In case you haven’t noticed, the annual National Random Acts of Kindness Day is coming up soon. The week of February 14 is National Random Acts of Kindness Week and Wednesday, February 17, is the official day. The “kindness movement” began in the mid-1990s with the release of a ...

When you’re ice-fishing, just like when you’re open water fishing, there are days when the fish get finicky. They might be finicky due to weather conditions, or it could be fishing pressure that has them closed-mouthed. Whatever the reason, just like in open water, there are some things ...

A conversation with a political candidate of my acquaintance nearly 25 years ago has rolled through my mind frequently in recent months. The candidate told me about a discussion he had with a student when speaking to a high school class a few days earlier. He said he and the class were ...

It was a dark and stormy night. Well, it was dark anyway. It was the night I was born many, MANY years ago. This is the week my personal calendar flips to new year. By the end of January I will be one year closer to my 100th birthday. I’m not planning a big celebration but I am ...

While I think of him often, at this time of year I think even more frequently of a friend, now deceased, who is unforgettable. Duane Gibson was the longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Des Moines. During the 1990s I read about him in Des Moines Register stories about the ...

Although it seems like it just started, in many areas across the ice-fishing belt, the ice fishing season is already at the midway point. In many places it’s been much warmer than usual, so travel on the ice has been limited. Despite that, there are lots of anglers on the ice, and numerous ...