Not so petty: Sandy D'Amato's Chinese Lacquer Squabble; Brian revisited; A Vine Grows In Waukesha, portents thereof

Last week we discussed the pigeons we've noticed

on our windowsill here at the Odd fellows Lodge.

Dee in perpetual waste-not want-not mode

prevailed upon me to snatch a couple birds

using a quickly unfolding window screen insert -

(see below).

So, we've enjoyed a squab recipe

at our dinner table to our great 

lower crustacean delight:

We tried famed Milw. Chef Sandy D'Amato's

Chinese Lacquered Squab

- recipe is on the internet -

http://www.jsonline.com/features/recipes/73816322.html.

We enjoyed the squabs' piquancy 

so much that we have begun

laying in a store of the snared 

 birdseed-eating pigeons

 for harder times.

We find the ready availability

of Putneyed Wild Game pigeons yet another

blessing of living in lintel-

fluttering downtown Waukesha,

where all may eat, whether it be 

window-sill pigeons,

 The New Hope meal program,

Dave's Cafe, Dady-Oh's

or The Rotunda.

As you may find them,

try downtown squabbles soon.

...

Next,

THE PREVIOUSLY-MENTIONED BRIAN

MOVES OUT OF THE ODD FELLOWS LODGE

WITH THE HELP OF A FRIEND

WHO’S NAME WE DIDN’T GET

BUT SHOULD HAVE

ADVENTURES WERE HAD WITH BRIAN

A REAL ODD FELLOW

BY OUR LIGHTS;

HE’S BOUGHT A SMALL CONDO

NOT FAR AWAY ON DISABILITY FUNDS

HE GETS FOR BI-POLAR & ETC;

DEE AND I WISHED HIM WELL

IN A NOTE SCRAWLED ON ELEPHANT

PAPER SLID UNDER HIS DOOR SAYING

ALL WE KNEW OF HIM

WAS THAT HE WAS KIND AND GENEROUS

WHICH IS ALL WE NEEDED TO KNOW;

AND NOW HE SAYS

HE’S GOING TO INVITE US

TO DINNER AT HIS NEW PLACE

AND WHEN WE GO

WE MIGHT BRING THE STRIDER,

KEN, ANOTHER ODD FELLOW;

MUTUAL, UBER-ALLES FRIENDS.

  

...

Next,

OBAMA AT FARMERS MARKET

Another Odd Fellows resident, Sam, heads up the Democratic

headquarters on Clinton Street in downtown Waukesha.

He lives right next door to us on the 3rd floor.

He was having no trouble signing up volunteers

in erstwhile Conservative Waukesha
 when spied last Saturday.

Sam, like Brian, is a temporary resident at the Odd Fellows

scheduled to depart upon the re-election of the man

 standing next to him to whom he defferentially points.

Behind Barack is the red sign (restored) of Friedman's

Clothing store.  Another Sam, that was.  Sam Friedman.

When I pass by that building, now housing other people and ventures,

I remember when my dad lived on the third floor there, 

after WW II, following his separation from my mother. 

 It was an indelible marriage casualty of that war,

This was 1945-46, and I remember the scary

Nazi souvenirs Dad had accessorizing the place. He'd painted

the walls red, with black appointments.

The Avon Theater (the Bucket of Blood)
just a block down the street
had only a year earlier featured newsreels
depicting Hitlerian horrors.

We've lived to have seen both those 1940s times
and now in 2012, the downtown
 effigy of Barack Obama at a farmers market
all within walking distance,within sight, of
our address.

Imagine the mental state of those who fight in wars.
My surmise is that Dad came home with a trove of banners, knives,   a Lugar,
Goehring souvenirs AND ETC,
just to prove for all time that he had actually seen
and done all that.

I still have the letter opener he gave me.
http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2011/09/langweile-ich-sie-ingesamt.html

...

Next, 

Raccoon News editor re-reads 1943 novel, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN.

Attn:  New York readers Lee Dix, Jeffrey Means

Former Federal prisoner, School of The Americas protestor Judith Williams, peace activist, operator of the Waukesha catholic worker house,
gave Dee an aloe shoot she'd culled from a larger cactus plant.  We'v e always loved cacti for reasons we've considered obvious.  Judith dug some dirt from a flower bed in back of her mission house for the young offshoot.

