In one of the first writing classes I took as a journalism major in college we learned how to write an obituary. I don’t know if that’s still the progression of things. Maybe that’s why I read obituaries in the newspaper now. I just like to learn about how people lived, where they ...
For weeks, small forests of signs promoting dozens of political candidates have been demonstrations of the vigor of our system of government. Now, they are just litter. Some candidates and their supporters started the process of picking up their signs on Tuesday evening. It is pleasing ...
I was at an ice-fishing Open House at a retail tackle shop recently. There some anglers there who had been looking at a long range weather forecast. According to this forecast, cold weather is headed to the upper Midwest, and these anglers were guessing that they would be on the ice in north ...
Election Day is almost upon us. On Nov. 6, those citizens who choose to vote have the opportunity to shape the future of our community, state and nation. Given the impact American policies have almost everywhere in the world, it is really no exaggeration to say that the voices of this country's ...
Here in Iowa we pride ourselves on being friendly and helpful and supportive of others. Some of us call it Iowa nice. Maybe it is the media that encourages us to believe that we are the good guys while the folks who live in urban areas are impolite, cold, and uncaring folks who live isolated ...
During a layover at the Denver airport some years ago I heard a commotion just a few yards away. Two teenage boys, accompanied by a handful of other teenagers, were boisterously greeting one another. Not an uncommon sight at airports, except these young men were speaking in German. After a ...