When I was a younger man and did such stupid things, I came up with a cocktail my buddies called the Hixer Mixer. The blend should probably be outlawed, and certainly one was sufficient to achieve the desired effect. Two led to a friend spending the night on the host’s couch. I’m not sure anyone ever dared a third. Truly, after these many decades, I cannot even remember what all was in it.

... The story of how Hummel figurines came to be is interesting. The child prodigy, academically educated artist who excelled and was highly respected by her educators and the general public, Berta Hummel, eventually joined a convent and became a nun. While fulfilling her other responsibilities in the convent, she pursued her passion for creating art.

Mother Nature seems to be reluctant to leave summer behind this year. We’ll have a cool, fall-like morning followed by a hot day with temperatures perfect for the pool. Will we need a sweatshirt or sunscreen? One never knows in Iowa!
Numbers on the thermometer are only one aspect of a season. We need to use all five of our senses to fully experience and appreciate a favorite season like fall.
 
Read the full column in the Sept. 16 Advance. 

These days many of us travel quite a bit.  No longer do children and grandchildren live down the road. At one time, in many of our rural churches worship was a family get together. It is not unusual to hear of how after worship the family went over to grandma’s house for dinner. Those special days are long gone. Today our children and grandchildren frequently live several hours, if not several days, of travel from us.

... Maybe I’m out of touch, but I had to wonder, “What the heck is meat made using cultured cells derived from animals and fish? Well, I found some websites and the folks who wrote about the matter  are excited. 
Read the full colunn in the Sept 9 Advance.
 

Is anyone else having a feeling of déjà vu? In many ways our situation today looks very similar to the fall of 2020. 

When Algona Municipal Utilities’ finances grew unlike never before in the wake of providing power to help support the grid during last February’s middle-of-the-country freeze-out, and the subsequent rollback of local customers’ electric bills, more than a few eyes were opened to the possibilities of future electric generation. 

My first experience with computers was in 1984 when I joined the newspaper staff. I had to learn how to type a story on something other than my portable Smith-Corona typewriter that I got in high school. I wish I could say I was a fast learner. I wasn’t. And lo these nearly four decades later, I’m still not. I have a love-hate relationship with everything having to do with computers and cyberspace. 
 
Read the full column in the Sept. 9 Advance.

The first day of fall doesn’t show up on the calendar until Sept. 22, but the transition from summer to autumn has already begun. School is back in session, vacations are wrapping up, and there is a fall feeling in the air. Meanwhile, out in the garden, we are also seeing changes. 
 
See the full column in the Sept. 2 Advance.
 

In the fifth chapter of the gospel according to Matthew (and the sixth and seventh chapters too), Jesus preaches a major sermon (aka the Sermon on the Mount) It’s pretty lengthy by Jesus” standards (and you thought your pastor was the only one who preaches long sermons!) Verses 3-12 of chapter five are known as the Beatitudes. There are nine of them in total, each of them beginning with “blessed are.” (some translations word it “happy are”) 

Paul Harvey’s approach to the news was beloved by those who favored his plain-spoken use of words to make one clearly understand a situation.
While most folks will remember his “the rest of the story” segments as his signature signoff, there is another statement he frequently used to introduce a particularly difficult segment. It was simply this: It is not one world.
 
Read the full column in the Aug. 19 Advance.

While Danielle Trussoni’s spellbinding novel The Ancestor could be categorized as a mystery, further definition remains, well, something of a mystery. 

To the editor:
“Money doesn’t grow on trees.” This is a common saying from parents to children. Or perhaps it’s not as common as one might think as shown by our Senate and Iowa’s own Senator Grassley voting for a “bipartisan” (HR3864) $1.2 trillion (that’s trillion!) infrastructure bill. Senator Grassley was one of 18 Republicans to vote for this economically disastrous bill. Here are just a few reasons we should be outraged at this bill:
 

The Kossuth County Sheriff’s Office 1440 Citizen of the Month for August 2021 is Chuck Redemske of Algona. Chuck was nominated because of his “calm, confident, and professional personality” both as a nurse and as a trainer for those in the medical and first responder profession.
 
See the Aug. 19 Advance for more on this story.

Going to the Iowa State Fair is always a treat. I love seeing the biggest and best of what our great state has to offer. You can experience everything, from seeing the biggest boar in the swine barn to the largest pumpkin to eating the craziest corndog.