Schroeder Books and Music

Schroeder Books & Music, 7629 W. Greenfield Avenue, Westallica: shelves piled high with books and magazines in genres that you can't find anywhere else. (Adjacent to the "Americana" section is "Linconana.") It's always worth a look-see here. I've imagined that every book ever published is in there...somewhere.

I found a Workbasket Magazine from the 1950's, in case I ever want to tat a doily. These are collectible little mags with historical value- not just needlework (presumably kept in a tidy basket by the hearth) but also for the ads. ("Steady pay every day as a Practical Nurse! Enjoy security, no recession for Nurses. Earn to $65 per week, good times or bad. Florence Nightingale School of Nursing.") As I checked out, the lady said,
"We have hundreds of Workbaskets."
Hundreds?
The mind reels!

I mentioned that I'm a longtime customer (sporadically) and used to go to the old store on 7th and Wisconsin, when it was across the street from the old Duncan Donuts, back in the 80's and early '90's. This was before the "revitalization" of downtown Milwaukee. She told me about the fire that destroyed the store- they had two locations at that time- and thousands of books stored beneath the street, all destroyed. But they have plenty again, so make sure you do some Christmas shopping for the lover of historic needework patterns or Linconana aficionado in your life.

Longest war in US History

On our recent trip, we visited Plymouth, WI- Brain's family homestead, so to speak. Besides enjoying the Mullet River that meanders through town and the cute main drag, we visited a park with an individual memorial to each US war- a boulder with the war's name, dates, and the flag of that time period. With the exception of the Cold War, the "Middle East Conflicts" represent the longest-running war in our nation's history- and still with no end date. Now, I've watched Braveheart and Lord of the Rings, and any number of similar movies; I don't enjoy battle scenes, but I understand why they are there: the protagonists are bravely protecting their precious ways of life and homelands at all costs. I boast Irish, German, and Viking blood. I understand that sometimes war is an unfortunate necessity in the sinful and illogical world in which we live: it is sometimes necessary in order to protect our freedoms and those of others with whom we share this planet. I have pride in our American military who have sacrificed to maintain those freedoms.

However, for whatever reason, I had brought along Kurt Vonnegut's excellent Slaughterhouse Five as light reading on this particular trip: a book that I had tried to read in the past and just not engaged with, but giving it another chance was the right choice. It is a vivid account of the horrors and the ludicrosity of war. Read it if you get the chance.

Support our troops: ideally by welcoming them all home soon.

Cat-sitting for Gwennie

This is my friends' cat Gwennie. I'm feeding her while they are out of town. She sat in my lap whilst I perused a book from their shelves- they have a lot of interesting books, very conducive to cat-in-the-lap.

I feel meta tonight

Feeling a need to decompress tonight after the late shift, I stopped at a favorite thrift shop conveniently located on the way home, and perused the bookshelves for awhile. Paperbacks are $0.89 there. I left with four: Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus (I collect and frequently use thesauri); The Language of Argument, which promises to give me the edge in pursuasive rhetoric; The HTML Sourcebook; and an almost-new copy of The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, of which we have frequently read portions and discussed in the ESL class.


These are some of the things that excite me: using a precise word; tweaking my blog layout; helping people learn English; editing, re-editing, and coming back around a bit later to edit again.


And one more: knitting/crocheting, which brings me to my real "meta" point here. A while back my mom and I were showing each other some of our favorite crafting blogs. There are some amazing ones, carefully crafted in themselves, with seemingly no other thought than to share with others- tutorials and such, free patterns carefully written out; not as if to show off- but instead to really, honestly give. It really is kind of amazing, labors of love brought forth to share with the wider world. We were like, what leads people to spend time doing that? Now I get it. Now I understand.

Parks and Recreation

This photo below is by Eddee Daniel, author of the wonderful book Urban Wilderness: Exploring a Metropolitan Watershed. I bought an autographed copy last year, because I knew I would turn to it again and again. The photo was taken in Lincoln Park between the islands, on the impoundment, with the Estabrook Dam closed.
I believe strongly in the power of recreation, to create self-esteem, to build skills, to build a community. To learn about nature. (I worked for the Milwaukee County Special Rec department for a few years.) I believe that denied the opportunity for constructive recreation, people are more likely to turn their energies to what I will politely describe as more destructive pursuits. I also note that the Urban Ecology Center has publicly declined to take a stand on the dam position; they utilize the impoundment often, every summer.


Forget, for a moment, about the flood control; forget about the hydropower. Forget about the history and the all hard work that all the men from the CCC did during the last Depression.
We have something beautiful, people. Let's not let it slip away.