Wannaskan Almanac

     In February, 2013 a meteor exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in the southern Ural Mountains. Scientists at the time were watching a different meteor that was passing close to the Earth. No one was aware of the Chelyabinsk meteor because it came from the direction of the sun.     The 60 feet in diameter, 10,000 ton meteor exploded about 25 miles south of the city center at a height of 18 miles. At that height, most of its force of the explosion was absorbed by the atmosphere. Still, the blast wave injured 15,000 people in the region, mostly from window glass, and damaged 7,200 buildings.    There are a dozen excellent videos of the meteor streaking across the sky, mostly from dashboard cameras. Most drivers in Russia have dash cams to support their accident claims in the corrupt traffic courts. As the videos were studied, scientists warned that we had better improve our methods of detecting meteors or else we could go the way of th...

The Evaporation of Inga Einarsdottir Part 2 “Fictional characters are creative composites of several people." --WW     The next RAVEN story that the fictional character Inga Einarsdottir Josephson was featured in was Volume 6 issue 4 of THE RAVEN: Northwest Minnesota’s Original Art, History & Humor Journal, 2002, titled, “Ula & Sven’s Road Trip To Tuff Rubber Balls.”         On Page 10, second paragraph, Inga is re-introduced as fictional character Ula Josephson’s wife. Readers learn that Inga thought rather ill of Ula’s friend and neighbor, Sven Guyson and his fondness of beer, although she nor Ula were complete teetotalers themselves.     “Sven and Ula were returning home to Palmville from Tuff Rubber Balls, Minnesoter, er Thief River Falls, Minnesota, where they had picked up some free food plot seed from a deer hunters association. Sven had read about that free distribution of corn, grass, sunflower, and sugar beet see...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for June 28, 2023, the twenty-sixth Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of summer, and the one-hundred seventy-ninth day of the year, with one-hundred eighty-six days remaining.   Wannaska Phenology Update for June 28, 2023 Loon Hatch Loons, Minnesota's state bird, are members of the genus Gavia , family Gaviidae and order Gaviiformes /ˈɡæ-vi-ɪfɔːr-miːz/. They lay and incubate their eggs in May or early June, building nests in vegetation on the edge of an island, bog mat, log, or even on a large rock so that they can slip quietly into the water if danger threatens. Momma loon lays one or two (rarely three) 3-4 inches long, oval, olive-green to brown eggs. Should you venture to Hayes Lake any time soon, you might see something like this: photo by Pam Shaw June 28 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special : Potato Dumpling June 28 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch : Updated daily by 11:00am, usually. Earth/Moon Almanac for June 28, 2...

I probably should have just stayed home on June 13.  13 is unlucky, right?  But fishermen are not concerned with things like luck or weather conditions or sunscreen.  So I headed out. I did not take pictures of my fishing trip.  Most of them would have been indecent.  Still a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day of work is the saying.  This day, however, was slightly better than an infected hangnail.  The pictures I will be posting are ones that I took after I got back to land. The Warroad Dock I started to launch my boat at around 7:30.  I like to fish alone.  That way my wife can't out fish me. It is a little more difficult to launch my boat when I am doing it alone.  I thought it would be enough to have the rope tied to the front of the boat and stuck in my tailgate.  I backed up and then froze as I saw the rope pull through the tailgate and drop into the water.  Luckily the wind was blowing the boat out or it ...

AT WAR WITH THE FACE IN THE MIRROR You know this war intimately. You fight it every day. We all do. Never mind the praying Buddhist monk or the Madonna with child. Truth to tell, being human, they aren’t as serene as they appear. Think of Jesus Christ throwing the money lenders out of the Temple. Righteous anger or barely controlled rage?  Being at war with the face in the mirror has primitive roots. No mirrors in in primal times, of course, but who knows how many times a prehistoric person pondered the face reflected in a clear pool. Who knows, indeed? Based on how often we glance at ourselves or wonder about the “stranger” looking out from the glass, it would seem that we must be attracted to this internal battle (and peacemaking) that is almost certainly hard-wired into our biology.   And so, the war rages and our self-peacemaking punctuates our internal battles as we stare into our own eyes and ask, “What is this?” Even better, try staring at a blank wall and making the ...

  If a telescope or a microscope came to life, they would have to be led around by the hand, not because their vision was poor, but because it’s too good.  The English language is like French wine added to German beer—then shaken not stirred.  The Gordian knot resulted from leaving too many workarounds in place.  Those who love having options must prepare themselves for the doozie down the road.  It takes a village to raise even the village idiot.  If it’s wobbly, liberals add more legs to the table. Conservatives take legs away. The diplomat slips in a wedge to make it stable At some point in every old timer’s yarn, there must appear the words, “there weren’t any cell phones back then”. Mansplainers, manspreaders: they’re from the same tree.  Manspreaders, mansplainers: thank God there’s not three.  It takes a truly awesome clutterer to make a McMansion a home.  The power lines that run over town and country are as aesthetically pleasing as ...

Hello and welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac: “Gettin' Hitched is a Cinch”.  Today is June 24th.   Last Thanksgiving (2022), I was pleasantly surprised by my niece and soon-to-be-nephew (Maggie & Ryan) when they asked me to be the Officiant for their wedding. Yes, you heard that right, they asked moi!  Granted, I can speak in front of people and have a good suit of clothes but the significance of the “ask” surprised me.  When Maggie and Ryan made their engagement announcement I suspected I might be thrown some “bone” such as being an usher but never thought I’d play a central role as Officiant!  A high honor indeed!  Later I thought: “Like the dog who caught the car; now that you have it, what are you going to do next”?  Can’t let go; can’t lose it either. The Back Story: We were at my sister’s house on the Friday after Thanksgiving enjoying some leftovers.  Parties present were my wife Carol, my sister, brother, nephew and Maggie ...

     Over seven thousand people responded recently to the NY Time’s question: How did you lose your religion? I didn’t try to respond as I read the summary article and the many comments, because these people had good reasons for abandoning the religion of their childhood.     I wondered how many would respond to the question: Why did you stay with your religion?     Religion is the search to make sense of our condition. Our condition is one of ignorance about the meaning of all this. Also, we have bodies to care for. Religion tries to provide answers. People choose the religion that makes the most sense based on their own condition. For many, that means no religion at all.      I like old places with lots of nooks and crannies, so Catholicism appeals to me. I grew up with it so there’s that too. My parents favored it and the Church educated me, all points in its favor. I took a year's sabbatical from the Church and had a dalliance with ...

    Part 1: The Introduction:         The introduction of Inga Einarsdottir as a character in the Sven & Ula story series, as The High Point Boys , began in ‘Rural Roads’ newspaper published by Rural Road Press, a now-defunct newspaper publisher in Warroad Minnesota in 1998. THE RAVEN took a year-long sabbatical from 1998-1999, during which RAVEN co-founder Steve Reynolds wrote for them in an exchange for training on Mac computers and QuarkXPress desktop publishing. In the story that Reynolds wrote, “The Search for Albert Woolson,” Inga was introduced as Sven Guyson’s best friend, Ula Josephson’s wife. An excerpt:    "PUUSSHTT!“PUUSSHTT!” irreverently broke the silence of the hilltop cemetery as the two friends each opened a can of beer and took a sip from it. “Ah, dat tastes good!...Very good, “ said one of the men as he pushed up the bill of his cap with the index finger of his free hand, then tipped his head toward the other man...