Month: December 2021

At about 2:00 yesterday afternoon, December 18, 2021, my friend Rick Maixner and I poured a couple shots from the bottle of cognac he keeps stashed at the Sunset Nursing Home in Mandan, North Dakota, and toasted the fact we are still here, 50 years after we walked off the gangplank of the USS Oriskany, … Continue reading 50 Years . . . And Counting

I wrote here a few weeks ago that you can’t really understand Covid-19 until you’ve sat at the bedside of a good friend on a ventilator. I can say now that even then I did not understand it completely until I buried that good friend last week. Until I watched that coffin being slowly lowered … Continue reading Damn, It Hurts To Bury A Friend

I’m thinking today of an old friend, Ardell Tharaldson, who left us ten years ago, December 6, 2011. Our friendship dated back to Democratic-NPL politics in 1972, when he ran George McGovern's campaign for president in North Dakota. An unabashed liberal and rebel, and a pretty darn good poker player, Ardell got dealt a couple … Continue reading Remembering Ardell Tharaldson

Some random thoughts, most of which appeared in an article in the December issue of Dakota Country magazine. How do you go about summarizing a year like 2021? Try this: It’s December, the year is almost over, and we’re still here. I’m still writing. You’re still reading. Y’know, considering everything, not much else seems very … Continue reading “Scumbags”