LETTER

To the Editor: Do you judge your child’s education on a single test? We’d guess you don’t.

Stray Thoughts: Frozen

The wind didn’t blow today. I think it wanted to but was advised against it. At thirty below without wind such a display would only be for bragging purposes. The sun shone bright, but without a place to land, it warmed absolutely nothing.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

A few years ago our little corner of the world had the distinction of being the coldest place on earth for a short time. I’m very thankful I was living here then, because it has helped me put all other occurrences of cold weather in perspective.

Benefits of Pasteurization

My father-in-law is a farmer. He grew up on the family farm in southwest Minnesota, where his dad grew up, too. Blessed by fertile soil, the farm has provided for the family for several generations.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

On New Year’s Eve day, the fog was so thick we could barely see the red barn behind the house. New Year’s Day dawned bright and warm, but by the next day the fog was back. And the next day, and the next.

One degree of separation

Knife-edged snow falls wistfully down from a sky of deep grey emotion from the base of the clouds to the rain-covered ground like a completely silent explosion. The grass in the fields takes on a sheen of its own a billion ice spears reach up to the sky.

Now that the giving is over (One percent)

The holidays have come and gone, and so then is the giving of gifts to family and to friends and those with whom we’re living. But there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, that says it has to end except, perhaps, your wallet if it’s only money you have to spend.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

When I tell folks our new house in town came with a bunny, they assume I mean a wild rabbit living in the yard. In fact, I mean a domesticated pet bunny who lives in a hutch in the tiny red barn behind the house.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

In September 1897, a letter arrived in the newsroom of The Sun, one of New York's great newspapers of the time. The letter came from a child whose 'little friends' had been questioning something quite close to her heart: Santa Claus. Virginia O'Hanlon's letter came across the desk of Francis P.

The Reason for the Season

“How can any reasonably intelligent person believe in that?” This was the man’s question as he approached a couple of us as we were discussing the festivities surrounding Christmas. He said, “I mean, do you really believe any of that is true at all?