PRENOTE: Tonight Nov 14 8 p.m. CST on public radio and television, the Minnesota Orchestra will be live.  Details here [Minnesota Orchestra] including program notes.  Also TPT.org .  We saw this concert in person Thursday afternoon.  Excellent as always

Don’t forger, Ken Burns 6 part series on the American Revolution starts on PBS on Sunday.  Check local listing.  I think, must watch.

Re Armistice Day post, especially read the postnote at the beginning, and the comments at the end of the Nov. 11 post.   There are also some additions in the originating post.

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In anticipation of Thanksgiving and Christmas….

For more than 15 years in the 1980s and 1990s, a hobby of mine was doing a small “kitchen table” newsletter for fellow French-Canadians mostly in the Twin Cities.  For some reason a particular issue came to mind for this year, and you can read the first three pages here: Thanksgiving and Christmas Chez Nous 1993.  A photo from the Minneapolis Star Tribune Oct 19,1993, below, was one of the three pages, and is what my minds-eye saw when I got this idea for this commentary:  (For anyone interested, all of the 1000 or so pages of Chez Nous are indexed and accessible on line here , click tab Library then click Chez Nous.)

Thanksgiving is still almost two weeks out, and Christmas about a month after Thanksgiving, but this will not be a usual annual holiday season, hard as folks might try, in my opinion.

We’re in very dangerous times in this country of ours, and we can’t afford to look away and pretend all is okay.  But this moment seems a good time to focus a bit on an aspect of our past as we prepare for our 250th.

As days go on between now and the New Year, I will likely continue to write, so just check back once in awhile if interested.  All best wishes.