The West

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers

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Where else but on the sundown side of the Missouri River would you find a street sign saying "Wolfsong Loop?"

I'm writing this in Fargo in the home of Clint's family. Clint is at work while the kids' mother travels to the country of Latvia to serve as an event team doctor for an ice skating competition. Clint and the kids will travel to meet her later this week and then tour a couple Scandinavian countries as well.

Whenever I get over here to Fargo, I can't help but think of all the rich farmland being covered up by concrete and asphalt. It'll never be reclaimed. Maybe someday wheat will be grown in roadside ditches and front lawns of all these houses and businesses so we have enough to eat. 

With all the hot weather we are having, it doesn't feel a lot different than the temps I experienced in June in Las Vegas. Besides, we get a lot more humidity with our heat than they do down there.

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It didn't take me long to decide I agreed with this statement made by an unknown author: "Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading."  That business in Syria is troubling.  The President is being pressured by some to get more fully involved, but I don't think we can stand another military action.  I am not looking forward to another war!  Pacifist I'm not, but this does not appeal to me.

I'm back in Mandan now, and the lead story on the morning show is Syria.  The war drums are a'pounding.  Of course the Miley Cyrus story will be covered, too.

Poetry and Such

What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds. Will Rogers

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We English majors are supposed to know and appreciate poetry (I think). There are a few of the classic poems that really do speak to the innards, especially this sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley -

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said - “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert....Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on those lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The gist of the poem is that no matter how mighty and great Ozymandias may have been, his statue lies half buried in the sands that “stretch far away.” Said to have been the Pharaoh Rameses in Egypt the statue does exist on display in the British Museum. I suppose the metaphor at work here is that the sands of time change everything. He says, “Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair!” What is there to look at except for the crumbling statue and the desert. How many dynasties, dictators, and empires have come and gone in this old world, and which ones will be next...?

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School's about to start and there is a movement by some parents to get the state legislature to pass a law to wait until after Labor Day. I talked to someone yesterday at the fitness center who is ready to begin now. He is a retired teacher and coach who now volunteers in the athletic departments of the local high schools. He likes being around and of service.

School for us old-timers will start soon, too. I'm talking about the Osher Institute and its offerings. I've signed up for a class about history of the Missouri River where one of the sessions will be aboard a riverboat to take an informative cruise. Another will deal with history of Fort Abraham Lincoln, and still another with cavalry horses. In addition we always sign up for free monthly movies which have all been good. Last Friday we saw “Quartet,” a story set in a retirement home for musicians. It was fun watching the old fogeys interact with each other. Lots of laughs and a good moral, too.

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Sven and Ole worked in a factory and were talking:

Ole: “I can make the boss giff me the day off.”
Sven: “And how vould you do dat?”
Ole: “Yust vait and see.” He then hangs upside-down from the ceiling.
Boss comes in: What are you doing​?”

Ole: “I’m a light bulb.”
Boss: “Have you gone crazy. I think you need to take the day off.”

Sven starts to follow him and the boss says: “Where are you going?”
Sven says: “I’s going home, too. I can’t verk in the dark.”

Juxtaposition

Everything is changing.  People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.  Will Rogers

Will Rogers was generally spot on.  Politicians get lots of attention from the comedians, and the thing about it is they usually see the situations correctly.  Take the orange flower above standing out in contrast with the large sage surrounding it.  Pretend it's a politician who stuck his foot in his mouth or got caught doing something foolish.

The biggest problem we have in this country are people who repeat propaganda so many times that stupid people start to believe it.  I still love the title of a book I own: When did ignorance become a point of view.  Enough for now.  More next week.

Big Blue Sky

Never let yesterday use up too much of today. -  Will Rogers

I love that big, blue sky when viewed in a rural setting.  I'm going to have to go  on a picture taking safari again since I've about used up my inventory.  But this one is worth bringing out...  It's been pretty cool here the last few days.  The weather sure is changeable.  Naysayers won't admit to any climate change taking place, especially so when the threat of action affects their pocketbooks.  Hell, we've got all that oil just sitting there waiting for the taking.  Maybe when it's depleted we can do something else.  You have to hand it to the lobbyists, they sure twist arms in Washington, North Dakota for that matter.  But then the people have a right to petition the government through their representatives according to the Constitution, so there you have it.

Lots of activity took place in Bismarck this past weekend.  The annual Capitol Affair took place on the capitol grounds.  I don't know how many vendors showed up, but there sure were a lot of them.  We didn't buy anything except two orders of tacos in a bag for noon lunch and a huge bag of kettle corn which we're still munching on.

A large chautauqua tent stood just off to the side, and that's where I spent most of my time.  North Dakota has some distinction with the chautauqua, but I'm not sure what.  Maybe, the first to do it.  Whatever, the four hour-long programs brought in some pretty heavy historical characters: General Stand Watie, General Ely Parker, General George Armstrong Custer, and President Abraham Lincoln.  Watie, a Cherokee from Oklahama, served as a Confederate general; Parker, a Seneca, became a civil engineer, then a friend of Ulysses Grant, and under Grant's order, composed the surrender documents for General Lee to sign at Appomattax; Custer, aw, come on, everyone knows who he is, and Lincoln, who we didn't stick around for since it was scheduled to run at 5:00.  We've taken chautauquas in every chance we get; they just don't come around very often.

Awhile back I picked up an old worn copy of Chet Huntley's The Generous Years.  Finally opening it yesterday, I found this passage that made me reminisce: "The harvest meals were shameless competitions of abundance.  Each ranch wife was a keen competitor for the ultimate decision of the threshing crew that she served the finest food of the season.  I am not certain about the justice of their decisions, but it guaranteed them a perpetuating array of food."  I still remember the good food we ate when Dad and his three brothers put up silage in the fall.  I don't know if the ladies were competitive, but mmm...

I wonder what Ole and crew have been doing lately -
Ole, Sven and Lars die in a tragic Lutefisk accident. They are met by God on the stairway to heaven.
God says, "There are 3,000 steps to heaven. It's very serious up there. I'll tell you a joke on each 1,000th step you reach. If you laugh you go to hell."
So they start walking and reach to the first 1,000th step. God tells a joke, Lars laughs out loud and goes straight to hell. Ole and Sven look at each other nervously.
On the 2,000th step God tells another joke, Sven tries his best but laughs and goes to straight to hell.
On the 3,000th step God tells the last and best joke, Ole doesn't laugh and proceeds to the gate.
Suddenly, Ole bursts out laughing hysterically. God asks, "What are you laughing about?".
Ole replies, "Oh dat's funny. I yust got da first yoke!".