Jim Cumming – From the Publisher Emeritus’ Pen

I read an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune recently that looked at the costs of job-based health care in the United States. I was shocked by the cost being pegged at $15,745, which struck me as being unbelievably high. The costs had risen by $2,400 over the past four […]

We all awoke to the announcement that another hockey strike was happening. The owners are locking out the players. One might think that in hard times, the owners might have been tightening the reins on their own personal spending for hockey players. But recent announcements in the hockey-signing world seem […]

By the time you read this column, the cross-district bike ride for the “Together We Can” fundraising campaign to replace the mammography machine at La Verendrye Hospital here will have been completed. But the campaign to raise funds for the new machine only will have been kicked off. Just as […]

It was the Labour Day weekend. The moon, almost still full, lit the lake Sunday evening. A fire burned across the lake at Gasparinis’ cabin. A small light shone from the Tibbs’ cabin. A bright light lit the cabin across the water on Nowhere Island. Phil Bangert had arrived at […]

Nothing brings work to a standstill faster than a mom bringing in her newborn baby. Even from the back pressroom, the pressman can hear the cooing the front office staff make. And quickly they reach the front office to compete for time to hold those newborns. And as they grow […]

I have a confession to make. I really like a ham-and-cheese omelet. I also enjoy my “Egg McMuffin,” my Tim Horton sausage-and-egg breakfast sandwich, and Subway’s sausage-and-egg breakfast meal on flat bread. One of my treats at the cabin on the weekend is a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, and […]

At 113 years of age, the Rainy River Valley Agricultural Society’s annual fall fair in Emo gets underway tomorrow with the midway cranking up the sound during the day. Then on Friday and Saturday nights, the roar of stock cars racing around the track will be heard for miles in […]

I am sitting in the sun porch of our cabin. A light breeze out of the north is rustling the needles of the pines. A woodpecker is nearby batting its head against a tree to get at some bugs. The Bearskin flight to Thunder Bay just flew overhead. I am […]

My mother-in-law has just sold her home in Markdale, Ont. Her father had purchased the home in 1920 and it has been in the family for 92 years. Annually, our family would travel to meet gramma and grampa, and it was always to the family home. Their cousins from Waterloo […]

This is “Bass Week” in Fort Frances. Anglers competing in this year’s Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship have been plying the waters of Rainy Lake for the past week. You can see rooster tails flying high in the sky as those sleek fibreglass bass boats skim across the water. The […]

We are reaching the midpoint of summer and it has been a season of unusual heat. The waters of Rainy Lake have had surface temperatures that arched over 80 degrees F. The real water temperature is a much more modest 74 F. Even those who really are not into swimming […]

There is no end to the discussion of weather. If it is cloudy, we complain about it. Too much rain and we are not satisfied. Crisp winter days have us complaining about cold car seats. And now with hot summer days, we are complaining about the warmth. We just can’t […]