Gary Mathes, an Alaskan native, is out pushing the none-of-the-above ticket as part of his “VOTE 4 JESUS” campaign on the streets of Denver and St. Paul. (“Denver was work, but St. Paul has been a vacation.”)

Meet Gary Mathes: Jesus’ one-man motorcycle brigade (more at CityPages)

Jesus is just all right with this guy (more at StarTribute)

“The Lord does not like pride, but all these candidates are proud. Pride is an abomination unto the Lord. That’s why I don’t vote. I won’t vote for either of them. But I will support whoever wins. I’m just an honorable, humble American who loves his country.”

Commenting on Sarah Palin’s qualifications:

Sarah Palin, with the $1,200 energy package she provided to Alaska residents, paid for his trip. Mathes says. That doesn’t mean he’s a fan, though. “She’s as smart as a rock,” he laughs. “She was a basketball star and a second-runner-up in the Miss Alaska pageant, and the governor’s race in Alaska is a popularity contest. She’s not as experienced as she needs to be, but look at the ones who are experienced. They aren’t doing a lot for us.”

Nonetheless, Mathes is excited about the possibility of having an Alaskan in the executive branch. “Maybe if the old man dies of natural causes, we’ll have an Alaskan president,” he chuckled. “She’s not ready though, but she’s a good girl.”

The Daily Planet posted part one their unofficial visitor’s guide to the 2008 RNC and the twin cities to assist the many out-of-towners during their visit. And check out their RNC blog. The Pioneer Press (TwinCities.com) has an RNC page too.

An Introduction to Minneapolis St. Paul

So you’re very excited, I’m sure, to be coming to Minneapolis for the RNC. Minneapolis is, of course, a fine city, home to the Vikings, Twins, and Timberwolves, as well as the Walker Art Center and the internationally renowned Guthrie Theatre. It’s a center of economics and industry, whose name literally means “water city.”

Well too bad, binky, because the RNC isn’t going to be held in Minneapolis. It’s going to be held in St. Paul. Get it straight, or you’re really going to make the East Siders feel bad.

Seriously, how many of you have an older sibling? I don’t, but I can pretend I do to give you this analogy: don’t you just hate their freakin’ guts? Well, that’s how St. Paul feels about Minneapolis, except for the fact that Minneapolis is a little bit younger than St. Paul, but whatever. Point is, the good citizens of St. Paul feel a bit slighted every time someone like Katie Couric or Michele Bachmann or Gov. Tim Pawlenty goes on television to declare that everyone should come to Minneapolis for the convention. [2] Given that Minneapolis always seems to get all the publicity, all the love and attention, its pictures put up on the state refrigerator – well, it stings.

So remember, as you’re going to the Xcel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild, that you’re not in Minneapolis. You’re in St. Paul. And so if you see a local, make sure you complement them on the beauty of St. Paul. “Boy, St. Paul sure is lovely,” you’ll say, and the locals will smile broadly, and say, “Well, you know, yeah, I suppose it’s a nice enough town.” Which is practically a touchdown dance around these parts.

Of course, if you’re attending an event in Minneapolis, feel free to ignore all of this; Minneapolitans often forget St. Paul exists, and will look at you strangely if you bring the city up.

the rest here

The Olympics aren’t the only contest of human skill taking place right now. A lesser known contest is the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest awards for the worst works of fiction named in honor of the British author, Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 book Paul Clifford opened with these infamous words:

“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents–except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (BLFC) is a tongue-in-cheek contest that takes place annually and is sponsored by the English Department of San José State University in San Jose, California. Entrants are invited “to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels” — that is, deliberately bad. A prize of US$250 is awarded.

Some selections from this years entries here.

Irish Festival in St. Paul, Minnesota

According to this site, the St. Paul Irish Festival is the 6th largest in the US.

Between 1932 and 1972, nine of the ten St. Paul mayors have been Irish, according to this article.

First off, the ruins of the old mills.

The city of Minneapolis grew up around the grain processing and flour producing businesses, powered by the energy of the Mississippi river and the St. Anthony falls. They were able to channel part of the river into the banks and use water turbines to drive their machinery. The hydro power plant located at the falls is the second oldest (by only a couple weeks) hydro power plant in the western hemisphere! It began operation in 1882. There is a hydro plant still in operation today at the same site.

An old turbine and the museum:

The partial remains of the old mills are still visible today and there is a Mill City Museum (will visit soon) to capture the history of the industry in the city.

And even some wildlife among the ruins along the riverbank:

Minneapolis was the flour milling capital of the nation from 1880 to 1930. Gold Medal Flour is now General Mills and now owns Pillsbury (since 2000).

A series of 29 locks and dams along the Mississippi River has been installed to make the river deeper and wider. They are designed to maintain a depth of at least 9 feet along the entire river. Here’s a tour boat rising through the lock near the falls:

Running from Lake Itasca, Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi is the 4th longest river in the world, behind the Nile, Amazon and Yangtze and drains over 40% of the lower 48 states.

