Ya sure, you betcha it is Norway’s Constitution Day (#209 since the opener in 1814), and that makes for Good News from Narvik to the edge of the Orkney Islands (formerly Norse.) Now as most of you are aware I am not Norwegian. BUT this Ohio boy went to seminary in St. Paul…..among the Lutherans from “the Empire” (Minnesota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The old joke was that all Lutheran altars in the US (except for Pennsylvania) pointed toward Minneapolis.)
I was/am Lutheran but most of the daughters and sons of Scandivavia were not so sure. After all, I was from “out East”-----which meant the “other side” of Chicago. I did NOT know or like lutefisk (once it was explained to me) but lefse goes a good distance to make up for the other. According to my classmates, a ‘mixed marriage’ was a Norwegian and a Swede. Winters of dark and bone-chilling cold are signs of God testing our Faith.
While my ministry took me to parishes in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and in Minnesota (where the local Hamm’s Beer had a slogan of “Brewed in God’s country”…..and my parishoners didn’t grin or smirk but said solemnly, “Its True you know…..”) I have been living in “Lutherland” since the mid 1990s. In the words of Spock (whose stoic outlook has most Norwegians counting the Vulcans as far-flung cousins) “continuous exposure does result in some contamination.”
(In the 1990s the Norwegian Ambassador to the US did a nice: he invited several Congress folk and Senators to a luncheon at the Embassy, for those with significant swaths of constituents of Scandinavian roots. Minnesota’s own Martin Olav Sabo stood up to give the formal thanks. He noted that everything had been so tasty and kind and friendly he thought the Ambassador might actually be that rare and fabled person, a Norwegian Extrovert. The ambassador asked for information and Sabo replied, “A Norwegian extrovert is someone who, when you meet them for the first time, actually looks at YOUR shoes.”….)
So for all of you coming for the Good News Round Up at the Gnuville Breakfast Brunch and Fjord Yodeling Competition this is why there are long skirts, embroidered vests and endless exclamations of “Yumpin’ Yimmanie” across the Brunch today. The drinks at the bar are mighty, and the coffee is smooth BUT…..strong enough to use as an oil substitute (60 weight) on a snowplow engine.
Also, my sweetie SageHagRN is here at the Brunch (and I am house-sitting for 2 nights for her in St. Paul), who is the product of another sort of mixed marriage: her Norwegian father married her German mother (so I tease her that this averages out to Danish…….which leads to groans, but also really yummy morning pastry.)
Toby the cat is watching over me as I have spent Monday evening and all day Tuesday re-building his “Cat-io”……..a caged place in the yard, full of sunshine, smells, a stone floor to roly-poly upon, smells, birds, smells, chipmunks running by while teasing the cat. The deal was a kit SageHagRN bought a few years ago and the roof on it has had it, so the Handyman WineRev has been called in from the OTHER house-sitting assignment in western Wisconsin to see what I can do for the cat. Its coming, but its been an effort. so this morning’s Good News Song and Dance may feature more than usual slow numbers rather than the typical Good News Sabre Dances.
Please come in and bring your own cat treats, dog lick-ums, news articles, good stories, hope lifters, heart soothers, along with your comments, questions, zingers, digressions, knowledge and experience. As always, the table is set here, but its all of you/us that make this corner of the Internet worth coming to every day.
As is my custom, you will see me weaving in various May 17th moments of historical (or hysterical) note…...although the Oslo City Council is at pains to point out NOTHING rivals the 17th of May among the fjords…….but we can all at least try…..
