Cliffs Riffs - Stuph n Nonsense

Adam Quinn is an active 11 year old from Rockford. Maybe “active” is too much of an understatement for Adam – friends have tagged him with the nickname “Zoom” and it seems to fit. This young man has enough energy to power at least part of Al Gore’s compound. We met Adam on the shore of Murray Lake, which is one of his favorite places to expend energy in the summer months. He was waiting for his turn to water ski as part of the inclusive recreation program offered by the City of Kentwood’s Recreation Department. The waterskiing program is hugely popular and the slots for the six week sessions fill up rapidly, according to Val Romeo, the director of the inclusive program. Adam has been learning to ski over the last five weeks and from every indication he is having a blast. Randy Hardy, who has volunteered his time and boat to the adaptive ski program for years, has rigged a boom off the side of the boat and Adam is learning the fundamentals of skiing using the boom. The use of the boom s...

Bryan on his way to the first tee. Cheryl putting for the cup. Scott lines up his chip shot just off the green. “Humbled” and “inspired” are two words at the top of the list that come to mind every time we get to spend time with the athletes involved in some manner with the various adaptive sports programs that come out of the Kentwood Recreation Department. When you watch men and women who could easily spend their time being bitter about the cards life has dealt them, but who would rather celebrate life through their involvement in sports it is humbling. It is also easy to take inspiration from their grit and determination. And so it was when we spent time with a foursome of golfers on a beautiful summer night at Scott Lake Country Club recently. Well, we started out as a foursome, but two of the players were going a little fast for the rest of the group. Bryan Belson, of Wyoming, and Don Bosker of Grand Rapids were the two who left us in their dust. Bryan is the sole member of the ...

Pricing practices hurt us all By Cliff Yankovich , CLIFF'S RIFFS PUBLISHED: February 26, 2004 NOTE-since writing this column I have never been across the threshold at a Wal-Mart or Sams Club. Warning: This column is going to pick on Wal-Mart and on those of us (notice the self-inclusive "us") who shop there. Charles Fishman wrote a story on Wal-Mart in the December 2003 edition of "Fast Times" that blew my mind. For those of you just emerging from a cave, Wal-Mart sells more merchandise than the next four or five retail giants combined, and we all love how their prices get lower all the time. One of the ways Wal-Mart is able to lower prices is that it is the largest importer of things made in China, some 12 billion a year. The other way it lowers prices is by letting suppliers know it expects or demands the prices of their products to go down every year. The company puts the same pressure on Huffy, Levi Strauss or Vlasic pickles. Suppose I made shoes here in Mic...