Then & Now
Waldo Windmill writes: “Growing up in rural Wisconsin meant that I attended one-room country schools. Such schools dotted the landscape until the middle of the 20th century, when school-district consolidation brought about massive closings of these iconic temples of learning.
Continue reading “Remembering an era when caution wasn’t quite so abundant . . .”The Permanent Motherly/Sonly Record
DebK of Rosemount: “A crew installing some kind of infrastructure ‘upgrade’ has managed to sever our ‘fiber-optics,’ leaving us without Internet connection, a situation that has freed up quite a lot of time I’d otherwise have wasted on email and blogs and the like. I’ve dedicated many of these liberated hours to preparing for the arrival of Texas Sis, whose stay will overlap the visit of Favorite Son and his family.
Continue reading “Cleaning the farmhouse for company (spiders!) takes her back four decades, to a reading of “Charlotte’s Web.””What is right with people?
Pandemic Division
Anonymous Woman of St. Paul: “Subject: A little kindness is needed right now.
“Lately I’m trying to get to restaurants — the Mom-and-Pop ones, etc., that still seem to be hurting from disruptions. Because we need to prime the pump to help folks make a steady living again.
Continue reading “Does a $6 tip on an $8.50 tab sound just about right? Yes, it does.”Life as we know it
Waldo Windmill writes: “The word ‘serendipity’ was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754 to describe the good fortunes of the ‘Three Princes of Serendip,’ characters in the English version of an old Persian fairy tale. The 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, published in 2014, defines ‘serendipity’ as the ‘phenomenon or instance of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.’
Continue reading “Why has he lived the life he’s led? Chalk it up to Serendipity!”Life as we know it
The Astronomer of Nininger: “The air was still and the water as smooth as glass — unusual for the Upper Mississippi. It had risen maybe six or more inches from last week, but Saturday’s rain likely added to the level. Typically, with the current moving and the slightest of breeze blowing, the surface is almost always somewhat rippled if not chopped.
Continue reading “Come along for a pleasant dinner cruise, aboard a pontoon, on Ol’ Man River!”
