812 If you have a disability

There are a lot of frail people in Florida. When we visited our relatives there last week we saw people in a life and death struggle to get from the parking lot to the cafeteria. Tubes, oxygen, walkers, wheelchairs. Their lives are very different from mine and they can't do many of the things they used to, nor can they contribute economically to society. But I'm not going to knock them down and bar the door of the restaurant (I'll leave that to Florida drivers).

That's what is happening to Terri Schiavo, a young woman who has a severe disability. The contribution she is making to our society is vast, however. Much greater than mine. She is teaching us about compassion, caring, humanity, empathy, and all their antonyms--judicial lust for power, a greedy lawyer writing a book, an unfaithful and possibly abusive husband. Terri may be disabled, but she is definitely not dying, the usual reason for removing hydration and nutrition.

"Despite what Michael Schiavo, some media outlets and various "right-to-die" groups in Florida and around the country report, Terri Schiavo is not dying; she does not have a terminal illness; she is not comatose; she is not, even by Florida state statute, in a persistent vegetative state. She is cognitively and physically disabled — period. Any reasonable person who views the video clips on the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation's website would recognize the truth of her condition. Terri's disability requires that she be given fluids and nutrition through a gastronomy tube – at meal times – much the equivalent of giving a baby formula through a bottle, and the removal of which would irrefutably cause her death by starvation and dehydration." The Washington Dispatch

811 My Valentine's present

Artist is Amy Lacombe. Whimsiclaycats.

810 Don't forget your keys

Once a month my husband has lunch at the golf course club house with his watercolor buddies. Andy, his former partner in an architectural firm, has recently joined the group and stopped by here to pick him up. After they left, I took a cold remedy (had a scratchy throat) and went to bed. Several times I heard the phone ring, but decided I'd let the machine get it. I heard their voices downstairs at some point, and just rolled over and went back to sleep. After about two hours I came down and called to him in his office, assuming Andy had gone home.

After lunch the guys had decided to come back here for dessert--I'd made two sugar-free pies this week. When they got here they discovered I'd locked the door, and my husband hadn't taken his keys. He rang the doorbell several times. He looked inside the garage and saw my car. So they went to a neighbors and called (the phone I heard and didn't answer). (If my husband were younger, he would have had his cell phone with him.) Then they drove to Panera's thinking I'd gone out for coffee with a friend. Finally they drove to our daughter's office a few miles north and got her key. Upon checking to see if I was missing or dead, he found me sound asleep, so the two guys each enjoyed a piece of pie, one chocolate, one rhubarb.

Andy was really hankering for rhubarb pie, I guess, because that's a lot of trouble for a piece of pie--even mine (I make the best crust east of the Mississippi). Otherwise, he would have left off his passenger after lunch and driven away.

809 Howard Dean and the NHL

Not even a news junkie like me could find a relationship between Howard Dean starting as chair of the DNC and the ending (officially) of the NHL season that never was.

The players and owners have plenty of money. They were only a few million off in the salary cap figures--I don't know about you, but I wouldn't quibble about 4 or 5 million.

The people I feel sorry for are the businesses in our "arena district." Not only the small bricks and mortar ones, but the little guy who was maybe selling souvenirs on the street corner to the crowds, and of course the waitress and busboy group who hadn't been able to set aside a strike fund. The Blue Jackets have already lost a number of their employees who have been waiting since September for something to happen.

Columbus defeated an attempt to build the arena with tax dollars in 1997, so it was built with private money (fortunately). But the city spent a bundle on improvements for the area, and was benefiting from the district's business. Also, I suspect the fans have a short attention span. The base was just getting solid here.

In December, Business First Editorial commented:

"They gave parts of downtown a vibrancy they'd never seen. They helped serve as a catalyst for urban redevelopment. They offered Central Ohioans prospects for fun (if not pricey) entertainment. They gave us something to talk about, even if we didn't fully appreciate the nuance of a left wing lock.

Millionaires fighting over money is always a loathsome sight. This battle already is plenty ugly. And as it goes on, the future fans of the league will get trampled some more. Silly us, and we thought sports was simply a diversion."

Howard Dean, meanwhile, called for a media blackout of his first talk with Richard Perle, then changed his mind, then called for the resignation of some GOP who opined off the cuff that the Dems were the party of "Barbara Boxer, Lynne Stewart and Howard Dean." Well, at least he didn't ask for millions. Sports and politics. Politics and sports. Poliorts.

808 The Conundrum

Everyday I list 4 or 5 words in my notebook I'd like to use in a sentence. Usually, I find no topic or occasion to do so. These are not difficult words--stellar, daunting, irksome, culminated--just words I wouldn't ordinarily use. But yesterday I noted "conundrum" because I saw it twice in the Wall Street Journal. Then today when Answers.com popped up on my screen, it said "conundrum" was yesterday's word. Obviously, when Greenspan gave his Senate testimony and used that word, a lot of people looked it up.

It's just a fancy way to say riddle or puzzle, and today I think I may have occasion to use it in a blog--and not just as a quote of Mr. Greenspan, or noting its use in another publication. I think the Terri Schiavo case is a conundrum because people seem to be deciding her fate based on liberal or conservative political views--it has almost become a red state/blue state conundrum. What ever happened to the "bleeding heart" liberal? Where is the liberal who is all for the little guy, and willing to spend my taxes to help him? I've wondered about this in the abortion dilemma too. Who could be smaller and more in need of protection from the government than the unborn, or the brain injured? People who will stand in the rain at midnight outside of prisons before an execution of a rapist/murderer, or who will demand that Iraqi prisoners of war in Guantanamo have all the rights of American citizenship when it comes to imprisonment and trial, will turn up their blue noses at a fellow American in need of their assistance. Really, a conundrum.

In some cases, there is no one to care for an invalid, but this isn't the case here. Terri's husband could divorce her, marry the mother of his children, and Terri's parents could either love her as she is or get her help (which her husband has refused). I visit two women in nursing homes who are in Terri's condition. Although it is painful for their families, the women themselves are not unhappy or distressed.

You can add your blog address to a group rallying to save Terri at Hyscience.

807 These colors don't run

Have you seen that bumper sticker or window decal? I was parked next to a sedan at the supermarket yesterday that had the window decal with the bold, bald eagle. All the red had faded. It was a blue and white decal. Finland anyone?

806 New Golf entry

At my other, other blog, In the Beginning, I've added an entry about a golf magazine, The Green Magazine, which hit the news stands (with a thud, I think) last June. Today at Borders I saw a new Meredith Corp. magazine, but it was about $15, so I passed. There is a limit to what I'd invest in a hobby, even one that isn't as expensive as golf! It was about gardens. Meredith has a long history with the other kind of green--plants--being the publisher of Better Homes and Gardens, but starting with Successful Farming in the early 20th century.

805 Enjoying a vacation--cut the stress

I have not been following the Jason Eason/CNN/Bloggers flap. I saw only a few snippets of Floridian news last week (seems to be a very bad state for needy children and parents with problems). That’s what makes a vacation, in my opinion--turning off the news and not reading a newspaper. But I’ll just cut and paste this bit from Hugh Hewitt on how mainstream media journalists can conduct themselves, still be left of center, but maintain integrity:

“Here are the rules: Don't serially slander the military as assassins and torturers, and you can say whatever you want at Davos. Don't pass off obviously forged documents as super-"Scoops!" in the middle of a presidential election, and you can intone all the absurd "anchor" sayings you want. Don't cover for plagiarists, and you can be the off-the-cliff lefty editor for as long as you want. Don't say the memory of Christmas-Eve-in-Cambodia is "seared, seared" in your memory and then say "oops," you were mistaken, and folks won't question your credibility on other war-stories. Don't appear to endorse segregation, and you can be the Leader. These aren't high bars. Cross them.”

Hewitt is a conservative radio host whose little book In, but not of is on our book club list for next month. I went into Amazon.com and read 9 reviews and the introduction. I think it is quite popular as a graduation gift, but I can only find one copy in OhioLink (and it won’t let me place a save) and none at the local or metropolitan public libraries. It looks like a book on setting goals, Christian life, ambition, being the best you can be. One reviewer said he was 58 and still found it useful, so maybe I’ll benefit--and then pass it along to a younger family member (since I can’t get it from a library). Librarians, as I’ve reported before, as a group are politically very liberal, but I hope this doesn’t account for its scarcity on library shelves. I like to think my profession is above partisanship--and clever enough to work the crowd. His new book on Blogs is also quite unavailable locally.

804 Jungle Gardens, Sarasota Florida

A few years ago, one of our nieces got married here on the site of Jungle Gardens, a lush tourist attraction. Although the marriage didn't last, it is still a pretty place to visit and to hold a special event. I was able to get quite close to the Flamingoes for photographs. It started as a private residence and evolved into a place to observe a variety of plants and animals.

In the photo, a bird is enjoying lunch while we waited for "Birds of the Rainforest" show. While we were there taking in the Florida sites and sights, I had more visitors to my blog site than when I am blogging. I should take more vacations.


