Quick hits: Wallet-draining breakfast prices; the 'Walmart effect;' rural short story winner; bird flu stats; shouses

Photo by E. Aceron, Unsplash

Budget-busting beef with eggs and coffee breakfasts won't be cheaper anytime soon. "While commodities such as beef and eggs have long been volatile, others such as coffee have jumped in price more recently," report Patrick Thomas, David Uberti and Elizaveta Galkina of The Wall Street Journal. "Average prices for food at home rose in November by the largest annual pace in a year. . . . Store-bought ground [coffee] roasts have jumped 11% in price over the past year to an all-time high." In slightly less of a buzzkill, pork prices have remained steady, and "the average price of white bread is down around 3% over the past year."

Walmart's motto is "save money, live better," but oftentimes, that's not what happens to places after Walmart moves in. "New research suggests that the company makes the communities it operates in poorer — even taking into account its famous low prices," reports Rogé Karma for The Atlantic. "Walmart’s many defenders argue that the company is a boon to poor and middle-class families, who save thousands of dollars every year shopping there. . . .Two new research papers challenge that view." Read the research here.

Haworth's character, Michael, decides to venture home.
(Photo by Julian Scholl, Unsplash)

When one season of life ends, another begins -- or does it? Jeremy Haworth's short story "Blood Brother" explores Michael Riordan's path from retirement boredom to the uncertainty of going home. Haworth writes, "The sudden thought of home occurred to him. . . . Years had elapsed since he had crossed the threshold of the old farmstead. But the twinge in his chest told him time was shortening. The thought of death. . . an instinct to finally lay the ghosts of the past to rest. . ." Hadworth's story is the winner of the second annual “Best in Rural Writing Contest” presented by the rural literary journal The Milk House with support from The Daily Yonder.

The spread of bird flu or H5N1 in dairy cows has put many dairy farmers and consumers on edge. To help measure and mitigate the virus in cow herds, the Department of Agriculture rolled out mandated milk testing in December. The USDA is sharing its testing results with up-to-date graphics of confirmed bird flu cases, also called HPAI, found in U.S. herds. Over the past 30 days, testing found 182 new cases in two states. See the details here.

Shouses don't have to be small. This shouse is located in Okeana, a small unincorporated
community in rural Ohio. (Morton Buildings photo)

Rural landscapes have made room for country-living architecture that goes beyond barn-shaped homes and wood cabins. "Barndominiums" and "shouses" are dotting the countryside in surprising numbers. "Look carefully the next time you’re driving on the back roads of America, and you’re bound to spot a shouse — a hulking rectangular structure. . . . It could easily be mistaken for a machine shed," reports Dionne Searcey of The New York Times. "From the outside, shouses look a lot like the better-known barndominiums, or barndos for short. . . . It’s difficult to trace the genesis of shouses. . ."

'Fancy mechanic' Brienna Hall works for a company few have heard of doing work vital to maintaining all the tech in our lives. "The piece of equipment that the entire world has come to rely on — and Hall is specially trained to handle — is called an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine," reports Ben Cohen of The Wall Street Journal. "It’s the machine that produces the most advanced microchips on the planet . . . maybe the most remarkable thing about these invaluable machines is that they’re all made by the same company: ASML. . . . This one Dutch company is responsible for all of the EUV lithography systems that help make the chips in so many of your devices. Like your phone. And your computer. And your tablet. And your TV. Maybe even your car, too."