The Blaisdell Blog

Church today is a sea of red.   It is Reformation Sunday and red is the traditional color.   Of course, if you are not a Lutheran, Reformation Day may not mean quite as much.   Martin Luther is often depicted as a brooding, personally troubled man.   The pictures of him show a square-jawed German with a grim mouth and a furrowed brow.   Growing up in a Lutheran home, I was sure he had been a brave but angry man, nailing his 95 Thesis on the door of the church in Wittenberg and starting a religious revolution.   Even his decision to enter the priesthood, a vow to St. Anne if she would deliver him from the fury of a sudden storm, seemed to be born of fire.                Luther, who was not a simple monk, but a highly educated theologian, is a frequently misunderstood revolutionary.   He profited from being the right man at the right moment.   Luther’s ideas came at an economically and politically advantageous time. Because of this, he had promoters and protectors; his ideas fl

History is where I take refuge when the present is too vexing to deal with.    Presidential history is my default position and I am currently reading my 17 th Presidential biography.             The names that are almost uniformly at the top of Presidential rankings (George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, John Adams and Harry Truman) are already checked off my list, so the other eight books have been selected from the middle (Grover Cleveland) to bottom (Chester A. Arthur) of the pack.   For reasons that should be obvious to anyone with a brain and a television, I find myself pondering the worst Presidents in America’s history.   Who is on this dubious hit parade?   Both liberal and conservative historians place the following Presidents at the very bottom of the list of Presidential effectiveness: James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, William Henry Harrison,

Today is National Dog Day and I am remembering the first dog I ever owned.   When we lived in Luverne, Minnesota we had a Norwegian elkhound named Torgy.   These beautiful animals were originally bred to hunt, not elk, but moose (Scandinavian elk).   They did not attack the animals, but tracked and then worried and confined the animal until the hunters arrived.   These dogs are wonderful family animals, but you need a cool climate and acreage.   A Norwegian Elkhound considers his “yard” to be as much territory as he can cover in a day and still get back to his dog dish by nightfall.   They consider a fence to be just one more interesting puzzle to solve.   Elkhounds look like small, square sled dogs.   Their thick, silver-gray fur has a pure white undercoat.   Like all of them, Torgy’s face, ears and paws were trimmed in black, but the best part was his tail.   Elkhound’s tails are curved tightly over the back, the white under fur making a kind of flag that bobs along when they trot

“Ocian in view! O! the joy.”   These are the words written in William Clark’s journal at midday on November 7, 1805.   They project the desperate relief he felt upon seeing the Pacific Ocean.   Here, at last, was the goal the Corps of Discovery had been seeking for the better part of two years.   The explorers had reached the furthest point of their journey; and faced the long and equally perilous trek home.   The travels of Lewis and Clark carry real life drama that exceeds any attempts at mythology.               The act of exploration: its danger, daring and shared hardship form a unique bond among those who bear the title “explorer.”   Their feats become legends and their lives cast long shadows.   The story of mankind follows where the explorers lead.   They are humanity’s pathfinders.               Columbus was an explorer.   Today is Columbus Day.   So why does Columbus and the celebration of this day cause a yearly blooming of sour grapes that makes Napa Valley look l

If you are a woman of diminutive stature (I am only 5’2”) you appreciate the small advantage that comes from wearing high heels.   Wearing heels doesn’t make me as tall as everyone else, it just makes me a little more competitive in eye-to-eye conversations.    And that, oddly enough, explains why I love the Electoral College.   Every election cycle produces people who want to eliminate the Electoral College as if it were an inflamed appendix.   Yet the Electoral College has worked smoothly over 94% of the time.   If you want more faithful service than that you need a golden retriever.   Article II Section 1 of the Constitution is proof that the framers were intelligent masters of the concept of compromise.   There were some in 1787 who wanted the President of the United States elected by members of Congress.   Others thought he should be elected by direct vote of the people.   The common ground they came to was the Electoral College.   Each state was given a number of elector