What’s Up? with Merlene

Chris Gardner is a wealthy man now, but at one time, when he was the lone provider for his toddler son, he was hungry and homeless. They sometimes had a choice of finding the shelter of a seedy hotel room or eating, he said. He would choose eating.
That meant Gardner had to stay with his [...]

I was remarking the other day that I can now do things in the ­middle of the week and not worry about helping children with ­homework or getting them to bed on time.
The folks at the Bluegrass ­Domestic Violence Program must have heard the joy in my voice because they are presenting an entertaining evening [...]

Earlier this month, I had a head cold, complete with runny nose and cough, but no fever. At least, that is what I assumed because it went away rather quickly, and my symptoms were mild.
But how do we know whether we are ­experiencing the onset of a cold and can continue with our daily ­activities [...]

It has been a while since I last heard anyone use the future welfare of the progeny of mixed-race couples as an excuse to prohibit or block those couples’ marriages.
In fact, I thought having parents from different cultures or races had been proven to be no more an indicator of a child’s success or failure [...]

For about two years, United Way organizations collectively have been pushing toward more sustainable improvements to the lives of people in their communities.
In other words, the organizations want to help agencies teach folks to fish so they will be fed for a lifetime.
United Way of the Bluegrass Chairman Harry Richart said William W. “Bill” Farmer [...]

I belong to the group of people 50 and older who thought our job seniority was ­assurance that we’d work until retirement age.
Now, though, as we watch co-workers in our age bracket pack up personal belongings and leave a workplace after decades of service, we no longer believe that.
Even more unsettling is that older workers [...]

I received an e-mail message Monday that was filled with fear and warnings about the seasonal and H1N1 vaccines. The sender, and all those before him on the forwarding list, admonished me not to take the flu shot.
It was wasted on me.
I’ve been taking a seasonal flu vaccine since 2005, after my first bout with [...]

A friend and former neighbor of mine, Marjory Woolery, 88, always says she must have her cup of coffee and her newspaper to get her day started right.
Because I earn a living in the newspaper business, I love hearing that.
But what about those people who, like Woolery, love in-depth looks into the news, but who, [...]

We’ve had a spat of adults acting badly lately and it is time it stopped.
The most recent incident involved high school teachers in the Bluegrass whose disagreement landed one of them in jail and both of them out of the classroom.
We’ve had a rapper yanking glory from a true winner, a U.S. Congressman yelling out [...]

Simply by looking at complete strangers yesterday — the first day of school in Fayette County — I could just about tell the age of their children or what grade those children were entering, or whether they, like me, were well past first-day-of-school trauma.
The first-timers were the most obvious.
Parents who were sending their children off [...]