That dirt, unbeknownst to Judith, and us, contained a Morning Glory seed.  As we watered the aloe we were also watering the MG seed, and it soon came up alongside the aloe.

It was allowed to grow, too.  It began to spiral in the air, seeking purchase on which to climb to do its viney thing.  It grabbed some chives strands and quickly wrapped itself upward, counter-clockwise, and in a day or two it was reaching up into void space again.

We thumb-tacked a length of copper wire we had in the desk drawer.  The plant wound around that in due course and was soon reaching for more of something to grow onto.

So we put a length of green twine above the copper wire.

It is presently going up that.

In the spirit of live and let live we watch what this plant will eventually do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LZ2R2zW2Yc


...

Closing photo taken with the l. crustacean cell
just prior to retiring....... 

Curiosity has landed; Different Worlds; The Messenger; Ceilito Lindo; Trouble With Math; Airborne Blessings; Etc.

ON MARS

A monumental must-see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9hXqzkH7YA

...

DIFFERENT WORLDS

PLAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOmnBclVBBI

...

THE MESSENGER
PLAY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqeyvKQKEq0&feature=related
...

CEILITO LINDO
PLAY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Lg8QWElEk&feature=related

...

Trouble with Math in a One-Room Country School

by Jane Kenyon

The others bent their heads and started in.
Confused, I asked my neighbor
to explain—a sturdy, bright-cheeked girl
who brought raw milk to school from her family's
herd of Holsteins. Ann had a blue bookmark,
and on it Christ revealed his beating heart,
holding the flesh back with His wounded hand.
Ann understood division. ...

Miss Moran sprang from her monumental desk
and led me roughly through the class
without a word. My shame was radical
as she propelled me past the cloakroom
to the furnace closet, where only the boys
were put, only the older ones at that.
The door swung briskly shut.

The warmth, the gloom, the smell
of sweeping compound clinging to the broom
soothed me. I found a bucket, turned it
upside down, and sat, hugging my knees.
I hummed a theme from Haydn that I knew
from my piano lessons ...
and hardened my heart against authority.
And then I heard her steps, her fingers
on the latch. She led me, blinking
and changed, back to the class.

"Trouble with Math in a One-Room Country School" by Jane Kenyon, from Collected Poems. © Graywolf Press, 2005

...

Taken through a window screen, up close:
A pigeon has been appearing for the past few days on our window sill.  Person or persons unknown attached a red bracelet on its ankle.  It bears no inscription, no identifying marks.

The bird
a pigeon or a dove
descends from the sky
when the light is right
in a blaze of white

Could the band bear
tiny letters on the inside?
Could they be
WWJD?

...

Yet another example of Chinese know-how:

play: 
http://bbs.wenxuecity.com/cooking/1160651.html

(Sent by John Marotta, a common Waukesha man.
Barack Hussein Obama-rama; should have shown us this!)
...

How They Look Now Dep't

CINDY AND JOHN HELT LET THEIR HAIR DOWN RECENTLY IN DOOR COUNTY

...

How two others looked then:
YOU JUST NEVER KNOW DEP'T

ERIN, LAWRENCE U. ARCHiVIST, PRACTICED HER PIANO LESSONS IN DRAFTY HOUSE
WHILE BROTHER LEE DID HIS PESKY THING.
HE NOW TEACHES KINDERGARTNERS AT
 HARLEM VILLAGE ACADEMIES (A CHARTER SCHOOL, SEE INTERNET).


...

PAT DEAN 
May 4, 1939  - Aug. 17, 2012
left us

Pat, member of 1st Congregational UCC in the later years of life, was  literally a tireless worker at the Hope Center meal program on our nights to serve meals to the homeless, and at church functions such as the Pancake Supper, wherever she was needed.  She did what she could, cheerfully.

Pat brought her great-grand-daughter Kaylee to church so Kaylee could  

participate in the Sunday School experience.  Arrangements are underway to continue her attendance. Here, Kaylee is petting Sharon Vallee's

adopted 3-legged puppy on a Sunday when Sharon went home before coffee hour to get Dolly the Dog to meet the children. (And this editor + others.)

Pat will be missed, especially by the Thurday morning Bible Study group, where, for a time,

she met Cindy Helt, pictured above.  Through the Congo, many things were and are connected.

