Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883

Articles written by Dick Polman


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  • Mourning the loss of a loved one is not a disease

    Dick Polman|Apr 18, 2022

    My wife of 45 years died six months ago this week. I have been processing her loss ever since. But the American Psychiatric Association now says that I have only six more months to heal myself, and that if I blow the deadline, I should be clinically defined as mentally diseased. It’s not in my nature to use this column for personal business. But the APA’s decision to add “prolonged grief” (defined as one year or more) to its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders strikes me as a ludicrous attempt to reboot natural...

  • My exclusive interview with the fly that sat on Pence's head

    Dick Polman|Oct 19, 2020

    Q: Congratulations, Mr. Fly. You won the vice presidential debate Thursday night. You are America's Insect. How do you feel today? A: Just like the president, I feel great. I felt it was my solemn duty to participate. Q: Why? What compelled you to go sit on the vice president's head for so long? Have you always been interested in politics? A: Not until Thursday night. I was always content to zip here and there, nobody telling me what to do. I did like when the vice president talked about...

  • Will impeachment hurt Trump in 2020? Here's the case for optimism

    Dick Polman|Dec 23, 2019

    Most Americans, exhausted by Trump’s demagogic lying and relentless pillaging of the values we hold dear, are understandably skeptical that impeachment will cleanse the stench and quash the nightmare. Indeed, that day of reckoning won’t come any time soon. His fact-averse authoritarian enablers in the Republican Senate will likely rig his escape from accountability, and he’ll spend 2020 playing the victim and stoking his cult. But there can be a happy ending, if people have the will to make it so. The turnout backlash against Trump that...