Cracker Barrel

Anyone who's lived in the woods for more than a year or two is familiar with the magic of midsummer. The magic is made of a mixture of all sorts of things. The temperature, for starters. In midsummer the warmth of midday nudges you toward water. A swim, a ride in the boat, maybe a...

Recently my wife and I drove south to Winona for a family get-together. As expected, we had a lot of fun catching up with cousins and others we hadn't seen for a long time. We all stayed at the same motel, had our own meeting room for meals and crafts and puzzles and general palaver,...

Rummaging through the shelves for something good to read I came across a book I hadn't seen in many years: "On Being Human," by Ashley Montagu. "On Being Human" is a small book, a mere 118 pages. But those pages are packed with the kind of ideas that make your mind crackle and spark...

I grew up about 50 miles north of Chicago, surrounded by lakes. The name of the county was Lake. Our little village was called Long Lake, as was the body of water around which it sprawled. Chamber of commerce brochures stressed the interconnectedness of our famous Chain O' Lakes -...

One hundred and fifteen years ago this week, in the sleepy California village of Salinas, John Steinbeck was born. Sixty years later he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Six years after that, he died. He left behind a legacy of writing that continues to fascinate readers...

Let's start with the obvious: Life isn't always easy. Nor, as we learn along the way, is it always fair. Matter of fact, it's often unfair. You try your best to be a decent person, mindful of the rights and needs of others, careful not to lose your temper, respectful of the idea that...

Dear Reader: As we start our way into a brand new year I offer the following quotes, culled from the collection I've been gathering over the years, in the hope that some may strike a spark of insight or provoke a smile. "Predictions are hard, especially about the future." - Yogi Berra...

Given the recent run of cold temperatures, I got to thinking about goosebumps, and did a bit of research. The first thing I found is that the stimulus of cold surroundings causes the tiny muscles attached to each of our hair follicles to contract. This contraction causes the hair...

In 1995, an American writer named Bill Bryson published a book titled "Notes From a Small Island." The island of the title is Britain, where Bryson lived for nearly two decades before deciding to move back to the United States. Part love letter, part caustic reprimand, "Notes" is...

Over the past century and a half, since the concept of evolution arose and students of mankind's past began theorizing about what sets us apart from the other higher primates, many ideas have been put forward. The unfinished sentence "Homo sapiens are the only animal that ..." has...