Last night, Friday, Dee baked Pat Dean's famous Italian Cream Cake for her family farewell upcoming.  It rests this morning in the refrigerator at the Odd Fellows for the cream cheese frosting to firm up prior to transport. Pat shared this much-enjoyed cake and recipe with the Bible Study folks.

Note Pat's hand-written  instruction:  "DON'T SCRIMP ON THE FROSTING."

Pat departed this coil on the very same day as another beloved member of the Congregational church left.

Also a member of the Bible Study group, Duffie Hall Bruning passed on, hours from Pat.

It is believed that animated discussions of things religious and otherwise continue, somewhere beyond.

...

Duffie

Sept. 4, 1921 - Aug. 17, 2012

The raccoon covered her 90th birthday surprise party at son John's home last year.

See:  http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2011/09/old-for-horse.html

...

HOW TO SUSPEND A BEACH UMBRELLA
OVER A BED WITHOUT POUNDING
A LOT OF HARDWARE IN WALLS TO DO IT:

What we did:

Strung a clothesline
to hold big umbrella
 above head of bed
 shielding  eyes from glare of skylight high above;
put one end of rope over top rung
 of free-standing stepladder (no nails);
counter-weighted that end of clothesline
with an old hand sledge hammer
to allow narrow angle of ladder-lean
to prevent ladder tipping over into the room;
tied other end onto a C-clamp screwed onto
a shelf board resting on loft stair landing ledge 
(again no nails);
the resting shelf is secured only on the
right end, with one small but firm screw hole neatly drilled.

THIS COULD BE PART OF THE REASON OUR LANDLORDS LIKE US........
(THE WELDED SHELF BRACKET WAS MADE LONG AGO FOR ANOTHER DWELLING
AND IT RESEMBLES A PALM TREE, SO IT RELATES TO THE GARDEN CENTER
WE'VE MADE THE LANDING INTO.

...............................................



Republicans
don't read
below here:

Pin the tail on the elephant

View Across the Street
from the Odd Fellows

...

New York Times Op-Ed Columnist 

The Real Romney

By DAVID BROOKS

(Note: Yes, Conservative David Brooks did write this)

Published: August 27, 2012 

The purpose of the Republican convention is to introduce America to the real Mitt Romney. Fortunately, I have spent hours researching this subject. I can provide you with the definitive biography and a unique look into the Byronic soul of the Republican nominee:

Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947, in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and several other swing states. He emerged, hair first, believing in America, and especially its national parks. He was given the name Mitt, after the Roman god of mutual funds, and launched into the world with the lofty expectation that he would someday become the Arrow shirt man.

Romney was a precocious and gifted child. He uttered his first words (“I like to fire people”) at age 14 months, made his first gaffe at 15 months and purchased his first nursery school at 24 months. The school, highly leveraged, went under, but Romney made 24 million Jujubes on the deal.

Mitt grew up in a modest family. His father had an auto body shop called the American Motors Corporation, and his mother owned a small piece of land, Brazil. He had several boyhood friends, many of whom owned Nascar franchises, and excelled at school, where his fourth-grade project, “Inspiring Actuaries I Have Known,” was widely admired.

The Romneys had a special family tradition. The most cherished member got to spend road trips on the roof of the car. Mitt spent many happy hours up there, applying face lotion to combat windburn.

The teenage years were more turbulent. He was sent to a private school, where he was saddened to find there are people in America who summer where they winter. He developed a lifelong concern for the second homeless, and organized bake sales with proceeds going to the moderately rich.

Some people say he retreated into himself during these years. He had a pet rock, which ran away from home because it was starved of affection. He bought a mood ring, but it remained permanently transparent. His ability to turn wine into water detracted from his popularity at parties.

There was, frankly, a period of wandering. After hearing Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” Romney decided to leave Mormonism and become Amish. He left the Amish faith because of its ban on hair product, and bounced around before settling back in college. There, he majored in music, rendering Mozart’s entire oeuvre in PowerPoint.

His love affair with Ann Davies, the most impressive part of his life, restored his equilibrium. Always respectful, Mitt and Ann decided to elope with their parents. They went on a trip to Israel, where they tried and failed to introduce the concept of reticence. Romney also went on a mission to France. He spent two years knocking on doors, failing to win a single convert. This was a feat he would replicate during his 2008 presidential bid.

After his mission, he attended Harvard, studying business, law, classics and philosophy, though intellectually his first love was always tax avoidance. After Harvard, he took his jawline to Bain Consulting, a firm with very smart people with excessive personal hygiene. While at Bain, he helped rescue many outstanding companies, like Pan Am, Eastern Airlines, Atari and DeLorean.

