Songs

Sandy Samba

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Ten years ago no one would have guessed that cheesy Wisconsin would become known for it’s abundant supplies of frack-ready sand.

Cow

The geology of the western part of the state (and southeastern Minnesota) features reserves of silica sand, with fine, tough, spherical grains that are perfectly configured to work in the process of hydraulic fracturing, or Fracking. The sand is mixed with water and chemicals and injected into deep shale under high pressure to force open fissures that release oil and gas – a dirty, violent process that stands in stark contrast to the charming images Wisconsin is known for – gentle big-eyed cows casually secreting dairy products.

If you are an excavation specialist or a fracking contractor, the Wisconsin you see has a special allure that has nothing to do with ice cream and curds. The western part of the state is a sandy beach littered with dollars.

For some reason it made me think of this famous lustful samba, done here by the tune’s author, Tom Jobim, and Ol’ Blue Eyes himself.

This classic song transports me to a sweltering beach in Rio, which is odd because I’m not a big fan of beaches or sweltering, and I’ve never been to Rio. But with just a few word changes, perhaps it can get across a hint of the desire excavators feel when they consider places like Onalaska.

Stout and wide and slow and brown-eyed
The cows of West Wisconsin go walking
It makes me shudder
beneath each udder
there’s … sand.

Sand with grains so small and touchable
round and hard and so uncrushable
All from nature
It’s made by glaciers
this … sand.

Sand so abundant and fine it
makes me feel desperate to mine it
Here is a contract please sign it!
But I can’t tell the Mayor my goal.
He’s on someone else’s payroll.

Warm and tempting, nothing lacking
This raw material for fracking
I’ll make a killing
Each truck I’m filling
with … sand.

If you could have complete control over one natural resource, which one would you choose?

59 thoughts on “Sandy Samba”

  1. water would be good. i think the idea that if you own rights to a piece of property you can mine the minerals and or oil beneath it is an odd notion. if the aquafer beneath us is there just like oil, iron ore and gold i guess the logic is that we could start pumping it out and start charging for it. the storage may be a bit expensive . you would need an area the size of lake superior just to hold lake superior but the payoff could be great. if the people of white bear lake are upset about the lake being down 8 feet because of the city pumping the water out for business and new subdivisions that have claimed dibbs on the natural resource the last 10 years. if minnesotans started pumping the water out and selling it like the arabs have done with the oil or de beers has done with diamond in africa i’ll bet we could get some resolution on why it is or isnt ok to mine the universe with the dibbs notion. i get upset people who have connections get to rape the planet and make lots of money at it. i wonder if it would be ok to suck the oxygen out of the atmosphere and start charging all the poor suckers that dont have oxygen sucking machines for the privilege of breathing. lets put wisconsin in a truck and sell it to the highest bidder. an open pit mine may not smell quite the same as a dairy farm but thats not necessarily a bad thing. the other natural resource i think we could cash in on is people…. if we just dibbs all the folks within the state borders. but wait is that a problem?

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    1. The people of Wisconsin have put themselves on a truck and sold themselves to the highest bidder if you think about it. They have been on a real conservative jag. In 10 years they may really regret some of this when they have to live with the long term consequences of these decisions. It is such a beautiful place. Gov. Walker and the Republicans are not very “conservationist”–they are just conservative Republicans. I know many who grew up in Wisconsin who feel pretty broken hearted about much of this.

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      1. I know several who still live there and are also really, really angry. I love Wisconsin and hope to live there again someday, but as it is now, I don’t even like to buy a tank of gas there.

        I do still buy locally produced cheese at the little shop by the Big Orange Moose in Black River Falls, however, and am starting to count down the days until it is time to do so again this year. 12-year-old cheddar, with self-discipline I can almost make it last until the last crumb is 13 years old.

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        1. Ah, the Big Orange Moose! One of the great landmarks for our regular forays to Madison, along with Norske Nook and the Taxidermy Cheese Shop (we never stop at the Taxidermy Cheese Shop. Why spoil speculation with boring old actuality?).

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        2. Ah yes, the Norske Nook, not to be missed.

          We recently saw an MST3K which referred to Diesel Cheese Gifts. I told the s&h I would point those shops out on the way this year. Agreed, reality is over-rated

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    2. tim, just finished reading the EOD (end of day) comments from yesterday. I shall be smiling about “a pot of honey in every house” all day. thx.

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    3. I’m a strange duck. To my mind, what Wisconsin did to the incredibly beautiful Dells area was unforgivable. The state lives under the curse of old Indians who revered that area and it lives under the curse of Steve. Until they blow up all that ungodly tourist development the state will not prosper.

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      2. wifes family called a family holiday for the dells on the 4th a couple years ago. i thought i was going to die. the swimming pool filled with toxic waste. my swimsuit got 6 shades lighter with the acidity of the water. the all you could eat buffet was 15 dollars and if you didnt mind overspending by 14 dollars it was a great deal. overcooked vegetables and wilted salad in mass quantities who could ask for anything more. fudge flab and fatheads … only in america

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        1. I think that must be why I’ve never had even a tiny bit of desire to go to the Dells. Shudder.

