Wannaskan Almanac

I went out for breakfast the other day up in Minnesota.  The cafe I ate at did not have waffles.  I wanted waffles, but no luck.  So I split a meal of pancakes, eggs, sausage, and hashbrowns with my sister.  I should have known better.  Even half of that order was too much food...and I had been eating rhubarb the day before.  I wasn't quite finished when a pressure in my bowels sent me scuttling toward the bathroom.  And what a bathroom it was!  I have never seen one like it.   Before we get into the pictures, I do have to say that using bathrooms in unfamiliar locations can be a scary experience.  I have dealt with doors that don't quite shut.  I have seen bathrooms that haven't been cleaned since the Carter administration.  I have witnessed empty toilet paper rolls and paper towel dispensers.  I have even seen a bathrom that was just a hole in the floor over an empty space (ah...Mexico!) so I thought I had seen it a...

I have friends who bake for pleasure. They try complicated recipes like cookie bars with shortbread crusts. They add caramel and chocolate layers. I’ve seen them throw in a layer of jam for good measure. Ganache. Mousse. These are construction jobs that require patience and skill.  Take people who make focaccia bread! Chairman Joe, for instance. I love focaccia, all that chewy goodness - the salted olive oil. I watched him make it and it seemed easy. Truth is, when I tried it burned. ​What does baking for pleasure have to do with writing? In a way, a blank sheet and a clean counter are springboards. Both activities produce something new from what are otherwise disparate nothings. I’ve always been a lover of stories, and recently read a novel that was so good I didn’t want it to end. I fell in love with the characters and couldn’t believe the level of care the author brought to her plot. As a former high school English teacher, this is certainly not the first time it has happened, b...

  The Palmville Globe Volume 2 Number 24 Man Repairs A/C Unit Joe McDonnell, 79 and a resident of Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently repaired the air conditioner in the guest room in his son's house. "We had arrived at our son's house while he was out of town," McDonnell tells the press. "It was during a heat wave and he had ordered a stand alone a/c unit for our room and asked us to install it, which we did. Instead of using clamps to hold the clothes dryer style vent tube in place, we had to first screw the tube into the back of the a/c then stretch the tube out and screw it into the window outlet. The a/c did its job until the early morning of the third day when the tube popped off the window outlet, circulating hot air into the room. I shut the a/c off and in the morning we screwed the tube back into the outlet." In a later communication, McDonnell says he saw no practical way to make a permanent fix to the tube falling out problem. "It rained that ...

Hello and welcome to a sweltering Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is July 11. The Youngest, aka WAKWIR 2.0, and his cast mates wrapped up a stellar week of performances in Newsies Jr . This kid musical tells the story of the great strike of newspaper boys in 1899, when publisher Mr. Pulitzer decides to raise the price of papers the newsies must pay to sell them from 50 cents to 60 cents for a 100-paper bundle.  "It's about how rich people can't exploit children," the Youngest explained. "And that, just because you're rich doesn't mean you can take advantage of people. Especially kids." And it's based on a true story. The true part was enough to pique my husband's curiosity. "Is this THE Pulitzer? As in Pulitzer-Prize Pulitzer?" Google, google, google..... Yes it is. Biography of Joseph Pulitzer | The Pulitzer Prizes https://share.google/tguHj1gRzg1eBRWBQ https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/blast-from-the-past-newsboy-strik...

     It's convenient that our three sons all live in the same area south of Boston, but it's tricky to visit all three of them on the same trip because every two weeks they go to work for two weeks. They all work for the same tugboat company but their two weeks hitches overlap and it's rare that all three are home at the same time. To complicate matters, once a year they'll work three weeks on three weeks off to adjust the schedule so no one has to work six Christmases in a row.    This schedule used to drive my mother "Coo-coo" and she only had two sons working on the tugs. We plan our trips at the point of overlap to be sure we see all three sons. This June we arrived at our youngest son Ned's home in Marshfield. Our oldest son Matt was also home and the middle son, Joe would be home in a week when his brothers will be gone to work.     Ned turned 40 in May. He was adamant he didn’t want a party so his wife Victoria had to plan a secret party, k...

Looking for a pen during my stay at Hilton: Garden Inn, in Des Moines/Urbandale, Iowa, on this recent 4th of July 2026 road trip with my daughter, BJ, and her family, I awaited the arrival of two old old terribly old friends who I hadn't seen in real time for over two decades: 'Jeff' from where we used to live on Des Moines' East side; and 'Kerry,' an even older friend whom I met way back in 'Middle School,' in Minnesota-speak, (or as Des Moines locals call it, 'Junior High.') and their car driver, Kerry's son Pat, who I hadn't seen in the flesh for nearly four.  Arranging an early morning meeting around his son's busy social schedule, Kerry asked Pat to drive him; and Jeff, who they would have to pick up first, then me, for an early morning breakfast at the Cozy Cafe , in nearby Johnston. Kerry told me he estimated they'd arrive around 8:20 am to 8:30 am. I didn't sleep very well. Truth was, I couldn't get my cellphone ...