Good News in Business, Economics and Politics
>>>>>>>>Yes, we are still following the crashing follies at Faux Noise. Yes, they settled (at the last minute) with Dominion Voting Systems for $787 million…..and Other Stuff. While Faux Noise awaits other civil suits to detonate in courtrooms, as well as the Smartmatic $2.7 Billion-with-a-B lawsuit, there are still echoes ringing from the Dominion story. Now comes a political story from Variety, the magazine/news source that covers movies and TV. Politics is a little off their usual beat but this is a TV story too, so their expertise is weighty. Variety IS REPORTING that Tucker Carlson getting canned at Faux Noise…..was PART of the Dominion lawsuit settlement! While the Dominion deal fell short of the hype so many had for it in the build up before trial, well ¾ of a BILLION dollars is a major shot. But now if it included Tucker’s professional head on a platter…...well, that settlement definitely takes a second turn on the celebrity runway……
>>>>>>>» Speaking of crashing follies, in a retro replay of 1929 the Silicon Valley Bank crashed and burned a few months back. Fortunately, since 1929 there are things like the FDIC to protect depositors and arrange shotgun weddings between banks to avoid things like Depressions. But it shouldn’t happen….so when it does, it makes the news. Even Congress sometimes gets involved, and the SVB CEO and other high-fliers and board of directors memebers were called in to the US Senate for some public squirming. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman IN THIS STORY asked the bailed-out 1% types why he and his GQP friends keep wanting to make bailouts for the US poor harder; “if we have to bail out a banker like you, should YOU have to meet certain work requirements….?” The screaming from the yacht basins, the Hamptons and other gated communities is loud across the land….which means Fetterman is on the right track.
>>>>» Not to let the Senate have all the fun, the House Minority Democrats can make the news too, and by bringing the Public Squirm. Jasmine Crockett is a 1st term Democrat from Texas, representing a fair chunk of Dallas. One of the House Committees she serves on had hauled in the mayor of Washington DC so that the majority GQPers could take shots and make headlines about “crime in the streets” and “crime in majority black cities” and “crime in Democrat (sic) run cities.” Well Congresswoman Crockett wasn’t having it. IN THIS DIARY you can read about and catch clips of her reaming out the GQP on crime, starting by them NOT doing anything about George Santos! Yes, an easy target, but also a masterful example of “how it is DONE!”
>>>>>>» There is some odd economic/business news these days. Some polling recently indicated nearly 90% of Americans think their personal economic situation is decent to pretty good, an historic high…..and yet Americans think in GENERAL the US economy is doing mehhh at best. The experts are doing some serious head scratching to put those 2 pieces together. Now comes THIS article citing another trusted survey that shows American workers rate their job satisfaction…..at a 36 year high (since 1987??) Have a read and then forward to your favorite head scratcher to add to their dandruff issues…..
Capitalism overtook feudalism and then mercantilism to set national and then global economies on a different track. One marker of this change dates from today:
1792 New York City Over there used to be a hefty stone wall, built by the Dutch back in the days of “New Netherlands”. It was a fortification against invasion by the British (which didn’t work) and behind it were large, open stretches where the Dutch militia would drill regularly. When they weren’t drilling, the grassy plots had other uses and in some of the plots, fur traders would trade, buy and sell furs and other goods the native tribes wanted or sent. So, deals have been made along this street near “The” Wall a long time. On this day at the Tontine Coffee House Company, at the corner of Wall and Water Streets, near a buttonwood tree, 24 merchants, being advised by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, worked out and signed the “Buttonwood Agreement” where they fixed rates on commissions on stocks and bonds. This later developed into the New York Stock Exchange.
Good News in Religion, Art and Music
1866 Honfleur, Normandy, France Birth of Erik Satie, composer. He had talent but was an indifferent, moody student. He was admitted twice to the Paris Conservatory, without graduating. His faculty advisor was mystified how the man ever got admitted at all, calling him one of his worst ever piano students. Nonetheless Satie had early success at age 27 with “Gymnopédies,” (perhaps his best-known work; in a Star Trek episode, facing impending death, Captain Picard puts it on as he broods in his cabin.)
