Category Archives: History

2024, History, News, Uncategorized

Restoration

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I read a lovely article in the Rock County Star Herald this week about Jim Brandenburg, the nature photographer who grew up in Luverne. Jim wanted to give something back to the community, as he has felt so supported by people there.

Luverne was one of the communities featured in the Ken Burns Documentary The War. Jim found an American jeep in a barn in France near Omaha Beach that had been driven during the D-Day invasion. The Jeep had been stored in a shed and hadn’t been used for 72 years, Jim sponsored the restoration of the jeep, costing about $100,000, in time for it to be driven on Omaha Beach for the 80th anniversary of D-Day invasion. Relatives of two local men who served in the war and who were featured in the documentary were there and drove the restored jeep through the streets of Normandy. The jeep, named Willy, will arrive in Luverne in September. I don’t know where they will display it. There is a military museum in Luverne at the courthouse, so perhaps there is room for it there. Here is a photo of Willy.

I guess that in France, the restoration of WWII memorabilia is quite a popular pastime. I know that people in Luverne are so excited about this jeep. What a wonderful gift to the community!

Ever restored anything? What would you like to restore if you could?

2024, books, Fantasy, History, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Hausgeist

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Husband was at the local college library the other day and saw a book that he thought I would like. He checked out Hausgeister! Household Spirits of German Folklore, and it has been quite a fun read. The book details the various spirits that inhabit German folklore, and outlines the origins and changes in attitudes regarding these characters over the years. Most Germans believed that their homes, particularly farm homes, were inhabited by these creatures, and that the world around them was as well. It was easy to believe in them in the times when houses were poorly lit and were heated with fireplaces. All you needed to be mindful of was making sure you fed them what they liked to eat.

Most of the myths were about kobolds, male household gnomes who helped out with the housework and farm chores. Wichtel were spirits who lived in communities below mountains. They were also helpful. Draks were small fire dragons that could be either good or evil. They entered the house through the chimney. Holzfraulein were female spirits of the forest. Geldmannlein brought people money and looked like weeds.

The Brothers Grimm wrote extensively about these creatures in addition to writing their fairy tales. Tomte and Nisse are their Scandinavian counter parts. I think there is a Finnish character called Sit Behind the Stove. I think we have a kobold in our dining room who rolls the dog’s balls out from underneath the buffet. Something manages to do it. The ball rolls under, and a few seconds later rolls back out. A kobold is more fun to imagine than uneven flooring.

What hausgeist would you want to have? Favorite fairy tales?

2024, Food, History, holidays, Uncategorized

Never Down on my Chips

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I may have mentioned that I have a Sandra Boynton-illustrated calendar that lists many very unusual holidays throughout the year. 

You’ll be happy to know that today is Chocolate Chip Day.  (Not chocolate chip cookie day, which is in August).  I haven’t looked too hard so I’m not sure WHY there is a chocolate chip day.  1937 was the birth of the chocolate chip – you’ve probably heard the story – when Ruth Wakefield chopped up a Nestle chocolate bar and added the bits to her cookie recipe.  A couple of years later, she signed a contract with Nestle which is why her recipe is still on the back of the chocolate chip package to this day.  She received a lifetime supply of chocolate.  Personally I hope she also got a boatload of cash.

I’m thinking pancakes sprinkled with chocolate chips (I have milk chocolate and white chocolate on hand)  for breakfast but haven’t decided how else to incorporate them into my day.

Any chocolate chip ideas?

2024, Food, History, Travel, Uncategorized

Food and Friendship

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We are in Boston until Sunday, and are having a lovely time. I feel pretty spoiled to be on both US coasts in less than a month to sample great seafood in both places. The only thing better would be to eat homemade pasta in Bologna, Italy.

We had a wonderful encounter with the cab driver who drove us to the hotel from the airport on Wednesday. He was an East Indian man in his 30’s who has lived in the US for 14 years. He loved telling about the city and things we were driving past. He also was a great fund of information about good restaurants to try. Husband mentioned that I had made a good biryani recently, and I chimed in that I had made twenty chapati and almost all of them puffed up like footballs when I fried them. Our driver got really excited hearing that, and that we appreciated good Indian food, and he invited us to his Sikh religious community gathering on Sunday evening to try the food there. Were we not leaving early Sunday, we would probably have taken him up on his offer.

One story our driver told us was about the banning of Happy Hour in Massachusetts in 1984. Too many people were drinking and driving after work, resulting in several fatal accidents. The law is still on the books despite challenges from the hospitality industry. There are pretty strict rules about the size of individual drinks served between 5:00 and 7:00 pm, and how many people need to be at table per pitcher of beer during those times. It is not a problem for us, as I don’t think either of us have been to a Happy Hour in decades. Opponents of the law say it just reinforces the Puritanical stereotype of the State’s residents. The people we have met thus far have been helpful and friendly in the extreme, and not Puritanical at all.

Who have been interesting people you have met on your travels? What are your favorite foods you would like to eat in the places they originated? Do you still attend Happy Hour?

2024, animals, Food, History, Travel, Uncategorized

Where In The World Are Renee And Chris Heading?

