Political Runoff

Here’s a word for everyone at the lake from your elected representative.

Greetings Constituents!

What a glorious 4th of July we had yesterday in the 9th Congressional District, which encompasses all the water surface area in Minnesota.

Thanks to all the visitors who behaved themselves and acted responsibly by boating safely and not littering or drinking too much. To the rest – we want to be welcoming but please don’t be so obnoxious the next time you visit.

This is not just a warning. It’s a way of life. We 9th districters try to be good guests when we come ashore. We put on clothes and rinse off our feet and clear our pockets of zebra mussels and Asian carp before we visit your coffee shops, museums and sporting arenas. That’s just good, considerate behavior and we expect the same from you. So don’t transfer invasive species from an infested body of water to, say, the fountain at the center of the local shopping mall. That’s careless. Check your toddlers for milfoil before you let them go splashing anywhere!

Imagine for a moment what it would mean if milfoil clogged up that nice fountain – the mall would begin to smell like a stagnant, stinking pool and people would stay away. The local economy would decline. Retailers would feel the pain. Jobs would be lost. Our government would be starved of cash due to falling tax revenue and it might be unable to finance the military and intelligence efforts we must make against outside security threats! All because someone didn’t check the cuff in little Jacob’s overalls for a hitchhiker!

And that’s not the only threat we face. Algae blooms are choking off much of the 9th district – the result of the leaching of extra fertilizer into the water. This is an ongoing problem that, if not solved, may someday lead to vast reductions in the size of the district, and perhaps it will cost me my job when the population of the 9th drops so low it can no longer support a Congressman.

Picture that if you will. A native Congressman, forced out by algae.
I realize that many people have no love for politicians, but Congressmen are mentioned in the Constitution and algae is not, so I ask you to consider – which is more American?

I’m pleading with you to cut the sources of phosphorus that feed into our waters.

If you have a lovely lakeside lawn, I recommend that you make your chemical runoff into a stay-at-home cocktail of growth promoting compounds by directing that yard sludge into a holding pond on your property. It’s yours. Keep it and use it! Who knows what sort of new and unusual biological blasphemy might emerge from the nutrient soup? You could get a Bigfoot, or a Super Turtle, or something simple like a beanstalk that stretches to the clouds! And once you have that, you are that much closer to the goose that lays the golden eggs.

And if you have livestock, please. Toilet train them. It’s that simple.

You’ll be doing the fulltime residents of the 9th district a favor. You’ll be saving the job of a constitutional officer, and you’ll be taking responsibility for something that I would otherwise have to deal with by promoting unpopular legislation. That’s a win-win-win solution (for me)!

Thank you for visiting the glorious 9th district. In any case, we want you back next year, but especially if you’re nice!

Kind Regards,

Hon. Loomis Beechly, Congressman, Minnesota 9th district.

Name your favorite body of water.

102 thoughts on “Political Runoff”

  1. happy day, All
    thanks, Dale
    living this close to the “Big Lake” as the locals call it, i’d have to say Lake Superior. Lake Baikal is my favorite music body of water though. (one of Cynthia in Mahtowa’s favorite songs also)
    but for daily pleasure and surprise, it’s the little pond that i can see any minute of the day from almost anywhere on our property. the pond is owned by our neighbors to the north (not Canada, just people who live 100 yards north) but we get to look at it for free. any time of the day – the light, the texture, the critters, the sounds – it’s a delight.
    ps – my livestock is not toilet trained, Cong. Beechly but we plant trees and encourage slow water runoff, honest!

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    1. Oh, suddenly I hear the swelling of the harmonies in that anthem and I get all goose pimply. I think I’ve been dealing with the loss of our precious radio program with another famous body of water–De Nile. You just stirred up the silt on the bottom of it, Blackstock Barb. Thx.

