916 Happy St. Patrick's Day

The best book you'll ever read about Ireland is "How the Irish Saved Civilization." But the best card is the one I saw last week at the St. Pat's dinner at our friends' home. The main cartoon showed a weary man behind the wheel of a car with a bunch of snakes stuffed in the back seat some leaning out the windows. The caption said something like, "Why St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland." The snakes were saying things like "I gotta pee," "Are we there yet?" "He's touching me," "I want the window." All the parents howled. Even after all these years how well we remember those car trips with kids in the back seat.

"Cahill tells of how the Roman and Irish worlds met in a young Roman kidnapped from his British home by Irish marauders. Born Miliucc, he would spend six years in slavery, escape, and return as a Christian missionary. That missionary had learned much about the Irish people during his time as a slave and, blessed with a gentle faith and a wonder of the world around him, would make Ireland the only land converted to Christianity without violence. The Irish in turn would come to love their St. Patrick and approached Christianity with energy and fervor. A form of Christianity evolved that allowed the Irish to maintain some of the Celtic traditions that were an integral part of their world.

As Christianity settled in, monasteries were established throughout Ireland. The monks became passionate scribes not only of the Scriptures but also of other classical texts that were as risk of being lost after the fall of the Roman Empire. Celtic art forms were among the traditions that survived into the Irish Christian era and would lead to the development of spectacular illuminated manuscripts at the monks' hands. The Book of Kells is one well-known example of the monks' phenomenal artistry. "

When I went into the kitchen to feed the cat this morning, on the counter was a card, a small gift and a huge St. Pat's day pin from my husband. And what did you get your spouse? (Confession: I always forget, and didn't even have a card.)

915 Kerry blames the media--just not the right ones

Now John Kerry is blaming the media for his failures last fall. Says they are biased toward Bush. That’s so absurd it is laughable--just pathetic. Every book store and library I stepped into was loaded with anti-Bush material. The mainstream media went out of their way to report negatively about Bush and ignored the charges of the Swiftboat Veterans when they surfaced in March 2004. Even when their book was on the best seller list, it wasn’t reviewed in the major sources. It seemed half the country knew about the Swiftboat Vets but ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN were afraid of Kerry--or hated Bush too much.

So Kerry isn’t pointing fingers at the MSM, because he can’t. According to Howard Kurtz in WaPo,

"'We learned,' Kerry continued, 'that the mainstream media, over the course of the last year, did a pretty good job of discerning. But there's a subculture and a sub-media that talks and keeps things going for entertainment purposes rather than for the flow of information. And that has a profound impact and undermines what we call the mainstream media of the country. And so the decision-making ability of the American electorate has been profoundly impacted as a consequence of that. The question is, what are we going to do about it?'"

A sub-media that keeps things going for entertainment purposes? Wouldn't this include "Hardball" and "Crossfire" as well as O'Reilly? Al Franken as well as Rush Limbaugh? Cable networks going wild over Scott Peterson and the Jacko trial? For some reason, Kerry exonerates the mainstream media for some of the same sins he sees in other parts of the news/info world.”

Yes, it does look like bias--but not against Kerry. Fortunately, says John O’Neill, in a recent interview, Kerry threatened stations after the first ad appeared in August (the Vets had hoped their March story would keep him from being nominated so the Democrats would have time to select someone else--many weren’t Republicans).

“The threats against the station managers led to extensive publicity, particularly on the "Hannity and Colmes]" show and then on other FOX News shows. Then it spread to CNN and to MSNBC. More than 1,400,000 people downloaded that first ad, and it swept through the Internet. It also allowed thousands and thousands of people to start donating money to us at our Web site.

Three weeks after it was put up, half of all the people in the United States had heard about that ad and about us and yet there had never been a story about us on ABC, NBC, or CBS or in the New York Times.”

Some good has come out of the torturous months and threats the Swiftboat Vets endured. O’Neill says:

“It haunts all of us that the first Vietnam veteran nominated for President would be John Kerry--the very last person most veterans would pick for high office. But it is ironic that his run for the White House may have finally initiated some less fictionalized thinking about the war.”

914 Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

This hymn in 4/4 time with 4 flats is almost 120 years old. Written by Elisha A. Hoffman based on a passage in Deuteronomy 33:27, it can be slow and nasal, or toe tapping, hand clapping and sprightly, “what a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms.” I came across it today because it was the March 16 selection in the book “Amazing Grace; 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions” (Kregel, 1990).

I don’t recall ever hearing this hymn in my home church in Mt. Morris, Illinois--we rarely sang anything with a strong beat, a waltz tune, or revivalist vigor--and you could almost do a slow jitterbug to this one. So I will forever associate it with a tiny church in Flat Creek, Kentucky, (near Manchester) where my sister Carol served with Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) in the summer of 1956. The only service I attended in the little church included this hymn, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” but they sang it like a mournful dirge. The small, poor congregation, who leaned not only on God but each other, the nasal harmony, and the heat of that summer have always stayed with me reminding me of Carol when I hear it.

The Church of the Brethren is a small, Anabaptist denomination founded in 1708 in Germany, and is often linked with the Quakers and Mennonites because of its pacifism and service. After WWII the church started a volunteer service program in 1948 with one or two year service opportunities preceded by a training program. Initially, it attracted mostly young people, but in the 60s began drawing more older and retired adults. Click here for history and service information about BVS.

My parents, brother and I had traveled to Flat Creek to visit Carol in the mountains where she lived with another volunteer and a “house mother” who sort of acted as a chaperone and helped with the domestic duties and a garden while the young women taught Sunday School and Bible School, provided recreational programs for the children and programming for adults. The mission also had a minister, but I’m not sure where he lived or if he may have served several churches. We went in July, so we may have driven down to be with her on her birthday.

I don’t know what the area looks like today, but getting there by automobile was quite a challenge in 1956. The unpaved roads seemed to be teetering on the edge, and if you met someone coming the other way. . . well, someone would have to give. The houses on the hillsides seemed to be built on stilts and cars and trucks on blocks shared the yards with chickens and dogs. To get to one of the little mission churches they served (may have been a home rather than a church building), Carol rode there on horseback. Since she’d never shown any interest in my horse, I found the sight of my older sister riding bareback almost more amazing than anything else I saw that week. I also encountered young girls my age who were already married, and some with babies--I was 15. We grew up in rural Illinois, but rural Kentucky in the mountains in the 1950s could have been another country--even the language didn’t sound like anything I’d heard.

