West River writer Sam Hurst got in his car and drove to Red Owl to personally inspect the need for a $400,000 bridge over a creek in Meade County. He filed his report on his online newsletter, Dakota Day. Sam isn't opposed to spending $400,000 to help Meade County but he wonders if a bridge is the biggest need?

Karl Mudgeon occupies the corner stool in the country tavern near my farm. It is dark in Karl's corner by the bar, but most people make a point to greet Karl and listen for a minute or two to his harranguing, though he is often a sourpuss. Suddenly some of us realize that we should have been listening closer all along, because 2008 has proved Karl right on a number of issues.

When gasoline slipped above $4 a gallon and everybody thought it was headed for $6 or $8 a gallon like in Europe, Karl bought Shorty Iverson's nearly-new Suburban for a song because Shorty didn't think he'd be able to afford a fill-up when gas got to $8 a gallon. Gas will probably go back up in 2009, but meanwhile nobody has ever enjoyed driving a big Suburban more than Karl. He especially likes to cruise past Shorty's house when Shorty is outside doing the chores.

Karl also has avoided the sting of Wall Street. He says he only likes to gamble with people he knows, and he likes to see his losses stay in the county. So he plays a little nickel-dime poker and he buys CDs at banks in the area. Over the years everybody in the bar has called him crazy to his face for not investing in Citi-Bank or General Motors, or at least John Deere. But this year they just call him to ask what CDs are paying.

Several years back, Karl wanted to get a loan for an old house. The banker — who has been making money on Karl's CDS for years, wanted to add fees and points. And the paperwork was more than Karl had done in 12 years of schooling. Karl asked why. Don't you make enough on the interest? Don't you trust me? The banker said he trusted him, but he would sell the loan and the new owner would want the paperwork. And since the local bank wouldn't be earning the interest, it needed to add the fees to cover its costs. "Who ever heard of selling loans?" Karl asked. He decided to stay in the house he had. Citi-Bank and AIG would still be solvent if everyone was like Karl.

And then there's Barack Obama. Karl isn't a racist; let's just say he is suspicious of folks he doesn't know and understand. When Obama first announced for president, Karl made Muslim jokes and maligned Michelle as a loud-mouth. When he heard Rev. Wright say "godxxxx America" on the television he nearly choked on his Budweiser.

Still, one night in October Karl Mudgeon announced that he would probably vote for the black guy. "He's the least of two evils," he reasoned. That's about the nicest thing Karl could ever say about a politician.

Karl hasn't enjoyed much respect in our neighborhood. But 2008 was a good year for the old cheapskate. I wonder what he has in mind for 2009?

It's Christmas Week and the New Year is approaching: a good time to count our blessings and evaluate our needs.

South Dakota is rich in natural beauty and resources and a mix of small and mid-size communities. We have diverse and interesting Native American and ethnic cultures. And our people are mostly hard-working and of sound moral judgement most of the time (everybody and every state has their moments so don't correct me on the latter).

So if you were one of the Wise Men and you could give one meaningful gift to the entire State of South Dakota, what would that gift be? An oil refinery by Elk Point? No oil refinery at Elk Point? A science lab at Homestake? A better economy on the reservations? Better cattle prices?

Is there one gift that would really make us a better place?

Am I drinking too much eggnog?

Nearly one out of 10 people in Sioux Falls work for banks and credit card companies. Since lawmakers here lifted the lid on interest rates in the 1980s, South Dakota has become a real player in the financial industry. Credit card operations have spread across the state -- in Yankton, Brookings, Rapid City and other cities.

Some in Washington blame the credit frenzy and abuses within the industry for some of our economic freefall. Innocent South Dakotans are at fault?

Well, the Federal Reserve thinks so: today the Fed bosses issued a big list of restrictions on how banks can assess fees, penalties and interest rates in the future. Some South Dakota leaders predicted that if this would happen then the credit card industry in our state could virtually disappear. It's hard to believe that our biggest industry is propped up on delinquent fees and sleight-of-hand interest charges. That hardly seems possible, and my hunch is that the problem is over-stated.

But now we're going to find out.

An offspring of the credit card industry has been payday loan establishments, which also like the "hands off" climate in South Dakota. I'm unsure how they will be affected by the Fed's new rules.

