Take a Hike »


The brown leaves have begun to crackle underfoot, but the still pliant yellow ellipses of sweet birch bend like fine carpet on the moist earth. The chattering hikers, in a long snaking line of staffs and backpacks, climb quickly through the kaleidoscopic forest, with its reds, yellows, and oranges. The trick is to keep up with Len Berton.

Story by
James T. Cain
Photo by
John Groo

Special Dedication »

When the French novelist and winner of the 1921 Nobel prize in literature Anatole France said “nine tenths of education is encouragement,” he was not dismissing the value of a formal education. Better, he was promoting the worth of a kindly word, of earned praise, of a nod and a smile for a job well done.

Story by
Jane Gordon
Photo by
Julie Bidwell

The New Frugality »

"Clean your plate. People are starving in Bangladesh."

I’m not quite sure why my mother chose Bangladesh as the place to illustrate the guilt I should have felt in 1974 because I hated fish sticks and beets, but the image was shattered years later in college, when a math professor started the semester by telling the class he was from Bangladesh, yet he was downright pudgy.

Story by
Teresa Pelham
Photo by
Chris Kaeser