Wannaskan Almanac

     Chairman Joe here. Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday.      On this day in 1803, Spain gave the Louisiana Territory back to France. Yikes! So Roseau County where I live in Northwestern Minnesota was once part of Spain? Now I'll have to get a Spanish flag to go with the French and British flags I was already flying beside the Ojibwa, Sioux, and Mandan flags honoring the tribes who left their archeological remains here. (Only the Ojibwa remain, camped by the banks of their casino east of Warroad.)      It turns out France had given Louisiana to Spain forty years previous to compensate her for losing Florida during the French and Indian War (1756-63). France was always dragging a reluctant Spain into wars against Britain. Spain had once been the superpower of Europe, but had lost steam by the 1700s and let France push her around. Louisiana was a white elephant back then, so France wasn't giving up much. Besides, France k...

Wannaska weather for Thursday Nov 29, 2018     A little snow at times, accumulating a coating to an inch     Chance for more than 3 inches: 17%     Chance for less than 1 inches: 29%     Winds from the     SSW 7 mph     Gusts: 10 mph     Max UV Index: 0 (Low)     Thunderstorms: 0%     Precipitation: 0.06 in     Rain: 0 in     Snow: 0.8 in     Ice: 0 in     Hours of Precipitation: 7 hrs     Hours of Rain: 0 hrs An assortment of data on or about November 29: 1803 - U.S.A. -- The Louisiana Purchase Louisiana which was much larger than just Louisiana and included all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, plus part of what are now Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Louisiana. It was bought from France in 18...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, November 28, 2018, brought to you by the Wannaskan Almanac Logo Contest. Our 1-year anniversary is rapidly approaching, and we will commemorate this auspicious event by featuring the winning submission on our home page. Please submit your original logo art to our Graphic Arts Department at palmvillepublishing@wiktel.com. No more than 50 entries per reader, please. November 28 is the 332nd day of the year, with 33 days remaining until the end of the year, 124 days remaining until April Fools Day, and 1,182 days until February 22, 2022, a Tuesday. Nordhem Lunch : Swedish Meatballs Earth/Moon Almanac for November 28, 2018 Sunrise: 7:52am; Sunset: 4:32pm Moonrise: 10:37pm; Moonset: 12:45pm, waning gibbous Temperature Almanac for November 28, 2018            Average      Record     Today High       44    ...

Hi there, Wannaskan Almanac reader.  I am here to console you.  I know that you ate too much on Thursday, then spent too much on Friday, then slept too much on Saturday, then ate too much leftovers on Sunday, and then spent too much again on Monday.  That is what I did anyway.  So here it is...Tuesday...and you and I have nothing but regret...and a few extra pounds and a lot less in savings. There is hope though!  There is still that magical, whimsical holiday coming.  We can put up lights and decorate trees and bake cookies for your favorite Wannaskan Almanac writer!  So cheer up, little buckaroo...Christmas is coming and it is coming for you! Today in history: 176   Emperor Marcus Aurelius grants his son Commodus the rank of Imperator and makes him Supreme Commander of the Roman legions.   I have never considered the name Commodus for anyone.   Insert bathroom joke here. 1703   The first Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed i...

Many of you have no doubt read or heard about today’s poem: “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. A method in my madness brings Yeats’ poem to you following last week’s poem, “ Last Time Unknown .” In no way do I compare myself with Yeats; however, I noticed that my recent poem bears some modest resemblance to Yeats’ work. Again, I am not putting myself even in the same breath as this giant of poetry; I simply noticed an echo down the decades between his poem and mine – a meek echo to be sure, but none the less, a whisper of similarity. Now that I’ve put forth my humility in offering Yeats’ work, let’s have a look at a couple of “echoes” between Yeats’ masterpiece and my attempt to capture some of the same themes. First, “things fall apart; the centre cannot hold,” says in a few words what “Last Time Unknown” takes much longer to say with its images of things ending; yet, the point is the same – no matter how hard we try to construct certainty in our lives, this certainty “...

