Today's Opinions

I was recently reminded of the old story about the farmer who sold a mule, telling the buyer that the animal would do anything as long as he was asked nicely.  The next day, the buyer returned and shared a tale of frustration because the stubborn mule would not do a thing – no matter how many times he was asked nicely.

Upon hearing this report, the farmer picked up a wooden 2-by-4 that was leaning against his barn, walked right up to the mule and hit the unsuspecting animal square in the head.  Then he whispered, "Please pull that plow."&n

The scenes last week were incredible, weren’t they? You could see both overwhelming beauty and bedeviling frustration in one quick glance.

Mother Nature painted our canvas with brush strokes of divine precision, a pure white base topped with a sheen of silvery ice followed by an icing of more snow to create a crunchy and even inviting layer cake on our lawns and meadows.

Our trees were a winter wonderland, with gleaming tinsel and long and sophisticated boughs of ice dangling every which way.

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

You probably know these words and believe them to be the official Postal Creed, the motto of the United States Post Office.

They are not that.

The USPS has no official motto, though this sentence, whose origins are attributed to Persian history, is inscribed in the post office in New York City.

Still, it often is cited by citizens and embraced as a standard for their expectations.