The Lone Prairie Blog

Allison Bechdel, an indie cartoonist whose subject matter isn't my thing, still did everyone a solid and accidentally created a standard to measure films by. In a cartoon in the mid 1980's, she created what's known today as the Bechdel test . To pass the test, a film has to meet three seemingly simple criteria: Have at least two women characters. Those two characters have to have at least one conversation. The conversation has to be about something other than a man. It's surp

It starts with the debauchery-pretending-to-be-art of the 2024 Olympic Summer Games opening celebration, and leads to a July 28, 2024...

Quite a few of the Old Testament prophets didn't care too much for their calling. Imagine, for example, Ezekiel's experience. Cooking...

Parts from this post originally ran on March 13, 2007, and May 4, 2012. It has been edited and reworked with additional content added. Leon, Nicaragua—birthplace of the revolution with murals celebrating it at every turn—has a giant cathedral that wasn't supposed to be there. The cathedral was built by mistake. A huge, gorgeous, Baroque mistake. The cathedral was intended for Panama, but somehow there was a mix-up in two sets of plans and construction began in León, Nicaragu

During the Great Squirrel Wars of 2017, 2020, 2021, et al. I learned many things in battle. Mostly, you can’t win against squirrel—especially if your neighbor has a black walnut tree—and that we ought to junk the AI battle tech and just put armor on squirrels and send them in. But I also learned that every wild squirrel has its own personality. Some were mockers, some were jackwagons, some were both mockers and jackwagons—but whatever kind of thieving destructive little creep

Turn right out of Icelandic State Park, and drive past the Cavalier Space Force site. Turn north on a road so rutted and full of holes that you’re not sure you’re on the right path—though maybe such a rough journey makes perfect sense—to Valhalla. Or, as we say in North Dakota, Walhalla. We missed last year, but made it back to Walhalla, North Dakota for the Fourth of July for 2024. There is no better fireworks display than Walhalla and I say that again with firm conviction.