Wannaskan Almanac

They built a road into the place where once I bloomed unseen. Now I have dandy job keeping restrooms clean. New York: the city that never sleeps. We have insomniacs in my village too. I'm still able to add one more pushup to my regime. One day I'll be forced to remove that one. We may be entering a cashless society, but your server will not object to a paperbound twenty. I've adjusted to walking backwards into the future. Attempts at correction led to open manholes and ditch dives. Ritual keeps the secret alive, till the secret gets lost in the incense.                                                                   @jmcdonnell123

Hello and welcome to another Saturday at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is the last Saturday in September. Can you believe it? This month has been a scramble, a shock to the system, as our family has tried to find our footing in Ordinary Time (i.e. that period September - May, aka the school year.) I think we are finally making progress. The kitchen counter is cleared off. Winter is laying an icy hold on autumn, which honestly feels a bit unfair. I made Rough Rider Chili this week with hubby's homebrewed beer. This is a tried-and-true recipe that's a hit with the kids, even with the beer. How did you do getting back into the swing of things in your home? Yesterday was September 28th, the Feast Day of St. Vaclav (Wenceslas) - Father of Czech Lands. "On September 28 in the year 935 A.D. (some sources say earlier, in 929), Czech Prince Wenceslas of the Přemyslid dynasty, was murdered in the town of Staré Boleslav, the victim of a plot orchestrated by his treache

     Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday.       On this day in 1924, three U.S. Army Air Service planes landed in Seattle, completing the first aerial circumnavigation of the world. Four planes, named after the cities of Seattle, Chicago, Boston and New Orleans, had left Seattle the previous April 6, headed for Alaska.      The plane Seattle needed some final repairs and took off late. While trying to catch up, it crashed in the fog onto a mountain in Alaska. The crew survived, but now they were down to three aircraft. These three were attempting to travel over 27,000 miles. For reference, the Wright Brothers' first flight, 21 years earlier, had travelled just 120 feet.      These were biplanes, modified DT-2 torpedo bombers, designed and built by Davis-Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica, California. They were fitted with wheels or pontoons for landing. Instead of bombs, they had fuel tanks. Spare engines, replacement wings, and fuel were cached along the proposed rout

    For years I’ve often listened to MPR broadcasts when I’m working outdoors on home projects, preferring good talks or lectures, or programs dealing with human interaction, humorous or intellectual, anything that doesn’t offend my intelligence, and yet, on occasion, I enjoy good 7th grade humor programs that do, examples of which I can’t name right now.     Downright silly programs, like “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me” don’t get any playtime on my truck radio, but “The Moth Radio Hour” and “RadioLab” have found a niche in my interests.     My eldest sister tried to turn me onto “A Prairie Home Companion” back in the day, but it wasn’t for many years afterward that I did start listening and enjoying the programming. I looked forward to listening to those weekend broadcasts as I worked among the tree rows or was just sprawled in my pickup about sunset on quiet evenings, a beer and notepad within reach.     Before MPR, I listened to CBC from Winnipeg around the clock, beginning on my ear

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Wannaska World Wednesday, September 26, 2018, brought to you by Buckskin Bridal Boutique, Uptown Grygla. Check out our "Ride'm Cowgirl!" line of honeymoon tack for your stallion-to-be. September 26 is the 269 day of the year, with 96 days remaining until the end of the year, and 187 days remaining until April Fools Day. Nordhem Lunch : Hot Pork Sandwich Banned Books Week, Must Read : Ulysses , by James Joyce Earth/Moon Almanac for September 26, 2018 Sunrise: 7:16am; Sunset: 7:14pm Moonrise: 8:21pm; Moonset: 8:40am, waning gibbous Temperature Almanac for September 26, 2018            Average      Record      Today High       74               92              57 Low        51               32              40 September 26 Local News Headline Warroad Farmer Assaults Neighbor With Milk and Cheese: How Dairy! September 26 Celebrations from National Day Calendar National Dumpling Day [a big day for the Chairman] Natio

There is nothing special about today.  An exhaustive search resulted in finding no holidays or special days celebrated in America today.  This left me with two options...make up a holiday or proceed onto other topics.  So, in honor of National Orthodontists Thyroid Health In Northern Guatemala day, I will skip on to other things. Did you realize that it is only three months to Christmas.  I know that because I started to see Christmas shopping items in our local store.  They were slightly obstructed by Halloween candy and costumes, but they were there. If it was up to my daughter, we would put our Christmas tree up as soon as we start to see Christmas items in the store, but we...I mean she...was overruled by my wife. The word of the day starts with Y.  Logically, the only word I could commit to was yogic.  There were other words that made the finals, like yogini and yusho, but I couldn't get past the logic of yogic.  Yogic means pertaining to yoga, such as Yoda and Yogi wer

Here we have another metaphorical poem for the pleasure of your unpacking – another story from the void of meaning. Ready for the ride? Also, for this week, for your intellectual, pleasure, the Almanac presents a fairly technical poem. Of course, you may wish to enjoy the poem on its own merit (or lack thereof). But for those inclined to the technical, here are some items to consider: 1.    As with several previous poems, this is a work of metaphor. The metaphor images are clear, but the meaning – well . . . not so much – that is, unless you happen to have experienced what the narrator of the poem has. We sincerely hope not. 2.    With a few exceptions, the stanzas are composed of 8 lines. Consider the stanzas that don’t follow this pattern – there is a reason for each divergence. 3.    Unless the poet miscounted, each line has 10 syllables, but not in iambic pentameter. Thus, the poem has characteristics of blank verse. 4.    Notice that the first two stanzas have two left “justifie

"Everyone's doing it," is a fine excuse. Even the lonely saint gets support from an invisible crowd. Love the body? Hate the body? Let's not get too hung up on our means of conveyance. Everyone mocks the idiot savant, but I'll take him any day over the idiot non-savant. Is a cliché still a bad thing if Shakespeare used it first? The lover knows the game is up if all the flower petals are the "she hates me, she hates me not" kind. All grandparents love their grandchildren and think them special, while under their breath muttering, "But mine really are."       The trouble with eating healthy is that there's no room left for all the junk food that makes life worth living.                                                                                       @jmcdonnell123

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 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, J

   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. Ojibwe powwow dancer    Ozaawaa isn’t Northern Cheyenne, although from what I understand Ojibwemowin (Ojibwe language) and Tsėhésenėstsestȯtse or Tsisinstsistots, the Cheyenn