January 18, 2026 By Arthur H. Gunther III thecolumnrule.com When there were community newspapers, the first thing many people did after they quickly scanned the front-page headlines and/or those in the sports section was to turn to the obituaries, or… Continue reading

January 11, 2026 By Arthur H. Gunther thecolumnrule.com When you climb a mountain – the real thing or a rising-beyond-a-hill emotion, or physical difficulty or something financial, you don’t exactly know the “why.” It is often much later – sometimes… Continue reading

January 4, 2026 By Arthur H. Gunther III thecolumnrule.com Probably, the potbelly stove was designed with community stores in mind so that on Saturday mornings in particular, gents, also in particular, would chew the fat as well as chew tobacco.… Continue reading

December 28, 2025 By Arthur H. Gunther thecolumnrule.com There seems an old, old tradition, probably sent by the gods so that you are never alone on a walk in the woods, even if you want to be. It is the… Continue reading

Christmas, 2025 (by Art Gunther IV) For some years, my son Arthur IV, a writer too, offered a holiday story published in this space. Reprinted here is his Dec. 24, 2007, piece.  Franklin was a man of routine. Perhaps such… Continue reading

December 21, 2025 By Arthur H. Gunther III thecolumnrule.com Holiday time, no matter the decade, offers habits and traditions put away for the year in bins, attics, basements, closets. They are again made special by pulling them out, re-enacting on… Continue reading

December 14, 2025 By Arthur H. Gunther III thecolumnrule.com It is snowing here in Rockland County, N.Y., not far from Gotham but with an ever-country look when it’s dressed in fresh white, an unfinished canvas as more flakes fall. The… Continue reading

December 7, 2025 By Arthur H. Gunther III thecolumnrule.com For decades at the former Rockland Journal-News, a daily newspaper in the country, then suburbia north of New York City, each December 7 would bring interviews with local survivors of “a… Continue reading

November 30, 2025 By Arthur H. Gunther III thecolumnrule.com I’ve never done so, but those who do hug trees have my respect. Native Americans believe they are caretakers of nature’s offerings, passing that on to the next generation. Right, though… Continue reading

November 23, 2025 By Arthur H. Gunther III thecolumnrule.com In the rhythm of the older city, there was the morning and then lunch march of the people to the pre-cursors of Starbucks and fast-food emporiums: Nedicks, Chock full o’Nuts, Bickford’s,… Continue reading