Lunch with a friend

803 The shopping Jean

Quite by accident, I discovered that my sister-in-law, Jean, has no shopping gene. This is unusual for a woman. While in Florida we were guests in their 8 x 33 RV trailer. We slept on a futon on the attached porch. The bathroom was pretty small--about the size of a postage stamp and I'm a #10 envelop. Tuesday I was brushing my teeth and threw my back out because I didn't open the door to put my rear end in the hallway. You get the picture?

So Jean loaned me one of their 3 back braces; they are sort of a lending library for the RV park, I think. It felt so good that I thought I should buy one. I've been having periodic back trouble since my horse fell on me years ago, and hadn't found much that would help. So she suggested Wal-Mart. I made a list of a few things I thought I needed and off we went in her big Lincoln (about the size of the trailer).

I just love to shop at Wal-Mart, but I knew we were in trouble the minute we stepped through the doors. She looked at the ceiling for the directional signs, pointed and said, "That way." We were off and running, and had all the list accomplished in about 2 minutes, were in the check-out lane and back in the parking lot in a no time.

I said, "Jean has no shopping gene."

Here's a cozy photo of the "kitchen," and we were playing Uno--this particular game lasted about 45 minutes (we didn't have the rules with us). We had such a good time that they bought a game too, and now we know what we were doing wrong.

Playing Uno in the trailer

802 Traveling with books

"Books I travel with. . " dangles a preposition far away from its object, so I changed the topic line. They need to be light weight, easy to pick up and restart, and attention grabbing, so I can read above (below) people chatting in airports, on cell phones, or two guys loudly watching the Super Bowl 3 ft away in my relatives' trailer/camper. This trip had a first--a woman in a bathroom stall talking on her cell phone--made me wonder what the person on the other end was hearing. Then I realized it was the janitress, so probably the callee was accustomed to hearing toilets flush, and other less gentle sounds.

But the book I took along is "Got game; how the gamer generation is reshaping business forever" by John C. Beck and Michell Wade (Harvard Business School Press, 2004). The boomers were big--affected everything about our culture, but the "gamer" demographic is bigger yet, and so is the generation gap, according to Beck and Wade.

Gamers are those who have grown up with and regularly use video grames--and here the authors include arcade games, computer games, hand held games, and digital games played on TV. The delivery platform is not important, but the nature of game playing is (you are the star, everything is possible, things are simple, the young rule, etc.).

I found this book as interesting as a good novel because it revealed another universe going on around me which I'd been completely ignoring. It's the topic I skip when "Wired" does an article on xbox, and the blog I impatiently skim when it includes a love song to the latest purchase of an interactive fantasy game.

These authors look at the gamers from a business management angle, but teachers, pastors, social workers and librarians could also benefit because the world view is very different. The 25 year old Indianapolis gamer may have more in common with a gamer from Korea, than a 30 year old from Buffalo who is not a gamer.

If you are short on time, just read the introductory material--the rest is somewhat anecdotal and repetitive. However, it includes references, data and charts, something I always appreciate (it's a librarian thing). It will prepare you for understanding the gap.

The pony tail

Remember in the mid-1970s the fifty-something waitress who still wore her hair around a "rat" like it was 1945? If you weren't born yet, just so you can picture this, you see something similar today on the beaches in Florida, and probably California.

Male boomers, bald as an egg, with tiny wispy gray pony tails in a petite sausage curl, announce the 'tude of their college days when long hair was a statement of rebellion for boys. Now the curl shouts, "Hell no, I won't go--into retirement, into a senior discount, into the sunset, into the rocking chair." Now it says, "Hey, I'm still so cool."

Saturday evening in Bradenton

Here I am at my brother's blogging for the first time this week. Big blog withdrawal. We're celebrating my sister in law's birthday.

Nice week, but a little coolish. Did St. Armand's Circle, Jungle Gardens, ate breakfast at the Broken Egg, had lunch at the Sandbar, and I've had 2 pieces of key lime pie, my favorite.

We had a nice get together with all my Florida relatives at the Twin Dolphins today. Flying home Monday. Signing off.

On the beach

Certainly not my best painting, however it grabs the ambience of four midwesterners, fully clothed, heads covered, slathered in sun screen, covered with umbrellas. The women are looking at the water; the men are watching the babes.


On the beach

Check back next week for more exciting stories from Florida.

801 National Adoption Month

It isn't in February, it's November. But Marvin Olasky says nothing appeared in the major media about it even though there are 118,000 children in foster care who are eligible for adoption. He decided to cover the topic any way, and you can read it here for Capital Research Center. The co-author is Dan Vazquez who works in India with disadvantaged children and covers street children in Mexico for this article.

800 The cat who hears cheese

If I open the door of the refrigerator and take out a tomato, or margarine or a sack of apples, I am alone. If I take out a package of cheese, the cat appears from nowhere and is sitting quietly behind me when I turn around. She could have been in a sound sleep on the couch in my office not having moved since breakfast at 5:15 a.m. with my comings and goings, entrances and exits.

She has issues--was abandoned or abused in young adulthood and we got her at a cat rescue place. Now I wonder if she had been locked up in a basement somewhere. Last week I brought home a 1954 National Geographic special reprint about the wonders of the telephone age from the freebie box at the public library. Since a baby bell has gobbled up momma, I thought it might be interesting (and it is, since it sort of chronicles that Bell Labs really didn't know the goldmines that awaited in the future). I didn't realize at first that it had a horrible odor. Our suburb had a very bad storm and flood in the early 70s. Our house was one of the few that did not flood (we had no basement), but for weeks the neighborhood reeked of mold and mildew, rotting carpet, and destroyed wall panelling as exhausted home owners brought damaged goods to the curb for pick up. Our neighbor's wine collection had all the labels loosen and float away (he was right on the creek).

Anyway, that's what "New Miracles of the Telephone Age" smells like. And the cat loves it. I put it next to the register thinking it needed to air out, but she sits on it, rolls on it, nibbles on the pages and looks like she is rolling in cat nip.

Must sound like cheese to her.

799 Put some spice in your marriage

Advice is something librarians dispense, but usually I stay away from advising people about relationships. I am well aware that I married the greatest guy in the world, so what's tough about that?

However, after 45 years, conversation does get a bit thin. He tends to say "Yes, yes," before I even get the words out of my mouth about something I read on a blog, because he just saw it on the News. So we've been having game night. So far, we've only tried Boggle, Racko and Uno, because I'm really, really awful at games, and I'm a poor loser. I'm also a poor winner, because I don't like to see anyone lose. Euchre is the national passtime for anyone from Indiana, so if I really want to wow him, I offer him a game of Euchre. Boys from Indianapolis find that very sexy.

Here's how it raises the level of discourse in our home:
"I can't believe I did that."
"Is that a word?"
"Let the answering machine take that."
"Do the rules say we can do that?"
"We've lost the rules."
"When did we buy this game anyway?"
"Box says 1971."
"I'm no good at this."

Since we'd lost the rules to the Uno game, my husband took it to his lunch session with the 4th grader he mentors. He explained it to him--but we think he missed a few of the finer points. It is an urban school in sort of a rough neighborhood and we suspect that whoever shouts loudest gets to set the rules. I tried checking the internet but found 3 sets of rules (to download) and they don't look like our box. Our first attempt ran to about 45 minutes, so we think we've missed something.

Boggle is more fun, but only for me. I'm the wordsmith in the family. My husband had a really awful start in school, but because he was sweet, cute and charming with adorable red curls, I think they didn't notice he was a poor reader. Good kids who don't make waves sometimes don't get the attention they should. He reads fine now--in fact, because he is disciplined and focused, he has read the Bible through 3 times, something I've never done (no discipline). But he only reads if he has too, like building specs or committee reports. It gives him no pleasure. When I first visited in his parents' home when I was in college, I noticed there was no reading material--not a newspaper or magazine or book. About 15 years later that had changed some. When we'd visit with the kids I could browse Field and Stream and the Indianapolis Star, and a few text book's my father-in-law had purchased for his job.

In Boggle you get one point for finding 3 or 4 letter words, two points for five, three for six, etc. The letters are upside down or backwards, but you can spell any direction--up, down, back, forward, sideways. In 3 minutes. If you both find the same word, neither gets a point. I thought my mind might react quicker if I refreshed it with four letter words. No, not that kind, but basic building blocks of most of our sentences. Suddenly, I began seeing four letter words everywhere. Then I stopped to write them down. My morning notebook, instead of having notes for my blogs, now has pages of told, bond, firm, them, week, push, just, over, took and take. Four or five pages of this nonsense. Then I tried putting them into rhymes and sentences. (Proper names are generally not used, however).

WITH THAT HUGE
IRAQ VOTE
POOR FLIP FLOP JOHN
TIPS OVER BOAT.

FOOT BALL BOWL FANS
GULP COLD BEER
WHEN TEAM LOSE
YELL FOUL PLAY

NINE TEEN FIVE FIVE
PROM GALS WAIT
PINK GRAY FORD
ROCK ROLL DATE.

BUSH HELD FAST
TALK SHOW TELL
LAST YEAR WINS
VOTE FROM HELL

THEY WERE CALM
JUST MORE HARD NOSE
CORE WILL STAY
COLD WIND BLOW

GALS SHOP TILL DROP
BACK FOOT SORE
SALE, SALE, SALE
HAIL TAXI PLAN MORE

Just so I can move on with my life, I'm going to start in on five letter words.

