Imitation

Real life can pose much in terms of material for comic strips, television shows, and movies. My wife was a nurse and she likes to have medical shows on while sewing or doing whatever else she does. I suspect some of the most successful shows or comics have imitated real life in some sense or another, albeit with some unique twists of drama.

In the newspaper of 3/25/25, the Family Circus comics had Billy with his classmates in line to get their eyes checked. Billy says to a child behind him, "I didn't study for an eye test, did you?" It reminded me of when I was in fourth grade waiting in line for my eye check and never having had one before. I was wondering how it would turn out and if I would pass, particularly since I never studied for it. It turned out I did not pass, and had my first trip to an eye doctor, and shortly thereafter my first set of spectacles. Trips to the eye doctor have now become more common. Who knew that Billy and I had something in common.

Family Circus Cartoon
March 25, 2025, WI State Journal

The "Everybody Loves Raymond" television series had a successful run on CBS. The producers and writers contributed its success to the show having embodied different aspects of everyday life, that most families have gone through. I think many of us can related to Ray and Debra and now Frank and Marie. There is an episode where Marie gets mad at Frank having dumped out a her pancetta fat saved in the fridge in order to reuse the jar. (Starts about 3:10 in the link.) Just a couple weeks ago I dumped excess fat from cooking, in a former metal food can in the fridge not knowing I contaminated whatever good fat my wife was saving. My wife has similarities to Marie Barone, with cooking being just one.

While my wife has a large variety of medical shows to watch on which she can get her medicine fix. Me, I was a lowly public servant, and as a planning and zoning guy, there are slim pickings. In the US there was Parks and Recreation, which often imitated real life. Not that I watched that show much, but the few episodes I did see, I would tell people that real life is even more bizarre than the Parks and Rec television show. While the show mainly focused on parks and recreation, the city planner was often called on, in the first season or two before they cut him off, to assist. Not unlike real life. Particularly later in my career when the city hired more of a rec guy than a parks guy to run the park and rec system, we had to backfill a number of park issues for him. Running a park system is more than organizing little league games.

"Clarkson Farm" Jeremy Clarkson at Planning board
It did not go well for him.  At my work, sometimes it was
me doing his reaction at decisions made by the appointed or elected bodies

I have found that planners often pop up more in British shows. I think it is likely due to the larger degree of land use controls in Europe. Clarkson's Farm being one example, where Jeremy Clarkson was always fighting the planning department to get his way to make his farm more profitable. One episode he shows up to plead his case for a change before the planning board. Clarkson was, like many I dealt with, always pushing the boundaries to see what he could get away with, and was big on doing and asking for forgiveness (or just approve it) later. This type of attitude makes a mockery of the whole field. 

During Covid we watched a British show called "Grand Design", about house construction in varied parts of England. Due to construction they often showed the planning issues that arose and how they were dealt with. "This Old House", which has never been the same since Bob Vila left, but because they often do historic renovations, they have to deal with the historic preservation or landmarks committee. People get to see the red tape people have to deal with, but in the public interest of retaining the values and architecture people hold true. At least in "This Old House", planners are treated with some respect.

We planners often get a bad rap, particularly when something goes wrong, but what we do right seldom gets a comment. The Fitchburg Days festival was not much of a success, but it would have been much more successful if they had asked me to be in a dunk tank. Planners can get thick skin and a bit jaded with all the criticism and onslaught they receive, not unlike the one on Parks and Recreation. (You can read a bit about it in the link in the prior sentence.) All those rural land owners that wished to develop and met with the indisputable wall in the planning department, could have been around the block to get a chance to knock me in cold water. The explanation for all the weird things that happen in Fitchburg is due to its geography--it sits at the juncture of varied landscape types and the conflicts that arise at the intersections of such varied landscapes. These varied landscape types (urban-suburban-rural development-pastoral), also meant it struggled with its identity. Geography can explain a great deal, as can human interaction with the natural environment--human geography.

