Andy Moore
Features
A farewell to Close to Home
Andy Moore bids farewell to the Close to Home column, and remembers many of his favorites. Read more
UW-Madison Archives
Remembering Paul Ginsberg
Paul Ginsberg, the former longtime dean of students at UW-Madison, died Monday at age 90. In a 2006 Close to Home column, Andy Moore chronicles how Ginsberg threw him a lifeline and helped set him on a course to graduation. Read more
Scientific slumbers
“I don’t snore!” I said years ago when I started snoring. That’s for grandpas. Whose grandpa doesn’t snore? Nobody’s! That’s because they all have sleep apnea. Fact is, 12 million Americans have it. Read more
Lorraine Bose
Turkeys everywhere
Dear Diary: Oh how pretty, the leaves are turning! Just the tips of the trees a burnished gold. On my way to work I lowered my eyes to the street and WHAT? Look! Oh my! Wild turkeys! Look at those silly fellows! Wild turkeys waddling along IN THE STR Read more
Carolyn Fath
Sugar Shack Records celebrates its survival
The Packers-Cowboys game roared through the car speakers as I pulled up to Sugar Shack Records. Is there anything less Packer-like than a used record shop on a football Sunday? The fact that Sugar Shack owner Gary John Feest selected game day for his store's 33 1/3 anniversary sale was perfect. In the face of indignities both industry-imposed and self-inflicted, Feest has lasted more than three decades. Read more
Sartorial revelations from a skinny-jeaned wannabe
In my mind's eye, I'm super old. I'm out in the yard on a hot day with my shirt off. A puff of gray hair sprouts from the sunken crater that is my chest. My pointy elbows could poke your eye out, but that doesn't stop my grandchildren from clinging to my legs like ivy. We tumble down into the soft grass. A haystack of giggles. Read more
On the road again
There's an old motel about 10 miles north of Louisville right off I-65. The Bel-Air is the kind of old motor inn you see in a David Lynch film: Two long lines of rooms that form an L, an office in the middle and a little swimming pool out front with a stub of a diving board hanging over it. Read more
Ty Helbach
Remembering blues guitarist Chris Aaron
He died last week sitting in his music studio. On the phone with his son. The two most important things in his life, family and song, defined and sustained Chris Aaron to the very last beat of his lion heart. He was 44 years old. Read more
The perils and pleasures of the Willy Street Fair Parade
Sixty pounds of throw beads sounds like a lot until you get to the last six blocks of the parade. That's when "the eyes" come out. No one should have to endure the eyes of a child who just witnessed another small person scoop up a necklace from the sidewalk and giddily try it on. Read more
The empty nest, temporarily reoccupied
Those are big shoes by the door. They carry big dreams. Big plans. Big feet. They belong to our youngest son, who will lace them up, walk out to the car in two days and get in the back seat. We'll motor to the end of the driveway, take a right on Rutledge Street, then drive into the heart of his college senior year. Read more
