Breaking News

Opinion

Charlie Brown’s revelation

Local Columns

Writer’s comment: My favorite cartoon strip is “Peanuts.” Every year, my Christmas column is a tribute to Charlie Brown and his pals. As he was preparing for all the hubbub of Christmas, Charlie Brown suddenly began to realize that something was missing. He sat down and attempted to bring that missing something into reality. Of course, he loved singing Christmas carols with all of his pals. He loved their presence and the songs they always sang. There was so much meaning in those songs, and the blending of their voices. Yet, he felt an empty spot within him. Oh, then there ...

This is only year one, what’s next?

Letters to the Editor

To the editor: We are on the verge of 20 million people losing their health care. My personal health care premium will increase 215%. It sounds like a lot, that is more than triple my premium this year, for the same policy. What is Michelle Fischbach doing about Minnesotans losing health care? I have sent her a dozen emails on her contact site. She has not sent one single answer. In fact, she has voted against any extension of health care subsidies. She did approve of $40 billion being sent to bail out Argentina. At the same time only allotting $12 billion to American farmers, none ...

What is narcissism?

Community Voices

I frequently hear people say that someone whom they know is a narcissist. | am not sure that they are all using the same definition or criteria to make that judgment. What do psychologists mean when they say that someone is a narcissist? Where does the name come from? I have heard of two versions about where the name narcissist came from. To roughly summarize them, one version is that a man in ancient Greece named Narcissus was obsessively and consistently looking at and admiring the reflection of his face in mirrors. This obsession was a punishment by Nemesis, the goddess of ...

That tracks

Local Columns

Few signs are more welcome in the late season uplands than a stretch of pheasant tracks along a snow-rimmed piece of birdy habitat. Be it a slough, a stretch of brush, or a bushy shelterbelt planting of olive caraganas or crimson dogwoods, anywhere those four-toed imprints weave and wind their way from the outset of the hunt to the spot where a bird gets up under the steady point of a good dog is an enjoyable indicator that one is in the right spot, and birds were, are, or are going to be in the near future for the outing. Even those old tracks tend to get my adrenaline going, the ...

Enjoying my oyster stew

Community Voices

Food is many things: flavors, textures, smells, an excuse to use your fingers to clean a bowl that was used to mix chocolate cake batter. But food is also memory. It’s a time machine, resurrecting recollections that had shriveled like an orange peel on a scorching summer sidewalk. Oyster stew does the trick for me. Every Christmastime, my parents would whip up a big kettle of oyster stew. I was the only one among my seven siblings who would sip some stew with our parents. Which was just dandy; more for me. When December’s deep cold arrives something deep within me stirs, ...

Whose beans are getting crushed?

Letters to the Editor

To the editor: In 2024 China imported about 26.81 million metric tons of soybeans from the US. So far, just before the October China — USA meeting, China purchased 5.93 metric million tons with a promise of 12 million metric tons. This is less than half of 2024. China has been quietly adjusting imports away from the U.S. to decrease dependence on the U.S. for a number of years. With the government shutdown some numbers are not up to date and even adjusted to reflect political interests. Using non-government sources like the American Soybean Association the numbers should be ...