Mom's first long-distance phone call

When I was five, my parents took me to the 1939 World's Fair in New York City's Flushing Meadows where the UN is now. They photographed me on a scaled down model of the perisphere, one of the fair's icons. I remember that because I saw the picture frequently as a I grew up. The only event I remember without the aid of a picture is the announcement on the fair's public address system that my mother had won a free telephone call to anywhere in the USA. We were ushered to the Bell Lab exhibition building and into a glass enclosed cubicle containing a desk and a telephone. She called her mother in Detroit Lakes Minnesota. The conversation was broadcast live throughout the fair's P.A. and because grandma was on a rural party line, a number of Becker County families listened in too.

Books I liked the most in 2010

My reading habits have changed considerably in this first full year of retirement. Of the 10 books I liked the most, only one relates to my pre-retirement teaching discipline.  In no special order: 

The Four Stages of Cruelty by Keith Hollihan
North Country: The Making of Minnesota by Mary Lethert Wingerd
After by Jane Hirshfield
Omega Point by Don Delilo
Wandering Stars by Sholem Aleichem
Crazy Horse by Larry McMurtry
Out Stealing Horses: A Novel by Per Petterson
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Man Who Stopped Time by Brian Clegg
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

Tom & me

Tom & me, originally uploaded by TedSher.

Tree swing on the Beaver Island trail

Sunday on the Beaver Island trail, originally uploaded by TedSher.

true grit

true grit, originally uploaded by TedSher.

Window for Malevich

Window for Malevich, originally uploaded by TedSher.