Editor’s Note: This is a reprint of a 2015 article. I pulled in the driveway and the sky seemed to switch personalities from slight irritation to a bucket of anger upturned. The rain came in curtains and torrents, the wind chaotic. I watched through my sunroof as the tops of the yard maples ...

Where are your blind spots? In a car, these are the spots that you cannot see when turning or backing up. Fancy cameras and screens are being used to help drivers see their blind spots. But no camera can cure a mental blind spot, and the effects of that are everywhere. We often don’t see the ...

There are people who fanatically like birds and the challenge of identifying them. These people are called birders. Birders are distinctly different from bird watchers, but that’s for a different article. Birders are a close-knit tribe of enthusiastic, binocular-toting, individuals who can ...

With the exception of those hardy families who stubbornly hold out as long as possible before turning on the heat for the season, many of us have probably flipped the switch by now. Nights in the lower 40s will do that. If recent reports are accurate, keeping that heat on is going to be more ...

When I was growing up in Erie, my bedroom was also a family “trophy room” of sorts. Looming over the head of my bed on the wall was the large mounted head of a 12-point buck white-tailed deer which one of my older half-brothers had shot. On the wall right over my bed was the snarling ...

It’s a difficult economic time for many, but the state Fish and Boat Commission has announced an opportunity. It is recruiting the 23rd class of Waterways Conservation Officer Trainees. “WCOs protect, conserve, and enhance Pennsylvania’s aquatic resources through law enforcement, ...