Thursday, July 30, 2009

i was dreaming when i wrote this...

i've always said that my goal in life is to never own a car unless its a brand new beamer or mercedes (but i really dont know anything about cars, i've heard that germans make good cars or something) and i can afford to have it parked for me and just call someone to bring me my car. that is until today when i saw public enemies in theaters. i have a new goal: own one of those old cars where the doors open the opposite ways like this:
i think that car is AWESOME. and i would totally wear a flapper dress every time i called the car boy to bring me my car.

so yeah. public enemies. decent flick. always love johnny and christian (we're all on a first name basis). oh AND the movie has TWO - count them: one, two - connections to fargo. first, at some point in the movie, you hear the national radio talking about how congress wants to pass laws that if you commit crimes across state lines, it becomes a federal crime and you can get punished more harshly they start to say, "in other news in fargo, north dakota..." it was cool. everyone in the theater sat up a bit straighter. the other reference is that the girl john dillinger was with (johnny depp's character) when he died is from fargo - they did an article about her in the local newspaper. so that was cool. i am always impressed when a fargoan is on the fringe of illegal activities.

so yeah, fargo has been in the news a bit, actually... i've had this one post saved FOREVER talking about all the references i keep hearing about fargo. so i think i will put some of the links here so i can get rid of some draft posts.

this first story i started to write is obviously from jan or feb and i wanted to bring up how nice this community is:
you know you live in a "nice" community when the lead story on the local news is the cold and the fact that businesses close doors so that they can take snow off the roof. my brothers friend's story of making a video in contention to run in the superbowl even made the local news and he was interviewed on at least 2 radio stations. can you imagine that happening in bos or ny?
  • "Death map" which shows that north dakota has a low propensity for death (...?) except around the border with south dakota which i think is because that is an american indian reservation and they, unfortunately, have a high level of suicides.
  • Fargo is the 7th best city in the nation for women according to women's health. woo hoo! i think whitnee gave me that link - thanks babe.
  • Letter to the editor about how great north dakotans are (from a non-north dakotan)
here is another article about fargo being in the news a lot (that i started and never finished) and about roxana saberi - i've just pasted the post that i started, but note that she is no longer in jail and is actually back state-side. she has done a lot of press and whatnot since returning and we are glad that she is safe and sound (i'm just keeping all the links in since i kept pasting them back a while ago):
north dakota has been in the news a lot the past few months. i’ve saved an anderson cooper (ac 360) podcast from february 25 where he talks about one of the only positive economies in the country - right here in fargo. north dakota is one of 4 states with a budget surplus last year (if that’s still the case after the flood is another story...). it’s great because on the local tv, every hour there is a commercial with area businessmen about how fargo and the red river valley are doing well and then a little music and “invest in your valley.” which is a good idea. if there was some sort of fargo or north dakota etf, i would definitely buy it. i should look into buying stocks of fargo-based companies. hmmm... so we were on anderson cooper for the healthy economy around here. this was, of course, before the flood, which is another reason we have been in the news. but before that, ndsu based here in fargo, was in the march madness competition. we lost the first game, but we made some news along the way. now there are talks of one of the players from ndsu playing in the nba. then, of course, was the flood, which i documented at the beginning back in march and will finish sometime soon (soon being relative).
  • Article about ND being one of only states with positive employment gains
  • Article about Fargo being one of best places for jobs
finally, we’re making news again but not in a happy way. our most famous fargoan has been in the news quite a bit: roxana sabieri, north dakota-raised from an iranian father and japanese mother, was crowned miss north dakota in 1997. i was in high school at the time and actually remember her - she wasn’t the tall blonde that people would normally expect to represent north dakota (all those scandinavians around here). she is a journalist and was living in iran the past few years, apparently writing a book. a few months ago, she called her parents here in fargo to tell them she had been arrested in iran for buying wine. they didn’t believe her and didn’t hear from her for a few weeks. it turns out, she has since been tried and found guilty of espionage, which is completely ridiculous. i write about her now to raise awareness of her plight - she has started a hunger strike in jail in tehran to protest her arrest. secretary of state hilary clinton has taken on her cause and is pressuring the iranian government to let her go. this past week, she celebrated her 32nd birthday in jail. i have put links to articles about her in this post so that people don’t forget about her.
and the final "north dakota" news that i had saved is about senator dorgan "predicting" the financial collapse back in the 80s. the whole financial mess and health care issues are really starting to bum me out, btw. bleh to all that.

i'm also slightly annoyed because i'm worried about the future of men. this article makes it seem like guys are getting wimpier. what will they be like in 12-15 years when i want to be a cougar? what does that say about my future prospects of boy toys? it's very disheartening. maybe i'll have to move back to the midwest and go after some good north dakotan boys...
- danielle at 8:36 PM

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