Yes, wolves are sneaky and suspicious – they’re not easy to meet. Kinda wallflower-y. Hang with their own crew, y’know? Not a big surprise to me, but it’s kinda fun when something you’ve understood your whole life becomes headline news for other people.
I’m trying to stay neutral on the question of whether there should be a wolf hunt. I’m not a big fan of having people in the woods with guns, but as long as they’re out here looking for something that’s not a bear, I guess I’m OK with it.
I do feel more relaxed now that Minnesota’s bear hunting season is over. Spending those weeks wondering whether the food I smell is really a bag of Doritos that fell out of someone’s backpack, or a hunter’s bait station – it gets kinda stressful. Always second guessing the nose, y’know?
Using bait to draw in one of your fellow creatures is kinda low, in my opinion. If you know what they like and you put it out there to get their attention, not really ever meaning to let them have it. How can you feel good about that?
But then you wouldn’t know how it feels to have that “uh-oh” moment when you’re taking your first bite of something that smelled so good and it suddenly dawns on you that this is just a big con job and you’ve been had. That’s pretty much an everyday experience out here in the woods. Or so I hear tell. Not many animals who have had that feeling come around to talk about it later. Funny, eh?
Or maybe you DO know.
I’ve been seeing lots of ads on the phone for candidates in some election-thingy coming up. Looks like everybody’s using their own special bait formula to get your attention. I’m sure that whatever it is, the stuff seems pretty great. Better give it a good once over before you go in close.
Barley made the news yesterday, in part thanks to a Minnesota scientist. Professor Gary Muehlbauer of the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota and a cadre of international researchers managed to sequence the genome for barley, said to be “one of the world’s most important and genetically complex cereal crops“. Results were published in the journal Nature. Apparently this work could lead to higher barley yields, better resistance to pests, and enhanced nutritional value. It may also help barley adapt to the stresses of climate change.
You know what that means – we can trash the environment and still have beer!
Congratulations to the researchers. A round for all my genome sequencing friends! It made me think of this old song about barley and its role in the beer and whiskey making process. Sung here by Martin Carthy.
The scientists have done their best
employing all their means
They found out, using every test,
John Barleycorn has genes!
They chopped him up so very small
and put him on display.
Tore him apart to see it all
and mapped his DNA.
If you were him by now you’d know
the sum of all your parts.
What makes you wilt. What helps you grow.
The compounds in your farts.
The sequence tells us who he is,
of what he is composed.
His elements, his spark, his fizz.
John Barleycorn, exposed.
Today’s guest blog is a group entry by Barbara in Robbinsdale, Sherrilee, Plain Jane, tim, and a bystander who took a picture of the group with Sherrilee’s cell phone.
This is a two part story:
The Exhibit
Six of our “baboons” – Sherrilee, Margaret (PJ), Lisa, Linda, tim, and Barbara (BiR) – showed up at the American Swedish Institute last Friday to see the exhibit In Our Nature: Tapestries of Helena Hernmarck. ASI’s brochure describes them as “monumental works [that] immerse the viewer in the best of nature: lush blooms, rich green forest scenes, and sunny poppy pastures…” They’re not kidding about “monumental” – many of these tapestries took up an entire wall, and some of the walls of ASI’s new addition are massive. You have to be far away to see the “picture” in these tapestries; when you’re up close you see how color happens in nature, the shading and layering, as well as “on the loom.”
Sherrilee describes it this way:
Most of the tapestries were woven and hung in the same vertical direction – up and down as it were. But there were a few tapestries with horizontal weave and it completely changed the look of those works. The horizontal pieces seemed almost like photos with amazingly clear details. One of these pieces was called “Mossklyftan” done in 2007. Mossklyftan translates literally as “Moss Gap” and is a perfect name, as a clear brook runs down the gap between moss-covered stones. Standing back in the room, it looked like a lovely photo of a forest scene. Up close you could see all the individual bits of wool and linen that make up the whole. The warp, which showed through occasionally, was a beautiful shade of pink that you wouldn’t think would be a good color in a forest scene, but it was perfect.
Here is Mossklyftan from Helena’s website, photo taken by Lars Dahlstrom.
