Busy two weeks

It's been a while since I posted anything, but I have some valid excuses. Joel and I were very involved with "Bye-Bye, Birdie" last week, spending every night in South Saint Paul. The play ended on Saturday night and on Sunday night we had about 45 Lex-Ham band members/family/friends over to our house for a BBQ picnic and rehearsal (in our garage). Then Monday morning we left for a 4 day trip to Crow Wing State Park and Pequot Lakes. We highly recommend the Paul Bunyan State Bike Trail which runs from Brainard to Bemidji. You can see it wasn't overly crowded!

Somewhere in between all these events, Liv and I went to hear George McGovern give a speech on hunger. I'd been wanting to write him after reading "Nixonland," to apologize for voting for Richard Nixon when I was 18 in 1972. I hadn't been able to find his address, so was thrilled to learn he was going to be a few miles away at the Como Pavilion. It was a cathartic experience--not only was I able to greet him with a standing ovation with the other attendees (most of whom were MN food shelf folk), I was able to apologize in person. Here we are (the young woman over Liv's shoulder is Al Franken's daughter):

I learned in "Nixonland" that McGovern had the same Biblical quotation (Micah 6.8) on his office wall as we have on our car: "And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Family sayings

My brother-in-law long ago outlawed spouses, children, and other immediate family members from being teammates for games like Taboo where years of shared experiences provide an unfair advantage. I was thinking recently about the derivation of some expressions we use in our family. For example, whenever one of us is doing something rather dull, we immediately say in our defense, "It keeps me out of the bars." We collected this droll excuse decades ago from a man who asked if he could dig in our boulevard if he found anything with his metal detector. Joel asked if he often found anything of value or interest and he replied rather sadly, "No. My wife bought this for me. It keeps me out of the bars."

Another famous family expression comes from a visiting Austrian pen-pal of the aforementioned brother-in-law. This young man became so disgusted with our American ways that he asked for a phone book to look up the Byron Society "vere you can play chess and have an intellectual conversation." For almost 30 years, whenever our conversation becomes particularly inane, someone is sure to look heavenward and groan, "Vere is the Byron Society?"

Some more chestnuts from the Anderson archives:

"Having a nice picnic, kids?"
Said by my father to some strange kids on our farm in Red Wing who had started a fire out in a field. My cousin and I told them to put the fire out and when they refused, I boasted that my dad would come and kick them off our land. You can see how well that worked! Now this expression is used to indicate a person (usually not me) is being too nice.

"How long have you lived in Minnesota?
My elderly uncle uses this sarcastic comeback for anyone at his assisted living center who comments on the weather (hot, cold, whatever). Now used by us to point out that someone is making much of the obvious, as in "Didn't our director go on a long time about 'Lincolnshire Posy' tonight?" "How long have you lived in Minnesota?"

"Good shot, son!"
Readers might recognize this quote from a scene in the movie "Parenthood" where Steve Martin praises his son so as not to hurt his self-esteem even when he's a college sniper in his imagination. (Another brother-in-law recently saw this movie on TV and said this scene had been removed in the wake of such real college shootings.) Joel and I say this whenever we realize we're praising our kids for minor things such as returning our credit card after buying gas without going on a shopping spree.

Anyone out there want to share some of their family expressions?

Getting our money's worth

Obviously, I am not a charter member of the Minnesota Taxpayer's League. I agree with Oliver Wendell Holmes , Jr., that "Taxes are what we pay for civilized society" (for an interesting website on this subject, visit Government is Good). This summer I've been enjoying many things my taxes have helped build and maintain. With members of my family and alone, I have biked to and around Lake Como and visited the zoo and conservatory multiple times. Here's a photo from the new seasonal butterfly house.

Last weekend Joel and I rode our bikes on the interesting Hidden Falls/Crosby Farm trail next to the Mississippi River. Today we biked on part of the Gateway State Bike Trail which goes through St. Paul, Maplewood, and North St. Paul.

What's really neat is seeing all the different people enjoying these public places together. It's great to have places like these in an urban area, accessible to everyone.