Christmas is here and the moment you no doubt have been waiting for has arrived. It's time to find out who's been naughty and nice in 2022.
Can you think of anyone nicer than a snow plow driver? It's been a busy start to winter as there has been a lot of snow to push around already. We shouldn't forget the snow plow too. The North Dakota Department of Transportation even had a contest to name our snowplows. The criteria was punny, witty or creative snowplow name ideas. There were 8 great winners (for each of the DOT districts in North Dakota):
- Plow Force One, a ground version of the U.S. president's Air Force One airplane.
- Austin Plowers, undoubtedly inspired by the Austin Powers movie franchise.
- Plowabunga, an apparent takeoff from the surfing exclamation "cowabunga!"
- CtrlSaltDelete, alluding to the computer keyboard command control-alt-delete.
- Scoop Dogg, just one letter away from the legendary rap artist Snoop Dogg.
- Sleetwood Mac, influenced by the legendary rock band Fleetwood Mac, or possibly in memory of one of its famous members, Christine McVie, who died Nov. 30 at age 79.
- Big Leplowski, potentially from a fan of the 1989 crime comedy film "The Big Lebowski."
- Blizzard Buster, timely after the recent multi-day snowstorm.
Joining snow plow drivers on our nice list include the heroic law enforcement officers and their fellow first responders. My heart aches for Border Patrol agents too. The least we can do is add them to the list. We have an open border (more on that in the naughty list) and they do a dangerous job.
Politicians rarely make the nice list but we have a few exceptions this year.
- Lieutenant Governor Brent Sanford makes the list for his six years of service to the state. He has announced he will step down next year.
- Attorney General Drew Wrigley for fighting robocalls and robotexts.
- Sen. John Hoeven for being part of the effort to reinstate soldiers discharged over the mandate of the COVID-19 vaccine.
- Sen. Kevin Cramer , a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, has secured funding for the Grand Forks Air Force Base, the Minot Air Force Base, the North Dakota Air National Guard, and the North Dakota National Guard.
A few others round out my nice list.
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- Elon Musk for his rescue of Twitter from the grips of the FBI.
- All of the Minnesota Vikings for so many memorable moments this season.
- How many moms make our Christmas so special? From shopping, wrapping, baking and decorating, thank you, moms. You are always on the nice list.
- And we can't forget Santa. The hardest working fella on Christmas Eve!
Who's on the naughty list? It's hard to top
Pres. Joe Biden
for dereliction of duty at the border (and more) so we'll only add a few others:
- The worthless Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States for not doing their job on the Fufeng project in Grand Forks.
- Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for hoarding your money (obscene amounts of money, with the new surplus in Minnesota being $17.6 billion)
- TikTok for sharing your information with the Chinese.
Scott Hennen hosts the statewide radio program “What’s On Your Mind?” On AM 1100 “The Flag”, AM 1090 KTGO “The Flag” and AM 1460 KLTC. Email him at ScottH@FlagFamily.com
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Forum's editorial board nor Forum ownership.
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