St. Anthony Falls:

Some sights along the river…A view of the under-construction I-35W bridge just downstream:

The photogenic Guthrie Theater with its Endless Bridge (the bridge has no end!) jutting out over the street:

(view from the river).

The architect recently won the prestigious Pritzker Prize in Architecture.

A flock of segways on a tour:

Can someone tell me why all these trees are leaning the same direction? (east bank of the river)

The Minneapolis skyline from the stone arch bridge:

The rest of the pictures here.

“Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.”

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, Gary Thuerk, who at the time worked for Digital Equipment Corp., sent what is believed to be the first spam message, an invitation to an open house for a new DEC computer (a VAX 11/780?) that he sent to 400 of the 2,600 or so people who had email accounts on the ARPANET at the time.

Thuerk claims that his email generated about $12 million in new sales. However, many people who received his email also got highly irritated, complained to US Defense Department (which operated the net) which in turn told him never to do it again. Thuerk says he never did, either.

Thuerk also said in the story that “people have one of three reactions when they meet him: Some are excited to meet someone with an unusual claim to fame; some want to beat him up on the spot; and others just avoid him like the plague.”

There was an AP story last week on the Army’s “exoskeleton” robotic suit being developed by Sarcos Inc (now owned by Raytheon) that potentially will “multiply a person’s strength and endurance as many as 20 times.”

“Jack Obusek, a former colonel now with the Army’s Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center in the Boston suburb of Natick, foresees robot-suited soldiers unloading heavy ammunition boxes from helicopters, lugging hundreds of pounds of gear over rough terrain or even relying on the suit to make repairs to tanks that break down in inconvenient locations,” according to the story.

The suit is still not practical: it is very expensive, and the suit’s battery life currently lasts only 30 minutes.

Some fans threatened to never attend another Saints baseball game over the tasteless souvenir that will be given away at the game. They are giving away “bobblefoot” stalls to commemorate both National Tap Dance Day and the Senator Larry Craig incident at the MSP airport last year. WCCO gets reactions from fans.

I can certainly understand why parents would be upset – how do they explain this to their kids?  It’s not very family-friendly entertainment.

ST. PAUL, MN (May 21, 2008) – Some of the most famous dance halls in the country include Radio City Music Hall in New York, the Fox Theater in Detroit and now the list includes a restroom at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport. With so much fanfare around dancing, the St. Paul Saints will honor “tappers” during National Tap Dance Day.

During the Sunday, May 25 game the first 2,500 fans in attendance will receive a bobblefoot. The design is a bathroom stall, with a foot that peaks out of the bottom and “taps” up and down. The day coincides with National Tap Dance Day.

While many people tap their foot because they are impatient, others may do it because they are nervous. It doesn’t matter if your tapping style is done with a “wide stance” or is used as some sort of code, the Saints are asking all fans to tap to their heart’s content on May 25.

The stalls are already popping up on eBay:

A few examples: Lake Butte des Morts, Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, Lac Courte Oreilles, Big Sissabagama Lake, Potawatomi, Bret Bielema, Rio.

In central Appalachia, ramps are most commonly fried with potatoes in bacon grease or scrambled with eggs and served with bacon, pinto beans, and cornbread. Ramps, however, are quite adaptable to almost any food style and can also be used in soups, puddings, ketchup, guacamole and other foods, in place of onions and garlic. Some people like them raw, but others say the aroma of raw wild leeks stays with one for days.

The community of Richwood, West Virginia holds the annual “Feast of the Ramson” in April. Sponsored by the National Ramp Association, the ‘ramp feed’ (as it is locally known) brings thousands of ramp aficionados from considerable distances to sample foods featuring the plant. During the ramp season (late winter through early spring), restaurants in the town serve a wide variety of foods containing wild leeks.

In Canada, wild leeks are considered rare delicacies. Since the growth of leeks is not as widespread as in West Virginia and because of destructive human practices, wild leeks are an endangered species in Quebec.

Trivia:

The name of the U.S. city Chicago is said to originate from “Checagou” (Chick-Ah-Goo-Ah) or “Checaguar,” which in the Potawatomi language means “wild onions” or “skunk.” The area may have been so named because of the smell of rotting marshland wild leeks (ramps) that used to cover it.

Ramp Eating Contest eating technique:

Here’s a WCHS TV news report on the Richwood Ramp Festival with video.

Enough with the lesson on ramps, back to the title of the post. The other day my uncle was driving through WV and spotted a sign advertising Ramp Pizza, mmm…. delicious!

Although I was born in West Virginia, I have never been to a ramp festival.

Read on…

• Whitetop Mountain Ramp Festival, Whitetop VA
• Richwood Ramp Fest – Feast of the Ramson, Richwoo, WV
• Wild leek, Wikipedia