Eyes to the Skies… and Ground Here’s a few things to mark on your calendar for this first week in May - from celestial happenings to when and what to plant in your garden…plus a few tips along the way. Looking skyward above our NW horizons, viewers with binoculars may be able to see a comet streaking faintly through the evening heavens.
Mother’s Day is the one day a year when Mother gets to put her feet up and is waited on hand and foot by her minion. Father brings her an iced coffee, just the way she likes it. The children deliver the remote control, blankets, and a snack. Uninterrupted, Mother watches an entire episode of BBC-produced British period piece on PBS. It is pure bliss.
A staple of my time in journalism is apparently attending the Minnesota’s Machinery Museum annual meeting. In all of my history in newspapers around the area, the one event that I have attended each year that I was involved in newspapers has been this particular meeting.
Years ago when I directed a church high school singing group called One Accord, I set high, yet attainable expectations for these young people. My theory was if you didn’t expect much from an individual that might be exactly what they would produce. On the other hand, if you set high, yet attainable expectations, they would work hard to accomplish that goal – and were proud when they did!
As much trouble as we humans have determining how to dress for this weather, think about the plants and animals that don’t have the option of adding or removing layers or going indoors for warmth or to get out of the wind. My, oh my. This “spring” has been enough to test my patience. The thermometer showed 80 degrees Saturday afternoon and this morning when I walked it was under 40. And it’s not supposed to get much warmer all day. Add to that the sprinkles and the ferocious wind. Uff da.
Fish Gotta Swim... “Boom, boom, diddum, daddum, wattum, shoop -And they swam and they swam all over the dam.” Picture the “Three Little Fishies” in that old Spike Jones song, how do they get over that dam? It was a question I reflected upon as I watched the fish schooling at the base of the fishway at Marsh Lake recently.
Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradtioin Cinco de Mayo is, for those with a limited grasp of Spanish, just a date on the calendar. Don’t be alarmed.
This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Art Norby, an author and artist who resides in Arizona, but was raised in Montevideo. Mr. Norby has authored a number of books, and chooses his hometown of Montevideo to be the setting for them. He and I had a discussion about “serials”, and I’m sure he was quite surprised to know that I am a big fan of them. If you’ve never heard about “serials”, they’re really quite interesting. In the good ol’ days, “serials” were how many authors got their start. Stephen King started his writing career with them, and even the local newspapers had them. “Serials” are works of fiction - novels - that are published in installments. In a newspaper, that usually looked like a chapter a week in print. They’ve also appeared in literary magazines and periodicals. Sometimes they were written specifically for that kind of print, sometimes they were written as full-length novels and later broken up into “serials”. In the late 1800s and early 1920s, they were very popular in newspapers.
As the Mayor of a city in Southwest Minnesota, I hear from employers all the time about the shortage of employees. We see signs in the front windows of businesses and billboards all around that are advertising for employees. Sign-on bonuses is growing rapidly as with starting wages for these jobs. For jobs that require a 2-year accreditation or a more advanced 4-year degree, many businesses are getting very creative in paying for all or part of the education in exchange for a commitment to work. New or struggling businesses sometimes do not readily have the financial resources available to get these employees.
Bigmouth Buffalo Fish: “I am not a Carp...” Checking out the surging, cascading fishway at Marsh Lake I couldn’t help but notice the extended schools of huge carp, their fins slicing the surface of the water, their snouts poking upstream. Only thing was, they weren’t carp! They were Bigmouth Buffalo, a very similar looking but entirely different species from carp.