Mastering the art of baking is something that can take years to achieve — if ever. It’s become one of my goals in retirement. Cooking has always come easy for me, whether it’s making soups, casseroles or main-course entrees such as a Thanksgiving turkey or an Easter ham. But I never baked much until the past couple of years, despite having …
The University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks men’s basketball team put a scare into the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits, the three-time defending Summit League champions, but came up on the short end of a 78-74 game Wednesday night in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. The Fighting Hawks (8-11 overall, 2-4 Summit) trailed by 13 points in the second half but …
Since the Fargo Forum’s shill for the overdog and slacker political pundit, who refers to himself as a humble observer and the most influential political blogger in North Dakota, isn’t being humble or most influential, he obviously isn’t up to his own hype and requires a hand. Need an example? “Port: State lawmakers should be wary of their own revenue …
Winter is the perfect time to make soup. I won’t argue with that, although soup during any season with fine with me. Vegetable soups, whether they are made with fresh, frozen or canned veggies, are among the most popular of soups. The reasons are myriad: They make a great appetizer or a main courses. They are relatively quick to make and …
“The mountains are calling and I must go.” John Muir wrote these words in the early years of the 20th century. He lived much of his life near to the mountains. Mountains have been on my mind of late, although I don’t live near any. Perhaps the trigger was that one night not long ago we watched an excellent documentary …
Every legislative session, there should be kiosks in the malls to sell Lisinopril because Lord knows my blood pressure sure goes up. In North Dakota, any maniac can propose a bill. Well, not just any maniac off the street — elected maniacs. Take, for instance, Senate Bill 2136, sponsored by Sen. Oley Larsen, R-Minot, that would force schools to offer …
It was newspaper editor Gideon J. Tucker who wrote those words in 1866. A bit of an exaggeration, perhaps, but we’re all well-advised to keep an eye on what goes on over at the North Dakota Capitol this winter. I’ve got my eye on a couple of pieces of legislation, one bad and one good, and I expect there will …
Lexi Klabo scored 27 points and added 11 rebounds but it wasn’t enough as Western Illinois University women’s basketball team handed the University of North Dakota a 92-80 loss Sunday afternoon in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in Summit League play. Olivia Kaufmann led all scorers with 28 points, one of five players in double figures for the Leathernecks (6-12 overall, 2-3 …
Jordan Kawaguchi’s goal just 50 seconds into overtime gave the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team a 3-2 win and a sweep of Colorado College in National Collegiate Hockey Conference play Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Fighting Hawks (11-9-1 overall, 5-5 NCHC) gave up a 2-0 lead for the second night in a row before Kawaguchi’s winning …
Connor Avants and Marlon Stewart each scored a game-high 21 points to lead the University of North Dakota men’s basketball team to a 71-65 Summit League win over Western Illinois University on Saturday afternoon in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Cortez Seales’ three-pointer with 13.5 seconds left in the game sealed the win for UND. Avants, who was 7-of-11 shooting from …
Ludvig Hoff’s goal with just 46 seconds left in overtime gave the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team a 4-3 National Collegiate Hockey Conference win over Colorado College on Friday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Fighting Hawks (10-9-1 overall, 4-5 NCHC) had jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a first-period goal by Nick Jones and a second …
Candy-making is one of those skills that not too many people possess. It’s not because the task is too difficult, rather it’s that a lot of people are afraid to give it a try or maybe have been unsuccessful once and don’t want to fail again. I was fortunate to come from a family (my mother’s side) that was into …
It’s getting a little chippy out there in Forum letters-to-the-editor land, regarding the delicious bovine’s monster recurring donation to the greenhouse gases mix. Miracle meat or not, cows and other farm animals emit methane. The kangaroo does not, I understand. And methane is 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas. So, there’s that. Hell, in North …
The University of North Dakota women’s basketball team, despite playing without the Summit League’s leading scorer, defeated the University of Nebraska-Omaha 68-57 Wednesday night in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. With Lexi Klabo sidelined because of an injury, the Fighting Hawks (8-9 overall, 3-1 Summit), received big efforts from Julie Fleecs and Melissa Leet at the post position. Fleecs had a game-high 14 …
