I've come to creating this blog reluctantly. Blogging seems so trendy and as anyone who has seen my clothes and haricut knows, I am not a trendy person.

My current, established website seems to be useful to others. I post articles and links there often. It has a nice search engine. It’s linked to lots of other sites. People can find out how to contact me there and even see pictures of my grandsons.

So the question remained, why in the devil do I need a blog? I’m somewhat reluctant to share my personal life since it has only two speeds - boring and embarrassing. Professionally, it’s about all I can do to come up with enough cogent thoughts for published columns and articles. (What exactly is the economic model of bloggers? Do people earn a living doing this? Not that writing for professional publication pays much either, but at least it’s beer money.)

What I have not had is a convenient way for people to respond to my writing or presentations. This blog might afford such a means. I’m hoping it may also serve as a sounding board for ideas I am currently thinking/writing about. You may well see some of these entries on day as a published article or part of a book.

So, we’ll see.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Keep them clean - my mother might be reading this. You never know.

All the very best,

Doug

Oh, Blue Skunk? As I understand it, early explorers attempted to give this part of Minnesota the Lakota name for “blue earth” - mah-kah-toe. Somehow this got changed to man-kay-toe, the Lakota word for “blue skunk.”

I like the image and the lesson about how easily things get lost in translation.

BlueSkunk was started August of 2005.