Review: How To Be: NORTH DAKOTA

North Dakota's boom has brought new attention to the state, but few people outside of the northern plains know much beyond oil and the misguided belief that Mount Rushmore is here. Abe Sauer's solution is a new book of satire, "How To Be: NORTH DAKOTA - A Guide To The Plains", a primer on everything "top Dakota". The book is full of activities, short lessons in history and geography, and advice on how best to embody North Dakota itself. "How To Be..." is a quick read, written in short zinger-filled paragraphs, especially suited for fans of blogs and Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.

"How To Be..." is organized into topical chapters, addressing every aspect of the North Dakotan lifestyle. The jokes are satirical and bawdy, and while it gives appropriate attention to snow and lutefisk, Sauer can at times be harsh, acknowledging the darker aspects of North Dakota such as depression, Native American relations, and drug abuse.

Surprisingly, there's a lot to learn in Sauer's book. Despite the snarky humor, the book does contain many true facts about North Dakota. The book ends with a quiz, and because the real answer is so difficult to distinguish from the joke answers, getting a passing grade may be more difficult than expected. The amount of 'inside humor' betrays the fact that much of the written for North Dakotans themselves. "Hopefully, native North Dakotans will find a good number of inside jokes in the book, especially in the rundowns of individual towns," Sauer told me. "But I also wanted to keep it accessible to anyone looking to laugh and get to better know a state that is a lot more in the news lately, but for which the film 'Fargo' is still the standard of knowledge."

Truitt's Fix by Rex Evans Wood

The producer of Hear It Now and Dakota Datebook (a show I write for) at Prairie Public Radio has a new science fiction book out. Rex Evans Wood's new book, Truitt's Fix, is about Dan Truitt, a man "caught between warring nations, on the run, and pursued by a relentless villain."

I haven't read the book yet, but I'm passing along this news: Wood will be doing a reading at Zandbroz in Fargo this Saturday, November 12^th, at 6:30pm.

Acquisitions: The Dakota Maverick

Governor "Wild Bill" Langer was probably the most colorful politician in North Dakota's history once Teddy Roosevelt moved away. Langer notoriously called up the National Guard to prevent himself from being removed from office — he locked the doors, barred the windows, and issued declarations, one of which I've heard sounds a lot like assertion that North Dakota is a sovereign state immune from national laws, which may or may not be true. That's what I'm hoping to learn more about in this book, The Dakota Maverick: the Political life of William Langer. It's not a common book, having been published and printed right here in Fargo, so when I was recently at BDS Books, browsing their North Dakota section, I bought a copy with highlighting inside and missing its dust jacket, because the better copies were all running in the $15 to $30 range. Two weeks later, I'm at the thrift shop and run across the one pictured to the left: clean interior, with dustjacket, seventy-five cents. Oh well, now I've got two, one with the important parts already isolated for me, and one for the bookshelf.

Review: West On The 49th Parallel

Early in most American's education, we learn that the 49th parallel of latitude divides the United States from Canada, the longest undefended international border in the world. On a globe or map, it isn't difficult to draw the line and say, "there you go," that's U.S., that's Canada. On the ground, however, it is a difficult prospect. A latitudinal line is a cartographic construct: the border isn't the middle of a river, or the edge of an ocean, or the peaks of a mountain. Those markers can be seen from the ground, while the 49th parallel can not. John E Parson's book, West on the 49th Parallel: Red River to the Rockies, 1873-1876 documents the first successful and somewhat accurate attempt to mark the line along the borders of Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana. There had been previous attempts to mark the border, with great inaccuracies, but the 1873 product was a joint venture between the British (who held Canada at the time) and U.S. governments. The main method of measuring latitude at the time was by star observations, which at the time had an accuracy within a few dozen feet (amazing, on par with GPS and definitely better than Google Maps' markers), but required a staff of astronomers and mathematicians to correctly interpret. Toss in security to help against the Indian threat, generals and majors to be in charge, the short seasons in which to do the work, and general weirdness involved in being in so remote an area all make for a less than boring adventure.

The book itself, unfortunately, is very dry; it does, however, include quite a bit of dry humor along with the boring parts. The actual process of figuring out the position of the 49th parallel is minor, compared to the pages of anecdotes about life for the crews in charge of the project. You hear of the guy who managed to shoot himself—twice—while on the job, the parties held at remote forts for various holidays, the wild dog conscripted to help pull sleds, the Fenian cook who insisted his innocence but ended up in jail for violent crime before he could even set out with the crew…it's like Best of the West hooked up with Deadwood for a little political cartography. I like Red River history, so the places and situations are familiar to me, but the book won't be for everyone. As a historial reference, it does well with facts and accuracy, but the dryness makes it a less-than-ideal piece of historic entertainment. What somebody needs to do is adapt it to a screenplay; the goofiness of the characters definitely entertains.

West on the 49th Parallel: Red River to the Rockies, 1873-1876
by John E Parsons
Originally published 1963

A Sacred Book Home

This beautiful building is still sacred, but a bit more secular than before:

Once devoted to conserving the knowledge found within one particular book, it now houses thousands -- as the home of a bookstore. I can't think of a better use for a church. In fact, it was one of the first things I thought of, when we drove through Page, ND and found that James Catholic Church is for sale.


While we're plum out of church-buyin'-monies, we did call to find out how much they were asking -- too bad, they were rude about it, and still didn't tell Wifey how much it would cost (my guess is they're hoping another church will buy it and want to discourage everyone else). It's odd to see a southwestern, Mission-Revival style church plopped down in the North Dakota prairies; perfect for housing a non-traditional church occupant.