Wannaskan Almanac

     Do you remember those scary rumors that would circulate every few years that the government was going to start charging a penny for each email we sent?  Everyone got mad until the government would affirm (again) that it was not going to charge us for sending emails. But back in the early days of the Internet some of the first web browsers were charging for each page viewed. On this day in 1993, British scientist and inventor of the World Wide Web, Timothy Berner-Lee announced that his system would be free.    To clarify a bit, the Internet and the Web are not the same thing. The Internet is a system of interconnected computer networks. It was developed in the 1960s by the Department of Defense as a way to share computer time. Al Gore is ridiculed for saying he invented the Internet. What he did, as a senator, was sponsor bills that helped make the Internet available to everyone.    The Web is basically a collection of websites stored on compu...

  Confessional   "It had ‘Minnesota’ all over it, and not in ways you might suspect; no signage, no flag, no pebble-sized stepping stones across polyurethane headwaters of the Mississippi."      I said “Hi” to her in Produce between Organics and Salads; she was putting several big white garlic cloves in a bag.      A naturally shy individual, she cordially smiled at me using her eyebrows, then turned toward the bananas and potatoes quickly putting some distance between us for she may have thought there was nothing more to really say.      We were a little more than acquaintances, not exactly friends although I knew her husband and his brother as farmers; their children were about the same as my daughter. They had gone to the same schools.      She was half-way down the condiment aisle when I entered the juice aisle from the wrong direction to get a couple bottles of Low Sodium V-8 and a jar of Smuckers Concord Grape ...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, April 28, 2021, the 17th Wednesday of the year, the sixth Wednesday of spring, and the 118th day of the year, with 247 days remaining. Wannaska Nature Update for April 28, 2021 Some Mourning doves are year-round residents in Wannaska; others migrate annually from the wintering in Texas. They’ve just started singing their morning songs. Doves primarily forage on the ground for the seeds of annual plants. To get the protein the young need, both parents shed the lining of a part of their digestive tract called the crop and regurgitate this to feed the nestlings. This whitish substance is referred to as crop milk. The Mourning dove is the only North American bird that is classified as both songbird and gamebird. Nordhem Lunch : Closed Earth/Moon Almanac for April 28, 2021 Sunrise: 6:08am; Sunset: 8:34pm; 3 minutes, 12 seconds more daylight today Moonrise: 11:05pm; Moonset: 7:09am, waning gibbous, 97% illuminated. Temperature Almanac fo...

The word book can be used many different ways.  I read about it recently...in a book. A bookworm is a person who loves to read books.  I was glad I discovered this, because for the longest time I avoided books because I was afraid there would be worms in them.  Now I avoid books because so many of them are lame. When you hit the books it means you are studying.  Once I dropped a book while studying in bed.  I was left with a black eye from a hitting the books while one was hitting me.   To do something by the book means to rigidly follow the rules for doing something.  For example, when you drive at 55.8 MPH in a 55 MPH zone and you get pulled over and are given a ticket that is going by the book.  If you are doing 64 MPH in a 55 MPH zone and a cop whizzes by you heading for a donut shop, they are not going by the book.  They are just going by. When you borrow a page out of someone's book, you are doing what they would do in a certain si...

Read this poem carefully, please. It is a narrative of an extraordinary experience, and simultaneously a chronicle of the second-most common experience we all share. This event took place decades ago. Events like it take place every day. Yet, their commonness grounds the root of their power. Nothing affects nor changes us so much.  Broken hearts. Broken open hearts. Opposites yet linked events for each of us. “The Priceless Gift.” On the surface, a literal identification of the “gift” appears easy. Below the first layer, however, emotions abide and combine in unpredictable ways. Relief. The loss of will to exist. Honeyed remembrances. Regrets. Pride. Gains from the years past. Losses from those same years. Love and grief combine and avert each other in the aftermath. “Gone, closed, heavy, unsaid, heavy, ominous, black.” Frightening words.  “Light, heart, friends, unchained, rises, bright, priceless gift.” Words of contentment and hope. Do you see the intra-winding? Others gath...

  The body is the rocket The spirit is the fuel That sends the soul into the sky I think that’s really cool “He is , therefore he’s annoying.”        -Mrs. Descartes  You can find love on a dating site or acquaintances on social media.  But friends you must make for yourself.  The efficient hoarder will use the decorations from his fiftieth birthday bash for his golden anniversary party.  Having closure after a tragedy makes things not better, just less bad.  A token female here, a token negro there; How many tokens does it take for them to get a share? Chairman Joe

Hello and welcome to another Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is April 24th. Just like last time I have many smaller stories rather than one big story. For my last post, I talked about how I was only a few weeks into the new trimester, and now that 6 weeks are done, I can say that I’m still going strong. I’m doing well in all 7 classes (even the hard ones) and I’m also managing a couple different extracurricular activities while I’m at it too.  I also talked about how I was on the robotics team, Team F.R.E.D. 2883. Last Saturday, we participated in one of the only FIRST Robotics Competitions in the world, and I’m pleased to say that, despite a lot of good and bad intense moments, we came out with the win. And it was not an easy win either. We entered the quarterfinals in second to last place (22 out of 24 teams) and by pure luck, we got chosen for an alliance. And somehow after that, we performed very well in our matches, with the first quarterfinal match resulting in ...

