very interesting story about Twain & Grant, & thanks for the link to the book!! That was indeed a lot of money back then - & now!
Ahhh, you haven't been to Alaska... dh & I went. It was a marvelous trip!!! It was during a time when the sun "set" for only about 4 hours & one room we stayed in, the shade didn't go down all the way. Husband said we had our own night light. The garden at that place grew all of its own produce during that time of the year & had stakes in the ground showing the growth due to how much sun - AMAZING how fast those veggies grew!!! Eagles were as plentiful as squirrels. We talked to a lot of people who lived there all yr, for many yrs. It takes a certain personality. I loved their personalities. There are some folks who are part-timers who come down to the lower states, many to their "little sister" TX.
I had heard of the hand-gestures w/ chimps in the wild. Love it!! When my sons' kids were very young they began teaching them some basic hand signals, such as 'hungry', 'no more' some others I don't remember, so they could communicate before being able to talk. Of course, that meant they had to teach those signs to me, too, when I came to visit 😁
The reversal of “rulings” is intentional. I doubt trump has original thoughts outside his desire for revenge and need for adoration. Most of what we see comes from his favorite people (think Musk). Must be the 2025 playbook.
“The chaos was deliberate. By flooding the public with rapid, sweeping changes, Hitler left little room for resistance. Decisions came too fast for citizens to process, much less oppose. Each new decree seemed to reinforce the urgency of the last, and by the time Germany realized what had happened, democracy was gone.
Flash forward to today, and Trump is playing a disturbingly similar tune. Trump’s self-declared strategy is to “flood the zone,” an elegant phrase that translates to “create so much chaos, nobody can keep up.”
3 notes on Grant; He and Pres Abe ordered the Indians (see Geroge Carlin about Native Americans) pushed West or erased resulting in the denuding from the Midwest and the death of thousands. Second, Grant issued an order barring Jews from Kansas I believe because some sold southern cotton to European nations supporting the Confederacy. Abe retracted it immediately & Grant apologized. Pres Grant & wife attended the opening for the first Orthodox synagogue in D.C., sat thru 3 hour service, and donated from his poc ket $100.
It's going to be an exhausting four years, but a reviving time for media. The press has been in a sorry state for the past several years and I imagine are giddy with the anticipation of returning to the splendor they enjoyed in Trump's first administration.
Sadly, we will have to endure the virtual smell of vomit as we read comment sections full of regurgitated vitriol from both sides.
Milam(hubby), our two dogs and I took the ferry up to Hanes, AK from the mainland which cut off about 1300 miles to get up to the main part of our largest state? We spent two or so weeks there, playing golf in Fairbanks at 8:00 PM til midnight, later checking out Denali and moving on to Anchorage so we could get our mail, pay our bills and play some golf. It was June so the sun was pretty much perpetual daylight and no, no one up there knows how to make window coverings that actually block all sunlight. Anyway, 2001 set records for being hot. We were there a bit early so the mountains weren’t green yet and the rivers were full of ice melt. We saw quite a bit of the country but we decided that were we to ever return it would be late July or early August. Of course we saw icebergs, seals, mountain goats, a couple of grizzlies and plenty of moose; all the things that make the tourist brochures. Bill, should y’all decide to go up there I would suggest you plan on a cruise/train package. That way, you can enjoy the luxury of the cruise and see what there is to see from that viewpoint and by train, you can avoid the rough road conditions.
As for completely avoiding the current political atmosphere, good luck. Can’t be done these days.
Having traveled Alaska in 2022 and all of the US and a fair amount of Canada since 2018, full time in our motorhome, I can tell you that there is little difference between the quality of Alaska’s roads and all the other states.
That said, the cruise and train option is a great way to see Alaska too, if you don’t mind crowds.
They mush have figured out how to repair their roads in the winter then because we were told that the summer was the only time road repair was possible. With all the truck traffic that travels the roads we found them pretty rough but then we were there for two weeks the 2nd and 3rd weeks of June. We only ran into crowds at Denali.
They still generally fix them in the summer. But they FIX them. Unlike down here where often don’t fix them, they just do minor and usually short-lived repairs.
very interesting story about Twain & Grant, & thanks for the link to the book!! That was indeed a lot of money back then - & now!
