Sherlocking Around

Early in December I decided to spend my birthday at the Minnesota History Center. I haven't been there for years and I always enjoy this place. This year they had a Sherlock Holmes exhibit. I have been a fan of Alfred Conan Doyle since I was a child. The Hound of the Baskervilles is my favorite. I jumped right in to solve this crime by studying the blood splatter and shape of the seed pod.

I got my book stamped at Scotland Yard, ballistics, telegraph, cosmetics, botany, optics and lenses. This was fun!

Offspring #2 came to the correct conclusion. I did not because I couldn't be bothered to put my reading glasses on. Whatevs, I still had fun.

I was quite surprised to see the  name of my Uncle on the wall! And his youngest child didn't even know he was up there amongst "The Greatest Generation." This is quite an honor!

 

Lessons In Chemistry

Bonnie Garmus is the author of Lessons In Chemistry, a wonderful story about a brilliant female character. Elizabeth Zott was studying chemistry which in the 1960's which is no easy task. Due to the criminal actions of a misogynistic professor she is unable to complete her degree. She gets a job at a research facility. The male researchers expect her to make the coffee and wash the test tubes. They don't see her brilliance. They completely mistake her for an average, subservient woman who is looking to get married, stay home, and make babies. One young hot shot scientist who holds grudges notices her when she comes into his lab to steak a box of beakers that she needs for her experiment. He comes into her lab to get the beakers back when he notices her. He notices her research, her probing questions, her brilliant mind, and superior intelligence. Things go well for a time. Six years later Elizabeth is a single mother. She takes a job on local television called "Supper By Six." On the show she says things like "Add 1 teaspoon of sodium chloride to a half cup of acetic acid." The producer of the show begs her to use words like salt and vinegar but she won't. Elizabeth has always been a great cook and the women watching her show are intrigued at first and become loyal fans. Soon lines are forming for the studio audience. Elizabeth gets mail with questions and she starts answering them on the show. She makes cooking fun! At the end of the show she says, "Kids, go set the table for your Mom. She needs a little down time." I can see why this book has  been nominated for the best historical fiction and best debut novel. I liked it too. 

Coal In My Stocking

 I decided to bring my Xmas stockings to Minneapolis in order to make the place more festive. Offspring #2 and I hung them up on her chicken hanging rack. I neglected to buy stocking stuffers so we scrounged around looking for smallish items to put in everyone's stockings. We had Clementines and oranges are traditional in Xmas stockings. We found silly gifts like a pink beer cap opener that read "Girl Power" for Offspring #1. Offspring #2 found this chunk of charcoal which can also be an underarm deodorant. I thought I might like to try an underarm deodorant that doesn't come in plastic so I took that and put it in my stocking. Later we learned Offspring #1 wasn't going to be able to come. As we emptied the stockings, Offspring #2 remarks, "You do realize you got a chunk of coal in your stocking this Xmas?" Golly, we laughed so hard. Via Offspring #2's Instagram information, I learned of a brilliant Xmas gift that one of my nephews gave one of my nieces. He bought the gift. He wrapped the gift. He submerged the gift in water. He froze the gift in the back yard. He presented the frozen gift to her. She had to melt the gift before opening the package. What does she find inside the Xmas gift from her brother? Wait for it, you will laugh, this is hilarious, that man is a genius, I wish I had thought of this myself, he knows her so well, a tiny toy violin. LOL!

The Good Sister

I listened to the audiobook of The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth mostly while driving. This book had a complicated plot so I had to pay more attention than usual but it was totally worth the effort. Fern and Rose Castle are twin sisters raised by a single mother. Rose tells her side of the story via diary and Fern tells her side of the story too. While it is true that sister can have different recollections of the same event, Fern and Rose have widely divergent views. Rose saw her mother as a child abusing, addicted, crazy mother. Fern saw her as average. Fern has sensory issues and can get overwhelmed with too much noise or too many people approaching her. Fern has had the occasional melt down. Rose can calm Fern. So which is the good sister? I had one impression for 93% of the book and another impression for the final 7% of the book. By the end of the story Fern and Rose are 25 years old. This is one of the best books I have read this year!

Making A List

Despite making a list and checking it thrice, I still managed to forget to bring my computer to Offspring #2's home on Dec. 24. Here is a picture of an athletic tortoise at Como Conservatory. This tortoise was breaking speed records in it's enclosure. By the way, all the tortoises at Como are named for shoes. Over 20 tortoises have names such as Nike, Adidas and Sketcher. The zoologists mark their shells with nail polish to tell them apart.

Xmas did not go according to plan. Offspring #1 and family drove the 90 minutes to the airport in Baltimore twice without getting on a plane. They were told landing in Minneapolis was the problem. Oh, well, we all try to make the best of a disappointing situation. Here is the sloth hanging out. The sloth's right arm is hanging onto the branch.

White and green are the colors of the flower show this year. As I walked through I kept humming (quietly) "Here Comes The Bride." I stopped at Como after mailing packages to Pennsylvania and delivering Xmas cookies and candy to Offspring #1's father-in-law's condo. I also picked up gifts for myself which are much appreciated. Right now I am wearing new wool socks. Each sock is specified for my right and left foot. According to the package, if the socks wear out I can get new ones sent to me. Somehow that doesn't seem fair to the company but the socks are very comfy and warm.

I love bonsai trees. If I didn't travel so much I might give it a try.

I think the Como Conservatory might be my favorite place on this planet.

 

Five Days At Memorial

 Today I finished a very long book called Five Days At Memorial by Sheri Fink. This book details a true story about what happened inside a hospital in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. I like books that have medical information and this book has a boatload of medical information. For five days the doctors, nurses, cooks, pharmacists, orderlies, administrators, patients and visitors lived and died in that hospital. Decisions had to be made. Electricity was intermittent. Communication with the outside world was intermittent. Rumors swirled and panic flashed around corners. Rescue was slow to come because for some reason this particular hospital was put last on the list to rescue. Some helicopters would only take patients who were ambulatory. Some patients were lain down on the floor with barely any clothes on lying in their own waste, too dehydrated from the intense heat while nurses fanned them with cardboard. I can't imagine it, the horror, the indignities, the danger and the filth. On top of all that, after the hurricane is over and life is getting back to normal, the new prosecutor in town tries to win political points by suing Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses. Jeez Louise! I heard Apple TV is planning a mini-series about this story and I can see why because the drama is gripping!

