A TANK AWAY FROM TOLEDO, CHICAGO OR COLUMBUS
Grand Rapids “western Michigan’s cultural epicenter” September 27-30, 2009
Song, dance, performance and art meet as 1262 artists from 15 countries compete for $450,000 in ArtPrize running from September 23 to October 10 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There are 159 venues including the Grand River itself, parks, bridges, businesses, and galleries within a 3-square-mile zone. An Art Tram transports people around the zone. We arrived on a balmy Sunday and joined throngs of excited people. Three downtown hotels provided 20% off coupons for breakfast, lunch or dinner at their restaurants. During our holiday, we ate at Bistro Bella Vita (as we watched the circus haul away their things), The 1913 Room at Pantlind Hotel (now part of Amway Grand Plaza Hotel), Schnitz Deli and Bull’s Head Tavern.

We saw Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park meijergardens.org
Great Lakes water garden (the Great Lakes, if spread out over the continental United States, would be almost ten feet deep)
The American Horse, 24-foot sculpture inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s model that was destroyed in 1499 when French troops invaded Milan. http://www.mlive.com/cadenceadvance/index.ssf/2009/09/dedication_features_sculptor_n.html
Grand Rapids Arch made of Scottish sandstone http://theworldinlight.com/thumbnails/frederik-meijer-gardens.html

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum fordlibrarymuseum.gov
Under Ford’s tenure, the United States signed the Helsinki Accord, withdrew from Vietnam after a 30-year presence, and observed the bicentennial. President Ford had the Michigan fight song played rather than “Hail to the Chief” and referred to the White House as a residence rather than an executive mansion.

Grand Rapids Art Museum gramonline.org.
Grand Rapids Public Museum http://www.grmuseum.org/ and
Grand Rapids Public Library http://www.grpl.org/
Coming: Celebration of the Book Saturday, October 17, 2009 http://www.grpl.org/cotb/

expediency (ek-SPEE-dee-uhn-see) noun
1. consideration of what is advantageous or easy or immediate over what is right
2. the quality of being suited for a purpose
From Latin expedire (to make ready, to set the feet free), from ex- (out of) + ped- (foot). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ped- (foot) which gave us peccadillo (alluding to a stumble or fall), pedal, impeccable, podium, octopus, and impeach.
mortmain (MOHRT-mayn) noun
1. the perpetual ownership of property by institutions such as churches
2. te often stifling influence of the past on the present and the living
From Anglo-Norman mortmayn, feminine of morte (dead) + main (hand), from Latin mortua manus (dead hand). Ultimately from the Indo-European root man- (hand) that's also the source of manage, maintain, maneuver, manufacture, manuscript, and command.
Notes: Imagine a B-movie scene of a dead hand stretching out of a grave and you have the picture of the word mortmain. The idea behind mortmain is of a dead hand reaching beyond to hold a property in perpetuity. By extension, the word describes the past dictating the present in an oppressive manner. Unlike the passing of an asset to a child on the death of a parent, institutions such as churches hold property forever. Over time, through donations, etc., they can acquire a large amount of real estate which cannot be distributed or revert to the crown. Also, in such cases there is a loss of revenue from inheritance tax. The English King Edward I passed the Statutes of Mortmain in 1279 and again in 1290 to limit such holding of property in perpetuity without royal authorization. A.Word.A.Day

