reblogging for all of us that grew up in land locked states, then visit the ocean and are used to just plunging into a lake.
These are not unique to the sea btw. Rip tides are also a danger in other large bodies of water, like the Great Lakes
I had heard of rip tides, but I would never have guessed they were the calm-looking part. If I had been looking for a safe space to wade, I would have avoided all of the white parts (turbulent! terrifying!) and gone straight for the rip.
lake michigan has rip tides and strong currents and also the highest kill count of all of them because people think of superior and huron as The Scary Ones. lake michigan has beautiful beaches along very big cities, and eats tourists like popcorn. do not underestimate lakes, but particularly not the great lakes.
I hate politics. I love politics. Depends on the day and the politician.
I spent the last decades of my full-time career at this newspaper working on the opinion/editorial page. In that job you meet every area and state politician holding elective office or running for one — Congress, state government, city government, county government, school boards. Never met a dog catcher I didn’t like.
They all come to the newspaper at the paper’s invitation to submit to what we call endorsement interviews. These result in the newspaper, just before elections, telling readers which candidates the editors think would serve best in the jobs they are seeking, not telling readers how to vote.
You knew that — at least I hope you did — but I wanted to reiterate it to explain how I met virtually every upper Midwest politician (we covered northern Wisconsin too) in the last two decades of the 20th century and early in the 21st.
One of my favorites was Florian Chmielewski, who died recently at age 97. Florian used to stop by the paper and talk to us quite frequently when he was a DFL state senator representing a district south of Duluth. (I call him by his first name because that’s how we related with most of the politicians until they got elected to a really high post such as governor, although I’m not sure we didn’t call Governor Perpich Rudy or Congressman Oberstar Jim.)
Of course, most people remember Chmielewski as a consummate accordion player and leader of a family-plus polka band with a popular television show. A man of many talents.
Just about everybody’s seen him perform at one time or another, in person or on TV. Not everyone had the opportunity to talk public policy with him when he was a state senator. He was particularly learned in the area of health care, among other issues I recall discussing with him. Very dedicated.
Serious stuff, but that broad smile seldom left his face. That is how I prefer to remember him. That and how he tied his ties. No knot, but rather a regular tie arranged like a cravat.
One time I happened to be visiting the hilltop studios of WDIO-TV when they were taping a segment of his TV show Chmielewski Funtime, Florian out front pumping that accordion.
Suddenly one of the technicians said something had gone wrong with their recording equipment — they were filming the band but not picking up any sound. What were they going to do? I was told it didn’t matter, they’d just fill the soundtrack with past recordings of the group, not attempting to match the particular song with what was filmed being played. Hmmm.
I’m not much of a polka fan but I hope they included “Just Because.” It’s a classic: “Just because you think you’re so pretty,/Just because you think you’re so smart,/Just because you think you’ve got something/That nobody else has got./You cause me to spend all my money,/You laugh and call me Old Santa Claus;/Well I’m tellin’ you, baby, I’m through with you,/Because, just because.”
Smile, you’re on Chmielewski Funtime.
I recall often seeing the Funtime ensemble roll by on a flatbed truck in the annual Moose Lake July 4 parade. (“I don’t want her,/You can have her/She’s too fat for me…” — another old non-P.C. polka they might have played.)
I almost did Florian a disservice one time when he was running for re-election to the Minnesota Senate, where he served for just over a quarter of a century. All of the candidates we interviewed for various offices would emphasize, in their endorsement interviews, that they were “committed” to various things: committed to lower taxes, committed to better roads, committed to education, and so on.
One election cycle when Florian came in for his interview, he emphasized that he was seeking to help the city of Moose Lake with its plans for a new high school, among many other things.
People of a certain age will recall that Moose Lake was once best known for what can politely be called a mental health facility located there, although for years it was often impolitely referred to as an “insane asylum,” which sounds politically incorrect today. It has since taken on an entirely different role.
In any event, in writing a newspaper endorsement for Florian, I emphasized his efforts to help Moose Lake, but I inadvertently headlined it: “Chmielewski committed to Moose Lake.”
Fortunately, that never saw print. Until today.
Sad to see Florian is gone. He kept going with the music well into his 90s, always broadly smiling and seeming to be singing, “Roll out the barrel, and we’ll have a barrel of fun,/roll out the barrel, we’ve got the blues on the run.”
But not this week: His funeral is Tuesday in Sturgeon Lake, where he lived.
