Hi again and yep, from the ramparts of the Bastion on the Puget Sound, it’s been another interesting week. It seems sad and more than a little disturbing to be reflecting on Remembrance Day in Canada and the United Kingdom and Veterans Day in the United States while still reading about that American army major who killed and wounded all those people at Fort Hood, Texas last week. Our hearts certainly go out to the victims and their families and all the others so dramatically affected by this tragedy.
What bothers me even more than this is not the fact that this major was a Muslim but that he was could, if we’re not careful, cause another American jihad here at home, where every Muslim, including those who are serving responsibly and with honor in the armed forces of the United States and in every other aspect of American Society is considered a terrorist threat and dealt with accordingly.
It’s not like this hasn’t happened before in America’s history. It wasn’t right when we interned Japanese Americans and it was certainly not just, fair or compassionate when we forced Native Americans onto reservations and, by unfair laws, blacks into the ghetto and Hispanics into the barrio.
These are not noble deeds of a strong nation and a strong people. These are the acts of weaklings and cowards who find it easier to hate than to love and to subjugate and exploit, rather than to understand and embrace. They are not worthy of citizenship in any nation which holds democracy dear and they certainly do not belong in the America I love and fought for in a long ago war.
That notwithstanding, The Northstar Journal salutes those brave men and women who have served and in some cases, gave that ultimate sacrifice so that human beings of all races, religions and political perspectives can live without fear on a planet where bigotry is absolutely not tolerated.
FROM MERRY OLDE ENGLAND, A NORTHSTAR HOLIDAY SPECIAL
This week, we are absolutely delighted to bring you a slice of autumn in England. The author of this piece is an environmental architect who received her degree from Warwick University and is studying for her masters in urban planning in London at Westminster.
THE FRANCESCA DIARIES - HEDGEROW HARVEST
A few miles north of Oxford, UK
The carefully etched pumpkin mask collapses in on itself as it hits the compost heap, its putrid smell of burnt and rotting flesh finally bringing autumn to a close. The increasingly cruel winter winds laugh at the scuttling leaves which were inevitably released from their tenuous hold on what was; a remarkable autumn and its harvest of plenty.
In these hard times, I was in awe of the abundance that nature provides, so much so that I was on a bit of a mission to gather and catalogue, by means older than time; to distil the tastes of the season and to enhance the pleasures of the season to come.
A warm and arid spring led to a summer of ceaseless rain and then into the delights of an Indian summer...hedgerows groaned with their gifts and woodlands their earthy renderings.
For the price of a few (well quite a lot in my case) bags of sugar and prudent spicing, the aroma fairies, wafting enchanting and enticing spells of gluttony and avarice. Well, who could complain?
September produced masses of darkly purple blackberries, bursting with juice, and on their heels an abundance of apples in all their varieties. Blackberry and apple puddings and pies were just made for this time of year, and nature, in all its complexity; thoughtfully provided the makings. Pears were soon to follow, spiced and bottled, ready to accompany the Christmas goose, and at times, drunkenly simmered in cheap red wine with cinnamon and vanilla to be served whole, elevating a Saturday night supper with friends and an old film to the extraordinary.
Crab apples, elderberries, rosehips and quince were hanging fatly by mid October, and were soon artfully retrieved, unfeasibly large pots unearthed and plates placed in the refrigerator in anticipation of that elusive setting point for the jams and jellies and Membrillo, a quince cheese, delicious served with a hard cheese, cold meats or slathered on hot buttered sourdough bread crumpets and muffins. You get the picture.
The elderberry and rosehip berries sat lazily on the stove, viscous bubbles, popping rhythmically as it reduced itself to pure syrups and a pure source of Vitamin C and remedies for the seasonal colds and flus which all found me exhausted by my own efforts, a glutton as always for both the pleasure and the pain of creativity.
In the early rising mists of the mornings when the dew is heavy underfoot and the leaf mold is glistening, a trug in the crook of my elbow (See? I even looked the part.) my greatest and sometimes terrifying pleasure, of playing Russian roulette with the wild mushrooms and fungi.
