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Rounding Third: 24 legs in the house at holidays

Commentary

Today, the second of January, a working day, really begins the New Year. Fuggedaboudit. I’m hoping people have today off to go along with the holiday. Two long weekends in a row? Now THAT would make for a happy Christmas. Despite housing six additional 2-legged residents and two 4-legged critters for the fun of Christmas week, our house is now back to its boring everyday quiet. Every bed was full including a new twin inflatable. Each seat at the dining room table was occupied. And the matriarch’s heart was full of comfort and joy I noticed the noise level that normally arrives ...

2026: Possibilities lie ahead for new year

The OBSERVER’s View

We’ve done it. We’ve reached the end of 2025 and are looking ahead to all the possibilities 2026 holds. Some may be planning to put 2025 firmly behind them and not look back, others may have much upon which to build from one year to the next. Whatever the case — whether our dreams include making a national project of the year or just working harder on being the best we can be for ourselves and those around us — most of us can agree we are hoping for a year in which we are able to lift up one another and work toward the good of all. On a personal level, there may be ...

Backtracking before going forward

Commentary

Well it’s the end of another year but for me it’s not time to make resolutions but a time to look back on the previous year and wonder what the new year will bring. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is Catholic while pro-choice, has told the legislature that she will be signing the bill to allow medically assisted death in the state. It makes me wonder if she has forgotten that the Catholic Church holds an unequivocal position that both abortion and assisted death are morally unacceptable because they constitute the direct and intentional killing of innocent human life, which is a gift ...

New York State: Never consensus in aid in dying law

The OBSERVER’s View

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature on legislation approving Medical Aid In Dying was, to put it nicely, not universally approved. Many state lawmakers didn’t like the decision. More importantly, tens of millions of state residents didn’t like it either. And the chances are they won’t change their mind. We won’t sit here behind our collective keyboard and try to sway anyone on either side of the issue. People have their own, perfectly logical, reasons for their views on medical aid in dying whether they’re for or against. What we can say is that the legislation that will ...

The lake freezes before Christmas

Commentary

We have lived on Chautauqua Lake now for over 30 years and have very seldom seen the lake, as it now is, iced-over before Christmas. It may have happened once or twice before, but then, I think, it was only partially frozen. The snowfall this year has also been significant, i.e. the kind of snow you usually see in January or February. At last count, the Village of Mayville had recorded 58.9 inches of snow. We have already seen, in December, a few ice fishermen on the lake—a scene that usually takes place in mid to late January. Winter is upon us! The other day an eagle landed out ...

Politics can’t halt evolution, nature

Commentary

First they came for the Trans kids, And I am speaking up because I know how this poem ends. The Trump administration is saying “There are only two sexes, male and female.” To ensure that young people do not try to change their gender while they are developing, the administration is threatening to withhold Medicare and Medicaid money to any hospital that provides that care to minors. This ensures that even in states where it’s legal gender affirming care for adolescents can’t happen in a hospital. If a boy wanted to have surplus breast tissue removed to look more like a ...