In March 2004 I started another blog Antiques Roadshow pt.6

I mentioned on March 16 that I'd found two "antiques" in a cabinet. The first was my 65 page printed blog about our Holy Land tour in 2009. The other, about 20 years old (March 2004) is a printout from one of my other, other blogs, "In the beginning," which is about my hobby. The hobby is about 50 years old, but I didn't start writing about it until 2004. It's probably only something that would appeal to a librarian--at least I've never found anyone else collecting these. The last one I printed out was 2006.

 
I just checked the on-line version and the last one I entered in the blog was in 2012. My ambition exceeded my wallet, will power, and wisdom. The year I decided to record my collection the average cover price was $5.80, and I don't have a figure for today because I rarely look--but I'd guess $10-$15. When I bought the premier issue of "People" with the lovely Mia Farrow on the cover in 1974 (it turned 50 this year) it was $.35. 2003 was a bumper crop for new issues--949! I'd crush our house with just the weight of the paper if I'd tried to collect new issues the last 50 years!

I started this blog on March 21, 2004 with these comments:

"I collect first and premiere issues of magazines and journals. If you want to know if there is confidence in the economy, just take a look at what is appearing on the news stands in 2004. I've purchased about seven new magazines since December, and that's without trying. That means venture capital. That means investors. That means advertisers. That means jobs. That means consumers willing to buy. That means a crazy exuberance and hope in the future. And that's what I love about a new journal."

My oldest is "Atlantic," my most exciting find is "Edible Columbus," (it just went up for sale), and my personal favorite is "Garage Slab." I did have a list of rules for collecting, but they evolved, and I frequently ignored them. I eventually even included some newsletters and government journals because often magazines began as a newsletter and every new government bureaucracy wants to publish a magazine. In the 1980s and I worked in a bookstore, I decided to drop the computer category because new ones were coming in every week. 

 
To read older entries in this magazine blog you have to look at the archive list on the right-hand side because it seems to have no code for going forward or backward. https://premiereissue.blogspot.com/

Visiting former coffee spots and coffee blogs

After I got Bob settled in this morning for his Zoom men's Bible Study I headed down the road a mile or so to Panera's at Five Points next to the Aldi's grocery where I could shop at 9 a.m. I rarely go there any more for my morning coffee, but at one time (pre-2015) I was a regular and had many friends I would see each morning while I read the Wall Street Journal.

I used to have a blog (Coffee Spills) devoted to my coffee habits--the places I enjoyed and the people I met--staff and customers. I continued it until December 2014 because I was parting ways with a habit begun in 1956 and saving the money for a trip to Spain (about $2, 5 times a week). I glanced at my final entry today before my closing--

November 10, 2014: "It happened in the parking lot. I was getting out of my car; one space away was a man on the passenger side of his car straightening his pant leg. He looked at me and said cheerily, "I change my socks 20 times a day; I guess I'm a little weird." "Uh, you betcha," I thought, but I said, "If it works for you." So I just had to Google it. I found 6.5% of Americans change their socks more than once a day. But 20 times seems a bit OCD."

November. 21, 2012: "I greeted a coffee shop friend today with a casual remark about "How are you celebrating Thanksgiving?" But she wasn't feeling thankful. It turns out a trusted employee, a woman she’s known and been friends with for 25 years, was embezzling from her. Now they both have lawyers, and the woman has admitted to stealing about $100,000, but my friend suspects it’s much more. And as you may guess, losing the money hurts, but not as much as her feeling of grief and backstabbing over this woman whom she considered a friend. She said, “She smiled at me every day, clucked over my children, we did things together. What sort of psychopath does this?” A very sad holiday."

January 7, 2005: "The clerk at the coffee shop told me today (Friday) she'd been late to work every day this week. She's supposed to start at 6 a.m. but didn't get to work until 6:10. I've supervised enough people in my work life to see a problem.

Bad work habits and excuses do not ever fool a supervisor. We've heard every story from alarm clocks to a tear in my slacks, to a sick baby to a traffic jam. Actually, I've heard some fairly imaginative ones, but didn't believe a word.

The solution is always the same for the employee who wants to move ahead to a better job, or keep the one she/he has. Whether a bakery clerk, an auto tech, or a library assistant, always plan to arrive early--15 minutes is good. That way you can handle the dog throwing up or the malfunctioning traffic light. And if you actually do arrive early, straighten up your clothes, comb your hair, wash your hands and turn on that smile. And don't ever kid yourself that coming in 15 minutes early on Thursday makes up for being 15 minutes late on Friday."

