Friday, June 24, 2022
Since 1854 — News from Montcalm County and Ionia County, Michigan
I’m having a hard time dealing with my daughter’s midlife crisis. I know, I know, how can my daughter and I be having midlife crises at the same time?
I plan to live to 132, that’s how. My daughter, who has a firmer grasp on reality, harbors more realistic expectations regarding her own longevity.
150 years ago
“Logs afloat in Flat River” — Logging on Flat River has been far more successful than anticipated, owing to the frequent rains in the past few weeks. All the logs to the head of the river are afloat and started down the stream, except it may be some in lakes which have not yet discharged themselves into the river. It is estimated that 80,000,000 feet of logs have already passed from Flat River into Grand River.
Just when you thought it could not get any wackier, the GOP primary race for governor did just that.
We begin part 2 of our 2022 Summer Reading List with a bit more regular fiction, followed by a treasure of historical fiction.
Jan Wheelock and Hollie Stephenson found “Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro (about a robot) to be “endearing and thought provoking. It led to a great book discussion on Artificial Intelligence, technology and society.”
As the summer heat begins to thoroughly sink in, the still cool waters become a place of refuge and retreat.
Rising temperatures and the need for a place to cool off means summer camping here in Michigan and, because we are blessed to have so many great places to do such a thing, there is no reason not to change it up from time to time. Every location has its perks and faults but once in a while, those lines overlap.
You have heard the saying “birds of a feather, flock together.”
This long-standing proverb has a simple meaning. People who have similar beliefs, likes, goals, tastes and interests will naturally form groups together. These groups are formed when like-minded people do similar activities and spend time together.
I saw my first robot yesterday. It was the first time I’ve seen one “in the wild” and in person.
I’ve seen YouTube videos featuring chatty humanoid androids from Japan and those terrifying robotic dogs that Boston Dynamics keeps churning out even though they’re almost certain to turn on humanity in the near future and wipe us from the face of the planet.
150 years ago
“Improvements to dining rooms” — Edsall’s Dining Rooms have lately been reconstructed for the more perfect convenience of his numerous customers. The first floor with its gushing soda fountain is adapted more particularly to food lunches, the sale of confectionery, lemonade, oysters, etc. The second floor has been fitted up especially for ladies dining rooms and ice cream parlors.
Canada geese could teach us all a lesson about relationships and what good parenting looks like.
First of all, they mate for life. They start looking for a partner who is about their same size when they are two or three. Their life span can be anywhere from 10 to 25 years and if their partner dies, they will look for another mate.
Through online blogs and in the academic literature, you may have come across the label “highly sensitive person.” Individual qualities can vary a great deal depending on a person’s environment, mood, or emotions, so sometimes I struggle with the binary implications of this term. Can we really say that people are simply “highly sensitive” or “not highly sensitive”? Just like other qualities, it seems that the level of sensitivity a person holds is a matter of degree. We all might waver in our sensitivity, and that’s OK. Some days we might feel particularly sensitive and other days we may not. Nonetheless, this is an interesting topic to explore — what exactly does it mean to be a “highly sensitive person”?