The novel Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is based on historical accounts of two cattlemen from Texas, who set out on a cattle drive to Montana. Augustus McCrae patterned after Oliver Loving and Woodrow F. Call after Charles Goodnight. The movie Lonesome Dove also is based on these men lives. Charles Goodnight would be the patron saint of all cowboys as he developed the cattle industry as it stands today. After the Civil War, Goodnight joined up with Oliver Loving to move cattle from Fort Belknap, Texas to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in what became known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail. It was during this time, that Charles would invent the chuck wagon when he rebuilt an army surplus Studebaker wagon for more practical use on a long cattle drive. In 1871, Goodnight joined up with John Chisum and extended the trail from New Mexico to Colorado, and eventually to Wyoming. In 1876, Goodnight founded what was to become the JA Ranch in Palo Duro Canyon. Partnering with John Adair, the ranch would wind up encompassing nearly a million acres, where they maintained a herd of about 100,000 head of cattle, as well as preserving a herd of bison, which continues to survive today. Foreseeing the end of the open range, Goodnight ended his association with Adair and the JA Ranch in 1889 and bought his own ranch at what would become the village of Goodnight, exas . Here, he was reportedly the first Panhandle rancher to build fences of barbed wire. Throughout the following years, Goodnight dabbled in a number of other endeavors, establishing the Goodnight College in Armstrong County, Texas , as well as working as a newspaperman and banker. http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM5KPM

We are tempted to think that our present generation is superior to others. We judge past practices as barbaric, and congratulate ourselves on being civilized. We consider ourselves sophisticated rather than primitive, and fail to see that we share with past generations the same mixture of cruelty, kindness, wisdom and foolishness.
Thomas H. Troeger The American Organist magazine October 2009 (paraphrased excerpts)

Theories of the etymology of sincere
The most logical attributes the genesis of the word to the Latin sincerus, meaning "pure" or "clean"; but, many etymologists state that sincere is a compounding of sine cera, which means "without wax". According to this "folk etymology", in the time of the ancient Romans, devious dealers in marble and pottery would conceal defects in their products by filling the cracks and holes with wax. This sneaky trick (rubbing wax into the cracks of marble works) came to the attention of the Roman Senate, which passed a law stating that all marble purchased by the government must be sine cera, "without wax". From this law and this root, comes our modern word sincere, which means "without deceit". The present belief is that the Latin sincerus, which became sincere in English, came from sine, "without", and some lost word that was akin to caries, "decay". http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/3846

See picture of The Art Tatum Memorial Celebration Column by Californian Cork Marcheschi near the north entrance of the Lucas County Arena near Madison Avenue in Toledo, and see descriptions of all three major art works: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090928/SPORTS10/309289995/-1/RSS03

On October 2, 1997, European Union delegates signed the Amsterdam Treaty, which broadened the scope of the international organization. It amended previous EU treaties to expand the power of the EU Parliament, start the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and prepare for the influx of post-Communist countries in Eastern Europe.
Learn more about the Amsterdam Treaty. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/thisday/
October 2 is the birthday of Wallace Stevens, (books by this author) born in Reading, Pennsylvania (1879). He wanted to be a journalist, but after a couple years of writing for a New York paper, he decided that he would fulfill his father's desires and go to law school. After graduating, he took a job with the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, where he was in charge of inspecting surety claims. He would remain at the job for the rest of his life. Each day, he walked the two miles between his office and upper-middle class home, where he lived with his wife and daughter, and during these walks to and from work, he composed poetry. He would only let people walk with him if they didn't talk. He claimed that "poetry and surety claims aren't as unlikely a combination as they may seem. There's nothing perfunctory about them for each case is different." His first collection of poems, Harmonium, was published when he was 43 years old. The Writer’s Almanac
On October 2, Google has decorated its home page with a sketch of Mahatma Gandhi, who was born 140 years ago. His face is being used in place of the initial letter "G" of the website's onscreen name, making him one of a small number of people who have been given such prominence on the site's search page. Gandhi's birthday, October 2, is marked as a national holiday in India. Born in 1869, Gandhi insisted that non-violent civil disobedience was the best way to achieve change, and led nationwide campaigns in India—then under British rule—to achieve independence.
Previous people featured in Google's doodle include Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Confucius, Luciano Pavarotti, Dr Seuss, Andy Warhol, Claude Money, Louis Braille, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh—and, posthumously, Michael Jackson. The doodles are overseen by Dennis Hwang, who joined the company in 2000 and has gradually been using the logo to remind people of particular dates or events.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/02/gandhi-google-doodle-logo