Best of News Cut 5x8

1) RAISING THE PROPOSAL BAR (posted Friday, Aug. 31)

Nobody just proposes anymore. Every proposal has to be more stupendous than the previous one that also went viral.

David Pogue, the tech writer at the New York Times, made his into a movie trailer...

Top that, love birds.

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2) THINGS NOT TO SAY TO YOUR PUBLIC DEFENDER (posted Thursday, Aug. 30) The anonymous Minnesota public defender who writes the blog, not for the monosyllabic, has made it easy on those who might someday need a public defender, publishing the list of things you shouldn't say to your public defender.

For example:

"Marijuana should be legal." Maybe it should, maybe it shouldn't. But, it's not. So, just because you don't like the law doesn't mean that's going to get you out of the charges. Go talk to your legislators, get the law changed, and possess all the marijuana you want. In the meantime, it's still illegal.

Good reading.

3) SMOKEY THE LIAR (posted Wednesday, Aug. 29)

The purpose of the last half of your life is to learn that everything you learned in the first half of your life isn't true.

4) THE GLAMOROUS WORLD OF A COUNTRY AT WAR (posted Tuesday, Aug. 28)

Could there possibly ever be a more glamorous age than the late 1930 and 1940s?

CBS has filtered out images from a Library of Congress Flickr page, isolating women at work, showing mostly war-era work. They got no benefits for their work, and lost their jobs when the men returned from war. And even for woman who served in the military, many got no veterans benefits.

5) WELCOME TO GRAND FORKS (posted Monday, Aug. 27)

If you didn't fall in love with Marilyn Hagerty when she wrote the famous restaurant review of the Olive Garden Restaurant in Grand Forks, what's wrong with you? Now, she welcomes the incoming class at UND with a Marilyn-sized look at all things Grand Forks. Here are some of her "wonders" of Grand Forks.

• Themis, the goddess of justice atop Grand Forks County Courthouse.

• The Greenway along the Red River where you can bike or walk or skate to your heart's content.

• The Red Pepper restaurant on University Avenue.

• The Ralph where UND teams play hockey built with the generous gift of $100 million from the late Ralph Engelstad.

• North Dakota Mill and Elevator, the only state owned business of this kind, where they turn out Dakota Maid Flour.

• Mayor Michael Brown. He's everywhere, everywhere and wants people to be happy visiting or living in Grand Forks. He does his share to keep the population growing by delivering babies at Altru Hospital.

She also reveals that there is a sewage lift station, named in her honor.