Willow's Tenth Birthday!

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandfather

Willow Files, my Oregon granddaughter, has a birthday today - a big one - she is ten!

Willow has spent her entire life living in the same house in Oregon with her two older brothers, Judah and Sebastian, and her parents.  She is in fourth grade and goes to a nice school located very near her home.  Willow is a good student and likes school, and I know that during the pandemic when all of the kids had to stay home, Willow really missed being around her friends.   Willow learned to play the ukulele at her school, and now she is learning the violin.

Willow is also a talented artist.  Last year her beautiful drawing of a cheetah (her school's mascot) made the cover of the school's yearbook, and this year she has developed an interest in drawing anime.

One of my favorite memories of Willow was when she and her mother came to Arizona to take care of me after my heart surgery in the spring of 2013.  She was just a little tyke then, still in diapers.  A couple of years ago Willow and her family also came to visit me on the farm in Missouri.  I try to go to Oregon twice a year to see her and her family, but this darned pandemic has made travel harder, so I don't get to Oregon as often as I would like.

Willow, I hope that you and your cats, and Pixie, and your brothers, and your parents all have a wonderful time on your birthday.  May your day be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and very, very special!

Much love, Pa Rock.

Ralph Is Gone

by Pa Rock

Farmer in Autumn

I approached the chicken coop before dawn this morning and knew something was wrong before I even got close enough to notice that the door to the coop was open.  There was no light yet, but the guineas were already fussing and the three little roosters were calling their greetings, or threats, to the approaching day.  But Ralph, the big rooster, was eerily silent.  Usually Ralph is the first voice of morning, and the most strident.

The door being open was a very bad sign.  It meant that I had forgotten my last chore of the evening yesterday - that of walking out to the coop and closing the birds in for the night.  The poor guys had been there all night, unprotected  from the owls, raccoons, coyotes, and all of the other predators who might have happened by.

I rushed in and turned on the lights to take an accounting of the situation.  The three guineas were up in the rafters, one little rooster was also in the rafters, and the other two were sitting down lower on the metal garbage can where Ralph normally roosts.  And Ralph, the farm boss, was gone.  There were no feathers strewn about the coop or other signs of carnage, but the big golden rooster was gone.  Something had apparently taken advantage of my fatal negligence and grabbed him during the night and then ran for the tall grass.

It was a very distressing way to start the day, and I am going to miss that fussy old rooster.

Why did I forget to close the door to the chicken coop yesterday evening?  I'm getting old, and I do forget things.  There have been a couple of other nights when I have forgotten the birds until it was almost my bedtime, and then walked out after dark to check on them and shut them in.  But it was probably due to fatigue more than just general forgetfulness.  Yesterday I completed two hard days on the mower, covering the whole yard and mulching acres of leaves.  I went to bed early and never gave the birds a second thought.

Ralph deserved better.  I'm sorry, buddy.

If Your Grandfather Hadn't Worn It, You Wouldn't Exist

 

by Pa Rock

Reminiscer

Buying gifts for my dad was always a struggle.  He had a belt which he used for holding up his pants and for the occasional "disciplining" of his son, and he had one or two ties which got dragged out on the rarest of occasions - like funerals - and not always then.  So he was never in need of the standard belts or ties as gifts.

The only hobby that I remember which consumed much my dad's time was fishing, and he already had two or three rods and reels, fishing line, hooks and sinkers.  There wasn't much that Dad needed for that endeavor except for an occasional carton of worms or a box of frozen shrimp - neither of which did well gift-wrapped.

But my old man did have one major vanity:  he liked to smell good, and to achieve that he dutifully splashed on his ""Old Spice" every morning before going out into the world.  Old Spice was something he liked and something he actually used, and over the years it became the "go to" gift for Dad.  There were new and unique gift sets each holiday season, but the smells remained the same.  It was a rare birthday or Christmas when Dad did not find himself opening at least one gift box of Old Spice aftershave and cologne - and in his later years even his grandkids began gifting him Old Spice.

New scents from other companies started coming into the market while I was in high schools, the the young baby-boomers began splashing those on, but many of the old timers, the guys in my dad's generation, remained loyal to their Old Spice.  

Now, of course, most of my dad's generation have passed on, but the scent of Old Spice still lingers.  The aftershave and cologne no longer dominate the market as they once did, yet they persist.  I use Old Spice stick deodorant, something that I began decades ago for environmental reasons.  It's a good product that does what it was designed to do, and while I use the original scent "classic" variety, the deodorant, in keeping up with the diversity of society, now comes in a variety of strengths and scents.  There are, in fact, so many choices, that it is sometimes a challenge to find the "classic."

This morning, after showering and getting ready to face the day, I happened to notice the quote on the back of my Old Spice deodorant, "If your grandfather hadn't worn it, you wouldn't exist."   The folks at Old Spice are trying to remain relevant in the marketplace, and to do that they are out stirring memories.

That statement on the backside of the deodorant stick - one that I had never noticed before - made me smile.  Old Spice may be a bit retro, but so am I.

Thanks for the memory and the smile, Old Spice!   May you make many new friends this holiday season!

These Abhorrent Times

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In a desperate push to make waves and generate some cheap publicity, a few Republican members of the  US House of Representatives , usual suspects, have glommed onto acquitted murderer Kyle Rittenhouse as a way to keep their name in the news.   Four have publicly offered the Kenosha shooter internships with their congressional offices.  Madison Cawthorn, a representative from North Carolina, seems to have hatched the publicity stunt first, and it was quickly borrowed by Matt Gaetz of Florida, Paul Gosar of Arizona, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.   

None of the representatives of Rittenhouse's home state of Illinois seem to be seeking his services at this time - and so far the GOP celebrity seems to be still enjoying his post-trial publicity tour and has not indicated an interest in accepting any of the offers.  It's probably hard to impress a celebrity like Kyle with an internship, ever a congressional internship, when Donald John Trump is salivating all over him!

So Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia took the GOP Rittenhouse Adoration Fest to a new low this past Wednesday when she introduced a bill in Congress, one that has no chance of passage, to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the exonerated killer for his efforts to "protect" his community.  (The shooter's. home and actual community is Antioch, Illinois, which is more than twenty miles from Kenosha - where the shootings and killings occurred, and there is certainly a case to be made that the young shooter was more of the "problem" on the night of the protests and shooting than he was a "protector.")

But for the time-being Marge Greene has outmaneuvered all of the other GOP House rodents who are trying to bask in some of Kyle Rittenhouse's undeserved glory.   Cawthorn, Gaetz, Gosar, and Boebert may all talk a good game, but Marge acts.  Who knows what cunning craziness the next few weeks will bring, or which political lunatic will unleash it?

They all cheapen and toxify House of Representatives, just as Kyle Rittenhouse and people like him cheapen and toxify the United States of America.

Somehow we must find a path to healing and move beyond these abhorrent times.

Happy Clicking Holidays!

 

by Pa Rock

Clickist

It's "Black Friday," a day when Americans are allegedly trolling big box stores and maybe even a few local businesses searching for unique gifts for Christmas at bargain prices.   Supposedly this year there will not be as much pushing and shoving as in years past.  I guess we have COVID to thank for that.