Suitably laden, at home I pay the price for my over-exuberance, laboriously poring over the definitive book of mushrooms and toadstools, decisively discarding those I don’t have a clue about. Today is not the day I will get high on magic mushrooms or kill myself in a foaming frenzy. Having, selected the meaty morels to be dried for unctuous risottos and heart warming stews and finally, my reward, scoffing the field mushrooms on toast with lots of butter and a big smile. Shame the season is but a few short weeks.
Finally the first frost bites which brings on the ripening of the medlar fruits and sloe berries. Don’t be put off by the idea that medlars are to be fully bletted (squishy) and the slimy pulp removed and eaten fresh or made into wine, jams and jelly. An indescribable flavour as can be witnessed in the poem by D.H. Lawrence, ‘Medlars and Sorb Apples’ and a bard’s nod to medlars in not one, but four of William Shakespeare’s plays.
Then to the fat, smokey blue sloes steeped in Gin and sugar and imbibed cautiously by a warming fire, or more refreshingly diluted with tonic or lemonade with a sprig of mint and a slice of lime, as the spring turns to summer.
The race is on now to gather the hazelnuts and walnuts before the squirrels literally squirrel them away and claim them as their own.
And You know what? I will not be shopping for Christmas presents this year. I have made them.
There is a lot to be said for Autumn. What’s in your hedgerow?
Save the Tigers
Two Siberian Tigers were almost euthanized when a rural northwest Washington couple divorced and the former wife could no longer afford the $400 a month it costs to feed them. The call went out to the media and as of this writing, Puget Sounders have contributed some $2,000 to the Save The Tiger Foundation, which is coordinating the rescue and preservation operation.
Wildlife advocates are trying to find homes for the two big cats on a certified game preserve or refuge. Since the couple acquired the tigers, it’s become illegal for private citizens to own animals like this, not just in Washington but in most other states in America. To learn more and to find out how you can help, please go here.
Ottawa to Investigate Decline in British Columbia Salmon Runs
The sockeye salmon run in British Columbia, Canada’s Fraser River hit a half-century low this past summer and Ottawa is not pleased. They witnessed another such dramatic decline on their other coast, with the Atlantic cod and apparently they are not in a mood to let it happen again. They’ve directed a major judicial review, which means that scientists will be compelled to testify about conditions causing this slide into extinction. The Fraser River Valley lies east of Vancouver and Surrey Township, both of which have been experiencing considerable growth in the twenty years the sockeye runs have been declining. For more on how our neighbors to the north are handling this wildlife concern, please go here.
A Vision So Totally Cool, and with thanks to Ernest ‘Chick’ Callenbach
Imagine never having to pay another coal, electric, gas or heating oil bill from now until the sun totally goes out. Envisage every human on the planet never freezing to death or dying of heat exhaustion for the lack of power. No, none of us may live to see it but according to a recent issue of The American Chemical Society’s journal, Inorganic Chemistry, personalized power grids could very likely be a reality by 2100. As we’ve reported here, the Green Revolution is no longer a matter of speculation, trepidation or wishful thinking. As Ernest Callenbach predicted in his bestselling novel Ecotopia, it’s a fact of life and perhaps the most important one we’ve established yet. For more on this, please go here.
Seattle Citizens Elect a Green Mayor
Much closer to home, we’d like to congratulate Seattle’s new mayor elect, environmental attorney Mike McGinn, whose grassroots, low budget, literally freewheeling (as in he rode his bicycle to a lot of campaign events) style endeared him to Puget Sounders of every demographic. He defeated incumbent Greg Nickels in the primary and in the general, an opponent who dramatically outspent him and was considered the heads on favorite. Seattle’s nickname is the Emerald City and counselor McGinn certainly seems to be the people’s choice to lead us down our own path to healthy growth and an environmentally sustainable local economy. For a video interview of this rather colorful and controversial civic leader, please go here.
