Making room for the party (05/08/08)
An early Happy Mother's Day to the moms out there. Thanks for all you have done, continue to do, and always will do. Being a parent is a thankless, but essential job in our society. Without your efforts, who knows where we would be? Oh yes, I think I have an idea of where we would be. Living like feral animals, not wearing clean underwear and our eyes would have stayed crossed from crossing them one too many times...

Charlene, we're glad we knew you (05/01/08)
I often say that we spend more waking hours at work with people that we get to know than we do with the people we love. The reality of life is that we must work to make a living and, while not always essential, it is much better to get along with the people you work with...

Combination windows will set you free (04/24/08)
It appears that after a few false starts, spring is indeed here to stay, nearly a month after it's official arrival. Some folks in my neighborhood have been out doing yard work and the number of folks out walking in the evening is growing. Heck, they have even been able to have track and golf meets. This is no small feat, considering snow cancellations earlier this month...

Landmarks ahead (04/17/08)
21 days. As of last weekend, that's how many days my daughter, a senior at LCHS, had left before graduation. Wow. Where has the year gone? Where do any of them go? Time is relative, it seems, and the more you have of it, the longer it seems to last...

Heston was a true American original (04/10/08)
The longer I live, I have more opportunities to learn and experience things. The more I learn, the greater my realization becomes that there is so much more to know and so little time to learn it all. With this realization comes sadness when you see people pass away. Charlton Heston, the epitome of the rugged individuals that are Americans, passed away at his home on Saturday at the age of 84...

Reading, writing and torture (04/03/08)
As I got ready for the day on Wednesday, I had the television on in the kitchen, listening more than watching as I ate my breakfast. A news item came on that literally gave me the creeps (not a pleasant thing early in the morning over a bowl of cereal)...

Playing your part (03/27/08)
We are just a few short days away from the end of the month of March, which is designated as national Music in Our Schools Month and goes by the rather awkward acronym MIOSM. Why must we always have shortened versions of titles? MIOSM was created several years ago to highlight the importance and benefits of music education during a period when many music programs were being cut and even eliminated. ...

T-t-t-too much time on my hands.... (03/20/08)
The first day of Spring is upon us, and there is less than two months before high schools around the county hold commencement exercises. My youngest daughter, Madison, is graduating this year and this past weekend we had another of many "lasts" in her high school career: the final show choir competition...

The check is in the mail (almost) (03/13/08)
Have you filed your income tax return? Are you one of the early filers that have already received their refunds? If so, congratulations. Me? I'm one of those wait until March filers. It's a habit I developed when I owned my own business. Back in those days, I usually ended up borrowing money to buy equipment that could be depreciated, or borrowing money to pay taxes...

I'm already gone (I hope) (03/06/08)
Happy Thursday! As I write this column on Tuesday, I am busy making plans for my life after Wednesday night's Powerball drawing. Even though as I write this I have yet to purchase a ticket, I am confident that this will be the time that I will win. How do I know? Gambler's intuition? False hope? Active fantasy life?...

February 30? A brief history of leap year (02/28/08)
Tomorrow is a leap day, something we have every four years, give or take. An extra day to the short month of February. The unfortunate souls who are born tomorrow will have to choose whether they celebrate their birthdays on Feb. 28, or March 1. As they grow older, celebrating your birthday every four years becomes more appealing. What 44 year old wouldn't want to be 11?...

Finding escape on the small screen (02/21/08)
Cheer up, only 28 days until spring "officially" arrives. Less than a month until the frozen tundra that has become our homes begins to recede, and, if we are very lucky, we may finally get to see some green. You remember green, don't you? This past weekend, My body finally gave in to the viruses that have been going around, and I spent the entire weekend in four hour increments waiting to take my next dose of Tylenol to relieve my fever and body aches. ...

The smell of tinfoil and glue...it must be Valentine's Day (02/14/08)
Happy Valentine's Day to you! I hope you were remembered by someone special today. This is one of the few days of the year when forgetting can be a very bad thing. Ask anyone who is married or in a committed relationship, and you will be given the rundown on what happens when you decide to forget today...