Chocolate Death Bombs

 Today I decided to finish up making a batch of Brigabeiros, a Brazilian candy, or what my friend, Monica, used to call chocolate death bombs. I haven't made these for several years because they are incredibly sweet and terribly unhealthy. So, you want the recipe, right?

Ingredients:1/2 Cup butter, 1 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk, 4 large Tablespoons Nestle Quick chocolate powdered milk drink,  fine chocolate sprinkles (I bought mine at Michael's because the grocery store sprinkles are not fine enough), paper candy containers.

Method: Cook over low heat stirring constantly. Cook until mixture leaves the bottom of the pan. Put in glass bowl covered and cool overnight. Roll a large teaspoon full of mixture the size of a walnut. Roll ball into a bowl of chocolate sprinkles until covered. Put into paper candy containers. Makes about 35.

Mercury

 Check out these impressive icicles at my dentist's office. I think they look awesome. So my dentist told me that he talked with a patient employed by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The patient told the dentist that most of the mercury pollution in Minnesota, a surprising amount, comes from dental work. If people are cremated the mercury goes up the chimney. When people are buried the mercury gets into the soil. Small amounts of mercury are released in vapor in your breath and small amounts get into your bloodstream. Interesting, it it not? I never though of this before. Some of my fillings from Dr. Raykowski are more than six decades old so I guess he did pretty well for a guy with such thick fingers.

Honey And Spice

 Set at a college in the south of England during current times, Honey and Spice is a story written by Bolu Babalola. This internationally best selling author tells a very funny story about romance. Normally I am not into romances but this one was funny as heck. Kiki is a college student with a college radio show called "Brown Sugar." She gives relationship advice with her best friend and roommate. Her college mentor tells her that she can get into a writing internship in New York City if she can get her ratings up on her radio show. Kiki notices a handsome new student and thinks he is a player and says this on her radio show. She warns the women in the college about this handsome dude. As it turns out he is not a player and he isn't happy with her talking about him like that. Malakai's father was a player and Malakai is determined not to be like his father. He is also the person Kiki's mentor wants her to help with his film. They decide to pretend to date as that will help the situation. Of course this plan back fires but in very funny and sad ways. This book had me laughing out loud. I learned quite a bit about dating, technology, and the current worries of university students. I think life was much simpler when I went to university.

Taste

 I read Stanley Tucci's book Taste: My Life Through Food. This book is his memoir and it is mostly linear through time. He starts with a story about his Italian mother arguing with her Italian mother about gifts of food. Both women want the other one to keep the food given. He grew up in New York near the Hudson valley eating home made healthy food. He and his three younger siblings ate very well. Once he got to school he ate well too but learned about Ding Dongs and Ho Hos and Hostess pies. He says he never really had a sweet tooth. He was lucky to be blessed with a fast metabolism. He could eat as much as he wanted without gaining weight. After college he moved to New York City to be an actor and for awhile money was tight. He actually had to take a loan from the Actors Guild to pay the rent. He got lucky and soon found acting jobs to pay the bills. He found certain restaurants he liked in the city and would go back time after time. He found a wife and had 3 children with her. Unfortunately his first wife died from ovarian cancer at a young age. With the help of his family he got through it. He met his second wife at the wedding of her younger sister. He ended up moving to England to be with her and to combine their families. He talked about the food on movie sets. The food at movies set in Italy was usually quite good. He went to Iceland for a film and ate the best lamb of his life. In a small town in northern France he went to a restaurant with Meryl Streep and other actors. They decided to try the local delicacy called andouillette  sausage. They assumed the sausage would be small because of the ette at the end of the name. When the sausage arrived it was huge and looked like the penis of a horse. Meryl slices off the end and takes a bite. She says it smells of the barnyard. Soon she spits it into her napkin and starts taking wine to get rid of the vile taste. Stanley takes a bite and the same thing happens to him. When the waiter comes to check on them they lie and say they like the sausage. They also order omelets and eat those instead. Stanley really enjoys eating and drinking. He once worked at a bar and learned how to mix drinks so he was pretty particular about how his drinks were made. He had two more children with his second wife. When she was pregnant with the second one he finally went to the dentist for a pain he had for six weeks. The pain turned out to be oral cancer. For a man who loves to eat and drink and cook, hearing about the chance he might loose his sense of taste was heartbreaking. He went to New York for the surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. He ate through a stomach tube for six months. He was lucky to survive and be able to eat again. Ryan Reynolds went with him when he had the stomach tube removed. The nurses were so flustered by the appearance of the handsome actor that she forgot to cut the tube to remove the bubble that held the tube in his stomach. Stanley remembered and stopped her from hurting him. Yikes! He does a lot of name dropping in his book but that makes it a charming read. I really enjoyed this one.

