Sorry, no SkepDakota videos! Opportunities for enriching one-on-one conversations arose, and I couldn’t pass that up. Three friends, six hours—entirely worth the journalistic sacrifice. Thank you, dear friends, for your time, your thoughts, and your hospitality.
One of those sparkling conversants pointed me toward the blog post Doug Lund wrote on the atheist/agnostic/skeptic/secularist/freethinker conference. The former KELO newsman took up the topic after commenting here on my promotion of the event and asking what my wife, who believes some things I don’t, thinks of my promoting atheist events. (For the record, I have blogged about SkepDakota, one atheist event. I’m having difficulty remembering the second or third or fourth atheist event that I have promoted.) Lund repeated his interest in my relationship with my wife in this curious coda to his dismissive discussion of SkepDakota:
Cory Heidelberger, who’s married to a Lutheran minister, has been promoting the event on his blog.
Boy they must have some interesting conversations around the dinner table [Doug Lund, “Jesus and the Jackalope,” KELOLand.com, 2015.08.24].
I offered this response in various iterations, and I’ll reiterate it here: my wife’s work is not the subject of this blog any more than my work is the subject of her sermons. Our relationship is the subject of neither.
But I’ll make this exception for our newsman emeritus and offer a small window on our dinner table.
Yes, we have numerous interesting conversations. We talk about how to stamp out ignorance and prejudice with reason and truth. We talk about how to do justice and love mercy. We talk about how to change Aberdeen, South Dakota, and the world. We talk about the good things we can do together, and then remind one of those good things to eat her vegetables. Mr. Lund and family are welcome to pull up chairs at our table and participate in such conversation the next time they are in Aberdeen (perhaps at the South Dakota Blogosphere Picnic on Saturday, September 12!).
Doing good things together to change the world—that was a recurring subject in my p.m. conversations yesterday as well. My three friends’ religious beliefs differ notably from mine and from my wife’s… but rather than frittering away our mealtimes and teatimes with parlor-game disputes about unknowables, we find common ground that may help us tackle the problems of this clear and present world. So go my family dinners. So went my afternoon and evening yesterday. Time well spent.
Thanks Cory, it was good seeing you too. I hope that I’m not assuming wrongly that I’m one of the “sparkling conversants” you referenced! I wish I could return the favor and see you at the picnic on the 12th but I have other obligations.
Cory,
You are and your wife sound like a wonderful team. I wish more people would try to find “common ground that may help us tackle the problems of this clear and present world.”
We don’t have to think alike. We just have to listen to each other, accept our differences, and make the world work.
WayneF
So that is what happened to Doug Lund. Now if I can only find out whatever happened to Joan Russell,I could die happy. Used to watch KELO more than localler Sioux City stations.
You assume correctly, Phil! Thanks for making my afternoon thoroughly enjoyable.
And thank you, Wayne! You’re right: we don’t have to think alike, as long as we’re pulling the same direction. Extrapolate to the Legislature, and you’ve got a recipe for effective government.
Joan Russell? I remember her, Mike… but wasn’t she KSFY’s gal?
I believe Joan started as a reporter/anchor at KSFY before I did, went to KELO, came back to KSFY in management and then went over to KDLT. As I recall, she only worked at KSFY for a year or two while I was there.
I remember Ms Russell as the latest sweater wearing pin-up girl(yummy),but I never got a picture of her wearing a sweater. I’ll go to Hades for that oversight. I do remember her from KELO. I did watch some KSFY which we used to get before I got a sat. dish. I remember Mr Schreck as well. Might just as well plug Kristie VerMulm who worked both Soo Falls and Soo City. Ms Russell had a sister in iowa.
My apologies for being a chauvinist pig.
I forgot Steve Hemmingsen. Sorry.
Interesting cycle for Joan. Have any other local TV people touched all three bases? Mark Ovenden worked at KSFY and now is at KDLT… did he also have a stint at KELO?
Mark O did also worked at KELO. Good dude. Ken Hirsch also completed the Sioux Falls TV trifecta. He was a weatherman. Started at KSFY, went to KELO, ended at KDLT. Sorry to say he passed away a few years ago.
Russell, Ovenden, and Hirsch—news, weather, and sports! Interesting. Can TV people still do the trifecta, or do non-compete clauses keep them from working for competitors for too long? Did Russell, Ovenden, and Hirsch have any such clauses in their old-days contracts?
I do have a non-compete, not sure if those folks did back in the day!
My mentor at Luther Seminary was a wonderful woman who pastored in ND, finishing her career as chief chaplain at whatever they now call the big hospital in Fargo. Prior to that she served small town churches.
Sandy’s husband, an electronics pro, never attended church and didn’t have any interest in religion at all. He was a wonderful gentleman and very good discussion partner on just about any subject. I loved visiting their home, and did so frequently.
I don’t believe in atheism.
Non-competes are bad for workers, consumers, and the free-market. That’s what kept Shawn Cable out of our market and out of the market he wanted to serve for that year between KELO and KSFY. May I ask, Phil, how long is your sit-out clause, and what is its geographical extent?