Saturday morning, and with our just missing the coldest-May 1st-on-record the current change is for the better, temperature that is. The warmer weather makes for me to come out of the gate spritely and upbeat. So let’s get started, with a smile and sparkle in the eye – even more so now that my coffee is ready.

Word of the Day: dryasdust: A boring, pedantic speaker or writer. Dull and boring.

‘Dryasdust’, I hope not with this morning’s read. For us the town will be hopping, actually running. See, it’s the weekend of The Flying Pig marathon. Between the 5K, the 10K, and the full marathon, there will be 40,000 runners on the streets, add to that about 8,000 volunteers and 100,000 spectators and, yup, it’ll be a hub-bub of activity. Tomorrow morning I’ll be one of those ‘squeelers’ (keeping with the ‘pig’ theme) cheering the marathoners on.

The ‘Nati’s Jewel – has to be our Mercantile Library and yes, you may pronounce it MercanTILE or MercantTEEL (wanna sound local?, just call it “the Merc”). Founded in 1835 by a few young business types. since then it’s grown and also assembled a number of fine art pieces.

The Merc is a remainder of earlier of membership libraries (which were around before there were public libraries). Anyone is welcome and visits are free.

Over the years there have been an annual series of speakers. Looking back, how about Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Harriet Beecher Stowe (who grew up nearby). More recently notables such as Rabbi Isaac Wise, John Updike, Salman Rushdie, Robert Caro, David Brooks, Julia Child, and Doris Kearns Goodwin have given lectures.

With membership the events are open as is the ability to peruse amongst the more than 80,000 book collection – many of historical value from a bygone era – the oldest dates to 1641.

What is truly amazing is that the place has survived two fires and the space it occupies on the 11th and 12th floor of the downtown Mercantile Building has had the library there since inception. There under a 10,000 year lease (yes, you read correctly; ten-thousandyears)

Want to see a recent event on video? Click on this Crowdcast LINK.

All this woke Bud Light stuff and in-your-face virtue signaling advertising needs to chill. First, they came for Uncle Ben (a credit to his rice) and I said nothing. Then they came for Aunt Jemima and I said nothing. Then they came for Dylan Mulvaney, and I said, “Whatever.” ~ Ron Hart, libertarian op-ed humorist, this on Dailey Caller

G°G°R 2022 or ‘On the Minnehaha’ – The 36′ boat, Minnehaha or “The Laughing Waters”, is a very special older boat – it just finished a global circumnavigation of 30,000 miles winning the quadrennial 2022 Golden Globe 2022 (G°G°R 2022) race in first place. (this race started September 4, 2022 – finished April 27, 2023).

My own love for sailing has me quickly connect to these massive races. In 2000 it was the Vendée Globe, now it was the G°G°R 2022 which I could track and follow. Over the years I did some lake sailing and racing and it must be that these races fulfill a small piece of my wish list. Besides, I just love the sights and sounds.

Sailing solo with just two quick (video card transfers only) stops, South African sailor Kirsten Neuschäfer, the only female in the 16-boat race, won the race. First of the only 3 boats that completed the race.

1st place even after diverting 95 miles to rescue a fellow sailor who was bobbing on his life-raft. Finish sailor, Tapio Lehtinen, had 5-minutes to activate his EPIRB device, grab his logs & sim cards before his #6 boat, Astria, completed its Titanic-style maneuver. He then floated for 24-hours in a raft before Kirsten was able to rescue him. As an aside, he was later transferred to a cargo ship which had also responded.

Neuschäfer’s boat had to be reworked and retrofitted. By race rules, everything has to be as it was on the first Golden Globe Race of 1968. Sealed ‘emergency only’ gear and a couple of minutes a day of telephone contact only is mandated. No restocking of supplies — Kirsten even collected and used rain water for drinking. Even to where CD’s are not allowed only cassetes because the CD wasn’t available in 1968. Plus, all navigation is by the stars only – no GPS. To rework the boat she spent almost a year on Canada’s Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) town of Baltic where she worked alongside the locals to get her Minnehaha ready.

A while back Marcia and I spent time in Canada’s Maritimes including P.E.I. and, like Neuschäfer, also loved the place and its people. Enjoy the short video and music by P.E.I’s  folk singer/songwriter Lennie Gallant and townsfolk as backup singers.

Fini –

• A quickie from our corner of Chaos & Mayhem comes this visual of a wrong-way tow – nice try though.

• Former Budweiser Bud Light marketing vice president, Alissa Heinerscheid, following her Dylan Mulvaney fiasco has re-surfaced. This might be a limited trial run with, possibly, her new employer?

• Watching everything WOKE, especially with high school and college aged kids I can’t help but wonder. Wonder if kids these days could muster the fortitude of those of The Greatest Generation of WWII. Think of a young kid climbing into the Ball Turret on a rattling B-17 Bomber. Gunners were squeezed into a suffocating totally exposed bulb, withstood bitter cold, hours on an oxygen mask (ok, we’ve had two years of the mask thing), and cramped in a fetal position. Your thoughts?

• Dinah raced in Saratoga, New York at the Toga-Invitational. A first place in the 8-person and 4th in the 4-person boat. With 1,500 athletes registered that becomes ‘most excellent’.

• Does anyone have a cogent answer as to exactly why the IRS needs to spend $10-million on weapons and ammunitions? I certainly haven’t got a clue.

• Our dazzlingly amazing veep (alongside Dan Quale & Walter Mondale) Kamala is now our A.I. tsar. I suspect it’s due to her stellar performance managing similar ‘tsaristic’ duties as Border ‘bozo’ and abortion ‘goat’. To formalize, this week a meeting on A.I. was held in the White House Roosevelt Room – the room’s portrait of the great namesake man himself seemed to come to life; it appeared he began rubbing his temples.

• Dutch is my original tongue. During my school years I’ve had a discussion or two about the fact that The Netherland’s most northern Province, Friesland, has its own language which is more closely related to English than to Dutch. This week I came across a chart which clearly details just how I’ve been correct all along. ‘Checkmark’ for Dirk.

• Last Saturday as mentioned last week, we made an excursion to Ikea. Actually, Ikea ‘shopping’ is a day-long event, hence it’s no wonder they built a restaurant and the halfway point. That aside, the ‘gravadlax’ salmon salad was amazing!

Ciao. Stay happy, stay connected, run your own life’s ‘marathon’ in whatever form suits you best – just keep on going! Be safe and be healthy.

Keep on storming the castle. Pray for Peace.

Dirk