As a child, nothing heralded the approaching Holiday Season like mail-order catalogs. Sears, JC Penny's, Spiegel...they were the stuff of Santa dreams. We'd pore over them for hours, identifying the treasures we craved. And then, they vanished in the new world of the internet. They're baaaack. ...

Sometimes, you roll into a town for the first time and just know you've been there before. That was the experience I had last week as I rolled into Cottage Grove OR. A cute downtown; one with real potential. But, it was the banner across Main Street that caught my eye. I'd seen this streetscape...