On "minimally invasive"  mitral valve surgery

This column was published on November 21, 2024,  under the Editor’s Headline: "Heart Felt." The essay concerns the long hard road to obtaining the surgical treatment my body needed to be well.

To read it, please click here.

Good Neighbors

This column was published on November 4, 2024, in the online Cheyenne Post, under the Editor’s Headline: "Being Neighborly." The essay began with an idea espressed in a Robert Frost poem.  To read it, please click here.  

Bird Column

This column was published on October 21, 2024, under the Editor’s Headline: "For the Birds." To read it, please click here. To the right is a recent coverpage of Wyoming Wildlife, a journal mentioned in the column.

This column was published on October 11, 2024, under the Editor’s Headline: "Living Differently."

The article discusses two types of neurodivergence, autism and dyslexia. The latter has been the fate of my friend and recent domestic partner, Ronald Garver. To read the article as it appeared in the online Cheyenne Post, click here. To the right is a recent snapshot of both of us.

Column published September 25, 2024. Editor’s Headline: "Oh, Deer!"

This column takes us to the time I moved from Platte County to Saratoga, Wyoming, where I have repeatedly experienced deer wandering th streets and yards of residents. To read the article as it appeared in the online Cheyenne Post, click here. To the right, deer ongregate by a Saratoga residence. Photo courtesy Ronald Garver.

This Column explores retirement travel via an inexpensive travel club.  My ventures k=have taken me to memorable places in the United States, in Wyoming, and in Germany and China. To read it as it appeared in the online Cheyenne Post, click here. To the right is a photo of Wyoming's Quaking Aspen in autumnal splendor.

Column published August 29, 2024. Editor’s Headline: "Nazis in the United States."

the conclusion to the previous column.  To read as it appeared in the online Cheyenne Post, please click here. 

Column published August 16, 2024. Editor’s Headline: "Problems in the White House"

This column describes my arrival in California shortly before the Nixon White House years. To read it, click here.

To the right:

My family of origin a year before Mother died (between me and Father). I left, first for France, then for California, while my brother Karl (next to Father) left for New York at eighteen with little command of English. He later moved near me and my American family in California.

This discussion appeared on June 6 in the Cheyenne Post. It covers the first of  Rodger McDaniel's writing workshops at the recent Wyoming Writers Conference. To read it, click here. To the right is my original essay for ownloading and reading. 

Here I am discussing what to do when you want to donate used clothing. To read th column,, click here. Tothe right is my original essay you may dowoad  in pdf format. 

This essay, published as a column on May 14, 2024, describes what I learned about self-disclosing teaching and writing from Jeffrey Berman's books.  To read it, click here. To the right is the expanded and updated version of the essay.

This  column describes the upcoming conference of Wyoming Writers, Inc., that celebrates the organization's 50th anniversery.  The conference is scheduled for Friday, May 31, through Sunday, June 2nd, 2024, at theRamkots Hotel in Casper.  To read  the Cheyenne Post edition, click here. The pic on the right hows me with  my domestic parter, Ron Garver, who attended th conference with me.

This article, published on April 25, 2024, discusses my visit to Germany and Switzerland in February and March of this year. To read the article as it appears in the Cheyenne Post, click here. To the right is my original essay in pdf form.

This article discusses the differences in the Supreme Court's "merit docket" and "shadow docket."  The editor entitled this article  "The Shadow of the Supreme Court." It was published on March 13, 2024. To read it, click here.

This Cheyenne Post article dicusses the US Supreme Court's changes over the past fifty years. To read, click here. To the right is the article I changed a bit after publication.  

A discussion with a German student in early February 2024 led me to put into a column what we discussed, the way native Americans were murdered and their land stolen while slavery was inbedded in the first and third U.S. pesidencies. To read it, click here.

In January I went out on a limb with a political opinion. My editor titled it "An Anti-Trump View." to read it, click here. To the right is my original essay.

The subject of grief versus grievances has been on my mind off and on. Finally I put it into words, partly relying on a snippet of family history that was a sad period in my eldest son's last year in high school and first year in college. The column appeared on Januay 11, 2024. To read it, click here.

This column appeared in print on December 31, 2023. It discusses the art of asking follow-up questions in routine conversations. To read it, click here.

This column tackles a subject close to the previous one. It was published on December 20, 2023, with the editor’s headline of "Surviving Self-Labeling." To read, click here. To the right is my original essay.

This is a follow-up essay to the previous one, below, covering a dynamicspeaker at MAAFA whose talk revolved around Africa and his homeland, Sudan. To read it, click here.

