in other words
By Jason Berghorst, reporterAugust 08, 2023“Thanks for coming!” Maybe you’ve heard or said those words recently or often in your life. I sure have. I’m a “thank you” sayer. I’ve thanked police officers after pulling me over and even said thank you to another driver who hit my car in a parking lot. To be fair, the thank you was at the end of our interactions after the accident. I was thanking the man for taking responsibility, working…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterJuly 04, 2023Two years ago this month, I wrote a column about my Top 5 wish list for Luverne. I thought it would be fun to look back at my 2021 hopes for my hometown and see if any wishes had been granted. The following made my list two years ago: 5. Dar’s Pizza opening a Luverne location. 4. Kwik Trip coming to Luverne. 3. A larger Lewis Drug in town. 2. A permanent Star Herald sports reporter. 1. A normal…
By Jason BerghorstSeptember 20, 2022My day job is teaching world history and psychology classes to high school students. Each year in the second or third week of the school year, I teach about cultural diffusion in world history. Simply put, cultural diffusion is when one group shares its ideas, technologies and/or ways of life with another group. We study how this process happened in the earliest civilizations and how it is still…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterAugust 09, 2022A few weeks ago, my 11-year-old television quit. My first course of action was to ask two tech-savvy friends for TV advice. Both suggested a “smart” TV. One specifically suggested an Amazon Fire TV that he had purchased online earlier this year. Being a middle-aged, traditional shopper, I wasn’t quite ready to purchase a TV online. So, off to Best Buy I went. No doubt the young salesperson saw…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterAugust 03, 2021A few weeks ago our church hosted a “Christmas in July” Sunday just for fun. Adrian’s town celebration is known as “Christmas in July.” Of course, there’s Christmas in July on the Hallmark Channel. And, not surprisingly, more stores are offering “Christmas in July” sales. All of this Christmas talk caused me to think of a wish list. I’ve written about my personal wish list for Luverne in…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterJune 08, 2021Recently a friend sent me a link to a satire video that had some fun with graduation open houses. “So spot on,” the friend remarked in the text. The video highlighted the most universal aspects of the traditional open house: •Hastily cleaned garages with the normal garage items hidden behind a tarp. •Display boards of photos from childhood — extra credit if the yearly school photos are lined up…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterMarch 23, 2021If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. That old “rule” seems to be forgotten on social media. It seems like negative, divisive, and/or false information is posted or shared much more than positive or uplifting content. You know what I mean. The same few people who constantly produce posts that are either bashing one political party, sharing false information or…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterFebruary 16, 2021Another birthday came and went for me this week. While it wasn’t a “significant” birthday, it provided me with a reminder that I am, indeed, getting older. I’ve long passed birthdays that allowed me to drive, vote, or drink legally. I’ve even been eligible to run for president for a few years now. While the number might not matter as much these days, I’m definitely noticing the years passing by.…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterDecember 01, 2020What will your life be like in the year 2045? That’s the question my ninth-grade students had the opportunity to think and write about recently. What will life be like in 25 years? What jobs will they have and where will they live? How will the world be similar to and different from 2020? The assignment to write two pages imagining life in 2045 is how we start the Careers Unit. I learn so much…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterSeptember 15, 2020Last week I stepped back in time. I only went six months back in time, but it felt like so much farther. As we started the new school year, I turned on my classroom flat-panel display. It’s a large TV/computer screen that I use to teach every day. When I turned on the screen for the first time this school year, I was surprised what I saw. The same Internet tabs that I used on March 16, the last…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterJuly 21, 2020Hi! I’m Jason, a teacher trying to fill in for the summer.” That’s how I responded to Kevin Kyle, the sports editor of the Pipestone County Star, at Redbird Field Sunday. He saw me standing safely behind the net with a notebook under my arm and camera raised, attempting to get quality photos during the Pipestone at Luverne amateur baseball game. Kevin was on the other side of the net where hard…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterJune 23, 2020We all want to be right. We all want and need to be part of a group. We believe that those who share our opinions are also always right. These three concepts form the basis of partisan politics. Republicans agree with and defend other Republicans and Democrats do the same for other Democrats. My team vs. their team. Conservatives vs. liberals. We’re right. They’re wrong. It’s how it works.…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterFebruary 11, 2020I’m in the process. And let me tell you, it’s been a real process. If you haven’t heard, our “normal” Minnesota driver’s licenses will no longer qualify as adequate identification for boarding a domestic flight after Oct. 1. At least that’s how I understand it. When my driver’s license renewal notice arrived in December, I realized this was my chance to upgrade to my “real” ID. I had two months…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterJanuary 14, 2020“There’s a lot of psychology in that.” That’s one of my favorite and most used sayings, at least according to my students and the coworkers that I eat lunch with. Paul Harvey had “the rest of the story.” Al Roker has “here’s what’s happening in your neck of the woods.” My signature saying, it seems, is “there’s a lot of psychology in that.” I’ve been teaching psychology for quite a few years now…
By Jason Berghorst, columnistSeptember 19, 2016This is a big weekend in Luverne. Sure, there have been a lot of "big" events in Luverne this summer. Buffalo Days, Fourth of July at The Lake, Hot Dog Night, the county fair, a beer fest, and other events have given local residents plenty to do. But this weekend is the Tri-State Band Festival, the 66th annual festival in fact, which means it's been around longer than all but one…
By Jason Berghorst, reporterAugust 23, 2016Like me, you felt it this past Friday and Saturday. Some of you, like me, were energized by it and liked the feeling. Others of you dreaded it. But we all noticed it. The change of seasons was in the air last weekend. Temperatures in the sixties during the day and low fifties at night felt downright chilly. It felt like fall. It felt great. Don't get me wrong, I like summer and have…
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