Just Sit Right Back

"Just sit right back", the opening words of the jingle for a television show that was on the air when I was a child.  This show came to my mind Tuesday of this week when my spouse and I took a trip to Devil's Lake State Park, just south of Baraboo, WI.  We go to Devil's Lake a few times, some years several times a year.  Most often we are at the south shore, but road our normal route was closed for road construction and we headed to the north shore, and it was from there that our "three hour" tour began.

moss on a downed tree

We arrived at the north shore about 9:00 am, and decided to walk up the east bluff trail and down the east bluff woodland trail, a route we have taken several times in the past.  We were the third car in the vast parking lot.  As frequent visitors to the south shore, the balanced rock and pot-hole trail are the most common route on our itinerary. On the marker map our planned route was about a 2.4 mile trek, In Gilligan's day it was a three hour tour that turned into a shipwreck.  Our situation was not near so bleak. It was a perfect day for hiking, in the 60's for temperatures, a breeze, and a mostly clear sky.  If it was hot and humid, it would not have been as pleasant a hike.

Cave on the east side of the east bluff

Just sit right back, and you will hear a tale, a tale of a fateful walk, it started at the north shore, without our walking sticks.  The mate was a mighty walker, the skipper organized and true. (The reader can make the decision as to who is who) Two people set walking that day for a 2.4 mile hike, a 2.4 mile hike.

caterpillar on an oak tree

Somewhere, after we reached the top near the balanced rock trail, we made a wrong turn, even though we followed the trail marker, and our 2.4 mile walk turned into a five mile, two and one-half hour tour.  Instead of heading back north on the trail, we ended up on the rescue road and were going south.  We realized our error when looking at a map at the confluence of the rescue road, the CCC trail and the Stinke basin trail.  At first my wife thought the trail marker was in the wrong place.  We tried to decide what route to go, part of me wanted to go back and figure out what we did wrong, but in the end we decided to hike the Steinke route north and then head west to the campground, on a route parallel to the highway, and then back south to the lake.  My wife, who with her Fitbit tracks her steps, exclaimed, "Well, we will get more steps in." Me, I wanted to get back and get something to eat.  It is not too often I go 2 1/2 hours with out a snack.  Yes, I like my food.

Devil's Lake 

While the trail, in parts, looked similar to the planned excursion route down on the woodland trail, this trail lacked the steeper slope, and the stream crossings, But, it also provided a few interesting sights:  caterpillars climbing an oak tree, a rock outcropping to the east of the main bluff where I could hear, but not see the climbers, although I saw their rope.  I think they were making their way up the bluff face on the other side.  Years ago, when I was a boy scout we once camped in a wood CCC building with the heat provided by a wood stove.  I recall hiking the south part of the east bluff to get a certain mile hike in for the day.  I recall another scout, Randy Fabian,  asking if we had to go that amount, and the leader saying if he could find 500 piles of rabbit turds, he would grant him his wish to end the hike at that point.  What the leader probably knew, but Randy never realized is that to find 500 piles of rabbit scat, you probably would walk well more than the amount we were wanting to get in for the day.   Randy tried to allow each little turd to count as a pile, but the leader would have not hear of it. Funny, what one can remember.

Back of bluff on which I heard climbers

On our way home, my wife commented that we had an unintentional hike.  She did not wish to claim we were lost, because the signs showed us our location, and after all we were still in the park.  I responded, that we were simply exploring new territory.  (I majored in geography, and a professor once told me that geographers do not get lost, they are simply exploring new territory.)  I also noted that the park, at more than 10,000 acres, it would be difficult to get to the edge.  Yet, in our trek north, we were within 200' of the edge of the park.  While our unintentional hike of five miles, compared to 2.4, was more than expected, we received did get a chance. like a good geographer, to explore new territory.  It could have been worse, we could have been stranded on a deserted island in the Pacific. Sometimes something unintentional is not bad a experience to have.

Marker that first showed us we were on an unintentional hike

Wildflower

Photos by author on 6/27/2017

Glaciers, Golf, and God

This past weekend the US Open Golf Championship was, for the first time, played in the state of Wisconsin. Played at a young course, only eleven years old, the designers retained much of the natural topography rather than undertake significant grading. The landscape of the course has been described as a rumpled quilt. Many who first saw the site, claimed how it would make a great venue for golf. Golf is an old sport, first played in Scotland, but the land forms of the course go back 10,000 years to the time of the last glacier, known as the Wisconsin glaciation. This post will be about the the geography of the region, both physical and cultural.