We talk about kids growing up fast today because of the media influences, but after Mother's death in 2000 I brought home and re-read her letters to my parents she’d written that year and was just stunned by what the church expected of those very young men and women, many away from home for the first time, and most without even college or work experience. Today’s young adults of that age are in a time warp trapped in fantasy, make-believe and gaming compared to those teens of the mid-50s who were experiencing real life.

Training Unit photo. BVS unit 28

The training period was 8 or 9 weeks in New Windsor, Maryland, on the site of a former Brethren college. While she was still in her training, there was terrible flooding in Pennsylvania, and these kids were pulled from classes to go out and help clean up the disaster, which included finding a dead baby (mentioned in one of her letters). She served as a community surveyor in a suburb of Denver while living in the basement of the pastor’s house (and I believe babysitting was part of that job, too). She was also a guinea pig at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland before being sent to Kentucky. After Carol’s year in BVS she enrolled at Goshen College in Indiana and became an RN. Some years later she earned a master’s degree. She died of a diabetic stroke in 1996.

Looking back at her life that year and her subsequent years of ill health, I think Carol truly must have been “leaning on the everlasting arms.”

913 English and Alcohol

When I took the English test and got a score that said I was more knowledgable than 99% of the people in my age group, I thought WOW. But when I took the alcohol knowledge test and it also said I knew more than 99% in my age group, I figured it just wasn't running the numbers for my age group because not enough people were taking the test. I answered the alcohol questions randomly because I know nothing about alcohol and only have an occasional glass of house wine. I've never even tasted beer, so I left one of the beer questions blank which offer that option. Still scored pretty high. So I guess that's why I curved so high in English. Darn.

Update: The link to the test for Mr. Cloud.

912 LeetSpeek

If you’ve wondered why you see so many numbers, capital letters and screwed up spelling in some teens-on-line-chat, you’ve probably been reading “leet.” Take a look at this site, “A Parent’s Primer to Computer Slang” by Microsoft to decipher what those bilingual kids are talking about. If you come across pr0n (porn) or h4x (hacks), it may mean something bad is going on.
Tip from In Season Librarian

911 Worst Neighbor Award

When we were in Florida in February 2003 I recall reading in the local Longboat Key paper about the battles with street lights and dog feces. Now Florida Cracker has the follow-up to one of the stories I might have read.

"[Psychologist] Holli Bodner had a yearlong feud with Jean Pierre Villar about street lights and dog poop before committing him to a mental health center in April 2003." Tampa Bay 10 News

I debated about skipping this number because of all the false hits it will bring to this site, but it is also the date of our anniversary. So if you've wandered in here expecting something else, my apologies, but enjoy your visit.

The Blogger posting mechanism is really messed up and is double and triple posting entries.

910 Tara Parker Pope

Tara Parker Pope writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal on health, and she answers questions from readers. She also contributes occasionally to career articles. She has also written a book on the cigarette industry. I know nothing about her--I just think her name is fabulous and wonderful. Because she writes about health issues, I’m guessing she gets a ton of mail telling her that she is wrong, crazy or in cahoots with the evil pharmaceutical industry or conversely, the alternative medicine wackos. This entry is not about that. I just like her name. With a name like Tara Parker Pope, she should be in a sit-com or on stage, so I’ve written a poem about her.

Tara Parker Pope--
such a lovely name;
sing it, play it,
hang it on a rope.

Tara Parker Pope.
she of Wall Street fame;
read her, write her,
She will help you cope.

909 Mending is a sacred rite

Several weeks ago a button popped off my husband’s sport coat as he was getting ready to walk out the door to usher at church. He rushed upstairs to grab another jacket, leaving the button on the kitchen counter, where is sat until yesterday. About three days ago he brought the button-missing coat down stairs and hung it wordlessly in the hall, where it stayed for a day. I finally moved the poor thing to the dining room and laid the button on top. That put it within 5 ft. of my mother’s sewing cabinet. I think I was secretly hoping a needle and thread would appear and do the job. Meanwhile, the cat has discovered it and thinks the button should be on the floor.

Today I was looking through the photocopy of my mother’s commonplace book which she compiled between 1946 and 1999, although I think some things were published earlier, just not pasted in (poems about the war, for instance). Reading one poem about mending made me pause and wonder if young wives and mothers mend these days.

Women Mending by Nelle Graves McGill

All women at their mending wear a look
As legible as any open book;
And by the way in which they bend above
Each garment, show their wisdom and their love.

A girl just mends her dress to make it do--
Impatiently--till she has something new.
A young wife darns an unaccustomed sock,
With proud, expectant eyes which seek the clock.

A mother sews a tiny button in place
On baby’s gown, a glory on her face;
Or patches up a rent in son’s best breeches
As if she’d reinforce the youth by switches.

But grandma’s fingers touch a boy’s torn cap
As if it were his head upon her lap;
Her tremulous hands are light above the seam
Of grandpa’s coat, as though she darned a dream--
Most frail and beautiful--to make it last
Until his need, and hers, of dreams be past.

Old women know that women must repair
Life’s worn habiliments, to keep life fair;
They know that mending is a sacred rite,
To be performed with prayer, while God gives light.

I checked Google to see if Mrs. McGill might have a collection of verses. I didn’t find anything, but she is in my anthology of “Contemporary American Women Poets" (1935). However, I did find an obituary for her daughter Monna who died two years ago at age 93. She’d been a radio and stage actress in New York, had worked in Kansas City, and then returned to her hometown to live with her parents (probably to care for them) and worked as an editor and correspondent. She published short stories, poetry and essays.

I’m sure there is a story in there somewhere, but I need to go pray over a button while there is light.

908 Using Loose and Lose

Are you lost? Losing your way with the words "loose" (lus) and "lose" (luz)? “She had to loosen her slacks, so she dieted to lose weight and then her slacks were loose.” “Loose morals caused him to lose his way.”

lose, lost, losing--a verb
loose, looser, loosest--an adjective
loosen, loosened, loosening--a verb

“People who study errors in language make a systematic distinction between inadvertent errors -- in the case at hand, slips of the pen or typos -- and another type of mistake, which arises from imperfect command of the conventions at work in the larger community of language users -- in the case at hand, "spelling errors" in the sense of errors involving the conventions of spelling. Writing or typing "teh" for "the" is an inadvertent error, and a very common one. Writing or typing "loose" for the present tense or base form /luz/ of the verb whose past tense is spelled "lost" is, I maintain, almost always something else; people who spell this way, and there are a great many of them, almost always intend that spelling (while those who spell "teh" surely do not intend that spelling).”

