Harley L. Sachs

Features Harley L. Sachs Do you really know the meaning of Chanukah? Chanukah is a holiday celebrated by Jews near the winter solstice and as such falls among other solstice holidays. Until the twentieth century in the United States, Chanukah was considered a minor holiday hardly observed until it was emphasized in the light of competition from Christmas. But except for being a Jewish holiday, there are important historical reasons why Christians as well as Jews should celebrate it.
The old Jewish joke states that all Jewish holidays boil down to one statement: “They tried to kill us; we won; let’s eat.” In the case of Chanukah, the enemy was Antiochus IV Epiphanes who tried to wipe out the Jewish religion and convert all Jews to Hellenism, the worship of Zeus.
The Jews revolted, won in 164 BC, and today they celebrate by eating potato pancakes (latkes) and jelly donuts. That’s the “let’s eat” part of the story.
The encyclopedia Britannica says of Chanukah, “a Jewish observance commemorating the rededication (164 BC) of the Second Temple of Jerusalem after its desecration three years earlier by order of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The Syrian king was thus frustrated in his attempt to extirpate the Jewish faith.”

Features Harley L. Sachs Many people buy an SUV for that macho feeling of power and superiority over those measly little cars that resemble a bar of soap. They’ve been sold by those ads showing powerful off-road experiences as the erstwhile family car charges up a mountainside or fords a forest stream. Yet only about 10% of SUVs ever leave the paved roads. Drivers long for that thrilling U.P. driving experience. Now‘s your chance!
Maybe you’d better think again.

Features Harley L. Sachs This summer the Soo Locks at Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula will celebrate the 150th anniversary with a series of celebrations and events. The Soo Locks connect Lake Superior with Lake Huron by bypassing the rapids of the St. Mary’s River.
Lake Superior is about 21 feet higher than Lake Huron, and until the first locks were built in 1797, traders and trappers had to portage their canoes around the St. Mary’s rapids. Those first locks, a mere 38 feet long, were built on the Canadian side by the Northwest Fur Company and allowed canoes and small boats to pass between the lakes.
Those locks were destroyed in the War of 1812 and the next set of two, this time built on the American side, were 350 feet long and completed in 1835. Those were done by the State of Michigan but were turned over to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1881.
MORE THAN PANAMA
Nowadays, as then, the size of the locks limits the capacity of ships moving into and out of Lake Superior. Not many people are aware that the Soo locks carry more tonnage than the Panama Canal. The reason is in the nature of the cargoes. The bulk carriers on Lake Superior carry iron ore, coal, and salt: all heavy products.

Features Harley L. Sachs During World War II in Germany Minister of Propaganda Goebbels controlled the news and the Gestapo secret police enforced it. To listen to Britain’s BBC broadcasts in Nazi Germany was enough to precipitate a night-time visit from the Gestapo and your mysterious disappearance. People who did dare listen to foreign radio broadcasts were careful to keep the sound level too low for the neighbors to hear and to turn the dial to another station when shutting off the receiver. Even so, a radio emits a signal matching the one it’s tuned to and it can be traced.
Here in the 21st Century there’s a hint of government control and manipulation of the news when the Republican White House plants a ringer among the press corps pretending to be a real journalist while flinging “softball” questions to the president.

Other Opinions Harley L. Sachs First it was B.O. and now it’s E.D. -- part of the current flap over what’s okay to broadcast on television that goes back for decades.
B.O. was part of the old radio Lifebuoy deodorant soap commercial. It was usually broadcast with the sound effect of a fog-bound buoy and stood for “body odor” as in, “Do you have B.O.?” That’s pretty personal; like who would have the nerve to walk up to someone at the office, make a fog horn sound, and hand him a bar of Lifebuoy?
The B.O. ad spawned jokes about Y.S. as in “Do you have Y.S.?” meaning “You Stink.” That was in the days’ when a shower a week was the norm. We’ve cleaned up since, most of us.

Features Harley L. Sachs Spring was later this year, summer hardly came at all, and Autumn started early. In a normal summer my dwarf cherry tree produces its brave crop by July 4. This year it wasn’t pickable until the end of the month. Normally Autumn sneaks in here in the Upper Peninsula about August 13. That’s the date when the jet stream shifts south bringing with it Canadian air, changing the note of the rustle of leaves on the trees and bringing that unmistakable chill off Lake Superior. For us who yearned for the summer that never came, the question is “Now What?”
The answer is jam.