Well, that’s it for this week, folks. My special thanks to Fran and my brother Dennis on this one. Take care, stay well and thanks once again for the ear.
Mick (McGuire) aka Rusty
NORTHSTAR RECOMMENDS
TO YOUR HEALTH
If you’d like to know whether your eating habits are either adding years to your life or taking them off, take this RealAge quiz. It will not only score your real age against your health age but give you a program for improvement. I’ve been working this one for about a month now and yep, I feel a lot better.
Want to know how to live to be 100? Try this one.
Ever had trouble getting behind eating a lot of fruits and vegetables despite how good they are for you? Ever had trouble selling that one to your kids and grandkids? Ever been totally sold on the idea then gone to the market and been totally tasered by the price of good health in some places? If your answer is yes to any or all of the above, you really need to check this site out. Fruits and veggies: more matters.
ONLINE TOOLS FOR THE KIT
Free People Search – This is an American online White Pages that I found really simple, quick and user friendly. I looked for myself under the several versions of my name and it found them all. It’s also free and doesn’t involve anything to download.
Know Thy Elected Officials - Just type in your zip code and this site will supply you with the names and contact information for your legislators from the state level up. This is a two click site with a host of other relevant features.
MEDIA
Entertainment
U Got Style is a monthly ezine dedicated to independent films. Fully illustrated, it features hard news, interviews, reviews and a wide variety of other information. It’s also fun to read.
Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean – Live from the smallest record store in North America. Canadian humor, entertainment and commentary at its maple leaf best. Popular on National Public Radio in the States.
News
The New York Times – Best source of American news.
Reuters – Best in world news and an international perspective on American headlines.
Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – The “Reuters of the American West.” Updated and informative news shorts with links to the source. Its editors draw from a coverage area which includes Alaska, British Columbia, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.
The Vancouver Sun -- outstanding source for Canadian and world news.
TALENT FOR HIRE
Rusty Miller, Freelance Photojournalist – Whether it’s a one time press release, book or product review, difficult business correspondence, resume or classified ad composition you need, take a look at the services offered menu on my writer-for-hire homepage and we’ll get together on it.
Are you a travel editor looking for color shots of Seattle? Are you an art dealer looking for new work to carry on consignment? You might enjoy checking out a gallery of my work for sale
What bothers me even more than this is not the fact that this major was a Muslim but that he was could, if we’re not careful, cause another American jihad here at home, where every Muslim, including those who are serving responsibly and with honor in the armed forces of the United States and in every other aspect of American Society is considered a terrorist threat and dealt with accordingly.
It’s not like this hasn’t happened before in America’s history. It wasn’t right when we interned Japanese Americans and it was certainly not just, fair or compassionate when we forced Native Americans onto reservations and, by unfair laws, blacks into the ghetto and Hispanics into the barrio.
These are not noble deeds of a strong nation and a strong people. These are the acts of weaklings and cowards who find it easier to hate than to love and to subjugate and exploit, rather than to understand and embrace. They are not worthy of citizenship in any nation which holds democracy dear and they certainly do not belong in the America I love and fought for in a long ago war.
That notwithstanding, The Northstar Journal salutes those brave men and women who have served and in some cases, gave that ultimate sacrifice so that human beings of all races, religions and political perspectives can live without fear on a planet where bigotry is absolutely not tolerated.
FROM MERRY OLDE ENGLAND, A NORTHSTAR HOLIDAY SPECIAL
This week, we are absolutely delighted to bring you a slice of autumn in England. The author of this piece is an environmental architect who received her degree from Warwick University and is studying for her masters in urban planning in London at Westminster.
THE FRANCESCA DIARIES - HEDGEROW HARVEST
A few miles north of Oxford, UK
The carefully etched pumpkin mask collapses in on itself as it hits the compost heap, its putrid smell of burnt and rotting flesh finally bringing autumn to a close. The increasingly cruel winter winds laugh at the scuttling leaves which were inevitably released from their tenuous hold on what was; a remarkable autumn and its harvest of plenty.
