Doc

 Mary Doria Russell is the author of Doc. This is a story about the famous western gambler/dentist known as Doc Holiday. He is 24 years old and had to move to Dodge City because he had tuberculosis. The dryer air out west would help him live longer than if he stayed in Atlanta. Doc was a dentist and a good dentist too. He couldn't earn enough as a dentist to make ends meet so he became a Faro dealer too. He was friends with all the Earp brothers. When cattle came to Dodge City turmoil happened. Cowhands now had money to spend at the bars and the whore houses full of young Irish women.  Unlike all the other men in town Doc is cultured. He reads philosophy. He can play the piano. He can discuss art and authors. Because of his disease he is thin and he coughs frequently. Drinking whiskey calms the cough. The story of Doc Holiday and his friendship with Wyatt Earp is fascinating to read.

 

 

Word Mix Up

When I was a kid my Aunt Annie was my playmate. We were going to build a fort. We decided to use some fruit boxes that were piled next to my Grandpa's garage. The problem was that one of the boxes held a bee's nest. We were swarmed with bees. As I ran away from the bees I still carried the box in my hand resulting in many painful stings. Back at my own house my Mom and Grandma discussed what to do to relieve the pain. As a kid I sometimes got words mixed up. I started screaming that I didn't want vinegar on me.

This is what I thought vinegar was. Vinegar and manure are not the same thing at all. I know that now.

One day my family was having breakfast in the wood paneled dining room. I asked for more bacon. I was told there wasn't any bacon. I could see bacon on a plate at the other end of the table.

Bacon and toast are not the same thing. I know that all.

Moral of the story? Be careful when picking up fruit boxes that have been sitting outside.

 

Happy Fall

 

Ransomware

Today I attended a talk at the Winona Historical Building about ransomware. The talk was given by the Winona County Recorder. Ransomware is when another entity steals data and programs from a place and holds them for ransom. In January of this year, cyber criminals stole data from Winona County and held it for ransom. In this case it was $128,000.00. That is a boat load of money for a county that is barely making it and was looking to increase taxes by double digits. Insurance paid $50,000.00. The county recorder gave a good talk but could not give us all the details because there is still an open case with the FBI. The biggest suspect is Iran. This cyber attack held up data for property records, employee data, and payroll.  The attack on Winona County was the largest ransom ware attack in the state of Minnesota.  The second largest attack was on Washington County which makes sense because they have a lot more money. When asked why the attackers chose such a money poor county he mentioned an issue with Fastenal. Fastenal is a large employer here in Winona. They have a building on Second Street which is unique. This is a five story building. Corporate executives are on the first and second floor. Hourly workers are on the fourth and fifth floors which have beautiful views of the Mississippi River and the cliffs of Wisconsin. Fastenal appealed the tax rate on their building which is their right to do. The county searched throughout the state for a similar building and could not find anything equivalent. Next they searched the nation for a similar building. Fastenal threatened to go to court. County officials and Fastenal talked about it and decided to come to an agreement without going to court. All the searches for buildings equivalent to Fastenal might have triggered the ransomware. He told us to expect many more ransom ware attacks in the future. A near by town had a smaller ransom ware attack. The city council decided to pay the ransom minus ten per cent. As a result they lost all that money and all their data. Experts say it is best to pay the full amount. He couldn't tell us how the ransom was paid but I suspect bitcoin. The recorder had other things to say about the county. Birth rates are down. Death rates are up. They were told to expect more marriages during the pandemic. Instead the divorce rates skyrocketed. Although the talk was interesting and informative, I now have more things to worry about.

The Orphan's Tale

Pam Jennoff is the author of the historical fiction novel called The Orphan's Tale. The story is about the friendship of two women during World War Two in Germany. Noa was 16 when her parent's threw her out of the house for being pregnant. A Nazi officer had made false promises to her. She is taken to a Nazi home for pregnant women. Her child would be given to the Reich. Her son had dark hair and dark eyes. He was deemed unsuitable for the Reich. Noa was expelled from the home. She got a job at a train station. She slept in the attic above the train station. One day she heard noises from a train car. The train car was full of babies being sent to a prison camp. The babies were cold, dirty, and hungry. Noa decides to save one of the babies. She takes him with her through the woods in the winter. When she is overcome by the cold, a fellow named Peter finds her. Peter works as a clown at a circus that over winters near these woods. When Noa awakens she claims the baby is her brother and she ran away from an abusive father. She offers to cook and clean to support herself and the baby until she can recover. The circus owner says he doesn't need a cook nor a cleaner. He needs an aerialist. He needs a trapeze artist. Noa trains with the other trapeze artist, Astrid. Astrid came to the circus looking for help. She grew up at a nearby circus. She left the circus when she married a Nazi officer and moved to Berlin. Soon the Nazi's insisted that all officers must abandon their wives if the wives were Jewish. The friendship between Astrid and Noa provides the bulk of this lovely story. This book had a long epilogue (35 minutes long) which wrapped up all the loose ends neatly. 

