Growing up, the Fourth of July weekend was one of the greatest weekends of the summer. There were fireworks, grilling out, time at the lake and ample importunity to catch up with family and friends.  For many children it is also a hard break from sports, activities and just a few days to relax from the… Read More

By Bev Johnson Master Gardener This is what the Herb Society calls herbs. These are multi-tasking plants. They are grown for cooking, fragrance, medicine, crafts, landscaping, wildlife, and beauty. Herbs can be great ground covers. Just remember, the label groundcover means they cover the ground. In other words, they can be invasive as heck. They can… Read More

What would you say if we told you there’s something that can remarkably increase your chances of surviving a car crash? Something like a force field that will keep you from being thrown from the vehicle during a collision – something that takes almost no time? If such a thing existed, would you use it… Read More

Maybe it’s because none of us are getting any younger, which means we’re getting older, which means we see winters, summers, springs, lots of things, with eyes that are different. Smarter we are, one would hope. But how smart were we about the weather when we were froze on in the middle of May? Had… Read More

There is, perhaps, nothing more important when fishing than coming up with a tall tale to go along with the adventure. After all, catching a fish is fun, telling a good story to go along with the adventure—now that is legendary.  Do you remember the time I battled a 20 pound walleye, only to have… Read More

Although we all hope for the “good old days,” those days when people could be people and behave accordingly, perhaps those days weren’t all that good. Here are some of the medications we used to take a hundred or so years ago. They’re not listed in any order, because all of them are about as bad… Read More

Abraham Lincoln once said: “It is better to remain silent and thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and prove it.” Or something to that effect. As the things people say, both true and untrue, spread around the universe now at the speed of light on various public and internet forums, it’s becoming difficult… Read More

To the Editor, Local news is for everyone. The Lions Reading Program for the Visually and Physically Impaired provides a means for the visually and physically impaired to be kept informed by the hearing of local newspapers read and broadcast through online, through an app, or your smart speaker.  The Lions Reading Program for the Visually and… Read More

By Tucker Henderson Special to the Dispatch I recently wrote a college essay on why Finnish immigrants choose the New York Mills and Heinola, and Topelius area as their permanent home within the United States. I have tweaked and edited it to sound less academic as I don’t enjoy reading dense works like that and I doubt… Read More

“There’s a little good in the worst of us, And a little bad in the best of us. It scarce behooves the most of us, To talk about the rest of us.” I don’t know who the author of that quote is. I can tell you that my uncle quoted it to my cousin so many times and for… Read More