One of the more beloved school traditions is homecoming, a fall ritual where students past and present come together to celebrate their alma mater. It’s an event I remember fondly from when I was in high school where the football team was more in the spotlight than usual, competitions where each class fought to show who had the most school spirit took place, and tailgate parties and other exciting events provided a welcome respite.

In today’s episode of Yucking Someone’s Yum, I present to you the Little Free Library, a concept of literacy being available everywhere, versus the homeowner association, a concept of Karens living down the road thinking they can bully you into doing whatever they want so the neighborhood can look uniform and sterile. For those who are unaware of Little Free Libraries, don’t feel bad.

Certain dates are seared into our memories. More often than not, we can’t remember what we had for breakfast this morning or even what we saw in the 90 minutes driving from one community to another. However, those of us over 25 remember a fateful day in 2001 when our complacency and confidence that we were in a safe place was shattered, and we knew that nowhere was completely under protection.

It’s that time of the year, the time when I need to renew my registration for my old reliable Jeep. It’s something everyone with a vehicle must do, and in Wisconsin, we must do it every year. When I was living in Arizona, we had the option to do it every two years, which I did. Depending on the emission standards, you could renew your vehicle for a five-year period.

Dolly Parton has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Most singers come and go, especially in a world where we’re oversaturated with music, but when it comes to a woman who came from a poor family and turned her life into one of giving, that’s something that endures. I’m scarcely believing that we’re losing Dolly at the age of 80.

We love our love stories. We love reading about someone lonely who finds someone in a tale that usually includes the words “unbridled passion” and “setting fire to my loins.” I’ve written plenty of those tales. However, that’s old hat. Some authors are writing love stories in the midst of dire situations where very few are thinking about love and romance, but somehow, in the middle of deep despair, that sweet amor wriggles its way in.

We all love heartwarming tales. Whether it’s a hero saving the day or someone doing something that’s kind, we want somebody to root for, to give us motivation to keep listening, watching or reading. Of course, we also know that behind every great person, there’s usually someone else working in the shadows, providing support and allowing the one in the spotlight to truly shine.

Trading athletes tends to be big news, especially in states that have professional sports teams. Here in Wisconsin, the world of basketball was rocked when Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokoumpo, who had spent most of his career here, was traded to the Miami Heat recently. It had seemed like Antetokoumpo would be here forever—or at least until he decided to retire.

When my sweetheart, Todd, and I were searching for a church years ago, we had some spectacular misses when going to several Shawano churches. It took a couple of years before we found Christ Congregation United Church of Christ in neighboring Clintonville. We passed by the church, and one of the things Todd first noticed was the rainbow banner outside, showing that the church supported the LGBT community.

The key to anything successful is the message. If you have a message that includes everyone—or at least as many people as possible—then there’s a good chance that your endeavor will be a success. If the message excludes, whether intentionally or through carelessness, anyone or makes them feel like they’re not a part of the fun, that creates schisms that put success in peril.

As a Christian, I’m supposed to have forgiveness in my heart when people do wrong. As an animal lover, I have a hard time forgiving someone who inflicts pain and suffering on a helpless creature. That realization hit me recently when something came across my desk at work about a dog that was found with gunshot wounds and other injuries near the community I live in.

It’s mid-summer, and the ball parks are full of screaming fans eager to enjoy a baseball game. It’s just like any other summer. Is it though? I ask because America seems to be in the grip of another ball frenzy, trading in bats for nets—really big nets, the kind that make basketball players envious. The balls are bigger than in baseball, and unlike baseball, the game plan requires much more fancy footwork.

In every art form, there are elite titles. In acting, there’s the EGOTs—short for actors who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. On a side note, there are some interesting notes for awards. Maybe we should have the Mildred awards, or perhaps Hortense? In book writing, we have the New York Times bestsellers. No, I’m nowhere near that level, and given some of the policies of that paper, it might be a good thing I’m not.

Books have been on the forefront of my mind over the last week. From selling the books I’ve written to buying books that have caught my eye, the literary side of my brain has kicked into high gear. It got me thinking of the books that I’ve read previously. I read more in my youth than I do today, mostly because I spend a lot of my extra time writing than reading.

I remember when I was growing up in Chino Valley having to learn math. First came the addition and subtraction, which was fairly easy. Then they taught us to multiply, which was a little more difficult. After that came division, another challenging step at first. I could go on and on about going into algebra and trigonometry in high school, but division seems to be a good place to end the math metaphor.

It’s been a few years since I’ve had to write about lemonade stands and how sweet children looking to make a few bucks have run afoul of the law, but recent news reports show that we’ve somehow lost the ability to let kids be kids. However, there is a nice twist this time around. One of my local television stations ran a story from its parent company about police being called to a neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas, when someone dialed 911 about a pair of brothers running a lemonade stand.