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  2. Rise and Shine Babooners:

    So nice to hear from Congressman Beechly–I thought that perhaps with recent employment events, he simply evaporated into the political atmosphere! He does seem a bit preoccupied with negativity this a.m., not to mention unrealistic expectations. A better solution to the cattle/goat lot runoff might be animal Depends. That would also spur an entirely new source of employment because someone would need to manufacture the diapers; there are many animals out there to be diapered. Just ask Barb from blackhoof.

    I can’t answer the question this morning. I’ve never thought in terms of a favorite body of water. While there have been a few scummy, unsightly, smelly ones in my time, the rest of the bodies of water have been lovely and alluring. I love the lakes, rivers, inland seas, and the oceans that I’ve visited and lived on. Nothing tops the feeling of freedom one gets from swinging out on a rope over the water and letting go. A happy thought.

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  3. Like barb, I have to cast a vote for Superior for sheer size and awesomeness, but we don’t get to see as much of it as we would like.

    We have a stretch of the Mississippi along Crosby Farm Park we are fond of but have yet to get to.

    Then there is the lagoon area of Minnehaha Creek, where one summer we made it a point to spend all day every Wednesday, training with the rest of the future engineers, moving the rocks around to form dams, pools and a water slide of sorts. Haven’t gotten there either-where is this summer going.

    We have managed to get to the little pond at St.Kates, which boasts its own island, ducks, geese, red-wing blackbirds, turtles and if we are lucky, an egret AND a heron. We also check up on the progress of the ducklings and goslings every week.

    Glad to know you are on the job, Congressman!

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  4. leech lake is the favorite for me. old and familiar, my mom lives there and it is amazingly quiet for such a big body of water.
    my children’s plankton and parasites do become a problem but the milfoil has always been under control. fertilizing up there is anti productive. you want to mow less not more and the sandy soil sucks up nutrients like 3.2 beer at a twins game in july.
    enjoy the rest of the best part of the summer. let the vacations begin!

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  5. Cynthia in Mpls–to answer a question from last night, my sister-in-law is hanging in there. She still has the lung infection, they have a tracheotomy in here, and she sleeps almost all of the time. We have the grand kids until Wednesday evening. Then I will see if my wife is up to and wants to drive up.

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    1. Oops. Could have looked it up. I knew it was in that flat part. I had many friends at U of Chi from central Illinois.

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    2. Read Dale’s story. Well-written and fun. I have a story along that line. My senior year in HS we stunk at all sports, thanks to athletes like me. Won something like 6 games total in football, CC, swimming, basketball and hockey, and track. Then golf team did very well as it always did. The baseball coach was a fanatic. He would require the team to read baseball books when traveling by bus and would berate them all of the time. He would pull people out of games who were doing well just to prove he was in charge. So they won one game before tournaments. Then, because they knew they were good, they decided to ignore him and have fun. They won 6 games in a row to win the district, and a couple of times early on rebelled on him. But he learned to go with the ride. He left soon after. To this day be brags about how he turned the team around.

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  6. thanks for the story about your high school ball team in yesterdays post. the macon team sounds like one to remember. my wife is from havana il and really loves that part of the world. i was a long hair who loved playing ball but the coaches wanted clean cut and my sporting career ended early. great story and i look forward to the continuing saga. keep me updated.

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  7. Superior. Because it is.
    I get all clogged up even typing its name–though not in an algae-bloom or Eurasian milfoil kind of way.

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  8. Vignette of the Day, A delight to English Teachers, Writers, Editors
    The weather forecaster on MPR entertains me on my bike rides in the morning. He is the master of misplaced modifiers and confusing inflection. Every forecast ends sounding as if he had been cut off in the middle of the sentence. He must be secretly French or is unsure of his forecast. But he also almost always places modifiers in confusing locations, which his odd inflections do not clear up. Today in his forecast for SE MN, including Mankato: “. . . we will have some unsettled weather. [rising inflection and then small pause] Thunderstorms could pop up [rising inflection and then small pause]. In Decorah [rising inflection and then small pause]. Some heavy rainfall with flooding are also possible later today [rising inflection].”

