Question: When I learned to drive 50 years ago, my Driver’s Ed teacher instructed me to pull into the intersection on a green light, even when there was oncoming traffic, to attempt to make a left turn. I still practice this, green arrows or not. I actually asked a driver’s test person at ...
The following story warms my heart and makes me smile. I got a call last week from a reader who had gotten a recipe from a health fair booth that I was working at many years ago. The recipe was for flax seed bread that was made in a bread machine. She related that it was one of her favorite ...
We humans have a way of minimizing things. Is it just being Minnesota Nice or is it something else? For example, I enjoy having conversations with people about wine. I like the way their eyes light up when we talk about the beverage and in the many encounters, I’ve noticed something quite ...
The cooler temperatures and shorter days remind us that winter is fast approaching and that we had best prepare for it else we find ourselves with our metaphorical pants around our ankles, staring in slack-jawed horror at the metaphorically empty toilet paper dispenser. When I was a kid one ...
Two wrongs don’t make a right, even if the first was very, very wrong — harmful in a way to tens of millions of Americans. For eight years, former President Barack Obama’s administration did all it could to kill the coal industry and shut down coal-fired power plants. Part of the ...
I watched the gallon and price counters on the pump slowly tick up, up, up. I estimated that I’d need about 28 gallons, with the tank of my pickup sitting at just below a quarter and impatiently ticked off each one. Unwilling to test the limits on the back portion of the fuel supply, I had ...
“Well, I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, I found out three things: first, the streets weren’t paved with gold; second, they weren’t paved at all; and third, I was expected to pave them.” (Italian immigrant story posted at Ellis Island ...
To the editor: In April 2016, the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2015 was signed into law after passing unanimously in both the House and the Senate. Originally marketed as a non-controversial bipartisan bill, members were led to believe that it would help ...
It’s no secret this country is extraordinarily divided on the issue of gun rights, and common ground has been hard to come by. That's why it’s heartening to see fact-based evidence of a law that has produced results in curbing gun deaths without infringing on the rights of lawful owners to ...
Halloween has come a long way over hundreds and hundreds of years. It all got started in Celtic Britain, present day Ireland, and other places around Europe. It was believed that the separation between the realms of the living and dead became much thinner as summer evolved into autumn. People ...
"I don’t feel I should have to justify my existence.” And then he did. Before and after making that seemingly inane statement, Frank Stephens went on at length justifying his existence. He made attempts at humor. “Seriously, I have a great life, I have been to the White House ...
Almost everyone knows the history of Samhain, the day of the dead celebrated by the ancient Celts, which we now know as Halloween. It is the evening before All Saints Day when all kinds of evil spirits are supposed to arise and roam the earth. Mainly we see this in the form of children ...
Last Saturday, Ross and I went to see “How To Talk Minnesotan: The Musical” at Southwest Minnesota State University. It was a hilarious look at well, how we talk in this state. You have to admit we do these things that are performed in the show. I remember back in the mid-1980s when the ...
“You can’t retire, the planet needs you!” If I didn’t really feel it was time for me to retire, those words would give room for some serious thought about changing my mind. At this year’s fair, among a small group of young folks that wandered into the old ice arena where our office ...
To the editor: Jesus once said to Nicodemus, a politician of his time, “You are Israel’s teacher and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have ...
"All politics is local” is a common phrase in U.S. politics. While political events in Washington, D.C. get maddening by the day, nothing hits closer to home more than the decisions made by our local school boards, county boards and city councils. Two elections are coming up to allow ...
Investing in the youth of the region THUMBS UP: Some important investments were made in southwest Minnesota this past week. On Tuesday, nearly 50 third-graders and officials from the city and various agencies were on hand at the Red Baron Arena & Expo to celebrate a $50,000 grant from ...
Question: The clerk at a local gas station recently asked me if it is illegal not have a front plate on a vehicle. He said he can’t allow someone to pump gas without paying first if he is unable to read the license plate. He told me that many people have told him a front plate is not required ...
To the editor: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” That bit of wisdom, attributed to the English author Samuel Johnson in 1775, has become part of our common culture and is as true today as in 1775. Johnson must have been referring to cheap patriotism and not to real ...
Good for the people of Gainesville, Ga., who have not stopped at engaging in “a conversation” about race. They are doing something extraordinarily powerful to make it clear that for the overwhelming majority of Americans, the bigotry of the past is unacceptable. For many years, black ...