Pot Luck

 All day I have been debating whether to go to this potluck tonight. This morning I was shoveling snow and I see the man across the street unable to get up his driveway and he has a Chevy Tahoe with four wheel drive! If a big truck like that man has gets stuck I really shouldn't go in a Honda Fit. Later, after lunch, my neighbor snow blows the street in front of my house throwing frozen ice balls at the house. This sounds like a war zone and I am afraid she will break a window. She didn't break any windows. I shovel again to rid my sidewalks of the thrown snow. I really shouldn't go. I consult Offspring #2 who thinks it will be cancelled anyway. But I want to go! Finally I decide to go. I could walk because the pot luck is at the University. But do I want to walk there and back in the dark? Not only do I not want to walk in the dark I don't want to bring a cold dish. I decide to drive. I decide to bring veggie meatballs in tomato sauce. I plan backwards. The meatballs take 11 minutes in the oven. Putting on my coat and boots and walking down the icy driveway will take 6 minutes. Driving takes 6 minutes. I decide to turn on the oven at 5 and leave at 5:30. I have never been in the Lebovitz building before so it is good to leave extra early. I arrive 20 minutes early so I drop off a birthday card at the post office first and then drive back. I park my car close to the building and walk the wrong way to the library. I turn around and walk back hoping my meatballs stay warm. I come to another door and see someone I think I recognize also carrying a bag with a crock pot inside. I greet her and tell her now I know I am at the right place. Turns out we never met before. She leads me to the room and we are the 3rd and 4th person to arrive. I set down my bags and take off my coat and we chitchat for 20 minutes. Another man comes in and apologizes for being late. Soon we are hungry and it is time to eat. We have meat meatballs, Vienna sausages, vegie meatballs, a lentil salad, pumpkin muffins and a quiche without meat. All the food I tasted was delicious. On the screen are pictures from the native plant walks we have taken together. We talk about ideas we would like to explore such as how plants survive the winter, wild rice, and whether the variety of species in an area has changed from 40 years ago. There is much laughter and discussion. There are even a drawing for a prize. Three of the people here are board members so only the guy who came late and myself are eligible to win. The prizes are bags of seeds and books. I take the Michael Pollan book called The Botany Of Desire. He is one of my favorite authors. The potluck is starting to feel like Christmas. By 8 o'clock we pack up to leave. Driving home I see people have not shoveled their side walks and the narrow streets and decide I made a good choice to drive. I manage to get home meeting both of my goals; don't have a car accident and don't break any bones.

The Winners

 I got super lucky to score this bestselling novel by my favorite current Swedish author, Frederik Backman. I am fairly certain I am the first library patron to read this copy because 4 of the pages were slightly joined at the outer edge. The Winners is the third in a series about the hockey fans and players in the towns of Hed and Beartown. And in reading the author notes at the end I now understand that this is a new series that I can watch on Netflix so I got that to look forward to. What struck me in the book is how some people changed. One guy is a criminal and then he does something nice.  Another guy is a hometown hero but then he does something stupid. One set of parents seem nice but are they really? I am also struck by how strongly the associations and love between people who seem to be on the periphery of your existence. My hardcopy had 681 pages so it took me a few days to read it. I was hooked from the first page. Some parts were violent and I don't like violence. The book is about hockey and hockey is violent. I remember back to my first date with my wasbund. We went to a North Star hockey game. The game started and suddenly the crowd around me stood up and shouted, "Kill him, kill him." I was shocked. What was this fresh round of hell? One girl in the book grows up to be a hockey star. Another grows up to be a renowned singer/songwriter. Another grows up to be a helicopter pilot and paramedic. Some kids never get to grow up at all. I can hardly wait until this author writes another book.

 

Neighborly Neighbors

 Today was another unusual day where nothing went according to plan but I think I ended up laughing out loud more than I have in the last month. After yesterday's 12 inches of snow that was as heavy as wet cement we got another 12 inches of snow that was as heavy as cement. I got up, made my coffee, and drank two cups saving the third as a reward for shoveling snow. I was shoveling along. Four neighbor dogs are chasing each other or humping each other in the snow. A car was stuck on the wrong side of the street and I didn't think the plow or grader could get through this bottleneck. The same young man riding a fat tire bike that I saw yesterday peddles past me. That man makes me laugh every time I see him. My snow blowing neighbor comes up our driveway with her snow blower, looks me in the eye, and says, "I am sick of this (insert word here that rhymes with twit)!" I laughed so hard tears came out of my eyes. Ninety minutes later I pull my car forward and as Maria plows out my parking spot I sing aloud, "Ave Maria." Later as I walk up the hill the owner of the stuck car is spinning his wheels. I offer him some sand/salt mixture or a push but he declines. Maria and the next neighbor and the next neighbor's young son  snow blow the road in from and behind his car. They give him a push and he gets going, his shovel still on top of his car. He gets past my house and gets stuck again in front of my other next door neighbor's house. A U of M student in a black pick up comes by and tows him out with his strap. I notice the guy is from Louisiana and has bald tires. At least we can get plowed now. I go in the house and I notice my college roommate has texted me asking if I am free to talk. We start talking and she is giving me tips on where to go when I migrate south. She actually had a lot of good ideas because her parents lived in Texas when they migrated. By now the time is 1:30 p.m. and I have not had lunch yet so I made a quick lunch. I sit down to read my very large library book and I hear the plow coming. I am hoping for the grader rather than the plow because the grader has a smaller blade in the back that can scrape sidewalks clean. I keep popping up from the chair to see. The grader comes but does not scrape the sidewalk. Rats! I put my book down and put on my boots and coat again. I see the neighbor across the street is shoveling my sidewalk. She has a mini cooper from the state of Washington. She has worked all day at the hospital and now she is shoveling my sidewalk because she feels bad our side of the street got the brunt of the snow. She gives me some advice on which general practitioners in Duluth are good ones. I keep shoveling. Maria and her neighbor and the son are blowing each other's snow. Up the hill I see other neighbors helping each other out while a teenaged girl makes a huge snow person. An elderly neighbor to my left walks by to talk. She tells me her neighbor shoveled her sidewalk, her deck, and her satellite dish. She told me she has lived her a long time and this is a neighborhood of helpful people. I believe her. By now I have cleared my sidewalk of snow and ice but there remains a couple feet of snow in the street. I don't want to shovel the street and as I contemplate this my neighbor downstairs comes up behind me and offers to finish the job. He tried to go to work this morning but his car, although in the street and not down our steep driveway, was stuck so he had to work from home. I have already shoveled more than two hours today so I hand him our shovel and thank him. Later as I watch the local news I see that people, who were advised to stay home today for their own safety have ignored good advice and have gone skiing down mountains and surfing in Lake Superior! What. The. Heck? I sincerely think some people in this town are adventure seeking lunatics. Sharp chunks of ice are in Lake Superior coming out of Lester Creek. During my entire life I have had kind neighbors except that one woman on Arcade Street in Saint Paul who kept crawling over my transom window to steal my rent money hidden in my Kleenex box. My girlfriend knew her so she told me not to store my money in my Kleenex box anymore. I also locked my transom windows. Oh, I guess I had some neighbors on Portland Ave. in Saint Paul who kept stealing the comics out of my Sunday paper. The comics were the best part of the paper! Overall I think I have been luckier than most when it comes to neighbors.

