"... there will be a short delay..."

"Transtellar Cruise Lines would like to apologize to passengers for the continuing delay to this flight. We are currently awaiting the loading of our complement of small lemon-soaked paper napkins for your comfort, refreshment and hygiene during the journey. Meanwhile we thank you for your patience. The cabin crew will shortly be serving coffee and biscuits again.''..

"You're the autopilot?" said Zaphod.

"Yes,'' said the voice from the flight console.

"You're in charge of this ship?''

"Yes,'' said the voice again, "there has been a delay. Passengers are to be kept temporarily in suspended animation, for their comfort and convenience. Coffee and biscuits are being served every year, after which passengers are returned to suspended animation for their continued comfort and convenience. Departure will take place when the flight stores are complete. We apologize for the delay.''..

"Delay?" he cried. "Have you seen the world outside this ship? It's a wasteland, a desert. Civilization's been and gone, man. There are no lemon-soaked paper napkins on the way from anywhere."

"The statistical likelihood," continued the autopilot primly, "is that other civilizations will arise. There will one day be lemon-soaked paper napkins. Till then there will be a short delay. Please return to your seat."

TYWKIWDBI is also experiencing a slight delay.  The pilot has elected to take another mental health break/blogcation.  Service should be restored in a week or ten days.  In the meantime, those who feel bereft of ways to avoid doing the work they are supposed to be doing are reminded of the extensive past posts here, which can be accessed by going to the right sidebar and scrolling down to either the expandable "archive" and choosing a month before you became a regular visitor, or by selecting a Category.

Now please return to your seat.

50 years ago today...

I remember exactly where I was.  I was on my high school's debate team and we were off at a tournament.  For practical reasons, our coach always drove us to tournaments; he would then serve as a judge on some of the debates not involving us, and we would all gather after the last debate of the day in some barren classroom to hear the results announced and get feedback on our performances. 

On that day, after the last afternoon debate, he didn't meet us.  After a brief search, we found him in his car, listening to the news on the car radio, in tears.  The news itself was startling, but the sight of encountering one of the pillars of the school faculty, our history teacher, unabashedly crying made the moment surreal for me.

As I was writing this, I decided to look up the National Forensic League's official debate topic for that year.  I remembered speaking as Second Affirmative, but didn't remember the topic.  Here it is:

1963-1964
Resolved: That Social Security benefits should be extended to include complete medical care.

Wow.  How's that for a relevance stretching half a century into the future.  I wish I still had my file box of 3x5 cards.

Readers who have sharp memories of 11/22/63 are welcome to offer them in the Comments.

Congratulations Eau Claire North girls golf team

Kaitlyn Alvarez, Sarah Faanes, Alyssa Bee, Kacie James, Lauren Klauck, Hallie Hancock, coach Sam Erickson.

After winning the regular season title in the Big Rivers Conference, the Eau Claire North girls team entered postseason competition in early October at the New Richmond Regionals, beating the host team by four strokes.  The following week they traveled to La Crosse for the Sectionals, again taking first place, and thus qualifying the team for participation in the State championships.

State was held this year at the University of Wisconsin's awesome and imposing University Ridge golf course.  Cool autumn weather resulted in a frost delay the morning of the first round and a dense fog for much of the second round the next day.

After carding eight scores averaging in the 80s, the team wound up finishing 7th among the approximately 100 teams that had originally entered postseason play - the highest statewide rank achieved by the girls in the recent history of the school.

A tip of my hat to the best golfer in our family, Kaitlyn Alvarez, who carded her first eagle this summer,  played #1 for the team all season long, and on the final day of the State competition unleashed a 270-yard drive.  With the season now ended, she returns to the more mundane aspects of AP English, AP physics, and precalculus.  She'll head off to college next year hoping to pursue a career in oceanography.

A tip of the hat as well to the Eau Claire North team's coach - Sam Erickson - who achieved the singular honor of taking both the boys' and the girls' teams to the State competition in the same academic year.

Hiatus

Some of you have noticed a decline in productivity re the blog recently, a result of the convergence of a variety of factors, including sports, autumnal household chores, a minor illness, family obligations, financial matters, fall foliage and blogging fatigue.  I'm taking a couple weeks off.

