outbreak | Field 2 Field

July 15, 2023

Exploring Tangletown and the Washburn Water Tower

Exploring never gets old for me. It was Saturday afternoon and time to get out of the house. Making my way through the smoke from Canada’s wildfires and the really strange streets of the Tangletown neighborhood in Minneapolis, it was time to find the Washburn Water Tower.

The first observation was Tangletown is the right name for that neighborhood. Whoever put those streets together maybe had one too many drinks with dinner. Nonetheless, it was time to find the tower, and for a good reason.

It looked like a structure you’d see somewhere near a castle in any one of the Lord of the Rings movies. But let’s delve into a bit of history first.

The 110-foot concrete cylinder was constructed in 1932 and sits at the top of a hill in Tangletown. A book titled “Secret Twin Cities, a Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure” was the perfect exploring manual. It points out that if you aren’t within a block of the structure, you’ll never see the tower because it’s hidden by a combo of dense residential areas and tall trees.

Look at how intricate that carving is! (Photo by Chad Smith)

The reason for preserving the old structure was the intricate details builders put into constructing the tower, which is no longer used to supply water. Encircling the top of the tower are eight-foot tall, five-ton eagles with spread wings that look ready for takeoff.

A bit further down the cylinder, it looks like knights are standing guard outside the walls of a castle. Closer to the base are 18-foot tall, eight-ton “guardians of health” holding a perpetual vigil with swords. At a time when Minnesota was in the middle of a deadly typhoid outbreak, the guardians were symbolic protectors of a clean water supply.

The tower had a capacity of 1.35 million gallons of water, which it faithfully supplied to the neighborhood until the 1990s. Three men from the neighborhood designed and engineered the structure John Daniels was the sculptor, William Hewitt was the project engineer, and Harry Wild Jones was the lead architect.

Get out and get to exploring. The massive medieval tower is located at 401 Prospect Avenue in Minneapolis, and there’s no charge to get up close and personal with the “tower guards.”

“The Eagles have landed!” (In my best Merry and Pippin voice from LOTR!

March 19, 2020March 19, 2020

Spring sports in Minnesota on hold, for now

Here’s the complete conversation with John Loney, Rushford-Peterson High School Athletic Director, looking ahead to the possibility of spring sports. No question, there’s a lot of uncertainty right now.

Spring sports in Minnesota have been put on hold, just as many other sectors of the state have, due to the coronavirus. Just as spring sports athletes across the state were getting underway with practices they’ll have to take a short break. The Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) suspended all activities between Wednesday, March 18, through Friday, March 27.

Because of the Emergency Executive Order signed on March 15 by Governor Tim Walz, there will be no MSHSL activities and athletics at any of the member schools. That includes training, practices, scrimmages, and contests. Rushford-Peterson Athletic Director John Loney says students won’t have any organized practices with coaches after Tuesday, March 17.

“As of right now, we’re scheduled to return to school on March 30,” he said. The activities association says we can resume spring sports on April 6. I’m sure they’ll be gathering information and monitoring the situation leading up to that date.

“The one thing we have going for us here is the spring activities we offer are all outside,” Loney added. “They are also not quite as physical as basketball and football, where kids spend a lot of time running into each other.”

Loney is concerned about the fact that the recommended number of people in group settings keeps getting smaller to help control the spread of coronavirus, which could be a challenge for getting spring sports contests going once school resumes. Loney is still hoping to get at least some games in so the seniors can end their high school years on a positive note.

February 27, 2020February 27, 2020

Blogging: There’s so many things to talk about!

Blogging. What’s it all about? Every time I sit down to write a blog post, I freeze. Writer’s block is not something that happens to me very often, but in this case, I’m not sure what’s interesting enough in my life and the lives of others around me to write about.

Blogging about sports is a good place to start. Watching the Timberwolves play the Miami Heat and realizing just what a dull and uninteresting franchise they are. Notice I didn’t use the words “professional sports” in front of the word “franchise.” I’m honestly not sure they qualify. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a team revamp virtually their entire roster and not reap any kind of rewards.

I suppose I need to give them time. We’ve already given them decades and gotten a couple of good seasons for all of our patience. Where have you gone, KG? Can I ask an honest question? As good as the big KAT is, IS he the right guy to lead this franchise into the future? Fantastic offensive talent. Lousy and disinterested on the defensive end. This is a team that cannot play a lick of defense. Great to score 137 points, unless you give up 140 to the opposition. It’s still a loss.

