In a few hours, most Minnesota students return to school for the 2014-15 school year. At this moment, more than 800,000 Minnesota public school students, and more than 100,000 more teachers, administrators, cooks, custodians, bus drivers, etc., are, regardless of their grade level, or number of years of experience, somewhat nervous about tomorrow. It is […]
Yesterday I spent three or so hours at the Minnesota State Fair. It’s “my” state fair, and as the song from the musical goes, it’s “the best state fair in our state”. Over the last 50 years or so I’ve often been to the Minnesota State Fair. It’s something like a piece of genetic code. […]
Early Wednesday morning, August 21, I was heading out for coffee from my motel in LaMoure ND, and a sight begging to be photographed appeared a few steps to my left, and I couldn’t pass on it. Here’s the snapshot. The waning moon appeared to be in the “bullseye”. (click to enlarge) I’m very familiar […]
UPDATE: Overnight, August 22, “Policing the Masses”, some thoughts on the down side of crowd control. Grace Kelly’s proposal, presented in the August 7 post (written back in May, before Ferguson; it is at the end of the post), is the basis for conversation and action anywhere. If you haven’t read it yet, consider doing […]
Shortly I leave on yet another trip to the North Dakota farm, continuing the long summer of preparing the place for new occupants. It has been a lot of work, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe this trip, to deal with the last of the scrap metal, and […]
For a number of months, occasional coffee-time conversation with friends David Thofern and Frederick Johnson usually got around to talk about progress on Mr. Johnson’s latest book, “The Sea Wing Disaster. Tragedy on Lake Pepin” (available through Goodhue County Historical Society here with event schedule about the book here). When the book came out, I […]
Michelle W., you’ve been promoting Woodbury Community Theatre for a long time, but we’ve yet to “darken the door”. Keep us on the list. Next time we’ll be there. A week ago I stayed overnight with my sister and brother-in-law in Park Rapids MN. It was a last minute overnight, and they had plans to […]
Since 1980 I’ve become the family historian of both my mother’s and dad’s families. Once hooked, mysteries and secrets are much more interesting than the simple obvious facts. So, in the history of Mom’s family, her older sister Lucina’s marriage is recorded, but no date. Lucina, always an elegant woman in my memory, never did […]
My too-frequent trips out to North Dakota, with a side trip last Thursday and Friday to Bemidji, yield numerous ideas for blog posts, all kept on a list of possibilities for sometime. Today, the first post after my return, current events in Ferguson MO interfere. One week ago at this space I wrote about the […]
UPDATE: Commentaries about Ferguson MO can be found here. Yesterday I participated in the Memorial for Scott Patrick, the policeman who was killed during a routine traffic stop on July 30. I was simply one of those who stood along the route of the procession from funeral to cemetery in Mendota Heights MN. I viewed […]