 

 

The Book Of Unknown Americans

Christina Henriquez is the author of The Book Of Unknown Americans. The story takes place in a housing development in Delaware. Immigrants from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuala and Panama live there. Some come because a large mushroom farm that employs immigrants is nearby. One set of couples come from Mexico with their daughter Maribel. Maribel fell from a tall ladder while visiting her father at work one day and has a head injury. Her parents bring her to Delaware to offer the best of special education for head injuries. Mayor, a 17 year old boy who came from Panama with his parents and older brother, sees something in Mirabel that others don't notice. Their burgeoning love story is lovely. 

 

 

Remains Of The Day

Kazuo Ishiguro is the author of Remains Of The Day. This novel is historical fiction about a butler in an English estate during World War One. Stevens is the butler. He is the son of a butler. He was very professional. He had a lot of esteem for his employer at the estate. After his employer dies, an American takes over the estate. The American employer offers Stevens the chance for a holiday. He encourages Stevens to take his car and enjoy a road trip. While on his adventure Stevens travels the countryside and thinks about his former employer. With the advantage of hindsight his esteem for his former employer decreases. Along with that, his pride in his work as a butler also diminishes.  His desire to please his employer overrode his development of his own personality and beliefs.  Despite the entire book taking place in a butler's mind, this was a very interesting book.

 

  

Tell My Horse

 Nora Zeale Hurston is the author of the travelogue called Tell My House: Voodoo And Life In Haiti And Jamaica. This book details her travels in two countries. She explores the country side, the food, and the culture. She writes about the folk tales and the saying. She explores religious concepts in both countries. We learn about zombies, poison, and Voodoo ceremonies. I found the book to be interesting in that it is so different than other travel books I have read.

 

 

Free Things To Do

Minnesota Institute of Arts

Como Conservatory

This week I am pet sitting in Minneapolis. With time on my hands I looked for things to do besides walking around the neighborhood or visiting the library. There is so much available in this area. 

 

 

Orbital

Samantha Harvey, a British author, wrote Orbital. This is a literary novel published in 2023 about the International Space Station. The story takes place during 24 hours in space. There are four astronauts and two cosmonauts. The people from space are from Russia, Japan, USA, Italy, and Britain. Two are female. This is to be one of the last missions before the International Space Station is dismantled. Traveling at 1700 miles per hour, they glide over the earth and admire the beauty. They see a huge typhoon over the Pacific. The book talks about their meals and their exercise and their sleeping arrangements. We learn about their assignments. We learn what countries and cities they are passing. Interesting book but the list of countries and cities got to be too long and extensive. 

 

 

The Favorites

 Layne Fargo is the author of the novel called The Favorites. This is a sports/romance story. The sport is ice dancing. Katarina grew up north of Chicago into a poor family. She met a boy and they became friends. Heath grew up in a series of foster homes until Katarina's father took him in. They practiced skating at a neighborhood ice rink. Katarina's goal was to win at the Olympics. Heath went along with her dream. Their story, their success and their failures makes up this novel. I found this turbulent story to be very intriguing.

 

 

Happy Labor Day

 

Blue Sisters

 Coco Mellors is the author of Blue Sisters. The tale is about a family with four daughters. Their last name is Blue. The father of the family is an alcoholic. The mother is a workaholic. Avery, the eldest daughter, raises her younger sisters and feels responsible for their safety. She comes across as a control freak. Once her youngest sister, Lucky, left home at age 15 to be a model, Avery became addicted to heroin. She put herself through treatment and went on to become a lawyer. Bonnie, younger than Avery, started boxing while in high school. Nicky became a teacher. Lucky became a model and traveled the world posing for photographs while overindulging in drugs and alcohol. The story of these four sisters is fascinating, sad, and happy.

