Dustin Monke

Wanted: Revolutionary politicians

Chris Christie was all the rage last week in the eyes of the national media’s political pundits. A Republican reclaiming his governor’s seat by a landslide in the blue state of New Jersey?

If he can do that, he may be the politician with enough moxie to unit a politically divided country, right? Well, at least he was on a single Tuesday night.

When the East Coast woke up the next morning, most media members realized they had actually championed and spoke highly of a Republican for a few hours and spent the rest of the day finding ways to poke holes in the Christie narrative.

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It is worth inviting Obama to North Dakota

In late June, I wrote a somewhat satirical column that generated more praise, criticism, website hits and social media chatter than anything I have ever written.

People still talk to me about it today.

It’s title: “Dear Mr. President, an invitation to visit North Dakota.”

I used sharply pointed — call it snarky, because a few of you already have — humor to breach the subject of why Obama has not visited North Dakota during his presidency and why he rarely, if ever, mentions the state despite all the positive things happening here.

Some people loved it. Others wanted my head on a platter. A few joked that my name is probably on a few watch lists and my application to MSNBC had been thrown in the trash.

But the invitation wasn’t real. I never sent it to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. It was only meant to raise a point.

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Readers encouraged to check out new Press website

The newspaper industry, perhaps more than any other, must keep up with technology in order to stay relevant.

In the early 1900s, we didn’t run any photos and had hundreds of small stories in tiny type jam-packed onto our front page. Photos were commonplace by the mid-20th century but putting a newspaper together was still a tedious process of typewriters and typesetting. By the turn of the century, computer programs had changed the way the industry worked as well as the way newspapers presented themselves.

Think about this: The day after Theodore Roosevelt died in 1919, The Press had a 200-word story that it gave below-the-fold treatment. There was no photo, illustration or anything. Not even an obituary.

Today, that story would have been standing alone on our front page with many of you rushing to our website long before the newspaper arrived at your home the next morning. Some of you would have been directed to the story on our website via an email or text message alert.

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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.

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Dogs are more like us than we thought

Noodle 3 — 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.

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