Historians consistently rank Abraham Lincoln as the greatest U.S. president. Without his leadership and political brilliance, the Union may well have lost the Civil War. Born 50 miles south of Louisville, Kentucky on Feb. 12, 1809, his personal life was one of heartbreak and loss. His ...

Everyone is familiar with Cervantes’ Don Quixote, an old man who has lost his wits through over-immersion in chivalric romances and become disconnected from ordinary reality. He sees windmills as menacing giants, an old washbasin as the glorious “helmet of Mambrino,” and roams the ...

The Village of Lake Placid is responsible for highway, water, sewer, police, fire and electric. It always amazes me that the work that gets done is done by only 72 full-time employees, a few part-timers and our volunteer fire department. When you consider that we live in an area that has ...

Last month David “Chris” Maland, 44, U.S. Border Patrol Agent and a Veteran, was murdered in the line of duty in Northern Vermont. Last week was the Chinese lunar new year. Time for story in David’s honor and memory. In the summer of 2011 (or 2012?) I was driving to a monthly drill ...

Children start to learn in utero, months before birth. They hear their mother sing or talk, and their brain neurons connect to identify separate sounds, or phonemes, like “ma.” During their first year they learn that connected phonemes have meaning, like “mama” means mother, and then ...

Winter Carnival is good group therapy. I thought about this last week as I drove out to Bloomingdale to work on our parade float. I thought about how Carnival brings people together across the many things that divide us. You might go down to Lake Flower to cut and stack ice with friends and ...