Posts from 2025

From Castoffs To Art

LightGramsDecember 18, 2025Volume 29, Number 40 Barnaby Wickam is a collector, something that can be said of many people. But Wickam’s focus in collecting – and what he makes of it – sets him apart from others. This Baltimore, MD marketing specialist is an avid cyclist, and for the past two years has picked up…

Values Over Money

LightGramsDecember 11, 2025Volume 29, Number 39 During her years as a professional tennis player, Caroline Garcia enjoyed her share of winning. At one point she was ranked as the 4th best women’s tennis player in the world, and she won 11 Women’s Tennis Association titles before retiring earlier this year. But it was a choice…

Cardboard Transactions

LightGramsDecember 4, 2025Volume 29, Number 38 GameStop is a name familiar to most video game enthusiasts. According to Wikipedia, there are more than 3,200 of these stores worldwide, with the largest portion of those in the U.S. In the city where I live there are two. Earlier this week, the corporate headquarters announced a transaction…

Will Give Food For Forgiveness

LightGramsNovember 20, 2025Volume 29, Number 37 Chickasha, a small city in Oklahoma, is renewing a drive this year to encourage people to give food to their local food bank. For a few weeks, people may have some or all of their traffic or municipal fines forgiven by bringing in nonperishable foods. According to the city’s…

Returning People’s Hearts

LightGramsNovember 13, 2025Volume 29, Number 36 Michael Frerichs is the State Treasurer for Illinois. That may seem like a cold and heartless job, but Frerichs has taken on a mission that is actually heartwarming. Part of his responsibility is receiving the contents of abandoned bank safety deposit boxes and trying to reunite them with their…

The World’s Longest Name

LightGramsNovember 6, 2025Volume 29, Number 35 Laurence Watkins is like a lot of other people in the world; he wanted to have his name appear in the Guinness Book of World Records. He devoted much time reading through the book, trying to find an area in which he could excel all others. It was in…

A Gift For Who?

LightGramsOctober 30, 2025Volume 29, Number 34 “A Gift For Who?” It was the couple’s second anniversary, and they planned a nice dinner at home to celebrate. At dinner, the 31-year-old wife (not named in the Fox News story) gave her husband his gift, a smart watch he had wanted. Then it was his turn to…

My Two Fathers

LightGramsOctober 16, 2025Volume 29, Number 33 October 16 is a notable day for me; it’s my father’s birthday. He was born in 1921 and would be 104 years old if he were still alive. Sadly, a form of cancer ended his life when he was just a few weeks past his 84th birthday. I still…

Multitasking Moms

LightGramsOctober 2, 2025Volume 29, Number 32 Milton Berle was a trailblazer in television, starring as a comedian in the days of black and white TV. But he also was somewhat of a philosopher as he once pondered this question: “If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?” That’s an excellent question! A…

Fantasy Coffins

LightGramsSeptember 25, 2025Volume 29, Number 31 A recent story carried by the Associated Press told of a carpentry shop in Ghana where one can purchase a fantasy coffin. A what?! These are colorful coffins made in different shapes and styles to capture the essence of the deceased loved one. A fisherman might be buried in…