It took me almost 60 years to return to Hawaii, but I finally can say I have. Home from a 31-day trip to Hawaii, California, New Mexico and Arizona, we’ve spent the better part of two days unpacking and catching up on mail. After four states, 10 flights, four rental cars and a whole bunch of hotel rooms, I don’t …
As of today I have signed off as a contributor to my favorite magazine, Dakota Country. I’m old, and I’m tired of a lifetime of deadlines. Today, Jan.1, 2023 — it’s gonna take some time to get used to typing that number and getting it right on checks — is the first time in almost 10 years I haven’t sent …
The University of North Dakota men’s basketball team dropped a 71-49 Summit League contest to North Dakota State University on Friday night in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. The Bison (4-11 overall,1-2 Summit) led 36-20 after the first half and the Fighting Hawks (6-9 overall,0-2 Summit) couldn’t quite recover from the deficit. Grant Nelson and Andrew Morgan led NDSU with 15 …
I was a very strict parent, especially until my sons turned 13. My boys still comment on how I wouldn’t let them watch “Rugrats” because Angelica was mean spirited. But on Dec 31, we always celebrated “Break the Rules Day.” As long as their actions were not mean-spirited or destructive, they could break all of the rules. Have ice …
On Tuesday, we visited Hubbell Trading Post in northern Arizona, an exceptional National Park Service historic site. They keep a demonstration herd of sheep and I had a quiet moment with them after the Navajo park ranger talked about Mother Earth and Father Sky. Last night I had a visitation in a dream from my mother, who in her childhood …
As the holidays approach, I thought it might be useful to lighten the tone a little as we survey the national political situation in 2022. Two weeks ago, former President Trump’s attorneys came forward with two top security documents that they said they found in a storage facility rented on Trump’s behalf near Mar-a-Lago. Putting aside for the moment the fact that …
OK, indulge me one more time, please, while I write just one more very personal column. Then I’ll shut up for a while, maybe even until after Christmas. I’m sitting in my hotel room at the Westin St. Francis Hotel on Union Square in San Francisco. It’s a place I’ve stayed before — sort of. On Dec. 18, 1971, the …
Grand Forks photographer Dave Bruner and his wife, Sheila, went out Wednesday and walked and traveled around the city and this is what they found.
If you want to understand what straight white privilege and implicit bias looks like, the response to Brittney Griner’s release is a case in point. Over the years, there have been many prisoner exchanges the United States has had with countries that have unjustly imprisoned American citizens. Rarely if ever are there even exchanges and when they happen, other Americans …
“No honest person can now deny that [Donald] Trump is an enemy of the Constitution,” Liz Cheney said after the former president appeared to call for terminating the U.S. Constitution in a post on his alternative social media site, Truth Social, on Dec. 3. The Truth Social post heard across the Republican Party as former president Donald Trump appeared to …
The Army docs fixed me up just fine and sent me back to Waikiki late Friday, just in time for a Goodbye-To-Oahu supper. Joined my family and they splurged for dessert. Today it is off to the Big Island of Hawaii and Volcanoes National Park (if it is still there). First, a Bloody Mary on the beach (it’s still morning …
Wednesday, December 7, 2022, is a day that will live in infamy (to borrow a catchy phrase from my favorite president) for me. While visiting the USS Arizona Memorial on Pearl Harbor Day, I experienced severe chills in 80-degree weather. I went to the gift store and bought a really cool Pearl Harbor jacket, put it on and zipped it …
As the Georgia Senate runoff election enters its final days, the Republican candidate, Herschel Walker, has been accused of carpetbagging. Tapes have surfaced in which he nonchalantly tells the people of Georgia that his home is in Texas. “I live in Texas,” Walker said in January 2022 while speaking to the College Republicans of the University of Georgia. Why did …
Cold weather is always a great time for soup. It’s a good way to warm up if you’ve been outdoors shoveling the sidewalk after a snowfall or on a walk with the dog. One kind that’s caught our fancy recently has been a version of ham and bean soup, which I’ve been enjoying since childhood. (It was one of my …
This article is reprinted from the December issue of Dakota Country magazine, on newstands and in the mail this week. I wish I could tell you there’s a lot to see on Kendley Plateau, south of Medora, N.D. I wish I could, but I can’t, because there’s not much to see there. Mostly Bad Lands, prairie grass, sagebrush and scattered …
The University of North Dakota football team’s valiant rally in the second half of Saturday’s FCS playoff game in Odgen, Utah, against Weber State University fell just short as the Fighting Hawks fell 38-31 to the Wildcats. The Hawks trailed 24-0 in the first half and 31-14 heading into the third quarter before staging the comeback. UND quarterback Tommy Schuster …
Donald Trump announced a new run for the presidency Nov. 15. This comes at a time when several investigations seem to be closing in on him. The Justice Department is investigating his appropriation of government documents, some of them highly classified, that belong to the National Archives. For this he may be indicted. The state of Georgia has been investigating Trump’s attempts …
Just after midnight on Nov. 20, which is Trans a Day of Remembrance, to honor the memory of transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of hate and violence, an armed gunman entered an LGBTQ nightclub during a drag show and shot and killed five people, two of whom were transgender individuals. In recent months, anti-gay rhetoric has been …
“The Badlands Call” By Clell Gannon Land of a thousand voices Beckoning unto me, Land of the zigzag valleys Shadowed in history. Land of a thousand coulees, Pastures without the bars, Land of a weird beauty Under a million stars. WildDakotaWoman will be on hiatus until sometime in 2023.
