Archive for the ‘Bric-a-Brac’ Category
September 25, 2011 – Claire Update
Claire is now starting her Sophomore year at Macalester in St. Paul, MN.
Photo Credit Macalester College
The year-opening convocation is opened by a piper, in the Scottish tradition of the school.
Photo Credit Macalester College
The guest speakers were a couple of Minnesota natives, Garrison Kellior, waxing about life and politics. A belated 19th birthday to Claire!
one year ago…”Doing the Parade Thing”
September 11, 2011 – 10 Years After
I do not know any of the victims of 9/11 or their families. However, the day should not pass with out a pause and remembrance. To try to bring it home, I thought I’d just profile one, Janat Alonso.
Her profile from the New York Times:
The next-to-last phone call Janet Alonso made on the morning of Sept. 11 was typical: its genesis was maternal anxiety, and its focal point was her second child, Robbie, born with Down syndrome 18 months ago. She was not only checking in with her mother-in-law, Margaret Alonso, who handled the baby-sitting during the three days each week that Janet spent as an e-mail analyst for Marsh & McLennan. She was also making sure Robbie’s foot braces, misplaced on Monday, had been located and returned to him; he finds it impossible to take his baby steps without them.
“Check his stroller,” Janet suggested. Bingo. Grandma discovered the braces. Janet and Robert Alonso were also the parents of Victoria, 2, a miracle baby of sorts. After 10 years of trying to conceive, using methods increasingly clinical, Ms. Alonso had all but surrendered her dream of becoming a mother when Victoria was conceived — surprise — the natural way. Ms. Alonso was so ecstatic she wrote her husband a letter, thanking him for this greatest gift. He was so moved he put the letter in a safe to preserve it.
Though her children were her passion, Janet was a diligent homemaker — literally. She loved painting and refinishing furniture, and spent the weekend before the disaster sanding the porch they had added to their house in Stony Point, N.Y. Her final phone call was to her husband; she told him that the office was filling with smoke and that she could not breathe. And she told him she loved him.
A profile of all the victims is at this CNN page.
one year ago…”Graphic of Obesity Epidemic”
September 10, 2011 – Cardiac Clones!
Just Because.
Iowa State 44 – Iowa 41 in 3 OT.
Here’s the prediction from the “experts” before the game:
Sure the Cyclones opened the year with a win, but it was not an impressive decision. Now the Hawkeyes come to Ames and they will likely follow Northern Iowa’s foot steps and use a heavy dose of their rushing attack. Look for Iowa to run away with this contest. Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Iowa 31, Iowa State 9
Photo of Jack Trice Stadium courtesy of Iowa State Football Facebook.
one year ago…”Beautiful Celosia”
September 9, 2011 – Hawk Stuck in Corn Crib
A hawk is in the corn crib and its instincts are working against it. Usually, to escape danger, it flies up. Well, in this case, it needs to fly down to get out the door. Also, the natural lighting I added with translucent panels near the top of the walls give it another false exit point.
I’m not sure I could catch it without injuring myself or it, so I’m hoping it finds a way out at dusk or at night.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #224″
August 26, 2011 – Garden Spider (Argiope)
One of the annual visitors to the farm is the garden spider (argiope aurantia). This harmless (to humans) is a good
predator. We usually have a few in the raspberry rows. An interesting fact about these spiders is that each night they eat the inner part of their web and remake it daily.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #222″
August 1, 2011 – Prairie in Bloom
I mentioned that there were many flowers in bloom adjacent to the beehives – here’s just a few.
Grey-headed coneflower.
Cupflower.
Behind the blossom of a cupflower.
Wild Bergamot.
Blazing Star.
Compass Plant leaf.
one year ago…”From the “You’ve go to be Kidding Dept”
July 29, 2011 – Exploding CDs!
When I was trying to burn the CD by Warren Zevon entitled “A Quiet Normal Life” to my Itunes, when it reached the song “Excitable Boy” it was all that as what sounded like a gunshot came from the PC. I was ready for smoke and flames to start pouring out, but instead I found a CD drive that was locked up.
After removing the CD drive and disassembling it – this is what’s left of the CD. Always the optimist, Martin wanted to try to super glue it together! It’s time to order a new one from Newegg.
one year ago…”Buckwheat Cover Crop”
June 11, 2011 – Gibson B-25 Falls in Your Lap
You hear all the time about great finds at garage sales and in hoarder houses, but my sister found the best deal anybody in my circle of acquaintances ever happened upon. It’s not a lost Picasso or letter from George Washington, so she won’t be able to retire, or even go on a luxury cruise, but for her, it was a great find.
