Tag: Cool Stuff

New Life for “The Dakota Kid”

This was pretty cool –

Yesterday, I read this story by Marcus Hayes, a reporter/columnist at The Inquirer, Daily News and philly.com in Philadelphia: “Carson Wentz oushines Dak Prescott as Eagles Destry Cowboys.”

The story contained this…

Screen Shot 2017-11-22 at 9.20.41 AM

This was pretty cool –

Yesterday, I read this story by Marcus Hayes, a reporter/columnist at The Inquirer, Daily News and philly.com in Philadelphia: Carson Wentz outshines Dak Prescott as Eagles destroy Cowboys.

The story contained this –

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INVALUABLE: That’s the Real Answer, Mr. Commissioner

Fusion of Smiles, Languages & Colors Gets Us Back on Our Feet

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No matter how you slice it, surgery is no fun. More to the point, it’s no fun no matter how they need to slice you. 

Painful stuff. Recovery is no walk in the park, either. After nearly eight days in recovery at Sanford, I can say this with certainty. 

I also can say the people who took care of me are diamonds, immigrants from across the United States and the world, each with a dazzling smile worth a million bucks.

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Phases of Learning

One evening last week my 6-year-old daughter and I ran out to Dairy Queen to get treats and bring them home for everyone. It was around 6:30, and as we drove east on 17th Avenue it was still fairly light outside but the moon was already visible. It was nearly full; it was full a night or so later.

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Father’s Day – Rolling Thunder

The front porch of our little, off-white stucco house in Medora, N.D., was a magical place to be on hot, muggy summer evenings.  / I was about 5 years old, and it was father-son time. I’d lean back, feel the strength in his chest and the arm around me, enjoy the cracking of peanuts in one of his big hands or the aroma of tobacco as he puffed at his pipe from time to time. 

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The front porch of our little, off-white stucco house in Medora, N.D., was a magical place to be on hot, muggy summer evenings. 

I was about 5 years old, and it was father-son time. I’d lean back, feel the strength in his chest and the arm around me, enjoy the cracking of peanuts in one of his big hands or the aroma of tobacco as he puffed at his pipe from time to time. 

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Extra! Extra!

Fifty dollars was nothing to sneeze at in 1976. And to a 7-year-old newspaper boy used to spending nickels and dimes on Nu-Grape sodas and Marathon candy bars, it was an almost unfathomable amount. It was so much, in fact, that I didn’t dare keep it when I found the $50 bill in a gravel driveway on the edge of tiny Medora, N.D.

PaperboyI was on my paper route, trudging through the dust after slipping a paper into a door, head down, thinking about who-knows-what, when a movement caught my eye. There it was, a half C Note, shuddering in the early morning breeze and sunshine.

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Robots Rock. And Score Goals. And Write.

With advances in artificial intelligence and new feats of engineering, Robots continue to get smarter and better and more useful for humans. They also play soccer and develop press releases. Wait… What?

140727_Robots-Rock-WriteThey’ve been rolling into our lives for years, performing tasks from the relatively mundane, like vacuuming floors, to the Jetsonish, like working as teachers’ aides in classrooms. With advances in artificial intelligence and new feats of engineering, Robots continue to get smarter and better and more useful for humans.

Robots also play soccer and develop press releases. Wait… What?

According to the experts, if robotics continues to advance at the current pace, it might not be long before bots will be able to score goals as effectively as Lionel Messi, and other machines will report the wins and losses.

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Shocking Distractions: A World Without Daydreams

Being able to disengage mentally is crucial to mental health. Can you?

Sixty-seven percent of men and 25 percent of women are shockingly distracted. Or at least they’d rather be.

According to a series of studies by University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville, two out of three men elected to shock themselves rather than be alone with their thoughts for six to 15 minutes. SHOCK. THEMSELVES.

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Bob Lind Shoutout – Ellington Story

Got a shoutout in Bob Lind’s “Neighbors” column in yesterday’s issue of the local paper,The Forum, Fargo. The column references a story I wrote back in 2001 (the Lind column was off by a couple of years) forNDSU Magazine about the night a North Dakota Agricultural College extension agent and his friend from South Dakota State College recorded Duke Ellington and his orchestra at the original Crystal Ballroom in downtown Fargo.

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Winter Wonder

In North Dakota gripe about the cold and snow all the time, but winter truly can be wondrous. CLICK ON THE HEADLINE TO READ MORE

As I drove home from work yesterday evening, I was treated to a sundog in the sky to the west. As always when I see a sundog, I marveled at it, thought how beautiful it was and how it has to be really cold for one to show itself.

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Rock ‘n’ Roll, Acid Freaks & Blow-Up Dolls

“The Rolling Stones,” said my poetry professor. “Hmmmm… I suppose that’s poetry, too, only a little louder. Have a good time.”

RollingStones

In this age of black tennis shoes and Bugle Boy jeans… Oops, excuse me, that was two fads ago. Now it’s boat shoes and the preppie roll on Guess jeans. Or am I still a year behind?

I never was too good with the fad thing. All you have to do is look at the way I dress to know I’m an individual. A slob, perhaps, but an individual.

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