Compulsively Aimless

  There are many reasons to buy a book -- the subject matter, you like the author, acquire knowledge, or entertainment. I bought this book ,  Trees of North America , purely for its beautiful aesthetic value. I love the strong colors of the cover. The pleasure of this book is due to small size (5.5" x 3.5") , beautiful illustrations accompanied by, short descriptions of over 90 trees. The book is over 90 years old, (1934) but looks almost new. Reading it, I learned there are 13 species of pine trees, and 12 of oak and a tree I’ve never heard of but love the name--the Kentucky coffee tree. A book to keep and enjoy. 

    I recently read Arthur Guy Empey's WWI account of serving in the British Army published in 1917.  At the back of the book is a glossary of slang terms used by the soldiers. Of course I had to select a few and repurpose as potential band names. It never ends...   Tommy‘s Cocker   Time X   Star Shell   Reinforcements   Minnenwerfer   Lonely Stab   Mass Formation   Covering Party   Mad Minute    Mentioned in Dispatches   Twelve in One    Waiting Man   Wiring Party

Another installment in a series of never-ending, pointless exercise to generate band names (and maybe microbrews). This installments theme is repurposing business jargon. Best Practice  Key Takeaways Moving Goal Posts Straw Man and the Game Changers Mission Critical Core Values Brain Dump Action Items Ducks in a Row Executive Summaries Timebox 80/20s 

  A Man of Contradictions He burned down the Library  but kept all the knowledge. He hated the artist but loved the art.  Miracles Seeing the glow of full moon for the first time must feel as if a miracle has occurred. But waking up on a random Tuesday at 63  and seeing the light of the early morning  push through the bedroom shades can also feel like such a miracle   It Made Sense at 11:30 at night Poetry is ancient. It’s always been that way. How else would Homer think of it when he recited the Iliad or the Odyssey before the invention of writing. I can’t imagine poetry being a fad in those pre-writing days even the old ones  couldn't remember when it started.    Meteorological Message The wind shifts without anyone noticing but the first to sense a change  in nature’s mood will be the sailors and farmers among us like animals that know when a storm is coming stick close to them when you feel a breeze.    The Past is Happenin...

I recently attended the Society of Midwest Historians conference in Des Moines, Iowa, and it got me thinking about how we came to define the Midwest. Here are a few of my incomplete thoughts on the region stimulated by the two-day conference. Before the region had a name, European settlers in the East generally referred to the land west of the Allegheny Mountains as the “Frontier.” But in 1787, the land north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River was designated as the “ Northwest” by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This region included Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and the northeastern portion of Minnesota. As the United States expanded westward, the term “Old Northwest” emerged to distinguish it from the Pacific Northwest. But the territory of the Northwest Ordinance remained the starting point for what we now call the Midwest. Interestingly, the physical starting point of the region is represented by historical markers in East Liverpool, Ohio, where ...

  With the 100th anniversary of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, it’s worth a look back at the St. Paul native’s Midwest roots and how they appear in his most famous work. 
Introduction As a story teller of the Jazz Age and its later disillusionment, Fitzgerald also created a subtle regional distinction in his literary landscapes. For Fitzgerald, the American Midwest served as the foundation of his characters' origins, a place of inherent morality and traditional values. By contrast, the allure of the East Coast, particularly New York, represented the object of his characters' aspirations, a realm of wealth and glamour that ultimately led to their moral and emotional undoing. (New York City and Long Island can often be seen as what he means by the East .) By contrasting the values he attributed to these regions, Fitzgerald explored the corrosive effects of unchecked ambition and the recognition of what was lost in its pursuit. The geographic contrast of Midwest and East is m...

*Benjamin Franklin's response to Elizabeth Willing Powel's question: "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"   I'm a collector of quotes. I truly find them to be concentrations of great wisdom and I suppose that's what makes a good quote endure--it holds up over time. With the turmoil that's going on in our country and the larger world lately, I've gone back to my collection of quotes for a little wisdom and guidance. I'm sharing a few favorites that are timely.  "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."                                                                                              ...