Sunday, October 19, 2014
A view of us, by them, through the eyes of them.
Ah geez, yet again another literary commentator has decided that E. Annie Proulx somehow has a Wyoming association. Wyoming authors who are really from Wyoming just can't get a break.
Proulx is famouly associated with a certain short story made into a movie which set wrote while living in Wyoming and set in Wyoming, but she's not from Wyoming, and at the end of the day was just passing through, having moved on to Seattle. Even when she lived in Wyoming she spent part of the year in Newfoundland. She is not a Wyoming author in the real sense of the word. She was complaining about getting ignored in a fashion by locals before she left.
Not that outside people who comment on local writings care one whit about that. Or that Proulx came to prominence with The Shipping News, which is set in her native northeast. But it does cause us to suffer the indignity of so many presentations of people who live in this state are written by people whose connection with the state is temporary or perhaps in the form of immigration to the state. It isn't as if locals, and very long term residents, don't write. This must be what it was like for African natives back in the day of European colonization. I'll bet the writings by English or French colonist don't have big appreciate following in Africa, for example.
It's even worse, of course, with cinematic presentations. They're hardly ever filmed here, and the actors as a rule try to effect an accent that we don't have.
Proulx is famouly associated with a certain short story made into a movie which set wrote while living in Wyoming and set in Wyoming, but she's not from Wyoming, and at the end of the day was just passing through, having moved on to Seattle. Even when she lived in Wyoming she spent part of the year in Newfoundland. She is not a Wyoming author in the real sense of the word. She was complaining about getting ignored in a fashion by locals before she left.
Not that outside people who comment on local writings care one whit about that. Or that Proulx came to prominence with The Shipping News, which is set in her native northeast. But it does cause us to suffer the indignity of so many presentations of people who live in this state are written by people whose connection with the state is temporary or perhaps in the form of immigration to the state. It isn't as if locals, and very long term residents, don't write. This must be what it was like for African natives back in the day of European colonization. I'll bet the writings by English or French colonist don't have big appreciate following in Africa, for example.
It's even worse, of course, with cinematic presentations. They're hardly ever filmed here, and the actors as a rule try to effect an accent that we don't have.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Sunday Morning Scene: St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Casper Wyoming
St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Casper Wyoming, from Churches of the West. An additional photograph appears on that blog. This impressive structure dates to right around World War One, when a lot of construction was going on in Casper.
Friday, October 17, 2014
Sunday, October 18, 1914. The editor of Avanti!
The socialist editor of the socialist newspaper Avanti!, declared in favor of intervention on the side of the Triple Entente. That editor, one Benito Mussolini, was subsequently expelled from the Italian socialist party.
The Germans took Nieuwpoort, Belgium. Armentières, Messines were halted or slowed.
The Russian Army advanced over the Vistula due to a late deployment of Austro Hungarian troops in aid of German troops.
The submarine HMS E3 was sunk by the U-27, with all hands going down with her.
Last edition:
Saturday, October 17, 1914. The Siege of Naco.
Today In Wyoming's History: Governor, State Supt. Public Instruction 2014 Gene...
Today In Wyoming's History: Governor, State Supt. Public Instruction 2014 Gene...
The Superintendent of Education race is one of the state's more interesting races this election season.
The Superintendent of Education race is one of the state's more interesting races this election season.
Saturday, October 17, 1914. The Siege of Naco.
Pancho Villa ordered his forces to attack a garrison loyal to Venustiano Carranza and Álvaro Obregón at Naco, Sonora, Mexico, commencing what would become a 119 day siege.
The town is on the border with Arizona.
The British took Violaines and French cavalry Fromelles . French forces recaptured Armentières.
The German Navy lost a torpedo squadron trying to lay mines at them mouth of the Thames. A German torpedo boat sank the Japanese cruiser Takachiho.
Last edition:
Friday, October 16, 1914. Kiwis depart.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Video: Cowboys of the Sky | Watch Main Street Wyoming Online | WYOPTV Video
Video: Cowboys of the Sky | Watch Main Street Wyoming Online | WYOPTV Video
Wyoming PBS takes a look at airmail. Interesting topic.
Wyoming PBS takes a look at airmail. Interesting topic.
Friday, October 16, 1914. Kiwis depart.
Belgian and French troops held back the Germans at the Yser.
The British took Aubers at the cost of 1,000 casualties.
The New Zealand Expeditionary Force left New Zealand for Australia.
