Sometimes the world makes sense
Thu, 07/02/2026 - 12:00am
ECHOES FROM THE LOAFERS’ CLUB MEETING
The city says I have seven outstanding parking tickets.
Do you really?
I don’t know, but it was nice of the city to say that.
DRIVING BY BRUCE’S DRIVE
I have a wonderful neighbor named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me. I was in Nimrod. I know what you’re thinking. Sometimes the world makes sense—a nimrod in Nimrod. Nimrod is a city in Wadena County and is named after the biblical figure Nimrod, a skillful and mighty hunter. The high school teams in Watersmeet, Michigan, are nicknamed the Nimrods. The name took a detour after a 1948 "Looney Tunes" cartoon in which Daffy Duck called Elmer Fudd a "nimrod." The Nimrod Gnats play baseball there. Dick Stigman pitched for Nimrod and in the majors for seven years (including with the Twins).
Back in medieval times, a friend gave me a Lincoln Continental to drive while he was out of the state for a few months. He wanted me to drive his land yacht occasionally to keep it in prime condition. I didn’t drive it as often as I should have. It was too nice. I was used to driving a junkyard on wheels, the kind that used a windshield wiper as an oil dipstick. Each drive was like running with an egg in each hand. Wrestling the steering wheel of one of those contraptions gave me plenty of upper-body exercise. I tithed to keep those cars on the road. Discussions with other drivers in the same predicament would begin with, “How many miles do you get to the quart?” I always carried a sandwich with me. It gave me something to do during breakdowns after I’d found a safe landing spot. I remember talking to a neighbor who had an old car that he kept in prime condition. It was an antique. I questioned him, “You mean you drive an old car because you want to?”
FATHER’S DAY
On a day long ago, in a land not far away, I stood beside my father’s grave on a windswept prairie, regretting those things I’d left unsaid, and questions that went unasked. He’d given me his ears and his time. I heard a western meadowlark call from a pasture near the cemetery. It brought precious memories of my wonderful father, the farmer, and of our many talks. I know the bird was proclaiming territory, but sometimes, a bird sings when I need to hear it.
I’VE LEARNED
The states with the highest personal income are Virginia, New York and New Jersey. Minnesota is 8th and Iowa 32nd. West Virginia is the lowest, just behind New Mexico and Mississippi.
If you don’t think you’ll like a food, eat it deep-fried.
BAD JOKES DEPARTMENT
My neighbors listened to some loud music last night until they asked me to turn it down.
Alice saw the northern lights but was unimpressed. You might say it was the Aurora boring Alice.
How many soccer players does it take to change a lightbulb? I don’t know, but it’d be quicker if they could use their hands.
NATURE NOTES
A friend, Kim Eckert of Duluth, suggested a general rule of thumb that any meadowlark seen west of a north-south line from the city of Warroad in Roseau County south to the city of Fairmont in Martin County was a western meadowlark. East of this line, however, both the western meadowlark and the eastern meadowlark species are seen.
A group of dragonflies is called a flight, swarm, cluster or wing.
“What do skunks have that no other animal has?” Baby skunks.
A woman on the Pelican Breeze asked why there were more cliff swallow nests on the west side of the highway bridge than on the east side. Concrete bridges and overpasses caused cliff swallows to abandon nesting on loose, crumbly cliffs of sandstone or limestone in favor of firm structures that offered overhangs sheltering the birds from the elements. Their densely packed nests extend over lengthy sections of buildings, dams, culverts and bridges. Cliff swallows require freshwater to construct their gourd-shaped nests, each made of 900–1,200 individual mud pellets collected in their bills. I suspect cliff swallows might build more nests on the west side of a bridge than on the east side due to the direction of the sun's path and the resulting temperature differences. The west side of a bridge receives more direct sunlight later in the day, which can lead to warmer temperatures overnight. The warmer temperature could benefit a nestling by regulating its body temperature and potentially providing a more comfortable environment. Baby birds lacking feathers are more vulnerable to cold than to heat.
MEETING ADJOURNED
“Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest.”―Sri Chinmoy.