I said the other day I was going to stick to writing about King Crab Legs. So here goes. OK, Facebook, OK! I like King Crab Legs! You know that, just like you know a hundred other things about me. But did you have to tell every fish house in America? OK, so now I know, for sure, where I …
To put it in a nutshell. No Gutenberg, no Luther. No Luther, no Reformation. At one point, Luther (1483-1546) was publishing a book (more like a pamphlet) every three or four weeks. The advent of moveable type and the printing press (ca. 1440) made it possible for an obscure monk’s critique of late medieval Catholicism to travel all over Europe. The …
In late 2019 BC (Before COVID), my wife and I were vacationing in Mexico. Our hotel in Playa del Carmen was just a couple of blocks away from what we’d read was a “tourist trap.” It was known as the “Quinta Avenida,” which translates to: Fifth Avenue. The tree-lined and bustling street stretches for more than two miles and includes …
We’re being told lately that because of the outbreak of the coronavirus, if we want to stay healthy, we should practice something called social distancing. That probably means different things to different people. But generally, it’s suggested we hunker down at home as much as possible, avoiding large groups of people and basically sucking it up! Others directly exposed to the …
It’s funny what will get some people riled up on Facebook. I started posting on Facebook many years ago as a way to bring attention to some of the stories and interviews I was doing on television at the time. These days I post for my own amusement and perhaps for a bit of shameless self-promotion. But I have learned …
Wouldn’t it be something if control of the U.S. Senate turned on a couple of misinterpreted Facebook posts by an overzealous supporter of an obscure senator from North Dakota named Heidi Heitkamp? Could happen. Heidi, who I would have rated last week as having at least a 50-50 chance of holding her seat in the Senate, is in big trouble. …
When people say that the internet and the digitization of culture represent something as important as the invention of movable type by Gutenberg in the 15th century, I usually wonder if that can be true. The Gutenberg revolution gave us the Reformation. Luther was the first publishing phenomenon in human history, and later, when it had settled down a bit, …
Privacy was a big deal when I was growing up in small-town North Dakota — mostly because there wasn’t any. From party lines to rural postmasters who made a mental note of your bills and letters, confidentiality was as rare as neighbors who didn’t gossip. My mother adhered to just one strategy: When you turn on the lights at night, always …
Visitors to this blog may recall that I like to scam scammers. You know, the ones who steal a Facebook friend’s identity and use FB messaging to try to get you to send them some of your hard-earned money. I like to fight back in my own little way by writing back. Wasting as much of their time as possible. …
I am a daughter of Slope County, one of the many grandchildren of Andy and Lillian Silbernagel. Slope County is one of the least populated counties in the United States. I was named after Lillian Hovick, my maternal grandmother. I can see my daughter Rachel’s nose in her nose. My last memory of her is when she and I went picking …
Yes, advertising works. Ads work if we love them. They work if we hate them. If we ignore them — but still are exposed to them often enough in the background — they’re still working exactly as intended … drilling their way into the back of our minds. Don’t argue with me, please. A good share of my livelihood has been …
In Port Whine Part 1, the Mediocre Years Continue; we learned that famed blogger for Forum Communications, Rob Port, is not a peachy guy, smears private citizens without a thought, happily publishes unsubstantiated propaganda and considers himself “one of the most consequential reporters/commentators in the state.” I consider myself a large ill-tempered racoon, with Vick’s VapoRub issues. Also, this series …
I think it’s creepy how unavailable actual human help has become. For the average person, it’s a dig to find a way to get in contact with anyone inside the most famous internet companies. Imagine how powerful Twitter would be if an actual human answered a help desk phone? Or your direct emails? Or dms? I realize reply emails, even …
Now that the Republican and Democratic national conventions have ended, expect to see even more politics on Facebook. For example, your otherwise reasonable friends may begin to post comments about your favored candidate that get on your nerves. One solution is to “de-friend” the offender, which should be a last resort because you may lose that friend in real life …
There ought to be some restriction on unsolicited friend requests on Facebook. In the past two months, I’ve been getting a friend request every other day from different females. Per my custom, I click on their home page to see who these persons are. Most of the time, the requests are legitimate … but recently, the porno universe has been …
“For the record: I don’t play games on Facebook, so please don’t ask me. I also don’t repost even when close friends and/or relatives ask me to repost due to some cause they are passionate about ― unless I choose to. I dislike the “guilt trip style” when it says “if you care …” you’ll repost or “if you don’t care, …
When I was in grade school, I had a faithful pen-pal in faraway Ontario. We shared stories of life in our exotic neighborhoods, sometimes amazed at the contrast, more often surprised at how much we shared. Then we stopped. When I’ve moved on to new schools, jobs or adventures, friends and I always assure each other that we’d always stay …