Last Monday night, as I took my place mat-side at the field house at Spencer High School, it felt so familiar. After all, I started my news career as a sports photographer and sports editor. I spent endless hours in warm gyms on cold nights, snapping shot after shot of young athletes competing for their home teams...

Sorting through over half a century of family memorabilia while helping my dad move from the family home to northwest Iowa a year ago to be closer to his children, I came across a newspaper clipping my mom had cut out and saved. “Daily Reporter enters '03 with new owners.”...

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice, and to make an end is to make a beginning.” The words of T.S. Eliot always come to my mind on New Year’s. They represent to me the closing of the door from the year past, with the future waiting, tantalizingly just out of reach. As we step across the threshold of one year into another, and close that door behind us, a new fresh start seems so exciting and optimistic...

I’ll be dusting up glitter until Valentine’s Day, and my refrigerator looks like Dean & DeLucca held a closeout sale in the Midwest, with containers full of fancy foodstuffs we splurge on once a year. The prosecco is going flat, and we will grow tired of Christmas candy before we even make it halfway to the bottom of the big bowl on our table...

Last year, in the midst of a quiet and often lonely Christmas season, we elves at the Daily Reporter spent a lot of time thinking of ways to bring us all closer together, despite the pandemic keeping us apart. We bought a projector and put it on the roof, flashing colorful holiday scenes against the second story wall of the Daily Reporter building so those heading south on Fourth Avenue East could enjoy some holiday cheer...

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”...

After last year’s quiet COVID Christmas, many of us are preparing, with hope in our hearts, for a traditional holiday. Those family traditions, which we did without, are precious. So are community traditions. Last night, we celebrated 35 years of the Grand Meander, a truly special holiday event for our town...

The turkey had barely digested when we were asked in advertisements, commercials, social media posts and tweets, to lace up our sneakers and hit the streets for Black Friday shopping events, which are then followed by Small Business Saturday hoopla, and yesterday the focus was on Cyber Monday...

Last holiday season, with the pandemic putting the brakes on the traditional totems of the holiday — big gatherings, Christmas parties with friends and trips to visit family far away, I put my mind to things which the COVID crisis hadn’t taken away...

In these days leading up to Thanksgiving, I’ve been pondering the word — “thankful.” Mirriam-Webster gives us a pretty dry description: “thankful adjective thank·ful | \ 'thaŋk-fəl \ Definition of thankful 1. conscious of benefit received...

I’ll admit it. The date is Nov. 9 and my outdoor Christmas lights have been hung. Now, before you say, “Oh, you’re one of those people, Paula,” reflect on the utter perfection of the past weekend. I mean, really? With temperatures kissing 70 degrees, a light breeze and sunshine? Of course I took the opportunity to lay out 100 feet of bulbs and garland and go crazy decking the halls...

I’ve watched in horror the vitriol spewed in recent months at elected officials in local communities and on school boards and shared in the national media. Somewhere along with the way, a slow-burning core of hate and division boiled over into the kind of abuses that show up on television screens and online...

Here in northwest Iowa, we’ve enjoyed a long and lingering warm spell, seen the beginning of the fall chill, and had a chance to revel in the beauty of the orange and gold fall landscape. (We also saw some gigantic snowflakes for a brief period on Friday, but we’re not going to discuss that.)...

I spent some time, on a glorious October Sunday, bringing in my harvest from my flower garden — tagging and cutting down dahlias which had spent the summer and early fall delivering wave after wave of gorgeous blooms. I made dozens of bouquets, for my home, my office, family and friends...

My husband and I traveled to Des Moines this past weekend to visit family and enjoy some time in the big city. On Saturday, along with dining out and doing some yard work, my daughter-in-law and I headed to the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Nope, we weren’t there for the rally put on by the former president. We were there for the Planned Parenthood Book Sale...

“I pledge my head to clearer thinking, My heart to greater loyalty, My hands to larger service, My health to better living, For my club, my community, my country and my world.” It’s been nearly 40 years since I made that pledge as a 4-H member and yet, just like my 85-year-old dad, I can still recite it by heart...

“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love — that makes life and nature harmonize. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. ...

Today, Sept. 21, 2021, is a pretty big day. You don’t see any notation on your desk calendar? No “event” pop up on your phone? OK, I should say Sept. 21, 2021, is a pretty big day for me. You see, 20 years ago today, I was officially named “publisher” of this newspaper. I’ve sat for two decades in this chair and, as far as I can find out in my research, that makes me the longest-tenured publisher in the nearly-150-year history of the Spencer Daily Reporter...

“Yes Day,” a family film released this spring, was a modest success, with a premise that every child would dream of — a day where they flip the script and the kids (within reason) are in charge. A day of hijinks with their parents ensues, tickling funny bones and resulting in lots of parents across the country giving their kids a “Yes Day” of their own...

School has begun. Labor Day is past. There’s just one thing left to really signal the beginning of fall here in northwest Iowa. That’s the Clay County Fair. On Saturday, the gates will swing open after nearly two years, for nine days of fun. I, for one, can’t wait...

Evenings have a chill that wasn’t there a month ago. The Clay County Fair is wrapping up final touches for our nine days of fun. And teachers are back in the classroom in front of students. I hope you noticed that I said “teachers are back in the classroom,” and not “teachers are back at work.”

Down by the end of the driveway, in a patch of lawn between the garden and the ditch, is an apple tree. It’s weighed down now with fruit ripe for the picking, and its limbs are twisted from two decades of summer storms and winter gales. This morning, as the school bus passes my house to pick up little ones in brand new tennis shoes, with backpacks bulging with three ring binders and pencils sharpened to a fine point, crayons and notebooks absent the childish doodles which will soon cover the original cover design, my gaze happened upon that tree.. ...

“America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: It's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again."...

When the calendar turns from July to August, I always feel a little pang of regret for the rapidly-dwindling days of summer. While my back-to-school days are a distant memory, I can still recall the melancholy tasks of shopping for pencils and notebooks, of athletic physicals and buying new tennis shoes to prepare for the school year to come...

Not sure about the rest of you, but I feel cheated. Back in early spring, as the vaccines to help stomp out the COVID-19 virus were becoming more and more available, we were promised a “Hot Vax Summer,” by pundits who said when the nation reached a level of vaccination which would create herd immunity, we could enjoy a raucous, carefree, unmasked summer...

It may be a year late, and held under the cloud of a still-threatening pandemic, but finally, the 2020 Olympic Summer Games are almost here. Yes, I said 2020. Don’t call and tell me, “Paula, I know you meant to say 2021.” I didn’t. Forget about all the branding and signage the Tokyo Olympic organizers would have had to replace had the name been changed, the International Olympic Committee saw the postponed Games as a “light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself,” and wanted to keep the 2020 as reminder of that struggle through the toughest times of the pandemic.. ...

Scrolling through Facebook the other day, my “Memories” post came up, reminding me of where I was for the July 4 holiday in years past, and the things that were important to me back then. Those memories prompted me to see what I was up to last year — in the middle of the summer, and in the middle of (what I pray is) the strangest summer of my life...

