Compulsively Aimless

  I've previously done a blog on a smaller collection of my Ohio books Round on the Edges, High in the Middle  that includes some of the books mentioned here. Since then, my collection of books on Ohio has grown and I've now broken it into two subgroups: History and Culture and Biography and Memoir. Into the next stage of life, I'm trying to expand my understanding of Midwest history and especially my Ohio roots.  Here are the highlights of my collection of History and Culture: Top Row Ohio – Walter Havighurst (1976). Broad overview of Ohio’s history, culture, and industries by one of the state’s best-known historians. I co-authored a commemorative article about him with Jacqueline Johnson of the University of Miami of Ohio for The Middle West Review ,  A Midwestern Storyteller of the Inland Seas: A Tribute to Walter Havighurst The Trees – Conrad Richter (1940). Historical novel about pioneers settling in Ohio; first book in The Awakening Land trilogy. A f...

Midwest Reading   I’ve been trying to develop my knowledge of the Midwest and trying to capture the different categories of my reading on the topic.  1. Midwest in general  2. a. Ohio history (my home state)     b. Ohio memoir  3. Michigan (my paternal state) 4. Great Lakes 5. Leelenau County, Michigan  6. Native Americans    I've written blogs on several of these topics before but adding to them here with more books read.   Here's the first of six posts on the different areas.  Midwest Generally How to Speak Midwestern ( Edward McClelland , 2016) A light-hearted linguistic study of Midwestern speech patterns, accents, and vocabulary. McClelland explains how regional dialects—from Chicago to the Great Lakes to the Plains—developed, while also examining the cultural identity reflected in Midwestern speech. Land of Promise ( Walter Havighurst , 1946) A sweeping narrative history of the Midwest, started from the Northwest Or...

  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 ...