Romney was extremely detail oriented in his business life. He once canceled a corporate retreat at which Abba had been hired to play, saying he found the band’s music “too angry.”

Romney is also a passionately devoted family man. After streamlining his wife’s pregnancies down to six months each, Mitt helped Ann raise five perfect sons — Bip, Chip, Rip, Skip and Dip — who married identically tanned wives. Some have said that Romney’s lifestyle is overly privileged, pointing to the fact that he has an elevator for his cars in the garage of his San Diego home. This is not entirely fair. Romney owns many homes without garage elevators and the cars have to take the stairs.

After a successful stint at Bain, Romney was lured away to run the Winter Olympics, the second most Caucasian institution on earth, after the G.O.P. He then decided to run for governor of Massachusetts. His campaign slogan, “Vote Romney: More Impressive Than You’ll Ever Be,” was not a hit, but Romney won the race anyway on an environmental platform, promising to make the state safe for steeplechase.

After his governorship, Romney suffered through a midlife crisis, during which he became a social conservative. This prepared the way for his presidential run. He barely won the 2012 Republican primaries after a grueling nine-month campaign, running unopposed. At the convention, where his Secret Service nickname is Mannequin, Romney will talk about his real-life record: successful business leader, superb family man, effective governor, devoted community leader and prudent decision-maker. If elected, he promises to bring all Americans together and make them feel inferior.
...

current issue cover

Another postscript, Bob Uchner's rites last evening

CLOSE-UP SNAPSHOT TAKEN AT MEMORIAL TABLE.  PHOTOS WERE ON DISPLAY FOR RITE ATTENDERS

FRONT OF BULLETIN

THE GOOD SAMARITAN WINDOW AT THE E&R UCC, WIS. AVE, WAUKESHA

SEE http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2012/08/bob-uchner-rip.html

SOME ATTENDERS ASSEMBLED IN VESTIBULE, THROUGH GLASS

SORT OF LIKE A UCHNER CHURCH WINDOW

EXAMPLES OF BOB'S WORK WERE SHOWN BEFORE THE SERVICE ON A POWER-POINT SCREEN

WAUKESHA MASONIC LODGE NO. 37 RITUAL AT BEGINNING OF SERVICE

BOB'S ASHES IN A POTTERY URN TO THE LEFT OF THE GRAY HAIRED LADY

PYTHIAN BROTHER BART LOHMAN DELIVERS KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS FAREWELL

PHOTO FROM THE CHURCH DISPLAY TABLE

SNAPPED BY THE SRN.  PIN ON CAP DATED 2000.

BOB ORGANIZED THE SAYLEVILLE MILL POND POLAR BEAR CLUB

SEVERAL YEARS AGO.

HE WORE THIS CAP AND THE SHIRT HE DESIGNED FOR THE NEW YEARS DAY

SWIM IN THE ICY WATER

SAYLESVILLE POLAR BEARS SPLASH, 1998.

THE SRN EDITOR ATTENDED THIS EVENT 

AND WATCHED THIS PICTURE BEING TAKEN BY SOMEONE..

VOWED TO DO THE NEXT ONE.

(DID NOT.)

SCENE OF SANCTUARY OF CHRIST THE SERVANT LUTHERAN CHURCH

EARLY, BEFORE THE PLACE FILLED UP.

A FITTING EDIFICE FOR THE THOUGHTS EXPRESSED ABOUT BOB UCHNER,

 WORDS THAT WERE SPOKEN BY MANY, TO SOAR.  BOB WAS A MEMBER OF THIS CHURCH

HIS PASTOR, THE REV. DAVID ZANDT, BEAUTIFULLY, POWERFULLY -DELIVERED 

THE FUNERAL GOODS.

BOB, OLD FRIEND, REST IN PEACE.

IF I MADE TOO MUCH OF A FUSS ABOUT YOUR PASSING

JUST KNOW I WANTED TO DO IT, FELT COMPELLED.....

From the heirloom vegetable booth; A small Siamese cat; Folding things; Fuschia; A hug

FROM THE HEIRLOOM VEGETABLE BOOTH

delicious-tasting off-color and shape vegetables last Saturday.

They cost a little more but are worth it!  Tomatoes, egg-plant.....

