A Life

When I proposed to my wife, she said that if I would turn out half as nice as my father, she would marry me. She settled for somewhat less. But in my defense, I have never met anyone as nice as my father, so even the half-height bar is daunting. 


Actually, "kind", rather than nice, is a better term for his character. We often hear the call to reintroduce civility to our interactions and practice "random acts of kindness". My father saw needs and acted upon them in both small and large ways, without fanfare. A new Sunday School space, the new sewage treatment facilities, the fire department's equipment, the school's tennis court, a relative needing plumbing or electrical help, a ballpark's groundskeeping, a skating rink's lighting, a church's call committee, a friend or family needed advice. 

Typical. Sunday afternoon plugged 
sewer at wedding reception

He was a bit of a renaissance man, smart, curious but also mechanically talented, able to fix most anything at a time when our current throw-away society was unfathomable. He volunteered to assist friends and family with their construction projects even though this was his livelihood. One terrible winter storm period, he slept at the hardware store for several days, answering calls for people with furnace, water, electrical problems. There was no possibility of a service call so he would talk them through how to fix their issue themselves, although in one case a furnace outage for a young mother and child whose husband was stranded in Fargo, caused him to tie a rope to the stop sign on Hwy 55 to guide him back and trudged through the whiteout to the home "across the tracks" to get the heat back on. And I recall countless phone calls at dinner or the middle of the night from people desperate for help. Doctors had nothing on Dad. This list could go on and on and I'm sure I don't know the half of it. There were few people in the Lowry area who were not beneficiaries. 

He served as the volunteer fire chief for many years, organizing volunteer firemen training through the state of Minnesota and procuring a 3rd truck to fight grass fires. He organized "practice fires" using buildings people wanted to be rid of. One memorable occasion was the torching of the Molander Implement/Apartment building. Great reality show.

My father was born in 1920 in the small village of Lowry, MN, the 3rd of 7 children. He attended Lowry School through grade 8 and then to the big high school in Glenwood where he graduated in 1938. 






During the depression years, Lowry was the beneficiary of a WPA project to install city water and sewer. My father, a teen, wrangled a job with the Starbuck contractor for $1/day, hauling soil pipe, digging ditches and general gopher. He was also called upon to fire up the lead pots at 5 AM every day, so the lead would be melted for the 7 AM work start leading the soil pipe joints. He was supposed to get an extra 25¢ a day for this but that somehow got overlooked. Indeed, locals resented the fact that such a young whippersnapper should get such outrageous pay.


The depression years were difficult. The family most certainly would have lost their home but for the generosity of a couple bachelor farmers who held the lien on the 1929 house and tolerated many missed payments. The mortgage was not fully paid until after WWII. I am told that on occasion lunches consisted of lard sandwiches. But the hobos knew that this home would not begrudge them a meal. See Depression Years post.

He attended St. Cloud Teachers College for one year and transferred and graduated from Augsburg College in 1942. While at Augsburg he stayed at the Albinson Funeral Chapel as a place to sleep and to answer night calls. He washed dishes at Opals Café on Chicago Ave for 3 hours / day which provided a 25 cent allowance for breakfast and 35 cent allowance for dinner and supper. Tuition at Augsburg was $40 / semester. 























He joined the US Navy in July 1942 and after training at Moorhead State College, KY and Con Edison in New York City, mustered in the inaugural crew on the battleship New Jersey as an electrician's mate.

As with most veterans, the war years were rarely spoken of, but he did write about it. This for a future post.  

A few notes his own words:

• Every Saturday, breakfast consisted of a scoop of baked beans and cornbread quickly consumed followed by a quick dismissal to prepare for inspection.
• Sailors slept in hammocks tiered 4 high - so close together that lying on your side was problematic.
• The only time the New Jersey suffered shell fire, it was friendly fire - killing several sailors as a shell went through multiple decks. Note: at the end of the war, the battleships were essentially anti-aircraft platforms trying to protect the fleet from kamikaze attacks.
• The local newspaper article about ferrying him to his brother's ship in mid-ocean was made up to make the home folks happy. It never happened.
• The worst loss of shipping for Task Force 34 was due to a typhoon in 1945.
• The New Jersey served as Admiral "Bull" Halsey's flag ship - until the Missouri showed up.
• There was a bit of competition between the sister ships - BB 61 Iowa, BB62 New Jersey, BB63 Missouri, BB64 Wisconsin, . The Japanese surrender signing to Douglas MacArthur in Tokyo Bay was on the USS Missouri because Harry Truman, from MO, was President.