Brooks Koepka, Winner 2017 US Open at Erin Hills Golf Course

If you were to take a time machine back 22,000 years and fly a drone (how is that for 21st century) over what we know today as the state of Wisconsin one would see a landscape in transformation. What leads to a glacier is rather simple, it is when snow and ice accumulates faster than it melts. The last of  a series of glaciers is known in as either the Wisconsin glaciation, or the Wurm (Germany) glaciation. It was named for Wisconsin as the state was the epicenter of various forms of this massive movement of ice and snow. Watching your tablet as your drone flies above Wisconsin, you would notice an area in the southwest corner of the state that lacked the ice and snow covering of the rest of the state. Known as the drift-less area, this landscape is most easily identified by the ridges and v-shaped valleys which represent a clear sign of unglaciated territory. The last massive movement of ice (Wisconsin glacier) had less reach than prior glaciers. Therefore more land has been affected by glaciation than that what you will see on your drone flight. As you fly the drone to the northeast corner of the drift-less area, and view the live-stream video on your I-pad (hopefully you had it fully charged before you departed, because there are no electric outlets in 20,000 BC), you come across the flat central plains, an area where a large glacial lake is forming due to the melting ice and snow. Glaciers can affect land forms by the massive amount of meltwater that is produced.  In fact, sea levels were probably over 300 feet less than present, but the ice would also have weighted down the land.

Wisconsin Glacial Deposits

Besides the glacial lakes other unique land forms are formed by glaciation. Best known are moraines in which are debris is dropped off as the glacier melts. There are both terminal and recessional moraines. What is unique about Erin Hills golf course, is that it was formed between two lobes of the Wisconsin glacier, and hence it is part of a moraine formed between two lobes of the glacier, which is a type of recessional moraine. Recessional moraines occur during glacial retreat from its greatest extent.  Not unlike drumlins moraines lack differentiation of debris deposition.  One of the largest drumlin fields in the world lies between Sun Prairie and Beaver Dam. These land forms occur under the mass of ice and snow that make up the glacier. The oval shape of the hills tell the direction of the glacier and while formed under the mass of ice, the glacier dropped debris, likely after hitting some type of large object. They are not formed by meltwater as meltwater would stratify the debris. An esker, a sinewy landscape feature formed by meltwater, contains sands and gravel stratified by the meltwater—materials important for construction. A lesser known type of glacial feature is the kame. Like an esker it is formed by meltwater, but rather than being a curved ridge, it is best seen as a cone shaped mound. It is this feature, that provides the height to the iconic building given several shout-outs during the US Open telecast.

Lobes of the Wisconsin Glacier

Sitting on a kame Holy Hill is home to a Catholic Basilica and with its twin spires, provides a commanding view from the surrounding countryside. The building, which sits over three miles east of the golf course, is visible from 13 of the 18 holes at Erin Hills. The final hole was purposely aligned to view this iconic structure as the golfer looked and walked to the green. Golf is known as a game that can produce from a player a range of emotions, and of course the occasional swear word.  Depending upon how your round of golf went, it is either a foreboding or a welcoming view.  From a geologic standpoint, Holy Hill is important for another reason--as a glacial kame it sits on top of another geologic feature--the Niagara Escarpment.  Together both natural features provide its height.

Glacial features

Running in an arc from Niagara Falls, to southeast Wisconsin the Niagara Escarpment is a cuesta feature that is sometimes termed a natural wonder of Wisconsin, but the physical nature of the area informed the cultural landscape of Wisconsin. It is perhaps best noticed along the east side of Lake Winnebago, particularly in High Cliff State Park. An escarpment has a steep face (hence High Cliff) on one side and a more gradual face on the other. It is not created by fault or fold, but by the natural layering and weathering of varied rock layers. Besides it being the defining feature of Door County, for without the escarpment the peninsula would not exist, it provided raw materials of lime for concrete and to this day the limestone from this area is a preferred building material. When constructing the Basilica on Holy Hill, they located some limestone to use in the construction of the building foundation to avoid having to haul bricks for the foundation.

Holy Hill from the 18th hole at Erin Hills

Pilgrimages are important in certain religious traditions. Sometimes in life, it is about the journey. Location of religious rituals on a high point is part of biblical history.  Moses went to the mountain to obtain the ten commandments.  The location, and steeples of the Shrine at Holy Hill attest to a human desire to reach the heavens. Jesus often went to mounds or mountains to preach, or to pray.  Evidence from archaeological excavations in the area of High Cliff State Park suggest that religious rituals were performed on the escarpment by Paleo-Indian inhabitants. Belief in an afterlife led to the pyramids, and other wonders of the world.

