Steve Fernlund and The Long Way Home

Pronunciation matters to me—it signals respect for a place and its people. After last week's storm, I cringed as MPR radio hosts and local TV anchors reported on Hovland's snowfall record while continuing to mispronounce the town's name. Even at the hardware store, newcomers telling me they just moved in slipped up. Hearing Huv-land instead of Hovland grates on me, especially from the morning news. Precise pronunciation is a basic courtesy that's too often ignored. Locals pronounce it HOVE-land, rhymes with “Cove.” In the fatherland, people likely pronounce it HOOV-land, rhymes with "Move.” However, it should never be called Huv-land, MPR newsreader.  Yes, I have ties to one of Hovland’s early Swedish settlers, but this goes beyond personal history. Pronunciation shows respect, especially in my community. That broadcasters can’t get it right is baffling—they could easily check online. When those in power get it wrong, small lapses build into a broader climate of di...

I survived last Friday the 13th. I’m not superstitious, but as a man of 71, I’ve learned to respect the odds—especially since the next “day of misfortune” arrives next month. To celebrate the date and, more importantly, my son-in-law Matt’s 50th birthday, we met at Tequi Town in the bustling metropolis of Esko. Tequi Town is part of a four-restaurant chain in Minnesota called Tequila Town. Their Esko location sits across from the high school, which led to a bit of local drama last year. The Town of Thomson Board of Supervisors, wielding its authority over liquor licenses, stipulated that the exterior signage could not refer to an “intoxicating beverage” because of its proximity to the students. In a 3-2 decision, the “poobahs” of Thomson required the word “Tequila” be scrubbed from the building. Apparently, they believe seeing a word on a wall is a greater threat to youth than the beer and wine ads they see ad nauseam during every sporting event. But I digress. Finding decent Mexican f...

The rich and powerful write the rules but often fail to follow them, highlighting a core problem: those shaping our society are rarely held to the same standards as everyone else.  As the scandalous Epstein documents came out recently, I was wondering if the people whose names are behind the black boxes feel any shame. Do they regret “partying” with the world’s most despicable money-laundering sexual predator? One of the released documents is a draft email Epstein wrote, in which he made several explosive, unverified claims. One claim alleged that Bill Gates of Microsoft riches got a sexually transmitted infection (STI) after encounters with Epstein’s "Russian girls." Gates denied the allegations, calling them "absurd and completely false." He suggested Epstein was attempting to defame or extort him after their relationship soured.  In a recent interview with NPR, Melinda French Gates, his ex-wife, noted that Gates’s association with Epstein was a significant factor...

A friend recently recommended John Steinbeck’s "The Moon is Down," a short novel with a powerful parable about the resilience of the human spirit under military (or ICE) occupation. Written to support the Allied war effort during World War II, the story is set in a small, unnamed coastal mining town in Northern Europe, likely Norway. The town is suddenly invaded and occupied by an unnamed military force from a warring country led by a dictator. The story emphasizes that "free people" cannot be permanently broken because their leadership is always decentralized. If one leader is killed, another emerges — the power of democracy. One of the book's most famous lines describes the occupiers' plight: "The flies have conquered the flypaper." This suggests that while the invaders have "caught" the town, they are now stuck and slowly being destroyed by the very people they intended to control. Sounds familiar to an aged Minnesota man.  Steinbeck h...