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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 |
Jack Frost on your windows
AS TEMPERATURES HAVE plummeted during these past few weeks, mornings may find you with not only water but frost crystals spread over your windows. While this frosty art may be lovely to look at, large amounts of condensation can indicate an excess level of moisture in a house.
David Romary - Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 2:18 pm |
Bacon, blubber, whatever it takes
WINTER IS UPON us and, for me at least, this means a seasonal shakeup of diet—and, sadly, of figure, as well.
Fattening up for the cold winter months is an age-old element of survival.
Leigh Anders - Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 2:17 pm |
Border double-cross
THIS IS THE story of two star-crossed lovers, not separated by family warring, as Romeo and Juliet were, but by a border created by governments. This is the story of how a couple, so much in love, have followed every legal directive, have spent more than $11,000, have waited nearly three years with the confidence of youth, only to have their hope of being together on this side of the border dashed to the ground.
Doreen O’Donnell - Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 2:15 pm |
Grandparent privilege
BY NOW, WITH Christmas behind and the New Year upon us, your children have probably been inundated with toys and candy canes and late-night movie sessions. Most likely they have also had a number of emotional meltdowns, temper tantrums, and the like; after all, part of the fun of the Christmas holiday is exhausting our children through chaotic social interaction while simultaneously feeding them junk food and surrounding them with toys to fight over.
Matthew Voz - Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 2:13 pm |
The porn problem
NO DOUBT PORNOGRAPHY is unsettling to many; the topic raises issues affecting parenting and the culture of the communities our children are raised in. To begin, consider a few facts...
Mark Taylor - Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 2:11 pm |
Ringing in Readstown
JANUARY 1900 SAW the death of John Ruskin (Jan. 20), and the birth of Xavier Cugat (Jan. 1). The Boxer Rebellion began in China, and in Readstown, they discovered that a shipping clerk had screwed up:
John H. Sime - Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 2:10 pm |
There will be no sitting down
I don’t have to tell anyone reading this letter in the pages of the Kickapoo Free Press how lucky we are to have this kind of publication in our small rural community. News organizations all across the country, including Lee Enterprises, which owns the Broadcaster, are economically stressed and cutting back.
Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 2:05 pm |
MOSA dedicated to organic standards
I would like to applaud Anne O’Connor for her article “Watchdog or Attack Dog?” in the January issue, for it presented an objective picture of Mark Kastel’s work and how it is perceived by a sampling of us who work in organics.
Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 2:05 pm |
Taylor: wisdom and common sense
Based upon many hours of group conversation, Mark Taylor knows that we disagree on almost every subject—politics, religion, and most social issues. It’s possible—gasp—that Mark is not even a Packers fan. But despite our enormous differences, I do not remember the last time I disagreed with one of his columns.
Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 2:05 pm |
Love in war
WORLD WAR II was the great abiding fact in the lives of my parents and me. As an only child, I soon realized that our relationship was an eternal triad: three loving and competing and needing forces. And the whole thing gets going with World War II.
Henry S. Sime - Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 1:58 pm |
Edit Desk
WHEN THE SPRING rains come, a sense of fresh new beginnings starts to emerge. Never mind that we’ve just finished January: We definitely had some spring-like rains during that month.
Anne O'Connor - Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010 1:58 pm |
Watchdog or attack dog?
Mark Kastel’s fiery defense of family farms
AS ONE OF the largest organic milk producers in the country, Aurora Organic Dairy has provided milk to Target, Safeway, Costco and other stores for their generic store brands.
Anne O’Connor - Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009 11:26 am - 1 opinion posted |
Chela lets go
CHELA REMEMBERS THE excitement she felt at six years old, when she first painted with watercolors. Taught by a friend of her mother’s, at her home in St. Paul, Minnnesota, she learned early the value of good brushes and high-quality paper.
Kate Fitzgerald - Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009 11:26 am |
Time for peace
I REMEMBER, AS a young girl, wondering about what the new year meant. Not in a deep, philosophical way. I just really didn’t understand what people meant by the end of a year, the beginning of a year.