Planner in "Park and Rec"
I wish I had used a drafting board,
it would have saved my neck doing plan reviews

On the other hand, my wife as a nurse gets to see shows were humans are cured or patched together. They evidence the good that nurses and doctors do. Obviously the powers that be have this idea that medical shows are more interesting for the general public, but I think I could have challenged that. I wish I had kept a journal of all the weird happenings and occurrences I saw in over 32 years at Fitchburg alone. It would make for an interesting television series, and perhaps it could have burgeoned into a successful second career. Yes, planning and zoning work can be boring, but we all live in a built environment and planning is what makes such environments function, or well, not function. While television and cartoons may imitate life, at least in my former planning world, real life was more bizarre than what I have seen in cartoons or on television. 

Stakeknife

He was born to a family of Italian immigrants and went on to become an enforcer for one of the most deadly groups in recent history. He left a trail of death wherever he went. Alfredo (Freddie) Scappaticci was a burly, barrel chested man, his day job, as a brick layer, well fit his build and demeanor. He did not work for the mob in the Chicago, as many may expect. He was the lead of the Internal Security Unit (ISU) for the Provisional Irish Republican Army's northern command. He was known to the Provos as Scap, or Wop. But, he had a another side gig, in which he was known as Stakeknife.

Freddie Scappaticci, BBC

The IRA came about to have Northern Ireland cease being a part of Britain, and become part of Ireland. The British animosity and racism against Catholics still ran (runs) deep, and perhaps even deeper in Northern Ireland. The British military became involved to try and quell the violence, but it turns out the IRA was right in stating that the military was not an objective peace keeper (as the government claimed), rather they favored and teamed with the Royal Ulster Constable (RUC) and loyalist para-military forces to cause havoc on the IRA, all the while keeping the loyalists generally safe and protected from the horrors they undertook. This era is referred to as the Troubles, and if anything, the Troubles show the intractability of history and the twists and turns that men and women can undertake. Of course, the IRA had splintered and would also fight each other. While the activities of the IRA groups were often pursued, little was investigated in regard to the murders and mayhem of the loyalist para-military forces, or the British military itself.

I suppose, if one wants a date of the beginning of the Troubles, it was Bloody Sunday in 1972, when a peaceful, but illegal protest of 10,000 saw the loyalists throw stones and rocks and the military shoot and kill 13 protesters, and injure 14 others. But, the IRA had long been fighting.

Bloody Sunday, 1972
BBC

Scap joined the Provos early in its existence. The Provos quickly determined, in order to protect their members, they had to organize into cells, a common tactic of terrorist groups. The one part of the organization, other than high leadership, that knew the full puzzle of the organization in Northern Ireland was the Internal Security Unit. The Provos thought of themselves as a military organization waging a war (hence Army in its title) and when imprisoned, wanted to be treated as prisoners of war. The war became famous for several IRA members who died in prison due to hunger strikes.

The ISU was known as the nutting squad. To the IRA, snitches, touts in the language of the Provos, were the worst type of person and a snitch would be tortured and many executed. At times the bodies would often be left as a deterrent to others. Scap is thought to have tortured and killed over 40 persons. His work extended for a long time. He was kept busy as the Brits say that up to 1 in 4 IRA members were touts. The IRA dismissed this claim. With the touts, some of them just plain disappeared (murdered), and little was said lest you draw attention to the matter and have yourself put at risk. 

Scap seemed not to care about being found out as he was rather brazen. It is reported in the book Say Nothing (p 249) that after "the bodies resurfaced, Scap liked to visit the families of the dead to play the recorded confession aloud and explain precisely why their loved one had been executed. Occasionally he would tell them in detail about the killing." What a horrible thing to have to sit through.

