America's best idea ... redux ...

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The National Parks is a six-episode series directed by Ken Burns and written and co-produced by Dayton Duncan.

Great olive oil ...

Light, nutty. Made from the juice of cold pressed Arbequina olives, grown in the Pyrenees near the French border, in Catalunya. Having searched around a bit, I find the Splendid Table Store as good a starting place as any to find good olive oil.

First orchard trip this year ...

Grape gelly glue ...

Rebekah, Hannah, and I whipped up some grape jelly this week. Whipped is right. And whipped. And whipped. Left one cluster behind.

"Eat food that rots before it does" ...

Michael Pollan spoke here the other night and this could have been his quote. Actually it’s from John McDougall ages ago. When I googled that exact quote, it brought up just one link. What’s that event called? Anyway now there’s two.

The front jeans pocket is the new back jeans pocket ... coming soon ...

Starbucks is putting its menu and billing on an iPod/iPhone app. Can’t wait for buying generally to go ‘Pod, which replaces my wallet.

Photogenic food 1 ...

A pumpkin soup at a restaurant in Staufen, Germany.

A marzipan cake from a shop in Hilden, Germany.

Google Sidewiki

Interesting. Allows folks to comment on text bits in a blog. Should have named it Kibitz.

in reference to: snitsbits (view on Google Sidewiki)

Remembering the first week working on our Mississippi River boathouse ...

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Plenty cold. But lovely.

Minnesota zoo otters ...

Featherstone Farm Fest ...

What's it like to be 62? What can I tell you?

The last monarch butterfly ...

It’s an odd feeling seeing the monarchs, when we see so few compared to years ago when waves of them fluttered by.

“But the orange- and black-striped butterfly is in trouble, according to one of the nation’s foremost monarch experts. And if its winter habitat in Mexico isn’t protected, the monarch could disappear.” Beleaguered beauty

Fall on the Mississippi ...

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Link to the November Tundra Swan Bus Tour.

The Apple keynote ...

Fun. YouTube link. Did I say it’s incredible?

New toy ... Joe will love this ...

At Whitewater ...

Tomatillo salsa day ...

A good man ...

Vic will be remembered as a visionary; a loyal friend; a dedicated family man; an excellent cook, bread baker and wine maker; a passionate advocate for soil and water conservation; a lover of good food; and a person who lived his life true to his values. Winona Daily News

Helping create real readers ...

Link

Impressive ... Al Franken draws a map of the US ...

at the 2009 Minnesota State Fair. Link

Ride out to Matt's party ...

Amazin' Amazon ...

An update on my note the other day about the misrouting of my Apple product, purchased through Amazon. The complaint department refunded half the price of the item. Then I wrote Jeff Bezos’s email address with the whole story. The shipping problem was not Amazon’s; their problem was that the first two times I asked about the shipping issue, they gave me inaccurate information by way of response. Their staff, I think, is in India, and apparently dwell twelve hours behind the ball. Irritating. So Jeff’s office got back to me with a twenty dollar refund. That’s a total of $32 on an order of $25. Nice. I sent my thanks. Still and all, I won’t get the package until next Tuesday; UPS seemed in no hurry to correct matters. Whom do I write?


Steve Jobs is Snow Leopard. Courtesy RoughlyDrafted.com

Called Sneezeweed or Swamp Sunflower ...

Evidence that Apple is holier than thou ...

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Remembering great kid lit ...

Our kids loved this book, as did we. I once mentioned it to Harry Lerner, the publisher. Harry told me he traveled to East Germany, back when, to secure the rights.



Link to Harry Lerner’s memoir

Just purchased allatwitter.org ... not sure why ....

Guess I’m a domain name collector. Here’s my list:

ALLATWITTER.ORG
AMERICANBUSINESSWRITING.COM
BESTWRITINGWEEKLY.COM
BWAE.ORG
FIRSTTIMETRIP.COM
FISHRAP.INFO
PYROGLYFIX.COM
PYROGLYPHICS.ORG
SNITSBITS.COM

America's Best Idea ...

We went to a preview and talk with Dayton Duncan, the writer on the new Ken Burns documentary on the national parks.