Wannaskan Almanac

  Date:   Friday, June 12, 2009 11:49 PM Subject:   Re: Yada yada yada    Q: "When will the next RAVEN come out?    Any progress there?    If you get on a somewhat regular basis I'd like to subscribe. What is your current rate? Still $20 ?"        A: The other night I had a dream, the location of which was the alley behind the yard of the house I grew up in in Des Moines. It was dusk, not dark, not light really. It was about the time when old city neighborhood shadows have a bluish quality about them, as I recall. I stood along the alley opposite the yard where my dog, the one I currently have in real time, was tied up. I couldn't see her plainly as she is a black dog, a medium to large size Labrador/Chesapeake cross. She was wildly barking at something beyond her chain and from where I was, with two fences between us, I couldn't get to her readily nor see what it was she was barking at.    Straining to look betw...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for August 19, 2026, the thirty-third Wednesday of the year, the ninth Wednesday of summer, the third Wednesday of August, and the two-hundred thirty-first day of the year, with one-hundred thirty-four days remaining. Wannaska Phenology Update for August 19, 2026 Ghost Pipe  Monotropa uniflora is pushing its spooky heads up through the floors of Wannaskaland forests. Monotropa is Greek for "one turn" and uniflora is Latin for "one flowered" as there is one sharply curved stem for each single flower. Mipitahmaskihkih in Cree, and tmaqn in Mi'kmaq, there is no word for Ghost Pipe in Anishinaabe. The Cherokee, Cree, Mohegan, and Potawatomi, traditionally used the plant for its medicinal properties, such as easing nerve pain or calming spasms. You'll find Ghost Pipe growing in clumps of two or more, with its fungal source nearby — usually waxy white, but some specimens have been described as having blac...

The summer of Hot Honey BBQ has come and mostly passed, and honestly, it feels like we all collectively decided that regular barbecue sauce just wasn’t dramatic enough anymore. Somewhere between the first backyard cookout and the fifteenth “Hey, we’re grilling tonight, you coming?” text, hot honey took over America like a sweet, spicy little ninja. One minute it was just a trendy drizzle on fancy pizza, and the next it was the Beyoncé of condiments—everywhere, beloved, and slightly dangerous if you’re not ready for the heat. Hot honey, in case you’ve somehow avoided the internet, is exactly what it sounds like: honey with a kick. It’s sweet, sticky, and then—bam—a warm, slow-building heat that taps you on the shoulder like, “Hey buddy, I’m here too.” It’s not the kind of heat that sends you running for a gallon of milk. It’s more like the kind that makes you nod thoughtfully and say, “Okay, I see you.” It’s the perfect balance of comfort and chaos, which is probably why it’s become the...

  THIRD MOVEMENT REMEMBERING   SONG SEVENTEEN BURNING GROUND   I   “You are what you seem             a lightning bolt dreamed through a hollow tree You’re back on the ground now Eeeeei! What a flight! Good work child! Good work in the dream!”   I am dumbstruck from two sides             by the old man taken for lost             by the red-black spiral of my fall.   “Can you speak?!” he squints an eye at me Behind him, brilliant sun makes a halo of his thick white hair His glow and the sun so entwined I can’t be sure he is there   “Yes. I can speak – at least enough to say – again             it is wondrous strange to find you really here.”   “Still the same and not strange at all   You are in the Drea...

  The Palmville Globe Volume 2 Number 29 Man Avoids Embarrassing Revelation  Joe McDonnell, 79 and residing in Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently covered up a potentially embarrassing faux pas. "I was invited to a tea party last week and was already embarrassed because I was late,” he tells the press. “The other guests were sipping their tea and eating the dessert, and they had to squeeze together to make room for me. The dessert was a very soft and foamy pink cake which I ate quickly because I had missed my lunch. The dessert was delicious and I hoped I'd be offered another piece. As the hostess refilled the teacups, she knocked a guest's cup over. The guests mopped up the spill with their napkins but tea was leaking through the crack where the table leaf goes in. I grabbed several paper towels and dove under the table to wipe up the spill. It was then I discovered that I had dropped a piece of my dessert on the floor. I was able to wipe it up with the tea and discard the...

Hello and welcome to a wet Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is August 15th. This past week, the Youngest celebrated his golden birthday. I remember my golden birthday. I was 7 years old. I had 2 parties: one with my immediate family and then one at my aunt and uncle's farm. Now that I think about it, maybe they just had a party-party and I thought it was for me because it was my golden birthday, because when you're a kid, golden birthdays are a very big deal.  I have a photograph of my dad and me at the extended family party. My dad looms large, with lumberjack arms and a deep tan from summers spent working outside on his myriad engines. Maybe he'd built a garage that summer, or had repaired a roof. In any case, when I look at that photo, to me he looks like a live version of the phrase "strapping young man," at age 34 and despite smoking- let's just say - 4 packs of Marlboros a day. And in the photo, this brown (relatively healthy), strong man is...