I'm no economist, so I'm won't say our senators and congresspeople should vote "aye" or "naye" on the Big Big Bailout in Washington, D.C.

But I do have an OSDE degree. That stands for Observer of South Dakota Economics. As a small businessman who gets to travel South Dakota quite a lot, I've taken a special interest in noting how some of our most successful enterprises got their start. And one lesson I've observed is that failures and setbacks aren't necessarily a bad thing. If certain South Dakotans hadn't suffered hard times along the way, we'd be a quite different state.

Here are just a few of my favorite examples:

Wall Drug: What would West River tourism look like if Ted and Dorothy Hustead had never bought the little pharmacy in Wall and then nearly starved to death as they waited for customers? it was a dire need to make a nickel on ice cream and root beer that led them into the hospitality industry.

Austad's Sporting Goods: Oscar Austad told us that it was only because he'd failed at everything else he did — and been fired on several occasions — that he drifted into selling golf clubs out of the trunk of his car. Then, to save gas and time, he tried a little mailer. And another mailer. And he saved the names. And it grew into the world's largest sports mail order business.

Platte's Grocery King: Marcus King was a teenager when his dad died so he went to work in the local grocery store to help feed his younger siblings. He never got a chance to leave town for college. But he eventually owned his own store, and then he helped a dozen or more others start grocery stores in small towns around South Dakota — including Wagner, Canton, Freeman, etc.

I could fill a book with such stories. South Dakota would be a lesser place if the federal government had bailed out the Husteads by paying off their drug store loan ... or if Oscar had never hit bottom ... or if the King family had received enough welfare and assistance to get by without Marcus' paycheck.

Our own magazine had very low times in the early years but the crises truly made us a stronger business in the long run. We learned things that we'd never have absorbed in a book.

I don't know exactly how much suffering Americans could face if the bailout is not approved. I suspect that some very serious predictions are circulating around Washington. Without all that information, I won't say the bailout is wrong.

But as Buddha said, "pain and gain, glory and blame .... come and go like the wind." Is it possible that our darkest clouds might actually be lined with blessings? If the big banks fail, will we all borrow less and thus get our personal finances in better shape? Would smaller banks actually be strengthened? Would Wall Street quit acting like Royal River Casino?

I doubt that anyone honestly knows.

There's a play and movie titled "Same Time Next Year" about a man and woman who rendezvous once a year for 20-some years.

Well, writers and readers in South Dakota will make it four straight years this weekend when they rendezvous in downtown Sioux Falls for our state's annual Festival of Books. The event has quickly become one of the year's highpoints for many people. Some of the region's and the world's best writers hang out for a few days with South Dakotans who enjoy books. There's music, food, readings, discussions, children's events — something for everybody.

We can't begin to plug all the visiting writers, but longtime readers of the Argus Leader will want to meet Kim Ode, a local farm girl who became one of South Dakota's most popular journalists before leaving for the Star Tribune, some rag published east of here in a town with a complicated name. But Kim will be back in South Dakota this weekend ... along with USD alum Pete Dexter, one of the country's best and most irreverent novelists (and that's saying something) ... and our poet laureate David Allan Evans ... and Lydia Whirlwind Soldier, who is featured in our current issue ... and Jerry Wilson, the retired managing editor of our magazine ... and Mark Meierhenry, the former Attorney General turned children's author ... and Louise Erdich, the wonderful novelist from that state where Kim Ode now lives .... and that's just for starters.

Most of the sessions are free of charge. Just show up and enjoy the good company.

Here's the Book Festival web site with more information. There's also a guide in the center section of our Sept/Oct issue.

We hope to rendezvous with you in Sioux Falls this weekend. And next year, "Same Time ...."

Five years ago today, the Al Neuharth Media Center opened at the University of South Dakota. It has been an impressive addition to the campus, and another reminder of how Al Neuharth hasn't forgotten his roots.

The kid from Alpena and Eureka who graduated from USD and tried to start a weekly South Dakota sports magazine before leaving the state to become a newspaper titan (and founder of USA Today) makes no qualms about his pride in South Dakota. He still owns and often stays in the family home at Eureka, and often shows up for coffee downtown. He's quick to help with projects across the state.

And he suffers all sorts of embarrassments with a grin and a shake of his head. South Dakota Magazine has been guilty of adding to those moments on a few occasions.

In our September '04 issue, we carried a little story by Al's longtime buddy Gordon Aadland. He wrote about traveling with Al in limos and private rail cars, and meeting the likes of Roslyn Carter, Warren Burger, Larry King, Tim Russert, Helen Thomas and countless other celebrities. Here's how Gordon finished the article:

Our relationship has been one of good-natured put-down humor. For example, one time he asked me to meet him when he was speaking at a Chamber of Commerce banquet in Sioux Falls. I said okay, if he'd have me met at the airport by a stretch limo, the governor and several Miss South Dakotas to carry my sedan chair.

When I got to the airport, there was Al, holding a hand-lettered sign that read "Oddland" a misspelling that has been a 50-year gag between us. He led me to a battered pickup truck. In the cab was his wife, in a flower print dress, struck speechless by finding herself in the middle of all this tomfoolery by a couple of old duffers. In back was a pig, some chickens, rotting hay and a chair for me.

Workers cut a very old cottonwood tree down this week on the University of South Dakota campus. It was a sad occasion. The Vermillion school has lost a lot of grand old trees, and this one happened to shade the venerable Old Main. In fact, its proximity to Old Main hastened its end; officials were worried that one of the giant's limbs might fall on the historic building.