I spent a relaxing long holiday weekend with my family in my garden and, I will admit, taking a patriotic nap or two. Like so many of you, I reveled in time spent with loved ones — we ate homemade ice cream and pie, laughed over the hijinks of young ones frolicking under the sprinkler and spent some time watching fireflies light up over the lawn...

“Summertime, and the living is easy …” While Ella Fitzgerald was able to mold those words into a languid love letter to the joys of summer, the reality is often more complicated. As we reach the July 4th holiday, the traditional midpoint of summer, for many summer isn’t so easy...

It was a hot and windy Saturday. The mercury was in the upper 90s and residents were in town from all around the county, enjoying another Saturday afternoon spent buying supplies and socializing with friends and neighbors, perhaps planning a movie later in the air-conditioned comfort of one of the three theaters located along Grand Avenue, or “Main Street” as it was known back then. The upcoming Fourth of July holiday was on the minds of many, with plans being laid for a day of fun...

“Make the world go away And get it off my shoulders …” All it takes is a couple of lines of Eddy Arnold’s classic “Make the World Go Away,” from 1965 and I’m a little girl again, singing along at the top of my lungs. That was “our song” after all, for my dad and I...

My father, on the cusp of his 85th birthday later this summer, said something a few weeks ago that has been stirring around in my head, and in my heart. “At my age, there are very few opportunities to do something for the very first time.” His words got me thinking about how often I leave my comfort zone and head into uncharted waters. ...

With Memorial Day, the unofficial start to summer, behind us, it seems folks all across the country are ready for things to get hot. Pundits are calling the upcoming travel season “Hot Vax Summer,” pointing to signs that summer in the U.S. could be, well, lit. There’s a ton of pent-up demand, as more and more folks become fully vaccinated and attractions begin to open up fully...

As I wrapped up planting the hundreds of seedlings in my gardens, begun in cold, blustery March, I thought about how my pandemic-fueled flower gardening hobby has brought me such joy during the past year. And, as I moved into the “annex,” the new garden plot I negotiated from my husband from the pasture on our 3-acre plot, I celebrated that this hobby has not just survived the pandemic, but has grown as the crisis eases...

Over a month past my second COVID vaccine jab, and, with the CDC’s new guidance on mask wearing, which frees the fully-vaccinated in most situations from the confines of the face covering, it feels like I’m tiptoeing back into the pre-pandemic world...

Class of 2021: Wow. You made it. You. Made. It. You went through one of the most important times of your life, one filled with rites of passage that are totems in your emotional growth, in the midst of the worst global pandemic of our lifetime. Nothing was normal. Nothing was according to tradition. Nothing was the way you thought it would be when you were young...

Dear readers, you will have to be the judge if the old adage “It’s just like riding a bike” is true when it comes to journalists. If you’re one of those folks who read bylines, you will see that my name is included with some stories and photos today, and likely for a while into the future...

I took a little adventure on Saturday with some folks I love. Now that we’re all at least two weeks out from our second vaccine, we’re a bit braver about venturing from our little bubble. The trip was a roaring success, and it shook off some of the cobwebs in my brain with lots of time in the sunshine and fresh air...

My heart tells me we are in a strange, uncomfortable, in-between time. Mother Nature can’t decide whether to smile or lash us with icy winds and gray clouds. The nation weeps as we demand gun reform by our leaders and see talk but no action, while the headlines blast out daily reports of another troubled or evil soul declaring open season on humanity...

It’s a big week at Iowa State University. For the 19th year, the university is celebrating First Amendment Days, April 12-16. The theme in 2021 is “Some Assembly Required,” and it is focusing particularly on one element of the protections afforded in the First Amendment — protest...

A year ago, we were all in the process of dismantling things. We were taking apart schedules, tossing out meetings we always thought were essential, and learning to live in a different world than the one we had previously been so comfortable in. We ripped apart the social fabric that wove our lives together — lunches with good friends and laughter, big, family holidays, vacations — and entered a more solitary, quiet kind of life...

After a year of worry, loneliness, fear and heartbreaking sadness, today is a very big day. Today I get my second dose of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. I cried when I got the first dose three weeks ago. I thought about the half million plus lives lost, including my beloved oldest brother. I saluted the bravery of health care workers around the country and the world...

I’ve spent the better part of the strange, COVID year going through thousands of photos from my parents and grandparent’s collection, sorting and scanning so the images are preserved for future generations. One of my favorite shots is a grainy, black and white photo, showing both my grandfathers in a field, next to tractor, tiny by today’s standards, taking a break on a hot, summer day. ...

During a year in which Americans felt more isolated and alone than ever, so many relied on local news outlets to share vital information to keep them safe, secure and informed. Unfortunately, the job of journalists has gotten more difficult, and in some cases, more expensive and dangerous over the last few years...

I took a few moments yesterday, on International Women’s Day, to reflect on the women who have influenced me throughout my life. From public figures who inspired me, like Katherine Graham of the Washington Post; to those who taught me so much, like the beloved DeEtte Hooven of the Spencer High School English Department; to those who I watched gracefully navigate the everyday world — my mom, grandmas and close family friends...

On Monday, the United States marked a sad milestone. On Feb. 29, 2020, (leap year), the first U.S. death from COVID-19 was confirmed. A Washington state man in his 50s succumbed to a virus we knew so very little about. And in the weeks ahead, our lives changed — a little at first and then all at once...

To every thing, according to Pete Seeger and Ecclesiastes 3, there is a season. For Republican-controlled state legislatures around the country, 2021 is the season to restrict voting rights. As of Feb. 1, more than 100 bills are on the legislative carousel in statehouses across the country which would limit voting access and reform the way citizens vote...

Ever notice, when you click on one of those Facebook ads for boots, (hey, it was a really cute pair of boots!) you start getting more and more ads for boots, booties, boot socks and boot racks popping up on your timeline? If you’ve been investigating that interesting-looking bruise you got on your leg from running into the kitchen table in a rush to the oven to get out the bread that was nearly done, you begin getting pop-up ads for “hematoma” and “Bruise Cover.”...

I’ve been on a quest in 2021, one that has kept me up at night, and had me reaching for the antacids throughout the day. It’s consumed me, taken time away from my housework and focus away from other projects. I’ve been on a quest to get my father a shot of the COVID vaccine...

I know it’s hard to believe, but I’ve been called, on occasion, a “know it all.” Now, while I’d like to think it was because I know a lot of different things, in reality, I fear, it’s because I have a tendency to be VERY certain about the things I proclaim. And sometimes, I fear, I may be incorrect in those assertions...

One year. A news piece reminded me that, one year ago today, while I was spending a snowy weekend at home, a breaking news alert scrolled across the chyron, “Helicopter crashes in hills …” We found out the heartbreaking news hours later — Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others were killed in that crash...