Banana Roots

 So as I was leaving the house today I got a call from an unknown number in my area code that said "health care." For some reason I answered the call and am I glad I did. I have known I needed a root canal since August. I tried to get one in September from my dentist but he was unsuccessful because of my banana shaped roots have small canals and the roots have calcified with age. He said he could pull it or I could get a second opinion. He also warned me not to wait because pain and swelling will come and it's going to hurt. I know this dentist went to school and I paid him for his professional opinion but I ignored him anyway. I kept telling myself that I had a perfectly good tooth that didn't even hurt. Guess what? About six weeks ago I started feeling a pressure near that tooth. I tried to ignore it but every day I felt a little more pressure. So I decided to get a second opinion. I found a dentist in Duluth. He said I needed a root canal and he would recommend his neighbor, the endodontist. I made an appointment with the endodontist for Thursday afternoon. I am glad I got in today because a boat load of snow is coming to town and I might not have been able to drive on Thursday. Turns out this endodontist is a very nice guy who went to Anoka High School. He got a job working with a dentist in Anoka. He and his brother cleaned up the dentist's parking lot and office. The dentist became his mentor and encouraged him to attend dental school. He saved my tooth. I have always dreaded a root canal because I have heard stories from other people but this really wasn't so bad. And now I have a tooth that is worth more than $1384.67. He even called me an hour later to see how I was doing. Who does that anymore?

Sacred Nature

 I thought I would enjoy Sacred Nature: Restoring Our Ancient Bond With The Natural World written by a former convent nun, Karen Armstrong but I didn't. I expected a fifty fifty balance of nature and sacred but I got an eighty twenty balance with more sacred and less nature. Some parts were interesting but to tell you the truth I skimmed more than half the book.

The Reading List

I just finished a heartwarming book by Sara Nisha Adams called The Reading List. Set in the Wembly neighborhood of London in current times, the story is about a reading list. Several people have found the same reading list. The list included Death of a Mockingbird, Beloved, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Life of Pi, and Little Women. A 17 year old named Aleisha found the list while working part time at the Wembly library. When an elderly man, Mr. Patel, asked for reading recommendations, Aleisha used the list she found. Then Aleisha started to read the books on the list too. Aleisha lives with her clinically depressed mother and her 25 year old brother, Aiden. Books help her escape from her real worries. By the end of the story Mr. Patel has become a part of Aleisha's family and she has become a part of his family too. What a sweet story! 

Home Again

Kristin Hannah is the author of Home Again, a book that made me laugh out loud and cry crocodile tears. The story is about a single mother and cardiologist, Madelaine Hillyard. Madelaine is struggling with her daughter, Lina, who is 15, and rebelling. Lina's grades have nose dived, she is dressing like a goth, she started smoking, drinking alcohol, and taking drugs. Madelaine is beside herself with worry. She goes to her best friend, Father Franco, for advise. When they get to the bottom of Lina's troubles, they are shocked to learn all she wants to know is who her father is. Both Franco and Madelaine know who her father is but they don't want to tell her for her own protection. Obviously that doesn't go over well with Lina so she continues to rebel. I love this author. I already read The Nightingale and The Four Winds. She is an excellent writer.

The Sky

I could not get over the sky today. The sky looked more like a water color painting of a sky than the actual sky. The moisture over the blue water made for the pinkish area. Here is a view from Canal Park.

I did not bring my binoculars but I am pretty sure I saw some golden eyed ducks out there. This is another view of Lake Superior from Canal Park. I was between the lake and the hotels.

 

Please Join Us

I finished reading Catherine McKenzie's novel called Please Join Us. This is a complex mystery story about a 39 year old lawyer named Nicole and her husband Dan. Nicole and Dan rent out beloved Aunt Penny's apartment in Manhattan. They might loose their apartment when Aunt Penny dies and they are worried about that. Plus Nicole got a warning from her boss at work that her billable hours are down and she had better shape up. Then Nicole gets an email asking her to join a women's group called Panthera Leo. She is invited to a 5 day workshop in Colorado to be initiated into the group.  Dan thinks this is probably a cult but Nicole goes anyway. Nicole ends up in Colorado in a remote area. Each of the six women in this group get a private lodge. They eat delicious meals and are asked to do strange exercises such as jump naked into a freezing river or gut a dead deer. I would have never made it in this group. Nicole gets through the week and goes back to work. Immediately things appear to get better for her. Her new friends at Panthera Leo get her an important client. Another friend rents her a luxury apartment for the same price they are paying now at Aunt Penny's place. Nicole is a curious person and she keeps asking questions which annoys the women at Panthera Leo. Eventually it clicks into her head that this group is actually a cult. Nicole isn't sure she is going to be able to leave. All the double crosses, lies, gaslighting, and deceit made my head spin at times. Panthera Leo is equivalent to the "Good Old Boy's" club. I enjoy stories about educated successful women. I was definitely not cut out to be a corporate lawyer in Manhattan. I would never want to work that long nor that hard. 

The Storm Of The Century

 A good friend of mine (I think of her as my warm blanket friend because she is as comforting as a warm blanket) lent me her book. She said I have to give it back because it is an autographed copy. I forgot to ask her when and where she met Al Roker. The book is called The Storm Of The Century. Al details the 1900 hurricane that decimated Galveston, Texas and killed between 1500 and 1800 people. The book comes in 3 parts, before, during, and after the storm. Al got most of his information from letters, diaries, books, and other paper materials in Texas. Aa a meteorologist he knows hurricanes. One of the people he mentions often is Isaac Cline who worked for the federal government as a meteorologist along with his brother.    Both brothers lived together along with Isaac's wife and five children. Isaac's wife and newborn were both frail and ill at the time the storm hit. When their house started to topple over in the hurricane both brothers grabbed two children and jumped out of the window. They managed to survive but Isaac's wife and newborn died. They were later found under their house. Besides the weather and the people the book delves into the racism of the time. Black people were forced to do the smelly work, the dirty work, and the most disgusting work while the whites and Latino's did the preferred jobs.  Racism is part of the reason Isaac Cline got not warning that the hurricane was headed his way. Jesuit priests in Cuba had telegraphed the warning to the federal head meteorologist in Washington, D.C. Because that guy was racist about Cubans, he refused to believe them. Although it took me a chapter or two to get accustomed to Al's writing style, I did enjoy his book.

