They should disable the democratic process in Minnesota. We can forgive you if you accidentally elect a pro wrestler as your governor. But when you send a guy who played Stuart Smalley on "Saturday Night Live" to the Senate, you become a problem for all of us.

A look at books that should be on your summer reading list -- if only they were real.

Although the sun has an average temperature of 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the moving, churning gases of its surface vary, and its temperature is known to slightly cool. Astronomers are presently perplexed by an extended cool season the sun is experiencing.

Whenever I write a column about guns, I get at least a few responses from people who don't call me names, who use proper grammar and present their arguments in a reasonable manner. So when I heard that a pastor in Louisville, Ky., was having a "Bring Your Gun To Church Day," I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. It wasn't easy.

The events unfolding in Iran have left the U.S. in something of a bind. Words appear to be our only option, but without care, words can create serious problems.

Sadly, many folks died last week in central Illinois. There was Jim P., 68, of East Peoria, whose music brought many joy, especially in the area's senior citizen homes. He founded his own dance band, the Starlighters, and kept it alive for 50 years. Marcella S., 95, of Germantown Hills, founded the library there in 1952 and when she retired after 40 years, they named the place after her. Mary C. of Peoria was 95, too, and boy did she love to cook, especially those green beans for her three kids and 29 grandkids and who knows how many great-grands and great-greats.

Since it apparently is going to rain forever in New England, we have had to get creative with our time. June has been a total washout. My 10-year-old is the king of solitaire, and my husband has developed a fixation with the lighting in our downstairs bathroom. I have been doing a little shopping, while trying to remember our new budgetary restrictions – we have affectionately named our financial state as “crash and burn.”

At its legalistic heart, the Supreme Court's decision on Ricci v. City of New Haven turned on the distinction between measuring discrimination cases on the basis of intentional discrimination or disparate impact. In terms of politics and rhetoric, it was all about Sonia Sotomayor, empathy and judicial activism.

There are certain things in life that are simply unavoidable. Try as you might, you’ll never stop them — I’m talking about things like winter, or a steam engine, or another season of “Scrubs.” And then there’s my latest addition to this list: my children’s impending teenagerhood.

I was in that sort of half-asleep, not-yet-awake place one morning when I heard the sound of water dripping. At first I thought I was dreaming about a leaky faucet in the kids’ bathroom. Then, as I started to wake up, I thought it actually was a leaky faucet in the kids’ bathroom. But as I became fully awake, I realized it was actually the sound of water hitting the bathroom floor.

Weekly financial Q&A, with items on level pay, salesman tips and marital finances.

Military column from Bruce Coulter: “The VA system is confusing, overwhelming and is not at all friendly to veterans.” Reading the words of Gulf War veteran David Bohan, who testified before a house subcommittee last month brought on a feeling of déjà vu for me.

Did you ever get a dumb song lyric so stuck in your head you wanted to consult a neurosurgeon?
I worked alongside an editor for a couple years who had the mindless habit of humming, “The Girl from Ipanema,” under his breath several hundred times per day.

The miserably dwindling sands in the hourglass have left me with very little time to write this column. I have procrastinated and ignored the inevitable. When one thinks so little about a column beforehand that he has no subject by deadline, he must take what the Writing Piper gives him.

In 1977, it was Elvis Presley. Thirty years later, Anna Nicole Smith. We don’t know yet if Michael Jackson had a similarly enabling cadre of hangers-on who helped hasten his death last week at age 50, but there’s a common thread regardless. From Elvis to Anna Nicole, from Britney Spears to Jon and Kate Gosselin, we’ve seen countless times the power of fame to destroy lives.