798 Hanson on fire

Usually Victor Davis Hanson is fairly controlled, nuanced and cautious in criticism. But he's on fire in this one, "The Global Throng;
Why the world’s elites gnash their teeth." It gave me the opportunity to use my new Answers.com toolbar to look up why he called Ted Kennedy "the old minotaur" (with the correct pronunciation).

797 Such an exclusive deal!

Yesterday I returned a birthday present--the slacks were 5 inches too big in the waist, and about 4 inches too long in the legs. Rather than pay a seamstress to make the adjustments, I returned them to Lazarus. At least we called that store Lazarus when my daughter bought the gift in September (took me awhile to try them on--she loves that brand, but she has long legs and is short waisted). It was really a Macy's store when I took them back (name was actually changed in 2003).

With my new Macy's charge card I received a 15% off coupon to break it in. With the $44 credit for the slacks (I had no receipt, so I got whatever the current price is), and the coupon, and a huge 70% off sale, I figured the store would be paying me to shop! Maybe I'd pick something up for the Florida trip. But it was not to be. Nothing but picked over winter stuff in sizes 2XL or Petite2. Besides, the fine print on the coupon had that little "exclusions apply, see back for details" note.

May not be combined with any additional discount offers.
May not be applied to previous purchases.
Excludes Everyday value items
Excludes specials
Excludes super buys
Excludes cosmetics and fragrances
Excludes Polo/Lauren/Ralph Lauren
Excludes Tommy Bahama
Excludes Impulse
Excludes Bridge and Design Sportswear for her
Excludes Dooney & Bourke
Excludes Coach
Excludes Kate Spade
Excludes watches
Excludes Bridge/Designer shoes, handbags
Excludes small electrics and personal care
Excludes Vera Wang
Excludes Waterford
Excludes furniture, mattresses, floor covering
Excludes services
Excludes restaurants
Excludes Macys.com, macysweddingchannel.com/Kiosks
Excludes special orders
Excludes Macy's gift cards and merchandise certificates

Twenty five years ago I wrote a newsletter called "No Free Lunch" about marketing schemes using coupons, stamps, sweepstakes and other ways to play with your food. It is all coming back to me now. The house always wins.

796 More?

Reading this item yesterday was disturbing: "USAirways is cutting 318 more maintenance jobs in Charlotte NC." More? We are planning to fly into Charlotte on our way to Florida, so the thought of "more" means they are down a few already, doesn't it? "The airlines is in bankruptcy court for the 2nd time in 2 years." I hope they can hang in there through February!

795 Ward Churchill Poll

Bill O'Reilly's page has a poll asking if Ward Churchill should be fired by the University of Colorado, and I voted No. If he is fired, conservatives should protest. Why give this 60s wannabe the red carpet treatment? Let him go the brave route many other faculty have taken--like being assigned no teaching assistants, a crummy office, all the worst departmental appointments, denial of grants and research funds, and especially, large freshman classes of introductory classes. That's how universities get rid of conservatives. Of course, there is no evidence anyone wants to get him off the faculty except a few parents who think their hard earned tuition money for junior has gone up in smoke.

Professor Bainbridge on what conservatives should do.

794 Super Bowl ad pulled

Ad Age.com reports that Ford Motor Company's Lincoln will not be seen in the Super Bowl ads this coming Sunday. ". . .the ad, which was created by WPP Group's Young & Rubicam Brands, Dearborn, Mich., after receiving complaints from an advocacy group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The group said the commercial, which showed a priest lusting after the Mark LT, was offensive.

Ford in a statement today said, "Lincoln has decided not to run the Lincoln Mark LT ad on the Super Bowl this Sunday. Of course we had no intention of offending anyone -- and we are frankly surprised there is a negative reaction." " Story here.

I'll have to think about this one. I probably would have thought it was offensive even if I'd never known about the abuse. Or at least tacky. What goes through their heads, she mumbled.

If you just have to know about the rest of the ads, here's a chart. I'm not much for football, but I might walk through the living room for a good ad.

Update: Now that removing the ad is news, I saw the complete ad on a news story tonight. And it probably didn't even cost Ford a thing to run it that way. It really is a pretty silly ad. It wouldn't make me buy a Lincoln.

793 Federal employees and their Thrift Savings Plan

The same congresspeople who booed the President last night when he talked about the end of their gravy train have access to their own TSPs, Thrift Savings Plans, and they are trusted to manage them. It's a little bit like the school choice issue. They can choose to send their kids out of the district to a private school that is superior to the public one across the street, but they don't want you to do that because it might hurt public education. It is OK for them to shelter their retirement funds, but if you or I do it with funds that could go the government, it might hurt Social Security. Take a look:

"The TSP is a retirement savings plan for civilians who are employed by the United States Government and members of the uniformed services. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, administers the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). The Web site http://www.frtib.gov, provides information about the FRTIB electronic reading room, procurements, and employment opportunities. "

This is like the 401(k) you may have through your company, but the "company" who contributes to this plan is you and I, the taxpayers. Gene Sperling, a Clinton economic adviser, has proposed a Universal 401(k) plan which would be similar to what federal employees have. It is described at www.americanprogress.org/ Center for American Progress: "The president and progressives could both protect Social Security’s guaranteed benefit and promote ownership with a new Universal 401(k) that offers all Americans a private retirement account on top of Social Security, and uses government funds to match contributions made by middle income and lower-income workers. The Universal 401(k) would spread individual savings and wealth creation to tens of millions of American families currently falling through the cracks by offering all Americans the generous incentives and automatic savings opportunities that the best employer-provided 401(k)’s offer their employees."

792 Life-affirming, inspirational, and motivational

That's how Boogie Jack describes his Life's Little Goodies column in his how-to, webmaster's newsletter, Almost a Newsletter. Even though I'm no longer responsible for a web page, I've continued to subscribe because he is upbeat, positive, and offers instructions for code I occasionally try.

In issue 119 (he'd been gone for awhile due to eye problems), he includes some script to enable you to set up an e-mail link that will avoid spammers scooping up your address. So I've put it on my blog, and we'll see how it works. Before I used the "at" and "dot" spelled out, which for newbies was confusing. Check out his #119 and browse through his Tips Jar. He provides the complete script with explanations. Then sign up for his free newsletter.

791 A Scolding for Christians

If you are not a Christian, you can skip this entry. Ronald J. Sider, sort of a perennial scold, has a real tongue lashing for Christians, particularly the "born agains" (larger group) and evangelicals (smaller group). He uses a number of statistical reports, particularly those done by George Barna, the one with which I'm most familiar. But he weaves together a pretty discouraging basket of bad news in the January/February 2005 issue of Books and Culture.

"To say there is a crisis of disobedience in the evangelical world today is to dangerously understate the problem. Born-again Christians divorce at about the same rate as everyone else. Self-centered materialism is seducing evangelicals and rapidly destroying our earlier, slightly more generous giving. Only 6 percent of born-again Christians tithe. Born-again Christians justify and engage in sexual promiscuity (both premarital sex and adultery) at astonishing rates. Racism and perhaps physical abuse of wives seems to be worse in evangelical circles than elsewhere. This is scandalous behavior for people who claim to be born-again by the Holy Spirit and to enjoy the very presence of the Risen Lord in their lives.

In light of the foregoing statistics, it is not surprising that born-again Christians spend seven times more hours each week in front of their televisions than they spend in Bible reading, prayer, and worship.(32) Only 9 percent of born-again adults and 2 percent of born-again teenagers have a biblical worldview.(33)

Perhaps it is not surprising either that non-Christians have a very negative view of evangelicals. In a recent poll, Barna asked non-Christians about their attitudes toward different groups of Christians. Only 44 percent have a positive view of Christian clergy. Just 32 percent have a positive view of born-again Christians. And a mere 22 percent have a positive view of evangelicals.(34)

Evangelicals rightly rejected theological liberalism because it denied the miraculous. In response, we insisted that miracle was central to biblical faith at numerous points including the supernatural moral transformation of broken sinners. Now our very lifestyle as evangelicals is a ringing practical denial of the miraculous in our lives. Satan must laugh in sneerful derision. God's people can only weep."

It is quite long and well referenced, summarizing his points in The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience (Baker, 2004). Sider is a professor at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

790 The brain and risky behavior

This came as a surprise, but only because I'd been told this as a fact and believed it when my kids were 18 and 19. Apparently, the information was purely anecdotal and shared among parents before the NIH tested it.

"A National Institutes of Health study suggests that the region of the brain that inhibits risky behavior is not fully formed until age 25, a finding with implications for a host of policies, including the nation's driving laws."

News story here.

789 Alice Robie Resnick's DUI

If you're not from Ohio, you probably haven't heard that six drivers on Interstate 75 reported a drunk driver was weaving and careening her way south. The state police caught her around Bowling Green, and she told them she was in a hurry to get to Columbus and she took off again. They followed her and stopped her again, and yes, she was 3 times over the limit. She's an Ohio Supreme Court Justice.

