Live and Learn

​Marriage: sometimes merry and sometimes not

May 23rd, 2018

Marriage - photograph by Hisu Lee

By Melissa Martin
melissamartincounselor@live.com

And they lived “happily ever after.” Many people in the U.S. believe in love and matrimony, but marriage takes consistent effort and time to weather the ups and downs.

According to a 2013 Pew Research Center survey, 88 percent of Americans cited love as the main reason to marry with making a lifelong commitment and companionship, respectively.

What are top issues that may cause conflict in marriages?

Communication. Marriage doesn’t come…

Read more...


​Two little words with big meaning

April 11th, 2018

By Melissa Martin
melissamartincounselor@live.com

“I’m sorry” are two vital words to be used in relationships because human beings are imperfect people living in imperfect environments.

Ask yourself the following questions: Am I an under-apologiser or an over-apologiser? Am I a balanced-apologiser? Do you refuse to apologize when you’re absolutely in the wrong? It’s been my experience that many individuals answer these questions with “It depends on the person I am with…

Read more...


​The other shoe

July 6th, 2016

By Elizabeth Nawrot

nawrot@mnstate.edu

I look up from my hotel lobby breakfast astonished to see a framed print of Wassily Kandinsky's "Mit und Gegen,” a masterpiece of color and composition that just happens to be my favorite painting. It bursts with vibrant orange-red and bold strokes of black accented with blue geometrics, a study in contrast to my sad little plate of pale eggs and limp sausage. Even the toast just sits there, baffled by the juxtaposition of the mundane and the…

Read more...


Write This Way

December 10th, 2015

I’m seeing red. It’s no coincidence this is the color of ink generations of teachers have used when correcting papers. I may not be an English teacher, but the slow, torturous suffering of the written word is enough to make me bristle. My note in the margin, “which is used for dependent clauses and does not begin a new sentence,” written in jaunty purple ink just doesn’t express the necessary gravitas.

Perhaps I’m being nitpicky. If lyrics from the preset channels on my…

Read more...


​You don’t know Jacques

June 10th, 2015

By Lisa Nawrot

Tell me if you’ve heard this one: Benjamin Franklin, Antoine Lavoisier, and the inventor of the guillotine walk into a room together … no, this is not a joke (the Dalai Lama says to a hot dog vendor “Make me one with everything,” That’s a joke). This meeting took place in Paris, 1784 where a Royal Commission was tasked with debunking a new pseudoscientific practice named for its inventor, Franz Anton Mesmer. Mesmer claimed to use magnetic forces to induce a…

Read more...


​The Song Remains the Same

March 9th, 2015

I’m trying to think “intervallically.” No, it’s not the new math or a metaphysical dimension in the space-time continuum. I’m just learning to play the piano. I never took piano lessons growing up, and when I tried it for the first time as an adult, it didn't take. I memorized the individual notes in every piece, but each additional song I learned replaced the one before it. After nearly two years, a handful of music books and dozens of pieces of music, I could perform a grand…

Read more...


Staging Area

November 5th, 2014

My daughter was once bitten so hard by a playmate that a forensic lab could have matched the bite mark to dental records in order to identify the puny perpetrator. While this pretty much undermines the daycare’s policy of keeping the offending child’s identity confidential, the fact that kids of this age bite is not all that surprising. Between the ages of about two and five, children often bite one another for a variety of reasons including expressing emotion and language. Biting…

Read more...


Impulse control

October 23rd, 2014

In a small museum in Florence, Italy there is a jar containing the bony remains of the index and middle fingers of the great 16th century scientist Galileo Galilei. The rest of his body is buried a few miles away in a cathedral in the piazza Santa Croce, the final resting place for other Renaissance masters including Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Dante (their whole bodies I assume, though I can’t say with certainty. A contemporary of Galileo, Rene Descartes’ head was separated from…

Read more...


Tracker Pixel for Entry WurstWest Tracker Pixel for Entry Bismarck Tracker Pixel for Entry 7Clans Tracker Pixel for Entry Blackbird Tracker Pixel for Entry FPL2 Tracker Pixel for Entry staveq1

Recently in:

By Bryce Vincent Haugen There are three Fargo Park Board seats up for election June 9. Park Board President Vicki Dawson and long-time member Dr. Joe Deutsch announced their reelection bids, but board member Aaron Hill is vacating…

By Michael M. Miller Rev. Salomon Joachim, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, Beulah, North Dakota., delivered an address to the Western Conference of the Dakota District of the American Lutheran Church in 1939. His presentation was…

Thursday, April 23, 7 p.m.Fargodome, 1800 University Dr. N, FargoHeralded as "The Nicest Man in Stand-Up" by The Atlantic, Nate Bargatze is also one of the top-grossing comedians, breaking both streaming and attendance records. Now…

By Sabrina Hornung In the last week of March, we heard about an AI education droid visiting the White House as the first lady made a pitch to replace teachers with androids. In an interview with conservative commentator Benny…

By Ed RaymondWhy do women make up only 2% of humans on death row? In the 16th Century, when the Roman Catholic Pope refused to grant Henry VIII of England a divorce so he could marry the beautiful Anne Boleyn, he told the Pope and…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…

By Rick Gion A brand new food event called the "ONE BITE Challenge" will launch in downtown Fargo on May 23. Rocky Schneider, executive director of the Downtown Community Partnership told us more. HPR: Hi Rocky. Thank you for…

By John ShowalterAs hip-hop started to make its way into the national spotlight in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was largely split into two camps, “East Coast” and “West Coast”. Not content to be left out of a…

By Blaise Balas As many Fargoans will tell you, it is almost vanishingly rare that our town gets any kind of major recognition, let alone placement in a movie. Movies are reserved for New York, Chicago, Boston — you know, the big…

By Sabrina Hornung Something wicked (and wonderful) this way comes to this year’s Plains Art Gala. With the theme being “Nightmare at the Museum,” the Plains Art Museum is partnering up with Drekker and Brewhalla as…

Saturday, January 31, 6:30-9 p.m.Transfiguration Fitness, 764 34th St. N., Unit P, FargoAn enchanting evening celebrating movement and creativity in a staff-student showcase. This is a family-friendly event showcasing pole, aerial…

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 Ellie Liverani In November 2025, the FDA initiated the removal of the “black box” warning from Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). The “black box” warning is a FAD safety warning for healthcare providers and patients…

January 31, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.Viking Ship Park, 202 1st Ave. N., Moorhead2026 marks 10 years of frosty fun! Enjoy sauna sessions with Log the Sauna, try Snowga (yoga in the snow), take a guided snowshoe nature hike, listen to live…

By Chris M. StonerBryon Noem deserves to feel shame. Not for his bimbofication fetish. As a drag queen for nearly a quarter of a century, I whole-heartedly think people should do more exploration of their gender and sexual…