Man Lost in Madison Creek

Keloland News tells about the young man who was lost in the flooding in Madison over the weekend, the brother of a DSU student visiting family.  The young man, PJ Bean, from Alabama, was an experienced firefighter and trained to save others.  He got swept away on early Sunday morning as he tried to wade across the swollen creek.

Enough Water to Shake a Stick At

Tee off box for hole 6 at the Howard Golf Course.

The creek through Madison

 Water, water, water.  Imagine dumping six inches of rain on a town and on the land that drains into it.  Then imagine all that water gushing through a little creek bed that usually trickles with a slow drizzle.  What happens, as you can see here without the need for imagination, is a mess, a tragic event for those in the path of the water.  Some residents clearly had a basement entirely full of water, with huge pumps discharging water from two or three inch hoses.  They've got my sympathy.

Highway 34 going west from Madison

Madison golf course

Our Rain Gauge Runneth Over

Cherry-sized hail

 Waves of rain-clouds traveling above Madison yesterday dropped a whopping FIVE inches of rain, with some hail mixed in.  Thunder, lightning, wind, rain, hail, darkness.  Reports indicate that the little docile creek that runs through town overflowed its banks and caused trouble for residents nearby.  Collapsed or flooded basements? We're going to cruise through town to see what we can see.

Busy Saturday

2012 DSU Trojan Baseball Team

Today's schedule was packed with activities--from DSU's graduation ceremonies to niece Megan B's graduation reception in Brookings, to friend Lynn R's annual Kentucky Derby party back here on Lake Madison.  To top that off, many of us DSU fans had our baseball team at the back of our minds, even as the horses came around the final turn and headed for the home stretch with I'll Have Another hot after the finish line.  Our boys were in San Marcos, California, where they had fought their way to the championship game, only to fall today to Arizona Christian 9-2.  Both teams did, however, qualify for the NAIA National Baseball Championship, so they've got more life left in the season yet.  Congratulations and good luck to the Trojan Baseball team!

May 4, 1970

Neil Young did his tribute to the fallen in his great protest song "Ohio," and much has been written and said about the events on May 4, 1970, in Kent, Ohio.  But some of the surviving wounded from the shootings at Kent State University in 1970 are seeking a new investigation into the actions of the National Guardsmen who opened fire on students, killing four and wounding nine others.  The event remains a stark example of the distance between the young people who stood against the Vietnam war and those who saw the protester's stand as a threat to safety. 

Meanwhile, KSU again hosts a commemorative event today to remember the events.

Julie Gross--New LAIC Director

News from the Chamber of Commerce in Madison, and the Lake Area Improvement Corporation.   We've got one of our own now in the group, and I hope this means things will be getting better.  

The Lake Area Improvement Corporation is excited to announce they have hired Julie Gross to serve as their new Executive Director.

Gross currently serves as the Executive Director of the Madison Chamber of Commerce and will transition into her new role over the next few weeks.
"We are very excited about Julie accepting this important role within the Madison community,” said LAIC President Mark Stoller.  "The LAIC board, along with community members, interviewed several candidates and put a great deal of time and energy into the interview process.  We feel we have chosen the right person to promote our community and continue the efforts of the LAIC.”
“Julie is a lifelong Lake County native and has deep ties to the community.  She has successfully led the Chamber where she developed new programs, enhanced existing programs and made a positive impact on the community.  We are excited to have her on board."

I do hope this means better things for Madison.  Our man at the Madville Times has been calling for a replacement in this role for some time. Go Julie!  

Student Work in Composition

My students have made videos on items of interest to them, including one on used computer games, one on animation and science, and another on CPR, among others.  You can also look at videos from years past. It's on Composition at DSU, a blog we use for sharing videos.

Considering April and Olive

Wolfram Alpha tells me that little Olive, the new granddaughter, is one of 10,544 people alive today who share that name (1792nd most popular name), much more rare and precious than her grandfather (26th most common) or her mother April, one of 225,152 people with that name, but not quite as exclusive as her dad, whose name only appears on 458 people per year.  However, a rash of Chads in the 80's put that name higher on the common list of names among 39-year-olds, making it the 235th most popular names.  April is slightly less popular at 237th, with Olive among those most rare and strange, unless you're in your 90's, where the bulk of Olives appear to be.  I'm among the 3.7 million Johns in the country while the wife shares hers with only 19,515.

An Olive on the Family Tree

Hand of a new generation

A trip to Minneapolis over the weekend was a good opportunity to put those cameras to work, and the wife managed her magic with this photo of a proud grandpa and his first little grandchild.  Pretty cool.  She's a calm, sweet baby, due in part, apparently, to the easy home birth that eased her way into our world.  Good for Olive.

A Spring for Olive

 Little Olive Mary Nelson Osmundson has arrived in Minneapolis to proud first-time parents April and Chester.  Born at her parents' home, little 8 pound, 4 ounce Olive showed up at 5:08 am on Thursday, April 12.  So far, she is getting along well in her new environment and has the full approval of her mom and dad.  She's getting a lot of attention and doesn't seem to have a bit of shyness.