I had a reason to celebrate last week, as some of my favorite people in the world got their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. After losing my eldest brother to the horrid virus in late October, I exhaled a bit when my other big brother, a cancer survivor with other health issues and a job which puts him on the front line, got his shot. My beloved daughter-in-law, also in the health care field, received hers as well...

“So many different worlds So many different suns And we have just one world But we live in different ones.” “Brothers in Arms” — Mark Knopfler The events of Jan. 6, 2021, will live in infamy. The violent insurrection of mobs, whipped to a frenzy by their leader, and operating in plain sight on social media with little oversight and no restraint, will be studied for centuries to come...

On Saturday, I really enjoyed watching the decisive win of the ISU Cyclones over the Oregon Ducks in the Fiesta Bowl. The Cyclones dominated the ball possession game, shut down third down conversion attempts, found the end zone consistently and ended up with a 34-17 win...

The year of 2020, which came in with such promise, is limping out to a soundtrack of banshee wails coming from my clothes dryer. With no warning on Sunday night, that dyer decided it had enough of the mayhem that was this year. I’ll admit to a rueful grin as I listened to that high-pitched wail emanating from my laundry room...

I headed outside last night, hoping for a glimpse of the Christmas star. It is certainly a romantic notion, an astrological phenomenon happening for the first time in 800 years. Jupiter and Saturn, the brightest objects in the night sky, have been inching closer and closer to each other over the past weeks, and last night they were so close they appeared to be one bright star...

Monday marked the beginning of a long road to normal for our nation. Yes, the Electoral College cast its votes, marking the “official-official” election of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States, but that’s not what I’m talking about. It’s the holiday season, and I really am not in the mood for any “fake news” comments if I explain here how our democratic republic works. So I’m staying away from stating those facts here...

There they are — like a ticking time bomb in a box — my Christmas cards. What to do, what to do? Do I simply sign them, put an address and stamp on the envelope and send them merrily out the door? Do I write a short, personal note to each recipient?...

There is candy-dipping chocolate smeared on the back of my iPhone, I discovered this morning. It’s also on my refrigerator handles, seven kitchen towels, and, surprising given the amount spread throughout my house, it covers a few dozen “fancy” filled chocolates...

While Thanksgiving is still a couple of days away, I will freely admit I jumped the gun a bit on my Christmas decorating. As the song says, “I need a little Christmas, right this very minute.” The pandemic is raging, nearly unchecked it seems, and for most of us, Thanksgiving is not going to look the same this year, with families like mine forgoing large gatherings, opting to stay in for intimate dinners. ...

I'm not going to speak for anyone else, but these past nine months have been a trial for my soul. Losses, big and small; and heartaches of seismic proportions have buffeted my family, and countless others. And now we are heading into the holiday season with frightening case numbers in this slow-rolling disaster of a pandemic...

I've realized over the past week that the United States is a deeply divided nation ... ... over the issue of when it's appropriate to begin decorating for Christmas. I fall firmly on the "it's never too early" side of the holiday equation. Bring on the tinsel and the lights, sooner rather than later...

COVID-19 found my family in October, and we will never be the same. Through the past three weeks, I’ve written down my feelings and I share them here. I appreciate all the kind thoughts and prayers, but I what I really want is for everyone to be careful, to wear masks and to protect yourself and those you love...

Snow is falling in mid-October. COVDI-19 cases are growing, affecting more and more of our friends and families. Politicians are shouting at each other before millions in televised debates. Parents are ensuring masks are in their children's backpack along with their schoolbooks and lunch...

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but in three weeks there’s an election. A great, big general election. Of course, if you are living on an isolated island, in the middle of nowhere, with no internet, mail or phone service, and don’t know about this big event, here’s your reminder that it’s time to make a plan to vote...

2020 has been quite a year. Quite. A. Year. Raging fires in the West, racial upheaval across the country, a nation divided by tribalism, and a pandemic the likes of which we have not seen since 1918. Locally, we have all seen our lives upended in ways we could not have dreamed of just a year ago...

As a women who has, in my career, held two positions traditionally in the domain of men — sports editor and newspaper publisher — the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday evening hit me hard. While her health has been precarious for the past few years, with multiple bouts of cancer, the tiny dynamo seemed a timeless institution of Washington, D.C., like the Washington monument or the cherry trees that bloom each spring...

On Sunday, as the president of the United States held a political rally for thousands in a manufacturing plant in Nevada, in violation of that state's COVID-19 restrictions limiting gatherings to 50 people or less outdoors, the Clay County Fair was shuttered on its planned opening weekend, and the National Football League kicked off its season in cavernous, mostly-empty stadiums...

Mother Nature seems as confused and out of sorts as the rest of us in this strange, sad year. We went from sweltering July-style heat on Sunday to gray and November cold today. The chilly, transitional Labor Day made the traditional work of harvest more bearable as we processed the bounty from overladen apple trees on our little patch of heaven. ...

Summer is rolling to an end, with its golden-tinged sunsets and the rustle of dry (very, very dry) corn from the fields. As I prepare for the long Labor Day weekend, I riffled through my mental summer “to do” list, to see what was accomplished, and what went by the COVID-19 wayside...

We had a tradition in our home. On the first day of school, before our son walked to the end of the driveway to wait for the school bus, he would head for the apple tree, one of those which we planted soon after moving onto our acreage 23 years ago. I would follow behind, camera in hand, to take a photo memorializing another year...

The text came last Monday, just before lunch, from my son in Des Moines. “Severe thunderstorms here now. We’re in shelter. Happy Monday.” That was my first indication that somewhere in Iowa, things weren’t as calm and dry as they were here in the northwest corner of the state...

This year will go down in history as the time during which things were taken away. Proms, sports, family gatherings, long-planned trips. We all carry with us a list of IOUs of special moments stolen by COVID-19. For me, and for so many others, the loss of fairs, particularly the Clay County Fair, was a real blow...

August rain: The best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time. — Sylvia Plath I changed the calendar on the wall of my kitchen from July to August this past weekend. And, I must admit, I did so with with a pang of regret. ...

The dream woke me with a start — eyes snapping open, heart racing. As I lay there, in the darkest part of the night, after midnight but still well before dawn begins to lighten up the inky black, I tried to recall details of the nightmare that forced me awake...

I think we can all agree that 2020 has been one heck of a year. Many of us feel a bit lost, a bit unsure of what tomorrow will bring, and uneasy about the future. For my industry, a business I have loved since I was in middle school (we called it “junior high” back then), it’s been a particularly painful year...

When the Clay County Fair Board made its decision earlier this month to postpone the annual homage to family fun, livestock, big name entertainment and all things fried on a stick, I wasn't surprised. With COVID-19 ravaging our country, and no way to ensure an event in any way resembling the fair we all know and love, it was the prudent, responsible and correct choice...

In 10 years, or 20, how will we all remember the year 2020? Will it be a year we remember for the fear? Or the loss? Or will it be a year we reestablished priorities? Pulled our family units together more tightly? A year of spending more time making our personal world more comfortable? Of holding on to the wheat and letting the chaff flutter off in the wind?...