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  9. Choosing a favorite body of water is like picking a favorite child…doesn’t seem right. I did just hear that lakes in WEstern and Central MN are at historically high levels. Congressman Beechly should be pleased.

    Dale, the story of your high school team was fun to read. I wonder if your perspective as someone not on the team was the same as the SI perspective.

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  10. Inland lakes have been an integral part of my life. My favorite is Fountain Lake in Albert Lea, it’s where I’ve boated, waterskied, swam and ice-skated. Last night, we watched fireworks from the boat as people rimmed the shores, with the explosions echoing back and forth across the lake. I grew up on nearby Pickerel Lake, I explored that as a kid in a small fishing boat, also sailed on it with my father.
    Favorite vacation lakes are Pelican and Edward in Crow Wing County – have gone there since I was a kid.

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    1. Mike, I love Fountain Lake. Would sometimes meet my folks there for a picnic, as Albert Lea is a halfway point between here and Central Iowa.

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  11. Sweet Lake, a still pristine little lake, head of Upper Eau Claire chain… Spent several long weekends there with Husband’s family. Only about 8 dwellings on it, rules prohibiting large motors, places to swing out over and drop in as Jacque was mentioning, even some flat beach spaces for water volleyball. But mostly just so calm and beautiful at sunup if you go out in the kayak — if you’re lucky you’ll see a loon or two, and if you get to the channel to the next (larger) lake you’ll see all kinds of water life. A little piece of heaven.

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  12. I grew up not far from the St. Croix. Nothing lends beauty quite like nostalgia for one’s childhood, so not surprisingly it gets my vote. Summer vacations meant donning swimsuits, going down to the river and walking to a sandbar that was known as Catfish Point. My sister and I didn’t know how to swim, but we splashed around and dog paddled a little. When we left the house, my mother would say “Don’t go out over your head,” and off we’d go. It didn’t seem odd at the time, though in retrospect it makes me wonder if she was really all that fond of us.

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    1. Linda, I have been this discussion a thousand times, how on our childhoods parents did not wrap us in bubble wrap and keep us in the house. Somehow we had good childhoods out on our own.

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      1. Agreed. I spent many summers of my youth in Ohio catching crawdads in the river even though I didn’t know how to swim, wandering through the woods, and walking all around the city by myself. No bubble, but some fond memories — along with an education about self-sufficiency and good judgment.

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      2. I have to speak up for today’s parents here.

        I feel safer sending the s&h to play on the shores of Superior than I do to the market in St Paul. I once had the charming experience of sending him across the street to school on his own, only to see the pick-up that was stopped at the stop sign start rolling forward when he was directly in front of it. Thankfully, the woman driving stopped in time and had the good grace to look horrified.

        A quick glance at the paper will tell you, things don’t always end so nicely.

        Our kids are not growing up in the same world we did.

        This is the only child I can ever have, I make no apologies for my level of caution.

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    2. I forgot to mention that on the way to Catfish Point, there was a stretch of beach piled with boulders, an area we called The Rocks, which was rumored to be inhabited by rattlesnakes. My father would tell us once a year or so to watch for snakes on that stretch.

      Needless to say, my mom and dad were never accused of being helicopter parents.

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      1. So my second body of water I guess would be the Knife River, not near the lake where you would think of it, but about 5-7 miles up on one of its branches where we would go to play, and go in over our heads behind a beaver dam, out of reach of our parents too,

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  13. My favorite body of water is any one I am currently in or most recently have been in, so this morning it is the Pacific Ocean, and by today or tomorrow I am hoping that it will have switched to Lake Nokomis.

    Actually, the Pacific Ocean probably wins over any other, as I spent my first 20 years very near to it and I love its weird smell, salt and fish, and how changeable it is.

    susie

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    1. Thanks for bringing the Pacific Ocean into our discussion Susie, and then connecting it (through you) to Lake Nokomis!
      Both are formidable bodies of water.