If six passing motorists noticed her behavior, so did those who regularly sit on the bench with her, her staff, and her family. Did they care too much, or not enough? She's had at least three auto accidents since 1998 according to today's Columbus Dispatch. Let's set aside for a moment that she's making legal decisions that affect the people of Ohio; she is dangerous behind the wheel and might kill someone!
Apparently, holding a job wasn't Ms. Resnick's problem--she gets reelected as the court's only Democrat.

People who are drunk at 2 p.m. on the interstate aren't social drinkers; they need help. They need to have their car keys and license taken away by someone more responsible and be handed a scholarship to Betty Ford or some other clinic to dry out, and then start working those 12 steps.

788 Draft Horses making a comeback

When my mother was a little girl, her family still kept a carriage horse in the barn that did useful tasks like pulling their cars out of the muddy lanes that approached their graceful farm home two miles from the main road near Franklin Grove, Illinois. I believe she told me the children never rode "Beauty" because she hadn't been broken to ride. Because I was madly in love with horses, I couldn't imagine having a horse that close and NOT riding it. My grandparents were "early adopters" and owned automobiles probably before 1910. Draft horses were still used in the fields because tractors weren't reliable enough, but I believe they were stabled at the tenant farm barn. My father's family in the next county, however, used draft horses regularly in farming. My father told me they sometimes rode one to church, the Pine Creek Church of the Brethren (now disbanded). Draft horses are so massive, so wide and so powerful, I have difficulty picturing this. My grandmother was blind and the four older children would have been quite small. But then, picturing her walking there with little ones doesn't read either.

Tomorrow and Friday the Eastern States Draft Horse Sales will be at the Ohio Expo Center. I'm ticking off the list of friends who remotely might be interested, and can't think of a one, so I may have to go alone. Maybe Bev. That woman will try anything once and turn it into an art project.

According to Draft Horse Journal:

"The Industrial Revolution proved to be responsible for both the rise and collapse of the heavy horse in America. Demand for draft animals was spurred on by the growing transportation, construction and agricultural needs of the nation. The last half of the 19th century made draft horse breeding both essential and profitable. Massive importations from Europe took place. The period also ushered in the development of the present day breeds of heavy horses. The number of horses and mules in The United States peaked in 1920, at about 26 million. The groundwork for today's agriculture had been laid.

The horse lost the battle of the streets to the automotive industry rather quickly. As for the battle of the agricultural fields, it fought very tenaciously, but eventually yielded in most cases to greatly improved tractor power. By 1950, it was indeed, on thin ice. "Get big or get out" was heard across the nation and many did just that. It appeared to many that the draft horse was destined for the museum, a relic of days gone by.

Since that time, the draft breeds have not only stabilized their numbers, but once more enjoy a thriving trade. The fact that the old order Amish decided in the '20s to reject tractor power in the fields was a considerable factor, as were the dedicated breeders that had produced these splendid breeds." Read more.

February must be a good time for draft horse sales, because I see that during this month there are two in Florida, one in Illinois, one in East Lansing, two in Missouri, one in Orange City, Iowa, and one in Winona, Minnesota. Probably can't get into the fields so why not go hang out at the barn with the guys. Many midwest Amish vacation in Florida.

Logo of the Draft Horse Journal
Cute bumper sticker and great photos here. North American Spotted Draft Horse Association

787 A blog about the Social Security proposals

It's called "Social Security Choice" and is sponsored by the Club for Growth; you should probably read it even if you don't like what the administration is proposing, just so you can prepare your arguments.

I read something today in the WSJ which made me think SS is probably in worse shape than I originally thought. According to an article by David Wessel, there are 47.7 million Americans receiving benefits--7.9 million are disabled, 6.7 million are survivors, and 33 million are retirees. Of that 33 million, only 20% use Social Security as their only source of income, and 17% of those are disabled. I think this is a smaller number than I've seen before, unless I misunderstood him. I'm not sure why I find that disturbing, but it means very few Americans rely on Social Security now and the rest have voluntarily put other programs in place, just as we have. But the small percentage who are relying solely on SS, then are eligible for other programs like low income housing, food stamps and Medicaid, which may bring them closer to the level of those who have established other plans.

Perhaps what concerns me is the nagging feeling that the government sees that most retirees are already doing what is proposed--we already have "ownership" of our future--so therefore, why not "bless it" and midwife this hodge podge assortment into giving birth to another government program?

786 Should librarian bloggers be anonymous?

Jack Stephens at Conservator notes a new blog called simply "Librarian," which is written anonymously. Doesn't appear to be any big secret. He identifies the suspect--a well known, far left Florida faculty member. I looked at his link. Yawned. Moved on. Do I really want to celebrate 100 years of the Industrial Workers of the World, or follow another screed on the evils of capitalism?

Being anonymous on the internet, in my opinion, shouldn't bump her, however. I regularly read "Wretchard" of Belmont Club and Diplomad and have no idea who they are, assuming if they are putting that much effort and research into their writing, they probably have jobs or families they want to protect. My family and friends know who I am--to everyone else, I'm a collection of pixels on a screen, possibly I'm just a calico cat at the keyboard.


Blogger resting

785 Feed your Brain

Number 2 on a list of 7 ways to optimize the brain is on feeding the brain.

"The fuel you feed your brain has a profound effect on how it functions. Lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and foods rich in omega 3 fatty acids (large cold water fish, such as tuna and salmon, walnuts, Brazil nuts, olive oil, and canola oil) are essential to brain function. Unfortunately, the great American diet is filled with simple sugars and simple carbohydrates, causing many people to feel emotional, sluggish, spacey, and distracted.

What do you have for breakfast? Do you even have breakfast? Today, many children, teens, and adults start the day with either nothing at all or by loading up on simple carbohydrates, such as sugar cereals, Pop Tarts, muffins, bagels, waffles, pancakes, or donuts. In our fast paced society these foods are simple to prepare for the family rushed in the morning, but they cause brain fog and lower performance in many people. Start the day with a healthy breakfast that includes protein, such as eggs, lean meat, or dairy products.

Many people struggle with energy and mental clarity after lunch. I have found that eliminating all simple carbohydrates at lunch (sugar, white bread or other products made from white flour such as bagels and white pasta, potatoes, and rice) can make a dramatic difference in energy and focus in the afternoon. An additional benefit of skipping sugar and simple carbohydrates at lunch is that most people do not feel hunger until dinnertime. I also believe taking a 100% vitamin and mineral supplement is important. Many people do not eat like they should on a regular basis."

Also at this web site is a list of the ways the brains of men and women differ--in many cases, giving women a clear advantage. Probably won't help Lawrence Summers, President of Harvard, who has offended the feminists by suggesting there is a difference between men and women.

Here's a site for exercising the brain. I think I like that part about "thinking" about exercising a certain muscle and having it get stronger. Now that's my kind of exercise!

784 Loose ends

Speaking of the hair cut I'm getting today, there are a few loose ends I need to clip and save here. 1) a discussion about libraries of the future, 2) is there free speech on the campus, and 3) Comma-istas among the Democrats.

Libraries of the Future. Meredith at the blog Information wants to be free recommends this panel discussion at Chicago Public Radio. Nathan Bierma (see my links) is on the panel. According to the current e-newsletter issue of Books and Culture, “starting in February, Nathan will be joining John Witvliet and his team at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship; he'll also be teaching a writing class at Calvin. Nathan has been superb—and he will continue to contribute to B & C. Keep an eye out for his byline both in the print magazine and on the website.”

How free is speech on the college campuses? Not even the President of a prestigious university can ask a question. Christian Science Monitor article.

Diplomad (Feb. 1) talks about the Comma-istas: “Of course the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were horrible [Here it comes! Listen for it!] [COMMA] but US policy in the Middle East . . ." “Of course the Iraqi elections were a good thing [COMMA] but they will not resolve the serious issue of severe income inequality in East St. Louis, or the growing gender disparity in the granting of scholarships to welding schools . . .” And the chief Comma-ista is John Kerry.

783 Murphy Brown, even better the second time around

Murphy Brown and the cast of FYI are now on Nick-at-Night, and better than ever. We watched the show's first installment in 1988 and enjoyed most of the early seasons, although not happy about the out-of-wedlock baby story line.** The original ensemble included: Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford), (now starring in her own sitcom with Kelly Ripa) a former Miss America hired for her looks; Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto), investigative reporter; Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough), the neurotic anchorman; Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud), a new college grad in his first "real" job as a producer; Eldin Bernecky (Robert Pastorelli), a house painter who is always working on Murphy's house and becomes the babysitter when her son, Avery, is born; and Phil (Pat Corley), the owner of Phil's Bar, where the FYI staff hangs out. There was a long parade of real news reporters as guests on the show, but the funniest theme, a long running joke, were the always weird and wonderful secretaries to assist Murphy. Looking at the episode list, there are many I don't recall, but I assume I lost interest after awhile.

I just wish they weren't running it at 3:30 a.m. I get up early, but . . .