Let’s talk about masks. As the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic stretches on, with accelerating case counts around the U.S. and the death toll rising above 128,000 in this country, it seems unthinkable that the request of citizens to wear masks when out in public elicits such strong negative responses among a disturbingly-large segment of the population...

It only seems fitting that my Father's Day tribute comes late. After all, if you know my dad, you know that "on time" is a fluid concept of which he has very little familiarity. Memories of our gang of nine sliding into church pews as the minister began his announcements are pretty vivid to me. ...

As we near the midpoint of 2020, I’ve been thinking about what my future self will remember about the time spent in amber that has been the last few months. I’ve had some time to ponder big questions, as I took a few days off to escape to the most remote and beautiful place I can get to in a few hours with a car and without running into people — at all. ...

Spencer, you're pretty great. I was awfully proud of our community last Thursday as it supported the March for Justice with welcoming arms and even more welcoming actions. From City Manager Amanda Mack and Police Chief Mark Warburton, who spearheaded the community's preparations, to the parks department staff who were out mowing the lawn and sprucing up East Leach Park earlier in the day, Spencer showed a lot of people what we're made of, and what we value. ...

"... One nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all." Those words, the Pledge of Allegiance, learned as a child, and reinforced through countless school recitations, echoed through my head this past week. As America burned, flames fueled by injustice and frustration and anger and pain, our nation seems these days to be a splintered reproof of those idealistic words...

In ways big and small, 2020 has been a year like no other. And, as we passed through Memorial Day, the traditional kick off to summer, for many of us it will be a summer lacking in some of the things we have always taken for granted. Festivals, concerts, community gatherings have been shelved. Weddings moved back or moved to intimate gatherings of immediate family. Long trips pushed to another year. Nesting close to home, and fun in the sun in the backyard are far more common...

Congratulations, graduates! I know, without the traditional trappings of a graduation ceremony — the cap and gown, stroll across the stage, Pomp and Circumstance — it doesn't really feel official. It feels, deep within you, like something is missing...

I’ve heard plenty of phrases describing this strange time we are in as “unprecedented,” and “never before seen.” Folks wail about the closure of schools, churches, public gatherings. It’s an “unprecedented” suppression of rights, some claim. While these are awfully strange times, that’s for sure, to assume these are unlike any this world, heck, this town, have seen before smacks, to me of a hubris born from a lack of study of our history...

“Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes, we need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. The competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be making six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense. “...

The quiet days of spring 2020 have led me into the vaults of our family photo albums. We’ve been going through the photos with my father, as he tries to organize and sort a lifetime of family treasures. Each photo is a trigger to a new memory of my childhood, and it’s been so joyful to remember those wonderful days. We did have a lovely childhood, filled with so many special times. And, oddly enough, many of the things that make me smile the most are simple moments...

We are all spending a lot of time inside our homes, here in the second month of our strange new existence of social distancing and isolation, it would be easy to forget that outside our windows, life goes on. The calendar tells me tomorrow, Wednesday, April 22, is Earth Day. ...

On Easter Sunday afternoon, with the wind howling around our little home in the country, my husband called me out to the garage to take a look at our ash tree in the backyard. That tree, instead of being covered in leaves, was filled with robins. The birds had found a perch which was protected by the wind by the long row of firs to the north and were riding out the storm together...

Like so many of us, I've been spending a lot of my free time in one of three places — my kitchen, baking dinners more complex and time-consuming than I'd ever dream of in "real life" (my name for the days before COVID-19; in front of my television with a book in my lap; or on my computer or iPhone, scrolling news and social media...

I was trying to remember, while spending another Sunday afternoon at home, just how long our lives have been consumed by coronavirus. It feels like this "new normal" has transitioned to a time suspended; with days in amber and weeks on ice. I scrolled through our collective journal of memories, Facebook, and found the last post I made which had nothing to do with this time of unease...

As I pulled into my driveway yesterday, after a hard day at work, a pair of birds caught my eye. Perched, heads tight together on a branch in the early-spring bare apple tree, the mourning doves seemed an apt metaphor for the situation so many of us find ourselves in...

Strange days, my friends. We are living in strange days. I've gone from worrying about the possibility of spring thaws and excess rain causing puddles in my basement, to planning, then replanning, and starting over once again to plan, how to continue to provide area residents with the news they need to keep themselves, those they love, and friends and neighbors they don't know yet, safe...

It's become an early spring tradition, as certain as the sun. March rolls around and along with basketball tournaments, you can count on Paula writing her column imploring people to get on the stick and nominate worthy Spencer residents for the Citizen of the Year award...

Dear March, come in! How glad I am! I looked for you before. Put down your hat — You must have walked — How out of breath you are! Dear March, how are you? And the rest? Did you leave Nature well? Oh, March, come right upstairs with me, I have so much to tell!...

Over the past few years, I’ve gained a greater appreciation for those who came before me. I’ve been fascinated by the stories of how Americans made their way to this country and settle in the its center. My husband and I have been fans of the PBS program, “Finding Your Roots,” hosted by scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., which traces the ancestry of well-known people hundreds of years into the past. ...

The Iowa Legislature opened the 2020 session on Jan. 13. With both houses, and the governor, controlled by the Republican Party, legislators were unanimous in opening statements that focused on the economy, building the Iowa workforce, maintaining fiscal control and cutting taxes. Education continues to be a focus for the Democrats in Des Moines...

Every winter, right in that sour spot when Christmas cheer is over, snow is no longer a photogenic novelty and the lack of sun is beginning to have its way with my mood; and before the “only X days until spring” countdowns have begun to feel attainable, I get a respite...

A few weeks ago, and a few times in the past, we’ve had readers on our Spencer Daily Reporter Facebook page complain about the paywall which blocks them from reading complete stories at no charge. For some folks, the constitutional right to free speech has been interpreted as “I shouldn’t have to pay for reading the results of the work of trained journalists.”...

My 83-year-young father, along with my mother, raised seven children — put us through college, ensured we had everything we needed, and as much of what we wanted as was possible. They sacrificed to ensure our future success. Needless to say, that focus didn’t prioritize retirement savings or leave time to ponder investment strategies...

With just two weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, Iowans would be excused if they are suffering from a serious case of political overload. The television is packed with candidate ads, and you can hardly go to a coffee shop, town hall or microbrewery in the state that hasn't been visited by at least one presidential candidate over the past year and a half...

Back around the turn of the century, I was drawn, as were so many others, to a television show featuring an idealistic, decidedly-liberal White House staff, supporting its wicked-smart, charismatic leader. The show was “The West Wing,” and for seven years it was “must-see” TV in my house...

When I was young, the most anticipated mail of the year was the Sears Roebuck Christmas "Wish Book." We youngsters fought for our chance to peruse the thick volume, filed with all the must-have toys and games that millions of children would be dreaming about finding under the tree on Christmas morning. By Christmas Day, that poor catalog was dog-eared and ragged, with circles around favorites and corners helpfully turned down so Santa could find our dream Barbie quickly...

