Columns – Page 9 – Dustin Monke

You don’t need a plastic bag to cook a turkey

Every once in a while, there is advice that sounds good, but you just shouldn’t take it.

I ran into this situation on Thanksgiving when I decided to take the advice of others and use one of those plastic roaster bags in my straight-out-of-the-box roaster to help avoid cleaning up baked-in turkey juices.

It sounded like a great idea. We use similar bags all the time when cooking with a crock pot and they work like a dream. So, in an effort to avoid cleaning the contraption, I decided to use a roaster bag for the first time. We had picked up a couple for next to nothing about a week earlier and, like a fool, I assumed they worked just the same as my crock pot bags. You know, put them in the roaster, set the temperature, place the food in there, walk away and wait for that delicious smell of turkey to waft through the house.

But, because of my foolishness (or stupidity, depending on how you look at it), things didn’t go as planned.

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At 125, state remembers where it has been, wonders where its going

Growing up, my favorite class was always history. If there was one class that I actually paid attention in, it was Mike Schatz’s history and government classes at New England High School. (Except for that one time when I dozed off during a movie day. But, c’mon, who didn’t do that in history class at least once?)

As eighth-graders, Schatz taught one semester of North Dakota history and government. It was longer than the required minimum set by the state, but he was the type of teacher who felt that North Dakota kids should take time to learn more about their state rather than something that happened 1,000 years ago in a European country that no longer exists.

That class still resonates with me today. Ask my California-born and Montana-raised wife what I’m most proud of and she’ll say, “Being a North Dakotan.”

Today, North Dakota celebrates its 125th birthday as a state. It’s a time to look back at where we’ve been and where we’re going.

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The difference between ‘want’ and ‘need’ in North Dakota

Growing up, my family taught me about needs and wants. If we went to the store and I saw a toy I wanted, my parents would ask me, “Do you really need that toy, or do you just want it?” Of course, usually I just wanted it. And why not? Someone else was paying for it. The trouble was, I also needed new pants, underwear or necessary school supplies. So, my parents’ money went to those things instead and, if I was lucky, I got the toy at Christmas or on my birthday.

The moral is that you can’t always have a toy simply because you want it. Sometimes, you need the essentials and, if you’re patient, eventually you’ll get what you really want.

This seems to be the case with Measure 5, commonly known as the Clean Water, Wildlife and Parks Amendment. Over the past few months, a rhetoric of Utopian promise from proponents, apocalyptic fear from opponents and half-truths from both sides have made this measure one of the North Dakota’s most-watched campaigns of the 2014 election.

In short, Measure 5 would devote 5 percent of the state’s oil extraction taxes toward conservation spending.

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Bonanza evidence of city’s biggest problems

0919 bonanza — Buffet and steakhouse Bonanza, which has been a popular restaurant in Dickinson for 35 years, closed its doors this week due to a lack of staff.

Last week, Dickinson lost one of its oldest restaurants. Not because business was bad. Not because the food was inedible. Not because of a fire or some other act of God. No.

The Bonanza steakhouse and buffet that has been serving customers for 35 years was forced to shut its doors for good Monday because it could only find 11 employees. That wasn’t nearly enough for franchise owner Bob Wade to keep the business running.

The closure of Bonanza should be a wake-up call not only to Dickinson business owners, but to those who set the price of housing. It’s the clearest sign we’ve seen so far that the cost of living in Dickinson is so high, even successful businesses can’t make it unless they pay part-time workers more than $15 an hour.

It’s time to find a balance and help low- and medium-income workers before more businesses — especially restaurants — raise the white flag and lock their doors permanently.

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9/11 Memorial both breathtaking, infuriating

911 1 — Members of the Puerto Rican National Guard look over the 9/11 Memorial.

One of the most interesting — and mildly infuriating — moments of my wife and I’s recent trip to New York was our visit to the 9/11 Memorial.

First, if you haven’t been to New York, understand that there are a lot of tourists there. And it’s not just Americans. People from all over the world visit the city every day, particularly in the summer. New York, especially Times Square, is very much the proverbial melting pot it’s made out to be, and that extends to the tourists. You can be anywhere in the city and you wouldn’t be able to tell if the person next to you was from North Dakota or Germany, Long Island or Italy.

The only place where we noticed a stark difference between American and foreign tourists was the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero, which we visited along with thousands of others the Sunday before Labor Day.

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