Beans and rice are a staple in the diets of many people across the world, particularly in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Nutritionally, they offer a dish that is high in protein, low in fat, rich in fiber and a good source of carbohydrates. They are also cheap and can be very tasty as well. This dynamic duo …
Hello, everyone. I’m urging you to do me the following favor. Get a copy of Robert Kagan’s recent book, “The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World,” and read it over the next few weeks. It’s a short book. It’s a brilliant book. It’s an exceedingly important book. And it explains a lot of things that may seem puzzling …
Remember when Gov. Doug Burgum reimbursed Xcel Energy $37,000 for expenses it had paid for his and his wife’s trip to the Super Bowl? He made the repayment after questions of ethics in government were raised. That helped spur passage of Measure No. 1 last November — an initiated measure to counter the rampant gifts, meals, liquor and perks bestowed by corporate …
I’m no psychologist, but Republicans seem unnaturally obsessed with New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They’ve spent an inordinate amount of time telling everyone what an inconsequential airhead she is. She was dismissed as “a little girl” by GOP strategist Ed Rollins. I dunno, a 29-year-old knocking off a 10-term incumbent sounds consequential to me, but then I find Tomi Lahren …
Here’s the final installment and photo (above) in my series documenting the cameras I own. This one — a Canon EOS 5D Mark III — is the best of the lot. Also shown are my favorite lenses: 50mm, 24-105mm and 70-200mm (here with a 1.4x extender). They have given me much pleasure and are destined when I can no longer …
Most people associate the Potomac River with Washington, D.C., but perhaps some other most spectacular scenery along that waterway is at Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park in the District of Columbia and the states of Maryland and West Virginia. Photographer Jeff Olson recently spent some time in the national park, on the Maryland side of the Potomac. The park was …
The Old Lion is Dead Jan. 6, 2019 — Theodore Roosevelt died 100 years ago today. He was just 60 years old. As he said when he determined to run South America’s River of Doubt against the stern warnings of the American Museum of Natural History, “Tell Osborn I have already lived and enjoyed as much of life as any nine other men I know; I have had my full share, and …
This (above) is the Nikon FM2(n), manufactured in Japan from 1982-2001. In 1995, it would have cost you $775. The film camera was sometimes referred to as “the poor man’s Leica.” I bought one for peanuts on e-Bay a few years ago, still in its original sealed package, and later acquired a number of lenses for it, including a 300mm …
I promised to post one of the pictures I took in New York City in 1964 with my first camera, a Kodak Pony 135 (see it in a previous post). Here (above) is an iPhone-taken copy of a photo shot with the Pony, framed and normally hanging on a wall at our place in Bloomington, Minn. The photograph was taken …
So what happened to the women haters who had a crush on the rabidly unconventionally handsome Bret Kavanaugh and slithered into the slimy pits to smear a sexual assault survivor? Are they taking a break? The Men’s Rights Movement, a lot like the mildly obese Donald Trump finding too many pieces of chicken in the bucket, is back to a …
I’ve listened to a few State of the State speeches by North Dakota governors — probably somewhere between 15 and 20 — and even had a hand in writing a few of them, so I think I’m qualified to offer a few comments on the one Doug Burgum gave Thursday to the North Dakota Legislature. As they go, his was …
This is the first camera (above) I ever owned, a Kodak Pony 135 which came on the market in 1955. My father, who was interested in photography himself, bought me one as a birthday gift a few years later when I was a senior at Harvey (N.D.) High School. In those days, digital photography was still a distant dream. I …
Tanner Mack and Jake Hjelle scored goals 37 seconds apart in the third period to break a scoreless tie and give East Grand Forks Senior High a 2-0 boys high school hockey win over Grand Forks Red River on Thursday night in East Grand Forks Civic Center. The Green Wave (11-1), the the No. 4-ranked team in Minnesota Class A, …
My younger sister received cross-country skis for Christmas, so I finally have a companion for some of my winter expeditions. With the abundant snow, we’ve made two forays in the past week: Sibley Park, just south of Bismarck, and today, farther north to Cross Ranch State Park — both in cottonwood forests along the cold, dark Missouri River. We had Cross …
