I’ve been moping around the house most of this cold, wet, windy, dreary, week, feeling sorry for myself because I can’t get out in the garden. I managed one garden day early in the week, and planted about half of what I hope will be this year’s potato crop, but I’ve got a big bag of seed potatoes in the garage waiting to be cut up and dropped into the good rich dirt in my garden. The weatherman says that’s not going to happen any time soon–it’s still cold and windy out there again today–so I decided to spend some time following up on something I wrote in this space a week or so ago. Last week ..read more

When residents of Billings County in western North Dakota, home to the Bad Lands and Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Medora, head to their mailboxes sometime this week or next, they’re going to find a letter from their County Commissioners. That’s unusual. About the only time county government sends you a letter is with your property tax bill. But this one has some news. Ostensibly, the letter is to bring county residents up to date on the status of the Little Missouri River Crossing, the proposed new “Bridge to Nowhere” across the state’s only official State Scenic River. Early on in the ..read more

Humorist Will Rogers once said “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” North Dakota Republicans left Fargo mumbling something like that Sunday morning, changing the last word, after the fiasco that was their purported state convention. Democrats, meanwhile, trickled out of town knowing they had at least three credible candidates at the top of their ticket as they prepare for the November 2024 election. At the top, Trygve Hammer, an Iraq war veteran, helicopter pilot, former science teacher and blue collar working man’s idol, with perhaps the best ballot name ever ..read more

Saturday morning. The first Saturday of April. Time for Spring. I’ve played a lot of golf on the first Saturday of April over the years.  Not last year, of course, when there was two feet of snow on the ground outside my bedroom window. But this year the grass is getting a green tint out there, and I’d at least probably go hit some balls on the driving range if I felt better. Actually, I had planned to be in Fargo this weekend, hopping back and forth between the Democratic-NPL and Republican conventions, but the worst cold of my life has me hopping from the bedroom to the recliner, and no ..read more

Okay, Doug Burgum, this time you’re on thin ice with me. It’s that time of year. The ice is getting thinner and thinner. But YOUR ice is really thin right now. Last summer you used your thick billfold to try to become president, by offering to send $20 gift cards to anyone sending you a dollar, so you could reach a threshold of X number of donors in time to qualify for participation in the Republican Presidentlal candidates’ debate. It was a cheap trick. Well, not so cheap, but still a gimmick only rich people could afford.             The ..read more

“The crux of this case is the preservation of the untouched and dramatic beauty of the Shorts’ property in the North Dakota Bad Lands while the underlying legal issues are resolved. Theodore Roosevelt once described this area in compelling terms: ”From the edges of the valley the land rises abruptly in steep high buttes, whose crests are sharp and jagged. This broken country extends back from the river for many miles, and has been called always, by Indians, French voyageurs, and American trappers alike, the “Bad Lands,” partly from its dreary and forbidding aspect and partly from the difficult ..read more

I said the other day I was going to stick to writing about King Crab Legs. So here goes. Okay, Facebook, okay! 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? Okay, so now I know, for sure, where I can buy King Crab Legs if I win the lottery. Dear Readers, you may have read what I wrote about King Crab Legs last week. If not, just scroll down on this website. I put a link to the story on Facebook. Within hours, ads for businesses that sell King Crab Legs started showing up on MY Facebook page. How t ..read more

The North Dakota Secretary of State’s office says it is okay for Billings County residents to vote in June on whether they want their County Commission to use its power of Eminent Domain to take land for a road and bridge across the Little Missouri State Scenic River. The vote would not be binding on the Commissioners or the bridge’s construction. Rather it would be a “Straw Vote,” gauging the county’s support for actions taken by the Commissioners a few months ago to take land from the Short and Simons families for a bridge location about a dozen miles north of Medora.     ..read more

Last week I wrote a story in this space that said the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party had apparently been the victim of electronic eavesdropping after a device that might have been a “bug” was found in a door frame at the party’s former headquarters, the North Dakota Kennedy Center. Turns out that I, and several members of the Kennedy Center board of directors, may have jumped to the wrong conclusion about the device. It may have been a listening device, or it may not have been. Some folks who saw photos of it said it was not. Others said they thought it was. I’m an English major. I don’t ha ..read more

I am a sucker for seafood. No, wait, let me shorten that sentence. I am a sucker. You’d think by now, at my ripe old age, I’d know to be mindful of the old saying “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” In my case, I’d change “probably” to “definitely.” I got scammed. Really, really scammed. Here’s what happened. I was paging through my Facebook account one day a few weeks ago and saw an ad for seafood. More specifically, King Crab Legs (I love them so much I always capitalize them). I don’t remember the name of the company (more about that in a minute) but I think it had the state ..read more