No. 4 North Dakota State University handed No. 16/23 University of North Dakota a 42-21 Missouri Valley Conference loss Saturday in the Fargodome. The Fighting Hawks (7-4 overall, 5-3 MVFC) trailed 28-14 after the first half but couldn’t overcome the 14-0 first quarter lead racked up by the Bison (9-2, 7-1 MVFC). Cam Miller led NDSU, rushing for 93 yards …
In London this past week, I ventured to the British Museum (above) to spend some time in the Enlightenment Room, home to an amazing array of artifacts that characterize “the long 18th century” — globes, sextants, maps, telescopes, pressed plant collections, mammoth and mastodon bones. What I principally wanted to see was the Orrery — a tabletop planetarium so ingenious, with …
We have subjected Nashville recording artist Doug Allen Nash to our 20 (or so) questions before. But since he’ll be back into Grand Forks with an all-new Christmas show at 7 p.m. Dec. 10 and 3 p.m. Dec. 11 in the Empire Arts Center, it seems appropriate to question him yet again. This time about all things Christmas. Doug’s Country …
The University of Denver men’s hockey team scored 3-2 come-from-behind National Collegiate Hockey Conference win against the University of North Dakota on Friday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. Griffin Ness and Chris Jandric scored for the Fighting Hawks (4-4-2 overall, 1-1-1 NCHC). The Pioneers (8-3-0, 4-1-0 NCHC) received goals from Carter King, Aiden Thompson and Jared Wright. UND goaltender Drew …
Tommy Schuster was 24-for-28 passing for 223 yards and three touchdowns to lead the University of North Dakota football team to a 28-19 Missouri Valley Conference win over the University of South Dakota on Saturday in the Alerus Center. The Fighting Hawks (7-3 overall, 5-2 MVFC) trailed twice in the first half but a blocked punt inside the 10-yard-line of …
“The other morning, when the scorching sun had shot the mercury up to the hundred mark, we got to reminiscing with one of Minot’s real old-timers, and gleaned some interesting old-time stories that we will now pass on to our readers. We got to talking about ‘pigs’. Thirty or 40 years ago, Minot had a lot of pigs, but many …
Headlines from this week’s papers: “GOP grows supermajority in North Dakota’s Legislature; Dems have ‘collapsed completely’” “North Dakota sees worst voter turnout this millennium” “DFL wins full control of Minnesota government” “Minnesota voter turnout shaping up to be highest in nation yet again” The Democratic-NPL Party (my party, sadly) in North Dakota is now almost nonexistent. The number of Democrats …
When I was a kid in Slope County, North Dakota, the rattlesnakes on our place were abundant. The snakes slithered their way from the den on the rocky hills surrounding our place to Deep Creek, back and forth, on a route that frequently took them through our yard. My late mother could kill rattlesnakes with the best of them. Mother …
Book banning is on the rise in America. According to PEN America, from July 2021 to June 2022, there were 2,532 instances of individual books being banned, involving 1,648 titles by 1,261 different authors. PEN America is a free expression advocacy group headquartered in New York. In the period from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, Texas had the most …
“Of course, I’m just a wild-eyed liberal,” I said sarcastically during a conversation with a conservative friend one day. “No, you’re a moderate,” she said. “You just seem liberal in McIntosh County.” Perhaps so. On social issues, I think government ought to stay out of the bedroom, doctor’s offices and out of our personal lives in general. I don’t believe …
Everybody’s talking about term limits this week, in the leadup to Tuesday’s election. Well, not everybody, but it certainly is the topic of discussion at coffee klatches and business lunches. Even one of my lawyer buddies walked up beside me on the track at the Y this morning and asked “What do you think is going to happen with the …
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” ― Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel knew what he was talking about. The indifference of the German people, who elected the Nazi Party to …
