Editorial

What are you going to do when the robots take over?

April 25th, 2018

Photograph by Cindy Nichols There’s something to be said about the art of listening. Effective communication is like playing a game of catch, you need to bounce the conversation ball back and forth to keep it going. I never was one much for sports-ball but I’m in the communications field and that’s about as close as I get. Plus conversation doesn’t really require a lot of coordination so we’re golden. In a day and age where we can publish our opinion by the minute and pick and choose the causes and…

Spring? We won’t bank on it, if you get our drift…

April 18th, 2018

A winter 2017 scene in Grand Forks - photograph by C.S. Hagen
According to Greek mythology Hades is to blame for the Earth’s mournful state of winter. The story involves Persephone the goddess of nature and Hades the god of the underworld in a classic caper of obsession, abduction, and Stockholm syndrome. Hades had become obsessed with Persephone and captured her as she was picking flowers by the river and hanging out with some river nymphs of questionable repute. According to the tale, she fell through a fissure in the earth and Hades himself…

We need to rethink how we’re treating each other

April 11th, 2018

On March 31, 2018 a young transgender person took their life in Bismarck. Chance Houle was 12 years old, a seventh grader, a child in Bismarck, North Dakota.

According to the obituary, “Throughout the last 6 months of her life, she experienced continual transition and intense bullying at school.”

Everything about this is heartbreaking. Cherish “Chance” Houle’s obituary and story are going viral. Another sad thought, Chance came out as transgender this year and every media outlet…

The tastes they are a’changin’

April 4th, 2018

Art by Jacob Bloomquist, gold key winner A couple of weeks ago an article in The Washington Post called ‘Grandma’s food’: How changing tastes are killing German restaurants outlined just that. It acknowledged the loss of established German restaurants throughout the nation that have been around for generations.

Why the a decline in German restaurants? One reason -- we’re losing our German restaurantiers and along with them we’ve lost their establishments. Another is that the new generation’s palates are changing as…

Finding Roky

March 28th, 2018

Photograph by Sabrina Hornung The weeks prior to our trek to Austin were spent poring over pages of RSVPs, combing through emails trying to find out how to connect and make the most of our venture, and if the time allowed, digging through the list of bands that would be playing each event. Full disclosure: It’s overwhelming but oh so worth it. With so much going on, it’s easy to overlook or double book important events.

As part of my preparation for the trip, I watched a documentary called, “Dirt Road to…

Keeping calm in an age of uncertainty

March 21st, 2018

Tommy McLoughlin of the Sloths As we eke out our final hours in Austin, the quiet is almost stifling. It’s the combination of a collective citywide sigh of relief after the storm that was SXSW and the anxiety and uncertainty of the anonymous package bombings that have been rocking Austin for the past three weeks, killing two and injuring four.

One package exploded early this morning (Tuesday morning) in a Fedex facility located in Schertz, Texas, near San Antonio and was believed to be Austin-bound.

As festival…

Someone to pull us out of a ditch

March 7th, 2018

Why We Had to Be Apart, oil painting Scholastic gold key portfolio winner - Janessa Grave There’s nothing really quite as unifying as a good snow day. The calm before the storm gives us something to small talk about. It’s one thing everyone can relate to and add on to. Whether you casually comment on how much snow there is out there to “too bad ‘ol Norbert Schultz isn’t around to read the pig spleen..”

Both of which I’ve reiterated; but in my defense Schultz was an older gentleman who lived near Pingree, who would butcher a hog and predict the outcome of the…

Can the castle on the hill be saved?

February 28th, 2018

Painting by MJ Masilko Sometimes referred to as “the castle on the hill,” the former Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Facility, also known as the Kirkbride building, has inspired, shocked, awed, inspired and provided economic stability to the community of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, for well over a century. It served as a treatment facility, housed the mentally ill and developmentally disabled, eventually closed its doors in 2005 and has been empty ever since.

It once supported farmland, lush orchards and…

Go ask ALICE

February 21st, 2018

I was 14 in 1999 when Columbine happened. I remember feeling the shock, horror, and overall sickness that comes with a national tragedy of that caliber.

According to a February 15, 2018 article in The Washington Post by John Woodrow Cox and Steven Rich, “An ongoing Washington Post analysis has found that more than 150,000 students attending at least 170 primary or secondary schools have experienced a shooting on campus since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.”

Just think…

Savoring local flavor

February 14th, 2018

Henry Luehr’s Trojan Bull art by Sabrina Hornung What draws people to a particular area? Food? Culture? Nostalgia? It’s hard to speak on behalf of the populace but we obviously know what draws us in as individuals.

Here’s another question: What makes an area thrive and what makes up a community’s lifeblood?

I spend a lot of time travelling throughout our state and I often find myself occupying a fair share of bars and cafes along the highway. Sometimes in search of a good story (news-related or not), sometimes in search of…

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