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Patricia Sutherland, a Canadian archaeologist, announced that she had found a 10 foot strand of ancient yarn in a collection of Dorset artifacts from Northern Baffin Island that were lying uncataloged here at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, where she is a curator. Since the Dorset, forerunners of today's Inuit inhabitants of northern Canada, at the time dressed only in cut and stitched skins, the yarn implied contact with the Norse. Now, as she studies of Canadian collections of native artifacts, she says, "I am finding new Norse materials every couple of weeks. It suggests there was a significant...

The northern Virginia-based Muslim Students' Association (MSA) might easily be taken for a benign student religious group. It promotes itself as a benevolent, non-political entity devoted to the simple virtue of celebrating Islam and providing college students a healthy venue to develop their faith and engage in philanthropy. Along these lines, its constitution declares the MSA's mission as serving "the best interest of Islam and Muslims in the United States and Canada so as to enable them to practice Islam as a complete way of life."[1] Today, over 150 MSA chapters exist on American college campuses (divided into five regional...

Posted on Fri, Oct. 03, 2003 ALEXANDRIA, MINN.Norse stone authenticity put to the test BY TRAVIS REED Associated Press Its authenticity may forever be in question, but the Kensington Runestone is on its way to Sweden, where a group of scientists will study it and lend their opinion to the question of whether the rock is really a centuries-old artifact or a 200-pound hoax. Scientists working with the Runestone Museum in Alexandria, Minn., are traveling with the stone and say they have new geologic findings that suggest it was buried far longer than anyone was settled in western Minnesota. The...

Some people just don't get it! Many of you remember my friend Jack Kelly from Kensington who was with me at the Santa FReep there last year and who delivered Doctor Raoul's lumps of coal to the Kensington Council. According to my good Kensington source, the Council is again planning to ban Santa Claus from the Christmas celebrations there. Apparently, they think no one will be paying attention this year. Guess again. It looks like they may need to be re-FReeped.

Subject: The Kensington Runestone; verified as proof of Scandinavians inMinnesota in 1362 <http://www.ripsawnews.com/2001.08.15/cover.jpg> Verified at LastThe Strange and Terrible Storyof the Kensington RunestoneBy Jim Richardson andAllen Richardson The comfortable scientific and scholarly worlds of history, archeology,runology and Scandinavian linguistics have all been rocked by recentdevelopments surrounding a single stone in west centralMinnesota. The Kensington Runestone, thought for over 100 years to be a hoax, nowstands verified as a genuine artifact commemorating the deaths of 10medireview Scandinavians in Minnesota in the year 1362. A recent piece of linguistic scholarship by Dr. Richard Nielsen has hit thescene, which seems to demonstrate conclusively...

It's a Post story, so I won't use it here. Just a note that Lynn Raufaste, the mayor of Kensington, Maryland, and the one who banned Santa Claus from last year's tree-lighting ceremony, has been re-elected. The phrase "We will never forget" apparently does not apply to the folks in this small community.

The mayor who drew international attention for giving Santa the boot might find coal in her stocking after Monday's Kensington town election. Residents and business owners this week called the incident — which mobilized dozens of protest "Santas" to a December ceremony declared off-limits to the jolly old man — "a national embarrassment." The flap — which put Kensington on the map as a place long on political correctness and short on holiday spirit — was hard to foresee, folks said after listening to incumbent Lynn Raufaste and challenger Andrea Gill at a town hall forum Tuesday night. But the...

A tussle over Santa Claus dragged Kensington into the national spotlight last Christmas. Now, it looks as though it could spice up the upcoming mayoral race. Mayor Lynn Raufaste upset many Kensington residents with the decision to prohibit Santa Claus from participating in a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in December because of a few complaints. It's also part of the reason Andrea Gill, a three-year Kensington resident, signed up to oppose her. Gill said the mayor's decision was made behind closed doors. ``Anyone who had an opinion about the Santa situation should've been able to talk about it," Gill said. ``I...