Tag: Heimatkunde
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Frustration
Just venting frustration. In a cold uncivilized world ruled by demonic billionaires, it’s difficult to do the right thing. In other places and times it was easier because friendliness and kindness were often reciprocated. Nevertheless I’m going to keep it up. This year I vowed to follow the KSTP rule: Laugh at your ills, pay…
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Thanking nature
Nature relentlessly makes beauty whether anyone is seeing and reviewing it or not. The overgrown stand of plums and lilacs and roses west of my house is a good windbreak, helping to protect the house. The wild roses bloom briefly every summer, forming a wall of yellow beauty 10 feet tall and 20 feet wide.…
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Random stupid mathy thought
Noticed a crash report in Spokane News: South Sullivan and South Ball Dr, Vehicle Collision Reported. Inevitably some smartass will comment: South and South can’t intersect! Well, the smartass is wrong. Street geometry is sometimes euclidean and sometimes elliptic. Parallel streets often intersect. Here’s the intersection mentioned, way out in the East Valley. Ball is…
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Odd specialty
Whoda thunk it? One industrial designer specialized in weird super-streamlined trucks. This Vintage.es article shows a weird 1936 armored car, with an elevated cupola for a tailgunner, designed by Everett Miller. The article mentions that Miller also did the Gilmore fuel oil neon truck and the Arrowhead Spring Water teardrop car. The latter reminds me…
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Rang several bells
This little item reprinted on substack caught my attention. It’s a filler, the sort of thing I used to enjoy in newspapers. Frankfort also rang a bell. It’s straight north of Manhattan, not far from the north end of Tuttle Creek Lake. I don’t think I’ve ever been there, but I used to see the…
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Full moon
Spokane News reports: Officer in pursuit of male fleeing on bicycle. Update: Speeds exceeding 7 MPH! Nuff said.
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Local debreviations
I remember reading once that Toronto residents call it Tronno. I didn’t believe it until I started listening to Canadian news videos lately. Yup, it’s Tronno. Philadelphia has a similar short version, something like Flufya. One city emphatically goes the opposite way. Everyone outside of Frisco calls it Frisco. The Frisco Railroad OFFICIALLY calls itself…
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Brief fashion, random memory
Noticed this article in an old appliance dealer mag. Central vacuum systems were trendy in the 60s, but never widespread. When we lived at the top of the hill in Manhattan, a rich prof built a new house next to ours. He had Euro connections and owned the first Squareback I’d ever seen, brought directly…
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Fucking up everything
In previous item I mentioned that the Hudsons Bay Company had been the first explorer of the Columbia basin around here. Now it turns out that Trump is fucking with the Columbia along with every other damn thing. The Columbia starts in BC and flows into Wash, then turns west toward the ocean. Water is…
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Landmark dies
Hudsons Bay Company, a historical landmark, is closing down. Another victim of the endless march of globalizing and financializing. HBC is the oldest company in North America by definition. At the start it WAS the British part of North America. Most of Canada and US except the east coast were controlled by HBC. It was…
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Itemizing national pride
Interesting piece at TheHub on how Canadian wine drinkers can stop buying US wine. His first suggestion is excellent. The rain-shadow zone of BC is identical in climate and soil to the rain-shadow part of Washington. Any grape that grows around Wenatchee will also grow around Kelowna. The author says BC does have some vineyards…
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Today is Life in the Cracks Day
From the National Days website: The Festival of Life in the Cracks Day on March 10 celebrates the sprouting of greenery in the cracks of sidewalks and walls to commemorate the coming of springtime. This annual event acknowledges the complexity of the cycle of life and how renewal and rebirth are integral parts of it.…
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Correction Line Road
Musing about rectangular vs polar views of the world led to an old memory. Once in the 80s I visited a friend who had moved to the country near Dodge City. He lived on Correction Line Road. The name has nothing to do with jails. It has everything to do with the Louisiana Purchase and…
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Not a citizen
A couple weeks ago I detailed a Zillow listing in Manhattan that closely resembled the house my family occupied from 1957 to 1962. In bed tonight as a sheep-counting exercise I tried enumerating the neighbors I remember in those two blocks. Somewhat geographically: Adams, fireman. Matthews, city engineer. Danskin, prof of counseling. (Unknown name), Ft…
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Raking record
Time to start the roof-raking record for this winter. As always, this should be in my private daily worklog, but I started doing it here, so I’ll continue the tradition. = = = = Last winter started late and needed only one raking. 2/6/2025 First raking of the season. EXTREMELY late; normally most of the…
Polistra's Mill 