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Displaying articles 1 - 100 of 598 Next Last
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JUNE 2010
Posted: Thursday, July 1, 2010 9:39 pm |
KFP for sale
I WISH I could sit with each of you and tell you personally why it’s time for me to move on from editing and publishing this great newspaper. It’s this particular sense of closeness with my readers that I have valued so much over the past three-plus years of putting out the Kickapoo Free Press. Like no other writing job I’ve had, I get a sense of making a difference in our communities, of having an exchange, of being a part of your life.
Anne O'Connor - Posted: Thursday, July 1, 2010 6:03 pm |
Sarah Palin: Take note
SHE WAS PROBABLY taller than she appeared, this old woman in the baby blue sweater set and careful white curls. But she'd slipped into a slouch in her wheelchair. Behind her stood two much younger women, daughters perhaps, or granddaughters.
Posted: Thursday, July 1, 2010 6:03 pm |
What the Nanda?!?
LONG BEFORE MOVIES, TiVo and YouTube, Americans got their performance kicks (and culture) from traveling troupes of artists: circus, chautauqua, and vaudeville. The arrival of out-of-town artists—toting fanciful costumes, tricks, and flavors—sparked community-wide curiosity and glee. Yet now, in an age of media inundation, in which everything and nothing is new, do we still perk up when a show comes to town?
Shawn Lavoie - Posted: Thursday, July 1, 2010 6:03 pm |
Driving off into the sunset
STALWART VIROQUA SCHOOL bus driver Duane Hoff didn’t take retirement years ago when he could have. He even asked to continue beyond the end of school in June, the usual date for retirees, so he could finish with one of his favorite runs: the VAS fishing class.
Jerry McIntire - Posted: Thursday, July 1, 2010 6:03 pm |
If you plant it, they will come
Local Catholic parish provides fertile ground for Viroqua community garden
IT’S ONE OF those hot days in late May which could be a game changer for the spring and a forecast of things to come for the summer.
Joseph O'Brien - Posted: Thursday, July 1, 2010 6:03 pm |
Breaking the mold
ALONG WITH WARMER weather often comes an increase in complaints about mold or musty odors. There are three elements needed for mold growth. The first is mold spores, and they’re easy to come by—there’s mold everywhere; it is a natural part of the environment.
David Romary - Posted: Thursday, July 1, 2010 6:03 pm |
Summer time is together time
WITH SUMMER COME the hot, lazy days, cool night thunderstorms, and open schedules that we who suffer each year through a real winter often dream about in the middle of January. We can all remember as children how we counted down the days until the end of school, shrieked with joy as the bell rang on the last day, and spent the next 90 days dreading the beginning of the next school year. As an adult it is my attitude, not my schedule (I am a high school teacher), that has changed.
Matthew Voz - Posted: Thursday, July 1, 2010 6:03 pm |
The big picture
THIS IS THE time of year when the baby birds are out and about. The growth and changes happen fast. One day they are gaping, pleading, insistent little things, completely dependent, and a few months later they are ready to migrate with the adults. In between, they have a lot to learn and accomplish including growing to full size, growing in one set of feathers and then fully changing them for a second set, learning how to fly, sing, feed, all those little things.
Dan Peak - Posted: Thursday, July 1, 2010 6:03 pm |
The big picture
IT’S SPRING! THERE are no better words for a birder.
The calendar says spring started on March 20. In my heart, spring starts when I see my first red-winged blackbird. How about you?
Dan Peak - Posted: Monday, May 31, 2010 10:01 am |
Don’t knock it ‘til you try it
MY HUSBAND CALLS me over to the edge of his vegetable garden by windmilling his right arm, a gesture of extreme excitement. His second crop of the season is poking its curly green leaves through the grass and creeping charlie, following on the heels of his first crop—onions in his vegetable garden, unpicked last fall and ready now to eat as scallions, once the soft outsides are peeled away.
Marilyn Leys - Posted: Monday, May 31, 2010 10:00 am - 1 opinion posted |
Ruminations on learning
I RECENTLY WATCHED the Oscar-nominated film An Education, a cautionary yarn about a young girl who is sucked into a questionably adult world with the consent of her parents, abandoning her plans to attend Oxford, and eventually learning about life, love, and innocence lost.
