Re aforementioned Ginkgo trees on South St.:
FROM THE NEW YORKER 11-24-14
'TALK OF THE TOWN' COLUMN
^,^
KNOWING A GOOD THING WHEN YOU SEE IT
On a recent early still-dark morning I arose
from bed with my hooded Lawrence
sweatshirt pulled over my head.
I saw in the gray mirror
in the chilly heat-down apartment
that at long-last I did resemble
the monk in the old framed NYT Book Review
section that has hung on the wall
in our presence for many long years.
I'd had the prescience
to know a good thing when I saw it
and took the news photo to be framed
not knowing
that someday I myself would look like that;
surely we grow into reality eventually
if lucky.
if lucky.
^,^
Beet it
(from the Waukesha Freeman 11-19-14)
With bone-chilling temperatures hitting Waukesha so early this year, county roads will once again be soaked in a salt brine/beet juice solution to melt ice and keep drivers safe.
The county began experimenting with an 85-10-5 percent mixture of salt brine, beet juice and calcium chloride, respectively, during the 2011-2012 winter, according to Chladil.
“It helped the salt work better in those colder temperatures,” he said, referring to the extract from the root vegetable. “It is sticky, kind of like pouring a Coke on the sidewalk, so it helps hold the brine down to the pavement, giving us longer residual (effects).”
This combination has been especially effective in temperatures under 15 degrees, working as well as straight calcium chloride, but at a reduced cost.
...
Beets. huh?
Here at the raccoon headquarters
we drink bottled beet juice
from Switzerland
for our health
proving once again
the ubiquitous generosities
of nature around us.
^,^
Son David Jr. at the new solar panel collectors at St. Paul's UCC, Hubertus
FORWARDED TO THE RACCOON BY REV./DR. JOHN HELT, RET'D
MEMBER OF W.I.P.&L.
"My name is Peter Bakken, and I’m here to speak on behalf
of the Wisconsin Council of Churches, where I am Coordinator for Public Policy,
and on behalf of Wisconsin Interfaith Power and Light, for which I serve as Coordinator. Both organizations
share the conviction that confronting climate change and building a clean
energy economy are urgent moral imperatives.
Curbing carbon pollution is a moral issue. Climate change threatens the health of our
families, communities, and the earth itself.
It is also an environmental justice issue, because it is our poorest and
most vulnerable neighbors -- especially seniors, children, and the chronically
ill -- who are most at risk. They are
also the ones who have the least ability to protect themselves from the harmful
impacts of air pollution and climate change.
It is distressing to realize just how much worse
global crises such as hunger, poverty, lack of potable water, armed conflict,
and refugee resettlement will become as a result of climate change. Many individuals and organizations in the
faith community are committed to acting on climate change as an extension of
the work they have already been doing for years.
But as people of faith, we see signs of hope in the
fact that more and more individuals and communities of faith in Wisconsin are
taking direct action against climate change.
Many congregations are generating their own clean, solar power and improving
the energy efficiency of their buildings.
We know, however, that our individual and congregational
efforts alone are not enough. We need strong
state and federal public policies to support those efforts and replicate them
on a scale equal to the magnitude of the challenge. Wisconsin Interfaith Power
and Light and Wisconsin Council of Churches therefore strongly support the EPA plan’s
emphasis on promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency as alternatives to
carbon pollution-producing energy sources.
It is fitting that we are raising these issues in
the week before Thanksgiving, for our sense of responsibility is rooted in an
equally deep sense of gratitude. In the
words of the Wisconsin Council of Churches’ public policy statement on the
environment:
As citizens of
Wisconsin, we have enjoyed the beauty and the bounty of our state and wish to
preserve it for all who live here and for those who come after us. We know that
change is urgently needed if we and our descendents are to continue to enjoy
the blessings of this gifted land. The beauty, integrity, and diversity of the
earth are an inheritance from the past that we hold in trust for future
generations. We must not foreclose their opportunities by causing major
long-term or irreversible global environmental changes, or [by] diminishing the
continued fruitfulness of the earth .
[Abridged]
The stakes are high, and time is
short. As people of faith, we support
the EPA’s Clean Power Plan as a vitally important step in securing the
blessings of this gifted earth for all its inhabitants, now and for generations
to come. Thank you."
Dr. Peter W. Bakken
Coordinator for Public Policy,
Wisconsin Council of Churches
Coordinator, Wisconsin Interfaith
Power & Light
...
On current WE Energies position read this:
http://expressmilwaukee.com/article-24399-clean-energy-group-says-it-will-sue-to-block-we-energies%25E2%2580%2599-solar-rate-hikes.html
^,^
Announcing a grand new book
just happens to be authored by a Dix clansman
(front and back covers)
The adventure tale of Steve Dix during the Vietnam era (1970s) has been
The adventure tale of Steve Dix during the Vietnam era (1970s) has been
long sat upon by Steve as he pondered how and when to tell the story.
He fled the United States for Canada and ultimately the Yukon Territory
where he, his 18 year old wife and their baby, son Roger
(who grew to become a long distance runner) toughed/eeked out an existence
on the run, far north of the border.
With little money but with the remarkably kind aid of Canadians
and the existing international Vietnam war resistance underground network
Steve and family bravely escaped the US and a war they felt like many others
here and abroad was wrong.
Shirking military service went counter to the duty proclivities of Steve's
parents of the WW II generation -
including my dad and other two brothers of the Dix family
who served honorably in that war and who returned
intact physically but not without deep psychological scars.
Cousin Steve and our other cousins felt the ravages of WW II
in our own ways, stateside.
This is a book of courage, perseverance and Steve's self-belief
destined for vast reading and possible theatre-showing, I think.
It is being launched to the reading public Dec 6th at a book-signing party
but is available now through Amazon, Balboa Press, or community
booksellers.
Some correspondence with Steve Dix follows:
In the Yukon Steve and wife built an A-frame rough cabin
with hand tools and the bounty of trees around them
on a remote riverside land-stake.
Chinked with a plentiful supply of moss,
heated by a makeshift oil drum wood stove and with
sleeping space for their then TWO children
in a devised loft at the top of the dwelling,
they survived.
Received fom Steve today via Email:
Hi David
(GP),
Thanks for the laminated card. I
think I’ll display it during the book launch party on the 6th. of
Dec.
I have not read “Inside Passage ” but indeed, it sounds like a good read.
On my list it goes.
If you know anyone who would like
a signed copy of “Finding Honor” I would be happy to ship one to them. All
books I send out from now on will be at the book rate which is much lower than
1st class mail. The book rate is only $3.17 so I would include that
shipping charge in the total cost. I found out that it only takes two to three
days longer than 1st class postage.
When I started to write the story it
began as a screenplay but I soon realized there was so much I wanted to say that
I had better attempt to put into book form. However, having said that, I would
love to see it become a movie. I am going to send out an email invite to the
book launch party to as many people as I can think of even if they live far
away. It serves as another way to get the word out. More than half of the
people on my email list do live too far away to attend but maybe they will be
interested enough to buy a book anyway.
It sounds as though you are
experiencing an early winter. But not as severe as the Buffalo NY
All for now,
Cuz
Steve
.....
To especially Dixians but whomever:
Obtain your Finding Honor (with excellent pictures!)
by writing to Steve at the address on the above postcard. HIs Email address is
sdaze2u@npgcable.com
sdaze2u@npgcable.com
.