Read the whole article by Arnold Zwicky at Language Log.

907 When dependency means a death sentence

“Terri Schiavo’s death is not imminent. She is not on a ventilator, dialysis, or other life sustaining equipment. She is not awaiting a transplant or other major surgery. She is not in pain. She has two parents and siblings who love and care for her. She has access to good health care. If given basic care and food and water her life will continue in more or less its present state. The very fact that her present state is pretty miserable is precisely why some think she should die. . . .Those advocating Terri Schiavo’s death, including her husband, are not making their case on medical grounds, but on Terri’s radical condition of dependency and low quality of life. “ Father Michael Black

First seen at Jordan's site.

906 The Democrats' resistence to private accounts

Why have the Democrats been so virulently opposed to salvaging Social Security with private accounts, I've wondered. It didn't make sense. It could save our safety net. It could help the poor. In the late 90s they were saying SS was broken and broke. (Of course, they were also reporting that Iraq had WMD in those days.) Maybe it is just hatred of anything Bush?

I think John Zogby has really put his finger on it in an editorial essay in today's Wall Street Journal (Mar. 15, 2005) Zogby's polling firm has analyzed the 2004 election from every possible angle, and turned up some interesting information about Democrats who are also part of the self described investor class.

It is possible that if George W. Bush is successful in creating a larger investor class, a group that goes across all the demographics of female, Hispanic, Black, middle-class, etc., the Democrats will lose their base.

The investor class is self-identified as 46% of the total vote in 2004, and their world view tends to be conservative, middle-class, modest, and saving for the kids' college. And if they are Democrats, many of them voted for Bush.

"Like the New Deal, the president's "ownership society" is a compelling new vision and veritable redefinition of a society less dependent on government largess, of a middle class more independent and more capable of securing financial security on its own."

That would be bad news for the Democrats who need a large group of poor, disadvantaged and minority constituents to maintain their base. There will be many more theories and ideas thrown out for consideration to save Social Security, but this one by Zogby answered a nagging question for me.

905 No Late Fees

Scribbling Lizard (Gekko) is really determined to find out the true story behind the "no late fee" advert at Blockbuster. So, she clicked, and clicked, and clicked on their website until she finally found something definitive about just how they get those videos back with no incentive.

"If you still have a movie or game seven (7) days after the due date shown on your receipt, we will convert your rental to a sale. The movie or game will be sold to you at the selling price in effect at the time of rental, which is either the retail price, or, when available, at the previously-rented selling price, less the initial rental fee you paid."

Gekko muses and does the math: "So you do get a late fee, after all. The fee amounts to somewhere around $15 - $25. They've simply extended the late fee period from the due date, to seven days following the due date. Seven days times their previous $3 a day late fee charge was $21. Hmmmm. And they pretty much say "You just bought yourself a movie or a game, fella." Cool. Unless the movie was a piece of crap.

Well, thank goodness they have that covered! If you don't want the movie, you can return it, and get credited the sale charge."

Nice investigating, Gek.

I think libraries do something similar. If you keep it too long, you own it.

904 Blog People’s Revenge

“Bloggers are showing American Library Association (ALA) president-elect Michael Gorman that revenge is apparently a dish best served digital. Bloggers, librarians included, are responding in great numbers—and in rather prickly fashion—to Gorman’s recent LJ Backtalk piece “Revenge of the Blog People.” The piece has drawn over 1000 responses to its posting on popular technology webzine Slashdot.org, and emails were pouring in to LJ’s editorial department.”

March 13, 2005 LJ article

Slash dot link to the original item February 25, 2005.

903 Everybody talking 'bout heaven ain't goin' there

So according to the last entry, I'm going to "cat lady heaven" because I treat a small mammal with fur and whiskers and a crooked tail well. It's a cute quiz, and fortunately I already know I'm going to heaven, but not because of my cat, and not because of anything I've done right.

Actually, I'm not sure of the preposition to use, whether heaven is up, over, in, around or through. Scripture is rather vague about that. In an odd turn of events, the earth, the country, the towns that we know so well are what is transitory, and the Christian's real citizenship is in heaven. (Keep that in mind flag-wavers.) Space and time is something we only need on earth, so I suppose the preposition really doesn't matter--heaven is where God dwells and "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." (Rev. 21:3,4) In order for heaven to have no tears and sorrow, maybe you'll need to have your cat or dog--I'm sure it can be arranged.

902 A quiz for cat lovers

Going to Cat Lady Heaven: Your cats are pampered
and treated like the perfect creatures that
they are. There is definitely a spot reserved
for you in Kitty Heaven :)

What kind of Cat Parent are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Hip Liz, on the other hand . . .

901 The Secret Life of Sororities

The Yale Review of Books (undergrad publication) has an interesting review of Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins (Hyperion). Robbins is a Bush hater who has distinguished herself with Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power and now looks for more intriguing secrets among our campus Greeks. Review by Rebecca Adler here.

I was never even remotely interested in pledging a sorority when I was in college. As much as I liked my friends in my high school clique, that was enough for me by age 18. I’m thinking Robbins might have thought differently--perhaps was hankering for a Kappa or Chi-O pin, and was rejected. I wore my “independent” status like a badge at the university. Quite to my surprise though, when I got to know them I really liked and admired the sorority women in my classes--they were smart, helpful, hard working, and had lovely personalities. It was the exclusivity I didn’t admire about these clubs. But according to Robbins, that may be the least of the worries, as she chronicles date rape, binge drinking, silly and barbaric hazing routines and mixes in some disturbing statistics. We don’t know if the same thing is going on in the indy dorms and apartments around campus, because that wasn’t her research project, and also, she only followed four women. Not a huge sample when you consider the size of the sisterhood.

