Category Archives: Mysteries

2025, Art, books, History, Mysteries

This Week’s Rabbit Hole – Khaju Bridge

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As happens often, a book sent me down a rabbit hole last week.  Martyr by Kaven Akbar has been highly lauded recently – New York Times Bestseller & Best Book of the Year as well as finalist for the Waterstone Award.  4.2 rating on GoodReads and the same on Amazon.  Only 3 stars for me.  It was well written but the protagonist was exceedingly annoying and unbelievably full of himself.  It had a plot twist that I saw coming about a million miles away and the ending wasn’t very satisfying at all.  Oh well….

There was a good story embedded in it though about a Persian poet named Ferdowsi who wrote an epic poem in order to get money from the king to rebuild a bridge in his town.  Akbar ended this section saying that the king built a bridge like no other and it is known as the Poet’s Bridge.

You know this was more than I could resist.  Looked up Poet’s Bridge and discovered that there is such a bridge in Isfahan, Iran but it was built considerably later than Ferdowsi lived and is called Poet’s Bridge because “it has been a popular meeting spot and a source of inspiration for poets and artists, with many beautiful poems written about its beauty and the surrounding area.”  However Ferdowsi was a poet and wrote The Shahnameh, one of the world’s longest epic poems (50,000+ couplets) and the longest epic written by a single person.  Here is one of the most famous lines:

“Though you have little wealth, fear not the decree of fate; for the ocean of the sea was once a drop of rain.”

It was written between 977 and 1010 and there are some resources that suggest there may have been a bridge involved, but it’s pretty shadowy.  And clearly any bridge built in Ferdowsi’s time is not the Khaju Bridge which was built in the mid-17th century.   But the Khaju Bridge is gorgeous and is a significant landmark.  If Akbar had not named the bridge in his telling of the Ferdowsi story, I wouldn’t have found the Khaju Bridge.  Not sure if this was Akbar’s intention or not, but I’m glad it happened.

Any favorite bridges?  Do you have any worries about long, tall bridges?

2025, animals, Family, Farming Update, home, Mysteries, Seasons, Uncategorized

What’s the Point?

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Another Wednesday, another blizzard warning and snow day.

For good measure, the three of us took Thursday off as a snow day as well. Wanted to make sure we gave the roads time to improve. And really, on the north side of Rochester we only had about 2 inches maybe, and most of our driveway didn’t have any snow on it. Credit to my dad for having the road built up like he did 50 years ago. I remember maybe 30 years ago there was a snow storm every Thursday for about a month. I would plow the driveway before milking in the morning, Kelly would take the kids in and go to work, and then before they came home, I’d clear the driveway and again wait for them out at the highway. Must’ve been before cell phones, and in one of those odd little memories that sticks with you, I remember sitting in the tractor with the door open while one of the sheriff deputies that we were friends with, stood outside and we talked for half an hour. I remember watching his ears get more and more red and thinking “I’m sure glad I’m in this tractor cab.“, and “why doesn’t he end this conversation and get back in the car already??” Maybe Kelly finally came home, I don’t remember. Maybe he wasn’t cold. Maybe I should have had him get in the cab out of the wind at least. Don’t know.

Daughter and I have the place to ourselves this weekend as Kelly flew out to Boston to staff a booth for some work-related event. Flew out Saturday, works Sunday, back on Monday. I don’t think you can even call that a working vacation. Sounds like just plain ‘work’ to me.

I think I have finally finished farm bookwork and can get our taxes done now. The software I use generates a Year End report that will be 31 pages this year. About half of it being farm related expenses, and the other half being household expenses. There’s no profit on the farm this year and that’s primarily expenses related to the farm shop. I always enjoy looking at the final tally of these expenses. The dogs cost us $3000: Half is vet expenses, the other half are dog treats, joint medications, and frisbees. Pretty astounding how much we’ve spent on groceries.

I have finally, I think, finished all the construction in the shop. In fact, I moved the miter saw and table saw off to storage corners. I started moving bolts to the new bolt shelves and placed another order for more storage bins and dividers. I am throwing out a lot! A lot of not only old, rusty, bent, things, but just bolts that I’ll never use. For example, a box of nuts and bolts from my father-in-law when he had a grain bin taken down. There’s just not a chance I’m gonna use 1000 round headed, 1 inch bolts, that have a glob of tar on them. I also threw out a box of 3/8 inch flat headed plow bolts. Again, it’s just not something I’m gonna use. I use plow bolts, but they’re ½” diameter and 2 inches long.

