Norwegian Night

The other day, Susan came home with an advertisement clipped out of the local newspaper.  Lady J's, a local club and catering business, was advertising a special menu for tonight's buffet: Norwegian Night!  How could our family not go to that?!  We decided to forgo our weekly Scandinavian Saturday supper at home tomorrow night and instead eat Nordic food at Lady J's tonight.  And it turned out to be an excellent decision!

Lutefisk and Lefse

After baking lefse and Scandinavian desserts yesterday, we were ready and eager for our Sons of Norway lodge's annual lutefisk supper this afternoon and evening!  During my morning reading (of on-line newspapers and blogs), I encountered these related tidbits:

• The editor of the Dickinson Press wrote an editorial for today's paper in which he promoted our lodge's lutefisk supper even while making fun of lutefisk itself.
• A columnist (whose writing appears in several ND newspapers) proclaimed this the start of "Norwegian Week" in the state due to some important Norske-themed events in Bismarck and Minot.
• A blogger for the Sons of Norway wrote about an unusual event held in MN this weekend: a lutefisk toss!

That put me in the right frame of mind for the day.  I chose to wear the Norwegian flag tie and Norwegian silver tie clip that I received for my last birthday; and whenever someone at church this morning would remark on my tie, I took the opportunity to promote the lutefisk supper and invite them to attend.

Surprise Dinner Guests

My sister Cathy and her roommate Kathy are on a vacation to see Kathy's family in WY, Cathy's family in ND, and many sights and sites along the way.  Their itinerary today involved driving from SD to Dad's home in Tioga, ND on a route that would take them through Belfield and Watford City.  We will see Cathy this upcoming weekend (watch Pensive? No, Just Thinking after this weekend for more details), but Kathy plans to take a train back to OR before then, meaning we wouldn't have seen her during this trip.  So yesterday we offered to drive to Belfield today (it's about 20 minutes west of us) to meet them whenever they got there so that we could visit with them and then let them get back on the road.

School Lunches, Part III

In an effort to combat childhood obesity, First Lady Michelle Obama is promoting her Let's Move! campaign, part of which focuses on teaching children about proper nutrition and healthy eating.

Sadly, many children do not get healthy food, or are allowed to choose non-nutritious food, when they eat at school every day.  Faithful Reader, you have already read about that problem in Part I and Part II.  Well, First Lady Obama is using her position to address that issue, too, with her Chefs Move to Schools program.  It encourages trained chefs to "adopt" their local schools and teach students, teachers, food service workers, even parents and community members about healthy and delicious food, proper nutrition, and cooking techniques in a positive, engaging manner.

Our Daughter, the Award-Winning Author

In all the hubbub of Christmas events with visiting family members and terrible weather, etc., I failed, Faithful Reader, to share this news with you in a timely manner: Suzanna was featured in the newspaper the morning of Christmas Eve!

The local paper invites readers and area students to contribute original poems and short stories for its annual Christmas Story Book, an insert in the paper's Christmas Eve edition. They make it into a contest with prizes, too, for the best entry in each of these categories: 1st grade, 2nd-3rd grades, 4th grade, 5th-6th grades, junior high, senior high, and adult. The rules: The story must be 150 words or fewer, and it must relate somehow to Christmas. That's it.

Many teachers in the region make entering the contest a classroom activity, asking their students to write in class and then submitting all the stories from the class to the newspaper. That's what Suzanna's teacher did. Suzanna showed her story to Susan and me before turning it in to her teacher, and then we didn't hear any more about it . . . until the newspaper phoned our home to arrange to get a photograph of Suzanna because of her having won a prize for her story!

Suzanna was pretty excited, thinking she had won the best story in the 5th-6th grade division. Susan took her to the mall to meet the newspaper photographer at R Books, the business sponsoring the prize that Suzanna had won. Suzanna told me that there were three big surprises waiting for her there:

1. her story was framed and posted on the wall outside R Books for all mall shoppers to see while passing by;
2. her prize was a $40 gift certificate to R Books, an enormous amount of money to Suzanna; and
3. the certificate presented to Suzanna named her as the winner not of the 5th-6th grade division but of all divisions--Suzanna won for the best story overall!!

Susan and I were pretty proud, and it was terrific to get the newspaper Christmas Eve morning and see not only Suzanna's photo but also her story printed for everyone to read. What's that you say? You didn't get a copy of our local newspaper that day? Well, you're in luck; here's Suzanna's prize-winning Christmas-themed story in 150 or fewer words. Enjoy!

