Columnists
Al Batt: The music drowned out the sounds of many clarinets
Tales from Exit 22, by Al Batt “You live in the middle of nowhere.” The visitor who said that was from a big city. That ...
Al, Author at Albert Lea Tribune
Columnists
Al Batt: Rummaging around the last place I’d ever look for item
I rummaged around. It’s life on the planet Batt. I wasn’t chewing on life’s gristle or on a quest. I wasn’t looking for the truth. I wasn’t ...
by Al Batt, Tuesday, July 28, 2020 8:12 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: He’s still using rabbit ears
Once upon a time, long before “The Andy Griffith Show” went into reruns, there was an eastern cottontail with a dream. He had a name, but ...
by Al Batt, Tuesday, July 21, 2020 8:11 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: We can’t help it; eating is simply just in our DNA
I spit sunflower seeds for distance. It was a contest. I did OK. I’d have done better, but it had been a dry year.
by Al Batt, Tuesday, July 14, 2020 8:16 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: The attack of the fine fescue
“I want to sit up front with the adults!” I said that aloud while pushing a lawn mower this week. It didn’t matter. Nobody could hear ...
by Al Batt, Tuesday, July 7, 2020 8:10 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: It’s summertime and I hear that the living is uneasy
Stay near the flyswatter. It’s summer. When is it truly summer? When there is no sign of winter anywhere. It’s a beautiful summer day here at the ...
by Al Batt, Tuesday, June 30, 2020 8:11 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: Some call her poor Mrs. Batt
“Nothing!” I’d asked a friend what he’d gotten his wife for Mother’s Day. “She’s not my mother,” he added as an explanation. If his words had ...
by Al Batt, Tuesday, June 23, 2020 8:11 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: I was his favorite youngest child and memories of Dad
Even when I didn’t want him to be. My father was there for me. He believed I’d go a long way and gave me a used suitcase ...
by Al Batt, Tuesday, June 16, 2020 8:10 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: Having no fair seems unfair
I was dead set against going. But now I want to go. The drive is a hassle. I don’t eat enough deep-fried things on a stick to ...
by Al Batt, Tuesday, June 9, 2020 8:25 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: It’s my good luck to have had a life full of good potlucks
My mirror reflects poorly on me. It’s showing the image from my driver’s license. The looking-glass gets worse every day. It magnifies the pillow tracks on the ...
by Al Batt, Tuesday, June 2, 2020 8:17 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: Put a zip in your code with a forever stamp on your letter
She said she’d had a dream about me. “Oh, oh,” was the thought that came galloping into my mind. I heard menacing drums coming from the ...
by Al Batt, Tuesday, May 26, 2020 8:19 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: What to do if you encounter Yogi the bear and his buddies
I swam with snapping turtles. I was only slightly smarter than a bag of hammers (I didn’t know oregano from Oregon) and I wasn’t the best ...
by Al Batt, Tuesday, May 19, 2020 8:27 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: ‘I got too much sleep,’ said no one ever in their right mind
I got out of bed and tripped over a toenail clipping. That put a bruise on the morning’s sweetness. Note to self: Do not clip toenails in ...
by Al Batt, Tuesday, May 12, 2020 8:26 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: I wish I would have chosen to hug my mother more often
I wish I’d have hugged my mother more. I’m a hugger, but I didn’t grow up in a family prone to hugging. Hugging was saved for ...
by Al Batt, Tuesday, May 5, 2020 8:26 pm
Columnists
Al Batt: Whiskers, beards and how to get through a pandemic
What the blue blazes am I doing? I tried to maintain eye contact with shaggy men from outside my zip code who didn’t look like themselves. Our ...