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Greetings from somewhere that I hope is not North Dakota. Despite all of us, including the dog, being under the weather, we got the dog to the boarding kennel yesterday and managed to get ourselves and our bad colds to Bismarck last night. If everything works out, we will be in the air winging our way to a somewhat far off destination when this posts.

I have to attend the world’s most boring psychology conference again, (all about licensure and professional regulation) and Husband tagged along to take in the sights.

We will be in the home town of an actor noted for the portrayal of an iconic alien. The first chocolate factory in this country was here, as was the first subway. A city park is famous for its role in a beloved children’s book about ducks, and the city is noted for its legumes. The header photo is a clue regarding the main ingredient of a famous confection named after a nearby suburb.

This should give you all some research to do.

Have you ever had to travel when you were ill? Who are your favorite Sci-Fi alien characters? Chocolate?

2024, History, Music, Uncategorized

Metronome Police

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I read with amusement and disgust the effort by the current president of Chechnya to regulate the speed of music in that country.

The only music that is allowed for singing, instrumental performance, or dance must be between 80-116 beats per minute. The president thinks those tempos correspond to the brains and culture of Chechnyans. Anything else is contrary to Chechnyan values and culture. To give you a sense of what is allowed, Imagine by John Lennon would be too slow, and Here Comes The Sun would be too fast.

Well, good luck enforcing this. I suppose that any orchestra could regulate the speed during performances of classical music. What a loss for the populace, though!

What are your favorite slow and fast music pieces? What laws do you think have been unenforceable?

2024, Business, Food, History, Mysteries, Travel

Where in the World is VS?

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Sliced bread was invented here. That’s right — the Taggart Company was the first place to start selling pre-sliced loaves of bread.

This is home to the world’s largest Children’s Museum, with over 130,000 artifacts, including an indoor carousel and dinosaurs guarding its walls

The original Union Station in this city was the country’s first “union” passenger rail station. Its initial construction was in 1853, but was rebuilt 30 years later. Union Station was frequented by many prominent figures, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman + Woodrow Wilson.     

The downtown Athenaeum was designed by Kurt Vonnegut’s architect grandfather.  It was originally used as a gymnasium and clubhouse by German-Americans striving to preserve their culture.

This city’s beloved Slippery Noodle Inn was a stop on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, with enslaved people hiding out in the building before catching the northbound train nearby. Not only that, but it was also a watering hole during the prohibition era + a mobster hangout.

Speaking of Kurt Vonnegut, this is the home of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library!

Where am I?  Extra points for knowing WHY I am here!

2024, History, holidays, Uncategorized, work

New Holidays

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I don’t think there are many Baboons who work full-time any longer for an agency or some other entity. As a State employee I sure appreciated having yesterday off. I really needed a three day weekend. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted, but it was very nice to sleep in on Saturday and Monday. Sunday was an early day ringing bells in church for three hours, but it was nice to take a nap when we got home.

North Dakota still gives State employees Good Friday off. I don’t know if there are many other states that do. That means that I have another three day weekend in March. I imagined what other days in April, June, and August I could suggest to the powers that be to consider for three day weekends. May and July are covered already with July 4th and Memorial Day.

For April we could have the 23rd off in honor of Shakespeare’s Birthday. June 16th could be a day off for Bloomsday, as long as State employees read Ulysses aloud. August 23 would be a great day to celebrate the opening of the first one-way streets in London in 1617. The Transportation Department would support that one!

What Monday or Friday holidays would you like to see?

2024, Food, History, Uncategorized

Swedish Meatloaf

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Husband and I found an intriguing meatloaf recipe on our New York Times food app and made it this weekend. It is still in the oven as I write this and I don’t know how it tastes.

It is intriguing to me because it is made with caramelized cabbage inside it and on top of it. I am only so so about cabbage, but this looked like a nice way to get more greens into my diet. The cabbage is caramelized in butter and Lyles Golden Syrup. After it is baked, the meatloaf is served with a sauce made from lingonberry preserves, red wine vinegar, and Worcester sauce.

I never realized before that we have the Ottoman Empire to thank for meatloaf and meatballs. In the early 1700’s the King of Sweden traveled to Turkey and loved the kofte and ground meat recipes he tasted. He brought the recipes to Sweden. The rest is history.

What are your feelings about cabbage? If you were a historian, what would you like to research, and why?

2024, Family, History, Media, Uncategorized, Words

Cheater

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I love crossword puzzles. I subscribe to the New York Times online, and get their crossword puzzles all week as well as the one in the New Yorker each edition.

I hope none of you think of me as a cheater, but I feel it entirely within my rights to look up crossword clues on line. Given the number of sites I see for just this purpose, there must be many like me. I view these puzzles as research projects, not as measures of my intellectual acumen. It is so satisfying when they are completed and correct!

Today would be my mother’s 100th birthday. She didn’t mind bending the rules at all! She got secretly married at 19 against the 1942 rules of Mankato State that students couldn’t be married. Ha! She showed them!

What are your favorite puzzles to solve? When do you bend the rules?