It’s a Grand Forks holiday tradition if there ever was one. Santa Village opens its doors each year to visitors just after Thanksgiving until just before Christmas. It is visited by “children” of all ages, the oldest on record is 101. Lynne Roche and several other Grand Forks Park District workers created Santa Village something like 20 years ago. At …
In all my years as a reporter, I had never done an interview with someone spending time “behind bars.” Not until the other day. I talked via Zoom with Matt Hippen of Thompson, N.D. He has been incarcerated in the James River Correctional Center at Jamestown since April 2020. His story is nothing if not compelling. From the outside looking …
It’s no exaggeration to say that one of the most highly acclaimed shows on television right now is the comedy-drama “Somebody Somewhere.” The hit series has just been renewed for a third season on HBO and was recently named one of The Best Shows of 2023 So Far by The Hollywood Reporter. Locally, even some fans of the show don’t …
Singer and songwriter Tom Brosseau doesn’t need much of an introduction, especially around here in the Midwest. But other places as well. The Grand Forks native has performed in Australia, Japan and elsewhere around the world. In a few days, he’ll be back home, along an excellent group of performers, singing for a good cause. Tom has collaborated with the …
We have subjected Nashville recording artist Doug Allen Nash to our 20 (or so) questions before. But since he’ll be back into Grand Forks with an all-new Christmas show at 7 p.m. Dec. 10 and 3 p.m. Dec. 11 in the Empire Arts Center, it seems appropriate to question him yet again. This time about all things Christmas. Doug’s Country …
The city of Bismarck celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. Not to date her or anything, but 50 years ago, my current wife, Ginny, helped plan the city’s centennial celebration. My how time flies! Like it or not. Ginny was born in Bismarck and grew up there. She graduated from the University of North Dakota, returned to Bismarck for work, where …
The latest guilty pleasure at our house — not that we need another one — is a BBC sitcom called “Mrs. Brown’s Boys.” It can be found on Britbox, a nice break from all those British murder mystery series. Actor/writer Brendan O’Carrol plays the foul-mouthed but kind-hearted head of a Irish household. In drag. Sort of Archie Bunker meets Dame Edna, …
This blog was posted originally on April 13, 2017, in Unheralded and reprinted in the Grand Forks Herald and The Forum of Fargo Moorhead, as our region was observing the 20th anniversary of the Red River Flood of 1997. During a massively destructive event, it was one small moment that has stayed with me. I still think about it from …
I just learned of the passing of Wynona Wilkins. She died a few days before Christmas and a couple of weeks after her 105th birthday, beating out Betty White by several years. I knew her first as Madame Wilkins. For years, she taught French to many, many UND students. I was one of them. Along with her historian husband, Dr. …
Going through some old paperwork just now, Ginny found a copy of an accident report of a little fender-bender I was involved in one evening in Grand Forks back in March 2018 not far from the Fire Hall Theatre. I remember how quickly a police officer arrived, how young he looked and how good he seemed to be at his …
People seem to start thinking about decorating their homes for the holidays earlier and earlier every year. Some in October or sooner, and a few even like to have their Christmas decorations up all year. In a way, Ginny and I may fall into that latter category. That’s because one reminder of Christmas hangs on our wall year-round, too. It’s …
I was extremely saddened to learn of the passing of Ronn Guidi this week. Ronn founded the world-famous Oakland Ballet Company in 1965. It’s interesting that Ronn would pass at this time of year, the start of what could be called “The Nutcracker” season. After resigning as artistic director of the Oakland Ballet, Ronn brought productions of his “Nutcracker” to …
It would be one thing to be on a cruise ship in some sunny locale during the holidays if you wanted to be, but quite another thing to be working on a cruise ship if you’d rather be celebrating the holidays at home in the Midwest with your family and friends. If it’s Dec. 24 and you’re longing to be …
I’ve been intrigued by the movie “Fargo” ever since the cast and crew came to town years ago to shoot some of the scenes here. More accurately, north of here. I hung around the edges of the production for a couple of days, shooting television news stories, not knowing a classic American movie was being made. A new book called …
