Poor A.J. Clemente.

If you’re breathing and have access to a media outlet, you probably know Clemente’s story by now.

In the unlikely case you need a fresher on Clemente, here it is: A recent hire by KFYR-TV out of Bismarck, Clemente opened an April 21 newscast on the station by uttering a couple of choice words. Since this is a family blog, I won’t go into the exact words he said, but they rhyme with “bucking” and “fit.” I’m assuming you can connect the dots from there.

Now, Clemente had done some reporting for the station, but that day was his first behind the desk. Quite the introduction, huh? Within hours, the video clip went viral and the following day it seemed to be all anyone in North Dakota was talking about.

Though it wasn’t a complete surprise, Clemente was let go by KFYR management shortly after the mishap after originally being suspended. In the old days, it would have been safe to assume that Clemente’s days in front of a camera — at least as pertaining to him making a living doing so — would be over. But, that was then and this is now.

We like viral internet videos. In fact, having a viral video might be the quickest way to gain 15 of minutes of fame there is. Being a good sport about the entire blunder — obviously an honest mistake — Clemente has embraced his slip up and subsequent firing. In the days following his dismissal, Clemente was scheduled to appear on several national talk shows, including “The Today Show” and “The Late Show” with David Letterman.

Personally, I admire Clemente’s ability to laugh at himself, take everything in stride and face the music. In fact, while I’m not admonishing his actions in the least, he did mention in one of his interviews that the cameras started rolling 30 seconds early, so I can’t entirely blame Mr. Clemente.

Plus, I can’t imagine it would be the easiest thing in the world to go on national TV and explain your most embarrassing moment. Is A.J. simply taking advantage of his moment in the national spotlight or is he keeping himself out there in hopes of getting another crack at TV news?

I have no idea, but, as a human being who has made plenty of mistakes, I hope he gets that opportunity if that’s what he wants. If not, I have a feeling he’ll be just fine in life. He’s young, has an education and has a good attitude about life. Some people would have hid in a closet for a week after something like that.

So good luck to A.J. as he moves forward. After the next viral video comes out, we’ll all forget about this one, anyway. Besides, he’s picked up about 12,000 new Twitter followers (at ClementeAJ) and now he has a great story to tell to tell his grandchildren……when they’re old enough.

With playoff hockey upon us, and coming on the heels of my first-ever trip to Ralph Engelstad Arena, I’ve been thinking recently what a shame it is that the Minnesota-North Dakota rivalry will be, at least temporarily, kaput.

Yes, this is a topic that has been beat to death in recent months (and years), but my trip to Grand Forks reinforced why it’s such a disappointing deal. As everyone knows, the Gophers are moving to the new creation known as the Big Ten hockey conference while the TFKS (Team Formerly Known as the Sioux) will move to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

As we’ve all seen the past couple years in football, money rules the day in major college revenue sports and the breakup of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association is no different. Hockey wonks and fans know this story, too: The Big Ten has a successful TV network and it wants to continue to capitalize on that with the sport of men’s hockey. After the Big Ten made it’s move, the other dominoes began to fall as well.

Now to the full disclosure part of this blog post: I’m a Minnesota fan. Always have been. Moving to the Peace Garden State, of course, doesn’t change that fact even though I’m in enemy territory when it comes to collegiate hockey. Although I’m a natural sworn enemy of North Dakota hockey, I was really impressed with The Ralph after attending a game there in early March. Great arena — yes, it’s much better than Mariucci — with a great atmosphere. It’s just a shame the Gophers and TFKS won’t be playing there next season.

When you get right down to it, there’s something about it that makes me sick to my stomach. College sports are about tradition, at least that’s what they’re supposed to be about. Michigan is supposed to play Ohio State every year in football. Duke and North Carolina are supposed to play every year in men’s basketball, Red Sox and Yankees, Packers and Vikings, Coke and Pepsi (ok, so those last few aren’t college hockey). The point is: Minnesota and North Dakota should be playing two series every year. Every single year. The fact that they won’t be…..it’s just simply not right.

