"And with the last breath we ever take...

we're gonna get back...

to the simple life again."

~The Brown Dirt Cowboy, Bernie Taupin.

A day late...

but not really short...

Let's see,
we left off before the Saturday of the book fest in Miami. It was a great day; I think Art Spiegelman was my favorite, he really had a thoughtful presentation put together on the high art of graphic comedy.

The flight home Miami to Minneapolis via Atlanta was great -- Georgia's hardwoods showing their orange finests, and no cloud cover all the way home. When we got further north, the smaller ponds and lakes had frozen over, but with ice only at the edges of the larger bodies. It really is a beautiful country we've got, twisty rivers and all...

Then, I travelled with one of my reps mid-week to Kimberly, Wisconsin. Home of the Papermakers. (Trek bikes, Harley motors, Evinrude, Kaytee seeds -- it was a good place to grow businesses -- Wisconsin was, you see as you get out and about the state.)

This weekend, yesterday, I finally brought the frozen pumpkin in off the porch, and later dug out the pumpkin seeds to salt and bake. Good, but I'm reminded of why you need to eat them in small portions...

Blogging this week will be light. Of course, I wish y'all and your families and friends a good time at this most American holiday of all: Happy Thankgsgiving, and let's all be glad of the little things we're holding on to this year, together and apart...

Update tomorrow.

Back from vacation. Travelling for work. More tomorrow...

But let me share this: The gas station across the street set up its annual Christmas tree lot today -- some real lookers out there for only $25. And we've already had several dustings of snow.

Bring on the holidays!

Key Largo library.

The computers were slow and then temporarily went down yesterday morning while checking work e-mail, so I spent the waiting time paging through this book, plucked from a nearby shelf.

1958 and '59 ... two police officers going about their jobs; 1960 and '63, with Catholic priests at their business. You see themes flipping through the years like that, and of course the firefighters and soldiers are no less represented. It's a fine little library really, and although I was only there an hour, one could easily spend a few afternoons sifting through their collections.

That's the thing about Florida, it seems to me. Just when you are ready to write her off as too new, too history-less, no shared cultural background* to form a solid foundation ... you see the living past in the form of the older folks who were raised in a more generally well educated time = more books/less tv.

They still seem to understand community, the need to volunteer and come together to organize events, and not wait for commercial offerings to present themselves. I like that, feeling a kinship somehow for the generations that came before the Boomers.

Not to stereotype, but sometimes having it too easy when you're young maybe does spoil you, and you can carry around a lifetime attitude of ... silliness, as though nothing must be taken seriously because everything seems to turn out all right, regardless. I suspect that may be changing though, as America opens her doors to those who understand living with less, and hopefully children today are coming up with a less entitled outlook.

Vacation rumination...

--------------------

I'm adding Gore Vidal to my short list of Lily Tomlin and George Carlin: celebrity veterans I've been lucky enough to hear in person while we walk the earth together.

Vidal is in a wheelchair now, no longer living in Italy but in LA full time. I was seated in the mid-back of the auditorium, but the spots on his hands were still visible, and you had to sit forward and strain to hear his voice at times. I suspect he'll be leaving us soon, but of course with his work left behind.

Mitchell Kaplan -- a younger man than I had expected -- led him through the "Evening with..." session, tossing out one question and then another, when it seemed Vidal had stopped commenting and had nothing more to add. Physically of course, he is well past his prime, but the mind is still oh-so alive. A few bon-mots:

As an attorney, I had to chuckle at his drawling observation:
(paraphrasing)
At some point, it appears litigation replaces sexual activity for plenty of people.

Monotheism is overrated -- one god too often leads to dictatorship, enforced conformity of the worlds built around the myths. More gods, as the Romans and Greeks had it, meant more varieties of cultures and beliefs.

Obviously, he detests Sarah Palin, several times calling her a Piltdown woman.

When the microphone wailed at one point while he was being questioned about his debates with Bill Buckley, he offered, "Enough Bill. I promise tonight I'll light a candle." And on the son's endorsement of Barack Obama that led to his firing/resignation from the National Review, his response drew laughter, "Evolution is a fact."