This article first appeared in the November, 2022 issue of Dakota Country magazine. Long ago, way back in the 1970s, I lived in Dickinson, in western North Dakota, and was a writer and editor for The Dickinson Press. My regular working hours were 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. I was a recently returned Vietnam veteran who needed …
There’s an election coming. It’s a pretty boring one. In North Dakota, all the Republicans will win, except in Fargo and a few other places in the Red River Valley. And maybe one Democrat in Bismarck. District 35 Sen. Tracy Potter. I think District 35 is the only district west of U.S. Highway 281 represented by a Democrat except for …
I don’t even need a map. Just point me west. It wasn’t until the next day, after I was home again, that I realized that — serendipitously — my retreat had taken place on President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday. What I knew was that I needed to go. Go. Go. Go. Away to the Badlands. So I went. To the northern …
The University of North Dakota men’s hockey team jumped out to a 2-0 in the first nine minutes of its game with Arizona State University on Saturday night but the Sun Devils (5-4-0) rallied for with goals from Matthew Kopperud, Lukas Sillinger and Robert Mastrosimone to claim a 3-2 win over the Fighting Hawks (3-3-1) in the 2022 U.S. Hockey …
Amtrak’s Wink and Nod to the Great Northern I boarded the Amtrak’s Empire Builder train in Minot not long ago, en route to the railroad’s terminus in Seattle. A journey of 1,178 miles, 27 hours, starting at 9 a.m. CDT on a Friday and ending at 10:15 PDT Saturday morning, a day later. That meant we rode in daylight (in late …
The following from “Prairie Mosaic: An Ethnic Atlas of Rural North Dakota,” William C. Sherman, 2nd edition: “A number of Jewish individuals, at least fifteen, filed on homestead lands about ten miles north of Flasher between 1902 and 1906. Assisted by a Jewish ‘back to the land’ organization, these early settlers located in DeVault Township in Morton County. … Within …
The University of North Dakota football team held South Dakota State University in check for one half but stumbled the final two quarters as the Jackrabbits (7-1, 5-0 Missouri Valley Conference) handed the Fighting Hawks (4-3, 3-2 MVC) a 49-35 Missouri Valley Conference loss Saturday in the Alerus Center. No. 20 North Dakota led 21-14 at halftime but was outscored …
I flew to Paris a few days ago from Bismarck. A distance of 4,397 miles. I left my house at 11 a.m. CDT and arrived at my hotel in the center of Paris, with layovers, just 18 hours later. On the plane (I was in steerage) I was given two pretty good meals, an unlimited supply of alcohol, five bottles …
(Posted with the permission of my sister-in-law, Jill, a mostly Norwegian North Dakotan.) No recipe. Hutterite chicken first and foremost. Cook for hours to create chicken stock. Remove chicken. Add chopped celery, onion and carrots. I then add cubes of raw potatoes … then cream. Lots of it. After the potatoes have cooked. Mix knoephla noodle recipe as follows: 6 …
A controversial pipeline to transport toxic waste across McIntosh County is inching closer to reality. Representatives of Summit Carbon Solutions, the pipeline developer, updated the McIntosh County Commission on their progress earlier this month during the commission’s regular monthly meeting. The $4.5 billion carbon-capture pipeline, if it can overcome significant opposition, would transport liquid CO2 from 32 ethanol plants across …
Grand Forks photographer Dave Bruner was down in his home country in southwestern North Dakota this past week doing some pheasant hunting and, of course, took his camera along to do some scenic landscapes. He was fortunate to have some great skies both mornings and found some interesting landscapes to photograph.
Having been inspired by Laura Anhalt a few years ago, I have slowly been acquiring old metal coolers for outside storage of seeds for my bird feeders. This in my attempt to foil the squirrels who have for all the years we’ve lived at Red Oak House busily chewed through every other container, mostly tubs made of thick rubber. Yes, …
