Columns

Santa always packs some cashews in my husband Mark's stocking, and Santa's helper, who collects most of the stuffing for our large Christmas socks (guess who), sometimes reconsiders gifts that will entice him to overindulge.

When bidding my first, large freelance writing job decades ago, I telephoned an experienced friend for guidance.

Winter's blasts of snow and ice tickle the fancy of some while creating for others extreme hard work for hours on end, along with nightmarish challenges that cannot be resolved overnight.

Fact: Rendered protein products that contain specified risk materials from cattle with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) are the main source of mad cow disease, if other cattle eat those materials.

I could do the obvious joke about how my New Year's resolution is to quit procrastinating tomorrow. Or I could circulate one of those "Top 10 New Year's resolutions" joke lists that clog up the Internet incessantly and get forwarded to you by everyone you even remotely know (with explicit instruction to forward to 10 friends immediately or you will have horrible luck and probably die).

As we arrive at the end of this year 2004, I look back at our reflections on 90 years of Farm and Dairy.

There is no shortage of American grain; current cash prices prove it. Corn is marking time at $2, wheat hangs just above $3 and soybeans, at $5.

As we close out the year, it is interesting to look back on what life was like 100 years ago. In the year 1904, according to an interesting fact sheet, the average life expectancy in the United States was 47 years.

(Author's note: The following column was first published the week of Christmas 1994. Now, by tradition, it returns.

Reading this Christmas book of personal stories collected by President Carter prompted many memories shared by my father over the years.