Reading my old blogs is like looking through someone else's diary. I often don't recall the occasion and had forgotten that one. That habit change did work--I think I saved about $500 for the trip and learned to make coffee (decaf) at home. Now if I go out for coffee with a friend, we go to McDonald's where it's $.60.

Remembering elementary school teachers (two schools)

 I tossed all my blogging notebooks several weeks ago as part of my Lenten house cleaning.  That's where I kept my notes while reading the Wall St. Journal and the Columbus Dispatch back in the day when I still went out for coffee every morning.   I pulled out one sheet that had information for 2005 and 2006.  It was about i-pad ear, and apparently younger and younger patients with hearing loss are turning up at doctors' offices, according to WSJ 1-10-06.  It seems there were 38 million MP3 players shipped in 2005.  However, when I turned over the sheet, I had started a list of all the teachers I could remember.  I checked my blog, and it seems I never finished what I'd started. I think I was doing a Thursday 13. So, let's try that:

Miss Marguerite Flora, First grade, she lived across the street from us with her parents. I wrote a blog about her when she died at 99. Collecting My Thoughts

Mrs. Greta (?) Huntley, Second grade.  She attended the same Lutheran church we did. I visited the church sometime in the 80s and she remembered me 40 years later.

Miss DeWall, Third grade (my favorite teacher of all times) As I recall, she died rather young, when I was in college.

Mrs. Hiteman, Fourth grade, very young, newly married.

Miss Michael, Fifth and sixth grade, she also had taught my father in Polo, Illinois. She lived with her sister about a block from our house.

Miss Jennie DeGraff, principal, and she apparently knew my grandmother because she was in her address book

Mr. John I. Masterson, superintendent, JoElla's father.  In retirement he was the pastor at Pinecrest, and lived in Mt. Morris.

Mrs. Beth Amsrud, music; she was like a circuit rider and taught in Forreston, Mt. Morris, Oregon, plus the country schools.  Used to put on charming musicals--great fun.

Our family moved from Forreston to Mt. Morris in March 1951.

Mrs. Beth or Betsy (?) Withers, sixth grade. I have her in a class photo MMHS1957: The old elementary school

Mr. Ray Appler, nor sure where he fit in--perhaps came in to teach math. Later Supt. of Schools Ogle Co., WWII veteran, Marines.  Photo at our 50th class reunion along with Katie Dirksen and Warren Reckmeyer.

Mr. David Rahn.  He taught the other 7th grade students, but our class had him, too.

Mrs. Verna Westfall, 7th grade. Class photo. MMHS1957: Mrs. Westfall's 7-A class 1952

Mrs. Mamie Knodle, 8th grade home economics.

Mrs. Rosella Opsand (Warren) Burstrom, 8th grade.  She also directed class plays when we were in high school, and Warren was our physics and chemistry teacher. Died young (1981). 

That's 15, but if I left out the two principals, I'd have a Thursday 13.

Rereading old blogs on health, Lakeside, family memories

As my memory becomes less sharp, it's nice to find markers and reminders, many of which I don't even recognize, in my blog posts. The stats at blogger tell me I've written about 19,000 posts since 2003, and approx. 2,900,000 readers or bots have either stopped by, glanced at or read them. That's a lot more action than I ever got writing articles when I was working, and I don't have to hassle with an editor to get them published. Today I was looking up articles on exercise, homocysteine levels, Covid, chocolate, Lakeside (not all in one post) and found I'd written on all and since I try to include links, I also had places to look. 

She probably doesn't want to be cancelled

 I got an e-mail today from a woman whom I quoted about a Christian sorority of which she was a member in 2008.  She had been checking on her on-line presence, as it is called, and asked me to remove her name from the blog.  It's called being "cancelled."  In this case, she's being pro-active.  Maybe she's no longer a Christian, or has changed groups.  The group has been involved in a discrimination case because they only accepted Christian women. 

Update:  I looked her up and based on her resume of the last 11 years, it's a fair guess she is no longer a Christian.  Advertising the company she has created (last April) would most likely necessitate cleaning her record.

Serendipity strikes again

When I had settled on retiring in October, 2000, I thought I might need a hobby, so I began keeping a small notebook in my purse to write in at the Caribou Coffee Shop on Lane Avenue in Upper Arlington where I stopped before going to work at the Veterinary Medicine Library at Ohio State University.  Because of the new millennium, the 2000 motif was everywhere, so my little notebook made in China, was “Year 2000 Tribute Millenium Series.”  As I would go through the paper—usually the Columbus Dispatch or Wall St. Journal, I’d jot down things that interested me—group meetings, movies, book reviews, special events, musical groups, recipes, web sites, conversations overheard—just about anything.  I had never heard of blogs at that time (not sure they existed), but that notebook was the start of my blog.