Holy Hill in the fall

Today, a large 650 acre golf course has replaced pasture land and a few homes. The landscape formed, or reformed by the glaciers of time long gone, is changing once again, although now more by man than by nature. It changed to less extent by the Native Americans, it changed more as kilns and stone quarries, or gravel pits opened, the land tilled, and roads and buildings were constructed. It changed when the top of Holy Hill was leveled to accommodate the Basilica. It has changed as subdivisions and high-end rural homes have been built on land that was once oak openings farms and
woods. Our cultural heritage is formed by our natural landscape, just as the Erin Hills golf course used the land forms created by the glacier to produce a course suitable for the US Open. And, just as high points are used to reach to the heavens, whether it be the Paleo-Indians or the German and Irish Catholics who built a Basilica on Holy Hill reaching toward a merciful God.

Images from Google

Beyond the Pale

She was a 33 years of age, near completely blind and had no arms. She was born light skinned to dark skinned parents on the African continent. She was born and continues to live in a country where old time rituals of witch doctors, sorcerers and diviners, known locally as “waganga” still play a strong role in health, fertility, and other vagaries of life to which people seek assistance. When I read about not just this woman, but other persons, including children in Tanzania in the June 2017 issue of “National Geographic” it was to me an eye-opener. Entitled the “Perils of Pale”, the article details the trials of persons with albinism.  Most facts and stories in this blog post are adapted from that article. One comes to easily understand that the whole world is not like the developed west. Most articles I read in this easily spoofed magazine are rather factual, and while some may give pause or thought, I found this article rather unnerving. The personal representations in this article certainly make the situation real and I am sure it had the intended affect. What persons with albinism face in some areas is beyond the pale.

Albino Camp in Tanzania

That 33 year old women was born an albino, and what is even more interesting is that Tanzania has one of the highest rates of albinism in the world. While the US and Europe has a rate of 1 in 20,000 persons, Tanzania has a rate of 1 in 1,400. Yes, one in 1,400.  Only part of Panama has a higher rate.  One in 19 persons in Tanzania are thought to carry the gene that produces albinism.   Persons with this gene may see an affect to skin hue, often have poor eye sight, and have to take extreme care in the sun, if they go into the sun, and in third world countries, many will die before age 40, if not by skin cancer, than by the actions of their own people. It is only recently that sun screen has become more available in this part of Africa, although it is expensive. A group, Under the Same Sun, will provide sunscreen free of charge to albinos in this part of the world. In the 1990’s only 12% of those with albinism in Tanzania lived to age 40. An adherence to witch doctors often complicates matters in the developing world. Persons may have a tendency to first seek assistance from the local waganga, rather than seek assistance of western medicine. That may work in some low level situations, perhaps like a placebo, but the local methods are not successful for skin care and skin cancer. Yet, as bad as life may be for that 33 old who is fully dependent upon another for daily tasks and care (think of going to the bathroom) she is alive. Today it is still not an uncommon practice that an albino infant will be the subject of infanticide, often by drowning. Special camps or schools have been set up to assist mothers and their children affected by albinism, some by western aid associations.

Albino boy with left arm cut off

Local witch doctors, however, have a conflict of interest if they were ever to treat an albino. For, in a poor twist of irony, certain body parts of persons with albinism are thought by the waganga, and others in the society, to provide benefit of cure or bounty, whether it be to help find a lode of gold in the mines, a large catch of fish on the seas, or assistance with a personal relationship. A Tanzanian version of a Talisman. The body parts of albinos are hacked off, dried and ground up to make the talismans or potions that many seem to crave. Demand is high. The 33 year old lacks her upper limbs because they were severed when she was 25 years of age, and sold to a witch doctor. Her uncle and others in her village were involved. In a country where the average annual income is about equal to $3,000, the sale of a limb can generate about $5,000 in total income, with perhaps the person who helped do the dismemberment making $500 to $1,000. This represents a good part of an annual income in the hard scrabble life of east Africa. The butcher of the body, in some cases is a child’s own father. Such was the situation with eight year old Cosmo Baraka who had one arm cut off by his own father, with the assistance of a witch doctor. The market for body parts of albino’s is strong in Tanzania. This is shown in the article when they describe an undercover person asking two witch doctors about an albino and the wganga’s say they are willing to do the "killing themselves."  Local traditions are persistent and hard to discontinue.