Twenty or so MORE questions because we’ve asked Doug Allen Nash to play along with this silly, little exercise once before. It was two years ago, just before he performed in front of a sold-out audience for the first time at the Empire Arts Center in Grand Forks. Lucky for us he’s on his way back. Doug will be bringing …
It turns out that I’m one in a million. Well actually, one in about 840,000 so far. That’s the approximately number of military veterans like myself who have volunteered for the Million Veteran Program or MVP. The goal is to enroll at least a million veterans. It’s a national medical research effort funded by the Veterans Administration to learn how …
Comedian Ali Sultan made his network television debut last month on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Happily, he’ll be bringing his comedy to East Grand Forks this Thursday and Friday. Ali moved to America from Yemen at the age of 15. Fast forward a few years and he would be named both Best Local Comic and Artist of the …
The area’s newest comedy club, The Prohibition Comedy Room in East Grand Forks, will be in full swing Friday night with some of the Twin Cities most popular comedians providing the laughs. Among them, Ahmed Khalaf, by way of Minneapolis, San Diego and Somali. Eventually, there will be weekly Friday night comedy shows at the Prohibition. The name, by the way, …
Like a lot of others, I’m looking forward to CNN’s new six-part documentary series “The Story of Late Night,” a look at the history of late night television talk shows. The first episode at 8 Sunday night will likely focus on Steve Allen, the co-creator and first host of NBC’s “Tonight Show.” It was network television’s first late-night talk show. …
With the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020 now well behind us, so to speak, I have another concern. It also involves toilet paper. For months now, I’ve been semi-obsessed with something I’ve been seeing a lot of on television. That is the animated Charmin bears. The colorful toilet paper-pushers come on TV, often late at night for some reason, …
Today some of us will take a moment to celebrate the centennial of singer/songwriter/North Dakota native Peggy Lee, born on this date in 1920. One of her most popular albums is called “Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown North Dakota.” It’s front cover is a typical Peggy Lee glamour shot. The back cover, an image of a map of North Dakota. She was …
One lasting thing this pandemic will leave behind with us, I believe, will be a new regard for cleanliness. In addition to social distancing, we’re told day after day to wash our hands. It’s like a mantra. Wash your hands. From time to time in the past month, I’ve found myself wondering, “What would Monk do?” To explain. Adrian Monk …
As he has done a couple of times now recently, President Trump reacted rather badly to a question put to him Friday by NBC White House Correspondent Peter Alexander. Alexander asked the president what he would say to a scared nation as the coronavirus pandemic continues on. The president called it a “nasty” question. It didn’t sound nasty to me, …
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 …
In an effort to shake off some of this winter’s cold, Ginny and I decided to head south for a few days, about as far south as we could without having to break out our passports. We ended up in Fort Meyers, Fla., nearly as far south as the southernmost point in the U.S., Key West, along with the other …
When you think of Christmas, what do you think about? For me, Christmas is magic. Not the kind we usually think of when we think of Christmas. By way of explanation, a short story. The first part of it may seem a little sad, but don’t worry, it has a happy enough ending. When I was 8 years old, my …
Thanksgiving is one of the most reflective of holidays. At least it is for me. Sometimes about now I like to make a little list of some of the things I’m thankful for. Not the big stuff necessarily. That’s sort of a given. Rather, some of the little things I’ve picked up on in my last trip around the sun. …
Public impeachment hearings began in the House this week in Washington. They weren’t just seen on the cable news networks this time. Daytime game shows and soap operas gave way to the first public testimony on the major broadcast networks as well. Some of us of a certain age recall another set of Washington hearings, the Watergate hearings. By some …
Ken Burns’ wonderful, new documentary series “County Music” on PBS is just terrific. I hope you got a chance to see it. I was especially taken with one particular section of the film, on the country’s “singing cowboys” of the late 1940s and early 1950s. It got me thinking. That’s not always a good thing, but in this case harmless …
