Category Archives: Uncategorized

Community comes in many forms: parades, high school football games, music festivals. Today, I celebrate the community of Marge’s Donut Den. I was down there this morning for the 40th anniversary of this beautifully bustling place on 28th Street SW … Continue reading →

I love it when life circles you back to meaningful people. I met Mike Paskewicz nearly 30 years ago when I embarked on the Class of 2000 series for The Grand Rapids Press. We reconnected when I joined School News … Continue reading →

This story, part of a yearlong series on poverty we are doing at School News Network, took me into the classrooms of two remarkable teachers in Grand Rapids. For a fuller glimpse of what they do there, you can check … Continue reading →

It’s very English out there in Grand Rapids today, cool, gray and drizzly. The kind of day that on the old island breeds chilblains, British reserve, cozy pubs and great writers. It was this kind of day when my sister … Continue reading →

Note from me: For faithful readers who may have been wondering what I’ve been up to, when not writing for The Grand Rapids Press/MLive, here you go. I am one of five reporters for School News Network, which covers the students … Continue reading →

They dig like dinosaurs, chomping into the earth These fearsome metal-jawed excavators Hauling up mouthfuls of rocky dirt, cement block, rusty rebar Kicking up the grimy, dusty detritus Of the old word factory. They tear and rend like T-Rexes These … Continue reading →

I caught nature dying the other day. A sharp shard of ice hung from the gutter of my porch, the sun illuminating it like a Nordic pitch fork. Tiny beads of water dripped from its two tines. Out with the … Continue reading →

When I was a kid, Mom occasionally fixed us something for dinner called “city chicken legs.” We Honey kids thought this was a real treat. It was some kind of tasty meat on a stick, breaded and fried. They were … Continue reading →

In the fall of 1965 I was an invalid. I injured my back playing football in the backyard and spent the next three months in a body cast, encased chest to knees in mummifying plaster. Don’t ask about the details. … Continue reading →

I always forget how much I hate being sick. It makes an otherwise normal life into an unpleasant chore, all the day and night long. The fact almost everyone does it at this time of year is little consolation. I … Continue reading →