I wasn't a very discriminating reader. I read just about everything that came along.

Now that I look back on it, having retired from being a reporter, it was kind of romantic. It was a wonderful way to live one's life, just as I imagined it would be when I was 6 or 7.

The Mississippi River carries the mud of thirty states and two provinces 2,000 miles south to the delta and deposits 500 million tons of it there every year. The business of the Mississippi, which it will accomplish in time, is methodically to transport all of Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico.

And still I wander, seeking compensation in unforseen encounters and unexpected sights, in sunsets, storms and passing fancies.

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.

I was on the high school track team, believe it or not, and played baseball, poorly but passionately.

It's best to leap into something you know you love. You might change your mind later, but that is the privilege of youth.