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Wannaskan Almanac for September 21, 2021 Lightning Up the Skies

It just dawned on me that the Wannaskan Almanac Hollywood edition that was published on September 2, 2010 was actually named Beverly Hills 9/02/10. I think a former TV show owes us some royalties. I always wondered where they got that name. As an independently wealthy Almanac writer, I don't really feel the need to pursue this legal action. Money really doesn't mean anything to me anymore. My piggy bank is already full of pennies. Should have gone with the blue whale bank...more room for my brand of common sense! Snapped a pretty neat lightning picture the other day. What does the lightning look like to you? Some have said an angel, a tree, and a guy playing a violin. On the prairies we often have cloudbursts like the one above. Many times you can see the rain falling off in the distance, often to the chagrin of a farmer in need of moisture. It is almost like it is that guy 30 miles away who gets all the rain. This link has a lot of really amazing weather pics.

20 Sept 2021 Guest Poet: Threa Almontaser

Threa Almonster – A Voice from the Middle East By turns aggressively reckless and fiercely protective, always guided by faith and ancestry, Threa Almontaser’s incendiary debut ( The Wild Fox of Yemen ) asks how mistranslation can be a form of self-knowledge and survival. A love letter to the country and people of Yemen, a portrait of young Muslim womanhood in New York after 9/11, and an extraordinarily composed examination of what it means to carry in the body the echoes of what came before, Almontaser’s polyvocal collection sneaks artifacts to and from worlds, repurposing language and adapting to the space between cultures. Speakers move with the force of what cannot be contained by the limits of the American imagination, and instead invest in troublemaking and trickery, navigate imperial violence across multiple accents and anthems, and apply gang signs in henna, utilizing any means necessary to form a semblance of home. In doing so, The Wild Fox of Yemen – from which the poems belo

The Queen of Sad Mischance

We love watching the Royals. We envy their lives of splendor and indulge our contempt for their fecklessness. Of course some of them are admirable. I can think of King Alfred the Great (848-899), and in our own day, Queen Elizabeth II. But many of them, such as Queen Isabella II of Spain, cause us to shake our heads in wonder. A king used to be like a father. He had absolute power over his people. Then parliaments sprang up, which divided power, as in a marriage. America divorced its king in 1776. Any royals that remain today are treated like mildly demented grandparents. Isabella became Queen of Spain at the age of two after the death of her father. Her uncle was opposed to a female ruler and led a series of civil wars. Little Isabella with her mother's guidance and the support of the army won out. Isabella became effective queen when she turned 13 in 1843. Her supporters, the Liberals, demanded and got a transition from absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.

Robin Hood Retold

Hello and welcome to a crisp, sunny fall Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is September 18th. Happy Pub Day to my writer peep Margaret McNellis who releases her debut novel, The Red Fletch , today! A Robin Hood retelling, this book has been praised as "a solid debut, likely to capture younger audiences and adults alike" by Reedsy reviewer Beatrice Grasso. More from Grasso: " The Red Fletch is a gorgeous retelling of the well-known Robin Hood legend, looking at the famous outlaw through the eyes of a young woman desperate to fight for her family. This book takes a beloved legend and turns it into a highly original and engaging story, full of twists and turns. The characters we all know and love, like Robin and Marian, Little John, Friar Tuck and the Merry Many (not just men!), are all there, and are joined by an impressive original cast that will be hard to forget. Alys is a fantastic main character, full of spirit and wit, not afraid to go against the li

Happy Birthday Brother

Today is the 70th birthday of my brother Steve. Between Steve and me is our brother Bill. After Steve comes Mark, followed by Mary-Jo. Steve's formative years coincided with the Centennial of the American Civil War. Steve has a natural bent towards history and he imprinted on the War durning the four years of its commemoration. At age twelve or so Steve convinced our parents to take him on a tour of the Gettysburg Battlefield. We never went anywhere in those days, so this trip from Boston to Pennsylvania said a lot about Steve's passion. Our parents took Mark along on the trip while Bill and I stayed home with our grandmother. Steve picked up a few artifacts at souvenir shops near the battlefield, but regretted he could not afford a musket. A hundred dollars was beyond his or our parent's means. The story my mother told about the tour occurred at a ma and pa restaurant in Pennsylvania. After taking their breakfast order, ma called out to pa, "These boys talk li

Could Use A Little Rain Hereabouts “Least somethin’s growin’,” I said as I walked the struggling food plot. “Not sure what it all is, but it’s better’n nothin’... "Like to see a couple inches of rain over night too,” I added hopefully, looking to the darkening clouds in the southwest. It was starting to rain and I was glad about it for if there was one thing we needed in Palmville above all others, it was rain. I just had to look at a small section of the southwest-to-northeast, half-mile long food plot, among several other smaller food plots, that I initiated in April. I started spraying to control weeds I found a guy on-line: Jeff Stergis of Whitetail Habitat Solutions , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE98PnALU8M that has been doing food plots, for deer, for over 25 years. With over 160,000 subscribers it seems he has struck a chord with a good many deer hunters, including myself. Best of all, he knows the northern tie

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Word-Wednesday for September 22, 2021