This is a write-up of my presentation at MAAFA, which was held at the laramie County Community Center on October 14. To read it, click here. To the right is my original essay. 

This column begins with a report of a worker who fell to his death from an oil-rig platform, then looks at the implications of lives lost to oil-and-gas drilling. To read, click here. To the right is my original essay.

This column discusses a negative experience with a local plumbing outfit, which remains unnamed, in the town where I now live. To read, click here. My original essay is on the right.

This column returns to the past in American politics at the time of Reaganomics that gives me a hard time. To read, click here. My original essay ison the right.

This column begins in California but includes a look back at some early adverse exeriences and how they shaped my life. To read, click here. My original essay, which I've expanded a bit, is at right.

This column describes a recent hike in the Snowy Mountains. Four of us from Saratoga joined Audubon members from Cheyenne. To read, click here. My original essay is at right.

This column is a continuation of the one on art vs. politics, below. To read, click here. To the right is my original essay.

This column, posted on August 9, 2023, explores the interference in academic affairs by vested interests and their political lackeys. To read, click here. To the right is the first half ofmy original essay.

This column contemplates how we might engage in harm reduction in the opioid epidemic. To read, click here.

To get it right, I worked on this report about fentanyl repeatedly. I called it the "f-drug" after hearing a user refer to it as such. Here is the link to the published piece; to the right is the pdf version.

This column, about suicides' effects, appeared June 28, 2023. Here is the link; to the right is my original essay in pdf form.

This column, though it leaves certain questions unanswered, begins to lift the veil from an upsetting time, To read the printed version in the Cheyenne Post, click here. The original is to the right.

This column shows how the U.S. was flooded with illegal drugs during the Reagan Administration. To read the version that appeared in the online Cheyenne Post, click here. To read the original, click the pdf to the right.

This is the second part of my report on the Sackler clan and its shenanigans. To read the printed version, click here. To read the original, click the pdf to the right.

The opioid epidemic has preoccupied me lately. This column, on the Sackler clan and their unscrupulous marketing of OxyContin, set the crisis in motion. To read the column, click here. 

This column discusses the performance of a fine classical guitarist from France, with commentary on some of the composers whose works he performed on April 27, 2023, in Cheyenne, WY. I traveled from Saratoga, WY, where I now live, to attend the event with a friend and renew ties with members of the Cheyenne Guitar Society.

The column adds a bit of personal information on how, as a six-year-old, I came to play mandolin and (implied) later, classical guitar. Click here to read.

Above, my original essay.

This column discusses Frans de Waal, prolific author and primatologist. Click here to read.To the right is my original essay.

This column voices my concerns about the climate crisis hanging like a Damocles sword over our collective heads. Click here to read. 

Column published March  24, 2023. Click here to read. To the right is my original essay.

A gap in published columns on account of personal adversity. Here is the column published March 8, 2023. Click here to read. To the right is my original essay.

This column was published Feb 20, 2023, as "Legislative Stress." Click here to read.  To the right is my original essay.

This column was published Feb 20, 2023, as "Let's Talk." Click here to read.To the right is my original essay.

This early February column discusses the decades-long Harvard Study on Adult Development and its findings on long and successful living. Click here to read. To the right is my original essay in pdf format.

Jan 30, 2023, an essay on clutter in our lives. Editor’s Headline: “On Becoming Hoarders.” Click here to read.

Read the memory of a dream, published in the Cheynne Post on January 24,2023, by clicking here.

I'm getting used to life in Saratoga, WY. The hot springs, which the locals call Hobo Pool, are wonderful. Open year around, 24/7, and free of charge to anyone, visitors, tourists, locals. Early mornings are best, sparsely visited. Read an update to my current life in the Cheynne Post by clicking here. To the right is my original essay.

My column writing suffered a hiatus as I was involved in a life change. This column says goodbye to an accustomed place and way of life. I'm leaving rural Wheatland, moving to Saratoga, WY. Click here to read. To the right is my original.

Today I'm trying my hand at Wyoming politics as concerns Liz Cheney. Click here to read the column  in the Cheyenne Post. To the right is my original 

This essay argues against the idea "Life is Good" by using Jessie Singer's book "There Are no Accidents." Among other things, Singer exposes the insidious influence of ALEC, the legislative "council" that writes and promotes regulations beneficial to Big Business. Click here to read the Cheyenne Post publication. To the right is my original.

This column elaborates on the Covid variant Omicron B.5. Click here to read its Cheyenne Post publication. To the right is my original.