Last edition:
Wednesday, October 14, 1914. Border tensions.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Ethnicity, rise, decline, and regeneration. A study of Salt Lake City
I've posted here a couple of times on ethnic neighborhoods in posts inspired in part by the City of Denver. I happened to be in Salt Lake the other day when the same thing occurred to me. That is, ethnicity and how it strongly impacted urban areas and regions in the past.
Salt Lake is a city which, if looked at in terms of demographic groups, is normally associated with the Mormons for obvious reasons. That's so strongly the case that we just don't think of it being a big urban area with strong ethnic neighborhoods, but apparently that''s just flat out wrong. Around the turn of the last century, it definitely did.
The first time I became aware of that is when a friend of mine pointed out the impressive Catholic cathedral there.
The Cathedral of the Madeline, Salt Lake City Utah.
The Cathedral of the Madeline is a huge beautiful Gothic cathedral. Built in 1900, it is just off downtown in a hilly area. The cathedral, I learned, was built due to the large Irish Catholic population that was working in the mines and plants just outside of the city. Building the cathedral, in some ways, showed that they'd really arrived, and were doing well.
But that's not the only, or even the most surprising, example. Just recently I was in a part of the city down by the old railroad station. Located in that area of the city is a Greek Orthodox cathedral.
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Salt Lake City.
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, which still has its own school, was built in the 1920s, just a bit later. That Salt Lake City had a significant population of Greeks was surprising. More surprising, however, is that they were the largest immigrant ethnicity in Salt Lake City at the time, and the part of the city that the cathedral is located in was called "Greek Town".
Greek Town was in a part of the city which was quite industrial at that time, so the location of the cathedral reflects that condition that existed in many urban areas of the time, that being that people lived, went to church, and worked, all in a concentrated area. They apparently weren't the only immigrant group working in that area. Only a couple of blocks away from the cathedral is a church built specifically with the immigrant Japanese population in mind.
Japanese Church of Christ, Salt Lake City. This church was built in the same year as the Greek Orthodox Cathedral.
That Salt Lake City ever had such a significant population of Japanese immigrants that a church would have been built with them in mind is a surprise. But obviously it did.
Salt Lake by the late 19th Century had a sufficient population of Jewish residents that they had two synagogues built in the last decade of the 19th Century and the first decade of the 20th Century just off of the downtown area. Presumably the existence of two synagogues within a block of each other reflected some division in faith. Here too, this was a bit of a surprise to me when I first learned of it. That the two synagogues were so close to each other would also suggest that the neighborhood they were in was Jewish at the time, although this assumption could be in error.
B'nai Israel Temple, Salt Lake City. This building is no longer a synagogue, but rather is an architecture firms office.
St. Peter and St. Paul Orthodox Church in Salt Lake City, which was originally a synagogue.
All of this shows a much more diverse ethnic diversity in Salt Lake City a century ago than I would have expected, and it stands in contrast with the common presumption about the city.
Former Firestone facility in Salt Lake City.
Of interest as well, while some of the buildings shown in this thread have been kept in their original uses, the neighborhoods have clearly gone through changes. Greek Town, as noted, was once very industrial and was associated with a Firestone Tire Company plant.
Firestone plant location, now a restaurant, in Salt Lake City.
California Tire & Rubber Company building, Salt Lake City.
This area of Salt Lake is no longer industrial, and its undergoing some changes. It clearly fell into a state of dilapidation, and there are still some areas of it that can be pretty rough. I'd be careful walking around this area at night. Nonetheless, during the day there's some trendy cool looking restaurants and bars in the area.
That Salt Lake's history apparently reflects a pretty common urban story probably shouldn't be surprising, but in some ways it is. It isn't a city we really think in an industrial context, with immigrant populations, but it was.
Porridge Aficionados Vie To Make Theirs The Breakfast Of Champions : The Salt : NPR
Porridge Aficionados Vie To Make Theirs The Breakfast Of Champions : The Salt : NPR
Oatmeal.
I like oatmeal. I've always liked it, which puts me in an odd category I suppose. By liking it, I mean really like it, not tolerate it in a blurry eyed oaty slime to go with your coffee sort of way.
My mother used to occasionally call oatmeal porridge, something she learned when she was growing up in Quebec. It's one of the oldest of breakfast "cereals", and is a true a cereal. That is, it's a cereal in that oats are cereals, i.e., grains. Cooking it the old way takes some time, but not too much. Well worth making.