Tonight we count down the seconds in anticipation of the start of a new year, and a new decade. Here in the U.S., a kiss with the one you want to spend the coming year with is a tradition embraced (literally) by many. Certain foods are featured in various parts of the country and, of course, football can be found on TV on New Year’s Day...

Christmas Eve. If your Christmas Eve is like mine, all isn't calm, in fact it is hectic. Last minute wrapping, and baking; too many plans and sometimes too many memories can make it tough to stop and take in the blessing of the holiday. How can we recapture the childlike wonder of Christmas? How to slow down enough to reflect on the blessing this holiday commemorates? That’s an issue so many of us struggle with at Christmas...

Hear that sound? The jingle, jingle of sleigh bells getting closer and closer as Christmas speeds toward us. This year, more than any in recent memory, I’ve heard from folks who are overwhelmed, and stressed, and rushing through this holiday season. There haven’t been a lot of weekends, it seems, between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. The checklist of Christmas “must-dos” is as long as ever and the time is short...

A year ago, with Christmas on its way and family gatherings on my mind, I had a thought. Which grew into a passion. Which became a mission. We would get a family photo taken. Now, I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal. But I what I felt in my heart was that we needed a professional shot taken of our entire tribe — all of us. All 50-plus of the clan that grew from my mom and dad together in an image...

With Thanksgiving’s turkey dinner leftovers nearly used up (except for that sacrificial can of wobbly cranberry that is required but rarely finished), it seems we are now in full Christmas mode. With a very short timeline between the Pilgrims and St. Nick this year, it is easy to begin hyperventilating at the thought of all the “required” Christmas tasks that need to be completed before Christmas Eve...

Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for the Macy’s parade, a huge turkey, family gathered around and a crowd in front of the television watching a football game. In my family that is often the case — a crowd of folks related by blood and choice sharing love, laughter and thankfulness for all our blessings...

You must excuse this college football fan when she says she cheers for both Iowa and Iowa State (except when they play each other and then I must admit I cheer for the land grant university). Purists will swear that I’m not a real fan, sort of a state-supporting dilettante who just can’t make up her mind. ...

I spent part of my Saturday afternoon this past weekend hanging Christmas lights outside my home. I really wanted to take advantage of the relatively balmy temperatures to ensure the “halls were decked” at our rural abode. I think, judging from social media, lots of others did the same thing...

I spent the weekend on the road, in the field, and staying the course. I took a road trip with my dad and my sister to Dubuque to watch my nephew, a senior at Buena Vista University run one of his last collegiate cross-country races. The trip was a bit of sentimental journey, as my parents spent hundreds of hours in the car through the decades, chasing after daughters and then grandchildren, to watch them run for less than 30 minutes. ...

I was flipping through television channels Sunday afternoon and noticed The Hallmark Channel, purveyor of films for the chronically-romantic and Christmas-addicted, has already rolled out its 24-hour, two-month marathon of holiday movies. How can that be? I haven’t even opened the bag of chocolate bars I buy every year for the trick-or-treaters who I know will never arrive at my rural door, nor have I plopped on the couch to watch “Hocus Pocus” and eat said chocolate bars before Halloween, necessitating the removal of a couple of full-size Hersey bars from the freezer to thaw on the off chance a little goblin actually shows up.. ...

For readers of this column, it will come as no surprise to hear that I have a few problems with the recent comments by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, in a speech at Georgetown University. Zuckerberg offered up a full-throated defense of the social media giant, and its role in society, doubling down on the theory that Facebook is a platform dedicated to free speech. He likened the behemoth to traditional companies, calling social media the “Fifth Estate.”...

“Let it go Let it roll right off your shoulder Don't you know The hardest part is over? Let it in Let your clarity define you In the end We will only just remember how it feels." — “Little Wonders,” Rob Thomas The past six weeks have been a bit of an emotional wash and wringer cycle for this old newspaper woman. The sudden death of my mother, professional challenges and a few other "hang on to your hat" bumps along the way made September 2019 my personal "mense horribilis" — horrible month...

There has been an awful lot of talk in our country about the death of good manners, civility and respect. We decry the lack of positive role models for our children. We shake our heads at the future of America. I have a solution — maybe not for the entire country, but certainly for the young people who are involved — 4-H...

I’ve made no secret through the years of my love of reading. I grew from a child bookworm, wrapped in a blanket in a chair with a book in front of my face throughout most of my childhood, to an adult word vacuum. I’ll suck up any written information I can, hoovering up facts and fiction whenever I get a few spare moments...

I need to start this column with an apology. I didn’t write my usual Tuesday missive last week. I can count on my fingers of one hand the weeks I’ve skipped this assignment in two decades at The Daily Reporter. I was presented with a far larger, and far more important writing task on Saturday, Sept. 7, when my beloved mother, Carol Johnson, passed away suddenly and without warning, at her home in Northwood, Iowa...

I'm making my list and checking it twice. No, it's not a Christmas wish list, it's my countdown of "must-see," "must-do" and "must eat" essentials for the 2019 edition of the Clay County Fair. I always forget how fast nine days goes by when you're having fun, and the gates close before I've made my way around the grounds to all the different places I want to ensure I get to each year...

Evenings have a chill that wasn’t there a month ago. The Clay County Fair is finishing up final touches for our nine days of fun. And teachers are back in the classroom in front of students. I hope you noticed that I said “teachers are back in the classroom,” and not “teachers are back at work.”...

2019 will go down in my personal history as a uniquely exciting year. Come October, I will become a mother-in-law. While I've felt like a second mother to my son's lovely bride-to-be for a long time, we will celebrate that status becoming official with the wedding ceremony. I'm a mom of a single child. This is my one shot at this...

Like the last spoonful of homemade ice cream, the last scene in a spellbinding movie, and the last page in an enthralling book, the last days of summer just cry out to be savored. There’s a bittersweet scent to the air as families begin the transition from lazy summer to the five-day structure of school time...

More thoughts and prayers. More flags at half-staff. More words with no action. In a span of less than 24 hours, America once again was visited by the horror of not one, but two mass shootings. At least 31 people died in attacks in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. ...

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” — Ferris Bueller --- As we prepare to flip the calendar from July to August, the end of summer looms like a deep abyss — dark and cold and filled with icy winds and endless obligations...

Summer is the time for beach days and balmy nights; of picnics with family and time at the park. It's not a time to be laid out on the couch for a week, felled by illness. And yet, last week that's where I was, as ill as I've ever felt, laid low by a nasty sinus infection that rendered me weak as a kitten and as fuzzy-headed as a stuffed animal...

I like to say I'm smart enough to know what I don't know. That list of things I don't know is discouragingly long, but I do know quality when I see it. I know when I'm seeing something being done at the very highest level possible. That's why, on Sunday, as I joined millions of people around the world watching the soccer Women's World Cup Finals, I knew the United States women's team I was watching was truly the best of the best...

