I’d appreciate any comments on the notion of American identity: what is it? who has it? should all Americans have it? Do all Americans have it? What is the American sine qua non? Can we survive as a nation if we don’t have a shared national identity? If not, why not? If so, how would that work?
Use the comments section. I’d love to know what you think.
-25 falls 30.60 ENE0 wchill -25 winter
Waning Wolf Moon
Cold. Colder. Coldest. -27 when I got up this morning. Now that’s cold. Today, for the first time in this cold snap I have to go into the city, another 2nd grade VTS tour. I also have to get gas. Don’t look forward to that. Ouch. Gotta gas for the snowblower, too. You never know, it might warm up and snow big time. Not predicted though.
According to rumor, the Startribune weatherblogs go live on Monday. I will be among them so click on the Trib weather blogs if you want to see weather reporting from Andover. My CWOP postings have been sporadic. I don’t know why. My data logger keeps my weather website up justs fine, so it’s something in the CWOP servers. Over the weekend I plan to work on it.
My in box is basically empty. Now I have to start filling it up again. I have to write another legislative update on Sunday for Sierra Club folks who follow the political end of the Great Work. I want to get back to writing full time. He says again. But this time I mean it.
-15 rising 30.65 WSW0 wchill -15 Winter
Waning Wolf Moon
My work with the Sierra Club’s political and legislative committee’s have lead me to a group of folks who really understand the political process. They are focused, goal oriented and work hard. They write bill language, round up authors and co-authors, supporters from both parties. The grass roots support gets rallied when needed for a push. I’m lucky to be in this process. I’ll learn a lot. (and I thought I knew a lot.)
I now Twitter, blog for the Star-Tribune weatherblogs (if they ever go live.) and write this blog. Once in a while I get on facebook and myspace. I’m not a true child of this age though because I have resisted thus far the allure of cell-phone e-mail and internet. But. I do have a cell phone.
I’ve not left the house since Monday. I have been outside to blow the snow, take out the trash and get the mail. But that’s it. The really cold stuff should break over the weekend. I do have two tours on Friday, so I’ll get out into it then.
January 13, 2009, 1:10 pm
New Model for the Rich: Minnesotans
When it comes to spending and flaunting their millions, the American wealthy have had no shortage of role models in recent years, from Trump and Stephen Schwarzman to Larry Ellison and Ira Rennert.
But now that thrift is in and bling is out, who can they look to for guidance?
Minnesotans.
Setting aside some obvious differences (for most of the rich, Sub-Zero is a luxury appliance, not a six-month climate), it turns out Minnesotans can teach the rest of the nation’s wealthy a thing or two about thrift, guilt and luxury shame.
An article in the Star Tribune by Kristin Tillotson says that luxury goods are the new porn, “things that must be hidden behind plain brown wrappers lest one be viewed as marching down the road to Prada perdition.”
And apparently when it comes to concealing their impure purchases, no one tops Minnesotans. “Conspicuous consumerism has never been in fashion for Minnesota’s anti-ostentation old money,” the article says. “Their idea of being flashy is breaking out Grandma’s diamond necklace once a year, and then only for a Wayzata fundraiser.” (For non-Minnesotans, Wayzata is a country club). Continue reading Well, Now. Where the Rich Are Below Average?
“Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.” – William Butler Yeats
We can use all the heat we can get here tonight. We’re 8 degrees cooler than we were last night and it was -22 when I got up.
Just a note to say the Senate committee meeting by TV worked fine, but it wore me out. 2 hours of watching, then an hour doing a summary for Michelle. Tired tonight.
-6 steep fall 30.26 E1 windchill -8 Winter
Waning Wolf Moon
Boy do I feel good. I recalled that some legislative meetings are webcast, broadcast, or taped. Turns out the one I need to cover will be on Channel 17 at 3pm or I can watch it live on the web. God, you gotta love technology. Normally, I’d head into the capitol anyhow just to get the feel of the place, but the hassle of really cold weather and a long drive, capped with a return trip in rush hour makes the couch a much more sensible option.
I finished the seed database today for all the new seeds. Tomorrow I’ll enter our left over seeds from last year. It shows the work ahead in getting transplants ready. Some plants like the mustard greens and huckleberries will go under the lights in the middle of February. In two week intervals until May 1st, I’ll be starting different plants inside.
The weather today is what we usually get in the third week of January, really cold. Paul Douglas, local weather guy, says this air was over Siberia two weeks ago. And it’s still this cold? Geez.
2 steep rise 30.30 WNW9 wchill -5 Winter
Full Wolf Moon
Got my copy of the Mahabarata today, four doorstopper sized books. You read a long book the same way you read a short one, one page at a time.
The seed database has most of the seeds entered with planting dates, inside and/or outside. It will make the process of following the garden this year much easier. It will also make evaluating the varieties and their production much simpler. The garden has a straightforward demeanor this time of year. It resides in the realm of fantasy, hard to even imagine with several inches of snowcover and windchills really cold. The windchill just changed to -9.
Tomorrow I’m going to cover a meeting of the MN Senate Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications Committee. The Sierra Club’s Government Relations person, Michelle Rosier, has a meeting in New Orleans until late in the week. (Windchill now -10. ) This meeting has an interesting focus: Discussion of anticipated federal stimulus package. In a state with 5B+ deficit, the conservation should reveal some lines of attack.
Emerson’s American Scholar contains his usual wise bits and some extraneous thoughts, but I’m half-way through it and he has not gotten to the American scholar yet. I’m starting here on American identity piece: American Identity in the Time of Obama. Emerson’s time set about with clear intention to create an American character, an American identity. If they could, we can, too. But first I want to know what they did.
BYB: I’m interested in the ex-pat perspective on American identity.
2 steady 30.13 WNW0 wchill0 Winter
Full Wolf Moon
Homecomer can now be found on the Liberal Faith page. There is a table of contents there.
The moon, tonight, owns the sky. Venus sat above the SW horizon in the early evening as the Full Wolf Moon rose in the NE.
quick note: back from St. Paul. Homecomer was a hit. I’ll post it later this afternoon to the Liberal Page and include a link here.
11 rises 30.11 NW0 wchill11 Winter
Full Wolf Moon
My sister wrote to say that Dad was 82 when he had his stroke. He worked until then as the circulation manager for the Times-Tribune. He loved newspapers and he was a depression era guy, work work work. He took newspapers to the racks in retailers where those who did not have the paper mailed to them could pick it up.
Therein lies the second phase of this story.
The great Canadian newspaper shortage, which I imagine none of you remember, drove the cost of newsprint beyond the reach of many small town dailies. It happened to coincide, at least as I recall, with the rise of the offset printing process. Offset printing eliminated the Linotype and the Heidelberg.
Photosensitive sheets became the print from medium. These could be handled with no lead and the printer’s ink from before came in a less viscous form, less perfume, too.
Offset printing is the modern method of printing, but its dominance of the printing world spelled the death knell for many small town papers. The capital costs of getting out of the letter press era and into offset was more than most could bear. The result? Printing became centralized with many small town newspapers printed in one location. In the case of the Alexandria Times-Tribune this meant the paper came off the press in Elwood, some 8 miles away.
In most small towns the daily paper’s time had come an end. In the best case the papers became weeklies with a small reporting and advertising staff–often the same people–working out of a storefront office. In the worse case they became shoppers, thin to non-existence news surrounded by page after page of advertising. The shopper made money, but it was not a newspaper.
The rest of the story will come later. I have to get ready to preach. Bye for now.