Even under the best of circumstances, county fair planners are challenged annually to create an entertainment environment that will attract a general public that seems underwhelmed by anything less than a Worlds of Fun experience. In a perfect world, their efforts should be rewarded proportionally with public response. If that were the case, organizers of the Marion County Fair, set […]

Joey Young and I just got back from a quick trip to Dubuque, Iowa, for the Midwest Free Community Papers Summer Publisher’s/Manager’s Summit this past Wednesday and Thursday. It’s 10-plus hours one way, so it is quite a haul, but it was definitely worth it. The Summit kicked off with a meal and was supposed to be a Missis­sippi River […]

In the three months we have been in our new home, the hubby and I (and sometimes other helping hands) have worked hard to put a minute dent in a stack of to-dos. We’ve finished a bedroom and are close to finishing the hallway, all complete with do-it-yourself hardwood floors, scraped ceilings, new paint on ceilings and walls, and do-it-yourself […]

It was a dark and stormy night. The air hung oppressively hot and humid over the prairie. Each breath brought with it a vague sense of unease, almost a primitive urge to flee before the oncoming storm. Stars glimmered feebly overhead, disappearing into the flashes of lightning from the fast-building clouds on the horizon. As our truck swept down the […]

Black potatoes. I mean super black, completely black potatoes. That’s what I put on the table for dinner a few nights ago, and fortunately, they were delicious. I mentioned recently that I’ve been trying out preparing a bunch of meals at a time, freezing them and cooking them off in my crockpot, and this past week, it was time to […]

by Rep. Don Hineman Kansas House of Representatives Last month, the Kansas Legislature enacted comprehensive tax reform, overturning Gov. Sam Brown­back’s overly aggressive 2012 tax cut. This return to common-sense tax policy resulted from legislators listening to their constituents and fulfilling the promises they made during 2016 campaigns. In the end, a group of 88 representatives and 27 senators from […]

I thought it was cool when I figured out that I am half as old as Hillsboro. After the Independence Day festivities on TV and elsewhere, when they kept talking about our country’s 241st birthday, I figured if you are 80 years old plus four months, you are one third as old as the United States. • When we put […]

As Americans, we love taking short cuts, doing things the easy way when possible. Our collective motto might be, “Work smarter, not harder.” Lately I have been considering some possible historical mistakes that we have made in our haste to “git ’er done.” People often resist having giant wind turbines placed on their property, claiming they ruin the scenery, interrupt […]

“Daily routine: Wake up. Be fabulous all day. Go back to bed.” — ilikeitfunny.com Sometimes you stumble across an idea that makes you go “a-ha!” I did this, and then in typical fashion, proceeded to beat it to death. The idea was a blog post titled, “Make Your Bed (Plus six other things you should do every day).” I’m all […]

Now that July is here, I have to often remind myself that chocolate melts. It makes this time of year tough when I try to choose desserts to take to outdoor events, because my first inclination is almost always to make something with lots of chocolate. Of course, there’s nothing bad about a warm chocolate chip cookie, but when an […]