Got my vision back after weeks an two surgeries. So I'll be back to more regular writing/commentary. To bgin. If you have the time/interest and want to learn more about the mixed political attitudes of a few bright, accomplished women, watch THE VIEW daily on ABC 10 am locally. It can be frustrating, irksome, but they are bright and honest in their conflicting views. The first half-hour is the best current affairs piece.
agora2
A public marketplace for the exchange of thoughts, random and otherwise, ideas and information, about crime fiction and occasional other topics.
Monday, December 02, 2024
THE VIEW ON ABC AN UNUSUAL PACKAGE OF FEMALE CURRENT EVENTS VIEWS
Monday, October 28, 2024
CHIAROSCURO QUARTET PERFORMS EASILY AT OR ABOVE STORIED PREDICTION
Not so very long ago, women were not allowed to study in the fine arts, much less perform on stages other than bawdy houses. Today, we have better understanding that women are possessed of far more richer and varies knowledge and talent than only bearing and raising children. The musical talent of women is richly and widely welcomed today, not least is a more recently formed (2005) sting quartet called Chiaroscuro Quartet. Violins, viola and cello in the very capable hands of four young well-schooled, richly talented women, the Quartet mad ea brief stop in Saint Paul to perform a concert of Mozart and Schubert as the opening in the new schedule of the Julie Himmelstrup Music In The Park series,
They played instruments carefully maintained and strung with gut strings, rather than the manufactured strings found on most such instruments these days. Rich, nuanced, multiple-interpreted scores brought to life with passion and care. The four young women demonstrated enormous talent and understanding of the music under their care.
A young quartet, formed in 2005, the four are being scheduled across the world's concert venues and they are building a discography that is to be admired. Find them, hear them, and you will be transported to a world of classical music rare in today's world. It was a richly satisfying afternoon of some of the world's most significant instrumental music performed as it should be by this talented young quartet..
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
HEALTH CARE PROGRESS AND NATIONAL ELECTIONS
As a child in a previous century, I sometimes got to go with my dad on his visits to farmers in central Minnesota. I learned to drive a stick-shift car on those country roads. We often had supper with small gatherings of local farmers' families. I recall on one trip the local people were commiserating over the loss of a neighbor farmer to an apparent heart attack. When he collapsed in his field there were no EMTs or an ambulance service to rush him to a clinic or hospital, and possibly save his life.
Today, more than seventy-five years later, we read about new hospitals, services, health insurance and clinics and enormous executive salaries. And there is still no ambulance or EMT service within 100 miles of that farmstead. Why is that? Ask your federal, state and local candidates that question in this election time. Isn't that just as important as who goes to the White House?
Wednesday, September 04, 2024
MORE DEAD BY GUNFIRE
It is my considered belief that those who resist strengthening our gun laws, those who favor allowing anybody 18 and over in age carrying loaded weapons in public, and anybody ever convicted of a felony or serious misdemeanor, owning and possessing a rifle, shotgun, pistol and ammunition, is responsible for the deaths today, September 4, 2024, in a Georgia high school. It is very clear from the language of the Constitution and the language of the debate over the Second Amendment, that possession of weapons is related to being part of an organized militia, such as the National Guard and is Not designed to offer pesonal protection. Moreover, it is very clear that the possession of pistols and rifles by the civilian population contributes greatly to the random and criminal loss of life in this country. Everyone who supports the Second amendment as it is now stated IS RESPONSIBLE for every death by gun in this nation.
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
VOTE! VOTE! VOTE! YES, IT IS PRIMARY VOTING DAY.
Even if there are no contests in your precinct, go and vote. It is our right and our obligation. We are privileged to have the opportunity to vote in a peaceful legal setting. To retain the right we are obligated as citizens to invest in our election system. So please, exercise your right and VOTE!
Thursday, August 08, 2024
DOWNSIZING, SAVING, SHREDDING AND HISTORY
I read an interesting piece in The Star Tribune Monday. Freelance writer Tod Nelson writes about how to manage your records as you move into smaller facilities and possibly a simpler life.. The idea apply to young adults moving into full independence and to people making mid-life alterations. Nelson also applies his recommendations to oldsters, like me, who may be able to glimpse the terminal at the end of the line.
The one missing element in the story that I found quite disturbing, and, I suspect, is disturbing to many historians, is to at least thoughtfully consider history. It's true, most of us will live and pass out of this life without making newsworthy contributions to the fabric or the perseverance of humankind. However, the lack of documented life is a constant source of frustration to researchers, especially those who lie to include context in their work.
Perhaps its my close and long association with an assistant director of publications and research at the Minnesota Historical Society that has influenced my position here. I recall learning of a political leader who's family and staff deposited twenty linear feet of documents with the MHS! Of course, most of us won't have that kind of record, but we should all recognize that ordinary daily life provides vital context for almost all historical research, writing and presentations.
I've been present many times, listening to the the intense frustrations of historical researchers who seek well-identified photographs of local folks and local events to give depth and understanding of daily life in ordinary towns and villages. And it isn't just the big archives like the National Archives or the MHS that are interested. Local, city town and county societies employ trained historians who may be excited to consider and evaluate what you consider ordinary and useless documents and photographs.
So, before you turn on that shredder, contact your local historical society and find out what they are interested in preserving. Do it before you find yourself traveling that path through a dim landscape into the next possible obscurity.
Monday, August 05, 2024
WHITHER THE WEATHER
I often have more than one news souce running early mornings while I scan late news and early disasters. In this morning's darkness, listening to the steady downpour that used to signal an all day rain, I realized that it's already August and I haven't been to the lake. Normally by this late in the season I've had an early morning swim in Lake Johanna a dozen times.
Not this year. Only once so far this summer. What happened to summer and heat? I keep hearing from the fast-talking weather people on local media about climate getting warmer, about hot spells and storms. Mother Nature, in this part of Minnesota, apparently missed that memo.
It's been cool to warm most days and there's been a lot of rain. Good for the flowers, but the kind of stalled heat waves?--Not in my neighborhood. Right now, it's raining really hard. The only persistent heat is of the political kind and while that seems to radically change every week, it stays hot and volatile. Hope you, dear reader, are having a happy summer, filled with hope and warm positive beliefs.