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Keep Looking Up for UFOs
I’m sure you’ve already heard about the sighting of a UFO in the sky over New Mexico by an American Airlines pilot in the last few days. His recorded account sounds like he thought it might be some kind of long, cylindrical missile. It may or may not be the subject of an FBI investigation.…
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Try to Keep Your Buns Warm
I was out shoveling snow this morning in the subzero temperatures. It’s getting down to 20 and 30 degrees below zero with the wind chills today and tomorrow—and likely beyond. Try to keep your buns warm in weather like that. Sena helped by making hot cocoa when I came in for a break. Little things…
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Music Appreciation for Black History Month
African Americans have made important contributions to classical music, as I pointed out in the post about Samuel Coleridge-Taylor a couple of months ago. I know a little about classical music although I remember the major composers the way many do, by the 4 Bs: Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, and Bigfoot. Bigfoot could really wail, and…
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Black History Nugget: Huston-Tillotson University
I just encountered a nugget about the history of Huston-Tillotson University (H-TU), one of the 107 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). There is an Iowa connection to the school. In 1877, a farmer named Samuel Huston from either Marengo, Iowa or Honey Creek Township, Iowa (depending on what you read) donated land and money…
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February is Black History Month: Lift Every Voice and Sing
February is Black History Month and I have been searching the web for a nice rendition of the song Lift Every Voice and Sing. This is otherwise known as the Negro or Black National Anthem. I found an excellent performance recorded on YouTube by over one hundred students and alumni of the Historically Black Colleges…
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Time Travel Thoughts
I’ve been bugged by a quote bouncing around in my head for the last few days: “The second hand always moves forward.” I think a head coach for a college basketball team said that several times in the heat of the last period of a game (maybe March Madness, I don’t know) about 8 or…
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Dave the Handyman vs Ceiling Lights
David Sheldahl is a local handyman who has fixed a lot of things around our house. A couple days ago he installed a lot of new ceiling lights. The old ones were complicated enough that I stopped trying after breaking a couple of the junction boxes. When it comes to handyman chores, I have a…
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Kindness Alert: Snowblower People and Shovel People Unite
We got walloped by that blizzard I mentioned yesterday. It left about 5-8 inches at least with a gift mountain about waist high on one side of our driveway left by one of the city plows. Later in the day another plow gifted us another driveway plug, not as tall but wetter and heavier. This…
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Cabinet Handle Switching for Those Who Crave Punishment
While we’re waiting for the snowstorm to hit today, we’re changing out bathroom cabinet drawer handles. This chore was probably invented by some satanic group. I would rather be shoveling snow, but the arrival of the blizzard keeps getting postponed later and later in the day. You wouldn’t think changing drawer handles would be that…
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Silence Is Not Always Golden
I don’t know where the saying “silence is golden” came from but I suspect silence is sometimes not golden. I notice that The University of Iowa quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. for MLK Human Rights Week is “We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Although I…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 