Grand Forks photographer Dave Bruner went out a few hours during the late spring snowstorm Wednesday and captured some scenes from “hopefully our last snow for spring!”
A while ago, I read the 887-page third volume of historian Rick Atkinson’s liberation trilogy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945.” I highly recommend it to those interested in the history of World War II. Just last night, I finished the first volume, “An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, …
Pour, Water, Tamp, Mix, Tamp… His name is Dennis. Five years of living 60 or 70 yards away, just over the backyard fence, I really should’ve known that already. I stood on his front step, shaking his hand and explaining that the posts that should’ve been holding up a couple of sections of our shared fence had rotted out. He’d …
There’s no doubt that Americans are in love with red meat. Ever since the early times of the United States, red meat has been one of the top five foods consumed by Americans. But the love affair between Americans and red meat has hit a roadblock in recent years. Several studies have pointed out that a diet high in red meat …
With anticipation and excitement this morning, I headed to the celebration marking the Minnesota Department of Human Rights 50th Anniversary celebration in the new multimillion dollar renovated House of the People. I went with my husband, Arnie Bigbee, one of the state’s champions for Human Rights who helped Edina pass the first suburb’s Domestic Partnership Ordinance seven years ago when …
My cousin, Ron Bowman, and his wife, Marsha, and their siblings have been tapping about 190 trees for the past eight years in an 80-acre forest not far from La Farm in rural Ashby, Minn. But this year was not a good year, according to Ron. They started tapping in February. “It started early, got too cold, our trees never …
I’m home from a visit to Tucson, Ariz., where, indeed, the skies are not cloudy all day, just about every single day. I visited lifelong friends, Marilyn and Paul Ohm, who have lived there for a couple of decades. The sun shines and the sky is blue, and it was already getting quite warm. It was pleasant, but I confess …
The Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival is under way, with more than 350 movies being shown over 16 days at several venues. If I could do it over, I’d work in the movie industry as a writer or technical professional. I still recall a movie I saw as a North Dakota farm kid, “The Bridges at Toko-Ri,” starring William …
It’s easy, in the face of atrocities, to want to look the other way. That’s what went through my mind today as I stared at skull upon skull stacked 18 levels high at the Killing Fields Memorial Site, or as I listened to the audio descriptions of torture as I walked through Tuol Sleng Prison, the Genocide Museum. It would …
Fake news is a phrase that wasn’t uttered in April 1997 when the Red River swamped the neighborhoods of Grand Forks, N.D., and East Grand Forks, Minn. When my Grand Forks Herald colleagues and I reported on the devastating flood damage and the fire that ravaged 11 downtown Grand Forks buildings, nobody took to social media to attack our news …
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is amazed that a judge “sitting on an island in the Pacific” can issue an order blocking POTUS 45’s travel ban. He then opines the president has the constitutional authority to act as he did. As attorney general of the United States, Sessions has taken an oath to uphold the constitution and lawful court orders. He …
Our Cuban Family is the second photo exhibit I have from the 5,000-plus photos I took on a trip with 12 other Westminster Presbyterian Church (1200 Marquette Ave.) members a couple of months ago. This exhibit opens in the Westminster Gallery on Sunday with a noon reception following the 10:30 a.m. church service. I will speak very briefly as will a …
Today is the 70th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This heartfelt and strongly worded op-ed piece by my dear friend, and the former superintendent of the park, Valerie Naylor, is a great read for today’s occasion. Holding true to Theodore Roosevelt’s Vision at Theodore Roosevelt National Park Please “do what you can, where you are, with what you have” for …
I renewed my membership in the Hemingway Society the other day and jotted down the location and dates of its next international meeting — in Paris in 2018. I may not get there, but I WILL continue to buy new books about Ernest Hemingway and his art. You’d never guess he’s been dead for more than half a century. Unlike …
Jim and I spent Earth Day 2017 working in our yard in the dee-lightful spring sunshine. We might have joined the marches for science around the country, but the yard work beckoned. I remember very clearly the first Earth Day in 1970. We got out of school that day to pick up trash in the ditch along state Highway 12 …
There are two or three days left in the legislative session. A lot of bad things are going to happen to North Dakota in that short period of time. I’ve been watching every legislative session since 1975, and this one is by far the most irresponsible I’ve seen. One of the worst things that could happen this week is the industrialization …
You don’t have to go to western North Dakota to catch a good glimpse of wildlife. Just ask Grand Forks photographer Michael Bogert, who never seems to come up empty when searching his favorite Red River Valley haunts — including Kellys Slough National Wildlife Refuge — for watchable wildlife.
