Spot 2

I’m always game for a good trivia question. Jeopardy is practically appointment television in our household, and the DVR is set to “record series” for those times when we’re out or doing other things at 7 p.m. Ken Jennings or James Holzhauer I am most definitely not, but I’m OK on topics like American…

I’m one of those adults who thinks it seemed to snow a lot more when I was a kid than it does now. I’ve never been that guy telling the kids I walked five miles through snow drifts on my way to elementary school. But as the Blizzard of 1978 bore down on the…

My attempts at mapping my family history have been scattershot at best. Growing up, it was generally understood by my family – the Brackenburys and the Kings (my mom’s maiden name) – that our ancestors hailed from England. Details beyond that were scant, at least to me. Like a lot of folks as…

There is a certain rhythm to life that can be both scary and reassuring. The busier we are and the older we get, the faster the world seems to careen past us. Life’s mile-markers – seasons, holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, vacations – help take us from one year to the next, often in the…

Let’s call it a tale of two weekends, and one very changeable – and adaptable – valley. On the clear, cool Sunday morning of October 13, I did something I must sheepishly admit to never having done before: I climbed Mount Nittany. Now, the legions of central Pennsylvanians and others who’ve already conquered…

I have lots of habits that understandably try my wife’s patience. This time of year, for example, there are the minutes – OK, maybe hours – spent each week on my phone, researching and adjusting the lineups of my fantasy football teams. While she enjoys football too, she’s not into the fantasy craze. But…

As Penn State kicked off its 1995 football season, one fashion statement at Beaver Stadium struck a chord with me. It was a shirt featuring helmets of the Nittany Lions and the Nebraska Cornhuskers, one facemask facing the other. Underneath were these words: ANY TIME! ANY PLACE!! The shirt embodied the frustration many…

Yogi Berra once famously said, “It gets late early out there.” Yogi wasn’t speaking of August, but his words certainly apply. It seems like summer just ramped up, but our thoughts are quickly turning to fall. To me, there’s no better time of year around here, so that’s not such a bad thing. No…

“Let’s talk.” Those words lead our cover this month, and we devote a number of pages inside this magazine to play what we hope is at least a small role in encouraging an important, but sometimes uncomfortable, dialogue on race in our community. What’s it like to be a person of color in…

A recent vacation trip to St. Maarten gave me a renewed appreciation for University Park Airport. A 12-minute drive to the airport is a beautiful thing when you have a flight that leaves just after 6 in the morning. It’s hard to beat parking about 20 yards from the terminal and then breezing through…