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Sharing tailgating tales

Time was when tailgating was universally frowned upon. Tailgating meant that an obnoxious motorist was following your vehicle so closely that he could read the care instructions on the tag of your T-shirt. Tailgating has since taken on another meaning. This term is now used to describe the pregame eating, drinking, and socializing that takes place in the parking lot of a sports venue. If your team is on a winning streak, it’s a pre-celebration celebration; if your team has been losing lately, you can commiserate with other fans and mutter, “Wait until next year!” I’ve lived ...

Stacking up rocks or knocking them down

I walk or jog on Sleepy Eye’s Lake Trail. The trail has been a blessing. I used to run on the shoulder of Highway 14. That has become insanely busy. I was afraid of getting sucked into the wake of a semi-truck and ending up in Brookings. I mostly go on the quieter west side of the trail. In part of that, there is a field on one side and woods on the other. In the trees, there is a rock pile. There are rock piles all across the Corn Belt. Some of these are as old as when the first settlers came and began the work of turning prairie into cropland. The one we have in our grove is for ...

How does food attract us?

What is it about food that makes us want to eat it? What circuits are triggered when we look at the foods we like? How do the sensory properties of food influence our choices of what to eat? There are no simple answers for this complex function. What follows is just a piece of the mechanism. There are different models, each with its own perspective. The different models are due to the complexity of the food attraction mechanism. A traditional way to explain food attraction is called the Hedonic model. The suggestion here is that food is associated with pleasure. Anything that ...

Grazing in Kansas

Eating is a central part of the human experience much in the same way that swimming is a central part of being a fish. My wife and I recently visited relatives in the Kansas City area, so we decided to swim in the waters of the region’s food scene. But first we had to take care of some important business by which I mean “go shopping.” Some mysterious law of physics forces our car to steer itself into the parking lot of any shopping center that we might happen to drive past. And since we’re in the parking lot, says my wife, we may as well go inside and see what the store has to ...

For our family, Annunciation shooting was a tragic reality

“It’s unimaginable.” “I can’t even begin to understand what you must be feeling.” “I cannot imagine what you’ve gone through.” These are a few of the well-meaning sentiments we’ve heard since our world was shattered and our worst fears came true on Aug. 27. While well-meaning, they’re not quite right. You can imagine it. You can viscerally feel it. You just don’t want to. So today we’re sharing your story from that day. You were on a work call when your phone started repeatedly buzzing around 8:30 a.m. While you tried to focus on the call, ...

September shines a light: Awareness, recovery and hope

September is a month of reflection, awareness, and hope. It marks both National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month and National Recovery Month—two observances that shine a light on struggles often carried in silence. Together, they remind us that mental health and recovery are deeply connected, that every life matters, and that healing is possible. This month calls us to break the stigma, extend support, and honor the courage of those who continue their journey toward wellness and recovery. The statistics are sobering. Suicide imposes profound and far-reaching consequences, ...