 

 

Skylark

Paula McLain is the author of the historical fiction novel called Skylark. This tale takes place in Paris, France during two timelines. Part of it is set in 1664 and part of it is set in the 1940's. The 1664 part was interesting. A girl lives with her father after the mother abandoned the family. Her name is Alouette which translates into skylark. Her father is a dye master. The dye guild is in complete control of the industry. Individual dye masters do not have many rights. The dye factories are poisoning the river that runs into the Seinne. The dye master's daughters knows something about dyes. She learned from her mother before the mother left. But women are not allowed to dye cloth. When the dye guild jails her father the girl tries to find a way to free him. Instead she is jailed as well. In the 1940's a local psychiatrist makes friends with a Jewish family in his apartment building. After the Jewish family is taken away by the French police he joins the French resistance. He helps people escape the Nazi's by using s complex system of tunnels formed by rock quarries.  As I read I wondered if the two stories would be connected somehow but they never were.

 

  

Unfriendly Pollinators

Three and a half days ago I was sitting on a park bench next to the Mississippi river. I was reading a book on my phone. Pollinators kept visiting me and invading my personal space. They would buzz in front of my face, crawl on my arms, and explore my legs. Most of them were small wasps; not the dangley legged wasps. I crossed my right leg over my left and there must have been a wasp there. I felt a sharp pain. I uncrossed my legs and slapped my outer calf. I was stung by a wasp. The pain was immediate. Using ice would have been a good idea but I didn't have any. I was on my way to the library and the library doesn't have ice. I used water from the fountain and spread it on the sting several times which helped quite a bit. I was in pain the rest of the day. The next morning I found I had a round red spot about 2.5 inches in diameter. As the day went by the pain changed into an itch. And it still itches today. The spot is still red and there is a lump beneath my skin. Sitting with my right leg over my left is too painful. I have never had this much of a reaction to a wasp sting before. Dang pollinators, I know they are good for the environment but I am not too happy with them right now.

 

  

Birds of The Southern Island Of New Zealand

Tonight I attended the bird club meeting here in Winona. The speaker makes presentations and writes books about her travel adventures. She toured the southern island with a company. Part of her time was spent on a bus but also a helicopter and a boat. When New Zealand separated from Australia, it left with no mammals except a couple of small bats. As 3000 years passed, the birds evolved. Since they had no predators, many of the birds went flightless and nested on the ground. This includes the kiwi, a giant parrot, and the penguins. When the Maori and Polynesian people arrived they brought rats with them. When the European people arrived they brought stoats (weasels). Several of the flightless birds went extinct because of the rats and stoats. One bird that is endemic to New Zealand is the kea. Kea is the only alpine parrot in the world. They are known for their intelligence and tendency to be mischievous. As the department of transportation was building a tunnel through the mountains, the kea birds caused problems. They begged for food. If not given food they would rip off windshield wipers or the rubber around the car windows. With their sharp beak the kea can puncture tires. The tunnel is a one-way road. Kea birds were caught on film moving the cones which could have caused collisions. To this day, if cars have to wait for the traffic to go by, kea birds will beg for food and cause problems. She was a very interesting speaker and her photos were top notch.

 

The yellow-eyed penguin is endemic to New Zealand and endangered.

  

Bee Season

Bee Season, written by Myla Goldberg, is a novel about the unraveling of a Jewish family. We learn about the family mostly through the eyes of Eliza, the youngest child. She has an older brother, Aaron, with whom she used to pal around with but doesn't anymore. Her father is a rabbi who used to spend time playing guitar with Aaron in his office in the evenings. Once Eliza wins the school spelling bee and the school district spelling bee, the father spends his evening helping her study spelling. Aaron feels left out and starts looking for spiritual fulfillment outside of the synagogue. Their mother, a lawyer, works long hours and is disengaged from the family. This is an interesting story about a couple of people who maybe should have gotten their heads on straight before having children.  

 

 

Hello Beautiful

Hello Beautiful is a highly acclaimed family novel published in 2023 by Ann Napolitano. The story starts out with William who grew up on the east coast. He was an only child and lonely. His parents gave him no attention. They didn't go to his school conferences. They didn't attend his basketball games. Once he left for college in Chicago that was the end of his relationship with them. In college he met a lively, assertive girl named Julia. Julia said she would attend his basketball game. She comes to the game bringing her three sisters, Sylvia, Emmeline, and Cecelia. The sisters are a tight family. William's life is forever changed. His life is not a straight trajectory. He has changes and adjustments but he is happy to be part of a family.