Maybe I'll have to buy the DVD: "Murphy Brown: The Complete First Season" kicks off the series with Murphy returning to "F.Y.I." after drying out at the Betty Ford Clinic. In her absence, the show has gone through some changes, including the addition of a beauty queen who thinks she's a journalist and a new young executive producer fresh from Harvard who's never worked in television. During the first season, Murphy went through twenty secretaries, sparred with her house painter Eldin (Robert Pastorelli), and traded barbs with the "F.Y.I." team at their favorite hangout, Phil's, run by the all-knowing owner Phil (Pat Corely). Unique to the series, each episode opened with a different Motown song whose title or lyrics related to the story line to follow. In its nine-year run, this acclaimed sitcom garnered 62 Emmy nominations and 18 wins, 4 of which were for season one.

The 22 episodes run 535 minutes on this 4-disc DVD with extras that include:
-- "Murphy Brown: An F.Y.I. Exclusive" looks back at season one and how it all began with interviews by Creator Diane English, Candice Bergen and other cast members
-- Episode Commentary on "Respect" and "Summer of '77" with Diane English and Candice Bergen"

Photo at Classic TV.com

** See: Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, "Dan Quayle was right." Atlantic Monthly, April 1993.

782 Can they ever report good news?

The December economic figures posted in today's Wall Street were good--didn't jot them all down but personal income up +3.1%, productivity +1.9%, unemployment steady at 5.4%. Then while flipping through the USAToday I noticed a photo full page story on "State of the Union," with mostly negative slant from the subtitles, unless you looked closely.

What a surprise to see Ron and Mary of our church featured in a story about a corporate couple who bought a bakery (Great Harvest Bread Company) so they could spend more time with their children as a family. I was in an aerobics class with Mary, and we received some free gifts from their shop when we moved here three years ago. Their baked goods are to die for and the owners are right there.

A black doctor was interviewed for this story--he was worried about red tape and paperwork hurting patients. Hmmm. I wonder who's to blame for that? A Pensacola tax marketer was complaining about not having enough money to eat out more and enjoy more entertainment. An architect worried about the deficit and our international image, but they apparently interviewed him on the job based on his photo. A Puerto Rican who is loving his Chicago job and location and opportunities apparently finds work that some locals don't want, because he was thrilled. At the bottom of the page were tiny charts--eating out, up; federal debt, up; employment, up; satisfaction, up; foreclosures, down; deliquent loans, down.

It sure is hard to report on bad news these days. Need to call in John Kerry and Ted Kennedy who managed to put a negative spin on the first free Iraqi election in history for help in composing those make-believe economy stories. John ("let's not over-hype this") Kerry's stock could have soared if he'd just complimented the Iraqis. But he was his usual pompous, my-way-or-the-highway, doomsayer self.

781 Grocery day soup

Last week it was bread pudding. This week it is broccoli soup. This nutritous meal only needs 4 basic ingredients. When I started to put the fresh vegetables and fruit away today I discovered some tired and old has-beens in the drawer. A huge broccoli bunch was turning yellowish; would go nicely with some taters in the basement growing white beards and getting soft. I always keep chicken broth on hand, so into the pot went the broccoli, potatoes and broth.

It doesn't seem to make much difference how much of what is used. The potatoes are the thickening, so you can use 2 or 6--just depends on what you have on hand. Cook the sliced stems of the broccoli with the potatoes chunks and throw the florets in for the last few minutes. (If you have an onion, that's good too.) Then swirl it all in the blender. If you have half 'n half on hand, that gives it a nice flavor, but canned milk or regular milk will work--just won't be as thick.

This recipe from the Idaho Potato Commission indicates you can also use potato flakes, dry milk and frozen broccoli. I'd rather use up what I have.

Last week, I remembered Mom with the bread pudding. This week with the soup, it is Dad. "Baby, don't you want to put on an apron?" (And he was right, as usual, and my white sweater has a few green spots.)

780 Google now in Sanskrit

From Adorablog

779 Medved on Theocons

In an interview with The American Enterprise, film critic Michael Medved explains his change from left wing radical to right wing conservative. He says he is not a "neocon," but a "theocon."

TAE: How do you define theocon?

MEDVED: As a conservative whose outlook has largely been shaped by religious commitment. One of the things that most irreligious or nonreligious Americans don't recognize sufficiently is that a huge theme of American religiosity, both Christian and Jewish, is that the individual goes through a rebirth, a recommitment, a return. That kind of transforming religious experience is usually associated with a more conservative political outlook.

The President of the United States would be a prominent example of what we're talking about. I think that the clear basis for President Bush being more conservative than his father, and vastly more conservative than his grandfather Prescott Bush, is his extremely vital personal religious faith, which he says had a transforming impact on his life.

This is one of many things that the secularists don't get--the President's "I once was lost, but now I'm found. I once was blind, but now I see." This is the core story of American Christianity, the story of being born again, of having a new life, of coming home, of the prodigal son.

In other words, one of the things they'd throw at President Bush is that he was a frat boy, he drank too much, he was a playboy. Well, yes--he says so. And he
went through a change. And part of what I'm hoping to do in my book is to talk about the fact that we have a parallel tradition on the Jewish side of things. Resh Lakish was a former thief and a lowlife who became one of the great rabbis of the Talmud. An amazing number of scholars and figures in the Torah are people who are converts to Judaism, who had no religious commitment at all, who turned their lives around."

Medved knew both John Kerry and Hillary Rodham at Yale. He didn't like Kerry then, but did like Mrs. Clinton.

"MEDVED: I thought at the time that Kerry was simply too pompous to go as far as he has. Usually politicians who are successful are people with some kind of spontaneous likeability. I had close contact with John Kerry, and his likeability factor is nonexistent.

I think Hillary will be more of a challenge in 2008 than a lot of conservatives think. She's really worked hard in the Senate. She's definitely moved to the center. And her voting record on military things is now conservative. If she's able to allow her native niceness to come out, she will be a formidable candidate."

In another article with a one page list of Indicators, TAE outlines what it continues to call the Bush mandate:

Bush's share of the vote was larger than the fraction won by any Democrat in 36 years, beginning with Hubert Humphrey in 1968; Bush increased his percentage of the vote in 45 out of 50 states; Bush in 2000 had more votes than Clinton in 1996, and his second term total was 3 times the jump Clinton achieved between 92 and 96; Bush is the first President since 1924 to start a second term with House and Senate majorities; 48 percent of women voted for Bush compared to 43 percent in 2000; and for the first time in modern history, as many voting Americans fundamentally identified themselves as Republicans as Democrats. Check it out here.

778 Canada geese, go home

Blog Driver's Waltz is one of the best looking blogs among my links--well designed and tasteful. And I'm betting it is really interesting too, if only I understood what he's talking about, but most of the time I don't. Today I noticed a tiny book cover over to the right for "Souvenir of Canada 2." Viewed through my trifocals, the book cover looked like a photo of a Canada Goose dropping its load, but upon enlargement, it is actually two fused geese moving in opposite directions, just like some things Canadian. I peeked inside (Amazon lets you do that) and it looks like a really interesting book. This is Douglas Coupland's second book about why Canada is really cool.

It's not about scooping poop, which we have to do around here, every place there is a small pond--like the little park next to our church. I don't know how often the staff has to flush the sidewalks or clean the treads on the shoes of the pre-schoolers, but I'm guessing it is often. As I drove home yesterday, I'd say conservatively, 1,000 geese were nibbling, skating on the frozen pond, chatting up their buddies and wandering into traffic. I sometimes see joggers and walkers in that area, but they'd need to be constantly looking down. I have a sneaky feeling these geese have never even visited Windsor.

This website is devoted to calming fears about tons of poop in our parks.

This one says we don't have enough data.

When I was a veterinary librarian at Ohio State, I did get questions about fecal count in bird feces and avian diseases. One time I got a phone call from a chef in New York City who wanted to bake blackbirds in a pie for a contest. This is not a joke. Librarians hear the strangest things.

777 Jumping into the deep end

When I started blogging in October 2003, I waited until the seventh entry before I wrote about quintiles, retirement and baby boomers. BrainDrain has jumped right in, posting about social security and his ideas for rescuing it, immediately after his "testing, testing 1-2-3" post. I think it is the right mix of opinion, fact, chat and hyperbole--so we'll look forward to more good blogging from another Midwesterner.

776 Gallant and Goofus

Remember the cartoon panel in Highlights for Children of the two boys, one well mannered and ethical, and the other clueless about behavior and attitude? Garry C. Myers III, the CEO of Highlights, was the child model for Gallant. His grandparents Garry Cleveland Myers and Caroline Clark Myers founded Highlights in 1946. Garry III's obituary was in the local paper yesterday. He died January 26.

The parents of young "Gallant" were killed in a plane crash and he and his siblings were raised by an aunt and uncle in Texas. The Columbus Dispatch reports "He graduated from U.S. Army Language School in Monterey, California, and served as a Spanish language specialist in Panama. He received a bachelor's degree in International Affairs at George Washington University in 1972 and then earned a M.B.A. in marketing from the University of Michigan. In 1971 at age 24 and while still in the Army, Myers was elected to the board of directors of Highlights for Children, Inc. He joined Highlights in 1975 as a management information analyst. In 1978, he became vice president of mail sales and promotion and in 1980 was named president of the Highlights corporation. Myers had been chief executive officer since 1981." Many service and volunteer organizations are listed.

