Juxtapositions

Today is the birthday of two great philosophers.

John Locke was born in England in 1632. He is said to be one of the founders of political liberalism and a key figure in the Age of Enlightenment. He was also a physician so he advocated empiricism over mysticism, facts over conjecture, democracy over tyranny, and whiskey over beer. Many of his ideas were incorporated into the constitution of the USA.

Michael Jackson was born on this day in 1958. He was a noted singer and dancer and very strange person. His political philosophy was much like Locke's insofar as Jackson favored the pursuit of happiness, although he was a kind of forlorn character.

I've been reading a book called Nature's Mutiny by Philipp Blom, about the so-called little ice age of the 16th and 17th centuries. He argues that the changes wrought by that century-long cold snap in Europe helped shape economics and politics for centuries thereafter. Locke figures prominently in the story. It seems Locke fell in with a group whose goal was to weaken the power of King Charles II. Charles' people didn't appreciate that, so Locke had to flee to Amsterdam for a decade or so.

Locke's theses on political power and corruption may have been the inspiration for Mr. Jackson's anti-establishment musical essay "Smooth Criminal."

This is an historic day (even more than usual)

In 413 BC, troops from Syracuse (no, not New York - the one on what is now Sicily) defeated the Athenians, which made Syracuse (Siragusa) briefly the center of the Hellenic empire. If you go to Siragusa, eat at the Medusa restaurant on the island of Ortygia. Those folks were really nice to us.

On this date in 1896, British troops battled some overmatched rebels in Zanzibar. The British had installed a territorial governor on the island a few years earlier, but some picky Zanzibarians objected. When they mounted a coup and took down the British-appointed government, the British decided the Zanzibarians had misbehaved badly, so they blasted the bloody hell out of the capital and took back the territory. The battle lasted 45 minutes (although some accounts put it closer to 30 minutes). Zanzibar is now a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania.

Then, on August 27, 1908, Lyndon Baines Johnson was born. Long story short: war cost him his job.

St. Paul's own Dave Frishberg wrote a song about Zanzibar.

Zanzibar was also the name of a funky little bistro in Red Wing, Minnesota. Alas, it closed a few years ago. Such is the march of history.

Good poetry, good music, good day

It's the birthday of Declan Patrick McManus, born in 1954 in London, England. In addition to recording as Elvis Costello (often backed by The Attractions, sometimes by The Imposters), he has recorded music as Declan MacManus, Napoleon Dynamite and The Royal Guard, The Coward Brothers (with T-Bone Burnett), Nick Lowe and His Sound, and The Emotional Toothpaste.

He's prolific.

It's also the birthday of Bill Holm (1943), poet, essayist, humorist, composer. He grew up in the tiny farming town of Minneota, Minnesota. He spent considerable time in Iceland and in China, teaching and writing and having a fine time.

I have most of his published work on the bookshelf near the bed. His stuff is fresh and insightful and fun.

This poem is from his collection "Box Elder Bug Variations."

MINNESOTA WINTERS ARE DIFFICULT FOR
CREATURES WHOSE WEIGHT CANNOT BE
MEASURED IN STONES

A box elder bug surprised out
in west wind at forty below
rode swirling snow
clean out of Minnesota,
wound up embalmed in
an ice cube in Pennsylvania,
scared hell out of a lady
who found red stripes in her gin
and tonic, thought she'd seen 
the face of God.

Natural Disasters, part I

Vesuvius is a volcano near Naples, Italy. As every school child knows, it has been active on and off for many centuries. On this day in 79 AD (that would be 1,940 years ago) Vesuvius erupted. I mean really erupted, like cataclysmically. One prosperous city to the south, Pompeii, was buried under hot ash. Another more modest city, Herculaneum (or Ercolano as the locals call it), west of the summit, nearer the Bay of Naples, was overrun by molten lava.  Parts of both cities have been excavated and are worth visiting.

I prefer Ercolano because it's far less crowded than Pompeii and there are a couple very nice little bars just outside the old city. One can enjoy a cold beer and lovely views of the bay while contemplating the power of nature and other heavy topics.

I once rode the gondola up the side of Vesuvius, but couldn't get to the summit that day because of fog. We've visited the volcanoes in Hawaii and Washington and of course Sicily. We got lost driving from Taormina to Calascibetta. Trying to get back to the highway, we went through Paterno, on the flank of Etna, a city that seemed to have more than its share of dead end streets.

