The Flying Saucer Phenomenon…

These stories about flying saucers just don’t seem to go away. People continue to talk about seeing them or evidence of them all over North Dakota. Numerous people continue to tell me about their experiences with UFOs. They tell me in confidence because they don’t want to be ridiculed. The thing is, these people, many […]

The Pace Never Lets Up

Soon enough, the 2023 Nuclear Surety Inspection at Minot AFB will be over. We have been hearing about preparation for the Nuclear Surety Inspection in our Military Affairs Committee meetings. From what we hear in those short briefings, a lot of time and effort has gone into getting ready for the NSI, and Team Minot […]

Saying, “I Love You,” in Hot Dish Speak

Many of you may be familiar with the “Five Love Languages,” but over the years I’ve discovered that Hot Dishers have a love language all their own. You can’t simply walk up to a Hot Disher and say, “I love you.” That is far too aggressive for gentle sort, for whom being passive is a […]

Worth Every Penny

I am a member of the Military Affairs Committee of the Minot Chamber of Commerce/EDC. We have a meeting once a month with both military and community leaders in attendance. We normally do lunch, have an informative speaker or entertainment, and then receive reports from the 5th Bomb Wing, 91st Missile Wing, and the Army […]

Walkin’ on Water

A non-resident asks, “What makes you darned North Dakotan’s so special?”Resident — “Well, we do walk on water.”Incredulous non-resident — “Are all North Dakotans so arrogant and pompous?”Resident — “Nope. Some don’t ice fish.”That kind of sums it up. Oh yes. In North Dakota we walk on water, at least some of us do. Really, […]

Longer, wider faster…

There’s a program in the Canadian Football League called Touchdown Atlantic in which two of the nine teams in the CFL give up one date a season to play a game in Atlantic Canada. It was created because of a strong interest to put an expansion team in Halifax, Nova Scotia.Halifax has wanted a CFL […]

Who is This Alberto?

The other day I was standing in line and there was an active young man ahead of me. It was obvious that he had been engaged in a shopping trip for way too long, at least for his liking. : As a father, and now a grandfather, I had to chuckle at the conversation between […]

Those Dreaded Lines

After decades of trying, I have never gotten it right. Not a single time. Not once that I can remember. Lines. That’s right – lines. The kind that never move the way you had hoped they would. I know I am not alone here. I think.I’m writing about those many choices a person makes each […]

Water, it doesn’t just grow on trees!…

Call it climate change, call it a long-term weather cycle, you can even call it a coincidence. We can argue about it all day and make it a political football. But there is no doubt water is becoming a serious issue in the western United States, despite recent heavy rain and snow in California. This […]

Honorary Commanders Are Friends For Life

I was assigned my Honorary Commander just before COVID, which pretty much curtailed any public events on the Minot Air Force Base. I can remember our first Military Affairs zoom meeting, then MAC Chair Randy Hauck made mention of the many new Honorary Commanders that had been assigned and “we will induct them as soon […]