     By the end of the eighth century A.D. things were getting bad in Scandinavia. There was a shortage of farmland and members of the nobility were taking several wives each. The young Norwegian bachelors jumped in their ships and headed south. They reached England first and then Ireland, France and on up the rivers of Russia. There was no one to stop them from taking what they wanted. They always took a few local women home for wives.    Eventually the Vikings started settling down in the places they had been raiding. Now the Irish are great hosts but they expect their guest to go home. So a campaign was begun to send the Vikings home. But the Vikings didn't want to go home and force had to be used. It all came to a head on this day in 1014 when the Irish King, Brian Boru defeated the Viking forces under the King of Dublin, Sigtrygg Silkbeard and his Irish allies. It was a bloody affair. Seven to ten thousand men were killed including Brian Boru, his son, and ...

   “Bog Brother is Watching You.”   "Thoralf was abreast of the scene with his sample 'bot'ls and tweezers ..."   “Uffda! Lookit dat! I’m t’inkin’ dats udder poop,” exclaimed Thoralf Yohnson, as he unfastened his seatbelt just as their service truck rolled to a stop near the Thief Lake Refuge shelter house. Sven and Ula were hardly out of their doors before Thoralf (pronounced tore-ulf) was abreast of the scene with his sample ‘bot’ls’ and tweezers picking at the multitudes of specimens layered atop one of the three picnic tables there. He immediately began recording his findings with his phone: “Specimen Vun is approximately cylindrical in shape, 2.43 inches long; vun inch in diameter; its ends blunted. It’s dark brown in coloration, vit chalky-vite speckles intermixed derein, enwrappin’ an interior of vat appears to be dry finely chopped vegetable matter, not at all da crayfish bones I expected to find in udder poop. I believe ve ‘ave an unfolding mystery ‘ere ...”...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, April 21, 2021, the 16th Wednesday of the year, the fifth Wednesday of spring, and the 111th day of the year, with 254 days remaining. Wannaska Nature Update for April 21, 2021 The sound of spring has arrived. Nordhem Lunch : Closed. Earth/Moon Almanac for April 21, 2021 Sunrise: 6:21am; Sunset: 8:24pm; 3 minutes, 21 seconds more daylight today Moonrise: 1:22pm; Moonset: 4:20am, waxing gibbous, 59% illuminated. Temperature Almanac for April 21, 2021                 Average            Record              Today High             54                     84           ...

Today we will embark on one of the most amazing literary trips.  No, you will not have to consume some sort of mushroom or smoke some sweet smelling tobacco.  You will just be given the chance to show how smart you are with Wannaskan Almanac trivia.  I am so excited, so let's get right to it. For 100 virtual dollars, who was the first President of the Quaker Oats Company?  If you guessed John Ritter, you would be correct.  John Ritter was part of a presidential trio that ran the company in the 1980's.  You might say they were the Three's Company Leaders. For $200 in virtual cash, when did Napoleon cross the Delaware.  The answer is December 25, 1776.  George Washington smuggled Napoleon ice-cream across the Delaware to hide it from the British.  Later they changed the name using the witness protection program to neopolitan ice cream.   Revolutionary Napoleon Ice Cream For 400 Euros (not real money, there is no such thing), where was...

Ars Poetica #7: Horace – He’s Baaa’ak! Well, write poetry, for God's sake, it's the only thing that matters. e. e. cummings                            I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.   Bob Dylan  I told you that our friend, Horace, and his Ars Poetica would be back. And here he is with continuing advice to writers! This is the seventh post in the series. As we’ve said in past posts, Horace’s purpose in writing Ars Poetica was to provide advice to writers, dramatists, and poets. (Not necessarily in that order.) All breeds of writers have claimed Horace for a couple thousand years, and now these posts make him accessible to you. By now, you can pretty much read and interpret Horace for yourself, even though the exposition of the essay’s topics is rather chaotic, and a multitude of obscure references to gods (and goddesses) and men (and women)...

  Before asking the young how much time they waste on social media, the elder should tally his own hours in front of the big screen Sony. Unleash the rich so they can create more wealth. Which they'll share with the poor by keeping the price of lottery tickets low. Some of us are eye candy. Most of us are heartier fare. The master doesn't revel in his mastery. He's too busy flogging himself for falling short of perfection. Poetry distills reality to its stony essence. Fiction turns it into Cocoa Puffs. The pyramids were politics in stone back when pharaoh was god. Chairman Joe

Hello and welcome to a sunny Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is April 17th. Today, hubby and the teen boys are with Team F.R.E.D (#2883) competing at the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference . This is pretty exciting because last year's robotics season got the kibosh by the you-know-what. Warroad High School consistently turns out strong robotics teams and last year there was legitimate belief and hope that the team had a good chance of making a return appearance at the world championships in Detroit. (The team made it to Worlds in 2019.) I'm at home watching on Twitch, but it's good to see kids' activities getting back to some version of normal, even if they do involve continued social distancing and limited spectators. This year, at least there can: a) be an event, b) have some spectators. Also this past week, our high school announced that prom will happen in May, followed by a safety-sanctioned post-prom party. No news yet on what graduation will lo...