Soccer on South Sister Summit

My friend, Dan "Black Cat" Calkins, and his boys have obviously gone crazy. Soccer at 10,300 ft! Wind sucking? Talk about a game of heart. And I know how old he is. Amazing. Way to go old man. I have to admit that, all things considered, the soccer skills were pretty good. Thanks to Ms. Jayne for the heads up. For those who need a scorecard and want to cheer fro a team, Dan is the first face to flash on the screen.

Another Horse To Beat To Death

Enough with the Runestones for a while. Mr.Gabus is kind of throwing down the gauntlet before Rev Dick here. Personally I love the machine - form follows function in spads. I get the feeling that every piece taped onto this baby is a reaction to a past accident or shortage. Bless his anti- Nazi heart. And honestly, haven't all of us Brooks riders craved this seat at one time or other. Thoughts? Anyone?

Wanna get some yuks out of Rev Dick here is my Danish Uncle’s (Johnny Albertsen) Beach Cruiser.  Note the Survivalists gear.  As a child he lived in Copenhagen during the Nazi occupation.  He helped the resistance by putting sugar in the gas tanks of Nazi officers.  What a real adrenalin rush knowing you could get killed for just a cup of sugar.

Anyway he is still very paranoid today.  There must be a dozen black helicopters spinning around in his head everyday.  Thus I thought his bicycle was a real scream.

Kensington Rune Stone Revisited

For you West Coastians, the Kensington Runestone was purportedly found by a farmer in west central Minnesota. Olof Öhman came out of his fields in 1898 carrying the tablet like Moses coming down from the mountain. For some Scandinavians it is akin to the Ten Commandments. Or more important.

"8 Geats (Swedes) and 22 Norwegians on ?? acquisition expedition from Vinland far west. We had traps by 2 shelters one day's travel to the north from this stone. We were fishing one day. After we came home, found 10 men red with blood and dead. AVM (Ave Maria) Deliver from evils."

"have 10 men at the inland sea to look after our ship 14 days travel from this wealth/property. Year [of our Lord] 1362"

The following was posted by Michael Zalar as two comments to my earlier posting on the rune stone. While this is not something I lose sleep over, I would have to say that he has has changed my mind on the this issue.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Michael Zalar:

Regarding the Larsson papers, there were two sheets of paper, one pretty much a copy of the other with rune rows dated to different years, both prior to the finding of the Kensington rune stone. Larsson did not write in runes. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no attempt (such as handwriting analysis comparing other writings of Larsson at various stages of his life) to verify the dates on the papers. There appear to be slight variations between the Larsson and Kensington runes, though the Larsson runes seem to fit better with early published illustrations of the Kensington runes. 

The attempt to connect the Larsson runes with any sort of guild or secret writing is pure speculation. There was no evidence presented that guilds or other societies used runes of any sort for secret writings, and no usage of the Kensington/Larsson runes has been found in any other 19th century writings.The Larsson runes show variations from the known runes of the time, but there is not enough variation that the odd runes would not be easily decipherable by someone with a book of runes. There is no reason to create 'odd' runes that are as easily readable as known runes. The 'secret writing' speculation has no basis in fact whatsoever, and in my opinion is simply a means to try and draw attention away from the possibility that the Larsson runes were actually written after publication of the Kensington runes.

There is no indication that the Larsson papers are either a hoax of a fraud. They were never published during Larsson's lifetime, and there is no indication they were meant to be published. It may have been something that Larsson was contemplating doing and discarded (two inscribed forgeries have been made in an attempt to undercut the Kensington rune stone claims), it could have been a joke meant to fool friends, or simply a misdating of the papers.

If the papers go through any actual authentication process and found valid 19th century documents, then it could be considered good evidence against the Kensington stone's authenticity, but as it stands, the Larsson documents provide no "smoking gun".

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I've been studying the Kensington rune stone for over a decade now, and have published several peer reviewed papers on the subject, the latest just out in a Minnesota Historical Society publication "The State We're In" 

Yes, I believe the rune stone is authentic, for several reasons which are too long to go into in depth. 

