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12/22/2008: Conman Professor Harold Hill of The Music Man warned the good people of Iowa to watch out for the dangers a pool table can wreak on youth. And if a pool table is a source of Trouble with a capital "T" in River City, then what about billiards?

12/25/2008: In the first Christmas Datebook written five years ago, Merry Helm related the story on how Fargo's first Christmas Tree had been stolen from a boxcar on the sidetrack in front of the Headquarters Hotel. The Grinch-like suspects in this despicable deed were none other than Jack O'Neil, Sallie O'Neil and Dave Mullen, and they, along with a number of others, were hung in effigy from the railroad bridge over the Red River that night. Datebook listeners will recall that this was the same group of ruffians who followed the railroad to Bismarck the following year. The O'Neil's would be run out of town and Dave Mullen was killed by the Seventh Cavalry in a shootout on November 10, 1873 in Bismarck.

12/26/2008: Well, it's the day after Christmas. The presents have all been delivered, the big man himself is home at the North Pole, and Santa suits worn by ‘helpers' across the country are being returned to their boxes and rental shops, until next year.

12/27/2008: For the earliest white inhabitants of Dakota Territory, the hardships of frontier living created a unique bond.

12/30/2008: Every few years it seems another story appears in national headlines announcing the bleak prospects for rural North Dakota. For example, a 2001 Newsweek article waxed poetically about the inevitable death of Bisbee. "Even a strong man can stand for only so long," author Dirk Johnson wrote. In a more recent National Geographic article, Charles Bowden described a "numbing sense that comes from living in a vanishing world."

1/1/2009: North Dakota's most colorful political era was arguably the 1910s and 1920s. Countless books and articles have been written about the Nonpartisan League, Governor Frazier and the nation's first recall election. But unique among these many works is the autobiography of Era Bell Thompson. Her recollections give modern readers a rare glimpse at the state's political past, through the eyes of an African-American schoolgirl.

1/2/2009: On this date in 1951, the Minot Daily News announced that a man by the name of Edward Donahue had just been in Minot for a very special reason. He was from RKO-Radio Productions, and he was looking for a very special place to use as a backdrop for a movie. Donahue was pulled to North Dakota because the movie was set in the arctic.

1/7/2009: Danish settlements were founded across North Dakota, but the largest and best-known were in the northwest portion of the state. By 1910, this region held one-quarter of all Danes in North Dakota. Their presence remains highly visible even today. Names like Denmark Township leave little doubt as to its original occupants, and the Danish windmill in Kenmare continues to draw tourists. However, a small stone monument north of Kenmare may be less familiar. This monument was erected in 1952 to honor Brorson, a Danish folk school, and its principal, Jens Dixon.

1/10/2009: On this date in 1951, it was reported that the Devils Lake firemen received a special delivery they did not expect.

1/12/2009: As we gathered together with friends and family this past holiday season, many of us enjoyed the inevitable feast; pumpkin pie, turkey, sweet potatoes, green-bean casserole, sweet corn and ham. But, as we went through the grocery store picking up the needed items for these elaborate meals, few of us stopped to think about how the food in the store actually got there.