FOR THE JOURNEY The hairpin turns were gasp-inducing, especially to someone afraid of heights. As we climbed higher and higher, I alternated between covering my eyes and then peeking out at the remarkable landscape unfolding beneath the narrow Italian road that spiraled up toward the peak of Monte Cassino. I was on my way to […]

FOR THE JOURNEY Best fishing story of January: A small group of fishermen and an Irish fishing association stopped the Russian navy from conducting war games in fertile fishing territory off Ireland’s coast. The little band of Irish fishermen vowed that they would continue to send up to 60 trawlers continually into the waters during […]

FOR THE JOURNEY On the morning of Jan. 5, a fire tore through a Philadelphia rowhouse that had been converted into apartments. Twelve people died, including nine children. Probably most Americans heard the news, then moved on to the next big story. Perhaps the situation on the Ukrainian border grabbed our attention, or the filibuster […]

FOR THE JOURNEY My husband and I are in the process of moving to the East Coast to be near our daughters and grandchildren. I say “process” because it’s harder to buy a house here than it was in Anchorage, Alaska, or Omaha, Nebraska, two cities where we’ve lived previously. Costs are higher here than […]

FOR THE JOURNEY It may have been a discarded cigarette thrown into a rag bin. No matter how it started, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City in 1911 took only 18 shocking minutes but changed history. The factory employed mostly young immigrant women, who labored long hours in a sweatshop for poverty-level […]

FOR THE JOURNEY When I was a little girl, my dad would tell me, “Don’t take your troubles to bed with you.” I was an inveterate worrier. I wanted the hallway light left on near my bedroom in our old farmhouse. Monsters seemed to lurk, not just under the bed but in every nook and […]