Oatmeal.
I like oatmeal. I've always liked it, which puts me in an odd category I suppose. By liking it, I mean really like it, not tolerate it in a blurry eyed oaty slime to go with your coffee sort of way.
My mother used to occasionally call oatmeal porridge, something she learned when she was growing up in Quebec. It's one of the oldest of breakfast "cereals", and is a true a cereal. That is, it's a cereal in that oats are cereals, i.e., grains. Cooking it the old way takes some time, but not too much. Well worth making.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Civil Holidays
Leann posted an item on her blog about Columbus Day, urging Congress to consider changing it to Indigenous Peoples Day. I'll confess that I think that's not a good idea, and that taking one unobserved civil holiday and converting it into a second, ethnic based one, would probably only serve to create additional unobserved civil holidays. But it does raise the question in my mind a to what holidays we observe, and which we do not, over time.
I didn't even take note that it was Columbus Day, although I should have, as I didn't get any mail. That's the kind of holiday it is. Federal offices close, but that's about all that happens, other than some stores trying to take advantage of the marketing opportunities it probably doesn't provide. Most places, people just ignore Columbus Day.
Presidents Day has gone that way too. At one time, I think people did stop to observe Washington's Birthday or Lincoln's Birthday, but combining all the Presidential observances into one day didn't do them any favor. Sure, I might wish to honor Washington, Lincoln, the Roosevelt's, etc., but I'm not too keen on honoring some others. I'd be hard pressed to raise a glass of milk to Millard Filmore, for example, and I'm not going to toast John F. Kennedy, who was a terrible President in my view (yes, I know that we're not supposed to say that, but he was). It hardly matters anyhow, as now the day is so diluted that nobody pays any mind. These days, Presidents Day and Columbus Day, have passed off of everyone's personal observational calendar.
But some days are in, for sure. Martin Luther King Day seems widely observed with some civil events in most places. In Wyoming, it's Equality Day as the legislature balked at recognizing a Civil Rights leader when it seemed to them that we'd been honoring civil rights long before that. They were wrong, but at the time I thought that passage might be easier if they made it Washakie-Ross-King Day, in honor of Chief Washakie, Nellie Tayloe Ross, and Martin Luther King. I still think that would have been nifty. I note that everyone around here calls the day "Martin Luther King Day", showing that people weren't as worked up, I think, as the legislature apparently was.
Americans also heartily observe Thanksgiving Day, as to Canadians, although the north of the border holiday just occurred. Christmas and Easter, religious holidays, are also widely observed by everyone. Veterans Day remains a huge civil holiday in most places, as does Memorial Day, which brings me to my next curious item.
June 6, the anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy during World War Two, have practically become auxiliary Veterans and Memorial Days. Both Veterans and Memorial Days actually honor the same people, veterans and more particularly lost veterans, but June 6 has come to be a memorial to World War Two veterans. November 11 has to hang on as the memorial for World War One veterans, which is how it started off. December 7 has also taken on that status, and to a certain extent September 11 has now as well, although its officially Patriots Day. This is interesting in that it shows that honoring veterans remains a huge deal in the United States, to such an extent really that there are two days associated with big events in World War Two that are nearly axillary holidays simply by popular acclimation.
St. Patrick's Day is that way too, although its really degraded over the years. St. Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland, and originally St. Patrick's Day was simply celebrated with a huge celebration wherever there were a lot of Irish expatriates. Generally local Bishops gave a dispensation for Lenten observances on that day (it's always during Lent) and there were big Irish parties, often with a lot of beer, but there were also quite a few Masses as well. Now there are still a lot of parties, but generally its an excuse for people to wear green and drink a lot of beer, irrespective of their ancestry.
Cinco de Mayo is approaching the status that St. Patrick's Day had perhaps 30 years ago, being a celebration of all things Hispanic on that day. It's curious in that it isn't a big day in Mexico itself, even though it commemorates a Mexican battle. The widely made claim that its "Mexican Independence Day" is flatly wrong as that day is September 19. A big day in strongly Hispanic areas can also be found in Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day, which was a big day long before Cinco de Mayo was.
All this is interesting, I think, in that it shows us what people value at any one time. Columbus Day has gone from being essentially a day in which Italians could point to somebody they were proud of to being largely ignored, or controversial to the extent its observed. At the same time St. Patrick's Day has become a huge unofficial holiday and Cinco de Mayo is becoming one. People want to honor veterans so much that we're basically observing four veterans' days. We have fewer civil holidays than most other people, we don't observe all that we have, but we do observe a few that aren't official. I wonder what days we would have found being observed a century ago?
