Jim Cumming – From the Publisher Emeritus’ Pen

“You can’t wear those shorts! They’re filthy and we have guests coming for supper,” pronounced my wife. I had to agree with her that they were a bit dirty. After all, a huge northern had dripped some blood on them and I had rubbed my slimy hands on them after […]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. It’s a high-pitched sound that immediately puts us on alert. Those darn female mosquitoes burned in my ear as I sat out on the deck watching the sunset Friday night. For almost an hour, I could hear them winding up, high above me, into a steady, growing hum. And […]

Three weekends ago, I was looking forward to the snow disappearing from my yard. And that weekend, I raked parts of my lawn. Two weekends ago, I was hoping I could put my boat in the water by the following weekend. My lawn and yard waste had been hauled to […]

We can hardly wait to get to our cottages and cabins, though people on mainland with roads to their cabins have had a significant jump on “islanders.” Last Wednesday evening, Marnie and I launched our boat and headed to our cabin on the south arm of Rainy Lake. It has […]

The Town of Fort Frances did not exist when Sieur de la Verendrye, in 1731, set up a fort at the head of the Rainy River. Fort Frances did not exist when Fort Lac La Pluie was established by the North West Company as a fur-trading post—and even when it […]

I enjoy cooking and like to think that I’m fairly versatile when it comes to preparing food. And Mother’s Day was the successful beginning of my love of cooking. I can’t remember when I first began cooking, but it probably started when my brother and I were old enough to […]

After this past weekend, I now can put my snow blower into the back of the garage and move my lawn mower forward. By this time last year, my lawn already had two clippings. The tulips were pushing themselves out of the ground and my day lilies had bright green […]

“That will be $22,” the Homeland Security border guard at the U.S. Customs said to the family of four headed to the movie theatre in International Falls. It has not happened yet, but the United States is exploring the option of collecting a user fee to enter the country by […]

April is Cancer Awareness Month. The Beta Sigma Phi sorority recently sold daffodils here for the last time. Shortly, daffodil pins will go on sale throughout the community for those to make donations to the Canadian Cancer Society. The money is well used assisting in research and helping cancer patients. […]

Last year, I launched my boat on April 13. I was able to get to my cabin on Rainy Lake on April 16 and we had the water running April 21. It was the earliest we had ever reached and opened our cabin since starting records in 1968. Our hot […]

I have a pink tie and a pink dress shirt—and I’ll be wearing both of them on April 10. It is “Pink Day,” the international day against bullying, discrimination, homophobia, and transphobia in schools and communities across our country. It began as a simple gesture at Central Kings High School […]

I attended an interesting meeting last Wednesday, during which one of the people on hand made a very appropriate comment. “The council of Fort Frances is not going to save the town,” he said. “The people of the community will save the town!” And when the words had settled at […]