In the end, the reviewer turns the magnifying glass on the author and writes: “Robbins falls short of her original open-minded intention, that of examining an unknown culture through a year's immersion. Throughout her account, Robbins maintains a steady downward gaze with an upturned nose, causing Pledged to morph from a sensationalized account of college life into an accusatory diatribe against the power and stupidity of Greek life. After reading through Robbins's ranting, the reader wants to shove her off her privileged soapbox, to suffer humiliation like the pledges she spent so much time with and wasted a whole book destroying.”

900 Parents of Teens, check this out

There’s no way to know if high school romances have changed that much since you and I were young, Maggie, because no one investigated it with sophisticated mapping until recently. But if you’ve got teen-agers who are dating, you might want to take a look at this research and review the facts of life and STDs with them.

“For the first time, sociologists have mapped the romantic and sexual relationships of an entire high school over 18 months, providing evidence that these adolescent networks may be structured differently than researchers previously thought.”

“James Moody, co-author of the study and professor of sociology at Ohio State University, said this network could be compared to rural phone lines, running from a long main trunk line to individual houses. As a comparison, many adult sexual networks are more like an airline hub system where many points are connected to a small number of hubs.” Report of his study here.

Click on this link, and you’ll see there were only 63 monogamous couples in the whole school! Everyone less was more or less, sexually linked. A to B, B to C (and therefore C to A), and B to D (and therefore D to A, B and C, and so forth) Pink dots are female; blue are male. Isn’t that cute?

Because the OSU research announcements go to my spam dump which I only read occasionally, I happened to see this at Collision Detection. Don’t know when it first appeared, so my apologies if you've all seen this.

Update: Math was my weak link. I think I've changed the number of this 4 times.

899 Revenge of the Blog People

"The tail" is the 95-99 percent of blogs that are not giant traffic getters, according to Hugh Hewitt's book, Blog (2005). That's me. I'm in the tail--there are millions of us in the tail. I get about 70-80 hits a day on this blog, and 10-20 on my other four blogs. The one in the group blog, LISNews.com, may get more hits than all of them because there is sort of a "bound with" audience there. The top ten bloggers may get millions of visitors. More people will read them, more librarians will read them, than will ever read Michael Gorman. See! You don't have a clue who he is, do you? (Unless you too are a librarian). He doesn't have a blog. He's pouting. Yes. Pouting and saying blogs don't matter. People who see their name in print on a somewhat regular basis just hate it when others pass them by on the other side.

Conservator, a librarian blogger says: “Nine months before Michael Gorman sneered at blogs and bloggers in an opinion piece in Library Journal, Rory Litwin sneered at blogs and bloggers in an essay in his online journal, Library Juice.”

Shows you how much I know! I thought Rory Litwin was a blogger. He can call his screed an e-zine if he wants just because it has enumeration, but mine has numbering too. A blog is just a contemporary "commonplace book," something people in earlier centuries enjoyed. Collecting and annotating on the Internet. It is thinking out loud and watching to see who catches on and wants to share in the discussion. It's done a lot for research and writing skills, even for children and teens. But I admit, I only glanced at Litwin's a long time ago (because it’s gone over the left edge of common sense and is of little value to the library world or my world.)

Where was I? Oh yes. Michael Gorman. He wrote about the wrath of the "Blog People" attempting to drag him into century 21 because of his op-ed piece in the LA Times in December, 2004: (although most librarian bloggers are liberal, he'd apparently only seen conservative blogs): "It is obvious that the Blog People read what they want to read rather than what is in front of them and judge me to be wrong on the basis of what they think rather than what I actually wrote. Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs. In that case, their rejection of my view is quite understandable."

898 A Fog Feed

Our Irish dinner at the home of friends was delicious and educational. Our hosts tell us that "Fog Feed" is Gaelic for "An Extravagant Meal," and it surely was. Here's the menu and their notes:

Bacon, leek and potato soup with cheddar--Sir Walter Raleigh gave potatoes from his farm in Virginia to the poet Edmund Spenser, who became the first person in Ireland to cultivate them. The Walter Raleigh Potato Festival is still held annual in Ireland.

Shrimp cakes with lime mayonnaise--In the early 19th century, shrimp accidentally caught in the nets of Dublin Bay fishermen were considered a waste product and sold to the poor by fish mongers.

Fluthered Chicken--Cooked in stout.

Ham potato patties--The Irish almost never serve chicken without being accompanied by ham.

Oatmeal bread--Oatmeal was introduced by the Celts.

Pickled beetroot salad

Apple dumplings with raisins and mincemeat served with cream

Coffee, wine and Irish dark beer.

My ancestors on my father's side were Scots-Irish who came to the United States in the 1730s. I don't think they ate this well.

897 It's the week-end

Again snow! Last night we went to the dollar theater to see "National Treasure" with Nicholas Cage, and when we came out it was again a winter wonderland, but in the second week in March, that is getting a bit old. Huge flakes, blowing. We could barely see to get out of the parking lot. We had planned to go out to eat after the movie, but decided to head for home and eat left-overs. The cat was pleased--she just hates our Friday night dates.

But the movie was very good and we enjoyed it. We had some popcorn, saw some friends. It's an adventure movie, but a minimum of killing that I could see. I think one guy disappears into a pit never to be seen again (bad guy); someone is shot but we learn later he was not killed. No sex. So it's fairly safe if you want to take the younger folks--or the older folks like me who are sort of picky about language and violence in films.

Tonight we're going out for dinner at the home of friends who are marvelous cooks. Their home is filled with wonderful antiques, and the other guests are always interesting. It should be a fun evening. It's coming up on the anniversary of our first date--1959.

896 Kate Adamson's story

Like Terri Schiavo, Kate Adamson had a serious brain accident and was trapped in a body that wouldn't function. However, her husband, unlike Michael Schiavo who is trying to end Terri's life, followed through on rehabilitation. Read her story here.

WICatholic reports: "A disability-rights activist, who was once dependent on a feeding tube and considered "a vegetable" by medical professionals, has joined the fight to save Terri Schindler Schiavo and hopes to visit the 41-year-old disabled Florida woman by mid-month."

895 The Jackson Trial

I'm really getting sick of Michael Jackson’s trial coverage. First of all, he should be accorded the same rights as other citizens, and he is innocent until proven guilty. I plan to click “mute” whenever it comes on the T.V. I can still remember seeing him at a downtown Columbus hotel when he was a cute little African-American child in bell bottoms and a bright shirt singing with his older brothers.