Helena’s motto was displayed in two languages on a wall at the beginning of the exhibit:
“My interest lies in capturing the image of a fleeting moment in the sustained and time-honored process of tapestry weaving.”
To our delight, PJ was able to read it to us in the Swedish – hard to describe how beautiful it sounds in the native tongue:
“Min önskan är att fånga det flyktiga ögonblicket och bevara det i bildvävnadens tidsprövande process.”
l to r: Sherrilee, tim, Linda in St. Paul, Lisa in Mpls., Barbara in Robbinsdale, and Margaret (PlainJane)
A bystander was kind enough to tag us in front of one of the poppy tapestries.
For more tapestry images, there is a slide show at Helena Hernmarck’s own website, along with an article written by one of the weavers who was in this summer’s weaving workshop at the ASI, which shows the tapestries that are here at ASI through October 14.
And if those aren’t enough links, PJ found a video showing how she does it!
The Food
Margaret describes the post exhibit activity: I’ll not focus on the exhibit but rather on the FIKA restaurant and its exquisite food. Possibly because of my Scandinavian background, I feel very at home at FIKA which is located in the stunning new, modern addition to the American Swedish Institute.
Tim and Linda had eaten at the cafe prior to viewing the tapestries, and Lisa and Sherrilee each had to get back to work. Barb and I were hungry, and Linda and tim kept us company.
Barb ordered the Kale Quiche with fresh baby arugula and a delicate pea sauce, and Cardamom Bread Pudding.
I had an open faced sandwich on dense, dark rye bread layered with watercress, a generous chunk of pan seared salmon drizzled with a scrumptious mustard sauce, and a dollop of quenelle of roasted red beets.
tim reported that he had the watermelon radish open-faced sandwich, and if memory serves, Linda had a roasted beet salad.
All reported that their food was excellent. Each entree cost in the neighborhood of $7.00 – $7.50, really a bargain in terms of quality and presentation. FIKA is well worth a visit, and if you time it right (after the lunch hour rush), there’s ample free parking in the Institute’s parking lot adjacent to the new addition. BiR wants to add that the coffee is also excellent.
Imagine you get to see your favorite kind of art, followed by a sumptuous meal of some kind. Design your own “art and eat” experience.
On the heels of Beth-Ann’s Ice Cream conquest at the Minnesota State Fair, scientists now say they have found sugar in space. Another cold and sweet curiosity, just out of reach. Or to be more exact, 400 light years out of reach, in the gas surrounding a young star called IRAS 16293-2422. I’ll admit it didn’t top my list of potential destinations before today, but now humans have a good reason to go there.
Yes, of course we already have sugar here. Plenty of it.
But sugar from space! That’s special.
And anything that’s desirable AND special will draw a crowd with ready money – funds set aside by the wealthy for the purpose of distinguishing themselves from ordinary folks. That’s how we got Audis and Rolexes.
And being able to say you top your cereal with Space Sugar – that’s the sort of thing James J. Hill could build an empire on!
The one mystery that remains – where did the galactic sugar come from?
When have you gone out of your way for something sweet?
In case you missed the blog yesterday, or the local newscasts, Mini-sota Donut Ice Cream was named the winner of the Kemps Hometown Flavor contest in a very close decision.
Folks who sampled the 2 flavors at the Fair voted for the Rah Rah Rhuberry. On-line voters picked donuts so it came down to the celebrity judging. After the announcement I learned that while last year’s contest was a landslide, this year’s was a dead heat and even the online/Facebook voting was close.
It is obvious to me that the swing voters were baboons! How appropriate is that? I am glad that I did not pander to the demographic with a banana flavor or a goat’s milk base to the ice cream.
Seriously, I am very grateful for all the votes, your enthusiasm, and your indulgence while I prattled on. The experience was a little outside my comfort zone but it was made easier by the presence of family and friends. It was so fun to look up and see Linda and BIR representing the trail and smiling with encouragement.
When have you been involved in a very close contest?
I became a vegetarian when I was 16. Way back then, there weren’t any vegetarian restaurants, whole food grocery stores or edible meat alternatives. I didn’t meet another vegetarian until I went away to college two years later and I ate a lot of cheese sandwiches during those two years. But it wasn’t a hard road to travel; I was sure of my reasons and happy to make sacrifices for what I considered my cause.
