ABCDeology

The Witch Tree is over 400 years old (French explorer Sieur de la Verendrye described it in 1731) and perhaps much older – these types of trees can be a very long-lived in certain conditions, with notably old specimens growing on cliffs where they are inaccessible to deer and wildfire; the oldest known living specimen is just over 1,000 years old, but a dead specimen with over 1,500 growth rings has been found. These very old trees are, despite their age, small and stunted due to the difficult growing conditions. Offerings of tobacco are traditionally left there by generations of Ojibwe, French voyageurs and local kayak/canoe paddlers before journeys on the Great Lakes. The tree and land are owned by the Ojibwe tribe of the Grand Portage Reservation and there is no access unless accompanied by a tribal member (you can, however, get close to the base of the cliff by sea on kayak/canoe).

In the Lives of Others,
The state office for statistics on Hans-Beimler street counts everything; knows everything: how many pairs of shoes I buy a year: 2.3, how many books I read a year: 3.2 and how many students graduate with perfect marks: 6,347. But there’s one statistic that isn’t collected there, perhaps because such numbers [...]

“Let us so live, that when we come to die even the undertaker is sorry.”

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

“Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.”

“Clothes [...]