Tammy Swift

Tammy Swift

For 35 years, Tammy Swift has shared all stages of her life through a weekly personal column. Her first “real world” job involved founding and running the Bismarck Tribune’s Dickinson bureau from her apartment. She has worked at The Forum four different times, during which she’s produced everything from food stories and movie reviews to breaking news and business stories. Her work has won awards from the Minnesota and North Dakota Newspaper Associations, the Society for Professional Journalists and the Dakotas Associated Press Managing Editors News Contest. As a business reporter, she gravitates toward personality profiles, cottage industry stories, small-town business features or anything quirky. She can be reached at tswift@forumcomm.com.

Growing up, the household of Tammy Swift's bestie seemed like nirvana. It was a spotless rambler — the height of 1970s’ cool, in her book — with a mom who dressed fashionably and kept their freezer stocked at all times with at least five different homemade cookies. But as time passed, she learned all moms contribute in their own way.
Columnist Tammy Swift isn't too proud to admit that when she makes a cake for Mother’s Day, it will be lovingly baked with the Pillsbury Doughboy nodding approvingly over her shoulder. She knows her mom, who always appreciates cooking hacks, will approve of this "shortcut" Tres Leches Cake, an ultra-moist, not-too-sweet cake soaked in three types of milk.
From the "11 CDs for one penny!" marketing of the Columbia House Record Club to today's slick "Just click to subscribe" trickery, columnist Tammy Swift struggles to navigate the complex world of auto-renewals, free trial periods and digital subscriptions.
Mark J. Lindquist is now in a corner of the world where air raid sirens go off every day, panic-stricken citizens are lined 20 to 30 people deep at ATMs and an Easter Monday missile strike killed seven people. Even so, he's finding ways to get essential supplies to the Ukrainians who need them most.
At a time when the bird flu has threatened to drive the Easter Bunny into early retirement, it seems wise to find a version of angel food that uses fewer eggs, such as this recipe for mock angel food.
In an email to The Forum, Lindquist wrote, “I was able to use Google translate to talk to the little girl about her teddy bear and her big smile,” Lindquist writes. “They were doing well and had smiles that seem incomprehensible given their current situation.”
Welcome to the trend of "goblin mode" — the phenomenon of embracing and owning your inner, perfectly imperfect, binge-watching, junk food-eating sloth.
Do you have Don Draper aspirations but Homer Simpson's love of not wearing pants? Then you might want to check out the Couchmaster CYCON, an ingenious invention that allows you to conquer those spreadsheets and leverage your wheelhouse from the comfort of your sofa.
Columnist Tammy Swift may be distantly related to Taylor Swift, but she wants people to know she did not found the SWIFT global banking system. In fact, she says the last time there was this much interest in any Swift banking system was 1985, when Mom and Dad Swift wondered how she could spend a whole quarter of student-loan money on shaker sweaters, trips to Target and Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers.
Working from home with your kitty snuggling on your lap? No need to attend the company Christmas party? Many of the undervalued, overlooked introverts of the world have loved this "new abnormal."