Do trigger warnings themselves trigger the feelings they're meant to warn against? With each new year my mind becomes more cluttered. But the cure would be like a surgeon operating on himself. Taoism was the antidote to Confucianism's rules, regs, and wrong turns. Christianity lacks such an antidote. Unless it's Taoism. Chart and compass point sternly to the icy sea of Humility. While the tropic isle of Arrogance sings to us so beautifully. You know yourself how wonderful you are, but your hostess has not read the book. However, she has done the math. Time for you to go.                                                                            @jmcdonnell123

Good morning and welcome to another Saturday edition of the Wannaskan Almanac where we bring you all the local news and flavor. You betcha! Today is November 24th, aka the last Saturday of this November, the first Saturday post-Thanksgiving and Small Business Saturday. Thanksgiving was about as low key as you could get for us. We spent the day with a family friend at his house, lounging and eating pizza and pie. I read a whole book. I did NO cooking. It was awesome. Today is Small Business Saturday. Happy SBS! Wannaska is a small town. And the Wannaskan region is peppered with small towns. From my own house, the nearest big town is 2.5 hours in any direction. (Okay, full dis!nd impressive to make the aforementioned claim "the nearest big town is 2.5 hours in any direction.") Anywho, this Small Business Saturday stuff is a big deal. Especially where we live. According to this article,  Why Small Business Is Important to the Economy (Source: Salt Lake City Bookkee...

     Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Fat Friday.       Warning: this post contains disturbing material.      On this day in 1910 Johan Alfred Ander became the last person executed in Sweden. He was the first and last person to be executed by Sweden's new guillotine, imported from France. Previously, condemned prisoners had been beheaded manually.      Ander had started life well. After completing his military service, he got married and bought a hotel, but the hotel did not do well. He reportedly drank excessively and beat his wife, neither of which is good for business.      He became a petty thief and spent time in prison. In 1909 he and his wife moved into his parents house on an island near Stockholm. Not thinking clearly, he robbed a money exchange office in Stockholm and beat the clerk so severely she later died. The staff at his hotel near the exchange agency told police Ander had been actin...

     We were sitting lazily in the front room on Monday evening. The snow covered ground cast a bluish pallor to the landscape except where the grass has been exposed by deer feeding in the yard at night. Several of them dine here within view of the house and earshot of the TV as my wife watches her shows. She says they seem to be comforted by it somehow.       I looked out the west door window at the beautiful sunset of parallel purple and gold and pale blue sky and thought I should go outdoors to see it, but was just as content not to, having spent so much of my time outdoors, morning, noon and night, these past weeks of firearm deer season in Minnesota.       Hunting gets me outdoors as it does hundreds of other individuals across the north country. I am attune to what is going on around me when I’m standing, rather still, in an enclosed wooden box on ten-foot high stilt-like legs in the woods waiting to see a d...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, November 21, 2018, brought to you by Stejně Jako Doma Custom Catering, providing elegant food and conference services expertly tailored to the individual needs of the most discriminating Roseau County clients, Zdenka and Jirí Johnson, proprietors. The Stejně Jako Doma traveling restaurant makes your home an oasis of peace and a repository of the finest in Czech food tastes with old-world service. Sachertorte? To die for! Czechs Welcome; No checks. By appointment only: www.StejněJakoDomaJohnson.com. November 21 is the 325th day of the year, with 40 days remaining until the end of the year, 131 days remaining until April Fools Day, and 1,190 days until February 22, 2022. Nordhem Lunch : Hot Beef Earth/Moon Almanac for November 21, 2018 Sunrise: 7:42am; Sunset: 4:38pm Moonrise: 4:16pm; Moonset: 5:26am, waxing gibbous The full moon tomorrow is known as the Beaver Moon , in honor of Beaver Township, Roseau County. Temperature Alm...