Lexi Pew's 25 kills helps spell 3-2 win

Tigers 3, BOLD 2
Tiger volleyball prevailed in a five-game battle at BOLD High School. The action was on Thursday, Aug. 29. An even complexion developed in this West Central Conference action. BOLD treated their home fans to a 31-29 win in the first game. The orange and black evened things up with a 25-22 win in game 2.
The pivotal game 3 went the way of the Tigers: a 25-21 score. But BOLD bore down to extend the match, as they took game 4 in a 25-18 final. The stage was set for the deciding game 5, and MACA rose to the occasion to prevail 15-12.
The spiking of Lexi Pew contributed much to our victory. Pew pounded down 25 kills. Emma Berlinger had a kill total in double digits too - 10 - and then we have Kenzie Hockel producing seven. LaRae Kram and Sophia Carlsen each had five, and the list concludes with Emma Bowman's three.
The go-to setter was Kram who achieved 17 assists. Pew, Macee Libbesmeier and Hockel also helped out in this department. Pew sent six serving aces over the net. Jaden Ross came through with four, while Hockel and Libbesmeier each had one. Pew was a force at the net in multiple ways as this Tiger had five ace blocks. Emma  Bowman and Carlsen each went up to perform two blocks, and Hockel and Berlinger each had one.
Libbesmeier was the go-to in digs with her 34, then we have Hockel with 25, Ross with 21, Pew with 16 and Kram with 15.
BOLD's top spiker was Ashley Trongard with 13 kills. She was sharp in all phases as she produced three ace blocks and four serving aces. Makayla Snow was the setting bulwark with 38 assists. Snow likewise excelled in digs with her 16. Brenna Weis had 14 digs and Mari Ryberg 13.
 
New London-Spicer 3, Tigers 0
The story wasn't so rosy for MACA volleyball in the August 27 home match that had New London-Spicer as the opponent. Fans knew the night would spell a difficult challenge. NL-Spicer rolled here with four wins under their belt. It was No. 5 for the Wildcats by night's end, via sweep. They downed our Tigers 25-21, 25-18 and 25-10.
NL-Spicer often has formidable girls teams.
Lexi Pew and Emma Bowman each sent four kills at the Wildcats. Emma Berlinger and Sophia Carlsen each had three, while Kenzie Hockel and LaRae Kram had two and one, respectively. Carlsen and Pew each executed two ace blocks - Bowman and Berlinger each had one.
Kram and Macee Libbesmeier had eight and seven digs, respectively. Let's look at serving where we had Pew achieve two aces followed by Hockel and Libbesmeier each with one. Kram was busy in setting where she put up 14 assists. Some help in setting came from Libbesmeier, Carlsen, Berlinger and Pew.
 
Cross country hosts invite
The Morris Area Chokio Alberta cross country invitational is always a big and colorful spectacle at the start of fall sports. You know it's on when you drive close to the golf course and see cars parked all over the place. I have often thought it dangerous for strings of cars to be parked on the highway shoulder, with people perhaps darting out from between them. Just exercise caution.
The invite had its 2019 edition on Monday, Aug. 26. The MACA girls team placed second among ten teams, trailing only Rocori. And my, the Rocori girls sure showed a dominating air. Their uniforms were clustered at the front of the pack. (I remember when Marshall came here for this event, the Tigers, and it was confusing because their orange and black could be confused with us!)
Rocori swept the top five with Ava Larsen taking No. 1 with her 21:20.0 time. Meredith Theis was second (21:29.0), Carley Kremer third (21:30.0), Laina Viere fourth (21:36.0) and Selma Dingmann fifth (21:37.0). Rocori sure knows how to spoil everyone's fun. Just kidding! We congratulate them. They're from Cold Spring where my good friend Greg Cruze lives.
Our Maddie Carrington was in good form with her seventh place finish, achieved with a time of 22:09.0. Meredith Carrington covered the course in 22:40.0, good for ninth. Hailey Werk was No. 17, timed at 23:40.0. Then it was Katya Lackey arriving at the finish chute 21st with her 23:59.0 time. Malory Anderson was No. 31 at 25:12.0.
The MACA boys placed fifth among 12 teams. The champion team was Lac qui Parle Valley. Jacob Bright of West Central Area was the individual champion with his 16:22.0 time. His teammate Jack Van Kempen - son of Morris native John? - was second at 17:19.0. Noah Stewart led the MACA effort as he placed eighth with his time of 18:02.0. He was joined in the MACA effort by: Thomas Tiernan (19:51.0), Jared Boots (20:54.0), Reid Tolifson (22:13.0) and Cole Hawks (22:48.0).

Football gets going
Please click on the link below to read my post on "Morris of Course" that includes a review of the MACA football opener which brought victory, 28-20, over the Braves of Benson on Friday. Thanks for reading and God bless.
https://morrisofcourse.blogspot.com/2019/08/curtain-opens-for-2019-football-tigers.html
  
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Exploring further the Morris newspaper sale

I have probably written enough about the upcoming change of ownership of the Morris newspaper. I have spasms of personal memories as I consider what's going on. This would be unavoidable.
I think back to when newspaper people had a more confident and assertive perch in our society, due to their obvious advantages. Today the democratization of media has changed everything. It's for the better. Nevertheless we hear local voices say the quality of a local newspaper is still important.
You should be reminded: it seems unheard-of for a newspaper chain to sell a paper to local-based interests. Because of the novelty, we must wonder what this says about what's going on in Morris MN. Maybe it's not positive.
Certainly we have seen a negative turn with local businesses. And even if we didn't, would our business sector still choose to be as dependent on the newspaper? Or commercial media at all, the entities that feel entitled to reap a profit from simply distributing information?
I can see the Morris newspaper at three public places: the library, my church and the senior center. It is never necessary for me to buy it. I can remember buying it just once, when I wanted to get it early in the morning, so as to get info on the section track meet for a blog post. I got the paper from the laundromat vending machine - five quarters required? How many people have five quarters in their pocket?
The paper should discard vending machines. I remember seeing the Morris newspaper vending machine at the entrance to UMM's Oyate, when an old copy remained under the glass for several weeks before the problem got remedied. How embarrassing. Simple management oversight. One had to wince.
So I got my paper at the laundromat and sure enough, there was a big track and field spread, but it turned out to be coverage of the previous week's sub-section meet! It was not up to date. So I muttered a couple choice expletives and had to modify my plans for the morning.
I generally rely on the Willmar paper for information for my sports blog posts. Anyone who does this over a length of time will discover that the Willmar paper can be quite hit and miss, both in terms of consistency and accuracy. Although, it seems better than a few years ago. Perhaps an internal memo has been shared at Willmar: "Be extra careful writing about Morris sports because there's a blogger over there who will call us out."
The Willmar paper is owned by Forum Communications which is now selling its Morris paper to the Benson/Elbow Lake operation. We really do wish the new owners well. I say that with all sincerity. However, the task of jump-starting a newspaper in the year 2019 will be awfully daunting. Perhaps impossible. A chain is supposed to have a number of natural advantages to help newspapers keep going, even if there are compromises in quality. For a chain to give up on the Morris MN product is thus concerning, as if maybe we're a lost cause.
Was Forum Communications simply incompetent? Could we blame the whole thing on Dennis Winskowski of Detroit Lakes? He was the puppetmaster assigned to the Morris project. A couple employees were laid off here so Dennis could move the ad production work to his Detroit Lakes division. There's an example of "synergy." That leverage is gone now.
Nor will Morris be able to ride piggy-back on the Willmar sports coverage, as so often happened with the Forum.
 