I took the above picture in 2006 of Sentinel Butte, N.D. Its population today is 61 compared to 229 in the early 1950s, when our family lived there for several months. The town is a few miles west of Medora, which in those days was not yet much of a tourist attraction. Neither was Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which had …
Grand Forks photographer Russ Hons and his wife, Paulette, took a trip to Medora, N.D., over the weekend. While there, they spent much of the time checking out the wildlife and the scenery in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. According to Russ, “I love this place!” What’s not to love? (Check out more photos from Russ Hons here.)
As a member of the Drive-By, Fake News, Pinko, Socialist, Leftist, Apologist, UnAmerican, Blame-America-First, Liberal Media, I have been checking my mailbox for the interrogation letter U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., sent out the other day to suspected enemies of the state — you know, ABC, CBS and NBC. He is concerned about the liberal slant of facts. Kevin, he’s …
Edina, Minn., photographer Barbara La Valleur and her husband, Arnie Bigbee, spend a lot of time at her family’s farm, appropriately named La Farm, near Ashby, Minn. A recent foggy morning provided her with this amazing photo op.
Because I promised my friend Marilyn I would share with her the photos of my Navajo rugs, I’m writing this blog. It’s just easier. I must confess that I feel a little like it is bragging, but, if nothing else, it is documentation for my loved ones. My husband Jim and I have a lifetime’s worth of Native American art …
People who routinely bake a ham for a holiday meal usually don’t have any questions when it comes to leftovers. Ham or ham and cheese sandwiches are near the top of my list as well as a macaroni salad, the kind that might be served after a funeral. I also just like to nibble on a piece of ham as a …
This past weekend, Grand Forks photographer Dave Bruner and his wife, Sheila, did a short road trip and ended up at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. According to Dave: “Had nice clouds in air, so we walked around photographing and looking at the planes on display by the front entrance of the base.”
Well, Thursday and today I have learned I did not ask enough questions of my doctors about treating gout. Partly my fault — the specialist is a very busy guy, and I did not think to go back to my family physician and find out about ongoing inexpensive meds to keep the gout at bay once I have whipped it with …
And, Please, No More “Republican Lite” Byron Dorgan once got my ass kicked. That’s not literally true, of course. I can’t remember the name of the kid who actually trounced me in a back alley half a block from Jamestown (N.D.) Junior High when I was in the seventh grade, but it did start with our future senator. It was …
Finally, a gardening book for our area! “Successful Gardening on the Northern Prairie” is on its way from the printer, and features 326 pages of information specifically for us. Learn how our soils are different from most of the rest of the country’s and what you can do about it. Learn about the only two fertilizers (very cheap) you will …
Thank you for the warm welcome in my return to the blogosphere a week or two ago. The first blog in more than a year was a bit difficult to put out there because it largely concerned my own dark side, and who wants to go around publicizing that. (Click here if you missed it.) But I think most of us …
I got gout. Of all things, after a long winter in which I survived two spine surgeries to relieve pressure from a herniated disc on my sciatic nerve, I woke up one morning in early March with excruciating pain in the big toe on my left foot. My first thought was an ingrown toenail, so I went to my doctor …
The repugnant grabby Donald Trump, with a white nationalist on his staff, wasn’t the first loudmouth reality TV star, or low-watt nativist leader, to figure out that fear is a great motivator — and vote getter. Unsavory foreigners are pouring across our borders by the thousands for crissakes, don’t you know. Believe me. Are you jumpy, yet? I’ve heard they’re …
