Big Sky Blog

Montana is ranked as the 10th-Smartest State this year…which sounds great, until you realize that we ranked 4th last year, and 3rd in the year before that. I believe Lisa Simpson referred to this as “the dumbening.” Heh…

Do you watch your local news? Do you watch news from another city? What times do you watch? Do you prefer a certain news anchor over others?

I’m an avid news watcher, especially now that it’s my job to be informed. I alternate between KXLF and KTVM just to keep fresh with both. I usually end up on KTVM though…. and speaking of KTVM: Where in the heck is Melissa Maynarich? Is anyone else hoping that she just went home for the holidays? I just got used to her, I can’t handle all the fill-ins! And I don’t like sports at all, but I think that Jeff Lasky is kinda cute.

Until I arrived in Montana a couple of years ago, I knew very little about Lewis & Clark’s famous expedition…but I’ve learned a lot since then. And here’s a new way to appreciate their journey: Photos of the Lewis and Clark Trail in Montana. You can also view the gallery of the animals they encountered, as well as the plants & trees. Very cool, yes? Oh, and there are pages for the other states visited by L & C, but come on…this is the BIG SKY BLOG, after all.

If any Big Sky Bloggers want a GMail account, please leave a comment here or e-mail me.

Every Christmas, I take about an hour to just go for a drive…gives the Wife and Kids time to plan their post-Christmas shopping strategy, and I enjoy just driving around town with very little traffic and observing what businesses are open. Today I did it a little different, though…instead of just driving around Great Falls, I took a drive out in the country. Started off heading to Highwood, but at the “fork in the road” opted to drive through Belt instead. Very pretty drive…the rollings hills and bluffs would occasionally hide the snow-covered Highwood Mountains from view. And driving through the small town of Belt is almost like being transported back in time — 40 years? 70 years? And then on the way home I stopped at Good Time Charlie’s (doing boffo business) and got some burgers and chicken strips to bring home for lunch. A very pleasant drive, a very pleasant day.

Hie thee over to the blog of Wulgar!, which is titled “A Chicken Is Not Pillage,” surely one of the more amusing blog names I’ve ever encountered. Wulfgar! sends some holiday shout-outs to family, friends, and blog-buddies. Thanks, Wulfgar!

There is a new book out that keeps catching my eye because of the reviews that its getting and the author itself. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. Jared’s previous book Guns, Germs and Steel was an excellent read so I am interested to read this one after reading from the reviews. What catched my eye in the reviews?

Diamond begins with the failed state of Montana. Montana? Well, a Pulitzer Prize-winning tenured professor can take the liberty of giving priority to his passions. So Diamond the ardent fly-fisherman, defender of ecological pristineness, sympathetic friend of the farming “locals” has come to the sad conclusion that Montana is going to the dogs. Once one of the richest states of the union, it now ranks among the poorest, having squandered its nonrenewable mineral resources and savagely over-logged its forests. Maybe worst of all, some cad put pike into the trout waters.

Although Montana is not about to fall off the map, leaving us with 49 states, the elements responsible for its decline are also responsible for societies that have fallen by the wayside.

“Failed state.” I think some people might argue that point. It will be interesting to read his defense of these points.

Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Denis Waitley

UPDATE: Woohoo! We are officially below ZERO right now, for the first time this season! Heh…Drudge is blaring that Chicago will be “sub-zero” tonight, with a link to wunderground to show that Chi-Town might hit -3 overnight…phfffffft…meanwhile, here in Big Sky Country, wunderground says we could get to -15. Nice & brisk, baby! Here’s the current conditions around the state as of 10:41 pm!

Great Falls right now: about 1/2 inch of snow on the ground…snow continues to fall, light-to-medium. How about where you are? ALSO: if you’re headed out onto the highways of Montana, be sure to check the road conditions! MORE: Hot off the presses is this update on the cold front, getting ready to plow through Central Montana…

The master list of Montana bloggers, courtesy of MT Blogger Supreme, Craig, of MT Politics…

Am I wrong to think that parking at MSU-Bozeman isn’t as bad as people think. I’m OK with walking 5 minutes to/from my car, but it seems that a lot of people think they have a right to park in front of their building. But maybe I too should be outraged at the price I pay and the location I have to park. I don’t know.