Jim Heffernan is a former Duluth News Tribune news and opinion writer and continues as a columnist. He can be reached at jimheffernan@jimheffernan.org and maintains a blog at www.jimheffernan.org.
I recall mom putting out jelly for the orioles when I was a kid, but don't recall any other birds visiting it. Love the woodpecker trying to intimidate others with its tongue
this is like no joke the most accurate summary of peanuts ive ever seen
[Image ID: Tweet from @/ topherflorence on Aug 17, 2019 reading: peanuts is a cool comic cause the babies are always unsupervised in a dirt field saying stuff like “suffering is the cantaloupe in the fruit salad of life” and then the dog does a skateboard trick /End ID]
We failed as a society when everyone stopped wearing headphones.
At my parents place with 2 children watching YT on tablets and 2 adults watching tiktoks and reels on their phones and trying not to summon a comically sized Loony Toons hammer out of my back pocket to smash them all.
I’m rebloging this twice im tired of people not wearing headphones when watching videos in public. It’s basic etiquette to wear headphones in public when you listen to things.
Niece got some small geodes for a birthday and my friend and I helped her crack them open... When water came out of one, my friend and I both reflexively dipped our finger in it for a taste (we didn't get sick)
…..you know I would like to thank @voyoock for this reply because tbh I kind of wanted to break one of these open and taste it myself.
Just think, these stones contain the water from ancient seas from millenia ago, and a well educated scholar STILL couldn’t resist their pull. Not one of us is immune to the siren call of ancient tide pods.
wanna hear a wild story? my brother’s history professor is closing in on 80 and basically lives at the university. one night my brother visited him for a meeting, and it came up that my brother was gonna be performing as a court jester at the castle the following day. and his professor busts out: “ah, that reminds me of my youth!”
he then proceeded to tell the tale of when he and his friends went backpacking to greece back in their early 20s. then one day they found themselves completely penniless. so they decided that the only reasonable thing to do was to set up acrobatic shows in skimpy outfits on the beach at day, and then drink up the money at night.
after a week or so they gained some traction, and a gang of young greek men walked up to them like “hey y’all are cool as hell, can we join y’all for drinks tonight?” and my brother’s professor was like “of course! y’all have to wear these revealing outfits and do somersaults with us tho” and the greek gang said “sounds dope. y’all are invited to live with us for however long y’all want.”
anyhow, they proceeded to live like this for the better part of 3 months, doing shows, drinking, and sleeping at the greek gang’s apartment. but after a while they decided enough was enough, and said thank you for everything, but we’re going back to sweden now. and the greeks said “sure! love y’all have a safe trip xx”
half a year later my brother’s professor gets contacted by the greek police. they ask him about the months they spent in greece, and then informs him that their greek friends have been convicted of serial homicide and robbery. that the group of young greek men had joined up with several tourist groups for several years “for drinks”, and then killed and robbed them all, terrorising the beach city for several years. with one exception, of course, because “this one group of swedish acrobats in slutty strongman suits were just ‘so damn nice’”.
and that’s the story of how one swedish history university professor survived sharing a flat with a group of serial killers for several months by performing acrobatics in slutty outfits on the beach. moral of the story? be kind of heart, thicc of ass.
For 2 days in a row I have seen this little guy removing leaves from my plant and eating them until he passes out. He’s missing an ear, so he may be self-medicating his PTSD, but still, I think it’s time for an intervention.
I’ll let him sleep this time, but when he wakes up, we’ll have a serious talk.
every prehistoric human reconstruction has me thinking “I want to smoke weed with this bitch”
she looks like she would have been an awesome neighbor, like she would have loved menthols and called me baby
“a Cheeto could have killed a Victorian child” but the opposite. Neanderthals would have loved to go to Hardee’s and get a burger with me.
neanderthals would have walked hand in hand with me into hell (buccees opening day)
When I saw this article two years ago and found out Neanderthals were seasoning their food 70,000 years ago, I teared up thinking about how they never got to try things like beef jerky and Doritos.
Corn was domesticated around 9,000 years ago and cheese was invented around 7,000 years ago. Her entire species went extinct before the basic ingredients to create cheese flavored corn snacks were a twinkle in humanity’s eye. That’s part of the reason finding out Neanderthals and early modern humans were creating complex dishes to maximize flavor and texture 70,000 years ago is so wild to me. 
They were definitely making jerky. They might not have had domesticated cows yet but a lot of animals were being turned into jerky.
I like this kid. Mister Rogers of simple exercise (geared towards all abilities)
Feeling tired or exhausted all the time?