(If you're not from around here, you should know that Killdeer is a city about a half-hour north of Dickinson. Also keep in mind that So You Think You Can Dance is a nationally televised dance contest on network TV. Okay, now get to readin'.)

"My Reindeer Tail"

by Suzanna Moberg

Many people wonder what the reindeer do when it's not Christmas. I've got the answers.

Dasher is a track star in Reindeerville. His name gives it away. Dancer runs Dancing by Dancer, his very own ballet studio--not in Reindeerville, though . . . in Deerkinson.

Prancer is the head judge for So You Think You Can Prance. Vixen is a trainer for the Reindeer Games.

Comet is an astronaut and has a home (that's not with Santa) on the moon. Cupid is the priest at a church that does just marriages. He loves that kind of stuff!

Donner works with blood donors at the North Pole Clinic. Blitzen owns Blitzen's Books, a bookstore in Don't Killdeer about 40 miles away from Deerkinson.

Finally, Rudolph: He's a lighthouse manager on the coast.

Even with their busy lives, Santa, Christmas, and we kids are the reindeer's biggest priority!

Abigail: Superstar and Super-sass

Our city has a Mayor's Committee on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities, and it annually organizes Diversity Days, two days of educational sessions in the local elementary schools. At these sessions, designed to heighten students' sensitivity to the disabilities of some of their peers, school children move from station to station to participate in activities that simulate various disabilities; and in trying to complete the tasks at a certain station, the students experience what it might be like for a person with that particular disability.

Faithful readers will recall that the local newspaper loves our daughters; it's nearly a monthly thing to find a photo of one or more of them in the paper. This morning it was Abigail's turn again. I can't find the photo in the online version of the newspaper, but it's of her and a classmate blindfolded at a table, and the caption says, "Fifth-grader Abigail Moberg tries to put shapes in their correct spot during a vision restriction exercise on Tuesday as part of Diversity Days." Superstar.

Many of the volunteers who help run Diversity Days are education students from the university, so most of them know me by virtue of their being or having been my students. Abigail had this conversation with a couple of the university students at one of the stations:

Volunteers: [seeing Abigail's name tag] I think I know your father.
Abigail: I think you do, too. Who do you think he is?
Volunteers: Professor Moberg.
Abigail: You're right.
Volunteers: If you're naughty, we can tell him about it.
Abigail: And if you are naughty, I can tell him about it.
Volunteers: Well, I guess it goes both ways.
Abigail: Yes, it does.

Suzanna the Patriot

Suzanna's elementary school held a Constitution Day assembly today, part of which involved having one of the students' dad, who is in the military, raise the flag while a few students sang the national anthem. Guess who was one of the children chosen to sing. Yep, Suzanna!

After school Suzanna told me that a photographer from the Dickinson Press had been there for the assembly, so I made a mental note to check the newspaper tomorrow morning to see if a photo of Suzanna would make it into the paper. Lo and behold, it's in the online version of the newspaper tonight! (The newspaper managed to misspell our last name in the caption below the photo. A name as simple as "Moberg"? Really?!)

Here's the photo. Notice the red-white-and-blue theme to the girls' outfits--very fitting for a patriotic day such as today. And see the pin on Suzanna's chest? It's a bejeweled American flag . . . that happened to belong to my mom!

Restaurant Makes Headlines After Mobergs Dine There

Remember our having dined at Theodore's, the Rough Riders Hotel's restaurant last Sunday? The Dickinson Press today features an article on the hotel's remodeling (and expansion--adding a convention center) project. Check it out!

Stormy Weather

Because Susan and the girls are out of town, they missed all the excitement of a terrible night in Dickinson! I knew that rain was expected, so I wasn't surprised when I started to hear it and the accompanying wind. I was surprised, however, to hear the city's weather warning sirens go off; so I headed to the family room and turned on the TV to see what the local news station had to say. Not good! They showed live video images of the large sheet of black clouds that was headed toward our city, and they warned us to seek shelter immediately.

They also warned of poor weather where my dad lives, so I phoned him but had to cut the call short when my telephone started making an unbearably loud static-y noise. Soon after I lost phone service altogether. Then the electricity went out. Then the hail started. Then the winds picked up even more, and the sirens went off again. And again. I turned on the radio to find out what area stations were reporting, but I could get only one station to come in! And it happened to be the public radio station, which was broadcasting its regular classical music program, not local news (perhaps someone at the station had just pressed "auto pilot" and then headed for the basement?!).

