This is the latest I could find on "blue laws" in North Dakota, as of March, 2015:
When it comes to retail sales, North Dakota has among the most extensive blue laws in the country. For example, while stores can be open on Sunday, many items cannot be sold between midnight and noon — from clothing, housewares and linens, to appliances, hardware and computers. As a result, most retail stores in North Dakota do not open until noon.But not Wal-Mart in Boomtown, USA -- open 24/7.
Apparently roughnecks can get their soft drinks and snacks before heading out to the field. Just no housewares or fine linen.
Disclaimer: the website could be inaccurate. Not everything on the internet is true. At least that's what I've been told. Perhaps readers will tell me if Wal-Mart is open this Sunday morning. I don't recall visiting Wal-Mart Sunday mornings when the last time I was in Williston.
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A Note To The Granddaughters
What a great night. I babysat the one-year-old so her parents (our daughter, son-in-law) could go to a neighborhood party. Wow, we had fun. She got up from her evening nap at 7:30 p.m. and stayed up one hour past her usual bedtime of 10:00 p.m., staying up until 11: 00 p.m. when she finally fell asleep on my shoulder.
The highlight of the evening was grilling, for the first time ever for me, a very small ham, only two pounds, but wow, it turned out perfect. I had never grilled a ham before but I received a free two-pound ham from Omaha Steaks with a recent promotion and decided to see how to grill it. I don't care for ham all that much, so I figured if it was ruined, not much was lost. I read several "recipes" on the internet about grilling a whole ham, and it seemed like it would be a lot of fun.
Briefly: I placed very hot coals on either side of a drip pan and the ham was cooked over the drip pan the full one hour and five minutes (indirect heat, but very hot coals -- wow, the coals were nice tonight for some reason). About twenty fresh coals divided evenly on each side, on top of about 15 old coals from the previous use -- so a lot of coals, maybe a third more than needed.
While the coals were getting started in the chimney, I prepared a honey-brown sugar paste with a bit of apple juice. I then spooned the honey-brown sugar-apple juice paste on the ham, liberally.
By that time the coals were very hot, and the grill was ready for the ham. Every twenty minutes I sprayed the ham with apple juice to keep the ham moist. Again, apple juice is really inexpensive and I was quite liberal with the spray. [My only error: I forgot to place aluminum foil under the ham; some, but not all, internet sources said playing aluminum foil under the ham would help retain moisture.]
The sun had set about the time I got started and it was pitch black outside the last forty minutes so it was hard to see exactly what was going on, but no big deal. At one hour and five minutes (it would have been exactly one hour, but I had to work with the one-year-old to keep her away from the Weber grill), I stuck two huge forks in the ham, lifted it off the grill and brought it inside where I could see it. I stuck a meat thermometer into the center: 160.9 degrees and then while still resting, the temperature rose to 163. I quit measuring after that. Perfect.
Juices were still running out of it so I knew it was still very moist, but I won't know how good it tastes until tomorrow. I had eaten earlier, so this ham was simply a trial run, and I will have ham sandwiches tomorrow. Maybe ham and eggs for breakfast; ham slices instead of bacon.
Unfortunately no photos -- a) I forgot; and, b) as noted, it was well after dark when completed.
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Another Burr Under My Saddle
In the extras on the Casablanca DVD, Roger Ebert provides commentary during the movie. It is absolutely an incredible commentary. I listen to it often. However, there are a few things I had trouble with. This is the worst: he has trouble with the plausibility of the "letters of transit" that Elsa and her husband require to fly safely out of Morocco. Ebert says such letters did not exist and even if they did, the Nazis would not have honored them. Maybe, maybe not. But "letters of transit" are very, very real.
In Stephen Fried's Appetite for America, c. 2010, p. 229, early in the outbreak of WWI, when Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 2014, and France and Britain quickly joined the war, hundreds of thousands of Americans were trapped abroad. The very wealthy contacted friends in high places, including the White House, seeking safe passage home.
President Woodrow Wilson, an isolationist, relented by arranging for an armored ship, the Tennesse, to sail to Europe hauling nearly $8 million ($178 million, 2010) in gold to rescue tourists. Part of the money was government aid, but most was from American banks so that the wealthier travelers could cash large checks.
After weeks of trying, some very wealthy US tourists, Stephen Fried writes, "finally received personalized letters of passage from the US envoy in Bern [Switzerland]. With those documents ["letters of transit"] they were able to get to Paris, and then to England, where they arranged first-class accommodations on the RMS Cameronia out of Glasgow."
Good, another burr under my saddle taken care of.
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Music video.
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