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A purse emergency

My wife recently had a purse emergency. We were staying at a hotel in a distant city when she noticed that her current purse was, as she put it, “shot.” I examined the thing and told her that that it seemed perfectly functional to me. “Men!” she exclaimed. “They don’t notice anything unless it involves a souped-up V-8 engine or a curvy figure!” After all these years of marriage, I’ve learned that it’s best not to argue with my wife. Especially when she’s right. She pointed at a particular spot on her purse. “See?” she asked, “It’s falling apart! My ...

Dear Annie: I had been in a wonderful relationship with an incredible woman for two years and 10 months. She recently broke up with me because I had not discussed my personal finances with her. I am a private person and have a difficult time opening up. My reasoning behind not discussing my finances was that we are not living together. But now that she has broken up with me, I miss her very much. I know that she is the one for me. We are 60 and 59 years old. Please help. I really want this woman forever. -- Regrets Dear Regrets: The best thing you can do is tell her exactly what ...

Switch from bars to liquid soap

Dear Heloise: I just read one more hint about what to do with leftover slivers of hand soap. I have a suggestion: Just throw it away, since it’s worth maybe a dime? Get liquid hand soap instead. It is way more sanitary than those bars of soap that either harden and crack in the soap dish or get slimy and messy. Liquid hand soap is easy to use, and you can use up the entire bottle. It really doesn’t cost more than the bars when you consider the convenience and sanitation factors. Also, I thought I would mention that using your bath towel more than once will not give you ringworm. ...

Supporting meat processors

Can ambitious rural Minnesotans bring in new people to revitalize the tradition of local butcher shops and meat processing lockers in Minnesota? Judging from the experience new local meat processors shared at a Minnesota Farmers Union Bottleneck Project workshop, the answer is a qualified yes. A 2022 report, Meat Processing Bottlenecks, found that 33 percent of existing meat processors and meat lockers are without a fully developed succession plan. For the small to mid-sized livestock farmers who rely on these businesses, losing one-third of the state’s butcher shops and meat ...

In Minnesota, statistical gloom amid the hope of a progressive-led boom

There is a lot of disagreement right now on the state of our state. A few weeks ago, in his State of the State address, Gov. Tim Walz depicted Minnesota as a progressive utopia that should be an example for all of America. On the other hand, some on the right describe the state as something approaching a barren hellscape (a description some of us have reserved for Wisconsin (in jest of course)). The truth is that, although Minnesota is not a scene out of Dante’s “Inferno,” the North Star State is in serious decline. From the economy, to education, to crime, to folks relocating ...

A common enemy: does the United States need one?

We had an interesting discussion one day this spring in my Southwest Minnesota State University Gold College class on the U.S. Constitution. One of the class members made a comment that what the United States maybe needs is a common enemy, an enemy to everyone. It would be the same as Germany and Japan in World War II or the Soviet Union in the Cold War. It lead to an interesting dialogue. Instructor Steve Frederickson and class members made comments that tied in directly with the title of the class. We saw that there were two different questions that could be asked. One is whether ...