Yellowstone Bill

Well here he is, Yellowstone Bill.  And for good measure, the Famous East Side Cave where he resided for a while in the 1890's.  These are from a lengthy article in the Minneapolis papers from 1897.

I'm really not sure how much of the details of his life to believe, but here we go....

His real name was Martin Frank Walker.  He is described as youthful looking - despite being 58 years old - with a magnificent mustache and with dark hair flowing out from under a broad brimmed dark slouch hat.  He was born in Titusville, PA in 1839.  He left home "at an early age" and meandered about Wisconsin and Iowa for a time.  Eventually his family moved to Austin, Minnesota.  This could not have been before the mid 1850s.  But he did not stick around long, and after making a living giving horse breaking lessons for a dollar a pop he joined the Cadwell & Van Arnburg Circus for four years, working as an acrobat.  

He had to leave that career after fighting a duel with a fellow performer and, being the first one able to get out of the hospital decided to put some distance behind him.  It was now the early 1860's and he claims to have been a hunter and trapper in various far Western states, and to have been a scout under General Reno.  His fanciful tales of fighting Indians, while no doubt the hair raising stuff he told visitors to his cave home, are beyond plausible.

He left this life in 1877, returning to Austin, Minnesota briefly before traveling - reasons unspecified - through Asia and Europe.  He came to Minneapolis sometime thereafter, living on a houseboat.  By one account he decided to take it over St. Anthony Falls as a stunt, being later charged with animal cruelty when his dog drowned.  Another consequence was that his son was taken away from him it being considered that he was .."too wild a character"... to have charge of the boy.

Bill occupied the Famous East Side Cave intermittently, evidently for 12 full months on one occasion.  He is known to have lived there in 1893 when he was fined after his dog bit somebody.  He had it set up as a sort of museum/souvenir shop.  A few brief excerpts from the 1897 article should suffice to give the flavor of it.

"What first catches the eye in this big vault is the skin of a giant silver-tip grizzly, one of the finest skins of its kind in Minneapolis.  No mansion in the twin cities possesses a fur rug which could compare to it..."

"The collection of minerals, petrified woods, etc is very large and of considerable value.  There are a number of fine Bad Lands shells, petrified fish enameled, closely resembling mother of pearl and found in moss rocks......There are cave crystals and formations of rock of great beauty....a petrified piece of a mastodon's jaw....and what Walker says is the only petrified sea-snake's head ever found....and portions of a petrified turtle.  Walker says this turtle weighed a ton.  The Times reporter could not dispute the assertion."

Walker lived in the cave with his wife.  His two favorite horses also lived in there with them.  Here's one of them.

It is impossible to say how much this was played tongue in cheek.

Evidently in the late 1890's Yellowstone Bill left Minneapolis for parts uncertain.  In 1908 his son put an appeal in the paper looking for help finding a father he'd not seen in 17 years.  (This would seem to put the houseboat incident in 1891.  There was a partial reply suggesting that Bill had last been heard from in 1899 at which point he was in Northern Missouri and, very appropriately, engaged in the sale of hair remedies!*

I've tried to search online sources for more details, especially for an obituary.  So far without luck.

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* The houseboat incident seems a bit sketchy.  I did find reference to him living on a boat in April 1891.  It had been burglarized.  The location is given as being near the Bohemian Flats, which is basically right across the river from his later cave habitation.  So....did he bring the boat up through the locks to run it over The Falls?

The East Side Cave (Minneapolis) Revisited

Brewery cave posts have been scarce in recent years.  Honestly I think I've had a look at all that are to be found in a reasonable travel radius and without a degree of risk and trespass that I won't take.

But there are always new things to learn.  And in fact....I think I've been too hasty with my conclusions on a brewery cave in Minneapolis.  Here's what I wrote back in 2019....

A False Brewery Cave

My judgement was based to a considerable extent on this curious photo:

It is said to be The Great East Side Cave.  Other sources claimed it was used for beer storage.  Rather nonsensical at first glance.  Yes, there is a brewery to be seen, but it is on the other side of the Mississippi River, and Mueller and Heinrich were known to have their own extensive cave system.  Why haul it up hill, across the nearby bridge and then back down a fairly steep hill?

