By: John Carlson— Have I mentioned how much Nan and I love Minnetrista’s Farmers Market? If not, I should have long ago. That’s because it is undoubtedly one of the coolest things about living in Muncie, being a great place to buy wonderful food, slurp excellent coffee and meet old…
By: John Carlson— So the other day I have an eye exam and the doctor finds a splotchy, whitish, non-serious anomaly in the depths of one eyeball which, nonetheless, shocks me in its diagnosis. “It’s probably just a bit of histoplasmosis,” he says. “Just?” I think. Indeed, this diagnosis sort…
By: John Carlson— Working at a local carnival not long ago, this being part of a volunteer fundraising effort for the Back to School Teachers Store, reminded me of when I was employed in the amusement park business. Having just finished college back then, I told myself this job was…
By: John Carlson— With the recent ringing of our front door bell I found my dear friend Jimmy Hayes standing on my porch, tears of joy splashing from his eyes and a package in his hands giving off an angelic, heavenly light. Now, if I may digress a moment, for…
By: John Carlson— For a fresh look that’s sure to draw admiring glances from people of the fairer sex, there’s nothing like having your throat cut. I know. Mine was cut a month or so ago. My cut is fully eight inches long. Well, OK. It would be eight inches…
By: John Carlson— There’s nothing like recent spinal surgery to make crawling in and out of small airplanes a big challenge. But I digress. It was a glorious spring afternoon two weeks ago when I received a phone call from my friend Bill Finney, offering me a ride in his…
By: John Carlson— Snakes scare the bejesus out of me. Not long ago on Facebook I ran into a short video posted by an old newspaper buddy, photographer Kurt Hostetler, that documented him and his boy Owen’s encounter with a harmless garden-variety snake. What a nice father-son nature moment, I…
By: John Carlson— For more than a year-and-a-half, back in the waning days of my newspaper career at The Star Press, I wrote a weekly feature story about World War II veterans. This fed a natural hunger on my part, one that began with hearing the stories I begged my…
By: John Carlson— Having started a diet a month ago, what I ended up with is skinny fingers. I can’t say skinny fingers is what I was shooting for, though I suppose one reaches a point in any diet where one figures skinny fingers are better than skinny nothing. But…
By: John Carlson— A couple times recently I’ve seen a meme on Facebook, the crux of which is that a person of integrity will treat a janitor the same way he or she treats a successful company’s CEO. As a former janitor, I completely agree. My year piloting a broom…
By: John Carlson— Until I’m doing handstands and cartwheels while rebounding from a couple inconvenient back and spinal issues, my world seems a pretty small place. It’s not a bad place, though. There’s my house, which is airy and open and easy to get around in, plus there’s a pretty…
By: John Carlson— You know your life lacks excitement when the wildest thing you do all day is drive through the carwash. We did this yesterday. With Nan behind the wheel, I coached her into Clancy’s tire tracker gizmo, offering helpful hints like “Left,” and “Right,” and then “A little…
By: John Carlson— Spring is here and summer is on the way, along with the promise of sunny days spent wearing Speedos and bikinis at poolside parties and beaches. Regrettably, it is also time for some of us to shed those pesky 60 to 70 pounds of rippling, gurgling blubber…
By: John Carlson— One cool thing about working in the newspaper business is it affords you experiences you might not otherwise enjoy, like meeting Elizabeth Coblentz. Name ring a bell? If so, it’s because she was the original Amish Cook who first authored the newspaper column that has run for…
By: John Carlson— There aren’t many physical activities I’m really good at, but one of them is definitely snoring. In noting this, I am not tooting my own horn, forgive the pun. Based on my personal knowledge, I would say I am lousy at snoring, a guy who peacefully slips…