Coping with cabin fever (02/07/08)
Ahh...the joys of winter in Iowa. Since Groundhog Day has come and gone, we are (hopefully) on the downward slope of winter. Already the days are growing longer, which gives us hope, even in the face of 50 mph winds and -30º windchills. This winter has been a more typical winter (some might even call it "old school" winter) and we have become spoiled in the past few winters...

Party like it's 1955 (01/31/08)
The Internet is a wonderful thing. You can search for nearly anything, from obscure trivia or shop to have goods from the four corners of the planet delivered to your door. You can also communicate in written and verbal form with all sorts of folk with email, video conferencing, instant messaging and chat...

Snow day fun and games (01/25/08)
Schoolchildren enjoyed a rare snow day on Monday, as the area received from five to eight inches of fluffy white snow in some of the largest flakes I have seen in some time. The snow was so fluffy and light, ideal for causing white-outs and all sorts of problems for adults. For the children that got to stay home, the cold weather and the dry and fluffy snow weren't very conducive to being outdoors for very long...

"Juno" delivers on many levels (01/17/08)
As quickly as it arrived, our January thaw as vanished, as the Electric Light Orchestra would say "faded like the Beatles on Hey Jude." It was nice while it lasted, wasn't it? The cold reality of January is here, with the weekend weather forecast calling for highs in the single digits and lows below zero. Time to resist the urge to hibernate, which becomes stronger each passing year for me at this time of year...

Tearing down the mountains (01/10/08)
We knew it would arrive at some point, and this past weekend it came: the January thaw. The weekend brought temperatures in the 40s, something we haven't seen for quite a while. Nearly a month, in fact. It was nice to get outside, see families making snowmen and kids playing in the melting snow. Some ambitious folks even were taking down their holiday lights...

Now we can get sick (01/03/08)
Happy New Year! Best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2008. I hope you enjoyed your New Year's Eve and that the new year, already three days old, is going well. The hustle and bustle of the Christmas and New Years holidays comes and leaves quickly. The building anticipation and all of the preparations make for a hectic and crazy time. The gatherings with friends and family, church and school programs, along with everyday life, make this time of year very stressful...

Some good news for a change (12/27/07)
Did you survive Christmas? Get what you wanted? Have some time to catch up with loved ones and friends? If you did all of that, you truly had a good holiday. Next up: New Year's. Time to make resolutions, take stock of where you are and where you want to be. Quite a cold splash of water after Christmas merriment, but that's probably a good thing...

Dear Santa.... (12/20/07)
It's just a few short days until Christmas Eve. Are you ready? Are the stockings hung by the chimney with care? Been dreaming about sugarplums? Yes, it must be Christmas. I have a wish that I believe only Santa could deliver. This Sunday, the 14-0 New England Patriots host the 1-13 Miami Dolphins. ...

The best present ever (12/13/07)
Well, here we are, a scant 11 days before Christmas Eve. The hustle and bustle are reaching a fever pitch in many households as we all strive to do as much (and more) that we can in order to make Christmas special. The anticipation of Christmas is a powerful drug. ...

Sacking Santa? You're kidding, right? (12/06/07)
Johnny Carson, rest his soul, made a very good living for a number of years reading the daily newspaper and simply making observations, comments and even the occasional joke about current events. His successors, Jay Leno and David Letterman (yes, I think Letterman should have gotten the gig and is, in my opinion, Carson's "heir") have done the same, but no one did it as well as Johnny. ...

Wait! When did you start watching that? (11/29/07)
I hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday and were able to spend some time with family and friends. It's a brief, enjoyable time that passes far too quickly. I spent Thanksgiving week moonlighting on a second job. It was a part time gig, and only paid five dollars for a week of work, but I learned a great deal about myself and about how the entertainment industry works...

Batten down the hatches, here comes Christmas (11/15/07)
Even though Thanksgiving is a week from today and what had been the traditional kick off of the Christmas shopping season is a week from tomorrow, nearly everywhere you look it's time for Christmas shopping. The holiday open house was held in Le Mars last weekend, and the balmy weather (can you believe 74º last Sunday) had people mowing lawns for what they hope will be the last time and taking advantage of the time to put up outdoor Christmas decorations...