But I found an interesting article in a Minneapolis paper just after the turn of the century.  To summarize....

The cave has been known since the earliest settlement of the area, and presumably earlier by the Native inhabitants.  It was at times known as Walker's Cave.  Although a natural cave it pretty clearly has been modified and expanded by the human hand.  I have seen some suggestion that the white sand that made up the walls was at one point mined commercially.

The exact dimensions are a little hard to make out from the article, but it speaks of a 100 foot long main passage, then a right angle turn and another 85 feet.  

After various speculation about pre-settlement use of the place the article says something very specific....that it was used for 12 years as a beer storage cave.

That's actually plausible.  Oh, probably not by the Mueller and Heinrich brewery for reasons mentioned.  But there were two other early breweries in town that needed storage space.  And for geological reasons did not have it close at hand.

Minneapolis came to be because of St. Anthony Falls.  Great for mills and a decided deterrent for any travel further up the river.  It is also the point at which the river is eroding its bed into a deep ravine carved out of the native sandstone.  Upstream, where the John Orth and the Gottlieb Glueck breweries were located, they had no stone faces to excavate storage caves.  It is known that they had small caves dug in Nicollet Island, but these were frankly pretty insufficient spaces.  I could see the East Side Cave being used by one of them.  Probably in the 1870's when their earlier storage spaces became inadequate but before they got mechanical refrigeration in the 1880's.

As to the later history of the cave it was vacant for a while.  Then a sort of hermit named Yellowstone Bill moved in.  Here's a bit about him!

After Bill's departure the cave was used for a time to grow mushrooms.  At some point in the 20th century the entrance was either sealed off or more likely incorporated into the network of steam and utility tunnels that are to be found on the site.  With the location mentioned in the article - one block south of the Washington Avenue Bridge - I think that on my last visit back in 2019 I was standing right on the spot where the picture had been taken.

Note:  You'd think that a character as interesting as Yellowstone Bill would get a few more mentions in the papers of the day.  And you would be correct.  We'll have an extended visit with him shortly.  His restless spirit no doubt lingers in this very spot.

Con Men (and women) 2024

There are a few downsides to the advent of spring.  It's an election year and the political nonsense has commenced.  The latest are various online and in the mail "news letters" that combine happy sounding stories - nuns installing solar panels! - with political pitches.

It is of course a con.  And that got me thinking of all the ways the prefix "con" fits our current political environment.  I mean this of course in a bipartisan sense.  I'll listen to anyone's sincerely held, reasoned out political philosophy.  Might not agree with it but will respect it.  OK, let's go:

Conspiracy - the etymology of this one is interesting.  It means to "breathe together".  The implication is of connivers whispering to each other at such close range they are breathing each other's air.  In the age of AI assistance there might be no breathing involved at all....

Connive - This one is curious.  Like everything on this list it comes from Latin, in this case conivere, meaning to wink at in a sort of knowing way.  Somehow the word derives from nicitare, to wink.  This word seems to exist in English only in the sense of nictitating membrane, an extra eyelid seen in a few mammals, but more often birds.....and a lot of reptiles.  Lizard people.  I knew it.

Condescend - A bit obvious when you look at it.  It started out as meaning that a ruler might out of consideration deign to "step down" to the level of his subjects in some small matter.  You know, maybe allow the hunting of squirrels on Royal Lands for one day of Lent or something.  Human nature being what it is - and always has been - it soon acquired the sense of patronizing that it carries today.

Considerate - A derivation of consider, from considerare, "to look closely at, to observe".  This one is rather fun, it literally means star gazing.  Sidereal being a surviving but seldom used word to refer to distant stars.  I don't think there are many astronomers working in political campaigns these days.  But of course astronomy and astrology were once the same thing and there are still plenty of hacks and pollsters trying to read tea leaves and entrails.

Confuse and Confound - two words with similar meanings and etymology.  The basic concept is to take different things, mix them together and fuse them into one mass that makes it impossible to tell what went into it in the first place.  Nuns, solar panels and a Senator's re-election campaign just have not been stirred very well.  Sorta like simplistic recipe concocted by unskilled cooks.

