I’ve always been a bit hypoglycemic, or to put it another way, when I am really hungry I get grumpy. Normally I am known to be cheerful and fun-loving, always ready for a good time. My little secret, though, is that when travelling or on an irregular schedule, I almost always make sure to carry a snack — a bag of peanuts, a candy bar—something to raise the blood sugar level if necessary. In about 1969 there occurred one of the few examples, described here, where I forgot to bring a snack. How many weddings have you attended when you weren’t swamped with appetizers, canapes, sandwiches, desserts, cake, waiters and waitresses going around offering you little bites of this or that? I was warned in advance that this was going to be the best wedding ever. All our family members were going to be there. People were coming to Sausalito,
“You’re going to be a guide for canoe trips at Camp Menogyn in the Boundary Waters,” said the 30-ish woman, barely looking up from her desk. Jane Andrews, Assistant Director. of Placement at Carleton College was not a fan, and I felt this would be payback for my previous year as a sophomore, when I pulled too many hijinks in the off-campus quasi-fraternity called Rice House.” I didn’t doubt that Jane intended the Minneapolis YMCA wilderness Camp Menogyn on West Bearskin Lake, 33 miles up the mostly unpaved Gunflint Trail from Grand Marais, Minnesota, as a sort of purgatory. Located in Quetico-Superior country, it is possible to go by canoe from lake to lake with small portages from Minnesota to Hudson Bay. In any case, I was ready for it. It would be my first exposure to the wilderness — my first lengthy camping experience. I soon learned to love
Folwell Junior High School (1948-1952) Mr. Cogswell. I don’t remember his first name if I ever knew it, but he made a huge difference in my life when I took his class in Algebra in 1951-52. I can’t find anything about him on the web, let alone his photo, but he was a tall man with dark, balding hair. His face had a rather strict appearance due in part because he had a glass eye, as I recall. He stood erect, and seldom smiled — all business. But he could teach algebra in a way that was fun and easy to understand. I was very small for my age, an issue made worse by the fact that I skipped a grade in elementary school. I was a loner, undefended by friends. Being an easy target, I lived in dread of being “pantsed,” the ultimate humiliation of being captured by bigger
Why most gamblers are losers. I have never been interested in conventional casino gambling. The odds are stacked with corporate certainty against customers, who, for the most part, have no idea how the laws of statistics operate. For example, if you flip a coin and it comes up heads 19 times in a row, what is the probability of getting heads on the 20th flip? The answer: 50%. By similar reasoning, a slot machine that has paid no jackpots for an hour doesn’t owe you anything. The payout of slot machines ranges from 75% to 98%, but the average is about 90%. Although some people claim to be consistent winners, they are delusional. While they brag endlessly about their winnings, they don’t account for their losses. The TV commercials show attractive, young people laughing and having fun while they gamble. What’s the fun of slowly draining your life’s blood into
If you would like a ski vacation in glitzy, celebrity-studded, fur-lined Aspen, Colorado, and you are budget-conscious as I was in 1957, you might be interested in the story of my first trip out West with two other friends from a Minnesota college during our spring vacation, and take advantage of our money-saving tips. Okay, you’re thinking, Aspen has changed a bit and there’s been some price inflation. That is a valid criticism. But the general principles of budget skiing are eternal. Step One: Reliable, Low-cost Transportation A ski bum’s first choice is hitch-hiking. You can also hitch-hike by day and sleep on the back seat of a bus by night. Bus ticket agents may look puzzled when you say that your destination is a certain direction till 8 AM tomorrow, but they can do it. On this trip I hitch-hiked from Minneapolis to Omaha carrying 6 foot 6 inch
