November

Dear George, 

November is such a momentous month.  The end of the warm season, the start of the cold, a period of major transition.  As a kid on the Menominee River, our grass had stopped growing by November, and my irksome lawn-mowing task came to its end.  My dad’s birthday was on November 5th, but he said that birthdays were for kids and not to get him a present.  (I did anyway, using most of my 25 cent allowance.)  We hauled the green rowboat out of the river and stored it upside down on two wooden horses near the birch grove.  My dad and I installed the insulated panels in our high ceilinged living room, and we cleaned the fallen oak leaves out of the gutters on our roof.  My mother got our winter clothes out: coats, knit caps, scarves, mittens, corduroy trousers, warm socks, rubber boots.  Steven and I had endless acorn fights on the front lawn, dodging behind the trees.  

We got our first big snowfall of the year in November though the river hadn’t yet frozen over.  If we were lucky we might get two or three snow days off from school since Riverside Boulevard with its three or four families had lowest priority for the county’s plow trucks.  At my grandfather’s insistence, I joined the Washington Grade School basketball team in the November  of my sixth grade year, beginning an obsession with basketball that lasted for a decade or more.  Steve and I set up a portable desk lamp outside the garage so we could practice at night, even when the driveway was coated with ice.  

Sixth graders at Washington School did a Thanksgiving play for the P.T.A., and my mother made a big Thanksgiving dinner for the family: turkey and stuffing, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, and Schaum Torte for dessert.  The biggest local event of the year occurred in late November:  the M&M football game between the Menominee Maroons and the Marinette Marines, the oldest public high school rivalry in the country.  As teens we were cautioned not to drive across the river to Marinette during M&M week because they’d vandalize our cars or worse.   

When I turned sixteen the fathers in my parents’ group took their oldest sons, including Frank St. Peter, Skipper Burke, Bill Caley, and myself, to Jean Worth’s Cedar River camp during deer hunting season.  It was an exciting rite of passage, though nobody spotted a deer.  My November memories after turning eighteen and leaving Menominee are blurrier because I became less in touch with nature and the out of doors.  However, I have a vivid recollection of newlyweds Katja and I voting in Ann Arbor for John F. Kennedy in our first election in November 1960.  Now, of course, another huge presidential election is imminent.  Here are a few other November items of interest.

Love,

Dave 

NOVEMBER QUOTES:

"November always seemed to me the Norway of the year.”  (Emily Dickinson) 

“It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.”  (Maggie Stiefvater)

“And we will serenade and make love to the passion of November!”   (Avijeet Das) 

“The house was very quiet, and the fog—we are in November now—pressed against the windows like an excluded ghost.”  (E.M. Forster) 

“November at its best - with a sort of delightful menace in the air.”  (Anne Bosworth Greene) 

“Yes. Not winter, not fall. I’ve always liked November in Corot country.”  (André Aciman)

"The gloomy months of November, when the people of England hang and drown themselves.”  (Joseph Addison) 

 “Welcome sweet November, the season of senses and my favorite month of all.”  (Gregory F. Lenz)   (4, 6) 

NOVEMBER WEATHER IN SELECTED PLACES: 

Menominee, MI:  ave. hi, 41; ave low, 26; 2.7 in. rain; 5.3 in. snow; 37% sunny

Seattle, WA:    ave. hi, 51; ave low, 39; 5.4 in. rain; 1.5 in. snow; 22% sunny

Cincinnati, OH: ave. hi, 53; ave low, 35; 3.7 in. rain; 2.0 in. snow; 35% sunny 

Princeton, NJ:  ave. hi, 53; ave low, 35; 3.8 in. rain; 1.0 in. snow; 50% sunny 

New York, NY:   ave. hi, 54; ave low, 40; 3.9 in. rain; 1.0 in. snow; 52% sunny 

Sacramento, CA: ave. hi, 64; ave low, 43; 2.5 in. rain; 0.0 in. snow; 65% sunny

Santa Cruz, CA: ave. hi, 65; ave low, 42; 4.5 in. rain; 0.0 in. snow; 65% sunny  

New Orleans LA: ave. hi, 71; ave low, 51; 4.8 in. rain; 0.0 in. snow; 53% sunny 

(3)

NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS 

Some of my favorite people born in November include:  Winston Churchill (11/30/1874); Rene Magritte (11/21/1898); Roy Rogers (11/5/1911); Hedy Lamarr (11/9/1914); Robert F. Kennedy (11/20/25); Grace Kelly (11/12/29); Joe Biden (11/20/42); Billie Jean King (11/22/43); Goldie Hawn (11/21/45); Mandy Patinkin (11/30/52); Howie Mandel 11/29/55); Scarlet Johannson (11/22/64)  (13) 

CURIOUS NOVEMBER FACTS:

Anglo-Saxons called November “Blotmonath” (“Blood month”) after the blood of slaughtered animals.  (9)  

In Finland November is called “marraskuu”, meaning “month of the dead.”  (10) 

November is called “ngeyeNkanga” in Xhosa, meaning “month of the small yellow daisies”.  (10) 

November’s full Moon is traditionally called the Beaver Moon.  In the Colonial Era, this was the month in which to set one’s beaver traps before the swamps froze over to ensure a supply of warm winter furs.  (1)

More serial killers have been born in November than any other month.  (2) 

Shakespeare did not mention the month of November in any of his 37 plays and 154 sonnets.  (9) 

More Spaniards tweet “Te Amo” (“I love you”) in November than in any other month.  (9) 

In recent years November has been renamed “Movember”, a time when men grow mustaches for charitable causes.  (12) 

If you were born in the middle of November there’s a good chance you were conceived on Valentine’s Day.  (12) 

Plumbers receive more calls the day after Thanksgiving than any other day of the year.  (5) 

SOURCES:

(1) almanac.com, “The Month of November 2020”; 

(2) cashkaro.com, “7 Interesting Facts About November…”; 

(3) citydata.com, “Menominee MI”, etc.; 

(4) egreenway.com, “November”; 

(5) good housekeeping.com, “10 Fascinating Facts About November Babies”; 

(6) goodreads.com, “November Quotes”; 

(7) greenblue.org, “Top Five Fun Facts” November”; 

(8) history.com, “Thanksgiving Trivia”; 

(9) nobelcom.com, “Fun Facts about the Month of November”; 

(10) popculturemadness.com, “November History, Trivia, And Fun Facts”; 

(11) projectbritain.com, “Facts about November”; 

(12) seaside magazine.ca, “This Month in History: A Little November Trivia…”; 

(13) thefamouspeople.com “Famous People Born In November”; 

(14) wikipedia.org, “November”; 

The Battleground Picture

Dear George,

Fifteen days to go.  That’s so hard to believe.  Joe Biden has a sizable lead in the national polls, but, as you know, that doesn’t mean much.  Because the election will be decided in the Electoral College, it’s really the outcomes in the battleground states with their close races that matter.  The table below, taken today from the sources listed at the end, show state-by-state 2016 Clinton-Trump election results and 2020 recent polling results for Biden and Trump.  They are ordered by the margin of difference in the 2020 polls.  The 2016 state election winner and the 2020 polling leader are highlighted in bold print.     

Michigan (2016)          Michigan (2020) 

Clinton      47.3%       Biden         50.2%

Trump        47.6%       Trump         42.6%

Difference   -0.3%       Difference    +7.6%

Wisconsin (2016)         Wisconsin (2020) 

Clinton      46.9%       Biden         50.6%

Trump        47.9%       Trump         43.5%

Difference   -0.8%       Difference    +7.1%

Pennsylvania (2016)      Pennsylvania (2020)

Clinton      47.6%       Biden         50.3%

Trump        48.8%       Trump         44.2%

Difference   -1.2%       Difference    +6.1%

North Carolina (2016     North Carolina (2020) 

Clinton      46.7%       Biden         49.3%

Trump        50.5%       Trump         45.6%

Difference   -3.8%       Difference    +3.7%

Arizona (2016)           Arizona (2020) 

Clinton      45.4%       Biden         48.4%

Trump        49.5%       Trump         44.8%

Difference   -4.1%       Difference    +3.6%

Florida (2016)           Florida (2020) 

Clinton      47.8%       Biden         49.0%

Trump        49.1%       Trump         46.7%

Difference   -1.3%       Difference    +2.3%

Georgia (2016)           Georgia (2020) 