In these hard times, I was in awe of the abundance that nature provides, so much so that I was on a bit of a mission to gather and catalogue, by means older than time; to distil the tastes of the season and to enhance the pleasures of the season to come.
A warm and arid spring led to a summer of ceaseless rain and then into the delights of an Indian summer...hedgerows groaned with their gifts and woodlands their earthy renderings.
For the price of a few (well quite a lot in my case) bags of sugar and prudent spicing, the aroma fairies, wafting enchanting and enticing spells of gluttony and avarice. Well, who could complain?
September produced masses of darkly purple blackberries, bursting with juice, and on their heels an abundance of apples in all their varieties. Blackberry and apple puddings and pies were just made for this time of year, and nature, in all its complexity; thoughtfully provided the makings. Pears were soon to follow, spiced and bottled, ready to accompany the Christmas goose, and at times, drunkenly simmered in cheap red wine with cinnamon and vanilla to be served whole, elevating a Saturday night supper with friends and an old film to the extraordinary.
Crab apples, elderberries, rosehips and quince were hanging fatly by mid October, and were soon artfully retrieved, unfeasibly large pots unearthed and plates placed in the refrigerator in anticipation of that elusive setting point for the jams and jellies and Membrillo, a quince cheese, delicious served with a hard cheese, cold meats or slathered on hot buttered sourdough bread crumpets and muffins. You get the picture.
The elderberry and rosehip berries sat lazily on the stove, viscous bubbles, popping rhythmically as it reduced itself to pure syrups and a pure source of Vitamin C and remedies for the seasonal colds and flus which all found me exhausted by my own efforts, a glutton as always for both the pleasure and the pain of creativity.
In the early rising mists of the mornings when the dew is heavy underfoot and the leaf mold is glistening, a trug in the crook of my elbow (See? I even looked the part.) my greatest and sometimes terrifying pleasure, of playing Russian roulette with the wild mushrooms and fungi.
Suitably laden, at home I pay the price for my over-exuberance, laboriously poring over the definitive book of mushrooms and toadstools, decisively discarding those I don’t have a clue about. Today is not the day I will get high on magic mushrooms or kill myself in a foaming frenzy. Having, selected the meaty morels to be dried for unctuous risottos and heart warming stews and finally, my reward, scoffing the field mushrooms on toast with lots of butter and a big smile. Shame the season is but a few short weeks.
Finally the first frost bites which brings on the ripening of the medlar fruits and sloe berries. Don’t be put off by the idea that medlars are to be fully bletted (squishy) and the slimy pulp removed and eaten fresh or made into wine, jams and jelly. An indescribable flavour as can be witnessed in the poem by D.H. Lawrence, ‘Medlars and Sorb Apples’ and a bard’s nod to medlars in not one, but four of William Shakespeare’s plays.
Then to the fat, smokey blue sloes steeped in Gin and sugar and imbibed cautiously by a warming fire, or more refreshingly diluted with tonic or lemonade with a sprig of mint and a slice of lime, as the spring turns to summer.
The race is on now to gather the hazelnuts and walnuts before the squirrels literally squirrel them away and claim them as their own.
And You know what? I will not be shopping for Christmas presents this year. I have made them.
There is a lot to be said for Autumn. What’s in your hedgerow?
Save the Tigers
Two Siberian Tigers were almost euthanized when a rural northwest Washington couple divorced and the former wife could no longer afford the $400 a month it costs to feed them. The call went out to the media and as of this writing, Puget Sounders have contributed some $2,000 to the Save The Tiger Foundation, which is coordinating the rescue and preservation operation.
Wildlife advocates are trying to find homes for the two big cats on a certified game preserve or refuge. Since the couple acquired the tigers, it’s become illegal for private citizens to own animals like this, not just in Washington but in most other states in America. To learn more and to find out how you can help, please go here.
