Put on your big girl pants

This may be the only sympathetic feeling I have for Kamala Harris: speaking in public. I'd bring along a guy for support, too (Walz). I'd let someone else speak for me if I could, too.  I'd make up rules to benefit only me, too. I spoke to my church as a teen-ager after a conference; I spoke at my professional organization's national meeting when I was the president; I spoke about how to use the library at freshman orientations in the Veterinary college for a number of years; when the WWW came online, I gave a seminar on how to use it, and a few other times. It was painful each time. I don't like public speaking. But she signed on for the job and she should start behaving like a big girl. We know she can, because she spoke to her sorority sisters rather than do her Vice President duties in meeting with Netanyahu of Israel a few days after she was anointed by the party to take Biden's place.

Harris and the takeover

Why in the world would Harris sit for an interview, even for friendly, soft ball questions from the "legacy media?" The media have already puffed her up to princess level; she's already allowed a foreign invasion as the Border Czar. How much difference did it make to Democrats that she did nothing. Said nothing. Answered no criticism. She only has to wait and not speak. She lies when her lips move, so what difference does it make? No shots fired. Easy Peasy. The stage is set for the totalitarian takeover.

For Book Club, Monday March 1

I am the hostess (on Zoom) for the March book club and we’re reading the book by Eric Metaxas, Seven Men and Seven Women and the Secret of Their Greatness. (2016).  The main characters are presented in chronological order, and all are deceased.  The men are George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jackie Robinson, Saint John Paul II, and Charles W. Colson.  The women are Saint Joan of Arc, Susanna Wesley, Hannah More, Saint Maria of Paris, Corrie ten Boom, Rosa Parks, and Saint Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa).

I’ve looked around the Internet for some interviews and opinion pieces.

Eric Metaxas telling how he became a Christian through intellectual discussions with a Christian at his job, and then God revealed something to him in a dream. Eric Metaxas testimony how he became a Christian - YouTube

Study guide with links for 7 men (original title): A Discussion Guide for Eric Metaxas’s Seven Men and The Secret Of Their Greatness – home (chrisbrauns.com)  Includes Metaxas’ personal testimony. If you are unfamiliar with Metaxas’ background, this is a good start.

There are many videos of Metaxas discussing William Wilberforce. This is at Calvary Church https://youtu.be/njLUCmtLQpY

Metaxas lecturing about Bonhoeffer and Wilberforce at Grace Church in 2012.  https://youtu.be/48U3D74SwLs  

Metaxas laments in a secular publication that the Jackie Robinson movie left out the faith of both Robinson and Rickey in 42. Jackie Robinson a man of faith: Column (usatoday.com) “Omitting the role of faith in this story does a serious disservice to history — and to the memories of Robinson and Rickey.”

Interview (2013)  with Metaxas about the book Seven Men and the secrets of their greatness

https://youtu.be/yw-hVleL1DI (pt.1) and https://youtu.be/1UmJESQ-5iw (pt.2) and https://youtu.be/tiaXPGNje-E  (pt.3)

Interview with Metaxas about the book  Great Women from Joan of Arc to Mother Teresa | Eric Metaxas

The Secret of Mother Teresa's Greatness | Eric Metaxas  Mother Teresa  Opinion piece written for Fox

Article by Metaxas on Susanna Wesley, Joan of Arc, and Rosa Parks, Susanna Wesley, Joan of Arc, Rosa Parks and Other Ordinary-Extraordinary Women God Used to Change the World | Eric Metaxas in Christian Post.

For an extra if you’re interested in Mother Teresa.  Interview 1974 https://youtu.be/Th2QzJwy8tI  in Ireland.

Full movie on Corrie Ten Boom https://youtu.be/GHjiGwG4cFY

Movie on the life of William Wilberforce William Wilberforce | Full Movie | Steve Bell - YouTube  voice over with drawings--very well done.

Interview with Roger Scruton, 2017

Sir Roger Scruton was an English writer and philosopher who passed away this last week on January 12. He was 75, born in 1944.  He has published more than fifty books in philosophy, aesthetics, and politics. His book discussed in this episode was How to Be a Conservative; it was published in 2014. He was a fellow of the British Academy and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He taught in both England and America and is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington. DC. He taught an MA in philosophy course for the University of Buckingham. Sir Scruton was knighted in 2016 by Queen Elizabeth II for his “services to philosophy, teaching and public education.”

https://www.hoover.org/research/how-be-conservative?  Watch the video interview.

https://www.rogerscruton.com/

Former left-wing radical Clarence Thomas discusses his life and what he's learned

http://dailysignal.com/2018/01/07/justice-clarence-thomas-opens-life-faith-interracial-marriage/

"From a life that launched from economic deprivation, illiteracy, family dysfunction, and even time as a radical leftist, his accomplishments now reach to the U.S. Supreme Court—where he faces constant vilification and defamation. He says he learned the value of humility, patience, and persistence, but the bedrock of his rules for living came from simple aphorisms from his illiterate grandfather.""

