April 11, 2008

A couple of responses to last week's column on Hillary Clinton and the rally in Grand Forks have suggested that I was unfair to Hillary due to her gender. One criticism, which was probably fair, was that when I saw an imperious woman, comfortable in command, instead of saying she was "presidential," I said she was a like queen.

Well, presidential wasn't the word that came to mind. I have always thought Hillary was plenty presidential. What became obvious to me at the rally was that she was also regal. I probably didn't make that clear in the column. While I was writing that paragraph of the column, I was thinking of the terms "imperious" and "regal" in somewhat positive ways. However, I then went on to say it was also her weakness, and it came across to some people that we can't be having a commanding woman in office.

Nothing I would like more than to have a commanding woman in office. It is long overdue for us to have a female president. I just don't want Hillary.

I was always hoping Clinton would run. I pulled for her at the very beginning, three years ago. I admired what she has done in the Senate. Her colleagues there admire her, too, from both sides of the aisle. I have thought she is a grand, talented woman. But, my goodness, then she started revealing herself on the campaign trail to be a new version of her husband. Perhaps that is because her husband has always been a version of her. Their sense of entitlement was so obvious and so obnoxious at the start of the campaign that it turned me off right away. Her strategy was based upon entitlement, on inevitability. It failed. It deserved to fail.

Meanwhile, Obama: He's my man, but some of his proposals are nonsense. The government should not get involved with CEO compensation. Today, Obama said executive compensation should be capped. Yes, it is insane that the Halliburton pension fund fell short of paying its pensioners by twenty-some million dollars, roughly the same amount as Dick Cheney got in severance pay from the company that same year. The pensioners should sue the board of directors for dereliction of duty. What is needed in corporate land boards who take their fiduciary responsibility seriously, not greater government intervention.

However, if the threat of government intervention scares boards into doing their duty and not rubberstamping ridiculous pay packages, perhaps it will be a good thing. My favorite businessman, Warren Buffett, thinks executive pay is out of whack, especially stock option packages, but he thinks it is a board matter, not a government matter.

Corporate criminals like Enron's Ken Lay got a free pass from this administration. The existing rules weren't even enforced. What is needed is enforcement of present regulations, as well as some sense of outrage when the stockholders and employees are screwed by the people at the top.

Well, the Twins are looking pretty wise in taking the Mets offer for Santana rather than jumping for the offers by the Red Sox and the Yankees early on last winter. All of the players mentioned in the deal which would have come to the Twins from the Sox and Yanks are doing horribly (although it is early) and, by going with the Mets' offer, the Twins got Carlos Gomez, who is loaded with potential and is going to put fannies in the seats, as their centerfielder. If Gomez fulfills his potential, the trade will be a good one for the Twins even if the other three players, pitchers all, don't pan out. However, one of those, Deolis Guerra, only 18 years old and throwing in the upper 90s, might tip the balance of the trade in the Twins favor.

Disgusting that the Twins weren't on TV tonight. I spent the whole day looking forward to the game, only to have the Minnesota Wild take over the airwaves.

Rumbling winds brought a brief return to winter today. By tomorrow, it is supposed to be warm again, and next week looks like spring weather, so this will be short-lived.

Last night, we had our first seminar at the nursery. Twenty people showed up, which I figured was pretty good considering the weather was supposed to deteriorate. One car came from Roseau. They got here half way through the seminar, so I hope it was worth it.

As has become tradition, a woman brought some wines that she had made from fruits grown around here. Strawberry. Raspberry. Nanking Cherry. Plus peach and pear. Very good.

THE TWINS have been idle for two days. They were rained out in Chicago yesterday, a postponement the team welcomed since their pitching staff is in turmoil. I was looking forward to watching on Wednesday night, but the Twins were preempted by the Timberwolves, so no such luck.

So, I am hoping for a game tonight in Kansas City.

April 09, 2008

Camille seldom disappoints.

...just on a sign outside the Thief River Falls Public Library. Even though I knew I was scheduled, I did a double take when I saw this on the street yesterday afternoon in TRF.



At the library, several dozen quilts were on display. All were well done. Some were dazzling. And some, like the two here, eschewed the usual geometric patterns for something a little more creative.

