Down on the Farm

Say what you will about President Obama, he has done his part to revive the dying art of oratory. Obama's speech here in Tucson after the tragic shootings last week...

Saturday was one of those sterling Tucson days that warms one to the core. Still. Sixty-five. Perfectly clear and sunny. To take advantage, I drove up to the Rillito River,...

At a New Year's Eve gathering in Phoenix, a 20-something kid to whom I had just been introduced looked me over and said, "Man, it must have been cool to...

This next limbo week between the two holidays I will spend traveling to Tucson, Arizona. A long drive is about as good a way to spend the last week of...

It appears that the only way to get away from bad Christmas music is to take refuge in an ice fishing house in the middle of Lake Mille Lacs with...

"Everything is so neat," says my 99-year-old great aunt Olive as we drive across today's northwest Minnesota countryside. "Ninety years ago, it was just a mess." Neat, clean...and empty. In...

Man, have times changed in the past 40 years! While visiting a high school friend and his family in the suburbs a couple of weeks ago, we got to musing...

Medical progress is a double-edged sword. We spend more for health care each year simply because there are more things that can be fixed. And those new fixes aren't cheap...

Anybody reading this column is likely to be in the most fortunate 3 percent of the world's population. That alone is cause to give thanks. Yes, some of us our...

Sometimes you wonder: what drives people? This time of year, the only thing that sets me in motion is a pot of coffee and lot of sunshine. Coffee you can...

This past October 30, an unusual event took place at the downtown Macy's department store in Philadelphia. Six-hundred fifty singers from various choruses in the Philadelphia area filtered into the...

Last week, as the big "L" on the weather map from last week's record low pressure system hovered over the house, I decided it was time to fire up the...

Do lawn signs help win elections? I sure hope not, but I fear they must, otherwise politicians wouldn't waste money littering area roadsides with them. A few years back, I...

Two events signal the onset of winter in the northland: the end of the baseball season and the turning back of the clocks. For Twins fans, the end of summer...

The way to avoid all of these wretched diseases headed our way as we age is to watch your diet and get a little exercise. Want to avoid diabetes? Watch...