He married an Iowa girl, a nurse, on June 4, 1945. They built a home in Lowry in 1952. It took two years to acquire a loan of $8500, being refused by 3 financial institutions, including the Lowry State Bank. It was deemed the mortgage amount and the income were incompatible. Finally a direct government loan @ 3% from the Veterans Administration was negotiated, with payments of $38/month. Previous to this, the family lived in a small apartment above the “Dahl House” restaurant for 6 years. 

There followed 60 years of service to family & community. My father died in 2012 and not a day has passed since without a silent conversation with him.

with 80 year old mother

Copyright © 2019 Dave Hoplin

Polar Vortex

It looks like a bitter week here in Lake Wobegon. Oops, that's someone else's gig, but nevertheless, true.







It's all because of the polar vortex.  Polar Vortex.  What a great name. It conveys that sense of doom of a cold cyclone sweeping over you, sucking you down to the depths of -30°F.



The polar vortex is a low pressure system that circles the arctic during the winter.  It has fragmented rather than maintaining its tight counter-clockwise rotation. Normally, this tight rotation holds the drastic cold up there where it belongs. When the vortex warps, it pulls the frigid temps south, most commonly to Siberia but on occasion Minnesota falls into the cross-hairs.  So much for global warming, ay?  How wrong you are.  Always remember - weather is NOT climate.  Global warming produces more weather extremes, not just hotter hots like Australia is now experiencing but colder colds like what we in Minnesota are in for.

The warping of the vortex is caused by the warming of the arctic and the loss of ice from the region. The oceans warm and this warmth disrupts and weakens the low pressure vortex causing its dip bringing us temps that defy belief and inspiring glee from weather.com and grim hermit-like behavior from the normal rest of us.

It could be worse. I might live in Baudette.  By the way, these are actual air temps. If you throw in the 15-20 mph winds expected you get windchills in the -60's. Uffda.

Read about it in Scientific American.





Copyright © 2019 Dave Hoplin

Amygdala Hijack

In my work life, it was deadlines. Ah, deadlines. The sound of them whizzing by in the morning. Stress inducing.  And faced with stress, which of your multiple personalities comes to the fore:  your parasympathetic self or your evil amygdala? I suspect, more often than you wish, it's an "amygdala hijack" and the result is not pretty.

Tony Schwartz, in the Harvard Business Review, warns that you need to be aware when your amygdala is at work versus your prefrontal cortex. Your parasympathetic system presents as logical, reasoned, and objective, calmly discerning fact from fiction, considering evidence, and making a cool judgment. Your evil twin the amygdala thrusts you into hurried thinking, hasty decisions, and fight or flight responses. Your perceptions become myopic and emotional. It's called the Survival Zone and your prefrontal cortex shuts down.  Never been there?  You might have a career in motivational speaking - or sainthood.

The amygdala is of course a necessary part of your emotional makeup. It is there to detect and react to threats. Like the sabre-tooth tiger bearing down on you. But these kind of threats are now quite rare and unfortunately the amygdala cannot distinguish between life threatening situations and an insult - or an unrealistic deadline.

The Energy Project studies how you can move from the Survival Zone to the Performance Zone, where you are capable of being your best.  And their bottom line is - "Whatever you feel compelled to do, don't. Compulsions are not choices, and they rarely lead to positive outcomes."

Although it can feel cathartic to let my amygdala rule, I almost always regret it. When your time comes, count slowly to ten and consider Mark Twain's words: "Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."

Would that our public figures could discover their parasympathetic side.

Copyright © 2019 Dave Hoplin

Philosopher for Hire

Aristotle rolling his eyes

It's hard to get a job as a philosopher these days. But it is the perfect profession for my retirement years. Sit around and think deep thoughts on the great questions and publish a tweet or a post on those thoughts - couple a year.  Truth, Beauty, Morality, Ethics, Spirituality .. and then a nice glass of hemlock in the evening.

There are of course university positions teaching philosophy, but they are simply rehashing hundred or thousand year old thinking.  I seek a job as a practicing, self-sufficient philosopher, like ... well, I can't think of anyone alive. Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Kant, Thoreau, William James, Bertrand Russell, Soren Kierkegaard, ...  all gone. Caveat - Elizabeth Anderson is pretty good.

So who will break new ground on the great philosophic questions? Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Is the universe real?  Is reality real? Do we really have free will? Can a human be objective? Is there universal basic morality? What is fact? ...

But before I take up that mantle, I've decided to pro bono address the "Tier 2 Great Questions", saving the "Great Questions" for a paying gig.

1. Over or Under?
Part 1: Definitely over unless you have a toddler or a cat. It is much easier to paddle down than up.
Part 2: The visual is gut-churning so suspenders seems the only plausible answer ... alternatively, buy a couple of those no-tuck-in shirts, XXL.

