Articles

Zaleski: Pleasure to return to city that works

When I travel, I like to visit cities similar to Fargo. That is, cities that are regional centers for retailing, medicine, entertainment, education and the rest of the amenities that help define Fargo and the metro area.

Happy New Year? Well, not always…

I’ve always been ambivalent about celebrating the new year. I associate alcohol-besotted partying with memories of my childhood, when my father’s family gathered at our house New Year’s Eve for what was supposed to be a family event.

Joy and light in Christmas evergreen

For the past several years, I’ve received requests to reprint a Christmas column I wrote for The Forum in 1988. As in previous seasons, this year I heard from people who have wonderful Christmas tree memories.

Zaleski: North Dakota PSC gets no respect

All of us will be treated to a holiday reprieve from politics for the Christmas holidays. But until then …

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Library of my youth was a grand place

The mini-flap over unpaid book fines at the Fargo Public Library stirred memories of my crimes at the New Britain public library in my Connecticut hometown. I owe ‘em a lot of money.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: ND ‘Blue Book’ a treasure trove of data

I’m a fan of North Daktoa’s “Blue Book,” the state-generated volume about all-things North Dakota that is published every two years.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Fast or slow, floods bring sorrow

The difference between flooding in North Dakota and Vermont is speed. As devastating as flooding was this year in Minot and Bismarck, the floods were – as most North Dakota floods tend to be – slow-motion events.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Still time for a few summer books

If you haven’t completed your summer reading list, here are four books to consider before August cools to fall and lazy summer times fade away:

• Opinion Editor Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Smiling through the puke with triplets

It had been years since I’d had the special joy of having a sick kid throw up while sitting on my lap.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Let it snow, let it snow? Let it not …

"Winter up there, yet?” said my school friend from the East Coast. “Getting ready to hibernate?” he snickered.

Columns

Zaleski: How easily we buy into the scams

Modern marketing is so effective that it fools people into buying into a lot of nonsense. By “buying into,” I mean literally buying.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Sometimes we don’t need neighbors

After two weeks in the hills and woodlands of beautiful Vermont, I’ve begun to rethink concepts of neighbor, neighborhood and neighborliness.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Bossart worked in an era of change

Chelsea, Vt. - I was away from Fargo when I learned of the death of Marv Bossart, the veteran WDAY television news anchorman.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: You dirty, dirty sinners at The Forum

The April moon will not go full until Thursday, so maybe it was the cold, gray weather that stirred up the crazies the last few days. Here’s a sample of phone calls and emails from readers who, of course, would not give me their names:

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: ‘Like when Hitler attacked Hawaii’

I was standing in line at a fast-food restaurant the other day, and I overheard a conversation between two high school boys.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Insulting ‘old’ viewers not very smart

When February’s Nielsen local television ratings were reported last week, the news director of distant second-place KVLY responded by insulting a huge segment of the local television news audience.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Hot cross buns and sweet currant juice

I grew up in a ragout of Roman Catholicism that was spiced with ethnicity.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: How about a Palin and Paul ticket?

The best thing that could happen to Democrats in the run-up to the 2016 election campaign is a Republican slate of Sarah Palin for president and Rand Paul for her running mate.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: A long time ago I wrote it down

I’m dismissive of the “social media” phenomenon. Disdainful, really. I find it shallow, juvenile and without boundaries.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: USDA portrait an appropriate honor

Some weeks the news tends to the peculiar. It can be depressing, uplifting, ironic or hypocritical (lots of that going around these days), but peculiar wraps ’em all in.