The collection includes the first Mustang and the very last Model T ever made (and if Model T's are your thing, you can even tour the grounds in one). There are also sobering exhibits: the actual 1961 Lincoln Continental convertible in which JFK was assassinated and the bus in which Rosa Parks sat when she sparked the Civil Rights Movement. But Greenfield Village's real strength is how it reflects Ford's own nostalgia for bygone enterprise. Set within it are original buildings that he bought and then had reassembled on-site--including the Illinois courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practiced law and a Cape Cod windmill (one of the oldest in the country, built in 1633 in Massachusetts)--and a re-creation of Thomas Edison's New Jersey laboratory, birthplace of the lightbulb. Baseball fans can catch a game by the museum's home team, the Lah-De-Dahs, who play by the rules of the late 1800s (with uniforms to match), while food lovers can explore one of the property's four farms, where nineteenth-century cooking techniques--glass-jar canning, sausage making, pickling, and hog butchering--are replicated in careful detail. After walking amid the massive collection of artifacts, you can't help but appreciate the tidal wave of change its founder--the father of mass production--brought to the American way of life.

Two years and some 50 yards removed from the site of a remarkable 2012 news conference in which he proclaimed his innocence and attacked his detractors, Ryan Braun stood in the shade at Maryvale Baseball Park and said he was sorry.

Hard to believe people fell for his accusations and wanted to accuse the collector of spiking the sample claiming a Cubs fan was "out to get" the Brewers star. But Ryan Braun has paid his dues and returns to the Brewers after his 65 game suspension for PED's.

Meanwhile, the Oregon United for Marriage's campaign to ask voters to strike down the ban has already gathered enough signatures to qualify for the November '14 ballot. But since Oregon is still only 55-45% in favor of gay marriage, I think it's pretty risky to put same-sex couples' rights up for a public vote again next fall.

Oregon United for Marriage/Basic Rights Oregon will choose not to utilize the ballot box if the court case pans out for equality, in which case they'll redirect resources to fight a new anti-gay initiative that would allow religious exemptions for discrimination. (Friends of Religious Freedom, the group pursuing the initiative that would allow businesses to opt out of participating in same-sex weddings, has already complained that the State wrote an unfair ballot title for their measure: "Exempts religious opposition to same sex marriage/civil union/ domestic partnership from penalties for discrimination." Seems like a fair title to me, but if you want to write discrimination into public policy, you certainly don't want to admit that's what you're doing.)

I say the most effective strategy would be to drop/delay the public vote on the current ban so the Rethugs can't use it to inspire their minions to vote in a non-Presidential year, and stick with the courts instead. In addition, let the new anti-gay ballot discriminatory measure pass and then strike it down in the courts afterwards. Reminiscent of bigot restaurant owners who wouldn't serve negroes, the solution is to close 'em down, hard. We need to prevent this hot-button issue from bolstering the sagging Republican party, and the best way to do that is to expose their unconstitutional agenda in the courts. Hopefully, Judge McShane won't allow any delays that would extend this issue beyond next November's vote.

The round trip airfare between Honolulu and Molokai, where I work twice a month, is usually between $150 and $170. The flight is 60 miles long each way, and there's only one airline servicing the route, Island Air, although Hawaiian Airlines will be taking over that route on March 11.

When I had to go to Rochester, MN in 2007, the R/T airfare on Northwest Airlines between Honolulu and Minneapolis / St. Paul -- a distance of 4,200 miles -- was $675.

But the R/T airfare between MSP and Rochester, also on Northwest, was -- get this -- $480! And mind you, the distance between MSP and RST is only 89 miles. But once again, the only airline flying between the two cities was Northwest, which is now part of Delta Air Lines.

When airlines enjoy a virtual monopoly on service between two communities or cities, they can pretty much charge what they want. Out of DEN, you're at the mercy of United and Frontier, the two dominant carriers.

United's also the dominant carrier out of HNL, although Hawaiian is aggressively mounting a very serious challenge to that dominance on trans-Pacific routes to New York, the west coast and Japan.

Don't be discouraged about flying, Jeralyn. Just make sure that your next plane trip is to a place which is worth the effort and one to which you'll actually enjoy going -- like, let's say, Maui.