If you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping yet, might we suggest you speed through the streets of Lowell, Michigan (east of Grand Rapids) — maybe have a car with illegally tinted windows to increase your odds of being stopped by the cops. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
People doing good
Every year, the Salvation Army red kettles turn up all sorts of interesting “contributions.” In these parts, someone regularly drops in thousands of dollars, and occasionally the gold coin.
This contribution, made in Massachusetts, might be the most poignant ever. Read more →
When Anthony ‘Tony’ Mies, died at Assumption Nursing Home in Cold Spring, MN in October 2013, his granddaughter, Regan, was inspired by a blanket his used in his latter days. Read more →
Your daily dose of sweetness comes from Aaron Rodgers. Again.
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Today’s Story Corps segment from NPR provides that unusual blend of sweetness and horror.
Horror over the way we treat people we profess to love. Sweetness from the strangers who take our place. Read more →
A Canadian low-cost airline has struck it big on the InterTubes with its lengthy commercial/doc on providing a Christmas for a village in the Dominican Republic. Read more →
A guy in Cottage Grove can’t receive the applause he fully deserves because he doesn’t want his last name used, but he’s a neighbor looking out for other neighbors. Read more →
Audrey Kletscher Helbling, who writes the Minnesota Prairie Roots blog, has a real knack for finding the obvious characterizations of our sensibilities that most of us don’t see. Read more →
Matthew Heisler, 21, died in a house fire last March. His heart still beats. Read more →
It’s never too late to achieve a dream. Read more →
If Tim Stahl, of Greenfield, Minn., hadn’t stepped forward to put his money where his heart is, dozens of others would have. Read more →
It is often hard for mere mortals to fathom the grace that can surround dying. Read more →
Not surprisingly, Steve Hartmann provided another dose of decency over the weekend with his On the Road profile of former NFL player Jason Brown, who walked away from the game (after he was released by the St. Louis Rams) to become a farmer and feed hungry people, even though he didn’t know anything about farming. Read more →
In a perfect world, love alone would cure cancer. Read more →
Dozens of farmers show up in Wisconsin to bring in the harvest for a man who was killed while farming last week. Read more →