After Christmas

Well, it is finally over and life can get back to as close to normal as it ever does around here. I got quite a bit of stuff, including a miniature leatherman tool. You know what they are, about 15 different tools in one, like a swiss army knife. This thing was packaged in one of those hard plastic shrink-wrap things which are basically impossible to open. I started with a fingernail clipper, graduated to a pair of wire cutting dikes, finally a butcher knife, and eventually a cleaver. I seriously thought I would be hospitalized before I was done. Whoever makes that wrap stuff should go into the automobile body business. I have had cars a lot more fragile than that package.

The seed catalogs are flowing in, a treat for me which gets me excited about the gardens again. Then I look out the window and realize the snow will slow my planting plans for a while. I do study the catalogs, mainly to see if anything new and wonderful is being offerred (and there is a lot of new and wonderful stuff) and also to compare the prices between different catalogs - and there is a lot of differance. The only way to judge is to figure out the seed count or package net weight and then compare it to an identical variety elsewhere. The last consideration is the shipping and handling costs, which means that I try to limit the number of places from which I order. Lots of time left for this enjoyable project so I postpone everything for a while.

Someone wrote and asked me about the politics of my youth, a subject that could go on practically forever. Actually I paid little attention to politics in my youth. I know that Abraham Lincoln was running for president, and that was about all. When I returned to the North Country after 30 years elsewhere, I started getting interested in politics mainly due to my mother, Eva Dean, who was a rock ribbed republican, who was convinced that Richard Nixon was a greater diety than the pope. Mom was the editor of the Potsdam Courier and Freeman, and also was a volunteer for local politicians (Republican politicians) and was active in the campaigns of Dave Martin and the late Bob McEwen. She also knew where most of the bodies were buried, particularly the St. Lawrence County Legislature, and had collected voluminous files on the more outrageous behavior of many local dignitaries. I had begged her many times to reveal this stuff to me, with no luck at all. She discussed some of it with me and I was impressed by the amount of sculduggary she had uncovered. When she got near the end of her life, I decided that at the opportune moment I would get into her files and save them for posterity. Alas, when she went into a nursing home, I discovered the files had all been burnt. Mom didn't leave much of anything to chance. Long after my "youth" I went to work for St. Lawrence County as the County Veteran's Director (A politically appointed job) engineered by Mom, who didn't hesitate to use her clout where family was concerned. The County job gave me the opportunity to observe the legislature and local politics first hand, and believe you me, they play hardball up there. I could regale you with some of the more outrageous stories but I think I will save those memoirs for another venue.

What is this country coming to department: I have read that a nationally known "star" blew her nose in a tissue, which was subsequently auctioned off (I think on e-bay) for the sum of $5300. Can you believe that anyone could be so incredibly stupid as to pay that sum for someone's used kleenex? I am not particularly fussy, but I would not only refuse to pay someone for a used tissue, but might offer them 50 cents or a buck to keep the damn thing in their own pocket.

Queen in waiting Caroline has seemed to develop a backlash over her political ambitions, mainly involving her qualifications. Someone also printed an article saying that her net worth was somewhere between 100 and 400 million dollars, a figure she refused to confirm or deny. It is amazing how successful a children's book can be. This little fairy tale will play itself out in due time, but I'm betting that the Kennedy machine will prevail. She will certainly have some value to the democratic fund-raising process.

Enough for now, I have to go tend for my chicken flock. I expect that all three of them are hungry about now.