I don’t like how traditional rivalries have been discarded like peanut shells in college sports in recent years. As a traditionalist (and what some would describe as a curmudgeon-in-the-making), I think rivalries — especially in collegiate sports — need to be cherished. Preserved. Celebrated. But, alas, like I mentioned, money rules the day. The Gophers and TFKS will play again, just not for a few years and it will be out of conference. Actually, in all reality, all it would take is a feud of some kind for one of the schools to pull out of playing nonconference games — being in different leagues, nothing is set in stone.

I don’t care what anybody says — I don’t like it. Not one bit. Minnesota and North Dakota are huge rivals and they should play every year. Period. It’s only right. I just hope that the NCAA doesn’t one look back one day and wonder why its product is on the decline (which it isn’t yet) because tradition has been bucked for the almighty dollar. Fact is, nobody really cares about Minnesota vs. Penn State in hockey, Rutgers vs. Iowa in football or Utah vs. UCLA in basketball.

I just hope the Gophers and TFKS meet again this season in the NCAA playoffs. Now that would be something special.

By now, I’m sure most of you who are reading this know about the devastating wildfire that nearly wiped out the small southwestern North Dakota town of Bucyrus on Oct. 17. The fire, which displaced 27 people in the tiny community, became national news and was found in many newspapers and on a number of national websites like the Huffington Post, Yahoo!, The Weather Channel and many more.

Remarkably, no people or animals were injured in the blaze. That’s the good news. The bad news is that four occupied homes were destroyed — burned completely to the ground. It’s one thing to read about a story like that, but it’s quite another to be in the middle of such a disaster. Granted, this wasn’t a war zone and, thankfully, nobody paid the ultimate price in the Bucyrus fire, but a number of people lost everything they had. We’re talking everything and that’s incredibly sad.

Linda Wiskus was returning home from work at about 5 p.m. that fateful day — a day that had been not unlike any regular Wednesday — when she was told she had a few minutes to get what she could gather out of her home before she needed to evacuate. Aided by nearly 70 mph winds, a fire was raging out of control nearby and Linda’s house was in its direct path. Linda grabbed a safe with some important documents inside and grabbed a pair of jeans and some socks. She didn’t have time for anything else, didn’t even have time to unload the groceries from her car.

Later, Linda lamented about the fact that she wasn’t able to retrieve some of the items that had been passed down in her family over the years. How, though, was she to know that her home would literally burn to the ground in a matter of a few hours? What would you take if you had five minutes to get anything you could out of your home? How would someone process that information when a few minutes earlier, they were thinking about what to make for dinner?

Thanks to the graciousness of the good folks over at the Bowman County Sheriff’s Office, I was able to be in the middle of the fire as it swallowed the town whole. Walking around in an environment that could only be described as apocalyptic, I must say that I also gained an even greater appreciation for our firefighters law enforcement personnel. I was there for about 20 minutes taking pictures, dealing with dirt blowing in my face, smoke-obstructed sight lines in every direction, red-hot embers darting about everywhere and extreme heat, the likes of which I had never experienced. Sound uncomfortable? It was, but those firefighters, many of them, were there all afternoon and all night. Some hadn’t seen their families as of mid-afternoon Thursday.

But that’s what firefighters do — they run in when everyone else is running out. So, what will happen with Bucyrus moving forward? As of now, we don’t really know. Right now, it’s time for cleanup…..and healing. To nobody’s surprise, people in the immediate area have stepped to the plate to do what they can to help the fire victims. Not just people in Adams County or Bowman County, though — people from all across the Dakotas and, although I don’t know this as fact, I’m sure people from other parts of the country as well.

Usually saved for metaphorical purposes, the phrase “rise from the ashes” is exactly the task that lies in front of the Bucyrus fire victims. People like Mike and Evelyn Krug, who moved to Bucyrus in 1968. People like Vern and Lucy Milliren (the latter of “Lucy’s Frame Shop” fame) or Linda Wiskus and her son, Justin, or the young family that lost the home they had moved into only a month earlier. No question, this was a terrible event. One that only the most cold-hearted of us would wish on another. But it can also serve as a reminder of some things that are truly invaluable in life — family, friends, neighbors, a sense of community and, yes, some fearless firefighters who face what most of us would run from — and how lucky we are to have them.