Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune has a glowing feature article on Webster farm boy Brock Lesnar, now the heavyweight Ultimate Fighting champion. He's worth millions, says the Trib writer, but he likes a life of solitude on his Alexandria, Minn., farm.

"I'm not a big spotlight kind of guy, and if I was, I was probably faking it before," he said. "I'm content with my family and my life right now and the way my career is going. Nothing more, nothing less."

Living in Alexandria offers him limited exposure. The address posted on his nondescript private gym is missing a zero, and its yellow siding is faded. A gate outside of his home thwarts unwanted attention -- as if he's not enough of a deterrent by himself.

You won't find Brock Lesnar on Facebook or Twitter. He doesn't own a computer and shuns the Internet. He hates TV and only occasionally turns on the nightly news or the Outdoor Channel.

You can take the fighter off the farm but you can't take the farm out of the fighter.

A reader from Idaho just sent us a clipping about Aberdeen artist Ben Victor, who is completing an impressive sculptor of a WWII bomber pilot that will stand at the Boise airport. We've heard of Ben and seen some of his work. He also has an impressive Web site, and we suspect that his name may be quite well known before too long.

Boisean Chet Bowers, a B-17 pilot who flew two missions over Normandy, loaned Victor his uniform to help with the design. The statue will commemorate Gowen Field where 6,000 pilots and crew (among them, Jimmy Stewart) trained for missions in the great war.

By John Andrews

It's citywide rummage sale weekend in Yankton, so our plans are set. If you're in town, stop by our magazine's sale at 422 Broadway. We're raising money for Relay for Life and have plenty of good merchandise, including furniture, an air hockey table, lots of small kitchen appliances and baby stuff.

Not everyone will be rummaging this weekend, but if you're still looking for something to do, here are a few ideas from around the state:

• Ribfest runs through Sunday at the Sioux Falls Arena. Sample some of the best barbecue you'll ever eat. Hear Kory and the Fireflies tonight and country musician Jason Michael Carroll Saturday night.


• The Red Cloud Indian Art Show opens Sunday at the Heritage Center of Red Cloud Indian School. See paintings by the top Native American artists in the country. The show runs through Aug. 9.


• It's your last chance to catch Dick Termes' "Thinking in the Round" exhibit at the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City before it ends Sunday. His Termespheres are unique works of art.


• Try your hand at Irish Road Bowling in Aberdeen Sunday afternoon. Get to the end of a mile long course with the fewest throws. Click here for contact information.


• Finally make that trip to Winner you've been planning for months to visit your recently discovered long-lost cousin, twice removed, who by sheer happenstance just came into a significant amount of money.

By John Andrews

We got a note from Troy McQuillen today. He's one of the organizers of the South Dakota Film Festival (Sept. 18-20 in Aberdeen). They are searching for a celebrity actor or filmmaker to attend their kick off event Friday, Sept. 18, and then participate in a seminar the following morning. Ideally the person would have ties to South Dakota and a current project, but of course the organizers are flexible. They've got $25,000 for an honorarium and travel expenses are covered too.

Two years ago John J. Kelly, executive producer of "Into the Wild," attended. That movie, directed by Sean Penn, told the story of Chris McCandless, a college student who hitchhiked across America on his way to Alaska and spent time in Carthage, S.D. Part of it was shot in South Dakota and used locals as extras.

The South Dakota Film Festival screens movies made by people from the Great Plains or shot in the area, although it's open to other films too. They are screened in Aberdeen's historic Capitol Theatre downtown.

Since this year marks the 20th anniversary of filming Dances with Wolves in western South Dakota, they invited Kevin Costner, but he unfortunately declined. So if you're a big-time actor or filmmaker interested in coming, or if you just have a suggestion, e-mail  troy@mcquillencreative.com.

By Heidi Marsh

In this blog, we often cover adventurous weekend getaways, interesting art exhibits and beautiful scenic drives. You know, adult stuff.

This weekend, we’d like you to load up the kids (or grandkids) and take them to a good old fashion Easter Egg Hunt. Nearly every community in South Dakota celebrates Easter in some way or another. Sadly, many of our West River towns had to cancel or move the hunts indoors due to snow. Here’s a list of Saturday hunts I compiled. Tell me what I missed.

Aberdeen: Wylie Park, 11 a.m.
Brookings: Swiftel Center, 10 a.m.
Deadwood: Pavillion, 10 a.m.
Hot Springs: State Veterans Home, 10 a.m.
Mobridge: City Park, 1 p.m.
Sioux Falls: Convention Center, 11 a.m.
Watertown: City Auditorium, 11 a.m.
Yankton: Sertoma Park, 1 p.m.

By John Andrews

For awhile I couldn't turn the TV on without hearing something about the woman who recently gave birth to octuplets. Just the idea of multiple births exhausts people like me, who find caring for one child at a time particularly challenging. We can't get through an episode of Jon and Kate Plus 8 without at least one slow head shake and a "Can you imagine...?"

But multiple births have always attracted attention, and it was no different in 1963 when the first set of quintuplets to survive in the United States was born in Aberdeen. The national media flocked to South Dakota to photograph Mary Magdalene (Maggie), Mary Margaret (Margie), Mary Anne, Mary Catherine, and James Andrew (Jimmy), children of Andrew and Mary Ann Fischer.

Aberdeen became known as Quint City, U.S.A., and stories appeared in national publications like Time. Their arrival prompted a parade, buttons and other memorabilia which today is in high demand. A Texas woman is a major collector of Fischer quint memorabilia. You can see her collection here.

There's an ongoing discussion about the siblings and what they are up to today over at the Aberdeen Forum.

By Bernie Hunhoff

Feeling sorry for yourself with the economy's little downtown? Brown County's State Rep. Dennis Feickert told us a story this morning that might make you feel lucky.

His grandfather Frederick Feickert came to McPherson County from Odessa, Russia in the late 1800s. He was still alive in the early 1950s when Dennis was a child, and on one particular day he picked up the lad's little brown shoes and said, "You boys are so lucky. When I was a boy we just had wooden shoes to herd the cattle with in Russia, and we waited for the cows to take a dump so we could stand in it to keep our feet warm."

Today, Aberdeen merchants will drop snow balls (white ping pong balls) from atop the ladder of a fire truck. Special gifts and offers are in each little ball. What a cute little tradition for the holiday season.

It reminds me of the time when the merchants in Gettysburg dropped turkeys. Yes, it's true. Some of my friends in Gettysburg hate it when I bring up this old story. And they accuse me of embellishing it. ("They weren't white turkeys, the had some colored tailfeathers," said one guy who was in on the fiasco.)

Here's how it went down. The Gettysburg town fathers heard of another town that dropped holiday turkeys from a plane. Whoever caught the turkey on Main Street was entitled to keep it. The big day arrived. Families with small children were gathered outside the stores. The local pilot fueled his plane, and the merchants stuffed it full of live turkeys.

The pilot flew low over the crowd and pushed out the turkeys. Everyone expected the birds to gently fly down to the town. But instead they dropped like rocks. One hit the bank roof. Five splattered on the pavement. Nobody was hurt but a lady was drenched in blood and parts.

The well-intentioned business leaders contacted the town that had previously done the promotion. What did they do wrong? "You didn't use real turkeys, did you???" asked the man at the other end of the phone line. "We used ping pong balls."

Those Aberdonians are smart. (Or they heard about the Gettysburg turkeys.)

If I've embellished this story in any way, please correct me. I only reprint it today for the sake of historical record.)