Tom Swift Writer’s Notebook

There have been commentaries of late about Philadelphia’s sports drought. Of the cities with at least one team in all four major American team sports, the City of Brotherly Love has gone the longest — 25 years — without a championship. This has come up because the Phillies, of course, are trying to break the [...]

Charles Bender was born just north of Lake Wobegon and he made his name during the baseball games that are played in October. Seems fitting, then, to gather on the eve of the World Series at Common Good Books, Garrison Keillor’s bookstore, to recall the days when Minnesota’s first Hall of Famer was the game’s [...]

The review was published three months ago, but it didn’t arrive at my door until, well, last Tuesday. So I’ll announce it as though it’s breaking news. Gail Huganir, managing editor of Central PA, made some very generous statements about Chief Bender’s Burden in the magazine’s July issue. “I’ll be the first to admit I [...]

As we walked and talked, and the Beast walked and sniffed, the leaves were hard to ignore. Are there more brilliant colors on earth than the yellows and reds of fall? After spending most of last winter in shirtsleeves, I have been bracing for the change of seasons as I brace when I receive my [...]

I would have told you sooner except I just found out myself: I will sign copies of Chief Bender’s Burden from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., tomorrow (Saturday) at Central Avenue Bookstore. This free event — of course, it’s free — will be held in conjunction with downtown Faribault’s annual Fall Festival. At least that’s [...]

There were times during the first half of the debate last night while John McCain was talking to his “friends” that I wondered what was going through Barack Obama’s mind. And I pretended that I knew.

This man is unraveling before my eyes. He sucked up to all of those people he hated in 2000, he [...]

Sometimes government does right where the market does not. Congress — finally — passed a federal law requiring health insurers to cover mental health in the same way as physical health. The law was long overdue, and yet easily could have been shelved for another session. As a Minnesotan, I’m heartened that a Republican like [...]