I never did go in for the Black Friday nonsense, and I am really not much of a curious shopper.  When I go into a store to buy something, I generally find what I am after within the first few minutes, put it in the cart, and check out.  In fact, I believe that most people know what they are going to buy very quickly, but some like to look at everything else anyway.  They see shopping as a sort of educational experience, or even a social act.  For me it is more of a grab-and-go.

I guess that is why shopping on-line appeals to me.  I have a few sites where I can manage to find most of my gift needs.  A few clicks secures the merchandise and sends it on its way.

No, it's not as colorful or romantic as the Christmas shopping in days of old, but neither is the Black Friday pig push.  Norman Rockwell is dead and the world has changed.  I accept that and I can roll with it.

I finished my shopping this morning - click, click, click - and if my loved ones who receive this gifts don't like them, they are easily returned and replaced without standing in long lines - click, click, click.

It's the way of the world.

Happy clicking holidays!

 

Ancestor Archives Special: Nantucket

 

by Rocky Macy

President Biden and his family are spending their Thanksgiving holiday on the island of Nantucket, a Biden family tradition that goes back many years.  I have some family history connected to Nantucket - and thought that the Biden's holiday visit there might serve as a good excuse to share some of that history.

Nantucket is a small island (less than fifty square miles) that sits out in the Atlantic Ocean about 30 miles from Cape Cod.  It is a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  The island, which had long been a home to the Wampanoag Tribe of indigenous Americans, was "discovered" by Bartholomew Gosnold sailing for England in 1602 and was part of a stretch of territory claimed by England that extended from Cape Cod to the Hudson River.

In 1641 Thomas Mayhew, a merchant in Watertown, Massachusetts, purchased a tract of land from English authorities that included Martha's Vineyard (an island larger than Nantucket) and the island of Nantucket.  Mayhew headquartered his business operation on Martha's Vineyard, and used Nantucket for grazing sheep.  Mayhew, who referred to himself as "Governor," also worked at "Christianizing" the 1,500 or so Wampanoag natives on Nantucket.  Those whom he was successful in converting became known as "praying Indians."

"Governor" Thomas Mayhew was approached in 1659 by a group of nine men who wanted to buy the island of Nantucket.  One of the group was Thomas Macy, Mayhew's cousin, who was a Baptist and experiencing some conflict with the Puritan authorities in Massachusetts.  The group succeeded in their attempt to purchase most of the island from Mayhew, but the seller retained one tenth ownership for himself.  The purchase price for nine-tenths of the island of Nantucket was thirty pounds and two beaver hats, one for "Governor" Mayhew and one for his wife.

The new "owners" of Nantucket Island, except for the land set aside for the island's native population, were:  Tristram Coffin, Peter Coffin (Tristram's son), Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swain, Thomas Barnard, Stephen Greenleaf, John Swain, William Pile - as well as Thomas Mayhew.

The original purchasers of Nantucket were shareholders in a closed corporation and an agreement was reached where each of the ten (including Mayhew) could name a partner who would also have the same rights and privileges as the original shareholders.  The ten full partners were:  Tristram Coffin, Jr., James Coffin, John Smith, Robert Pike, Thomas Look, Robert Barnard, Edward Starbuck, Thomas Coleman, John Bishop, and Thomas Mayhew, Jr.  All twenty of these men were shareholders on equal footing.  They and their heirs were "the Proprietors." 

Thomas Macy and his family were actually the first of the group to settle on Nantucket.  Macy had run afoul of the Puritan authorities in Massachusetts in 1657 when they learned that he had given sanctuary to four  Quakers during a severe rainstorm.  (This incident is the subject of Nantucket descendant Stephen Greenleaf Whittier's poem, "The Exiles.")  Macy had paid a fine of 30 shillings to the General Court, but fearing for the safety of himself and his family, he decided to move to Nantucket in the fall of 1659.  It was apparently a hard winter, and most accounts indicate the family would have perished but for the kindnesses extended to them by the native population of the island.

The natives were repaid for their kindness over the next few decades with disease and death.  The native population on Nantucket by 1700 was down to about seven hundred, while the white population had increased to three hundred.   From there on, of course, the plight of the natives steadily worsened.

As some of those first purchasers and their partners, collectively known as "the Proprietors,"  began settling the island, they quickly determined that if their settlement was to succeed they would need to attract people trained in various skills to the island, and to do that they offered what were known as "half-shares" to draw in practitioners of certain occupations.  One of the "half-share" individuals who came to Nantucket at the invitation of "the Proprietors" was Peter Folger.  Folger was the island's school master and the local government's bookkeeper.   Peter Folger and his wife, Mary, are also historically significant in that they were the maternal grandparents of Benjamin Franklin.

Nantucket became a bastion of independent thought and action.  Over the years it not only served as a refuge to Quakers, a religion reviled by the Puritans who controlled Massachusetts, the small island also became a center of abolitionist and suffragist activity.  And, of course, for many years the name "Nantucket" was synonymous with whaling.

The earliest European settlers on the island thought they could survive by farming and raising sheep, but by the early 1700's it was becoming apparent those endeavors would not be enough to sustain the island's growing population.   There were people on the mainland who were beginning to practice the art of whaling, and the Nantucketers, who could see large numbers of whales frolicking near their shores, brought a master whaler over to teach them how to be whalers.  Before the end of the century, Nantucket had become the recognized world leader in whaling, and ships out of Nantucket  were dominating the seas.

Because the first settlers of Nantucket led a fairly isolated existence, the original families who lived on the island tended to inter-marry, and anyone today who can trace their lineage back to one individual who was living on Nantucket in the last half of the 1600's or the first half of the 1700's, is likely to find many more ancestors there as well.    Genealogical trails through early Nantucket tend to be quite knotted.

Fortunately, the early settlers kept good family records, and there have been some highly detailed genealogies that came from that era and location:  "Genealogy of the Macy Family from 1635-1868" by Silvanus J. Macy (1868)  and "The Coffin Family" by the Nantucket Historical Association and edited by Louis Coffin (1962) are two examples.  Most of the island's early genealogical history through the late 1800's is also contained in the "Barney Genealogical Record" which is maintained on-line through the Nantucket Historical Association and may be accessed free of charge.

As I indicated in an earlier "Ancestor Archive" my Nantucket lineage comes down on my mother's side of the family.  My maternal g-g-g-g-grandmother, Hannah (MACY) COOK, was a Quaker who was born in New Guilford, North Carolina, in 1784.  He parents, Paul and Bethiah (MACY) MACY were second-cousins who moved from Nantucket to North Carolina sometime between 1761, when they were married on Nantucket, and 1784, when Hannah was born.  Both Paul and Bethiah were descendants of several of the Proprietors, some of them multiple times.

My ancestors include Thomas Macy, Tristram Coffin, Thomas Barnard, Edward Starbuck, and Thomas Coleman.  I am also a descendant of half-share man Peter Folger.  It's an interesting lineage and one of which I am proud, but trying to explain it in a narrative format without the aid of family tree charts is something akin to chasing a mouse through a rabbit warren.

When I finally consolidate the "Ancestor Archives" into a book format, those family tree charts will be included.

