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Country roads take me home

By   /  June 10, 2013  /  Kelly Hagen's Column  /  No Comments

Kelly Hagen

If gravel roads have taught me anything, it’s to get all the way over to right as you go over hills. Because, if you can’t see what’s coming, you’ll never know what hit you. There’s an analogy in there, I’m sure, but I’m not so much interested in anyone learning anything from any ingrained messages […]

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Raising a child means writing your own instruction manual

By   /  April 3, 2013  /  Kelly Hagen's Column  /  No Comments

My sweet wife Annette and I are raising a kid. I might have mentioned that before. They don’t tell you how you’re supposed to raise kids. Well, except that they do, in about 800,000 parenting books, and countless web forums, and there was “The Cosby Show.” But they’re not terribly consistent, or at least there […]

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Frostbite: ‘Tis But A Flesh Wound

By   /  February 4, 2013  /  Kelly Hagen's Column, Opinion  /  No Comments

“About winter I make no complaint. It’s cold. SO WHAT? June it ain’t. I wear a warm coat, I cover my throat. I bear it. I’m from here. A saint.” -Garrison Keillor If you don’t know who Garrison Keillor is, he’s the host of “A Prairie Home Companion” from Minnesota Public Radio, an acclaimed author, […]

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Same old is fine, but try something new

By   /  January 9, 2013  /  Kelly Hagen's Column, Opinion  /  No Comments

New year seems like a good time to do the same old thing a whole new way, wouldn’t you say? For instance, this new Great Plains Examiner. What’s one and a half years old is new again, with new ownership, new managers, new design, new ambitions, etc., etc. And then there was me. Hi, I’m […]

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Big (rig) dreaming comes to life during a big (rig) move

By   /  October 27, 2012  /  Kelly Hagen's Column, Opinion  /  No Comments

Kelly Hagen

Kids spend a whole lot of time dreaming. It’s what they spend the third-most of their time doing, right behind screaming and refusing to do what their parents ask them. But anytime they close their little eyes, they’re dreaming big dreams. That includes every time they blink. Fast-forwarded dreams, every blink they take. That’s just […]

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Time just needs to slow its roll a little

By   /  September 21, 2012  /  Kelly Hagen's Column, Opinion  /  No Comments

Kelly Hagen

What dashing prince will save us from the speeding train of time? Time is out of control. I don’t know who’s going to step up and do something about this. I said a thing in this column about a year or so ago, which seems like only five minutes ago, about how time feels like […]

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Every Boy Scout should be free to marry a chicken fillet

By   /  August 13, 2012  /  Kelly Hagen's Column, Opinion  /  No Comments

Kelly Hagen

I was a Boy Scout. I’ll bet you didn’t know that about me. You should’ve asked me. We never talk. I’m not one anymore because, of course, I’m all man these days. Also, I wasn’t ever really that good of a Scout. I got my “Arrow of Light” award in Cub Scouts, sure, which is […]

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My 2-year-old refuses to take any shirt from me

By   /  August 1, 2012  /  Kelly Hagen's Column, Opinion  /  1 Comment

Kelly Hagen

What’s so terrible about having free will? You hear the term “Terrible Twos,” and if you’re like me (and, don’t worry, you’re not) you wonder, of all the numbers to pick on, why two? Two is a lovely number. Has anyone considered 47? Now that’s an awful number worthy of our scorn. But you get […]

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Mother’s Day is a good day to look at how life works its way out

By   /  May 11, 2012  /  Kelly Hagen's Column, Opinion  /  1 Comment

Kelly Hagen

My daughter is a gift – the greatest gift of my life, without a doubt. That’s a big statement, but every tiny part of me knows it’s the total truth. My wife, my sweet Annette, gave me that gift; without her, my daughter wouldn’t exist. That’s more powerful than words express, and it puts her […]

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Hagerty: the food critic who conquered cynicism

By   /  April 19, 2012  /  Kelly Hagen's Column, Opinion  /  1 Comment

Kelly Mug

Marilyn Hagerty went viral. Before she did, she had no clue what “going viral” meant. And after it happened, she did not seem to care. Just so we’re clear, Hagerty is the so-very-long-time columnist at the Grand Forks Herald. She writes five columns a week, and is still somehow classified as “retired.” One of those […]

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