March Top Posts

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. That's not only a chorus line. It's a description of what happened in March. 

March number 4

On the last day that Cottonwood Hills golf club was open last fall, the pro, Bill Larson, corrected me when I said see you in March. He said no, not March, the snow will clear and we'll be open for a spell come February. Well, here it is April 1. Bill Larson was half right -- not March. Though the course allegedly was open an afternoon when I had a medical appointment, and a few hours another morning before the snow thickened, I still haven't been on the links. Bridger Creek is still snowed under.

March was, however, our best month on Along the Gradyent. The page views piled up and we got some incredible interest on some of our best posts ever. Thanks for the awesome interest readers! Here is March's top ten.

1. Last March's paen to Growing Up in Morton Grove caught on fire, courtesy of a alumni reunion Facebook group that picked it up, and whose members propagated the link on to family and friends. People love reminiscing about idyllic memories from their youth.  We are happy to help.

2. To Invest in a Bank is becoming a perennial top ten. If you buy individual stocks, then for diversification, your portfolio should include one or more firms in the banking or financial services sector. This post describes the decision making process I used to click the buy button on Glacier Bancorp in 2009, when there were still plenty of doubts on which banks would and would not make it. I doubled down in 2010 when the stock price was slow to take off. It's gratifying that readers are finding this case study of use.

3. King Day Post links to last year's King Day story on us caddies going on strike, taking over the driving range and singing "We Shall Overcome."  It's a classic.  If you haven't read it before, you won't be disappointed if you click through to it now.

Glen View Club driving range (center). Us caddies occupied the three target practice greens during our wildcat strike.

4. This a long title but a fantastic life story, On the Road to Bathgate Act 4f: Lyndon R. Foster -- Veteran, Publisher and Politician. Though I never met uncle Lyn, I wish that I had. He was a colorful and combative character. His career was explosive -- literally as you soon shall see when you click through to read.

The "Goal"

5. Forty One Years Ago Today starts out as an uplifting hockey story about attending the best game I ever saw -- at an NCAA Frozen Four. It ends up as a planes, trains, buses and automobile saga when we are marooned by a car wreck on the return trip in a Pennsylvania blizzard.

6. The Golf Channel: Spouse's Guide to Sanity (Special Post), our all time leader, is making a comeback now that the new golf season is gearing up for the Master's. This wife written ready reference schools the uninitiated just enough to be tolerant, and appreciative of the wackier aspects of golf.

Manhattan, Montana -- 86 years ago.

7. Eight Six Years Later, Doctored Photo? The global warmist ghouls blame every bad event these days on recent hundredths of a percent carbon dioxide influxes. So this eighty-six year old photo must have been doctored. What do you think?

8. Please stay off steep slopes! More Avalanche recounted the latest tragic story of a kid visiting from Minnesota, during an avalanche season that took far too many souls, far too young.

Aerial view of January 1 avalanche site.

9. Beware The Avalanche collects expert advice on avalanche avoidance and preparation and tells the gut wrenching story of the father of one of my kid's classmates, who was buried and killed in an avalanche up by Big Sky on New Year's day. May God rest Kenneth Gibson's soul.

10. On the Road to Bathgate Act 1: "Fargo" the Movie opened our Road to Bathgate series last year with a pop -- a pop culture twist that is. For want of snow cover in Minnesota, or Fargo, North Dakota for that matter, the winter the movie was shot, the Coen brothers trekked up to my dad's hometown of Bathgate, North Dakota to shoot the iconic, Paul Bunyan statue scene. Fargo, the series, is coming to FX later this month.

Paul Bunyan woodcut statue, Bathgate, North Dakota.