Concocted - I had not known until starting this chain of "cons" that this is from concoctare, meaning to cook.  The sense of it being a process lacking transparency and probably honesty survives in the sense of "cooking the books".

This list could go on and on.  Doing things together - "con" - is a basic human function and thus incorporated into all languages.  One does wonder if the more cynical spin on many of these words is a modern thing or if ever has it been thus.  I can't say with Confidence.  That word of course means "to have a common faith", Fides being the Latin for same.  Such faith has so often been abused by those looking to directly make a buck or to slither into office to do so.  Confidence men.  And Women, this being the 21st century.  Shortened to Con Men because so few remember the Latin substructure of our language as it has become increasingly Contorted to mean any darn thing that is Convenient.

The Flying Fish of Wisconsin?

It's been a weird non-winter.  As a result some of my spring activities are happening a bit sooner than expected.  Fishing for instance.  Geocaching for another.  And where they overlap, the Strange Fish geocache series where I pay homage to the weird and mostly unloved minor fish species of Wisconsin.  The gimmick is that I catch something strange then put a geocache at the spot.  

It's not an easy task.  I'm limited to places where you can fish from shore, and by the increasing list of fishy weirdos that have already gotten a cache.  In fact.....its getting pretty hard.

So I've taken to scanning Google Maps to try and find new locations.  And recently I spotted something tempting.  An area of DNR owned land that has both Chippewa River frontage and more interestingly, about two dozen abandoned gravel pits.

My first walk around was with Hank the Dog.  He makes it hard to sneak up on anything, so while I did see various little fishies scooting away from shore I could not make any positive IDs.  But they were small, and at least two different species.

So how do fish get into gravel pits?

Sometimes there is proximity to say, a river, and in flood conditions a possible connection.  Pretty unlikely for most of these.  Sometimes people just ignore the rules on such matters and pitch a bunch of fish into new bodies of water in an impromptu stocking scheme.  Maybe....I did see evidence of other people fishing here - old worm containers mostly - and they probably had some reason to do so.

But mostly the fish fly in.

Oh, in egg form.  Ducks and geese love these little ponds.  And hop from one to another in search of whatever it is that makes them happy.  Along the way they pick up various fish eggs that stick to their feet and feathers.  Eventually, and with the right combination of factors, they do the stocking for us.

And those conditions are?  Well for most fish it would have to be a deep enough pond that it would not freeze solid.  Also it is helpful to have some kind of organic material.  Sticks and timber in the water, various aquatic plants (see also bird transport).  Big holes dug into gravel are not ideal for the sort of nutrients that feed small fish and the even smaller bugs they feed on.  Oh, and it is helpful if the water is not so shallow and nasty that oxygen levels vanish later in the year, although even that is sometimes not a deal breaker for bullheads and such.

My first attempt to catch fish here was not a success.  I was using micro-tackle, as none of the fish I saw scooting around were more than about 2 inches long. 

Not a single bite.  I think it is just a bit too early in the year.  Water temperatures, availability of hatching bugs etc.  I'll be back periodically.  In the meantime I did put out a "gateway" cache at the parking lot.  If such things interest you....

The Flying Fish of Wisconsin???

Mr. Magoo goes to Venice?

I should explain that this would be Venice, Florida not Venice Italy.  Confused?  Well, we have to start somewhere.  How 'bout here:

Driving around on our Florida vacation we would repeatedly go over a bridge that was called "The Kentucky Military Institute Bridge".  Hmmm, I see I'm not doing much regards unconfusing things.

We went out for brunch one day in a little French bistro on the corner of this building.  The Historical plaque was fairly helpful.  I think it is worth quoting in full:

During Florida's Boom Period, 1922-1928, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE) purchased 30,000 acres in Venice, believing it was a sound investment where "rail, trail, and water meet." They hired renowned city planner John Nolen to design Venice. Construction soared, but land sales soon slowed and eventually halted. The BLE pulled out in 1928, and as a result of the economic bust and the Great Depression, Venice became a veritable ghost town.