Hunger

 Roxanne Gay has written quite a few books including Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body. This book was interesting, alarming, and honest. Roxanne's parents immigrated from Haiti. Her father was an engineer working at a cement company and her mother was a stay at home mom. She had a couple of younger brothers. The family was quite affluent. Her mother was a good cook and the meals were made from scratch and healthy. When Roxanne was 12 she was invited to a shack in the woods near her house by a boy she liked. When she arrived she found him there with his six friends, their breath all smelling of beer. Her friend was not her friend. He was the first to rape her while the other boys held her down. Roxanne's life was forever changed. She thought this incident was her fault. She never told her family what happened until she was over 30 years old. Instead she turned to hunger. Roxanne figured if she got fat enough she would not be attractive to men. Even 12 year old girls know that men prefer slim women. Her parents tried to help her. They took her to doctors. They sent her to fat camp for 2 weeks. Nothing seemed to help. After graduating from high school she was admitted to Yale. After 3 years at Yale she ran away. Without telling anyone where she was going she moved to Arizona, to Minnesota, going from state to state and moving in with strangers. She got involved in drugs, alcohol, and bulimia. The decade of her 20's was the worst in her life. Her parents hired private detectives to find her. They asked her little brother to call her because they knew she wouldn't hang up on him. Eventually things turned around. With the help of her loving parents and family she finished her degree and got a master's degree. Roxanne is a feminist writer who tours the country giving talks and lectures. She is a large woman. She is six feet and three inches tall so of course she is large. Roxanne is an excellent writer so I think I may borrow more of her books.

 

Man's Search For Meaning

In 1946 Victor Frank wrote Man's Search For Meaning. The first half of the book is about his experiences in the five concentration camps that he lived in during World War Two. The second half of the book is about his psychiatric method that he calls logotherapy. Some people think his book is the most influential book in the United States. I listened to an audio version of the book. The author describes the three reactions to being sent to a concentration camp. First comes the shock of being admitted to such a horrible place. After the shock comes the apathy after being accustomed to camp existence where you only care about the things that will keep you and your friends alive. The third reaction is bitterness and disillusionment if you survived and lived. The author also thinks there are two kinds of people, the swine or the saint, the evil or the good. In the second half of the book he starts talking about his patients. One man came to him who was a physician. The physician was so depressed after he lost his wife that he wanted to die too. The author asked him, "What if you died first?" The physician stated he wouldn't want that because his wife would have been so sad. The author explained that he had actually done his wife a favor by living longer and preventing her from feeling the grief that he now feels. Somehow that clicked in the physician's head and his grief lessened. I enjoyed the book even though some parts were sad. Some parts were funny. Later in the book the author explained that one woman thought it was terrible that he wrote in the German language because that is the language of the Nazi's. So he asked her if she had any knives in her kitchen. When she said yes he asked her why she would keep knives in her kitchen knowing knives have been used to stab people and kill them. I thought that was a pretty funny response.

Paper Session

 Today we went to the Minnesota Ornithological Society Paper Session. The session was held at the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota in the Student Center and in the Northstar Ballroom. This large ballroom has a parquet wood floor, a stage, and attached to the ceiling in the middle of the room was a disco ball. I was surprised to see the disco ball. Coffee was available at 8 but the session really started at 9. The coffee was smooth and delicious. Various researchers gave us talks on bird related subjects. Each speaker talked for about 45 minutes. The Raptor Center gave a talk about the avian flu. Watching a great horned own and a red tail hawk having seizures in their final moments was heart breaking to watch. We listened to a talk about northern goshawks who prefer old growth aspen for nesting. These goshawks are larger birds and they can build their big stick nests in little aspen trees. Unfortunately the Minnesota DNR has decided that the state needs to preserve only 2 percent of the old growth aspen. That is so unfortunate. There was another talk about Connecticut warblers who prefer boggy areas for nesting. These warblers build their nests on top of the sphagnum moss which makes the nests difficult to find. The researcher who spoke put back pack transmitters on them to track how far they go. Another speaker talked about tracking American kestrels with Motus towers. When a kestrel with a backpack flies by the Motus tower receives a ping. The tower takes down the information about the kestrel and all the other birds wearing backpacks. There are 19 towers in Minnesota collecting information. A speaker from Hawk Ridge spoke of all the research articles and books that have been written from the data gathered during the last 50 years of research there. All in all it was a great day spent with other bird lovers and learning more about birds.

The Sweet Tooth

Ian McEwan is the author of Sweet Tooth. I like this author and I have read several of his books. I liked this one too. This story starts out in 1972. Cambridge graduate, Serena Frome, has just gotten her degree in maths. Her mother made her change her mind because she wanted to major in literature. Serena was talented in maths but she really didn't enjoy it. Because she is beautiful and smart, she is recruited by the M15 which is a spy agency. Serena isn't paid much and she isn't sure who to trust. She lives in a flat with 3 other women who are all studying to be lawyers. The M15 wants to change the culture of the country by hiring writers whose political beliefs are similar to the government. Serena is sent on a mission to recruit a young writer. She has read his work and she loves his writing and she tells him so. The writer gets recruited. His only stipulation is that she visit him from time to time because he doesn't want to deal with a faceless institution. After a time Serena not only loves his writing but she loves him too. The feeling is mutual. The situation is complicated because she isn't supposed to let anyone know that she works for the M15. I would never work for a spy agency. I liked to talk about my work. I enjoyed reading about current events because I forgot about the Cuban missel crisis and the bombings in North Ireland.

Today I Saw A Murder

Walking along the Lakewalk this afternoon I came upon a murder of crows. All along the side of this hill and up in the trees the crows were squawking loudly. I am not sure what the topic was but the debate was lively.

I tried counting the crows but they kept moving. There had to be 80 to 100 crows in the murder. I was truly amazed. A lady walking her dog said she walks here every day and has never seen this many crows in this spot.