Freddie is to left. BBC

The British and the RUC knew about Scap. Yet they did not stop him. Perhaps because the loss of one Irish informant or 40 meant little to the information they received, or because perhaps they were told to leave Scap alone. You see, Scap was a double agent. It came out, by news reports in the early 2000's that Scap was also the notorious Stakeknife (code name by the British forces). The Provos never figured it out. The Brits let him continue to kill, I guess as a way to keep his cover, placing the Brits in the position of accomplices to murder of at least 40 persons. 

At one time there was a break-in into the Belfast Police offices, often assumed to be by the IRA. This break-in stole many records about the double agents the Brits were using. Scap was not one of them, and that is because knowledge of his existence, which showed his importance to the British military, was limited to a few persons purely on a need to know basis and his records were kept at the highest levels of the military. He had his own specific handlers. Scap approached the Brits, not the Brits Scap. It was a common method of the British to capture and try to turn IRA members into double agents. Even though the military and local police worked to retain safety for the loyalists, when it came to the Provos, they sometimes were in their own silos and much of the work by the military, such as Stakeknife's work was unknown to the local police.

IRA missions kept getting foiled, and the IRA had no clue why. They had the dead bodies that Scap had produced as evidence that the touts numbers should be dwindling. As reported in Say Nothing, the man entrusted to weed out moles was himself a mole. Apparently to the Brits, the means justifies the ends. As the writer of Say Nothing notes (p 273), about the allowing the murders to "save lives"  he reported: "This kind of logic is seductive, but perilous. You start running out numbers in your head , and pretty soon you are sanctioning mass murder." So much for the British system of law and order. British PM's were notified of what was being done, but simply chose not to know the details and allowed the murders to continue. One could suggest that the activities by the military during the Troubles was simply an offshoot of the mass starvation and genocide the British commenced against their Irish subjects in the 1800's. And the British like to tell themselves they are a civilized society. Perhaps Britain was allowed to be ruthless and morally suspect because they wrote much of the history we read today. So much for (at the time) Her Majesty's government being a pantheon or order and moral clarity.

At varied times, Scap provided accounts of his work and that of the Provos. Sometime after being outed as Stakeknife, he was arrested for 25 murders, but not surprisingly the charges were dropped due to  'insufficient" evidence. Clearly, Her Majesty's government did not wish the secrets and tactics of the military and its double agents to become known. In fact, it later became clear that M15 did not produce all materials about Stakeknife during an investigation as it said it had. A leader of the political group for the Provos, Sein Fein, said it was "'disgraceful and unsurprising' that British security services had withheld information from the inquiry." (Irish Times)

Stakeknife, or Scap, died in April 2023. Although he always denied that he was Stakeknife, he was still living under witness protection at the time so little is known of what occurred on the manner of his death. If nothing else, this shows how far a government is willing to go to tackle troubling times. It makes me think of the situation in Gaza and the Israeli response that has now again started to the terrorist actions that one day in October almost a year and a half ago. What I am sure of, is that today, there are many Stakeknifes working as double agents in varied parts of the world, with little moral compass to guide them. 

Heritage

When I was growing up, I, and perhaps most if not all of my siblings, thought of our ancestry in relation to our grandparents and their parents. From this we discerned our nationalities. All of my grandparents were born in the United States, two in rural parts of Iowa, and two in Chicago. Of my 8 great grandparents, only one was born in the United States (Amelia Duscheck in Jefferson Co, WI), two born in Ireland, and two known to be born in Germany (mother's maternal line) and the other four (Hovel side) we always thought were born in Germany. Hence, we always concluded that we were 75% German and 25% Irish. However, nationality, or perhaps heritage, or ancestry, is not what we always think it is.

223 and Me Relational spread

Later, when a sister and a brother started to take a deep dive into Hovel family origins it was realized that our paternal grandfather's family, (Hovel line) was from Bohemia, what is now the Czech Republic. There were guesses as to where my paternal grandmother's father (Mathias Pitzenberger) was from, generally thought to be Germany, which was emphasized by a letter my Dad wrote while in WWII in which he stated he was across from Dusseldorf, where "mother had some relations." My brother and sister would discover that our paternal grandmother's mother (Teresia Kamen) was from Bohemia, and as it turns out not too distant from where the Hovel family lived prior to emigration to the US. My Dad always thought, until that discovery, that the Hovel family was from Germany. Culturally, that may have been, but jurisdictionally that was not the case, as can be shown by DNA. Ethnically, the situation may be murky unless I can find and test DNA of my grandfather. 