West Point graduate Robert T. P. Allen established the Kentucky Military Institute (KMI) near Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1845. In 1906, KMI established a Florida winter campus in Eau Gallie, near Melbourne, to improve the cadets' health and academic performance by reducing sick leave through Florida's available year-round recreation. In 1932, Colonel Charles B. Richmond selected Venice as its new winter campus as the previous one had burned. KMI initially rented and later bought the San Marco Hotel (today's Venice Centre Mall), the Hotel Venice (now a retirement center), and the Annex between the two to provide housing for the faculty and cadets, as well as classrooms, kitchen, dining hall, offices and infirmary.

On January 5, 1933, 1500 people welcomed the first KMI contingent of students, faculty, and staff. Venice soon benefitted from the infusion of funds spent by the newcomers and their visiting families and friends; one report stated, "The school breathed new life into the discouraged city." The colorful and inspiring Sunday dress parades, held on the parade grounds (today's Centennial Park and municipal parking lot), quickly became a favorite attraction for residents and tourists; for the cadets it was "testing time" as they were inspected and graded. The cadet band and the Kentucky Rifles, a precision drill platoon, also participated. The Sweetheart Parade, held close to Valentine's Day, honored five local young ladies, each sponsored by one of the five cadet corps. Athletic competitions, such as track meets, were held on the parade grounds, too. In 1970 the Venice campus closed, and KMI sold its Kentucky properties in 1973. Decreased enrollment, higher operating costs, and anti-war sentiments during the Vietnam War contributed to the school's closure. Venice, however, has never forgotten the cadets and their important role in the city's history.

That is a fair amount to unpack.  The history of KMI is long and as I see it, a bit mixed.  Most of their students did not seem to go on to military careers.  Although some did, on both sides of the Civil War.  Some were officers that history remembers well, others....not so much.

In general "Military School" seems to have been a place you'd send your rowdy, out of control kid to try and get them straightened out.  I was a young person at the very tail end of this era and the context of Military School was pretty well established.

Oh, and Mr. Magoo?  Or actually Jim Backus who brought him to life.  (As he also did with Thurston Howell III)!

Backus was a student at KMI for a brief period.  He later described it as "Alcatraz with tuition".  It's not clear whether he made it to the Florida campus in the winter months.  He and his pal, future co-star Victor Mature, seem to have been in trouble from the get go.  

Did the future Mr. Magoo really get expelled for riding a horse through the dining hall?  Was he there making non Magoo-goo eyes at the local beauties in the "Sweetheart Parade"?  

Sources are always slippery when dealing with show biz matters.  I have read that Backus spent his sophomore year of high school at KMI, which could put him in Florida circa 1931.  Alas for our narrative that does not put him in Venice.  KMI operated their winter campus at a variety of Florida locations starting in 1907.  Initially they had purchased the ghost town of Eau Gallie, but had to move from there after their campus burned down.  (And not for the first time btw!)  Jim Backus may have hit one of the brief time periods when a Florida campus did not exist, and had to content himself with misbehaving at the main campus in Lyndon, Kentucky.

FIRST Robotics 2024 - Helios Reborn

In a number of ways the robotics team has "moved up in the world".  Certainly in the obvious ones, larger crew, more sophisticated designs, greater ambitions.  And also by becoming a "two event" team.

FIRST robotics tournaments are huge events.  50 plus teams from around the area and sometimes from far beyond it.  A display of smarts and hard work that just makes you feel good about the state of young people and their education.....contrary evidence in the daily news be damned.

But if you are One and Done due to budgetary or other reasons, you are limited.  In that short a time frame you might have an off season due to any number of factors.  Did it snow hard in your community causing you to miss a bunch of work sessions?  Did you have unfortunate luck in the random pairings of match partners and opponents?  Did you let the kids go nuts and build something far too complex.......

This happened at the end of our practice day at our first event.  The team had to work until they kicked us out at 8pm just to get all it back together.  And the cumulative damage in every other little joint, widget, wire connection and so forth was considerable.  We just never had a chance to get caught up.  I have not watched the video of our matches from this tournament and in fact may never do so.  

