commentaries

The latest edition of the video game Call of Duty came out earlier this month. There’s a part of me that feels like I shouldn’t know that, considering I’m old enough now to have played Super Mario Bros. when it first came out on the original Nintendo Entertainment System in...

Mark your calendar. Small Business Saturday is almost here. The retail holiday, held on the fourth Saturday of November, is a day set aside to shop at small stores. Not online, not infringing on a major holiday, not in the middle of the night, but in person during normal business...

The numbers are daunting. 140,000. That’s the number of people in Minnesota who already have been notified their health coverage will be canceled as a result of the President’s health care law, referred to by most including the President as “ObamaCare.” For many Minnesotans...

Many of you may not be privy to what has been going on in this community in the past couple of months and more specifically, the past couple of weeks. If that’s true, it’s a shame. To be out of the loop with this would be unfortunate. It happens all around the country, but when...

Last Saturday was the Minnesota deer hunting opener and like usual, my dad and I were out at the break of dawn waiting for a deer. I have been hunting for six years now, and for the first five, I never saw a single deer. It was discouraging coming back every year knowing I would...

I’m not sure how many of you know or remember this, but over 20 years ago, I wrote a regular column, much like this one, for another local newspaper. Same material, different newspaper. Of course, 20-plus years ago, my perspective was vastly different and, more obviously, it was...

With the 2014 Winter Olympics — official motto: Everybody’s Second-Favorite Olympics — just a few months away, it seems like everybody’s getting into the spirit. The Olympic torch is making its way around the world and even into space on its way to Sochi, Russia. Athletes...

My friend and her husband have done so much for us since my husband’s back surgery that I want to show them a small token of our appreciation and treat them to dinner. When she and I spoke on the phone earlier this week, I told her to go to a St. Paul restaurant’s website...

We are just wrapping up a unit in both my courses where students had to write a paper. In my Honors Nine class, the students wrote their first of many literary analysis essays. In my English 10 course, the students are finishing up their reflective essays. I’ll be spending the final...

It’s been a rough run of things for men’s sports teams in Minnesota. The Lynx have won two WNBA titles in three years, and the Gopher women’s hockey team might not lose again until global warming forces everyone to switch to roller hockey. But the XY set? Things are not nearly...

Last week, the Minneapolis StarTribune had a story about St. Paul’s Pearson Candy Company. Hoping to get a share of the Halloween market, the establishment now makes individual-sized bars. Mini Salted Nut Rolls. Num, num. Reading the article took me back to the 1980s when I was...

It seems like every TV show portrays high school band to give the students an automatic nerd reputation. Maybe it steers some people away, but it certainly never steered me away. After eight years, yes, I am still a member of the Rosemount High School band program. Do I regret it?...

We’re coming up on a seven-year anniversary in Rosemount marking a process that has taken a long time — and that will shape our community for decades to come. It was in December 2006 that the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents authorized creation of a master plan...

Once upon a time, there was a fly on the wall. The wall happened to be inside a school. It was a comfortable life for the fly. He had free reign over a large area each and every day. If he didn’t stay in one place for any length of time, this would be home for some time to...

Some people worry the United States has lost its ability innovate. That we no longer chase scientific advances or other breakthroughs the way we once did. That we are being left behind by more ambitious nations. Generally, that we’d rather kick back with some corn chips and...