Odds and Ends — 7 May 2021

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Thrills and Spill in Decorah:

Yesterday, we visited Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum. Yes, we know how to have fun.

After Ireland, Norway is in second place on a per capital basis for most emigration to America in the 19th Century, with many of them settling in the Upper Midwest. Vesterheim has displays about the emigration process and examples of what they brought with them from the Old World to the New:


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A display about the 99th Infantry Battalion:


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The Vesterheim has a link from one of the anchor chains of the Blücher. My dad was then a 14-year-old Norwegian who witnessed the sinking of the Blücher. The next day, he and some friends swam out into the fjord and looked down at the ship. Like many of his generation, he didn’t talk much about the war years, but that’s one of the very few stories I heard from him.


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Wombat Falls Down Goes Boom:

For about a year I’ve sometimes felt light-headed after walking for a while and then stopping. Usually it passes in a few seconds. We walked over a bridge over the Upper Iowa River to have lunch. I stopped. And for the first time fell. Banged my elbow, shoulder, and head. A nurse who happened to be driving by saw me go down and stopped her car to look me over. Looks like I’ll live, no vision problems or nausea, telltale signs of serious head injuries. Seems that my elbow and shoulder took the brunt of the damage.

For dinner we ate at a Mexican restaurant that had yummy food at reasonable prices:


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Arizona’s Republican-Run Election Audit Is Now Looking for Bamboo-Laced “China Ballots”

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Badge thanks to @arcange



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