Telephone service was out only briefly, and I talked on the phone a couple times to my father-in-law, who lives on the north end of town. A little later my dad phoned to see if I had heard that part of the city was being evacuated due to a gas leak. No, I hadn't heard that! With no radio station reception and no electricity for television weather reports, I had no news; and Dad knew nothing further. I figured that, if it were our neighborhood being evacuated, someone in a police car would have been out on the street with a megaphone making an announcement. I lit enough candles to allow me to read a book for a while, and then I headed for bed.

This morning I found the electricity back on, so I checked the local newspaper online only to find this sad report: "Tornado[e]s Hit Dickinson." Read the readers' comments that accompany the article for a better picture of the extent of the damage to the south side of the city (not our area of the city; and I don't see any damage to our home, praise the Lord).

In Search of Dignity

Today I read this column by David Brooks for the New York Times. Regardless of your political affiliation, what do you think of his points about "the dignity code" and its demise amongst those in the public sphere today?

(Is it ironic that I should ask you this via my own Weblog, a medium that itself exemplifies the liberation of feelings and trend toward public confession that Brooks decries as having contributed to the decline of dignity?)

P.S. In part I like his column for its use of words such as "rectitude," "reticent," "dispassionate," "zealotry," "ruinously," "obliterated," "artifice," "equipoise," and "constancy." I love literate people!

ND in FORBES

Just a month ago, Pensive? No, Just Thinking offered you this post about a Wall Street Journal article wondering how North Dakota is doing so well when the rest of the country is suffering from a now two-year recession. Well, yesterday Forbes published an interview with Governor John Hoeven, asking him to share ND's secrets for economic success. You can read it here.

AL Prison Escapees Captured Outside Dickinson, ND!

Well, this is pretty disturbing, wouldn't you say? What in the world were those goons doing here?! Perhaps they thought they could disappear in the remoteness of this state. Didn't they realize that, around here, everybody knows everybody? If we don't recognize you, we're going to ask around about you . . . and if you raise our suspicions, officers of the law will know about it . . . because the police are our friends, neighbors, or relatives. And, apparently, they know how to do their jobs. And SW ND has a long history of bringing justice to the lawless in the Badlands--just recall Teddy Roosevelt. Well, I'm glad the convicts have been captured, and I'll be interested to learn more about this situation as details emerge in the coming days.

ND in the WALL ST JOURNAL

The Wall Street Journal today features this article: "In North Dakota, the Good Times Are Still Rolling." The article is about the strength of our state's economy and its being the envy of the other states (possible exception: Wyoming). Go ahead and read it!

Tasty Taste of Nations

Last night we ate supper at the Taste of Nations, an annual fundraiser for the Business Club at the university. Because of the large number of international students on our campus, Global Awareness Month (April) always means weeks of events (for example) at which we can experience cultures from countries that we will likely never visit. Last night we had our plates dished up with numerous food items that I didn't recognize, but everything was tasty. The dishes featured chicken, pork, vegetables, rice, Asian spices--and, of course, German sausage and sauerkraut (the Business Club advisor is from Germany, as are a handful of DSU students). We ate our fill, visited with the strangers at our table, and enjoyed several students' entertainment (ethnic dancing and singing).

This morning what should appear in the local newspaper? The photo above (see it here with its caption), in which faithful readers should recognize Hillary and Susan (Abigail, Suzanna, and I are in line behind Susan). Now look at the students serving the food. Can you tell on which side of the table are the native North Dakotans and on which side are the students from Mongolia and China? You may have to study the photo awhile . . . I'll wait.

Mourning a Friend

I have terribly sad news to share: a dear friend has died. CJ Hosier, a university friend with whom I acted in plays, died in his sleep at the astonishingly young age of 34.

He was funny, faithful, energetic, eccentric, hard-working, multi-talented, generous, and positive, bringing happy energy into others' lives--a kind spirit and a good friend. I have great memories of being on stage with him, of performing improv with him, of working backstage with him, of hanging out on campus with him, and especially of attending parties with him. CJ was always a benign, friendly, humorous presence at a party, equally at ease with being the center of attention or watching from the side. Great guy all around.

After university, he moved back to Denver and made a name for himself in the theatre scene there--so much so that the Denver Post ran a multi-media article on him this week. Check it out for a slideshow of him in some notable roles in Denver, an audio clip of an interview with him a couple years ago, and an article about him that features praise from a wide variety of people, each of whose life he brightened by simply being in it. You'll get a good impression of the type of man he was by reading others' words about him.

[ADDED FEB. 6: And his obituary from the Rocky Mountain News is here.]

