Hi again from the Bastion on the Puget Sound. For some reason, this past week seems to have been an inordinately trying one for a lot of people under the seven flags this publication reaches. The world’s thundering some and perhaps it’s time to unplug for just a bit, draw back and contemplate by candlelight before a warm hearth. The story I’m about to share with you is something that really happened, to real people. It’s a love and war story in five hundred words and it’s entitled RAINThey'd been married once. Younger then, their lives had been a collage of rain dimpling a duck pond, wishing games in the high branches of the evergreens, intimate meals in the kitchen and nights that grew richer with familiarity.
Theirs was a strange, almost inarticulate love best captured in the mornings she'd fall asleep at her easel, exhausted over a night's work, or the cold-coffee dawns he'd come home with a split lip and nothing to show for a week on the road with his combo.
"I like it."
"You don't think the trees are too green?"
"I'm glad you're home."
"How much do we owe the landlord?"
Then time and an era caught up with them.
Rain fell softly beyond her.
IN OTHER NEWS
Ireland has decided to accept the European Union’s offer of financial assistance after months of unsuccessful austerity measures and the announcement last week that Prime Minister Brian Cowen will be stepping down early next year. Even the British are coming on board for this one because, as their Chancellor of the Exchequer pointed out, Ireland is their closet trading partner. After the announcement was made, both European and global stocks took a jump, an indication of just how important Ireland’s economy is to the rest of the world. Related: Ireland Unveils Austerity Plan to Help Secure Bailout
Since 1930, the tidal level in Norfolk, Virginia has risen 14.6”/37cm, making it the most dramatic on the American East Coast. There’s a local debate going on about whether global warming is causing the problems this city built on a peninsula is having with particularly estuarine tides which also flood out streets when the moon is full. I found this a fascinating story about how the residents of this metropolis and its city government are dealing with this.
Felina: Such a troubled land, this place they call the Emerald Isle, across the other big ocean. Where they have this rock humans turn upside down to kiss for luck. And where there are lots of clover and not so many tall trees. And where there are miniature humans with pots of gold at the end of a rainbow. It sounds like such an enchanting place.Sam: I’m going to take a shot at this and say we’re talking about Ireland here.
Felina: Quite so. The Republic of Ireland is also called Erin and Eire, if memory serves.
Sam: It serves you very well, love of my life.
Felina: Thank you, love of mine. Do you remember that time we visited Leon and Jill in Colorado?
Sam: The Uris’s, yep. He wrote about Ireland in two novels considered classics now.
Felina: Yes, Trinity and Redemption. I was thinking of that book of photographs that Jill produced entitled Ireland, a Terrible Beauty.
Sam: That still sends shudders through me. Her talent certainly equaled that of her mate.
Felina: Something with which I have some familiarity, as well, Samuel Alexander.
Sam: Thank you, Felina, for reminding me that cougars blush.
Felina: You do look absolutely divine in crimson, my Yankee Doodle flipping charmer.
Sam: Yep, me and that stupid St. Louis cardinal a strong wind blew too far west. We’re a matched set. However, we digress.
Felina: We are the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy of digression.
Sam: Okay, Felina, that’s a stretch.
Felina: I just cannot understand how one place and one collection of human beings can have been made to suffer so much.
Sam: The Jews, the Poles, Native Americans, they’ve all been asking that about themselves, along with gays and male humans who dare wear pink. In Ireland’s case, she had a flourishing civilization that in its own quiet way, far surpassed Athens at its zenith.
Felina: And other tribes of humans conquered them.
Sam: In successive waves, Felina, they tried. The Romans, the Vikings, the Normans, the English, they all gave it their best shot. They slashed, stabbed, burned, shot, hung, imprisoned, slammed into workhouses and starved the Irish. They impressed them into the military and sent thousands to penal colonies abroad. The result, however, is that there’s not a place on the earth where the Irish have not been, grown and prospered.
Felina: Indeed and quite so. Such a magnificent spirit the Irish have.
Sam: Yep and they’ll get through this, once the rest of the human world understands why they are so skeptical of accepting help from especially former conquerors. They want the right to determine their own destiny and they’ve been battling for that right since Moses was a wee voyager in a reed boat. I can’t speak for you or any of the rest of our species but this Yankee Doodle flipping mountain lion happens to think they deserve that right and I pray to the Creator for a helping hand in that direction.
Felina: Quite so, Samuel! Quite so! And very well put, oh sun and moon of my life.
Sam: Thank you, Princess. I love you too, Lass. And on that note?
Felina: And on that note, gentle readers, until next time. And may the Creator bless and keep you.