I have about a dozen ceramic bowls sitting in my cabinet. There’s a tiny purple one that’s shaped like a heart. A couple of others are shaped like trapezoids. They’re all awash with color and include some interesting patterns. All of them are currently empty. Keep in mind, I don’t have a particular need for that many bowls. However, it was for a good cause.

I love some improvements in technology, the evolution of how we navigate our world. Of course, there are some places where I draw the line. One of those is streaming services. It’s not for a lack of trying, though. Streaming services like Netflix came as an alternative to cable and satellite television years ago when the monthly prices for those services rose to obscene levels.

We all have a creative spark somewhere that inflames us and causes us to do wonderful things. Sometimes, it’s getting that perfect photograph of a raccoon clutching a tree branch in the forest. Sometimes, it’s painting that perfect image of a bowl of fruit sitting on a kitchen table. It could be sewing the most amazing costume or creating a piece of scenery that will knock audiences dead.

When you love someone, you want to go and do things together on a regular basis. It’s completely understandable. After a while, just being at home loses its excitement, and you want to be somewhere else doing something else. One of the big things my sweetheart, Todd, and I like to do is go out to eat. While Todd enjoys cooking for me, and the reverse is true, it helps break up the monotony of life to go to a restaurant, soak up the atmosphere and enjoy something tasty.

You can’t be a writer without readers. You also can’t be a writer without being a reader. I was fortunate to have a family that put a lot of stock into reading, showing it’s an important way to learn and a vital method for expanding your imagination. You could say that reading is its own reward. However, I think it’s safe to say that diving into stories en masse in return for free pizza was an added bonus for me when Pizza Hut, at the suggestion of President Ronald Reagan, started the Book It!

This week, the family celebrated a milestone. My mother turned 70 a few days ago, celebrating with burgers involving the whole family. When it comes to milestone birthdays, a lot of families rent out venues or go out to fancy restaurants. That’s just not our style, though. It might have something to do with dealing with crowds and not wanting to indulge obnoxious people, but it’s better to just party with loved ones.

If you look around your community, there are plenty of places where you can stop to get a bite to eat. Whether it’s a romantic night out with your significant other, a place where you can host business clients or even spend some time alone for a meal, everybody has their favorites. Todd and I have our favorites when it comes to hometown cuisine, but I think both of us might be hard pressed to remain completely loyal to the locals if a Mission BBQ ever set up shop where we live.

I grew up in Arizona, where the weather was constant sunshine for around 300 days out of the year. You had rain and even snow—although no one I talk to believes that snow could fall in the desert. However, precipitation was more of an anomaly than a regular thing most times. I find myself thinking about the Arizona weather lately as Wisconsin has gone through wacky weather patterns that have people complaining about the outside environment more than usual.

One of my mother’s favorite brags is that I learned how to read at the age of 3½. It is one of the things that she is most proud of. The key to getting a young boy like me into reading was exposing me to books. During those days, there were few bookstores, so much of what I read as a child was from the local library.

It takes a lot to convince me to go to a movie theater these days, mainly because a lot of films out there don’t have the grab factor to convince me to shell out $20 for tickets and snacks. However, it looks like 2026 could be a year when the movie industry actually entices me to visit the theaters more than once a year.

I recently got to thinking about how schools have changed. I wasn’t thinking about the curriculum or the technology that teachers and students use to teach and learn, respectively. My thoughts turned to accessing the school from the outside. Growing up in Arizona, my schools weren’t single buildings with multiple floors like you see in most states. When I was in elementary school, there was one building for kindergarten through third grade, with three classrooms designated for each grade along with school offices and the gymnasium/lunchroom.

There are about 600 different tribes in the United States, each with their own different culture, language and traditions. In Wisconsin, where I currently reside, there are 12 such tribes, and in Arizona, where I grew up, there are 23. In my lifetime, I’ve had the privilege of meeting some different tribal members in both states, and I’ve tried to refer to them in terms that are respectful and kind.

I will not relent when it comes to my family history. I made that clear in my last post when a public figure pronounced the first name of Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski as “Cashmere.” I wasn’t the only one who was honked off about it. My sweetheart, Todd, who has some Polish blood in him, was quite offended. His mother was also displeased.

We should honor our heroes. I was taught that from a very young age. We should especially honor our heroes in the military, especially those fight in wars for our freedom. In my family, we have an ancestor that I have always been proud of—Casimir Pulaski. For those who are not aware of him because George Washington is a more popular war figure in the founding of the United States, I’ll share some of the history.