2. White or Brown?
Tradition says white. Contrarians say brown. But fundamentalists take their lefse with just butter. A lunatic group says fill it with lutefisk.  I am a traditionalist.

3. Pepperoni or Sausage?
Here I believe the biblical dietary laws serve us well, so veggie.

4. Tattoo or Piercing?
This is a test of your common sense.  In your twilight years, do you want to be sitting in the nursing home exposing your sagging butterfly or "I Love Linda" in a heart-arrow tattoo?  I think not.  Piercings are at least removable, but do please apply some common sense here as well. I hate that tooth clicking.

5. Red or Blue?
Empirical evidence personally gathered over many years shows that color has little or no effect on the flavor of M&M's.  So, pick 'em.

6. Parasympathetic vs. Amygdala?
While the amygdala is at rare times indispensable, you should always try to go with your parasympathetic side.

7. Hamburger or Hot Dog?
Hot dog, but only at a baseball game.

8. Ford or Chevy?
No way I'm getting involved in that blood sport.

9. Gene Kelley or Fred Astaire?
Who?

11. Baseball or Football?
See number 6.

Happy New Year

Copyright © 2019 Dave Hoplin

Bibliophile

Tis the season for "best of" lists. If you are a book lover, read on.

I am guessing Amazon pings you regularly with suggestions. But they use some algorithm based on your buying and browsing habits. Instead of relying on Amazon to tell you what you should read, try the Literature Map app:  https://www.literature-map.com/   This nifty little tool will identify authors with an affinity to those you like, the closer the proximity, the more similar.

I here offer you here some book recommendations based on actually having read them. This list is culled from what I read in 2018 although few if any of these books were written in 2018.  Of course, everyone has a different idea of what constitutes a good book. Just check a few critics. So, this list may ring hollow to you but perhaps you'll discover a new author that tickles your fancy. 

Forewarning:  I tend to read mostly fiction because ....  according to Harvard Business Review & Scientific American.  
"... we have known for a while that people who are most successful ... read fiction. And people who read fiction have more empathy, no matter where they land on the gender or personality trait spectrum ... and exposure to nonfiction correlates with loneliness and lack of social support."

All well and good but when it gets down to it, I read fiction because it can transport you to places and times you would never be able to visit or imagine. 

So here's my best of 2018 list - unranked, rather alphabetic by author name ..

The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure

An terrific novel about a clever architect who secretly devises ingenious hiding places for Jews in World War II Paris

Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson

The English language and how it got that way from the inimitable Bill Bryson.

Moonglow by Michael Chabon

A dying “my grandfather” tells his story to the narrator. Jewish slums of prewar South Philadelphia, the invasion of Germany, a Florida retirement village, a New York prison, the heyday of the space program ... collapsed into a single week. 

Work Song by Ivan Doig

A wonderful story set in Butte, Montana, the copper mining capital of the world in its Anaconda dominated 1919. 

In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming

The first of the Claire Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne crime series. An Episcopal priest and an upstate New York sheriff. Ripping good yarns.

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith

Harry Potter writer J.K. Rowlings using her alter-ego pen name Robert Galbraith and a curmudgeonly character, amputee private eye, Cormoran Strike. This is book #4 in the Cormoran Strike series. You might want to start with #1 The Cuckoo's Calling.

Alan Turing: The Enigma by Anthony Hodges

The biography of Alan Turing, British mathematician, founder of modern computer science, Bletchley Park cracker of the Nazi enigma code and tragic death by suicide at age 41.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

A black writer writing of the black experience in the south in 1930's America. "Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature."  The Florida hurricane segment is gripping.

A Legacy of Spies by John LeCarre

The sequel to A Spy Who Came in From the Cold (read or re-read that first) This is that same story from the MI5 administrator side of the house.

How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt

An examination of the history of the breakdown of democracies throughout the world and the relevance to today. 

The Coffee Trader by David Liss

Cornering the coffee market in Amsterdam in 1659. Modeled after the actual tulip mania and the Dutch financial crash in the 17th century.

A Man With One of Those Faces by Coimh McDonnell

Book 1 of the Dublin Trilogy. "The Troubles" crime story.  Entertaining, witty writing.

Kristin Lavransdatter: The Bridal Wreath by Sigrid Undset

Book 1 of the trilogy by the Nobel Prize winning Norwegian author. 14th century Norway.

The Free by Willy Vlautin

Three memorable characters: a brain damaged veteran of Iraq, a caring nurse and a care worker impoverished by medical bills working 2 full-time jobs.  " .. issues facing modern America, characters who are looking for a way out of their financial, familial, and existential crises". Inspires both compassion and admiration.

