Monday, May 26, 2008

Uncle Bob


Bob Dylan turned 67 on Saturday. Bob is from Hibbing, Minn., (also birthplace of Roger Maris), but Fargo can claim a small part of his legacy. He spent a teenage summer there playing piano for local rock n' roller Bobby Vee before getting fired and leaving for the U. of M.

Interviews with Bobby Vee and Fargo contemporary

Bob, 1963:

my country is the Minnesota-North Dakota territory that's where I was born an learned how t walk an it's where I was raised an went t school... my youth was spent wildly among the snowy hills an sky blue lakes, willow fields an abandoned open pit mines. contrary t rumors, I am very proud of
where I'm from an also of the many blood streams that run in my roots.

Chuck


Pop culture writer from Wyndmere, Chuck Klosterman, shows up on a podcast with ESPN guy Bill Simmons. Most of the podcast is a rambling thing about basketball, writing, German microwaves and nothing in particular, but halfway through, the conversation shifts to North Dakota. Anyone who has had to explain the state to someone only vaguely aware of its existence will find it familiar.

Also, Chuck has a novel coming out.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Baa

Sure there's the Web 2.0, iPods and 'tween pop stars, but what kids today really want to do is look after a flock of stupid, stinking animals.

NY Times: Seeking a Few Good Shepherds

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The Legacy of Indian Schools

NPR did a two-part series on American Indian schools this week. Part one includes a mention of the Wahpeton Indian Boarding School, since renamed the Circle of Nations School.

NPR: American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Ed Sez:


Ethanol isn't to blame for food crisis. After all, who was using that corn, anyway?


Washington Times: Ethanol as cause of rood crisis "flat-out wrong."

Saturday, May 10, 2008

More Erdrich

Another review of the new Louise Erdrich novel, set in fictional Pluto, N.D., which according to the reviewer, is "one of those places we read about now and then when big-city papers run features about the death of small-town America."

Friday, May 09, 2008

Ed Ascendent

U.S. News & World Report likes Ed Schafer. It's also the rare national publication to mention the ag secretary's association with Mr. Bubble and Junkyard Wars.

U.S. News: Like a Farmhand, Ag's Ed Schafer Does It All

Friday, May 02, 2008

Horses

Tomorrow is Kentucky Derby day, and, according to this article on Slate.com, some people will be placing bets through phone hubs in "exotic, loosely regulated locales like St. Kitts or North Dakota"

"Say you want to lay $1,000 on a horse running at Aqueduct. You call the hub in Fargo, then an operator takes your bet and relays it to New York, where the money is fed into the racetrack's pool."

Does this really go on in North Dakota, or is Fargo just writerly shorthand for the middle of nowhere?