I Googled "Gallant and Goofus" and discovered they have been used in sermons, TV show scripts and particularly punditry appearing in both red and blue state blogs.

Highlights Foundation has workshops for children's writers.

775 Big hair and leg warmers

Cattiva over at Does this mean I'm a grown-up enumerates the fashions of the 80s that are making a comeback. Kinda funny--my daughter's era. I think I've just packed away a few of my 80s things recently, so the reruns of the fashions have missed my notice (probably I was still wearing the 70s in the 80s). My very favorite 80s fashion was the huge shoulder pads and the wash and wear perms that needed a scrunch or two when wet (I had several).

I have a favorite blue sweater from 1980 or 1981 that just won't give up. It's a cotton knit, crew collar, long sleeve in sort of a Microsoft blue--that band of color at the bottom of my computer screen in Internet Explorer. Comfortable in summer or winter. This sweater hasn't pilled, shrunk or stretched in 25 years. I throw it in the washer, toss it in the dryer. It refuses to die or even fade. I wore it Tuesday with a white shirt and khaki slacks.

1985 in review.

774 That was close!

It wasn't exactly a New Year's resolution, but I haven't had a Fritos corn chip or a potato chip since January 1. Occasionally, the desire for something crunchy and salty rolls over me, so I pulled into a CVS parking lot on the way home from my women's group at church this morning. It was slushy and slippery and I finally found a spot that was clear, turned off the engine, and put my hand on the door, preparing to run into the store. Then Jane's face came to mind. She's in my Saturday morning group. She's about 28 and gave up a two pack a day cigarette habit on April 4, 2004. She says she loved smoking. She reached for a cig when rolling out of bed in the morning. She quit cold turkey. No nicotine gum. No patch. No substitution with snacks (didn't gain any weight). She looks (and smells) great.

So, I turned the engine back on and drove home. Thanks, Jane.

773 Delicious Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is a comfort food. I think it was developed by our grandmothers (well, not yours since you are younger) to use up stale or spoiling ingredients in the days before refrigeration. And so it came to pass, that on Monday January 24 I had a bag of stale sandwich buns, about 2 cups of milk well past the "do not sell after" date, and 5 eggs that had hung around like late night guests who don't know when to leave. So I decided I had the perfect set up for bread pudding.

In an odd coincidence, Monday was also the 5 year anniversary of my mother's death. During the grieving time I had written a very long story about my search for the perfect bread pudding recipe--something that tasted like hers. I wrote about going through her little wooden recipe box, one of the treasures I was able to take home after the funeral, and my delight at finding all sorts of names and tastes I'd forgotten. I recorded my testing of various recipes and taking them to pot luck dinners, all in the search for taste and texture (and my mom) that I remembered. I'm a little fuzzy on the details since I haven't looked at the essay for some time, but I don't think I found it. She probably made hers just by throwing a few things together and didn't use a recipe.

Five years later, I'm strong enough to accept a substitute, so the one I did make got rave reviews from my husband, and I thought it was delicious too--fine for breakfast, lunch or dinner (the dish was 13 x 9, so we had A LOT for just 2 people).

6 eggs, well beaten (I used 5--doesn't seem to matter)
1 cup sugar (I used Splenda)
2 cups light cream (I used 2% milk)
1 stick of butter (I actually had that on hand because I didn't make the Christmas cookies)
1 Tablespoon of vanilla (I think I reduced that a bit--sounds like a lot)
1 large French or egg bread, broken into pieces (I used 3 very large, stale sandwich buns)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup crushed pineapple
1 cup raisins, soaked and drained
(The recipe called for 1 jar of Bing cherries, drained, as optional. I had none and don't think this extra fruit is needed)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 x 13 baking pan or large ceramic baking dish.

Beat eggs with the sugar, cream, melted butter, and vanilla; pour this mexture over the bread cubes. Stir until bread is moistened. Sprinkle cinnamon over mixture; add pineapple and raisins.

Press mixture into the pan. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until the pudding is set. Serve hot. Serve additional cream to pour over the pudding.

Serves 12--or 2 if you're lucky.

I almost never mix the way the instructions read. I tore up the bread and put it in the baking dish and then poured the liquid over it, and dabbed on the fruit, sprinkled the cinnamon on top. Really, with these "make do" ingredients, for a dish our mothers and grandmothers threw together from left overs, it doesn't matter much. I served it with Cool Whip Free.

772 Now that's a reader

Because of who I am and the people I hang out with, I know a lot of readers. Steve and his wife have us all beat. When they married back in the 80s they challenged each other to read a book a week. He kept up with her for 7 or 8 years, and then when she turned 52, he suggested she double the number to 104, and she did! I'd be surprised if I've read 52 books since the mid-80s. Probably have, but skimming or browsing is more like it. I've certainly checked out that many a year.

Yesterday I checked out Got Game; How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever by Beck and Wade (Harvard Business School Press, 2004) and Bleachers by John Grisham (Doubleday, 2003). I'm trying to finish up So Many Enemies, So Little Time; an American Woman in All the Wrong Places by Elinor Burkett (HarperCollins, 2004), which I think is overdue (they don't charge old people fines, so I get sloppy). In the morning I've been reading Amazing Grace; 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories Daily Devotions (Kregel, 1990). That would easily get me to 52 books a year if I'd finish them. But if I read Steve's blog correctly, he and his wife actually read the entire book! What a concept.

771 Ted Kennedy is not fat

But he got to his current size because he is full of gas, hot air, and himself. He is pompous beyond belief. His latest remarks as Iraqis bravely go to the polls, are inexcusable, dangerous and life threatening--not to his career, unfortunately, but to their lives.

770 Rebuilding America street by street

For 34 years we lived in a lovely, hip roof, colonial style home on a beautiful, tree lined street in a pleasant, upscale suburb. Ours was the last street developed before World War II put a stop to home building due to shortages of materials. Just one street north of us where home building started in the later 1940s, the homes were a different style and materials. Of course, by the time we purchased 2338, it didn't meet the standards of the times, either ours or the city's, so it seemed that for 34 years we were adding closets, building walls, replacing light fixtures, upgrading plumbing, putting on triple track windows, installing a new water heater and furnace, new wiring, appliances, kitchen cabinets, adding a family room, an art studio and a free standing garage, laying a brick patio, building and replacing a variety of privacy fences and finally wrapping the house in vinyl that looked like board siding. Don't believe the stories you read about this or that improvement adding %% of value to your home. That only applies if you sell within 5 or 6 years. We stayed too long and ended up redoing a number of our 1970s projects in the 1990s. Yes, a home is a good investment, but if we had banked all the remodeling projects and just let the home appreciate with the neighborhood, we would have been way ahead.

But we were pikers compared to many of our neighbors. In the late 90s, our new young neighbors with 3 little children purchased the huge half million dollar home (reduced) next door, and because it looked like such a bargain to them (they moved from California), for the next two years they provided full employment for a variety of carpenters, decorators, landscapers, and painters. The previous owners had also continuously been revising, adding on, covering up, and redecorating. Truly, for five days a week, for over thirty years, the prettiest street in town looked like a used truck and van parking lot.

Now we own a condo in one of the prettiest complexes in our city. There isn't a day that goes by that we aren't happy to be here and enjoy the lovely view from the living room windows. But occasionally, these units too go up for sale--we're the fourth owner of ours since 1990. One on the north side sold last summer and the new owners have been meticulously redecorating for 5 months. The previous owner had redone it about eight years ago, and it was quite lovely when we did a walk through after her death. Every day negotiating that side of our drive was a challenge--trucks and vans were everywhere, day after day.

Now the largest one on the south side has sold. Yesterday morning I counted the trucks and vans parked on the street and around that unit--there were eight. But after 5 p.m. and on week-ends--it is still a pretty place to live.

769 The oldest ism

The same URL kept appearing on a search of my blog, 4 or 5 times within a few minutes, so finally out of curiosity I clicked on it. It turns out my blog about Answer.com appeared on a Yahoo finance message board: "Even old people like GRU." (stock symbol for GuruNet which developed Answer.net) Maybe I should change that photo?

768 Looking for answers?

If you use Answers.com when you need a simple definition and not 50 blog entries or ads about real estate and restaurants, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Based on the comment at my previous entry, I searched "Malaysia."

"Ma·lay·sia (mə-lā'zhə, -shə) [little speaker icon for pronunciation here]
A country of southeast Asia consisting of the southern Malay Peninsula and the northern part of the island of Borneo. Malays probably moved into the penisula c. 2000 B.C., eventually reaching northern Borneo and displacing the indigenous Dayaks. Europeans arrived in the 16th century. By the 20th century Great Britain had established protectorates throughout the lower peninsula, which later formed the Union (1946) and then the Federation (1948) of Malaya. Gaining independence in 1957, it joined with Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak to become the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. Singapore gained independence separately in 1965. Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the largest city. Population: 23,000,000."

Instead of getting just a Wikipedia entry, you get a for-real source, like American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed., and a map of the region. But it does use Wikipedia when regular sources don't work--like looking up Robert A. Taft, the Governor of Ohio. Wikipedia found him under Bob Taft; Answers.com found his grandfather, Robert A. Taft.

