Saturday, November 12, 2016

Get your glider; To be or not to be; Why we grieve; An Oregonian writes; Friends; A requiem






Get your Tin Toy Arcade
~  glider  ~



Need to get over a hump?

Write for a free balsa wood old-fashioned glider
and we will send one, freight pre-paid.






Caveat:
To obtain your free glider
you must WRITE for one
- Snail only -
(one to a customer)

c/o

Waukesha Sewer Raccoon News
308 South St. 311
Waukesha WI 53186

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE47I6V-J28



^,^

2BORNOT2B






To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life:
For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,
The Oppressor's wrong, the proud man's Contumely, 
The pangs of despised Love, the Law’s delay, 
The insolence of Office, and the Spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his Quietus make
With a bare Bodkin? Who would Fardels bear, 
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered Country, from whose bourn
No Traveller returns, Puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of.
Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all.

(Etc.









       











^,^









Here’s Why We Grieve Today



I don’t think you understand us right now.
 
I think you believe this is all just sour grapes; the crocodile tears of the losing locker room with the scoreboard going against us at the buzzer.
    
    
  
They have aligned with the wall-builder and the professed p*ssy-grabber, and they have co-signed his body of work, regardless of the reasons they give for their vote:
Every horrible thing Donald Trump ever said about women or Muslims or people of color has now been validated.
Every profanity-laced press conference and every call to bully protestors and every ignorant diatribe has been endorsed.
Every piece of anti-LGBTQ legislation Mike Pence has championed has been signed-off on.
 
  
 
   
  


It’s not about one’s ideas over another’s.
 
 
  
indecency.
It’s about overt racism and hostility toward minorities.
It’s about religion being weaponized.


  
   
 
 
 
And this is why we grieve.
from a forward to Rev. John Helt, DD, Colgate WI



^,^

An Oregonian writes


From: Kate O'Neil [mailto: onmywy@yahoo.com ]
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2016 10:25 AM
To: David Dix
Subject: Re: Today
Fire up the Citroen, gotta go...

In truth, though, probably gotta stay and fight for the country and the rights of all.

As Toni Morrison so aptly said:

"This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal."

And that is my personal pledge to this election, to call out deplorable actions,to write to our leadership and hold them accountable. And to work for the vote in 2018. Yes I am frightened. I am doubly vulnerable, but I won't be silenced. 

^,^



Friends

by William Stafford

Listen Online

How far friends are! They forget you,
most days. They have to, I know; but still,
it’s lonely just being far and a friend.
I put my hand out—this chair, this table—
So near: touch, that’s how to live.
Call up a friend? All right, but the phone
itself is what loves you, warm on your ear,
on your hand. Or, you lift a pen
to write—it’s not that far person
but this familiar pen that comforts.
Near things: Friend, here’s my hand.

"Friends" by William Stafford from The Way It Is. © Graywolf Press, 1998




^,^



A 'requiem' redux
The Highland Cathedral
with bagpipes
dirgelike, determined,
and a little drummer boy shall lead them.

March on!



^,^

This just in from Bentz
in time for this issue about to be launched:


