Stirrings from the empty nest

This week, ESPN Sportscenter has been presenting a series of Make A Wish stories, in which sick or -- in the worst cases -- dying kids are g...

We have been talking in the newsroom the last few days about the way we cover stories. I can't go into the particulars, but part of it i...

It's been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think the best picture is the one that leaves you speechless. This is...

It is a gorgeous morning in Minnesota, its beauty enhanced by the fact that most of its populace is still asleep. The cardinal is singing, t...

The word "sucks" was invented to honor the Cleveland Indians teams in the 1970s. That's a little-known fact you're free to...

Tonight's Indians game didn't have the Patrick luck. Pity. But I've learned over the years when you pitch poorly and make three ...

Back when I was a young buck without a pickup truck -- that would be around 1971 -- my favorite song was " American Pie " by Don M...

I've heard it said that there's nothing quite so thrilling as to be traveling in a foreign country and hear the Star Spangled Banner...

(This is RV-airplane related. To see my new blog on RV subjects. Go to " Letters from Flyover Country ") I'm a big fan in the...

I was going to sit down this morning and write a hysterical piece about the stuff kids bring home for Mother's Day. But I ran out of tim...

(This originally was published on Gather.com last week) If you read enough of my essays, not just here but in other places where I ply my tr...

This weekend I started the gardening and lawn care work. Nothing serious. Just raking. I'm starting to reach the stage where I wonder wh...

Like just about every other major issue facing America, I am -- apparently -- the only resident of the U.S. turf that is conflicted on the i...

If I were ever to do the whole fatherhood thing again -- and for the record, I'm not -- I would learn to relax; possibly even exhale on ...

I was supposed to be on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" on Sunday morning. I didn't tell too many people because thes...

This was written for a column on the RV Builder's Hotline A week ago, I was cutting the aluminum stock that forms the rear spar double...

One of the things I like to do in my real job is to figure out how people consume information vs. how we -- the media -- give it to people....

As I continue to get use to life in an empty nest, I'm trying to figure out something. Does everything seem perfect with my kids becau...

I ordered my RV-7A slow-build kit in the spring of 2001. Like many airplane builders, I wasn't sure I had the skills to build an airplan...

I'm late getting to this but when MPR did its election-night party in November, a talented gentleman named Bo Hakala produced three segm...