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Lifestyle Columns

As this is the weekend before Thanksgiving, it behooves me to ponder upon and yes write about that superb principle that boosts your mental health – gratitude. In past years when touching on the subject, I’ve written about gratitude in times of trial and appreciating the bitter with the sweet. This year, I have been reflecting on the value of experience. I touched on this subject several years ago when discussing the importance of tangible connections in a digital world. Today, however, I would like to focus on being grateful for the experiences we’ve been given. Hindsight is a ...

Cranberry glass: A Thanksgiving Victorian staple

Lifestyle Columns

Cranberries are a familiar sight at the Thanksgiving table. Cranberry glass? Maybe not so much. Pinkish-red glass with a yellowish tone was part of the Victorian era vogue for colored glass. Cranberry glass was made into decorative art glass pieces, like this centerpiece with multiple flared flutes and applied leafy trim, which sold for $250 at World Auction Gallery. This glass color was first made about the time of the Civil War; coincidentally, about the time Thanksgiving became the annual holiday we observe today. Cranberries, a native plant of North America, were a well-established ...

The Retelling of a Christmas Classic

Communities

Starting on Friday, Dec. 5, State Street Theater will be putting on a production of “Miracle on 34th Street,” a retelling of the classic 1947 Christmas movie. “This is a great show for the family to come together,” director Justine Hanan said. “There are people of all ages in this ...

Majolica renowned for brilliant colors, shape

Lifestyle Columns

Majolica, the famous tin-glazed earthenware pottery, gets its name from Majorca (Mallorca), the Mediterranean island off the east coast of Spain. Tin-glazed pottery was brought to Spain by the Moors and spread to Italy as early as the 14th century, then to the rest of Europe. By the 1800s, majolica was a phenomenon in Europe. Potteries throughout the continent were making pieces with brilliantly colored glazes, often with realistically molded flowers, plants, and animals. Collectors seek these 19th-century ceramics by celebrated makers like Wedgwood and Minton in England or ...

2025 National Book Awards finalist

Lifestyle Columns

According to the National Book Award website “The National Book Awards were established in 1950 to celebrate the best American writing in fiction, nonfiction and poetry.” Since 1989, the Awards have been overseen by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to celebrate the best literature published in the United States, expand its audience, and ensure books have a prominent place in our culture. The winners will be revealed November 19. Here are some of the finalists: Fiction category “The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)” ...

Unranked, unexpected, undeniable

Lifestyle Feature

SLEEPY EYE — Usually if a high school football team heads to consecutive state tournaments, a foundation of expectations is laid. Two years in a row, time to make it three. That outlook and those expectations didn’t follow the 2000 Sleepy Eye Indians football team, however. After ...