Wannaskan Almanac

F or the last month or so, Jim and I have been hosts to all of our eight grandkids while we’ve been here on vacation in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They range in age from 5 to 26 and five of them are girls. Part of the fun of them being here lies in the dizzying array of apparel we’d see hanging on doorknobs, drying in the sun, draped across the deck railing: shorts, skirts, tops, and bathing suits in all shades, stripes, and dots of of pink, peach, purples you-name-it seasonal colors. Let me tell you, these girls love their clothes and have a lot of them. It’s gotten me thinking about what I wore in my own childhood.      My mother always made a big deal about new school shoes and one fresh new outfit a year. We didn’t wear uniforms until high school, and I know I got up and got dressed every day, but I’m unsure about what I’d actually wear. Thanks to school pictures, I do remember at least a few outfits from my elementary years. In first grade I had a shiny, poplin dress w...

  The Zen monastery has a man with a stick to keep the meditating monks awake.  At my place even the stick man has dozed off.  To get through the world we must be flexible, just as our skull was flexible to get us    into  the world.  When I see a drop of paint I’ve left behind I’m pleased to think not even Rembrandt or Picasso could have done it better.  Jackson Pollack, maybe.  All the venial sins in the world won’t add up to one mortal sin. Though they will annoy the Almighty mightily.  Thieves are like rats. They won’t go away until we remove their food source: money.  The minutes of light built up between the solstices winter and summer Now ooze away like coins from a purse slit by thieves What a bummer The road to salvation is narrow  With ten thousand switchbacks  Those zippers on food products are convenient, but have a shelf life shorter than the contents in their care.  When I was young I liked working alone...

Hello and welcome to a rainy Saturday (in the Czech Republic) here at the Wannaskan Almanac (in Roseau County). Today is July 29th and the last Saturday of the month. After last week's adventures in and around our home base village of Vizovice , kids had an awesome, new adventure in the neighboring village of Slušovice : dětský tábor (kid camp.) Kid camps abound during the summer in Czechia. Bike camps, swim camps, scout camps, and "Indian" camps. Setting aside my concern about cultural appropriation, Czechs have an affinity for the North American Indians. This fascination is no doubt fueled by the stereotypes found in movies and books (both American and European - and here, Vinnetou , an Indian conceived by German author Karl May comes to mind). This romanticizing of Native Americans is well-intentioned and, I would say, that, as a result, the Czechs hold these people in high regard. But, I digress. The bike camp and sports camps were filled in Vizovice, but "The ...

  "Behind every great woman are six men holding her back." --Anon     Lavinia "Vinnie" Ream was born September 25, 1847 in Madison. Her father was a surveyor for the Wisconsin Territory.  When she was 14, the family moved to Washington, D.C. When her father's health declined she got a job in the Dead Letter Office to help support the family.    During the Civil War she helped entertain wounded soldiers. At age 16 she became an apprentice to a sculptor, and a year later Lincoln was sitting for her to sculpt his bust. During this time she began promoting herself using photographs and newspaper articles, the social media of the day.   On this day in 1868 she was awarded a commission for a full-size marble statue of Lincoln for the Capitol rotunda. She was the first female and the youngest artist ever to receive a commission for a statue from the U.S. government. There had been much debate that she was too inexperienced, or a lobbyist, or a public woman of...

    Sven went to a Celebration of Life ceremony at a rural township church, arriving just as the pastor began his narrative. He had known the man who had walked-on after 105-years, as being the father of his oldest friend’s wife. He had known her mother too for many years, and i n whose funeral Sven’s wife sang a song requested by the family. He knew many of the couple’s grandchildren, and great grand-children, two of whom traveled a very long distance to be in attendance that day.      Taking a seat beside a friend in the overflow area in the back of the church, he listened and looked at the large group of people sitting in the main body of the church ahead of him, recognizing some of them as family members and some as mutual friends. He remembered being in the church many times before over the years during different periods of his life.     On the west wall opposite where Sven sat, the stained glass windows brightened the outlines of p...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for July 26, 2023, the thirtieth Wednesday of the year, the sixth Wednesday of summer, and the two-hundred seventh day of the year, with one-hundred fifty-eight days remaining.   Wannaska Phenology Update for July 26, 2023 Sunflowers Blooming The common sunflower, Helianthus annuus , is a large annual forb [/ˈfȯrb/ n., an herbaceous flowering plant other than a grass] of the genus Helianthus , is now blooming in crops planted around Wannaska. Commonly grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds and cooking oil, sunflower is also used as livestock forage, as bird food, and as an ornamental in domestic gardens. Wild H . annuus is a widely branched annual plant with many flower heads. The domestic sunflower, however, often possesses only a single large inflorescence (flower head) atop an unbranched stem. Helianthus is derived from the Greek ἥλιος: hḗlios or sun, and ἄνθος: ánthos or flower. Sunflowers are heliotropic [/hee-lee-uh-...

And finally...more fractured history!  (You can thank me with your wonderful fan mail) 306 AD  Constantine I is proclaimed Roman Emperor by his troops.  The city of Constantinople was named after Constantine.  He often bragged about his great tan.  The Turks decided this was all just made up when they renamed the city "Is tan?  Bull." Could use some sun, constantly! 864 AD  The Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings.  Charles was not happy with their hair or their mascot.  I believe he called for a nickel defense. Terrible at winning super bowls, but great at growing hair! 1538  AD The City of Guayaquil is founded by the Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana and given the name Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil.  The cost to paint the city sign was deemed to be too expensive, so they renamed it to Dayquil during the sunlight hours and Nyquil when it is dark.  Re...

A Poet of Love, Death, and Pets: Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda (1904 - 1973), a Chilean poet, was arguably most famous for his poems of love and death. Sometimes it seems he doesn’t separate the two. He would have approved of me saying that. There is so much to love about Neruda’s poetry, and so much to say, but in the interest of readers’ time, we’ll give you a brief story about yours truly, and then continue with one of Senor Neruda’s love poems. It’s not about the love of one human being for another, but rather the poet’s relationship with poetry itself. If any of you out there are poets, and/or enjoy poetry, you will probably identify with this peon to the art. Actually, the sentiment applies to any activity that one engages with a passion: music, dance, race car driving, raising children. The first line says it all: a passion “arrived,” an unearned gift. Note who seeks whom: “Poetry arrived / in search of me.” Isn’t that the way it is? In a blue-magic moment, the passion “arrives.”...

  The earth is like a carny ride Spinning round the sun We’re parasitic microbes there Yes, we are having fun To uncover our dark side, psychologists recommend boxing with our shadow self.  We shouldn’t beat ourselves up, nor should we use kid gloves either.  As prompt mail delivery declines in importance, federal holidays will continue to proliferate. The road to salvation is narrow Not a bad thing at all Thank God there's even a path  ‘Twixt the mount’s cliff and rock wall People not your mother will tell you you’ve grown skinny.  Thinness is a virtue, obesity, a sinny.  When I read a first-person novel I wonder how the narrator can remember so much detail. If the novel is a good one, I don’t care how she remembers. If bad, I soon see the bones of the formula sticking out.  Meditation does not expect our inner shark to stop swimming and die, but only to pause its blood lust for awhile.  We say a description we dislike is a mere caricature. ...