Wannaskan Almanac

Good morning and welcome to another Saturday edition of Wannaskan Almanac. Today is September 22nd.

While in the Twin Cities this last weekend, we had a chance to stop by the Czech and Slovak Cultural Festival in St. Paul. On our way down the freeway, upon hearing we were going to the Sokol hall, i.e. where the kids attended Czech camp two years ago, the first grader said, "Agh. I hate that place!"

The little city block and parking lot were packed with booths, vendors, performers and guests. It was a chance for hubby to connect with his compatriots, for me to speak some rusty Czech, for the little ones to burn some energy in the bouncy castle and for the teenagers to discuss in earnest just how uncool adults (especially their parents) can be.

But she who laughs last, laughs best. Who do you think wins the 50 crown bill look-a-like contest?





Here are some more photos of the fun things we did and saw. By the time we left, the kids actually admitted to liking it (a bit). Even L…

    Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday.

     On this day in 1904, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce died on the Colville Reservation in northeast Washington. He was 64. Joseph is famous for resistance to the forced removal of his people from their ancestral lands. We all understand now that the U.S. treated the Indians unfairly, but to quote President Kennedy, "Who said life was fair?" or something to that effect.
    Chief Joseph has become an icon wrapped in myth, and buried beneath  a pile of dramatic reenactments. Joseph had the misfortune to live during the coming of the farmer. White traders and explorers had been passing through his lands for over a century. They were not a problem. In fact they brought valuable products of civilization: guns, iron pots, whisky.... But the farmers lusted after  the land of the aborigines. They ordered their congressmen to relocate the Indians somewhere out of sight.
     As tribes around him were forced onto reservations, Joseph…

The other morning, in my subconscious pre-awakening sleep, the names of two Northern Cheyenne leaders came into my head. I struggled remembering one, because of its similarities to a Dakota leader Little Crow, the name of Northern Cheyenne leader Little Wolf was confusing to me at that time of morning. The indecisiveness made me get up out of bed to clear my mind. Why these names surfaced in my sleep was curious to me, but not unusual.

   It’s not so strange of me to think about things that happened over one hundred years ago, because I read a lot. I’m very much interested in Native history, in part because I’m interested in American history and in part because I have Native relatives, one of whom is my 8-year old grandson, Ozaawaa, an Ojibwe boy living on the Red Cliff Reservation in northwest Wisconsin.


   Ozaawaa isn’t Northern Cheyenne, although from what I understand Ojibwemowin (Ojibwe language) and Tsėhésenėstsestȯtse or Tsisinstsistots, the Cheyenne language are both Algonqui…

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Wannaska World Wednesday, September 19, 2018.

September 19 is the 262 day of the year, with 103 days remaining until the end of the year, and 194 days remaining until April Fools Day.

Nordhem Lunch: Swedish Meatballs

Earth/Moon Almanac for September 19, 2018
Sunrise: 7:06am; Sunset: 7:29pm
Moonrise: 5:11pm; Moonset: 1:20am, waxing gibbous

Temperature Almanac for September 19, 2018
             Average      Record     Today
High         76               91            64
Low          53               32           42

September 19 Local News Headline
Warroad Police Toilet Stolen: Cops Have Nothing To Go On

September 19 Celebrations from National Day Calendar National Butterscotch Pudding DayTalk Like A Pirate DaySeptember 19 Riddle-Pun
Why do forklift operators hate puns?*

September 19 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day 1838 Ephraim Morris patents railroad brake1854 Henry Meyer patents sleeping rail car1893 New Zealand becomes…

Only nine years from today...that will be a memorable date.  9/18/27...if you are a math person you see the pattern there.  Hopefully that date is a Tuesday and I can share multiple stories with you about how fascinating that date is!
I can't believe that it has been over a month since I published a word of the day.  In order to make sure I don't forget about it today, I will excitedly tell you that today's words (yes, I said words) begin with X.  You will get two words that you can use if you are a Scrabble enthusiast.  They are two letters long, and will get you out of that jam that you are often in at the end of the game.  The words are Xu and Xi.  Xu is the former monetary unit of Vietnam.  Xi is the fourteenth letter of the Greek alphabet.  XuXi is a Vietnamese rapper who wears a golden chain with a dollar sign on it.  He only sings in Greek.  Okay, that isn't true, but it should be.

Today in history:


1709 - The creator of the first dictionary of the English lang…

What beliefs do you hold most true? Have you thought about this? We all operate from hour to hour based on our deepest beliefs – some about grandly important matters; some trivial and malleable.
Have you ever had one of your most cherished beliefs challenged, or even shattered? The certainty of love returned? The on-going existence of a child? Death coming unexpectedly? The times when beliefs break and fragment comprise the bedrock of the poem below.
Cascade
                                                Seven years stand atop decades hardness                                                 Now, stepping off the cliff into darkness                                                             rolling off the sharp edge                                                             plummeting into freefall                                                                         cascading flesh along the wall                                                                         the avalanche of …