"Stan's bookcase"

Today I'm introducing a new feature ("Show Us Your Bookcase") at TYWKIWDBI, inspired by a Guardian essay last year:

Only a bookshelf can truly hold a reader's history and future at the same time... A lifelong reader myself, I've always had an obsession with seeing a person's bookshelf, to get a sense of what they've brought inside their home and their head. Bookshelves are universal in that almost everyone has one, and unique in that no two collections are the same... Sharing your shelf is sharing yourself – showcasing the building blocks that have crafted your knowledge, personality, and identity.

As I read that essay, I was reminded that as a young man I was always eager to examine the bookcases of friends and colleagues to learn more about them.  I confess to still doing that when I visit homes for holiday parties.

So I'll start, with a photo and a brief description (in case the image doesn't supersize) of one of five bookcases in my basement office.

On the top shelf are the complete novels of Agatha Christie, painstakingly scavenged from used-paperback-book stores over perhaps a decade.  Below that, D&D figurines and guidebooks (gathering dust) and a mix of sci-fi and miscellaneous books.

The third shelf down has the residua of what was once a complete collection of the Time-Life Reading Program, first acquired by subscription in the 1960s, then supplemented from old bookstores and the internet, then finally weeded down to just the ones I had rated 4+ after reading.  Behind that and to the right are the complete works of John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson in used paperback and hardbacks, from bookstores and eBay.  Also a stack of favorite sci-fi stories ruthlessly ripped out of annual paperback collections because I didn't want to save the whole book.

Below that the Random House Dictionary that I grab when I need something quickly (the OED doesn't fit on the shelves) and some reference books and small books.  Under that a shelf of mostly nonfiction and archaeology, and finally a tall shelf with notebooks, photo albums, and office supplies.

Scattered on the shelves are some non-book items, including pix of my late father, some geodes and knick-knacks, a spritz-bottle for chasing away cats, and a treasured piece of mortar from the Berlin Wall ("ein Mauerspecht"), pried loose in the dark of night from the East side (!) of the wall in 1989.

The rest of my life is delineated by other bookcases and shelves, but this will do as an introduction.

If you'd like to participate and share your stuff with other TYWKIWDBI readers, here are the guidelines:

1)  Participation is strictly limited to faithful readers of TYWKIWDBI who consistently identify themselves by names in comments.  For this feature "Anonymous" readers are left out (because we wouldn't know which anon was which).  But it's o.k. if you access the comments via the Anonymous choice on the pulldown, and then sign your name, as Swift and others do.

2)  The photo(s) can be of a single shelf (if that defines you), or of a bookcase, or even a wall or room.  Email it to me at the address in my bio in the right sidebar.  Please exclude info (or blur an item) that identifies you too precisely, and show only content that's safe for work.  You can tidy up a shelf, but don't create an artificial one - this is the equivalent of a come-as-you-are party.

3)  I'd prefer that you NOT include yourself in the photo (this is not a "bookshelfie"), but a pet would be fine.

4)  Include a few words or several paragraphs re things interesting or unusual, but I reserve the right to edit down rambling dissertations and confessionals.

5)  Depending on how many readers participate, I'll plan to post perhaps one item every couple weeks.

Portrait of the blogger as a young man

This weekend I attended a family get-together in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where a variety of family members had gathered to greet seldom-seen relatives from as far away as Barcelona.

One of those in attendance was a bright and charming young lady from Montana who loves to draw.  In exchange for my showing her how to perform a spectacular magic trick ("I'll pull your two cards out of this deck in one second"), she agreed to create a portrait of me. I've cropped her signature from the bottom in order to let her preserve her internet anonymity for a few more years.

The resolution of the scan fails to capture the subtle shadings on the cheeks where she carefully smeared the carbon to show contour, but I love the way her artist's eye looked beyond the solar skin changes and the wrinkles from the cares of the world, and instead extracted the collegiate persona that still lives inside me.

How to walk through shoulder-deep flowers

Visit a prairie.

I did so last weekend, on a field trip to the Schurch-Thomson Prairie, near Barneveld, Wisconsin.  The outing was a joint venture of the Southern Wisconsin Butterfly Association, the Madison Audubon Society, and the Prairie Enthusiasts, who own and maintain the site. 

The advantage of jointly-sponsored field trips is that participants have a wide range of expertise.  Within that day's group of 15, there were some who could identify for us a meadowlark on a shrub, the identity of every dragonfly that we saw, the species of a sun-bleached skull, and a most unusual plant - a bergamot ("Bee Balm") that was totally white (photo at right) instead of the usual lavender color.

A mature prairie in full midsummer bloom is a delight to see, and absolutely awesome to walk through.  This prairie is maintained in its native state, which means there are no paved trails - one just plunges ahead through the vegetation, some of which overtops an adult's head.