Matthew Voz - Posted: Monday, May 31, 2010 10:00 am |
Replace or restore windows?
HAVING SURVIVED ANOTHER Wisconsin winter, you may be looking at heading up a ladder to change your storm windows. Perhaps your windows were too drafty or rattled in the wind; maybe the only reason they don’t rattle is that they are painted shut. The end result is now you’re trying to decide: repair or replace?
David Romary - Posted: Monday, May 31, 2010 9:59 am |
Remember those nasty yellow berries
THERE ARE MANY branching paths to learning, but one of the most important is a fascinating tendency of the human brain to latch onto negative experience. Neuroscientists sometimes call it “stickiness,” the unerring tendency of the brain to dwell upon negative experience more than positive.
Mark Taylor - Posted: Monday, May 31, 2010 9:58 am |
Inside baseball
DID YOU KNOW that I once before was a regular columnist for the Kickapoo Free Press? It’s true. Just months after the paper’s inception, I was more surprised than anyone to find myself among the pages, sharing the mundane details of life here in Viroqua; life with my family, my dog, my rabbit, and my neighbors. And you people read it!
Leigh Anders - Posted: Monday, May 31, 2010 9:58 am |
The world according to pie
MAY IS ALWAYS a month to get through. There’s a lot of joy in May: The lilacs bloom, schools are wrapping up for the year, the busting out of spring and warm weather in the Midwest means that everyone has a concert or a festival or a play.
Anne O'Connor - Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 7:40 pm |
New energy, new shops springing up on Main Street
SPRING IS FULLY IN FLOWER now in Southwestern Wisconsin, and with it the transformation of Viroqua’s Main Street. Downtown anchor Bramble Books opened up in its new spot a couple blocks south; Café Optimo hopes to open this month; and Tulips, a shop that prides itself on odd and beautiful gifts, is rounding out the south end of Main Street.
Helen Beutler - Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 7:40 pm |
Raw food diet
LONG, LONG AGO, Gabrielle Daniels, of Viroqua, used to eat the typical Western diet: drinking cans of soda, grabbing a Quarter Pounder with cheese and fries from McDonald’s. Over time, she learned that what she ate affected her mood, her body, her life.
Sung Du Kim - Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 7:40 pm |
Bright lives, small cities
BIG-CITY LIFE may offer more opportunities than smaller towns and cities, but that hasn’t stopped people from leaving them: Since the 1990s, people are being drawn away from large metropolitan areas and into small towns. There is something about the lifestyle in big cities that isn’t working for a lot of Americans.
Christian Kayishema - Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 7:40 pm |
May Interns
I was delighted to have two interns, Sung Du (Alex) Kim, (of South Korea) and Christian Kayishema (of Rwanda) working with me for the month of May.
Anne O'Connor - Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 7:40 pm |
Grief that lingers
MY HIGH SCHOOL class at Kickapoo lost a member to a car wreck during my senior year, and it has become part of our personal histories. The kids involved were coming back from a play practice. One young man, Phil Fedor, was seriously injured; the other, Jim Bender, died.
John H. Sime - Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 7:40 pm |
When children die
THERE IS NOTHING in this world quite so perverse as a child’s coffin. Many of us in this community were reminded of that fact this past month when two of our children, Arrow Wildhack and Nathan Gunderson, died in a car accident.
Matthew Voz - Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 7:40 pm |
Dear Prudence: June 2010
Being right doesn’t get you very far
Choose love over indignation and see what happens
Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 7:40 pm |
Horoscopes for June 2010
May the creative force be with you
Go ahead now, get on up and move it
Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 7:40 pm |
Life’s big questions in the wings
PEOPLE OFTEN ASK me why I am so interested in birds and bugs. And the real answer is I don’t know. Certainly I have said something akin to “if you can’t put it into words you don’t understand,” but as I have gradually recovered from my formal education I realize what is most important often suffers from description.
Daniel Peak - Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 7:40 pm |
Keeping House
Community Banks ensure stability
GHOSTLY HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS decorated with For Sale signs. Foreclosure papers posted in bank lobbies. Desperate families hiding from eviction notices.
