Jim Willard

Maybe it’s the craziness that is our world today or maybe it’s just being home 31/365 that does it. Regardless, my mind wandered to unusual thoughts. “What if the Hokey-Pokey was ‘…

“Twitterpated” was coined by the scriptwriters for Disney’s “Bambi” (adapted from the novel by Felix Salten) to describe a condition explained to Bambi, Thumper and Flower by a passing owl. The owl explains the…

Who’d have believed it in the middle of the last century? For many young boys (not many girls) a paper route was the first paying job outside the home.

On that December day in 1891 when James Naismith, an instructor at the YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts, instructed “Pop” Stebbins (a janitor at the school) to nail two peach baskets — they couldn’t find the 18-inch …

Pope Gregory in the sixth century listed the Seven Deadly Sins in this order: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath and Sloth. I don’t know what directed his choices; it may have been a personal preference.

If you pay attention (and I hope you do) you’ll note that the atmosphere in this country is more divisive than I can ever remember in my more than 70 decades of paying attention. Thus, when I wrote the backstory of the song…

If you’re one of us today who has access to television programs through a satellite dish or a cable network (or online), you know your channels/networks are almost limitless. Old-timers — most of you know who you are — remember when i…

Fortune favored me recently. I have had two individuals ask me​ about the ring on the ring finger (where a wedding band would be) of my left hand.

Norman Corwin. There I said it again. From the moment I read (and listened to) his work I became an unabashed admirer. He was approached to create a special program celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Then on the way to…

Glancing at the Willard TS (that’s “Trivially Speaking) Index, I see that it’s been a good chunk of a year since last we played “Guess That Year.” So, dust off the old brain cells — figuratively, not literally …