I had forgotten where I put the notebook, but a few minutes ago I was looking for something in my desk and there it was.  On September 22, 2000, I had jotted down “Almost Famous,” a movie with 4 stars. “Fictional account of Cameron Crowe’s teen years with Rolling Stones," I wrote.  Lennox 24, 4:50. Patrick Fugit (17) plays the 15 year old William Miller.”  Then I added later—“very good, saw 9/22/00.”  I had apparently flipped the notebook over and was writing on the verso of pages I’d filled earlier in the year.

Anyway, to make a short story long, I thought, “I wonder what happened to Patrick Fugit.  I recalled he was a very good actor in that movie.  In fact, the whole movie was good.

Internet search:  Found him.  His latest movie—wait for it—is “Robert the Bruce” which was just released last month in Scotland.

Cast: Jared Harris, Zach McGowan, Emma Kenney, Melora Walters, Talitha Eliana Bateman, Anna Hutchison, Patrick Fugit, Kevin McNally, Gabriel Bateman, Angus Macfadyen, Mhairi Calvey, Diarmaid Murtagh, Shane Coffey, Anthony J. Sharpe, Gianni Capaldi.

 

Patrick in 2000

Patrick in 2019

Comments. . .

I suppose I shouldn’t feel too bad about what people say to me about my blog or Facebook Posts.  Arthur Brooks has just begun a new column at the Washington Post taking Charles Krauthammer’s old spot, and some of the endearing comments were:

• Someone calling themselves Leaving weighs in with, “Well, this column is garbage.”

• dogbath adds, “The personable but warped Mr. Brooks provides a second home for psychopaths at AEI.”
• Benzaiten comments, “Ok I didn’t finish this article because it was becoming sappy nonsense.”

The internet is a cesspool.

The class reunion blog has ended

It was time.  It was supposed to be just our 50th reunion blog for the Mt. Morris High School class of 1957.  Now we’re past 60 years since we graduated!  I really appreciate those who contributed stories and photos—Mike Balluff the class president is a great story teller--but recently it was being referred to as “Norma’s blog.” I figured it was time to close the diary (which I actually did in 2010, but I kept updating it so often, I finally went back to occasional posting as there was news).  Before I closed it, I pulled out the updates from 2010 and made them separate entries, mostly obituaries, making them easier to find. 

Facebook really made blogs obsolete, and Twitter is eating Facebook’s lunch, that said, I think Mt. Morris has at least 4 FB pages plus a webpage. Not bad for a small town of less than 3,000 with no high school or elementary school.  At this blog I write on approximately 15 topics, of which Mt. Morris, education, business, medicine, retirement, church, books, films, fashion, food, family, health, etc. are in there with what’s going on in the world.  There’s really a lot of variety also in the 1957 class blog, some funny posts and some sad.  And all the women were beautiful and the men all had hair!

 

September 22, 2018 class breakfast

Yesterday I cleaned out several boxes of negatives from our collective photo albums and found a bunch from the 1950s.  If I find anything pertinent (and someone who still develops b & w), I’ll back date them and add to the class blog.

Politics and religion going public

“Were I to launch into a sermon on the upcoming presidential election, my email box would short-circuit from the deluge of opinions many would need to communicate. However, because this sermon is on the life of Meister Eckhart, chances are good that when it comes to email I'll receive nary a byte. Face it, theology fails to generate the same temperature of heated discourse as politics, despite the admonition against bringing up either politics or religion on a first date.

On the other hand, were these the Middle Ages, the ceaseless subject matter of CNN or Fox News would be the moods and moves of God rather than the latest exploits of kings and princes. In medieval Europe, where earthly life was precarious and death the daily dread, the life to come was the only life that warranted debate.”

You can read the rest of this interesting sermon on Eckhart,  but I really chose this part because of its truth on speaking out and the dangers of writing about politics and religion.  So few people are passionate these days about religion that if you have a belief or opinion about the nativity, baptism, end times, or communion few will challenge you because they may believe all ways lead to God, or all truth is what I say it is.  Politics, however, especially if made public can get you fired, lose friends, destroy relationships, or even get your home attacked by Antifa, as Tucker Carlson found out (and he’s not even a Trump supporter but has spoken out about the D.C.  “elites” in his latest book, “Ship of Fools.”)

