Ann Silverthorn

The small whisper at Standing Rock in North Dakota and South Dakota, has become an alarm as conflicts between protestors and government officials continue to intensify. The matter at hand is complicated, with passionate arguments being made on both sides. We need oil. But at what cost? Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, joined…

The other day, a movie called, The Guard, bubbled up to the top of my Netflix DVD queue. It stars American Don Cheadle and Irishman Brendan Gleeson as a by-the-book FBI agent and an unconventional Irish policeman, respectively, who team up to bust an international drug-smuggling ring. While watching the movie, I became curious about the signage on the squad cars, “GARDA.” I…

After a divisive presidential election cycle, which pitted neighbor against neighbor and split the country down the middle, there will be many disappointed people after the results are announced. Chances are, you might be one of them. Here are seven things you can do to ease some of the discomfort following the election. Reflect Look…

My Netflix DVD queue contains 47 movie titles. At a rate of about one viewing per week, it would take almost a year to get through my whole list, if I weren’t always growing it. Often, I’ll add a movie and shoot it directly to the top. The list remains roughly the same length, and…

Presque Isle State Park, in northwestern Pennsylvania, provides quiet refuge for clearing one’s head and connecting with nature. The trails that wind throughout this Lake Erie peninsula offer many opportunities for such soothing sojourns. William E. Dimorier (1871-1951) educator and servant leader, spent many idle hours at Presque Isle. In April of 1941, retired from the…

If I’m away from home and forget my reusable water bottle, apparently, I shouldn’t be able to buy a recyclable bottle of water, because there are too many bottles in landfills. It’s just fine to buy a plastic bottle of soda, though. But, what if I don’t care to put that fizzy junk in my…

After studying William E. Dimorier for more than a decade, I concluded that his life could be summed up as follows: Service to others is worthwhile, even if unrecognized. It took me a while to finesse the thesis to that level, but it seemed that there was an even better way to express it. With a little more research,…

Can you imagine a 21st century school district and community raising $176,000 for a single musical instrument? Can you fathom that the equivalent of that figure was raised in Erie, PA, for a pipe organ in the midst of the Great Depression? In these days of STEM obsession, it’s important to remember that the arts were…

Last week, husband Jim and I went on a genealogy trip to Cranston, RI, and while we were there, we thought it would be a nice idea to pop over to Newport, where we spent part of our honeymoon “quite some time” ago. We relived those days as we toured the mansions and strolled the Cliff Walk. Newport,…

My husband is quite the genealogist. He’s always following hints on Ancestry.com, scrolling through old, imaged documents, and updating his Italian family tree. We even traveled to Italy a few years ago to walk the same narrow streets his grandparents did at the beginning of the 20thcentury. Recently, a distant relative from Cranston, RI, contacted…