The sports conundrum
Sports! Jim Morrison might say that was a bane of his existence. Actually it was a bane of mine too. As I look back, I am profoundly saddened at how I got trapped in a vise with this. I was trapped on a staff that had some assertive and emotionally-driven sports parents, which might not be a disaster in and of itself. But the problem was that all of these people had their kids in the small schools outside of Morris. Yes, all of them.
It was uncanny. The advertising manager was in that category. This was in a time when the small, Pheasant Conference-size schools had a different philosophy from Morris, seen most visibly in sports but evident in an underlying way. Morris meanwhile had gotten dragged down by what I have always called "the deconstructionist influences in education in the 1970s." Such influences suggested we should question traditional values.
The seeds for this were planted in the 1960s. I attended a state college in the 1970s where I was surrounded with the deconstructionist ideas and influences. I saw all this as rather a nuisance or maybe a fad, not that I would defer entirely to the traditional model. The traditional model might suggest, for example, that girls ought to be just cheerleaders in sports! Heavens! Remember the movie "Hoosiers" with Gene Hackman?
You know, something that bothered me about that movie, was that we didn't get to know the cheerleaders at all. (Secondarily, did Hackman ever "get the girl?")
It is very sad that our Morris school became phlegmatic during the '80s, due to more than one factor actually. It got to the point where a visible insurgency grew that became unpleasant. If you want verification on this, there are still local people around with memories, such as an attorney with the initials W.A., a good friend of mine and fellow UMM advocate.
Yes I am a UMM advocate who has put his money where his mouth is. So it's ironic and actually tragic that UMM was a catalyst for my ultimate downfall with the Morris newspaper: the coverage of the goalpost incident of 2005. I quoted an eyewitness account from the ESPN2 website. We laid out the paper over the weekend, when most of you probably assume you're not working at all. Well, I faced considerable work pressure over many weekends - hope you all appreciate it, though I doubt you do.
 
Weekend of infamy
Once I became aware of the goalpost incident, I began to figure there would be no football game info coming into my possession soon. I figured all the principals at UMM would be hunkered down in silence, or perhaps gone somewhere else.
So, I had several nice photos which I had taken in the first half of the game, in place on page 1B. Very nice. But I needed some text. If I had it to do over again, I would have beaten down doors to try to contact the coach and arrange for him to drop off info. I suspect the coach was walking on eggshells for the rest of the weekend. I suspect he'd be gun shy about the phone ringing or any attempt at communication with him. I "left him alone," what I guess was not prudent.
Communication? My phone at the office rang off the hook for the whole rest of the weekend. I got more than one call from NBC's Today Show. I had to admit I wasn't at the field when the incident happened. Do you realize how many teams our newspaper was responsible for in those days?
An obvious argument to be made here is: where was UMM's own sports information person? It was the now-deceased Brian Curtis (or Brian Brummond), who I guess has a part of Big Cat Stadium named for him. Well, I heard nothing from him. Nevertheless all fingers ended up pointed at me when it was all over.
Keep in mind that the year was 2005, when Internet-based information was not nearly as well-developed as it is now. College sports websites started out as rudimentary things, as nothing more than a promotional billboard in many cases. They could be attractive, as I could see when I checked the Winona State sports site, trying to get some fresh info. But there was no fresh info there - it was just an attractive billboard.
Today, come hell or high water, current sports news is posted in a timely way on college sites everywhere. It is assumed.
I'm sure Jim Morrison would understand the problem I pointed out with certain zealous sports parents on the Sun Tribune staff. He'd describe it as a distraction, a benign one and maybe humorous. Very often I saw it as anything but amusing. I had to deal with the fallout. My reputation was impacted.
Let's acknowledge too that the problems with the Morris school district were not myth, they were fact. Again, some people might reflect on this with amusement, like it couldn't have been that bad or it was simply "no big deal" (a staple of Minnesota vernacular - "no big deal").
So, these unpleasant thoughts are sifting through my mind as I'm forced to notice what is happening with the Morris newspaper now. You might say it induces something akin to PTSD.
Thought: Did the Forum acquire Morris with the idea of setting it up as a "zombie" business? We read about this sort of thing, a consequence of near-zero interest rates I guess. Or, for tax purposes? The details of these things are beyond my range of knowledge.
I live with the fallout of my newspaper career every day. I feel unjustifiably blamed for some things. It seems the Morris newspaper began its drastic descent at the precise time when I left the place. Obviously this could be coincidence. The conventional wisdom is that papers everywhere started feeling stressed at that time.
The great editor Marty Baron has said "newspapers have five years left," and I believe he gave that quote a year or so ago. Baron led the Boston paper at the time it exposed the Catholic Church as a boil on our society.
I should stop writing about the newspaper transition in Morris, because it's unsettling for me. Maybe this post will mark the end.
 
How paper can be gadfly
Sometimes the newspaper publishes stuff that simply embarrasses people, for no constructive end. Take a look at the current issue. You'll see a letter to the editor on the problem of whether or not to tip the carry-out people at Willie's Super Valu. Right away I thought: "Paul Martin is going to hate seeing this letter. It's a no-win for him." I shot off an email to Paul and I invite you to read:
 

Hi Paul! I'll wager that you didn't like seeing that letter to the editor Saturday in local paper, on whether to tip the carry-outs!!! I'll wager you don't even like seeing the discussion get going. There's a nice favor the local paper does for us, eh? Like when they embarrass people by publishing seat belt tickets (happened to me once).

Tipping carry-outs? Well, this is a real conversation-starter. You should know the whole concept of tipping is coming under re-evaluation these days, with momentum behind the idea of phasing it out. There was an article on the Minnpost website about this. Tipping at restaurants came into practice during the Great Depression. When I was young, you'd tip with COINS. Once I realized it had to be paper, there was an issue of wet spots on the table, so, should I just hand it to the server? Oh, and what if her shift ends before I leave? Can I count on her getting it? Sometimes we hear of controversy where tips are shared with the "hostess." Sometimes the tips are shared among all servers, which makes me wonder, what's the point?

At Willie's, what about the employees who AREN'T in carry-out? Will they get jealous of the ones who get the tips? If an employee helps me find something in the aisle, should I feel expected to tip her? On and on and on, until we have to conclude that employees should just get paid fairly by the employer. I think tipping at restaurants is getting more awkward in this age where more people are paying with plastic cards. I find the practice annoying. Employees should be paid fairly.

Remember how Juergensen's had the system where people would drive up to front and sacks would be placed in car? Glen Helberg called that system "partial carry." Glen said grocery stores everywhere are weighing whether to continue carry-out. And you know the big box system where people just push carts out into the lot and then leave them in designated spots. Then you'd have "cart wranglers." Might be a good job for me!

My two cents on another topic: I frankly think you should consider discontinuing the weekly paper ad circular. Given your position in this marketplace, I just don't see where it's needed. People TRUST your store to have reasonable everyday prices on things. I have delivered those big boxes of circulars many times and it's a lot of fuss for what it does. Costs money for you too.

New newspaper owners? Well that is nothing short of amazing, and I'm not sure it says anything good about our local economy. It is UNHEARD OF for a chain newspaper company to sell a property to local-based owners. It is man bites dog.

I missed Prairie Pioneer Days in summer. I thought after the initial announcement, it would be restored.

