One Nation, Under God
One Nation, Under God
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Last week our editor was out of town, which can be a daunting task for anyone that has little to no experience being an editor of a small town newspaper. A lot goes into making a weekly newspaper when you have only a few reporters that have to help with every aspect of a newspaper. But I have to say I am really proud of our staff. Everyone stepped up, including Evie our intern who wrote her first column in this very space last week. Sarah and Deb were very proactive and for that I am grateful....
In this age, some people believe bigotry and racism doesn’t still exist. But in some places it does. I’m extremely thankful for Phillips County because I’ve seen nothing but love for me and my family. Obviously not trying to stir any trouble, I will try to briefly tell a story of me being in a bigoted situation. If you’re not into it, turn the page. Once upon a time I lived in Florida. One of my band mates and I were hanging out with a youth group pastor and a few of his friends. Later that ni...
The summer of 2005 was the last time I had a haircut and because of that fact, I have a lot of hair. There have been perks to having this much hair. It hides the fact I have an enormous head, well kind of. My hair has been the topic of quite a few conversations over the past ten years, which has been interesting. For those who don’t know. My hair is a style called dreadlocks… Not braids. Not cornrows. You can’t unravel my hair. I would have to cut them out. It takes about three hours to twist my...
And I’m an overeater. Shows like my 600 pound life and The Biggest Loser should inspire one to live a healthy lifestyle. It should inspire viewers at home to get up off the couch, put down the pizza and get active. For me it seems to do the opposite and it has been that way for years. I remember watching The Biggest Loser ten years ago and at the same time smashing a large oven pizza. This wasn’t a onetime thing. In fact it became a weekly ritual. There were times I rode a stationary bike whi...
Last Wednesday I was shocked to the core when an era ended in Chicago. For those of you that haven’t heard, the Bulls got rid of hometown hero Derrick Rose, who they drafted with the first pick of 2008. Rose went on to win NBA Rookie of the Year in the 2008-09 season. He also be-came the first and only Chicago Bull since Michael Jordan to become the league’s Most Valuable Player in the 2010-11 season, while leading the Bulls to the first seed in the NBA playoffs. The following season Rose tor...
The other day I had a flashback moment. I was in my living room waiting for my wife and son while playing a pretty intense game of NBA 2k15. Every once in a while my wife likes to make PJ the subject of a grand appearance. This time to my surprise my son was to my surprise on a bicycle with training wheels. In that instance I had a flashback of my first bicycle, a blue racing themed bike with training wheels. I’m 50 percent sure I got my first bike at Christmas time. The occasion that netted P...
I sold my soul to the local dish company the other day. That should come as no surprise after my great disdain for the local cable TV provider. Going from only having five channels to close to 200 has given me something new to do with my self-diagnosed attention deficit disorder. Having a four year hiatus from satellite television has allowed the network to come up with some great television. I have been recording nearly every show that sounds interesting to me, my wife or even PJ. The only sad thing is that PJ has gone from wanting to go...
I wasn’t going to do it. I really wasn’t going to. But I need to vent. I have lived about a dozen years of my life without cable or satellite television. The last four years I’ve lived here, my wife and I have only had broadcast TV. The five or six channels that we do get have been good to us but we’ve decided it is time for a change. So we bit the bullet and have pursued the various companies for a more enhanced television experience, which will bring us the glorious channels of ESPN, NFL Net...
When buying our house there were a lot of details I didn’t pay extremely close attention to. Over time I’ve come to find simple things have enhanced our experience living there. One of these details that I have found is that the lighting in our kitchen was really dim. I assumed it was simply because of the bulky light fixture but as the bulbs were nearly going out the other night, I knew I had to change it out for fear of trying to cook in the dark. I opened up the fixture, which required two...
Last Wednesday I took most of the day off. In hindsight maybe I shouldn’t have. My two main objectives for the day were getting a tremendous amount of yard work done and preparing spareribs for dinner. I have had some success smoking meats as of late, so I was pretty stoked about trying to smoke a rack of pork spareribs on my day off. My day started off pretty well. I woke up at about 4:30 a.m. for an early morning workout. Later, I went into work for about a hour or so. Then I went home to a...
When I was younger, I appreciated sports of every kind. Sure I had my favorites in the sports realm. I first loved basketball. To this day, I think that the 90’s Bulls in their prime could beat any team today. My second love was football. I always have been a fan of the Chicago Bears and I always will. I have been a fan of the White Sox since I was seven and the Blackhawks since college. People have always said hockey wasn’t a “black” sport, but to me hockey has always been exciting. If you’ve...
I’m starting to see why people love sit down mowers. The older I get, the harder it is getting to stay motivated to walk behind my mower. It typically takes me about an hour to mow my lawn. I also found out that it took me nearly as long to mow my yard with my neighbor’s sit down mower. Though the times weren’t very different, sitting on that riding mower made me feel like I was mowing in a luxury vehicle. Ever since my neighbor loaned me that mower, my relationship with my walking mower hasn...