Anne O'Connor - Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009 11:26 am |
Hairy’s Legacy Lives On
Hairy is my recently disappeared dog. He was getting older and was not being his normal energetic self. I was thinking I should take him to the vet for a checkup but then he wasn’t there. I prefer to believe he went off looking for a good place to die.
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009 11:26 am |
Voz
I’m not going to quarrel with Matt Voz’s conviction that no virgin birth brought Jesus onto the human scene (“Warming the heart,” December). We can agree to disagree there. What concerns me most, as it does with most criticisms of Christianity, is this...
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009 11:26 am |
Hello Viroqua!
Hey, that was a great drumming circle Monday night (12/21), thanking Earth for beginning to turn our end of the planet back toward the Sun, and chasing away the demons of cold and darkness for a few splendid hours. I hope that happens often here—once a month, once a week, whenever!
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009 11:26 am |
Hey, artist. Yes, you!
RECENTLY, I URGED a friend to take a painting class, just for fun. He gave me a blank stare, then shook his head. “No,” he said, “I’m not an artist.”
Leigh Jardine - Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009 11:26 am |
RESOLVED: 2010
Readers’ Resolutions for the New Year
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009 11:26 am |
Dear Prudence: January 2010
A sister and her mister
How can I stop her from marrying our dad?
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009 11:12 am |
Watchdog or attack dog? (4)
Mark Kastel’s fiery defense of family farms
AS ONE OF the largest organic milk producers in the country, Aurora Organic Dairy has provided milk to Target, Safeway, Costco and other stores for their generic store brands.
Anne O’Connor - Posted: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 12:31 pm |
Watchdog or attack dog? (3)
Mark Kastel’s fiery defense of family farms
AS ONE OF the largest organic milk producers in the country, Aurora Organic Dairy has provided milk to Target, Safeway, Costco and other stores for their generic store brands.
Anne O’Connor - Posted: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 12:28 pm |
Watchdog or attack dog? (2)
Mark Kastel’s fiery defense of family farms
AS ONE OF the largest organic milk producers in the country, Aurora Organic Dairy has provided milk to Target, Safeway, Costco and other stores for their generic store brands.
Anne O’Connor - Posted: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 12:27 pm |
Posted: Monday, December 14, 2009 3:37 pm |
A better place
I WAS OUT reporting this month’s cover story, running around asking people, among other things, the simple question: what is one thing you can do to make the world a better place? I was surprised by how many of the people I spoke to genuinely didn’t think that they could make the world a better place. Or maybe, more accurately, that their lives were not significant, that they didn’t count. Or maybe they thought that making the world a better place was happening elsewhere.
Anne O'Connor - Posted: Saturday, December 5, 2009 10:03 pm |
Senator Feingold rocks
Today, almost every discussion about current affairs, whether on the government level or at a house party, includes foreign affairs, health care, the environment, and the economy. This discussion almost always results in a discussion of whether any option is financially possible.
Posted: Saturday, December 5, 2009 10:03 pm |
Hairy could teach us a lot
Hairy is my recently disappeared dog. He was getting older and was not being his normal energetic self. I was thinking I should take him to the vet for a checkup but then he wasn’t there. I prefer to believe he went off looking for a good place to die.
Posted: Saturday, December 5, 2009 10:03 pm |
General CAFO permits: bad idea
Citizen groups statewide are urging Wisconsin residents to speak out against a proposed rule change that would make it easier for factory farms to gain state approval. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is proposing changes to the way it reviews WPDES permits, the clean water discharge permit process for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
Posted: Saturday, December 5, 2009 10:03 pm |
Docs not to blame
Last issue David Wennlund delivered a strongly worded letter critiquing the article by Ben Deline (The Cost of the Crisis, October 2009). His ire was raised because the article did not mention the single-payer proposal. He erroneously concluded that was because the author was the son of a doctor.
Posted: Saturday, December 5, 2009 10:03 pm |
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