About five or six years ago, I wrote that the Cuban crisis, which began when this 70-something woman was in high school, finally was over.  I based this on the fact that my Arkansas sister went there with the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce.  I said that when Arkansans report enthusiastically on their trip to Cuba, everything is over but the shouting.  These farmers and business folks aimed to sell small tractors and rice to Cubans.  Yes, Arkansas is a big rice producer, and the Cuban diet depends on it.  They were developing a market that would benefit both nations. Read More 

You know that I call this column "In Context" because its chief purpose is to put current issues in the context of the past.  Once in a while, though, I intend to convey a point that needs a lot of background to put the point in its context.  This is one of those.  I've been reading "Clan of the Cave Bear" -- and yes, I know that this bestseller was popular in the 1980s, but I was busy.  That was the decade in which I published my first two books, one on immigrant women and the other on women during World War II.  Everything I read – and there were hundreds of books – was related to those topics. Read More 

when you don't have to check the news repeatedly to keep up with Donald Trump's latest atrocity.  Not that he isn't trying, but since the many attacks that his supporters have perpetrated on journalists, the media isn't cooperating with free publicity anymore.  Things have calmed down to the point that public life is kind of boring, which is the way it should be.  Read More