A few weeks ago we got an email from Buck Lovell, who moved to Sturgis six months ago from California to become the editor of two national motorcycle magazines, one which he says is the fastest growing motorcycle magazine in the world, American Bagger Magazine. Both are published from an office in Spearfish.

Lovell is also a photographer, and we're collaborating on a photo essay on how horses survive winter in South Dakota. This will of course be published in our magazine, not his. It's nice to have another magazine in South Dakota, the more the better. We need more friends to talk about the benefits of stochastic screening and the best method of color calibration.

Here's a preview photo from next winter's photo essay. Aren't you glad its spring?

Jim Aplan is organizing a lifetime's collection of antiques and collectibles, readying for what will surely be some of the West's most unique auctions in many years. The first round will be May 26-27 at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid.

Our retired editor Jerry Wilson visited with Jim in 2003 at the store he runs with his wife, Peg, at the Tilford exit just north of Rapid City. Jerry is not easily impressed, but he found the Aplan collection quite intriguing. "Anybody need a leather-bound volume of Pilgrim's Progress, translated into the Lakota language by 19th century missionary John Riggs, for just $350?," is how the story starts.

"He also has a pistol be belives was carried by George Armstrong Custer the day he died at Little Big Horn ... a copy of John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent from the library of novelist Frederick Manfred ... the only South Dakota pair of cowboy boots made by the Acme company ..."

He said he developed an interest as a child, hanging around the city dump and looking for treasure. His family called him "Pack Rat." His mother was worried about him; never did she imagine that he might one day buy a Henry rifle for $5 and resell it many years later for $40,000.

One of his strategies has been to acquire "boxes of junk" from famous people. That started when he was a young banker in Okaton. A Gutzon Borglum auction was planned at Hermosa. He went there, thinking he'd spend a few hundred dollars, maybe a thousand and he asked his bosses if they would loan him the money. He had to write a check for $22,000 before he left Hermosa.

The May auction will include guns, military and western items. It will be quite a show.

Have you wondered what became of the old governor's mansion, which was wheeled away to make room for the new one on Capitol Lake? Some Rapid City historian/entrepreneurs moved it to Rapid Valley. There's a story in today's Rapid City Journal about their progress. Dennis Wagner has a great quote in the article when asked by writer Mary Garrigan about the costs involved.

One of the greatest insults to George McGovern is the way some parties have tried to make his very name synonymous with extremism and failed politics. Agree or disagree with his politics, he has lived an exemplary life, always trying to better a troubled world. He flew 35 combat missions in WWII, and then refused to come home until he could fly food into the countries he'd bombed. And that was just the beginning of a public career that has no end. His name deserves respect.

McGovern has weathered most of the insults and unfair critiques with a smile and a shrug. But when Vice President Dick Cheney recently equated McGovernism with defeatism, McGovern finally fought back -- with a blistering and intelligent rebuttal in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times. It reminds me of a summer afternoon in the 1970s when the lanky Senator McGovern made a visit to Denny Mitchell's farm fertilizer store in Yankton to shake a few hands; of course, some of his enemies showed up and one of them – a middle-age lady with a sarcastic tongue - followed him about the room, harranguing about something. McGovern handled it with as much grace as possible ... but eventually he stopped, leaned over and whispered something in her ear. She turned beet red and fled the room. You can decide for yourself what he said.

The vice president's face should be equally red today. McGovern concludes the Times essay like this: "We already know that when Cheney endorses a war, he exempts himself from participation. On second thought, maybe it's wise to keep Cheney off the battlefield - he might end up shooting his comrades rather than the enemy. On a more serious note, instead of listening to the foolishness of the neoconservative ideologues, the Cheney-Bush team might better heed the words of a real conservative, Edmund Burke: 'A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood.'"

I predict that McGovern's name won't be flung around for political fun and games in Washington circles for awhile. The preacher's kid from Avon is a quiet gentleman, but he has his limits.