Clinton      45.6%       Biden         47.8%

Trump        51.3%       Trump         46.6%

Difference   -5.7%       Difference    +1.2%  

Iowa (2016)              Iowa (2020) 

Clinton      42.2%       Biden         47.3%

Trump        51.8%       Trump         48.5%

Difference   -9.6%       Difference    -1.2%

Ohio (2016)              Ohio (2020) 

Clinton      43.5%       Biden         46.1%

Trump        52.1%       Trump         47.8%

Difference   -8.6%       Difference    -1.7%

Texas (2016)             Texas (2020) 

Clinton      43.4%       Biden         49.2%

Trump        52.6%       Trump         44.8%

Difference   -9.2%       Difference    -4.4% 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

National (2016)          National (2020) 

Clinton      48.2%       Biden         52.4%

Trump        46.1%       Trump         41.6%

Difference   +2.1%       Difference   +10.8%

As is shown in the table, Trump won in 10 of the 10 battleground states in 2016, although he had less of the popular vote nationally than did Clinton. Recent battleground state polls indicate that voters have moved toward the Democratic candidate in all of these states.  Biden leads in 7 of the 10 states, decisively in several cases.   

These results, of course, provide a very positive picture for Biden and supporters.  If the current poll results hold up on Nov. 3, Biden will be the winner by a large margin.  On the other hand, many commentators point out that Hillary Clinton led decisively in the pools throughout the entire 2016 election campaign, yet lost in the electoral college.  Trump supporters were apparently under-counted during the 2016 campaign, and current polls may be over-counting support for Biden.

I was positive that the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers would crush the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tom Brady last Sunday.  The Packers, to our sorrow, lost 38-10.  I’m not making any predictions about anything else.

Love,

Dave  

SOURCES: 

270towin.com, “2020  Presidential Election Polls”; accessed Oct. 19, 2020;  

cbsnews.com, “Battleground Tracker,” Oct. 18, 2020; 

politico.com, “2016 Presidential Election”, Dec. 13, 2016; 

realclearpolitics.com, “Key 2020 Races”, Oct. 19, 2020; 

the guardian.com, “US election polls tracker,” Oct. 19, 2020; 

Found Money

Dear George, 

Yesterday Iko and I took Katja to the Blue Ash Nail Salon to get her nails done.  As we took our walk around the strip mall parking lot, what did I run across on the ground but a twenty dollar bill.  Needless to say, this made my day.  I don’t plan to spend the twenty dollars, at least not in the near future.  Rather I added it to my collection of “found money” that I keep under a magnet on my file cabinet. 

For many years I’ve collected a lot of paper ephemera: antique postcards, old photos, prayer cards, rock and roll promotion photos, calendar pics, greeting cards, etc.  My favorite collection, though, is paper money.  I got interested in pursuing this from my son J when he was 5 or 6 years old.  We usually went as a family to do our grocery shopping at Keller’s Market, and, each time we left the store, J showed me the money that he’d found on the floor,  He never failed to find some cash.  Sometimes just a single coin, but more often two or three or four.  J said that he found all that money because he was just a kid and consequently closer to the floor than were the adults.  Eventually I figured out that he was finding the money by crawling underneath the checkout counter where the cashiers didn’t bother picking up dropped change until the end of the day.  In any case, J taught me that it was a good idea to keep an eye on the ground because you never know what you’ll come up with.  That was 45 years ago, and I’ve been keeping my eye out for money ever since.  Here is what my collection looks like to date:  

Twenty dollar bills, of course, are exciting.  My best find, though, is the two dollar bill at the middle of the array.  If you set out with the goal of finding a two dollar bill on the street, I think it would take you at least a hundred years.  Probably more like five hundred or a thousand.   Generally, finding lost money is not a project that is conducive to intentional action.  It would be very frustrating if you set out in the morning to find some money on the ground (mainly because it takes forever).  Although I’m very pleased with my collection.  my best estimate is that I’ve found one bill about every one or two years at best.  Give my long-term efforts, I have seventy-five dollars so far.  My aim is to reach a hundred dollars.  Then I will give the money to my grandchildren as a present (which hopefully they will use to start their own collections).  However, I’d better start walking about two or three times as much as I currently do if I have any hope of reaching this goal.

Love,

Dave