Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/prairie-lights/page/9/)
I was still a reporter at the Billings Gazette when that newspaper’s online edition began accepting comments from readers. That development nearly sparked a revolt among the reporters. It wasn’t a case of our being afraid of criticism, of having our mistakes pointed out, or even of seeing our crystalline prose lampooned. (more…) Continue Reading →
The profile of Billings written for Outside magazine, hailing this burg as the winner of the magazine’s Best Towns 2016 contest, covered a lot of ground in a short space. The writer talked to some good people, hit many of the highlights and did a good job of telling Outside readers that Billings was a bit different from past Best Towns winners. (more…) Continue Reading →
A couple of weeks ago, I was walking my dogs through the downtown skate park and I had just cleaned up after one of them. A city parks worker, who was there to empty the trash bins, saw me picking up after my dog and went out of his way to thank me. As a token of his thanks, I guess, he also handed me a couple of dog-waste bags. At the time I considered it a pleasant exchange, one that made me feel good about city government. (more…) Continue Reading →
When Craig Lancaster was still working on his first novel, which would eventually bear the title “600 Hours of Edward,” I went to hear him do a reading at Off the Leaf coffee shop. He was there as part of a writers group, with each of the writers taking a turn to read from his or her work. It was a tough setting. The place was crowded, mostly with teenage girls, and the din of conversation nearly drowned out the readings. (more…) Continue Reading →
Montana doesn’t have any concert venues with the wide renown of places like the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado or the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington state. But how many states have three venues as cool as the White Sulphur Springs cow pasture that is the home of the Red Ants Pants Music Festival; uptown Butte, with its Montana Folk Festival; and Montana Avenue, site of the Magic City Blues festival? (more…) Continue Reading →
Twenty years ago, in the spring of 1996, I drove for more than 20 miles along the Yellowstone River in the passenger seat of Norm Schoenthal’s battered pickup truck. Schoenthal was then the greenway coordinator for the Yellowstone River Parks Association. I was working for the Billings Gazette, having recently gone back to reporting after working as an editor for seven years. (more…) Continue Reading →
Last weekend at Second Edition Books, a great used-book store in Uptown Butte, I purchased a copy of “The Vigilantes of Montana” by Prof. Thomas J. Dimsdale. It’s an odd softcover edition, published in 1937 by McKee Printing Co. in Butte, with a cartoon-like illustration on the front cover. I was glad to have found such an unusual edition of a Montana classic. (more…) Continue Reading →
When I heard Uber was coming to Montana, I couldn’t wait. I was dying to be part of this new phenomenon, to be in the front ranks of a cutting-edge movement—even if it has been around elsewhere for years. Plus, I needed the dough. (more…) Continue Reading →
Former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, also the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, is making waves for his anti-Trump op-ed in the Washington Post. The piece is interesting both for what it says and what it does not say. For starters, it is full of the kind of grandiloquent Hallmarkian sentiments Racicot was known for when he was governor. (more…) Continue Reading →
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how cities like Billings seem to be islands of optimism and innovation in a sea of political dysfunction and pessimism. Recently—better late than never—I finally got around to reading a similar argument, made by James Fallows in the March issue of The Atlantic. It was similar only in terms of some of Fallows’ conclusions. His lengthy piece, unlike my column, involved a good number of case studies, actual statistics and lots of good reporting. (more…) Continue Reading →