There is also a tool you can add to your own site which allows "one-click." Hold down the ALT key and click on any word, and you will immediately have the resources of answers.com.

I love it. Although I was counting the 4 steps to the bookshelf for the dictionary and thesaurus as exercise.

767 Don't be cruel

This is "No Name Calling Week" in middle schools. Maddie Dog has gotten around this by comparing Barbara Boxer's resume to Dr. Rice's. No contest. Although Boxer didn't call her mammy or Aunt Jemima or the n-word, she implied all those words at the recent hearings for confirmation of Secretary of State.

Today on Glenn Beck (radio show), he was making fun of a survey (by a blue stater) that concluded red states were dumb. (Apparently calling over half the electorate dumb is not name calling.) Ft. Wayne and Corpus Cristi came in as #1 and #2 dumbest cities in the U.S. So, as a put on, he invited callers from those cities to answer questions. It was either radio's biggest put-on, or there really are some dumb people in those cities. A woman from Corpus Cristi, who selected the category of Oscars, answered Hugh Heffner when Glenn asked what movie about a famous eccentric was nominated. She also said, in the category of "secretaries weak," that the Secretary of Defense was Dr. Rice. Glenn was so hysterical, maybe it wasn't a put up job.

766 Medved on Hollywood and The Passion

". . .The sloppy, dishonest, brain-dead habit of equating "The Passion of the Christ" with "f-9-11" reveals more about Hollywood's bias and blindness than any aspect of the major awards the two films won't receive." Michael Medved in WSJ 1-27-05. On his website, The Passion is beating out the other offerings as most "overlooked." Medved suggests a number of points in his WSJ article to consider about Gibson's movie released last Ash Wednesday.

1) Timeless religious message that takes the New Testament literally.
2) Earned $370 Million in domestic box office receipts.
3) Sold equally well in red states and blue states, unifying the mass audience like the movies of the 40s and 50s.
4) No political endorsements or activism.
5) Had no affect on church attendance.
6) United Christians of all faiths and cultures.
7) Will live on as a timeless classic continuing to draw audiences for years.
8) Snubbing it for awards has displeased the movie going public.

At his website where Medved's article in USAToday is posted, he adds to that list

9) Hollywood wasn't afraid of religion (fake) when it awarded Last Temptation of Christ which only grossed $8 million and offended most Christians.
10) Top award nominations this year are going to suicide, abortion and anti-American themes.

He closes the WSJ article with: ""The Passion" clearly dwarfs such skillful but slight works as "Sideways" or "Finding Neverland" (both nominated for Best Picture) in terms of thematic and historical significance. Members of the entertainment elite may confuse faith and politics--viewing religiosity as suspect and subjective, while embracing left-wing ideology as a form of Ultimate Truth--but the mass audience now and in the future will reliably recognize the difference."

In 1993 Medved published a book called Hollywood vs. America which had chapters on "The Attack on Religion," "The Addiction to Violence," "Promoting Promiscuity," "The Infatuation with Foul Language," "Kids Know Best," "Motivations for Madness," among others. Nothing has changed, apparently. Instead of Hollywood being at fault then, it was the ticket buyers voting with their dollars. Now we've changed our vote, but Hollywood has disenfranchised us.

Meanwhile, Christianity Today has found religious themes in unexpected places with its list of Ten Most Redeeming Films of 2004. Hat tip to Sherry.

765 Reading the help wanted ads

Four or five people in my prayer job jar are looking for work. Some want more pay. Some less stress. Some will take anything if it is a "living wage." So I skim the advertised jobs occasionally and read the career column in the Wall Street Journal. Sometimes I think their ads are a test for comprehension and following instructions.

1) Raymond James advertises a drug free workplace. It doesn't mention tobacco, but I know some firms are now turning down smokers because of insurance costs.
2) If you don't include ad number and job title, Johnson Controls won't even look at your application. Their web site says they have worked on the Pentagon, the Eiffel Tower, the Kremlin and the Sydney Opera House, so I suppose following instructions is key.
3) A DOE position at the NBL is a CH-SES-05-01 and must be applied for on-line.
4) Whoever applies for Chancellor at the University of Denver will need to watch out for the following verbs: lead; increase; improve; build; elevate; extend; and cultivate. Sounds like Jesus' job description.
5) Pilgrim's Pride may be the "2nd largest poultry producer in the U.S. and Mexico" and the 1st in Puerto Rico, but you will be working in "beautiful east Texas."
6) Apply to MorningStar on line, but only if you have a "healthy dose of skepticism."
7) There's a golf course for sale in SC--recently renovated. I'll bet there's a bankruptcy story in there somewhere.
8) While looking, you can feed the poor and homeless by donating your yacht.

764 Hoping the elections will fail

It's bad enough that we have Americans who cast aspersions on our own elections, who register dead people to vote in Chicago and Seattle, and try to disenfranchise minorities by saying they are too dumb to figure out voting machines or ballots and therefore we need recounts. But now they try to mess up the Iraqi elections too! Oh, probably not the same people, but the same attitudes, rumors and lies.

Sunday the world will watch as millions of Arabs go to the polls (I realize that not everyone in Iraq is an Arab or a Muslim, but the majority are). Arabs in non-democratic countries will be watching on their government TV what they don't have--a free election. I get absolutely misty eyed watching the stories of ex-pat Iraqis in the USA driving 8 hours to register, and then repeating the same trip this week to vote. They and the candidates and the poll workers risking their lives have set before us a very high standard (especially those of you who didn't even bother to vote in November--you know who you are).

Belmont Club in a 3-part series on the Iraq election has little good to say about the naysayers, letting one dig his own hole for a foundation for his "shrine of half-forgotten causes":

"Whatever the War on Terror is, it is a duel to the death. A glance at Juan Cole's website -- which is a reliable thermometer of Leftist temper -- is a case in point. It should be the website of a respectable academic but it's a shrine to half-forgotten causes and a casket of exorcisms against half-apprehended devils. To illustrate the right of peaceful assembly he has a photo of flag-draped military caskets being shipped home. To illustrate the the 8th Amendment he has an Abu Ghraib photo. Noonan worries about religion. So do I, coming upon a room of stubbed out and smoked ideas. As for the elections, Cole says they are a joke, and it is doubtful if any poll would persuade him otherwise."

763 Krispy Kreme can't match Spudnut

First it was our waistlines, then their market. It wasn't just the low carb fad (now fading). Krispy Kreme diluted its "specialness" by opening too many stores and selling doughnuts in 20,000 supermarkets. I heard on the radio this morning they've hired a restructuring agent to replace Scott Livengood at $760 an hour and all the doughnuts he can eat!

I rarely eat a donut today--maybe a donut hole or two with coffee between services at church. The church switched from Krispy Kreme to donut holes after the Visual Arts Ministry told them they were easier to eat while browsing our shows.

No modern donut can match up to those of the "Spudnut" shop in Urbana at the University of Illinois when I was in college. I believe they were made with potato flour. You could sit at the counter and watch the crew dump the dough into the hot oil and dip them into the icing. In those days I could eat six or seven at a sitting and hardly burp. My initiation into this delicacy was on my first visit to the campus when I rode the bus from northern Indiana to attend an ROTC ball there. I think I took back a sackful for my floormates of Oakwood Hall at Manchester, but ate all the goodies along the way (it was a long bus ride).

When I Googled "Spud Nut" I discovered many other folks lost in memories of their delicious taste and texture, usually reminiscing about a college town, Urbana IL, Lawrence KS, Richmond IN, Madison WI. I also found a doughnut discussion board, where the hopeful restauranteur was looking for Spud Nuts: ". . . are there any SPUDNUT franchises? I haven't had a Spudnut doughnut for nerly 50 yra. I remember making a special trip after church on sundays to the Spudnut shop in Lawrence, Ks. It folded and I haven't seen any since. K-K's aren't anything special."

And there is a Spudnut Shop in Washington that also serves sandwiches, but I don't know if the name comes from the stores of the 1950s and 1960s. An obituary of a former owner of a Spud Nut Shop also turned up. Spud Nuts. R.I.P.

762 Batteries aren't cheap

And cheap ones are really expensive. I read an article in the WSJ that reported on the battery wars. According to this writer, Duracell alkaline will last 4 times longer than any brand labelled, "super heavy duty." "Heavy duty" technology was state of the art 50 years ago, but Duracell's cooper top is 27% more powerful than it was in 2000. It's a real pain to change batteries--I've obviously been going for cheap rather than thrifty.

761 Don't blame June Cleaver

“If modern mothers ever had an enemy, it is June Cleaver. Perhaps more than anyone else in history, June created in us the idea that the good mother spends her day happily meeting the needs of her family. She cooks a hearty breakfast, keeps a tidy house, and welcomes her weary charges home each afternoon with a plate of warm cookies and a tender smile. We never see June complain or wish for a more fulfilling role. We never see her sigh when she finally gets a minute to sit down only to be interrupted by yet another request from the Beav. She certainly never asks Ward to watch the boys for a night because she wants to go out for some "mommy time." June is the superhuman mother who sets us all up for disappointment.” Carla Barnhill, on the “real desperate housewives.”