She’s a country DJ and has her basement decorated with posters and pictures of everyone in country music posed with her – Alan Jackson, Keith Urban, Garth Brooks, Brad Paisley, and the list goes on. She stumbled on this mid 60′s to early 70′s Gibson acoustic guitar – a B-25 in a Sunburst pattern and picked it up for next to nothing.
Given her connections, she thought she should have it signed by an accomplished country guitarist, so she waited until she met up with Vince Gill and had him sign the Gibson.
one year ago…”She’s Gone to the World”
June 6, 2011 – Kitchen Subsidy Garden
There must be something in the air – just a few weeks after Linda’s presentation in DC where she wondered “what if farm subsidies were granted in proportion to the recommendations of the food pyramid.” Roger Doiron of kitchengardeners.org comes out with another take on the same concept. He used the first garden at the white house since the Roosevelt administration to show what the garden looks like and what it would look like if it were planted in crops to the relation of federal funding:
Corn receives 35 percent of funding; wheat, 20 percent; cotton, 20 percent; and soybeans, 15 percent. Money is also channeled to cash crops like tobacco, rice, and sorghum. But fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other specialty crops account to about 1%.
one year ago…”Devils Lake State Park”
May 30, 2011 – Memorial Day 2011
This year I lost two friends about my age. I wrote entries for both of them the past year – Sean Maher and Carl Anderson. I miss them both and think of them often.
one year ago…”OK, We’re Almost Done with Claire’”
May 11, 2011 – Linda to Advise in DC Next Week
Linda received an invitation to DC from a branch of the National Academy of Science and HBO to participate in a discussion about obesity and farm policy. The agency is the Institute of Medicine and here’s a bit of description from their web site.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is an independent, nonprofit organization that works outside of government to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision makers and the public.
Established in 1970, the IOM is the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, which was chartered under President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Nearly 150 years later, the National Academy of Sciences has expanded into what is collectively known as the National Academies, which comprises the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Research Council, and the IOM.
Here’s a brief description of the event from the IOM:
More after Linda returns…
one year ago…”Spring Bee Renewal”
May 10, 2011 – Unintentional Demolition!
After yesterday’s granary demolition, I’ve got a story of a not-so-happy demolition. Motored up to St. Paul to pick up Claire after year one at Macalester was over. She’s got about a month at home before heading to DC for her summer internship with the USDA.
So on the way home on I-35 in southern Minnesota, one of the electronic signs warns “Accident Ahead – 3 miles. As we approach the site we can’t make out what has happened – I say – “It’s to big for a rolled over semi.” Claire offers, “It’s a billboard.” When we reach the scene, it is half of a modular house impaled sideways on a guard rail on an interstate overpass. The truck and trailer were short ways down the road. The house had evidently blown off the trailer.
I can imagine the call they needed to make to the homeowner, expecting to move into their new house in a few days – it could have gone at least a couple of directions.
“Sir, the good news is that half of your house is in place and bolted to the foundation.”
or
“How do you feel about moving to a great location just outside Faribault Minnesota at a site with easy access to the interstate?” Sorry, no pictures.
one year ago…”Frosty Mother’s Day”
May 2, 2011 – Stuff White People Like
At a Borders Bookstore going out of business sale, I picked up a book that cracked me up (because it pokes fun at people I know and myself). You don’t have to buy the book, it’s all online at Stuff White People Like. The following are two selections close to my heart.
Berry Picking
It is well established that white people like the past. Vintage clothing, history degrees, and nostalgia are just three examples of how white people show their love for by-gone eras. So when white people think about growing their own food they are reminded of pastoral images of farming, working the land, and growing whole natural foods for their family. This most positive viewpoint comes from the fact that white people have mostly enjoyed supervisory roles in agricultural production over the years.
But as more and more white people moved into cities, they lost their connection to working the land. In recent years, the most advanced white people have quit their jobs, moved to the country and opened artisanal dairies and small scale radicchio farms.
However, not all white people have the ability, or the trust funds, to quit their job and follow their food-based passions. Some white people have to get their fix by picking their own fruit.
Many of you might be familiar with the process of harvesting a crop, some of its more intense variations are often referred to as “migrant labor” and “slavery.” Under these conditions, laborers are expected to work extremely hard in order to live up to large expectations about their fruit picking output.