But for now I wish President Biden and his family a wonderful holiday on modern Nantucket - where the average price of a one-family home was $2.3 million in 2018!   I hope to make it there myself one day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Vigilante Justice is No Justice at All

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A jury in Kenosha, Wisconsin, bought into what some are describing the "I was scared" defense last week and acquitted a teen accused of double homicide and a wounding because the boy cried and said that he had feared the protestors would hurt him.  After the jury found him completely innocent, the lad dried his tears and headed out on a nationwide publicity tour that has even taken him to Mar-a-Lago to meet another pure soul, Donald John Trump.

And now the bar has been set and all a future killer has to do is to remember to claim that he acted out of fear.  It would also be helpful if the killer was white, clean-cut, and male.

At least four states have applied, or are in the process of applying, the same criteria to motorists who drive over protestors.  Oklahoma, Florida, Iowa, and Tennessee have laws on the books or soon will have that condone vehicular homicide if the driver claims he was fearful of the mob and trying to get away.

The United States is legalizing the activities of vigilantes, people who think they know what is best for society and are not bashful about acting as police, judge, and executioner in imposing their views on the world.

It is the revenge of the ignorant and the angry as they try desperately to stop social progress.   

A century ago it was called lynching, and its purpose was to intimidate and to stoke fear - just as it is today - but with guns and cars instead of rope.  

It was wrong then, and it's wrong now.

Vigilante justice is no justice at all.

The Walmart Waltons Strike Again

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I tell people that I haven't been in a Walmart store in the past thirty years, but that is a lie.  In the late 1990's when my father was in the hospital and we thought he might be dying, I was spending the night in his room when he suddenly awoke and began asking for a peppermint - something that neither I nor the hospital had on hand.  There was, of course, only one place in town where peppermints could be had in the middle of the night - Walmart.  I rushed in and out of the local store, purchasing only one bag of peppermints.  Before that it had been at least ten years since I had been in one of their monopolistic hellholes.

So I am mostly pure, but not completely.

Walmart shut down many of America's Main Street businesses and it destroyed the dreams and aspirations of much of the nation's middle class through its focused efforts at killing off labor unions and paying starvation wages to its own employees.  

But I no longer shop there - and if my neighbors want to keep propping up Chinese manufacturers and their slave labor, well that's their business.

But Walmart stores aren't the only scourge that has been loosed on America by the Walton family of northwest Arkansas, Columbia, Missouri, and Beverly Hills, California.  One of Sam's kids also bought the old Bank of Bentonville, Arkansas, and turned it into a chain bank called Arvest which now has branch locations in many communities in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas - and I am still a customer there.

I did not become an Arvest customer voluntarily.  I had banked at the small State Bank of Noel (Missouri) since I was around ten-years-old.  A couple of decades ago Arvest swooped in and bought the Bank of Noel (and all of its accounts), and by then I was an adult and had several accounts with them  and just stayed - a matter of inertia as much as anything else.

By the time I retired in 2014 Arvest had opened a branch in West Plains, the town that I was retiring in, and since all of my retirement checks were already being direct-deposited to Arvest I just automatically kept doing business with the new bank in West Plains.  Both of the branch banks - Noel and West Plains - had extremely nice employees, so I tolerated letting the Waltons profit off of my banking activities.

That toleration began cracking last spring when Arvest suddenly announced that it would be closing several branch banks.  The company had learned during the pandemic that people would continue banking with them without having physical access to an actual building, so they said they would be closing, among others, the little bank at Noel, and the Noel customers could drive to some other Arvest location or bank through one of their convenient ATMs.  So long, suckers - but don't forget to make your deposits and payments on time!

(The Arvest in Noel was the town's only bank!)

I had to take a full day to drive to Noel and clear out my safety deposit box, and on the long drive back to West Plains I pondered about all that would be involved in changing banks altogether.  It would be a great deal of work, so by the time I got home I had talked myself out of moving my several accounts (checking, savings, and savings accounts for my five youngest grandkids) to a different bank.

Then a couple of weeks ago I got another letter in the mail from Arvest.  It arrived just a few days after I had received the new, large desk book of checks that I had ordered through Costco - the best place to order checks, bar none!  The Arvest letter told me that they were selling two branch banks in southern Missouri, and one of them was my bank in West Plains.  The new owners, a small affair out of a small town in Arkansas, would be in touch.

I had been bought by Arvest - many years ago in Noel - and now I was being sold by Arvest!  I will have to do all of the work associated with changing banks - changing direct deposits, changing direct payments, and ordering new checks - again!     If I am going to have to do all of that work anyway, I might as well do it for a REAL local bank.  That search begins today.

So long Arvest - and thanks for the shove!

Some Republicans Are Staying Quiet About Rittenhouse

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Republican politicians may privately feel good about the Rittenhouse "not guilty" verdicts and think that it will keep their base fired up on things like gun rights and white supremacy - and they may smirk and grin and even wink among themselves - but, by and large, most have the good political sense not  to get too carried away on the topic in public.  Rittenhouse is still young and still likely to make the news again - and why should politicians run the risk of saying something positive about any shooter now and having it come back to haunt them after another killing spree?  Most Republicans seem to be standing ready to accept any political benefits that Rittenhouse and people like him push their way, without becoming outright cheerleaders for carnage.

There are, of course, outliers.  I saw a posting from a Republican sheriff in Ohio who was bitching about the jury taking four days to reach a verdict when he seemed to think the case for the shooter's innocence was so obvious that they should have reported the verdict out in ten minutes.

And then of course there was the bane of the Republican Party, Donald John Trump.    Trump has no filters, and he will not be quiet about any subject on which he has an opinion.  He told Laura whats-her-name on Fox News:

"I think it was a great decision.  I was very happy to see it.  A lot of people were happy to see it - most people."

Trump does not understand the fine are of smirking, grinning, and winking.  He is a bullhorn in a library.  

After that scripted soundbite, Trump went on to say that he had sent the National Guard to Kenosha back in August of 2020 - and saved the day.  That was a lie.  The governor of Wisconsin, a Democrat by the name of Tony Evers, brought in the National Guard.  

Trump is loud - and he lies.  Some things never change.

I had a theory that my congressman, Republican Jason Smith, would resist the urge to openly exploit the Rittenhouse verdict, and I was proven right when his weekly email newsletter went out late last night.  Smith, who has never met an armaments bill or a bill reducing the tax rates of corporations and the ultra rich that he could not enthusiastically support, whether the bills were financially responsible or not, was furious in his email newsletter over Joe Biden's proposed human infrastructure spending.  Republicans always seem to see spending money to benefit real people as something we cannot afford.

But, Smith's newsletter never mentioned Kyle Rittenhouse at all!  

Smith's newsletter also said that he had voted against a bill sponsored by Democrats which stripped a House GOP member of his committee assignments.  He sanctimoniously voted against that bill because, he said, Democrats have done worse themselves than what his fellow Republican stood accused of doing.  (That's the old schoolyard bully defense - I'm innocent because he did it, too.). The Republican who lost his committee assignments and was censured was Paul Gosar of Arizona after he (or his office) tweeted an anime depiction of him murdering a Democratic member of Congress.   The unrepentent, and none-too-bright, Gosar immediately reposted the same offensive tweet after his censure by the House.  

