November 20th, 2015
T.S. Eliot in his poem “The Hollow Men” muses about “This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms,” describing how men and politicians react to the end of empires. At the end of the poem he signs off: “This is the way the world ends/ Not with a bang but a whimper.” changed it a little to emphasize our empire.
We will soon enter the 227th year of the American empire, about the average length of the major empires in the…
November 11th, 2015
The Personal Question At 6 p.m.: “Are You Healthy Enough For Sex?”
I’ve been writing so much about religion and sex lately I really wanted to take a break for a week, but so much has happened to the subject in the last couple of weeks, I might spend the next four hours writing about it. It’s the most important subject in the commercials around network news at supper time. The beautiful mature women lolling on beds in breezy diaphanous gowns or football jerseys, ask if erections…
November 5th, 2015
14th Century Bishops Could Have Learned Something From the Wife Of Bath
Population experts estimate that about 100 billion people have been born during Homo Sapiens time—with just seven billion still alive and exercising free will. One would think that the 93 billion dead might have studied the species and come up with some answers to help us in our very short lives on this planet.
Many answers are still in the “pending” office boxes at the Vatican, Mecca, and other religious…
October 30th, 2015
Bachelor Bishops And Misogynistic Muslim Clerics Conjure Up A Sex And Marriage Manual
Pope Francis and his cardinals and bishops have concluded a Vatican synod on whether the Roman Catholic Church should modify teachings regarding sex and marriage while their religious cousins, the Muslim Taliban, are busy treating women as chattel in countries they dominate. Both of these conservative, militant religions ignore and often denigrate the wisdom, experience and natural ability and brains of…
October 22nd, 2015
Thomas Browne: “But Man Is a Noble Animal, Splendid in Ashes, and Pompous in the Grave”
Some scientists think there is water on Mars, although temperatures say it would be ice anyway. It might be wishful thinking. There seems to be a crowd wanting to leave Earth for safer climes.
The Uppermost Animals are back to killing, torturing, raping, and starving each other at the rate established by the First Crusade between Muslims and Christians, the Mongol invasion of Europe of Genghis…
October 15th, 2015
Having Everything—Having Nothing
In his novel “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens writes of life in Paris and London just before and during the French Revolution of 1789. His first paragraph may be instructive about the differences between the rich and poor in the United States in 2015: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of…
October 7th, 2015
From Carnivorous Mighty Mites To Vegetarian Monsters
When our spacecraft Voyager 1 took pictures of earth from four billion miles away in 1990, scientist Carl Sagan looked at the pictures and described the image in his book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space: “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us….Every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”
Just maybe we should continue to…
October 1st, 2015
A Black Man Who Wants To Eat At The Dining Room Table All Of The Time
Since the institutional murder of New York City’s Eric Garner for selling loose cigarettes, the institutional murder of Detroit’s 12-year-old Tamir Rice for loitering in a park, the institutional murder of Baltimore’s Freddie Gray after his severed-spine ride in a police paddy wagon, the institutional murder of Ferguson’s Michael Brown, the institutional murder of Charleston’s Walter Scott, and the thousands…
September 24th, 2015
So far we have determined that humans started to walk upright about six million years ago. It took us another 3.4 million years to invent stone tools. Some human pyro discovered fire about 1.9 million years ago. We haven’t discovered many of our other unique accomplishments since then until we domesticated unruly cats in 7,500 B.C. The Chinese added to our brain buzz by making wine in 7,000 B.C. The Egyptians invented papyrus in 3,000 B.C. We started to clean our armpits with soap in…
September 16th, 2015
Why the 99 percent is so pissed it isn’t going to take it anymore.
Why are Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson leading Republican polls for the 2016 presidential nomination? Why is Bernie Sanders beginning to overtake the “inevitable” Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in Democratic polls? Only because Hillary is better known than Bernie.
Who in the hell is Bernie Sanders? He could be the local dogcatcher or pimp. Many don’t know he is another politician -- but anything that walks…
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By Alicia Underlee NelsonLocal groups will speak out against current and projected federal budget cuts in downtown Fargo this Saturday, April 26. The Red River Valley chapters of Fearless and Indivisible will lead a protest from…
By Prairie Rose Seminolems.prairierose@gmail.com I was a child who walked behind my parents into classrooms and kitchens, spaces of song and prayer, where teachings lived in the air and settled on my shoulders. I didn’t yet have…
Saturday, April 26, 1:30-3:30 p.m.Rourke Art Gallery + Museum, 521 Main Ave., MoorheadThings are coming up rosy at the Rourke in a true feast of the senses during the third annual “Gallery in Bloom” exhibit. The pop-up…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com I feel like reading a newspaper is the equivalent of listening to music on vinyl. Not only is it analog, it’s an experience. I might be a little biased, but there's something about the rustling…
By Ed Raymondfargogadly@gmail.comThe wizards and kleagles in whites now wear blue suits and red tiesA hundred years ago, more than 30,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan from virtually every state in the Union wearing their white…
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 After a very inspiring conversation with Kayla Houchin of Sonder Bakehouse a few weeks ago, I decided that it’s an appropriate time to write a column about some of the sweet people who are involved…
Mooncats and Pert Near Sandstone play Empire TheatreBy Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comThe MoonCats describe themselves as “Americonscious Campfire Folk.” They have a clear acoustic folk sound with a sense of whimsy — think…
By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.comRyan Coogler goes big and bold with “Sinners,” a sweaty, bloody vampire movie set in 1932. The filmmaker stuffs this universe with enough ideas to serve a limited-series season of episodic…
By Raul Gomez Modern Man was a gentle soul. If you were down or just wanted a friend, he’d be there for you. I remember the first day I met Modern Man. It was Jeremiah Fuglseth and me. He wanted to write about this legendary…
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 Josette Ciceronunapologeticallyanxiousme@gmail.com What does it mean to truly live in a community —or should I say, among community? It’s a question I have been wrestling with since I moved to Fargo-Moorhead in February 2022.…
By Alicia Underlee NelsonProtests against President Trump’s policies and the cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are planned across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday, April 4 and…
By Faye Seidlerfayeseidler@gmail.com In 2023, the Superintendent of Fargo Public Schools, Rupak Ghandi, gave a passionate plea to the Fargo School Board to follow federal law, because a recently passed state law would increase…
