Years ago, I read a novel that impressed me deeply. But I couldn’t recommend it to anyone because it was in Norwegian, the English translation long out of print. I’m happy to report that you can now get the English…
You know they’re over there, when you think about it. Just across the border. Looking longingly in our direction. Dreaming of a better life. A future for their children. Some kind of society that actually works, that offers a little…
This commentary (I won’t call it a review) requires this preliminary disclaimer: I have a business connection with the Norwegian miniseries, The Lørenskog Disappearance, now streaming on Netflix. I supplement my retirement by translating Norwegian movie and TV production scripts,…
What makes a person truly useful?
Last week I attended a preview of Robert Eggers’ new film, The Northman, in Minneapolis. I got in because I’m a Viking reenactor, and some of my buddies and I went in our Viking clothes. This isn’t a review, but…
“I laughed, and then I asked Jen when she’d be giving me grandkids,” said my friend Ann. “She told me she and her boyfriend had made up their minds never to have babies. I don’t know why that bothers me,…
I’ve come up with a lot of excuses for not going to the gym over the years. But I think “the police closed it down” is one I’ve never used before. I live near Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, you see. And…
Recently I attended my first actual social function since the Late Troubles began. We were careful; we wore masks as we dished up our catered food and set our lawn chairs a distance from one another. It was an ideologically…
One of my ancestors knew Abraham Lincoln. All right, that’s not strictly true. He was a collateral ancestor of mine, half-brother to my great-great-grandfather. An early Norwegian settler in Illinois, he was active in the Republican Party. His obituary called…