Wannaskan Almanac

What a rough 24 hours.  The date was June 11.  I remember it like it was today, mainly because it is today.  So yeah, I write my blogs in advance.  Please don't think any less of me!  Or any more.  Just think of me like you always have! It started out the day before.  I was flossing before going to bed.  For that I blame my wife.  She started me on flossing a couple days after we got married.  As I was flossing one of my crowns popped off and shot across the room.  I found it, but at the time I was 1000 miles away from my dentist.  This meant I was going to have to wait a couple of weeks before I could get it repaired.  So I spent the night a little less toothy and a lot more disillusioned.   The next morening I was thinking of going fishing but the weather was calling for rain.  I have heard that fish bite better in the rain but I am so sweet...like sugar...and I am afraid that I might melt.  So I deci...

                 THIRD MOVEMENT                REMEMBERING   SONG SIXTEEN HUNTERS   II   So there I was back turned away from the dark, lifeless pool             I felt like a sun-shot bead of brilliant water                         trembling on the tip of an icicle-star             Clinging was tenuous and all but over             the fall was certain, the only question – how far   It is important that I not get ahead of the story             like a river racing down a gorge It is important that the tale be told in the ...

  The Palmville Globe Volume 2 Number 25 MC Arrives At Banquet On Time Joe McDonnell, 79 and residing in Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently learned that the banquet he was scheduled to be master of ceremonies at was to be two days earlier than he thought it would be. "This annual awards banquet is always on a Thursday," McDonnell    tells the press, "but this year the venue was only available on Tuesday. I had been told that, but then went on a three week trip and forgot the change of date. I was mowing the lawn at home on Tuesday when I got a call reminding me that the banquet was that night. I put the mower away, changed clothes, reviewed my banquet notes, and drove to the venue." In a later communication, McDonnell said he is not comfortable in the MC role. "I was kind of forced into the position," he says. "Maybe if I failed to show up one time, the awards board would find someone to replace me." Man Brings Mower To Shop Joe McDonnell, 79 and...

Hello and welcome to a pretty sweet Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is July 18th. This morning, I get to type this from the deck of a pretty nice Airbnb out at Springsteel Island on Lake of the Woods. While the visiting relatives and the Youngest enjoy a charter fishing experience, I get to enjoy chirping birds, an expansive view of the lake, and some welcomed peaceful solitude. So what's on my mind is the World Cup. I read a Wall Street Journal article this morning titled "How the U.S. Lost the World Cup - and Won Over the World." In short, the authors say that the American people, places, and food left our foreign guests more enamored than chagrined with the U.S.A. This is what I saw on social media as well. My hands-down favorite, favorite, favorite post was a Jason Stills song Welcome to the Land of the Free with accompanying videos of World Cup visitors discovering Buc-ees, Waffle House, free soda refills, and - I kid you not - a love for Ranch dressi...

     The best thing about the World Cup being in North America is that fans from overseas have realized the US is not as bad as its press. Americans can be as nice as anyone else if you're nice to them. The fans have spent a lot of money to get here and their efforts to have a good time have been rewarded. Americans are nowhere near as passionate about soccer as fans from elsewhere so there's no hostility towards fans when their country plays the US Men's team.    Teresa and I just completed a tour across the Eastern half of the US. The whole country was bedecked in US flags. It's our 250th birthday. Our national sour mood has abated for a season. The only discordant note I heard was in a small-town Pennsylvania gas station. A woman was complaining that gas prices would be going up because the president had ended the cease fire in Iran.   We had various goals for this trip. We planned to see our three sons south of Boston, then drive to Delaware to pick up ...

   Life's mysteries surround me on occasion, but perhaps they're not so mysterious if I think about it as they mostly occur in the area of a small Canadian border town and county named Roseau, Minnesota, with a population of 2672, and 15, 246, respectively or, as Joe/Woe Wednesday stated it on February 13, 2025, " Another way to characterize where we live is in terms of population density comparisons. Wannaska: 4 persons/square mile; Roseau County: 9.2 persons/square mile; Tuff Rubber Balls: 914.0 persons/square mile; Minneapolis: 7,962.1 persons/square mile; New York City: 29,303.2 persons/square mile."      The odds of meeting people one recognizes here, or who recognize you, grows exponentially, as happened last week in the Super One parking lot where, as I left the store, I met my friend, JoMar, walking toward the store. He and I meet periodically throughout the year, exchanging pleasantries as we pass; but this time, he stopped and asked, "So are you going...