Ahhh, you haven't been to Alaska... dh & I went. It was a marvelous trip!!! It was during a time when the sun "set" for only about 4 hours & one room we stayed in, the shade didn't go down all the way. Husband said we had our own night light. The garden at that place grew all of its own produce during that time of the year & had stakes in the ground showing the growth due to how much sun - AMAZING how fast those veggies grew!!! Eagles were as plentiful as squirrels. We talked to a lot of people who lived there all yr, for many yrs. It takes a certain personality. I loved their personalities. There are some folks who are part-timers who come down to the lower states, many to their "little sister" TX.
I had heard of the hand-gestures w/ chimps in the wild. Love it!! When my sons' kids were very young they began teaching them some basic hand signals, such as 'hungry', 'no more' some others I don't remember, so they could communicate before being able to talk. Of course, that meant they had to teach those signs to me, too, when I came to visit 😁
The reversal of “rulings” is intentional. I doubt trump has original thoughts outside his desire for revenge and need for adoration. Most of what we see comes from his favorite people (think Musk). Must be the 2025 playbook.
“The chaos was deliberate. By flooding the public with rapid, sweeping changes, Hitler left little room for resistance. Decisions came too fast for citizens to process, much less oppose. Each new decree seemed to reinforce the urgency of the last, and by the time Germany realized what had happened, democracy was gone.
Flash forward to today, and Trump is playing a disturbingly similar tune. Trump’s self-declared strategy is to “flood the zone,” an elegant phrase that translates to “create so much chaos, nobody can keep up.”
3 notes on Grant; He and Pres Abe ordered the Indians (see Geroge Carlin about Native Americans) pushed West or erased resulting in the denuding from the Midwest and the death of thousands. Second, Grant issued an order barring Jews from Kansas I believe because some sold southern cotton to European nations supporting the Confederacy. Abe retracted it immediately & Grant apologized. Pres Grant & wife attended the opening for the first Orthodox synagogue in D.C., sat thru 3 hour service, and donated from his poc ket $100.
“President Blames D.E.I. and Biden for Crash Under Trump’s Watch“
(NYT Headline)
It's going to be an exhausting four years, but a reviving time for media. The press has been in a sorry state for the past several years and I imagine are giddy with the anticipation of returning to the splendor they enjoyed in Trump's first administration.
Sadly, we will have to endure the virtual smell of vomit as we read comment sections full of regurgitated vitriol from both sides.
Do better America.
This was once one of the few safe spaces I didn't have to endure the political sensationalism.
Nothing but blue skies ahead.
Milam(hubby), our two dogs and I took the ferry up to Hanes, AK from the mainland which cut off about 1300 miles to get up to the main part of our largest state? We spent two or so weeks there, playing golf in Fairbanks at 8:00 PM til midnight, later checking out Denali and moving on to Anchorage so we could get our mail, pay our bills and play some golf. It was June so the sun was pretty much perpetual daylight and no, no one up there knows how to make window coverings that actually block all sunlight. Anyway, 2001 set records for being hot. We were there a bit early so the mountains weren’t green yet and the rivers were full of ice melt. We saw quite a bit of the country but we decided that were we to ever return it would be late July or early August. Of course we saw icebergs, seals, mountain goats, a couple of grizzlies and plenty of moose; all the things that make the tourist brochures. Bill, should y’all decide to go up there I would suggest you plan on a cruise/train package. That way, you can enjoy the luxury of the cruise and see what there is to see from that viewpoint and by train, you can avoid the rough road conditions.
As for completely avoiding the current political atmosphere, good luck. Can’t be done these days.
Having traveled Alaska in 2022 and all of the US and a fair amount of Canada since 2018, full time in our motorhome, I can tell you that there is little difference between the quality of Alaska’s roads and all the other states.
That said, the cruise and train option is a great way to see Alaska too, if you don’t mind crowds.
They mush have figured out how to repair their roads in the winter then because we were told that the summer was the only time road repair was possible. With all the truck traffic that travels the roads we found them pretty rough but then we were there for two weeks the 2nd and 3rd weeks of June. We only ran into crowds at Denali.
They still generally fix them in the summer. But they FIX them. Unlike down here where often don’t fix them, they just do minor and usually short-lived repairs.
Bill (& all interested in the rest of the story) check this out about Twain/Grant:
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/how-mark-twain-helped-ulysses-s-grant-write-his-personal-memoirs.htm