July 27, 2010

Away we go this month.! The time for politicians to come to town. Almost every day this past week. Anyway, I do enjoy interviewing them as they always have something to say, good, bad or indifferent.

It was lightning like crazy in the area this morning as you could hear it crackle on the radio and then the storm went northeast and hit Angus, Tabor, Euclid and points north. Boy that rain in Iowa did a number on that old dam in the small town. I looked for it on the map but it must be quite small as It was not listed. I did find the suburb of Chicago that got dumped upon and had flooding in the street and I understand Milwaukee downtown got dumped on with thousands of homes in trouble. My kids north of Milwaukee had lots of rain but no serious flooding. They live on a hill so were okay but their phone usually goes out. Most of the nation was having a heat wave so we were lucky to escape that.

We did have a beach party in a part of Fargo over the weekend when a couple won a contest on the Weather channel and hosted the crew from New York with 50 tons of sand on the street, pool installed, band and much more for all the neighbors and city residents. It was on the weather channel all Sunday morning and the weather could not have more perfect….so good press for Fargo and the area for a change.

Minnesota Renaissance Festival in Shakopee starts on August 21 through October 3. Weekends only I believe. I went once, got Johnny bread, watched Puke and Snot perform and learned what jousting was all about as well as glass blowing.

State Minnesota Fair starts on August 26 and runs through September 6……lots of things to see, touch and smell at the state fair. 4-H kids will be exhibiting and doing demonstrations and showing off their cattle. I learned this morning that Joanne Brunelle from the Huot area won first at the Red Lake County fair in cookies and also had some canned pickles on display, so I presume some of her exhibit will be at the state fair. This is the first time she has entered the competition at the urging of her children. She is picking cucumbers as we speak and hoping to can some that will look super for the exhibit. So good luck and I hope you win ribbons and money. Going to the fair is really fun to see all the exhibits and remember all the hard work they did to make them presentable. I have not decided if I will go or not this year….if I could work a Twins game in. it would make the trip outstanding.

Congratulations to Karen Brekken who has facilitated the Parents Helping Parents Circle of Parents program in the Crookston area for the past 8 years. She was recognized by the Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota organization at the county board meeting. She will continue to work with the group but has retired from being the facilitator. So congratulations again.

The Editorial Page Editor for the Fargo Forum recently wrote a commentary about phone calls he received recently. It was good reading and quite funny, especially when I answer phone calls somewhat like he does, especially early in the morning. Jack Zaleski is the editor and took comments on the name change of Merit Care to Sanford. The caller thought it was for Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina and would not believe it was for Dennis Sanford, philanthropist from South Dakota who donated millions for hospitals. The caller was quite insistent that he was right and Zaleski was wrong. Another caller wanted to know why the media hated the tea parties. Zaleski said they did not hate the tea party and they always had a good story. The caller complained about diversity, illegal immigrants, racism and even complained that Zaleski was Polish and Zaleski said his mother was Italian also and the caller called him a mongrel when Zaleski hung up. The third caller was a lady who liked humidity and hot weather because she loved to sweat and sit in her backyard naked sweating in her lawn chair and of course she said she was a big girl. Before Zaleski could respond, she accused him of being against fat girls and the conversation deteriorated from there and at the end she apologized for being nasty and invited him to come for ice tea and to watch her sweat. Zaleski declined the invitation. I enjoyed reading the Sunday column and got quite a chuckle. Now we get phone calls but never anything that strange. Anyway we like the phone calls as we know people are listening to us.

As far as is known, the record for the most gladiatorial victories in classical times was the 51 combats won at Pompeii by a freeman named Publius Ostorius.

In some areas of the world ants can be more than one inch long.

Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards a trophy to people who have made an outstanding contribution to cinema. The trophy, a golden statue, used to be called The Statuette. In 1931, Margaret Herrick spotted a copy of it and said, "Why , he looks just like my uncle Oscar." Since then, the awards ceremony and the statuettes have been called Oscars.

If you aren’t 60 yet, please don’t take offense! Thought you would like it anyway! I forgot that we always wiped the clothesline before hanging clothes. Do you remember the clothes pin bag? The Basic Rules for Clotheslines: (If you don’t know what clotheslines are, better skip this.)

You had to wash the clothesline before hanging any clothes. Walk the entire length of each line wiping the line with a damp cloth. You had to hang the clothes in a certain way and always hang the whites with whites and hang them first. You never hung a shirt by the shoulders, always by the tail! What would the neighbors think? Wash day on a Monday….never hang clothes on the weekend, certainly not Sunday for Heaven’s Sake! Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines so you could hide your unmentionables in the middle (Perverts and busybodies, you know!) It didn’t mater if it was sub zero weather…Clothes would freeze dry. Always gather the clothes pins when taking down dry clothes! Pins left on the line were tacky! If you were efficient, you would line the clothes up so that each item did not need two clothes pins, but shared one of the clothes pins with the next washed item. Clothes had to be off the line before dinner time, neatly folded in the clothes basket and ready to ironed. IRONED? Well that is a whole other subject. As one who loved to hang clothes on the line as they smelled better than anything else except for cut grass or mowed hay. I miss my clothesline but it was more work than I could handle, hauling baskets of wet clothes to the line. Now ironing. That is another matter Not for me anymore, but I know plenty of women who still iron and love doing it.

Well, the milking cow herd is gone from the Northwest Research and Outreach Center in Crookston, this is what used to be called the Northwest Experiment station which started in 1895 and the dairy herd got started a few years later. So it was a big change and a big loss for those of us who were dairy people at one time. Another piece of history gone. There were lots of buyers at the auction with pickups and horse trailers so they came to buy and I understand the auction went well. Milking cows was something I did growing up as the oldest in the family and no brothers. I can’t say I minded to much, but I liked working with the sheep better. The worst was washing milk machines every morning before school. But it was what we did. Farming was a little different back 50 to 60 years ago but such memories of Ike the collie dog, the pigs in the mud hole, snappy chickens who got you every time you came for eggs. Killing and cleaning roosters was another matter. I doubt to many youngsters now could chop off their heads and pluck the feathers after they were dipped in hot water. PETA would get us know for such cruelty.

My neighbors combined some winter wheat over the weekend and dropped the straw and baled it right behind. I bet the cows and hogs will enjoy that straw. Maybe the hog barns do not use straw. I do not know for sure.

Do societies shape people or do people shape societies?

Why should one person obey another?

Does time erode all achievements?

Does will drive behavior?

Are there problems that can’s be solved?

Have a joyful week, stay safe and work for peace.

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