Trump trial makes local supporters ugly, racist

Material in my email account provides the fodder for this blog entry. The communications are a little more earthy, less formal. Nice insights? That's the idea. We're in late April as there appears to be a crescendo in Trump's legal trouble. So I worry: How will all the Trumpists react as the tenor of it all gets worse? Real civil disorder maybe? So I start here with an email I sent to Warrenn Anderson. I proceed from this subject to a couple others.

Hello Warrenn - I'm getting the impression today that the Trump trial is getting the Trump people more worked up than ever, all over the place. So I go to DeToy's this morning at about 8 a.m. and (name withheld) is in there. I'm prepared for his talk but it is getting more intense, kind of disturbing. I don't dislike him but I find the talk to be a little annoying. Like this morning when it got to the extent that he's citing "the black attorney general of New York." This is not a direct reference to the hush money case but it's all getting so complicated now. I told (name of server withheld) that when the talk gets racial, it's really not cool. Best thing for me to do, might be to stay away from that place for a while, or I'll park my car a couple blocks away. Don't want my car to be "keyed" or anything like that.

I say this in a non-emotional way but I really think Trump should have been put in jail by now. It may be too late now, as he has intimidated jurors. And Fox News says we can't trust anyone who gets their news from the New York Times or CNN. Disqualify 'em.

Maybe you're aware that the activities/athletic director at school has bolted from here to go to Minnewaska. My source on this says it's most likely because of the salary issues that the teachers have been making such a huge deal about. The librarian tells me the problem is "Republicans on the school board." Oh my. You and I probably wish the personnel at the school had been more fluid back in the '80s! So now there's a new girls basketball coach. I hope that when Kaylee Harstad starts playing college ball, she can still reach her potential. I don't think she has yet. Cate Kehoe made four 3-pointers in a game two years ago.

Jim Carlson RIP made the Jazz Fest

I tried going to the Jazz Festival at UMM. Walked into the Oyate building and there was a crush of people. It took a few moments for me to realize this was a "line." They must have only had one person selling tickets at the entry. Line hardly moved at all, and there was a woman at the front yakking back and forth with the person at the desk. I had to wonder "how is it so complicated to buy a $10 ticket." Unfortunately I did not have the patience to stay, sorry, so I departed. Ticket was $10. Toward the end when Jim Carlson was here, I remember paying $18 but of course he brought in such great clinicians. A source informed me that the Fest had become too expensive for the institution then. But of course Bob Bruininks loved it! Well, they can afford to pay Sue Dieter's salary.

What are things going to look like next fall at UMM? The forces working against UMM are not letting up, only getting worse IMHO. Has the new U president visited here yet, to give a speech so dripping with admiration about the liberal arts that I'd want to gag? It's time to stop pretending that the liberal arts are so great. Imholte's days are long gone. The Internet has changed everything, like it or not.

I wonder if UMM graduation will again be extremely low-budget? No print program, no band, no choir, a recording of Pomp and Circumstance? Sadly, we all once took for granted all the special features of graduation. I was present for the first UMM graduation in 1964, U of M president here. It was held outside. I seem to recall a pleasant evening, I was nine years old.

Michael Lackey's guest was quite good, her presentation kept my attention.

Yes Caitlin Clark is incredible, no doubt. Some people might start suggesting she's a better 3-point shooter than the men, and to that I'll immediately repeat that the women use a smaller ball! I suppose the smaller ball was part of the design of the women's game when they hadn't caught up yet. But now they have? Again, it'd be neat to see the men play with the women's ball! And you thought Dan Majerle made long attempts!!!

I haven't seen this week's Morris paper yet but I'm informed that it butchers the spelling of "Humane Society," presents it as "Human Society." Bob Dylan could write a song called "Human Society," eh? Can you imagine what people around town would say about me if I did a misspelling like this? Paper misspelled Janet's name in the inauguration coverage, plus misspelled Grayson Gibson's name as "Gipson" in a headline. I would be called a hundred kinds of dumb if I did this, by the Mary Ann Scharfs of the community.