Nice picnic once again. Hope to see the live music back again next year, with pedal steel!!! I'm amazed at how those guys memorized so many lyrics.
(end of email)

 
Examining the current edition
Another issue with the current Morris paper: the cartoon on the editorial page. It has the possibility of offending people. It suggests there are lots of "grifters" in our midst who simply want to get money from government. People defending the cartoon would say the message is directed at people who do this in an untoward way. But that is not clear.
Stevens County has many aging citizens who are past their productive years. They are going to have to depend on government in various ways. I started getting Social Security two years ago. I'll sign up for Medicare in January. I resent any suggestion or even hint that I'm a grifter. It's just right wing grandstanding to make an issue to point fingers.
The people who are fond of pointing fingers, themselves try using any machinations to get what they can out of government. Like the big farmers who surely know how to "game the system" to get maximum subsidies in the current trade war. (Don't you hate anything that has the word "war" in it?)
So, do we really need to see this finger-pointing cartoon in the Morris newspaper now? Or, the letter about tipping that is only going to cause headaches for our local grocery store owner? Or, the district court news which always embarrasses good local citizens by publishing info about minor traffic tickets? I almost felt I had to stay away from church for a while, after getting a seat belt ticket and being teased. Maybe it was good-natured but it was still annoying.
So, to conclude re. the local newspaper sale: the fact a chain would give up on us, may well be a red flag. Perhaps Reed and Shelly Anfinson got ahold of this enterprise with a fire sale price, eh? Whatever, we might as well hope for the best, even if "newspapers" have five years left.
I will continue to blog as best I can about Tiger sports, using available info from other media. It's simply part of my DNA to do this.
Will Sue Dieter be allowed to write an ax-grinding column for this coming Saturday? Such high drama! She stood by while I was cast adrift by the company, but I wouldn't want to wish the same on her.
A former manager of Quinco Press, Lowry, said he thought Ed Morrison sold the paper because of an employee theft problem (scandal) within the paper. The offending person's initials were D.D. She's deceased now, God rest her soul. We had an inside joke where we'd pout at each other. The word on the street was that the amount taken was substantial.
Odious to be around, to be sure, but more odious for yours truly was an adulterous affair involving two staff members. I had to work within a few feet of that. Later I felt like telling Morris Community Church who moved into the building, that they ought to fumigate the place.
Will the paper still be called the Stevens County Times or might we see it return to the Sun Tribune?
I'm recalling a hint I sensed in December that something might be up with the Morris paper. I could not find the usual staff photo for a "Merry Christmas" greeting. I looked hard. I recall that the previous year, the size of the photo was reduced sharply. When Jim Morrison and I were at the paper, this thing would be a whole page. We often enlisted cartoonist Del Holdgrafer. Del was a throwback: all he asked as compensation was enough money to fill his gas tank.
"Merry Christmas": Is that something that has to hinge on your current business performance? Shouldn't that just be a stand-alone gesture? Well, not in the days of big, impersonal, centralized businesses. Consider Wells Fargo.
  
Peace,
Brian R. Williams, Morris MN

Say hello to the new Morris newspaper owners: Reed and Shelly Anfinson. I use this image on a "fair use" basis. It's from the Stevens County Times. Will they continue with that name?

Toward a full-fledged UMM welcome picnic

We are seeing the UMM campus come to life again. It's a wonderful annual ritual.
Is a "welcome picnic" being planned again? I just made a cursory check and could not find anything. I believe there was a time when it was called the UMM welcome picnic. Last year it was just "welcome" as if there were throngs of other people we'd be talking about. Who are these throngs? All the well-heeled people who can spend considerable time at their "lake place" in summer? Those are the people, I guess the preponderance of whom are why the summer Prairie Pioneer Days (PPD) was canceled.
How unnecessary and unfortunate. And, it wasn't always like this. I covered PPD for many years with the Morris newspaper, back when the paper had 100 percent more vitality that it has now. I assure you there was no doubt, over a very long time, that PPD could be a total source of joy for the community. I pulled out all stops giving it attention when it was first created.
Certain community advocates decided a shift to the fall was necessary. My response has been: we already have a special fall event with the welcome for UMM, even if "UMM" has been taken out of the name. I have suggested that we could make the UMM welcome event even bigger and better. Be creative. It's fun.
Maybe "UMM" was not acknowledged in the event name because of politics. Today we have a "red state" sense among us that seems to be getting increasingly reactionary. The red state folks see UMM as a place that nurtures future political "liberals." I put "liberals" in quotes because this terminology has became rather like cliches. These are shorthand terms promoted by the reactionary side of the aisle, to at least simplify our thinking if not turn it on its head.
If you point fingers at "liberals," then what in fact are "conservatives?" The self-identifying conservatives of today seem like mutant aberrations of what I remember when I was young. Conservatives are supposed to have a good basic sense of values, a sense of basic right and wrong, a sense of continuity with traditional American values even if that means Democrats are elected to power sometimes.
Democrats are patriots. Hillary Clinton was a patriot, and this is not to suggest I had gushing praise for her. She rubbed me the wrong way, going back to how she wouldn't divorce Bill after Bill's ridiculous misadventures in the White House. Our personal feelings about Hillary - I use the first name to differentiate her from her husband - shouldn't matter much. Hillary as president now would have this nation on a comfortable even keel, keeping our bedrock traditions going.
She would be maintaining our traditional alliances. She would have a basic sense of protocol and temperance. This means she would reserve any raw or disrespectful statements to behind-closed-door discussions. We have a president now who comes right out and calls the chairman of the Federal Reserve "clueless." Don't you all realize how totally unacceptable this is, on the most rudimentary level? Don't you? If not, then what exactly is your problem?
 
Trying to understand
One common interpretation that floats out there, is that Republicans go along with Trump so that conservative judges can be appointed - nothing else matters. This means that only Republicans can get justices appointed to the Supreme Court. Mitch McConnell will not allow any Democratic appointees to even come forward for hearings. He stood in the way of Merrick Garland, a perfectly rational, erudite and civilized person.
McConnell is now quoted saying the Republicans would push through any new nominee, regardless of how close we are to an election. So I guess it's all about "winning." Is this the ethos you really honor when you go to church on Sunday? Is it possible that all the "evangelical" Christians out there are praying for Ruth Bader-Ginsburg to die quickly so Trump can get a new nominee in? They will deny that. But it's true.
So, I guess they want abortion to be outlawed. Except even if it is, well-heeled Republican politicians and their allies will no doubt have a back door way to see they can get an abortion for their mistress. And I suspect the evangelical Christians would only shrug about this. They are just wild-eyed about anything Trump wants to do, and it evokes thoughts of 1932 Germany.
 
