Minnesota is Not a Gingham-Draped Caricature

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Nor is Tim Walz a “yah, you betcha” hotdisher I was born in Minnesota and it’s where I am from. I lived there longer than anywhere else, raised my children there, and had my career there, mostly. In my last … Read More

Quinault Rainforest & the Enchanted Valley

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The beautiful landscapes others seldom see Enchanted Valley is the place name of the valley in the Quinault Rainforest, part of the Olympic National Park. I took many smaller roads from the interstate and drove an hour without going through … Read More

Bernice Reagon, Civil Rights Voice, Paved the Way for Kamala Harris

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Bernice Johnson Reagon, Freedom Singer, founded Sweet Honey in the Rock Bernice Johnson Reagon went home, over the River Jordan, on Friday. With the presidential sweepstakes taking the news attention, it might be easy to overlook the great musician who … Read More

Caretaking My Fundamentalist Aunt

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When family needs and individual needs collide The hospital social worker called me and told me my aunt had checked herself out of the geriatric mental health unit, where she was for treatment of depression, against medical advice. I sighed … Read More

Surgery Time Out for the Future

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What are your outcomes: surgery, treatment, grieving? Surgery recommendations have been a part of my life for the past year. While I have felt halt and lame, my goal is to be hale and hearty and live fully, not merely … Read More

Don’t Give Free Rent to Someone You Need to Evict from Your Head

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Manage Your Influencers I spent too much time four years ago obsessing over the state of the world. We were in Covid times, and I had lost all sense of control. None of us were in control. I tried to … Read More

The Loneliness of Losing Shared History

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When my elderly aunt with no children died, we, the nephews and nieces close by, hosted her memorial service for her friends in the nursing home and the city. She had outlived many of her contemporaries, so it was a … Read More

Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow

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The Harmonic Chords of a Train Whistle A freight train rolls by on the tracks, and the engineer pulls the whistle, which reverberates across the river and comes back as an echo. The right combination of speed, the Doppler effect, … Read More

The Vagaries of Blog Appearances

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Sorry I have not posted for awhile, but the website went down for reasons I don’t understand and came back online for reasons I don’t understand. I do understand that a writer these days must become minimally technically proficient, which … Read More

Audubon Society Accepts Changes to Bird Names but not Society Name

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Bird Names Become Political The American Ornithological Society recently announced that all bird names will now be changed to names that are either descriptive of the bird itself or its ecology. Birds that are named for people will have their … Read More

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