 

Fire Drill

 This afternoon I stopped by my library to return some materials and read several newspapers. I was just settling in to read an article by Larry Weber about black jelly fungus when this noise occurred. Intermittent bleeping noises sounded. Was this a fire alarm? Turns out it was a fire alarm and we all had to leave. The library empties out. The Great Clips store empties out. The pub empties out. Downstairs another restaurant empties out. And the liquor store empties out. The temperature is about 20 and the wind is blowing hard. We stand there in the cold for ten or more minutes. One elderly Asian man forgot his coat and he is shivering. Some people are doing calisthenics to keep warm. I am pacing back and forth and kicking up the snow. A man in charge of the building arrives and the alarm is turned off. I hear a beautician from Great Clips say a child in the library pulled the alarm. Then we hear the fire trucks coming down the street. A giant fire truck arrives and 3 fire fighters get out and enter the building. I look at that truck with the big wheels and wonder was kind of gas mileage it gets. After the five more minutes the fire fighters come out and we are allowed to enter the building again. I go back in and finish reading my newspapers. I realize that since I retired I have not been in a fire drill. I should have reacted more quickly. At work I was the one who scheduled the fire drill and wrote the fire drill reports.

The House We Grew Up In

Lisa Jewell wrote a very interesting  book called The House We Grew Up In. The story revolves around the Bird family. Lorelei is the matriarch of the family and she is beautiful and creative and always living in the moment.  Colin is the gangly father who teaches at a local college. Meg is the eldest child and she is pragmatic and organized. Next is Beth who is a little dreamy and quiet. Last come the twin boys, Rhys and Rory. Rhys is the youngest and the smallest. He doesn't have many friends. Rory is handsome and athletic and he has tons of friends. They live in the country, in the Cotswalds in England. They love to celebrate Easter. Lorelei will hide chocolate eggs wrapped in shiny foil in the yard and the kids go and find them. "Save the foil!" says Lorelei which is my first clue that she is a hoarder. One Easter a tragedy strikes the family and every one of them think it's their fault. As the kids grow up and move away the family grows distant. They don't speak to each other anymore. In the end the surviving members of the family do come back to the house that they grew up in. Now they are speaking to each other and loving each other. I thought the author did a nice job detailing the effect the hoarding has on the other members of the family. Meg, for example, keeps a super clean house and will take a tea cup to be washed before the person drinking the tea was finished. She wants to be the opposite of her mother. I enjoy a family drama and this was a great book.

Snow

As I was shoveling snow today I wondered how many pounds of snow I have shoveled in my lifetime. How many hours have I spent shoveling snow? How high would the pile of snow be that I have shoveled? How many driveways have I shoveled? I know I have shoveled snow in Roseville, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Fridley, Blaine, Anoka, Columbia, Coon Rapids, Ramsey, Urbank, Alexandria, White Bear Lake, St. Cloud, Duluth, Grand Marais, Elk River, Savage, Illinois, and Wisconsin. I don't always love shoveling snow. Sometimes I hate shoveling snow. This year shoveling snow isn't as wearisome because I know I will migrate south and not have to shovel snow at all which will be super awesome. Today I shoveled snow because it was snowing too hard for me to drive to the YMCA. Shoveling can be good exercise. There will be a day in the future where I will not be able to shovel snow any more. I am grateful I can still shovel snow.  

The Botanist's Guide to Parties And Poisons

 I like botany so I decided to read The Botanist's Guide To Parties and Poisons by Kate Khavari. This is a historical fiction set at London College in 1923. A brand new researcher named Saffron Everleigh is the protagonist. Saffron's father was a professor in botany at this college before he died in the war. Saffron works for Dr. Maxwell who treats her kindly and in a fatherly fashion. When she attends a party for the science department one Saturday evening she and everyone else is shocked when Mrs. Henry, the wife of another scientist, falls to the floor after drinking champagne. She is rushed to the hospital and everyone assumes she had an allergic reaction. Instead the doctor finds out that she has been poisoned. Everyone at the party is interviewed. Since Dr. Maxwell had a verbal altercation with Dr. Henry, Dr. Maxwell is put in jail. Saffron is very upset and she decides it is up to her to save Dr. Maxwell and get him out of jail. Saffron makes some good decisions and some really poor decisions. She almost gets herself killed 3 or 4 times. She is smart but impulsive. Sometimes she acts before she thinks. I liked Saffron and I liked this book.

The Personal Librarian

I just finished reading another historical fiction novel called The Personal Librarian. This story was written by two authors, Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. The story is based on a real woman named Bella de Costa Greene. Originally her name was Bella Marion Greener. Her father was the first Black graduate of Harvard and his name was Richard Greener. Her father is the one who took her to art museums and got her interested in art history and the history of printing. Her father leaves the family. In the hopes of a better life for her children, her mother changes their last name from Greener to Greene, moves from Washington, D.C. to New York City. Now her mother is a single parent to five children. Her mother decides that she and her family will try to pass as white. This is a risky decision and also the reason the father left the family. Bella is the eldest and she helps support them with her salary. After high school Bella got a job at the library at Princeton. While at Princeton she meets Junius Morgan. He offers to introduce her to his uncle who is looking to hire a personal librarian. Although J.P. Morgan is known for his ferocious temper Bella does not show any fear during the interview. Her answers are sharp, entertaining, and more honest than most of the people speaking to J.P. Morgan. Bella gets the job of personal librarian to the J.P. Morgan library. She is to organize his art and books and to help him acquire more treasures. Bella does an outstanding job. Part of her duties including attending parties, the opera, and art gallery showings with the rich and famous of New York City. Eventually Bella is sent to England to acquire more treasures. She surprises everyone with her skills at negotiation. She is rewarded financially so she is able to move her family into better quarters. Bella's only worry is that someone will look into her background and discover that she is black. I loved this epic story about a truly intelligent and very brave woman.