The underlying reason?
It's hard to know what's up with our society today, how we got to this place. My theory is this: Russian interference in 2016 actually worked! Russia's place in the world in the face of the stressed Western alliances could be enhanced. None of this happens overnight.
Believe me, there are going to be consequences of the sheer immorality and ignorance of Trump and the people around him. There is no need to feel surprised by any of this - we should have seen it coming. I saw it coming.
Russia's interference was in the form of poisoning our political division and to inflame differences so badly. It was like pouring kerosene on the fire started by the Rush Limbaugh crowd. Limbaugh used to get a lot of attention for saying outrageous things. He gets very little now, because it's the president himself who gets attention for saying outrageous things.
Even Republicans behind closed doors are starting to feel a sense of panic, I feel, and I would assert there are wheels turning for what in effect would be a "coup." I will predict: Trump will leave the presidency because his biggest public supporters will find it essential. There will be a cover story of health issues. Would Trump and his family be relieved of legal liability on various fronts, getting preemptive pardons? That is perhaps the biggest problem.
Republicans and conservatives will find it essential to get the ship righted, if it's not too late, before 2020. But it might be too late.
We may all have to hunker down for some unpleasant times. I'm glad I'm not raising a family today.
So, when the present storm subsides, I predict that the reins of power in our government will be held by: Nikki Haley and Mike Pence. Not sure which would be president, but it wouldn't matter much because they will work in tandem. It will be in the spirit of solving an emergency. They might even decide to do some good things. I hope the "evangelical" Christians approve.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

High school football opener must be soon

Technology is all about changing old habits. Normally I'd consult the school calendar to see when the high school football opener is. The hard copy calendar no longer has sports info. There's a referral in there for how to find the info online. Probably a very simple process.
Very often, necessity forces us to learn. I was forced to adopt debit cards when a local bank had trouble coming up with cash to provide me one day. Surely the Tiger football opener is coming up soon. Sometimes in the past I have consulted the "Minnesota Scores" website for schedule and background info. Probably I'll check there to see if the new schedules are posted. I believe the old "Pheasant Country Sports" site has been discontinued.
The fact that sports is gone from our "on paper" school calendar is a signal, I feel, that the whole paper calendar is on the way out. You're probably looking at the last one. School can save money by skipping this. The yanking of the sports info was sort of a mean trick to pull on the businesses that buy advertising in the school calendar.
So, is the 2019 football opener home or away? I don't buy game tickets. I'll pass by Big Cat Stadium on home opener night out of curiosity to see the amount of community interest. Brace yourselves, because I'm about to say that I hope community interest diminishes. If you've ever sampled my writing before, you know why. The primary reason is student safety, the safety of the students who choose to play the dangerous game of football.
 
Knowledge builds
There is an August 20 article on the Minnpost site by Susan Perry, that adds to the constant disturbing flow of news about football. The headline is "Routine hits to the head, not just concussions, may cause brain damage in football players, study finds."
Information of this type began rolling out long ago. The sensible reaction would be for us to put aside football in our lives and seek a replacement.
Put aside football? It seems a rather shocking suggestion. Surely we'd have a void on weekends, wouldn't we? We feed the beast of football with our interest. The sport can only become diminished when we discontinue our interest. Locally that means we should stop supporting the high school and college programs. UMM has well-developed soccer programs to fill any void. High school has volleyball which is for the girls. Well congratulations to the girls. They're engaged in a safe sport, one that leaves them unscathed by the time they're done.
We used to talk about girls being disadvantaged when it came to sports. I mean, disadvantaged to the extent they didn't have any! And then when it got going, it had to proceed through developmental steps. The law helped ensure that this development would go the whole way, and it has.
We depend on Democratic politicians for this sort of thing, not Republicans. Republicans are happy once it's all over. They are happy that their own daughters benefit. But society can never depend on Republicans to get the ball rolling with this sort of fundamental change.
We are left with the old football model for boys. They are treated like gladiators. We suggest to them that football is a badge of manhood. Boys must show how "tough" they are. I doubt that today's young people are much impressed by these notions.
There have been halting steps away from the old "macho" model, such as less contact in practice. The halting steps forward are not nearly enough of course. Enlightenment will not have been gained until we take the obviously needed stop of eliminating the sport. Surely the sport is not essential.
Susan Perry's August 20 article was prompted by a study in the journal "Science Advances." She quotes the author saying "public perception is that the big hits are the only ones that matter." Author Brad Mahon advises a closer look. He writes that "the public is missing what's likely causing the long-term damage in players' brains. It's not just the concussions. It's everyday hits too."
Mahon is adding to the research but the findings are nothing really new. We have heard a lot about "sub-concussive hits." I don't know how many more times I'll have to write about this. I'd love to be surprised as I stop at Big Cat Stadium early in the fall, surprised to see greatly diminished interest. Wouldn't it be wonderful if no fans at all showed up? That's only a dream at this point. The phasing out of football will be like turning a barge around in a river.
The fans are safe from the injuries. We have spent so much of our lives enjoying football. In theory it would be easy erasing this entertainment and finding something else. Surely it would be easy for the boys to find other outlets. And that's a problem too: a sport associated totally with "boys." It seems outdated. Too dangerous for girls? Well it's too dangerous for boys too.
 
Other considerations too
And there's more than the health angle, as I see it. There is the general cultural angle, the whole idea that our towns need to compete with each other. We live in an increasingly mobile society. We don't draw lines between communities anymore, or see them as isolated islands. High school kids of a particular town ought to see their peers in nearby towns as friends and compatriots as they prepare to embark on adult life. Not as rivals.
What does it prove when a team of athletes can overwhelm a sports rival? I remember watching a Tiger game at Big Cat, on one of those occasions where we lost, and it was clear we were just being worn down toward the end. I thought it was sad. There was no need for our boys' self-esteem to be chafed at.
The physical prowess involved in football says nothing about your character or intelligence - nothing. The helmet you wear provides only the illusion of protection. A helmet! How stupid.
I could suggest another reason why I feel football ought to fade, to disappear. And here I'll quote from an unlikely source. It's not just an online comment, it's a response to a comment! You never know where you'll find wisdom. The comments are below an article on the decline of football participation in California.
The article suggests that parents' fears of injury are a main factor. But a response supplies some sage additional perspective. Please heed: "It's not that they are not playing for fear of injury. They're not playing because technology has given more things to do with less work. They don't want to work that hard, goes for all sports."
One could expound much further on the point made here, how it permeates many areas of our general lifestyle. Football might be seen as a relic from a time when "labor" was generally unpleasant. Such jobs are still with us of course. But tech enables us to get from point 'A' to 'B' so much more efficiently. We grasp work differently. Hours of sweating away on the football practice field just doesn't seem as admirable anymore. It's just a questionable way of spending one's time.
For what it is worth I will plea: Stay home from the MACA football opener. Send a message with your absence. The school administration will listen, I assure you. I think they'd be happier in a world without football than with it. Let them know it's OK to think like this.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Are we in flux locally and nationally?

Church attendance seemed pretty sparse Sunday. The people in the pews are most agreeable folks. Mention the limited numbers and the response is predictable for this community. "It's summer." In other words, you know how it is in Morris.
It's hopeless?  That's what people are pretty clearly indicating. They do this with a shrug. No big deal? "No big deal" is part of the vernacular of Minnesotans. It's a cousin to "heckuva deal" which is a back door, non-commital way of acknowledging that something is big. It's a way of staying calm and encouraging perspective, because in Minnesota the really big deals have to do with coping with weather. If we can do that, we reason, life is a pipe.
Seems like we only got about three weeks of true summer this year. The belated onset of pleasant weather caused me to delay planting my zinnias three weeks. I'm delighted to announce they came up fine anyway. Please drive along Northridge Drive and take a look. But the late planting was an issue along with our abnormally wet summer.
Figuratively speaking, it seems as though tumbleweeds blow through this town in summer. There seems no sense of panic about it. We have pulled the plug on our longstanding Prairie Pioneer Days in summer. My concerns about this appear not to be shared. Well that's fine - I'm an outlier, but I do have vivid memories of when the summer festival was genuinely vibrant. Aren't my memories shared? Are too many of you just fixated on "going to the lake" in summer?
Well congratulations if that's your outlet, but it's not an outlet chosen by everyone. I once discussed this lake fixation with friend Donnie Eich. We were kindred spirits, as we felt no special affinity with lake activity.
 