It's hardly necessary in any case.  After a quarter century of doing things with kids and robots I have an unusual, actually I suspect unique, ability.  I can see three to four weeks into the future of any robotics campaign.  Oh, not perfectly....its a bit like my vision and hearing generally....I'll miss a few details but can certainly make out the overall situation.

And so the great rebuild began.

This is a rather busy photo, and the bumpers are off.  But you'll notice that the telescoping elevator is gone.  As is the motor that drove it, the motor that drove a flexible "wrist", the springs, pulleys, rigging and brackets that made up the whole complicated mechanism.....adios.

Much cleaner, and we've probably reduced the potential failure points by 2/3rd.  The intake/shooter is also a new design.

It has two rollers on one side and three on the other.  This is to add a degree of "frisbee spin" to the game piece.  I'll post some video presently, but the velocity and trajectory are impressive.

And so it goes.  We still have a lot to do.  Reducing the failure points is not the same as eliminating them entirely.  But it is a solid piece of work.

Onward.

I feel a little left out

I'm going to go out and tempt fate here*.  With the CDC basically saying that Covid-19 is just another respiratory virus I now feel just a little cheated that I never got it. **

I know many people who did.  Their recoveries had an element of nobility to them.  They took on the greatest malady of our times and prevailed.  Sometimes they got to get up on their soap box and gripe about some person they encountered who DID NOT WEAR A MASK!

I just went through life figuring if I got it I got it, and that beyond a certain point all these precautions and masks would prove to be exercises in futility.  And so it has come to pass.

I think most people took this all in stride.  The small percentage of the population that just went nuts over this were probably unreasonable about other things before Covid and will now move on to being unreasonable about other things.

It is a shame that the whole darn thing got politicized, and that the measures to counter the disease were - in retrospect - so draconian.  I've been working with middle and high school students for 25 years and counting, and can tell you that the damage to academic achievement and to their world generally has been profound and malign.

Oh, something will get me eventually.  That's probably the truest thing I or anyone else could ever write.  But it is my intent to just carry on.  I'm not going to do anything that is clearly stupid....no motorcycles in my future  But while I won't live forever I certainly won't live in fear.

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*Fate being duly tempted I did get dismal-ill on the trip to Florida.  Cough, runny nose, fatigue.  Covid?  Who knows, I just slept it off and treated it - per CDC now - as a poorly timed case of the crud.  Fate....it's always Hubris then Nemesis, isn't it?

** Realistically I probably got Covid in early March of 2020, too early to have testing available.  36 hours of scratchy throat and fatigue.  Nothing that rest and beer could not overcome.

Spring Talks

I divide my year up into "seasons", and when robotics is done or winding down I usually schedule a number of talks for various groups.  Gives me something to do while waiting for late Spring archaeology travels.  

This year it is a mixture of old topics and re-visited ones, and for three different community education programs.  If you're interested in such things, here's times, places and contact info.

The POW baseball one has been particularly interesting to dust off.  I've not given that talk for a decade or so, and looking back on my original research I realized that it was about thirty years back that I stumbled on this odd tale.......

25 April.  POW Baseball in World War Two.  Chippewa Falls Community Education program.  Details at:   Community Ed Course Catalog.

27 April.  Historic Movie Theaters of Chippewa Falls.  This one is at the new History Center.  Contact them at:   History Center

And finally, 30 April I'm doing a program for the Chippewa Valley Learning in Retirement group.  Unlike the previous two, which are reprises, this one is new.  Patent Medicines of Western Wisconsin.  Details at:  CVLR Calendar .

Always fun to do live talks.  With three hour plus talks in five days I hope I can keep 'em straight!

Beached Whale

So here's something I had not seen before.  And likely never will again.

Near one of the areas we fish at a 70 foot long Sperm Whale had run aground on the rocks just off shore.  Poor guy couldn't get free even with a rising tide.

Obviously this sort of thing draws a crowd.....

It's a weird sensation.  You want to do something to help.  Maybe have everyone wade out there, grab a fin and roll the poor beastie out into deeper water.  But of course, logically, an adult sperm whale of this size can weigh 45 tons, and there is nothing you can do to help them out of a situation like this.