Second, commentators and pundits are really getting graphic with the details and then moving on to tell salacious and lascivious stories that have nothing to do with Jackson, but everything to do with weird behavior and a strong desire for ratings. They are using this case to snicker and giggle. Pedophilia is not funny.

One radio talk host with the initials G.B. went on and on about how he wouldn't know what to say to his kids if they were in the car listening to reports of the trial, and then he went into a comedy shtick that caused me to be thankful no other adult was in my car. And so I changed channels. I had the impression he thought he was doing a nightclub comedy routine instead of drive-time a.m.

Jackson is strange, horribly disfigured, and a has-been publicity seeker. What's the excuse of the people reporting on the trial?

894 Library Journal Nonsense

You can’t always trust a librarian, particularly if it comes to politics or religion. If you saw all the anti-administration and new age books on the "new book" shelves at my public library you'd see what I mean. You can, of course, trust me, because I used to be a humanist and a liberal, and I‘ve seen the light. And I'm also a blogger, part of the "information reformation." However, I do remember all the good things, like having an open mind--so wide open you could drive a dump truck of misinformation through it and come out the other end empty. Anyway. Enough about me. According to Books and Culture this precious bit of hyperbole appeared in Library Journal:

“The Library Journal has this to say about Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code: "This masterpiece should be mandatory reading. Brown solidifies his reputation as one of the most skilled thriller writers on the planet with his best book yet, a compelling blend of history and page-turning suspense. Highly recommended."“

Brown does use a lot of historical material, which he freely mixes with fiction, misinformation, lies and gnosticism--just about anything other than Biblical truth. My dear relative (who faithfully attends church on Easter, Christmas and Mother’s Day) loved it and millions like her have kept it firmly on the best seller list.

Church members, particularly women, have contributed to its popularity. Teaching and preaching is so weak in our male managed mainline and evangelical churches, and women are relegated to such a minor role, particularly in the pulpit and seminaries, that our Christian leadership has left us sitting ducks for the Dan Browns of this world.

Jesus and Mary Magdalene? Mystery religions? Hidden, rediscovered gospels? If you know anything about cults and false teachings over the last few centuries, or even popular fiction, there is nothing new here. Brown just writes a better story. And that story is as old as the serpent chatting up Eve, “now, sweety, what exactly is it God said you could eat?” But also, if the churches taught the true role of women given to them by Jesus reported very clearly in the New Testament Gospels (have you ever noticed women followers always “got it” when the male disciples were still scratching their heads), maybe we wouldn’t have so much drivel on the best seller list. Sigh.

893 Introduction to New Links

Two new ladies I’d like to introduce today: Sal in Virginia and Jordan who has loads to do. I think they meet my criteria for good writing, sharp wit and insightful thinking. Sal recommends an article in NYT on religious blogging. Some interesting stuff going on and some URLs I recognize because I read and link to some of those bloggers either here or my other, other blog. Sal and Jordan are already on one of my rolls, but they’ll be easier to find in my special “ladies only” group.

Speaking of which, I do wish Christian bloggers would be a bit kinder and gentler to each other. (If you’re not a Christian and reading this, you are not even in their cross-hairs.) The other day I found a directory of Lutheran churches for travelers so they could find liturgical services while on the road. However, if the church also offered an alternative informal service in addition, with praise choruses instead of liturgy and hymns, they couldn’t be listed. It was a pretty short list, and I didn’t see any in Columbus. So I guess the travelers either stay in the hotel that day, or find an Episcopal service. Some of these churches will offer Spanish language services, but not services that a graying ELCA boomer or a tattooed, pink-haired Gen-X-er who sort of speaks English might enjoy. If you are in town, come on over to http://www.ualc.org, we’ve got three locations, and two of the ten services will have liturgy (usually, well, maybe).

I love a formal service--it‘s my favorite choice for worship, but come on folks. And it isn’t that I’m picking on Lutherans--I see the same attitude among the reformed and the baptist style bloggers only the squabble isn't about liturgy. Let’s show a little charity. The big guy loves it. Something about neighbors.

892 The oldest resident in Hyogo Prefecture

Or they thought he was 107. The town officials had been sending him gifts but hadn't actually seen him in recent years. No one knows how long he'd been dead. Bad Aunt, a New Zealander who teaches in Japan, speculates on the family's conversation at meal time.

891 My thoughts exactly

"I certainly hope all this anxiety of the threat of FEC regulation of the blogosphere is misplaced. But it's not too early to express the opinion that they can stop us from blogging and saying whatever we think, especially about political candidates, when they pry our keyboards from our cold, dead fingers. I mean, really. If some combination of the FEC and the courts really start to say, oh, you can't say that on your blog within 90 days (or whatever) of election day, I think we are really talking about a time for civil disobedience. Think Poland, Lebanon, Tianamen Square. OK, not Tianamen Square, but the rest. There are too many of us, and too few of them. Just let them try to squelch this new realm of free speech." Thomas at Right Coast

890 Spring Sale

Torture instruments. That's what the high heeled sandals in today's newspaper ad look like to me. Like the pointy foot bindings that Chinese mothers used to crush the bones of their toddler daughters so they would look "sexy" and attractive for male suitors. Why would a woman hobble herself in 5" heels with straps of alligator, snake or dead cow? To look sexy. They surely aren't functional or comfortable, nor do they offer any protection from the elements. It's 19th century China in the shoe department. Look at the second photo on this page and see if it doesn't remind you of the drawings done by Manolo Blahnik for his shoe designs.

"Footbinding is a bold issue, as for many Chinese people the practice is so linked to sex and sexuality that it makes them uncomfortable to discuss it and consider it seriously. For others the topic is embarassing because it suggests a backwards or barbaric streak in Chinese Culture.[39] For men footbinding is troubling because it suggests not only that men are capable of perceiving a gruesomely crippled foot as an object of seductive pleasure, but that they are further capable of using their superior social position to coerce women to conform to a standard of beauty that is both deformed and grotesque. For women, footbinding is unsettling because it reveals a willingness to cripple their own daughters to meet an aesthetic and criterion of social behavior defined by men." Paper by Marie Vento

Substitute a few words, and you have 21st century shoe fashions.

889 Too cute for words

But only if you like cats. This site is a random kitten photo generator. I saw it on blogjam. Looks like you can add/send your own kitten photos.