Done. Over. He's here. Goodbye.
by Garrison Keillor
So he won. The nation takes a deep breath. Raw ego and proud illiteracy have won out and a severely learning-disabled man with a real character problem will be president. We are so exhausted from thinking about this election, millions of people will take up leaf-raking and garage cleaning with intense pleasure. We liberal elitists are wrecks. The Trumpers had a whale of a good time, waving their signs, jeering at the media, beating up protesters, chanting "Lock her up" — we elitists just stood and clapped. Nobody chanted "Stronger Together." It just doesn't chant.
The Trumpers never expected their guy to actually win the thing, and that's their problem now. They only wanted to whoop and yell, boo at the H-word, wear profane T-shirts, maybe grab a crotch or two, jump in the RV with a couple six-packs and go out and shoot some spotted owls. It was pleasure enough for them just to know that they were driving us wild with dismay — by "us," I mean librarians, children's authors, yoga practitioners, Unitarians, birdwatchers, people who make their own pasta, opera goers, the grammar police, people who keep books on their shelves, that bunch. The Trumpers exulted in knowing we were tearing our hair out. They had our number, like a bratty kid who knows exactly how to make you grit your teeth and froth at the mouth.
Alas for the Trump voters, the disasters he will bring on this country will fall more heavily on them than anyone else. The uneducated white males who elected him are the vulnerable ones and they will not like what happens next.
To all the patronizing b.s. we've read about Trump expressing the white working class's displacement and loss of the American Dream, I say, "Feh!" — go put your head under cold water. Resentment is no excuse for bald-faced stupidity. America is still the land where the waitress' kids can grow up to become physicists and novelists and pediatricians, but it helps a lot if the waitress and her husband encourage good habits and the ambition to use your God-given talents and the kids aren't plugged into electronics day and night. Whooping it up for the candidate of cruelty and ignorance does less than nothing for your kids.
We liberal elitists are now completely in the clear. The government is in Republican hands. Let them deal with him. Democrats can spend four years raising heirloom tomatoes, meditating, reading Jane Austen, traveling around the country, tasting artisan beers, and let the Republicans build the wall and carry on the trade war with China and deport the undocumented and deal with opioids and we Democrats can go for a long brisk walk and smell the roses.
I like Republicans. I used to spend Sunday afternoons with a bunch of them, drinking Scotch and soda and trying to care about NFL football. It was fun. I tried to think like them. (Life is what you make it. People are people. When the going gets tough, tough noogies.) But I came back to liberal elitism.
Bottom of Form
Don't be cruel. Elvis said it and it's true. We all experienced cruelty back in our playground days, boys who beat up on the timid, girls who made fun of the homely and naive, and most of us, to our shame, went along with it, afraid to defend the victims lest we become one of them. But by your 20s, you should be done with cruelty. Mr. Trump was the cruelest candidate since George Wallace. How he won on fear and bile is for political pathologists to study. The country is already tired of his noise, even his own voters. He is likely to become the most intensely disliked president since Hoover. His children will carry the burden of his name. He will never be happy in his own skin. But the damage he will do to our country — who knows? His supporters voted for change, and boy, are they going to get it.
Back to real life. I went up to my hometown the other day and ran into my gym teacher, Stan Nelson, looking good at 96. He commanded a landing craft at Normandy on June 6, 1944, and never said a word about it back then, just made us do chin-ups whether we wanted to or not. I saw my biology teacher Lyle Bradley, a Marine pilot in the Korean War, still going birdwatching in his 90s. I was not a good student then, but I am studying both of them now. They have seen it all and are still optimistic. The past year of politics has taught us absolutely nothing. Zilch. Zero. Nada. The future is scary. Let the uneducated have their day. I am now going to pay more attention to teachers.





Saturday, November 5, 2016

Today we take you to ~ ; Fr. Ed; Farming; Hot rod Lincoln; Seriously

Destination:  Ela Orchard, Rochester WI




Sign at road.  A cloudy day.
If you go down, mind:
it is hidden away, up a winding lane through old trees.
You'll know when you're there.  Road ends.









Co-owner Edwin sorts apples.



Dee chats with Wendy while choosing from the many species.

(Our new Ford Fusion (Erin's) is in background.)

















A Moonglow Pear.
Very juicy and sweet.

They're about gone this season.
I'd  buy a bigger sack now we've tried them!


Erin studies animals at Ela.





Ben and Erin wed at Rochester Public Library, 7-3-16
Ben's family are orchard co-owners .  A 3rd generation operation.
Though both employed at Lawrence University in Appleton
Erin and Ben are active helping out at the orchard.

They participate too in the historic Madison Farmers Market.





