The Best of On My Mind

From heartfelt family stories to laugh-out-loud observations of our shared humanity, award-winning newspaper editor and columnist Don Allison has entertained and educatedg his readers for nearly four decades. Don's weekly On My Mind column is renowned in northwest Ohio, a Saturday staple for Bryan Times newspaper readers. Even if they aren't daily subscribers, many fans pick up the Times every weekend to catch Dons column. "I can't wait to read your column every week," is what one reader told Don. Another said, "As soon as I get Saturday's paper I turn right to your column."Now, with publication of "The Best of On My Mind Volume II," Don's acclaimed work is available to readers across the country, and northwest Ohioans can enjoy the best of the installments without enduring that week-long wait."Wow!" was the single word in a card Don received from one reader reacting to his column on a chance encounter he had with folk music icon Pete Seeger many years ago. "You brought tears to my eyes -- in a good way," was how a reader described a column in which Don shared his thoughts on a departed friend.This volume brings together the best columns from the early years of "On My Mind." They are among Don's favorites, and he hopes you enjoy them as well. Think you might like it? Try this excerpt from the column It's Got to be a Breeze, From Do-it-Yourself TV about his work restoring his 1835 farmhouse: "After watching a few episodes of the do-it-yourself shows, we're ready to re-roof the house, build a custom garage, add on a family room, and create a landscaped garden complete with 20-foot stone fountain ─ all in one weekend, with time to relax Sunday evening to boot."You've all seen the shows, the ones that demonstrate just how easy it is to demolish that decades-old bathroom and create the washroom of your dreams."When you actually do it yourself, it takes only that first 70-year-old rusted cast iron toilet drain to tax your mixed-company vocabulary. ..."I feel like I ought to pitch my own do-it-yourself show, based on actual projects I've undertaken ─ true reality TV.My most recent project, replacement of a basement door at our historic brick house, could be the pilot episode.Removing the old deteriorated door should be a breeze, I would tell the audience in opening the show. Just take a chisel and heavy hammer, and knock the hinge pins out."My ineffective hammer swings, of course interspersed with bleeped-out comments, would take us to the first commercial break ─ and well beyond, if not for merciful editing."After returning from the commercial, I would confess just how difficult 160-year-old exterior door hinge pins are to remove, and note that removing the hinges from the door frame ─ with the door still attached ─ would be a viable alternative."Experienced do-it-yourselfers in the audience could share my pain as I scrape countless coats of paint from the slots of the old screws, then proceed to demonstrate how well those screws still hold in the old hardwood frame. Eleven of the 12 screws holding the three hinges, the audience would learn, could not be budged."But I would hold the one bent, stripped-but-now-removed-screw triumphantly, leading to the next commercial break. ..."Would you like to read on? Or, perhaps you would appreciate Don's tribute to a recently departed friend, The Right Side of the Grass is Left a Better Place.Or there's Not Bartlett's Perhaps, But Still Quotable, Cranky and Discordant, and Having Loads of Fun and Expect the Unexpected, and Stupid Things Too.For those with a culinary bent, there's "I, While in the Kitchen, May Well be a Biohazard" with such priceless advice as: "There's just something about cooking that I can't quite grasp. For one thing, it takes too long. It makes no sense to me to cook something for two hours at 200 degrees when an hour at 400 degrees ─ or even a half hour at 800 degrees ─ should suffice.So enjoy!