Morris lake history
Perkins Lake north of Morris was once a hub of genuine lake activity. I am belated in writing about that very important chapter of Morris area history: the lake fun complete with its roller rink! Sometime in the near future I will share at least one blog post about this.
Perkins was past its prime for this fun when my family came to Morris. It was still a place for swimming lessons. It appears the water has become less clean through the years.
Many married couples owed their first meeting to the Perkins Lake hub of activity, and again I'll remind that there is rather irritating ambiguity about the lake name. The sign at the public access has welcomed people to "Pomme de Terre Lake." So is it Perkins or Pomme de Terre? I tried raising the issue in my writing several years ago, but my cries are faint.
The Pomme de Terre Lake chain is a series of three lakes only it seems more like two. One must often differentiate between Pomme de Terre and the city park with the same name just east of Morris. "Pomme de Terre City Park" is on the dam reservoir, a body of water which was once known as "Lake Chrissey," named for a civic VIP. Clarification on place names would be nice someday. Someday. Morris is not a real fired-up place.
 
Trends with churches
And now we're shrugging shoulders over sparse church attendance in August. Well, "it's summer." Summer in Motown when we might imagine tumbleweeds, eh? So we merely shrug. We could dissect churches and see if there's something afoot affecting behavior. And unfortunately this discussion turns political.
I attend a mainstream Protestant church. Is that OK? Anyway, we received a flyer Sunday that included, among other things, announcement of the ELCA's resolution of being a "sanctuary church body," which means that we have humanitarian, Christ-like values.
That's pretty edgy in the age of Trump. I suppose it puts us at loggerheads with the local Apostolics who sometimes look as though they're prepared to worship Donald Trump as an extension of divinity. Maybe he's pure divinity. I tend to view him as quite the opposite. But I'm in league with mainstream Protestants who seem rather in retreat, if you just look at the numbers in the church pews.
The momentum is with the Trump crowd and their churches, what might be termed "fundamentalists." The media often talks about "evangelicals" without providing much of a definition, but we can be sure it doesn't include the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
I actually sent an email to Bishop Elizabeth Eaton recently, advising her on how the synod's critics could eventually try to hurt us. Hurt us because of our political affirmations which increasingly are viewed as "progressive." We just don't buy what Trump is trying to sell us, not like the Apostolics or other local zealots. I'd like to see Trump in prison. He is stomping all over the norms that ensure steadiness in our society.
"Conservatives" used to believe in steadiness (and calm) as a pillar of American society. Don't rock the boat. Trump supporters fancy themselves as "conservative" but they put the Weekly Standard out of business. Conservatives are supposed to believe in minimal government. But we have a president who acts every day like he must grab our attention and make us reverential toward him.
My ELCA talks about "discernment of care of our migrant neighbors in our context, and the promise of forthcoming resources for this work."
We live in a confused time when many of us see these as fighting words. I advised Bishop Eaton that if our detractors really want to do us harm - something Mr. Trump never hesitates to do - they could just cite Martin Luther's extreme anti-Semitism. It's so anti-Semitic we ought just excise it from the historical record.
One inflammatory speech from Trump or a sycophant about this, and Lutherans would be thrown on their heels. Might it totally wipe out at least parts of the Lutheran faith, like the ELCA? It could.
Bishop Eaton sent me a thoughtful response in which she made clear the synod has acknowledged the problem and felt shame about it. She shared a link with a formal statement. We try to leave this soiled linen in the past.
A common excuse is that Martin Luther was just getting old and cranky. We might write off this part of Luther's life, the way Trump's people dismiss the memory of John McCain. Can you believe that McCain and then Mitt Romney actually carried the GOP banner in national elections? And now they're on the suspicious fringe in the mind of Trump's loyalists.
I could pray for this country but I'm not much into praying. Maybe we should pray for the Morris community.
 
Addendum: I'll share a quote toward people who would put themselves forward as my adversaries. The quote is from Jesus Christ: "Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."
 
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Checkered background of Morris school district

It was August of 2006, two months after I left the Morris paper, when we learned that a Morris school board member was sentenced to a year of confinement and two years of supervised release. The Stevens County farmer had sold crops he pledged as collateral on ag loans. He was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Ann D. Montgomery for selling soybeans he used as collateral to obtain two loans in 2001 totaling more than $212,000.
On his own behalf, the farmer said he "always intended to pay the loans." He obtained two commodity loans from the Farm Service Agency's Commodity Credit Corporation in November of 2001. This information is from the Stevens County Times. The case was investigated by the USDA and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank J. Magill.
The offending individual resigned from the Morris school board in September. Some people thought he should have resigned sooner. The case hovered for a time. I had a conversation with a former school administrator who suggested restraint, giving the old "innocent until proven guilty" argument. I think that was shallow. Did the offending individual even offer a formal plea of innocence? Was it even that kind of case?
Subsequent to the judgment, I remember taking Mom to a holidaytime staff gathering at UMM where I saw this person among employees. I wondered how someone with his record could be in that position.
 
Too much restraint?
I suppose the "judgment pending" argument was also used when our principal a few years back got nailed with four charges of first degree criminal sexual conduct. Well, that was quite the pickle. And to think this involved the high school principal? A person who in the broad sense should set an example with exemplary behavior?
This individual on the hot seat was kept on, due to the "judgment pending" argument, i.e. "innocent until proven guilty." How far can we allow this argument to stretch? The charges against the principal were dropped. How could the prosecutor have been ambivalent about this? If the prosecutor, who was from outside Stevens County, really truly believed that four counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct were justified, why could not he have carried his convictions into trial?
Just think of the kind of media attention such a trial would have attracted. We are lucky that the case did not make it into the Star Tribune. I checked diligently. I even phoned in a tip. My theory is that the wise souls at the Star Tribune exercised their own judgment, concluding the charges were questionable based on the facts of the case.
I personally felt that the known behavior of the principal showed him in a light where the board could have justified severing its ties with him. I know, I know, a lawyer probably cautioned the board against this due to potential legal action the individual might take if - yes - if the charges were dropped.
The legal litmus test ought not be the only one. But I guess a lawyer would demur. If the worst-case scenario played out and the dismissed principal successfully sued, I suppose the lawyer would have his career scarred. Government employees get far more the benefit of the doubt than the poor saps in the private sector. That's unjust.
There is nothing wrong with setting the highest possible standard for people in our schools. Public schools have the enormous power of compelling kids to attend the bricks and mortar institutions, where they are subject to rules and a regimen that can make it seem like prison. I think it can stultify one's whole life.
Today I think the system is getting more generous. It had better get better, since the monopolistic bricks and mortar model is facing competition from alternatives.
 
Moving to the present
I am writing about all this now because we have a new tidbit. A new piece of ignominy that can be pinned to our Morris school district.
We see this headline from the KMRS/KKOK website: "Former school board member to make court appearance." Oh my, what now? So on Monday, this person - I'm withholding names in this post - will make a court appearance. We learn that he was arrested and charged in June on a second degree burglary charge for breaking and entering into a neighbor's house without consent. The neighbor's security camera identified the person in the house. The neighbors said they had locked their narcotics in a filing cabinet because they believed their medications had been disappearing.
I'm wondering why the county attorney felt he had to tell the radio station about the "best case scenario for the defense." Why not just let the defense take care of itself? Why help the media understand or appreciate what maneuvers the defense might attempt? The prosecutor should be focused on the prosecution IMHO. That's his job.
The allegedly offending individual served on the school board from 2005 to 2016. He used to operate a business that now has a "for sale" sign in front. At present he faces a potential felony charge with a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and/or a $20,000 fine.
Why does our school district get dragged through these situations? It's not conducive with having a good community image.
Speaking of community image, it looks like Morris could end up a stone's throw from an ICE detention facility. Those places are concentration camps. We can only hope the public associates Appleton more than Morris.
We heard our nation's president speak at a political rally the other night, for 90 minutes, in a manner conjuring up images of Nuremberg in the rise of you-know-what. How will this all play out?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Change at paper relative to town's economy

Tumbleweeds in the USA heartland?