Something of a mentor to a young Maurice Ravel, Satie dabbled in ballet, politics, literature and helped found the Theater of the Absurd. Despite his record at the Conservatory, most of his works are for the piano or feature it: dozens of songs, fantasies and preludes (some entitled “for a cat”, “for a dog”, “for children”), some rag time and early jazz pieces, and (like yesterday) a block of works connected to sports and past times (Le Tennis, Le Golf, Le Water Chute, Le Yachting, Le Flirt, Le Tango). Forerunner of minimalist music (although not yet the dreary depths of atonal apathy); unusual and often un-mistakeable.
1925 The Vatican The Roman Church has had a dreary history of misogyny, punctuated with breakthrough moments of living up to its Faith. On this day Pope Pius XI formally raises French nun Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897) to sainthood---a major deal for sure and unusually fast too, from 1897, not even 30 years since her death.
DOUBLEHEADER DATE In 1997 in an even Major-er (and rarer deal) on this, her Saint Day, Pope John Paul II makes Therese of Lisieux a Doctor of the Church, signifying that her writings and preaching are useful to Christians. There are, to date, only 37 Doctors of the Church EVER---in 2000 years. Ste. Terese is only the 4th woman EVER declared a Doctor of the Church; the 1st---Teresa of Avila---was only named such in 1970 (!))
Good News in Science and Engineering
The great minds of our age are still at it, perhaps inspired by their forerunners on May 17ths.
1861 London Daguerreotypes and tintype photographs had been around since the mid-1840s and people like Matthew Brady were already making a living taking photographs in their studios. But now, a breakthrough: at the Royal Institution (a scientific group) Scottish scientist James Maxwell displays and explains his process for his image of a tartan ribbon…..in colour (complete with a silent “u” doncha know?) The first step toward Kodachrome……
1970 Morocco Back in the late 1940s anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl and a crew of adventurers built a raft (the Kon-Tiki) and left the coast of Peru, travelling west on the currents of the Pacific, to add support to the idea that the Polynesians could have originated in South America before spreading across the Pacific islands (as an alternative to the Asian origin theory.) This day Heyerdahl is back to test another theory: he and a new crew of sailor-scientists have built a boat out of papyrus reeds. They call it the Ra II and they set off to show the ancient Egyptians could have had contact with the Americas using their then-current technology. 3270 nautical miles and 57 days later they reached Barbados.
Well, with Maxwell and Heyerdahl as inspiration its no wonder the very clever people of our age are at it. For instance, how about A Heat Induction Battery as reported here at Daily Kos to both fight global warming AND produce energy of the non-polluting persuasion?
>>>>>>Yes, yes renewables are coming. We all learned to say “lithium-ion” as far back as the days of Palm Pilots. But lithium isn’t always the cheapest or most accessible element to find. (Bolivia, Chile and Argentina lead the pack among the nations…...which is likely why the ancient astronauts recharged their space cruisers there at the Nazca Landing Zone, and taught the Incas how to do really cool STUFF.) But now comes THIS REALLY GREAT REPORT that shows that IRON could be the next great thing. Iron-ion batteries? Holy cow, the junkyards of America will power the world and we get to clean up the country!
>>>>» We have gotten out this side of COVID, but the effects have been deadly and some of them will linger in certain people for years (“the long haulers.”) As I understand it the COVID virus is the latest (as in covid 19, for 2019) mutation/variant in a class of virii called SARS. Back in the early 2000s there was a worldwide rash of these cases; nothing like COVID but widespread and deadly. Now comes THIS HEATENING STORY from medical researchers: a human antibody that has been/can be engineered to prevent ALL FORMS of SARS/COVID, now and in the future. Sneaky engineering and VERY good news.
>>>>>Mind you all these brilliant breakthroughs and developments are coming from very brainy humans and the mahcines they use or invent to help them come up with the next Great Thing. Lately though, there has been an outbreak of concern that the machines themselves might take over Breakthroughs….and eventually everything else. The Rise of AI…..and this DISPATCH FROM THE FRONT so we have some inkling of what to expect….and guard against…...and hope for.
