This list is more comprehensive (but still very incomplete) for the last 10 years, but goes back to 2016 in order to capture the spate of threats and violence related to the Trump for President campaign in 2017. Year Month (may be approximate) Target Perpetrator Nature of threat 2015 1 Barack Obama ISIL linked terrorists … Continue reading Recent Political Threats and Violence in America: a partial listing
It starts. Tropical Storm Alberto has formed in the Gulf of Mexico, just to the right of Actual Mexico. As I write this, Alberto is making landfall as a naty storm with 50 MPH winds, downgrading quickly to a 35 MPH storm that will dissipate over land. However, the wet and disturbed air remaining from … Continue reading 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season
Years ago I wrote about the bear and the man, sans the bear. (But there was a dog.) I thought it might be a good time to reprise. Bold Assertions Do you know me? Yes? How well and for how long, and how good is your memory? If you’ve known me for a while you … Continue reading My Bear And Man Thing
The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey* is a literary thriller set in late 1970s Paynesville, Minnesota. To cut to the quick: I’m strongly recommending that you read this book. Minnesota has an interesting relationship with “caves” and tunnels. Our downtowns have flying tunnels connecting the upper floors (third or fourth, usually) of skyscrapers. There are … Continue reading The Quarry Girls: Your next literary thriller
Every now and then a person of privilege, who has done something seriously wrong, gets popped and spends some time in prison. They pay fines all the time, and spend piles of money on lawyers, so “justice” is served against those offenders, but that justice is milquetoast at best. For the most part, the privileged … Continue reading Trump, by design, is above the law
President Biden’s Democratic administration and Democratic governors got hundreds of millions of shots in arms, and distributed effective therapeutics, to fight Covid-19. The MAGA Republican president and MAGA governors did everything they could to ensure that more citizens died or were terribly sickened by Covid-19. This ultimately killed a higher percentage of those exposed in … Continue reading Pandemic Covid has killed over 13,000 Minnesotans, over a million Americans, and over 6 million people worldwide
I am not a music person, in that I can name musicians or songs, or, Heqet forbid, actually sing. In fact, music is to me something like tiny physics or higher math. I know it is interesting, and I like to read or watch well written stories about it, but don’t ask me to explain … Continue reading How U2 saved us from the 80s
Why do we like The Great British Baking Show? It lacks a chef who’s whole shtick is to be an asshole. The judges are fair, consistent, and open, even if the White Supremacists at The Sun are annoyed when a British-born Bangladesi from Bedfordshire wins. The judging process is meant to be entertaining, educational, and … Continue reading The Great British Baking Show Translator
Sept 9th: From the National Hurricane Center, pertaining to Larry: “Larry is forecast to move near or over portions of southeastern Newfoundland Friday night or early Saturday morning as it undergoes transition to a hurricane-force post-tropical cyclone. Hurricane conditions are storm surge are possible in portions of southeastern Newfoundland where a hurricane watch is in … Continue reading 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season
Every thing, be it a tall skyscraper, a lofty mountain, or a mere mole hill, has a single destiny: To become flat, to fall, wear or settle down into flatness. This is the way of the world because the world warps the spacetime in which those things stand in a way that pulls the atoms … Continue reading How a building or a bridge falls down.
The ingredients are pretty standard, but there is some technique, which I focus on here. Best if the main ingredients (parsley, cucumber, and tomato) are fresh. Take one cup of (dry) Bulgar wheat, and add one cup of boiling water. Measure the water out while cold and don’t let any boil off, so it will … Continue reading Tabouli Recipe
It is said that scientists are lousy at communication, lousy at telling everyone else about their science, in understandable and compelling terms. This is of course absurd. There are tens of millions of scientists, and dozens of them are really excellent communicators! Among the many sciences, there is a science of science communication. It overlaps, … Continue reading Your Cranky Uncle vs Climate Change
Democrats need to understand that we are a big tent party. In fact, we are THE big tent party. So, when Colin Peterson, representing Congressional District 7 in Minnesota votes in favor of environmentally irresponsible mining, or against health care reform, or against sensible gun control, or against a woman’s right to choose, he looks … Continue reading A big tent need not include the outhouse
You may have heard of the “Children’s Theater Company” in Minneapolis, known for about five years in the 1960s as “The Moppet Players.” It has long been a big deal, nationally known, and award winning. It has put on multi-generational plays friendly to children of various ages, but also, has long run a school for … Continue reading Major child abuser rolls back in town, open for business.
