Idealists just can’t win, no matter the age
Back when I was 16 and an idealist, I decided that our church youth group — I was president — should sit and listen to Handel's oratorio "Messiah" and have...
All Stories
Life is short: Skip the self-pity, grand quests and inevitable despair
I saw one of my novels at a yard sale last week, and it appeared to have been used as a coaster. The interior was quite pristine, but there were...
The braggart with the ducktail who would be president
It is the most famous ducktail in America today, the hairdo of wayward youth of a bygone era, and it's astonishing to imagine it under the spotlight in Cleveland, being...
A hymn for Jim Harrison
My friend Jim Harrison wrote to me last fall: "Nothing new here except aggressive aging that comes from working every day of the week. I don't know what else to...
Garrison Keillor op-ed: No apologies for loving Christmas
So here it is Christmas again and old man that I am, with so many of them to remember, I love it with much of my heart. I grew up...
A parent’s prayer
A perfect shiny summer day and a crowd of jittery children in clusters on the corner, about to board a yellow bus, their backpacks in a pile, their mothers giving...
Charm beats out smarts every time
My time is short and so is yours, so why not tell the truth: A person can get along very well in life without one bit of the mathematics and...
The miracle of shared pleasure
A drizzly Flag Day and wet flags hang on their little poles stuck in the grass along our street. The child asks, "Why the flags?" So you talk about the...
Hanging out with the college crowd
A fine rainy day in Minnesota, and of course we should be discussing regulation of banking and the credit-default-swap market, but something in me wants to walk under a big...
A great nation grinds to a halt
I flew home from Washington Monday night, looking at live pictures on the BP Web site taken by an underwater robot of the greasy waters of the Gulf, and how's...