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The feasting season

The collective groan arising from bathroom scales across this great land of ours signals that it’s the feasting season once again. This season kicks off with Thanksgiving, although one could argue that it actually begins with Halloween. Or Labor Day, or the Fourth of July, or Memorial Day, or Easter, or Valentine’s Day, or the Superbowl, or New Year’s Eve. Let’s face it, we’ll latch onto any excuse to feast, including Arbor Day. My family’s traditional cold weather feasts traditionally involved turkey. I have dozens of cousins, so several animals were needed to feed ...

Entering a new world with robots and AI

My heart sank a little when I heard. We knew it was coming. Baseball will be little less human and a little more mechanical. I’m talking about Major League Baseball adopting the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System for next season. Teams will be allowed to challenge a ball-strike call two times in a game. The result will be shown on the video scoreboard, and the game will move on with the correct call. The ABS Challenge System has been used in the Minor Leagues for a couple of years. “Hawkeye” technology uses radar to create a perfect strike zone for each hitter. ...

Chicago brings back romance

My wife and I couldn’t go to Chicago, so Chicago came to us. I’m talking about the iconic rock band, not the city. In this case “iconic” can be interpreted as “old enough to involve carbon dating.” The band Chicago Transit Authority was formed in 1967, the year I turned 10. That means I was 13 their romantic tune “Colour My World” hit the airwaves. Thirteen is a formative time in any young man’s life, but especially so for a gawky, gangly pimple-faced prairie dairy farm kid who’s struggling to figure out what, exactly, that romance stuff is. Chicago Transit ...

Good bye, dear Denny

Many hearts are bleeding today. Denny Warta — who died just shy of his 98th birthday—had many friends. His circle included the young and the old, the famous and the unknown, the rich and the struggling. A Nobel prize winner and a nomad, a Native American chief and a new immigrant, a Washington, D.C., insider and an iconoclast. They all called him “friend.” Denny was the intersection for people who would have otherwise never met—or given each other a second thought if they had. The ultimate bridge builder, a networker extraordinaire, Denny connected people across ...

O’ lutefisk!

Food can transport you into the past or push you forward. But there are some situations where food can cause familial friction. At least that’s how it’s been for forty-some years with my wife and me. The foodstuff that’s been at the center of our domestic distress is lutefisk. My Nordic ancestors must have looked at some fresh cod and thought, “I bet I can make that better.” They began by drying the fish on open racks where it was exposed to the effects of sea breezes and seabirds. The desiccated fish looked like wooden shingles. The cod could be rehydrated by ...

First snow of the year creates anticipation for all ages

Early November is a time to look ahead; to the holidays, the upcoming new year and the first snowfall of the season. People were talking about the first snowfall a week ago. It looked like the Marshall area might get at least one or two inches. It wasn’t supposed to be a snowstorm, just a bit of snow as a start to winter. On Saturday morning the prediction appeared to be coming true. I woke up to snow flurries. The first thing I did after getting dressed was to have some coffee. I enjoyed just having coffee and watching the flurries. The snow accumulated on cars but not on the ...