Home » People & Culture (Page 104)

Category Archives: People & Culture

All about the standing-upright chimps that really love to talk about themselves.

Back to the Future … ?

Posted on by | 9 Comments

As the slow ride towards sequestration continues it’s hard to find anything more to say.  The possibility of a significant economic downturn and genuine pain being felt by many people has failed to move the parties towards any progress.  How can government be this dysfunctional?  How did it get this bad?

In attempting to answer this question I decided to take the Zen approach of unasking it instead.  This led to a wisdom all parties must take heed of – both in this quote and in the larger context:

As we peer into society’s future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

This is a part of President Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, delivered 52 years ago.  The whole address, beyond the famous parts, is well worth absorbing today.

Continue reading →

Streamin’

Posted on by | 7 Comments

When in doubt, you can always talk about the weather in polite Minnesota conversation. Days like today, when we are expected to have yet another big winter storm and the potential for Olympic Ice Dancing on the roads, it’s a topic you can count on.  It’s not controversial but it provides a nearly endless supply of entertainment much like driving a flaming bus through a wall of televisions, at least in the sense that it’s likely to be lethal.

Many of us learn to be fascinated by the weather in ways that seek awkward and geeky to people in other parts of the nation. That’s a shame because a hard study of weather is a form of meditation that can clear your mind like no other form.  Plus, it’s on teevee.  Here in the middle of a vast continent we are at the mercy of whatever blows our way.  It’s something that everyone can talk about – even if no one does anything about it.

Continue reading →

What’s in a Name?

Posted on by | 7 Comments

Nemo.  The name doesn’t exactly strike fear, but it has its share of loathing.  Who picked that dumb name?  Why would you name a winter storm after a fish?  Isn’t it just a publicity stunt by the Weather Channel?

I have to confess that I was as skeptical as anyone – until I found out whose idea it was.  It came from Bryan Norcross, and the intention wasn’t just to hype his employer.  “The fact is that Twitter needs a hashtag,” he told the NY Times, and that isn’t all there is to it.  By naming a storm they develop a shorthand that makes it easier to issue warnings and get people to take them seriously.  And that’s where Norcross’ reputation comes into play and why I’m willing to give it a chance.

Continue reading →

Another Pledge Drive!

Posted on by | 6 Comments

It’s Pledge Drive time at Minnesota Public Radio!   That means one thing to me – I better get my own Pledge Drive in while I can.  It’s been two years since I tried an in-blog pledge drive, and the results were mixed. But I have to try again.

Welcome to another Barataria in-blog Pledge Drive!  There’s a survey at the end where you can tell me just what you think anonymously and easily, whether you give or not.

Continue reading →

A Cold Humility

Posted on by | 11 Comments

(The Sage) knows he makes no fine display,
and wears rough clothes, not finery.
It is not in his expectancy of men
that they should understand his ways,
for he carries his jade within his heart.
– Tao Te Ching 70 (Rosenthal)

The short, hunched figure marched with purpose.  The weather bent us both down, compelled our gaze towards cautious feet and the treacherous lack of grip underneath them.  It was only a casual glance that saw the short red coat and hood approaching as I wondered who else might be out making their own time down the sidewalk.  A child? A friend?  Anyone I knew?

When the figure was close I could see it was an older woman.  It wasn’t until she was close that I could make out anything at all about her even as we both concentrated on our chilling task, the path from here to there.  I smiled a quick “Hello!” and she said as much back as we passed, still a stranger if also a comrade in purpose. But we were both anonymous in our shields against the cold that might catch up if we had stopped for any more than a word.   The weather itself had rendered us equal, distant, and humble.

Continue reading →