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1 week ago | 
coastalpoint.com | Darin J. McCann
“You know how to guarantee you won’t get what you want?” my dad would ask me. “Whine about it. That’s not going to get you anywhere with anybody.”Au contraire, mon père. Whining just scored me a breakfast sandwich. I’d been planting these little whine seeds around the house for several weeks, wondering if they would actually take hold. This wasn’t necessarily an experiment of science as much as a quest fueled by curiosity.
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2 weeks ago | 
coastalpoint.com | Darin J. McCann
Early Tuesday evening, while many throughout the fine state of Delaware were sitting down with their families for dinner, state senators in Dover voted to pass Senate Bill 159.
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3 weeks ago | 
coastalpoint.com | Darin J. McCann
“Hey — someone told me you used to be quite the basketball player.”“Yeah, right,” he said, laughing. “Maybe shooting into a peach basket. That was a long time ago.” And that was Bruce Layton. Try to pay the guy a compliment, and he made a self-deprecating joke or he pushed the credit somewhere else. It was one of the reasons I always liked him. Like many of you, I felt the gut-punch that came with the news that Layton passed away this week.
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1 month ago | 
coastalpoint.com | Darin J. McCann
Something profound struck me on Monday while I was standing with my family on the Bethany Beach boardwalk, listening to the speakers during the Memorial Day ceremony: Funnel cakes and boardwalk fries seem like a darn-good idea.
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1 month ago | 
coastalpoint.com | Darin J. McCann
It was 25 years ago this week when Susan Lyons asked me a question that would change my life forever. “Do you want to be editor of the Wave,” she asked. “Absolutely,” I responded. And then I took a quick glance at the calendar and realized it was the week of putting together the Memorial Day issue, and I instantly wondered why I didn’t take a week to mull over my decision.
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1 month ago | 
coastalpoint.com | Darin J. McCann
Hey, did any of you out there hear that there’s a referendum coming up to raise money for the schools? I ask that because... Oh, you guys know why I ask that. Perhaps no single issue has caused as much division, derision and confusion as this referendum has in this community, outside of fighting over windmills, and whether a mallet should or should not be used when busting open crabs over your favorite weekly newspaper. It’s been nasty.
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1 month ago | 
coastalpoint.com | Darin J. McCann
With opening ceremonies for the Millsboro and Lower Sussex Little Leagues now in our rear mirror, it’s time we make our annual plea to the parents of our young aspiring athletes: Don’t be a jerk. It sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? It sounds like it should take little to no effort at all, right? Go to the practices. Go to the games. Help out when asked for help, or approach a coach with respect if you think you have something constructive to offer. And then, well, don’t be a jerk. Just don’t do it.
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1 month ago | 
coastalpoint.com | Darin J. McCann
A lot has changed in this community over the years. And that, dear readers, is why I get paid the big bucks. Keen observations like that one. You are welcome. Of course things have changed here. They’ve changed everywhere. Let’s just examine the time period since we started publishing the Coastal Point in February 2004.
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2 months ago | 
coastalpoint.com | Darin J. McCann
Who doesn’t love a good soap opera? You know: A couple falls in love, they face a challenge as the woman’s ex returned after decades spent planting tulips in the Amazon rainforest, get back on track after a meteor falls on the ex while he’s teaching orphans in Antarctica to play the clarinet, see more conflict as it comes out that the man in the relationship is really a notorious criminal wanted for destroying tulips in the Amazon rainforest and… But I digress.
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2 months ago | 
coastalpoint.com | Darin J. McCann
“We had a bird in the house,” read the text from my wife. “It was a morning.”There were two different directions for me to go upon hearing this news. The sophomoric, adolescent angle would have been to bust out laughing at the image of wife and daughter trying to evacuate a bird from the house with a dog and two cats trying to get the bird first. The adult take would have been to say, “Oh, no. Are you girls OK?” So, once I stopped laughing, I asked if they were OK. No immediate answer.