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        6. I wish I could go back and edit… I meant “I bet it (getting out of jail) won’t be free of cost.”

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  2. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    This question asks about resources, but really that resource becomes power. The resource I would choose would depend on my location at the moment. When I am in the SW desert of the USA I choose water and when in Phoenix water and air–the air there is fllthy. Seattle and Pacific NW?–sunshine is my choice. Minnesota in February or March?–warmth and a palm tree.

    This summer in Minnesota–I want the Bug Dope Resource Franchise.

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      1. I usually do not struggle with mosquitoes–pretty immune to them most years. I take my dogs to a heavily wooded dog park here in EP. There has been standing water there this year rendering the mosquitoes in hoards of hoards. The dogs need the exercise and so do I . I have taking to dressing like a nun, sprayed with bug dope, long pants, long-sleeved shirt buttoned to the neck, to face the challenged. And I am still peppered with bites.

        I eat garlic and usually that does the trick. Just an unusual year.

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  3. Hmm, with great control comes great responsibility-not sure I am up for that.

    I’ll take control of some rare, expensive metal, I should be able to manage that.

    It gets doled out for its intrinsic usefulness, nobody gets to reap a ridiculous profit by speculating on it. Grant writers, get your pens sharpened.

    Maybe something radioactive (cue the Dr. Larry Kyle laugh)

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    1. the chinese are hoarding all sorts of exotic metals used in computer applications and will be sticking it in our ears in the not too distant future after they have purchased all that is out there at a current price. once they have it the price will go up and the cost of computer parts will be a chinese torture chamber. i think we should look at water based applications

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  5. Well, I imagine that fracking sand is sent out to where I live. I really don’t know what to think about the whole deal. We hear about the problems other locales have had with fracking. Will it happen here? Who knows. Do I trust the State and industry to watch out for my water and welfare? Not really. Is there anything to be done about it? Not really. Now I’m depressed. Thanks a lot, Dale!

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  6. Morning all. Not sure yet what natural resource I’d like to be in charge or or why, but I must say… well done Dale! Who else could read a story about Wisconsin sand and fracking, then turn around and come up with new words to the to The Girl from Ipanema. And probably at 4:30 this morning!!!! I stand in awe!

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  7. tim is obviously right: water is the critical resource to protect. I don’t think I have the energy to take on protection of something as vast and complicated as that. The future is sure to see increasing conflicts over water use, and on White Bear Lake the future is now.

    No, I’ll let tim handle that and I will try to protect Minnesota’s lake integrity. I fell in love with Minnesota lakes when I was a kid visiting from Iowa. They have been badly abused, mostly by the people who regard themselves as the big lake lovers in our state. I have rules in mind for lake management that are surely radical, but that’s an issue close to my heart.

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    1. Loomis Beechley may not have been the best person to represent them – would you consider running, Steve?

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  8. i’ve got dibbs on all the water
    that swum in by your son or daughter
    when it comes out
    of the kitchen spout
    please pay

    he’s got oil and he’s got iron ore
    i got water and i got something more
    just to survive
    just to stay alive
    please pay

    water goes with just about everything
    water makes my bank account sing
    in this world we need water to make
    concrete, ethenol and chocolate cake

    to run your sprikler the meters ticking
    it makes the wallet on my butt thicken
    it could be worse
    you could die of thirst
    please pay

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    1. Yep, what’s sad is this is actually happening some places in the third world, where Big Business gets hold of the water rights…

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      1. Interesting – when I hit post, the above reply took much longer than usual to get posted – I was watching the lower left corner where it shows that’s happening – went through “Google analytics” for quite a while… maybe because of Big… Business?

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  11. Good morning. I choose control over soil for the purpose of protecting it. I would put a stop to the bad practices that are damaging this resource. However, I would need to know how I would be given control and if there would be some way I could do this in a fair way. I don’t want to be seen as a heavy handed dictator forcing my will on others.

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  12. My first thought was Water, but tim beat me to that, so I think I will take air. Clean, cool air would be my goal. No more smog and pollutants. And no more unbearably hot, humid air. Just clean, cool air. Like a day by Lake Superior, or at least how a day by Lake Superior used to be.

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  13. Time. Not really a “natural” resource as time is a construct that we have dreamed up to parse out the rotations of the earth. But if I had it my way, I would allow for more flexibility in how we construct our concept of time, “enough” time, present, past, future. And I would make sure I had time for a little bit of “wasted” time each day. For everyone.

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  14. I’ve finally remembered it (thought of it once this morning, and then “poof” – gone).
    Livestock – I want for all livestock – Domestic animals kept for use on a farm or raised for sale – to be able to roam freely, be fed whatever is natural to their growth and environment (grass-feed beef, for example) and be treated humanely. I would need lots of assistance, or magic. This might extend to the waters, which would have to become uncontaminated, again requiring some kind of magical intervention.

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    1. Oh dang, I tried to get fancy with bold and may have failed to close it, let’s try this and see if it shuts off.

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        1. Yep – so the trick is to do each style tag separately – so do your carats and letters for the bold, then italic, each inside their own set of sideways carets, then type your word(s), then do the carets and letters with the forward slash. Make sense?…

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