SURVIVING HARD TIMES
Sometimes, surviving hard times is also about hearing from those who are doing it? This is a gem and far better expressed than we here at the NSJ could render it.ON THE CANCER FRONT
We just learned about the Movember Movement, which originated in Australia six years ago. Men start out November clean shaven and then get people to donate to cancer research by growing mustaches and beards. This month’s Movember is expected to raise $65-million for prostate cancer research.
RESOURCES AND RELATED LINKS:
Cancer Research Journal
National Cancer Institute (American)
Fighting Breast Cancer: Breast Cancer Survivor Stories
Science Daily: Health & Medicine News
American Cancer Statistics 2009
Canadian Cancer Statistics 2009
HEALTH NEWS
People who can touch their toes while sitting down are likely to have healthier hearts and lower blood pressure than those who cannot, according to a recent study of adults over 40. Sit-ups which include that are recommended. For more and for a quick test to learn how flexible and elastic your heart and arteries are, please go here.
GOOD EXAMPLES
South Korea is waging a war on dementia and the soldiers in this one are children who are learning what it is like to have this condition and how to care for aging relatives and family friends afflicted. It is estimated that nine percent of South Korea’s population over 62 falls into this category.
We almost put this one under the weirder than usual category except that President Obama sort of got there first. The United States Army has apparently decided that using robots to fight wars would make the process a lot safer. Okay, yep, to my mind too, that is SO riddled with oxymorons. But then again, who am I to judge? I do not work out of a building that has five sides? But yeah, I could see another arms race and a battle field that looked a lot like monster trucks going at it or Saturday morning kid’s television programming. It would be another interesting way to expend natural resources other than our own youth.
Ever since I read “Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout,” I have been absolutely wired into the evolution of electric transportation. This article in the Los Angeles Times by Jerry Hirsch and Tiffany Hsu headlined “As electric cars step from lab to showroom, customers must choose: Stalled for nearly a century, electric cars are about to move into the fast lane when the first of a new generation of vehicles reaches dealer showrooms next month” pretty much says it all in these regards.
NORTHSTAR FAVORITES
Sightline Daily is the best Pacific Northwest source of environmentally friendly news we’ve encountered yet. They draw from newspapers and National Public Radio sources in Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state.
Meade Fisher Observes Humanity From A Safe Distance is a blog authored by an outdoor writer, photographer, West Coast kayaker and environmentalist living in the San Francisco Bay area. These short, humorous, few holds barred observations on the machinations of the human species run from the whimsical to the arid and occasionally to the quietly outraged. I’ve been a fan of this particular writer for years and I’ve always found him worth the read.
The Northstar Gallery features photography of Seattle available as postcards, computer wallpaper and workspace art.
A reminder of warmer days. University Way (“The Ave”), University District, SeattleWhat’s Going On Here?
Whether you live here or plan to visit ~ and whatever it is you enjoy doing at home or as a tourist ~ you’ll find it, you’ll find it listed here at seattlepi.com.
SEATTLE FACTS AND FIGURES
Seattle Rainfall in Comparison To Other US Cities
Seattle Geography & Climate
For more information about Seattle
OTHER RELATED STUFF FROM THE SHORES OF THE SALISH SEA
For live cameras on Seattle, the Puget Sound and Washington State
Mount Rainier slide show
Eat healthy while you’re here – Seattle PCC Co-Op
Take some fresh produce back to your hotel – Seattle Farmers Markets
CRITTER STUFF
Well, it’s sea lions versus human fisherfolk at the Bonnieville Dam and it looks like the former are winning. The National Marine Fisheries Service wanted to destroy these big marine mammals because they were eating too many imperiled salmon. It turns out, however, that sport fishing is taking as many and sometimes more so the NMFS got to explain to a federal court judge why it was okay to kill a natural predator but not restrict the taking of the same endangered species by humans. Their argument was not convincing. Yep, for more, go here.
Recommended Related Links:
National Wildlife Magazine
Go Northwest: Northwest Wildlife Websites
BBC’s wildlife finder
National Geographic Daily News - Animals
Retrieverman’s Weblog: Engaging articles on domestic & wildlife in the American South
YOU GUYS THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP
Playing hardball is hardly an expression new to politics but when we read that President Obama had to have twelve stitches after a basketball game with family and friends, we couldn’t help wonder if there’s not some hidden aggression coming to the surface close to home. On the other hand, a dozen stitches must, at times, seem mild compared to the drubbing he’s been taking from both his own party and those who are bound by elephantine doctrine to oppose him, whether they personally agree with him or not.
Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for the ear. Before you leave, if you’re in a shopping mood and into some interesting choices? We’ve got a “reader stocked” General Store that you might want to check out. If you’d like to sell something with us or know someone who does, email us at minstrel312@aol.com and we’ll see what we can do.
No comments:
Post a Comment