• Are you pro-life?  That used to be a religious issue, but is now such a hotly debated topic on heartbeats, selling baby parts and tax support, good friends best not discuss it.
• Marriage?  That also used to be a religious issue, but divorce and infidelity were the morality topics.  Not now.  It’s about baking cakes and fixing floral arrangements, and whether you can lose your business for being on the wrong side of Democrat party politics.
• Gender? God created man and woman used to be a debate about long day, short day, and whether this Biblical story was myth or fact, and now it’s about transphobia and your first amendment right to not only have a religion belief, but freedom of speech.
• Pronouns for God? Feminists used to rail about the masculine pronouns used in the Trinitarian Godhead,  or in traditional hymns, now we can not even use the pronouns he, she, him, her in ordinary discourse or writing!

So yes, it’s far safer to blog or Facebook about religion—it’s just that liberal politics have been co-opting religion so picking a topic is dancing in a mine field. 

I’m not the only one who collects thoughts

 

 

 

Request for reviews is up

I'm not up on publishing cycles, but yesterday I received at least 10 review offers, including children's books, interview opportunities, contemporary music, and one Phd student who needs more for her survey (it was for journalists, so I wrote back and told her a blogger is not a journalist and I was too old). Is this the Trump Bump or is it always like this in January and I've forgotten? A selection of the offers:

. I'm writing to introduce author, presidential expert, and leadership-architect Cash Keahey and his new book EIGHT LEADERTYPES IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 

Kids are growing up in a technological environment, and knowing how to make the best use of good tech is a critical part of preparing them for their future lives. Important 21st century skills such as problem solving, communication and creativity can also be improved with the use of great tech.

launch of author Kim Chaffin's new book  'Simply Blessed: Finding Joy in the Little Things

www.wycliffe.org/community  Yes, its a 7-day digital devotional released as part of the "A Call to Community" campaign for Q1, the landing page 

Donald Lee Sheppard quickly rose through the ranks of major international benefits consulting companies before launching his own employee communications firm, Sheppard Associates. In his new book  The Dividends Of Decency: How Values-Based Leadership will Help Business Flourish in Trump’s America 

In Road Rules for Retirement, Mark shares the many challenges you will face getting to and through retirement. He reveals the many risks you must know about and account for to make sure you never outlive your money. 

Having worked for thirty-five years as a cameraman and producer for every major U.S. television news network and the Foreign Press Corps, Tim Ortman understands firsthand the television news production process with over three decades of experience shooting, lighting, editing, writing, story editing, and producing.   Newsreal: A View Through the Lens When… [Incorgnito Publishing Press, May 2018].

This spring, the University of Notre Dame Press will publish Flannery O'Connor and Robert Giroux: A PublishingPartnership by Patrick Samway, S.J. Flannery O'Connor is considered one of America's greatest fiction writers.

AMIE Cut for Life is a page-turning work of suspenseful fiction that tells the truth about human sex trafficking and female genital mutilation.   At least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone ritual cutting.  Currently, there is an alarming rise of female genital mutilation in America.

I appreciate you're busy but I just wanted to follow up on the email I sent you the other day; a copy is included below for reference. Here’s the link - http://ammo.com/articles/founding-fathers-quotes

Please let me know if you would like to interview the contest coordinators or need additional giveaway details. https://gives.rockyridgetrucks.com/.  

Dr. Ward is available for an interview, to write an article or to provide commentary on this topic.  Please let me know if you are interested. 

MacDuffie just finished narrating “Unf*ckology” by humorous advice columnist Amy Alkon, which is slated for release this month. She also narrated a documentary about leopards, which will air on the Smithsonian channel later this year. She will soon be narrating Sue Monk Kidd’s latest book, “Dance of the Dissident Daughter: My Journey from Christianity to the Sacred Feminine”; followed by a collection of sharp and elegant essays on faith, values and history by Pulitzer-Prize and National Book-Award-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson.

As it turns out, the old, tired trope that "single life sucks" has passed its expiration date and is ready to be washed down the drain. In her new book, SINGLE GIRL PROBLEMS: Why Being Single Isn't a Problem to be Solved, relationship expert and co-host of Canada's award-winning, beloved national talk show The Goods ANDREA BAIN shares her fresh, insightful, and humorous voice to spill the beans on single life. 

DeVine wants you to HuntRepubicans

I've been blogging since October 2003 and about 1.5 million have visited my page, according to blogger.com statistics. Who knows? I don't know when Blogger started keeping the stats, because I didn't have that capability when I started. But it's certainly more people than read my articles in library journals when I was the veterinary medicine librarian at Ohio State.