My friends from our university days are spread across the country, and I don't hear from them all frequently; but we've been in contact this week, exchanging condolences and sharing some of our favorite memories of CJ. It's polite to share only positive stories and not to mention the negative when a person dies, but in CJ's case, we likely couldn't come up with something negative if we tried. This may sound cliché, but he truly was a man who brought goodness into the lives of everyone who was lucky enough to get to know him.

Rest in peace, CJ.

Followup on Snowman

The girls took advantage of a day off from school Tuesday (Veterans Day) to play outside and build a snowman with the help of our next-door neighbor, Jordanne. The Dickinson Press came around, snapped their photo, and ran it on the front page of the next day's newspaper (surely you've already read this, Faithful Reader). For your aesthetic edification, here are some better photos both of the snow artists and of the snow sculpture itself:

back row: Suzanna and Abigail; front row: Hillary, snowman, and Jordanne

snowman

Stars of the Stage and the Page

The press seems to love our children. Photos of our girls have been featured in the Dickinson Press weekly for the past three weeks! Susan and I are getting gentle ribbings from our neighbors and coworkers. If you, Faithful Reader, do not subscribe to our local newspaper, you may have missed these:

October 26 -- one of a couple photos of various members of the cast of DSU's theatre production of Seussical -- can you spot Suzanna and Abigail amongst the crowd?

November 2 -- a photo to accompany a story about our church's participation in Operation Christmas Child -- here is the photo from the newspaper, and here is a copy of the article that accompanied the photo

November 12 -- a feature photo from the front page of the newspaper -- here is the photo and caption from the paper

Hillary on KQCD's THE NIGHT REPORT!

Hillary was interviewed for the local news that aired tonight! Click here to watch! (That is she in the fairy costume, despite their having called her Hillary "Mobert.")

P.S. Suzanna's Halloween costume was a chef complete with a big poofy white chef's hat that she and Mommy made, and Abigail's costume was a beauty queen with a sash that she and Mommy made. Because of having to perform in Seussical tonight, they didn't get much trick-or-treating in. After school there was a fall festival (that Susan was in charge of) at our church for children to attend in costume to play games, make caramel apples, and eat supper. We had just a few minutes between the end of that and the time at which we needed to have the girls at the theater, so I took the girls to a few of the neighbors' houses for treats. Mr. and Mrs. Mayor, however, had prepared awesome treat bags for all the children in the cast to compensate for the fact that the kids were all there and not out trick-or-treating--isn't that nice? Hillary had forewarned us to record the nightly news tonight, so we got to see the clip above once we got home.

Old-Time Lunch in the Afternoon

Faithful readers will recall our adventures at last month's lutefisk supper and the surge of cultural pride afterward that led to my signing us all up for membership in the Sons of Norway. (The Mobergs now belong to the Hardanger Lodge of Dickinson.) Not long afterward I received a welcoming e-mail from the lodge's membership secretary inviting us to the next regular meeting, which was today at 2:00 P.M.

Susan and I had no idea what to expect. Would it be an intimidatingly huge group? an intimidatingly small group? Would we be looked at suspiciously? expected to do something? recruited to serve as officers or on committees? Still, it being a ND Scandinavian organization, I was relatively certain that there would be food served, so we screwed our courage to the sticking place, left the girls at home, and attended the meeting.

It was held at the Elks Lodge, the parking lot of which was . . . let us say "not full" when we arrived just a few minutes before 2:00 P.M. We walked in with an elderly gentleman who said, "You must be Norwegians." Ah, a fellow Son of Norway! We followed him in and did what he did, signing in at a table near the entrance to the room where the meeting was held. We were greeted at the door by the membership secretary, who was sincerely delighted to see us there. It was a happy surprise for her to have been notified by "the office in Minneapolis" that we had signed up on-line for membership; they don't get many new members who haven't been coaxed and cajoled by a current member into joining during a membership drive.

She was also looking forward to meeting us, however, because she recognized our last name. She is from Columbus, ND, a town about 30 miles from where I grew up, so she knows my relatives and, in fact, once played accordion with my dad at some event, which she said was "a real honor" for her (and a nice compliment to my dad, who is well known in northwestern ND for his accordion playing skills). Later when she introduced us during the meeting, she mentioned our connection via Dad and told the group about our having become members after the lutefisk supper. The other Sons of Norway "Awww"ed approvingly at the thought of our inculcating our daughters in the ways of lutefisk.