Jackson Hole Writers' Conference happened in late June. I attended via Zoom. To read the post I wrote about the experience in the online Cheyenne Post, click here. My essay in pdf format is on the right.  

This column explains Wyoming's Fossil Lake and nearby National Fossil Monument. To read it in The Cheyenne Post, click here. My original essay is to the right.

Another meditation on the composer Beethoven and his Ninth Symphony. To read it on the Post's website, click here. To the right is the essay in the original.

This column relates the legal protection for non-game birds, particularly raptors and songbirds, that had its beginning in Wyoming. To read as it appears on the Cheyenne Post website, click here. My original essay is to the right.

This column of May 19, 2022, talks about the current craze of book banning. To read as it appears on the Cheyenne Post website, click here. To the right is my original, before the editor trimmed it.

This column examines some reactions in our state to fellow Wyomingites who are gay. To the right is my original essay. For the Cheyenne Post link, click here.

Edith Eva Eger's "The Choice: Embrace the Possible" reflects her own and recent veterans' war experiences. Click here

This column is a personal-experience essay that recounts an incidentwhile traveling in Texas. Click here.

This column discusses the latest IPCC report on accelerating climate change around the globe. To read, click here.

This column examines my late husband's views on the Supreme Court, which I believe to be in error. To read, click here.

This column is longer than most, but it discusses an issue that should be important to all of us: our unconscious biases regarding unfamiliar accents or manners of speaking. To read the published version, click here; my original is to the right.

Here I discuss the Pentagon's drone strikes in Afghanistan, quite a few of which end as "tragic mistakes", like a wedding party bombed. To read the article as it appeared in the Cheyenne Post, click here. To the right is my original essay.

This is the light-hearted story told me by an oldster about his grandpa and the watch inherited from him. To read it on the Ch-Post website, click here. To the right is my original write-up.

This essay examines the workaholic roots of my family as I grew up in Germany, and similar elements Ifound in the U.S. To read it on the Ch-Post website, click here. To the right is my original essay.

Another family snippet. This story revolves around a conversation with my three adult children.T o read it on the Ch-Post website, click here. To the right is the original.

This column discusses the unfortunate effects of Congress granting, via AUMFs, our presidents carte blanche to create wars abroad. To read it on the Ch-Post website, click here. My original is to the right.

This column on marijuana laws in Wyoming, and the one on asset forfeiture, were written together. To read it on the Cheyenne Post website, click here.

Asset Forfeiture is an opportunistic wayof raising money for law enforcement that preys on already marginalized populations. To read the column on the Cheyenne Post website, click here.

This article reflects on the human tendency to acquire and hoard--and what our heirs have to deal with if we don't dispose of stuff in our lifetime. To read it on the Cheyenne Post website, click here.

Baby rattlers in the basement? A personal essay. To read it as it appears on the Cheyenne Post website, click here. To the right is the unedited essay.

This story recounts my work with Ageless Writers a worthwhile effort that came to an abrupt end. To the right is the unedited version. To read it as it appears on the Cheyenne Post website, click here

This column is aboutmy encounter with Wyoming's complex split-estate problems. To read as it appears on the Cheyenne Post website, click here. To the right is the unedited version. 

This is the saga of the Cheyenne Symphony's recent experiment with the rock music of a noted Cheyenne musician. To read as it appears on the Cheyenne Post website, click here. To the right is the unedited version with a pic provided by the friend who invited me to the performance. 

This is about a visit to Saratoga, WY, and the wonder of Aspen spread. To read the Cheyenne Post website article click here. Opposite is the unedited version.

One of my favorite memories of Yellowstone National Park is discovering its microscopic life. For the Cheyenne Post article, click here. Opposite is the unedited version.

Here I examine the pollution caused by the Wyoming power plants that were never outfitted with scrubbers, though required by the Clean Air Act signed into law by President Nixon. To read the article as it appeared in print, click here. To the right is the unedited version. 

An update on Covid-19 after the Omicron variant swept through our country and elsewhere. For the published version, click here. The unedited essay is on the right.

The abandoned fracking wells in Wyoming that leak methane are a threat to human health, the environment, and the climate. To read the published article, click here. The unedited version is on the right.

A recollection of adolescence in Germany, always tainted by experiencing war as a small child. The unedited version is on the right.To read the essay as published, click here.

This story tells of my son and friends hunting on Windy Acres and leaving Pronghorn steaks in my freezer. For the Cheyenne Post article, click here. To read the unedited essay, go to the right.