And while Congressman Smith voted "no" on the censure of Paul Gosar and was appropriately outraged about it in his newsletter, he declined to mention Congressman Gosar by name.  (At some point Congressman Gosar, like Kyle Rittenhouse, is very likely to make the news again, and some politicians would rather not have quotes of support lingering out in cyberspace that could come back and bite them on their well-fed butts.)  

So for now, even though the Rittenhouse verdicts make members of the GOP feel as though they are in a stronger political position, the sensible thing for them to do is to not insert themselves into the story - because the story in unlikely to be over.  Rittenhouse and/or others like him may well have more wild bullets to sow, and vigilantes (as long as they are white) can now claim the "I was scared" defense.

It is what some might call a "fluid" situation - and the fluid is gasoline.

KC Rep's "A Christmas Carol" 2021

 

by Pa Rock

Theatre Goer

The Kansas City Rep's annual production of "A Christmas Carol" got underway this past Friday evening at the Spencer Theatre at UMKC, and while my Kansas family and I did not make it to the opening night performance, we were on the front row for night two!  It is our annual Christmas tradition, and a great evening was enjoyed by all!

We began going to see this play when Olive was four-years-old.  She is ten now, and we have been every year except for last year when it was not staged live due to the pandemic - but instead limped along through some type of "zoom" production, whatever the heck that is!

Scrooge and the whole wonderful gang are back this year and creating a dickens of a fuss about ghosts and the true meaning of Christmas!  

Last night was little Sully's first trip to see the show.  He is five and we were  concerned about how he would react, and would he be able to sit calmly for the entire production?    But my five-year-old grandson loved it!  Apparently he only shut his eyes a couple of times when the scary ghosts were cavorting on stage!

The artistic director stopped and visited with our family just before he stepped on stage to introduce the show.  He told my red-headed, blue-eyed granddaughter, Olive, that red hair and blue eyes are the rarest combination of hair and eye color on the planet, and that only 1.5% of the people possess both of those traits.  We always knew she was special!

And the show was special, too!  It was, as always, an absolutely fantastic production.  (Each year a few changes are made, so it retains an element of freshness, even for those - and there are many - who go every year.)   The carolers and the music were also superb, as always!   

Great job, KC Rep!  Thanks for reminding us of what the Christmas season is all about and sharing your joyful production with the world!

Happy holidays!  We'll see you again next year!

Al Franken Does Kansas City

by Pa Rock

Missouri Democrat

 

Kansas City has a long history of empty-headed celebrities walking out onto the local stages and telling audiences how happy they are to be in Kansas.  "Kansas" City - so it must be Kansas, right?   One of the biggest geo-political blunders involving the city happened in February of 2020 when the Kansas City Chiefs football team won the Super Bowl by defeating the San Francisco 49er's.  When that happened the President of the United States, a low-intellect, obese grifter by the name of Trump, issued the following congratulatory tweet:

"Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on a great game, and a fantastic comeback, under immense pressure.  You represented the Great State of Kansas and, in fact the entire USA so very well.   Our country is Proud of You!"

Whoops! 

Last night when former US Senator Al Franken took the stage before a packed house at the Uptown Theatre in Kansas City, MISSOURI, he knew exactly where he was - and he drove the point home early and often by making fun of Missouri's junior US Senator, Josh Hawley - and the crowd, of course, loved it!

Franken, who is also a professional comedian and a former writer and performer for Saturday Night Live back when the show was in its infancy, bills himself as "the only former US Senator currently on tour."  He spoke for nearly two hours in what looked to be an off-the-cuff manner, and enthralled the audience, a group of basically middle-aged-to-older Democrats from the Kansas City area - and one straggler from West Plains, Missouri - with stories revolving around Saturday Night Live, life in the Senate, and his takes on life in contemporary America.  In addition is his sharp political and social insights, there were jokes aplenty!

Besides poking Josh Hawley at regular intervals whenever the audience seemed to need a little firing-up, Franken also connected with the Kansas City scene when he began talking about promoting local charities at each of his tour stops.   He brought a young man named "Leftowitz" onto the stage to promote his organization, "Accountants Without Borders."  After Franken and Mr. Leftowitz verbally sparred for awhile about the work of "Accountants Without Borders," Franken summarily dismissed his guest as a fraud.  The skinny young man then pealed off his fake mustache and revealed himself to be Missouri's favorite Democratic political activist, Jason Kander!

Franken and Kander spoke about the Veteran's Community Project, a charitable outreach program for veterans that Kander runs, which, among other things, works to eliminate veteran homelessness by getting our neglected and forgotten heroes off the streets and into "tiny" houses.  The program began in the Kansas City area a few years ago and has spread into other urban areas across the United States.

At the end of his performance / presentation, Al Franken did his famous parlor trick of drawing a very detailed freehand map of the United States from memory while answering questions that the audience had pre-submitted.  He then signed and dated the map and said that the Veteran's Community Project would be auctioning it off as a fundraiser.

Al Franken did Kansas City quite nicely, and it was an honor to have him here!

Ancestor Archives: John Cook (1780-) and Hannah Macy (1784-1825)

 

by Rocky Macy

John COOK was born September 15, 1780, in Deep River, Guilford County, North Carolina, to Thomas and Mary (MILLS) COOK.  He married Hannah MACY in 1807.  At this time it is not known where or when John COOK passed away.

Hannah MACY was born on August 11, 1784, in New Garden, Guilford County, North Carolina, to Paul and Bethiah (MACY) MACY.  (Paul and Bethiah were second-cousins, having shared one set of great-grandparents.)  Hannah MACY passed away on November 30, 1825, in Hendricks County, Indiana.

John and Hannah (MACY) COOK were my g-g-g-g-grandparents.  (Their lineage comes down through my maternal line, a line which, at this time, bears more identified people with the surname of MACY than does my paternal line!  The two lines appear to be unrelated until my generation.)

John COOK’s parentage as well as the date and place of his birth are established in the “US Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1935.”  The information was recorded by the Deep River monthly meeting.

Hannah MACY’s parentage, and dates of birth, marriage, and death are all established in the “US Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1935.”  The parentage, birth, and marriage information were recorded by the New Garden, North Carolina, monthly meeting, and the date of her death was recorded by the Mill Creek Monthly Meeting in Indiana.   All of Hannah’s vital information is also provided in  “The Genealogy of the Macy Family from 1635-1868” compiled by Silvanus J. MACY in 1868.

Another source which contains the basic genealogical record of John and Hannah (MACY) COOK is the “Barney Genealogical Record” which is maintained by the Nantucket Historical Association and is available on-line.  That project contains a fairly complete descendancy of the original nine white purchasers of Nantucket who began settling on the small island in 1659, as well as many people who arrived and settled on the island up through the end of the nineteenth century.  Hannah Macy was a descendant of at least five of the original purchasers of Nantucket Island, and both of her parents were born on Nantucket.