888 The Blog as a business tool

A few days ago the Wall Street Journal had an article about using a blog as sort of a "handshake" for the community or customer. It reported that 32 million people read blogs, and increasingly, those blogs are professionally edited and maintained by businesses. One of the companies listed was Green Cine, so I checked out its blog, Green Cine Daily, and I must say it is outstanding. Green Cine describes itself as "The #1 DVD Rental Site for the Alternative Scene! With the best selection of indie, arthouse, anime, foreign, classics, documentaries and other esoteric fare. Including rare titles available at no other service."

Each entry in the daily blog is loaded with links and bits of info about films, and not just esoterica, since I recognized some of the film stars' obituaries that were noted. I'm not much of a film buff, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the restoration process of Bambi, to which the blogger, David Hudson, supplied the link. If your taste in films is edgier than mine (and that would be just about everyone), you'll really like this site.

887 The John Bolton appointment

The left is apoplectic. The right is ecstatic. That cowboy sure does dig in the spurs.

Frank Gaffney Jr. at NRO reports:

"President Bush is responding to these tough times at the U.N. with a bit of tough love. His selection of Undersecretary of State John Bolton to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations signals a call for systemic change, not merely superficial behavior modification.

After all, Bolton has been one of this country’s most thoughtful critics of past U.N. misconduct. During his stint during the Bush-41 administration as assistant secretary of State for international organizations — the bureau in Foggy Bottom responsible for relations with the United Nations — Bolton became intimately familiar with the institution and its shortcomings."

Many of the left bloggers made a joke of the appointment with Michael Bolton playing a reluctant second banana:

"What’s that?

Not MICHAEL Bolton?

Someone even LAMER than Michael Bolton, you say?

It’s hard to imagine someone lamer than Michael Bolton, but leave it to George W. Bush to find him…." American Street

886 Update

Last week I reported my husband was flying to California to be with his 92 year old father who'd had a heart attack. I'm pleased to report Dad is doing well (must have agreed to take his meds) and has returned to the nursing home from the hospital. I've talked to him every day on the phone for a few minutes when my husband is there. My husband is very pleased with the care he is receiving. He's also had a chance to enjoy his brother and sister, some excellent restaurants and some glorious California weather. I've got an apple pie ready to go in the oven, and now the only trick is to get to the airport tomorrow during rush hour. I've been known to get lost on the inner belt which everyone tells me is impossible. If you see a white knuckled, traumatized driver who looks lost, wave and point her to the airport exit.

Update 2: I just talked my daughter into driving me to the airport. Whew!

885 Promoting the success of others

Last night’s discussion at Book Club of Hugh Hewitt’s book In, but not of was quite lively. There were parts of the book which puzzled all of us. His recommendation that a young person aim for Harvard, Yale or Stanford and try to live in New York, Washington DC or LA immediately after college was a bit off-putting for us mid-westerners--even those who had lived in those cities or attended those schools. (Our host had a Harvard alumnus chair, so the leader of the discussion sat in it.)

However, some sections made a lot of sense, regardless of age or career goals. Chapter 19 “Success Is Not Zero-Sum, So Promote the Success of Others” brought out an interesting viewpoint from one of our members who has lived in Africa. The point of the chapter is that if you want to advance in your career, help others advance in theirs.

“There is no denying the fierce competition for entry-level positions in any meritocracy, and elbows can be very sharp indeed. Once you’re inside any door, however, the key to life-long success is a habit of helping other through that very same door or through other portals to opportunity.”

“Promoting rivals? Helping someone who could conceivably edge you out? That’s career suicide, or so you would think. But it’s not. Indeed, at the highest levels it is the mark of the most successful people.”

He provides a caveat--warns against promoting friends just because they are friends. You do not do anyone a favor by recommending him for a job which he can’t perform.

Now back to Africa. The member who had lived in Africa remarked that in her village, if someone did well in school or succeeded in business or got a scholarship to study abroad, they would be verbally attacked and shunned by their neighbors and peers. It was as though everyone had to be at the same low level if they couldn’t all rise together. Even if the successful returnee had much to offer the village. It was the difference between a “community” based value system and a system that values individuality. Now how many times have we heard this trumpeted as being positive? How many times have we heard that every child in the class needs to be honored, not just the ones who excel? Perhaps that cultural pattern is holding back an entire continent.

884 Why blog?

Michael DeBakey, the famous heart surgeon, is interviewed in today's Wall Street Journal (March 8, 2005). He is 96, and although a light eater who doesn't drink or smoke, he believes "work" provides the boost to longevity.

I would agree that keeping the brain active and challenged is important, but work in your chosen profession doesn't always do that. My final two years--the years that pushed me into setting a retirement target--were spent in mind numbing meetings about the design, construction and decorating of a new building which would house my library. Others, like my husband and the associate dean who oversaw the project, thrive on that sort of thing. For someone who lives for information, it is a mind shriveling experience. I pouted, I whined. I lost part of the sight in my left eye--and although I can't prove it, I think my body was refusing to look at one more electrical or plumbing scheme. I was not a nice person to be around--especially as I saw chunks of MY square feet reassigned to administrative space (afterall, isn't everything free on the internet?). And eventually, when my part of the task was completed, I put in my letter of resignation. It isn't fun to go to work that way.

So there are other ways to keep your mind busy and exercising. Volunteering. Reading. Writing poetry and essays. Attending concerts and lectures and workshops. Even selective TV viewing can occasionally inspire a brain cell to take notice. Even blogging. Hugh Hewitt has a lot more faith in blogging than I do--he's written an entire book on it. Even in his little career guide, "In, but not of" he has a brief chapter on the blog.

"The advantage of blogging is that it will oblige you to live in the world of ideas and debates, and to do so at the modern pace. . . Because blogging is the genuine marketplace of ideas, your site will prosper if you are any good."

Well, blogging does keep me investigating, reading and writing, the three things I really enjoyed about my profession. However, Hewitt hasn't got it quite right. There are some really awful blogs out there that get a lot of traffic, and some terrific ones that get very little. There are a lot of blogs with only two or three entries and disappeared owner/writers. There are others that had a great run for a year or two, and then died but still float around in cyberspace. Then too, the world doesn't need five thousand David Horowitzes or Pat Buchanans or Susan Estriches--they've got that territory covered. There are some flag waving good old boys and some deep dyed commies blogging who just ought to pack it up for awhile.