When white people harvests a crop it’s known as “berry picking” or “pick your own fruit.” Under these conditions, white people are expected to work leisurely with no real expectations and then they pay for the privilege to do so. In other words, berry picking is the agricultural equivalent to a private liberal arts college. It’s no surprise white people like it, because much like a liberal arts degree it feels like you’ve done real work when you really haven’t.
Of course the easiest way to turn a profit with this information would be to start your own fruit picking farm. But that is only looking at the small picture. It is well established that all white people enjoy doing manual labor under watered down and expensive conditions. So, if you are currently working in a job that requires intensive amounts of work, you should consider using that work space to create what is essentially an adult daycare for white people who would like to spend an afternoon learning how to use a loom or pretending to be a construction worker.
Camping
If you find yourself trapped in the middle of the woods without electricity, running water, or a car you would likely describe that situation as a “nightmare” or “a worse case scenario like after plane crash or something.” White people refer to it as “camping.”
When white people begin talking to you about camping they will do their best to tell you that it’s very easy and it allows them to escape the pressures and troubles of the urban lifestyle for a more natural, simplified, relaxing time. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In theory camping should be a very inexpensive activity since you are literally sleeping on the ground. But as with everything in white culture, the more simple it appears the more expensive it actually is.
Camping is a multi-day, multi-step, potentially lethal activity that will cost you a large amount of both time and money. Unless you are in some sort of position where you absolutely need the friendship of a white person, you should avoid camping at all costs.
The first stage of camping always involves a trip to an outdoor equipment store like REI (or in Canada, Mountain Equipment Co-Op). These stores are well known for their abundance of white customers and their extensive inventory of things for white people to buy and only use once. If you are ever tricked into going to one of these stores, you can make white people like you by saying things like “man, this Kayak is only $1200, if I use it 35 times I’ve already saved money over renting.” Note: do not actually buy the kayak.
Next, white people will then take this new equipment and load it into an SUV or Subaru Outback with a Thule or Yakima Roof Rack. Then they will drive for an extended period of time to a national park or campsite where they will pay an entrance fee and begin their journey. It is worth noting that white people are unaware of the irony of using a gas burning car to bring them closer to nature and it is not recommended that you point this out. It will ruin their weekend.
Once in the camp area, white people will walk around for a while, set up a tent, have a horrible night of sleep, walk around some more. Then get in the car and go home. This, of course, is a best case scenario. Worst case scenarios include: getting lost, poisoned, killed by an animal, and encountering an RV. Of these outcomes, the latter is seen by white people as the worst since it involves an encounter with the wrong kind of white people.
Conversely, any camping trip that ends in death at the hands of nature or requires the use of valuable government resources for a rescue is seen as relatively positive in white culture. This is because both situations might eventually lead to a book deal or documentary film about the experience.
Ultimately the best way to escape a camping trip with white people is to say that you have allergies. Since white people and their children are allergic to almost everything, they will understand and ask no further questions. You should not say something like “looking at history, the instances of my people encountering white people in the woods have not worked out very well for us.”
April 27, 2011 – I Should Know Better…
My days attending arena concerts are nearly over. The reasons are many – ticket prices are too high, yacky and/or drunk people behind you spend the whole evening talking/yelling at their friends/spilling beer on you. Turns out most of the artists I like play at smaller venues, so it’s been ok for a while.
But Mellencamp was in town this week, tickets were under $50, he was touring to support the first album to make the Billboard top ten that was recorded in mono since 1964, and he was playing in a small house (2500) and the latest album was very follky.
But all to no avail. Not all of his fans have grown up with him. Despite the fact that early in the show as people yelled out songs as if it were a piano bar, he said, “don’t worry, we’ll get around to the songs you want to hear.” That didn’t seem to prevent the people from behind us bellowing out “Jack and Diane” or Hurts so Good” at every quiet moment.
And when the band left the stage for about a 45 minute acoustic set with just John and his guitar, it was viewed more as “recess time” and time to chat mindlessly instead of listening to these great new songs. I felt bad for myself and bad for the performers that all they really cared about was the songs from 20 years ago. He didn’t quite go Dylan and make the songs unintelligible so people couldn’t recognize them, but he really substantially rearranged many of the hit songs to get rid of the arena-rock chords and make them either more country, rockabilly, or bluesy than the originals. It was nice that he brought back the accordion and fiddle for this tour as well. John was pretty low-key about his political thoughts this time around, with only one pointed remark to today’s politicians when he reminded us of the preamble to the constitution “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare” He commented that while providing defense seemed to not be a problem, promoting for the general welfare of the people was forgotten.
xxx.
