As we quickly approach the end of 2023, I hope your reading material this year has been full of some memorable books! I didn’t quite meet my reading goal of 50 books this year, but I got really close…I’ll try again in 2024. more

Missourians, consider yourselves fortunate that you didn’t re-elect Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2018. I say that because of some incredible statements she made recently on MSNBC. more

It started with a limp. What we’d hoped was just a muscle sprain in the dog’s hind leg lingered for two months, landing us in the office of a veterinary orthopedic surgeon for x-rays. more

In 1896, the Sedalia Democrat reported on an act of forgery, describing how Samuel Redcay, formerly of the village of Longwood in northeastern Pettis County, had been arrested on two charges of forgery in a plot that involved three banks in Sedalia, at least three banks in Marshall, as well as banks in Cole Camp and Houstonia. more

While I had no clue who said it, I had heard the famous phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words” about a thousand times during my lifetime. So, I went online to find out who it was. more

I’ve heard that growing old is not for sissies. A doctor told me that – one of the doctors I have seen in the past 60 days. And darn if she isn’t right. more

“In those days Roger Goodell issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire football world. (This was the first census that took place while Parson was governor of Missouri.) And everyone went to his own home turf to register …” more

Many of you know me from our former wine shop, Wine and More, which we had at two locations, downtown and South Limit Avenue in Sedalia. I began my second career in wine in 1994 when I accepted a job based in Austria and traveled routinely around the world. You might say from the ground up. more

Writer’s note: Warning, parents – this article is about Santa. more

There’s a popular meme which reads: “I just saved a ton of money on Christmas gifts discussing politics during Thanksgiving Dinner.” more

When M.K.& T. Railroad Paymaster William A. Morrill disappeared from Sedalia on Sept. 21, 1878, the Sedalia Bazoo noted he left his wife and six children terribly worried. His disappearance was so unlike him that his friends and fellow employees feared he had fallen victim to illness, sudden death, or criminals. more

One of the things my dad taught me about the working world is that it’s always good to have “multiple revenue streams.” That way, if one stream dries up or slows to a trickle, you’ll have another one to keep you going. more

I went to a Celebration of Life for my friend Becky last night. As she was one of the most creative and unusual people I’ve ever known, she and her husband appropriately determined before she died of pancreatic cancer that her final party would be held at Chicken N Pickle, a pickleball court and restaurant. Though her last admonitions to all her friends included “Don’t cry for me,” lots of people shed tears while they played pickleball, ate barbecue, and sipped libations on an indoor pickleball court. more

We have a cat now. more

Dear Editor: more

“P.C., do you think I am a Christian?” a young lady asked me some years ago. more

I’m not a Black Friday shopper. I’m a Black Friday sleeper. While the stores see black on the bottom line, the only black I see is the inside of my eyelids while I dream about which Thanksgiving leftovers to eat first. more

In the 19th and early 20th century, Sedalia was the home of the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad hospital, where railroad employees from the M.K. &T Railroad were brought for treatment. more

My favorite holiday has come and gone – and the torch has been passed. more

I collect antique women’s magazines from the 1940s and ‘50s, titles like Good Housekeeping and Ladies’ Home Journal. Contrary to what one might expect, they are not vapid, fluffy publications full of makeup tips and advice on buffing the kitchen floor. There is some of that, of course, but the women’s magazines of the time were much smarter and more serious than the mythos we moderns have built up for ourselves about the brain-dead midcentury housewife. more