Columbus Day Parade prior to World War One. I know that some places still have Columbus Day Parades, but not all that many. It's mostly an unobserved holiday most places. Apparently this wasn't always the case.
I didn't even take note that it was Columbus Day, although I should have, as I didn't get any mail. That's the kind of holiday it is. Federal offices close, but that's about all that happens, other than some stores trying to take advantage of the marketing opportunities it probably doesn't provide. Most places, people just ignore Columbus Day.
Presidents Day has gone that way too. At one time, I think people did stop to observe Washington's Birthday or Lincoln's Birthday, but combining all the Presidential observances into one day didn't do them any favor. Sure, I might wish to honor Washington, Lincoln, the Roosevelt's, etc., but I'm not too keen on honoring some others. I'd be hard pressed to raise a glass of milk to Millard Filmore, for example, and I'm not going to toast John F. Kennedy, who was a terrible President in my view (yes, I know that we're not supposed to say that, but he was). It hardly matters anyhow, as now the day is so diluted that nobody pays any mind. These days, Presidents Day and Columbus Day, have passed off of everyone's personal observational calendar.
But some days are in, for sure. Martin Luther King Day seems widely observed with some civil events in most places. In Wyoming, it's Equality Day as the legislature balked at recognizing a Civil Rights leader when it seemed to them that we'd been honoring civil rights long before that. They were wrong, but at the time I thought that passage might be easier if they made it Washakie-Ross-King Day, in honor of Chief Washakie, Nellie Tayloe Ross, and Martin Luther King. I still think that would have been nifty. I note that everyone around here calls the day "Martin Luther King Day", showing that people weren't as worked up, I think, as the legislature apparently was.
Americans also heartily observe Thanksgiving Day, as to Canadians, although the north of the border holiday just occurred. Christmas and Easter, religious holidays, are also widely observed by everyone. Veterans Day remains a huge civil holiday in most places, as does Memorial Day, which brings me to my next curious item.
June 6, the anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy during World War Two, have practically become auxiliary Veterans and Memorial Days. Both Veterans and Memorial Days actually honor the same people, veterans and more particularly lost veterans, but June 6 has come to be a memorial to World War Two veterans. November 11 has to hang on as the memorial for World War One veterans, which is how it started off. December 7 has also taken on that status, and to a certain extent September 11 has now as well, although its officially Patriots Day. This is interesting in that it shows that honoring veterans remains a huge deal in the United States, to such an extent really that there are two days associated with big events in World War Two that are nearly axillary holidays simply by popular acclimation.
St. Patrick's Day is that way too, although its really degraded over the years. St. Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland, and originally St. Patrick's Day was simply celebrated with a huge celebration wherever there were a lot of Irish expatriates. Generally local Bishops gave a dispensation for Lenten observances on that day (it's always during Lent) and there were big Irish parties, often with a lot of beer, but there were also quite a few Masses as well. Now there are still a lot of parties, but generally its an excuse for people to wear green and drink a lot of beer, irrespective of their ancestry.
Cinco de Mayo is approaching the status that St. Patrick's Day had perhaps 30 years ago, being a celebration of all things Hispanic on that day. It's curious in that it isn't a big day in Mexico itself, even though it commemorates a Mexican battle. The widely made claim that its "Mexican Independence Day" is flatly wrong as that day is September 19. A big day in strongly Hispanic areas can also be found in Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day, which was a big day long before Cinco de Mayo was.
All this is interesting, I think, in that it shows us what people value at any one time. Columbus Day has gone from being essentially a day in which Italians could point to somebody they were proud of to being largely ignored, or controversial to the extent its observed. At the same time St. Patrick's Day has become a huge unofficial holiday and Cinco de Mayo is becoming one. People want to honor veterans so much that we're basically observing four veterans' days. We have fewer civil holidays than most other people, we don't observe all that we have, but we do observe a few that aren't official. I wonder what days we would have found being observed a century ago?
Wednesday, October 14, 1914. Border tensions.
Things were getting tense on the border with Mexico and Arizona, and Arizona's governor was getting ready to call out the National Guard.
Last edition:
Tuesday, October 13, 1914. October 13, 1914: Braves finish off shocking World Series upset in Game Four
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