I don’t understand why nearly every movie or popular song has to either be pro-fane, vulgar, sacrilegious or all of the above. It seems that nothing is sacred anymore. The promiscuous world we live in has even reached the youth to the extent that it is “normal” for kids to lose their vir-ginity at preteen ages. I saw an alarming commercial the other day saying that one in four teens have std’s. Yikes. I know I risk being called “judgmental,” by even talking about this topic but hon-estly i...
My first indirect smoking experience went so well with baby back ribs that the only thing I could think of was lighting that grill again. So this past weekend I did. This time around I decided to try a long smoke… with a 4 pound Boston Butt (Pork Shoulder Roast). I have to admit I was not excited about the possibility of an eight hour cook. I get impatient when the coffee maker takes too long but I knew that if I was going to do this, I was going to be “all in.” I used the most basic rub you cou...
I’m pretty excited about the summertime… I got a new grill. Well new to me. For the past couple of months I’ve been hoping to upgrade from our small 14-inch table top charcoal grill I bought last summer. Yes I prefer charcoal to gas. Gas grills serve their purpose for sure. It’s great for quick and timely cooking but I just love the flavor of smoked meat. It brings me back to my childhood. My dad always used charcoal. No matter what our food options were living in the Chicago land area, I alway...
To expand on my experience during the state tournament, I figured I would tell you about my first experience with a heart rate monitor. Being a Bears, White Sox and Bulls fan really set me up for failure because I know no lead is ever safe and they always leave me on the edge of my seat. When I’m deep into a game I know that at any moment my heart rate goes crazy. When the Malta Mustangs faced off against Wolf Point in the Class B State title in Butte a few years ago, it was my first taste of a...
This past State B Tournament in Butte was my favorite state outing so far, for a few reasons. It was great seeing PJ interact with complete strangers by making them laugh and every once in a while it’s just nice to travel. This past trip marks the fourth time that I’ve had the chance to not only go to State, but the fourth time that I’ve experienced a championship game. In previous championship games, I’ve always made some kind of food related mistake. This year I did wise up a little bit. My wi...
I’m not going to name any names but a couple of months ago a gentleman came into our office in sup-port of his friend that is running for a political office. He seems like a cool dood, even a guy that I would hang out with in college but the poor guy had one huge flaw. He reached out to shake my hand after our conversation and to my dismay came the limpest hand-shake I have ever experienced. I know that the point of a handshake isn’t to break someone’s hand but it does say a lot about your...
When there is a basketball game happening I am typicaly on the baseline trying to get a few good shots for our newspaper. After being at a couple of games in Malta’s run at the Northern B Divisional Tournament, I decided that I would sit with my wife and son for the first time since I started this job. I was out of sorts because I knew I would be sitting in the crowd this game but my wife was all for it. I don’t know if you were at last Saturday’s game, but she was looking pretty stunning and I...
I never have been a fan of writing. That being said, I love my job for a number of reasons. I am a fan of sports. I love photography. I love trying to be a positive influence in the lives of students. Every once in a while I get a chance to travel. I also love meeting new people. I found a new reason for loving my job. Every once in a while you meet someone famous. My first experience was meeting Brian Urlacher last year in Great Falls. Last weekend I met a news anchor I see almost every...
I was so distraught on Wednesday morning when I found out that last Tuesday was National Pizza Day. My love for pizza is pretty deep. Being from a town right next to the pizza capitol of the world, I’ve eaten many pies in my life. I’ve had many different topping combinations, crusts and flavor profiles, some awesome and some not so much. My favorite all time pizza consists of sausage, pepperoni and jalapeño peppers in traditional Chicago Style Deep Dish format; my venue of choice, Gior...
Apparently last Thursday, February 4 was dubbed Friends Day by the creators of Facebook. The creators also wanted users to share what life was like before Facebook. For years I have used Facebook and there are many times I think that maybe I should cancel my account. Over the years, I have made many “friends,” be it through high school, college or my time as a traveling musician. At the time that I wrote this I had 1,939 friends on Facebook; however there are less than ten people that I wou...
My Super Bowl 50 pick is 90 percent Bears related. Of course I know that my favorite team from the windy city is not going to be the team representing the NFC in the big game this Sunday, but a few players and coaches on the Carolina Panthers are related to my beloved, therefore I want to see them win. Panthers head coach Ron Rivera not only helped the Bears win Super Bowl XX, but he was also an assistant coach as well. When Rivera was Chicago’s Defensive Coordinator, during his second season w...
This time of the year always reminds me that at a few different times, I, like many “snowbirds,” have spent a few winters in warmer climates. One of those winters was spent in Northern California in a town named Antelope. I was living in Florida, and while my band mates were back in Australia, I decided to venture way west to spend time with my childhood best friend and his wife. That trip was supposed to serve a dual purpose. A. I needed a change of scenery and B. I needed to find some wor...
I wasn’t always a coffee snob. I have never been one of those types to confuse a barista with insane 20 step instructions to make a perfect cup of Joe, yet I am still pretty picky about my coffee. I like my coffee black and strong. If it’s too weak, that’s a problem. Even as a kid at church services, I liked coffee. But I liked it with creamer. I liked it not only because I thought it perked me up for the three hour event but because I genuinely loved the taste. Then I went to college. In those...