There were about two dozen people in attendance, only one of which (besides Susan and me) looked young enough not to have grandchildren yet. But they were a welcoming bunch. Almost everybody there knew Susan's grandparents or parents, and several already knew us because of being members, too, of our church. One woman used to live in Tioga, where I attended school while growing up, so she knew my parents and said that she still reads about me from time to time in the Tioga Tribune (which runs columns telling the goings-on in the community, such as who was home for the weekend visiting whom--"Kevin and Susan and girls were out to the farm this past weekend to help celebrate the birthday of . . .").

The business meeting started with the pledge of allegiance followed by the singing of the national anthems of Canada, Norway, and the United States of America. Then there were minutes to read, old business to review, a treasurer's report to hear, new business to discuss, and a report to hear of a recent Sons of Norway conference in Grand Forks. When we voted on a motion, we didn't say "aye" or "nay"; instead we were supposed to indicate our assent by using a hand signal that has meaning to the lodge but that is a mystery to me. (The president afterward promised to explain it, saying that the symbolism in it is significant. I'll reserve judgment.)

This was all followed by "lunch" at 3:00 P.M. Where I'm from, "lunch" means a light snack served between meals (the main three meals being breakfast in the morning, dinner at noon, and supper in the evening). City folk, however, often call dinner "lunch," call supper "dinner," and don't eat anything at all that they would call "supper." This can result in confusion. Once when I was a child and our out-of-state relatives came for a visit, my mom invited them over for dinner, but they didn't show up until suppertime; they thought they were right on time, but we had long since finished the meal and cleaned up. There's a lesson in that for you, Dear Reader: Not using the correct term for your meal can leave you hungry.

Back to lunch: Morning lunch consists of a cookie or bar and a cup of coffee; afternoon lunch involves baked goods but might also include a sandwich or some potato salad left over from dinner (the noon meal, that is). And where I'm from, if company comes in the evening, there will be lunch served again at night, perhaps around 9:00 or 9:30 P.M., and it will include sandwiches, salads, potato chips, pickles, cake and sweets, Kool-Aid, and coffee. I love lunch in all its forms.

And apparently being Scandinavian is the tie that binds lunch-eaters, no matter what part of the state they're in and no matter their status as farmers or city slickers. Today's lunch included a tray of black olives, pickled okra, and raw carrots, cauliflower, and radishes; ham sandwiches with lettuce and Miracle Whip, some on white buns and some on wheat; an assortment of cookies; pitchers of water; and a large dispenser of coffee. Business being done, it was time to sit down in the middle of the afternoon with a plate full of food over which to visit. Just like my childhood.

We made arrangements to get Sons of Norway memberships for the girls, too, and official name badges for all five of us. I also bought from the president/fundraiser two jars of lingonberry jam, which we plan to sample tonight over vanilla ice cream. We had come a bit nervous, not knowing just what to expect, but we left feeling assured that this is a good group of people in an organization with lots to offer in terms of staying connected to our heritage. We also couldn't help but notice everyone's palpable excitement at having such young members (and that's not just our daughters--they consider Susan and me to be "young"!) join the fold. I wonder how long until that novelty wears off and we're expected to start doing something to earn our keep!

Relatives in the Newspaper!

Look what was in the Minot Daily News today! (Terry and Tracy Knutson's mom is my cousin, whose dad is my dad's brother.)

They're Homecoming Royalty . . . and Twin Siblings

By Andrea Johnson

Minot Daily News

09/23/2008

BOWBELLS, N.D. -- When you're the homecoming king and your queen is your twin sister, there isn't a lot of romance involved.

When it came time for homecoming king Terry Knutson to crown his sister, Tracy, the homecoming queen, "He just plopped it on her head," said an amused superintendent Brent Johnston. The twins also weren't eager to ride together in a car during the homecoming parade at Bowbells High School, waving to all the people in the crowd. "They just rode with their own classes," Johnston said.

The twins make up a third of the six-member senior class at Bowbells High School. In such a small school, they do everything together, Tracy Knutson said. Everyone in the class was a member of the homecoming court. "They're twins, but they're two individuals," Johnston said. "They're both really good kids, participate in everything."

The result of the election was a coincidence. Their classmates voted separately for the homecoming king and queen, and the brother and sister just happened to get the most votes.
But everyone thinks it's pretty neat that the class elected a set of twins homecoming king and queen.

Homecoming coronation has become something of a family tradition for the Knutsons. Their older sister was homecoming queen three years ago, and their dad was a homecoming king years earlier.

The homecoming coronation will be given a page in the school yearbook. "It's pretty cool," said Terry Knutson. "It's kind of different."

["Different" from what, Terry doesn't specify . . .]

Terry Knutson and Tracy Knutson, Bowbells (ND) High School homecoming king and queen for 2008 -- and first cousins once removed of yours truly!