Marilyn Leys - Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 7:40 pm |
MAY 2010
Posted: Sunday, May 30, 2010 7:09 pm |
Women and men redefining roles
DOES ANYONE REMEMBER Pat? You know, the inscrutably androgynous office grunt from Saturday Night Live? Well for those of you who don’t remember, Pat was funny because you couldn’t tell whether she was a man or a woman, which caused an uncomfortable and ultimately humorous tension for the viewer. No one knew how to treat Pat because she couldn’t be identified as a man or a woman.
Matthew Voz - Posted: Sunday, May 2, 2010 2:18 pm |
Spring is prime time bird season
IT’S SPRING! THERE are no better words for a birder.
The calendar says spring started on March 20. In my heart, spring starts when I see my first red-winged blackbird. How about you?
Dan Peak - Posted: Sunday, May 2, 2010 2:18 pm |
Hot water happiness
Q: We are planning to replace our old water heater; what are our options?
David Romary - Posted: Sunday, May 2, 2010 2:17 pm |
Thanks, Mom!
IT’S EASY TO take our mothers for granted; they’re always there. In the typical order of things, our mothers are with us from birth, caring for us, loving us, wanting what’s best for us and expressing that in whatever way they best know how.
Anne O'Connor - Posted: Sunday, May 2, 2010 2:05 pm |
David Rhodes and the Guggenheim
DAVID RHODES, AUTHOR of the recently acclaimed novel Driftless, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in April, an honor reserved for a fraction of the nation’s most distinguished artists, scientists, and scholars at the height of their careers.
Posted: Sunday, May 2, 2010 2:05 pm |
Edible Madison
A NEW LOCAL FOOD MAGAZINE is about to hit the scene, offering stunning photography, interesting profiles, and simple recipes using seasonal ingredients. Its goal is to be entertaining, informative, and to carry a message: Buy and eat locally grown food.
Posted: Sunday, May 2, 2010 2:05 pm |
Mother: An undeniable force
MOST OF US have recognized our mothers in some act, some way of thinking, even some turn of phrase or hand gesture that we do ourselves as adults. This is perhaps more the case with women as they become mothers themselves. Whether we believe that our mother set the gold standard for best mothering or we think that our mother shouldn’t have been allowed to raise children, most of us recognize that our mother’s contribution makes an indelible mark on our lives.
Posted: Sunday, May 2, 2010 2:05 pm |
John Young: a life of service
IT WAS FORTY years ago that John Young, of Soldiers Grove, became a board member of Couleecap, the region’s hard-working non-profit organization dedicated to helping low-income people improve their lives by providing opportunities to gain self-sufficiency.
Posted: Sunday, May 2, 2010 2:05 pm |
Betting on a horse
WHEN AMY HUNTER, from Viroqua, rides her horse into an arena at a Grand Prix show jumping event, heads turn and hands lift in applause. A relative newcomer to this level of competition, Hunter’s recent successes are causing a stir. Who is she? Where did she come from? And where did she get that horse?
Kate Fitzgerald - Posted: Sunday, May 2, 2010 2:05 pm |
Mother: Redemption
MY MOTHER, CONNIE, died in March 2009, with only me and her angels at her bedside. I had spent the better part of the previous six months close to her, caring for her as she prepared to leave our earthly relationship. There was more love, respect and acknowledgment of all that mattered between us in those last months than in our whole life as mother and daughter.
Kim Chotzen - Posted: Saturday, May 1, 2010 10:25 pm |
Mother: Bargainacious
THE THING ABOUT being adopted is that you’re never completely sure which mother to credit or blame—the one who birthed you or the one who raised you. But one regrettable thing I can unequivocally trace to my adoptive mom, the woman who mothered me, is the compulsion to nag my children about their grooming habits (or lack thereof).
Valorie Schaefer - Posted: Saturday, May 1, 2010 10:23 pm |
Mother: Sanctuary
AS I APPROACH Mother’s Day and my 61st birthday within the same week, I welcome the opportunity to reflect on my own mother. I have now been a mother and a motherless child for the past 25 years, having lost my mom two weeks prior to conceiving my son.
Dickelle Fonda - Posted: Saturday, May 1, 2010 10:21 pm |
Mother: Human
MY MOTHER HATED Mother’s Day. It wasn’t so great for the rest of us, either.
