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What I’ve leaned in my 53 … no, 54 years

So, today is my birthday. I know the date at the top of the page says it is Sunday. However, the newspaper comes out on Saturday ... my birthday. Oct. 18. If you’d have asked me long ago if I ever thought I would make it to 54, I probably would have responded, “no.” That number just seemed so far away. I couldn’t have envisioned myself being that age. Could any of us? I blinked. And now ... almost double nickels. You know, when my grandparents were double nickels, they looked a lot different than people today look when they are 55. Why is that? Their ...

Glimpse inside the mailbox

There are few constants in a newspaper office. But that’s the very thing that always has made them a great place to be. While you can come to work with a pretty solid plan of how you’ll spend most of your hours, the reality is something will always come up that will force you to go in a different direction — sometimes in many varying ways all at the same time. It’s the kind of work that isn’t for everyone. If you are the type of person who always has to be in a structured environment, you will be better off in a different profession. Something that never seems to ...

Guest column/A. Eileen Cozart’s extensive works being digitized

(Editor’s note: Alan Hall, the longtime director of the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County, was a frequent contributor to the Herald-Star. His writing continued after he retired and became director emeritus. This column was written before his death on Sept. 12 at the age of 71.) A. Eileen Cozart was her name, and we first met in 1983 when I was named the new director of the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County. She entered the Main Library several days a week, and went directly to the microfilm reader located on the balcony in those days. She ...

Guest column/The original AI: Newspapers run on accurate information

Artificial intelligence is going to transform everything we watch, hear and read. You can already see it happening. Asking an AI search engine a question about an obscure fact can yield quick and surprisingly detailed responses. Type in a cellphone model number and you’re suddenly a highly informed consumer. And when it comes to transforming legendary television show casts into babies, AI is world-class. But news? AI-fueled news poses problems. The first is that news is about reality. AI provides tools to bend reality. We’re seeing a wave of AI-abetted falsehoods and ...

It’s “perfect”ly fine to just be good enough …

We all strive to make every situation perfect, don’t we? We try so hard to make our life the best that it can be. But we have to realize that nothing is perfect, and “good enough” is good enough. When we are born, our parents immediately begin to instill in us all types of values. We are taught to be honest. We are told to be kind. We are instructed to sit up straight. We are reminded to always use the terms “please” and “thank you.” That one is something my grandson, Layne, has been doing since he first started to try saying words. We learn how we should ...

History in the Hills: Looking at our stuff

This past week was fall clean-up in Weirton, and my family certainly took advantage of that opportunity. I really hate to get rid of good things that still could be used. We tried our best to donate as much as possible, but sometimes, things just wear out, break and outlive their useful life. I am a collector and a saver, so I usually strip something down to its bare bones and save anything useful from something before trashing it. As a result of all this saving, I have amassed a collection of screws, nuts, bolts, washers, boards, trim, wires and scraps of various origins, just in case ...