HONOLULU — One more down, just eight to go. That is my updated count on U.S. states I have visited. One of my many bucket list items is to touch them all, as in be in every one of the United States …

With so many more pressing issues, I have tried to not think about, or at least not comment on the idea of a new baseball stadium in Kansas City. I really have tried to stay open-minded about the …

Sometimes when I am bored or just needing a good chuckle, I head to social media to find out what the local pundits are complaining about. It’s usually the same kind of stuff – the city sucks, we …

I recently was in a conversation with a gentleman asking about the buildings on the square. Not being from these parts, he was unaware of the history. His primary thought seemed to be that it is …

At last the long national nightmare is over: the Hollywood writer’s strike is over. This was becoming so much of a crisis for so many because how were we expected to survive without knowing the …

Last week was my big brother’s birthday. I call him my big brother even though I am a couple inches taller and much heavier, he came first so he was always older and therefore bigger. My brother, …

I think most everyone agrees it is important to get away from work once in a while and find some nice peace and tranquility with a vacation trip. I just returned from such a trip where, as I shared …

So, how’s it going, eh? Just getting back in the states from Canada where I got to be with old friends, spend some special time with my fiancé, Leslie, and of course, caught some Royals baseball …

Last weekend Ned Yost was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame. Yost was the manager behind the Royals seemingly impossible championships nearly a decade ago. As I wrote about in my blog (yes, I …

Lesson learned – the perfect time to visit Silver Dollar City is the Sunday right before school is about to start. At least, such was the case this year. Maybe it was the extreme heat. Maybe it was …

As unbelievable as it seems, the football season opens tomorrow night, at least on the high school level. It certainly doesn’t seem like football season yet because football should be about crisp …

We were taught early in journalism classes that every story answers the “Five Ws:” who, what, when, where and why. While the who, what, when and where have always been fairly easy to track down, …

I don’t know if it is just me or if everyone feels it, but it seems like we don’t celebrate things anymore. Almost weekly great advances in technology, medicine and other fields of science are …

As I have recently written, my plans for the summer included a chance to see some of my favorite all-time bands in concert. The first in May was Chicago at Starlight Theater, the second was Head East …

I really don’t care if it is just the 27th of July or that the temperature is 148 degrees outside, I have been in a Christmassy-kind of spirit all week. I have actually had some holiday spirit …

My fiancé, Leslie, and I tend to get along pretty well together. We have similar interests in music, television, religion, philosophy and politics (and of course, a deep admiration for me.)  We …

I am getting really tired of my computer popping up ads for “my new virtual assistant.” While there is no doubt I need help, I’m not sure ears on my computer waiting for me to ask questions are …

I’ve reached that point in life where birthdays mean a little more than changing numbers on legal forms and being able to boast surviving another revolution around the sun. Early in life, birthdays …

As I whined about last week, plans for a brief Florida vacation were scuttled by weather forecasts of lots of rain. After pulling the plug on the southern trek, my fiancé, Leslie, and I attempted to …

At 9:58 yesterday morning, it officially became summer, which means only one thing: it’s time to think about vacation. I am a little late getting in the lazing off-time mood. In the past, meaning …

Two of the future stars of distance running in the state call Cass County home, and they both have two more years of high school. Harrisonville’s Kayleigh Norris and Pleasant Hill’s Brooke Beck …

I have to admit that Christmas was about the furthest thing from my mind last week. With spring just about to give way to summer, things of the outdoors and sun were more on my mind than candy canes …

It pains me to think that the music I love is classified as “Classic Rock.” To me, the music I love is simply rock and roll, but somehow about 50 years have passed and what was once simply the …

October 9, 1977 was maybe the worst night of my life, at least up to that point. While not a child, I was still youngish, so I had yet to experience many of the real pains, disappointments, problems …

The end of another school year has arrived. The whole school is over before Memorial Day is a relatively new thing, well at least compared to my school days which ended about 49 years ago. OK, so …