Rich, you will be missed (11/08/07)
"Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives." -- Clarence, Angel Second Class, from "It's a Wonderful Life." A week ago, Le Mars lost a unique and special man. Rich Janssen, who had lived here for nearly 40 years, passed away after a uniquely Janssen-esque struggle against leukemia. ...

Why The War is relevant after 60 years (11/01/07)
This past weekend, I finished watching the 15 hour Ken Burns documentary on World War II, simply titled "The War." Burns and co-producer Lynn Novick focused on four communities: Waterbury, Conn., Mobile, Ala., Luverne, Minn., and Sacramento, Calif., finding veterans and residents who lived during the war to bring a uniquely personal and firsthand touch, making history come alive...

Profreaders? We don’t ned no stinkin profreaders! (10/25/07)
From the publisher’s desk It’s a wonderful privilege and honor that I have to visit with you each week, and I do appreciate the time you take to read these thoughts that I have assembled. I’ve been working here at the Sentinel for a decade now, and writing, assembling and editing copy for the daily opinion page for the majority of the years that I have been employed here...

It's a klinker!!! (10/18/07)
The old saying about the weather in Iowa: "if you don't like it, stick around for 15 minutes -- it'll change," has been true this past week, hasn't it? On Sat. Oct. 6, it was pushing 90º and I was sweating profusely mowing my lawn. Since then, it's been a rarity to see the sun and my sump pump has been running on a regular basis, trickling down my driveway to the street every 15 minutes or so...

Rolling through the fall (10/11/07)
Here we are, a third of the way through October. The time truly seems to be flying by. The weather has decided to become more autumnal, but I hope the time for using the furnace stays away a bit longer. The late spring and early fall are wonderful times where we get to catch a break on utility bills, so I'm in favor of a long fall...

Left, left -- no your other left (10/04/07)
This Saturday, schools all over Iowa will compete at State Marching Band Contest at various sites. I am a second generation survivor of marching band, as well as the proud parent of a band student. Last weekend, North High School in Sioux City hosted their 10th Annual Starfest Marching Band competition. ...

It's all fun and games until someone gets fragged (09/27/07)
Tuesday, Sept. 25 probably saw a large spike in absences at schools, colleges and workplaces. Bird flu? Nope. Something in the water supply? Not even close. What, gentle reader would account for so many people staying home? A video game. You read it right. At the stroke of midnight on Tuesday morning, retailers began selling Halo 3, the newest in Microsoft's line of best-selling games for their Xbox console game platform...

Nothing like the smell of Armor All in the afternoon (09/20/07)
I spent last Sunday doing one of the tasks that used to be fun when I was young and flexible, but has become a reminder of how old I am: cleaning out the car. Sunday was a gorgeous day and I tied into the minivan, armed with the vacuum, Armor All and the carpet cleaner. Three hours later, I was finished with the van, and done in for the day. On Monday, I was moving like an old man...

Trying to catch the technology curve (09/13/07)
We live in an age of wonders and miracles, occurring around us so often that we take them for granted. With some microchips and a telephone line, you can communicate with people half a world away. Heck, you don't even need a telephone line. Routinely, surgeons perform procedures that were impossible just a few years ago. ...

I'd give a 75, but I can't dance to it (09/06/07)
Here we are in September, back in the swing of things, more or less, settling into some routines. Did you have a good Labor Day weekend? It went by fast, didn't it? Most of the spare time in my household lately revolves around Sept. 22. That is the date that my oldest daughter, Lindsay, gets married in St. ...

A man's best friend (08/30/07)
The fortunes of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick are much different now than they were a year ago. A year ago, he was on top of the endorsement food chain and his team had high hopes of returning to the playoffs, like they did in 2004. What a difference a year makes...

Rolling with the changes (08/23/07)
Summer won't officially end for another month, when the Autumnal Equinox occurs on Sept. 23 and day and night are the same length, but for all practical purposes it ends when the first school bell rings. That occurred over a week ago at many school districts in the county, and students returned to Gehlen Catholic and Le Mars Community this week, much to the joy of parents and the sorrow of students...