The sale of the Morris newspaper reflects something that is going on in the Morris area economy. If a chain couldn't make it here with the "synergy" (economic advantages) that a chain can employ, one must wonder if the alternative would offer any advantages.
Maybe the change even reflects what is happening in the nearby Swift County economy. Huh? The new owner of the Morris paper has his professional roots in Benson. I am hearing horror stories about the Swift County economy. There's the theory that the new Morris paper owner seeks diversification from his home base. So we welcome him here.
Assuredly we have the welcome mat out. One must wonder, though, if the intangible of good intentions will go far in a purely business context. Yes, the intention is to create a true "hometown" product. With all due respect, a statement like this comes off as rather cliche-ish.
(My late co-worker Terry Manney thought I talked about cliches too much. My friend Del Sarlette and I have an inside joke: "Watch that first step, it's a cliche.")
We assume the Morris economy slows in summer. We assume the local economy can stay propped up largely by UMM. There does seem to be a growing divide between UMM and the broader community based on silly political considerations. We appreciate the Superior company, yes, but any foundation industry in the private sector can succumb at any time to the vicissitudes of industry. Small towns across the heartland have become shuttered because private interests could not "keep the faith." An institution like UMM is generally more stable - we ought to do all we can to support it.
Heartland U.S. people have gravitated to a vaguely defined "red state" set of values. They feel that because of this, they cannot be in league with UMM. They give a thumbs-up to Donald Trump, because. . . Well, why? Here's a profane individual whose words even on a Sunday inspire incredulity all over the media, and surely the Trump crowd cannot keep decrying so much media as "fake." I don't hear people on the street talking about fake news.
I think people on the street simply feel flummoxed by what is happening around them. Generally we have seen our community of Morris as immune from the many trends that have hollowed out the heartland. Tom Brokaw uses the term "Great Plains states." UMM is the main reason we can take some comfort. One wonders how confident we ought to feel. We assume the pace of life will pick up here in fall. It might happen again in 2019 as if on cue. We just can't be sure of the extent.
I just came home from a restaurant where a change was taped on the weekly schedule they have posted - now the Saturday closing time is earlier. On my way home I pass by Northern Impressions along a service road, and it has appeared shuttered for a long time. It gets old to see a "for sale" sign for so long. I suppose anything can be for sale.
The Morris newspaper has been sold by Forum Communications, the well-known newspaper chain of the Upper Midwest. Forum supposedly had all the tricks for keeping papers viable. When the Morris paper went from twice weekly to once, the manager told people it was a move to ensure the long-term stability of the business. But now the owner is bailing. I'm told the Forum never made money here.
New owner Reed Anfinson, in order to promote good will, is going to have to spend some. This in the digital age when so much of the info we need and want circulates with no cost to anyone. Author Tom Friedman talks about the old "friction" being gone. The legacy costs of the newspaper business are formidable in today's climate.
 
The Forum and politics
Forum Communications did not endorse a candidate for president in 2016. Why so hesitant? The behemoth newspaper company had a history of having all its properties endorse candidates. All properties had to endorse the same candidates, so it was deemed controversial by many. Maybe even by yours truly.
But Forum decided to just whiff on the 2016 race, telling its readers in effect "you're on your own." Well of course we can handle it. Forum was not alone in backing off the presidential race. Some of those interests are now saying that was a mistake. If they spoke favorably of a third party candidate, they realize now that this approach is always pointless. Fundamentally they had to realize that either Trump or Clinton was going to be president. Much was at stake.
Forum is historically Republican, though they cleverly approve of an occasional Democrat, one who the polls show will win anyway, so they can wave their arms and say they're not so automatic.
So, Forum did not endorse Trump. But they have seemed a little schizophrenic. The Republican in their DNA makes them seem more approving than not. The Forum's Willmar paper had a headline not long ago that would have persuaded me to never again spend a nickel on a Forum product. "Trump works to keep families together." It was a banner job on the top of page 1. It suggested that Trump is this benevolent hero toward migrants at the border. Let's not dissect that - we all know the facts.
Trump's attitude about tariffs is fueling a trade war that looks as though it will disproportionately hurt the very Midwest where small towns and the ag sector are in duress. It's amazing that our Shopko store in Morris just sits vacant on the north side of town. We have lost our summer festival, Prairie Pioneer Days, which was once such a grand affair. I know it's in the fall now. But we could have just upgraded the UMM welcome picnic. Presto, two are better than one.
When a chain newspaper decides to leave a town, it really is concerning, no matter how much the new owner comes in looking like a white knight. The old and tired newspaper business is an uphill struggle now. It's paternalistic - the wise people at the paper who will carefully weigh what information they decide to publish for us. In pre-digital times the system was needed. Today it seems almost vestigial.
The new owner will be very interesting to watch no doubt. No one can question the intentions. But will it be a passing curiosity?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

Morris newspaper being sold

You never know when a nugget of significant community news will come at you. This happened to me yesterday and it had the effect of a couple cups of strong coffee. It comes forth during the slow summer months when we depend on the county fair to sense some semblance of real community activity. Otherwise we're just yawning as so many of us retreat to "the lake" on weekends.
Many of the more economically disadvantaged people do not have "the lake" as an option in summer. But no matter, we can try to find fulfillment right within our community of Morris. The lake people are probably incredulous about that. But they are happy to keep their professional ties going in Morris, so as to make money. They seem to overlook whatever inherent joy might be felt by living here.
I try to seek that inherent enjoyment. But it doesn't help that the community allowed the summer Prairie Pioneer Days to just die. It died and no replacement came forth. And, informed sources tell me it was wiped off the summer slate because so many of the more influential people in Morris didn't want to bother with it during that time of year when they wanted to "go to the lake."
 
