Last Sunday I had the honor of saying a few words at the celebration of the life of a friend who I’d known the last seven years of his near 95 years; and later that day more words at a now-annual dinner that wouldn’t exist were it not for him. (More details on both can […]
Comments following publication of this post: from Flo: I appreciate your perspective but your piece appears to fail to recognize how Trump has risen to the top of the heap in the Republicans with just the support of disgruntled Americans who want to see somebody “stick it to” somebody else, with no thought of the […]
Tomorrow is May 1. May Day. Since I was a little kid back in the North Dakota of the early 1940s, I learned there was something special about May 1. Probably the first actual memory was of May Baskets, which had some significance, though I do not remember exactly why. And there were Maypoles. (click […]
Today the eyes of the nation (at least a few of them, anyway) are on places like Pennsylvania, running their horse races for President in the runup to the party conventions to come. My preference is to focus on the more familiar and far less visible: in my case, the local Senate District 53 DFL […]
April 22, Earth Day, 170 Nations, including the U.S., represented by Secretary of State John Kerry, met at the UN to sign the Paris Accords reached in November 2015. April 15, a judge recommended that Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission use the federal social cost of carbon as a binding criteria for electric utility decision making. […]
POSTNOTE: April 24, 8 a.m.: This morning a feed from the Washington Post brought this link, of ZZ Topp’s Billy Gibbons on Prince. I found it fascinating, with links to Prince playing. Yesterday [April 21] I was in the hallway at an elementary school, and a teacher in the student lunchroom held up his cell […]
As I write, the polls remain open for several more hours in New York state’s Primary election, with endless analyses of what it all might mean…. A few hours ago I had occasion to be in downtown Minneapolis to deliver something to the Canadian Consulate at 7th Street and 4th Ave S, across the street […]
Thursday night, April 21, three knowledgeable people will discuss policy related to the use of Drones in Warfare. The flier is here, in pdf: Drones001, and below. (click to enlarge) . Prof. Nelson-Pallmeyer is well known in the local community. Ms Thabet is a Child Protection Officer in Aden, Yemen; and Mr Ahmad is Chief […]
Monday I was completing a project, and noted to my colleague that I was about to go to a funeral. “I am sorry that you will be at a funeral; my condolences”, came the reply, to which I replied “I’m at the age where these are increasingly common events…life goes on….” It was not a […]
Today is primary election day in Wisconsin. As per custom, I write before the first vote has been officially counted; at about the time the polls open. Some weeks ago I was on a busy street here in Woodbury, waiting to make a left turn enroute home. Crossing at the light was a guy carrying […]