Still can't spell Fred's name . . .

It's Tiw's day . . . record low temperatures for this time of year are in tonight's forecasts for TulseyTown...

Words give us something to argue about, while nature can only be experienced. – Fr. Richard Rohr in today's Mediations at CAC.

Today, our compatriot Canadians continue to celebrate their Thanksgiving.

The poet E.E. Cummings was born on this date in 1894 Cambridge, Massachusetts, as was short-story writer Katherine Mansfield. The author of The Garden Party was born in 1888 Wellington, New Zealand.

The week ahead: mixed darkening clouds with some sun. From Joyce Vance's “The Week Ahead,” in Civil Discourse.

Experiencing a bit of overwhelm from the message assaults spewing like cannon-fodder this campaign season? Try this breather of a webinar from The Lenz Foundation.

I'm old enough to remember Robert Trout, who was born on this date in 1909. He and Edward R. Murrow were my role-model-heroes from my radio days. But not old enough to have encountered (beyond the words) Friedrich Nietzsche. One of the world's most influential philosophers – to this day – was born in 1844 Röcken, Saxony, Prussia [Germany].

Spelling Nietzche

I was born in the middle of the war,

to end all wars they said. That may be

why I was never introduced to Nietzsche.

Three other reasons have come to mind

since those halcyon days. First, he was

German and to my Air Corps uncle

and his sister, my mother, nothing good

could possibly come from a place filled

with krauts, jerrys or Fritz's

(notwithstanding Einstein, Beethoven,

Mahler, Sylvia Plath, Rilke, Kraftwerk,

the Alps, Pilsner, or the Black Forest).

Second, if there was any reason to refer

to him, his name was hard to pronounce

let alone, third, spell

particularly if you lived in Oklahoma.

For most of my life, all I knew of Nietzche

was that he wrote a famous book

which became the title of a famous piece

of music written by another famous German,

the opening of which became the theme

for the famous movie 2001: A Space Odyssey,

directed by a famous guy named Kubrick

who wasn't even German.

I learned to pronounce Nietzche

in freshman university philosophy

where I discovered what would become

in these much later years of my life

the only mantra that matters:

What is done out of love

always takes place beyond good and evil.

I still struggle with spelling Fred's last name.

— jab