Temperatures are hot and, it seems, the temper of folks is set on “simmer.” I’ve grown weary of the outrage shown, on our opinion pages and online in various outlets, over all manner of outrages and insults, real or imagined. Isn’t it funny that as the world seems to be more connected than ever before, thanks to technology, people seem more disconnected from one another than ever before? We hunker down in our respective safe spaces, comforted by the incessant hum of our information source of choice, and our beliefs grow, unchallenged by the discordant notes of ideas which challenge our narrow worldview.. ...

I look outside my window to rows of crops, peeking out of the ground 4 or 5 inches above the soil. Those small shoots represent the promise of food for the hungry and a livelihood for our farmers. It would be a reassuring sight to see, except for the fact that, as my calendar says, it is June 25. Those little shoots should be, as they say, “knee high by the Fourth of July.” In the past, that milestone date would usually see plants well over chest-high...

The peonies on my desk smell like memories. Memories of games of hide and seek in the moonlight of my childhood yard. The scent of the row of pink and white peonies was a landmark in the sea of inky shadows. I loved to hide in that row, crouching down amid the bushes, overloaded branches dragging on the ground, making a perfect spot to tuck out of sight. I was happy to bear the near-certain itching of the resident peony ants for a few moments immersed in that heady scent...

It’s Father’s Day this Sunday. A day to celebrate dad for all the things he does for us. I’m lucky, as I’ll get to spend the day with my dad. It’s a gift I treasure as I know so many of my friends no longer get to enjoy that simple pleasure. No doubt the trip will include at least one run out to the farm to do cattle chores, and to the pastures to check the condition of the grass...

“Usually take one last pass through town Stop the car and touch the ground Watch those streetlights swayin' in the breeze Decorated store fronts Rusty old gas pumps Try to fill my mind up With somethin' before I go Picture postcard memories You know they always make for good company.”...

Word of Compass Pointe’s closure last month was a stark reminder of the crisis rural America is facing in meeting the needs of those facing mental health and substance abuse issues. As awareness and openness regarding mental health conditions has increased in recent years, local, state and federal officials struggle to keep up with the demand for services, leaving those in need and their families struggling to find help...

Memorial Day is this coming Monday. As we all know, the holiday is a time to honor those brave men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. The holiday arose after the Civil War, when Americans across the nation began holding springtime tributes to the nation’s fallen soldiers — decorating their graves and reciting prayers. ...

Dear graduate: You close your eyes. You blink. Suddenly the chasm between kindergarten and college has closed, and you are ready to walk across the stage on Sunday and into the “real world.” While you thought this day would never come, and middle school, with all its angst and hormones and drama, would be your whole life. Looking back on it now, does it really seem that long ago?...

Apologies to area mail carriers. Yesterday's Daily Reporter added some heft to their bags as we published our annual Progress edition. It's a time to reflect on the people, businesses and organizations which make our community so special. It's the end product of weeks of work by everyone in our organization. The newsroom, ad department, press staff and mailroom all work extra hard to ensure the edition is the best it can be...

It seems there is a day or a week assigned to recognize nearly everything under the sun. For example, did you know that April 9 was recognized as National Unicorn Day? Or that May 1 is Batman Day? From World Naked Gardening Day (this Saturday, May 4) to International Axe Throwing Day on June 13, there is a day for just about everything...

Is there anything better than the feeling of walking barefoot on your lawn on the first truly spring-like weekend of the year? Like many of you, I took advantage of Mother Nature's benevolence for some outdoor therapy, soaking in as much vitamin D as I could. ...

America loves a comeback story. We love the tale of folks who hit rock bottom, overcome incredible odds, and climb to a mountaintop. We saw a pretty great one on Sunday as Tiger Woods captured the Master’s green jacket — his fifth. While I was traveling and didn't get to enjoy a favorite April Sunday tradition, lounging on my couch watching Sunday at Augusta, I followed Tiger Woods' move up the leader board through radio updates. ...

Intriguing numbers were released last week in a survey of Americans and our attitudes toward social media and technology. A survey conducted by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal indicate that, while we know it's bad for us, Americans just can't quit the dangerous habit of social media...

There are days I feel every single one of my 56 years old. There are days when fighting the constant drumbeats of a chief executive who calls those in my profession “Crazed lunatics” that have “given up on the truth,” and has dismissed what we produce as “fake news,” is enough to make me wave the white flag. I just don’t have the strength to enumerate the ways those statements are incorrect, dangerous and threaten our democracy...

I've watched the college admissions scandal unfolding in the media with equal parts revulsion and a resigned understanding of how it could happen. How money and influence can open doors closed to the more deserving but less flush with cash. How parents, overly invested in the optics of how their children look to the outside world, break the rules to ensure a picture-perfect family...

Folks who know me well understand I do love my holidays. Christmas, Easter, Halloween, March Madness. Yes, for this unabashed college basketball junkie, we are rolling into the most wonderful week of the year — the first rounds of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. I love the excitement. I love the hoopla. I love the story lines...

It's fitting that we are celebrating Sunshine Week in Iowa and around the nation March 10-16. After all, we "sprang" forward on Sunday, which added a little extra light into our lives. Sunshine Week celebrates the work done to protect First Amendment rights, and recognize the press's vital role in ensuring a free and open government. By doing so, journalists provide light on the workings of this great country...

It’s been a long, cold winter. I don’t know about you, but I’m having a hard time getting very excited about — well anything. It’s easy to get down about the state of the world when the world we’re looking at is encased in ice. However, I want our readers to roust themselves from their depths of winter-loathing, and think warm thoughts — warm thoughts about other people...

Raise your hands if you can remember waiting in a line in a school hallway in order to receive a vaccination from a school nurse with a clunky vaccine gun. Yup, me too. If I close my eyes, I can see the pea-green walls of my elementary school, and I can conjure up the anxiety that grew as I waited my turn for "the shot." As I recall, the anxiety was far, far worse than the actual shot...

Farm-raised, farm-grown and farm-proud. A part of me always needs to have a view of neat, rustling rows of corn and soybeans while looking out my kitchen window. I need to be able to walk out my door and pluck tomatoes ripe and warm from our big garden, and live in a place where fall brings with it apple boughs hanging low to the ground, laden with ripe fruit. ...

What kind of dreams do young Iowa girls dream as they sit on the sloping roof of a rural Iowa hog house and stare at the endless sky? It's hard to imagine that Michelle Johnson, Spencer native, retired Air Force lieutenant general, senior vice president of the National Basketball Association, and lucky for me, a friend, ever dreamed of the life she came to live when she sat on that roof and daydreamed...

I will be loading up and heading to Des Moines Wednesday morning for a three-day gathering of friends as the Iowa Newspaper Association kicks off its annual convention with board meetings of the association. It will be a milestone convention for me as it will mark the end of my decade-long tenure on the association's foundation board of directors. ...