Stand usually situated to the left of Friedman Street and river lot.

on north side of shopping lane just before or after the honey guy.

...

A SMALL DOWNTOWN SIAMESE CAT

OBSERVES, WATCHES ME

as I walk across the street from him

- or her - on South Street.

It hides on a sill behind a rusty screen

and takes up just a small corner

or the window.

Today I had my inexpensive

Lower Crustacean cell cam

and tried for a picture.

I did not get a satisfactory result,

the unsuccessful try is shown above.

I resort to a red arrow and

circle to show the vigilant cat.

With the LVD memorial Nikon Digital

on zoom, I would have captured it. 

This cat lives perhaps a daytime solitary life

in its second floor flat

above a music store.

When I go by I look for it each time

and it's almost always there.

Watches me moving on his-or-her street
moving from-or-to my own downtown upper sill
not far away.

...

A small swamp cat,
maybe nittier, grittier

Play:  http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/tv/Bad-Dog!-/142030/2258005751/The-Cat-Who-Slaps-Gators/videos?cmpid=FCST_hero_tv


...

An ounces-light folding chair
made in England
hangs from Odd Fellows 
bedroom wall.

...

Fuchsia

[from THE WRITERS ALMANAC, Garrison Keillor, 8-23-12]

by Katrina Vandenberg

That summer in the west I walked sunrise
to dusk, narrow twisted highways without shoulders,
low stone walls on both sides. Hedgerows
of fuchsia hemmed me in, the tropical plant
now wild, centuries after nobles imported it
for their gardens. I was unafraid,
did not cross to the outsides of curves, did not
look behind me for what might be coming.
For weeks in counties Kerry and Cork, I walked
through the red blooms the Irish call
the Tears of God, blazing from the brush
like lanterns. Who would have thought
a warm current touching the shore
of that stone-cold country could make
lemon trees, bananas, and palms not just take,
but thrive? Wild as the jungles they came from,
where boas flexed around their trunks —
like my other brushes with miracles,
the men who love you back, how they come
to you, gorgeous and invasive, improbable,
hemming you in. And you walk that road
blazing, some days not even afraid to die.

"Fuchsia" by Katrina Vandenberg, from The Alphabet Not Unlike the World. © Milkweed Editions, 2012.

LVD, flowering tree, Fairvax VA ...

Erin, Denise's daughter, practices her hugging
...

OFF THE GRID IN ALASKA
another daughter in Wasilla sends Zeppelin news
http://www.adn.com/2012/08/22/2597092/nasa-alaska-officials-see-new.html 
 (Background:  http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2007/12/zep-origin-of.html )


...

on slowing down

The Monks Who Take Long Pauses Psalm 69:7 "Because of you, I look like an idiot."  (The Message) Reflection by Lillian Daniel I had the chance to join some Benedictine monks for evening worship with a group of pastor writers at the Collegeville Institute. The Benedictines, well known for their hospitality to the stranger, asked our mostly Protestant group to meet with Brother John outside the chapel fifteen minutes before worship for an orientation. He spoke to us a bit about the striking modern abbey church, and then took us inside to our seats in the section next to the monks. There he explained which book we were to open and when. It was complicated and we needed all the help we could get. There were going to be all kinds of responsive readings where the leader would speak, and then the monks on one side of the church would respond as "choir one" and then the other side would respond as "choir two." "You're choir two," he told us, and then added this as an afterthought: "The pace here at the abbey is slower than what you are used to," he explained. "The monks take pauses in the responsive readings, pauses that will seem long to you. So you might want to hold back at first and really listen to them, to get their pace before you join in." I had no idea what he meant until the service began. Then, when it was choir two's turn to read several lines of a psalm, I heard my own voice and a few others from the visitor's section bleating out alone, as the monks took a long silent breath after each line. I am so used to finding my place and quickly saying my lines in a rush. But the monks said a line or a phrase and then all stopped to pause, as if to really listen to it, to take it in. I was struck by how often I just barrel through readings in worship and how often I barrel through conversations in life. What a difference a few quiet pauses might make. Prayer Listening Lord, help me to listen too. Amen. About the Author Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church, UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She is the author, with Martin Copenhaver, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.

Old picture from NY Times Book Review
still hangs at the raccoon abode, this time
at the Odd Fellows...

Heirloom tomatoes from top photo
sliced and eaten 8-23-12