Good News from the Social Front ….. and Just for Fun
May 17ths have had a string of historical moments, Good and Goofy, as we have seen, and can see below. But you should know the Good and the Goofy is all around us, even in the next seat at the coffee shop or across the table in the library.
For instance, THIS CHAP, Michael Copeland, likes to go hiking in the UK. Back country. Up country. Sturdy boots. Hiking staff. Some granola bars…….and a fair-sized refrigerator on his back. SRSLY. (Part of why we come to the Good News Round Up…..)
Or how about a story from the Far East that has an 80 year angle to it? And goes all the way to Europe…...because something found in Singapore could mean a LOT to some old folks in Germany? Because People like to find out and get to meet People….AND HEAR THEIR STORY. Which is another major reason we like coming here to the Round Up.
Mind you, May 17ths have been loaded with social and personal moments over the years:
1620 Phillippapolis, Turkish/Ottoman Empire (now Bulgaria) There was a festival going on, a fair. Englishman Peter Munday, traveling on adventure, records in his travel diary a moment of fun. A device dating back to medieval times for the training of knights and cavalry for jousting, had now lost its martial character and has become an amusement: a large, horizontal wheel has seats fastened along the rim, and children are sitting in these. Then the wheel begins turning in Munday’s description of the world’s first merry-go-round. Even then, little people giggled and laughed at mom and dad as the world swept by.
1642 Along the St. Lawrence River, Canada French explorer Paul de Chomedy de Maisonneuve and his party this day landed on a river island and started building a settlement. He called it Ville-Marie, and built a fort to protect it. On shore there was a hefty hill and Chomedy’s men built a lookout post up there and called the hill Mont Royal. This caught on for the whole settlement rather than “Mary’s Town”: the founding of Mont-real.
1814 Norway The National Day, when its Constitution was promulgated, and 209 years later is still treated as Independence Day. Denmark, who was running things, helped work out a “base law” (Constitution) published this day; then in August, they handed over the whole province/territory/ country to Sweden. Nonetheless, Norway counts the 17th of May as their national beginning. In 1864 a parade of children (at first, just boys, but in a few years, girls too) through the streets of Oslo (known as Christiania) was the major focus and has remained so to this day (and now by local and provincial law). For a national holiday, it is almost unique in that the military is not displayed---with one smile-making exception. Military bands in full dress uniform are welcomed and cheered mightily. (Any other army: “Here’s how you hold a rifle.” In Norway, “Private Sven, if your eighth notes don’t improve, I’ll bust you to third triangle player!”)
The military…...the band…..and…..Michael Jackson??? Well, those Norwegians can have fun…..and Jack-SON certainly could be Norwegian…...
1899 London, UK Attention all fans of “Victori-ana” and many things British! Here’s a big one. This day marks the laying of the cornerstone for the Victoria & Albert Museum. While the Museum was founded already in 1852, this day it begins the move into MUCH larger quarters. It is now the world’s largest museum of applied and decorative arts and design. (12 acres; 145 galleries) 2.27 MILLION objects. Enormous collection of sculptures. 5000 years of human history (so 5000 May 17s, let me tell you.)
1954 Washington DC Since 1896 the Supreme Court decision of Plessy v. Ferguson has been the foundation stone for racial segregation, establishing the Jim Crow doctrine of “separate but equal.” (The separate part was everywhere; the equal part, rare.) On this day the Court blows up this precedent. In the landmark decision of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, the Court rules 9-0 that racial segregation of public schools is unconstitutional. Known across the white South as “Black Monday” but a MAJOR step forward for civil rights and the ideal of America.
No doubt there is and will be more Good News happening overnight and all day long this Wednesday. So HERE is the place to read up on it. HERE is the place to add to the heap. HERE is the chance for you to recharge, grieve, rise up, dance, soar, ponder, snicker or cheer.
All ahead in the comments coming up…...from YOU!
May all your News be Good, comforting and inspiring.
Shalom.