I have two boxes of stuff I’m saving for my crafty sister. Just weird little odds and ends that she always appreciates. Although in this case, I’m not sure what she’s gonna do with all this metal stuff without a welder. Maybe I should buy her a tube of JB weld to go with this junk. I mean “these supplies”.  

One of the boxes of dad‘s odds and ends and bits of doo-dads, contained eight sets of ignition points and three condensers. I have no idea if they’re from tractors or cars and it sort of boggles my mind that if he replaced a set because it wasn’t running well, why did he not just throw it right away in the first place??

I saved those for my sister.
Some of you might know what those are. Electronic ignition and everything these days has eliminated the need for these things, but these were a pretty remarkable creation in the history of the automobile and kudos to whoever invented them.

(OK, I looked it up. According to Wikipedia, Charles Franklin Kettering, founder of Delco, and worked for GM, is credited with creating this ignition system. It was first used on the 1912 Cadilac. Huh!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delco_ignition_system

The online auction in Plainview finished on Tuesday. I had taken a small, 4 drawer toolbox that I got for free, a large 5 drawer ‘document’ cabinet that had large, shallow drawers, and the anhydrous applicator toolbar. There were two other, much nicer anhydrous applicators than mine on the auction. I got $200 for that item. A lot less than I paid for it ten or fifteen years ago. I also got $40 for the small free toolbox. So at least all that stuff is out of my hair.

I’ve got 1 chicken laying eggs in the garage.

I’ve chased her out of the garage a couple times recently, so I was keeping an eye out for eggs. Every now and then I get a chicken laying eggs in the garage for some reason. Once they were nesting up on a shelf behind a box of sidewalk chalk. This time she’s on the ground, behind a shovel. I figure that out one day when the shovel was tipped over. Chickens are so weird.

Hey- check out this ‘egg fetcher’ tool I use when the eggs are in the corner underneath the nest boxes:

WHAT IS THE MOST COMMON THING IN YOUR JUNK DRAWER?  DID YOU GO LOOK OR DID YOU JUST KNOW?  WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT MANY OF THAT THING?

2025, Family, Food, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Chopsticks

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I looked up at the television yesterday to see a bit of a cooking show in which famous folks (mostly chefs) weigh in on their favorites.  This particular dish was some kind of dumpling and there was a close up shot of somebody’s hand using chopsticks to pick up the dumpling.   I know enough about this kind of stuff to know that the chances that it was the hand of the particular chef were nil.  Most likely a hand model.  Yes, there are such things although I’m wondering if there is a subgenre of the hand modeling subgenre for chopsticks use.

When I was in college, my freshman year roommate was from Japan – Yoshiko.  We had a pretty good year.  She bought a wonderful stereo half way through and she also taught me to use chopsticks and food that you eat with chopsticks.  There was no Chinese/Korean/Thai/Japanese food in my house growing up.  In fact, the first time I had any Chinse food in my life was that year in college.

These days, we have a ton of chopsticks at our house.  For many years, every time I found chopsticks on sale or that were interesting, I’d pick them up.  At last count, there are about 70.  And the sad thing is that I’m the only one who uses them.  When YA was little, I bought a set of cheater chopsticks but she wasn’t very interested and as she got older, she absolutely refused.  Occasionally if I serve Chinese, a guest may attempt them but usually they eventually fall back onto forks and spoons.

I’m not sure why I like chopsticks so much – I use them sometimes even if it’s a food you wouldn’t associate with them. 

Do you own chopsticks?  Do you have a favorite dish to go with them?

2025, Family, Food, Health, home, Mysteries

Carb Fest

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Over the years I’ve tried a lot of different food plans.  Whenever I hear of someone talking about how good they feel on some particular diet, I get curious.  I’ve even tried raw a couple of times; the second time I lasted the longest – four days.  Tried the zone for a bit.  The Mediterranean is pretty close to our regular habit, although as vegetarians, we pass on the occasional fish/meat.

 The keto diet was the one that I toyed with for quite some time before giving it a shot.  I have two good friends who swear by it.  I loaded up on a few keto carb substitutes and I made it three weeks.  But I didn’t feel better.  In fact if you factor in how much I was thinking about carbs, dreaming about carbs, crying about carbs, I was much worse.