Here's the news:
Yesterday (Thursday) I found out from totally well-placed sources that the Morris newspaper has been sold. Or, it's in the process of being sold. Is this a big deal? Not sure about that, because I suspect that the younger adults have grown up in a world so full of communication options, the status of "the local newspaper" probably means little to them. It means more to people my age, n'est-ce pas?
So, I don't wish to fall into a rut of generational thinking.
Surely there is nothing wrong with having a good community newspaper. Over the recent past our paper has been run by a non-local chain. The chain is based in Fargo ND. After they had been in charge for a while, a local businessperson said to me: "All they're interested in doing is selling advertising." It's incontrovertible that Forum Communications made cuts with the obvious motive of maximizing profit while the window was still open for newspapers to make a decent profit.
The cutting strategy appears not to have worked. A well-placed source tells me that Forum has never made money from its acquisition of the Morris paper. Actually the Forum bought both the Morris and Hancock papers, but the latter became a victim of their slash and burn approach.
A source tells me that the new owner, the esteemed Reed Anfinson of the Elbow Lake and Benson papers, will strive to completely reverse course and re-shape the Morris paper along traditional lines. So, the paper will have a heart and soul again.
But is it too late? We all know about the headwinds that the print media are facing everywhere. Much of this is a blessing of course: the easy availability of information online that is free. Anfinson will have to bolster investment in the product, an investment of both money and sheer effort. All of this is totally laudable. But will it work in a business context? That is a huge question and one which may well not have a favorable answer.
I remember the day when we had an open house for the new newspaper building, under Forum's ownership. We had moved from our sweet location in east Morris, across from the Post Office, to a place "across the tracks" in west Morris. I had an odd feeling all along that things just weren't going well. I felt no cause to "celebrate" anything. My parents came and I almost felt uncomfortable they were there. The editor wasn't there that day and he later claimed to not feeling well or something. I doubt that.
At the end of the day I felt an obligation to attend a staff gathering at the Morris Legion, this when smoking indoors was still permitted. A member of upper Forum management was there and he smoked a lot, as I recall. When I got home I put my smelly clothes in the basement until I could get them aired out.
Eventually the company played the typical corporate game with me so that I'd leave, which I did in June of 2006. It's possible the UMM goalpost incident set the wheels in motion for that - the catalyst as it were. I feel bad that my coverage of that even became a topic for unpleasant discussion. The crowning blow was a letter to the editor from Michael Busian when he was still alive. I suspect he was part of a group that developed negative feelings about me - Morris is a town of "groups" of course - and I regret he couldn't get to know me better. I'm really quite human.
I suspect his letter got the attention of Forum higher-ups. Tom Larson here probably got marching orders to turn the screws on me, because his personality toward me changed abruptly. For a long time I enjoyed my contact with him.

A return to Quinco of Lowry
My source tells me the Morris paper under Anfinson will return to Quinco Press in Lowry. I am overjoyed to hear that. Quinco was a big part of my life when I took over the van driving duties from Howard Moser when Howard had arrived at a time in his life when he had to retire. Taking over those duties was an infusion of significant life in my career, at a time when various interests and individuals associated with the Morris school district had become fierce adversaries toward me.
Today I can write about Tiger sports online, getting info from other media sources, and not worry about what anyone thinks.
Our school district went through a torrent of harmful controversy and conflict in the decade of the 1980s, culminating in 1988-90. Education is always being pulled through transitions. The kind of problems we had in the 1980s were typical to a degree, but we just felt it far worse than in other places.
My interpretation is that our biggest problem was the intransigence of our local public school teachers union. It was one of those "groups" that I have alluded to, one of the defining features of Morris MN. In fact, Kevin Wohlers tells me that one aspect of the Prairie Pioneer Days changes is that there is "a group" - his words - that has become absolutely determined to shift the event to September.
In September all the well-heeled "lake people" are pretty much done with going to the lake, right? Del Sarlette has advised me, though, that in September people still find excuses to leave town on weekends, and in September it's to "go to the Cities."
 
Door is closed, probably
I probably will be afforded no more opportunities to work in the commercial media again. I'm 64 and probably losing some of my get up and go. My eyesight has been deteriorating and I'm considering Lasik eye surgery.
I certainly do wish the new ownership of the Morris paper well - I'm not saying that in an obligatory way. And I wish them well even if certain key people might have negative biases toward me. I'm getting Social Security so I do have a foundation. However, I'm afraid of interest rates being cut to zero in which case I could lose all interest on my bank savings. Well, you can't go through life worrying.
My sources tell me Sue Dieter is "out" as part of the change. The rest of the staff is welcome to stay, I'm told. I wonder if Sue's departure will be reported in a way that indicates an amicable situation. If it's non-amicable, do I feel sorry for her? I actually do. She has gotten an image of being rather aloof, maybe even arrogant. But I saw a side to her that was softer and more sympathetic. I will say this: she appeared to defer totally to Forum Communications. I doubt she would ever assert herself and try to advocate for the best way of serving the Morris community.
We'll see how things go now.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

"Muskrat Love" by car dealership?

Muskrat makes its rounds

Have you noticed the depression in the little road that enters Heartland Motors from the east, from the service road network? There's a big pond next to the road. Was the depression a normal part of the design? I have had reason to go there recently and thought nothing of it. Don't wish to discuss the reason because there was a monetary element!
In the last few days I heard an interpretation of the depression or low spot. Don't know if this source had absolute facts at his disposal. It seemed he did but one cannot be sure. Informed speculation? Let's get to the heart of the matter: it is suggested that muskrats have been at work. Yes, the animal kingdom.
I live in a semi-rural setting so I'm aware of how nature makes inroads. I could list many of the usual culprits. Muskrats would be a new one. I have seen muskrats do their thing in the days when my father took me duck hunting. They're cute little creatures actually.
It is suggested that muskrats have done some digging to affect the entry to the car dealership. If true, it's another example of how creatures of the wild can seem benign until they do something that affects you. I'll mention here that we're in August, the month when bats are at their worst as a pest in Minnesota. The hints of fall no doubt cause the winged pests to get into structures more.
Pest control professionals do not respond to skunk calls. They will give you some free advice over the phone. Upon reflection, I can see why it's not practical for the pros to deal with skunks. No matter how professional they are, they cannot guarantee that something bad will not happen. Another problem: even if you live-trap a skunk, if it's a female and has young ones close by, the young ones would be susceptible to dying, and then you'd have skunk carcasses to deal with, right?
I learned that skunks have their babies in May. A neighbor once mentioned he had a skunk get into a window well. A little research shows that's a common occurrence. So, to be prepared, have a board handy that is the right size to insert in the window well, so the furry fellow can get out. Yes, one can panic easily in such situations.

Little brown bat

Bats really freak people out. The going rate for having a bat professional visit is about $700. Well, when you need the service, you really need it. Have you heard or read that it's illegal to kill a bat? You might have. Be advised that the purpose of this "law" is to restrain the bat pros, so if they discover a whole colony they don't just destroy it. Bats have a role in our ecology. I have suggested to Steve Poppe that the WCROC horticulture garden install a couple "bat houses." These are known to attract excited viewers in the twilight hours. Steve says the idea has been discussed.
I once had my mom in church when a bat started flapping up around the ceiling. I took Mom out. I wondered if the service would be ended very soon, but I heard later it was not. A big net was used to corral the animal, I learned. Shall I assume that every church has a net handy like that? Ah, the details that a minister must be aware of.
My father had a storage shed installed on the west end of our property many years ago. It appears sunken a little, no doubt due to critters, perhaps groundhogs which I've seen occasionally but not on an ongoing basis. I wouldn't expect to see one this time of year.
We're doing well hosting cottontail rabbits on Northridge Drive, thank you. No one in our neighborhood these days will shoot them, and I'm thankful for that. Might even be illegal because we're in the city limits (on the edge). Mom and I found the rabbits to be pleasant companions.
Some people are bothered by squirrels but Mom and I weren't.
There are more skunks out and around than you realize. That's because their activity is nocturnal. They are not real defensive creatures and they don't need to be, as they know they have the most potent weapon, to be deployed vs. an adversary of any size. Skunks only deploy the weapon if they feel very threatened.
I wish my father had not installed the storage shed because mice get in there. I will not put a lawn mower or similar equipment in there, and now that I have just one car, there's room in the garage. After Mom died I discarded my father's prize 1991 Lincoln Town Car. Got a grand total of $200 for it.
My experience with creatures of the wild has made me not want to feed the birds anymore. No point in tossing black oil sunflower seeds out and around. Thistle seed is expensive! We did have some fun doing that, though. I'll never forget how we attracted the grand rose-breasted grosbeaks. I inquired if those were rare and was told "no" by the local expert - there are pockets of them.
The highlight of my bird watching was to catch a glimpse of a gray jay, out of its usual territory, in our backyard. It's not unusual to see birds out of place sometimes, I was told - "they fly!"
Go to Niemackl Park in spring to appreciate birds. I've heard you might see a scarlet tanager. There's a peaceful and charming YouTube video of a muskrat making its rounds in winter at Niemackl.
"Muskrat Love" is a soft rock song that shows us anthropomorphic muskrats. Their names are Susie and Sam. Ah, cute. The song was first recorded in 1972. The group "America" recorded a cover in 1973 and it was a minor hit, reaching No. 67 (yes, minor).
Then along came Captain and Tennille, the "Love Will Keep Us Together" duo that eventually got divorced. No big deal about their marriage, but they were superbly talented in the pop field. They recorded "Muskrat Love" in 1976 and found the sweet spot for presenting the tune. Their version rocketed up to No. 4 on the Hot 100 chart. Cash Box ranked it the 30th biggest hit of 1976.

