This is a biographical subpage for the Wikipedia editor who goes by the name of Saukkomies. Feel free to leave a comment on this page's talk page.
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Saukkomies is my "
handle", but not my real name. It is
Finnish for "Otter Man". I chose it because I have a life-long fascination with
river otters. I also speak the Finnish language more or less fluently. I am 50 years old, of Northern European descent, and have a disdain for hot muggy weather.
I live in the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan, on a prominence that juts into
Lake Superior called the
Keweenaw Peninsula. I am happily married and have a wonderful little son. I am a devoted father and husband, and spend almost all of my spare time with my family.
I consider myself to be a
historian, albeit mostly an
amateur, not a
professional. I have a
Bachelors of Arts in
History from
Idaho State University, which I earned in 1988. I've presented a smattering of papers on various subjects of history at
American Historical Association conferences, and I have a life-long devotion to the study and support of history. Additionally, I occassionally have had the opportunity to teach history, during which times I become, at least for a while, a professional historian.
Currently I am what might be considered to be unemployed, however in reality I am a 75% stay-at-home dad (a euphemism for househusband), and a oft-times substitute teacher for the local schools. I do hope to some day soon be employed full-time in a professional capacity, but at the moment I make do the best I can. This situation does deprive me of a lot of spending cash, but we do manage to make ends meet, and it gives me time to contribute to Wikipedia off and on.
a factory worker on an assembly line that manufactured
22-caliberpistols (not a job I'm proud of).
a worker in a cheese factory, where I worked with the
large vats where the fermented cheese curds would be separated from the whey, melted and
poured into plastic moulds, and then placed in a
cold brine bath where they'd cure.
guitar playing - I use a bright red semi-hollow
Guild Starfire electric guitar played through a
Fender DuoJet tube amp, as well as an old beat-up solid spruce-top
Harmony steel string acoustic folk guitar that I bought when I first went to college in 1977, and which still plays exceptionally well for a cheap guitar.
hand drum playing. I own a tin hammered
Turkish Doumbek, a large Brazilian
Timbau made by
Remo (this is my favorite - it has a fantastic "bottom" voice that may be heard a mile away - a true "mother drum"), a
ShoshoneHand Stick Gamehoop drum with a painting of a
falcon head on its face, and some assorted percussion instruments. I really love
cymbals and
gongs, but do not own one. Maybe some day I can own a genuine Chinese
Grand Chau Gong that would be powerful enough to break all the windows in my neighborhood.
playing many different kinds of
wind instruments. I have a flute collection that includes an
Irish penny whistle, a cheap plastic
recorder (I want to upgrade someday to a set of nice wooden ones), a Cherokee Indian cedar courting
flute (which I bought from its maker out of the back of a pickup truck at a
Pow-Wow in Idaho), a bamboo Japanese
Shakuhachi that is very long and low pitched, a
kazoo (although I'm not sure whether a kazoo is technically a woodwind or not), and a
Karelianbirchbarkovertone flute called a
Pitkähuilu that has no finger holes, and is played by varying the amount of breath blown into the flute.
My family background can be directly traced on my mother's side back to
Israel Putnam (and the other
Putnams from
Salem, Massachusetts), and on my father's side to a colonial-era
indentured servant who came to Virginia and later, after working off his debt, moved with his sons to help found the settlement of
Nashville, Tennessee.
My goals in life are to be around long enough to see my son grow to be a man, to be the best husband and father I can be, to find ways to help the youth in my community to gain skills they'll need to take over the reins once the people of my generation get too old to hold them any longer, and to be as honest and reliable as I can be in all my dealings with my fellow humans.
My dream job would be to become an
international health spa reviewer with a large travel expense account.