It is a stupidity second to none, to busy oneself with the correction of the world." (Moliere)

For a brief time, I worked for U.S. Rep. Frank Denholm and in 1974 he was heavily involved in crafting the farm bill. In fact, I remember one occasion when Tip O'Neill poked his head in our office door and asked, "How's Frank coming with that farm bill?" Farm bills are big deals in rural America, and many old-timers say the '74 bill was among the best for farmers, families and for conserving the land.

Lawmakers in Washington are now working on the much-awaited 2007 Farm Bill, which will affect us for years to come. Will corn and wheat subsidies remain high, or are they even necessary in wake of the demand today? Will the law encourage more conservation? Will it continue to reward industrial agriculture, or move toward subsidy limits?

According to two reports, the farm bill will also be felt far from our prairie farms. This story relates how an Illinois corn farmer came to realize how American policy is killing the African farmers.
And a lengthy story in the New York Times Magazine claims the farm bill is killing all of us by subsidizing poor quality foods. The writer would prefer that the government subsidize carrots and cauliflower. The world is changing; my guess is the farm bill will follow along, years behind.

Frank Denholm is now semi-retired in Brookings; I think they could use him in D.C. right now.

From this week's Wessington Springs True Dakotan classified page: Horse Pluck! Like fine wine and gourmet cheese, we have genuine delicately aged and composted horse manure for sale. Great for gardens! Best thing to put on your rhubarb, next to sugar! Can load and even deliver. Call Hub or Laura evenings at 539-1941.

I'll wager a rhubarb pie that Hub is stuck with all the "loading."

It was a rainy Sunday so I was reading a book ("Adrift") by the legendary sailor Tristan Jones, and about halfway through he writes about a 20-something-year old young woman whom he met in 1975 while sailing a charter boat in the Virgin Islands. She came aboard as his cook for awhile and must have made quite a memorable impression.

'Mainsheet Annie' the cook was a little blond lass from one of the Dakotas. She was a marvel, not only in the galley either. She was a natural born sailor, as quick and light on her feet and strong in her arms as any tar-bucketed salt I ever clapped my eyes on.
Annie was what the Americans call "cute." She was also very intelligent. Her face went into rapture when 'Star Rider' was under sail, that aware rapture, when as well as sharing the dream of sail you feel everything, every little nuance of movement aboard the boat. Annie was also good company. She had knocked around on quite a few charter craft and was full of stories of the people she had met.

Annie was more than eager to go ocean sailing. Later, when she took off on a "pier-head" jump with a couple of shifty-looking characters, I begged her not to go. I pleaded with her, but the pull of the long trail was too strong for such an independent willed descendant of the pioneers and she sailed off to Panama with two wily-looking sprucers. Ever since, I have wondered what became of her; if she managed, as she maintained she would, to "hold her own" with those two birds of passage.

"I hope so, Annie, I hope so, or if not, I hope that I meet up with these blokes. The world of sailing is small. Our bows may yet cross," I told her. Annie promised to write me, but I have not since had word from her.

Do any of our readers have a sister, cousin or friend who might be Annie? It would be interesting to find her after all these years. Tristan Jones wrote the book in 1975 so she would probaby be in her late 40s.

Visitors to Lewis and Clark Lake, west of Yankton, see three tall crosses atop the bluffs that border the lake. They were raised Nov. 22, 1971, as the first step in what has become the House of Mary Shrine.

Local people still talk of that day. As each 50-foot cross was erected, a beautiful, colorful light circled the sun and then faded away. Three times the light appeared, once for each cross. The shrine’s local leaders have no scientific or theological explanation, only a photograph that shows the phenomenon. (The photo above shows the three crosses, but not the phenomenon)

The outdoor shrine is always open for prayer and meditation. It includes a rosary walk, chapel, statues and a gift shop. The uphill walk to the crosses is a hearty hike. Call (605) 668-0121 to learn more about the lakeside shrine.