Short stories and photos shared with humor and love
Are we Midwesterners ever not surprised by summer’s miracles? Monday, I rolled my yoga mat out onto a field covered with snow white clover blossoms. Just an eye blink ago, actual snow — mean, icy drifts of it, covered that same field. I took a deep breath of gratitude for the miracle of clover. On [...]
In a challenging world, I’m happy we still have lemonade stands and enterprising young people who run them. Our neighbors hosted just such a stand this past Saturday — complete with two kinds of lemonade, homemade brownies and cookies. They employed all sorts of impressive marketing tactics. In a tactic reminiscent of the Burma Shave [...]
I slid down an AI rabbit hole yesterday, lured, ironically, by a poem. Please Use AI, posted on Instagram by @thepoetjoanna, first caught my eye. I love her lush descriptions of how genuine humanity transcends artificial intelligence. "Please use AI when your mother dies," she wrote in the first stanza. "Ask it what grief feels [...]
Where I live, summer wafts in on merry waves of music. It rises like yellow daffodils from parks, bandshells and tavern courtyards. Summer is a song here in Appleton, and we privileged mortals just have to find a seat somewhere and listen. Last night, as I sat in a lawn chair and listened to the [...]
You’ll forgive College Avenue if it needs to take a little snooze today. Saturday, on a short stretch through that main thoroughfare, Appleton hosted a bustling farmer’s market, a Pride Promenade, and the Flag Day Parade. What a day! What a city! What a relief that it all went off without a hitch! “We stand [...]