Opinion

Dear Doctors: I have shared my home with pets my whole life. I am now a 76-year-old widow, and my menagerie is down to two small dogs. I just saw on the news that pets keep you mentally sharp. Is that true? I’d like to be able to reassure my sons that my furry companions are a boon and not a burden.

One of the simplest ways to define politics is as a struggle for power. This power struggle has flared up again.

Dear Doctors: My sister was diagnosed with cancer, and her doctors say she should consider freezing her eggs. It’s not definite that the treatment will affect her ability to get pregnant, but it’s a real possibility. I don’t know how freezing one’s eggs works. Can you explain? Is it expensive?

Editor’s note: This is the final column of a series by Lance Gormley looking at the Newton utility bill, or “water bill”. Upcoming topics include sewer, trash, the PUF, and conclusions. Gormley recently worked through a Wichita State University internship with the city commission, during which he was able to look closely at the utility rates.

In 1980, I conducted a survey of U.S. entomology departments. This was before the Internet so I surveyed our 41 university entomology departments by mail. They all provided the requested details of their programs: masters and doctoral degrees awarded, number of faculty, and where faculty came from.

It was the very eve of the Dust Bowl era, the darkest time in the history of EuroAmerican settlement on the Great Plains, when the Greeley County News, smack on the Colorado line, chose to reprint the full text (eight stanzas plus chorus) of a ballad dating from the 1880s: “Little Old Sod Shanty on the Claim.”

Dear Doctors: I had just started a new job when the pandemic happened. On top of the lockdowns and home-schooling our kids, I was diagnosed with IBS. My husband read there’s research that it’s caused by stress, and that makes a lot of sense to me. Can you please talk about that research?