Month: October 2013

Changing the Redskins nickname a difficult task

Did you know the Washington Redskins were originally the Boston Braves and, for a time in the 1930s, played their home games at Fenway Park?

That was when the team’s nickname was changed to the Redskins by their owners. It made sense in those much simpler times. For the sake of symmetry, it was the Boston Red Sox for baseball and Boston Redskins for football. In 1937, the team relocated to Washington and has since been known by their current moniker.

Today, a political and ideological push to get the NFL team’s latest owner, Dan Snyder, to change the nickname is in full force. Many groups, including the Mandan Hidatsa & Arikara Nation in North Dakota, find the nickname offensive, demeaning or racist.

Continue reading “Changing the Redskins nickname a difficult task”

Dogs are more like us than we thought

Noodle, our 1 1/2-year-old schnoodle.

Not a day goes by where my fiancee, Sarah, doesn’t call our dog, Noodle, her “son.” I usually just shake my head and call him “buddy” like a normal person.

Like millions of others, Sarah shuns the idea of “owning” a pet. Instead, since we don’t have any children, she subscribes to the “pet parent” mindset and has embraced it, caring for Noodle like he was our actual son. He goes places with us many dogs wouldn’t and gets treated better than most people I know.

People who love and treat their dogs like kids may seem a little crazy at first glance — especially to a farm kid like me. But a recent scientific study has determined they may not be so crazy after all.

Continue reading “Dogs are more like us than we thought”

The monument to America’s memory

Will Mount Rushmore near Keystone, S.D., be America’s greatest monument to history?

What will be America’s monument to history?

Every great civilization has left behind a monument denoting its time of power. Many of those monuments also give us a glimpse into their rise, dominance and eventual fall.

So, what will be the monument future civilizations look to when remembering America? Given that scientists imagine Earth will be around for a few billion more years, give or a take a hundred million or so, it’s a safe bet that the way things are going, America’s lifespan is a bit shorter than that.

One would imagine that more than a few monuments will survive to be relics in a thousand years. I’d put good money on Mount Rushmore being one. After all, it’s still a mountain.

Continue reading “The monument to America’s memory”