I don’t like online scammers very much. You know, the kind who steal the identity of a Facebook friend and then try to convince you to give up your personal information. It’s not very nice. So, from time time, I like to turn the tables on the scammers a little bit and, at the very least, waste some of their …
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 …
Ken Burn’s terrific PBS documentary series “County Music” could result in a whole new batch of country music fans. And now a new voice is about to be heard in Grand Forks for the first time. Nashville recording artist and consummate showman Doug Allen Nash is bringing his acclaimed tribute to music icons Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond to the …
So, we haven’t done this for a while. It used to be fun to turn the tables a bit on those pesky scammers. You know, the ones who have somehow stolen the identity of Facebook friends and are trying to get your information. That is to say, your money. Below is a real Facebook message board conversation with someone pretending …
After President Trump’s slightly soggy Fourth of July “Salute to America” speech Thursday on the Washington Mall, a Facebook friend writes, “THE GREATEST SPEECH EVER MADE BY A SITTING PRESIDENT!!!” (Capitalization and exclamation points not added.) So, I guess for some “The Gettysburg Address” will ring a little flat from now on. And you know what that means, don’t you? …
I’m looking forward to Red River High School’s production of “Godspell” this weekend for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it’s one of my favorite Broadway shows. It led to the stardom of people like Gilda Radner, Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy and, in the orchestra pit, a young bandleader named Paul Schaffer, Canadians all. The musical is …
I’ve been feeling a little left out lately. In fact, I have been for some time now. See, just about everywhere a person goes on the internet there are conspiracy theories popping up. And I’ve never been able to get behind some of the most popular of them. You know, the ones about aliens, the Earth being flat, who was …
Today marks a kind of a milestone for me. Five years ago, I decided to give meditation a whirl. Actually, I’d be giving it a second whirl. A million years ago, I took a religion class in college called Mysticism. It was a very popular class. I was lucky to get in. It was taught by a young rabbi who …
I don’t know why, but as each passing year draws to a close, I get a little verklempt. For me, one of the saddest things this year was learning that WDAZ-TV newscasts would no longer originate from Grand Forks but rather from WDAY in Fargo. No surprise, but still very sad. I suppose because I worked at Channel 8 for so …
The first election I ever voted in was by absentee ballot in October 1970. I was home on leave from the Army. Sen. Quentin Burdick, a longtime member of North Dakota’s Democratic NPL Party, was running for re-election against Republican Congressman Thomas Kleppe. At the explicit request of President Richard Nixon, Kleppe was risking a safe House seat, hoping for …
The Facebook comments were harsh. “WHAAAAA!?!?!?!??” “Terry, I am legitimately baffled by this factoid.” “I weep for you.” “Unfriending.” Some were even harsher. “YOUAREDEADTOME!” “You some kinda Commie?” “No, but definitely one of those Socialists!” You’d think I had voted for Hillary, or something. What’s the cause of all this? What did I do to deserve such criticism? I wrote one simple …
As a kid, I used to look forward to the new television season each fall. The return of TV shows I liked and the start of new ones. Lately, not so much. Except this year. I’m going to be very disappointed if a new show called “The Cool Kids” on Fridays on Fox turns out to be a dud. It …
I could hear her 2-inch stilettoes on the tile outside my admittedly shabby office, even before she walked through the door. I was working late on a Friday night again. What the hell! My old lady had left me a few months before. She said I was married to my work. Shacked up, maybe. I could see this broad was …
There’s never been anything like it in Grand Forks before. Already something like 250 people have lent a hand (or two) to help create the World Peace Pageant set for Sept. 15 presented by the Greater Grand Forks Community Theatre. The unique theatrical event will be dominated by a 14-foot-tall Mother Earth puppet and a masked cast of 50. The …
With Labor Day weekend just ahead, we tend to think a little more than usual perhaps about the nature of work and the men and women of America who do it, especially those who do actual, physical labor. My first exposure to real work was picking potatoes for an area farmer on the edge of town, the town being Hillsboro, …