Ten for the Road
’Tis the season for Top 10, Top 100 and Top 500 lists. Songs, TV shows, memes, TikToks, meatball sandwich recipes… you name it, there’s probably a Top X List out there making the rounds, ranking the best and worst of the past year.
In that general spirit, I’ve decided to announce the Top 10 IV Words posts of 2021. As judged by me.
No one else is gonna do it, right? So what the hell – here goes:
Over the past 12 months I’ve posted to IV Words 88 times (this post included). The following 10, in no particular order, are my favorites.
Ironically, the most read, shared and commented upon post of 2021 – GOP: No Respect – didn’t make the list, probably because I have a strong aversion to anything that has anything to do with Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota.
Anyway…
Check them out again or for the first time and let me know what you think. If a worthy post didn’t make the cut, let me know that, too.
Welcome to North Dakota, a Longstanding Covidiotacracy
To hell with an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure. Instead, we’re back to where we were months ago… hoping our Larry, Darryl and Darryl neighbors will do the right thing, that they take personal responsibility, wear masks… read the post
Pueblo? Pittsburgh? Paris… Accord.
Now, some people on social media are saying Cruz is a pretty smart guy, that he understands this isn’t about just Paris or Pittsburgh. Maybe so, maybe no, but I wouldn’t lay any money on it… If it’s simply a reboot of the Trump speechwriter’s slick linguistic trick, it’s a hand-me-down and a pretty piss-poor one at that… read the post
Trump, Roosevelt, Goebbels and the Illusory Truth Effect
It sounds like the beginning of a really bad racist joke: Donald Trump, Teddy Roosevelt and Joseph Goebbels walk into a bar… Perhaps that’s fitting, given what Trump, his cronies, enablers, lackeys and MAGA disciples have wrought over the past five years… read the post
Honorary Minnesotazenship
Dear Gov. Walz: I am writing today to make a serious request. Can you please, Sir, grant me the title of “Honorary Minnesotan”?… Categorize me as a political asylum seeker if necessary, for in truth, Sir, that’s what I am… read the post
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Wayne’s World: Election 2020 Edition
When it comes to “juvenile antics,” Wayne Campbell has nothing on Wayne Stenehjem. North Dakota’s attorney general was one of 17 GOP attorneys general who signed on to what, in generous terms, was a “far-fetched election lawsuit” attempting to delay certification of electors in four swing states… read the post
A Purple Popsicle in a Dead Flowerbed
The father roared at his son through the screen door… (He) raged out the door, snatched the grape Popsicle from the boy’s hand, threw it into the empty flowerbed under the apartment’s front picture window… read the post
Nike Wouldn’t Just Do It. Allyson Felix Did It Without Them.
What a great story it could have been for Nike. About doing the right thing. About loyalty. About empowering women… Instead, it became yet another cautionary tale for females who enter into contracts with money-hungry corporations… read the post
The Two-Party System is an Abject Failure
“You mean you want us to keep repeating what people have been doing for decades, over and over again, expecting a different result? Isn’t that the definition of insanity?”… read the post
Lift the “W”
This group of courageous, impressive and highly talented women has called us all out and, most audaciously, shown us what’s what… read the post
Do You Hear What I Hear?
It was one of those idyllic evenings, the kind in books where everything’s just a little too perfect. Oversized snowflakes floated softly down on the summertime tourist town of Medora, N.D., and fresh, fluffy inches covered the ground. It was 1973 or ’74. I was about five or six… read the post
in the 13th month
And in one more self-indulgence, here’s a poem I penned during 2021, too… read it.
Thank You
Aside from my family, writing this blog is my favorite thing. I’m never quite so serene, in sync or happy as when I’m pounding out a post, turning an idea or thought into something coherent, revealing hypocrisy, corruption or the good in people, and, if I’m lucky, amusing, informing or encouraging readers to take action.
If you’ve supported IV Words financially this year, thank you big time for helping to make this blog possible. As always, thank you for reading.
See you in 2022!
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