Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 18 December 2012 14:23

Nothing beats an early Christmas in Atlanta with the kids and grandkids like we have just experienced. We’ve tried getting together during the actual holiday dates in the past and have had nothing but delays and other traveling problems. This was totally different.

The weather was delightful and the new Cameli’s Pizza place in Little 5 Points is looking great.

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As we drove and walked around town, we concluded two things will always be needed in Atlanta: The leaf blower and the leaf bag. I’ll bet Home Depot sells millions of those big paper leaf bags every year.

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Dan and Katie are in the soft pretzel business out in Bend, Ore., so Dan has been watching the food-truck business. While researching it on the Web, he came...

Read more: Holiday in Atlanta was the best

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 11 December 2012 14:26

The Fiscal Cliff is looming. At least that is the hottest topic being discussed in the national news these days.

What is totally baffling to me is that the people who have caused it—the career politicians— are the ones who are in charge of fixing it. They have known about this problem for years already and haven’t done anything about it.

So they do a lousy job, get to keep it and still get paid a handsome salary with better than average benefits.

In my opinion, we all lose no matter which way it goes. And if the world comes to an end on Dec. 21 the problem is solved.

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When I’m out walking these colder mornings I am amazed at how many drivers do not clear off the frost from their windows and try to drive that way or with...

Read more: Politicos should fix their ‘Cliff’?

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 04 December 2012 18:12

At this time of year I often ponder what could have happened to me eight years ago, but didn’t.

And I often wonder why I was able to survive a 99 percent and 90 percent blockage that was discovered in my left main coronary artery (aka widow maker) Dec. 3, 2004—all without having a heart attack.

Why am I telling you this? It is so that you, unlike me, will listen to your body and get help if you think something might be wrong.

The first symptom occurred about three months earlier when son Dan and I went to a KU football game and we walked up the stadium steps from the bottom almost to the top. I felt a pain in my sternum and was breathing a bit harder than normal.

But, as soon as I sat down, the pain went away and all was good...

Read more: Heart event was life changing

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 27 November 2012 14:43

If it weren’t for a German immigrant watchmaker by the name of Ottmar Mergen­thaler, we wouldn’t be in the newspaper and printing business today—or at least not in the same way.

Mergenthaler was the inventor of the Linotype, which transformed the information industry and dominated the way information was disseminated to the public from about 1890 to 1980.

Instead of hand picking individual pieces of type out of a drawer, Mergenthaler devised a machine to cast lines of type molded on a lead slug, which was much faster than Gutenberg’s methods.

Derek Hamm, who teaches graphic design at Tabor, alerted me through his dad that there was a video about the Linotype. I looked it up on the Web and ordered the DVD.

Our entire staff...

Read more: The man behind printing