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Forty-five years on

Columns

My wife and I recently marked our 45th wedding anniversary. This is a mathematical impossibility as I feel as though I’m not a day over 40. But maybe that’s just my intractable immaturity talking. My wife was 22 and I was 23 when we were wed. Knowing what we know now, we know that we were too young to know what we didn’t know. Plus, it means that we’ve been married for two-thirds of our lives. Will that fraction keep creeping upward until it reaches 100%? Time will tell. I can’t help but feel that my wife and I are hopelessly out of style. Why? I’m ashamed to admit ...

Thumbs up/down

Editorials

Thumbs Up The Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Knights take basketball state title The Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Knights girls basketball team won the Class A State Girls Basketball Tournament for the first time in program history last weekend, capping off a 32-1 season. The Knights are just the second girls area team from the Tomahawk to win a state title in history, the first being Wabasso in 2004 in the Tomahawk Conference. The Knights are now a Tomahawk Division team playing in the Tomahawk-Valley Conference. St. Marys’ win was also head girls basketball coach Bruce Woitas’ fifth state ...

I like words

Columns

When you write an occasional column, you think about words. I like words. I try to find the right ones whether I’m talking or writing. Sometimes I succeed. In my last piece, there was this line. “It is fast time our nation binds our wounds and heals.” The day it came out, a friend said there was a misprint. She thought it was supposed to be “It is past time.” No, I meant “It is fast time.” The nearest equivalent to saying, “It is fast time for something to happen” is “It is high time for that to happen.” In other words, it is due. That is slightly different than ...

Humble pennies had value that’s now a distant memory

Columns

If we had a conversation about things that get no respect, one of the first items that should be mentioned is the good old copper penny. Federal officials recently announced that they’ll no longer issue new pennies. We’ll just use the ones that are already in circulation. Eventually they’re likely to fade away. We’ve reached a point where the penny is almost worthless. Someone who works for minimum wage makes hundreds of pennies every hour. Many people don’t even pick up a penny if they see one on a sidewalk or in a parking lot. It’s almost insult to tell someone the ...

Minnesota’s election process basics

Columns

What follows is a brief outline of the election and voting rules used in Minnesota. For more specific information, go to the Secretary of State’s website www.sos.mn.gov/elections-voting/Each state establishes its own election and voting rules. Here are some ways in which Minnesota differs from some other states. Minnesota only uses paper ballots which are counted by vote tabulating machines. Those machines are tested for accuracy before and again after each election. In Minnesota there are no “Registered Republicans” or “Registered Democrats.” Citizens who ...

Jan. 6 actions nothing to brag about

Editorials

One of the more interesting developments emerging from this year’s election race for Minnesota Senate District 15 involves the Jan. 6, 2021, rampage at the U.S. Capitol. Brian Mock is a Republican candidate in the race to replace Gary Dahms who announced earlier this year that he will retire at the end of his term. During the Lyon County Republican convention earlier this month, Mock briefly spoke about his background — being charged, incarcerated and later pardoned by President Donald Trump for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. In early February, ...