some insights from our presidents and a non-American. In 1789, George Washington proclaimed a “day of...
Paul Kengor: Trump on the attack, again

“Lying Ted!” he barked. “Choking Marco!” he snapped. Those were just two of Donald Trump’s shots at fellow Republicans on the debate stage while pursuing the party’s 2016 presidential nomination. Of course, those shots at Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were mild compared to others. Just ask Cruz about...
Paul Kengor: Threat of nuclear war, October 1962 and 2022

“It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States,” said President John F. Kennedy in a dramatic nationally televised speech on Oct. 22, 1962, “requiring...
Paul Kengor: Another year without baseball

An astute reader with a keen memory recently emailed to ask if I had carried on my boycott of Major League Baseball from 2021 into 2022. Readers will recall that what set me off was the egregious politicization of baseball by an ideological MLB commissioner, Rob Manfred. Manfred had shamelessly...
Paul Kengor: Tearing down Columbus — and Western civilization

I have fond memories of my first days at Pitt. I began attending in the summer semester of 1987 as a transfer student. I remember sunny afternoons sitting under the giant statue of Christopher Columbus at Schenley Park reading my various books for my first-semester course on Western civilization. That...
Paul Kengor: Truly a cancel culture

“My favorite radio station recently picked up some right-wing drivel weekly radio show which I listen to in order to punish myself. Anyhoo, I listened to your whiny crying … I wish cancel culture was a real thing which actually existed so I could cancel you for all time.” So...
Paul Kengor: Student loan stories enlightening

The Biden plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan payments has upset people on both sides of the political aisle, for reasons both political and personal. Politically, the plan is an outrageous irony coming from President Joe Biden and “progressive” supporters like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and...
Paul Kengor: Telling stories, David McCullough’s enduring recipe for success

I just turned in a book manuscript. My editor gave me the publisher’s standard questionnaire for authors. Among the questions was if I preferred my acknowledgments section at the start or end of the book. I was aghast. I told my editor that the very notion of opening a book...
Paul Kengor: Remembering a historic Pa. mayor — and the importance of preserving memories

Pennsylvania has lost a remarkable public servant. His name was Bruno Carnovale, and he died June 3 at age 95. In 2017, he was honored as Pennsylvania’s Mayor of the Year. To say it was well-earned is an understatement. Bruno had been mayor of the town of Emporium, located in...
Paul Kengor: Signs of the economic times

Last week I rented a car, a standard SUV. I do that often, but this time was very different. The price was shocking. It was $650 to rent from 4:30 p.m. on Friday until 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, before insurance and other costs. I actually didn’t need the car until...
Paul Kengor: Casey doesn’t support Casey

For a while now, I’ve been planning to write a column on whether Pennsylvania Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. would support his father’s position in the 1992 landmark abortion case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. That case enshrined Roe v. Wade. Of course, Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey Sr. was the...
Paul Kengor: Cheaper and saner times, when gas was 33 cents per gallon

My father-in-law (his name is Al) recently handed me something he came across in a box of old stuff. It was a receipt from Wilson’s Pleasant Valley Station, in McMurray dated June 13, 1958. The receipt was signed by Al, a hustling teenage boy working at the gas station. What...

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