I read an article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press via the Brainerd Dispatch recently that I’m feeling the need to talk back to. The article is called “Antiques dealers find industry lagging, numbers shrinking – hope for eventual renaissance.” It quotes a number of people in the industry discussing how antiques stores are going out of business and making comments about how young people just aren’t interested in old things anymore. One says the…
If the current election season teaches us nothing else, it’s gob-smackingly obvious that we need to revamp our election system. With a polarized electorate caused by having only two major political parties and a wholly unqualified presidential candidate running on behalf of one of those parties, Dr. Phil’s perennial question comes to mind: “How’s that workin’ for you?” It ain’t working for us, Dr. Phil. It’s ain’t working. We’re feeling disenfranchised, disconnected from the political…
I read. A lot. In looking back through the books I’ve read in the past 5 years (yes, I keep a list), I see that I’ve read a number of very good ones. So, when I say a book is the most enlightening one I’ve read in 5 years, that’s saying something. “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America” by Colin Woodard has completely changed how I see the…
It has been announced numerous times in the media that people who support Donald Trump for president admire him for “telling it like it is.” In my mind, and through the contradictory and often inflammatory things Trump says, “telling it like it is” means saying whatever is on your mind, regardless of the consequences. Trump doesn’t seem to care for the consequences of what he says, angrily balking at criticism, yet he also seems to…
I’m having a day off from the world, doing whatever strikes my fancy without working through a To Do list. While the freedom of this is heavenly, it’s not always easy to decide how to spend my time without a list. (Ah, the life of an adult!) First I wrote a list of all the things that I find relaxing, mostly as a reminder to myself when I get stressed out, not as things I…