- BW

 

I share heads-up with friend Randy Olson of Bonanza Valley. I quote from the newspaper's Facebook page:

"In this week's print edition, the headline and body text incorrectly reads 'Stevens County Human Society.' We apologize for this error."

So it was headline AND body text?

 

From Del Sarlette:

Yes, I saw that, too. I laughed out loud when I read that. 

 

Communicating further with Del:

Just had coffee with Brent Waddell. I guess there's more to the teachers' complaining than we are aware. It has to do with how payroll is managed for the school. Sounds pretty bad, people who don't know what they are doing. An old truism: "Money never comes easy." Interesting how when "mistakes are made," it's always on the side of paying people less rather than more.

 

Here I communicate with fellow First Lutheran Church member Ward Voorhees. Choppy seas, you might say, for FLC these days.

First Lutheran Church, Morris

Hello Ward - I can't help but watch how FLC is doing, just in terms of basic vitality. I told Del yesterday that I am very firm on this: if I ever arrive at FLC at 10:15 on Sunday and find that coffee hour is "canceled," that's it and I'm done for all time at FLC, won't even enter the building again. I have always been very concerned when coffee hour is canceled. I remember this happening a couple times when the great Todd Mattson was here. Like it or not, coffee hour is an equal attraction to the service if not greater. People wouldn't want to admit that. Since covid we are more restricted in our social movements, so it's nice to be around people at church coffee. I think Ken Keller and Lynn Riser attended because of coffee hour. The Thraens greatly enjoy it.

It is a huge change for coffee hour to be at 10 and the service at 11.

We're not supposed to think about "competition" between First and Faith but I'm sure we do - how can we help it? So I'll admit it. Here's a thought: sometimes when a church starts getting crowded like Faith is, people will find it a relief to go to a less-crowded place like First. You might feel more important or appreciated there, your kids too.

Right now Faith has the problem of being next to where the fire happened and that place looks terrible. I have told friends it looks like bombed-out Germany at the end of WWII. Right next to church entrance.

I don't know who the pastor will be this coming Sunday. I'm still concerned about Federated pastor visiting. You say he'll stay away from sensitive social issues, but is that just an assumption? Don Reicosky says that only 25-30 people are at Sunday services at Faith.

 

Here's from an email I sent to Jim Morrison on April 10. I comment on the recent news of several community newspaper closures in Minnesota. Some closures are of "suburban" newspapers which might not raise eyebrows out here, but what about Hutchinson and Litchfield? Hmmm.

Jim - I went to library yesterday to see Morris paper. Last week it was the very minimal 14 pages, this week 16. Still tiny compared to overall what we did. Of course we're in totally different times now. Imagine no Internet!

I am aware that the "suburban" newspapers were a completely different animal from out here, not really comparable though I'm not sure why. But Hutchinson and Litchfield? And Reed makes it sound like those papers just reflected the suburban model, i.e. owned by big impersonal distant company.

The "Stevens County Times"

Well, my friend Randy Olson of Bonanza Valley told me that when the Forum left here, it was going to close the Morris paper just like it did the Hancock paper. He said he had contacts that made this certain, and I believe him. I wonder if Sue Dieter had knowledge of that but kept it to herself, so maybe when Morris community leaders got wind of it, they insisted she be "out" there. I have assumed that the Anfinsons did not give Sue the option of staying there, but that's just an assumption. I figure no way could she accept being subordinate there, because she's such a know-it-all about everything. She laughs at people and belittles people all the time - I witnessed it.

So here's my question for this morning: Is there SUCH A HUGE DIFFERENCE in the business models for the Litchfield/Hutchinson papers as compared to Morris, and isn't Morris really kind of a chain paper in the sense it's the Anfinson chain? But why the disparity in business models? And if the big companies find the situation so hopeless as to close papers, how can the more local papers be so much more different?

I thought the big companies had the advantage of "synergy." Remember Bill Marcil? You accused me of being good at "chatting him up." Well yes this is a trait I have.

