There will not be a West Words column by Tom West the week of Jan. 22.

Many of you have experienced sibling rivalry. So have I. As the youngest of three children, I was always the “little brother” even though I ended up as the tallest (although my brother still disputes that). He was nine years older, however,  so he was out of college by the time we could have had  Read more »

A curious madness seems to have infected the world. By happenstance, I have been doing more reading about what caused the financial collapse of the Western World four years ago, and it seems clear to me that we are no closer to fixing the problem today than we were when it came home to roost.  Read more »

Flight 2012 is now cleared for take off. Passengers are reminded to turn off your cell phones, laptop computers and anything else that may distract you from the terrors outside the window. Instead, we encourage you to re-assume the brace position,  but only after donning your flight helmet, flak jacket and life preserver. If you  Read more »

We’d like to thank all of you who chose to join us on Flight 2011 this year. The landing gear is coming down, and you can relax from that brace position you’ve been in for the past 12 months. We know you never thought this flight would ever end — or if it did, it  Read more »

About once every year or two my wide-ranging reading habits get me into trouble. A newspaper or magazine will publish a recipe, and I think to myself, “That sounds good,” or “I can do that.” Then, without too much thought, it is off to the kitchen I go. It always works better if I consult  Read more »

Several years ago, I attended a presentation by a Thomas Jefferson impersonator. Speaking as if the year were about 1805 instead of 2005, “President Jefferson” began his talk by saying, “We live in a 4 mile per hour world.” He went on to explain that people travel about 2 mph walking and about 6 mph  Read more »

Some things become part of the news cycle only because the fanatics think they are important. For sports fans, it’s often the collegiate draft held by professional sports leagues. Fans boo and applaud the team officials who choose these untested players, as if the team is about to experience eternal damnation or the Second Coming.  Read more »

They had an interesting election a few weeks ago in St. Paul. The trendy elite in the Twin Cities have adopted a ranked-choice voting system that allows voters to rank the candidates. That way, if their favorite candidate is an off-the-wall, extremist, uncompromising fascist or commie, they can still vote for that candidate and then  Read more »

My aunt, the spy, passed away Nov. 3. If she knew that I had referred to her in that way, she would have been mortified but the characterization is no less true. Occasionally, I would tell people about my aunt, using that introduction just for the shock value. They often thought I was kidding. Who,  Read more »

Andy Hott is an interesting young man. A June graduate of Little Falls Community High School, Andy now works at Long Prairie Packing, where the pay is good even though the work is hard. Andy is saving as much as he can so he can go to college. He wants to study video technology, a  Read more »

I went to an unusual reunion two weeks ago. It was a gathering of most of the editors and reporters who worked at the Mankato Free Press in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It’s one thing for retirees to meet former co-workers regularly at a coffee shop. It’s another to attend a formal reunion  Read more »

It is occasionally said that the best stories in life are true. It being Halloween weekend, you may challenge that assertion, since this is a time that Americans, at least, pay attention to ghosts, goblins and the supernatural. Nevertheless, the story I have to tell is true, every word of it. And it takes us  Read more »

We all know that the times are changing. It’s not just the weather, but life in the Great Recession is a lot different than anyone less than 70 has experienced. You may have noticed when Little Falls repaved First Street East this summer, that only the driving lanes were repaved. City Engineer Jerry Lochner estimates  Read more »

Today, one often hears detractors say things like, “Nobody reads newspapers anymore.” I have said before that those statements are made mostly by unemployed journalists who used to work for big city daily papers. Many of those papers were sold in the past 10 years, and when the recession hit, those that were sold at  Read more »