Consider the Lobster and other essays by David Foster Wallace

A collection of essays covering a variety of topics from John McCain's presidential run to a lobster fest in Maine.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

A poverty stricken Louisiana family trying to survive Hurricane Katrina.

Dirt Music by Tim Winton

Set in Western Australia. A broken man whose entire family were killed in a rollover accident and now makes his living as an illegal fisherman. Before the tragedy, he counted stars and loved playing his guitar. Now, his life has become a “project of forgetting.”"

Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin

Lutheran Blood Sport

In 1996, I attended a choral concert at Skoglund Center in Northfield, where the choirs of Augsburg, Concordia, Gustavus, Luther & St. Olaf all performed. The concert program was titled "F. Melius  Christiansen 125th Anniversary Concert". We in the audience, however, were fully aware of the true nature of the gathering - a battle of choirs, a.k.a. "Lutheran Blood Sport". (if the name F. Melius is not familiar to you, you're probably not a good candidate for this post.)

Most college rivalries are rooted in athletic contests. But we Lutherans leave that trivial pursuit to the Catholics: St. John's vs St. Thomas, St. Scholastica vs. St. Catherine's. We understand where the true test of excellence plays out: Concert Choirs on risers. While other schools batter themselves on the gridiron or the backboards, Lutheran schools do battle with hymns. "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence"; "Wake, Awake"; "Lost in the Night"; Randall Thompson's "Alleluia"; F. Melius' "O Day Full of Grace" ...

Audience listening in hushed silence with tears flowing. If you think Scandinavians are a stoic bunch, attend a choir concert. At concert end, the audience rises as one with rapturous cheers and clapping for their champions. No experience quite like a well tempered choir concert.

A Christmas gift to you. Experience it. Turn up the volume.

Click HERE for Kurt Bestor's "Prayer of the Children" composed in anguish over the genocide in Kosovo. Performed by the Nordic Choir. If this does not bring a tear to your eye, you should go back to your football game.

Can you hear the prayer of the children?
On bended knee, in the shadow of an unknown room
Empty eyes with no more tears to cry
Turning heavenward toward the light

Crying Jesus*, help me
To see the morning light-of one more day
But if I should die before I wake,
I pray my soul to take

Can you feel the hearts of the children?
Aching for home, for something of their very own
Reaching hands, with nothing to hold on to,
But hope for a better day a better day

Crying Jesus*, help me
To feel the love again in my own land
But if unknown roads lead away from home,
Give me loving arms, away from harm

Can you hear the voice of the children?
Softly pleading for silence in a shattered world?
Angry guns preach a gospel full of hate,
Blood of the innocent on their hands

Crying Jesus*, help me
To feel the sun again upon my face,
For when darkness clears I know you're near,
Bringing peace again

Dali cujete sve djecje molitive?
(Croatian translation:
'Can you hear all the children's prayers?')
Can you hear the prayer of the children?

(*note: Originally, the song was written with the lyrics “Crying Jesus…” Bestor now recommends substituting the words “Crying softly…” enabling people to subconsciously substitute “Jesus, Allah, Yahweh, etc.” This way, the song's universal message of love will be felt without any barriers or limitations.) 

Read the Story Behind the Prayer of the Children.

Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin

A Minnesota Treasure

Unless you are a student (or a prof), you likely relate to the University of Minnesota through their sports teams. It is, perhaps unfortunately, the principal face of the University to the outside world. That said and although there are many problems with Division I college athletics, I too, am an avid follower of U of M teams. It is particularly satisfying to see to see the success of women's' sports.








But the treasure that is the University of Minnesota is not the athletic programs. It is so much more ...

You don't have to be an enrolled student to reap the benefits of one of the country's great land grant universities. The U of M was one of the beneficiaries of the 1862 Morrill Act that established colleges on federally controlled land throughout the country. The intent was to foster "practical education in agriculture, military science and engineering".  The U's administration building is named Morrill Hall to commemorate that legacy.

Maybe you have insatiable curiosity.  The U of M has a robust continuing education program (ccaps.mn.edu) which offers degree programs but also a myriad of enrichment classes for life-long learners. The Headliners series  offers distinguished speakers on a wide variety of topics once a month during the school year. The Learning Life program offers short courses on such a wide range of subjects, you will surely find something that touches you (see Minnesota Daily article).

