Feature Columnists

Today, Nov. 11, is Veterans Day. Officially Veterans Day began as Armistice Day. A proclamation under President Woodrow Wilson marking the end of World War I at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918. However, President Eisenhower signed a bill on June 1, 1954, changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day which...

I took this photo a few weeks ago during wet weather. It shows a land snail crawling across a mushroom called an Earth Star. The Earth Star is similar to a puff ball mushroom in many ways. The biggest visible difference is the flower petal like rays folding outwardly. These rays are tough like...

What does your job mean to you? Is it something you do merely to earn a living? Does your job bring a sense of fulfillment to you, or do you enjoy the praise you receive from other people, the boss or your co-worker? We all have our reasons for going to work every day -- for getting up early in the...

I recently watched the movie "A Quiet Place" -- which was released in April 2018 -- and was deeply moved by it. The film was directed by Jon Krasinski (you might know him as Jim from the television show "The Office"), who also co-wrote the screenplay and stars in it with his real-life wife, Emily...

In our ever-churning news cycle, the title of this column may not be immediately understood. Let me remind readers. One week ago, a 46-year old anti-Semitic gunman walked into a Saturday morning Shabbat service and opened fire on worshippers at Tree of Life synagogue -- mortally wounding 11 people...

In southeast Missouri trees come alive each year when night temperatures drop into the 40s or lower on several successive nights. This sends the sap in the bark of deciduous trees downward, starving leaves of their lifeblood. As the leaves die they come alive with color...

Just before I began to write this column I looked at the weather forecast for the next few weeks. It looks like fall is going to begin the transition to winter. This transition will result in the decline of beautiful fall colors. If this bothers you, then think about planting some pansies in your...

This photo represents the simplest of photos, but it is still quite beautiful and inspirational. Three elements comprise this image: trees, fog and sunshine. I walked the western edge of a woods as early morning fog was thinning and lifting away in a light breeze. This created ideal conditions for...

When my friends and I are visiting each other's towns, we like to worship together at one another's churches. Some of us are Catholic and some of us are Protestant, and we go together to the church of the person whose town we're in, regardless of denomination...

"Gloom, despair, and agony on me. Deep dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Gloom, despair, and agony on me." Written by late country singers Roy Clark and Buck Owens, the above lyrics were featured on the 1969-1997 long running TV show "Hee Haw."...

It may not be Halloween just yet, but there is a little trickster out and about. It is the Yellowjacket Mimic Fly. It is the size of the yellowjacket paper wasp that can sting you and make you cry. The Yellowjacket Mimic is a good pollinator of late summer and autumn flowers...

I want to introduce you to Olivia. To borrow from a football motif, Olivia is not only in the last quarter of her life; she is in the final two minutes of the last quarter of her life. Her body is constantly riddled with pain. Her mind is a battleground of emotions. ...

The tiny mushrooms I have photographed here are only about one and a half inches tall. I found them a few days after our last period of rain. One day I walked an area of sparse grass at the edge of a woods and saw no sign of these mushrooms. The next day I walked the same area and there were...

Author Charles F. Stanley says, "Life is a ladder we climb until we die." (In Touch devotional) He goes on to say, "It would be a shame if we simply sat down and did nothing, but it would be worse if we placed our ladder against the wrong wall and discovered, after a life of climbing we had wasted...

I know it's about a month early, but I'm thinking about the term "pilgrim." The pilgrims we pay homage to around Thanksgiving time struck out to an unknown land seeking religious freedom. In fact, a definition of "pilgrim," according to dictionary.com is "a person who journeys to a sacred place for...

For the third consecutive year, the St. Louis Cardinals and their many fans are watching the baseball playoffs from their respective living rooms. I've lived in Cardinal Nation for nearly 30 years, yet my baseball allegiance is elsewhere, with a mediocre team that wears black and gold uniforms and...

I slowly walked a pond levee last week looking for late summer flowers to photograph. Up ahead I noticed a round green object out of place in the brush. As I got closer I realized it was a walnut. My first inclination was that a squirrel must have wedged the nut in the forks of a bush. Then I...

I don't watch much TV. That's more a confession than boasting. Most of the time I would rather be doing something else. Recently though I have been watching more TV, and I've noticed how matters of faith are front and center on the small screen. Perhaps, though, issues of faith being on the small...

There are more than a thousand species of Tachinid Fly described in North America. Many of them look like flies. Some of them, like the one I have photographed here walking on a pumpkin, resemble little wasps. Some tachinid flies will parasitize other insects, such as corn borer worms, by laying an...

