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6 days ago | 
pressconnects.com | Merlin Lessler
Merlin LesslerGuest ColumnistThe Press & Sun-Bulletin / pressconnects.com will consider publishing guest columns on local topics up to 500 words and we also accept letters to the editor up to 200 words on various topicPlease send us your submissions to [email protected] or upload them at static.pressconnects.com/lettertoeditor. Writers are limited to one letter within 30 days. We cannot acknowledge unpublished letters. I pulled a loaf of bread out of the cupboard the other day.
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Jul 4, 2024 | 
pressconnects.com | Merlin Lessler
Merlin Lessler, also known as “The Old Coot,” lives in Owego and is a frequent contributor to the Opinions section. Merlin LesslerGuest ColumnistIt’s that time of year again; time for the “Boys of Summer.” That’s what they called it back when I was a kid in 1954. It was the last year I was eligible to play Little League. Eleven years old and soon to be too old to qualify. Three of us from the neighborhood “gang” decided to try out.
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May 30, 2024 | 
pressconnects.com | Merlin Lessler
Merlin Lesser, the Old Coot, reminisces about riding around his old Binghamton neighborhood, learning life skills through cuts, scrapes and bruises. Merlin LesslerGuest ColumnistI was 7 when I got my first bike, a used, single-speed, fat tire specimen. You engaged the brake by pushing the pedals backward. By the time I was 10, I’d completed the requirements for a bachelor’s degree in mechanics (bicycle mechanics).
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Apr 11, 2024 | 
pressconnects.com | Merlin Lessler
I was on a 12-lane, 70 mph highway the other day, six lanes going north, six lanes south. The way cars wove in and out was amazing. It was like being in the Daytona 500. I did OK, for an old guy. Did some weaving myself, though I felt like I should do what an 81-year-old is supposed to do; go to the center lane and stay there going, 45 mph with my left signal blinking. Just to add a little drama to the symphony between the lanes.
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Dec 27, 2023 | 
newsbreak.com | Merlin Lessler
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Dec 26, 2023 | 
owegopennysaver.com | Merlin Lessler
I don’t get it. What is it about today’s culture that makes us in such a hurry? We are a society that can’t stop and smell the roses. “Have stuff to do, you know!”Take how we educate kids these days. We used to send them off to school when they were five. Kindergarten was a place to learn social skills, to cut with scissors and to memorize the alphabet. If you wait that long to start your child’s education today you’ll be chastised and labeled an unfit parent.
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Dec 19, 2023 | 
owegopennysaver.com | Merlin Lessler
In a “Hi and Lois” comic strip in a newspaper the other day, “HI” pointed out a carving in a tree trunk to his teenage son. It contained the initials BW + AG scratched inside a heart. Hi’s son said, “Cool, so that’s how people shared their relationship status before social media.” If you don’t read the comics (we called them “The Funnies” when I was a kid) you are missing out on a lot of wisdom, served up with a chuckle. Sometimes an outright belly laugh.
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Dec 13, 2023 | 
owegopennysaver.com | Merlin Lessler
If you are a reader like me, or if you buy books for others, you are confronted with the old adage, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” Although I’m forced to admit that a good cover catches your eye. Lures you in to have a look. There is usually a blurb (sales pitch) about the author. Often with a mug shot, to pull you in further. Inside the front cover is an intro to the story line.
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Dec 6, 2023 | 
owegopennysaver.com | Merlin Lessler
This past summer I walked out the door to go for a kayak ride on the Susquehanna River. My wife gave me one of those, “Be Careful” good-byes. “I will,” I responded. Of course, I would – an 80-year-old guy with poor balance, dragging a kayak a quarter mile to a steep bank, then down to the water, stepping in while holding the paddle and sliding down into the seat, hoping the kayak won’t shift and dump him (me) in the drink. I had a life vest tucked behind the seat.
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Nov 29, 2023 | 
owegopennysaver.com | Merlin Lessler
I’ve used a couple of old post cards as bookmarks for the past several years. Keith (Keith and Phyllis from London, Ontario, Canada) found them in an antique shop in Daytona Beach; he bought them and gave them to me because they were from Binghamton, N.Y., where he knew I grew up. The one I’m using at the moment marks my page in the book, Stateless, by Elizabeth Wein. It features the New Armory building, downtown on Washington Street.