According to the “Barney Genealogical Record,” John and Hannah (MACY) COOK had  seven children:  Lydia COOK (married a Mr. CRAWFORD and lived in Arkansas);  Thomas COOK (my ancestor, married Sinai LEWIS in Vermillion County, Illinois, in 1832, and migrated to Washington County, Arkansas);  Phebe Jane COOK (born January 3, 1818, NC, married Thomas David BERRY on November 4, 1832, in Union, IN, and died February 12, 1879 in Lebanon, Boone County, Indiana);   Jemima COOK (married George CULLY);  Sarah COOK (married Jesse CHARLES);  Mary COOK (born August 6, 1815, married Jabez TALBOT in 1837 and had eight children);  and Jesse COOK (born 1818, and married Lydia B. SANDFORD).

Burial information is not currently known for John and Hannah (MACY) COOK.  Hannah represents the link between the SREAVES family of Newton County, Missouri, and the original settlers of Nantucket Island.  Her individual genealogy will be explored in a future posting to this collection.

Gosar Rebuked by House Colleagues - and Family

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Paul Gosar has been a Republican member of the Arizona delegation to the US House of Representatives since 2011.   Having served mored than a decade in Congress, Gosar should have a fairly good idea of the types of behaviors that the House will and will not tolerate, and he should have a basic understanding of how things work in Congress and the importance of civility and respect toward other members.

But Paul Gosar seems to take some strange pride in being mean-spirited and confrontational.

Gosar has been in the news this past week after he - or his staff - released an anime cartoon over Twitter that showed the Arizona congressman killing a fellow member of Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and posing a physical threat to President Biden.  Gosar blamed his staff for posting the tweet, but defended it saying that he was trying to engage with a younger demographic.

But what Paul Gosar tried to paint as amusing, others viewed as a threat or an incitement toward violence.  Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, who has had threats made on her life before, was particularly not amused.

The House of Representatives had two options in dealing with the disturbing behavior of Rep. Gosar.  They could vote to censure him, a formal rebuke, and remove him from his committee assignments, a process that would take a majority vote - or they could vote to expel him from Congress, a maneuver that would require a two-thirds vote by the House.   Democrats hold only a bare majority in the House so Speaker Pelosi chose to go with the censure vote.

Pelosi defended the vote to censure by stating:

"These actions demand a response.  We cannot have members joking about murdering each other.  This is both an endangerment of our elected officials and an insult to the institution."

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the injured party in this ugly affair, spoke in favor of the censure, and then she turned her fire on Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the GOP in the House.  AOC lambasted McCarthy by saying:

"It's a sad day in which a member who leads a political party cannot bring himself to say that issuing a depiction of murdering a member of Congress is wrong.  What is so hard about saying that it is wrong?"

Paul Gosar's brother, Tim Gosar, described AOC's speech as "powerful, succinct, and spot-on."  He added that his brother, the Arizona congressman, is "dangerous" and "should be expelled."

The House voted 223-207 yesterday afternoon to censure Congressman Gosar.  All Democratic House members and two Republicans voted for the censure - and one Republican voted "present."  The remainder of the GOP members of the House voted against the censure of their controversial colleague.   Gosar is only the 24th person in history to be censured by the House, and the first in more than a decade.  He was also removed from his two committee assignments.  

Within minutes of the vote to censure, Congressman Gosar again posted the offensive cartoon tweet to Twitter.   Decency and civility be damned!

The Mean Population Center

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I live a mile or so past the northern boundary of West Plains, Missouri, a town of roughly 12,000 people and an area that is very white, very conservative, and fairly protestant.  Of the people who are politically aware and active in the area, about seventy percent vote Republican, and most of those regard Mike Pence as a liberal.

Therefore, I live in the central part of the United States, and the prevailing political wind is decidedly mean - which would, in a sense, make this the "mean center" of the United States.

Yesterday the US Census Bureau sent out an email which announced the new "mean center of population" in the US, and, would you believe it, that honor goes to a patch of woods about fifty miles (as the crow flies) east and a little north of my house.

The US Census Bureau describes the center of US population thusly:

"The Center of Population is a point at where an imaginary, flat, weightless, and rigid map of the United States would balance perfectly if everyone were of identical weight."

So, take one of those pyramid / fulcrum thingies, place a rigid sheet of paper on top of it, map out the United States - including Alaska and Hawaii, sprinkle on lightweight representations of all of the people living in the US, and it will balance when the fulcrum is directly beneath . . . a point in Wright County, Missouri, that is 14.6 miles northeast of Hartville!  (That is 11.8 miles west and a little south of the point where it balanced after the 2010 census - and it shows a continuing southwesterly dip that has been occurring for many years.  People are gradually moving toward the warmer climes of the American southwest.

After the first census of 1790, the mean center of population in the US was in Kent County, Maryland, approximately 23 miles east of Baltimore.   Over the ensuing two-hundred-and-thirty years it has moved 885.9 miles east and a little south to its present location in Wright County, Missouri.

The mean center of population crossed the Mississippi River from Illinois in 1980 and since that time had been in Missouri.  In 1980 it was located in Jefferson County, Missouri, 1990 in Crawford County, 2000 in Phelps County, 2010 in Texas County, and today in Wright County.  If the current trend continues, it is likely to remain in Missouri for the next twenty or thirty years before sliding into northwest Arkansas.

Puerto Rico, the most populous US territory and which is closer to the continental US than either Alaska or Hawaii, was not figured into the US census calculation for the mean center of the United States.  I have a theory that if that beautiful island territory was included in the Census Bureau's ciphering for the "mean population center," it would necessarily pull the it a bit to the south and east - toward Puerto Rico - and would very likely place it in my back yard somewhere between the house and the barn.  Best guess:  just inside chicken coop. 

Ralph and the boys would be so proud.

Life at Rock's Roost is almost always in balance!

Steve Bannon's Privileged Arrest

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Former Trump spokesman and current podcaster Steve Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury last Friday on two counts of "contempt of Congress" after he failed to comply with a subpoena issued by the House committee that is investigating the insurrection of January 6th.  The committee wanted Bannon to turn over records related to attack on the Capitol - and to appear in person before the committee to testify.  Bannon declined to comply with either official request.

The normal process following an indictment calls for the person to surrender to law enforcement or be arrested, and then to be arraigned on the charges in a court of law.  An "arrest" for people without means or connections - specifically poor people and people of color - usually involves being physically apprehended, processed - searched, photographed, fingerprinted - and often having a cell door slam shut as they enter confinement.

But arrests are handled differently for the privileged classes.  Bannon, who learned of his indictment on Friday through the news media, phoned in his response.  He told law enforcement that he would report on Monday at a time which apparently suited him.  That gave him the weekend to make sure that all of his news coverage for the big event was in order.

Yesterday Bannon did turn himself in and surrender his passport.  He was told to be in court on Thursday for an arraignment - and then he was released without bail.  The only thing left to do on Bannon's list of chores for yesterday was to make a few theatrical threats on his way out the door which could be used as soundbites for Fox News and AT&T'S ONE AMERICA NEWS.   He checked that box by yelling this at reporters at the conclusion of his "arrest":

"I'm telling you right now this is going to be the misdemeanor from hell for Merrick Garland, Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden.  We're going on the offense.  They took on the wrong guy this time.  They took on the wrong guys."

And the noise and the white privilege rolls on.

