Shot In The Dark

Maris

Growing up in North Dakota, you didn't have much to go on. We grew 80% of the world's durum (hence, controlled 80% of the world's pasta). If we seceded and took "our" missiles and bombers with "us", we'd be the...

Class of '81

I went to my 25 year high school reunion on Friday and Saturday nights. The turnout was fairly small - but then, it was pretty much a last-minute operation. I had six weeks' notice, and I don't think anyone heard...

Attention, Party People (Jamestown High School Edition)

The following is addressed to my classmates from the Jamestown (North Dakota) High School Class of 1981. The artist formerly known as Ruth Newman, and the other artist eternally known as Krueg, are putting together a 25th reunion this summer....

Terrorists: Rot In Hell

Via Bogus Doug, ugly news; Ron Schultz's family believes he's been executed by terrorists who kidnapped him in Iraq [Story in the Strib and the local Jamestown Sun]. Schultz, an electrical contractor and former Marine, is from my hometown, as...

Hostage

One of the latest hostages in Iraq is from my hometown, Jamestown, ND:There wasn't much to Ron Schulz when he reported for the track team at Jamestown High School 25 years ago. Not much except grit. "Oh, he was a...

The Winds Of November Came Stealing

It was thirty years ago today the "Edmund Fitzgerald" was reported missing. From the Strib of the day:A cargo ship with 35 crew members was reported missing Monday night in treacherous waters in Lake Superior, the U.S. Coast Guard said....

Fireworks Over Bismarck!

Red points out something I'd forgotten long ago; November 2 is the 116th anniversary of statehood for North and South Dakota. She write, of course, one of the loveliest homages to my home state that I've ever read. Snippet that...

Soon On EBay

Few things are as fascinating - and occasionally depressing - as driving past some of North Dakota's many tiny, dying little towns. 100 years ago, many of these towns throve; a town that today has ten residents and four occupied...

Carpetbaggers

Brenarlo at "Taking Back North Dakota" notes that 95% of incumbent Democrat Senator Kent Conrad's money is from out of state. Keep following TBND, perhaps the leading NoDak campaign blog this election cycle....

Stormwatch

I love stormy weather. When I was a kid, it terrified me, of course, all the talk of "Large hail and damaging winds" and tornado warnings and flash flood watches; unknown calamities from above, waiting in the dark. But by...

The Death Debate

Attorneys are debating the death penalty for Dru Sjodin's alleged killer:Federal prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Rodriguez is convicted. He faces a trial next March in Fargo...Defense attorney Richard Ney said the federal death penalty...

No Scandal Here

Taking Back North Dakota is following... ...a Clinton scandal?According to the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal Byron Dorgan, John Kerry and Richard Durbin are trying to squash the release of a probe into Clinton Era IRS abuse. You can read it...

Roger's Revenge

Forget Boston. Ignore Chicago. Cincinnati? Pffft. North Dakota is baseball country. Or it was in the cognitive past. As my father, Bruce Berg, related in his book, "Common Ground", there's a long history of amateur and minor-league ball in North...

BTK Killer

According to Wichita police, someone they believe to be the BTK Killer, who has terrorized Wichita for the past thirty years, has been caught. The suspect, Dennis Rader, is a government employee. One of the BTK killer's victims lived six...

Beneath Contempt

Are you, like many Minnesotans, tired of having your taxes jacked up endlessly by a legislature that cares more about feeding the state bureaucracy than about your family's bottom line? Did you send a buck or two to the Taxpayer's...

Sjodin Case: Death

I've been incredibly ambivalent about the death penalty most of my life. I also grew up in a small town. I oppose the death penalty as a matter of very simple principle, for the most part; I think that any...

The Walls

When I was a kid growing up in North Dakota, we used to drive about an hour south of my hometown, Jamestown. We were heading for the border. We were going to look at The Walls. We use to heard...

Take Back Our Sandwiches! -

Forget the war on terror or the battles over taxes and education. Ramblin' Ryan Rhodes knows the questions that really need answering:There is no way to reclaim a sandwich once modern day portions of mayonnaise are applied. It's a lost...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! - More later today or tonight - but until then, do me a huge favor; drive carefully and have a great holiday....

Orange Christmas

Orange Christmas - I was going to write about it, but Lileks already did....

Woo Hooo!

I heard from Swen Swenson, fellow expat North Dakotan and author of A Coyote at the Dog Show... ...which is, to the best of my knowledge, the first blog to blogroll me! (Sort of a blog mitzvah). Cool blog, too......

We're Everywhere

I just found this one, from a copy of "The Hill" from last February. We North Dakotans are everywhere! (I know - I'm from Minnesota these days, and have been since '85. I probably don't even have an accent any...