My Ancestry--23 and Me 

It was in June several years ago that I took a swab of my DNA as part of 23 and Me. I had been given the DNA test as a Father's Day gift. The results were somewhat surprising given what I had known of my heritage at the time, Mostly German, part Czech, and 25% Irish. DNA is being used to help solve crimes, but to also free some that had been convicted. It also leads to connections of people with surnames I have never heard of, which shows the breadth of how interconnected the world really is. There is caution in use of DNA, however. First, the database becomes more accurate the more persons are in the database. Second, there was the case in the early use of DNA where triplets each took a DNA test and results came back with marked differences in ancestry. DNA is complicated and of the strands only 1% is generally unique to the person. This video can help explain. Enjoy the Irish accent.

My DNA, going on the assumption that it is rather accurate, shows that I am 83.8% French--German (German), 10.3% Britain and Irish, so much for that 25%. That leaves about 5.45 for Eastern European (Czech). With a bit undefined. Genetically, the German heritage is strongest, leaving the others to pull up the back end. This leaves the thought, how can this be?  

First, let me tackle my mother's father. He and his wife were both born in Ireland, but Irish records are scant and difficult to trace, and hence I only know who my 2nd great grandparents were, but only based on family lore, and in one case the birth record of my great grandmother. It is odd that only 10% is Ireland (County Clare, which is correct), which makes me wonder what happened to the other 15%? Could it be related to the database, a quirk in the DNA (recombinant) or perhaps, the Sweeney, O'Connor's, Cleary's and others had varied German influence from centuries back? I may never know. I do know that one sister is a big celebrant of St Patrick's Day, showing that culturally her Irish surpasses her German genetics in that case. Although, she clearly has Germanic traits that show up in her personality. St Patrick himself was not Irish but from Wales born in the fifth century as Maewyn Succat, proving that you do not need to have Irish ancestry.

I think it is pretty much a given, that my mom's maternal side is German, and while I have her Reiner side only back to the second great grandfather in Bavaria, I do have the Leidenheimer side back several generations, due to work of a common ancestor. 

My Grandma Hovel's father, I found out a few years ago, came from Austria, and here again I lose records before about 1800, and have yet to find a nearby church that may have their records. Austria was part of the Anschluss of WWII, with Hitler of Austrian ancestry, claiming it as part of Germany. 

1930 Czech Regions of German Speakers
Commonly known as the Sudetenland

Now, for the long explanation of Germans and Czechs. The explanation for the German genetics with so many Bohemian relations can best be explained by history. This issue is related to the infamous Sudetenland. The Sudetenland results from settlement of parts of border regions of the Kingdom of Bohemia with Germany being settled by Ethnic Germans as far back as the 12th century. These settlements were on virgin land and new communities were created. Dolni Chrastany, where my 2nd great grandparents lived prior to emigration was part of the Sudetenland. Hlavatce, where my 2nd great grandmother, Anna Jodl, was from was even further east, in Hlavatce, but her family originated from an area west of Dolni Chrastany known as Laistka which was part of the Sudetendland. They moved to Hlavatce in 1720.  Genealogy is complicated as each generation doubles as you go back in time (2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, and on and on).  Hence, a few generations back you are talking a good number of people, who in this borderland may or may not have been ethnic German. Interestingly, the Hovel (Havel) family is traced back to about 1585 or so, with the known ancestral village as Ratiborova Lhota, which although closer to the German border, but was not part of the Sudetenland. Josef Havel,  my second great grandfather was the first known in this ancestral line able to read and write. It appears that he knew German. Things are complicated in terms of language not only by where a person was from, but that Bohemia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire where German was the official language. Dolni Chrastany is only about 25 miles from the border with Germany, but although the Hovel ancestral village (back to 1585) is a few miles closer to Germany it was not a significant settlement for Germans, according to detailed studies, and not part of the Sudetenland.