He calls his life a miracle.

And he has quite a sense of humor.

Charlie Rose and me go way back

I used to watch Charlie Rose back in the 90s when he was on PBS and he'd interview notable people. I was a liberal then, so of course, I never noticed political bias on PBS or broadcast news, and there wasn't any Fox or internet access. And although I watched him, I didn't like him. Why? It was the way he interviewed women, although most of his guests were men. He would frame his questions in such a manner and be so detailed, that all she could do was answer Yes or No. He hogged the limelight and diminished his female guests. With men, he was more respectful and seemed to think they could tell their own stories. Was it just Charlie or is this a guy thing?

I also never cared for Bill O’Reilly’s interviewing techniques, but he was rude to everyone—showed no bias toward women.

Interview seen at another website

Hobbies: I didn’t have any until I retired in 2000. I was very concerned about that so I wrote a story and a plan about possible hobbies. Now I write all the time--12 blogs, poetry, essays, and I sometimes paint and draw. I’m a better artist than many people, even better than some who make a living at it, but not good enough to satisfy me, and no burning desire so I do less and less. These are interests I had before I started kindergarten. My mother used to bring home discontinued wallpaper rolls for me to write and draw.

In college I drove a: Whatever my parents owned, and Dad changed cars frequently--every year or two. That Ford red ranchero was great fun for a teen-ager.

My worst subject in school: Algebra II in 11th grade. Panicked and dropped it and took Psychology which I really liked. I did get a C once--in tennis. The teacher was pregnant and I couldn’t even keep up with her.

College, undergrad degree: University of Illinois, Russian and Spanish with a whole lot of history. Also attended Manchester College, and two small schools, one in Maine and one in Indiana the names of which I’ve forgotten. Oh yes, and I took some classes at Ohio State and Ohio Dominican over the years.

College, graduate degree: University of Illinois, Library Science. Great school. Opened a lot of doors.

Best advice I ever got: It probably came from my mother. She never ran out--I guess the apple didn‘t fall far from the tree--but I can’t place my finger on just one thing. Probably to marry my current and only husband. She was never that thrilled with the other candidates I brought home and I think she took one look and thought I had a winner. I know we feel that way about our son-in-law.

Favorite coffee: Whatever I don’t make as long as it’s brewed in a coffee shop, not kept on a burner, and not in someone else’s kitchen. For years I drank black coffee only, but must have started adding cream sometime in the 70s. No sugar. Yuck. I started "going out" for coffee when I was in high school and never looked back. I write a blog about people I meet in coffee shops.

Male Answer Syndrome

When my children were toddlers, Phil Donahue was a local talk show personality in Dayton, Ohio, and I watched him everyday. If my friends came over with their babies, we'd watch him together. One thing I noticed 40 years ago was that no matter how famous the guest or how well-known the celebrity, when it was time for questions, the women in the audience asked questions, and the men expounded their own theories and ideas instead of mining for new information from the expert. Every program. Every guest! Many years later when I used to watch Charlie Rose on public TV, I observed that when he interviewed women authors, his questions were really expository and overly long and boring, often leaving her with nothing to say except, "Yes," or "No," or "I agree, Charlie." With male guests, he allowed them free rein and didn't interrupt them.

Today I was reading an artist's newsletter about Male Answer Syndrome, which led the artist-author to comment on the differeces between male and female artists. Apparently, it has had a name since the early 90s and I missed it.

Skills you need to find a job

One of my temp jobs I had in 1976 (see below) was with JTPA (successor to CETA)--Ohio Senior Training and Employment Program (STEPS). I worked with a wonderful group of women in an efficiently run state agency. I wrote publications, planned workshops, travelled throughout the state, and wrote speeches for the head of another government agency. I learned so much on that job, not the least of which was job hunting skills (because I had to write about them and teach them in workshops not because I used them). However, I got the job in aerobics class overhearing my instructor talking about it--and that's how most jobs are found, "networking." Still, there are other important points I learned, and have updated to account for new technology.

