This Month’s Featured Articles…

Life is about following our dreams, creating happy memories, achieving personal goals, and simply enjoying the many moments we’re gifted. It’s also about pursuing interests and activities that make us feel truly alive. Many people enjoy the act of exploration. Driven by a sense of curiosity, they’re on a quest for knowledge and novel experiences. Many yearn to wander the world. These explorers enjoy engaging with people of other cultures, turning strangers into friends, and all of the stimulation that comes along with their [...]

Book censorship, especially in recent years, has become an increasingly prevalent topic in both national media and local regions where book challenges have arisen. According to Unite Against Book Bans, an American Library Association (ALA) initiative dedicated to standing up against book censorship, “there were more censorship attempts in 2021 than at any time since the American Library Association began tracking more than two decades ago.” This same source notes that in 2021 alone, the ALA kept track of over 700 cases in which materials [...]

When Colton was less than a year old, he was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition. I spoke with Michelle Hutchinson, Colton’s mom, all about her son’s story, how Colton’s XXXtraordinarY Cause came to be, the incredible outcomes they’ve seen, and what lies ahead for their organization. Colton’s story When speaking with Michelle, she underscored first and foremost the importance of an early diagnosis in Colton’s journey: “We were very fortunate in that we got an early diagnosis. That’s not the case for a lot [...]

For reasons, obvious to some and confounding to others, many of us are unabashed collectors. Well designed, beautifully executed objects hypnotize us into swirls of fantasy and, at times, an obsessive need to have these items for ourselves. Pens. Watches. Bells. Glass sculptures. And, perhaps the most consuming … automobiles. As adolescents, we gazed lovingly at a Chevrolet Corvette as it purred down the street in front of our house. In our 20s the perfectly tuned whine of a 911 snapped our heads around to [...]

Picture this: Blue skies, warm sun, a tree-lined river gurgling and beckoning. It’s the ultimate outdoorsy lazy landscape, and all you need to enjoy it is a large tube. The folks at Farmington River Tubing (FRT) in New Hartford, CT, understand the lure and appeal of a river float. They’ve been in the business of providing this recreational experience for several decades, and have seen thousands of smiles from delighted tubers, from first-timers to repeat floaters, single, in pairs, and in larger groups. When I [...]