Measles

The recent outbreak of measles is frightening and so unnecessary. I am one of those people who get sick very easily, so often that I cringe when I hear someone cough in the next room.

I had measles during the last week of school a few months before my 7th birthday. I remember looking out my bedroom window on a cool June evening, watching my friends play, managing to get some of them to come and talk to me. My school prize that year was a small cedar box. I still have the box, and, almost seven decades later, it still has a faint odor of cedar, a smell that invariably transports me back to that awful time of sore eyes and throat, a bad cough, unpleasant salty taste in my mouth, and, of course, spots all over my body, giving me a hot and painful itch.

I had all what were then the usual childhood diseases. I was really sick with all of them and remember each episode in sometimes disgusting detail. I missed many weeks of school, especially in the elementary grades.

A few years ago I remember thinking how wonderful it is that children can be vaccinated against all the viruses that knocked me out all those years ago. While there may not be many deaths from measles, there are some, and infection sometimes results in lifelong disabilites, including blindness and deafness. Preventable. Yet another American tragedy.

Happy Valentine's Day 2025!

Flowers and cards. Bob's card was expensive, but he plans to change the date and use it next year. Mine, on the right, was made with card-making materials I always have on hand.

Valentine's Day is a Hallmark holiday, way too commercialized and frothy for my taste. Still, it's a mid-winter break I've enjoyed since I started making valentines as a craft-loving little girl. It was fun to exchange the sentimental, sometimes corny cards with classmates in my hometown of Temiscaming. We bought them at the drugstore, in thin packages or books of cut-outs,with little envelopes that didn't seal. My mother Mary Ryan, godmother Catherine Lynn,  neighbor Mamie Forde, Nana Mary Macpherson and Aunt Marie Macpherson all got the home-made ones, made with construction paper and decorated with bright glitter or sequins.

It's a day that always seems to take many men by surprise every year. The poor tortured schmucks wring their hands in the annual truggle to figure out the degree of friendship/love that should be expressed with some kind of card or gift. Many years ago I heard a  friend of my son say something like "Just send them flowers. Women love that sh-t!". The wisdom of that 25-year-old is something I thought of with a smile yesterday afternoon.

I had made Bob's card a few days earlier, but wasn't surprised when he suggested that I get myself some of the lovely flowers he had seen the day before at Hy-Vee, our usual market. There had been too much choice for such a daunting decision, and he figured I would have no trouble finding an acceptable bouquet. "And while you're at it, get yourself a nice card", echoing Christmas Vacation's Clark Griswold at the warehouse with Cousin Eddie, "And while you're at it, Clark, get yourself somethin' really nice".

It was a pleasant assignment. The roses were all beautiful, and I quiickly selected a dozen of pretty pink blooms with red edges. I did have a little trouble choosing a card, all of which seemed very expensive. I decided that I'd just spend the big bucks and re-purpose the lovely butterfly decoration on a future card creation. 

This morning, however, Bob looked at the price I'd paid ($12.50) and was impressed -- not in a good way. He got to work on the inside message, and took what seemed like a very long time. When he finally presented it to me, he warned me to be careful of the envelope, which had a lovely gold interior. I opened the card and read the sweet hand-written message. And then I started to laugh. He had written "February 14, 2025" on a small piece of paper taped to the inside of the card. He's saving the card, envelope, and clear plastic protective sleeve, ready for a change of date and re-use next year. I'm still laughing, and obviously that butterfly won't be mine to use anytime soon.

We're expecting snow today, so I'm excited to have a Lake Elmo Inn Event Center Valentine Box for two, for a great at-home dinner. We ordered one for New Year's Day last month, and enjoyed dinner for two or three days. The fruit makes an amazing breakfas, as delicious as the rest of the main courses, sides and dessert. Service Coordinator Amy Pearson is a super competent professional who makes the experience pleasant and troublefree from online order to pick-up. Yesterday temps were frigid but Amy was full of energy as she cheerfully packed our treats in the tailgate.

It's already a special day, mostly thanks to my in-house valentine. Bob and I often laugh so hard my sides hurt and I always look forward to the time we spend together. Happy Valentine's Day to him, and to all my family and friends. Sometimes love is all you need.

Trade Woes Threaten Wellbeing

I'm a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. I've been a student of business and politics all of my adult life, and in the 1990s wrote a number of position papers on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), passed in 1992 and replaced by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2020.

Free trade has always seemed like a good idea to me:  free trade benefits both consumers and businesses in Canada, the US and Mexico. A tariff is a tax, and it is NOT paid by the exporting country. The recent threat of retaliation by both Mexico and Canada is particularly frightening, This is a transcript of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's brilliant speech on Saturday, February 1:

"Tonight, first, I want to speak directly to Americans, our closest friends and neighbours. 

