Wannaskan Almanac

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Wannaska World Wednesday, October 31, 2018, brought to you by Northern Lights Family Dentistry, enjoy your Halloween; please brush and floss, responsibly. October 31 is the 304th day of the year, with 61 days remaining until the end of the year, and 152 days remaining until April Fools Day. Nordhem Lunch : Hot ham sandwich with potatoes and gravy Earth/Moon Almanac for October 31, 2018 Sunrise: 8:09am; Sunset: 6:06pm waxing gibbous Temperature Almanac for October 31, 2018            Average      Record       Today High       60              85              39 Low         38              21    ...

It is the day before Halloween.  Halloween, like April Fool's Day and Christmas, has its roots in pagan holidays.  As Homer Simpson would say, God bless those pagans.  This is the 303rd day of 2018.  Depending on what time you are reading this, you have been allotted 435,000 minutes...or 26,100,000 seconds...to accomplish great things, rest, work, relax, sleep, or any other number of things you may have spent your time doing.  Americans spend almost 4 billion dollars on candy every Halloween.  The average trick-or-treater receives about 250 pieces of candy during the evening.  The average parent eats about 240 pieces after the child goes to sleep.  Trick or treating has changed a lot over the years. Starting in Medieval times all the way up to the 1930's (according to Wannaska historian J. McD) children would go door to door on Halloween offering to pray for residents of a house in exchange for rice or soul cakes.  This tradition was broug...

This week, I bring you a lyrical poem, balanced lightly between love and hatred, purity and pollution.  In addition, the poem includes many images of fire and water, somewhat reminiscent of Robert Frost’s excellent little poem, “Fire and Ice.”  Time flows without boundaries from past to future to present, bringing persons and places cascading into a bundle of experiences and memories. This flood of time flows in dreamlike fashion, and if the poem does its work well, draws the reader into the very heart of the narrator. In nautical terms, “reach” means a course farther away from the true wind, in contrast to “beam reach (close in), and to running downwind. In other words, “reach” finds its place more or less in a range of wind angles, and results in a moderate vs. a tight (close-hauled) sail, or a wide-open canvas billowing with the wind behind. Now, you probably didn’t need to know all that, but maybe it helps because the poet was thinking about this moderation ...

In heaven you'll get thanks from those you've been nice to, and make amends to those you've been mean to. Clear writing blazes a trail through the mind's jungle. Clear thinking doesn't always follow. In the mountains and desert, we see nature in her glory. Downtown it's more chopped salad. The paradox of ordering light is you have to eat so much more of it to make up for the loss of flavor. Lemons are squeezed on altogether too many foods. It's an acid. Save it for those tough cleaning jobs around the home.                                                                                  @jmcdonnell123

Good morning and welcome to the Saturday edition of the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is October 27th. No daycare this week which meant getting outdoors and on the road with the Toddler. After a few weeks of wonky weather, Mother Nature blessed us with some sunny skies. Tuesday, we headed over to Thief River Falls and Natural Way Mills . On the return trip, we stopped in Wannaska! "Stopped" is a relative term. As in, stopped to snap this photo. I'm sure all my writerly Wannaskan counterparts felt a little ruffling of their hair as I sailed through their little town, sending them psychic greetings of good will. I drove past the Wannaskan Lutheran church, remembering a wedding I attended there and wondered if their church bazaar from two weeks ago, was a hit. Reminds me of Church Basement Ladies and hotdish. Uff da! If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times - living up here in the northwestern pocket of Minnesota reminds me of my Czech mother-in-law...

     Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday.      On this day in 1609, William Sprague was born in the village of Upwey in Dorset, England. His claim to fame is as co-founder of the town of Charlestown, Massachusetts with his brothers Ralph and Richard in 1634.  I don't have much else on Sprague other than that he left Charlestown two years after founding it for the South Shore town of Hingham, where he was a planter, constable, and fence inspector. I would have passed on, but when I saw that Sprague died on his birthday in 1675, I decided this coincidence earned him a place in the Wannaskan Almanac.      Now back to Charlestown where the real meat lies. Charlestown is part of the City of Boston and lies directly across the Charles River from downtown Boston. When the first Puritan settlers arrived from England in the 1620s, they relied on Thomas Walford to help them negotiate for land with the local Indians. Walford had a mo...

         As fall nears in northwest Minnesota, anyone who hunts (of whom there are many) begin thinking about their favorite hunting seasons. Many prepare by reading hunting magazines in barbershops all across the northland. My barbershop is Brot’s Barber Shop, in Roseau, Minnesota: https://brots-barber-shop.business.site/.           Shawn Broten has a fine selection of outdoor publications at the customer’s disposal in a barbershop built like a comfortable homey den, with local roughsawn wood paneling, knickknack and old beer can collections, antique fishing gear, and likely a few used hockey sticks, pucks, and skates (Hey, this is ROSEAU, MINNESOTA), and an aroma like no other barbershop in the whole state of Minnesota owing to his wife’s barbecue business on the other side of the wall, “Kate’s Kitchen.’ https://kateskitchenmn.com/ , complete with a drive-up window.        ...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Wannaska World Wednesday, October 24, 2018, brought to you by Johnnies Cafe, 304 Main Ave N, Thief River Falls, MN 56701. Do the dumplings! October 24 is the 297th day of the year, with 68 days remaining until the end of the year, and 159 days remaining until April Fools Day. Nordhem Lunch : Swedish Meatballs Earth/Moon Almanac for October 24, 2018 Sunrise: 7:58am; Sunset: 6:18pm Moonrise: 6:47pm; Moonset: 7:35am, full moon Temperature Almanac for October 24, 2018             Average      Record      Today High        62               85             52 Low         41                19...

October 23 is the 298th day of 2018.  There are 69 days remaining until the end of the year.  Today in history: 42 BC--The Second Battle of Philippi.  Brutus was defeated by Octavian and Marc Antony.  You can watch a video about that here .  1981 AD--U.S. national debt hits 1 trillion dollars.  1993 AD--Joe Carter hits a game winning home run against the Phillies.  Tag them all, Joe was coined at the time. Famous Birthdays: 1869 AD  John Heisman (the Heisman trophy in college football is named after him).  He also invented the forward pass in football.   1940 AD  Pele (aka Edson Arantes do Nascimento) was born in Brazil.  You can see some highlights from his career here .  Your funny quote of the day comes from unknown.  Unknown is known to have written many funny quotes.  "I used to think I was indecisive, but now I am not too sure." There are no major American holidays or observances for October 23....

This is Part II of a two-part poem. Part I appeared a week ago , 15 October. Two of the chief characteristics of England are its rains and its ever-shifting light. This is a country that lives by and for the sea. This part of the poem probably makes it evident that I’m remembering not only the country, but also a particular Englishman. You may get to know him a bit here, as well as his country. The Half Light of England – II                                     The half light of England – roses droop under rain                                     Morning twilight – stems sag to ground, petals drop     ...