Posted on December 1, 2012
Twenty five years ago Hallmark introduced a simple device that revolutionized the mechanics of gift giving: a paper bag attached to two handles. The gift bag freed us from tape and scissors, from sizing and snipping and folding. It enabled us to shop on the run, to pick up present and package in one quick […]
Posted on November 1, 2012
The men had just left morning Mass when they spotted the flames. It was the second Monday of November, and they’d been without electricity since Saturday. Torrential winds had toppled trees and power lines, so they’d been keeping warm with a big fire in their lounge. St. Malo Retreat Center was a three-story lodge owned […]
Posted on October 1, 2012
My dad and brother just returned from a fly-in fishing adventure in the Canadian wilderness – fly in, that is, because their outpost camp could only be accessed by floatplane, the sole cabin on a remote lake teeming with walleye. It was a week of primitive living – no electricity, no indoor toilets, no cell […]
Posted on September 1, 2012
The one thing that may be harder than being an Olympian is being the parent of an Olympian. As I watched the London games, I was awed by the athletes and charmed by their parents. There was Michael Phelps’ mom, her eyes and mouth drawn into o’s, momentarily misreading a silver-medal finish for a gold […]
Posted on August 1, 2012
In 1963 my mom was a second grader at St. Joe’s in West St. Paul, Minn., when Sister Marie Pauline asked her to stay after school. The petite, habited teacher held a lined sheet of paper bearing the mandated header JMJ in No. 2 pencil. It was Mom’s penmanship exercise. Then she turned the sheet […]
Posted on July 1, 2012
I write this from the road, winding through pines and rolling by silos as Highway 94 cuts across Wisconsin. This is my third road trip in less than a month – a vacation, a wedding, a conference. I would be highway weary except these hills are so green and the sky, a marble band of […]
Posted on June 1, 2012
This week the Social Security Administration released 2011’s most popular baby names, as gathered from applications for Social Security numbers, and there’s been a shake-up in the female ranks: Sophia knocked off Isabella for the No. 1 spot. Jacob, meanwhile, held strong, maintaining his top standing among boys for the 13th consecutive year. This news […]
Posted on May 1, 2012
Brother Mickey O’Neill McGrath can’t help but grin when he talks about his art studio. It’s been a long time coming for the 55-year-old Oblate of St. Frances de Sales who grew up drawing but wasn’t able to commit to a full-time art career until 1994. When the award-winning painter first visited the row house […]
Posted on April 1, 2012
This month we mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and the luxury liner buried two and a half miles below the Atlantic bobs to the surface once again. But I keep circling back to the shipwreck of 2012, the cruise liner Costa Concordia that struck a reef off the Italian island […]
Posted on March 1, 2012
Spring is almost here and the sweet home-show season is upon us! Time to inspect the Joneses’ mansion and discover just how far behind we’ve fallen. This month we’ll be allowed to try on bigger homes for size, drooling over the amenities on our wish lists and finding new ones to add. And you can […]