This particular site coveres almost 200 acres, and includes not just remnant prairie, but also some oak savanna and several spring seeps which continually bubble with cold water.   The rockiness of the hillsides of this plot prevented European settlers from putting all of it to the plough, so it served as pasture and was partially overgrown with trees until the Prairie Enthusiasts instituted a restoration and management program.

Most of the butterflies that day were fast-flying fritillaries, including the magnificent Regal Fritillary, which is endangered in all states east of the Mississippi.  This battered Coral Hairstreak was content to rest on my hand.

The rest of the photos are a probably inadequate representation of the floral bounty of the site.

It does give one a sense of what this part of the country was like before European settlers converted so much of it to farms.

The fact that prairie like this can be found in Wisconsin, which is rightfully thought of as a woods-and-lakes state is a reminder that there are specimens of remnant original prairie throughout much of the United States.  To visit one, look for a local chapter of the Prairie Enthusiasts (in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois) or equivalent groups elsewhere in the country (start with Audubon or butterfly groups, or ask at your local library).

A prairie walk should be on your bucket list.

Invertebrates rule the North Woods in late spring

I had an opportunity during my blogcation to engage in my favorite recreational activity - exploring the woods in northern Minnesota.   This time, however, the pleasure was blunted negated by an overwhelming abundance of mosquitos.  I expected them (because of the wet spring with snowmelt water in the woods supplemented by rainwater pools, so I wore a long-sleeve shirt and gloves.  The photo above shows my left hand (holding a trekking pole) visited by seven mosquitos.  Netting over my head kept them out of my nostrils, but the incessant buzzing and the cloud about my face turned a hike into an ordeal.

Not to mention the ticks...

This big fellow is a (relatively) harmless wood tick, of which I accumulated a half dozen, but I was also discovered by a tiny nymph of what may have been a dreaded deer tick.

The reward at this time of year is an abundance of new growth and the presence of the spring ephemerals, especially trillium -

which in some locations virtually carpets the forest floor -

I've often wondered what pollinates these deep-woods flowers.  There are not many butterflies deep in shady woods, although I did encounter this tiger swallowtail along a sandy path -

At this latitude (Cass County, about even with Duluth), this is probably a Canadian Tiger (I have difficulty distinguishing them from Eastern Tigers).  But they need solar power, and only cruise roadsides, clearings and open meadows, not the deep woods (except at the treetop level).  I suspect the trillium are pollinated by solitary bees or perhaps moths; they probably wouldn't rely on wind in such a heavily vegetated ecosystem.

The mosquitos finally won the day, driving me from the thick woods to the relative safety of one of the many bike trails -

- that crisscross the area, where spring breezes kept the mosquitos away.

Electricity usage in the United States. A cartogram from 1921.

From the archives of the StarTribune, this cartogram depicting the number of households having electricity in each state:

How each state ranks may be judged by its size as shown on the map, which was prepared by the General Electric company, Schenectady, N.Y., from data compiled through a national survey made by the commercial service section of its publication bureau.

 

New York ranks first, having an electrical population (served by central stations) of 8,620,700, or 78.7 per cent of its actual population. The second largest state is Pennsylvania, with an electrical population of 6,330,000, or 68.8 per cent of the actual population; third, Illinois, with 5,150,000, or 79.8 per cent; fourth, Massachusetts, with 4,030,000 or 97.8 per cent; fifth, Ohio, with 3,550,000, or 66.1 per cent, and sixth, California, with 2,827,000, or 86.5 per cent.

 

At the bottom of the list is Nevada, squeezed into a tiny circumference on the map, because it has only 66,300 persons served by central power stations, which, however, is 54.3 per cent of its actual population...

 

The electrical population of the United States is 62,023,400, out of an actual population (last previous census) of 108,148,000, a percentage of 57.3.

This was of personal interest to me because my father used to work for REA (the Rural Electrification Administration) in the 1950s.

Pulling the old "switcheroo"

State authorities this morning raided 29 bars and restaurants across New Jersey on suspicion that they have been re-filling empty bottles of their most expensive liquors with cheaper alcohol.

Dubbed "Operation Swill," the year-long investigation found the establishments fooled customers so they could charge higher prices and bolster their profits...

The raided establishments included famous names, including TGI Friday, Ruby Tuesday, and Applebee's (list at the link).

