Election Day Trivia

Archie Roosevelt, with Presidential pet badger Josiah, who bit visitors.

WOO-HOO!  It’s OVER!  Those suffering from arrested development will continue to whine for a bit if their man or woman didn’t win, but the wisest will progress to more important matters.   Like raking leaves, cleaning the gutters, and throwing out those stupid lawn signs.

Everybody’s Wrong!

Many bats, like this leaf-nosed one, see quite well.

We had a particularly stimulating FULL CONTACT TRIVIA contest at the bar last weekend.

This One Starts Out Boring

Firing the big gun (1915)

My recent inability to access the most interactive features here on WP.com are producing interesting results.

Full Steam Ahead

Steam-powered zero carbon water taxi

Having always been an odd boy, at different ages I sought identity among the punk enclaves where I lived.

Weeds, Bigwhigs, and Know-Nothings

I’ve read a number of opinions lately that American politics has become crazier and less civil than ever before, and that things have never been so bad in general.  It’s the justification for the need to “take back America”.  But if you look at our history, it’s easy to see that much of what we are experiencing now is just a re-run.

Hot Button Home Run

The last (and only previous) time I referred to TIME, the magazine, was in a review of their article on the possible non-existence of hell, which they teased on the cover and then didn’t really address.  This time I think TIME hit one out of the park.  They chose a concept as “Person of the Year” – The PROTESTER.

Understanding the U.S. Occupation

As often happens during a revolutionary movement, icons will be mis-quoted and appropriated and remolded for other purposes.

Uplifted

My neighbor invited me to go kayaking the other day.  It’s one of the things I’m pursuing more since I decided to work fewer hours.  I love kayaking.  Though it is an excellent workout, there’s no need to go fast.

Small Town Graded Down Blues

Miss Anne, an Uptown lady, told us how it used to be.

My little town had the blues last week.  The rest of the world has the blues too, something or other about debts and deficits, but we in the old port town celebrated having the blues with a festival.

Seeing Further

When I look out my windows, I can see a mountain range.  These peaks rise majestically out of the Pacific Ocean.  They have been called by many names.  The Duwamish people called them Sun-a-do.  The Klallam, who lived 10,000 years ago where my town is now, gave them a name meaning “thunderbird”.

I’ve never lived in sight of mountains before.  I’m trying to open myself to whatever kind of powers they hold.

The Joy of Rituals

The long-simmering kettle of universal spirit reduces varied traditions down to their elements.  This produces a stock for the making of future soups.  I just sang in the choir (and was a shepherd) in an Epiphany pageant marking the end of the twelve days of Christmas, the triumph of wisdom over ignorant forces, and the passing of the life force from the old year into the new.

It’s called the Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival.  Like Christmas, it has come to us from many different times and places.  The origins are pagan, Roman, Viking, Christian and Medieval, all at once.

Long Shadows

Film styles reflect the historical times they emerge from, and the cultures in those times.  That’s why genres get named after they happen.  When a new trend is first happening, the audiences and filmmakers are too close to see it in a broad perspective.  Sometimes it’s an effect of public concerns, like the way fear about the danger of the atomic bomb got translated into all those movies about GIANT BUGS and GODZILLA.

An Obscure Trophy

A hand-painted copy of this coat-of-arms has been in my family’s possession for over 150 years.  It was passed from great-grandparents on my mother’s side to their son, my mother’s grandfather.  On the back is a handwritten short version of the reason for the awarding of the crest, dated October 6, 1540.  I saw the framed copy as a child, at an age when my reading preference was tales of knights and chivalry.  I dreamed of being someone of noble birth.

St. Patrick Begat WordPress?

Patricius was born in a part of Britain under Roman rule in the year 387.  His grandfather was a priest, and his father a deacon.  His home was near enough to the coast that when pirate raiders came they took him for a slave.  He was in his teens.  He was taken to Ireland