When Richard Berndt volunteered at a Habitat for Humanity site for the first time, the team built a house in a weekend.
National Entertainment News
There’s a new science fiction movie playing at the 13-plex. “Voyagers” was directed (and written) by Neil Berger, who gave us “Divergent.”
The Leonardville High School reunion is scheduled for May 29 at the Leonardville Community Center. For more information, contact Larry Quick, 785-313-4407.
During the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, some people turned back to the land.
I pulled “American Dirt” off a display largely because of a blurb on the cover from bestselling author Don Winslow that called it “A ‘Grapes of Wrath’ for our times.” That was a great story and a great movie about a period and a location in American history that I enjoy studying, so Winslow’…
“How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need” recently topped the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list only a few weeks after its publication. Bill Gates — co-founder of Microsoft and of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — has previously addr…
The idea of a film called “The Unholy” opening on Holy Week-end was provocative. Then I noticed that its stars included Cary Elwes and Jeffrey Dean Morgan and that it was produced by Sam Raimi, and I figured I ought to see it.
Growing up watching his father and grandfather run a business sparked an interest in Luke Bietz.
Champion steers and heifers will stomp their way down Moro Street later this month.
People traded in their bunny ears for masks this Easter weekend.
Last Friday evening the lobby of the local movie multi-plex was as busy as I’ve seen it in over a year. As winter fades and people get their inoculations, the world seems about ready to come alive again. Thankfully.
What do a pizza pan and cake pan have in common? A person can make inexpensive, cute signs and wreaths with these simple household items.
April has always been my favorite month and not just because it is my birthday month!
“An Opportunity to be Better” is a beautiful book built around a touching story. It is both local and international, historical and contemporary. The core story centers upon the relationship between a small Kansas town and a French village in the late 1940s. The town was Morganville, in Clay…
Patty Reece, proprietor of the Volland Store, views the gallery as a crossroads.
Marvin Hachmeister said he likes the social aspect of running.
Though Blake and Rebecca Robinson both work full time, the couple still manages to find time to spend on their shared project, PhD Pottery.
Children have a way of wandering through doorways in literature, into the likes of Narnia, Wonderland and any number of other fantastical lands. They tend to stumble in unwittingly, wander about for a bit and eventually find a quest or heroic task set upon them.
I don’t remember if I picked up the Guardians of Ga’Hoole because I was already fond of owls, or if the series itself began the interest. Regardless of the origin, Kathryn Lasky’s series was part of several years where at least 60% of my brain was occupied by owl facts at any given moment. O…
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Benedict Cumberbatch’s many fans will be pleased with the new movie “The Courier.” Sometimes actors need to take roles because they give them chances to show what they can do. This Cold War drama not only required the oddly named one to be shaved almost bald and to lose some weight, but it a…
As a child, Philip Nel wrote and illustrated his own stories, giving him the notion early in life to create something another person might read someday.
The organizers of a 31-mile foot race through the hills of the Konza Prairie say they likely will bring the rugged spring run back next year.
As the weather begins to tease at warmer afternoons and evening thunderstorms, the allure of spring draws me outdoors.
“The Daughters of Yalta” is the gripping story of the Yalta Conference in Feb. 4-11, 1945, between U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Union strongman Josef Stalin to decided the postwar future of Europe.
The title of the new film “Long Weekend” will suggest to some movie-goers that the action takes place on one of our Saturday-Sunday-Monday holiday vacations. But that isn’t it. Then, of course, there’s the time-travel component in the story.
If you’ve been to a show at Manhattan Arts Center in the last couple of years, you’ve probably seen Audrey Artis.
Voting for my favorite William Allen White book was always a treat in elementary school. My school librarian, Mrs. Nickel, got us excited about the books on the list and voting in the election. Announcing the winner was a library celebration. The winning book, with the cover already worn and…
If asked to think of a family name to stand in for an expression of royal power, you could do far worse than the Habsburgs. The family kept royal power of some kind for almost 1,000 years, from Kanzelin (died 990) to Emperor Karl, who presided over the Austrian Empire’s complete dissolution …
Jeff Hubka and Shandis Cruz announce their engagement.
The obvious lesson for filmmakers in the new science fiction thriller “Chaos Walking” is that sound recording is especially important to a story about hearing.
As she created a colorful frog on Saturday morning on the sidewalk in City Park, people marveled at Tessa Anderson’s drawing.
Probably the important thing to remember as you watch the odd new hit film “Nomadland,” is that its central character, Fern, has shaped her life with conscious choice. Hers is not a set of duties forced onto her by circumstance. And she is not a dope, or a dope taker. She is deliberately cho…
St. Thomas More Church was filled Friday with sounds of laughter and conversation, the aroma of food and scurrying of hardworking volunteers as people enjoyed baked and fried fish during the season of Lent.
“The Last Garden in England” is a lovely piece of historical fiction that moves smoothly among three different time periods.
“A Delayed Life” is a new memoir by Dita Kraus, whose life was previously told in fictional form in “The Librarian of Auschwitz” by Antonio Iturbe. Her memoir tells the full story of her life in her own words and offers a unique perspective on her existence in the concentration and work camp…
The new hybrid animated and live action movie in town is “Tom and Jerry.” Somehow Warner Brothers, which used to make the Looney Toons cartoons and the great Road Runner ones, has gotten a hold of one of Ted Turner’s possessions — the ancient Hanna-Barbera product about the mute cat and mouse.
After reaching a milestone in February of practicing law for 50 years, Jim Morrison, 74, said a mixture of his can-do personality and connections with his longtime clients and partners help motivate him to keep going.
If you’ve ever wondered why the eagles in “The Lord of the Rings” didn’t simply fly Frodo to Mordor, then “The Storm Crow” by Kalyn Josephson is the book for you.
I am a longtime fan of fantasy books. When I was about 10 years old, I picked up “Artemis Fowl” by Eoin Colfer and fell in love with magical stories. From there, I devoured modern classic fantasies like “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien, “Stardust” by Neil Gaiman, and the Chronicles of Narnia s…
As temperatures begin to thaw, spring will seemingly soon usher in a period of renewal and reset, and with that comes spring cleaning.
TikTok has selected local musician and pastor JahVelle Rhone for an incubator program involving 100 Black creators.
When I was a kid, my dad, who was a high school journalism teacher, once in a while would arrange for his newspaper class to go to a midnight movie.
Phyllis Deckert will turn 100 years old on March 7.
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Editor’s note: The Mercury is publishing love stories in place of the weekly Our Neighbors profiles during February.
The Manhattan Arts Center has once again brought live theater to our pandemic-starved local audience, and not just any old hank of script either. Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” played in the MAC’s Grosh Performance Center this past Friday through Sunday. The run will conclude with three show…
Manhattan Arts Center’s production of William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” stays true to the story while making some adjustments, so it is easier for modern audiences to understand.
To alter a proverb just slightly, I’d say routine is the spice of life. That spice might be the sprinkle of paprika on top of a deviled egg, more there for aesthetics than flavor, but you eat with your eyes first, so aesthetics are important. In this analogy, the deviled egg is your day, and…
Before there was Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Paige, there was Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a black gospel and blues artist from the Mississippi Delta who with her trusty Gibson SG was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Considered by many to be the Godmo…
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