Notes from Ela:  (From website)

Oct 19, 2016
The Apple Barn is open  everyday  from noon until 6.
 At this point in October we have available at the apple barn,
 McIntosh, Cortland, Macoun, Jonathan, Snow, Tolman Sweet, Russets, Spartan, Golden Delicious and Red Delicious  and several other varieties. Jonagolds will be coming soon,
Ida Reds and Black Willow Twig  are lightly set  because of a Spring freeze and we don't  expect a significant crop  but will harvest what there is and have it available when we get it picked and sorted.
 Moonglow Pears are still  available this week.
We plan to be at the Burlington Market Thursday Oct 20. There will be one more Burlington Market on Oct 27.
We also plan to  be at the Dane Co Farmers' Market,  Sat. Oct. 22
and we plan to be at the Shorewood Market  on Sunday Oct 23. This will be the last Shorewood Market of the season.

We pressed Fresh Apple Cider on Wednesday Oct 19 and will have it at the Markets and the barn while the supply lasts  We plan to press again next Wednesday Oct 26.

We do not have pick your own at Ela Orchard,
but have a barn selling area where you can choose from a large number of varieties.





^,^








In the 60s and 70s
I often habituated this landmark water tower park
at the foot of St Mary's Hospital on the east end of 
North Ave, Milw.

In those times there were peace rallies and marches
that went down the curvy hill to Memorial Drive
where we would march south toward downtown
with anti-Vietnam signs,
 hollering mass chants.



It was my pleasure then to meet Fr. Ed Vojtik
of Holy Rosary Catholic Church on Oakland Ave
just past Brady Street.
We would often visit a chicken place after a march 
or demonstration on Farwell Ave near Ed's church.

Then we'd go to his priestly room
and talk far into the night.
There were at least three of us so engaged.

The memory I have now is of the
spiral of significant verse we jointly painted on Ed's ceiling,
starting at the central ceiling light fixture

and going out from there in an ever-widening
 spiral
until we felt we had said what we 
wanted to together say 
at the moment.

The writers each took a turn composing.
Person to person, it was a work in progress.

~ I much later did a version of that spiral versage
on our 6 foot pine 2 X 4 dining table
shown at times in the Raccoon. ~


  

^,^

I lost track of Fr. Ed in the intervening years.
I heard he left the priesthood
and got married.

So I was surprised to see an obituary for him
in the local paper last night.
His age was given at 83.
He'd been a psychologist
for the Kettle Moraine school district
for many years.

Gosh! I thought.
He was just a kid
when we did that painting on his Catholic ceiling.
When we did the Vietnam protesting together.

When we ate all that great chicken
together.

The obit didn't mention that.
 I have not forgotten that wee mutual history.



^,^





  FARMING

The harvest is in and it is bountiful.
I went out to the community garden plot
 which Dee, my third world disenfranchised
companion/grounds/housekeeper/tenant farmer
faithfully tilled, a 20 ft by 20 ft plot.
All season long.
Times several successive seasons.

While she unearthed beets and carrots
I dug the two rows of potatoes
As though it were a treasure hunt
And filled a large five gallon bucket
With redskins.

Intermittently I sat in a folding chair
Watching my CGHTF work
As she is considerably younger than I.
I eyed the flock of indigenous turkeys
Make their jerk-neck ramble
Through adjacent closed-for-the-season plots.

The four chicks of early summer now
Looking quite adult, but the father
Keeping his blue-gray neck and head high
on the watch for anything too close
to his family of tempting roast or raw meat.

It was lovely sun and temperature in the 50s
And the produce had clumps of mud sticking to it
As it has rained lately
But we had to close out our plot today
Because it will be plowed over next week,
end of season.

I felt I should fry up some potatoes for
Me ‘n Denise ‘n our two kids.
We live as one happy family.

Being alone at my age would be no good.

zep 10-26-2002



^,^



Hot rod Lincoln

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R7l7nDuj1o


^,^

Seriously

from Rev/Dr Bentz

https://youtu.be/hI8TCA3fJcs