Category Column

Raphael’s 2016

Doughnuts! When the grandson comes to town, we go to Raphael’s Bakery and Café. On one trip, an attempt at rearranging a mangled doughnut with “sprinkles” met with the “death stare,” a shaming, pointing index finger and, “No Grandpa.” Ray…

Icebreakers

The icebreaker is doomed. Global warming has arrived. No more are heroic efforts needed to free thousand foot freighters or stranded National Geographic tourist boats in Antarctica imperiled by stalking bergs and crushing ice floes. The days of ice augers…

Day Sounds

I have never lived in the country. I grew up in Gilman, Minnesota, a small quiet town about twenty miles northeast of St. Cloud with two-hundred living souls and a lot more departed in the graveyard behind the church. But…