Column: A more-than-fair day for Mary

The final morning of the Dakota County Fair dawned day and cool, an antidote to the preceding week of storms and humidity. There was almost a touch of chill in the strong breeze as my husband and I walked towards the front gate. Finally the perfect weather for the fair arrived.

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Book Report: Two poets’ work in the spotlight

One of the many attributes of Wisconsin’s Thomas R. Smith that attracts me to his poetry is his reverence for past writers, some of them almost forgotten, like John Clare (1793-1864), who was probably driven mad by England’s Enclosure Act of 1809.

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Book Report: A triple treat this week

Here are two good reads to take on your last trip to the cabin up north.

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Book Report: Words written, then read between the lines, provide ‘lyrics’ of a different sort

We lost one of America’s literary treasures last year when Bill Holm of Minneota, Minn., and the world left us to mourn his passing and glory in what he left behind.

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Exhibitors during the Fair

Exhibitors will be at the Round Barn, Picnic Shelter and Outdoors.

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Book Report: Misspellings are thorns in the sides of many

Fifty years ago in Bowling Green, Ohio, a fellow named Charlie Perkins made the best goldarned bologna outside of Bologna, Italy. Business was so good, Perkins put a new neon sign out of his little butcher shop at the edge of town.

Looking back: Centel disconnected main Farmington office in 1985

A weekly look back at what was happening in Farmington 25, 50, 75 and 115 years ago.

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Book Report: Murder, intrigue are prime topics this week

Kudos to Julie Kramer for yet another well-told mystery entitled “Silencing Sam” (Atria, $23.99).

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Book Report: Taking an inside look of 1939’s World’s Fair

I’m fond of books that deal with just one year in the life of world history.

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Your weekend: Plenty of live-music options on stage this weekend

One big concert and several smaller performances highlight this weekend's entertainment options in Farmington.

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Book Report: Perfect reads to have along when not fishing

It’s time to go to the lake. Worrying about that seven-day hiatus when it rains morning, noon and night, or when the fish all stop biting?

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Book Report: Concentration on hierarchies rather than product can be fatal in corporate world

Recently New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that years ago the motto was as “General Motors Goes, So Goes the Nation.” He followed by saying, “I’m very glad that isn’t true today.”

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Book Report: I’m not a fan of fantasy, except for this one work

“The Books of Elsewhere: The Shadows,” by Jacqueline Cobian West, black and white illustrations by Polly Bernatene (Dial Press, $16.99), just blew me away.

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Book Report: Baseball’s a hit this week

Years back I remember hearing WCCO’s Ray Christensen and the late Dave Moore reminisce about when they were neighbors growing up in south Minneapolis.

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Book Report: Cherma captured in poetry

Back in 1920, Edgar Lee Masters, who grew up in a small Midwestern college town wrote a wonderful book of poems about the kind of people who settled his town of Galesburg, Ill.

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