People who get the vapors about changes in journalism in general, and the death of newspapers in particular, sometimes focus on a certain trend:  the death of arts criticism.

More and more papers are jettisoning their staff critics, if not criticism in general.  If they run any, it’s/… Read full post »

How long, oh Lord, how long?

With Tiger Woods playing in the Master’s, we were subjected to yet another press conference story – or non-story – about his personal life.  He apparently gave a bunch of carefully rehearsed non-answers about that, said he’s at Augusta to win/… Read full post »

When you fancy yourself a fairly intelligent person, it’s always a bit uncomfortable to run into something that makes you feel dumb as a bag of hammers.

For me, it’s math.

Because of a series of personal matters, mostly moving, I had to put on hold my studies for the Graduate… Read full post »

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.  Oh, and to get those endorsements." –/… Read full post »

For many years, I have said only half-jokingly that I was smart enough to have only sons, since from what I hear, daughters are much harder to raise.

That’s no longer true, sort of.  Last Friday, I acquired a daughter-in-law.

My older son, Spencer, married his girlfriend of two years, Laur… Read full post »

I work part-time at a job that requires me to spend a lot of time on the phone.  I can’t be more specific than that (other than to say I’m not a telemarketer), but suffice it to say that I deal with the public.

And boy, a lot of you are… Read full post »

As there always is after a big, especially violent news event, there’s been a great deal of Monday morning quarterbacking about press coverage of last week’s shootings at Fort Hood.

Initial reports had the gunman , Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, shot dead and said he was one of three shooters.&n… Read full post »

I’ve been through a lot of life changes in the past three years – including getting divorced and losing a job, two of the biggies – but I’m now contemplating perhaps the biggest change yet.

I’m thinking of going to grad school to get my master’s so I can teach full… Read full post »

A friend of mine puts it pretty succinctly:

“I hate people,” she often says.

Actually, she doesn’t mind people one-on-one.  It’s crowds she doesn’t like.

Of course, that puts her in league with about 90 percent of the world.  People who don’t like crowds/… Read full post »

You may or not be a good parent, but this much I can tell you:  If you’re not reading to your child, as a parent, you’re screwing up.

Yeah, I’m death on the subject.  But I know, as certainly as I do anything, that one of the reasons my kids always/… Read full post »

One of the few things that distresses me about my job at a relatively unknown (if growing) weekly is that I don’t get nearly enough of two kinds of mail: nut mail and hate mail.

Actually, I don’t get enough mail from readers in general.  One of the signs of a well-read/… Read full post »

My friend Bill is president of his local school board in Wisconsin.  A man of staggering intelligence and social conscience, who has never suffered fools gladly, he called me last week and we talked about the goings on in his district.

Of all the governmental units I’ve covered, state, fed… Read full post »

I was having a crappy morning on the drive to work a while back, but one song on the radio made me feel much better.  It was, of all things, a disco song from the late 1970s.

“Boogie Wonderland.”  Real disco, none of that latter-day faux disco stuff.

I hated disco… Read full post »

A couple of weeks ago, shortly after her 84^th birthday, we moved my mother into an assisted living place in Minneapolis.

I’ve spent some time down there with her and all indications are that it will work out well.  She seems very happy at Catholic Eldercare; the people are lovely, the/… Read full post »

A recent cover story in Time magazine was all about how the work world is changing.  For anyone on the downhill slope of the career mountain, it was a fairly disturbing, if unsurprising, read.

Most disturbing was the section about disappearing benefits.  Of course, traditional pensions star/… Read full post »

Something happened recently that could have a real effect on this country’s space program.

It is, of course, the release of a new “Star Trek” movie.

No, not really.  Although that can’t hurt.

What’s actually happened is that President Obama has appointed a blue-ribb… Read full post »

Like most Internet fads, it's been pretty well forgotten, but one of the hottest things online earlier this year was actor Christian Bale’s profanity-laced tirade at a crew member who stepped into a shot during filming of “Terminator: Salvation.”

It was pretty funny and certain… Read full post »

I’ve always prided myself on being a good father, but sometimes I just don’t know if I am.  Like any parent, sometimes I realize that I either haven’t done something for my kids that I should, or that I did something I shouldn’t have.

My younger son recently turned 21.&nb… Read full post »

As a child of the 1970s, I’ve always found a sort of sick amusement in the concept of drug testing your own kids.

Well, now the concept has come to Fargo.  Drug-testing kits were recently distributed in town by a local officials in conjunction with a group called notMYkid, which, according/… Read full post »

I have lived in Fargo longer than I’ve ever lived anywhere else.  I raised a family here, built a career here, saw that career evaporate and then began to reconstitute it.  I know a lot of people here and a lot of people know me.  I know the local jokes and/… Read full post »

One of the most interesting things about these hard times is that they have highlighted a very real disconnect between the upper class’ values and everybody else’s reality.

It’s astonishing -- there’s no other word for it – that some people making mid-six figure incomes… Read full post »

More opportunity to panic.

The National Weather Service has now said there is a 75 percent chance that a second crest on the Red River could reach 41 feet between April 15-22, which would exceed the 40.82-foot crest last Saturday.

The good news is that dikes, both earthen and sandbag, already… Read full post »

We are, by all appearances, on the downside of the flood here.

The latest reading on the Red River, 45 minutes ago as this is being written, w.as 36.85 feet, down four feet or so from the actual crest .  It's predicted to keep heading down before rising some again due to 10… Read full post »

It’s easy for us media types to think we are allowed to do things the public isn’t.  We’re often allowed into places the public isn’t, and often under different conditions.  We’re spoiled.

And every time a reporter or photographer – usually, it’s th… Read full post »