Charlene Elderkin - Posted: Saturday, May 1, 2010 10:19 pm |
Mother: Gracious
MY MOTHER WAS an intelligent, determined, organized, cheerful little lady. Her Christian faith is one of her legacies which I cherish. She lived what she believed. Our well-kept farm home was a center for extended family and exchange students from many backgrounds, races and religions.
Sue Walby - Posted: Saturday, May 1, 2010 10:06 pm |
Mother: Forgiveness
IN MY TEENS and early twenties I fought hard not to recognize habits and ways of thinking that came from my mother, but since becoming a mother almost three years ago, I have begun to distinguish some of my Mother’s qualities and embrace them.
Crystel Wienandt - Posted: Saturday, May 1, 2010 10:02 pm |
Mother: Denial
MY MOTHER WAS a beautiful, kind, loving, generous soul who saw the world through lovely pink rose-colored glasses. Somehow she never seemed to notice when my father would throw furniture across the room in a drunken rage.
Theresa Carey - Posted: Saturday, May 1, 2010 10:00 pm |
Mother: Practicality
MY MOTHER WAS impossible to buy gifts for. Maybe it was because we lived in a very small house with no attic and a one-car garage already packed with extra stuff that got taken out once in a very great while, and then only to be dusted off and crammed away again.
Marilyn Leys - Posted: Saturday, May 1, 2010 9:47 pm |
Mother: Devotion
THIS QUESTION HAS taken some pondering. What I’ve longed to root out has taken new shape for me even recently. I haven’t understood this aspect of my mother for much of my life, but its effects have taken me on a long and occasionally painful journey.
Erika Hodapp - Posted: Saturday, May 1, 2010 9:46 pm |
Our animals, ourselves
HE LAY THERE awry, body pressed up against the glass, his eyes wide with existential terror. His chest heaved in a panicked rhythm. His fins lay flaccid along his contorted spine, his mouth puckered as though preparing to kiss the hand of God.
Matthew Voz - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:49 pm |
The case against adolescence
WHEN YOU HEAR the word adolescent, what leaps to mind?
For most adults, some pimple-faced mash-up of a sullen, surly almost-adult wrapped up in selfish preoccupation, angst, drama, and permanent ear buds pops up.
Mark Taylor - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:49 pm |
A bright idea: fluorescent lights
Q: I AM USING compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) to save electricity, but I’m concerned about safety because they contain mercury.
David Romary - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:48 pm |
Quilting keeps her strong
I HAVE KNOWN many women in my lifetime, most of them outstanding, but Kim Vitcenda Cade has been a particular inspiration to me. Cade lives just outside of Viroqua with her husband Donald on a seven-acre hobby farm. Six years ago Kim was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (PD).
Carolyn Solverson - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:47 pm |
Sun and sap herald the end of winter
IT’S EARLY FEBRUARY. I spend the bulk of my days inside doing office work, but I can see the wet road through the windows, and I know the sun is higher in the sky, finally putting out some heat. My colleagues tell me that it feels good out there, but the air still has a bite to it.
Doreen O'Donnell - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:47 pm |
Not such a great vibe
THE SUBJECT LINE on the e-mail from my son seems innocuous: Vibe recall. The message below it asks, merely, if I’ve heard about the gas-pedal recall on 2010 Pontiac Vibes.
Marilyn Leys - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:46 pm |
Letter from Peru
I’M IN THE beautiful cloud forest of the Peruvian Andes where I am helping a nongovernmental organization study and protect the yellow-tailed woolly monkey. It took me a bit of time here to finally see this critically endangered monkey. But I am thrilled to say that I have seen the monkeys, and I’m writing to share a bit of that marvelous experience with you.
Keefe Keeley - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:37 pm |
A vote for TV-free life
IT’S PROBABLY IMPORTANT to say in this issue that I don’t own a television and don’t watch TV. That my kids have pretty serious limits on how long they can listen, even, to books on tape. That I can list on both hands the movies that my kids have seen in their lives. That I have watched fewer than a handful in the past year ¬myself.
Anne O'Connor - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:34 pm |
Second Life
LAST YEAR I encountered the new generation of computer groups in a fascinating site called Second Life. Things have progressed beyond mere typed words on the screen. Now we are issued avatars, or little computer figures we can move across the screen, using the up/down and left/right keys. Dialogue is mostly typed, but increasingly can be done via computer microphones.