So it probably won’t surprise anybody that every now and then I let my delight in carbs get the better of me.  Every month or so YA asks if Great Harvest is making Derby Cookies; they are her favorites.  She is also very fond of the various cheese breads that Great Harvest makes.  When she looked at the March newsletter, she was happy that the Derby cookies were on the docket as well as the gouda garlic bread.  Since she was traveling and I was in party prep, I made the bakery run on Saturday (that’s when they do the gouda bread).  I thought that ordering ahead would help, but it didn’t.  In addition to YA’s bread and cookies, I left the bakery with a White Cinnamon Chip loaf and an Apple Caramel loaf (mostly apple, not much caramel – a perfect ration for me).

This is a lot of bread, even for me.  YA will take care of the gouda and probably most of the cookies.  Guess I’ll just have to suffer through my two loaves.  Sigh. 

Anything that occasionally just makes you lose control?

2025, Food, Gatherings, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Potluck Pi ??

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Most people probably don’t feel this way, but all the prep going into a big party is actually a gift to myself.  The confluence of making lists, organizing, cooking and then being with the people of my life makes a big party a perfect experience for me. I’m pretty sure that if there was such a thing as a glow-meter, I’d be off the scales during my gatherings.

I often get asked what guests should bring to one of my parties.  If you’ve done this, you’ve gotten my standard answers.  “Bring yourself.”  “Bring your appetite.”  Occasionally I will tell someone if they have a particular beverage that they can’t live without, they might bring that. 

It’s a testament to how our society has changed that everyone goes under the assumption that every party is potluck and you have to pony up.  A friend who has never been able to come to my Pi Day festivities (but has always stopped by the next day for tea and leftovers) showed up with a strawberry rhubarb pie.  She was a little worried and left it sitting on the dining room buffet but it was just fine and I put it out.  But it is a bit like bringing coals to Newcastle when you bring pie to my Pi Day.  LOL.

Folks brought flowers (all of which are doing nicely and safe from the cat) and, of course, wine.  My people do seem to be wine people.  Lots of empties into the recycling after the party was over! 

And for those who aren’t local or couldn’t make it, here is a list of this year’s pies:  Blueberry, Dutch Apple, Peaches & Cream, Macadamia Coconut Caramel, Crack, Chocolate Chip/PB Whoopies, Banofi, Pear Croustade, Key Lime and Butterfinger Cream.  Oh, and let’s not forget the Strawberry Rhubarb!

Do you have a go-to dish that you take to potlucks? 

2025, Media, Movies, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Oblivious?

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I’ve probably seen the first 10 minutes of the movie Laura 100 times.  It’s one of my go-to bedtime movies.  I can actually recite the first five minutes of the movie by heart.  For fun, I had it on during the afternoon over the weekend and I just happened to look at the screen as Clifton Web and Dana Andrews had this discussion:

DA:  Three years ago in your October 17 column you started out to write a book review but then at the bottom of the column you switched over to the Harrington murder case
CW:  Are the processes of the creative mind now under the jurisdiction of the police?
DA: You said Harrington was rubbed out with a shotgun loaded with buckshot, the way Laura Hunt was murdered, the night before last.
CW: Did I?
DA: Yeah. But he was really killed with a sash weight.
CW: How ordinary. My version was obviously superior.

A sash weight?  Despite how many times I’ve seen this scene, I would never in a gzillion years been able to tell you Harrington got clobbered by a sash weight

I’m not sure which is more amazing, that the line could get by me SO many times or that I   actually know what a sash weight is.  I live in a house that still has sash weights.  I’ve even taken out a window with sash weights and then put it back!

My guess is that knowing about sash weights will become a fairly specialized bit of knowledge as the years go by.

Tell me about something that you know that seems a little rarer than it used to! 

2025, Food, Mysteries, Uncategorized

So I’m a Bit Quirky

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Quirk #1

When I find something I really like at a restaurant, it’s really really hard for me to choose something else the next time.  Even if it looks good.   Black Coffee & Waffle in St. Paul has several waffle options that look wonderful to me.  As I’m driving over there I’m thinking to myself that I should try something new (besides the almond butter, fresh fruit & granola waffle) and then I never do.   Same with the olive pimento veggie burger at The Tipsy Steer.  In what I consider a personal victory, on Sunday I actually got the crumb cake at Black Walnut Bakery.  I’ve looked at it several times but always end up ordering the bear claw, which Black Walnut makes with puff pastry, pastry cream and raspberry jam.   The crumb cake also had raspberry and was wonderful, but if I’m honest, I also bought a bear claw (just in case) and had it yesterday!