We're off to John Pennekamp now, to swim and read away the afternoon. Cooked shrimp are on sale at Publix on the island, for $6 a pound. The belly is full, the skin is fresh from the salt water, and the mind is challenged and alive -- not the least so for the conversations waiting in line. (The couple next to me came down from Toronto, and turned me on to the fabulous book festival there that I hope also to check out. They reminded me of the people I spoke with awaiting Hillary Clinton's rally in Madison -- chance conversations that enrich and feed one just as much as clean fresh shrimp.)
---------------
*For example, imagine having to educate newcomers about such shared commonalities as pulling to the right and stopping for emergency vehicles to pass. When and where do you do that, and is it no surprise that aggressive driving habits that are the norm in other places are also carried over here?

Please pet people...

... there's a reason it's not, "Love your pet as you love yourself."

SOMERS, Wis. — A Kenosha County woman died today after running back inside her burning apartment to rescue her pet ferrets. The sheriff's department says the 30-year-old woman and others got out of the apartment building safely after fire broke out about 1 a.m.

But, the woman returned to retrieve her pets and was overcome by smoke.

Sheriff's deputies, first to arrive at the scene, were driven back by fire as they tried to rescue the woman. One officer suffered smoke inhalation. The apartment where the fire began was gutted and neighboring units sustained smoke damage.

We really do care about you as a person, and understand your love for all God's creatures, but please take care not to put a pet's life above that of humans.

I had a teacher in high school with a burned face and a stub for an ear who preached much the same: "Never never run back into a burning building to save (in his case) a cat. You're much too valuable to other human beings than to risk yourself like that!"

I think your pet(s) would probably agree...

Cougars spotted in Minnesota

The story is good...

CULVER, Minn. - Two deer hunters waited a few minutes to track a doe they shot northwest of Duluth — only to find two hungry cougars tearing away at their kill.

It took Ted Kline and Ron Smith only about 30 minutes to reach their doe on Monday. In that time, Kline estimates the cougars ate about a third of the usable meat.

"When we got there they had both been eating on it. We scared them off, but they kept circling us. They didn't want to leave," said Kline, who owns the land where the two were hunting along the Artichoke River, about 25 miles northwest of Duluth.

The hunters called for help so two men could drag out the deer while Kline kept his hands on his rifle. "The chunks they tore off that doe were huge. The claw marks were huge," he said.

Photos of the carcass show that the deer's neck, rear leg and abdomen were mauled. Kline said it appeared the cats attacked the deer before it died.

... but the comments are better:

Hello Star Tribune? I'd like to report a multiple cougar sighting in Eden Prairie last Thursday at Redstone.
posted by mattbasil on Nov. 11, 08 at 10:43 AM |
41 of 47 people liked this comment.

Were they wearing glossy lipstick, glitter, and skirts that were too short and tight for their age?
posted by howdoodie on Nov. 11, 08 at 11:08 AM |
30 of 32 people liked this comment.

As rare as it may be, I also saw cougars together at a couple different locations in the metro area this last weekend. The most exciting sighting was at the Metrodome Sunday. I'd have to say the cougars looked happy and in great spirits. I've never seen cougars jump up and down while spilling beer however, this was a first.
posted by irockhos on Nov. 11, 08 at 11:33 AM |
30 of 34 people liked this comment.

I'm pretty sure I witnessed a pack of cougs maul a guy in an Obama hat at the Red Carpet last weekend. I'm not saying, I'm just saying.
posted by Tajai7 on Nov. 11, 08 at 11:59 AM |
20 of 24 people liked this comment.

"We Shall Not Sleep..."

This is more a Memorial Day post, in honor of those who never returned to make it home as veterans.

Imagine: your bury your buddies in a muddy field, and later amongst their graves, thousands of beautiful flowers have appeared...

Most of us in school learned the John McCrae poem:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.



But do you know much about the biology of the poppy plant, and why we associate Mr. McCrae's poem with the fresh gravesites of the Great War?

Poppy seeds may lie dormant in soil for years and germinate when the soil is disturbed, as by a plow. Flanders poppy is the single, red flower that carpeted fields in Flanders in western Europe, noticed especially during World War I.

