Cale-mut carcasses- variety pack

Jospeh Heywood's novel Red Jacket of the the labor unrest that led to the Italian Hall Disater of 1913 in Calumet , Michigan has been an  amusing read  despite some of the gruesome events because the main character Lute Bapcat, ex -Rough Rider, ex-trapper, then game warden, is a well developed  character.  Lute was an orphan and his name was short for Lutheran/Catholic/Baptist. It's disturbing to read the coal mine operators were  possibly hiring men to kill deer  and let them rot so the strikers would have less food options.  I'm midway through the book and haven't discovered if the operators were guilty

I'll mosey along to one of the starker images in  a rock & roll song. "They sleep in each other's nests like maggots in despair," from John Cale's song :

Strange times in Casa Blanca

A tune by Elephant's Memory Mongoose

shortened life cycle theme over for now

3/26/13

I finished Red Jacket yesterday. The final third of the book felt like a quick scramble to finish. Apparently, a slightly retarded  character was encouraged to scream beer which was misheard as fire and led to the stampede. Bapcat and his LEO cohorts were unable to make a solid legal connection between the "deerkillers" and the operators.

5/21/13

  How Michigan would be if the Brits had won the War of 1812  and extended the Canadian boundary further south? Siege of Detroit-1812

10/11/13

 My reading compass guided me in the direction of Canada  again, but I detoured in the fictional small town of New Bremen , Minnesota. I've enjoyed the Krueger's Cork O'Conner mystery series but his  growing injection of gun control sloganeering into his later novels was irritating. His latest effort , Ordinary Grace, is a stand alone centered around the family of a Methodist minister and WW2 vet, Rev. Drum. The narrator is his oldest son Frank  as he looks back to 1961, the summer his oldest sister Ariel was murdered. His mom 's lack of interest in God but devotion to the church choir was one one of many aspects that had me wishing for more background on her character. For my blog readers who like music, piano playing and singing were integral parts of the novel.

11/2/13

I just finished the book Black Irish by Stephan Tulty  which described smuggling IRA soldiers  in the trunk of the car over the USA/Canadian border at Niagra Falls in the 1980's, and I started thinking about how much of our vast northern border allows for free movement. I'm referring to unpaved ground.

12/22/13

I  watched a PBS program on the 1913 copper strike and saw Steve Earle covering Woody Guthrie's slightly inaccurate folk tune 1913 massacre about  the Italian hall disaster in Calumet. The show pointed out that the strike failed but Congress  was influenced to pass some legislation favorable to workers.
http://www.pbs.org/program/red-metal/

3/2/14

This entry is getting a lot of hits. I had another chuckle about the name Lute Bapcat. My German language teacher in high school used to call me RC (Roman Catholic). Of course, he was a Lutheran. I've lapsed.

7/5/14

Baltimore is gearing up for  a September celebration of  the 200th anniversary of FSK writing the Star Spangled banner. Brits  were damn close to  some revenge for the American Revolution defeat. Re-read the link on 5/21/13 post.

9/27/14

The latest  books, Tamarack County and Windigo Island, in the Cork'Oconnor series have been disappointing. The O'Connor character  had a more balanced approach  to the relations between  the whiteman and the native American earlier in the series, but now I feel like he's ready to make the NFL Redskins drop their name..  Cork's son Stephen has become an official mythological seer. It's time for Krueger to re-adjust.

12/17/14

I'm behind on this bureaucratic Detroit /Toronto battle over the bridge :

Ambassador Bridge, the aging Windsor-Detroit structure that handles nearly one-third of Canada-U.S. trade.

4/11/15

It may seem mundane but this private vs public bridge battle intrigues me. link

Before anyone gets to thinking that a new Detroit River span to rival the 85-year-old Ambassador Bridge is as good as done, Manuel (Matty) Moroun still has some legal cards to play.....has argued that the congressional act creating the Ambassador Bridge amounts to a franchise right for spans over the Detroit River.

12/22/15

This issue remains on my radar and it appears that falling concrete can't speed up bureaucrats. link

 Last week, officials in Windsor closed some streets under the bridge, saying chunks of concrete fell from beneath the 86-year-old span posing a serious danger.

2/20/16

Catching up on bridge news. The new bridge, Gordie Howe International Bridge, is a planned bridge and border crossing to be constructed across the Detroit River. When all else fails turn to hockey.

5/22/16

Mountains of the Misbegotten, #2 in the Bapcat series, looks to be a good one. The UPI region near the Michigan /Wisonsin border was /is treacherous.

6/18/16

A blurb  about the USA/Canada border in the this day in history section of the June 15 print edition of the Baltimore Sun stirred my interest. What is now Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and large portions of British Columbia, had been under joint occupancy- imagine that.  We (USA) settled with the Brits on the 49th parallel on June 15, 1846 because we were facing a poosible war with Mexico on our southern border.

8/27/16

Headed for Hampton VA for our annual cousins' fantasy football draft and we may take in a Norfolk Tides game this weekend, too.  Here's a memo from the war of 1812.