Quirk #2

Most of my adult life, I’ve done without a dishwasher.  Either I just didn’t have one or for many many years in my current house, it just didn’t work.  Now that we have a nice dishwasher that YA insisted on when we had the kitchen remodeled, I end up putting the clean dishes away about 80% of the time.  It’s not a horrible job – only takes about 5 minutes, but I’m finding that afterwards, I resist putting any dirty dishes in for a bit.  As if it needs to sit empty for a day or so before I start loading it up again.  Like it needs to rest and recharge?  Maybe it needs a spa day?

Any quirks you’re willing to admit to today?

2025, Automotive, Mysteries, Seasons

Redundancies

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The first car that I owned was a 1968 Datsun 510.  I bought it used when I lived in Northfield – in 1977 – for a whooping $400.  It had some rust but ran pretty well.  The owner wouldn’t sell it to me until we test drove it; I don’t think he believed I could drive a stick. 

Back then inexpensive cars didn’t do anything special for you.  No pings to tell you that you haven’t turned off the lights, no messages that your oil life is down to 15%, no back-up cameras, no seat warmers, and certainly no notifications that your tire air pressure is getting low.

Even though my current car is 11 years old, I bought it new from a dealership so I can still take it in when the air pressure light goes on, usually after the first cold snap of each fall/winter. They check the tires and fill any that are low.  No charge for this.  A couple of years ago, a new warning blinked at me, on a cold cold morning in January – a TPMS warning.  I looked it up in the manual and online – Tire Pressure Monitoring System.  Didn’t I already have that?

When I had the car’s check-up in April (right before I drove to Indy for the eclipse), I asked the mechanics to look at it – they said they took care of it.  Unfortunately, when the got cold in December, the light came back on.  I ignored it for a couple of weeks, it warmed up and the light turned off.  When I had the oil changed in January, I asked them to look at it again.  Turns out there are FOUR of these sensors and they not only go wonky fairly often but they run on batteries, so eventually the batteries run down.  They had fixed one of these sensors in April, but now there were two more sensors acting up.  The reality is that they are actually a built-in redundancy, a back-up to the main system, which works just fine.  If the light was bothering me, I could cough up $120 each to have them adjusted and get new batteries for them.  If I wait until the next time I need new tires, it will be a lot less.  So, since the warning isn’t even accurate, I decided to ignore it.  Then when it warmed up… the light went off again.  Sigh. 

Hopefully it won’t come on again until it gets really cold again.

Do you have any “back-ups”, just in case…….

100 Words, 2025, Business, Family, Mysteries

Postal Game

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It was bound to happen.  The postal tide has turned.

As a working young adult, YA now gets a chunk of mail.  Lots of credit card offers, lots of requests from charities. Stuff from her healthcare folks, catalogs for trendy clothes.  Very little useful stuff at all and almost all of it ends up in the trash.  But it occurred to me today when I was sorting our letters, all of which went into one pile for her, that she gets more mail than I do these days. 

Unfortunately the mail I do get is mostly the bills.

You get anything interesting in the mail these days? 

2025, Business, Family, Food, Mysteries

Coffee Break

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These days I rarely stop at coffee shops.  Mostly I’m just too cheap when I can make my own coffee or tea at home for a fraction of the cost.  But every couple of months, YA and I will make a stop at a Caribou if we are out and about.

In early days, when there was a Caribou two blocks from house, I will admit I was more of a regular.  But in keeping with my “like it cheaper” gene, I purchased myself a mug that I could use whenever I stopped by.  Saved a bit of money and saved yet another coffee cup in the trash.  Even though this mug is close to 25 years old, it’s in pristine shape – it doesn’t get used that often and I wash it by hand instead of throwing it in the dishwasher.  When we lost our little Caribou (first the big Lyndale closing and then the Minnehaha Creek bridge re-build), my use of my mug plummeted.

When I dragged it out to the car with me yesterday, it was probably the first time in a year that it had gotten any use.  The young man behind the counter was astonished to see it.  He picked it up, turned it around, looked at the bottom then called over co-workers to look at it.  The big draw turned out to be the logo, which apparently was “updated” back in 2010.  If you had asked me, I would not have been able to tell you what the new logo looks like:

Guess I’m just oblivious.  But it turned out OK… they were all so enamored of my antique mug that they gave me my decaf for free!

Do you have a favorite cup/mug for your coffee or tea?