April 08, 2008

Please read this article to get a detailed assessment of how torture became American policy.

Some points:

Torture and abuse of prisoners was not conducted independently by rogue low-level soldiers. It was policy. Neither was it rare.

The green light to torture came from Rumsfeld and his immediate subordinates. They were busy trying to find a way around the Geneva Conventions from the very beginning. They were relieved when Justice department lawyers came up with justifications for abandoning the time-honored procedures in the Army Field Manual. They are now war criminals.

Most people would prefer to look the other way on this issue or shrug it off. However, torture and abuse of prisoners is, I believe, going to be the most shameful legacy of this already shameful and sorry administration. It has stained our reputation abroad. It is immoral by any measure I can think of to harm people who are in your complete control. Torture was explicitly denounced by the Founding Fathers.

And, it is depraved. Read the account of the female official who attended meetings where specific methods were brought up and encouraged. It is sick stuff.

I continue to believe that none of the soldiers and lower level interrogators who actually tortured prisoners should be charged or prosecuted. They were merely obeying orders.

Here's a brief tour of what's going on today. Above, Ryan Nelson moves some petunias. This is a big week of shuffling around. Some greenhouses are easier to heat, so we start them early. Later, we have to move the plants to where they will be displayed.

It is good to have Ryan back. Every year, I wonder where the crew is going to come from and every year one materializes, usually from people who have been here before. Ryan is taking a semester off school so has some time to help this spring.



Jonny brings a tray of lupine out to the greenhouse for transplanting.



Lyla works on tomatoes. These scrawny little things will be husky and ready for planting the week before Memorial Day.



Orpha hauls some transplanted tomatoes out to the greenhouse. This greenhouse we call "twenty-two," because it is twenty-two feet wide. It seems to grow the best tomatoes, so we keep them there until just before they sell when we take them to the big greenhouse which is better for selling but a little cold for growing tomatoes.



Meanwhile, Darlene concentrates upon impatiens.



Marian starts into a new tray of impatiens.



Mom and Judy decide where to move the snapdragons to make room for the geraniums. At this point in the season, the geraniums have to be spread apart to allow them to get full. That takes up a lot of space and it causes a domino effect. One of Mom's main jobs right now is figuring out how to find space.



Out in the cold building, Dad sorts through a fresh shipment of small trees and shrubs which he picked up yesterday. Sales will start in the bare root building as soon as the ground thaws in the Fargo area, so Dad is rushing to get the place in shape.



In the shop, Dot puzzles over a shipment of pots. The companies who send out shipments of gift items and fancy pots are unusually incompetent, to put it bluntly. Almost every shipment contains some errors, so Dot has to compare invoices with what actually arrived on the pallet on a daily basis as the shipments come in.



Meanwhile, back in the greenhouse, Ken is on the water hose. The task of watering is complicated this time of year. You have to hit the pots that are dry, but you can't douse the ones which are already wet or those plants might rot. Ken has the gift of concentration which prevents him from just dousing everything equally, as I would do.

Missing here is Joe, who alternates roaming the greenhouses giving directions and working on ads, answering emails, printing labels and so on. Dale will be back helping tomorrow. Ksenia has a terrific cold. Tim has classes. Cory is at college. Cindy will be here later today. And I'll bet I missed somebody.

April 07, 2008

This woman who got in late, just like us, and was confined to the floor, watched the large screen rather than squint at Obama in the distance.



A typical scene at the rear of the audience.



Two Hillary fans in line outside of the arena.



Obama even gets the baggy pants crowd to attend a political rally. Something to be said for that.



The little girl is there so somebody can tell her she was there twenty years on.

And, as always, there were protesters.

Spoke to a nice group of people at the McIntosh Community Center. Unlike most garden clubs, this one had a balance of males and females on hand. After I was finished, they started their business meeting with roll call: name your favorite house plant. "Cannibis!" yelled one man.

Good to see some liveliness at a garden club meeting.

Still recovering from the weekend. Lots of stuff buzzing around in my mind. Seeing Hillary in person changed my perceptions of her greatly.

