When I first started syndicating The Amish Cook column back in 1991, the newspaper industry was still rather robust.  Sure, afternoon newspapers had been dying for years in cities across the USA, but the morning newspapers were still relatively healthy bastions of news, ads, and features.  Enter the internet, throw in a recession, and the newspaper business has now suffered one of it's worst years in memory.   Newspapers are hemorraging readers and advertisers (I always did think the price of a newspaper ad was ridiculously high, even during the robust years).   Newspapers are slashing space, jobs, and anything else in site of their carving knives.   One of the reasons given to me for The Hendricks County Flyer in Indiana chopping The Amish Cook from their paper recently was "space reduction."  They had to shrink the paper to make up for the lost ad revenue.  I had a conversation the other day with an executive who works in the newspaper industry. We were both lamenting the changes sweeping across the business.  I don't know....I'm unsure of what the future holds for newspapers, whether they are dying dinosaurs or whether they'll yet find a way to adapt and reinvent themselves.  So anyone have any thoughts?  Is the Amish Cook's future destined to just be here online?  Do you still read a daily newspaper?  If so, which one - or ones?

On the left side of this page is a little, non-descript link that says "Top Users."  It was really just meant as a fun way to see who is the most active at the site.  It's also a way to see who has "left."  I've noticed some people show up at this site, are really active for awhile, and then disappear as quickly as they came.  That's fine, one of the appeals of the internet is it's transient nature.  Brian, our intrepid site administrator, the guy who runs the "nuts and bolts" tech part of amishcookonline.com has discussed the idea of taking down the "Top Users" feature because it sucks up a lot of bandwidth (or something to that effect).....does anyone check the TopUsers section?  If you do, I hate to remove it no matter how much bandwidth, but if no one ever goes there and no one cares, then we can ditch it. 

I was just surfing the blogosphere and found a really neat post about some non-Amish people attending a family wedding near Middlebury, Indiana.  Middlebury is a hub of northern Indiana's large Anabaptist region.  At first I thought this was just going to be another post about gawking outsiders visiting the Amish, but if you read this woman's post she really does provide insightful observations: the warmth, the close family, and, wow, the anecdote about the person about to be laid off from work! That is quintessential Amish ethos, wonderfully classic.  Click here to read his blog.

Meanwhile, Nancy Nall is a former writer for a Fort Wayne newspaper.  Nall's blog is scrappy and snarky.  She's broken some news and stimulated discussion and while I don't agree with a lot of what she says, her blog is well-done.  That said, I'm scratching my head about a reference she made to Lovina's mother in a recent post.  Nall was discussing our nation's health care system and pointing to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal about Amish and Mennonites struggle to pay for medical services.   She made a passing reference to Elizabeth Coblentz's death and how her Amish herbalist said she passed away from an "iron deficiency."  I simply do not recall ever saying that publicly and don't remember ever hearing about such a diagnosis.  Elizabeth did visit with an Amish herbalist from time to time, but those visits usually weren't fodder for public discourse.  So.....not sure where she got the info.

Just a heads-up to anyone who reads The Amish Cook column in the Columbus Telegram in Nebraska.  The editor there recently decided to drop The Amish Cook from the newspaper.  The column does still appear in the York, Nebraska News-Times each week.  Any Telegram readers who wish to see The Amish Cook return might want to call the editor or any other newspapers that might be in your area to see if they might pick it up instead.

I have not used this newfangled milk-carton that is causing such a stir.   But apparently everyone has an opinion.  Costco and Wal-Mart are selling milk in these new square-type containers.   Most of the time product packaging stays pretty much the same through the years or changes just gradually.  The Leggs panty hose "plastic egg" is an exception.  At some point there was a radical change from that to something much more dull.  My brother and I used to use my mom's old Leggs eggs as mock spaceships for our toy action figures when we were young lads. Ah, imagination!  Milk packaging has morphed through the years from the shiny glass bottles of the milkman era, to the paper carton (I always think milk tastes funny in those), to the ubiquitous plastic jugs.  But now, a square pitcher-type jug?  Of course not all changes catch on.  Didn't Target switch to a new prescription medicine container during the past year or so?  I haven't seen that catch on everywhere.  So have any of our readers actually used this new milk container?   If so, what is all the fuss about?  And if you don't know about these crazy cartons, click here to read about them.