Witch Craft items

However, lack of cooperation by relatives makes convictions of those who committed the act difficult. In some situations a husband will accuse his wife of having relations with a white man. Since 2008 only 21 persons have been convicted in six separate incidents. Also hampering convictions is the poor eye sight and ability to convince a judge of an attacker. Such was the case of that 33 year old women. A different lady, Acquilini Sami, is now 28, and is also an albino. She earned her BBA and is now a teacher. Poor eyesight made her rethink being an engineer. She and an older brother, who was also an albino, were disowned by their own father; she recounts him saying of the two: “they are not human beings.” She claims that it is well known that many infants with albinism are thrown in the lake. She considers herself fortunate not because of her education, but because she has life, and was not killed or maimed.

Six year old boy with right hand severed

With all that has occurred in her life, that 33 year old lady still is able, with assistance to run a shop selling water and soda. Here in the comforts of our first world nation, with a plenty unknown in the developing world, there is a strong tendency to want more, and to take our situation in life not only for granted, but also as a right. In Tanzania that is not the case, particularly for those with albinism. What was most striking is the focus on small descriptions used by the author. For example, in describing the room where she met Ms. Sami, she mentions lace curtains and a crucifix on the wall. The mention of this religious artifact may give the reader a connection to this woman, and also show that not all is based on the potions of a waganga. With the 33 year old women the author recounts two striking observations. First, is that 33 year old women reads the bible daily, and with extremely poor eyesight she is bent close to the page; she will turn the pages by use of her tongue or chin. This women with no arms, much less thumbs, it is noted, will also text message.  She clicks the keys of her cellphone by using her teeth. The author witnessed the women text in Swahili: “Bwana Yesu asfiwe”, or, in English “Lord Jesus be praised!” Here in the west where a life of abundance may help lead to a decrease in religiosity and the rise of the “none” in this part of Africa, a women who literally had her arms butchered off her body, and is dependent upon another for many aspects of everyday life, who intimately knows horror and has good reason to question the presence of higher being nonetheless has a strong belief in a Jesus. A cynical westerner may say that is all she has to hold onto, or perhaps it is false belief not unlike that of the waganga.  However, if one or both are thoughts, it is only a further degradation to this woman who has known torment and seeks solace for her life.

June 13, by the way, is Albinism Awareness Day.

 Images from Google

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chips

Last year in October I wrote a post about how I like to slather sweet breads with peanut butter and place chocolate chips on top. In that prior post I noted how my wife had complained that I was eating all the chocolate chips leaving a near bare cupboard when she decided to do some baking. That post must have hit a cord, because for Christmas I received several pounds of chocolate chips, although not from her. Obviously, other relatives were sufficiently concerned that my spouse would put the household chocolate chips under lock and key so I was provided with my own stash—and lock and key to contain part of my stash too. I also received two large jars of peanut butter.

Fast forward several months to present time. Earlier this week my wife was cleaning out the freezer and came across some pumpkin, so she decided to make pumpkin bread. Not wanting her baking effort to go to waste I now eat the bread. And, of course, I tend to top it with peanut butter and chocolate chips. Since I am using chocolate chips gifted to me, they are my chips. I have let her use some for baking, since I am generally a recipient of that effort, but being my chocolate chips she can no longer complain about me draining the household supply. 

Pumpkin bread with peanut butter and chocolate chips
made and consumed on June 8, 2017

Yet, her ingenuity has evolved. Let me provide two examples. On this past Tuesday, as she saw me lathering a piece with peanut butter and adding chocolate chips, she says: Oh, are you ruining the bread?” I did not have the heart to say I was improving the bread, that would have led to a nasty smirk. But, the second comment was even better. Last night she commented, as I was eating a piece with my normal toppings of peanut butter and chocolate chips: “I know someone who is not watching his carbs.”   Even though I have been around the block a few times in my life, I was still surprised at her comment. After all, if I were to eat the peanut butter and chocolate chips together and without being on the pumpkin bread, it would be rather messy, not to mention difficult.  A chocolate bar slathered with peanut butter would work, For the record, one serving of peanut butter is two tablespoons, and has eight carbs, and a serving of chocolate chips is one tablespoon at nine carbs.  I don't know what the bread contains, but as I advance in age I have cut back on my slices of sweet bread in the evening.

