Since you’re bothering to read this column, my guess is that you’re a reasonably intelligent, logical person. Probably attractive, too. Smart is the new sexy, you know.

It has been a little over a year since we participated in any public event. The Riley County, K-State Research and Extension Master Gardeners wrapped up their participation in the Home Show last year as everything got closed down. Even with less participation, it is good to be in the public again.

I’ll be a published poet by the end of the month.

I’ve been thinking a little about Scott Drew and his basketball team at Baylor. Earlier this week, they clobbered Gonzaga to win the national championship. It was a very impressive display, leaving no doubt.

At the moment I’m writing this, the third-most-popular story on TheMercury.com is the report on plans for two Casey’s convenience stores, and the renewed possibility that Braum’s will open a branch here.

I’m going to make a pitch for getting involved in high school activities here, so be forewarned.

If you follow K-State sports, you’re probably aware that a lot of football and men’s basketball players have decided to transfer away to a different school.

The tradeoffs in pasture-burning were pretty clearly evident this past weekend in our little corner of the world.

Why it’s important to be able to find doctors who are ‘LGBTQ friendly’

The aging process is coming along nicely. My aches and pains appear to be progressing each garden season. They don’t deter me from gardening. I recognize them as being part of the seasonal gardening effort.

Divorce is ugly. It’s painful. It hurts. It makes you cry. It’s something that no married couple wants to go through.

Sunday is Easter, the holiest day in the Christian year. Everybody makes a bigger deal of Christmas, what with Santa and presents and all, but Easter is a much bigger deal.

The day after Valentines’ Day, I got a two day head start on facing some restlessness, at least temporarily, by removing one of the things I often use to cover up neediness and give comfort.

It’s been a year of disease and death. There’s no good way to get around that, really. The coronavirus has led to 553,000 deaths in our country, at last count, and 2.8 million around the world.

Does representation matter in health care? Yes, it matters very much.

The city government’s task force on diversity has, predictably enough, gone off into the bushes. That doesn’t mean the effort is hopelessly off course, but it’s in danger of rendering itself irrelevant. That would be a shame, since the topic it is addressing is very important.

Even with a few vegetable crops already planted, it is good to remember to rotate where you do your planting. This is a longtime practice to reduce disease, fertility and insect issues. A three-year wait between planting the same crop in the same location is suggested. It is a challenge in a…

My first reaction to Gene Taylor’s big fat raise was shock. My second reaction was...well, I can’t really complain. My third: Probably a good deal all-around.

Somewhere in my imagination, Thursday would have been a gigantic news day here in Manhattan.

Let’s get down to the heart of the matter: How should the government tax property?

Now is the moment for Gene Taylor to earn the big bucks. It’s a moment of extremely difficult choices. The choice comes down to this: Bet on Bruce Weber? Or bet against him?

Hawk should have voted for bill about transgender people in sports

Some Kansas lawmakers want to refund tuition payments to college students whose classes were moved online.

This upcoming week, some of our fourth grade classrooms will be planting their salad gardens. Lettuce, spinach, radishes and onions are planted by each student. These vegetables are selected because they can be harvested in the 50-some days left of school prior to summer break.

Since Manhattan was first announced as the site for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, or NBAF, there have been questions from the community about potential risks to the surrounding area. NBAF’s entire mission is to protect the U.S. from specific foreign livestock animal diseases. A…

I know enough about birds to be dangerous.

Tip of the editorial cap to the folks running the vaccination clinics for the Riley County Health Department. By all accounts, they’re doing an excellent job.

The Washington Post made a mistake. A bad one.

St. Patrick’s Day events a success

Do you miss Donald Trump? The entertainment value, at least? Just a little?

I almost allowed myself to get snared by a Facebook trap the other day. The bait: Sex-change operations for 3-year-olds.

It is probably not in the cards for Douglas Girod to ever be a very popular chancellor at the University of Kansas. Fate has put him in charge during a time when higher education faces enormous challenges, and the tasks of leadership require him to make some difficult and unpopular decisions.

Wise move by Riley County commissioners on Monday.

St. Patrick’s Day is the unofficial start to vegetable gardening in our area. Typically, the soil temperature is ready to plant potatoes and other early spring crops like peas. Early planting results in higher yields than late planting.

In the event you care, we’re not reporting on Bruce Weber’s retirement. That’s because it’s not happening.

Certain things just wear me out after awhile. Does that make sense?

Somewhere, down in my basement, in a storage bin under the stairs I think, I’m pretty sure I have a well-worn copy of “McElligot’s Pool.” Maybe “If I Ran The Zoo.” The going rate on Amazon is several hundred dollars, which might be enough to prompt me to go down there and start rummaging aro…

It’s sorely tempting for me, as a lifelong K-State fan, to revel in the misery of the KU athletics department.

Did we overreact? Or did our reaction work extremely well?

Tip of the curmudgeonly editor’s cap to Meg Heriford, owner of the Ladybird Diner in Lawrence. She’s a Manhattan native.

Sooner or later, the grass will need to be cut. My first job in the horticulture field was mowing lawns. I enjoyed it enough to pursue an education in horticulture.

Every March for the last 15 years my wife and I have met up with a couple from Lincoln, Nebraska for the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament. Three Wildcats and a Husker.

The activists on the K-State campus are well-intended. They want the best. They just happen to be doing almost exactly the wrong things, over and over again. The racists, on the other hand, are working the system like geniuses.

City should continue mask requirement through school year

Tip of the editorial cap to Chad Weiberg, named Thursday as the new athletics director at Oklahoma State.

Let’s see if I can clarify where things stand on the subject of masks in Manhattan. It’s easy to get lost in the weeds.

The calendar says spring officially starts March 20.

A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.