An old hymn tells us to “count your blessings; name them one-by-one…” Thanksgiving is coming and I’m working on my list. The late Southern politician Frank A. Clark wrote, “If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to ...

For many people across the Midwest who like to fish, we’re in that “in-between” season. Although open water fishing can still be very good, many anglers don’t participate in it. And there’s no ice or no safe ice yet, so we’re in between our fishing seasons. During this in between ...

Eb Griper was a vision of melancholy. There he sat in the coffee shop booth ­— three-day beard, striped bib overalls and head in hands. I had never seen my cantankerous old buddy look so gloomy. “You look like you lost your last friend,” I remarked as I slipped into the opposite ...

A lifelong Midwesterner, I enjoy the simple and earthy language of rural America. We generally get right to the point and use unpretentious, expressive ways to get there. Linguists ascribe titles to the various methods we employ in our communication: aphorisms, axioms, proverbs, epigrams, ...

The ice fishing season gets closer every day. Many of us are going through our ice fishing equipment to see what we need or want to go fishing through the ice when the ice returns. I was looking at my ice rods and realized there were a couple of actions that needed to be added to my arsenal. ...

It was between doctor appointments (the only kind of appointments I have anymore.) I had ducked into a coffee shop for a few minutes of mental and physical relaxation. A small, elderly woman ̶ stooped, gaunt and shabbily dressed ̶ approached my table and asked if I would buy her a cup of ...