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Forty-five years ago this week, Alex Haley's book 'Roots' was published. The New York Times listed the book as non-fiction.

Barbara Leedom: Olympic Musings Barbara Leedom Some people get adrenalin rushes, that "whee" feeling in chests, when on a Ferris wheel or when they made a birdie for the first time or when they solved a page-long algebraic equation or finished a 5K or grew a plant from a little shoot. We word wonks get that feeling when we learn a new word. Whee! The Olympics are here, and they have given wordies a new word. Thank you, Simone Biles, the gymnast who has outdone all other gymnasts ever. She is the greatest. The best. Like no other. At least yet. She is "The Biles."  

Barbara Leedom: Freedom First words of the Declaration of Independence People don’t talk or write about the course of human events these days. The Document’s language is archaic. It’s not as archaic as The Canterbury Tales and Beowulf. Still, people don’t use phrases like “for the rectitude of our intentions." You have to read almost to the end of the Declaration to find those words. Then there are all the references to Men, with a capital M. Today, we’d say people. We’d think about using mankind and may opt for the cumbersome humankind. We’d be careful when we talk and write ...

Barbara Leedom: April, revisited Barbara Leedom T.S Eliot wrote, “April is the cruelest month?” We cannot go around carping that April is a cruel month. We’ve been through enough this past year. Family members just returned from Florida where the temperature a day ago was 82 degrees. That’s fine for Florida, but it’s not fine for New England. It’s not supposed to be that hot in April. And it’s not. Last Saturday morning we awoke to a sprinkling of snow on the greening grass. Just a sprinkling, so not cruel. A bit of a surprise, but not cruel. What would have been cruel to seeds ...

Barbara Leedom: A wish for St. Paddy's Barbara Leedom This is the week we’re all Irish. No matter our ethnic origins, we’re all permitted to wear green outfits, carry shamrocks and sing “Oh Danny Boy” as we saunter down our lanes in our *&^%$ masks. We can buy green masks with sayings such as Erin Go Bragh (Ireland Forever) on them. We’re celebrating Patrick who later became a saint. Patrick didn’t know he’d be a saint because a person has to be dead to become a saint. Sainthood is a long and laborious process. A saint was a person who did miraculous things, and Patrick qualifie...