Tracker Pixel for Entry

​Starting outward in the same direction

Writer's Block | April 13th, 2016

Last Tuesday, travel writer and English professor W. Scott Olsen presented his eleventh book, published by NDSU Press, to a sizeable audience at Zandbroz Variety. The book, “A Moment with Strangers,” is a collection of essays and photographs collected from his travels, all highlighting the central theme of brief yet significant chance encounters.

“This whole book is built on the premise of those very brief encounters that you have with someone when you’re traveling,” Olsen explained. “One of my favorite quotes is from a writer named Saint-Exupéry: ‘Love is not staring at each other. Love is staring outward together in the same direction.’ And sometimes that ‘staring outward together’ can be thirty seconds at a gas station in a thunderstorm when you’re standing next to someone you’ve never met before, but you’re sharing that event and suddenly you’re best friends. In the book sometimes those meetings are with other people, sometimes they’re with landscapes, sometimes they’re with people I don’t even meet.”

While patrons dined on sandwiches, stir-fry vegetables, cakes, and soda provided by Mosaic Foods, Olsen began his reading by thanking Zandbroz owner Greg Danz, as well as his colleagues at Concordia College and his editors at NDSU Press.

He then read from his prologue, “A Moment’s Dance,” which takes place in the Louvre Museum and describes his thought process of photographing a young woman: “I do not know this girl. She will never know I took this picture… This is the image I now carry in my head… the dance of what it’s like to be very young and in Paris, at the Louvre.. It is not an extraordinary photograph. But here, I think, is the moment we all treasure.”

One way to connect with strangers is through food, as Olsen describes in his essay “Notes Toward a Philosophy of Breakfast.” Olsen lists his favorite breakfast foods and restaurants and how they set the scene for meaningful interaction.

“Food is nutrition, yes. It is also circumstance and mood and surprise and joy… The split and toasted blueberry muffins at Jake’s Café in Northampton, Massachusetts. The hot chocolate at Le Café in Christchurch, on the South Island of New Zealand… You sit close enough to the other guests that conversation is natural and easy, and soon the room is filled with people who do not know each other behaving like relatives who get along.”

YOU SHOULD KNOW

Copies of “A Moment with Strangers” are available at Zandbroz, 420 Broadway N,

Downtown Fargo, (701)239-4729, Mon-Sat 9 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Sun 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Recently in:

By Laura Simmonslaurasimmons2025@u.northwestern.edu Dr. Stephen McDonough researched why North Dakota had the highest COVID death rate and cases in the fall of 2020. His investigation accumulated into a 1,000-plus page book titled…

By Michael M. Miller michael.miller@ndsu.eduOne of the most important books published about the Germans from Russia in North Dakota is “Along the Trails of Yesterday: A Story of McIntosh County” by Nina Farley Wishek, published…

photo credit: Jessica GavinSeptemberOktoberfest: Now-October 3Wurst Bier HallStein-holding competition, happy hour Mon-Fri from 4-6, wear your dirndl or lederhosen, German music.https://wurstfargo.com/Papa’s Pumpkin…

By John Strandjas@hpr1.comOur Opinion: Thank you, Reader readers, for 29 fulfilling yearsChugging along, The Little Newspaper That Could commences its 30th volume and year with this issue. Simply getting here speaks volumes. Just…

By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comIs Cruelty a Part of Nature—or Is It Just Part of Human Nature?Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has been my economics guru for many years for his pithy columns in The New York Times. In…

We are looking for 55-gallon plastic food grade barrels, do you have ideas or connections?We use these barrels to teach our resilient yard workshop series including Make Your Own Rain Barrel and Make Your Own Compost Tumbler. If…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.comMy new venture as a master’s degree student has got me thinking…again about food. Although I’m in an online program with the University of North Dakota, I thought it would be handy to list and…

By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.comThe Melvins formed in 1983 Montesano, Washington, founded by singer/guitar player Buzz Osborne. The group is known for its heavy sound mixed with a dose of punk, forming its own subgenre.…

By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.comFilmmaker Jacqueline Castel’s “My Animal” premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in January, but its vibes are better suited to the rising blood moon of autumn’s spooky season. Now…

By HPR Staffsubmit@hpr1.comThe Fargo Moorhead Visual Artists’ much-lauded neighbor lovin’ Studio Crawl is just around the corner – October 7 and 8, noon to 6pm. During the free event, the people who add culture and vibrancy…

By Eric Dallmanericd@hpr1.comWe recently watched “The PROM” at Chanhassen Dinner Theatre, and it was an experience that left a lasting impact on us. The story, a heartwarming yet familiar one, follows a group of Broadway stars…

By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…

By John Showalter  john.d.showalter@gmail.comThey sell fentanyl test strips and kits to harm-reduction organizations and…

JANUARY 19, 1967– MARCH 8, 2023 Brittney Leigh Goodman, 56, of Fargo, N.D., passed away unexpectedly at her home on March 8, 2023. Brittney was born January 19, 1967, to Ruth Wilson Pollock and Donald Ray Goodman, in Hardinsburg,…

By Faye Seidlerfayeseidler@gmail.com On the first day of the month I ask people to thank a journalist they know or someone who contributes to papers in some meaningful way. When I grew up, my best friend's father was a journalist…