As a longtime newspaper columnist Woody Woodburn is often asked to speak to civic groups - and the person audiences invariably want to hear more about during the Q&A afterward is Coach John Wooden. Listeners at these talks, as well as readers of Woodburn's national award-winning columns, over the years have encouraged him to write a book about his experiences with Coach. Now he has with the memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help "Make Each Day Your Masterpiece." It was in 1987 as a young sports writer and near-newlywed...

Strawberries in wintertime are something I cannot recall from my boyhood in Ohio. This changed when my family took a Christmas vacation to Ventura in Southern California in 1971. I had never before seen the ocean in person; explored tidal pools at low tide; or chased a "grunion run" under a full moon's high tide. And here is something else magical: fresh strawberries in wintertime Driving from the farmer's market stand back to the beach house where we were staying, I ate crabapple-sized strawberries by the handful, by the big mouthful, sweet red nectar dripping down my chin. The following...