i liked seeing 'robin hood' starring russell crowe earlier today. it was a nice psychological probe, that is why i preferred it over the 1991 version starring kevin costner, which was more of a romantic story. guess it proves i'm not too much of a romantic. as a fellow comic said in his act, chivalry is dead. in many ways, so is romance, as the divorce rate is so high. i don't care to say much more about the movie, as i don't like it when people ruin movies for me. it is long, over 2 hours.
i checked the national register of historic places again, this time for ramsey county, minnesota, which includes the capital city of st. paul. as expected, there are plenty of places listed, and i have seen many of them. the capitol building is on it, as well as the hamm building downtown, where i have seen some plays. the hamm's brewery complex is there as well. with the hamm building i had taken a picture of the monument about the hamm's cartoon bear. sadly it looked too much like a tombstone. plenty of buildings in downtown st. paul are listed, such as churches, but also mickey's diner, where many movies have been filmed. i have eaten there, but it has been a little while. also seen the james j. hill house, tours were mentioned as part of the winter carnival before. one building listed is actually in maplewood, but said st. paul, the county poor farm. it is part of the county complex that includes aldrich hockey arena, and the county fairgrounds. i think the barn is the actual site of the 'fright farm' haunted house i like going to each halloween. unfortunately it was where a reserve police officer was hit by a car last october. i happened to be in line for the haunted house when it happened, word was starting to spread at the time.
comes as no surprise, i did some more emerson hough research. first, actually, i did a cross-reference on the sierra club and the izaak walton league, as hough was a co-founder of ike's and the organizations are both about conservation. i found a page from midwest environmental advocates that spoke of the two groups suing jon de farm, inc. in wisconsin for feedlot runoff. it was a violation of the clean water act, and was in 2001 and 2002. another is more recent, from june 1. it was about first lady michelle obama expanding her campaign to combat childhood obesity. there was a coalition of organizations mentioned, announcing a partnership called outdoors alliance for kids (OAK). besides these two organizations, i noticed the YMCA was in the coalition as well. no doubt the 'y' is about physical fitness, and it was a place i went to often as a youngster in newton. they also sponsored many of the youth sporting programs i was in, like basketball and maybe even the little league. it was one of three public pools i knew of in newton, and the only indoor one, where the high school swim meets were held. the other two pools were the country club, where i've had a class reunion, and maytag pool, inside maytag park, where i had swimming lessons.
speaking of maytag park, i did some hough research that mentioned it. i had received hard copies of the newton football newsletter, but it is now online. i had heard of how football was played at emerson hough field, and there was mention of it in the newsletters. this was in the 1920s and 1930s, then the games were moved to the current site known as h.a. lynn field. the current field was a w.p.a. project, built in 1940. central junior high played games at emerson hough too, i recall my sister's yearbook from central with pictures about it, celebrating its final year, in 1983. my family had just moved to newton, and later that year it became the haunted house, as the city just looked for a different vacant property each year that was going to be demolished. i had wondered for a while why there were goal posts at the school grounds. anyway, before playing football at the school, there was mention of playing at the county fairgrounds. didn't know where that was, but according to the newsletter historian it now is maytag park. i have never attended the county fair, as it is not in newton despite being the county seat. i know maytag pool was dedicated in the 1930s, must have been when the county fair left town. why it left, i don't know. but the current stadium is near the park. made sense to hear how football was played there, as the texas state fair still has some football games, at the cotton bowl. and i have read the history of where n.f.l. games have been played, and it said the green bay packers had played some games at the wisconsin state fairgrounds in milwaukee. various events are held at county and state fairgrounds, like car races. those venues are often available for booking, since the fair is just a few days, or weeks, out of each year.
i did my best to cross reference hough with jack london, i had seen them mentioned together. apparently they held some of the same political views, which would now be called xenophobia. on the jack london wikipedia page, it mentioned he wrote of the 'yellow peril'- the chinese. and hough had written 'the web', listed as a reference for prison camps in world war I. i found an odd thing about unsolved or 'cold cases', something about jack london's home being destroyed by arson. need to read further about the connection with hough, must be a separate story in the same book. most likely it is a story about the murder of his friend, wild west lawman pat garrett. i also found an article about a book called 'tales of the seven seas'. it was about captain dynamite johnny o'brien. it said it inspired writers like london and hough, and the movie 'navigator' starring buster keaton. now i will need to look up captain dynamite as well.
there were two notable things i did before and after the movie earlier today. i had meant to get pictures of the hockey arena in st.paul, named for 'charlie brown' creator charles schulz. but i hardly ever am near it. i got one picture of the sign from the road, but the arena was locked so i was unable to get one of the snoopy statue inside. i had wondered if there was anything besides the name honoring schulz, and there was. i saw the snoopy statue after the maya angelou poetry reading at st. kate's college last month. i made sure to get the highland park water tower in the background of the picture, found out it is on the national register as well. after the movie i had dinner at a chicago-style sandwich shop, again one i had driven past before but hadn't stopped at. got a gyro there, and they helped me make a nice find, a 'simpsons' pinball machine! i played two games, it was 2 quarters a game but only needed one for the first game, kind of odd. and i heard homer's voice, 'keep it coming', when a second quarter was needed.
it proves one thing: if you search for something you want, you will find it. sometimes it takes a while, but i eventually get things crossed off my 'to do' list- or bucket list- as i try to stay aware of the opportunities, and how it means enough to be to accomplish it. i would much rather be a doer, and talk about the things i have done. earlier in my life, i had spent too much time around those who talk about wanting to do things but then they don't have the follow through to do them. it's no fun being around these kind of people, too many excuses. as my football coach said, excuses are.. for losers. he had us complete that line. it's all about priority, and credibility.
