This may be of limited interest here, but I thought I'd post it anyway because it turned out pretty much like I wanted it to.  This is my goodbye column for my paper.  I'm not going away from here, and I'll still be doing a weekly column for the paper, but… Read full post »

One of the debates I’m glad I won’t be around to hear over the next couple of years is the predictable, dreary argument about whether the Vikings should get a new stadium.

That debate would have heated up soon anyway, since the Vikes’ lease with the Metrodome is in its last… Read full post »

New OSer Tammy J. Finney is one of my columnists.  She's totally untrained as a writer (she's a hog farmer, as well as being an absolutely crackerjack ad salesperson) but is, hands-down, the best natural writer I've ever worked with.

Her column is sort of Erma Bombeck on the farm, but… Read full post »

I’m about to begin a new life and part of that is finally getting rid of the old one.

There is a storage garage in north Fargo that contains a lot of that old one.  Because I’m going to be living in graduate student housing -- an efficiency apartment -- I/… Read full post »

One of the reasons public discourse in this country is so infested with crap is that often as not, our real problems are so complicated.

We seemed to have reached a point where even the best and brightest among us – when they haven’t themselves had a huge hand in creating… Read full post »

One of my more obvious human failings is my mouth.

No, not that it’s crooked (although that keeps me from smiling for pictures, which makes people think I’m grumpy and torpedoed my dream of making big bucks doing toothpaste commercials).  It is, linguistically speaking, pretty filthy/… Read full post »

This year’s election is over and, one hopes, the silliness has either abated or is abating.  You’ll be able to listen to radio or TV without being deluged with political ads, which is a good thing.  Only those who watch cable political news/chat shows will have to hear abou/… Read full post »

North Dakota State University in Fargo apparently handled a problem with one of its coaches, but it still raises some larger questions – not for NDSU, but for society.

Erich Hinterstocker was the NDSU women’s volleyball coach who recently resigned. Early on, he said he quit because of the… Read full post »

This is the time of year when I’m reminded I don’t participate in one of the most hairy-chested, guy-centric rituals of masculinity:  hunting.

Not that that bothers me all that much.  I’ll put my chest hair up against anybody’s (boy, there’s too much informatio/… Read full post »

I've been accepted into the University of Missouri School of Journalism's graduate program.  Life is good.

I'm particularly happy because a) it's the best j-school in the country, sort of the journalism equivalent of Harvard Law; b) the program is perfect for me; and c) I never got around to mak… Read full post »

And so, yet another politician has run afoul of dat ol’ debbil, Youthful Indiscretions.

Christine O'Donnell, Delaware’s Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, appeared on “Politically Incorrect” 20-plus times not because she was particularly brilliant, but because she provided… Read full post »

Even if politics generally bores you into a coma, you have to admit that last week’s big viral video was riveting.

The video shows Phil Davison, a councilman in the 3,934-person village of Minerva, Ohio,  speaking before a group of his fellow Republicans.  Davison was seeking the nomi/… Read full post »

This is from a book I’m currently reading:

“(The president) and other government officials spoke and acted as if the economy had already rebounded. But in the real world, people turned off the heat in their houses and put on sweaters. They canceled their vacations. They abandoned their ho… Read full post »

In his nascent and probably quixotic quest to replace Barack Obama, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty last week endorsed a solution in search of a problem

Pawlenty said it “may be helpful” to pass a law making English Minnesota’s official language. It’s yet another of the ambitious… Read full post »

One of the things that has constantly gotten me into trouble in my life is that I’ve never been a rules guy.

Maybe I’m a rebel, maybe I’m an individual, or maybe I’m just a perverse idiot, but the surest way to get me to not do something, or to do… Read full post »

Again, because so many of you cared enough to encourage me, just thought I'd let you know I've formally applied to the University of Missouri's graduate school.

I won't find anything out until early October (the actual application deadline is Sept. 1, so I'm a good couple of months ahead of… Read full post »

If you’re cursed with a good memory, one of the odd things about getting older is you find yourself haunted by things you might not even have done.

Because of some music I was listening to the other day, I went into a stream-of-consciousness reverie that led me back to, of… Read full post »

One of the more potentially interesting – greatly interesting to some of us – sidelights to the upcoming Minnesota gubernatorial election is Democratic candidate and former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton’s admission that he’s depressive.

Possibly because it’s relatively earl… Read full post »

This is something I wouldn't normally post -- it's my cover story from last Thursday -- but I'm doing so for two reasons:

1.  I beat the local daily on the story by four days; I've been spending much of today standing atop my building, beating my chest and bellowing.

2. … Read full post »

There’s a driving school in our building and during the summer it holds classes in the office next to ours.  I keep listening for the sounds of horrified retching, but haven’t heard any, which tells me that yet another hallowed tradition must have died.

They apparently no longer show… Read full post »

For those of us who think (for professional, not ideological reasons) the national press often does a lousy job, it’s been amusing to watch the media reaction to the General Stanley McChrystal affair.

There’s been a great deal of stuck-like-a-pig whining among other reporters over the con… Read full post »

I often tell people, in all seriousness, that the culture shock I experienced when I moved to Halstad (pop. 700) for my first newspaper job was worse than the culture shock I experienced in Tokyo as a student there.

And it really isn’t an exaggeration.  Part of that is you expect a/… Read full post »

This is most probably the weirdest question you’ll be asked all day:  What do Luciano Pavarotti, Peter Ustinov, Buddy Hackett, a famous Japanese sumo wrestler and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop all have in common?

They all look like me.

What a select group, eh?

Over the last 30 yea… Read full post »

A friend of mine is taking some summer classes at Minnesota State University Moorhead.  As a sort of boot camp for graduate school and a bit of a brain exercise, I’ve availed myself of some of the texts she bought.  I’m an avid reader but my tastes are fairly specific, so/… Read full post »