1) If you're unemployed, your job is to find a job. Spend 40 hours a week researching, interviewing, networking, updating skills, writing thank you notes, and knocking on doors. If you do internet social networking about job hunting, be careful what you say. Never, never bad mouth your previous employer or boss.

2) Dress appropriately for the interview (this might take some research if you are 18-25). If you love that big hair look from the 80s, you might want to reconsider what it says about you. Cut the gray pony tail if you're a guy.

3) Develop a fabulous resume, brief is best. Use a professional or have someone proof it for you. Anything you have on the internet may speak louder than your resume, so better check that out. Read requirements carefully! Some companies don't want paper; some don't want attachments.

4) All jobs need good oral and written communication skills. If you've been text messaging for 4 years, you might need a brush up on how to spell "you" and "are."

5) Eye contact, body language, posture, good grammar--they say more about you than you know. Video tape yourself--watch for all those unneccesary uhs, now, hmmm, etc. It's a form of stuttering and doesn't make a good impression. Just don't put anything on YouTube.

6) If they take you to lunch (this is customary at the university), it's not because you look hungry. Your table manners will be observed. How you behave in a social setting will be important to your colleagues.

7) Do I need to remind you to be on time? No excuse will be accepted--they've heard them all--babysitter didn't show, mother in law is ill, snow plow covered the drive, etc. etc.

8) Also, do your homework on the company! At least know what they produce, service, loan or build.

9) Be prepared for really dumb or tricky questions. Maybe they can't ask your age, but they can chit chat about other things that will trip you up if you're lying.

10) One last thing--although they can't ask about your kids, they can spot baby spit up on your clothes.

I won't even go into drug testing, but there are now companies that won't hire smokers, and they test for it. If you need to worry, you're probably not right for the job anyway.

A child upstages the President

Damon is a cute little guy interviewing President Obama, his dream, on all the major networks this morning, but I changed channels after about 20 seconds. Same old, same old. The President blaming someone else, never his own generation or group, instead of inspiring a child to greatness. Here we are in 2009 with two minorities (and four Catholics?) on the highest court in the land, a biracial, out of wedlock son of a Kenyan in the White House, and all the President can do is dump on the American culture when a child asks him about poverty in his school district. Can you imagine Justice Clarence Thomas responding as Obama did? But it was Thomas who really experienced poverty. Obama was the proverbial silver-spoon-rich kid whose own children have always attended private schools. Compared to Thomas who was raised on a share cropper’s farm by his grandparents, he knows nothing about which he speaks from personal experience. Justice Sotomayor may call herself a wise Latina, but even she’s a born in the city, raised in the projects by an educated mother, child who despite what she sees as racism and discrimination, has managed also to make her way to the top. Democrats never see this as a success story--they seem to be embarrassed that America is the land of opportunity and are currently engaged in a war to bring everyone down to the projects-level standard of living.

Obama could have begun his halting and stammering (where is the teleprompter?) with pointing out to this smart, gutsy child, that he was well on his way like Thomas and Sotomayor, but instead, chose his words to remind everyone, not that we’ve come a long way, but that we have even further to go.

Thanks for nothing, O Great One.

Right, right, right, um, right, exactly, OK, right

That was the voice of the interviewer I heard off camera during a video interview of a "conversation about Vietnam and Iraq with the author and Lt. Col. Rick Welch of the U.S. Army Reserve, who is currently [no date but possibly 2007] on assignment in Baghdad."

http://sgurvis.com/sixties/60s_video.php

Sandra Gurvis who put this together to promote her book, "Where have all the flower children gone," appears to be a local writer. I wandered into her memoirs about the 1960s and the Vietnam War via a restaurant review. It gives me new respect for television interviewers, even the ones I don't care for. Filmed interviews need quality editing, lighting, background, staging, music, voice, etc. Gurvis didn't make the case why she was trying to compare the conflicts in Vietnam and Iraq. She jumped in to quash his positive points about why the U.S. forces were in the middle east. Having worked for 18 months in Iraq reconciling different cultures, he was polite and patient, so his performance was more professional and informed than hers. She had no content or expertise, interjecting myths, half-truths, and hyperbole from the 60s and anti-war rhetoric that made little sense in this "conversation."

This was a good lesson. Whether interviewing or simply sharing ideas in conversation, I need to resist the urge to interject little words to let the speaker know I am listening. It actually has the opposite affect.

Great Orators of the Democratic Party

Via Best of the Web.

