Unheralded

RON SCHALOW — In Defense Of The Mythical Burger Flipper

Mop a mile in my skilled shoes. I’ve wet mopped (soaked and soapy) a distance equal to the miles between Regina, Sask., and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, 14 miles wide, and then went back over it with a dry mop to remove the soapy dirty water and leave the floor free of footprints. It could take two passes. Craftsmanship …


RON SCHALOW: Dope For An Old Dope

It was a dark and stormy ni… d’oh. Wrong story. Actually, it was a cool and calm evening, with a cloudless sky and a full moon. Hardly the point but worth noting. I and an associate were attending one or several parties in Bismarck. It’s not clear how many, but liquor, my favorite liquid at the time, was served. My …

MARTIN C. FREDRICKS IV: Four The Record — Sound Of Freedom

It’s been 26 years and 29 days since I wrote this piece. I was fresh out of North Dakota State University and in my first “real” job — editor of The Courant, the “Official Newspaper of Bottineau County, N.D.” I think of it every year about this time. I’ve always thought it’s not half-bad. I hope you do, too. For the …

TERRY DULLUM — The Dullum File: The Shortest Song In The World

An interview I did with Dan Keating of KMAV/KMSR Radio in Mayvillle stirred up some memories for me earlier today. Clomping down memory lane a bit. For me, before there was television, there was radio.  And before there was television news, there was radio programming. KMAV is where I picked up my first paycheck in broadcasting “some” years ago. In …

BEV BENDA: My Coach Bev — HighMont Beef — A North Dakota Treasure For Heart Health

Do you enjoy the taste of beef but worry about the saturated fat and cholesterol content? Look no further than the Red River Valley Ranch in Walhalla, N.D. Recently, my artist twin sister Barb, her husband Paul, and I took a road trip up to Walhalla. We had three agendas: Do a little hiking in the Pembina Gorge, visit the …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — So, Who’s Going To Pay For The New Bridge Over The Little Missouri River?

I need to clarify a few things and bring you up to date on the ongoing saga of the proposed new bridge across the Little Missouri River north of Medora, N.D. The bridge is a project — if completed — could be an environmental disaster for the North Dakota Bad Lands. That’s why I keep writing about it. To review, …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — The Long, Strange Saga Of Jason Halek Comes To An End

Well, it looks like Jason Halek (pictured above) is finally going to the pokey. Remember Jason? He’s the fellow who dumped more than 800,000 gallons of salty, oilfield wastewater into an abandoned oil well southwest of Dickinson in Stark County, North Dakota, and then attempted to cover it up. And his partner in crime, Nathan Garber, might be sitting in …

JIM FUGLIE: View From The Prairie — New Little Missouri Bridge Site Selected — And No One’s Going To Be Happy

The engineering firm drafting the Environmental Impact Statement for Billings County’s request to put a new bridge across the Little Missouri River north of Medora, N.D., has determined the best place to put the bridge is just 17 miles north of Medora, about a third of the way — as the crow flies — between the two current bridges near …

TERRY DULLUM: The Dullum File — Reynolds Rib O’Rama

A big thank-you to the organizers of this year’s Reynolds Rib O’Rama, Reynolds (N.D.) Community Betterment, for inviting me to be one of their six judges. I’ve judged chili, pie, ugly dog contests and more but never a rib contest. (To be clear, the ugly dog contests were not cooking events.) Reynolds’ beautiful city park was filled with cooking teams and …

NANCY EDMONDS HANSON: After Thought — Standing Her Ground

The thing is, Pam Musland is not anti-gun. She supports hunting in North Dakota. She grew up going to the shooting range and crouching in duck blinds with her father. She’s a graduate of the Game and Fish Department’s hunter safety training — has walked the autumn fields herself beside her husband in pursuit of the wily pheasant. She supports Second …