Whatever happened to making money the old-fashion way -- raising something to eat or building something or providing a service such as fighting fires or fixing a car or healing someone's ills. Or publishing a magazine. The basics.

A small and hardy group riders are braving the bitter winter weather today, approaching the South Dakota/Minnesota border on their way to Mankato.

The horsemen seek continued recognition of the 1862 massacre by mass hanging of 38 Dakota Indians near Mankato in 1862. It is considered the largest mass execution in U.S. history, although I'm uncertain how that ranking compares with the execution at Wounded Knee 28 years later. Perhaps the distinction is that the Dakotas were warriors accused of crimes related to the 1862 Uprising. President Lincoln then intervened and stopped the execution of another 265 Indians.

The Bigfoot Ride, which memorializes Chief Big Foot's historic trail from Mobridge to Wounded Knee in the winter of 1890, is also currently underway in West River country. It generally gets a lot of media attention. But the Dakotas' Lower Brule to Mankato Ride has a lower profile. Here's a good Web site with film, blogs and more history of the 1862 ride.

The January 2009 issue of Esquire arrived in our mailbox today, and its cover story is a 50-state effort to find the meaning of life. The writers found a man or woman in each state to pontificate on the subject.

The editors chose well in South Dakota. They interviewed Gerard Baker, the first American Indian superintendent of Mount Rushmore. Gerard is a Mandan-Hidatsa Indian from North Dakota who came to the Black Hills in 2004 and has become a very respected and active leader in West River.

Gerard told Esquire about the 19th century efforts to change the religion of Native Americans by missionaries. When he was offered the job at Mount Rushmore, he sought advice from tribal elders. "I was expecting to hear, 'Don't work there. You'll be a turncoat.' But what I heard was just the opposite. 'What a place to start the healing process!'"

On other subjects, he says this:

RESPECT is not leaving trash.

WE LIKE TO SAY "Oh, we lived peaceful existences before the coming of the white man. We didn't. We had territorial disputes. We had fights with our neighbors and other tribes. There will never be such a thing as an absolute peaceful existence for any civilization.

YOU SAY GOD. We say Creator.

THE BEST TIME to visit Mount Rushmore is sunup.

North Dakota's Esquire interviewee was author Chuck Klosterman who said, "Mount Rushmore is pretty disappointing when you see it. You might as well look at a picture. It's no different." And then he said, "There's no rivalry between North and South Dakota. I guess we kind of see ourselves both working against Minnesota."

Remember when it was a big deal when your car odometer crossed the 1 0 0 0 0 0 marker? I never bought a car with less than 90,000 miles on it until I was 30, so I know the feeling well. It's a milestone of relief and renewal ... a fresh start.

And that's how all of us felt at South Dakota Magazine this week when we added the name of Jim and Becky Kemerling of Lewisburg, N.C., to our subscription list and the counter on our main computer advanced to 4 0 0 0 0.

We reached 30,000 subscribers in 2001, and naturally 40,000 has been our goal ever since. Of course, a lot of publications have been losing circulation so we didn't really know what the future might hold. But we just kept begging and begging for more readers, and now we are at the 40,000 threshhold. According to industry stats and our own studies, that translates to over 160,000 readers (4.1 per magazine). I know people who pass it up and down the halls of their entire apartment complex, so we might have even more than that.

When we reached the milestone, we gathered the staff for this celebratory photo and a glass of South Dakota wine -- so we might have mispelt the Kemerlings' name. The computer program will catch that mistake, but the worst mistake would be to let this occasion pass without saying THANK YOU to you.

I suspect you are one of the 160,000 -- and you might even be one of the 40,000 paying readers. In either case, we appreciate you a lot. Thanks for being part of our big reading family.

Rapid City's Cornerstone Rescue Mission runs a food pantry, and the staff report that the needs are greater than they've been in a long time.

An interesting partnership is going on this week to stock the shelves and also provide blood for the United Blood Services. Give a pint of blood Dec. 11-13 and UBS will donate groceries to the mission. Here's a link with the details. Dollar Giant is helping to sponsor the food-blood-kindness trilogy.

Hard times show us for who we are.