This struck a chord with me because three of my college roommates worked their way through school as bartenders, and at least in that era (Boston, 1960s), bartenders were sometimes allowed to take home the almost-empties as a tip.   As a consequence our dorm room had Johnny Walker Black Label and Maker's Mark bottles on the shelf - which we of course filled and refilled with the cheapest available generic substitutes.

We enjoyed having schoolmates come to parties and compliment us by saying "You know, you can really tell fine liquor."  Sure....

In memoriam, Lieut. L. Stanley Finseth, 1920-1943

Born Jan 31, 1920 and raised on the family farm at Kenyon, MN, my uncle Levi Stanley Finseth graduated from Byron H.S. in 1938. He then enrolled at St. Olaf college and later enlisted in the Air Force in 1942. As navigator of a bomber crew he flew 35 missions in North Africa, but died with his crew when their plane was brought down by enemy action over Switzerland on October 1, 1943.

Memorial gifts in his honor were directed to St. Olaf's WCAL, the first listener-supported public radio station. In 1946 when I was born my parents named me after him.

Reposted from 2009 for Memorial Day.

The rites of spring

As a partial explanation of my absence from the blog for several days, I'll offer this photoessay showing the outburst of growth in the woods behind our home.  This past winter was unusually prolonged, so when non-Arctic temperatures finally arrived, most people in this part of the country rushed outdoors.  I headed to the woods behind our house.  (The photos should enlarge with a click)

This tree arches over the entry to the woods; this past winter we had several dead and undesirable trees taken out and failed to realize that this tree was leaning on one of those.  When its support was removed it bent to the extent that the top branches now touch the ground.  Not sure if they will collect enough light there for the tree to thrive, but for now it creates a living gateway.

In the Upper Midwest of the U.S., the primary choices for foliage plants in shaded woodlands are hostas.   This cluster at the base of the arching tree was one of the first I planted perhaps 10 years ago.  It will fill out to cover the entire mulched area before midsummer.  All except one of the clusters have had Repellex tablets placed in the root zone in an effort to dissuade rabbits from enjoying lunch here; one plant serves as a control.  We'll see what happens.

 

An even more striking foliage plant in my view is Pulmonaria spp.  I think we planted just a few; now they have proliferated in scattered locations in the woods.  I love the leaf patterns; the flowers are a bonus in the early spring but don't last long.  

These Lilies of the Valley came to us in an exchange with a neighbor to whom we donated some of the pulmonaria.  The other flowers in bloom this week include the bleeding hearts (photo at the top of this post), phlox, trillium, bluebells, dandelions, wild geraniums and violets.

 

Last fall I spent uncounted hours laying down landscape fabric and then dragging tarps full of hardwood mulch to the woods to create walking paths.   There's still lots of work to do to finish the paths (I'm laying down logs from the cut trees and partially embedding them on the sides of the paths to keep the mulch from spreading.   The paths give me a more secure footing for walking and also subdivide the garden into areas where we can experiment with different botanical combinations.

This hosta was the first one I planted in the woods after I spent the better part of probably two summers grubbing out the buckthorn and honeysuckle underbrush by the roots.  The soil back here is black loam several inches deep, and the other plants love it once you remove the invasives that steal all the water and light.  This fellow will be huge by the end of the summer; I probably should subdivide him.

We've added bluebells; these are not the English bluebells that you see in immense masses in the forests of the National Trust in Britain.  I put chicken wire around this cluster this week to keep the rabbits at bay, because we want to harvest the seeds to scatter in other areas of the woods.  Last summer the rabbits nibbled these down to the ground.

 

It makes sense to incorporate some landscape features into the planting scheme (and it makes way more sense than trying to move them).  Here three varieties of hosta cluster around a set of large boulders.

Some phlox was initially planted in the center of this area; it has now spread up and down the hillside.  The ferns are escaping from their bed and may have to be restrained because they will shade out everything else, and they are aggressive spreaders in soil like this.

A felicitous combination of plants - Jacks in the Pulpit at the far left just getting started, a variegated hosta, a Pulmonaria cluster, and at the far right some native violets.

Both the white trillium and the yellow ones need some protection from rabbits until they manage to spread to some distant locations.  The chicken wire is unattractive and "unnatural,", but is a temporary means to an end.

I really enjoy having Jacks-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) in the woods.  Never had to plant them; the year after I got out all the invasive underbrush, a couple Jacks emerged.  Now there are hundreds of them; the largest/oldest ones in the woods get as high as my thigh.