Maybe there's a topic you'd like to know more about. The main University libraries (Walter Library & Wilson Library + numerous specialty libraries) are available to the general public. Check out the Borchert Map library in the basement of Walter - you'll be amazed.  There are almost always interesting exhibits to take in.  For example, you have until March 23, 2019 to see Mysterious Beauty: Photographs by Thomas Rose at the Architecture and Landscape Library in Rapson Hall. If you're interested in computers/information technology, check out the Charles Babbage Institute in the Elmer L Andersen Library. You might recognize the name Seymour Cray, a U of M grad, instrumental in making Minnesota the super computer capital of the world.


Maybe you like architecture.  Take a stroll through the campus and you will find the modern architecture of Frank Geary's Weisman Art Museum, the (for me) hard to like 'brutalist" architecture - Malcom Moos Towers & Ralph Rapson's Rarig Center.  The Architecture Building (Rapson Hall) designed by Steven Holl won the American Architecture prize for innovative design. The interior of Shevlin Hall is stupendous. And don't neglect the classical architecture of the University Mall.








Maybe you like honoring discoverers. Take a stroll down  the Scholar's Walk, honoring achievements of U of M professors and alumni.










Maybe you like art. Art is everywhere on the campus, indoors and out, from the Weisman Museum to the amazing stainless steel outdoor art of Julian Voss-Andrea.  And that's just a start. There are galleries all over the place.










Maybe you like statuary.  They're everywhere.  Just keep your head up as you walk around.










Maybe you like film or theater.  Northrup Auditorium hosts events that vary from dance, theater, film, authors to wrestling matches (see Takedown Northrup).

Maybe you like plays, dance or opera. The Rarig Center is home for University Theater and Dance.

Maybe you get sick.  The University Medical Center is world renowned and a leader in medical research.  The cardiac pacemaker was invented by Earl Bakken, a U of M alum.

Maybe your cat gets sick.  The University's Veterinary department is world renowned. And the Small Animal Hospital has an emergency room.

Maybe you are starving.  Agronomist Norman Borlaug won a Nobel prize for his work in developing hardy wheat plants that dramatically reduced world hunger.

Maybe you like music.  Nobel prize winner for Literature in 2017, Bob Dylan attended the U of M.

Maybe you like bookstores.  U of M has a good one in Coffman Union.






Maybe you want to do a self assessment. The MMPI - Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventory was developed at the U in 1943.

Maybe you like to walk in the rain.  Robert Gore invented Gore-Tex.


Maybe you like rappelling.  Try the Armory tower.











Maybe you breakfast on "food shot from guns". Puffed rice was invented by a U of M grad.

Maybe you got to this post through this link. The "Gopher Protocol", which introduced "hyperlinks", was the predecessor to WWW.


Maybe you like ice cream.  Can't beat Annie's Parlor in Dinkytown.

Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin

In Memoriam: Elwood Johnson

It is with sadness I report the death of Elwood Andrew Johnson.  Those of you with ties to Lowry will know the name.

Elwood died today, December 7, 2018 in Phoenix, AZ - but his heart was with Lowry, Minnesota
Born 18 Nov 1931 to John C & Nora Johnson, Elwood was 87.

Elwood was one of Lowry, Minnesota's biggest boosters. 

• He was the founder of the "Lowry Group", an adhoc collection of Lowry luminaries.
• He was the webmaster of the Lowry web page: lowrymn.com, a source for all things Lowry.
• He was the force behind the chronicling of the history of every Lowry residence and business. You can view the product of that work in the "Our Home Town" history. [a downloadable .pdf file]. It contains a photo and a genealogy of every building in the Village of Lowry - to the best of the compilers recollections. Elwood did all the photography. Elwood, Glenn Hoplin, Arnold Hedlin (and others I suspect) created the ownership lineage for each property.

Elwood worked for NASA for many years.  

  

From Charles A Biggs Oral History

We put together a team and designed the Apollo 11 van, for lack of a more sophisticated name, which housed the Apollo 11 spacecraft, the whole Apollo, and a lunar rock from Apollo 11. The sides folded down, and we could drive this thing then to the state capitols, open it up, and it would stay there for a few days, and the public would be invited to got through and look at it. Neil Armstrong's parents were deeply moved by the exhibit, and as Johnson described them, "salt of the earth people".

We took that van to fifty states, every state, and ended up going to Hawaii, flew it to Hawaii, and that was the last stop. It took quite a while.

Wright: Did you travel with it at all?

Biggs: No, I didn’t. We hired a good friend of mine [Elwood Johnson], as a matter of fact, to stay with it. Again, in NASA style, we were always on a pretty thin pocketbook. So he would put on his work clothes and set it up, and then he would take his work clothes off and put on his suit and then be there with the inaugural ribbon-cutting.

Read Elwood's NASA story on lowrymn.com HERE.


A fine man, greatly missed.

Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin