August 28, 1963, I was a soldier in a U.S. Army Infantry Company. We were playing war in South Carolina, and had been slogging through the outback of that state for a week or more. Certainly, we had no access to television, and I don’t recall any contact with the outside world via radio either. […]
Yesterday was the opening of the Minnesota State Fair, and like much of Minnesota, my State Fair gene kicks in, and I’ll make my way there, zombie-like, making my usual rounds, having my usual “health foods”, and come home again. It’s an annual ritual. I can’t help myself…. Every two years, coincident with the State […]
August 20 we spent a delightful evening at the Minnesota Orchestra Guarantors Concert at Orchestra Hall. We’re long-time subscribers, so the superb music was no surprise. Beginning Friday night, August 27, 2010, the same Minnesota Orchestra performs in London at the famed BBC Proms – the only American orchestra on this years Proms list. Over […]
Every now and then, if one pays attention, someone wanders into their life and makes a difference just by being who he or she is. For me, one such person is Lynn Elling, Minneapolis, closing in on 90 years young, and 67 years of marriage to Donna. Lots of us want to make a difference. […]
Usually OutsideTheWalls is a sleepy blog hamlet in the blog universe. The two posts about the pullout of American combat troops from Iraq (here and here) excited an unusual amount of comment on my regular list* – over half of the many comments agreeing with me; the other half not. (I have disabled the comment […]
This post relates directly to #227 – The Last Truck Out. My guess is that there are relatively few who truly believe that Perpetual War is the path to Perpetual Peace. Even those who recite the assorted ‘might is right’ mantras probably doubt the wisdom of this position. Tens of millions upon tens of millions […]
Last night about 6:55 p.m. local time I turned on the TV to watch some evening news. Rather than what I expected, I was watching the last combat units pulling out of Iraq into neighboring Kuwait. I sat transfixed by this until near 9 p.m. my time, and (if I recall rightly) 3:53 a.m. local […]
I arrived late for the Dakota County Softball League Championship Picnic on August 17, and as I got out of the car I heard the beginning of the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. I turned around and in front of me was the American flag, backlit by a brilliant sun, and as much instinctively […]
Sunday, August 15, 2010, is the 75th birthday of the signing of the Social Security Act. Actually the day was a Wednesday, and there is more than ample history available at the Social Security website. As a veteran recipient of the benefits of Social Security, and as a contributor to the program for many years […]
Minnesota’s 2010 Primary Election is now history. Let the analysis…and the wars…begin! And there will be wars. The August 10 election had meaning; of course, everyone has the right…and tendency…to attach their own meaning to the results, and will. This includes me. For me, there are essentially three kinds of voters in political elections: those […]