“Virginia . . . hangs onthe fate of Norfolk”—Gen. Robert Barraud Taylor on the Defense of Norfolk, 1812–1813 

10/23/16

I started this blog about the UPI and have meandered to Virginia.
Oct 19, 1781: #Cornwalis surrendered at Yorktown
Oct 19 1864: Union General #PhilipSheridan averted a near disaster in the Shenandoah Valley when  scored a major victory that devastated Confederate General Early’s army at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia.

2/7/17

16 #plainsbison have been  reintroduced to Banff National Park in Alberta.
They were delivered by truck.

2/21/17

Read a few pages of a thick biography on #HenryClay and learned he played a big role in blocking the Brits from having access to the Mississippi River as a part of the Treaty of Ghent. Clay may have disliked #johnadams, his negotiating partner, more than the Brits across the table.

3/24/17

A story that won't fade away. #ambassadorbridge subsidiary Canadian Transit Company is being sued by homeowners.Windsor won't repair dilapidated homes or allow them to be demolished. Love  explanations from residents of the area.  ambassador bridge

7/22/17

Well, they still haven't started the #gordiehoweinternationalbridge but #trump and #trudeau

want 'expeditious' completion of Detroit-Windsor bridge

8/29/17

I know museums are careful how they display history, but  the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown's brief post  on #cornwalis ' career after his defeat at #yorktown still has me puzzled. I paraphrase: he eliminated corruption in #India.. Overall, it's a solid museum.

10/18/17

#quebec gets it. Part of #Bill62  will  stop provincially subsidised childcare services from offering religious education.

2/24/18

City of Ice, a crime novel about Montreal cops in the late 90's , by Trevor Ferguson , aka John Farrow, was both riveting and frustrating. Some situations were explained ad nauseum  while others were resolved in a sentence. The book was dedicated to #danieldesrochers, an eleven-year child killed by a bikers bomb in 1995. Cinq-Mars, the central character, was a bit too all-knowing. CIA conspiracies had me shaking my head.

3/27/18

Seeking #canadien input :  Apparently a waiter, Guillaume Rey  in Vancouver was fired for being too direct with co-workers.  I love his  explanation

" I'm not rude, just French"

6/19/18

 How will the Trump/ Trudy trade spat affect the #gordiehoweinternationalbridge  ?

8/21/18

A woman  questioning his  #trudeau 's open door policies,  asked whether he is tolerant of the "Quebecois de souche" (old-stock Quebecers). And Trudy replied "your racism has no place here." Clearly Trudy lacks tolerance  and may want to be careful piercing the French "wound" .

11/9/18

#Canada offered opening its dairy market to the USA in trade talks. The debate in Canada is: Was it a concession or compromise?

1/4/19

Will a  citizen petition to Congress  to give Canada back the #NorthwestAngle (part of Minnesota) located near Manitoba.gain traction?

2/28/19

Is Trudy in trouble in Canada? Former Justice Minister Wilson-Raybould testified that "the prime minister asked me to help out, to find a solution for SNC, a Montral based firm accused of bribing officials in the Libyan government under strongman Muammar Gaddafi between 2001 and 2011.

3/31/19

 On the tape, Wernick,Clerk of the Privy Council,  told Wilson-Raybould that the prime minister "is determined, quite firm," in avoiding criminal prosecution of "a signature Canadian firm".  Trudy's  #SNC dilemma worsens.

4/29/19

# dike bursts, and flood waters threaten #montreal and #JustinTrudeau highlighted the need to make infrastructure that was "climate resilient." Hey, I ain't making this up!

8/26/19

Another trip  to an area, the Jamestown Settlement, rich in history, and I watch  a video that labeled  #nathanielbacon, a lower class rebel  who disliked the Native Indian tribes, but I read a few of the posted information displays outside the mini theater and discovered Bacon was a property owner and his 1676 rebellion  was part of a bigger power play funded by William Drummond, a one time govenor in Albemarle County(later part of NC)  against Royal Colonial Gov Berkeley. The trio at the core of the battle had some "issues".

9/18/19

Back to Canada:  #CameronOrtis , a civilian cyber security guy in the #RCMP , faces a combination of charges which  imply he's been hacking  and/or stealing sensitive info through digital networks and passing it along.

9/19/19

#trudeau 's  re-election campaign was rocked by the bombshell report, first published by Time magazine, which Trudeau didn't refute,  that he wore "brownface makeup" as part of a costume at an Arabian Nights-themed party at a British Columbia school where he taught 2000-01.

1/8/20

 The Palace will respond to reports that #MeghanMarkle and Prince Harry are planning a move to Canada.

3/4/20

  Between Dec. 20 and Feb. 21, up to 20,000 of Tim Hortons app users saw their balances and rewards vanish and the company has been slow to address the issues.

May 14, 2020

 Calgary Zoo in Canada is sending two giant pandas back to China because it's unable to get enough bamboo to feed them. Bamboo makes up to 99% of their diet.

Jan 30, 2022

 Since I've visited Hampton, VA nearly every year since 2010, I've noticed the news that Hampton U was moving upward from the Big South to CAA in sports, just a few years after exiting the MEAC, a small black sports conference. Great to see the Pirates' move but please stop shouting about the plights of HBCUs. Opportunity calls and some answer.

Feb 8, 2022

Trudy shut down the Ambassador Bridge and a Canadian judge bans truckers from honking.