June 12th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
Why Is the Divided States of America the Most Unequal Society in the World?
I have hundreds of favorite poems that mean much more to me than long-winded prose. My absolute favorite is T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” It contains the most depressing line about the human condition: “I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floor of silent seas.”
My top short poem is by Ogden Nash in “Reflections on…
June 4th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
Can Someone Tell Me Why Sneakers Sell for $1.5 to $2.2 Million a Pair?
It has to be something other than quality. I shop for used books in thrift stores because I have discovered thick books given as gifts usually have not been read. Last week I picked up a new Microsoft ENCARTA Dictionary—the first dictionary for the Internet age--for $2.50. It was priced at $24.95 U.S. and $36.95 Canada. It’s the first dictionary published in about 30 years, so it…
May 27th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
Question for 2024: Will a Billion Guns and a Quadrillion Bullets Make DSA Safer?
Ever since Lucy fell out of an African tree 3.2 million years ago, animals have been designing new ways to kill each other. For the last 300,000 of those years, Homo sapiens have been inventing more efficient methods.
If we are still around in a few years, one can predict that nuclear weapons will be obsolete. The machine gun probably won the trench warfare of World War I,…
May 21st, 2023
By Ed Raymond
Fargo Superintendent and School Board Know Right from Wrong
Back in the 1950s when Corky and I lived under Jim Crow laws in Virginia and North Carolina, we were angered to see our Black Marines and neighbors forced by law to walk in the streets of Jacksonville and Parkfairfax instead of on sidewalks.
By that time the southern slave states had passed more than 200 racist laws known as Jim Crow. Southern states passed laws making it a crime to teach Blacks…
May 17th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
Do American Nazis Know the Angel of Death Operated on 3,000 Twins?
I was twelve years old when pictures of thousands of dead, naked, starved Jews stacked like cordwood in neat rows or dumped in concentration camp streets were published in the world press.
Because of the absolute horrors of the Holocaust, I have made a special effort to learn more about Homo sapiens who would do such things to other humans. I have kept a file on the Holocaust for 65…
May 8th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
fargogadfly@gmail.com
What’s Too Little and What’s Too Much? The DSA Is Famous for Both Positions
Schizophrenia is defined as “any of a group of psychotic reactions characterized by withdrawal from reality with highly variable accompanying affective behavioral and intellectual disturbances.”
Well, this is a big country of more than 335 million people, so mental health experts have determined that as much as six percent of the population, or about 20 million, go…
April 30th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
fargogadfly@gmail.com
When a Spear and a Boomerang Equals a Computer and a Smartphone
Eighteen years ago I wrote a column “Graduating for Life” about Australian aborigine teenagers at age 13 either dying during their graduation ceremonies or surviving the dangerous environment and becoming an adult in their tribe.
With the battles about the role of parents in the education of their children roiling millions of…
April 30th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
fargogadfly@gmail.com
Will we goose-step backward with the GOP or stumble forward with Democrats?
Two hundred years ago English poet William Wordsworth wrote a 14-line sonnet “The World Is Too Much With Us” with these opening lines: “The world is too much with us, late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; little we see in nature that is ours; we have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”
A hundred years ago William Butler Yeats published “The…
April 15th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
fargogadly@gmail.com
Why Do Hospitals Charge $1,000 to $3,800 for CT Scans? Only the Shadow Knows!
When I typed this headline about healthcare costs, I thought of the old radio program “Shadow,” which kept us spellbound as we milked cows. The introductory lines got our immediate attention: “Who knows what lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” The conclusion of the 325 radio suspense programs ended with this truth: “The weed of crime bears bitter fruit!…
April 6th, 2023
By Ed Raymond
fargogadfly@gmail.com
Who’d a Thunk It? The Reincarnation and Resurrection of a Third Political Party!
In 1853, a secret American society known as the Order of the Star Spangled Banner abandoned its secrets by transforming itself into a political party known at first as the American Party. Members refused to talk about what the secret society had accomplished, and were instructed by leaders to respond to questions with “I know nothing.” You get one guess what it was…
By Winona LaDukewinona@winonaladuke.com The business of Indian Hating is a lucrative one. It’s historically been designed to dehumanize Native people so that it’s easier to take their land. ‘Kill the Indian, save the man,”…
By Johnathan Campbell history@nd.gov Since Halloween is just around the corner, I thought I’d share three mysterious — and mildly creepy folktales — that have been shared about the Former Governors' Mansion State Historic Site,…
November 1-2, 9 p.m.Downtown VFW, 202 N Broadway, FargoEden Parker hosts two nights of music and mayhem with everything from original music, piano bar sing-alongs, to Halloween hymns. Dress up for the costume contest, drink up and…
By Jim Fugliejimfuglie920@gmail.com As a political columnist, I know I should be writing an election preview for the issue of this paper that comes out just a couple weeks before what is being labeled, once again, as “the most…
By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comCitizens United Turned Billionaires Into Oligarchs, Dictators, and KingsWe have reached a stage in Divided States of America politics where if the Democratic Party decreed that zebras have black…
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 Gionrickgion@gmail.com In this land of hotdish and ham, the knoephla soup of German-Russian heritage seems to reign supreme. In my opinion though, the French have the superior soup. With a cheesy top layer, toasted baguette…
North Dakota’s All Star Tribute to John Prine at the Fargo TheatreBy Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comOn November 3, The Radio Stars are rounding up a number of North Dakota’s finest musicians from Watford City to the Red River…
By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com Writer-director Nicole Riegel’s sophomore feature “Dandelion” is now playing in theaters following a world premiere at South by Southwest in March. The movie stars KiKi Layne as the…
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By HPR Contributorssubmit@hpr1.com They are the inventive, passionate, adaptable, resourceful, sometimes over-enthusiastic, wack-tacular people who create art in our community, and they’re opening their studio doors to you for…
By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.comHigh Plains Reader had the opportunity to interview two mysterious new game show hosts named Milt and Bradley Barker about an upcoming event they will be putting on at Brewhalla. What…
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…
Rynn WillgohsJanuary 25, 1972-October 8, 2024 Rynn Azerial Willgohs, age 52, of Vantaa, Finland, died by suicide on October 8, 2024. Rynn became her true-self March 31, 2020. She immediately became a vocal and involved activist…
By Curtis Stofferahncurtis.stofferahn@email.und.edu In1915, Arthur Townley, an organizer for North Dakota's Socialist Party, witnessed a session of the state legislature where legislators were poised to discuss the establishment of…
