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Showing posts from December, 2007

Howdy Friends!

When I was a sophomore at Northwestern University, I joined the college radio station. The airwaves of WNUR probably reached not much farther than the next dorm, but I still got a kick out of being in the broadcast booth and talking into the microphone.The downside was that fledgling DJ's were constrained to playing music only from the "easy listening" category. Every week before my show I would thumb hopefully through the designated shelf of LP's, (yes, I'm dating myself), only to find variations on Mitch Miller and/or the Swingle Singers (okay, I'm really dating myself!). I would sigh, make a few selections and hand them to my engineer as I headed into the booth. Now this was a time when in the music world, the British Invasion was in full swing. In the political world, the Civil Rights movement was cresting with "Women's Lib" not far behind. Folks headed to San Francisco with flowers in their hair (got the date yet?). I knew no one was listen

Santa at the Farmers Market

Yessirree, the Farmers Market is very green in the month of December! The greens, however, as you may have guessed, are not edible. Almost the entire front section is filled with holiday wreaths, table arrangements, and decorations made from evergreens, embellished with seasonal ribbons and sparkle. It looks very colorful and festive and I saw smiling customers walking away with unique arrangements, created by an extended farming family in their "off time". It was a biting cold Saturday and I cruised quickly along the aisles in search of apples and cider. Many farmers had constructed little 3-sided tents to hold a bit of the heat generated by their propane heaters. In the old days, the heaters were called "salamanders"; they were fueled with kerosene, which made a nasty and ominous black smoke when something was about to go awry. Yes, I speak from experience. If you have been reading carefully, I assume you are about to ask: why would a heater be called a salamander