Over the years I’ve only missed a few things. On hot summer days when my dad was traveling, my mom would make tuna fish salad and served it in scooped out tomatoes. My dad didn’t like tuna, so it was a special “girls only” meal. The smell of tuna salad takes me back to those days. I miss BLTs… lettuce and tomatoes just aren’t the same without that crisp bacon.
But what I miss the most are S’mores – the melty chocolate with the marshmallows burnt to a nice dark brown crisp, surrounded by graham crackers. Of course it doesn’t hurt that S’mores are almost always eaten around a campfire, with friends and family in attendance. As Rachael Ray would say “Yum-O”. Since marshmallows are not vegetarian (they contain gelatin) – I’ve missed them tremendously for decades – so when I discovered a company that was making vegetarian marshmallows I was thrilled.
In July we took all the S’more makings, including the vegetarian marshmallows with us on our camping trip to Colorado. The marshmallows aren’t as large as what you usually find at the store, but you can put 4 or 6 of them on your stick and get going. Due to the wildfires out west this summer we couldn’t have a campfire, so we did the next best thing – we grilled over a propane cookstove. The marshmallows smoked, then bubbled and then broiled; a perfect hot accompaniment to the chocolate and grahams. It was heavenly and we ate S’mores every night of our trip. I think S’mores are my new favorite dessert!
Today’s post comes from Bart, the bear who found a smart phone in the north woods. Bart’s entry has been translated from its original language, Ursus Textish.
Hey!
Bart here.
As Summer gets closer to Fall, I’m seeing even more Bears in the News. It’s getting kind of old, because what I’m hearing is the same old thing. The media say that we’re hungry and looking to stock up on body fat before we hibernate.
How do they know what we’re really looking for?
Me During My Slim Months – last Spring
I’m not a big fan of the mainstream media, mostly because their name promises a stream and then doesn’t deliver. I’d love to have a real cool stream to wade in right now! But that thing about wanting to get all fatted up – that one is probably true. I know I’m feeling the urge to eat stuff that I shouldn’t eat so I can get bigger than I’m supposed to be. Or maybe AS BIG as I’m supposed to be.
With all the human-made media I’m watching, I’m getting sensitive about my weight because you people put pressure on yourselves to be thin all the time. But that’s not the bear way. We’ve got a skinny season and a fat season, every year. Right now we’re definitely moving from the Stout Weeks into the Chunky Time.
I’m not saying we bears are better than you or smarter than you or even more realistic than you, but wouldn’t it be less stressful to just give yourselves permission to be ready for exposure to the elements?
The weather is still pretty nice – so why not use this time to go around foraging for high calorie additions to your diet? Heaven knows you can’t save any money for retirement right now or do anything else to insulate yourself from the unforgiving shock of cold, cold weather and possibly no job!
There should be a place where you can just go wander around and choose the most exotic, outrageous and fattening food that humans eat, as a way to prepare yourselves for the inevitable.
I told Bart that he’d better not come to our State Fair this year unless he wants to get a few dozen quick tranquilizer darts from antsy security guys who would like nothing better than to start Bart’s hibernation a few months early. But he has a good point. What’s wrong with designating a fat season and a skinny season, other than the fact that we’d all probably just go from a fat season to a fatter one?
How does your diet change through the course of the year?
Today is do-anything-yourself maven Martha Stewart’s birthday. She’s 71.
We had a party for her at the house but of course she wasn’t able to come, being occupied with numerous projects and always on call for emergencies with her company, which is so far reaching and ever present it is not merely about “media”, but “Omnimedia.”
You can make something useful out of these!
Since Martha always enters our house through the black box in the corner, I ran down to the basement looking for raw material and fashioned a festive TV frame in her honor using discarded cereal boxes, pine cones, twine, golf balls, crafter’s clay, shoelaces, clothing scraps, dog hair, beach toys, sun-bleached chicken bones, pocket games, VCR tapes, Elmer’s Glue and lots and lots of glitter. I would show you a picture of the finished product but in the terrible mess that was left behind I seem to have misplaced the camera. And my phone.