Setting aside the teen-age angst blogs written in instant messenger English, and the 20-something let's-go-get-drunk-after-work blogs, I've been most disappointed in the blogs written by women. It's not that they shouldn't write about day to day life--I do that--it is after all, a diary. (I never knew there were so many miscarriage stories out there.) But somewhere there should be women who are not professional journalists who write with the same investigative and writing skills as the top male bloggers (I'm excluding the two blondes who get interviewed everytime the story needs a female blogger). I put the published pundits (like Michelle Malkin) in a separate category because they've already got a track record and ran their flags up the blogpole when they saw the possibilities and the extra income.

When Hewitt talks about an "information reformation" and blogs changing the world, he isn't talking about diaries like mine, and unfortunately, he isn't talking about women in general.

883 A first hand account

Tom Brodersen met Terri Schiavo, the brain injured woman whose husband is attempting to end her life by removing her feeding tube, in the fall of 2002. After reading his account of her abilities, I think I was wrong in saying her condition is the same as the church member with whom I volunteered for several years in a nursing home. She actually has a higher level of functioning and can respond to more stimuli than my friend who has been on a feeding tube since she was 18. Here’s Tom’s story.

“During the period of September to November 2002 I spent time with Terri Schiavo, as a person briefly on her visitors list. During that time I . . .sang to her, played music for her, and encouraged her to vocalize. Over the twenty days or so that I visited with Terri . . . she gradually warmed up to me.

Terri responds to a variety of stimuli, including responding to both her mother's and my voices, both in person and over the phone, by fixing her attention and frequently by laughing. When I sang to her, she often vocalized, in her best effort to sing along with me. She recognizes and takes great pleasure in certain singers and songs which are her favorites—most especially John Denver singing "Country Roads." She learned to love several songs I sang to her with which she didn't seem to be familiar with, but others she never learned to appreciate. . .

She responded to gentle requests if given time and patience, such as lifting her right leg (three times out of four requests, the other time she lifted her left leg instead). While she does not have consistent control over her eyes to blink or look this way or that, she has excellent control over her breathing, diaphragm and voice, and will vocalize in various patterns if asked. While trying to work out a yes/no system with sounds, Terri initially answered the question "Terri, are you ten feet tall" by moaning twice, which is the response for "No," then she spontaneously whispered the word "No" in response to the question "Terry, are you purple?"
At that point I abandoned the sounding system and started trying to teach her to say "Yeah" as best as she could. Bob Schindler has several recordings of her sort of saying the word "Yeah" shortly after that.”

That’s a lot of progress in just two months, isn’t it? Terri will never be a perfectly functioning worker or employee or wife or mother, able to meet the challenges of the world, but who among us is? Perfect, that is. Can you really be completely self-sufficient and require no help from anyone else to meet your daily needs? She is a human being who has a God given soul, and no one, not the state or her husband or public opinion or general apathy about the misfortune of others should end her life. She's one of the people in Matthew 25 we are specifically told to serve. And she's one of the people our Constitution says is protected by our legal system.

882 Never heard of him

Yesterday I printed off a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights planning to read them at coffee sometime this week when I finish the other reading on my to-do list. Because of reading so many blogs, I see a lot of trash talking and nonsense about the constitution--or at least I think I do. It's been a long time since senior history class and it's entirely possible I was a typical teen-ager more interested in getting together with my friends than I was in reading American history. What got me interested yesterday was watching the program on C-SPAN (streaming video) about the statues of the men who worked on it (see my comments at 876). I wish other interviewers would learn a few lessons from Brian Lamb.

Speaking of the constitution and interviews, I saw Mark Levin interviewed on Neil Cavuto's show. I'd never heard of him, but sounds like he has an interesting book.

"Radio talk-show listeners know Mark R. "F. Lee" Levin well. President of the Landmark Legal Foundation, Levin is a frequent guest on/fill-in host on the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity shows. He's also got his own show on weeknights in New York (WABC). But his first love is the Constitution, and that's the focus of his new book, Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America. In Men in Black, Levin gives a brief, accessible history of judicial activism and offers possible solutions to curb it." NRO Interview

I wish political writers of both the right and left could use less inflammatory subtitles, but maybe that's what sells. Spill your guts on the cover.

881 Saying good-bye to Mary

She was managing a small agricultural economics "closet" library on the third floor and I was the agricultural economics bibliographer in the "real" library in the same building when we met. I liked her right away. Tiny, white haired, spry, friendly and talkative. And now that I've seen her birthdate on the funeral bulletin today, I realize that in 1978 when we met, she was the age I am now. She was a month younger than my father, born in 1913. Ohio State had a mandatory retirement age back then, and she left there and I believe worked downtown for another 10 or 15 years. I'd see her at church from time to time and she was always cheerful and busy. The pastor at her service today said she always talked about her husband, who died 35 years ago, and her son who died 22 years ago, as though they'd just stepped out of the room.

She was a charter member of our church which started in a basement and now has 10 services and three campuses. At 92, she outlived many of the people who knew her, so it was a small group who gathered to say good-bye. Two years ago her family had a 90th birthday celebration for her in the old fellowship hall/former sanctuary. The pastor said she'd probably helped sand the beams of that room.

The funerals of the old saints are wonderful services. Often worth going to even if you didn't know the person. We hear some great stories, sing the old hymns and hear the Gospel. While waiting for the service to begin, I read through the Order of Burial and compared it to the bulletin. We only used parts, but all of it was lovely. The pipe organ, which had been out for several months repairs and cleaning, was back in place to send Mary on her way.

"Into Your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend Mary. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech You, a sheep of Your own fold, a lamb of Your own flock, a sinner of Your own redeeming. Receive her into the arms of Your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light."
Commendation, Order of Burial, Lutheran Book of Worship.

880 True or false

This story may be anecdotal or even apocryphal--you never know on the internet. Still it's a really great story.

879 Where have I been?

This is going around the internet. East to west, plot where you've visited, lived or are now.

Bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

878 What can the customer expect?

Last week I needed to stop at a store for a specialty item. After making my purchase I was returning to the parking lot when I noticed another store that carried a product I've been thinking about, but hadn't researched yet. So I stopped in.