Catching Up with the Grandkids

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

This past weekend I managed to speak by phone with my five youngest grandchildren, the five who are not yet adults.  I learned among other things that three of the five have already gotten their COVID shots and the other two will likely get theirs this week.  Pa Rock is proud of them for rolling up their sleeves and getting the shots that will protect them, their family, and their friends from the dreaded pandemic - and he is proud of their parents for defying the ignorance that is being spread by anti-vaxxers over social media.

Pa Rock wants all of his grandchildren to be healthy - and getting those shots helps to make sure that they will be.

Of the Oregon grandchildren:

Grandson Judah, age eleven, had the least to say to his old Granddad.  He answered one quick question about a computer game that has captured his interest, and then buzzed off to do something more exciting than talk on the phone.  Judah will be twelve in a couple of weeks.

Granddaughter Willow also has a birthday coming up soon.  She will be ten.  Willow, who is far more loquacious than either of her brothers, chatted about school, her friends, and the family cats.  She enjoys taking care of the cats, has many friends, and is really glad to be back in school following all of the homebound education.  Willow is learning to play the violin at school.

Grandson Sebastian, who is fourteen, plays the tenor sax and has made all-state band - so he must be very good!  He told me that his favorite class is creative writing.  Sebastian published a book last year through Amazon.com entitled "The Royce Agency," a work of fiction which I reviewed in this blog.  He told me that he has expanded it into a three-book series, and the second volume is now available at Amazon.  "The Royce Agency:  Book Two" is a bargain at six dollars, and I ordered my copy this morning.

Of the Kansas grandchildren:

Grandson Sullivan, age five, is in kindergarten.  He is the youngest child in his class and had some difficulty adapting to school, but now seems to have settled into the routine and is enjoying the experience.  Sully and his sister had been to a play over the weekend, probably his first, and he was telling me about the singing in the play.  He is in for a major treat this Saturday night when I will join the family for an outing to see "A Christmas Carol" at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre.  We have front row seats, and he will really experience some singing there as the strolling carolers sashay right in front of his seat.  And those ghosts, especially the one on stilts, are amazing!

We have been taking Granddaughter Olive, who is ten, to see "A Christmas Carol" since she was four, and she has always loved the experience, so I am certain that Sully will, too!

Olive and I talked about the play that she and her brother saw over the weekend.  Apparently they knew some of the cast.  Olive and I talked about school during our telephone visit.  She is a good student and has always liked school.  She makes friends easily which adds to the fun of going to school.

So the younger grandkids are all doing well, and for that Pa Rock is very thankful indeed.

Flynn Goes Full Christofascist

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Mike Flynn, a convicted felon who is also a retired Army general and Trump's former National Security Advisor, is currently traveling across the country as a part of the "Reawaken America" tour, an traveling assemblage of right-wing nut jobs airing views on a variety of topics.  Yesterday in San Antonio Flynn made a statement that posed a direct challenge to the First Amendment and came across as bizarre, even for a guy who recently worried aloud that COVID-19 vaccines are possibly being added to salad dressing.  Flynnn told his audience:

"If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion.   One nation under God, and one religion under God."

One country and one religion.  I think we can all agree that Flynn is not talking about a Jewish nation, or a Muslim nation, or a Hindu nation.  In fact, the old criminal is proposing a Christian nation - and not just any Christian nation, such one that might tolerate Christians with liberal points-of-view, but a Christian nation steeped in right-wing, fundamentalist and authoritarian ideology.

How convenient would that be?   We could hear the same government-approved sermons, cheerfully pay government-mandated tithes, and fill our schools with books from the government/church approved reading lists.  We could even vote in the churches where church employees could check our ballots to insure that they had been marked in a godly manner.

Flynn is an old military man who likes the notion of discipline and order, especially if he is in the cohort that is imposing the discipline and giving the orders.  A strong central church would add to the ability of our "leaders" to impose structure over a divergent society.  Laws could be written and enforced with the authority of the state as well as the implicit backing of God.  A challenge to the state is one thing, but to openly defy God is quite another!

Conflating politics and religion - more than they already are conflated - would strengthen the control that the nation has over its citizens, and that is something that authoritarians like Mike Flynn lust for.   Our Founding Fathers recognized the dangers of a state religion, and that is why they addressed it in the First Amendment to the US Constitution.  The United States was to be a nation of independent thinkers - and not a gigantic sheep pen!  

The right to worship as we please is a cornerstone to our freedoms as Americans.  The fact that Mike Flynn and people like him either do not recognize that right, or choose to ignore it, poses a serious threat to our basic freedoms.

There Should Be Consequences When People Are Murdered

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, a young man accused of murdering two individuals and wounding a third at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, more that a year ago, got underway this past week and should come to an end next week, possibly as early as Monday.  Although the verdict is not a foregone conclusion, many are expecting that based on the erratic behaviors of the judge during the trial, that the shooter will be found not guilty.  Wisconsin's governor, Tony Evers, said that the state has five hundred national guardsmen set to deploy quickly to Kenosha in the event of public violence after the verdict is rendered.

Violence did erupt in Kenosha in August of 2020 following the police wounding of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old unarmed black man who had been tased by police before being shot multiple times in the back.  Blake was paralyzed as a result of the police action - an action that many considered to be an unwarranted use of excessive force.   Many also considered race to be the underlying factor in the aggressive police action.  Soon after the shooting of Blake, public protests broke out on the streets of Kenosha.

Kyle Rittenhouse was a seventeen-year-old resident of Illinois at the time of the public protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  On the evening of August 25th, 2020, Rittenhouse had his mother drive him twenty-five miles to Kenosha and drop him off at the scene of  the public unrest.  He was armed with an AR-15-style automatic weapon, and he also had a medical bag with him.  Rittenhouse was not qualified to own the weapon that he was carrying, and he would later claim that he came to Kenosha to provide medical assistance - and at one point he even said he was there to help clean graffiti from business buildings.

Rittenhouse was filmed walking along the streets during the protests, rifle in hand, along with other armed individuals.   The first person he shot was thirty-six-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum, a non-protestor who apparently just happened to be in the area.  There was some indication that Rosenbaum, who was unarmed, may have tossed a plastic bag toward Rittenhouse and a gun fired somewhere at the same time.  Rittenhouse fired one shot, killing Rosenbaum, and was heard yelling into his cellphone that he had just killed someone.

As Rittenhouse was fleeing the scene of the Rosenbaum shooting, a twenty-six-year-old unarmed protester named Anthony Huber spotted the armed youth and ran toward him.   Huber's girlfriend who was also at the scene said that he pushed her aside and ran toward the shooter in an heroic attempt to disarm the teen and save others.  Huber apparently reached toward  Rittenhouse with one hand trying to grab the rifle - while holding his skateboard in the other hand.  Rittenhouse then killed him and later claimed he felt threatened by the skateboard.

The third victim, Gaige Grosskreutz, who is now 27, was near Anthony Huber when he was shot.  Grosskreutz said he ducked to the ground when Huber got hit, but then stood, put his hands in the air, and began moving toward Rittenhouse - and Rittenhouse reacted by shooting him in the arm.  Grosskreutz, who was unarmed, was a trained paramedic who had come to the scene to provide medical treatment.  He was wearing a cap that said "paramedic."