I am not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. I think that’s because they set me up for failure. All too often they are big and broad and take an incredible amount of discipline to be successful for a whole year. I suspect it is the same reason I really like Lenten disciplines. They are time-limited to 40 days, …
My introduction to the art of Rembrandt came indirectly, through my friend, Fred Rogers. In the fall of 1995, I traveled to Pittsburgh to interview the children’s television icon for a newspaper story, and in one of our early conversations, Fred mentioned that his favorite author was Henri Nouwen, a Dutch Catholic priest. Henri, as I would soon learn, was …
Later this month, Donald Trump tells Justin Trudeau to keep those low IQ Canada geese on his side of the loser border. “Or what?” asks the Prime Minister. “We’ll hit them with the tear gas, that’s what, junior. No, wait. I’ll have them lined up and shot. Did you hear that, Trudy? We’re going to shoot them with our guns. …
Here’s an update on the strangest, and most fascinating, story I’ve written in all the years I’ve been writing on this blog. This story appears in the current — January 2019 — issue of Dakota Country magazine, where it reaches a hell of a lot more readers than I have on this blog. But for faithful Prairie Blog readers, welcome …
I’ve been thinking about Lewis and Clark, dispatched into the wilderness by President Jefferson, who lived his long and productive life at a very high level of comfort. It’s impossible to imagine Jefferson roughing it. The closest he ever came, probably, was his first years in the White House, when it was still unfinished — not even proper entrance stairs …
Lexi Klabo scored 21 points and added eight rebounds as the University of North Dakota women’s basketball team won its Summit League opener, a 79-60 victory over Purdue University Fort Wayne on Sunday afternoon in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Three other players for UND (6-9 overall, 1-0 Summit) were in double figures. Melissa Dailey and Jill Morton each scored 13 points …
This was written just before Christmas. Happy holidays, everyone, from all of us at the Thomas Jefferson Hour. I’m going to be alone this Christmas for the first time in 20 years — so do feel free to send presents — cognac, figs, books, music, frankincense and myrrh, whatever they are. Don’t cry for me Argentina. I have plans. I …
Because I can’t stop clicking on Amazon ads with pictures of things I don’t recognize, I know what more things look like than I did last year, which only counts for tots. I spotted the “Future Fork” that is not for eating future meals, as it turned out. It’s a modern, I guess, pitchfork/shovel for moving manure. Amazon recommends that …
I’ve likely invested more money in cameras over the years than I should have. (I believe in the Irish saying “There are no pockets in a shroud.”) I’ve got a large inventory, including my favorite, the Canon 5D Mark III and an assortment of lenses. More on my collection later. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that the Mark III …
The University of North Dakota men’s hockey team received goals from six different players en route to a 6-2 exhibition win over the U.S. Under-18 team Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. Rhett Gardner, Ludvig Hoff, Casey Johnson, Grant Mismash, Collin Adam and Gavin Hain scored for the Fighting Hawks, while Matthew Boldy and Alex Turcotte scored for the U.S. team, …
Anon Moody scored a career-high 21 points and Marlon Stewart posted a double-double but that wasn’t enough as the University of North Dakota men’s basketball team dropped a 84-73 Summit League decision to Purdue University Fort Wayne on Saturday afternoon in Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Stewart scored 18 points and added a career-best 10 assists for the Fighting Hawks (6-8 …
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 …
Photographer Dave Bruner shares these contrasting day/night photographs he took this past month in Grand Forks and the surrounding area.
I’m going to type very slowly so you can keep up. Don’t get me wrong, I used to think North Dakotans were even more above average than residents of Lake Wobegone, blessed with sound cognitive abilities. According to some legislators, I was wrong, so I’ll try to keep this as monosyllabic as possible. Republicans in the North Dakota Legislature have …
Only 25 percent of Americans own a gun and just 3 percent of Americans own half of them. Some of folks own an AR-15 or a dozen. And a number of owners feature their AR-15 on their Facebook page. “They just look scary, you stupid lib$%&# snowflake cuck.” Anyway, back when cars didn’t all look alike, the across-the-street neighbor with …
Fred Rogers described truly great human beings as those “in touch with the eternal.” Of all the extraordinary people I have known in my life, two in particular most fit that description. One, of course, is Fred himself. The other is a female Zen master named Tuan, who I met many years ago. Tuan is Vietnamese. She was visiting a …