The ever-expanding internet has created an infinite number of online influencers vying for our attention, wooing us with fitness tips, farm life, food recommendations, comedic shtick and much, much more. It’s likely this is the reason most of us spend so much time glued to our screens seeking to be entertained. Most of the influencers I can take or leave, although I admit it can be easy for one or more of them to lure me off the path of writing.

I was scrolling through Facebook one morning when I came across a post from an entertainer I follow performing on an ocean cruise. Shortly after, I saw another post where a Facebook friend was planning on taking a cruise. Many folks seem eager to hop on a ship and take to the high seas for rest and relaxation. It’s understandable why.

When you come home for the day and settle in for the night, you have to find some way to entertain yourself. Many times, that means plopping down in front of the television to watch your favorite programs and be swept away by the story. That might seem like an odd thing for an author like me to say, but oftentimes, sitting down to watch television serves as a regular ritual to catch up with my favorite characters.

Everybody loves to be entertained. What’s the alternative? Boredom. In ancient times, you had gladiators face off in arenas. As settlers traveled across the new frontiers in the 19th century, they told stories and sang songs during the quieter times of their journeys. Nowadays, entertainment can be found in multiple forms. However, there’s one classic form of entertainment that continues on even to this day—the magical world of theater.

I remember the excitement of getting the Nintendo video game Super Mario Bros. 2 in 1988 and how much I played it on Christmas Day and beyond. Anyone who knows me knows how obsessed I am with the Mario franchise, from getting my hands on the soundtracks to playing the games until the end and beyond. In the second game of the franchise, one of the features in between stages was a slot machine.

Given the world that we live in, it’s not really a surprise that people escape into books. It’s easy enough to come up with fictional tales set in our world, but it can be even more fun to create an entirely new world and develop interesting creatures that inhabit it. Instead of putting on a suit and going to work in a corporate office, you can put on a suit of armor and go off on an amazing quest.

One of my nieces posted something on Facebook earlier this week. It was an image of a couple in 1960s style clothing with the note that in 1960, a family could live on one job and one income, and that family could afford a car, a home and even going on regular vacations. The mother could afford to stay home, and the father was able to work but didn’t have to work excessively to provide for his family.

I’ve been known as a book author for nearly 20 years, but before that, I crafted stories in a more theatrical style through plays. The writing bug hit me in my teen years, and after acting in some school plays, I decided to write my own stories through theatrical performance, and in 1993, my junior year of high school, one of those plays came to life.

Many folks like the idea of looking to the future and embracing new ways of doing things. New concepts, new technologies—call it what you will, but moving forward is the sign of a good civilization. However, there’s also something to be said about not forgetting the old way of doing things. I’m not talking about the old folks talking about having to walk five miles to school, uphill both ways through the snow—although I’d be tickled to see today’s kids try that.

Christmas is finished, and a new year is upon us. There are two certainties with a new year. The first is that people are going to go out on New Year’s Eve, ready to ring in 2026 with confetti, champagne and wonderful anticipation. The second is that some people are going to make new year’s resolutions, deluding themselves by the notion that change takes place on Jan.

There’s something about Christmas Eve—the anticipation of something wonderful coming. After almost two months of a sense of goodwill intermingled with chaos and the hunt for the perfect present, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Whether it’s everybody unwrapping presents next to the tree or a train coming at you is what makes it interesting.

During my high school years, I got involved with a number of clubs. After a rather awkward childhood, being part of the drama club and other organizations made me feel like I was a part of somethin…

Which of your books is your favorite? This question was asked of me at a recent vendor event for Fox Valley Pride. It wasn’t the first time I was asked the question, but like the other times, I didn’t have a satisfactory answer. It’s akin to asking a parent who their favorite child is. However, after I got home, I started thinking that each of my books represent something new and different.

It’s a rough world out there, and people are turning away from traditional media, and in some ways, the internet. War, famine, corruption and more. You’ll occasionally find some good news along the way, but you have to ask yourself if it’s real or something crafted up by artificial intelligence. The bleakness of the world often has you wondering if there’s an escape hatch, a way to escape reality.

Thanksgiving has passed. You know, that one holiday whose public relation officials spend most of November asleep at the wheel while the cheerleaders of Christmas take full advantage. I woke up the morning after the holiday and read a news piece about select restaurants opting to open for the holiday as many folks spend the holiday enjoying the food without having to suck up several hours or several days preparing a meal for family.

It’s not always easy for me to find time to sit down and read a book. I write full-time for a newspaper, and then I take quite a bit of time putting together my novels. However, I recently discovered a friend I went to school with in Chino Valley is in the same boat I am, having published a pair of novels.

It’s that time of the year when the big debate arises about whether we should be breaking out the Christmas lights and decorations, as well as whether we should be cranking up the Christmas songs. …