Wannaskan Almanac

So I have to admit...I listened to this song for years before it dawned on me to question what it was about.  This former number one hit was originally performed by a band called the Knack.  It has been covered by many different bands and individuals including the World Class Rockers, the Glee television cast, and the Chipmunks. I would be breaking character if I failed to mention that the song was also covered by the bullies on the Simpsons.   So what is it about?  What is a sharona?  Can it be consumed or smoked?  Those are all great questions, and the answer is...what are you...sick or something?  The song My Sharona is written about a girl. The Knack lead singer Doug Fieger wrote the lyrics to this song, which is about a girl he was interested in. Doug was in a long-term relationship when he walked into a clothing store where a high school student named Sharona Alperin (who was dating another boy), was working. The age difference (he was about...

Welcome back to the graveyard! Cemetery. Charnel Grounds. Last Resting Place. Bone yard. Skull orchard, 墓地. It’s all the same in the end. (Argh!) As I’ve said before, I’ve been labeled as one who tends toward the dark side too often and too much. With that in mind, I’m going to do my best in the commentary before and after the second Act of “Bones, Hollows, and Spades" to stay on the lighter side, share some “little known facts” about burial conditions, and generally shy away from diving too deeply into the cerebral and philosophical. There is enough of that heady stuff within the poem itself.  Anyway, how far from humor can we get considering our three players are a talking skull, a dog with the wisdom of a buddha, and a gravedigger who has seen enough of death for fifty lifetimes. I’ve also thrown in a trip to Fargo in today’s bargain. Without delay, then, here is Act Two of “Bones, Hollows, and Spades.” Act One can be accessed on 1 February 2021, Monday, posted at the Wannaska...

We keep comparing more and more things to the Nazis. I wonder how much of the Nazi era we must pass through to neutralize the evil. Smoking gives people something to do with their hands and drinking too sets their tongues a-working. Minnesotans boast of their beastly wind chills the way a lion tamer fires off his cap pistol. Some imagine the afterlife as an endless dance in a cruise ship ballroom. I'd be content as a barnacle on the good ship Almighty. If the instructions are too concise, I take them the wrong way. If they're too complete, I don't take them at all. Which is going to waste more of your time in the long run: damage control after something has gone wrong, or pre-damage control for all the bad things that are never going to happen?   Happy Valentines Lovely Readers                                   ...

 Hello and welcome to another toasty Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Just kidding! It's still ffffff-errrrrrr-eeeeeee-zzzzz-ing  out here in Wannaska country. Today is February 13th. Doesn't that date sound ominous? Maybe it's the alliteration that's got me. (Something the Third Grader is learning all about now.) So similarly resonant with Friday the 13th. And, well, it is the day before Valentine's Day which is enough to strike fear in the hearts of anyone responsible for procuring the requisite tokens of affection for those in your life worthy of such expressions of love. After twenty years of marriage, honestly, I'm thinking more about getting my kids' bases covered than my own. If you have elementary school-aged children, it all starts with the dreaded Valentine box. Don't get me wrong. I love art. Really! And eventually, the boxes (usually) turn out super cute. But, you see - and, yes, I recognize this will sound like a totally  dumb  confes...

     On this day in 1946, The British Royal Navy sank the last of the 116 German U-boats that had surrendered at the end of WWII. The U-boats had been a fearsome weapon during the Battle of the Atlantic, almost cutting off Britain's supply routes. Churchill said the U-boats were the only thing that frightened him during the war.    In 1943 the tide against the U-boats began to turn. Thanks to the development of sonar, radar, and destroyer escorted convoys, life became much riskier for U-boats and their crews. Out of an original fleet of almost a thousand U-boats, 793 were lost, taking about 28,000 submariners with them. This 75% casualty rate was the highest of any German force during the war. The casualty rate for U.S. submariners was 20%, also the highest percentage of any American force.    After the war the surrendered U-boats were taken to a port in Northern Ireland and, over a three month period, were towed 100 miles out to sea to be used for tar...

Three Books   I had the opportunity to rummage through an old farmstead that was destined to be bulldozed and buried. Amid a thinning woodlot where trees grew up through old car and tractor tires, and shiny old chrome bumpers stood on end leaning against tree trunks there were several tumbledown outbuildings. Old cars and tractors littered the homestead; some had been hauled away on flatbed trailers. As for what was in the buildings, no one cared. The old equipment could be sold as scrap or held some potential, but the rest of it was doomed to extinction.    I had permission to be there, so spent the better part of one day taking my time looking through someone else’s lives. The inhabitants were long gone, dead and buried; the only thing left of them were the stories neighbors and distant family remembered and handfuls of old photos of them and others who no people living today remembered anymore, except as a guess or assumption.    I was in an old bunkhouse, i...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, February 10, 2021, the 6th Wednesday of the year, the 8th Wednesday of winter, and the 41st day of the year, with 324 days remaining. Wannaska Nature Update for February 10, 2021 Lest we feel sorry for ourselves in the coming weekend temperatures, things could be worse: Minnesota's Coldest Temps Ever Recorded Roseau (February 2, 1996):  -52˚ Mora (December 18, 1983):  -52˚ Itasca (February 2, 1996):  -52˚ Baudette (February 19, 1966):  -52˚ Pine River Dam (February 12, 1912):  -53˚ Moose Lake (January 15, 1972):  -53˚ Fosston (February 1, 1996):  -53˚ Brainerd (February 2, 1996):  -54˚ Embarrass (January 20, 1996):  -57˚ Tower (February 2, 1996):  -60˚ Nordhem Lunch: Closed. Earth/Moon Almanac for February 10, 2021 Sunrise: 7:40am; Sunset: 5:36pm; 3 minutes, 17 seconds more daylight today Moonrise: 7:34am; Moonset: 4:13pm, waning crescent, 1% illuminated Temperature Almanac for Febr...