We Were The Lucky Ones

 I just finished reading a great historical fiction novel called We Were The Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter. The book starts in 1939 is is about 3 generations or the Kurz family who live in Radom, Poland. The Kurz family are close and get together off to celebrate Jewish holidays and meals. What they went through does not make me think they were lucky but in truth they were one of the very few Polish Jews to survive the Nazi invasion. All of them were starved. Some were beaten, arrested, and jailed. Some went to work camps. Some made it to Italy to join the Polish Army and join combat to take over a hill in northern Italy. Some had to pretend to be Catholic. One member of the family, when harassed by a lady landlord about his heritage, taped a Band-Aid to his penis and pulled his pants down for her to look at. He and his wife laughed pretty hard at the look on the landlady's face. One of the younger members of the family, a girl about 6 years, had to leave her mother to live in a Catholic orphanage for a while. Her mother came to check on her and found the orphanage had been bombed. The girl's mother and another man who came to check on his son heard voices. They spent 8 hours digging through the rubble where they found two nuns, some live children, and several dead children. The 6 year old girl had come down with an infectious disease, had a high fever, and nearly died. Several members of the family had children during the war. The author based her story on members of her own family. Her grandmother was one of the middle generations of the Kurz family. None of the family lives in Radom, Poland now. Some are in Brazil, some in the United States, and several in Europe. I thought this was an incredibly interesting story.

How Can I Help?

 Today a situation arose in which I was of no help. I wanted to help. I didn't know how to help. The situation happened on my noon time walk with Offspring #2 and two hound dogs. We were walking toward UMD because the sidewalks there are not icy. Ironically we have to walk a mile of icy sidewalks to get to the clear sidewalks. As we were headed up a steep hill Offspring #2 was distracted by a dude using a kitchen broom to sweep off his car that had no snow on it. I was distracted by the sight of a wild rabbit who appeared to have one paralyzed hind leg. The two hound dogs were also distracted by this injured rabbit. The hound dogs leapt toward the rabbit which was down a hill and about to hide under a house. Offspring #2 braced their body and squatted  low because this position has worked before in Minneapolis. But Duluth is not Minneapolis. Duluth has hills.  The hounds were using the hill to their advantage. There was a tree between Offspring #2 and me. Soon enough Offspring #2 is off the feet and is being pulled through the snow the one dog had just turned yellow. The hound dogs have lost their minds and are howling like hound dogs. In the process a bird bath gets turned over and breaks. I grab one dog by the neck so Offspring #2 can get on their feet. We pull the loudly barking dogs back off private property to the sidewalk. I set the bird bath back up and try to fix it. I look at the house where the bunny lives to see a sign that reads, "Smile, you are on camera." Oh great, this will be swell to see on TicTok. Offspring #2 will mail the owner of the bird bath an explanation, an apology, and money to buy a new bird bath. Later we laughed at how useless I was in this situation. 

Malibu Rising

Taylor Jenkins Reid is the author of Malibu Rising and also The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo which I read a few months ago. This story is set, obviously, in  Malibu, California. The Riva family lived in Malibu when it was a small town. June grew up in Malibu and she helped her parents run the seafood restaurant where all the food was fried. The restaurant barely made ends meet and the work was hard. June wanted more to life than working in that restaurant. When she met Mick Riva she thought she could escape Malibu with him. Mick Riva had plans to become a famous singer. The story takes place in one 24 hour period in the lives of the four children of Mick and June. At the end of summer Nina Riva, the eldest of the four children, holds a party at her home. Although the book started in the 1960's the party happens in the 1980's. I enjoyed reading about the four siblings who are there for each other in good times and bad. 

The Wright Brothers

I listened to the audiobook by David McCullough called The Wright Brothers.  Several hours of the book were spent white knuckled in a snow storm driving back from Grand Marais. A good book can keep your mind off your troubles. This was a good book and it is no wonder that the author has won so many prizes. The Wright brothers, specifically Orville and Wilbur, were talented and curious but not well educated. They ran a printing press and bicycle sales and repair business in Dayton, Ohio. Together they got the idea of building a flying machine. They worked on the machine at home. They decided they needed more wind so they went to the national weather bureau and asked for the windiest location. The weather bureau answered with Kittyhawk, North Carolina. They took their camping equipment, machine, tools, and clothes to Kittyhawk and started building. They attached cloth to the wings. They kept records of all their experiments. Eventually the Wright brothers began to fly. A man from France offered to buy their plane. Wilbur and Orville figured they should offer the U.S. military a chance to buy it before they sold it to France. The U.S. military didn't believe the Wright brothers. So off to France they went. Many times the Wright brothers were not believed but that didn't seem to bother them. Wilbur and Orville never married although their other siblings did. Wilbur seemed to be emotionally stable compared to Orville but Orville was the engineering leader. I forget that 100 years ago it was unusual to see a plane in the sky because, in this day and age, it's unusual not to see a plane in the sky. 

The Last Bookshop In London

 Madeline Martin is the author of the historical fiction novel called The Last Bookshop in London. The story is based on true stories about London bookshops during World War Two. In this story Grace and her friend, Viv, are 18 year olds who move from the countryside. Grace moves because her mother died and her uncle kicked her out of her mother's house. Viv came along because they are best friends and her parents are overbearing. They hope to find jobs right away possibly in a glamorous department store such as Harrods. Grace got an invitation to live in London with her mother's good friend so that is where they go. Mrs. Weatherford gives them a warm welcome and so does her teenaged son, Colin. Colin works at Harrods so he puts in a good word for Viv and she gets a job. Mrs. Weatherford persuades a grumpy bookshop owner to hire Grace and he agrees reluctantly. Although it is obvious he doesn't want her there and he doesn't want her to do anything, Grace busies herself clearing at least ten years of dust from the shelves and scrubbing the floors and windows. Over time the bookshop owner comes to love Grace and Grace learns many life lessons from him. The book spans the years 1939 to 1945. The descriptions of the bombing and utter destruction are vivid. Grace starts reading books to others in the book shop and in the bomb shelters to help people pass the time and focus on literature rather than war. Grace volunteers with another grumpy man as a night time warden. If a bomb falls in their neighborhood they go to rescue anyone or to put out the flames on the incendiary bombs. I sincerely enjoyed this book and was sorry to come to the end.

