Petty Annoyances

I was out on my daily walk, listening to an older episode of "This American Life." The episode is called "Music Lessons," and it's one of the best. David Sedaris describes his father's attempts to make a family jazz trio out of his children. Sarah Vowell discusses what she learned from band. Ann Lemont tells the incredibly touching story of a member of her church learning to love, the small miracle that love can be.

I was enjoying Sedaris' recounting of guitar lessons in Raleigh, NC when he made a remark that caught my attention. "The teacher gave me some purple mimeographed sheets . . ."

Those weren't purple mimeographed sheets, David, They were ditto sheets. This is a ditto machine, or spirit duplicator. It was made by the ditto corporation. Mimeograph was a totally different process - much messier - and less flexible.

My first "journalistic" effort was a ditto'd news paper, published periodically, in 1969, at Augustana College. Called "Period," and sold with a brash and uncompromising commitment to making stuff up, it was duplicated on the English department's ditto machine - though I bought the colored ditto masters with proceeds from each issue. It sold for a nickel - a nickel being the dividing line between greed and stupidity - according to the editor. When run by the staff it was a glorious success. When run by me it was mediocre.

Anyway - it was made on a ditto machine. I didn't really learn the ins and outs of mimeography until I got to my first parish - and it was the end of the era of mechanical reproduction.

This is a mimeograph machine. But people younger than, I'd guess, 30, have no recollection of mimeography or dittography. Those between 30 and 40 have only vague recollections. Soon this will all be dead media (I found the image of the ditto machine on the Dead Media Archive at the Department of Media, Culture and Communication at NYU.

Sad to think that this part of my work life will soon be museum exhibit. Too bad Sedaris didn't know the difference between ditto and mimeograph.

Sarah Vowell committed an egregious error that drives me nuts. It's becoming common now, and may soon slip into common usage and even acceptability. During her tale of her high school music career she used the phrase, "begs the question" to mean "raises the question."

It's a phrase that gets a heap of abuse. "Begging the question," however, has not meant "raising the question, and doing so with some urgency." That's what Vowel took it to mean, what many English speakers use it to mean. And while I'm usually not one to insist that words and phrases must retain their denotative meaning world without end, amen, I think I'll make an exception for this.

Mignon Fogarty (a.k.a. Grammar Girl) agrees. "Begging the Question" is the name of a logical fallacy, "in which the proposition to be proved is assumed implicitly or explicitly in one of the premises" as the Wikipedia puts it.

I wish folks would stop using "beg the question," "begging the question," etc. as synonymous with "raising the question." "Raising the question" works fine - and if people would use "beg the question" properly we might think more clearly, more logically.

Midsommar

Now's the time to start getting ready, and I'm happy to report that the Midsommar Committee is hard at work. They have a new web site, at Midsummers Festival dot org. There isn't much content there yet, but it's a very nice interface.

I suggested that we try to get this young woman here for Midsommar.



She's from up north, sings in English and Swedish, plays guitar, knows the old songs and the new ones. The video above is her singing a song from Chess - which was written in English so far as I know - in Swedish. He name is Elina Järventaus Johansson. I think she has a very pretty voice and I'd love to see her come, if that's at all possible.

I don't know what the committee has planned, and I trust that they'll do the very best that can for the festival. I'm just putting in my two cents worth.

Changes to the Blog

I've added a short, one question poll to the bottom of the page and a click on video bar at the right. I'm trying to keep up, but it's getting harder every day.

Tomorrow is Read Across American Day - Dr. Seuss' birthday. Do something Seussical. I'm going to the Children's Center to read with the kids.

Trehy's Tea Emporium

Irene Neilson has put the Stockholm up for sale. That's pretty sad news for Lindsborg.

Who knows how long it will take to sell. Maybe it will go right away, maybe it will hang on as the Stockholm for quite some time.

In the meantime Bethany College student Chris Trehy is managing the tea room and doing business as Trehy's Tea Emporium.

Chris, a psychology major, told me he came from a long line of folks involved in retail food trade, and that he wanted to give it a try while he could. He sublets the restaurant from Irene for Thursday - Saturday noon meals and does dinners when he has customers who want dinners.

The noon menu is limited - a delicious tomato soup, two open face sandwiches (the exact sandwich varies), desert, and, of course TEA. Lots and lots and pots and pots of tea.

A little on the pricey side for some pocket books, this is definitely not your fast food emporium. It is the place to have "slow food," food lovingly prepared when you order it and served with all the aplomb a Dutch boy can demonstrate. Did I mention that Chris is Dutch and going back to Holland for graduate study? He's Dutch and going back to Holland for graduate study.

Because he's Dutch he understands Tea better than any of us who've not been schooled. The Dutch invented the tea house, you know. Because he's European he has a certain sensibility that most Americans enjoy when they go to Europe. He's not rushed, and won't rush you.

Go and enjoy the cuisine. And the tea. And the deserts.

And tell Chris I sent you.

Augie Choir

It's been that kind of a week - too busy for words.

"The Augie Choir" was hurr, they scribbled on the board outside our HCL/North Central self study meeting room. Prior to that they were all at Messiah Church for a meal. This is the end of the blessing for the meal.



Then a great concert in Presser Hall, with a substantial crowd - particularly for a Thursday night. Perhaps the most impressive part of the evening was the improvisation. I'd never heard a choir do improvisation before.



