The main thing my wife and I did to prepare for our recent trip to Mason City, Iowa was watch the 1962 movie “The Music Man.” This wasn’t just because my wife loves Shirley Jones and once had a crush on her stepson, David Cassidy. It was also because we wanted to prepare ourselves for ...

Memorial Day weekend is a time for somber reflection on the price paid for the freedom and sovereignty of our nation. This year somber reflection felt a lot like sheer exhaustion. I’m in the process of moving to our new house. For weeks I’ve been taking carloads of everything portable ...

There are few things that can elicit the exclamation, “Oh, shoot!” more dependably than discovering that you have a flat tire. That expression — or at least a variation of it — escaped my lips recently when I decided to mow the lawn and found that the mower had a flat tire. It’s ...

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? “Who will guard the guards themselves?” —Juvenal There are two things every citizen ought to remind themselves from time to time about intelligence services; that they are absolutely necessary in a dangerous world, and that they are hideously ...

I made it a point this past weekend to watch the 1980s movie “Stand and Deliver” in order to have some symbolism about the graduation process, the process of leaving school and venturing onward to new opportunities. In past years I’ve often watched the 1967 movie “The Graduate”. It ...

A couple of weeks ago, the attendance at a doubleheader in Mankato between Winona State and MSU got a boost from an enthusiastic band of fans behind the first base dugout. A cheering section was there to root for the Warriors, with special attention to the left fielder. Some friends of the ...