According to the weather folks, it's gonna be a little chilly here in northwest Iowa for a couple of days. And by "a little chilly" I mean highs forecast in negative territory and lows set to hit the "Whoa, Nelly!" range. We knew it was coming. After all, we've been blessed with some downright balmy conditions thus far this winter, aside from a day here and there, like last week, that made us wish we had grabbed the hat from the hook before heading out the door...

January and February in my house is the time for baking, and braising, and crockpots simmering all day long. There's just something about below zero temperatures that sends me back to the cupboard of cookbooks. It must be genetic, as I have always associated the scent of soup in the air with childhood winters, and my son is also a wintertime chef...

I grew up in northwest Iowa. I married a northwest Iowa boy. I raised my son in northwest Iowa. I have found the people of this area to be kind, giving, fair, accepting and supportive. I love the country roads and friendly cities. There's an ease to life here off the interstate. ...

There is something about the turning of the page to a new year that makes me, and a lot of others, I suspect, instinctively reach for the broom. I want to sweep away a year’s worth of flotsam and jetsam in my house, my office, my life. There’s a reason retailers prominently place their totes, vacuums and other cleaning and organizing supplies in their stores in January. We seem to have an instinctual need to pitch as the year begins...

“Christmas is a tonic for our souls. It moves us to think of others rather than of ourselves. It directs our thoughts to giving.” ― B.C. Forbes Santa Claus came to town on Sunday, and instead of a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer, he was riding in big brown UPS trucks and huge Spencer fire trucks...

What a difference a day (or four) makes. Last Monday, I was pretty blue. Our Holiday Family Adoption program was running behind. With 22 families yet to be selected for adoption, I worried that this might be the first year in my tenure that we didn't get everyone taken care of...

Waking up Saturday morning to news of the passing of George H.W. Bush sent a pang of sadness through me. While I may not always have agreed with his policies, Bush was a reminder of the "good old days" of politics. He became, particularly after his retirement from politics, a beloved figure in our country...

Saturday morning, I took advantage of the gorgeous weather and sunshine to celebrate Small Business Saturday with an excursion to chip away at my Christmas shopping list. What a great day! What a great vibe permeated up and down Grand Avenue as I strolled from shop to shop...

I was watching a news show on Saturday morning, and an etiquette expert weighed in on the appropriateness of decorating our homes for Christmas prior to Thanksgiving. She said it's just not done. Well. I do it. While I used to put up my tree and deck the halls the weekend after Thanksgiving, last year I did it a week before. I had time. I had ambition, and an extra week or two of glittering lights and sparkling ornaments did my cold heart good...

I’ve been a fan of “Saturday Night Live” since it was my slightly-risque late-night television viewing of choice as a preteen back in 1976 when it debuted. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. It was bawdy, timely and rip-roaringly funny. It launched stars and introduced comedic geniuses and musicians to the world at large. It also propelled cultural touchstones into the universe...

Public Service Announcement: This column is being published on Tuesday, Nov. 6. That means its Election Day. If you haven’t yet voted — do so. Now. Before you read this column, which is about the holiday season, and Christmas, and things you can deal with tomorrow...

It’s easy to understand why some folks would just like to hide under a rock for the next week or so. No robocalls from candidates, no hysterical television ads with words like “Liar,” “Cheat,” and “That’s just not true” in the most horror-movies typefaces available interrupting your viewing of that “Fixer Upper” rerun. No news stories of pipe bombs sent to our leaders, former leaders and news media...

You have to forgive those folks around the office with the faraway look in their eyes, and a slight smile on their faces. They are just daydreaming of what they would do if they won the record-breaking Mega Millions jackpot tonight. With an estimated $1.6 billion (I want to put my pinkie by the side of my mouth like Dr. Evil when I write those words) at stake, dreamers from coast to coast are putting down their $2, picking up a ticket and buying their chance to dream...

It was with a twinge of regret, and the acknowledgment of the passing of time, that I read Monday morning that Sears was declaring bankruptcy. This woman of a certain age has many memories of that stalwart middle class shopping mecca. You could get everything from tires to prom dresses at Sears and, you only need to drive down a few Spencer streets to see that at one time you could buy your home from Sears. ...

There’s a lot of talk in the media recently about “tribalism” in American politics. Reporters describe the Supreme Court selection as a form of tribalism, where votes are cast not on what individual senators think about a nominee but on what the party leadership, the head of the “tribe” proscribes for them...

I was thinking about birdies yesterday afternoon as I watched the Tour Championship golf tournament. Not the golf birdie, which signifies a score of one stroke below par on a hole. My mind went to a more esoteric kind of bird — the mythical kind. The winged creatures of two myths were top of mind as Tiger Woods took his 80th golf tournament crown — Icarus and the Phoenix...

I recall a news item published a couple of months ago about the traveler who was refused boarding on a United Airlines cross county flight with her “emotional support peacock” as a traveling companion. Now, there was great hue and cry over the denial, and scoffing from those on the other side of the fence. Therapy animals have become a common sight, and the emotional benefits of pets are widely accepted...

The Clay County Fair always has me feeling nostalgic, and sentimental. A walk through horse barns takes me back to those days, eons ago, when it housed cattle, rather than equine competitors. I close my eyes and I can picture myself, aged 12, filling feed buckets and brushing the tawny coat of my entry in my very first Clay County Fair...

How did it happen? I closed my eyes in May, and suddenly September is here! Summer raced by on balmy winds and breezes scented with lilac and morning dew. We are lucky here in Clay County. The melancholy that can accompany the end of the lazy summer days is mitigated by the knowledge that we have nine days of fun to ease us through the transition to fall...

I came home Sunday night from an eventful weekend spent in the big city, (well, Des Moines which is as big as we Iowans get) visiting my son. It's a trek I make often, for work and for play. As a young girl, I dreamed of living in a big city, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of people living their lives cheek to jowl with one another...

You reap what you sow. I thought about that admonition the other day as I was out in the garden, so lovingly sown by my husband. He's the sower in our family, and the tender of the crops. He hands off much of the reaping and dealing with the fruits of his labor to me. Our tag-team garden method has worked well for a long time...

I was unexpectedly touched, and moved to tears by a Facebook post I saw on Sunday. Jen Hatmaker, a social media force and wife of a pastor in Austin, Texas, shared pictures and the story of how their congregation descended on the cities' Pride Celebration March to share something very simple - and very needed...

I could tell my niece was feeling a bit blue Sunday evening. She has recently packed up her bags, her sofa, her boxes of baking supplies and tons (I mean tons!) of books, and headed west. After eight years of working and building a family of friends in Omaha, she was chasing a long-held dream of living in the mountains in Colorado...

Like many of you, I suspect, I spent the past few days reveling in Mother Nature's benevolence. With puffy white clouds dotting the sky, cool evenings, humidity in the low 40 percent range and highs in the upper 70s, these were the kinds of days we dream of...