When my fellow Fish opinionator Tom Davies looks out at his backyard, he sees bald eagles, turkey vultures and courting bunnies. When I look out at ours, I see … plastic sacks. Yes, empty sacks — caught up near the tippy tops of the crabapple tree beside the deck and the maple in the corner. From ground level, one appears …
This past Easter week was an unusual experience for me. I was sitting on my deck overlooking Elephant Park in north Fargo, watching the cloud formations. The white fluffy clouds against the dark blue background of the sky were beautiful. I then noticed a very large flock of turkey vultures riding the winds high above the clouds. Unlike eagles and …
When I was in college, an English professor once devoted an entire lecture to discussing a single poem, “The Wild Swans at Coole,” created in 1916 by the Irish writer William Butler Yeats. I still own the text book, coverless now and much worn. I thought of and reread the verses Monday before walking to a nearby pond to take …
The North Dakota State Water Commission has violated state law more than 600 times in recent years, by issuing permits for industrial use of water (read: fracking oil wells) from the Little Missouri State Scenic River. Employees there claim they didn’t know they weren’t supposed to do that. I believe them. But that’s no excuse. More on that in a …
The University of North Dakota football team played its annual Spring Game on Saturday, and photographer Russ Hons was on hand to shoot the action. (Check out more photos from Russ Hons here.)
Many people have fond memories of Easter Sunday dinners. Baked ham usually was the centerpiece of these feasts. If your mom or grandma fixed ham like mine, the meat was scored and studded with cloves, rubbed with brown sugar and sometimes a little mustard and finally baked until the whole house smelled heavenly. Over the years, I’ve made our Easter …
Flowers and dogs. That’s what Alexandria, Va., photographer Jeff Olson has been seeing a lot of lately. Hurray for spring!
What the hell. What am I supposed to do with this mess? I try. I look out at the world, read the news and try to find the bright side. When someone pees in my cornflakes I say, “That’s all right, I don’t like cornflakes, anyway.” But when in Russia, do as the Russians do. I don’t actually hate cornflakes. …
This portrait of Fred Rogers hangs at the top of the stairs entering our living room, which means I see it, and make eye contact with Fred, many times each day. Having Fred hanging there changes the molecules in the air of the place where we live. The artist who created it is another reason why that picture is one …
Birds, birds, birds! That’s what Grand Forks photographer Russ Hons exclaimed while working west of Grand Forks recently. (Check out more photos from Russ Hons here.)
Two Events Bringing Together Friends, Neighbors & Civic Leaders So you say you want to protect the environment. That you’re for clean air, safe water and a livable planet. Mr./Ms. Sustainability… that’s you. Well, then. You need to be at a couple of events coming up in Fargo, N.D., this month. They’re great opportunities to put your environmental action mind/feet where …
Merlins, also called pigeon hawks, breed in the northern Holarctic, with some migrating to subtropical and northern tropical regions in winter. In recent decades, merlin populations in North America have been significantly increasing, with some merlins becoming so well adapted to city life that they forgo migration. Swift fliers and skilled hunters, merlins specialize in preying on small birds. If you have seen them in your neighborhood, it …
Jason Halek wandered in and out of Bismarck on Wednesday. He wasn’t all that excited about being here, and I’m pretty sure he didn’t stick around to visit with old friends, instead likely heading back to Texas to sell some more used cars. For a couple more months. I wrote about Halek last month, after his lawyer negotiated a plea agreement …
Stan shuffles into the dark bar, stands still for a minute to let his pupils expand, and waits for the blindness to dissipate. Then, without moving, he hollers, “ORV! ARE YOU IN HERE?” A strange voice answers from the shadows. “Which Orv are you looking for? “The ornery one.” “Oh, he’s sitting at the bar.” Stan shuffles over to the …