Dolni Chrastany and Ratiborova Lhota 
in relation to Sudetenland border
Courtesy of Richard D' Amelio

Then there is Teresia Kamen Pitzenberger, my paternal grandmothers mother. She was born in Ujezd, Bohemia, and spoke Czech, but also likely knew a bit of German. Ujzed appears out of the Sudetenland, but as with the Hovel and Jodl families, her ancestors came from varied locales in the region. In fact her paternal line hails from Prestice, Bohemia, moving to Ujezd in the mid 1700's. Prestice is about 45 miles north of Ujezd.

Kamen, US immigration arrival form

My Dad's maternal grandmother, Amelia Duscheck was part of the German-Bohemian migration, with the known relations being from northeastern Bohemia. Much work has been done on the this area referred to as Landskron and their immigration to the US, with significant settlement pockets in Jefferson County to Dane County, WI. When I look back at many of the surnames you find in Sun Prairie, they are related to the Landskroners--Motl, Skalicky, Blaska, Schuster, Langer, Benisch, Suchomel, and many others.

Jacob Fitzl arrival immigration form

The Hovel family emigrated from Bohemia in 1868 and first settled between Jefferson and Fort Atkinson. Jacob Fitzl, who hailed from Dolni Chrastany arrived in 1866 with his immigration record clearly listing "Bohem" as country of origin (no nationality listed) and Milwaukee as destination. He would marry the oldest daughter of my second great grandparents, Josef and Anna (nee Jodl) Havel at St John's Church in Jefferson. Josef Havel's 1868 arrival form also identifies Bohemia as place of origin and has nationality as Bohemia. Given Jacob's arrival in the US, this likely represents what is known a chain migration. Teresia Kamen, who proudly had Ujezd Bohemia on her death prayer card had, noted on her arrival form as being from Germany with Germany listed as her nationality. 

Josef Hawel, US arrival immigration form

What I can conclude is that the area of the Hovel and Kamen ancestors had an intermixing, a melting pot, if you will between Germans and Czechs. Some parts of Czechia would have seen similar melting pots, such as between Poles Czechs, Hungarians and Czechs or Austrians and Czechs, not to mention Slovaks and Czechs. There are even Ukrainians and Czechs. There was not only intermarriage between the ethnicities, but also internal migration occurred over time, sometimes much greater distances than I would have thought. The Jodl family moved a current road distance of over 26 miles from Lazistka to Hlavatce. People did what they had to do to find livelihood on a farm, and that involves movement for those not lucky to inherit the family farm. Most all were farmers and farm land was difficult to come by, as the youngest son generally purchased the farm, leaving other sons to find a farm. Some found it through marriage, like Frantisek Havel, and others by taking on abandoned claims, like the Jodl's.

Google Maps, Shows German-Czech broder
Dolni Chrastany is teardrop and about 25 mi from border
Ratiborova Lhota is southwest of Dolni Chrastany and is shown as a heart. 
Hlavatce is northeast of Dolni Chrastany.

With different ethnicities come different cultural traits. Many cultural traits were likely shared, such as religious values. Some other traits likely endured from each culture, others perhaps modified, with some dropped in favor of one over another. Places where they lived, would also have informed cultural, with those living in more German communities as being more German, and vice versa for those Czech. Frantisek Havel (my third great grandfather) moved from Ratiborova Lhota to Dolni Chrastany in 1796 to marry Teresia Jiral from Dolni Chrastany and took over her family's farm in that community. Dolni Chrastany was within the Sudetenland, and hence more German in culture than Ratiborova Lhota. A more German community, in the Sudetenland, may have represented some change for him in cultural identify. Yet, as a peasant farmer, he likely simply struggled to make ends meet, and ethic differences were less important than earning a living. Recall, from prior blogs, that to be a farmer, one had to have a spouse, otherwise the holding could be taken away from them. This is why, when a spouse died and there were children, remarriage occurred within a few months if not weeks. 