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    2. welcome susie. are you a newbie or just someone i don’t remember. we don’t have near enough california input here. wine and socialism the perfect combination. welcome

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  14. Can’t pick just one. All the lakes in the BWCA (except Saganaga, in which I foolishly was once significantly at risk of drowning!), Lake Superior, the Atlantic Ocean crashing on the rocky coast of Maine, the beautiful Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, even the little creek running through my property, all are number one in my book.

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  15. I love the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in Winnipeg. I also love the Old Port and the Lachine Rapids at Montreal. I grew up in Rock County, MN and the only bodies of water were in gravel pits.

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    1. I have a friend, TeeJay, who is from Luverne. He is a herpetologist and artist/musician/luthier and now lives in Madelia with his wife, Deb. A very special person. It would make the world a little smaller if you knew him…

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      1. If his grandpa was named Otto and he loves snakes and makes a strange Swedish instrument called the Nikkelharpa, he’s my relative for sure.

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      2. Yes, he is that snake-lovin’, nickelharpe-buildin’, mandolin-playin’ good friend of mine. I own a mandolin and a banjolin that he made for me. I knew it was a small world! I just knew it!

        Is there a more Swedish spelling for nickelharpe?

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      3. Luthier is a “maker of lutes,” or in our times, “someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments.”

        Renee, you have a very talented cousin. He’s also a really nice guy. Visit his website: http://www.cricketfiddle.com – he’s also on Facebook.

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      4. nyckelharpa, I think. Now I have to worry about all the true and unflattering things Tom can tell you about me. We graduated from High School, and were in band together and I was really bossy.

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      5. The only unflattering things I’ve ever heard TeeJay say of anyone were about those people who run over amphibians trying to cross rural roads on humid summer nights. He speaks highly of people from Rock County, especially his father and grandfather.

        But what will he say to you about me???

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    2. Hey Renee; As someone who grew up in the same country, just south of the Iowa border, I can attest to the few lakes, but many gravel pits in the area. And LOTS of wind.

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      1. My father was born in rural George, Iowa. He always refers to north-west Iowa as “the Holy Land” because of all the very religious Dutch Reformed folks there. His people were sort of Dutch, but were anabaptist as opposed to calvinists, and started out life as mennonites. He always tries to distance himself from his Dutch Iowa roots and insists that we are really German and French.

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  16. I’d have to say the spot of Silver Creek that I can see from the dairy barn door…. Spent a lot of time sitting in the doorway or leaning out a window looking off that way and watching the countryside…
    Glad I sold the cows before I had to start diapering them! The regulations regarding feedlots and rules regarding run-off were just getting written up when I sold my cows in 2004. I still have a ‘registered feedlot’. We could have a conversation on ‘Animal Units’ someday! Or not.
    Part of the 15 acres I put in the ‘Conservation Reserve Program’ this spring is along the creek so will have a good buffer zone there now.

    Speaking of lakes, I’ll be headed to Alexandria and Theater L’Homme Dieu (next to Lake L’Homme Dieu) next Sunday to install a show. Staying until Wednesday morning I think… any Baboonerites from the area?

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    1. I lived in Alexandria about thirty years ago. I saw a production of The Miser at Theater L’Homme Dieu then.

      I haven’t been back, but I keep intending to visit sometime.

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    2. Ben – I’m not quite sure how you do it, but I’m flummoxed that you are a farmer and a theatre designer! You mentioned last week or so about a softball game between farmers and theatre types, which I found intriguing — mainly that there are enough theatre types in a small town to make a team! Although, come to think of it, there are a lot of frustrated hams and actors in many of us. Good on ya!

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      1. Joanne, I’m just lucky I guess… but Thanks!
        And my favorite sister’s name is Joanne too so you get bonus points for that!
        Regarding the ‘Farmer vs. Theater’ softball game… the Farmers definitely had the home field advantage… I think there was one local theater guy and the rest of us were his friends trucked in from the five state area.

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  17. Lake Superior rules my heart. There’s a certain mystical, unreachable, untouchable power about it that lures me back time after time. Someday I’ll sell my house and move there. I must be near it – it’s like medicine for my soul.

    Another old favorite is Benson Lake in George Crosby Manitou State Park. If you appreciate silence, that is a really lovely place to camp.

    OT: Mike/Jasper played one of my very favorite songs this morning: “The Call and the Answer,” as sung by Eleanor Shanley with De Dannan on Jacket of Batteries. This has got to be one of the most lyrical and lovely songs ever. The album is very difficult to find and I would SO love to have a copy. I saw it once on Amazon for $75. Does anyone have any clues?

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    1. Well, I just ordered a used copy from Amazon. I hope it’s in good condition. The new ones are now $99.90. I tried to order from Scotland but it’s a dead end.

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      1. good for you. is there a way tolet us have a listen? i am a big dedannan fan. when you started talking about the soul of the water i remembered two more places. one is called celestine lake just outside jasper canada. 30 miles up a one way dirt road in the rockies at the trail head to the northwest territory (ashes going there) and the other in the west side of ireland (dale have you been) i got off the plane and my heart went zoom and i knew i was in contact with my irish heratige. haven’t been back but know without a doubt that i will.

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  18. My current favorite body of water is quite small – and in my back yard. It is man-made and currently contains two giggling girls. Which is why it is my current favorite. It’s inflatable shores are currently listing a bit, so I’m off to go find the leak…

    In terms of natural bodies of water, well, Lake Harriet is near and dear simply because I grew up swimming in it (grew up about 5 blocks away). Superior, by Grand Marais, is on the list, too. “The Point” at Grand Marais is a lovely place during the week to just sit and watch the lake on those big black rocks.

    Will catch up on yesterday’s reading later…sounds like I missed some excitement and good stories.

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    1. nice, Anna. our neighbor in Duluth had a little red-haired Girl that spent many an hour in their inflatable pool. her Momma would call out “Hannah, did you go potty in your swimming pool???” “No.” “Hannah, Momma thinks you went potty in your swimming pool…..” “No” 🙂

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    2. Big Blue Pond continues to hold water – the leak was found and patched. Phew. Two six-year-olds dove for fish torpedos and splashed mightily in its serene waters. And I’m sure will again, soon.

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  19. My parents have been driving a mile or so south of Luverne to one of the gravel pits where there are, according to my dad, about 100 Canada geese. He feeds them bread and field corn and gets a real kick out of them. When I was small we would go to Baudette to the Lake of the Woods and the Rainy River to visit my great uncle and aunt, and my dad would fish there. Later on he switched to the Missouri River near Chamberlain, SD. I much preferred the north woods.

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    1. I like the woods too, but it is always a thrill to come up over that rise and down to the river going westbound on the freeway.

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    2. Renee – how was Christopher Plummer and your evening of Shakespeare? I do hope (for Catherine’s sake) you didn’t try to snag a piece of his costume (smile). Perhaps a grease paint imprint of his face on a white cloth, though?

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      1. Ah — good to know. I was so excited for you to see him I thought it was during your traveling this past weekend. But the request still stands — full report when you return!

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      2. Joanne-the wardrobe crew thanks you, Christopher Plummer thanks you, and I thank you.

        Perhaps just a nice autograph on the programme?

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  20. I wonder if Rep. Beechly is concerned about losing his district after redistricting? Or would the 9th just become the 8th?

    My favorite body of water is Lake Vermillion where my grandparents had a cabin for a few years. Back in the 50’s, it would take from dawn until dusk to get to the lake from southern Minnesota. My two siblings and I would fight in the backseat until Mom broke it up by bringing the baby brother up to the front seat. ‘Are we there yet?” was a common refrain.