Some of the oldest exposed volcanic rocks on earth can be found along the north shore of Lake Superior. The photo below was taken at the Cascade River gorge near Schroeder, MN. Those are volcanic rocks tens of millions of years old. Up on the bridge, you can spy Daniel, Christy, and Kathy.

There are few volcanoes near New York City, but that didn't deter the New York Dolls.

...and the crowd erupts in applause!

Getting High in Minnesota

Today is balloon day in Minnesota! Or at least it should be.

That's because two ballooning milestones happened on this day in history, both in our fair state (though not at the state fair).

August 19, 1863: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin was on a tour of the USA (before he became our enemy in The Great War). He visited St. Paul and was treated to a balloon ride over the city. He reportedly told the balloonist, "You should put a propeller on this thing."

August 19, 1957: The US Air Force launched an ultra-high-level balloon called Man-High II in Crosby (near Hibbing on the Iron Range). Pilot David Simons soared to 101,516 feet (almost twenty-one miles) before setting down in Elm Lake, South Dakota. The flight lasted thirty-two hours and ten minutes. This was one in a series of high-altitude balloon flights designed to explore the feasibility of sending people into space. The balloon was manufactured by General Mills, so presumably the pilot got to eat Cheerios or Frosted Flakes.

I do not know if Elm Lake, SD, was the planned destination or whether the balloon simply went wherever the winds took it. 

This song by Willy Deville is kind of related (inasmuch as it's about borders and fate, more or less). Enjoy!

The Gang's All Here

Kate "Ma" Barker was famous for heading up her family business; mostly kidnapping, the occasional bank robbery, some protection rackets. Then she teamed up with Alvin "Creepy" Karpis in Saint Paul. The Barker-Karpis gang terrorized the capitol city for a few years. On this day in 1933, the gang robbed the offices of the Swift meat packing company in South Saint Paul, grabbing $30,000.00 in payroll cash and assorted cold cuts.

St. Paul was known as a haven for gangsters in 1920s. The mayor and police chief had a gentleman's agreement with mobsters: the gangs from Chicago and St. Louis and Kansas City could hang out in St. Paul as long as they paid a token bribe to city officials and promised not to cause too much trouble. It worked for a while, but after the Swift robbery the gang felt some heat and moved to Wisconsin, where they presumably stole cheese to go with the meats.

Here's a cute song about stealing, followed by a Brautigan poem on the same theme. It's especially appropriate because the new school year starts in a week or so and right after that our little town holds its annual celebration called (clumsily) "The Defeat of Jesse James Days'"

The memoirs of Jesse James
-- Richard Brautigan

I remember all those thousands of hours
that I spent in grade school watching the clock,
waiting for recess or lunch or to go home.
Waiting: for anything but school.
My teachers could easily have ridden with Jesse James
for all the time they stole from me.

Name That Dude

Happy birthday, Kid Creole! The Kid was born on this day in 1950 in the Bronx as Thomas August Darnell Browder. He started his music career as August Darnell with a group called Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. He took the nom de clef Kid Creole when he started his own band, The Coconuts. 

I am a fan of The Coconuts, particularly the satirical song featured in this video.

Another favorite is this one about some lowlife who just got out of prison and is ratting out his former partners in crime. I can think of several who could and should be doing that about a certain crooked businessman turned TV personality turned office holder. Such a turn of events would be even better than this video.

Youth Will be Served

On this day in 2012, little Bobby Tufts was elected mayor of Dorset, MN. At four years old he was very likely the youngest mayor in the country. Two years later, he was re-elected, but lost to a 16 year old rival in 2016. The townsfolk had apparently had enough of Mayor Tufts' temper tantrums and disjointed speeches, so they opted for maturity.

This is not as remarkable as it first appears. Dorset, a tiny village in the beautiful lake country of north central Minnesota, surrounded by five state forests, holds its mayoral elections in a unique way: Names of nominees -- dozens, usually -- are placed in a hat during the town's biennial fair and a name is drawn to challenge the incumbent. The winner is elected by acclimation, which usually involves some beer and much shouting and laughter. Sounds like a pretty decent way to do it.

I'd put the age of our current President at about six. Give me pretty much any 16 year old instead.

Mayor Tufts grew up not far from Hibbing, which as every school child knows is the town where Bob Dylan grew up. Dylan wrote a song about being young.

Here's a poem by Richard Brautigan that's kind of related.

"Ah, Great Expectations!"

Sam likes to say, "Ah, great expectations!"
at least three or four times in every
conversation. He is twelve years old.
Nobody knows what he is talking about when
he says it. Sometimes it makes people
     feel uncomfortable.