Madison Arbor Care arrived on campus Thursday morning and amputated the top half of a diseased elm tree, even grinding down the stump and sweeping the sawdust off the street before they left, leaving only a small hole in the ground, a big hole in the sky, and a system of roots underground that now have nothing to do. 
Michael Moore's giving his newest film away, allowing fans to download "Slacker Uprising" for free. Check it out here: http://slackeruprising.com/.
Coming back from the Cities last week, I picked up a six-pack of root beer at an apple stand, all six different. We tried these two for supper last night, a Boylan's natural type and The Original Bulldog. The wife liked the latter for the lable and the flavor, a fairly traditional sweet variety. Mine was less sweet, richer, and very tasty. Four more to go! 
I don't know when cotton-picking time in Texas occurs, but here it's about time to latch on to apples and do what you do with this beautiful fruit. One of my favorites is apple crisp, which we enjoyed yesterday as we celebrated the new Moose house out on Lake Madison. Walter's not a lot of help in the peeling part of the process, but as always, he's got an eye out for anything amiss. 
Sue Larsen in town has sent me a pair of photos of our house. Judging from the size of the trees and other details, I'm guessing they are from the 70's. The big bush on the corner of the porch is gone, and the tree at the end of the sidewalk is much larger, but the back porch appears to already have been built. Cool! Thanks, Sue.
Some people care enough to send the very best. Others, well, they look for opportunities to economize. Still, it's the thought that counts, right?
The Olympic spirit, derived from the international back-slapping in the various events, can inspire even those of us doomed to suffer through tape delays and commercials as NBC offers up events in piecemeal fashion. That is, given an opportunity. Students from Tamagawa University in Japan are currently studying English at Dakota State University, and they put on a little "Japan Night" for their teachers and hosts. Yours truly got a chance to show his chopstick talents, but my heat included a nimble-fingered blond gal that went on to win the championship. Still, I got a package of what the Japanese call candy. Check it out. Some of the hard candies tasted a lot like cinnamon treats, but these guys are notorious for offering up what looks like sugary treats, only to disappoint with something that tastes like candy without the sweet. Bite into one and it's like losing your grip on a spin from the high bar. But one of these was actually a piece of chocolate. Real chocolate. But things aren't always what they seem. The item in the lower center, for example, seems to be a kind of fish jerky, like a pork rind with fish flavor, rolled flat. And, although the dessert at the event was ice cream, the Japanese have their own ideas about how to top it: How's about some green tea powder? No? Some sweet bean paste? Okay, then . . . well . . . Soy powder? No? Black honey? Okay! Now you're talking.
The biggest surprise for me? The beauty of Sandpoint, on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille, a town I thought was going to be a dusty, windy, backwoods western village that would explain why some of my ancestors left there years ago. To the contrary, it was a hip, attractive, tidy town full of tourists and upscale shops, some happening night-spots, where the highlight was a little brewery featuring Truck Mills, who we heard playing as we walked by. When we went in, we saw it was a saz he was playing, and things got better as more musicians came to join him as he moved to a guitar, including a bassist, another guitar player, a harmonica player, and finally a trumpeter! It was a real treat.
Thursday we just about walked our legs down to stumps—rookie mistake, what with many days more to come. We began when we jumped on the subway for the first time and rode it down to South Ferry, where we climbed aboard the Statue of Liberty ferryboat and rode out to see the statue, where we spent a few hours looking over the stern lady, then trundled over to Ellis Island where plenty of my namesake apparently came through. Then back on the ferry, where the walking began. We hustled up to beautiful Trinity Church, where George Washington himself worshipped, and we listened to a young woman make the old organ sing a jazzy Dizzy Gillespe tune, something to check out if you’re in town on Thursday. By then we were hungrier than we should have been and began looking, past Wall Street and Federal Hall, for a place to light. After a great lunch outdoors in the shadow of Wall Street, we saw a street magician put a quarter into a beer bottle and sat and contemplated the World Trade Center site. We walked more, arriving in Chinatown, then Little Italy, and finally returned via the subway to the apartment in the evening, rested five minutes, and then rode underground to the Empire State Building, where we waited in line to get in and later to get out. In between, though, we enjoyed the night-lights from the 86th floor observatory. On the way home, we went by Herald Square where we may have to go again, then stopped for materials for signs so that, this morning, we might have a chance of getting on TV at the Today Show.
We learned that people come from everywhere to New York either to visit or live. We heard a lot of Russian and Chinese, some French, Farsi, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, German, Norwegian (or Swedish—who can say?), and some African languages. We learned that if you mess up with your Metro Pass, you’ll have to wait or walk to try again. We learned that many people are willing to wait to see the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. We learned that the subway rats are a little shy, but not too much so. We learned that Chinese shopkeepers in NYC WILL bargain. We learned that New Yorkers have a taste for “Walter dogs,” their rivalry with Boston notwithstanding. We learned that you should really be on a long-term good relationship with your shoes before you walk far in them. We learned that the city is a big one, that trying to cover it with just your legs is pretty ambitious.
We also learned that our wireless connection at the apartment is very iffy.
An early start got the three of us into J and D's Suburban, down to SF, on the plane, into MSP, on another plane, and down into LaGuardia, where we caught a taxi and found our apartment in the city, just off the lower west side of Central Park. This morning trucks seem to be on a demolition derby marathon out in the street this morning, but it's getting us going, and we're off to ride a ferry and see the great lady standing on her little island, her lamp held high beside the golden door. So far we've had a beginner's look at the park, fended off several hundred offers of carriage and taxi rides, and taken a walk around the neighborhood to discover our Morton Williams grocery store, our CVS Pharmacy, and a nice little bakery/deli that is calling out my name this morning. These are all within the block.
Any information leading to the identification of the woman pictured here would be most welcome. She appeared at our home about a week ago, and she hasn't yet divulged any information or indicated that she wanted us to contact friends or family. She's apparently content to stand quietly in the back yard, but clearly, she comes from a home where people cared for her, lovingly applying the sunflower dress, handmade from the best vinyl, along with bloomers of a quality not often seen. Shy and still, the woman appears to have been sheltered from the sun, as her pale arms attest. Her face, kept demurely turned away, is a mystery to me. She's about four feet high, and, perhaps due to her refusal of nourishment, she's plywood-thin. Help us return this woman to where she belongs!
Bigwigs in town today announced a new blanket of wireless technology today, Sioux Valley's WiMAX, which promises an umbrella of wireless internet access independent of home modems or wireless routers or cards. Their map shows almost an eight-mile radius from their equipment atop the high-rise building in Madison.
