I like spiders. I really do. I marvel at their webs, refuse to free squirming food from their sticky homes and scoop ’em up and deposit ’em outside rather than splattering them with a shoe when they creep out family members by creeping across the floor or wall or ceiling in our ...

An item in the police blotter the other day caught my eye. According to Lawrence police, an 18-year-old woman said she was sitting in her car in the parking lot at Campus Court at Naismith apartments, 1301 W. 24th St., when a man reportedly took her purse off her lap, then — get this — ...

I was riding home from work Saturday night/Sunday morning and rolled to a stop at the light at Sixth and Kentucky. A car had been tailing me for half a block or so somewhat oddly — I thought it would get in the left lane so it wouldn’t be slowed by my glacial pace or in the right lane to ...

We were sitting around the breakfast table earlier this week, discussing the unseasonably cool forecast for the day, when my son chimed in. “Dad,” he asked. “Do you think we could ride bikes to school today?” I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a better question around my ...

As a middle-aged, middle-class, white male of average height and weight, I’m fortunate to be among the least discriminated-against people in the history of, well, people. In fact, as a member of a group that’s far more likely to discriminate overtly than be overtly discriminated against, ...

The other night, I was working away in the office when things took a turn for the slow. I thought I caught a flash out of the corner of my eye, so I fired up a Web browser (I’m pretty sure I’m the first person, ever, to surf at work; I hope it doesn’t catch on, or productivity ...