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      1. You are so right, my friend. Anything to get that car to stop. Stop for lunch? Oh, no. Here’s your peanut butter sandwich. Now when Dadkat and I take a road trip, we don’t stop for lunch. Here’s your cheese and crackers. We were raised in the same economical era.

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  21. Greetings! In the few travels of my life, I’ve managed to wade in the Atlantic and Pacific, swam in several lakes or rivers in Wisconsin and Minnesota, even canoed the Boundary Waters for a day. But nothing compares to the beauty, depth and majesty of Lake Superior. Only been there a couple times, but that was enough to seal the deal for me. I currently live in a town with a ‘big lake’ which is nice to have nearby, but Lake Superior is just … amazing.

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  22. Big Spirit Lake, IA (new gravatar) is my freshwater hangout. Its fireworks display is always on July 3rd and its prestigious neighbor, Okoboji, has theirs on the 4th. I love fireworks and sincerely hope the day never comes, as it is has for my dad, that they cease to captivate me.

    OT – Joanne asked on Friday how Texas Caviar got its name, and now back from the lake and having had a chance to research, here’s the story:
    According to JOYCE SÁENZ HARRIS of the Dallas Morning News, “… the dish, also known as ‘pickled black-eyed peas’, was popularized by Helen Corbitt, the famed 1950s food consultant and cookbook author, who directed food service at Neiman Marcus in Dallas. When she first arrived in Texas from New York, black-eyed peas were not on her culinary radar. But Ms. Corbitt discovered that even wealthy Texans loved the humble legume. So she tried something different: She pickled the peas in a vinaigrette marinade and served them for New Year’s Eve at the Houston Country Club. Only later, when she took her pickled black-eyed peas to Austin’s Driskill Hotel, did the dish get the nickname of Texas Caviar.”

    Naturally, I was curious to know how the dish specifically acquired the “caviar” nickname, so I did some more digging and came across some undocumented pretty interesting additional information. It seems that sometime in the 50’s, a large family from another part of TX happened to be dining at the Austin Driskill Hotel and had decided to try the appetizer, Pickled Black-Eyed Peas. Everyone loved the fixins, especially the oldest son who was only 9 or 10 and who even at that young age was as full of wind as a corn eating horse. He caught the waitress’ attention by tugging on her apron and loudly demanded, “Hey – bring me some more of them durned good fish eggs!” …And that little boy grew up to be President of the USA…

    Hope all ya’ll are havin’ as happy a day as a gopher in soft dirt!

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    1. Donna, as a teen I often hung out on Spirit Lake and Okoboji, at church camp, at friends’ cabins, and several times for reasons I don’t remember. Very exotic at the time. Still go to my cousin’s cabin there.

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      1. Jacque – did you go to the Roof Garden as a teen? I saw Grass Roots and Three Dog Night in early 70’s. The Council Bluff’s band, the Rumbles, also drew huge crowds.

        Joanne – For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. ( I didn’t know the Lord had a lisp.)

        Barb – do you mean that gophers are digging in soft dirt or that English is being misspoken in Texas? BTW – I learned today while researching there is a legume in Mexico called Eye of the Goat Bean.

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      2. Not the Roof Garden — Too Wild! But saw the Rumbles in LeMars many times. They just played an all school reunion there Friday.

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  23. My late husband and I lobstered off the coast of Maine and I loved the Atlantic Ocean. Even though, when it was choppy, my head was hanging over the side of the boat. Lake Superior is second, I love it because it thinks it’s an ocean.

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      1. It was almost 20 years. ago. My sisters would tease me that when Cliff asked me to marry him I wasn’t sure what he was saying and just answered yes. You do get into the accent, mostly for fun. Sometimes I would have to ask people to write a word down because for the life of me, I didn’t have a clue what they were trying to say.

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    1. Wow! That must have been an amazing experience. How did you get to Minnesota?