However, another huge tree still provides morning shade to Old Main and it has a story. According to John Day (a fixture as well on campus), a sapling was planted many years ago — and planted against the advice of Ernie Myers, who was the tree expert at Gurney's Seed & Nursery Company in Yankton. USD workers wanted a sycamore, but Myers said the sycamore was not native to the region and might not do well here. Someone at USD wanted a sycamore so they brought it back and planted it anyway.

Looks like Ernie was wrong. That's the same sycamore, standing to the left of the dying cottonwood.

Guess where this stone memorial is located in South Dakota and win a free one-year subscription to South Dakota Magazine. Everyone's eligible except the nice fellow who sent me the picture. I'll provide some clues if it proves too difficult. Click on the photo for a larger image.

Go ahead and take a wild guess.

9 a.m. clue: Ok, we'll narrow it to the Black Hills for you.

Noontime clue: Name the very small mountain town that this memorial is near and you win. It has a cemetery high on the hill. But then what mountain town doesn't have a cemetery high on the hill to keep the graves dry?

1:30 clue: Maybe it's not really a small town, but a ghost town with a few residents yet today. The first black woman to arrive in the Black Hills is buried in the cemetery as I recall (though I should have checked this little historical fact first ... so if I'm wrong, correct me please).

WE HAVE A WINNER. SEE COMMENTS.

South Dakota Magazine will be 24 years old next year, and if we play our cards right and don't print any rattlesnake covers we could reach 40,000 subscribers as well in 2009. It has been a slow and steady climb, the way a magazine should grow.

We made lots of our mistakes back when we were in our infancy and hardly anybody was reading them; we still make mistakes (like the infamous rattlesnake cover of 2001) but it goes with the business.

The approaching anniversary and 40,000 milestone is already making me somewhat nostalgic. Some days when I get the mail and see all the renewal envelopes, I remember when I had to beg friends and strangers for every subscription. I went door to door, business to business, trying to get enough to pay the printing bills. Some people said they liked the idea, but they really didn't want to pay $9 (the 1985 price) for a full year because they didn't think it would survive for a year. Nothing like encouraging a guy in his new business endeavor, right?

But then there was Lyle Kyler who wrote from San Francisco and wanted to know if he could subscribe in advance for TEN YEARS because he didn't want to miss an issue, mistakes and all. I saved his letter. Ten years later, Lyle asked if he could subscribe for ANOTHER TEN YEARS. I saved that letter too, and came across both of them the other day.

I just asked a co-worker to please check our subscription list to see if Lyle is still on the rolls. She found a Lyle Kyler in Woodbridge, Virginia, so I called to see if he is one and the same. Yes, he's still reading the magazine. Said he has all the copies we ever published and still enjoys it greatly.

He's a Winner native (his mother, Hazel, will celebrate her 95th birthday there next year) and he served as a statistician in the Navy, both in California and Virginia. He also has a sister and brother in the Gregory and Winner area.

Nowadays a lot of great people subscribe for one, two and three years. And we appreciate every single reader, new or old. But Lyle's the only 10-year-man we've ever had, and he started at a time when it meant quite a lot to me.

Here's a prediction for 2009. A total ban on smoking in public places is going to be one of the hot topics in the South Dakota State Legislature.

Last night, Nebraska State Senator Joel Johnson met in Yankton with some lawmakers, candidates, physicians and other local leaders. Officials from state chapters of the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association also participated.

Sen. Johnson spoke about the battle to pass such legslation in the Cornhusker State. He said that contrary to what you may think, the public is wildly in favor of such a ban and even some bar owners who oppose it publicly will admit that they wish it would pass if you talk to them privately.

The city of Lincoln passed a ban a year or two ago. Bar and restaurant operators who opposed the city ban became supporters of the statewide ban — partly because they wanted a level playing field with surrounding towns but also because they experienced improvements in their work climate. One bar owner declared that if smoking returned he might now lose his employees.

A Yankton physician said no-smoking sections simply don't work. "It's like having a peeing section in the swimming pool," he declared.

A legislator noted that a statewide smoking ban couldn't be enforced on the Indian reservations, indicating that the Indian casinoes would have an advantage over their competitors. Look for that reasoning to be one of the arguments against the ban.

But times are changing. Statewide bans have passed in 25 states, including Iowa, Minnesota, Montana and Nebraska. Are we next in line?

Today we received word that Linda Hasselstrom of Hermosa, Bill Wood of Newell and Yvonne Hollenbeck of Clearfield will represent South Dakota at the next prestigious National Cowboy Poetry Gathering set for Jan. 24-31, 2009 in Elko, Nevada.

Elko is the Super Bowl for cowboy poets, and we can be proud of our three. Of course, regular magazine readers are acquainted with Hasselstrom — one of the finest prose and poetry writers in the entire West. Yvonne lives a quieter life on her family ranch at Clearfield (near Winner), but she is also entertaining and very lively. We only know of Bill Wood by reputation, but he must be good or he wouldn't be going to Elko.

I've never been to Elko but I've heard many of our top cowboy poets at gatherings in Valentine, Neb. It's an art form that mixes acting, writing, humor and music. And it's mostly practiced by people who know how to rope and ride and pull a calf.

If you can't make it to Elko or Valentine, look for an opportunity to enjoy cowboy poetry closer to home. Awhile back, the Strawbale Winery by Sioux Falls hosted Yvonne for a weekend event. Hasselstrom often visits the South Dakota Book Festival, which is coming later this month to Sioux Falls.

Our cowboy poets are hard-working, creative souls and they are always generous with their time and talent. Get to know them.