This week the most popular article (164) was about that crazy Democrat, James DeVine, who urged his party to hunt down more Republicans after the Scalise shooting. But that was probably just hits on the topic, not actual stop and read. The left is demanding that NRA comment on that terrible tragedy where someone with a concealed carry permit was shot by a policeman, but where is the DNC disavowing a call to kill Republicans? I guess that shows the power of negative news--ropes people in.

Blogging is not the social media darling it was a decade ago, but I find it useful to look things up I was thinking 10-15 years ago. I particularly enjoy my Monday Memories, Thursday Thirteen and Friday Family photos. Yesterday I tried to view my blogs about our 2015 trip to Spain, but see I haven't written them.  I have over 500 photos in the file!

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/06/19/tucker-carlson-battles-hunt-republicans-democrat-over-steve-scalise-shooting-james-devine

http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/hunt-republicans-tweet-james-devine/2017/06/16/id/796443/

Accomplishments in retirement according to one blogger

I'm retired and I write blogs. Nine blogs. One is about retirement. (I also do other things like volunteer, go out with friends, and travel. For the first 9 years I also painted). I found a really great retirement blog today that I'll return to. Here's something she wrote in 2013.

Things you won’t accomplish in retirement:
Sending out Christmas cards,...
Losing five pounds,
Cleaning out your closets,
Reading a ton of books,
Keeping your house and garden in pristine condition,
Watching less TV,
Mastering a new instrument, language, or other field of study,
Becoming Martha Stewart, or
Saving The World.

I do still send real Christmas cards, and I've lost weight twice, 2006 and 2015. I did clean some closets and repack everything about 8 years ago. Three years into retirement I started pitching all the stuff I didn't throw out when I retired. I did join a book club. No garden and not much house cleaning. Watch more TV. Learned blogging. Received as a gift a lot of Martha Stewart cookbooks--and I do more cooking than I did when I worked, but also go out to eat more. Am saving the world, one baby at a time at PDHC.

http://retiredsyd.typepad.com/retirement_a_fulltime_job/2013/01/how-to-be-lazy-without-even-trying.html

What becomes of old blogs and bloggers?

Today I found my blog listed in “Evolving Internet Reference Resources,” by William Miller and Rita Pellen, a book which also appeared as two issues of Journal of Library Administration, not uncommon for library publications. At that time (information probably collected 2004-2005) about 150 librarians had web logs in the U.S. I was retired when I started my blog in 2003, but still wrote about library topics, something I rarely do today, and participated in a few library related discussion groups.  This blog, Collecting My Thoughts, was listed as personal musings, entertainment, and doubtful for a reference tool:      

The Kept Up Academic Librarian is an example of a librarian blog the authors liked and recommended, so I looked it up to see if it was still viable.  It closed out in August, 2012.

"After nearly 8 years, 5,000 posts and 500,000 page views, this is the last post at Kept-Up Academic Librarian. It has been a good run but the need for this blog is diminished and even though the time it takes to compose it each day is not great, it is time I could use for other activities. Now with so many others sharing higher education news on social networks, along with other sources such as University Business' daily update, Academic Impressions and daily news items in the Chronicle and IHE, it's clear there is less need - and that is supported by the stagnant usage data."

The blog owner wrote a good summary of what happened to blogdom that concerned any profession or hobby or special interest.  People flocked to other social networking sites from Facebook, to Twitter, to Pinterest, and many on-line publications improved their review coverage. Indeed, many of my FB friends are people I met while blogging.  But it is interesting to browse this one and see many concerns of four years ago are still in the forefront of the news, and still nothing has been done.

"Exponentially growing student loans are driving up tuition and creating a demographic time bomb as well as a higher-education bubble that could explode in taxpayers' faces."  Link

I suspect this is our housing bubble of 2007, so hang on to your pocket books ladies, it's coming just in time for the next administration, since this one did nothing but exacerbate it. But that link is dead, and so this is only a summary, something not unusual in blogdom.  I find a lot of dead links on my blog as online publications disappear or are rewritten.

The STLQ blog essentially ended in 2009, with a referral in 2011 to his personal blog, which hasn't had much going on for years.

"As it has been over two years since my last post, it is evident that STLQ's time has come to an end. I want to thank everyone who has followed my posts here since the blog began in April 2003. I continue to maintain my personal blog, The Pod Bay Door, should you wish to follow me there."

And what did Google have in mind 10 years ago (reported on this now defunct blog).