Kinsman OH
Saturday, 10 November 2007
Kinsman Ohio is perhaps most famous for its Clarence Darrow connection, but in this family we know it more because my father-in-law graduated from high school there.
Musings
Maize vocab
Friday, 9 November 2007
Today we cruised through an area in Ohio where Amish farmers continue the old labor-intensive ways. I had to search my memory for the name of these harvest constructions of corn stalks bound together to dry in the field. First I could only think of shucks, but that’s the name of the dried husks, sometimes used to wrap tamales. The word is similar, hence my confusion. It’s shocks.
Recognition image
Thursday, 8 November 2007
Here’s recognition of Veteran’s Day coming later this week….
Our word veteran is from the early 16th century French vétéran or Latin veteranus, from vetus ‘old.’ FYI
BTW, should I have flipped this image? This is the way I shot it, but it seems to me that most unfurled flag pictures I remember portray the flagpole to the left and the flapping flag to the right. Does this look a bit backward to you?
Knights night
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
…in which, after enjoying the taste-sensation of goat cheese and pomegranate seeds (Punica granatum) on water crackers as an appetizer, we head off to the local supper club for dinner (in Ann Arbor!).
…in which hilarity ensues!
Classico classic
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
…in which I throw together an extended leftover dinner by adding meatballs to the chicken, and another jar of Classico Tomato and Basil (the only flavor without sugar in the ingredients list, last time I checked, and thankfully on sale!), along with a whole bag of those Ronzoni whole wheat “egg” noodles, and make a table of laughing adults very happy.
Yea!!
Indiana Dunes
Monday, 5 November 2007
As a kid I visited Indiana Dunes (and similar areas along the southeast Lake Michigan coastline), and I have only the vaguest memories of piles of sand. Recently, I read Gary Paul Nabhan’s Cultures of Habitat—definitely recommended reading. Among other things, he discusses growing up in this area and wandering the dune ecosystem. This, he thinks, is part of why he became an ethnobotanist….
Even overcast and windy, I found the place enchanting.
PS Also recommended: Nabhan’s The Desert Smells Like Rain, about the Tohono O’odham people of the Sonoran desert. The lovely, evocative title is from a comment made by a youngster.
Drummer Guy
Sunday, 4 November 2007
…in which a young drummer, having posted his first YouTube video adventure (and first video, period), seriously starts checking the view count!
Trimborn Farm
Saturday, 3 November 2007
On a late-afternoon walk exploration in the neighborhood of friends, a place unfamiliar to us in any detail, we discovered a lovely county park, sheltering historic Trimborn Farm.
As we wandered among the outbuildings clustered around the house, they all seemed to be related to farming until I spotted this one long stone structure that seemed quite industrial. Of course, we’d wandered onto the property through a side field, completely bypassing the hysterical marker, so we had no cues from the written word.
The Guru, determined to utilize all powers bestowed by the iPhone, quickly googled and discovered we were looking at the remains of a lime operation.
Diversification in farm country, I thought….
Greensburg Indiana
Friday, 2 November 2007
Mostly when we’re on the road lately, we don’t have the chance to wend our way through small-town America, and miss the opportunities to discover the unexpected sometimes to be found there.
Today we managed to break the trend and as we entered the town center of Greensburg, Indiana, we could not help but spot a tree atop the courthouse tower. How odd!
So, of course, we angled to get a couple of shots of it. Which took us down a back street where we discovered the tree occupied a place of honor on the town’s logo.
So, even without Google, we discovered Greensburg’s claim to fame (including attention from Ripley’s Believe It or Not, reportedly) in a simple drive-by.
Googled information indicates there’ve been a series of trees (makes sense), and even multiple concurrent arboreal decorations over the last century, and, apparently multiple species.
The jokes are rampant. A town favorite: Where does the tree get its moisture from? The clock’s spring, of course!
We observed that it might be wise to revisit the old adage that the nut never falls far from the tree…
RIP Washoe
Thursday, 1 November 2007
Washoe is sine qua non in intro anthro classes. Beginning in the late 1960s, her handlers taught her signs, and she used the 130 or so she learned both spontaneously and reactively. This proved that other primates could use language, albeit without vocalization.