June Cleaver? Oh please! I’m probably old enough to be Barnhill’s mother. I never watched Leave it to Beaver until this year when I came across it on a channel that reruns old TV shows, and in the episodes I‘ve watched, June hardly appears at all. But I did all the above--until you get to the sentence about not complaining or not going out. I went to a lot of evening meetings and even did my grocery shopping at night because I didn’t like hauling the kids around on errands and I rarely hired babysitters. It was my mother (1912-2000), 10 years older than Barbara Billingsley the actrees who played June, who fits that paragraph.

June Cleaver is being set up a “straw woman.“ I’m not exactly a “modern” mother by this author‘s definition. (I should be a grandmother by age, training and talent.) Many of my peer mothers had gone back to work, at least part time, by the mid-1970s, so many of today’s mothers actually did have employed mothers, or mothers who were returning to graduate school, as models.

A little over 30 years ago I was in a women’s Bible study at First Community Church called “Harried Housewives,” whose members ranged in age from about 30-50. But by the time we gathered for a third anniversary, most of us were in the workplace. One of the women in Barnhill’s story sounds just like the reason we housewives had gathered back in the 70s: "I got blindsided by the responsibility, the emotional ties, the worry, the exhaustion, the discipline issues, and the day-to-day care of children. The reality for me is that motherhood is very draining and tiring and humbling. On a regular basis I feel like a failure as a mom. My walk with the Lord has suffered since I became a mom. Spending time with God feels like another obligation—just one more person wanting something from me."

If Carla Barnhill is correct, the modern women’s movement (then in its infancy), has done absolutely nothing for mothers. Increasingly more casual and relaxed lifestyles have done little for women. Technology certainly hasn’t saved them any time, just made them slaves to beeps and downloading. More how-to-books, exercise classes, and workshops on feelings and empowerment really don’t do much in the long run to rescue women. Much of the article is anecdotal whining, and she’s incredulous that gardening or sewing could be substitutes for board meetings and coffee breaks. But she eventually gets to the conclusion that happy stay-at-homes are there because no one forced them to be and their church encourages them to use their talents, which is the theme of her book, The Myth of the Perfect Mother: Rethinking the Spirituality of Women (Baker, 2004).

760 Women writers for the Wall Street Journal

As usual, I was skimming the stories in the Wall Street today for interesting idiomatic expressions, checking the articles written by men, who use lots of gambling, sports and agricultural idioms, against those written by women, who use almost no idioms. This results in the male written articles being much more lively and readable, less dense, and more padded.

But then I noticed an unusual number of articles by women. I'll have to go the to library to check (can't browse a newspaper on-line because you need to have an idea what you are looking for), but I'm wondering if Monday is "Ladies Day" at the Wall Street Journal. Maybe the guys take long week-ends and don't want to meet the deadlines for the Monday edition?

You rarely see a woman's name in section A, but today Section B and C had: Brooks Barnes, Ellen Byron, Lynn Cowan, Agnes Crane (2), Ann Davis, Alessandra Gallone, Leah McGrath Goodman, Laura Johannes, Miriam Jordan (2), Kathryn Kranhold, Melissa Marr, Katie Martin, Sarah McBride, Ann Marie Squeo, Shayne Stoyko, Suzanne Vronica, and Ann Zimmerman. [It is possible that Lynn and Shayne are men, and I skipped the non-euro names since I can't identify gender].

Section R, however, was the motherlode (pardon the pun). The entire supplement on how businesses benefit from benefits was written and edited by women. The lead article was by Ellen Schultz who summarizes 10 ways companies benefit from benefits plans. The rest of the articles in the supplement were written by Vanessa Fuhrman, Joann Lublin, Kris Maher, Sara Munoz, Karen Richarson, Sarah Rubenstein and Jennifer Saranov. The illustrator was male.

I checked Ellen Schultz in Google and she has won awards for her reporting on this topic: joined the Wall Street Journal in 1990; covered personal finance, mutual funds, medical insurance and benefits; named a special writer in April 1995 and a news editor in June 2001. Worked for Fortune magazine from 1987 to 1990.

Miriam Jordan who had 2 articles in today's edition frequently writes on gender and minority issues for WSJ, according to a Google search--female infanticide in India, agricultural workers in California, career women following globe trotting husbands, and Nestle marketing infant formula to American Hispanics are examples of her topics.

Agnes Crane, who also had 2 articles, writes often for the investment and marketing section and also writes for the Dow Jones Newswires, and thus her name pops up regularly in other investment newsletters.

I'll update this when I look at a few more Mondays.

759 Really, really poor taste

Some bloggers are crying "political correctness" run amuck, but I think this teddy bear is simply poor taste. What makes it worse, some Christian blogs are being even more insensitive for criticizing the critics. Mental illness for the family is no laughing matter. It causes grief, sleepless nights, and years of roller coaster emotions. Not funny, folks.

758 No blue blood required for these legacies

The Washington Post has an interesting round up of the congressional and administrative positions obtained either through the death of a relative or appointment upon the retirement of a relative, or appointment because of a family connection here. The recently widowed Mrs. Matsui of California will join 18 Senators and many Representatives who obtained their seats this way.

Names and family ties matter in administrative appointments. "President Bush, who rose to power with a famous political surname, has rewarded several children of his ideological allies. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's son became chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's daughter was made inspector general at the Health and Human Services Department, Justice Antonin Scalia's son was appointed to a top job in the Labor Department, and Vice President Cheney's daughter and son-in-law scored prestigious positions in the State and Justice departments."

"Bush also chose the wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) to be his labor secretary, and the sons of Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn as his press secretary and Medicare director. And in 2001, he chose former House member Asa Hutchinson, brother of then-Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.), to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration."

"According to the Center for American Women and Politics, 45 women have been elected to Congress to fill vacancies created by their husbands' death. There are least three widows of former congressmen now in the House: Reps. Mary Bono (R-Calif.), Lois Capps (D-Calif.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.). In the Senate, there are three wives of prominent politicians: Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), [Hillary] Clinton and Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), wife of former Maine governor John R. McKernan Jr."

This web site lists even more.

More than once I was asked if I was Earle Bruce's wife (football coach at Ohio State University in the 1980s). But that's as close as I can get to trading on a family name.

757 Patty Davis has returned

to being a snot nose, little whiner. Her attempt at political humor is here.

If her name doesn't ring a bell, she changed it. She used to be Patty Reagan. She disliked her Dad so much in her younger years that she took her mother's maiden name, which Nancy had taken from her step-father. When her Dad no longer knew her, Patty did a stint as dutiful daughter and got a lot of sympathy and some good writing contracts.

756 Remember how deep snow was when you were a kid?

Up to your knees, maybe your waist? Ha--gotcha! Last night on ABC News they told us the snow really was deeper in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, and then the weather pattern changed. We got some big storms in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, but not often. My own children remember primarily the winters of 1977 and 1978 when schools were closed here in Columbus. I have photos of my dad in Illinois shoveling snow off their roof. John Stolzenbach, one of our pastors, was a Columbus school teacher back then, and I remember they did a special program on TV for the school children stuck at home, and he was one of the hosts.

So what’s up with the weather? Apparently, not global warming. Experts were interviewed for the weather story last night--and whooda thunk it--they disagreed on what was causing it!

"We believe the weather pattern we are currently in is very similar to what we saw in the 1940's, fifties and sixties; that is, a log of extremes," says [Bernie] Rayno [Accuweather.com].

He looks not just at today's snowstorm, but at the entire weather picture for the past year — hurricanes, tornadoes, mudslides in California, and bitter cold in the Midwest.

"The overall weather pattern we see over a given amount of time, a given amount of years also fluctuates," says Rayno. "And right now we do believe we are in a cycle that will lend itself to a lot of extremes over the next five to ten years." It is reminiscent, he says, of what happened in those earlier decades. In 1947, for example, New York City suffered one of its worst blizzards ever, 25 inches of snow that paralyzed the city for days.”

In the Chicago Tribune they reported what dumped on the city and then moved on east: “The storm raged on as it moved quickly through Ohio and Pennsylvania, continuing to dump up to a foot of snow far north of its path. The storm was expected to further intensify off the New Jersey coast, and blizzard warnings were issued for a good portion of New England, including New York and Boston, where snowfalls up to 20 inches were forecast.”

Our daughter called last night from Cleveland where they were visiting her in-laws. “Mom! They know how to handle snow in Cleveland,” she told me breathlessly. “We’ve had a foot of snow in the last 24 hours, the streets are clear and we’re going over to [cousins] for pizza. ‘Sposed to get more tonight. How much have you had?” “About 1.5 inches,” I sighed. “The town’s a mess and all sorts of things were cancelled.”

Some things about winter in central Ohio never change.

755 More on Barbara Boxer's racism

Colbert I. King ponders after comparing Barbara Boxer's comments to Oliphant's racist cartooning of Rice:

Bush listens to Condoleezza Rice because he believes that she knows what she is talking about. Which makes the attacks on Rice even more curious. What prompts Rice's critics to portray her -- a former Stanford University provost who managed a $1.5 billion budget, 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students -- as a flunky who, when ordered, simply salutes and runs out to play huckster?

Washington Post article here.