John Sime - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:34 pm |
In praise of green spaces
I REMEMBER WHEN I first moved to the Pacific Northwest, I was captivated by the sheer amount of natural space that was at my disposal. In every direction from my home in Olympia, there was a state or national forest within a half hour, not to mention the many state parks and unnamed county forests.
Mitch Hopkins - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:34 pm |
Josh Brown
DESPITE APPEARANCES, JOSH BROWN’S work is serious business, something he prepared for with a degree in exercise science from Central College in Pella, Iowa. The 26-year-old started working at the Wellness Center shortly after his graduation in 2006.
Marilyn Leys - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:34 pm |
Screen out: Turn off the TV and see what happens
IN TELEVISION’S EARLIEST days, when the world was free of reality TV and game shows, soap operas and sitcoms, there were many who thought that the medium wouldn’t be able to compete with radio. Today, the average American home has its TV on for a staggering eight hours a day.
Anne O'Connor - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:33 pm |
Sketchbook: April 2010
FINCHES AND FOLKS and the passing of the seasons
Pete Hodapp - Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 1:30 pm |
MARCH 2010
Posted: Saturday, March 27, 2010 2:36 pm |
The mother-daughter bond
LET ME STATE up front, this is neither a how-to column on parenting nor one on technology. As a 40-something mother of two teenagers, it’s all I can do to keep up with the latest developments on either front. Watching me navigate my days, one would assume my degree in both fields was issued by the Learning Annex. In other words: Don’t try this at home.
Leigh Anders - Posted: Friday, March 5, 2010 3:45 pm |
No picking please
Q: I HAVE LARGE ice dams on the edge of my roof. What can be done to prevent them? Do I need a new roof?
David Romary - Posted: Friday, March 5, 2010 3:45 pm |
Make the most of the dark
AS THE LONG winter lopes on through the early months of the new year, as the nights get shorter, and the days longingly and imperceptibly longer, an appreciation for the darkness grows in me. Perhaps it is the promise that the thaw and the light, though still far away, are coming toward us that allows me the breathing room to enjoy the cold and the dinners in the dark.
Matthew Voz - Posted: Friday, March 5, 2010 3:43 pm |
Winter: for the birds
EVER WONDER WHAT bird that is? How it survives the winter? What you can do to help? To start with the simplest question, you are not unique. Just step in to Nelson Agri Center and see the wide selection of feeders and foods, and you will realize there are a lot of us feeding birds.
Daniel Peak - Posted: Friday, March 5, 2010 3:41 pm |
Saying Goodbye, Kickapoo Style
Crossing the Threshold
WHEN MARK HOBBINS was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the fall of 2007, word spread rapidly through his long-time communities of Gays Mills, Soldiers Grove, and Viroqua. At 53, no one was planning on him dying soon. But pancreatic cancer is still considered basically incurable and survival rates beyond a year are pretty rare.
Anne O'Connor - Posted: Friday, March 5, 2010 3:33 pm |
Thanks, Jon Passi!
JON PASSI JUST shows up looking for something to do and we’re so happy he does. Passi has taken what amounted to a large stack of back issues on the floor and created order.
Posted: Friday, March 5, 2010 3:33 pm |
Listening for birdsong
IF A BIRD flies in the forest but no one is there to see, was there really a bird? The answer is a simple yes. I know three people who saw the bird, heard the bird, can tell you where it landed, what kind of bird it was, and what it was likely up to.
Dan Peak - Posted: Friday, March 5, 2010 3:33 pm |
Poet: Edward Schultz
LOCAL POET EDWARD Schultz has spent the past six years bringing poets from around the region to read. With the funding help of a local sponsor, Schultz has drawn the likes of David Rhodes, author of Driftless; John Lehman, founder of the national poetry magazine Rosebud; and Wisconsin poet laureate Marilyn Taylor. Schultz also hosts a writing group and has spent a lot of time encouraging local writers.
Posted: Friday, March 5, 2010 3:33 pm |
Ode to the Light
REMEMBER THOSE MORNINGS in November and December, when you woke in the dark and felt the long, cold winter stretching out ahead for as long as any human mind can contemplate? Those are the months when hibernation seems like a perfectly reasonable idea.
Anne O'Connor - Posted: Friday, March 5, 2010 3:29 pm |
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