• "One man with courage makes a majority."--attributed to Andrew Jackson

• "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."--Franklin D. Roosevelt

• "The buck stops here."--Harry S. Truman

• "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."--John F. Kennedy

• "I'm really coming into this as somebody who isn't, you know, part of the system, who obviously, you know, stands for the values of, you know, the Democratic Party. I know how important it is to, you know, to be my own person. And, you know, and that would be obviously true with my relationship with the mayor."--Caroline Kennedy

Off teleprompter, she's as good as Obama and most of us. She can hire a speech writer for the big events. I think she meets all the constitutional requirements for office even though she has rarely voted and hasn't contributed much except her name to local or national candidates who will fawn all over her. That gives her a cleaner record than most pols. She's no Sarah Palin, but maybe she's a fast learner.

Sorry, Charlie. The people want interviews without bias, not bias with no interview

Remember the Starkist tuna commercial from the 1960s?

"Sorry Charlie. . .StarKist wants tuna that tastes good, not tuna with good taste."

"ABC's Charlie Gibson is only the latest to offer himself upon the altar of self-parody with his pop-quizzing of the Alaska governor during their interview last week.

Gibson: "Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?"
Palin: "In what respect, Charlie?"

Which was a sensible answer, given that no higher authority than Jacob Weisberg of Slate has counted six versions of the thing (including "absence of any functioning doctrine at all"). Further pressed on the subject, Gov. Palin explained that "what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism," which better sums up the gist of Bush policy than Mr. Gibson's cramped definition of the doctrine as "anticipatory self-defense." WSJ article here

The job hunt

Matthew, the Well-dressed Librarian has landed a job, and posted some great advice on December 11. He's gay, fashionable, bright and witty, but because I worked a temp job in the employment field in the 80s, and interviewed more librarian candidates than I can remember in my last job, I can testify that he is absolutely on target. Good manners and good taste will help in all fields, so it won't matter if you're looking in another area.

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What's between the lines on your resume?

Joann S. Lublin's column on resumes in the WSJ yesterday mentioned that employment seekers are being taught how to cover up or hide

imprisonment
cancer
alcoholism
drugs
spousal abuse
lack of a high school degree

Even in the early 1990s at Ohio State, we weren't allowed to ask if the candidate had an arrest or conviction because that was considered discriminatory against minority males.

We weren't supposed to notice if she was pale as a ghost, weighed about 100 lbs, had no hair, and looked like she couldn't lift a heavy journal

We weren't allowed to ask how she would navigate our narrow, pre-1950 stacks in her wheelchair.

If he held the application one inch from his face, we weren't to ponder how he would fill out the hand written time sheets for our student staff, or check their accuracy if a student did it for him.

If his skin was leathery and tan with sunny high lights in his hair and his most recent job in a library was 20 years ago shelving books at Capital University, we were not to assume he didn't desperately want a career change from riding mowers for the grounds department.

We weren't supposed to tell a PhD candidate in Asian literature she was over qualified for a serials check-in job, even if we knew she'd die of boredom before the first paycheck.

We weren't supposed to notice that a candidate was 7 months pregnant and had formula spit up on her shoulder.

I suspect more rules for interviewing have been added in the last 15 years.

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NPR's liberal bias is aggravating

Usually I don't listen to our local NPR, WOSU Radio, but you all know what's the fare on Saturday--garden shows and sports. So three different times today my dial stopped at WOSU-AM.

First in the car I got Wesley Clark, complaining about Bush in Iraq but suggesting, I think, that we need to take out Iran. I only caught about 5 minutes, so I'm not sure of his drift or if he's running again. Then about an hour later on a return trip I got a book interview, and the author was genuflecting before the memory of FDR and complaining that conservatives portray liberals as spendthrifts taxing us to the poor house, but liberals haven't been in control since the 1960s. Huh? Where was this guy during the years the Democrats ran Congress and Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were in office? The interview was so worthless, I'm not even bothering to track it down for you.

But the absolute worst was around 5 p.m, when needing noise while I fixed dinner, I heard on WOSU-AM a tiny clip of Bush's speech at the U.N. about dictators, and then a whole bunch of sound bites from various dictators slamming President Bush charging violations of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights and dripping blood of the innocent Iraqis. They could have at least balanced the time.

Right after the Bush slamming with my tax dollars where NPR became a mouthpiece for dictators I might not otherwise had to listen to, I got Nina Totenburg just aghast by Justice Thomas' new autobiography. Boy, is she miffed that he's escaped the plantation. Successful black folk should be more respectful and know their place, I suppose.

"Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' autobiography My Grandfather's Son hits bookstores Oct. 1, coinciding with the start of the court's new term. Justice Thomas received a $1.5 million advance for the memoir, which is being promoted by conservative interest groups. It covers his life up to his swearing in as a member of the high court. He offers vivid, and at time seething, details about events surrounding his nomination, the charges of sexual harassment against him by Anita Hill, and his memories of growing up poor in rural Georgia. NPR obtained an advance copy." [from promo]

Nina's shocked, just shocked, that he's made this book so personal. It's just unseemly, you know? Now, any other black leader or celebrity growing up poor without his parents would be lauded for "a tortured soul," but Justice Thomas is a conservative. He's also been skewered in another book, according to Eugene Volokh in WSJ.

Thursday Thirteen

13 things to check for that important job interview
Yes, I'm retired from academe, but I remember a few things about being on a "search committee." Maybe things have changed since 2000, but this was my experience.

1) Check your personal appearance. Some will groan, others will say, doh! I can still remember interviewing women in the late 1980s and early 1990s (think shoulder pads and big hair) who looked like a time warp from Woodstock--sandals, peasant blouse, flouncy, ethnic skirt, and long, straight stringy hair. For the committee the message, even if incorrect, is that you haven't had a new idea in years. Maybe update the frames for your glasses or toss the t-shirts. Take out the nose ring and cover your tattoo; get a real haircut. If you're too proud or haughty to snip off the pony tail, maybe this isn't the time for a job change.

2) Check your resume's appearance and content. These days you've sent it in a digital format, but it still needs to be grammatically correct, attractive when printed out for the committee, accurate, and not too wordy. It's a job, not a biography. I remember reading a resume that had a sentence with more than 100 words.

3) Check your network. This is on-going whether you're job hunting or not. Don't burn any bridges. Someone at the new location/ job will know someone from your past. . . someone you dissed in the cafeteria or meeting, someone you flirted or slept with, someone who thinks you're not a team player, someone who's heard all your excuses for being late.

4) Check your references. Talk to them personally. What has changed? If it's been a few years and you're both in other jobs, maybe it's time to freshen the list, or it will look a little odd.

5) Check the geographic location. Unless the candidate grew up in Bucyrus, or had a parent living in Indiana, we all knew we have no oceans or mountains in central Ohio, but occasionally the candidate seemed surprised by acres of corn and soybeans and wanted more than we could offer. It was a waste of everyone's time.

Check your oral presentation

6) How's your English? Not your accent, but your grammar and slang. Do you mumble? Stare at your feet? Do you start every sentence with "like," or "now" or "yeah?" Work with a coach if need be. Videotape yourself if you need to give a presentation and have someone you trust critique.

7) How are your teeth? If you are 40 or younger, you've probably had them straightened, capped, bonded or whitened. If you are older, at least have them whitened if you smoke, drink coffee or tea. If this seems odd, just take a look at the smile of a Gen-Y friend (18-29). You'll be doing a lot of smiling (I hope) at this interview.

8) Talk too much? It's hard to break this habit--but for a job interview, you may have to bite your tongue. Do you chatter, leap from topic to topic, wear out even your spouse? Women particularly give out more personal information than anyone wants to know. Keep quiet about your children, your pets, in-laws, etc. Be prepared to answer a few probing questions with even fewer words.

9) Know something about the company, product, campus, etc., but also prepare some questions for others. People will like you better if you aren't a know-it-all. There's a fine line between sounding stupid and interested.

Check these at the door.

10) Evangelism. Whether it is religion, politics or your carbon footprint, you won't know who on the committee or in the personnel office thinks Al Gore is a nut, or who is a libertarian, or who hates Baptists, Mormons, Muslims, Unitarians, etc.

11) Your cell phone, BlackBerry. This should be self-explanatory, but a lot of people forget to turn them off, or think it is OK to check their e-mail at lunch. Leave it in the motel or the car! A blast of your your favorite rock ringtone wouldn't be good if you're sitting in the CEO's office. If you can't unplug long enough to complete an interview or resist text messaging your best friend, perhaps you need to stay where you are.

12) Your blog or social networking site on the internet. Unless you've been writing about a product line or an information service, dump these. Quick. Someone will always know, no matter how anonymous you think you are. I know I've seen conflicting advice on this, but not everyone in the company is up on blather and gossip as a networking tool and may think you just have a trash mouth on a back-stabbing body.

13) Your music. You wouldn't list your age on your resume, so why do it by talking about what's on your i-pod? You may be a fan of Led Zeppelin because the group was big in your teens, but that's "classics" or dad's music for the younger set.