Minnesota PUC To Vote On Line 3 Next Week (?) -- June 24, 2918

According to this article, the Minnesota PUC will vote on Enbridge's Line 3 permit next week.

"There's no evidence to suggest that we would see more trains," said Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, who opposes the Line 3 project.

Is Luddite spelled with two "d's" or two "t's"?

Will the Minnesota PUC approve Line 3? See poll at the sidebar at the right.

Whatever the Minnesota PUC outcome, it will end up in court. 

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The Literature Page

I'm still in my "China phase." That will probably last a long time and considering my age, I may still be in my "China phase" in the nursing home.

However, my love for Scotland never wanes, as they say. I've talked about my relationship with Scotland many times.

On my last trip to Portland, OR, I came across a most interesting "antique store," the kind of store about which Owen Wilson's character in Midnight in Paris most likely dreamed. I had to force myself to leave the antique store before I "broke the bank."

One of my purchases was a hardcover, 1983, book edited by Clark Hunter, The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson. My notes taken while reading this book will be placed at this site.

I love the Brits, or perhaps, better said, the English. They just assume, when writing, that everyone knows everything about England. No background is necessary. In the US we have the American Automobile Association. In England, simply the Automobile Association. Everybody knows the Automobile Association is in England; nothing more need be said.

Int the Wilson biography, I found it just the same. This was almost the opening line:

When searching for unpublished letters of Alexander Wilson, I found in private hands in Paisley his own copy of the 1791 edition of his poems. 

Okay, so "Paisley." What is "Paisley"?

Well, it turns out that "Paisley" has its own wiki page. Of course, so does Williston. But I digress.

Having just read much about China's silk industry, and the running water that powered the mills that ran the silk factories, this little nugget was worth the price of the book, which for a used book ws fairly expensive and much more than I generally spend for such books. (A typical English silk mill will be turned into a youth hostel.)

So now I know a bit more about Paisley.

From wiki:

Paisley or paisley pattern is an ornamental design using the buta or boteh, a teardrop-shaped motif with a curved upper end. Of Persian origin, paisley designs became very popular in the West in the 18th and 19th centuries, following imports of post-Mughal Empire versions of the design from India, especially in the form of Kashmir shawls, and were then imitated locally. Although the fig- or almond-like form is of Persian origin, its English name derives from the town of Paisley, in West Scotland, a centre for textiles where paisley designs were produced.

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Alexander Wilson

So;

• born in Scotland, in 1766, ten years before the American Revolution
• first book of poems before age 22; self-taught; "inspired" or "depressed" by the Industrial Revolution
• March 4, 1801: delivered an address in Milestown, PA, to celebrate Jefferson's first election -- imagine that -- a Scotsman born ten years before the American Revolution, gives a celebratory speech in honor of Jefferson's presidency -- wow [the American Revolution was a war between the Scots (or Scotch-Irish) and the English, and this was one war the Scots one; it is little wonder that Wilson would praise Jefferson]
• 1802: a schoolmaster at Gray's Ferry; there, mentored by William Bartram began his "career" in ornithology; William Bartram schooled by his father, John Bartram (1699-1777), described by Linnaeus (yes, that Linnaeus) as "the greatest natural botanist in the World"
• through Bartrem, Wilson got to know Charles Willson Peale, the founder of the internationally famous museum of natural history in Philadelphia
• his Ornithology, first volume was published in 1808
• wow -- Wilson noted that "the first considerable list of our [US] birds was published i 1787, by Mr Jefferson (yes, that Mr Jefferson), in his celebrated "Notes on Virginia"; that list contained 109 species
• the next list to be published, 1791, by William Bartram, 215 different species, North and South Carolina
• other shorter lists: Dr Barton, Pennsylvania; Dr Belknap, New Hampshire
• Mark Catesby: southern states and the Caribbean for more than a decade; his Natural History, 1731, 100 plates depicting birds and botanical specimens; before Wilson, the earliest significant ornithologist in America
• so, we have the baton passing:
• Catesby -- Bartram -- Wilson -- Audubon (with an assist from others, including President Jefferson)
• Wilson's Ornithology: nine (9) volumes; individual essays on 293 birds; 315 birds portrayed in 76 plates
• the debate over whether Wilson was "greater" than Audubon are long past, according to the author; methinks the author would like to re-open the discussion
• "in his drawings the flamboyant Frenchman (Audubon) sought dramatic effects and succeeded wonderfully well while the cannier Scotsman aimed for facts and accurate delineation"
• "Audubon and his splendid engraver Robert Havell, whose skill added an extra dimension to the finished plates, used Wilson's book as a standard guide, and there is no reason why Audubon should have pretended otherwise"
• "it would not have diminished Audubon to give credit to the long-dead Wilson for his groundwork, just as Wilson made acknowledgment to Bartram"
• "Wilson cleared the ground and planted the seed while Audubon reaped the crops" -- wow
• "in the account of Wilson's life accompanying the letters, I have tried to be true to him and to avoid the dramatics dear to his follower, Audubon" -- a second "wow"
• in the book there are "several" letters to and from Thomas Jefferson

And this is where I will stop as I start to read Chapter One. Further notes will be at the link noted above.

Oh, Clark Hunter, the editor? He wrote the introduction while in Paisley. Scotland.

And a new word, couthy: (chiefly Scottish) agreeable and genial. [Not to be snarky, but I generally do not associate "agreeable and genial" with the Scots.]