It’s hard to believe it’s been less than a decade since I first signed up to be a part of the Facebook Nation. Back then, in 2009, I had listened to my nieces and nephews talk about posting things on a new social platform. They said they saw friends’ vacation photos, and noticed someone else had a new beau (They didn’t say beau, that’s an old person term)...

It’s mid-July, prime time for summer vacations. Folks are packing up the family truckster and hitting the road. Our Facebook feeds are filled with photos of sunburned cheeks and milewide smiles snuggled up to waterfalls, holes in the ground, and the World’s Largest Ball of Twine...

As I drove away from my “undisclosed remote vacation destination” on Sunday morning, my phone, which had been blissfully disconnected to the outside world for the most part, began “chirpping” and “tweeting” and lighting up with a few days worth of backed-up communications...

"Don't ever forget that you're a citizen of this world, and there are things you can do to lift the human spirit, things that are easy, things that are free, things that you can do every day. Civility, respect, kindness, character. You're too good for schadenfreude, you're too good for gossip and snark, you're too good for intolerance. ..."...

Generally, in my position as publisher of The Daily Reporter, I withhold any comment on local editorial pieces we publish on our opinion pages. My staff has their photos and names attached to their opinions pieces. The thoughts included are their own. The opinions are their own...

In a world where speed and convenience is prized, where we expect to be entertained day and night by devices feeding us a constant diet of “stuff,” there is something to be said for taking a step back and taking a break from the information superhighway for a spell in the slow lane...

“Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: To know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom ... is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go.” —Anthony Bourdain The death of designer Kate Spade, by suicide early last week, made me sad. The shocking news on Friday morning that chef, writer, television star and all-around raconteur Anthony Bourdain had also succumbed to the same manner of death, shook me even more strongly...

Spencer's annual citywide welcome to the summer season — Flagfest — is set to gear up this weekend. Started 36 years ago by a group of city boosters, Flagfest has settled into "tradition" territory quite nicely. It's changed and morphed over the years — with locations of events moving around the city, and events coming and going. But the core of the festival has stayed, blessedly, the same...

The Memorial Day holiday just passed marks the beginning of summer vacation season. Immortalized in the classic comedy, "Vacation," road trips are one of the most popular ways to get away from the 8 to 5 routine, connect as a family, seek adventure, and play the license plate game...

We joked, as winter overstayed her welcome, that we were likely to skip right over spring and head straight into summer. Well, with the Memorial Day weekend around the corner, that seems to have happened. Wasn’t it only last week the ice went out in the Iowa Great Lakes? Come Saturday, those blue waters will be filled with colorful boats. Grand Avenue in Spencer will be in its summer holiday gridlock as trucks hauling boats, and campers packed to the gills will race like geese, north to summer...

Dear graduates: While it's been a long (long, long) time since I was in your shoes, ready to graduate from high school, my memories of that time remain. I was excited and a little anxious; impatient for the next chapter to begin and strangely nostalgic for the life I was preparing to bid adieu. I was, in short, a bundle of mixed emotions — all laying very near the surface of my skin...

I’m a big fan of the "behind the scenes" heroes. The folks who just see a need and fill it. No fanfare. No need for applause. No lust for the spotlight. Just shoulder to the wheel and head down, they gets things done. So, it makes sense that I'm a big fan of our newest Citizen of the Year...

In these days of tribalism, with groups of Americans divided among lines of race, politics, gender, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my own beliefs. Why do I feel the way I do about issues? How do these beliefs color my choices — of literature, media, friends?...

Ah, spring. Welcome back, we’ve missed you! The warming sun has done its best to erase the snow that blanketed our ground just a week ago, and the plump robins are tweeting away from the trees outside my home. The squirrels have been dragging out the corn cobs they nibbled on through the cold days, depositing them around my driveway, stripped bare reminders of cold days past...

As a young bookworm, I loved to immerse myself in the pioneer life of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her “Little House” series of books chronicled her growing up years in Minnesota and the Dakota Territories. I thought about those books on Saturday as I wandered, lost, around my chilly, dark house, as the winds howled and the snow flew ... and my power remained off...

I have a sneaking suspicion I wasn't the only person lounging on my couch this weekend, as the snow swirled outside the windows, watching the Masters golf tournament. I am also fairly certain that there were a good number of those folks who were watching the tournament mainly for the shots of green grass, flowering shrubs and folks in short-sleeve shirts. The bucolic chirps of the birds just added to the image of warmth and spring...

Back in the Cold War days of my youth, we often heard about the Soviet party line being touted in Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The paper served as the mouthpiece of the Soviet leaders, and facts took a back seat to the message the party wanted to convey...

On Saturday, as the wind howled and I was homebound, I spent a lot of time transfixed to television coverage of the March For Our Lives, organized by student survivors of the mass shooting at Margory Stoneman Douglas High School. The National Mall, a spot perfectly designed for gatherings of citizens with something to say, was a sea of humanity — young and old; black and white; gay and straight. ...

It's in my basement, under my bed and in and on my mind these days. I've reached an age where I spend more time trying to clear things out than with accumulating more stuff. Our parents are passing away, or moving into smaller homes. With that comes the clearing and sorting of their belongings. ...

When a friend of mine, also in the news business, said the Steven Spielburg film, "The Post" had made her cry, I was incredulous. How could a movie recounting the battle between the Washington Post and President Richard Nixon over the publication of the Pentagon Papers be classified as a tear-jerker?...

It's become an early spring tradition, as certain as the sun. March rolls around and I write my column imploring people to get on the stick and nominate worthy Spencer residents for the Citizen of the Year award. Hey, I understand procrastination — after all, I'm a journalist and we love deadlines. ...

William the Conqueror, after the Norman Conquest, divided the land under his control into manors. His Norman barons who had been loyal to him were rewarded with these lands. For generation after generation, the land, along with a title, was handed down to the eldest son of each family...

Another day, another massacre at the hands of a maniac armed with a heart full of darkness and a high-powered, semi-automatic firearm. Columbine. Aurora. Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. Las Vegas. Parkland. The list seems to roll on and on. Innocent lives taken. A nation shaken by the evil. Families distraught...

No doubt you regular readers of The Daily Reporter picked up your Monday edition and had to do a double-take to ensure you had the right publication. The Daily Reporter sported a brand new, bright and bold front page look. Inside too, subtler changes, in headlines, page headers and typeface. It is a new face to a tried and true product...

I recall speaking with an honoree at our Citizen of the Year reception a few years ago. I asked him if he had enjoyed the event. His reply made me laugh, but it also seemed appropriate. "It was great. Everyone said such nice things. It was like being at my own funeral, without actually being dead."...

One by one they approached the podium. One by one, they stood tall, proud and angry. One by one, a parade of tiny, impossibly tiny, young women came forward and stood down a monster. One by one, these women, long-honored for their athletic skill, showed they are so much more than back-handsprings and vaults...

I remember pretty clearly the early days of the internet. This new technology would revolutionize the way humans lived. We would be able to share knowledge and communicate easily with those a world away. The internet would bring people together. The internet seemed like a game-changer in the human experience...