The melting pot, or assimilation of cultures, however, has taken a few times in history a back seat to ethnicity. We saw it when Hitler was handed by British Prime Minister Chamberlain the Sudetenland, without any input from the Czechs. He later took all of Czechoslovakia. But, it also happened at the end of WWII, when the Czech government undertook a forced migration, an almost ethnic cleansing, of Sudetenland areas by requiring German ethnic groups to move out. Dolni Chrastany was part of this. Jodl family members were living at 18 Dolni Chrastany in the early 1900's, but they may not have been subject to the forced migration. In the early 1990's my sister and dad visited the old country, stopping in Dolni Chrastany, and a distant relation still lived at #18. For varied reasons I see parallels between this and the Ukraine situation, where ethnic Russians dominate in east Ukraine, as Germans dominated in the Sudetenland starting in the 11th and 12th centuries. There is also the other major conflict, with forced migration is being discussed to create the Riviera of the Mideast in Gaza.

Some people do a deep dive in ancestors, such as finding relatives to a person in their tree that they are not even related to. I tend to stick to direct lines and rather than finding just a persons birth, death and marriage, I try to look at what was happening at the time, what conditions were like and other such things. This has caused me to download a number of papers. Of course, none of this is specific to my ancestors, but it does give an idea of what the general situation of their life may have been like as mainly peasant farmers. This knowledge helps inform me of not just the lifestyle of my ancestors, but major decisions they made, such as moving to the US. 

The US is truly a melting pot of nationalities, and every successive generation seems to be more so. The melting pot is on a much greater scale than that known to my ancestors in Bohemia (who were German or Czech). We are a product of our past, and the intermixing can make for a new set of values and traits. I am more an American than German. Germans don't change their underwear everyday like I do. However, my punctuality may be informed by my German heritage. 

The funny thing is as the world is more globalized than ever, and communication and travel have shortened time to travel markedly, the world has become more focused on ethnicities. You see it in Europe where countries have broken up (Former Soviet Union, former Yugoslavia, and the velvet break up of Slovakia and Czechia) all based on ethnicity. Globalization, it seems, has many populations desirous to know their roots, and in some cases act on that. My DNA tells me I am more German, but jurisdictionally from place of origin, I am as much Czech as German, and perhaps more so depending upon how Austria is counted. The infamous Sudeten Germans are clearly at play in my DNA. Good luck with me trying to find my heritage back to the 11 or 12th centuries when I have trouble finding 18th century records. 

Watch Out

It was last week, when my wife and visited her mother, during the visit, my wife and her mom were discussing the closing of some, then all Joann Fabric stores. "Watch out!" That was part of a phrase my wife used to describe all the upset females there will be around the nation due to the closing of a popular fabric/craft store. Her actual statement was "Husbands had better watch out".  Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned by the closing of her fabric shop.

Pickles Cartoon

My wife likes to sew and quilt and her go-to-store has been Joann Fabrics in Madison, usually the east side of the two Madison locations. Joann's first reported, about two weeks ago, that they would be closing a number of stores, including the Madison east location. My wife was dismayed at that, but resigned to having to go to the west side location. Early last week, the last week of February, it was announced they were closing all retail stores. My wife commented that "husbands had better watch out" as there will be a large number of upset women.

If I would go into Joann store with her, I, as a male, would be the outlier. It does not take a genius to know that most sewing and quilting is done by woman. Men watch football and baseball, and the women quilt, cross-stitch or something else to keep their hands busy. If another male or two happened to be in a craft store with his female partner, it was always fun looking at the interactions. I have been like a duck out of water, but my wife would occasionally ask for my opinion on color, fabric type or what have you in regard to her selections for quilts or clothes. I always appreciated that she valued my opinion so as to know what not to choose. 