We hung around a while.  Once the novelty wore off it felt rather sad.  On our way back up the beach a couple of sheriff's deputies in an ATV had gotten stuck in some loose sand.  Our party of hardy Midwesterners having plenty of experience with vehicles and snow drifts was happy to put a shoulder into things and help get them unstuck.  It made us feel a bit better after not being able to do anything at all for the whale.

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Update. Sadly, but predictably, the whale did not survive.  Evidently it was only 45 feet long.  I don't think that beach will be a popular destination in the next few warm, sunny days.

Strange Fishing - Florida 2024

I've been fighting a nasty cold most of my time on vacation.  This is of course, Not Fair.  So fishing time has been curtailed.  On the other hand, last year's Red Tide has gone away so the fishing has actually been more productive and varied.  

There are two little critters we caught in abundance.  As in, with almost every cast.  Mangrove Snappers and White Grunts look close enough that my quickly snapped photos may have missed the latter.  Cute little guys the both of them.  Basically the equivalent of salt water bluegills.

Last year's go-to spot under a bridge was not productive this year.  We'd see other people there pretty often so the secret must have gotten out.  And when we did try it the fish had gotten very smart.  We did encounter this fine fellow which made our day....

And we encountered other reptiles.  On our way to another favored spot we walk by a place where endangered tortoises nest in a parking lot.  Their overall intellect may have something to do with their endangered status, as this is about as bad a place to dig turtle nests as you could dream up.  Anyway, we had to do a bit of traffic guard duty to help them lumber across the adjacent road.  Good luck, my scarce and scaly friends....

A fair bit of fishing success was encountered on a nearby jetty, basically a channel where boats go in and out of harbor.  Lots of people fish there and a wide variety of species are caught.  My grandson got a spiny critter called a Leatherjacket.  Several of us caught Pompano, a rather tasty snub nosed fish.

But the best picture of the trip was my son doing his best imitation of a Ladyfish he had just landed.  Weird googly eyed critter.....  The fish that is.

Random Wanderings in Florida

It feels a little weird to take an "escape winter" trip to Florida in early March, as we've barely had a winter to escape from!  And it is a journey with no defined agenda.  Relax.  Try not to get sunburned.  Do some things we've enjoyed before, maybe a few new ones.  Don't expect a theme.  Well, there will be another Strange Fishing theme but other than that it will just be whatever happens.

Staying in a beachy area I suspect we'll not see many examples of true Florida Man.  I did spot this nifty service vehicle in the grocery store parking lot and thought the cartoonish version of "Boomer" looked a bit F.M.

That is Boomer by the way.  We had a nice chat.  Like many in the local service industries he is a transplant.  A Michigan Man specifically.

Same store, an outdoor kiosk with all manner of beach supplies.

Of course the alligator floaty raft catches the eye.  At first glance it appeared to have a phenomenal number of safety precautions.  But on closer inspection....

It is really just the same basic instructions in about 18 different languages.  The image in upper left pretty much says it all.  Well my goodness, I'd not have ended up floated dead in the water if you'd thought to include RISIKO FOR DRUKNING.  What, it was there?  Well I thought it was saying I should get drunk, which I of course did.....

I did make it to the beach after that.  I kept my feet on dry land at all times.  There are gangs there.  Bird gangs.

Each species has its own "turf" and its own comfort level when humans draw near.  The little birds skittered away.  The Cool Birds, well, they know they are Cool..

Hangin' out, tryin' to look Cool.  More Florida stuff for a few days to come.

Winslow and his Wonder Worker

With a handful of exceptions the patent medicine era of the 19th and early 20th century is one of robust, exuberant growth....and rapid decline.  Medical science invented things that actually worked.  The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 made it illegal to have secret ingredients and outlandish claims.  So there is no shortage of tales involving Success and Decline.  George Winslow is one of these.

George F. Winslow was born in Boston in 1859.  The family moved west to Rockford Illinois in 1861, where George eventually apprenticed in a drug store.  He moved to Eau Claire Wisconsin in 1882, clerking for an early druggist named Kinnear.  A few years later he set up his own store and by the mid 1880's had branched out, adding medicine manufacturing to his retail business.  An early product - and one that would probably not pass muster with the Food Drug Act - was his Wonder Worker.

