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…
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By Bryce Vincent HaugenFor the first nine months, the dysfunction of the Trump administration and Congress was a four-time-zone-away abstraction for a Moorhead native living in Alaska’s interior. But it became all too real when…
By Michael M. Millermichael.miller@ndsu.edu I would like to recognize some of the scholarly Germans from Russia from Canada and USA shared on the GRHC website. There are additional names not included here. If you have suggestions…
December 17-21, 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and SundayThe Fargo Theatre, 314 N. Broadway, FargoCould this be the end of an era? After 26 years of doing the Holiday Soul Tour and 35 years together as a band, The…
By Sabrina Hornungsabina@hpr1.com I scroll through comment threads on the news stories in my social media feed and come across the retort, “You voted for this.” Sure the vote’s in…but when someone’s livelihood is at stake,…
By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comWill the Vatican ever love LBGTQUIA+ with open hearts and minds? Christians have been hot and bothered by sex for 2,000 years and Catholic popes, cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns have been…
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 Mandy Dolneymandy@ksbsyndicate.com This cake will be on the menu at Nova Eatery through Thanksgiving served with maple crème anglaise Ice cream. It uses pumpkin pie pumpkins grown locally at Ladybug Acres and local apples grown…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com Dakotah Faye is a hip-hop artist from Minot, North Dakota, and he’s had a busy year. He’s released two albums. This summer he opened for Tech N9ne in Sturgis and will be opening for Bone…
By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com In “Hedda,” Nia DaCosta’s bold adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s celebrated 1891 play, the filmmaker reunites with longtime collaborator Tessa Thompson, who starred in DaCosta’s…
By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com Gallery 4 downtown recently celebrated its 50 year anniversary, making it one of the longest consecutively running galleries in the country. With different membership tiers, there are 17 primary…
Press release“Shakespeare with a sharpened edge.” To launch its 2025 – 2026 season, Theatre NDSU is thrilled to team up with Moorhead-based organization Theatre B to perform a co-production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and…
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…
sBy Ellie Liveranieli.liverani.ra@gmail.com The holidays are supposed to be magical: party, presents, fancy food, lights and sparks. You are looking forward to it. You work very hard, you put in long hours at work as well as at…
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 Vern Thompsonvern.thompson.nd7@gmail.comPersonal background and historical perspective My deep concern about tariffs stems from my background as a fourth generation North Dakota farmer. Having lived through the 1980s farm crisis…
