Williston Wire News Items From The Bakken -- Saturday, March 12, 2016

From The Williston Wirei:

Walt's Market set to re-open: Last fall, a smoky electrical fire ruined most of the inside of a landmark Williston business. Now, six months and a gut renovation later, an expanded Walt's Market is finally set to re-open. Owner Eric Engberg hopes to welcome customers back early next week, although doors may open this weekend if last-minute equipment deliveries and final city inspections allow.

Search for Williston's first administrator set to begin: The search for the City of Williston's first administrator is moving forward. The Williston City Commisson approved the Executive Search Committee's recommendation that Strategic Government Resources conduct the recruitment for a City of Williston Administrator. SGR is based in Keller,Texas.  

Sport and Recreation Show later this month : The 31st Annual Sport & Recreation Show will be held at the Raymond Family Community Center March 18-20. The show is produced by the Williston Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) each year as a fundraiser for the Williston Police Department, community events and event equipment. The show will feature the newest models of boats, RVs, ATVs, grills, motorcycles and spas plus custom made fishing poles, saunas, resort packages, man cave décor, fishing equipment, artwork and much more. 

All that is needed is a depot: After a nearly 40-year absence, Amtrak may resume making Culbertson one of its stops along the Empire Builder route. "It's another service for the community," Culbertson Mayor Gordon Oelkers said, adding it was estimated to generate 7,000 riders, with some of them being Canadians. He said they have the blessing of Amtrak and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, which owns the line. However, a BNSF official contacted late Friday afternoon was not immediately able to confirm. All that's needed is a depot. 

Former Bowman airport to become an industrial park:Bowman County is moving ahead with turning the old Bowman Municipal Airport into an industrial park, which will then fall into city hands. The airport officially moved from the west side of town to the east in May. If it pans out to the visions of the community leaders behind it, the project will invite more business into the community and serve to boost its overall commerce.

Ray Clinic celebrates grand opening: The Northland Health Clinic in Ray celebrated its official opening with an open house recently. The staff said the response from the community was positive. "There's been a lot of excitement from the community," said Kelli Ruff, Northland compliance officer.  Northland CEO Patrick Butler said he was very pleased with the turnout.

Perhaps not this kind of segway: Kinder Morgan contributed $300,000 to McKenzie County Healthcare Systems'  new medical campus at the Watford City Area Chamber of Commerce's March meeting. "This is an exciting part of the segway here as we move forward," stated Lynn Welker, CEO of WelkerPR, who is working with the healthcare system's fundraising efforts.

And with that, we will segway our way to personal notes to the granddaughters.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

I mentioned earlier I was in my "Doctor Zhivago" stage. The book arrived, and last night I started reading it. I've decided it will be my "late night" book to read. I read the first chapter last night and about half the second chapter when I woke up this morning. It is absolutely not boring. It is very, very easy to read. Like "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" it was the movie that made it possible to read the book.

I remember some time ago reading that the uneducated loved Shakespeare's plays when he was performing. These peasants saw the plays over and over. They knew the lines and they knew the story, frontwards and backwards as they say. At one time I would have thought what could be more boring, watching the same play or re-reading over and over the same book. Now I know why. For a book like "Doctor Zhivago" covering so much time, so much distance, and with so many characters, one benefits knowing where the book is leading. Knowing where the book is leading I see little things that I would otherwise miss.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

This is my last weekend alone -- all alone. What a glorious weekend to anticipate: so much reading and so much blogging to catch up on.

Never in a million years would I have ever thought I would be reading Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, but I'm in my "Doctor Zhivago" stage having watched the movie several times in the past two weeks. In addition, I have been blogging (personal, not public) a scene-by-scene "summary" of the movie. Among the many lacunae in my brain is a huge hole labeled "Russia: 1914 - 1921."

Through the movie, I finally have the "big story" and that cerebral lacuna is about half the size it was two weeks ago. I assume humanity is doomed to repeat history if they do read about it. When sorting out the backdrop to Doctor Zhivago it sounded very, very similar to the Spanish Civil War (Hemingway) and the French Revolution (Paris Commune). And, now, of course, we have the war in Syria. Next would be events in the US if Bernie Sanders were to be elected, but, of course, he won't.

Being in my "Doctor Zhivago" phase I decided to read the novel. I did not know how difficult it would be just to figure out what edition to buy. I never thought about the importance of the translator(s). Be that as it may, I ordered a used copy of the novel translated by Hayward and Harari which appears to be the gold standard against which others are compared.

The reviews on Amazon.com suggest it's going to be a real slog to get through the book. One reviewer said there was "no action." Another reviewer says the first half of the book is entirely about too many personalities, many of whom disappear before the second half begins. Another reviewer says there are too many characters of which to keep track.

I'm prepared for the latter. I have my pen and sheet of white paper to jot down family trees and make notes about main characters that I know will be there to the end, like Komarovsky, sort of a blend between Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, I suppose. Komarovsky had the moral compass of Clinton with regard to women, and Komarovsky had the political compass of Trump.

With regard to "no action," that's not a problem. I don't recall reading any book for "the action." Indeed, the modern writer that seems to personify manly action in his novels, Hemingway, writes more about relationships than action, I suppose. And, I suppose, I'm wrong there, too.

I will enjoy a book if I enjoy the subject matter and if I enjoy the writing. Pasternak was a poet, and it will be interesting to compare his writing (though translated) with another writer who wrote prose poems: Virginia Woolf.

I will let you know if I get past Part One of the 510-page novel along with an additional 50 pages of poems.

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Tea Leaves

There are two developing stories, one banal and will be solved quickly; the other incredibly important and it is hard to see where it will end.

The first story has to do with ever-increasing TSA lines and more and more airports "calling the TSA out." Airports have the right to provide their own security and some of them are. I could envision a public-private partnership where airports will set up their own lines for particularly busy periods, or for those folks who want to pay an extra $10 to get through security faster. Here at DFW, lines can become extremely long when one "checker" fails to show up for work. A typical checkpoint has three "ID checkers" and if the checkpoint goes down to two, the lines lengthen considerably. Screening bags may be the next bottleneck as more folks try to avoid checked baggage fees.

The other story is the federal land grab in the west and the local resistance. I think I know where Hunter S. Thompson would stand on this issue.