In addition, I keep wondering what I could do to better promote the nursery to the audiences to which I speak. I saw that hits on the nursery website rose from an average of 150 per day to 350 on Saturday after I spoke to 750 people in Underwood. I should have had little cards with our website address on them, but I had run out. Even so, it looks as if 200 out of the 750 people checked in on the website. Once they get there, there is a good chance of them staying interested.

The publication of our catalog once again got tangled up in various places and is going to be late. I would love to have copies of it on hand to give out to these large audiences, but we just are accustomed to getting our end of the catalog done March 1, which means any delays push its publication further towards the growing season. Oh well. People still read it when it comes out, but next year we are going to try hard again to get it out earlier.

I have been showing slides this year at speaking engagements. Thanks to a digital projector purchased by Dad, which I will eventually reimburse him for since I am now using it all the time, it is easy to make slide shows out of digital images. We'll see if the items I feature on the slide shows, shows which have been now viewed by about 1,900 people, will affect sales.

THE TWINS lost their second in a row today. The offense is having a little trouble getting off the ground. Having GoGomez single, steal second, and score on a Joe Mauer hit once per game is proving to be not enough. I think the Twins will have a good enough season, but it is going to take about six weeks to get them off the ground.

MOST OF THE SNOW which landed here yesterday has already melted, and we're back to working on the dirty stuff underneath. It doesn't seem as if the snow held a lot of moisture. Not enough, at least, to affect the level of water on my swamp. No swans yet, just two geese preening themselves on the ice.

April 06, 2008

Put over 500 miles on the Ranger this weekend running around speaking, etc.

First, it was the Hawley Methodist Church on Friday afternoon.



There I had a chance to get a picture taken with weblog reader Ida.

After that, it was off to Grand Forks to the Obama-Clinton rally. I intend to write a column about that either late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Saturday morning, I went to Bagley to entertain for the Clearwater-Polk REA Annual Meeting. That went well. But I double-booked sometime back and found that I was also supposed to be in Underwood Saturday. Luckily, the good folks in Underwood at the Master Gardener workshop moved me to the afternoon to accomodate.

However, I had only ten minutes to spare by my calculations. I had to go 120 miles in two hours over back roads. I printed out the directions from Bagley to Underwood and had them at the ready. That worked perfectly. I raced down the back roads, through Lengby, through Mahnomen, Waubun, Detroit Lakes, Vergas, Dent, and finally into Underwood.

Ran into the school where the Master Gardener workshop was held and had all of five minutes to set up my projector. When I walked into the gym, it was full. They had 750 people registered, and I got them all for fifty minutes.

Scary. What if I had gotten a flat tire? I am never going to schedule something that tight again. Too much stress.

The slide projector worked, the presentation went pretty well, and I came home and had a nice nap.

Today, we awoke to a storm in Fertile. I was due in Karlstad at 2 p.m. I dreaded driving in the bad weather, but looked on the map and it looked like I would get out of it soon. Five miles north of Fertile, it cleared up completely and the drive to Karlstad was easy.

This was a fund-raiser by the Karlstad Garden Club for the hanging baskets and planters they have on Main Street. They had customized tables--themes for each table. The women were dressed in a festive manner, and several men were there as well. They seemed to be helping to cook the meal. I met several weblog readers and column readers.

Before I spoke, a seven year old boy, Bo, was introduced. He was sitting next to a huge accordian, and I couldn't imagine what he would do with it. But after he was introduced and said into the mike, "I am vewy glad to be hewe!" He got into a wrestling match with the accordian and eventually strapped it to himself. It had to weigh as much as he did. And then he started playing.

He plays by ear. He played four songs. He kept a good oom-pah-pah rhythm. He did "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and even modulated keys. Fascinating. What a charmer. At the end, he took the mike and said, "I hope you have a wonderful pwogwam!"

I had to follow that act, but the ladies were in a rowdy mood and it was fun. There was none of the restraint you see in the early stages of a gig in a church basement.

It was a long weekend. However, I spoke to about 1,100 people and then joined 17,000 people at the Obama-Clinton rally. I have filled gas on the Ranger each of the past three days!

Tonight, the snow continues here in Fertile. The storm must just have sat in one place all day. We could use the moisture. At least I am glad to have the moisture. The swamp in front of the house is filling, but it is far from full.