At this point in history the northern half of Wisconsin was still covered with timber, and every winter an army of lumberjacks would head north to live in camps and cut it down.  Winslow saw opportunity there and tailored his business to this market.  He called his product line "Camp Remedies".  The came packed in special wooden chests to be shipped north, not only to Wisconsin but also Minnesota, Michigan and Washington Territory.  He also published a "newspaper" called The Camp News.  Sadly no surviving copy has come my way, but one would assume it had more testimonials than actual news.

A couple more Winslow products.  This example is actually so clean that it is hard to photograph.

And of course, medicines were made for Man or Beast.  After 1906 the word Cure was specifically banned in any advertising for human medicines.

 Life was pretty good for Winslow.  He built this swell house, still standing, in Eau Claire.  He added a side line - selling wallpaper - that sounds boring but as it turns out was a good hedge against his main line of merchandise not doing well.  The newspaper suggests that he had a theatrical group of some sort in the early 90's although whether the Winslow Medicine Company did classic Medicine Shows out on the road or were a less interesting amateur theatrical society in not clear.  It's frustrating when the newspaper just assumes you know such things already.  He married the daughter of a lumber baron/mill owner.

Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't.  As the 20th Century got going the patent medicine industry waned.  Winslow was mostly selling wall paper.  The heiress gave him the boot in 1911, alleging cruel and unusual treatment.  She closed off most of the mansion and set up a bedroom on the main floor.  Winslow's 1940 obituary mentions that he had resided at "The Elks Club" for many years.  Most such places had a bar and I can imagine George down there every night boring his fellow Elks with tales of his promising life turned bad......

FIRST Robotics 2024 - Breaking stuff by Lake Superior

Back from, but not entirely recovered from, our first robotics event up in Duluth.  Sometimes when you go into action with an ambitious but untested machine you have pleasant surprises.  Usually......not.

I have a lot of pictures like this....many hands reaching in to fix all manner of broken and loose things.  I've been at this a while and can honestly say I've never seen so many things break.  Some are small, subtle and yet important.  Others are....

Yes, dismembered parts laying on the competition floor.

Oh well, this is bound to catch up with you when you go to the earliest possible event and with a very, VERY ambitious design.  Murphy's Law is very much in action with robots and the only thing for it is to finish early and start stomping bugs asap.  And speaking of bugs, our pit neighbors the Iron Mosquitos had swell hats.  I put one on to amuse my grand daughter.

There is always some team mascot at these events that I like so much I must have a photo op.  This of course is just to amuse myself.  The Mighty Morphin' Banana Slugs are great people and it was fun to share parts and help even if we did not share in their very well earned success this time around.

Well, we have a few weeks to re-think, re-charge and re-build.  Perhaps at the next event we will have more wins than shattered battery holders!

This is a clever and enthusiastic team.  And did I mention ambitious?  So they'll likely pull it off.  I'm just along for comic relief.  For instance, I noticed that the four on board tracking cameras are, for control purposes, labeled alpha, beta, gamma and delta.  If we could just put an actual gamma ray laser in there we'd really have something.  A disqualification on all sorts of points but almost as many engineering awards!

FIRST Robotics 2024 - Swatting bugs

Well, not a great day at the robotics competition.  Basically every match something broke.  Usually something new each time.  Sometimes our repairs from the last time.  And we have another day of this ahead of us.  Sigh.

Highlight for me was my grand daughter visiting.  She likes silly things and FIRST events have plenty of them.  Silly hats for one thing.  Here I am trying on a hat from the Iron Mosquitoes team.  If only our bugs were as easily swatted.

FIRST Robotics 2024 - Tournament Time Again

Some things are the same.  The bus ride.

The robot tuned up and ready.

The competition playing field.

But something is a little different.  This year's design was far beyond anything we've tried before.  It went into action with little testing and a lot of unknowns.  And we broke stuff.  Lots of stuff.  Repairs underway.  We'll be doing a lot of this....