How old are you? How much do you weigh? How tall are you? Almost from birth, we’re obsessed with numbers and counting. Babies quickly learn how to count fingers and toes. As we get older, we keep counting. What’s your SAT score? How much money do you make? How’s your 401(k) doing? So it is with the coronavirus pandemic. How
Much to honor, to mourn, on these dark days
These days, my neighbors and I sit on the lawn and yell at one another. No, we’re not arguing. We’re doing the new normal – social distancing. But communication is difficult because we are so hard-of-hearing we’re next door to deaf. And so we sit far apart and yell our heads off. “What did you say? I can’t hear you
40 years later, wind replaces giant power plant
The announcement last week that Great River Energy plans to shut down a huge coal-fired electricity-generating plant in the middle North Dakota came about 40 years too late. The Maple Grove-based co-op announced it will close Coal Creek Station — one of the Upper Midwest’s largest power plants – late in 2022. It will be replaced to a great extent
Flyovers, sports provide distraction, connection during pandemic
While it feels like everything has been at a standstill with the quarantine measures in place, life continues to go on. Many brave the risk of infection to go to essential jobs, care for their family and friends or wait anxiously for stay-at-home orders to be lifted so they can get back to work. College and high school seniors will
With no sports, community spirit, shared emotions are quarantined too
With friends and family out of work, sick or even dying, writing about something as seemingly trivial as the loss of games and sports appears out of place, if not insensitive. Now as the grass is turning green and the stay-at-home routine enters its second month, the loss of sports can’t be ignored. Opening golf courses two weeks ago reminded
Virus rabble-rousers should be ashamed
Who but a nasty grinch would not want the American economy to re-open and thrive like gangbusters? We all want that to happen. Unfortunately, there’s a problem – a highly contagious invisible killer dubbed Covid-19. It’s not done killing yet, and only those who indulge in magical thinking believe it’s going to vanish anytime soon. I have another phrase for
Pandemic exposes society’s weaknesses
Have you watched the National Geographic series “Drain the Oceans”? Using sophisticated mapping and computer animation, the series shows what we would see if we drained the water out of the Earth’s large bodies of water. Emptying the oceans of water reveals what lies on the bottom when the water is gone…solving mysteries and explaining natural wonders as well as
Stay careful, but be hopeful in quarantine
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage across our state, country and world, things appear very bleak. Businesses, schools and sports have all but ground to a halt. People are being urged to stay inside and keep up social distancing in order to reduce the number of infections. We see disheartening numbers of new cases and cancellation after cancellation of