So when the ravages of that war scarred the land, when young men dug trenches and graves for their fellow fighters, imagine their suprise later upon seeing the plentiful poppies emerge from dormant seeds to decorate their dead. As if nature, or the hand of God, had honored them for their sacrifices in her own unique and beautiful way...

Here's more:

Poppies plant or plants are very easy to grow, just one thing, be careful, they do not like to be transplanted. Papaver grows in disturbed soil. Its seeds may lay dormant for years, till the soil is disturbed. Then they bloom in great numbers under cool growing conditions. Poppy plant’s seeds are long lived; they can last from 3 up to 20 years.

...

Thanks in part to the American DEA, there is much misinformation being spread about this beautiful plant. In typical knee-jerk fashion, the DEA has declared war on all things Papaver. Many nurseries and seed suppliers in the states no longer carry somniferum seeds because of DEA threats.

Because the sap from the poppy's seed pods can be illicitly processed into heroin, the American government has decided that if the "poppy scourge" isn't wiped out, then every junkie with a green-thumb will start manufacturing his or her own high-grade smack.

However, this is simply not the case. Processing hard drugs such as heroin from the poppy is a complex and time consuming task. Your average addict would have to grow thousands of poppies in order to manufacture enough heroin to maintain even a small habit. Not to mention the expense and hassle of harvesting the sap and chemically processing it. It would literally take acres upon acres worth of crops to produce enough for trafficking, never mind the amount of manpower you would need to help with the processing. This is why unlike marijuana and many other entheogens, there are virtually no large-scale domestic opium growing operations in North America. It's simply not feasible, especially with the relatively short growing season. Some things are just best left to the Burmese.

In the midst of all the celebration and back-patting at how we can finally be proud of our country because race no longer matters in determining elections ... let's just take a moment to remember our gay brothers and sisters, shall we?

In California, the huge Obama turnout of those intent on overcoming discrimination against minorities did not translate to a defeat of Proposition 8. We saw a Sarah Palin effigy hung in a noose in Hollywood, and somehow that didn't translate as a "hate" crime. Nor did attacks against her Christian family.

Unity? Really, as a country this is the best we can do? I hope for the best, that people weren't just voting race in electing a first-term Senator during a time of nationwide fiscal crisis, and two foreign wars -- one in a country that effectively bankrupted the Soviet Union in the 80s, when they learned internally the price paid by the domestic economy when so many funds were trickling out to support foreign fighting. (What -- did you think it was solely Ronald Reagan's stern words that ended the Cold War?)

There is no higher office now for Sen. Obama to seek. Now is the time to perform -- to finally see how well equipped, well tested, and well prepared he is to tell Americans the hard truths they have put off hearing for so long. Personally, I'm not sure how his track record of promising to be all things to all people will play out. It's hard for people who have gotten where they are on charisma to take necessary steps, if it means being "not liked".

Finally, I wonder what Supreme Court Justice John Roberts is thinking today, knowing that if Sen. Obama had his way, Roberts would not be found qualified to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. I forsee, under an Obama-selected judiciary, plenty of "penumbras" ahead, and we all can see how well that kind of legal reasoning works out over the long run ...

Big boy bucks.

(These ones don't roam the wooded borders separating properties, nor do they stand still to pose for pictures.)

Enjoy.

Decker wasn't the only one marveling at his good fortune. Visitors flocked to his home Saturday night and Sunday to catch a glimpse of the magestic whitetail made famous by Field and Stream. Utterances like "awesome" and "incredible" were commonplace. One man kissed the buck's antlers in appreciation.

A Sunday afternoon visit to Jack Dodge's Elk Lake taxidermy shop prompted similar responses from a group of stunned onlookers.

"My God, look at the antlers on this thing," said Dodge, who has shot numerous trophy animals himself. "It's absolutely incredible. You're not going to see another buck like this for a long time."

In between phone calls from well-wishers Sunday night, Decker humbly reflected on his good fortune.

"I'm not a better hunter after shooting this buck than I was before," he said. "I'm just a very lucky person."