Opinion

A California Beacon

Submitted by Stuart Rosenthal on Wednesday, February 1, 2012

I am pleased to announce the “birth” of a new Beacon this month. Not exactly a sibling of our Washington, Baltimore and Howard County editions. More of a cousin perhaps. I am referring to the new Coachella Valley Beacon — serving residents 50 and over in Palm Springs, Palm Desert and other cities

Back from Branson

Submitted by Stuart Rosenthal on Tuesday, November 16, 2010

There are a number of observations I could share with you about my recent trip to the “Live Music Capital of the World” (a.k.a. Branson, Missouri) for a national newspaper convention.

Burn, baby, burn?

Submitted by Stuart Rosenthal on Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Perhaps you saw (or heard) this news short a few weeks ago: Firefighters responding to an alarm in a rural area of Tennessee’s Obion County stood back and allowed a mobile home to burn to the ground because its owner hadn’t paid an annual $75 fee for fire protection services. But when the fire threatened a neighboring mobile home whose owner had paid the fee, they finally put out the fire.

Coming to our census

Submitted by Stuart Rosenthal on Friday, August 5, 2011

I’ve long been on record as objecting to the use of terms like Age Wave, Senior Tsunami and the like to describe the demographic changes occurring across America (and, indeed, the world).

Going live

Submitted by Stuart Rosenthal on Thursday, October 28, 2010

Our website — this website — went "live" a few hours ago. After more than a year of planning, months of designing and deciding, and weeks of tinkering, we are now out and about in the world of cyberspace. Before last night, I had not given much thought to the concept of "going live" as applied to websites. But I get it now.

Make your vote count

Submitted by Stuart Rosenthal on Friday, October 1, 2010

As I write this, we are just weeks away from this year’s potentially momentous elections. For some time now, candi­dates for county and statewide positions, and their support­ers, have been knocking on doors in my neighborhood, sometimes stopping by more than once, to discuss their po­sitions, invite discussion and ask for votes.

Moving the folks (Part I)

Submitted by Stuart Rosenthal on Tuesday, September 13, 2011

My parents, whom long-time readers have “met” before in this column, have once again graciously provided me with an occasion for some musings. You see, they’ve recently moved into an assisted living facility. While I have edited articles about such moves many times over the years, this is my first opportunity to experience one myself, and therein lie a few tales.

Moving the folks (Part II)

Submitted by Stuart Rosenthal on Monday, September 26, 2011

A number of readers have commented to me on my column last month, in which I shared some observations on the occasion of my parents (ages 82 and 91) moving from their condo into an assisted living facility in Austin, Texas.

My storied life

Submitted by Barbara Ruben on Tuesday, October 26, 2010

One of my clearest memories from childhood is a leaf-crunching fall day in Ohio when the sky was bluer than any color Crayola could conjure. My third-grade teacher taped magazine pictures to the chalkboard and asked us to create a story about one of them. I don’t recall all of the details of what I wrote about, but I do remember the delight of sculpting words into a story. And in a sense, as a journalist, I’ve been writing stories ever since.

Power of the people

Submitted by Stuart Rosenthal on Tuesday, February 8, 2011

I have great news: It looks like any potential plans to dissolve the Maryland Department of Aging have been dropped, at least for now. As many of you know, last month the Beacon helped promote a grassroots campaign to urge Governor Martin O’Malley...