What a perfect event for Good News Sunday:  As of 10:30 CDT, Katie Spotz's rowboat is visible from the harbor of Georgetown, Guyana.  Any moment, Katie will row ashore, the first woman ever to cross the Atlantic Ocean alone in a rowboat. 

Those who have followed my blog know the… Read full post »

Son, there ain’t no landmarks on these wide and rolling plains.  

There ain’t no trees or mountains, so each day it looks the same, 

But you’ll never lose direction, and you’ll know just where you are,

If you always point your wagon tongue toward the old North… Read full post »

Late last year, I wrote about Katie Spotz, a 22 year old who is attempting to become the first woman to row a non-motorized boat across the Atlantic Ocean by herself.  She is undertaking this challenge not for personal glory – something to which she is entitled following an accomplishment… Read full post »

Dear Procopius,

I know, that’s not your real name, and at 17 you don’t even know who the historical Procopius was.  Still, it is an appropriate alias for a teenage boy with an intense interest in history.  It is that interest, in fact, which partly motivates this letter.  I… Read full post »

For those who live in the United States, February is Black History Month.  It is a month set aside to remember a people whose contributions to society have been ignored for far too long.  It is a month set aside to remember that American history is more than the stories of… Read full post »

Now that Scott Brown has been sworn in as Massachusetts’s junior senator, the Democrats have lost their filibuster-proof majority.  Never mind the fact that it is nearly impossible to get 60 members of the Democratic caucus to agree on anything of value.  Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lin… Read full post »

There is a battle raging in the West Virginia mountains.  It is a battle whose ugly scars may be permanent.  It is a battle being fought on hallowed ground, where 88 years ago more than a hundred desperate and angry men gave their lives for the chance to live with dignity. … Read full post »

First, thank you to everyone who stopped by to play the quiz.  I always enjoy putting them together, so I hope others get some enjoyment from reading them!

 So, without further ado, here are the answers:

1.  “Bruce Herrod is now presumed dead, the twelfth casualty of the s… Read full post »

Over the past few months I have posted two entries of a game called “Name That Book”.  The rules were quite simple:  I quoted the first sentence of a book, and you, the player, were to name the book being quoted.

This time I’m changing the game a bit.  I… Read full post »

The images from Haiti keep coming, and they keep getting worse.  At first, before the press arrived with its digital cameras and satellite communications equipment, we could only imagine the developing horror.  Now, we see it live and in high definition on our big screen TV’s.  V… Read full post »

I woke up this morning just as the fog was beginning to lift.  In the sub-freezing dawn, its moisture left a delicate coating of hoarfrost over everything.

 Looking down the street from my front yard.

With my house in the background, our neighbor's map… Read full post »

Here we are, near the end of another football season.  College partisans, at least those who reside outside of Alabama, are licking their wounds and thinking about next year.  Football fans who prefer the NFL are nervously eyeing next month’s big prize in Miami.  There will be a… Read full post »

Travel has always been one of my greatest pleasures in life.  I’ve written several blog posts about the more interesting places I’ve traveled.  Not all of my favorite trips have been exotic, however.  I’ve garnered a great deal of enjoyment from… Read full post »

Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935.  If he were still living, he would be 75 years old today.

I often experience a peculiar disconnect on the milestone birthdays of iconic personalities who died too young.  I can’t help but wonder how age would have impacted their influence on… Read full post »

From a very early age, I have had an interest in maps.  As a child, I used to randomly select a volume of my family's World Book Encyclopedia, and browse through the pages until I came across an interesting map.  I liked virtually every map I found, the ones that showed… Read full post »

From the Washington Post:

The Transportation Security Administration notified airline carriers Sunday of the changes for all flights entering the United States -- with an emphasis on a "full body pat-down and physical inspection of property" for all people who are citizens of or are flying through o… Read full post »

Here we go again:  The college football bowl games.  34 of them, not counting various all-star games like the East-West Bowl, Blue-Gray Bowl, and Yin-Yang Bowl. 

The one I am especially looking forward to this year is the Insight Bowl, taking place this Thursday night.&… Read full post »

Well, Christmas is over.  Too many gifts, to be sure.  Too much money spent, undoubtedly.  All in all, however, that is OK.  The gifts are symbolic of the love we share, and they mimic not only the gifts of the Magi, but the ultimate gift of the Christian savior whose birth… Read full post »

When I was a little younger, back before my wife and I adopted our son, I made a point of doing a solo camping trip every year.  These trips were not car camping, where you pitch a tent next to your vehicle in a nearby state or county park.  My camping… Read full post »

I can hear it now:  "Winter in Northern Illinois?  You're kidding, right?"

Perhaps I should explain.  I grew up in Texas, about an hour's drive south of the Red River.  Winter in that part of the country lasts about two months, and is characterized by two or three sub-freezing col… Read full post »

Every year after Thanksgiving, I take a drive across the state line to Monroe, Wisconsin, where I go to one of my favorite taverns to watch a few of the last college football games of the regular season.  It's a tradition I have followed for 20 years or more.  Sometimes I'm… Read full post »

With President Obama's decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan, I thought it a good idea to look at another war that took place a long time ago.  Perhaps there are lessons to be learned.

One summer day 995 years ago, the Byzantine forces of Emperor Basil II surrounded and destroyed… Read full post »

She was born 84 years ago, in a remote West Virginia town straddling the narrow valley of Guyandotte River.  The poverty that existed then in that part of Appalachia is almost incomprehensible today, when even in the midst of a terrible recession we think nothing of driving a car to the… Read full post »