What would we do without I-70?  It is one of the nation's largest east-west interstates.  And today I traversed approximately 550 miles of it.  I've actually, at one time or another, traveled every section of I-70 except for a tiny stretch in Utah.  What a life accomplishment.  Beyond being intrigued by a restaurant in Illinois advertising "foot high pies" and stopping in the tiny of town of Casey to pick up a copy of a newspaper that carries The Amish Cook, today's drive was rather boring (the Mississippi was lapping against the base of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, which was interesting).  I now find myself in Kansas City and facing the exact same drive tomorrow as I return home.  If anyone can recommend any good restaurants or exciting sites not far off the freeway I'd be one grateful editor tomorrow!

Um, okay, I just put a post up about convenience stores.....had nothing to do with anything Amish.  I try to keep the content on this site a "mix" of stuff.  But as I head out to Kansas City soon I have lots of long hours in the car to think and contemplate, so if anyone has any "site suggestions", please feel free to post. I think it's important to make periodic improvements and always strive to make this site fun, readable and, most importantly, educational.  I do want people to come away learning something about Amish/Anabaptist culture - at least as I see it.  Plus perhaps get some good recipes.  So if there's something you like, or perhaps more importantly, something you dislike or something you'd like to see more or less of, please share.

Okay, some of you won't have a clue what I am talking about.  But one of the joys of driving west to Kansas City, which I have to do on Sunday, is seeing the first QTs.  QTs - for the unintiated - are "QuikTrips."   These are bright, snazzy, flashy gas station convenience stores with a choice of every snack or beverage to help whittle away a long, boring journey.  I know, it's pretty sad when the highlight of my journey is a convenience store, but there isn't much to do when driving other than eat, drink and talking on the phone.  So when I see the first flashy QTs I 1) know I am getting closer to my ultimate destination, Kansas City and 2)  I have an unlimited array of snacks, newspapers, and sodas to choose from.  Usually Pilot Gas stations, Flying J Truck Stops, and Travel Americas are my "highway oases", but not when I am in QT country.

Comparable convenience stores elsewhere in the country would would be Sheetz and Wawa out east and Thorton's in Ohio and Indiana.     Casey's is a common convenience store in the Midwest, but they lack the pizzaz of a QT, tending to be sleepy, tired-looking outposts in smaller towns.

Sheetz stores are awesome because you can buy made-to-order food by using little computer kiosks.  Those are awesome.  The same concept is used at Thorton's.   Okay, what this has to do with anything Amish, I haven't a clue, but I'll be excited to see my first QT. 

Just a heads-up, a lot of "Lovina Eicher" "name cards" and Friend Club "welcome letters" have already gone out.  But I was told today by the person who does my mailings that anyone who joined the Friend Club in March, April, or May should have their name cards by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. So if you joined and you don't have anything by then, please email me!

Any Cat Stevens fans out there? I have a Cat Stevens song in my head this morning:  

"Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile"

The song's lyrics are actually bittersweet and shouldn't come into my mind when I think about my September wedding.  But when the wedding is taking place at a facility called "The Wilds", the song "Wild World" isn't such a stretch!:)

This past weekend Rachel and I headed to a place near Zanesville, Ohio where our September wedding is to take place.  The ceremony will be held outdoors on a high bluff overlooking the valleys and lakes of a place called The Wilds.  The Wilds is a unique 10,000 acre conservation facility that is home to herds of bison, rhinos, giraffes, zebra, rare antelope, bactrian camel, cheetah, and the occasional African wild dog, to name a few.  The acres are discreetly divided with sophisicated fencing to keep certain animals away from one another (cheetahs roaming the same area as zebra would be a little too National Geographic).  This will definitely be a unique wedding, and our guests are being urged to bring binoculars.

The wedding is exciting - but a bit sobering.  It's sobering, because there is still one piece of business left unfinished that I'd like to take care of before starting such a different phase of my life: securing the future of the Amish Cook column.  And that is why I'm headed to Kansas City this weekend.  My book publisher is based there and I think they can play a role with me in making sure the column is around for another 18 years.  I simply can't imagine continuing into married life as editor of The Amish Cook without some sort of stability and, believe me, this column on its own does not provide that.  Nothing lasts forever.  TV series come and go and so do newspaper columns.  It's just tough to figure out whether the time to pack up is close at hand or whether it has another 18 years left in it? But SOMEDAY the column will end, whether it's 5 years or 50 years from now.  I'll definitely keep readers posted, your support is the only thing that has kept this column going this long!