Also, I haven’t see the dog for a few hours.
But Martha is an inspiration, whether she’s throwing a fabulous party, making a delightful memory book, or trading on insider information. You also have to give her credit for not letting a stint in the hoosegow break her, even though small people like me keep bringing it up. We also tend to point to unflattering articles that make her out to be some sort of irrational control freak. Some folks are so gauche.
Still, things haven’t gone so well of late. The company has lost money in nine of the last ten years, and stock values have fallen off 21% in the past year. But with some push pins, rubber bands and a little bit of adhesive tape, you can make those slumping shares look perky and fresh!
And speaking of simple things done quickly and well, musing about Martha and exploiting all those tired stereotypes about her craftiness has made it possible for me to put together this lovely, lovely blog in just a few short minutes on a beautiful summer afternoon!
I was delighted to find this treasure in my mailbox yesterday – a photo of a clump of stars about 20 thousand light years from our solar system.
Image credit: ESA/NASA
The Hubble Space Telescope is responsible for capturing the image of these very old stars known under the title “Messier 107“. They’ve been blazing away in the night (and daytime) sky for billions of years.
Messier 107 is a globular cluster – a defining name given to about 150 collections of stars located around the Milky Way.
Globular Clusters would also be an excellent name for a breakfast cereal.
All that’s missing is the technology to make crunchy bits that glow with an intense light when milk is added. Dark chocolate milk of course – to keep the deep space feel of things.
How hard would that be?
I know cereals don’t have jingles anymore, but this one should! Although you’ll have to make up your own tune.
Globular Clusters can’t be beat.
You can eat ’em with sugar, with fruit, with meat.
They’ll twinkle and sparkle and rock your bowl
‘Cause each box comes with a free black hole.
Globular Clusters every day!
They’re bright as stars in the Milky Way.
They’re packed with energy, there’s no doubt.
And time itself cannot snuff them out!
Globular Clusters – count them all.
There’s great big taste in each blazing ball
A fusion of flavor in every one!
Your breakfast will shine like the morning sun.
Today’s post comes from Dr. Larry Kyle, the founder and produce manager at Genway, a supermarket that creates and sells nothing but genetically modified foods.
I was surprised to discover how casually people will pile on the scorn when it comes to disrespecting grocery store tomatoes.
They don’t have any flavor!
They have thick skins!
They’re only made to look good and taste be damned!
Please! These are delicate fruits.
Can’t you just be nice?
There was a time when tomatoes were thrown by the general public to insult performers who did not entertain. Now entertainers are throwing insults at tomatoes as some kind of performance for the general public. I’m discouraged by this strange turnaround.
This latest attack comes from Science Magazine and the New York Times, who blindly publish so-called research that begins with a questionable assumption – that grocery store tomatoes are a disappointment.
The argument is that we’ve fed ourselves fruits that were developed to serve large corporate interests by being easy to pick, ship and display. Critics say Americans are so dumb, we’d rather buy something that looks good rather than eat tasty foods.
I say – “So?”
Anyone who has spent five minutes trying to market anything at all understands the irresistible power of a Pretty Thing. That’s why we developed this summer’s produce special at Genway – The Lightning Bug Tomato!
By combining last year’s shockingly red Bloodbath Tomato with DNA taken from the ordinary firefly, we’ve created a piece of produce that has a pulsing, crimson glow. How successful is it? People line up and pay a fee to come into our store after closing when the lights have been turned out, just to stand by the tomato bin and bathe in the random flickering of piles and piles of ruby red orbs. It’s a splendid cross between languishing in an erotically charged boudoir, and hanging out at a crime scene.
We sell these Lighting Bug Tomatoes by the cart load, and so far no one has complained about the taste. It may be that no one has ever eaten one! I know quite a few will be launched from homemade catapults this Fourth of July. But I’m a businessman. As long as people pay on the way out, I don’t care what they do with the fruit once they get it home.
Maybe someday someone will find a way to market a tomato based on flavor alone. Good luck with that. In the meantime, don’t be cruel, be cool! And keep an eye on the sky. There’s something up there that’s very bright and very red. It glows like a tiny, throbbing sun, and it’s headed directly at you!
Trail Baboon 