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‘The Boys in the Boat’ gives the Hollywood treatment to rowing during an Olympic year

Lifestyle Feature

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The journey from nowhere to an Olympic gold medal is a tale as old as time. Just as well-worn, but far less explored, are the stories about great athletes who realize they can’t make it anywhere unless they have a way to bankroll the trip. “The Boys in the Boat” is Hollywood and director George Clooney’s way of stringing those plot lines together. That it opens Christmas Day, a mere seven months before the start of the Paris Olympics, is good fortune for the people who oversee rowing in the U.S. and know the general public mostly either a) ...

Arts programs at the library

Lifestyle Columns

The connection between libraries and art is not a new one. Ancient libraries in China, Egypt, Sumeria, and Greece all included visual information in their collections. For much of history, literacy rates among the general populace were extremely low. How did people get their information? Pictures! Sculptures! Plays! Speeches! Modern libraries are proud to carry on this tradition of offering a variety of ways to access information besides the written word. I know I’ve said it before, but it is a common refrain for someone to exclaim they didn’t know the library offered all things we ...

‘I can see it’

Lifestyle Feature

NEW ULM — For folks needing help with their ailing vision, Low Vision Project has looked to provide solutions for 22 years. The Low Vision Project is a joint venture between area Lions Clubs, the New Ulm Public Library, Minnesota State Services for the Blind, and the River Bend Chapter of ...

Movie review: Auto pioneer Enzo Ferrari gets a solid biopic but it doesn’t make the heart race

Lifestyle Columns

Napoleon Bonaparte. Leonard Bernstein. Willy Wonka. Aquaman — there are a ton of Guy Movie Heroes out there as 2023 ends. And yet up zooms another — in “Ferrari.” Director Michael Mann has put his stylish spotlight on yet one more stoic, brilliant and broken uber-masculine dudes, Enzo Ferrari. The movie is set during a turbulent few months in 1957 when the Italian automaker’s private and professional lives threatened to careen out of control. It’s a solid vehicle but it will leave you, well, unmoved. “Ferrari” has excellent work by Adam Driver as Ferrari, aged up ...

Santa Claus is coming to town in many forms

Lifestyle Columns

Santa Claus comes in many forms. While he is ultimately inspired by the historical St. Nicholas of Myra (today Demre, Turkey), a fourth-century Greek bishop, he is influenced by British, German, Dutch and Scandinavian folkloric figures. According to today’s traditions, he lives at the North Pole. So it might seem odd that the country store Santa figure pictured here, which sold for $441 at Garths’ Auctioneers & Appraisers, holds an American flag. But the Santa Claus we know in the United States was developed here. European immigrants brought their Christmas traditions with them. ...

Former Fox host Tucker Carlson is launching his own streaming network with interviews and commentary

Lifestyle Columns

NEW YORK — Ousted Fox News host Tucker Carlson is starting his own streaming service, promising to “tell the unadorned truth” to fans for $72 a year, he announced Monday. Commentary, interviews, Carlson-flavored news reports and documentaries, even an advice show will be offered on the Tucker Carlson Network, which is essentially staffed by the people who used to work for him at Fox. The new venture comes more than seven months after Fox abruptly fired Carlson, its most popular host. Fox never publicly explained the firing, and Carlson said on Monday that “it really is one of ...