In pretrial maneuverings, the trial judge, Bruce Schroeder, decreed that the three people who were shot by Rittenhouse could not be referred to as "victims" until a jury had determined that they were indeed victims, and the judge also said that the dead and wounded could be referred to as "looters" and "rioters" if it could be established in court that they were engaged in those types of activities.

The judge's cellphone has rung twice during the trial, and his ringtone is a snippet from Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA."  On Wednesday of this week he tried to make a joke about Asian food, and his attempt at humor not only fell flat, it was also regarded by some in the Asian community as an ethnic or racial slur.  At one point in the trial the judge issued what was referred to in the press as a "vicious rebuke" of the prosecution over one aspect of its case.  Judge Schroeder was also photographed sitting at his bench perusing a cookie catalogue during a break in the trial, giving the impression that he was not overly focused on the proceedings.

Yesterday the judge also told attorneys that he unless the rifle used by Rittenhouse had an unlawfully short barrel, he will instruct the jury that they cannot convict him on the charge that he was a minor in possession of a firearm, a charge that was generally considered to be a slam-dunk for a guilty verdict.

Again, the sense seems to be, at least in the popular press, that the stage is being set for an acquittal.  When that happens there is likely to be more public outcry about racial inequities in policing, as well as anger over the impacts of vigilantism and prejudicial trial judges - and it likely will all end up back in the streets.

And that's a shame because when people are murdered, there should be consequences.

Ancestor Archives: George Washington Lewis (1797-) and Macy Mankins (1799-)

 

by Rocky Macy

George Washington LEWIS was born in Orange County, North Carolina, in 1797 to Zachariah and Rachel (BRACKEN) LEWIS.  He married Macy MANKINS in Floyd County, Kentucky, on March 24, 1813.  George Washington LEWIS passed away sometime after his 2nd marriage in 1852.

Macy MANKINS was born in Orange County, North Carolina, on the final day of the eighteenth century, December 31, 1799, to Walter and Millie (STALCOP / STALCUP) MANKINS   She passed away sometime before 1850, probably in Washington County, Arkansas.

George Washington and Macy (MANKINS) LEWIS were my g-g-g-g-grandparents.

George Washington LEWIS was the first of only three children born to Zachariah and Rachel (BRACKEN) LEWIS.  Zachariah died young, before the age of thirty, presumably in North Carolina, and his widow, Rachel, then married Peter MANKINS in Orange County, North Carolina, on September 23, 1803.  Peter was possibly an uncle to Macy MANKINS who would become the wife of George Washington LEWIS.  Rachel had eleven more children during her marriage to Peter MANKINS.

According to the book, "Pioneer LEWIS Families," (volume 5, page 357), the three children born to Zachariah LEWIS and Rachel BRACKEN were:  George Washington LEWIS (born 1797),  Lydia LEWIS (born September 22, 1799),  and Bracken LEWIS (born December 19, 1801).

That same source, "Pioneer LEWIS Families" refers to Macy MANKINS as Mary (Macy) MANKINS, and she can be found in other records as "Macy" and "Mary."  I have chosen to use Macy as her first name in this profile because that was the name of her granddaughter - the oldest child of her oldest child - Macy Mary COOK, and it is likely that she would have been named after her grandmother.

"Pioneer LEWIS Families" records the ten children of George Washington and Macy (MANKINS) LEWIS as:  Sinai Lewis (born October 11, 1815 - my g-g-g-grandmother, wife of Thomas COOK),  William R. LEWIS (1816),  Brackin LEWIS (January 6, 1820),  Walter LEWIS (1821),  Millie LEWIS  (1825),  Henry LEWIS (1830),  John LEWIS (1832),  Lydia LEWIS (1834),  Rachel LEWIS (1836), and Isaac LEWIS (1838).  

Macy (MANKINS) LEWIS was not listed with the family on the 1850 census and was likely deceased.  George Washington LEWIS married again on January 12, 1852, to Mrs. Mary COSBY, the widow of Wylie COSBY, in Washington County, Arkansas. 

The 1850 census for White River Township of Washington County, Arkansas, lists George LEWIS (age 52, born in NC) as a farmer and the head of a household including:  Walter LEWIS (age 28, KY),  John LEWIS (20, IL),  Henry LEWIS (18, IL),  Lydia LEWIS (16, AR),  "Rachael" LEWIS (14, AR),  Isaac LEWIS (12, AR), and Philander POWELL (a laborer, 24, IL).   

"Pioneer LEWIS Families" indicates that members o the family migrated from Orange County, North Carolina, to Floyd County, Kentucky, about 1809, where George and Macy were married in 1813.  After that they migrated to the state of Illinois in the early 1830's (probably Vermillion County where their oldest child, Sinai LEWIS married Thomas COOK on February 9, 1832) and were only there for a year or so before moving on to Northwest Arkansas and arriving there around 1834-36.  The birth location of the children enumerated in George's household in 1850 confirms that migratory movement.

The exact dates of death and places of burial for George Washington and Macy (MANKINS) LEWIS are not known at this time.  The early pioneering couple were probably buried in family plots on a rocky patch of Ozark farmland, and their graves have since fallen under the plow or bulldozer - or just lost their markers and become forgotten over time.  But they came by wagon and on foot from North Carolina to Kentucky, to Illinois, and finally on to Arkansas where they unpacked and set down roots in a wilderness, and today their descendants live in those same hills but rush around on major highways that were nothing more that trails, if even that, when George and Macy first set foot on the land that was to become their final home.

COVID Spreading Rapidly Among White-Tailed Deer

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday I used this space to lament the fact that a large number of white-tailed deer in the central US are currently dying at the hands of hunters and under the wheels of vehicles.  Most states have hunting seasons designed to reduce the deer population - currently estimated to be over 30 million in the United States alone, and the hunting seasons, combined with the mating seasons of the deer, tend to drive many across American roadways and into the paths of on-coming vehicles.    The fall of the year is traditionally a time of great carnage for deer in the United States.

There have been several news reports over the past couple of weeks about a new threat to the deer population.  It seems that deer have been contracting the COVID virus from humans - through contaminated trash, water, and human waste - and then rapidly spreading the virus among themselves.  One study in Iowa showed that 80% of that state's white-tailed deer population either has COVID anti-bodies (indicating that they have had the virus) or the virus itself.

It is not known yet whether the deer will have the ability to pass the virus back to humans - such as when a hunter skins and guts an animal that he has shot - or when ingesting the meat or blood of the dead deer.  Last November seventeen million captive minks that were being "farmed" in Denmark had to be killed after the COVID virus spread into their population and then spread back to humans in a mutated form. 

The virus currently residing within the deer population is concerning to scientists based on Denmark's experience with the minks.  If it can jump species, which it clearly already has, and then remain within that species growing and mutating, and then jump back to humans in a new, and perhaps more dangerous, form, the pandemic might conceivably go on forever.

In addition to minks, the COVID virus has been reported in cats, dogs, ferrets, lions, tigers, pumas, hyenas, and gorillas.  There is concern, of course, that the virus could spread from deer to domestic  herd animals like cattle and sheep.

