Observation - February 11th, 2026, Wednesday

shuffling feet over the ice-slick walk

melting in the late winter thaw

 

warm in my layers of cotton and wool

sweating past the frozen lake

gray as the sky above

 

a lady’s dog wants to say hello

turkeys in the treetops, swinging low

On This Day - February 11th

On this day in the year 660 before the common era (BCE) the empire of Japan is founded by Jimmu; 2,549 years later, in the year 1889 of the common era (CE), Japan adopts the Meiji Constitution establishing a parliamentary government.

On this day in the year 385 CE, Siricius is elected as Bishop of Rome, he is the first to use the moniker of pope, or papa as head of the Catholic Church; his use of this title is contested by the bishops of Alexandria and Constantinople and the doctrine of Petrine Supremacy is asserted.

On this day in 1790 CE the Society of Friends petitions Congress for abolition of slavery; one hundred and seventy-one years later Robert Weaver is sworn in as Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, becoming the first African American to be appointed to a cabinet-level position in the United States. Fifteen years after that Clifford Alexander Jr is confirmed as first African American US Secretary of Army.

In 1808 CE, anthracite coal is first burned as fuel experimentally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; one year later American inventor Robert Fulton patents the steamboat.

In 1852 CE the first British public female toilet opens on Bedford Street in London, England; sixty-four years later Emma Goldman is arrested for lecturing on birth control. Seventy-three years after that, in 1989 CE, Barbara Harris is installed as the first female bishop of a United States Episcopal Church in the diocese of Boston, Massachusetts; four years later, United States president Bill Clinton selects Janet Reno to become the first female United States Attorney General.

In 1905 CE James Blackstone of Seattle, bowls 299½; the last pins breaks, the top half falls off but the bottom half remains standing, he is credited with half a point but denied a perfect game.

In 1949 CE the single Lovesick Blues is released by Hank Williams making it the Billboard Song of the Year; also on this day Willie Pep recaptures world featherweight boxing title; fifty-one years later, in a huge upset James "Buster" Douglas knocks out “Iron” Mike Tyson in the tenth round to win the world heavyweight boxing title in Tokyo Japan.

In 1963 CE American chef Julia Child's show The French Chef premieres on WGBH in Boston, Massachusets; one year later The Beatles make first concert appearance in the United States at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C..

In 1966 CE, San Francisco Giants outfielder Willie Mays signs baseball's highest contract to date, at $130,000 per year; five years later; the first Major League Baseball arbitration case begins with Minnesota Twins pitcher Dick Woodson seeking $29,000. The Twins offered $23,000…Dick Woodson wins. Fourteen years after Kent Hrbek signs a five-year, six-million-dollar contract, also with the Minnesota Twins.

In 1971 CE, the United States, United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and others sign the Seabed Arms Control Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor; sixteen years later the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1978 China lifts its ban on the works of Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens; one year later, Iran's Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar resigns after losing support of the military and the ayatollah Khomeini seizes power. Twelve years after that in 1990 CE, Nelson Mandela is released from prison after twenty-seven years; sixteen years later, United States vice president Dick Cheney accidentally shoots Harry Whittington in the face with a shotgun while on a quail hunt on a ranch in Riviera, Texas…Wittington survives.

In 1999 CE Pluto moves further away from the sun than Neptune in its orbit, regaining its status as the solar system's outermost planet; this title would have remained with Pluto for the following two hundred and twenty-eight years, but for the fact that in 2006 CE the Astronomical Union downgraded Pluto’s official status to “dwarf planet,” planetoid or planetesimal.

In 2016 CE astrophysicists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) announce their discovery gravitational-waves in the collision of two black holes.

 

 

Frank Herbert – Author, Intellectual, Hero

I had been an avid reader since I was eight years old; I was in the second grade when I began reading novels, and in short order I was reading books that filled me with inspiration; when I found them, I read them, over-and-over-and-over again. I read all kinds of things, including poetry and biographies, history and mythology, along with some pop-philosophy, but by the age of fifteen I still read mostly fiction. It was then, in 1984 that I first read Dune.

I had taken a copy from a carousel of paperbacks in the English Room at the alternative high-school I was attending. I read that copy, perhaps not as carefully as I should, but as carefully as I could, finding Dune to be somewhat dense, even challenging...though I enjoyed it well enough.

I went to see the motion picture when it came out later that school year, in the spring of 1985. Like so many others, I found David Lynch’s adaptation to be one of the worst movies ever made, and with that screening Dune passed from my thoughts for a time. However…in the summer of 1988 I was visiting a friend in Bigfork, Montana. I was in a bookstore looking for something to read on the bus ride back to Minneapolis. I picked up a copy of Dune, thinking to myself that I should read it again.

Four years had passed since my first go at it, in those years my understanding of the world had expanded; I was able to engage the book in a completely different way…and once I did I was hooked; I was nineteen years old and Dune had changed my life.

Since then, I have read it and the other five books in the original Dune series a total of eight times, as well as everything else Frank Herbert wrote…if I could find it in print.

Frank Herbert was a giant, he was among the foremost intellectuals of his era; I am deeply indebted to him for what he gave me: a profound hope for humanity, deeply rooted in his appreciation for the range of human potential.

I have given away dozens of copies of Dune throughout my life, and recommended it to more people than I can count…always with these words, which I share directly from my experience:

This book will change your life; many (not all) have told me that it had.

Frank Herbert wrote science fiction, but the science he wrote into his fiction had less to do with spaceships and laser beams (though it had those things), and more to do with the science of politics, religion, ecology and psychology…it was the multi-dimensional human-person that occupied his imagination.

Through his insight Herbert challenges the reader to explore what it means to be human. He asks open-ended questions about human potential, in a way that allows the reader to believe in those possibilities for themselves…his own view of humanity is both daunting and transformative.

He believed that we can do more, be more, see more of the world than our senses allow…if we are disciplined. He believed that if we are attentive to the world around us, and cultivate within ourselves the will to live a life without fear, we will secure a future for humanity beyond our solar system, we will spread throughout the galaxy…and beyond.

Frank Herbert died forty years ago today, in 1986. A heroic light left the world when he passed. The man is missed.