Boot Lake
A decade or so ago, Jackson County purchased a square-mile tract of land north of Jefferson, my fair city, and built a new courthouse. Soon, other county facilities went up nearby: the health department, sheriff’s office, senior center, etc.
Being the location of so much high-level government activity, everything there that isn’t woods — roads, lawns, swales, parking lots, sidewalks — is meticulously maintained by county crews.
Also on the tract, tucked behind the Head Start building, is Boot Lake, a half-acre pond dating back to an old farm or whatever. It is so named because it’s shaped vaguely like a boot.
Boot Lake has the good fortune of being on county property and thus is maintained in top condition, from regular mowing and trimming of the banks to monitoring of the water quality.
No swimming or fishing is allowed; just strolling and enjoying. It’s an especially handsome and restful spot. And in the spring, impossibly green.
Just a Skosh
You may be familiar with the slang word skosh, which means a small amount, as in “Gimmea skosh more of them taters.” It’s used much like the word smidgen or its derivative smidge.
Skosh comes from the Japanese word sukoshi (skoh-shee), which means small amount/tiny bit/not too much. American soldiers stationed in Japan after WWII brought the word skosh home with them. Sometimes, they also used it as a nickname for a short person.
Skosh and sukoshi have been in my vocabulary since the early 1950s, when Dad was in the Air Force and we Smiths lived in Tokyo. I also can tell you that the opposite of sukoshi in Japanese is takusan (tahk-sahn), which means a large amount.
We kids learned both terms in the school cafeteria. When we went down the serving line, we had to tell the Japanese servers what size portions we wanted of the foods they were ladling onto our trays. “Hey, boy-san! You want takusan? Sukoshi?”
The Florida Problem
In 1819, Spain decided that the territory of Florida was more trouble than it was worth, so it gave Florida to the US. That’s quite amusing, but is, in fact, how we ended up with the place.
In those days, Spain was taking a beating on many fronts. It was fighting Napoleon in Europe, losing territory to rebellious natives in Central and South America, and in real danger of losing Mexico. The cost of financing garrisons and settlers in Florida simply was too much.
So, Spain ceded Florida to the US in exchange for finally agreeing on the boundary between the two countries from Texas to the Pacific Ocean. Ironically, Mexico kicked out the Spaniards soon after, and the US had to make a new border deal with Mexico.
Technically, we didn’t pay Spain for Florida, but we agreed to cover $5 million worth of lawsuits pending against Spain from American citizens.
In retrospect, Spain wasn’t very good at colonialism.
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