The NFL Combine is in full swing and I couldn’t be more blasé to the whole thing. Why am I so uninspired about the Vikings and their potential future draft choices? What direction is this franchise going in and how are they going to disappoint their fans next? I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I think it bears repeating; WHY do you want to be a running team first and spend so damn much on a quarterback and two wide receivers? I’m getting a bit of a mixed message here.

By the way, isn’t the NFL a passing league now? And if that’s the case, does Zimmer’s insistence on running the ball mean the game has passed him by a little bit? Not saying it has or it hasn’t. Just reading the tea leaves here.

On to other topics. What’s up with the coronavirus outbreak? Have you seen the hysteria surrounding the “Pandemic?” I’ve been looking behind the headlines and am finding out that the coronavirus fatality rate appears to be three percent. My South Dakota/Minnesota math tells me that 97 percent of the people who are infected appear to actually survive? If that is the case, WHY are we hearing about a “global epidemic” in every major news outlet, making it sound like the second coming of the plague? What don’t I know about this?

Why am I still on social media? I was just perusing a short time ago and couldn’t believe how much the current president is being skewered over the coronavirus. And before you get snippy, I didn’t vote for him. If I blamed presidents I didn’t vote for as much as the current political left does, NOTHING would get done. Ever. Didn’t vote for Clinton either. I’d give my kingdom for a reliable third-party candidate or possibly a middle-of-the-road Democrat. The current list of Democratic presidential candidates are all bat-crap crazy. Not sure the incumbent is a great option either.

I really enjoyed social media when it was first ramping up. After all, I’d just left full-time media for the first time in my adult life and it was my only outlet to keep doing what I loved. I really don’t enjoy it much anymore. Have we as a society ALWAYS been this spiteful and vindictive? Is social media just a convenient outlet for all that vitriol we’ve been saving up? Frankly, the behavior of grown adults on social media is the same thing we all remember growing up during the turbulent teenage years.

Well, there you go. Almost 700 words later and I guess the writer’s block is gone? I do welcome comments when I’m done blogging. You don’t have to agree with me. Just don’t be a jerk about it. Let’s be adults and educate each other about the things we don’t know. Be willing to listen to other people’s point of view once in a while. You and I both might learn something. Think I’ll try this blogging thing again really soon.

February 2, 2020February 2, 2020

Coronavirus and Possible Effects on Commodity Markets

Coronavirus. As it continues to make headlines, commodity experts are wondering what kind of effect the spread of the virus will have on markets. Joe Vaclavik, President of Standard Grains in Chicago, says the outbreak will have some effect, but it’s hard to tell what kind or for how long.

“It’s not a positive. I don’t know that it’s the biggest negative in the world. It could be, and that’s why you’re seeing liquidation in some of these markets, like the stock market, and that’s why you’re seeing the grain markets soften up. Nobody wants to be long in this stuff. The Coronavirus probably goes the way of SARS, or some of these other similar types of outbreaks that we’ve last a month, maybe two months, maybe the better part of a year. Then, it probably makes its way out of the headline.”

He says the possibility of a significant impact on markets has likely grown over the past couple of weeks.

“There’s always that risk that it turns into something much bigger. It could eventually disrupt the flow of trade. Maybe there’s a country out there that decides to throw up trade barriers and says ‘hey, we don’t want corn from the U.S. because they’ve got too much of that virus going around. There’s always that sort of risk on the table.”

Mike Zuzolo, President of Global Commodity Analytics in Kansas, says the virus will likely have a significant impact on China’s poultry flocks. Separate reports have millions of chickens “on the edge of death.” But they aren’t necessarily sick with Coronavirus.

“Animal feed suppliers cannot get their shipments through, raw materials can’t get through, and this also corresponds with another article from the South China Morning Post that said hedging is not being done, soy meal is not being hedged, so soybeans are not being bought. I think what you’re looking at is probably pent-up demand for the livestock industry and that 300-million chickens die because of not being fed because of Coronavirus. That number of pounds of protein, you’re going to have to replace, eventually.”

There is a long-term buying potential for commodities, but only if the virus outbreak doesn’t last longer than reports are suggesting.

“If China and the scientists are correct and we see a peak in the maximum pressure of this virus, outbreaks of this virus, and, in the next 7-10 days, the price action we’re seeing right now will not last. It will set up a long-term buying potential for commodities.”

Again, that’s Mike Zuzolo of Global Commodity Analytics, as well as Joe Vaclavik of Standard Grains.