The Chamber Singers improvised on the tunes "I just went down to the river to pray" and "Amazing Grace." The results were amazing and grace filled. Charlotte Anderson told me that she talked with Dr. Hurty about this technique, and the choir learned it in Sweden. "It's one Swedish thing I want to bring back to the states," I think Charlotte said that she recalled Hurty telling her.

The concert was excellent. At the end the choir gathered in a circle and sang "By the Mighty Mississippi" - a serious musical version with lots of well planned mockery along with it. I was in the middle of the circle. The song ends with choir members kicking off a shoe. The shoes mostly flew my way.

I was there to capture video of the event. I captured it, but it isn't worth playing. The sound it awful. I really need to replace that little camera with something better. We'll see if that happens.

So, thanks, Augie choir. I lost an evening of rehearsal to you, but it was well worth it.

More Construction

The bricks are being attached to the face of the Nelson Science addition. It looks like progress!

New sidewalks are being poured even as I write this. The "no-man's land" between the North side of Presser Hall and the Burnett Center walk way is being converted into another yellow brick road. I love the gently twisting and turning walkways!



The grass between ASH and the Burnett Walkway, however, is suffering. People don't want to walk all the way to Presser to get to Nelson and Burnett. It's sad to see the new grass, so carefully cultivated last spring, be trampled this way this winter. It is inevitable, however, and I congratulate Jeff Barkman on finding a compromise solution - letting a little path die so that more of the grass can live!

What The Heck's Going On?

The lot directly across Harrison Cole from Scott's parking lot is now under construction.

There are large construction vehicles on the property, and all the woody vegetation is rapidly being shredded. Nothing blocking the view of the lot now, just a big empty lot.

What's going into the lot? An expansion of the clog factory? Or maybe a very large house - but it is a house going in, why would you remove all the trees and tree like stuff on the property?

I'm going to have to check with some real-estate people and maybe post on this again tomorrow. Photos for sure.

Earthday News

Earthday is rapidly approaching. April 22 follows close behind Easter this year.

We're getting ready for Earthday on Campus. Noni Strand's Green Team is hard at work making the campus green aware. We're planning for Jimmy Sjöblom's arrival in early March, and I've begun to work on "Butch Words and Weenie Words: The Rhetoric of Anti-Environmentalism," my contribution to the day.

Click and you'll open a podcast of Mark's presentation, plus a little bit of music. Maybe we can get busy and make a few more of these this spring.

A lot of walking

UPDATE BELOW
I'm currently enrolled in Karna Peterson's LEARN class - I affectionately call it "fat class" - so I'm doing a lot more walking than I had for several years. I'm up to somewhere between 3 and 5 miles each day, according to the pedometer.

It is fascinating to see walking the things you don't see driving. Fascinating, and, at the same time, a little depressing.

The walking trail is wonderful, so let's start there.

One fascination is the skate park, between Olsson and Saline. It looks almost ready for use, and some of the folks adjacent to it have been out on the weekend giving it a go. Mostly, however, it has been left alone and the rope and pole fence has been observed. There's a sign on the east side of it, along side the trail, but nothing yet printed on the sign. Of course, no word on what when who where why or how. At least not that I've seen in the News Record. I admit, I've missed a few issues of the News Record, so it could have been there.

Another fascination is the old shed behind the MKC station, just to the east of the trail. The corrugated metal roof is blowing up like an old man's toupee in places. The pigeons have a semi-permanent home. As I walk by I see them busily bopping in and out of the holes under the eves.

Of course, the combination of birds and warmer weather reminds me that I have to bird-proof the eves of my garage.

The depressing part of the walk is that there are so many structures in Lindsborg that are dilapidated, run down and otherwise in disrepair. I don't mind a few industrial ruins - in fact I rather like them. But there are getting to be many residential ruins on the edges, under the trees and next to the railroad tracks. That's sad, because it speaks of an aging population that I'm powerless to help reverse.

After all, I'm getting older too.

UPDATE 1

Well, I was wrong. The skatepark is open! And there are rules posted! Think of that.

No one was out skating today. Let's see, it was 35 degrees and there was a twenty mile an hour "breeze" out of the north. Gee.

He is Gone

We received news last night that Pastor Martin Ringstrom has gone out of this life.

I am not surprised, but I am saddened by the news. I saw him just last Sunday. Kris helped him get a church bulletin for Charles Christensen. He looked and sounded healthy and strong.

I can't say that I knew him well, but I did admire him. I admired his piety - though I cannot emulate it. I admired his commitment to the church, his "churchmanship." I admired the way he stayed related to his extended family even while he stayed connected to that part of the family that had joined the saints in light.

Because of Martin we stopped in Wahoo, NE to see the ruins of Luther College. The photo in the upper left corner of this post is the Luther Science building as it looked last summer. Because of Martin (at least in part) there is a video of Augustana Synod memories. Because of Martin I look toward my future with considerably less dread. I see in his life the possibility of living to a great age with dignity and even pleasure in one's old age.

Martin Ringstrom is gone and I am saddened by his passing, but I am glad that I had the opportunity to know him. Later this week I'll publish the interviews I made with Martin last spring, in anticipation of the Augustana Heritage Society Gathering VI.