NQ99HQ

Looking back, small things seem to mean a lot today.  Here's an example.  Our family had very little cash and so we did all of our wishful shopping in the evening when the stores were closed. It was called "window shopping". That way, we certainly were inspired regarding what we would like to buy, but we avoided the risk of making a foolish purchase, simply because all the stores were closed---except for one---the Planter Peanut  shop. The Planter Peanut man played an important role in our young lives.  Sure, we knew all the stores were closed, but we also knew that the Planter Peanut man would be open for business.   And, because we did not have the opportunity to buy big ticket items, we did have enough money to buy some peanuts---and so we did.  It made the day for us children. So, today, this is remembered far more than anything of greater purchases recalled.  Ask me why, I do not know, except its true. Every so often, we would go upscale ...

Cousin Harold is about 4 years older than I, and now lives so far away that meeting in person is hard to pull off.  So we talk on the phone every so often. Our conversation always focuses on the distant past, UFO's, or the history of atomic weapons development.  As children, we often visited each other's homes with our parents, but usually it was in the direction of his place, a farm of about 40 acres.  This 40 acre farmstead was in flat farming country in western Michigan, good for growing corn as we shall get into later. Going to the farm was always a fall event for some number of days as it was afforded by "teachers convention".  Harold's mother, my aunt, was a school teacher and teachers convention pulled her away for several days---that's when we visited the farm and ran wild. Harold tells the story of how  he and Art burrowed down in the sandy area behind the barn, making  a large cavern with a small entry hole over which they pulled a cover. ...

Went out and about the wilds for a walk and to hunt for arrowheads.  It was a nice day, sunny, about 65 degrees and rather quiet; no wind or other noise.  I did not find any arrowheads, but did find two spots on elevated areas that had a lot of debitage---flint knapping chips---but no arrow heads.  One doesn't usually find whole, complete arrowheads in the work area, just parts of arrowheads.  That's because in the making of arrowheads, there are a lot of failures and those that are broken while knapping  get discarded only for me to find hundreds of years later.  Must have been a good knapper in these areas scouted this day. Not long after starting out, I was standing on a spot and looked to my left and there it was, a big, mature skunk.  It had the most elegant tail I have ever seen on a skunk.  Had I had my .22, the tail might now be in the barn drying out.  But I didn't have my .22 with me, so it got to keep the elegant tail for another ...

Too much protection plays into the law of unintended consequences. Just today, we read that the ever increasing allergy to peanuts might stem from---not eating enough peanuts in the formative years, therefore not developing proper immunities to this allergy. So says the article written by . "Too much protection"  stories abound today.  When society offers and sometimes forces protection on the individual, the result is oftentimes that the people begin to lose their ability to avoid danger. It even happens with domestic cattle.  Many breeds of cattle are so domesticated that cows will not object to a predator attacking and carrying away a newborn calf.  Yet the Longhorn cow, not nearly as domesticated as, say, a Holstein cow, will not only "babysit" calves in a small group for other cows, but will get rather nasty if a predator shows up. Advocates of expanding breadth of  government need to pay heed to the risk of weakening society as a result of overly prote...

It appears from all the 5 years of experience of warfare with mice in the attic, a couple of things come to light. 1.  Mice, in there frantic effort to store food in a warm place for the winter, must carry the food in their mouths.  So, a baited trap on their path is sometimes ineffective---they pass right by it on their way to store their food at a preselected place.  Solution, should you know their path is to use a glue board. When they attempt to run over the glue board, they are finished. 2.  They need water, but not a lot of water. Often the small bit of water in their stored food is enough for a short time.  This means that they can live in an attic for some days without having to return to the outdoors for water---and to get more food to bring to the storage area. 3.  They are extreme in their habits. Once one finds a path to a good spot for wintering or nesting, the others are sure to follow.  For example, merely look at the pathways in deep...

In the 1930's the cost to educate one child was around $400 per year.  Now, its around $8000 per year.  Ya ya, times have changed, we all know that.  But that doesn't deter us from asking if school consolidation has really returned good benefits, or if there might have been a different approach to educating children. Recent studies on school consolidation--its been happening since the 1920's---have suggested that the drivers for school consolidation were two:  efficiency and quality of education.  So, how have each faired.  This report goes on to say that at first, efficiency was gained by consolidation, but then lost as large districts got to be more bureaucratic and government loaded them up with new requirements.  So far, that does not intersect with the quality of education---get to that later. Efficiency improvement might have been achieved by a different route: Some parts can be consolidated into central management, like purchasing, but that wo...

Today was an interesting day.  At the invitation of some friends, we joined them at their farm for a bit of Christmas good time.  There were about 30 people at this party---maybe get-together would be a bit more descriptive---and we knew only 3 or 4 of the total.  We got to talk to a number of interesting people, young and old, not sure of rich and poor. The family that invited us have doing this get-together for many many years--like 40 or so; and it is one of those deals that seems to be handed down from generation to generation.  The second generation was in charge, but the third generation was certainly in attendance and acting all the part of apprentices.  So, you can see where it is going. There was the host and hostess who own the Farm, there were their children and their friends.  There were friends who run other businesses in the area, and on and on.  No one was dull and lacking an opinion on local politics and the direction things are heade...