So far there has been no reported evidence of the virus returning to humans after being carried by the deer, but all of that research is still young - like the virus itself - and more is constantly being learned.

Right now this much IS known.  The COVID virus has spread to the American deer population, and once a few deer contracted it from human waste or garbage or whatever, it spread rapidly among the deer.  Now the virus is being held "in reserve" in the deer population where it does not have to deal with vaccinations or masks or mandates, and it expands and mutates among the deer.  Will it bounce back to humans?  No one knows yet, but it did bounce back to the human population from the farmed minks in Denmark.

Today deer and being hit along highways all across the nation, and they are being dragged to the side of the roadways by individuals who will necessarily have contact with their body fluids - and then the roadkill deer are being consumed by animal scavengers and sometimes even humans.  And for those deer lucky enough to survive the highway carnage, many will be felled by hunters, and as they are "processed" for meat, they will again have the opportunity to spread the virus back to humans - if it can be transmitted back like it was with the Danish minks.

This might be a good year to stay away from the deer, but I somehow suspect that Joe Bob ain't a-gonna pay it no never mind no how.  He'll be out in the woods when the sun comes up on Saturday morning, sitting on his ice chest, drinking his breakfast, and waiting on a deer to walk up nice and close so he can kill it - and this year the deer might just even the score!

The Deer Are Already Dying

by Pa Rock

Road Warrior

The other day I featured the poem, "Gathering Leaves," by 20th century New England poet Robert Frost in this space.  In his ode to autumn, Frost regarded the falling leaves as a "crop" of the season.  Another crop of the season, at least where I live, is deer.

Most mornings I sit typing in front of my living room window that looks out toward the paved county road - and it's a rare morning of late when I don't see a deer or two bound from the brush across the road and over into my yard where they head to the backyard and out toward the pond - and salt lick.  In the first light of morning when I go out to open the chicken coop and feed the cat, there are often five or ten deer out close to the pond, standing and nibbling at the ground as they get set for another day of running though the brush and trying to stay away from the troublesome humans who have grown too thick for comfort.  They usually disperse about the time they notice me, and will sometimes regroup in the same general area just as the last light of day is flickering out.

Last Sunday morning, again right as the dawn was breaking, I had strolled out by the road to pick up some trash that a throughful neighbor had pitched onto my yard.    As I was bent over, right next to the roadway, I noticed that an approaching car was was suspiciously slowing down.  I turned to head back in the direction of the house and was ignoring the car, when it pulled up behind me and stopped.  It was a highway patrolman, not a common sight on county roads.  He rolled down his passenger window to engage me in conversation.

It was just barely light out, and I figured he was checking me out.  Was I sober?  Was I a vagrant or did I live there?  That sort of thing.  So I stepped up to his car so he could look me over.  I think he decided quickly that I was alright, and then as a cover to his curiosity about me, he began talking about the deer.  He said that he had often noticed them down by the pond - leading me to suspect that he might live somewhere on further down the lane.  I told him that I liked the deer - and he said that he did, too.  Now, I suppose we are friends.

The following day, Monday, I drove to Springfield for a doctor's appointment.  The trip is one hundred miles each way over a four lane highway.  I noticed two dead deer (hit by cars) along the road heading toward Springfield, and two more on the return trip to West Plains.  The mating season for Missouri's white-tail deer (also called "the rut"), is generally from October through January with most activity occurring in November.  That get's the deer out bounding across the public roads and sometimes into the paths of on-coming vehicles.  And, as if rutting wasn't enough to keep them stirred up and moving, the state has several deer hunting seasons extending across October and November, with the main firearms-for-adults portion beginning next Saturday and running for ten days.

Bullets and cars - it's going to be a bloodbath!  Add to that all of the "deer hunter specials" that the local liquor stores will be promoting, and the yearly carcass count will include several humans as well thousands of doe-eyed deer.

I will feel sadness for the deer.

Creepy Rep. Gosar: Family Knows Best

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist 

In what some view as a sort of elaborate threat against a sitting member of Congress, and others see as at least incitement to violence,  US Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, a Republican, has posted  an anime (Japanese cartoon) on Twitter that he says was created by his staff, which shows Gosar killing a fellow member of Congress, liberal Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, by slicing through the back of her neck.  Rep. Gosar was so taken with the video that he posted it twice on Twitter, both to his official account as a congressman, and to his personal account.  He also posted it to his Instagram account.

Twitter is declining to take down Gosar's violent tweet at this time, deciding that keeping it up might be in the public interest.  It is drawing quite a bit of public scrutiny and comment.

Representative Gosar, a six-term member of Congress, is no stranger to controversy.   He has been openly supportive of the events of January 6th and has downplayed the insurrection as little more than a normal public visit to the Capitol.  He also uses "execution" to describe the death of Ashli Babbitt, a protestor at the Capitol on January 6th who was shot and killed by Capitol police, and he is an active promoter of Donald Trump's big election lie.

Gosar, who grew up as one of ten children in a Wyoming family, has had six of his siblings come to Arizona to campaign against him because of positions that he has taken, beginning with his support of the white supremacist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, and extending through the attempted insurrection earlier this year.  Those six siblings have also been vocal in calling on congressional leadership to expel their brother from the House of Representatives.

To Gosar's limited credit, his mother is apparently still politically supportive of him.

For her part, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the victim in all of this bad political theatre, had this to say - in a tweet:

So while I was en route to Glasgow, a creepy member I work with who fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups shared a fantasy video of him killing me And he’ll face no consequences bc

@GOPLeader

cheers him on with excuses. Fun Monday! Well, back to work bc institutions don’t protect woc

And yes, AOC is right:  institutions, and particularly the US House of Representatives, do not seem focused on protecting "woc" - women of color.    But a white dentist, good ol' boy with subversive ties?  Well, boys will be boys!

And sometimes creepy people really are dangerous.

Twitter and Instagram both need to scrub themselves clean of Rep. Gosar's trail of slime - and they should bar him from their platforms - and Congress should give him the boot.   There are still plenty of teeth that he can drill and fill in Arizona, and rocks that he can sleep under, but Gosar's time on the national stage needs to come to a screeching halt.

Family knows best!

Monday's Poetry: "Gathering Leaves"

 

by Pa Rock

Poetry Appreciator

We are well over a month into autumn and closing in on winter.  The leaves around my house are falling steadily and have covered the ground.  It is time for the final mowing of the year to grind the leaves and help to create new soil for next year.

My neighbor doesn't believe in recycling leaves.  He has one of those noisy leaf-blowers that sounds like a chainsaw, and he spends weeks walking around his yard stirring the leaves into big piles with his wind machine - and then he burns them.

But I keep mulching along.  Nature went to a lot of trouble to make those leaves, and who am I to deprive the ground of the compost that She so carefully tried to create?

A century ago New England poet Robert Frost was moving leaves with a spade, putting them in bags, and then storing them in a shed.   Frost regarded his leaves as a "crop" of sorts, and I like that take on it.  This year my leaf crop has been abundant, indeed - and for that I give thanks and roll out the mower for one final trip around the yard.

Gathering Leaves
by Robert Frost

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use,
But a crop is a crop,
And who’s to say where
The harvest shall stop?