However, I really do think she was sufficiently impressed with my hunk of bread, covered with peanut butter (“you must have a half-inch of peanut butter on that piece!) and chocolate chips that she asked me pause about partway through eating my concoction so she could snap a photograph with her I-phone. Being the compliant husband, I do what my wife says. She snapped the photo, but I don’t know if she placed it on a social media page or sent it to someone. But, I do know she certainly would not do it to make fun of me or to as a put-down. After all, she is my spouse.  And she makes great sweet breads, which can only be improved by peanut butter and chocolate chips.

Sameness

As I was growing up there was no such thing as a craft beer. The idea of a good beer was either Special Export, or if you were lucky, Point Special. Today, craft brewers, and now craft distilleries are all the rage. Aging boomers have shifted tastes, and there also are the millennials who seem to think they have a birth right to all that is craft. Yet, this movement against sameness does not move to all eras of life. Take housing for example, cookie cutter subdivisions are still predominate, and of course big box stores still proliferate. Developers say such sameness is related to the market, and if that is the case, people are the market and they drive the sameness about which they complain. Visitors to Stillwater, MN, Cambridge, WI, or the small hamlets and burgs of Door County often describe the "small town feel,"nature and quaintness of those often old downtown areas.  However, when they go home they gravitate to the big box. Planners have developed their own set of acronyms, neologisms or portmanteaus to describe this move to sameness.

Big Boxes, Waukesha, WI (Source: Google maps)

There is the term Nullibiety, which is defined as the state of being nowhere. This term describes something opposite of a sense of place. Similarly, is Anyplace Syndrome, in which there is no sense of place, which means most any suburb or outer ring of a central city where post car culture subdivisions, big box development and the related strip malls make one location not very distinguishable from another. Store architecture and parking lot layout is so defined by some big boxes that any attempt by a city to create a unique pattern fails to the cry for economic development. We are, to use a more common term, creating vanilla places.

McMansion (Source: mcmansionhell.com)

Perhaps the most commonly understood neologisms arise with the first two letters being Mc, as in McDonald's.  This an obvious pejorative reference to McDonald’s fast-food restaurant chain. As ubiquitous as McDonald's chain now is, with its similar architecture and food, it has led to other derogatory terms to describe sameness. Most all have probably heard the term McMansion.  Coined in the 1980's to describe large houses lacking any architectural dignity or design coherence that predominate in the suburbs. Our design sense has taken a backseat to size, and architectural fashion trends. A more recently invented word is McPlace, which means a standardized place. This is what one sees in many developments from the late 1960’s on, which of course was taken to a whole new level in the 1990’s into the 2000’s by big box stores.  In the later part of that time frame what once were big boxes became medium boxes (or even small boxes) as the big box got even bigger in square footage.  When first coined a big box was about 50,000 to 80,000 sq ft.  Now the rectangular monster stores are often 2000,000 sq ft or more in area.  In creating a McPlace the nation is creating a blub—an indistinguishable suburb. Or, to use another term, a Suburbidity. Is Suburbidity, a combination of suburb and absurdity and suburb and stupidity?  Perhaps it is both. Generica, which is related to stores and strip malls you see are now more common than a McDonald's restaurant.  Generica, is a subset of Suburbidity, as it is only commercial, but does not deal with the predominant pre-fabricated metal sided industrial structures or the McMansions.  Layout of commercial areas, and even subdivisions show more similarity than dissimilarity.

Definition of Generica (Source: urbandictionary.com)

Started in 1940, the growth of McDonald’s has mirrored that of the nation. The company grew as the baby boom generation reached the teen years; it fed the boomers, and their young children (remember Beanie Babies handed out at McDonald's), and it now needs to turn to new products since its growth has apparently reached its apex.  In some locales, McDonald's will adjust their building and site plans, such as in Freeport, Maine, or even some small communities in up-state Wisconsin, to make it much more appealing to the local heritage. Yet, in most suburbs the powers that be are too scared to challenge and be seen as anti-development.  Hence, cookie cutter development is perpetuated. This occurs whether it is a McDonald's or Target, or a housing subdivision.

Big Box area Delafield, WI (Source: Google maps)

While there is really nothing bad about a Miller beer, as it is intended to meet a variety of tastes, the main issue with Generica is it is land extensive. Some day a person will be looking for that craft beer or whiskey and wonder why the cost is so high.  Part may well relate to the cost of the grains. One reason grain prices may increase could be how our land extensive sameness development pattern eats away at some of the nation's best farmland.  Production is moving to more marginal farmland. The market cannot make more arable land.