Although it’s often said that everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day (and nowhere is that truer than in Chicago), I didn’t want to let the day go by without mentioning that I am at least one quarter Irish. “At least” because my mother is at least one half Irish. Both her maternal and paternal grandmothers were unquestionably 100% Irish. The other half is probably mostly French but it does get a little fuzzy here. My maternal grandfather, Owen, claimed to be Irish and, indeed, as I mentioned, his mother was 100% Irish. He claimed that his family was from County Mayo but my mother has always qualified this by saying that her father’s family always seemed to be from whereever the people he was speaking with were from. Owen’s father may also have been half Irish but I don’t really know for sure. That’s the line I’m researching most energetically.

So to everyone who’s Irish, part Irish, or just wish they were Irish, happy St. Patrick’s Day and have one for me!

As promised here are the primary results from the precinct in which I judged yesterday:

[continue reading…]

Since there’s no Internet connection at the polling place I won’t be able to live-blog the election as I’d like. What follows is a transcription of the journal I kept throughout the day.

My assigned polling place although not my home precinct polling place is in the gym at Sauganash School. It’s only a block away so I’m walking.

5:03 am

Arrived at the assigned polling place late. As usual. I was the first of the election judges to arrive so I opened the supplies case (ESC) and began to set up.

5:08 am

I thought for a moment I would be flying solo. The second judge has arrived.

[continue reading…]

With four teams competing for first place this year’s Iditarod is a real race. Mitch Seavey just dropped a dog and blew out of Koyuk with Kjetil Backen hot on this heels. At the speeds they’ve been making if it had been a little colder they might have broken the 8 day barrier. As it is the winner should come into Nome between 7:00 pm and midnight Tuesday night.

For best internet coverage of the race try here and here.

My wife and I have really been enjoying the coverage every night at 10:00 pm on The Outdoor Channel. Although the producer/writer/interviewer is pretty funky the interviews, video, and commentary really give you the feel of what it must be like to actually be there.

“But it’s the story of my life.” That’s what Tula told us. Tula was a small woman in her late sixties with hair cut short and slicked back and wisps of beard and mustache growing from her lips and cheeks. Every chance she got she’d buttonhole us and launch into long, wild, rambling stories from her life. Or at least how she remembered it. Voyages by ship to Greece. From Greece? Waking up in 1959 to learn of a husband and child of whom she had no memory. The rights and powers of godfathers under the “Greek religion”. Lurid tales of her encounters with doctors. “They cut my breasts.” “They told me I had cancer. I never had cancer.” “They told me to take pills. I never took any pills.”
[continue reading…]

Most blogs are exercises in vanity and this one is no exception. I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last year or so reading and commenting on other people’s blogs and I felt it was high time I started using my own bandwidth for my ruminations. I also wanted to be able to guide the conversation a little more.

I plan on writing about politics, dogs, food, wine, genealogy, and anything else that interests me.

Initially this blog will be a monologue. But, hopefully, if I can make my blog a place where others come to visit on a regular basis, it will become a dialogue.