Christmas Bird Count

 This evening my master naturalist group had a zoom meeting about the Christmas bird count. A guy named Jim from Two Harbors spoke for almost an hour about how much fun he has. He compiles the lists in Two Harbors but also goes with his family on New Years to do the Christmas bird count in Isabella. The one in Isabella has fewer plowed roads so cross country skiing is involved. There is a Christmas bird count in Duluth and I have the contact information for that. Or I could go to Fredenburg, the Sax-Zim bog, or Cloquet. I have lots of choices. I  have gone before and had fun so maybe I should try it again.

Between Two Kingdoms

 I read Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir Of A Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad. She wrote a gripping story of her battle with leukemia which started in college but she didn't figure it out until after she graduated even though she went to many doctors to ask why her legs were so itchy. After graduation she got a job in Paris. Her condition worsened. Her boyfriend had moved to be with her in Paris and she suddenly had to take a plane home because she was so ill. She had bought a return ticket for two weeks but she never got the chance to use it. Her parents took her in and the diagnosis of leukemia came ten days later. She started chemotherapy, her hair fell out, she got infections. Eventually she got a bone marrow transplant from her brother. She makes some decisions that I agree with and some I didn't agree with. She started a blog about her journey through illness which brought the unexpected result of useful support from strangers all over the country. At the end of the book she takes a 100 day journey from New York to the west coast and back again through the deep south. Suleika met with the strangers who offered support and gains more wisdom and understanding from them, even the man on death row in a prison in Louisiana. I really enjoyed her memoir. She is a talented writer.

Orchid

 What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word orchid? My first thought is pink. Today I drove up to the Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center for a class on the orchids in the area given by my friend, Rueben. There are 15 orchids in the area. Some live in wet areas and some line in the dry sandy pine barrens. Sometimes the same species live in the wet areas and the dry areas. The thing that orchids need is a fungus specific to their species. I have seen some orchids around here because I went on a guided orchid hike here a couple of years ago. On that occasion we were looking at the orchids who like wetness. I was surprised to learn that orchids bloom from May through September. I thought of them as a spring flowering flower. I had a great class and to top it off, I won a book! I already read the book and it should come in handy next summer.

The Tobacco Wives

 Adele Myers grew up in North Carolina which is also the setting in the historical fiction novel called The Tobacco Wives. This story is set in a town called Bright Leaf which is the center of the tobacco world. The main character is a high school girl named Maddie. The year is 1946 and Maddie's father was killed in World War Two. With no warning, Maddie's mother wakes her up in the middle of the night and drives her to Bright Leaf to live with her Aunt who is the best seamstress in town. This is June and also her Aunt's busiest time of the year because her clients, the "tobacco wives," want dresses made for the tobacco gala in June. Maddie has spent summer months with her Aunt before. Maddie enjoys sewing and plans to study fashion design in the future. The Aunt is surprised by the sudden visit but welcomes Maddie while the mother takes off to unknown parts. Maddie starts helping her Aunt with the sewing. When her Aunt suddenly falls seriously ill with measles, Maddie tries to pitch in to finish the dresses her Aunt has started. Mrs. Winston, one of the tobacco wives, invites Maddie to move into her house temporarily and she also sets up a sewing studio with a brand new Singer sewing machine. The story is about the things the tobacco industry kept hidden from it's customers, corporate greed, and the strength and integrity of women like Maddie who won't keep secrets. Maddie especially won't keep secrets from young women who are trying to birth healthy children. This book was emotionally satisfying to read. I am sure glad I quit smoking 39 years and 11 months ago.

Nephew

Nephew is the son of one's brother or sister or brother-in-law or sister-in-law. I have a few nephews. I am feeling incredibly lucky because today, one of my nephews picked me up at my house in his warm car and took me to lunch and insisted on paying the bill. Wow. I can't remember doing this for any of my aunts or uncles. I feel honored.

Wreaths

My friends and I made wreaths on the Gunflint Trail. With balsam, spruce, pine

 and cedar boughs plus red twigged dogwood, we assembled "bouquets" of hand sized branches and attached them to the wreath blanks with floral wire. We watched a Youtube on how to make bows with 2.5 inch wired ribbon and attached them to our wreaths. Here I am holding up my finished project in her garage. We had fun making wreaths together and I think they turned out very nice.
 

Here is my wreath on my front door. All the stuff I brought back from my trip to the Gunflint trip is laying in front of my door.

Birch Lake

 Some wonderful and gracious friends of mine invited me to their beautiful home on Birch Lake which is halfway up the Gunflint Trail. When I left on Tuesday morning I had a half inch of snow at my house and they had 2 inches of snow at their house. I travel up Highway 61 and took a big left in Grand Marais. I was excited to see a snowshoe hare leap across the road. Halfway up the Gunflint I began to worry. Am I doing the right thing because this looks like a lot of snow. Despite using my heated wires in my back window I cannot see out of it because my back tires kicked up snow that covered the window. I met them at the corner of the Gunflint Trail and the county road that leads to their road. A decision was made that I would not attempt to go up their road but to park instead at the intersection of the county road and their road. They walked back to their car and asked me to follow them. I sincerely regret postponing replacing my tires. I have three nearly bald tires and one good tire due to having a flat going over the George Washington bridge in New York City 12 months ago. I could not move from the spot where I was on the Gunflint Trail. I could not move forward nor backward. My friends noticed I wasn't coming and walked back to give me a couple of pushes and I proceeded to park where they suggested. By the time I left this morning they had 20 inches of snow. With a couple more pushes, some heavy duty shoveling, and a couple cups of salt and sand, I got on my way home again. We had a good time. These friends of mine feed the birds. Chickadees and blue jays and pine grossbeaks (see picture above) get black sun flower seeds. When the Canadian jays come that walnuts are set on the deck railing for them to enjoy. This morning as I lie awake and watching the birds feed from my pillow, I saw the little hand of my friend extended and a black capped chickadee was fed from her hand. I had a wonderful adventure on the Gunflint trail walking through the deep snow, talking with friends, eating together, and enjoying winter (even though this is still fall). I have an appointment in the near future to replace my tires. Although it might have been a smart decision to postpone this visit I am glad I went.