So far, she has not asked for a pony.

I'm wondering now whether carrying photos in my wallet is a grandparental requirement.  In any case, the wife and I send out all the best wishes for these two new parents and their beautiful baby.

Long Tall Tree, Long Hard Day

The pine beetles seem to be plaguing the long-needle pines in Madison, including the old-timers in our yard.  Two have gone down already, and a third fell today to the chain saw.  Wind from the west made the call, since the old tree was brown and tilting westward toward the house.  My friend JH came over to provide ballast and direction to the tree fall, and it came down just where my mind's eye had laid it.  The wife and I humped it to finish up, and now scrap is at the tree dump, little logs are in the wood pile, and big logs are stored for drying.

Birth of a Book

Our DSU librarians shared this beautiful video of a book being printed and bound in traditional fashion.  Beautiful!

TomTom Tames the Back Seat Toddler

This video demonstrates the results of the fine work that the people at TomTom, the navigation gurus, have done to improve the behavior of back seat toddlers.  Driver and passenger safety, they say, depends upon a driver free from distractions.  Luckily, TomTom has found a way to sooth these back seat grumps with their savvy innovation.  Enjoy April, fools.

New Tricks and the Hoop of Life

Students in one of my classes have been working this semester to bring the DSU literary magazine into the electronic world once again.  It had a brief moment in the sun of the internet years ago, when Dr. Dan Weinstein did some fancy html work to move the poetry from paper to pixels, but that moment passed and the site apparently disappeared.  So, here we go again with a dedicated site, not bound by the DSU biz.  Our site, New-Tricks.org, is up and running and waiting for the 2012 selections to be made and posted.

Sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta, the English honor society at DSU, New Tricks has been around since 1992, when the English majors sought to make things new by breaking with tradition at DSU.

We hope to shine a light on the good work that the writers and artists at DSU are doing, from students to faculty to staff.  If you're interested, check out the site, give us some feedback, maybe send us some of your work, and we'll have some new material there in the next few weeks.  Wish us luck!

House History

After noting in the Lake County Historical Society's newsletter that I was trying to get some information about the history of our house, I got a call from a man who used to be a neighbor to the house--Pete Hortle, now of Sioux Falls (winter) and Lake Madison (summer). He lived two houses west from 1939-1946, while Lou Coppersmith lived in our place. Pete thinks they rented.

Word Riddle

A friend sent me this video, which is probably widely distributed but which I found interesting. Before watching, check: What's one nine-letter word in English (a common word) that you can remove one letter at a time and the remainders still make a word, down to the last letter?

Ok, give up? Watch the video.

Diving into the Wreck--Adrienne Rich Gone Too

Not only has the Earl left us, but also the Poet, Adrienne Rich, one who led us on the dive below the surface of words in one of her most famous poems:

I stroke the beam of my lamp
slowly along the flank
of something more permanent
than fish or weed
the thing I came for:
the wreck and not the story of the wreck
the thing itself and not the myth.  

Fierce in her feminism, Rich left the world poorer in poetry on Tuesday when she left.

Watch Remembering Banjo Player Earl Scruggs, Poet Adrienne Rich on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

The Earl is Dead. Long Live the Earl.

Earl Scruggs is gone.  There will be bluegrass tears all through the country, mostly from folks who came to love the banjo through his fancy fingerwork.  His banjo picking on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" album and the recorded commentary from him there were the things that drew me in.  I was taken enough to purchase a banjo way back in 1978, and I carted that banjo and Scruggs' banjo instruction record around for over 30 years.  Too bad I only ever learned a couple of licks and never really played.  But I always appreciate a good banjo picker, and Earl was among the best.  He was a great ambassador for the instrument.  Story here.
Enjoy this banjo dynamo as he appeared with Steve Martin and other men with banjos on David Letterman. 

St. Patrick's Day--Limericks and Libation

A week late, but the B's had their annual St. Patrick's Day party this past weekend, giving us some time to get together, share some limericks and talk, and gather 'round the "campfire" for storytelling and catching up.  Returning visitors from Missouri came up, and this photo shows the elite crew that remained until late, long after the lighter weight classes had cashed it in.  It was a great time!

Fictions in Your Brain

A talk yesterday with some budding creative writers, followed by reading an article about scientists looking at the brain on fiction has prompted some thinking about fiction.  It appears that a brain reading good fiction (see--good fiction) reacts to the text in a way similar to its reaction to events occurring in real life.  So says a recent article in the NY Times. 

I was saying as much to a small audience of Dr. Blessinger's creative writing class.  Young writers always struggle, perhaps knowing that their work is not up to the standards of good fiction or poetry or non-fiction writers, but knowing too that they need to work through those weaknesses, that not everyone gets to reach the top echelons with ease, or at all.

So we all struggle, boats against the current.