The philologic (linguistic) evidence has never been conclusive. While there have been many papers published condemning the paper on linguistic grounds, others, equally professional and well documented which have disputed the claims. Not having the backround it is hard to make an absolute ruling on the subject. The most recent colaberation beteween and advocate and a skeptick of authenticity suggests that the language is possible for the time period (mid 14th century), though many exceptions need to be made.As a historian, I tend to find grammatical errors to be not uncommon in letters from the field, such as Civil War letters, so I tend to fall on the side of those who believe arguments against the stone from a linguistic standpoint are at best inconclusive.

Geologically, experts have mostly come down on the side of authenticity. Dr Newton Winchell, a famed geologist studied the stone in 1909, a decade after its finding, and believed the inscription to be "of the era" of 500 years old. An examination taking place just this decade found a certain form of mica had apparently decayed, which in other similar stones took over 200 years to decay, but this report is under some dispute. 

Regarless, all reports show the inscription to be quite weathered - if only 50 years old, it would still be prior to the first settlement in the county. Another dozen years and it predates the first European trails into the area.

Antique maps show knowledge of Hudson Bay prior to its 'discovery' in 1612, at least as far back as 1507 (with a possibility of it being even early). Some of these maps refer to a book, the Invetio Fortunatae as a source. We do not have a copy of this book, at best there is a letter describing some of what is in the book, and it acknowledges that the voyage (which went beyond Greenland) returned to Bergen in 1364, two years after the date inscribed on the stone. In other words this know historical voyage fit perfectly with the time of the purported Kensington voyage.For the paper I mentioned earlier, I did a search of Google Books to find if the Inventio was known of in the 19th century and could be used by a forger. I did indeed find several (usually very brief) mentions of the trip. But in every case it was acknowledged to be an ENGLISH voyage - not one that a forger would tap to describe a Norse expedition. A better date would have been circa 1347 when the Icelandic Annals refer to a boat arriving from Vinland having been blown off course. It was not until the publication of the letter I mentioned, between Mercator and Dee, that it became obvious that the voyage was a Norse exploratory voyage.

I have found no unsurmountable difficulty for the expedition to have gotten as far inland as it did. The Red River of the North and the Ottertail River are navigable (even by 19th century steamboat) as far south from Lake Winnipeg as the vacintiy of Fergus Falls. That would be roughly the day's journey from the site of the killing mentioned in the inscription to the place where the stone was uncovered.

I hope this brief summary of why I believe in the stones authenticity will be helpful to those interested in the inscription.

Saluki

It's a beautiful thing to see something doing what it was bred for, the Saluki hound out in the open, flying like the wind, then turning on a dime,  and running down anything on four legs. Three beer question: Given time, could a Saluki run down a Pronghorn? Things to ponder.

 In a way Sakuli is a strange name choice for this bike. While probably nimble enough, it is not what you would think of as a "quick" bike. It is a 650b wheeled touring bike. For you non-bikey people, 650b tires are a traditional French size which is making a comeback for city riding and loaded touring. These shots are Christian Ricco's bike while on a tour of South Central Wisconsin's back roads with his brother Craig. It's a beautifully built up machine. There are little things, like perfect, even fender clearance all the way around on both tires. It doesn't make it function any better, but I appreciate the effort it takes. Three big water bottles for touring in a rural area where good potable water is not always a given. Very classic, very French. Classic where it works, modern where it's better. Nice job. Thanks for the pictures, Ricco.

Climbing the Tourmalet - 1926

From L'Equipe Magazine 

The Kensington Runestone

A continuation of a discussion over beer last night that triggered the previous posting:

The Kensington Runestone is an inscribed stone purportedly left by Vikings in northern Minnesota in 1362. I think is is possible the Viking were in North America in 1362. I think it's possible they came down the Red River from the Hudson Bay. I also think it's possible they  went to the trouble of chiseling a message on a flat stone.  I just don't think they did.

"Scholars who believe the Kensington Runestone is a 19th-century prank -- and not concrete evidence that Norsemen beat Columbus to America by 100-plus years -- say they have found the smoking gun to prove it.

The latest in the century-old controversy centered in Minnesota came in documents written in 1885 by an 18-year-old Swedish tailor named Edward Larsson. He sometimes wrote in runes -- an ancient Scandinavian language that differs from the English alphabet. But Larsson's runes were not the usual runes used over the centuries.