This is a choice that, yes, will harm Canadians, but beyond that, it will have real consequences for you, the American people, as I have consistently said, tariffs again against Canada will put your jobs at risk, potentially shutting down American auto assembly plants and other manufacturing facilities, they will raise costs for you, including food at the grocery stores and gas at the pump. 

They will impede your access to an affordable supply of vital goods crucial for us, security such as nickel, potash, uranium, steel and aluminum, they will violate the free trade agreement that the President and I, along with our Mexican partner, negotiated and signed a few years ago. 

But it doesn't have to be this way, as President John F Kennedy said many years ago, geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. 

That rang true for many decades prior to President Kennedy's time in office and in the decades since, from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar, we have fought and died alongside you during your darkest hours during the Iranian hostage crisis, those 444 days, we worked around the clock from our embassy to get your innocent compatriots home during the summer of 2005 when Hurricane Katrina ravaged your great city of New Orleans, or mere weeks ago, when we sent water bombers to tackle the wildfires in California and during the day, the world stood still, September 11, 2001 when we provided refuge to stranded passengers and planes, we were always there standing with you, grieving with you, the American people, together, we've built the most successful economic, military and security partnership the world has ever seen, a relationship that has been the envy of the world. 

Yes, we've had our differences in the past, but we've always found a way to get past them. As I've said before, if President Trump wants to usher in a new golden age for the United States, the better path is to partner with Canada, not to punish us. 

Canada has critical minerals, reliable and affordable energy, stable, democratic institutions, shared values and the natural resources you need. Canada has the ingredients necessary to build a booming and secure partnership for the North American economy and we stand at the ready to work together.

Let's take a moment to talk about our shared border. Our border is already safe and secure, but there's always, always more work to do. Less than one per cent of fentanyl, less than one per cent of illegal crossings into the United States come from Canada.

But hearing concerns from both Canadians and Americans, including the American President himself, we're taking action.

We launched a $1.3 billion border plan that is already showing results, because we too are devastated by the scourge that is fentanyl, a drug that has torn apart communities and caused so much pain and torment for countless families across Canada, just like in the United States, a drug that we too want to see wiped from the face of this earth, a drug whose traffickers must be punished as neighbors, we must work collaboratively to fix this. 

Unfortunately, the actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together.

Tonight, I am announcing Canada will be responding to the US trade action with 25 per cent tariffs against $155 billion worth of American goods.

This will include immediate tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods as of Tuesday, followed by further tariffs on $125 billion worth of American products in 21 days time to allow Canadian companies and supply chains to seek to find alternatives.

Our response will also be far reaching and include everyday items such as American beer, wine and bourbon, fruits and fruit juices, including Orange Juice, along with vegetables, perfume, clothing and shoes, it'll include major consumer products like household appliances, furniture and sports equipment and materials like lumber and plastics, along with much, much more. 

And as part of our response, we are considering with the provinces and territories, several non tariff measures, including some relating to critical minerals, energy procurement and other partnerships.

We will stand strong for Canada. We will stand strong to ensure our countries continue to be the best neighbors in the world. 

With all that said, I also want to speak directly to Canadians in this moment. I'm sure many of you are anxious, but I want you to know we are all in this together, the Canadian government, Canadian businesses, Canadian organized labor, Canadian civil society.

Canada's premiers and tens of millions of Canadians from coast to coast to coast are united. This is Team Canada at its best. 

I spoke with the President of Mexico. We committed to work together to face them down.

I have something to ask Canadians, to be in solidarity together. I ask you to be here for each other. 

Now is also the time to choose Canada. There are many ways for you to do your part. It might mean checking the labels at the supermarket and picking Canadian made products.

It might mean opting for Canadian rye over Kentucky bourbon, or foregoing Florida orange juice altogether.

It might mean changing your summer vacation plans to stay here in Canada and explore the many national provincial parks, historical sites and tourist destinations our great country has to offer. 

Support our manufacturers, our workers, entrepreneurs and artists. It might mean doing all of these things, or finding your own way to stand up for Canada in this moment, we must pull together, because we love this country. 

We pride ourselves on braving the cold during the long winter months. We don't like to beat our chests, but we're always out there waving the maple leaf loudly and proudly to celebrate an Olympic gold medal city.

Canada is home to bountiful resources, breathtaking beauty, the proud people who've come from every corner of the globe to forge a nation with a unique identity, with embracing and celebrating. 

We don't pretend to be perfect, but Canada is the best country on Earth. 

There's nowhere else that I and our 41 million strong family would rather be, and we will get through this challenge just as we've been done countless times before, together.

Thank you. Merci."