A burger would be on my short list for best last meal on Earth. Not just any meat slinger’s burger, but a perfectly seasoned, chargrilled patty of ground chuck served on a semi-hardroll that is slightly chewy and buttered.
Some folks, well, some folks just like taking matters into their own hands.
If coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) stay-at-home restrictions are easing in your community, you might wonder how to visit public places and protect your health. Here’s what you need to know.
Businesses and universities across the globe are opting to have employees work from home and students partake in “remote learning” in an attempt to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
Mark and Dana Klaus love Christmas. Big time.
Time for another ghoulishly good time as the approach of Halloween brings out goblins and gore galore. Haunted houses aren’t the only option for scaring yourself silly this month. Consider this range of terrifying settings. Several are all-volunteer efforts whose proceeds help local charities.
Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile, but he gets credit for putting the world on wheels and Detroit on the map as a leader in car manufacturing.
As most U.S. teens were just learning to drive, 15-year-old Marcel Biro was a world away, navigating culinary school.
Q: My wife is expecting our first child. My parents are divorced and both remarried; her mom died when my wife was a teenager and her dad remarried. Our policy is that all our parents and stepparents are “Grandma” and “Grandpa” regardless of step-status.
Q: My younger brother—we are both adults—calls me by an old name—one I was given at birth, have loathed since age 3 and have not willingly used since I was 10.
As weather cools and beaches close, there is little reason to stay home and be bored. Check out these enticements for close-to-home travel.
In a modest residential area—near farmland, railroad tracks and tall grain-storage silos—is an almost-full parking lot at 5:30 p.m. on an average Thursday.
Q: Over a decade, my salary has tripled (I’m quite well-paid now), my work hours and responsibilities have increased, and—because I’m so frequently tired or short on time—my “outsourcing” has increased, too. Think: frequent takeout, a dog-walker, cabs instead of bus, and a whole lot of shell…
We are high above ground and just below the signature “G” that looms 40 feet tall and 60 feet wide. No point in Green Bay is loftier, and what feels simply gusty during summer would freeze the bone in January.
Q: During extended family get-togethers with my side of the family, there is one person who does 95 percent of the talking. When I ask someone else in the room a question about their lives, this person always jumps in and takes over the conversation again. This talker also never inquires abo…
Q: My husband of 15 years has two sisters who live two and four hours away. Sadly, both parents died five years ago. We try to keep the family ties despite the distance.
In 2016, opioids were involved in more than 42,000 deaths in the United States. On average, 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.
Editor’s note: Carolyn is away. This column first appeared on Jan. 30 and Feb. 1, 2004.
Lisa Blount often receives love letters, usually written by people she doesn’t know.
It’s one thing to ride the river and quite another to let it lull you to sleep.
No manmade monument in the United States is taller than Gateway Arch at the Mississippi River in downtown St. Louis, and big-time renovations turned the area around it into a national park this year.
Q: Three years ago, our then-2-year-old daughter was in an incident while visiting my family for the first time without us, which resulted in her losing two fingers. Her father and I went through a VERY rough patch as a couple, because he was against her going in the first place—but we got t…
I’m tired of reading about revivals in years gone by.
A too-clear view: That’s what you see from the second-floor bathroom window of a former boarding house on Mulberry Street near downtown Memphis.
Q: My mother-in-law has spent much of her life accumulating collectibles, heirlooms and furniture with the rationale that she will give them to her children and grandchildren someday. Her four grandchildren are still in high school. She’s decided that “someday” is now and is getting upset th…
Tale of Two Cities? That’s London and Paris, via Charles Dickens.
Q: I have been involved in our high school parent club for eight years. Each year we put out notices that parents are needed to coordinate events for students. For the past several years, a few parents have volunteered to help with events, but no one wants to coordinate. Parents are willing …
Tacked to the ceiling is a tarp and winter leftovers. That includes cutouts of penguin with a scarf and stocking cap, shiny evergreens and snowflakes.
The school year is right around the corner. Be sure to include vaccines on your back-to-school checklist.
Q: My brother turned 50—although he looks younger—several months ago. Along with the usual card and gift, I wished him a wonderful 50th on social media.
It’s nearly 2 p.m. as I cross railroad tracks that snake along the Mississippi River. A locomotive whistle wails shortly after I reach a pier bench, and I wonder if the freight train’s thunderous vibrations will bounce me into murky water.
Q: I have been dating my boyfriend for about a year and a half. Things have been going well, but recently he began expressing to me that he was uncomfortable about the fact that nine years ago, I used to date the brother of my now-brother-in-law (through my sister’s marriage). My boyfriend s…
Thirty cents per bushel. That’s how much Janet Meredith says it costs to move grain to New Orleans from where we stand, 80 feet above ground and on the Mississippi River near Alton, Illinois.
Much of Itasca State Park, 125 miles northwest of Minneapolis, feels secluded on a 90-degree Saturday afternoon.
Q: My boyfriend and I are both avid readers, and he recently finished a book by a well-known author with a very distinct writing style. He decided to read a new book by this same author, which I have already read. When we were sitting down one Sunday to read over coffee, he pulled out his bo…
Q: My daughter recently remarried, creating a new family with a wonderful man, her young son and his two children.
While many Rock County residents take advantage of the warm weather and enjoy the outdoors, the Rock County Public Health Department encourages everyone to take steps to avoid tick and mosquito bites.
On my desk is a growing stack of recently released books, and I crave time to delve into them. The arrival of summer should make that easier. Here is an introduction to what I consider the best.
Q: My wife and I are both hardworking professionals. We have a 3-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter. We do our best to divide duties fairly and wisely, but, generally, I work significantly more and she runs the house and kids significantly more.
One of the prettiest waterfront walks in Wisconsin is the 21 miles around Geneva Lake, and now a new, free phone app helps explain what to expect and where as you hoof it.
Q: I have a friend/neighbor who I see five days a week because we exercise together. One thing that annoys me is she always manages to slip some comment about God into every conversation. It’s usually a brief comment, not an entire conversation about religion, which makes it hard for me to k…
Summer is an easy season for fun and fantasy, but Minnesota’s Mall of America in Bloomington knows how to trump it up all year.
Fish oil supplements might ease depression in some people. Some studies in adults suggest that omega-3 fatty acids might help treat mild to moderate depression, but more research is needed. Fish oil is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, which play an important role in brain function. Peop…
You see them counted on food labels and now on restaurant menus. But do you know what calories are?
Q: I have a friend I have known since high school who has recently been in recovery for drinking. He is about six weeks into an outpatient system and has been doing well. A group of friends, including my friend in recovery, have been going on two camping trips a year. We have been doing this…
The U.S. suicide rate is increasing in almost every state, according a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide is listed as a leading cause of death in the report, and more than half the people who died by suicide did not have a known mental health conditio…
A better life: That is what Old World immigrants sought when leaving European homelands and taking a treacherous ocean voyage 100 years ago. They arrived in America with big dreams but no guarantees.