      My experience of lobster was eating it and a pint of steamers with corn on the cob, all from the same vat of boiling water on a dockside local hangout in Maine. I could never have a whole lobster in a fine dining establishment, like bbq ribs and good fried chicken, I think it really is best consumed outside.

      You have reminded me of another favorite body of water, the Atlantic at Rehobeth, but only in the fall-almost no one there, a cup of coffee and freshly made caramel corn (still warm), as you stroll down the beach where people are surf fishing and you see the occasional horseshoe crab.

      Wonderland to this midwesterner.

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      1. I’m from Minnesota and much to long a story to tell how I got there but it was an amazing experience. One of my sisters eats every thing inside the lobster. Where is Rehobeth?

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  24. Right now my least favorite body of water is the one overhead, falling to earth. It’s my day off so I’m doing laundry which I hung out in the sunshine this morning on my “green clothes dryer.” Then after lunch I took a nap. A clap of thunder woke me up about 15 minutes ago. The clothes, which were not quite dry when I checked them, are really not dry now. Thought Baboons on the trail would appreciate this. Hope you are all dry.

    Dale, I watched the story of the sports team. Very small town experience, and very cool. Thanks. I hope it does make it to the big screen. I could just see Dennis Quaid as the coach….. I love to cast the movies in my head.

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    1. Dale, was Lynn Sweet your English teacher? Was he as inspiring as a teacher as he was a coach? Sounds like some fertile ground there…

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      1. Krista,

        I’m sorry to say I didn’t have an English class with Mr. Sweet.
        It was odd that in such a small school we should miss each other, but that’s the way it worked out. Given that I wound up working with words, you might think the English teacher had the most influence over me, but my favorite teacher taught science and biology – a great man named Ralph Coate.

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      2. One of the reasons that I became an English teacher was because, except for ninth grade, I had terrible English teachers.

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    2. I believe the Ironmen story has the potential to be the greatest baseball story since A League of Their Own. Owen Wilson as coach.

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      1. i don’t know what i mesread you are correct. i was thinking you were suggesting dennis quaid. (its hell to get old)

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    1. Hmm…not sure why it’s not showing up here if it’s on the book club site. I’d think once you had the WordPress account and the gravatar assigned, it would show up in both places. Maybe there is something being cached on this site and it’ll show up tomorrow?

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  25. Dale,
    I really enjoyed the Baseball story and I don’t even *like* sports. About half way through my internet fizzed out for a minute and I was left hanging– but it came back thank-you-very-much.

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  26. Yeah, me again…

    Rochester canceled their fireworks last night on account of rain… although the rain had quit by about 6:00 but I think it was too late for the community Band concert and vendors to set up.
    So they’re trying it tonight… sure looks like rain more tonight than it did last night but when I drove by Silver Lake Park about 5:oo PM everyone was getting set up so it’s a go tonight.
    And I made my stop at the tent sale and got a couple bags of ‘light ’em up’ goodies…

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  27. I AM TeeJay… Grandson of Otto the Great (and Peter the Plowman) …son of Albert the Dane! …etc., etc. And I am also that “snake-lovin’, nickelharpe-buildin’, mandolin-playin’ good friend of Krista from Waterville”! (Its spelled Nyckelharpa. ALWAYS include the ‘a’ at the end, or the Swedes will roll their eyes and look at you funny like your some kind of foreigner)
    And… Renee… is that YOU cousin??? Goodness its been ages! So you were in band, too? Don’t worry, its all become a distant fog, so I’ve nearly forgotten all of that.
    MY favorite body of water is the Minnesota River. (Altho there IS a lovely bog a few miles south of town that I’m quite fond of too ! 😉

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    1. You bet its me. You played tenor drum in marching band and I was on the bass drum. You have red hair like all the Hellwinkles. My mom and dad are still going strong in Luverne.

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    2. thanks for stopping in teejay. welcome. a night owl in this group is a welcome comodity. so give us the dirt on the ladies.

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