Missive #176

There is more to this latest volume in the”Mainstream of America” Series (Lewis Gannett, Editor) than is indicated by the subtitle: The Settling of the Eastern Shores, 1607-1735. As is proper, the author, a professor of English at the University of Connecticut and author of four similar studies, writes of time and place, problems and personalities, in the early American settlements on the Atlantic seaboard, This is the second book in the series which was very good but slow reading for me when I have to do it online. There is a lot more history to come with a lot more books inn the series to tell me about it. I’ll get to them given time but have a list of books that I need to work on next. but gives as well a sense of the first stirrings of nationality, of future independence, of which the settlers were barely aware. Following no set chronological order, the narrative skips from “The Great Migration” to Massachusetts in 1630 to Jamestown, Virginia, founded in 1807, with its inefficient management, its internal upheavals, and its delightful heroine, Pocahontas. Writing of Massachusetts Bay, the author tells of the trials of the Pilgrim Mothers and the clashes of religion and personality that nearly disrupted the colony and drove Roger Williams and the difficult martyr, Ann Hutchinson, to exile in Rhode Island. Other Atlantic settlements are here as well: Quaker Pennsylvania; Maryland and Carolina and Georgia; Dutch New Amsterdam, and a little Swedish colony in New Jersey that the Dutch swallowed before they were themselves gulped down by the British. Well written and admirably documented, this readable volume will appeal to armchair historians who care more for men, women and the realities of early American life than for disputed boundaries; professional students and teachers will value it for its excellent bibliographical notes. — Kirkus Reviews

Tuesday morning I went to the Coyote Den Restaurant for breakfast. This is the second restaurant in Wellton that is open between 7:00 -8:00 that I will be going to on my shopping days. Tuesday was not a shopping day but I did go to Del Sol to see if the manager had been able to order some non-dairy yogurt. She said that the food supplier that she deals with does not carry any. Strange but that is what it is.

The only other news is that I have had a very painful front tooth for the past few days. I have gone through this a couple of times before and know that those lower two front teeth will have to go someday. I’m just hoping that it gets better while I’m here; it seemed to be improving yesterday.

Posed in front of an American flag and a large banner reading “A Future Made in America Phoenix, AZ,” Joe Biden told a crowd of assembled workers, supporters and media last December: “American manufacturing is back, folks.”
Eight months on, the Phoenix microchip plant – the centerpiece of Biden’s $52.7bn US hi-tech manufacturing agenda – is struggling to get online.
The plant’s owner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the largest chip maker in the world, has pushed back plans to start manufacturing to 2025, blaming a lack of skilled labor. It is trying to fast-track visas for 500 Taiwanese workers. — They would not listen to us’: inside Arizona’s troubled chip plant by Michael Sainato