Move over, Peter Fonda (08/16/07)
The topic of bicycles arose during a recent supper conversation at our house and we began comparing memories about bicycles. Bikes have become more prevalent lately with soaring gasoline prices, but in any neighborhood that contains children, you are sure to find bikes...

No sugar tonight, how about some calcium? (08/09/07)
Music and the memories it can evoke are wondrous things. Recording technology continues to advance to the point where you can now, thanks to iPods and MP3 players, carry an entire crate's worth of 33 1/3 lps around in your pocket. Pretty awesome, when you stop to think about it...

A slippery slope to schooltime (08/02/07)
August 2. Where has the summer gone? In just a few short weeks, households all over Plymouth County will be getting back into the swing of things, establishing more normal sleep habits and taking the children back to school, whether they like it or not...

It's not the heat, it's the...corn?! (07/26/07)
Ah, late July. The time of year when the mention of the forecast makes one nostalgic for wind chill indexes. It's been a hot, dry month that has tested our patience, crops and pumping capacities at our water plants. I recall, as I'm sure anyone who grew up in Iowa, the hot and humid days of summer, long before heat indexes were used, that the reason we felt so miserable was the fault of the humidity, not the heat. ...

My kingdom for a flux capacitor (07/19/07)
From the publisher's desk Change, the lone constant in life. Our world is constantly changing, sometimes for the better, other times for the worse. Every now and then, we take the time to look around and contemplate how things were, the "good old days."...

I think I have about 8,000 words left today (07/13/07)

Love is all you need, still (12/08/05)
"If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliché that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal." -- John Lennon "Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn't enough and you have to go and get shot or something."-- John Lennon, 1980...

Jose, can you see? (12/01/05)
Since the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001, our nation has experienced a renaissance of patriotism. Nearly everywhere you look, four years after the fact and nearly three years after the invasion of Iraq, you will see the Stars and Stripes being proudly displayed. American flags and yellow "support the troops" ribbons are a common site...

Mad about Harry (11/17/05)
This Friday, the fourth film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's global bestselling Harry Potter series of novels, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," opens in movie theaters across the country, including the Royal T III right here in Le Mars. Anytime anything or anyone is as widely successful as the Harry Potter series, there are bound to be those that obsess, find fault and try to tear down the author. ...

And if the get up, deck 'em again (11/10/05)
The deceptively warm autumn that we have been enjoying has lulled us into a false sense of security about the looming winter. As a life long Iowan, I know that for every lovely November day we get, somewhere, someone is keeping track and we will, when we least expect it and least want to, be forced to pay the piper. Global warming be dammed, what goes around does indeed come around and the hammer will be dropped on us. Take it to the bank, it will happen...

Thank heaven for combination windows (11/03/05)
November already! Where does the time go? It won't be long until Thanksgiving, then a skip and a jump to Christmas, and before we know it, 2005 will be history. The weather has been so nice, it's truly hard to fathom that we could, at any time, get hit by a blizzard. Remember the Halloween blizzard of 1991? From that year forward, I have followed a simple axiom: always buy Halloween candy that you like, because you never know.....

Does anybody really know what time it is? (10/27/05)
This weekend, Iowa and many other states will turn clocks back one hour before going to bed on Saturday night, as standard time returns at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 30. Remember the old saying "fall back, spring forward," to help you remember what to do...

You go, Brother (10/20/05)
There was an interesting item in the news earlier this week. The principal of a Catholic school in Long Island, New York, has cancelled prom night. Cancelling prom, a traditional rite of passage for teens, has caused some passionate reactions, as you might imagine. The reasons cited for cancelling shed some light on what some see is wrong in our society today...

Nice to have back, even in re-runs (10/13/05)
I have learned in my eight years here at the Sentinel that there are many things that our readers are passionate about. Among the sacred cows in our herd are the crossword puzzle and the comics. If you want to get people mad in a hurry, mess up the comics or leave out the crossword, or worse yet -- the answers. ...

Why would you do a thing like that? (10/06/05)
Last week, the Sentinel covered the third degree sexual abuse trial of Tanner Christians of rural Merrill. Christians was charged with sexually assaulting Lindsey Louison, 16, a student of Le Mars Community High School, on the night of Feb. 11, 2005, behind the bus barn adjacent to the north parking lot at the high school. Christians was acquitted of all charges by a jury a week ago today...