I think sometimes we get so bogged in exhaustion and misery that we lose sight of a better life.
I’ve been in similar places, and I’m really glad I continued taking steps to try to get to a better spot.
I know it’s not simple for everyone, but I’ve found that maintaining this pursuit keeps a bit of hope in my life - which already makes it more enjoyable.
Bitch you are a piece of fruit why does it look like I murdered you. Why do you leave my fingertips red and stained. Why do you run down my hands to my elbows when I tear you apart. Why must I rip your body into bloodied chunks to get what’s inside of you. Why do you sound so lovely when I crack you open. Why must I eat you with a knife and my bare hands. Why is there so much of you and why is there never enough.
LEONARD NIMOY (Vladeck) and WILLIAM SHATNER (Michael Donfield) appearing together for the first time in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode “The Project Strigas Affair” (1964), directed by Joseph Sargent
I literally just learned that male carpenter bees are usually the ones tasked with protecting the nest from predators. They have that little yellow bald spot on their heads, and they’re usually the ones buzzing and hovering near you, just kinda looking at you. However, the reason they hover near you is actually because they think they’re being intimidating, and they’re trying to scare you off. If that doesn’t work, well, male carpenter bees don’t have stingers, and they don’t bite, so they’re only defense mechanism to scare humans off is to bump into us over and over. Literally just fly full speed into us, head first, and hope it’s enough to scare us away. I love carpenter bees so much. 🥺 Truly the himbos of the insect world.
As I gaze at the structural column in Copley Station, cracked nearly in two and held together with zip ties that have been carefully painted over to match the column underneath, I feel my soul intertwined with that of a small Italian boy of days gone by, who also stopped to look up at a large, groaning, newly painted tank full of molasses
I feel that some non-Boston people think I may have been exaggerating this. While I did not snap a photo as I was on the train, someone else did several months ago. I do want to stress that this column is now freshly painted and therefore completely structurally sound and in absolutely no danger of causing the entire tunnel to collapse. And yes, it did in fact never cross my mind that the original post was nearly 105 years to the day of the Molassacre
This is so safe this is the safest I’ve ever felt good job mbta gold star
Fun fact: Copley station was built 5 years after the molasses flood so we’re in good hands
I love that the turtle is explicitly bothering the cat, rather than just zooming aimlessly around.
“Mom it’s not supposed to BE that fast!”
This just in: Turtle gains speed and immediately becomes a menace to local cat. “Why is he chasing me? Why not explore the house?” Cat comments. More on this in the evening.
For those curious, this was taken at the Oceti Sakowin camp during the No DAPL protests in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. The photograph is titled “Defend the Sacred” by Ryan Vizzions. I did not find the name of the subject on horseback.
Her name was
Marissa Blacklance. #Dakota38 rider, & front line water protector at Standing Rock. She was killed by a drunk driver in January of 2018. Her mother is using this tragedy to make changes benefitting our community with the Yellow Scarf tribute.
Amusing too that even though some parts of Brook’s movies have aged (as all comedy does), it still hasn’t aged as badly as that comment saying that they should aspire to be more like Woody Allen.
All art is subjective and everyone has their own likes and dislikes
And if people don’t like Blazing Saddles that’s their call
That said
Anyone who thinks that anything Woody Allen has done in his entire career is better than even the worst film Mel Brooks has ever made is an appalling buffoon who has no fucking business being a film critic ._.
Today we celebrate the life and works of Terry Pratchett who would have been 76 years old today
Having spent many times in his company over the years, we would like to hear your stories of “Time with Terry”, be it at conventions, book signings or elsewhere !
Let us know your Time with Terry moment in the comments.
in guarani there’s a standard greeting that literally translates to “are you happy” (ndevy'apa) and the natural reply is “i’m happy” (avy'a) and as americans learning the language we were so distressed like “but what if we’re not happy…..” and our teachers were like “that’s so not the fucking point”
we kept trying to think of any other way to reply but our teachers kept trying to get it into our brains that it’s an idiomatic greeting, it literally is not the time or place to traumadump, and as usamerican english speakers we are not some special exception for saying “what’s up” with the reply being “not much” instead of “the ceiling”
but anyway while i was working in paraguay – the country with the largest population of guarani speakers – i got sent an article by some friends back home like “look! they’re saying that paraguay is the happiest country in the world!”
and the methodology was “we went around and asked paraguayans if they’re happy and recorded their responses” and i was like. oh. of course you did. and of course you got a 100% positive response rate.