Scott Long would laugh at this

Was the gopher in the movie "Caddyshack" truly anthropomorphic? Probably not, even though this industrious little fellow did his jive-dance. I first saw this movie with Scott Long at the Morris Theater. Scott could hardly control himself laughing at the Bill Murray character. Just imagine those little muskrats at the Heartland Motors pond charming us likewise.
Critters such as these can charm and they can be a real menace. Did I say I personally saw them? On Sunday morning when I was on bike, I stopped by the Heartland pond and immediately saw 3-4 of the little fellows bobbing in the water on the south end.
Is it still just speculation that the animals are causing the entry road to sink some? Might someone want to dispatch the animals? Would pest control do this? Maybe if certain interests wanted to seek insurance to cover damage, the animals should be allowed to live so as to document their presence. Besides, how could you possibly dispatch them after hearing Captain and Tennille's "Muskrat Love?"
For the record, any pest issues at the wonderful Williams residence on Northridge Drive are addressed. A bat pro came and we addressed three issues, one of which was seen as most likely, and for that I had a little home improvement job done by the very capable Mark Woolridge. The problem was a slightly sagging portico ceiling. I couldn't figure out how the bat could get into the basement but they need only a tiny crack of space.
A skunk scare came and went, thank goodness. It was a mother that had young ones in spring. The problem spot has been addressed with chicken wire and bricks. 
I plant zinnias generously in early summer and rabbits have not been a problem. I don't store anything with a motor in the storage shed anymore. On one occasion the wizard Glen Helberg, when he was still with us, fixed our rider and only charged me cost. God bless his memory.
I still "talk" to the rabbits through our picture window facing north sometimes. Mom enjoyed having them as company. I'd say "Look Mom, Mr. Rabbit is here!" Maybe there's a song there. Mom was not as charmed by "Mr. Fox."
I have heard that if you extend your hand in winter with sunflower seed in it, a chickadee might come and land right on your hand! Haven't experimented with that yet.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com

We approach fall with Trump-ism still looming

It is August and the time of year when, in my younger and less aware years, I'd get excited about football. You can watch the movie "Concussion" starring Will Smith for free on the "Crackle" site.
I remember one year, a well-known Morris businessman came into the Sun Tribune office and engaged in a little idle conversation re. the Vikings in the ad manager's office. I heard him refer to the "coloreds" on the Vikings team. The people willing to make references like this are fading from society, for sure. But they retain enough of an influence to keep President Trump propped up to a degree. They are his foundation, the people who refer to "the coloreds."
The Sun Tribune employee in the office smiled through the chat in the spirit, I'm sure, of humoring the individual because he was an advertiser. Advertising money rules in such businesses.
Many of us are wondering how history will ultimately record the Trump presidency. It's in the spirit of "once all this blows over." Such speculation is on the increasingly shaky assumption that the U.S. can even survive this stage in our history. Trump continually shatters norms like how you're not supposed to try to interfere with the Federal Reserve. Trump is walking all over that in spades.
Maybe historians will be perplexed someday about why there wasn't more of a revolt from the truly sensible people in society, and that includes a lot of Republicans. Respected conservatives run a great risk at present of being marginalized if they show skepticism about Trump. They seem literally intimidated into silence in many cases. Worse yet, they can be intimidated into submission or acquiescence with the absurd human being who occupies the presidency.
I remember several years ago telling friend Brent Waddell that I felt Neil Cavuto of Fox News had "a trace of humanity." I watched closely because even though Cavuto seemed to "tow the line" a great deal with Fox News, he didn't seem to be blind about it. His conservative sensibilities seemed tempered by a genuine caring about what was right and wrong. Yes, he had an "absolute" about keeping taxes as low as possible. He did an April Fool's gag more than once, as I recall, where he stated a new receptiveness to taxes - then came the April Fool's message. In Cavuto's eyes, limited taxes was partnered with reining in spending.
Look at the national deficit under Trump. Has there been any restraint in spending? I asked friend Dan Pagel, a good old tea partier who felt Jeb Bush could be judged part of "the swamp," if the deficit would be any higher under Jeb than under Trump. The Trump apologists these days, like Rush Limbaugh, seem to shrug and say it's a fool's errand trying to contain the deficit, like it just can't be done. Limbaugh is a professional entertainer and he knows he'll be finished if he criticizes Trump. Psychologists have a term for this: "learned behavior." My term would be "racist-inspired." Shall we throw in "Stockholm syndrome?"
To you racists I'll say that racism is never going to win in the end, so just get over it. Better yet, learn to love all humanity.

Neil Cavuto

I bring up Neil Cavuto because he is now daring from his platform on the propagandist Fox News, to speak truth to power. He is taking on the new Trump-inspired Republican power structure that thinks protective tariffs are fine. He is suggesting "balderdash."
Trump says "the tariffs are not being paid for by our people" but "by China." Trump further says that of the "billions" he claims we're getting from China now, a part of it is being given to American farmers. He says "the farmers, they came out totally whole." I'd ask farmers "are you tired of winning yet?"
Cavuto's response to the president's assertions: "I don't know where to begin." He continued: "Just to be clarifying, China isn't paying these tariffs. You are."
The latest round of tariffs that begin on September 1, on $300 billion worth of goods at ten percent, "that will be felt by consumers directly," Cavuto says.
The Fed chairman made his first public statement about the probability of lowering interest rates, when Trump was threatening the tariffs on Mexico. Those tariffs were cancelled but a good case of jitters set in. Now the Fed may be in the process of a continual rate reduction cycle, which began as "insurance" for the economy in the event the trade war exacts a toll. The interest I get on bank CDs may drift down to near zero, so Trump is now having a direct effect on my life.
I will not be able to give as much money to my church, but since it's a "liberal" ELCA church, a church that believes in climate change theory and accepts gay people on equal terms, Trump supporters couldn't care less. They'd probably like to see the ELCA die. Well, it's in a process of decline anyway.
If Christianity didn't even exist in America, Donald Trump would not be our president. Think about that.
With football getting closer, I'm thinking again about the businessman who came into the Sun Tribune talking about "the coloreds" on the Vikings. He's retired now but once sold pressure washers in Morris.
 
Addendum thoughts: If a "tax cut" is paid for by borrowing, does it really accomplish anything? And, Fox News seems surprisingly receptive to Obamacare now, because the insurance companies see this system is better for them, than what is being suggested by many Democrats. The "talking heads" are getting talking points from the insurance company heavy-hitters.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com