They All Look Alike To Me

I didn't know there were so many variations among Canada geese. I had read about the lesser variety, but not the others. All the geese that hang around Cheboygan appear to be of the same variety, which I assume is the greater Canada goose, also known as the giant Canada goose. Some years ago there were six or eight gray farm geese hanging around the boat launching ramp that I use. There was an article in the paper that said the DNR planned to round them up and relocate them because they didn't want them to corrupt the gene pool of our local wild geese. They also asked that people not release any more strange geese into the river for the same reason. Somebody should have told the DNR that ship had already sailed. When I first moved up here there were all kinds of semi domestic ducks and geese up and down the river. People used to fed them, and they all intermingled freely with each other and with the wild waterfowl. Now all I see are mallard ducks and Canada geese on the river, and I assume they have assimilated the other breeds. Mallards are notoriously promiscuous, and Canada geese are supposed to be monogamous, but you know how that goes.

According to my book, Missouri and Illinois were going through the statehood process around the same time. Missouri was expected to come in as a slave state, which some people opposed, but they eventually did it anyway. Illinois had to come in as a free state because of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. There was hope in some circles that the two new states would balance each other off, forestalling the growing conflict between the North and the South for at least a few more years. Perhaps that had nothing to do with the canal building plans of Illinois, the book isn't really clear about that. It does say that the river systems had previously been more commercially important than the Great Lakes, but that was expected to change with the completion of the Erie Canal.

I don't follow this stuff like you do, but I have seen a number of posts on Face Book that accuse Hillary of being in league with Wall Street. How can that be when she's a Democrat? I don't know if Trump is in league with anybody, I think he expects everybody else to get in league with him.

Apparently I was wrong when I said that you can't run as an Independent in Michigan. According to our paper, there is a guy who has filed as an Independent for some position in a nearby township. He was quoted as saying that the reason is he doesn't identify himself with either the Democrats or the Republicans. Too bad he's not running in my township, I would vote for him.