Last fall I wrote a post for this blog about propagating Jacks; I heard recently from my friend that her transplants have emerged and appear healthy.

I'll be back out in the woods and yard in the days to come.  Also facing the annual monster chore of Cleaning The Garage.  And hobby and family stuff is accelerating - and the Monarchs will be arriving within a week or so.  So the blog posts will be fewer for the next several weeks.

Everyone in Catalonia is invited...

... to purchase tickets to the Escapade Theatre Company's presentation of Mack The Knife (the musical):

"A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Greed, Corruption, and Murder: A Modern Story For Our Times."

"Escapade presents its completely updated version of the classic story of Mack the Knife, the violent gang leader who steals Polly Peachum away from her parents and sets in motion a compelling tale of love and crime in London’s underworld.

Set in London in 2014, William V is about to be crowned, the electric chair is back, prostitution is legal, riots are a common occurrence and the police force is openly known to be corrupt. Times are so hard that entrepreneur JJ Peachum makes a living out of selling begging licences and costumes to the poor, so that they can earn an “honest” living on the dangerous streets of London."

In the orchestra you may be able to spot a tall Norwegian-appearing young man playing the tenor saxophone.  That will be my cousin Karl, a resident of Barcelona for the past couple decades, a teacher, and a jazz enthusiast. 

A gallery of stone bridges

P/B (Photographyblogger) has compiled a nice photoset of 20 small stone bridges from around the world.  For the embed above I selected an image (credit Kathie Jamison Cote) of Duck Brook Bridge, because it brings back pleasant personal images.  My wife and I vacationed several times at Bar Harbor, Maine in order to bike the carriage trails of Acadia National Park.  This bridge, iirc, is located on the Witch Hole Pond loop, one of our favorite routes.

Via the always-interesting Everlasting Blort.

Seeking advice re apple scab

Several years ago, in a post about the dangers of monoculture manifested as the "pistachio disaster," I offered this comment:

We and our neighbors became familiar with anthracnose when it spread through our subdivision several years ago in the form of "apple scab" on the beautiful (and popular) crabapple trees.  The leaves developed black lesions and fell early from the tree.  If any of you notice something similar with your apple/crabapple trees, be sure to call an arborist, because although the tree can tolerate partial defoliation, if it happens several years in a row, it can kill the tree.  

The crabapple is one of the focal points of our front garden in the spring, when the floral display bursts into flame and it becomes abuzz with pollinating insects, and once again weeks later when the petal drop...

... makes us feel like emperors treading a victory path.  

The "apple scab" seemed to end years ago after treatment of the tree and after we raked up and discarded all the infected fallen leaves.  But... the arborist has been returning annually to retreat the tree with a "spring foliar spray" at $120 per year, and this year I've decided to withhold treatment in order to redirect the funds to other purposes.  Any advice from those of you with experience in such matters?  Can we just wait and leave the tree untreated and monitor it for the return of the apple scab, or is it latent and ready to devastate the tree again?

Counting the days until spring

My phenology calendar says that this front yard will have crocuses blooming in it within two weeks.  We've had way more snow than usual this winter (enough to collapse the rabbit fences around the front gardens), there's more falling today, and even more predicted for next week.  That's good for the trees in terms of counteracting recent years' droughts, but it tries the patience of even a seasoned half-Norwegian like me.

One hopeful sign for us Northerners arrives when it becomes possible to see the post holding your mailbox up.  During peak winter conditions that post is covered (and sometimes the mailbox is as well).  Now it's emerging. 

But under all that snow, things are happening.  Mice and voles are traversing little tunnels and scavenging for seeds, and crocuses are pushing upward presumably in response to subtle changes in ground temperatures since they can't detect the lengthening daylight. 

Two more weeks.  Time to tackle the remaining indoor chores, desk chores, tax returns and such.  Because when that snow is gone a whole new set of priorities will take effect.

Why you should go for the unattainable

 

Today I'm posting three cartoons that were on the bulletin board at my office for the 30+ years I worked in academia.  They've yellowed and the paper is breaking down, so the best way to preserve them is digitally here.  This first one probably was a Punch cartoon*, but the artist and publication information was trimmed off years ago.

Click image to embiggify for reading.

*A hat tip to an anonymous reader for the following: "This is by J.B. "Bud" Handelsman, from his "Freaky Fables" series, which ran in Punch from the 70s to God knows when. Handelsman also drew for The New Yorker and Playboy, among other publications. One of my favourite cartoonists, he passed away in 2007."