The thing is with one grandchild and another on the way she was looking forward to making some clothes for the grandkids. But, now her store of choice will soon be no more. She also makes t-shirt quilts for clients and would send them to Joann for the edging and backing fabric that would be required. Her informed belief is other stores, such as Hobby Lobby, do not have the fabric choices and options that is/was available at Joann Fabrics. 

We made a trip to Joann Fabrics last week so the wife could use a gift card on material to recover a couple throw pillows. As my wife went to look for floss, not dental but cross stich, I held down the fort at the cut counter, so I asked her how much material she required, she looked at the width and mumbles some numbers to herself and finally said a yard and a half. Even though my wife got back in time, I still got to say the amount of fabric. I got a dirty look from my wife when I asked the clerk to verify the width. I then proudly proclaimed "a yard and a half." Prior to saying that I got another look from the wife, such as tell her the amount of fabric required.  As my wife waited for the brown fabric to be cut, my job became getting in line at the check out. There were two registers open and about 14 people ahead of me.

Joann's has a lot of stuff, more than fabric and we were both surprised that Christmas candy was only 20% off. They had other Christmas stuff in the loopy line for the registers. As a keen observer of the human condition, this is where things got interesting. A small box of 3-M wall hangers, the type that you can put on and peel off, was almost $13, I am not sure what they would be at a hardware store, but I thought that price high. It is, however,  in the aisle of impulse buying. With all the Christmas stuff at only 20% off, there were those headbands some with Christmas trees, one at each end, bopping about on small springs. More available were headbands that had the feet and calves of Santa as if going down a chimney, with the chimney being your head. I wondered, to myself, who would ever buy such junk. Right then the woman behind me, with about five pieces of scrap book paper (I did not know that was still a thing), started rummaging through them and picked the one with Christmas trees. Okay, so Joann's knows something about their clientele. Apparently, not enough to have saved the company.

Earl's ashes will not be at Joann Fabrics

The most curious object, however, was a pair of water based breast and cleavage enhancers. in see through hard sided plastic case. I first thought it was an odd object, but then realized it probably was not for two reasons. First, this store is populated mainly persons that can be inseminated; I only saw two other men in the store, so the ratio of persons who can be inseminated to those that could do the inseminating was about 15 to 1. Second, the store is a fabric store, with patterns for many things including dresses, and perhaps and perhaps a person with breasts would desire some breast and cleavage enhancers for some clothing they were making. I suspect this was not their normal location, but someone picked them up, and decided not to buy them, so dropped them off on a shelf while waiting in line at check out. It would be an odd item to located with all the 20% off Christmas candy.

The check out line, that midafternoon, consistently had about 12 to 15 persons during our visit. Check out would have gone much faster but for two women who had a cart full of plastic flowers. After several minutes, they completed their check out, the lady behind them noted they still had some in the bottom back of the shopping cart. Their total bill for plastic flowers, I do not know the how much they were discounted, was $83. 

I am not sure what my wife will do without Joann Fabrics. Perhaps some other store will come in to fill the gap. This is all part of  what may be downward trends following a high increase in demand from Covid. There are other examples of industries affected by increased demand due to Covid and now have downsized. I has happened in the bike sector, RV sector, high end appliance sector, and now the fabric--craft sector. But, fabric, unlike bikes and RV's, is a nondurable good as clothes wear and new ones can always be made. Perhaps, younger generations are just not into that. The historic low birth rate may play apart too. My wife sewed many of the clothes are kids wore at a young age, after all they grow out of them rather quickly.

As I watched the women in the check out line, I had to sympathize with their husbands, most probably at home at the time, not knowing what the future may hold in a wife undergoing material withdrawal. There will coming angst over the closing of Joann Fabrics, and the husbands will bear the brunt of scorned female. Husbands, if your wife is a sewer, watch out.