The scholars contend that parts of his documents seem to be written in a secret runic alphabet used by tradesmen in Sweden in the late 1800s, rather like codes that tramps have used over time to leave secret messages for one another.

Swedish linguists happened upon Larsson's documents recently and found that his writing corresponds to pieces of the Kensington Runestone inscription. They say that the journeymen's code did not exist in medieval times, when the Kensington Runestone is purported to have been carved."  continued

Baloney Detection

At My Window

At my window
watching the sun go
hoping the stars know
it's time to shine
daydreams
aloft on dark wings
soft as the sun streams
at days decline

Living is laughing
dying says nothing at all
baby and I are laying here
watching the evening fall

Time flows
through brave beginnings
and she leaves her endings
beneath our feet                            My favorite verse
walk lightly
upon their faces
leave gentle traces
upon their sleep


Living is dancing
dying does nothing at all
baby and I are laying here
wathing the evening fall

Three dimes
hard luck and good times
fast lines and low rhymes
ain't much to say
Feel fine
feel low and lazy
feel grey and hazy
feel far away

Living is sighing
dying ain't flying so high
baby and I are lying here
watching the day go by 

A Non-Epic Ride

Today  I took the McLean over to Lanesboro for some riding on paved trails.  The village is picturesque and the trail is mostly wooded, on an old rail bed which follows the Root River. I forgot the camera again. Remembered the bike though.

I went a few miles west toward Fountain and Preston, mostly because I enjoy riding through the cuts - deep, narrow gorges chiseled  through sold rock. They are a little like open topped tunnels. It's hard to imagine they were wide enough for a train, at least a modern train. After this short detour I went back to town and had a brat and root beer at the Wursthaus. Arv is still there and he played a couple of polkas on the accordion for me. Badly. With this new fuel on board I mounted up and headed east toward Whalan, only about five miles. I stopped for water in the park at Whalan and talked to a group from Des Moines who had decided to fore go RAGBRAI this year for the Root River trail. ??? Age maybe? I continued on to Peterson where I rested a little, watching kids playing baseball, then headed back toward Lanesboro. The weather was perfect, moderate temperatures and humidity with minimal wind and I was rolling pretty good - good for my revised expectations.

A few miles outside of Whalan I was ambushed by a couple of young men in baggy shorts on mountain bikes. They had smooth tires, seats up, bars low, but they were definitely mountain bikes. It's bad enough getting passed by young punks, but sitting astride a McLean and having mountain bikes blow by is hard to swallow.  I sucked it up and closed in within striking distance. They ignored me. I decided my finish line was the bike rack at World Famous Pies in Whalan. They didn't even know they were in a serious race. As we got within sight of the pies, they were still unaware. I wound her up and blew by them. Well, almost by them. Just as I got even with the lead rider, he glanced over, stood up and gave me a taste of Cavendish and was gone. They knew. Peach pie with just a little ice cream and coffee helped sooth me.

Coming out of Whalan I spotted a familiar old boy ahead of me. He was sitting astride an old Bianchi, toe straps and all. We exchanged words and I followed him for the five miles into Lanesboro. When I thought it was my turn to pull, he immediately passed me. Hell, he was 70. I let him have the sprint. His name is Bill Morman, a retired IBM engineer from Rochester, who owns the ice cream shop in Lanesboro. We sat on a bench and talked, trying to figure out how we know each other. After half an hour, probably longer, he had to get back to his ice cream and I just had to go. Nothing epic happened. Actually that pie was pretty epic. 

Eva Cassidy Recordings

Debb,
Everything she recorded has been re-released. All available at Amazon . As always, the Amazon rating system is useless. These are in order of release. I'd start at the bottom right, deviating only to pick off the Live recording, but that's my bias.

    

THE OTHER SIDE	LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY	EVA BY HEART
SONGBIRD	TIME AFTER TIME	IMAGINE
AMERICAN TUNE	WONDERFUL WORLD	SOMEWHERE

  

Zimmerman Report

For Barin and Jack who want to be the Z-man when they grow up(again). Clipped from an email this morning:

I'm currently working as a ny city bike messenger. Loving riding my bike in ny and getting paid. Bought a 100 rig my first day, a kona single speed. Also building up something neat on the side. I'll get you photos when I get them. Take care.