Ottawa to Investigate Decline in British Columbia Salmon Runs
The sockeye salmon run in British Columbia, Canada’s Fraser River hit a half-century low this past summer and Ottawa is not pleased. They witnessed another such dramatic decline on their other coast, with the Atlantic cod and apparently they are not in a mood to let it happen again. They’ve directed a major judicial review, which means that scientists will be compelled to testify about conditions causing this slide into extinction. The Fraser River Valley lies east of Vancouver and Surrey Township, both of which have been experiencing considerable growth in the twenty years the sockeye runs have been declining. For more on how our neighbors to the north are handling this wildlife concern, please go here.
A Vision So Totally Cool, and with thanks to Ernest ‘Chick’ Callenbach
Imagine never having to pay another coal, electric, gas or heating oil bill from now until the sun totally goes out. Envisage every human on the planet never freezing to death or dying of heat exhaustion for the lack of power. No, none of us may live to see it but according to a recent issue of The American Chemical Society’s journal, Inorganic Chemistry, personalized power grids could very likely be a reality by 2100. As we’ve reported here, the Green Revolution is no longer a matter of speculation, trepidation or wishful thinking. As Ernest Callenbach predicted in his bestselling novel Ecotopia, it’s a fact of life and perhaps the most important one we’ve established yet. For more on this, please go here.
Seattle Citizens Elect a Green Mayor
Much closer to home, we’d like to congratulate Seattle’s new mayor elect, environmental attorney Mike McGinn, whose grassroots, low budget, literally freewheeling (as in he rode his bicycle to a lot of campaign events) style endeared him to Puget Sounders of every demographic. He defeated incumbent Greg Nickels in the primary and in the general, an opponent who dramatically outspent him and was considered the heads on favorite. Seattle’s nickname is the Emerald City and counselor McGinn certainly seems to be the people’s choice to lead us down our own path to healthy growth and an environmentally sustainable local economy. For a video interview of this rather colorful and controversial civic leader, please go here.
Well, that’s it for this week, folks. My special thanks to Fran and my brother Dennis on this one. Take care, stay well and thanks once again for the ear.
Mick (McGuire) aka Rusty
NORTHSTAR RECOMMENDS
TO YOUR HEALTH
If you’d like to know whether your eating habits are either adding years to your life or taking them off, take this RealAge quiz. It will not only score your real age against your health age but give you a program for improvement. I’ve been working this one for about a month now and yep, I feel a lot better.
Want to know how to live to be 100? Try this one.
Ever had trouble getting behind eating a lot of fruits and vegetables despite how good they are for you? Ever had trouble selling that one to your kids and grandkids? Ever been totally sold on the idea then gone to the market and been totally tasered by the price of good health in some places? If your answer is yes to any or all of the above, you really need to check this site out. Fruits and veggies: more matters.
ONLINE TOOLS FOR THE KIT
Free People Search – This is an American online White Pages that I found really simple, quick and user friendly. I looked for myself under the several versions of my name and it found them all. It’s also free and doesn’t involve anything to download.
Know Thy Elected Officials - Just type in your zip code and this site will supply you with the names and contact information for your legislators from the state level up. This is a two click site with a host of other relevant features.
MEDIA
Entertainment
U Got Style is a monthly ezine dedicated to independent films. Fully illustrated, it features hard news, interviews, reviews and a wide variety of other information. It’s also fun to read.
Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean – Live from the smallest record store in North America. Canadian humor, entertainment and commentary at its maple leaf best. Popular on National Public Radio in the States.
News
The New York Times – Best source of American news.
Reuters – Best in world news and an international perspective on American headlines.
Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – The “Reuters of the American West.” Updated and informative news shorts with links to the source. Its editors draw from a coverage area which includes Alaska, British Columbia, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.
The Vancouver Sun -- outstanding source for Canadian and world news.
TALENT FOR HIRE
Rusty Miller, Freelance Photojournalist – Whether it’s a one time press release, book or product review, difficult business correspondence, resume or classified ad composition you need, take a look at the services offered menu on my writer-for-hire homepage and we’ll get together on it.
Are you a travel editor looking for color shots of Seattle? Are you an art dealer looking for new work to carry on consignment? You might enjoy checking out a gallery of my work for sale
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