Articles

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.

Zaleski: Psychotic hoarding? I don’t think so …

I read an article about hoarders. It got me thinking about all the stuff I’ve collected or saved or rescued – not hoarded – during more than 40 years of adult life. Hoarding, experts say, can go from chronic collecting to spooky psychosis. Where’s that line? And who draws it? Have I crossed it?

Columns

Zaleski: Gentle reminder about political letters

It’s necessary during every election cycle to remind letter writers about The Forum’s guidelines for letters.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Fishing, Mother’s Day came together

The non-debate that sometimes flares about opening Minnesota’s fishing season on Mother’s Day weekend took me back to the last time my dad and I fished together.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: By the light of the silvery moon …

The moon won’t be completely full until tonight, but its pull seems to have influenced callers and emailers last week.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: I know: Trains, records, books must go

Last week’s column about parting with a lifetime’s worth of stuff, junk and memories resonated with baby boomers of my generation.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Just things, you say? Not really …

Baby boomers of my vintage are preparing for change.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Walter Lord wrote the best Titanic book

Of the hundreds of books that have been written about the sinking of the Titanic 100 years ago today, I think the best is still Walter Lord’s “A Night to Remember,” which was published in 1955.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: It’s Easter; dress up, for God’s sake!

I grew up in a Catholic household in an industrial city in Connecticut during the 1950s and ’60s.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Campaign less interesting without Cain

I wish Herman Cain had stayed in the Republican presidential primary/caucus campaign.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Dorgan’s ‘Blowout’ is a mind-blower

I’m well into Byron Dorgan’s novel, “Blowout,” and it’s so good I’d rather be reading it than writing about it.

• Jack Zaleski

Zaleski: Not every ‘homestead’ is an old farm

I am less than sympathetic to opponents of the Red River diversion who believe they deserve special status because the farm has been in the family for three or four generations.

• Jack Zaleski