Wednesday, Oct. 3 will be a day like any other, I suspect. The British House of Commons will conduct Prime Minister's Question Time. Wednesday means I've got to get the litter boxes cleared and the garbage ready to go out. Others view Wednesday, any Wednesday, as a "wash day," a day for doing...

A couple of weeks ago, my grandpa died. He was a member of a generation I am sad to see passing away; a generation of people whose straightforward wisdom and code of honor has much to teach our current culture. My grandpa had many qualities that mark the rural population of his generation: he was a...

Can you remember a truly depressing time in your life -- a time when you saw no way out of your predicament? You thought you had to quit what you were doing and flee -- find another avenue to attain your goals, or maybe even change your goals. Perhaps you lost your mate, girlfriend or boyfriend. ...

The grass I have photographed here is one that was introduced into the United States from East Asia during the 1920s. It is presumed that mature seeds of this grass came as inert matter in shipments of other grain. This grass is NOT good as hay for livestock, especially when seed heads are mature....

My alarm clock has a radio that I occasionally listen to. I do not listen to the alarm clock radio because either of where I live or where the radio is placed in my home I have difficulty tuning in the frequency that I want to listen to. When I do use the radio, I move the dial slowly to pick up...

On the stems of this buttonbush you can see what looks like powdery grey scales. These are tiny insects called grey aphids. They are native to Europe, but have made there way into America where they are often called Cabbage Aphids. They can be destructive to a fall garden, especially colonizing on...

As I write this column, I see that it is raining outside. The rain in early fall reminds me that now is the best time of the year for lawn owners to reseed their cool season lawns. Cool season lawns are made of bluegrasses, fescues, and ryes, or a combination of these. Let me explain...

"I don't care what other people think. It's my life. I'll do as I please." We hear these words often and, perhaps, we have uttered them, ourselves. What you do in life determines the regard others have of you. It isn't that you want to be a people pleaser, but there are certain ways of acting and...

The cases of abuse and efforts to hide this abuse within the Church have left its members hurting, left many of its members wondering what to do. This is a Church I love. I love it because it encompasses everyone, because it is a Church of deep mystery, a Church of love. ...

It's likely most people who read this column have never heard of the Johnson Amendment. I hadn't until a couple of weeks ago. Now, however, the president of the United States and a candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri are calling for its repeal. What? Wait a minute! Tell me what it is first!...

This little moth is only about an inch and a half across its wings. It is a common native summertime moth in much of North America. Its name is Chickweed Geometer. Larvae worms of the chickweed geometer feed mostly on chickweed, short smartweed and clover. Pink lines across this moth's yellow wings...

Friendship is one of those things of life that you do not appreciate until you no longer have it. In the Bible, the third letter of John is an expression of deep fondness from one friend to another. John the Apostle, one who was with Jesus during his ministry, to another named Gaius. There is much...

Because this tiny frog spends its adult life on the ground and away from water, it is called a toad. It stays in or on moist soil, often in dense vegetation or rotting wet wood. This frog goes by the name Eastern Narrow-mouth Toad. It gets around on the ground much like a small toad, although it...

What does the word indomitable mean? I was driven to look the definition up as I watched a man, Cal, face one difficulty after another. I looked for a word that would describe the awesome spirit I saw displayed within him. I found the meaning of the word indomitable to mean: to never give up or...

As a real estate agent, I'm privileged to see a lot of homes -- and there are some amazing properties in this region. As president of Cape Area Habitat for Humanity, we deal in new construction, so the problem I'm about to mention generally does not exist for our Habitat homeowners...

The past few weeks have been hectic. My life has seemed like one perpetual to-do list, and there are always more items "to do." At times it has felt like I'm in survival mode, with my one goal to plow through the task at hand so I can make it through to the next one. Ideally, I'd like to feel that...

I walked by my tractor on July 29 and was surprised to see a bird fly out of it. I looked for a nest, and easily found it. It was made of dead weed stems, dead grass, small dead leaves and living moss. The nest held four small speckled eggs. Today (Aug. 19) I returned to the tractor and checked on...

Loving people who are like you is easy. In the Bible, Jesus says it does you no good only to love those who love you. To only do good to those you do good to you. Only give to others what is guaranteed to be returned. Loving others, particularly those who are not like you, is risky. The Bible...

The raccoon is one of our easiest native animals to recognize. He is distinguished in his black face-mask and ringed tail. In summertime he becomes a pest in several ways. He is much like a little black bear seeking out trash cans to turn over and investigate for a free lunch. ...