By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Anyone who thinks February is defined by presidents, valentines, or groundhogs has never spent any time around a parochial school during Catholic auction season. Just after…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Coretta Scott King, widow of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK), visited Utah 35 years ago this week. I was just 24 years…

By Gary Topping– “Hey Eric, what’s the weather going to be”? “The weather will be with us.” Eric Bayles’s concise cowboy wisdom proved to be true: the weather was indeed…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Many folks scour the works of Kentucky Trappist monk/writer Thomas Merton seeking deep insight and inspiration. I am more crass and superficial. I searched his journals…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– I knew all but two of the nine good men who served as abbots/superiors at the now-closed Holy Trinity Abbey in Huntsville, Utah. What I do…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– When trying to create an appealing cookbook, I suspect a writer typically would not include the words “hairy” and “lemon” in the title. Simon Cooper’s 2016…

By Michal Patrick O’Brien– Stuck here at home during the now-ended pandemic-plagued year of 2020, I really have not gone anywhere in a long time. Just as cabin fever was…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Viruses, not victories, define two of my most memorable college football seasons. One is the unusual COVID-19 season of 2020. The other was forty years ago,…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– My friends, the retired Utah Trappist monks now all living in Salt Lake City, always have understood that not having much money is only one way…

By Gary Topping– None of my readers need to be reminded that our country is beginning to emerge—we hope—from a very difficult period in a variety of ways.  My mind’s…