Don't do the crime... (09/29/05)
This week, we changed a policy at the Sentinel regarding the publishing of the names of juveniles in police reports. Iowa law allows for juvenile offenders' names to be published at the time of charges. We are now publishing names and ages of juvenile offenders in arrest records. This is a return to the way things were done here at the Sentinel prior to April, 2000...

In the eye of the beholder (09/22/05)
Could it be that today is already the first day of autumn? According to the folks that know, fall officially arrives at 5:23 p.m. today, the exact time of the autumnal equinox. Fun fact to know and tell, as well as a fun activity with your kids: at the time of the autumnal equinox, it is fairly easy to balance a raw egg on its end. Hey, if I can do it, you can do it. Try it. It's easiest at 5:23, and gets harder as the night progresses...

Don't throw out the baby.. (09/15/05)
There's an old saying, attributed to German proverb from as early as the 1600s, that goes "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water." In the Middle Ages, baths were not nearly as common as they are today. In fact, when baths were taken, the bathwater was quite often reused, to the point that if the smallest person was bathed last (the baby), a careless person could literally lose a baby in the murkiness of the overused bath...

The power of kindness (09/08/05)
The image a mention of the name Katrina conjures up has been forever changed. Before the hurricane that devastated the gulf states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, you probably would have thought of the 1980s group Katrina and the Waves, who had one hit, "Walking on Sunshine."...

Ready for some civil disobedience? (09/01/05)
The Internet has become a wondrous communication tool - you can literally send a message to someone on another part of the planet nearly instantaneously. The advent of electronic mail has helped communications, and some would rightly argue hinder communication with unwanted messages and spam...

Lots of uses for an empty nest (08/25/05)
The day that children ages five to 17 have been either dreading or eagerly anticipating is upon us. Today is the first day of school at Le Mars Community and Gehlen Catholic. Administrators, teachers and support staff have been getting ready as well, and hopefully everyone will have a great year...

A "holiday" that should happen more often (08/04/05)
Well, we made it. Our community survived a statewide Eagles convention, an NBC-TV film crew taping a pilot of a new series, about 20,000 bicyclists and their entourage, and an expanded version of the Plymouth County Fair. Each of these events has left personal and financial impacts on our community, and I'm sure we are all grateful for the experience, as well as grateful that they are all over...

Reality is a good thing, no, let me try that again... (07/21/05)
"They're gonna put me in the movies They're gonna make a big star out of me And all I gotta do is act naturally" -- Buck Owens It's been a watershed week for star watching in Le Mars. Unless you've been under a rock for the past week, you know that NBC-TV's new reality show "Three Wishes" has been in town shooting video for an episode that is expected to air on a Friday night in October...

Get your motor running, head out on the highway... (07/14/05)
"Don't throw the past away You might need it some rainy day Dreams can come true again When ev'ry thing old is new again" -- Lyric, "Everything Old is New Again" After soldiers returned home from World War II, many settled down and began raising families. Children born during the years 1946 - 1964 are referred to as "Baby Boomers," and are currently in their prime earning years, and the target of many people that want their disposable income...

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that" (07/07/05)
Wasn't the weather perfect for the July 4th weekend? I think Sunday was one of the handful of truly "perfect" days we are blessed to get each year. Part of my family's holiday weekend was spent at the movies, watching Steven Spielberg's remake of "The War of the Worlds." Once again, we were able to enjoy a first run movie on opening weekend right here in Le Mars, which makes the event even better...

Music is the height of humanity (06/30/05)
Music is a powerful force in the universe. Countless studies have been done over the years on people of all ages, from children in the womb to the elderly that suffer from Alzheimer's Disease. Nearly every study shows that music stimulates a part of the brain that affects learning and memory...

Don't shoot me, I'm only the publisher (06/16/05)
From the publisher's desk Hello again. I hope your week is going well. Can it be that June is half over? Where does the time go? This week, I wanted to talk to you about a policy we implemented a while back involving our classified ads. I received a letter from Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence, a group coordinating a national effort to close what is referred to as the "newspaper loophole," where firearms are bought and sold between private parties in the classifieds. ...