i checked the national register of historic places again, this time for ramsey county, minnesota, which includes the capital city of st. paul. as expected, there are plenty of places listed, and i have seen many of them. the capitol building is on it, as well as the hamm building downtown, where i have seen some plays. the hamm's brewery complex is there as well. with the hamm building i had taken a picture of the monument about the hamm's cartoon bear. sadly it looked too much like a tombstone. plenty of buildings in downtown st. paul are listed, such as churches, but also mickey's diner, where many movies have been filmed. i have eaten there, but it has been a little while. also seen the james j. hill house, tours were mentioned as part of the winter carnival before. one building listed is actually in maplewood, but said st. paul, the county poor farm. it is part of the county complex that includes aldrich hockey arena, and the county fairgrounds. i think the barn is the actual site of the 'fright farm' haunted house i like going to each halloween. unfortunately it was where a reserve police officer was hit by a car last october. i happened to be in line for the haunted house when it happened, word was starting to spread at the time.
comes as no surprise, i did some more emerson hough research. first, actually, i did a cross-reference on the sierra club and the izaak walton league, as hough was a co-founder of ike's and the organizations are both about conservation. i found a page from midwest environmental advocates that spoke of the two groups suing jon de farm, inc. in wisconsin for feedlot runoff. it was a violation of the clean water act, and was in 2001 and 2002. another is more recent, from june 1. it was about first lady michelle obama expanding her campaign to combat childhood obesity. there was a coalition of organizations mentioned, announcing a partnership called outdoors alliance for kids (OAK). besides these two organizations, i noticed the YMCA was in the coalition as well. no doubt the 'y' is about physical fitness, and it was a place i went to often as a youngster in newton. they also sponsored many of the youth sporting programs i was in, like basketball and maybe even the little league. it was one of three public pools i knew of in newton, and the only indoor one, where the high school swim meets were held. the other two pools were the country club, where i've had a class reunion, and maytag pool, inside maytag park, where i had swimming lessons.
speaking of maytag park, i did some hough research that mentioned it. i had received hard copies of the newton football newsletter, but it is now online. i had heard of how football was played at emerson hough field, and there was mention of it in the newsletters. this was in the 1920s and 1930s, then the games were moved to the current site known as h.a. lynn field. the current field was a w.p.a. project, built in 1940. central junior high played games at emerson hough too, i recall my sister's yearbook from central with pictures about it, celebrating its final year, in 1983. my family had just moved to newton, and later that year it became the haunted house, as the city just looked for a different vacant property each year that was going to be demolished. i had wondered for a while why there were goal posts at the school grounds. anyway, before playing football at the school, there was mention of playing at the county fairgrounds. didn't know where that was, but according to the newsletter historian it now is maytag park. i have never attended the county fair, as it is not in newton despite being the county seat. i know maytag pool was dedicated in the 1930s, must have been when the county fair left town. why it left, i don't know. but the current stadium is near the park. made sense to hear how football was played there, as the texas state fair still has some football games, at the cotton bowl. and i have read the history of where n.f.l. games have been played, and it said the green bay packers had played some games at the wisconsin state fairgrounds in milwaukee. various events are held at county and state fairgrounds, like car races. those venues are often available for booking, since the fair is just a few days, or weeks, out of each year.
i did my best to cross reference hough with jack london, i had seen them mentioned together. apparently they held some of the same political views, which would now be called xenophobia. on the jack london wikipedia page, it mentioned he wrote of the 'yellow peril'- the chinese. and hough had written 'the web', listed as a reference for prison camps in world war I. i found an odd thing about unsolved or 'cold cases', something about jack london's home being destroyed by arson. need to read further about the connection with hough, must be a separate story in the same book. most likely it is a story about the murder of his friend, wild west lawman pat garrett. i also found an article about a book called 'tales of the seven seas'. it was about captain dynamite johnny o'brien. it said it inspired writers like london and hough, and the movie 'navigator' starring buster keaton. now i will need to look up captain dynamite as well.
there were two notable things i did before and after the movie earlier today. i had meant to get pictures of the hockey arena in st.paul, named for 'charlie brown' creator charles schulz. but i hardly ever am near it. i got one picture of the sign from the road, but the arena was locked so i was unable to get one of the snoopy statue inside. i had wondered if there was anything besides the name honoring schulz, and there was. i saw the snoopy statue after the maya angelou poetry reading at st. kate's college last month. i made sure to get the highland park water tower in the background of the picture, found out it is on the national register as well. after the movie i had dinner at a chicago-style sandwich shop, again one i had driven past before but hadn't stopped at. got a gyro there, and they helped me make a nice find, a 'simpsons' pinball machine! i played two games, it was 2 quarters a game but only needed one for the first game, kind of odd. and i heard homer's voice, 'keep it coming', when a second quarter was needed.
it proves one thing: if you search for something you want, you will find it. sometimes it takes a while, but i eventually get things crossed off my 'to do' list- or bucket list- as i try to stay aware of the opportunities, and how it means enough to be to accomplish it. i would much rather be a doer, and talk about the things i have done. earlier in my life, i had spent too much time around those who talk about wanting to do things but then they don't have the follow through to do them. it's no fun being around these kind of people, too many excuses. as my football coach said, excuses are.. for losers. he had us complete that line. it's all about priority, and credibility.
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