- BW

 

Faith Lutheran, Morris

An asterisk with "free meal"

I attended the free community meal at Faith Lutheran on April 8. My day-after reaction in an email to Del:

I'd never complain about a free meal! But, the serving line had its definite challenges last night. First I got the bowl of soup. Put it on the plate? Well I did. Then I got two nice little tacos and some nachos. That filled up the plate. Now, I could have held the soup bowl separately but that would start to get difficult. Really the best system would be to have TRAYS. There was a whole other table ahead of us. I wasn't even sure what we were supposed to do there. I just passed and ate what was on my plate. It was a decent little lunch. Then after being seated I went to the beverage table to get a glass of milk. And then I noticed the dessert table where I could have gotten rice pudding, but I had already returned my silverware. I wonder what comments they got on this.

One of my favorite economic commentators says "young people don't realize how health care expenses accumulate for older people." And Marianne Williamson has said "we don't have a health care system in this country, we have a sickness care system." Man, how incredibly true. When Dr. Unger in Willmar diagnosed my hernia, he said "do you think you can live with it?" Well, I think it was more expensive and a bigger hassle for me to wait until an emergency.

When a doctor has a Medicare patient, I think they're real conservative on treatment. Well they don't have to worry about me now, I have disengaged. If they are lucky I will just suddenly drop dead sometime.

 

Del responds. Good to get his mind off his store building issue of bricks falling down to sidewalk!

I didn’t have any problem negotiating the food line at the Community meal last night. The second table was just for the toppings for the soup and tacos. The only problem was that the tacos had been fried shut, so one couldn’t apply the toppings directly. I looked around, and others were dealing with that by dipping the tacos into the toppings piled on their plate, and that worked. Not sure why you couldn’t eat the rice pudding – you could’ve gone back to the line, said “pardon me” and reached through to grab a spoon. You missed a great dessert.

The “bombed out Germany from WWII” to which you referred is the result of a garage fire. The property owners probably have to wait for insurance to work it out before they can have it cleaned up. I didn’t even notice it when we arrived at the church.

Shoeshine guy says that there’s lots of positive buzz from the parents of middle-schoolers relative to the soccer program starting this fall at MAHS. I’m sure you read about that in the Fishwrap report on a recent school board meeting. I hope it does better than the orchestra program that was pushed for back all those years ago. It’ll probably bleed some kids from the football program, which isn’t all bad.

 

I respond to Del:

Did you use the church entrance on the other side of the building? If you failed to notice the bombed-out rubble on the north side, then I'd have to say you're on drugs.

OK, so we were supposed to put a bunch of stuff on top of the soup? I guess I'm scared about making a misjudgment and having people laugh at me. "You dumb s--t."

OK so I was confused. No one could have carried everything in one trip without a tray. So my complaint stands about the meal, although we shouldn't complain if it was free. I might not want to take the chance of being confused again, so I might not go: fear of social rejection. Just like with women.

I'd like to see Pope's football program die because he is so openly antagonistic toward the school board. That's not the way it should be in America. The teachers unions are like organized crime IMHO.

Another official inflation report (CPI) today. It's discouraging how dependent our whole nation is on these numbers. There has to be a better way to live, where we can just have some long-term assurance about our quality of life.

Interesting how soccer looks like a much better "sell" now than it would have been ten years ago. Soccer has been around for time immemorial. In phy ed we considered soccer to be a boring unit, remember? I was actually hoping to see boys volleyball get the go-ahead by the High School League. But football should die. You cannot "spin" football positively, I won't even listen to it.

 

Addendum: Del followed up by saying they had in fact used south entrance at Faith. So he's drug-free.

RIP

Kenny Van Horn had his last rites at Faith Lutheran. There's a man who knew the value of a dollar. Just like my dad.

Oh my, Tom Carrington! Just got word Saturday morning from Hallie my server at DeToy's. I should not have felt shocked because I knew he had health issues. But I was shocked. And we have lost Rodney Bratton too. Death is the great equalizer for all of us.

 

The great Earl Wilson closed out his newspaper columns by saying "That's earl, brother."

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com