The 20-something female clerk was very well informed, polite, and not at all pushy. Even if I'd been primed to buy, I didn't stick around long enough for her to make the sale, although I took some literature home to read. I found out enough to know I'm very interested in this particular piece of technology just from the information she provided.

So what's the problem? Her appearance. She had on a faded gray denim jacket, over a blue denim shirt hanging out over black jeans atop thick athletic shoes. Her skin was bad and she had on no make-up except smeared mascara. Her hair was clean, but carelessly pulled back into sort of a large mushroom type style. She had no visible tatoos or piercings, but she did have bad breath. At one point I asked a question she couldn't answer, so she called to her male coworker. He appeared from the back room with a ready answer, dressed in nice slacks, a long sleeve dress shirt, and leather shoes. Which employee will get the next opening in management?

Similar theme about churches here.

877 Irrational exuberance

That's how Mark Cuban recalled the heady era that made him a dot com millionaire on an NBC show I watched this morning. This week is the fifth anniversary of the beginning of one of the biggest stock market crashes in history. The dot com bubble was really over when the NASDAQ hit 5,000 five years ago. From March 11th, 2000 to October 9th, 2002 it then dropped 78%.

And George W. Bush was still campaigning. I wonder how the guy who invented the internet would have turned it around in such a short time.

876 A way to catch up

Two of my favorite cable TV programs are not commerical, and both are on C-Span: Booknotes and Washington Journal. If you need to catch up on your history, politics or current events reading, this is the place to do it--painlessly. You can get the transcript or watch the video of the program. They also sell video tapes of the programs. And coffee cup mugs.

Today I selected Martin Marty, Professor Emeritus at University of Chicago, discussing his new book on Martin Luther. I'm not a fan of his writing, but thought, "It's hard to mess up a biography of Luther, so let's see what he has to say." I turned back to find another program after he proudly said he was Lutheran because he was born Lutheran, and that if he'd been born in India he'd probably be a Hindu. That's a pretty limp testimony for a Christian. I guess he's never heard the proverb that God has no grandchildren.

875 Not on my links

As more bloggers joined in on blogging for Terri, my links were becoming overwhelming--there must have been over 200. So I’ve pulled the automatic listing and have added a link to a page that will list them all. I don’t know if this will help the speed of downloading my page or not. It will probably remove me from Mammal status, since that is based on links, but so be it. A page that loads like ice melting in Columbus in March just isn’t acceptable.

Bloggers for Terri Schiavo

I added a few more women bloggers, one of which used “live journal” and immediately had trouble again. I’m wondering if Blogger.com just doesn’t want to share the playground. But she also had sort of a potty mouth as I read through her archive, and I tend not to promote women who want to use the F-word as adverb, adjective, noun and verb. I think our beautiful English language deserves better writing. Most of the men I link to are fairly deep thinkers, so they learned long ago the limits of that word in complex explanations. Women on the internet are sometimes enjoying freedom and anonymity, and like children with the giggles, they try to see how far they can go with their blogs.

Some things the guys just do better, and profanity is in that category. Free country and internet, ladies, but not on my links.

874 Can you teach what you don't know?

Joanne Jacobs always has interesting items about our educational system, from elementary school to grad school. Recent items include, should experienced teachers be allowed to opt out of the tough schools, and a tip to an article about applicants for Master's in teaching of history degrees who not only don't have history undergrad degrees, they haven't taken any history courses at all!

Professor Stan Wineburg of Stanford writes: "But how can you teach what you don't know? Would someone who wanted to teach calculus dare to submit a transcript with no math courses? Would a prospective chemistry teacher come to us with a record devoid of science? Yet with history, the theory goes, all you need is a big heart and a thick book.

The state of California encourages this state of affairs. Although it requires teachers to earn a rigorous teaching credential before they may teach math, English, biology or chemistry in the public school system, there is no such credential for history. Instead, the state hands out a loosey-goosey "social science" credential."

I loved history, but it hasn't had much respect for years. I don't recall a boring history class (well, OK, there was that one professor at U of I who was so excrutiatingly dull a grad student stood up in class an yelled at him and stormed out). I had enough credit hours in college for a history minor (but not the right classes), and wouldn't think of trying to go into a classroom and teach it. My major was such a struggle and I was so over my head, that the history classes were pure joy (they were also in English).

In elementary school we started history as an actual discipline in fifth grade, beginning with pre-history moving on to the Greeks and Romans. Before that, any exposure to history was included in reading stories and class projects. In sixth grade we got western European and British, and I think by seventh (changed schools, so I'm not sure of the sequence) we began to focus on American history, and by eighth grade, Illinois history. I think high school history classes took a similar route--Greece, Rome, Europe, England, United States, Illinois. That probably wouldn't be politically correct today, but in our day-to-day life living as responsible American citizens and taxpayers, it wouldn't hurt to know a few of the events who brought us to 2005. My own children, who attended high school in the 1980s, hadn't memorized any of the "facts," like dates, or even centuries, or the major players. They weren't sure where to place the VietNam War in the 20th century of back-to-back major wars and many smaller wars.

Wineburg concludes, correctly, in my opinion: "Lack of knowledge encourages another bad habit among history teachers: a tendency to disparage "facts," an eagerness to unshackle students from the "dominant discourse" — and to teach them, instead, what the teacher views as "the Truth." What's scary is the certainty with which this "Truth" is often held. Rather than debating why the United States entered Vietnam or signed the North American Free Trade Agreement or brokered a Camp David accord, all roads lead to the same point: our government's desire to oppress the less powerful. It is a version of history that conjures up a North Korean reeducation camp rather than a democratic classroom."

873 Have you noticed?

This afternoon I took my book to the coffee shop--and I'm all the way to chapter 8 (slow reader). It does have some good things to say. I do wonder how everyone is going to fit on the campuses of Harvard, Yale and Stanford, however. And where will the rest of us academics work? That's not my point here. While I was in the coffee shop I looked up as some women customers came in. Have you noticed how so many people have very white teeth these days? I mean glistening, sparkling, movie-star white. Whiter than natural white. It must be all those teeth-whiteners you see advertised. I wonder how long it will be before teeth-whiteners will be the next Cox-2 or HRT or phen-phen and people will find out they do something awful in lab rats eating it 15 times a day in addition to removing tea, cigarette and coffee stains from human teeth?

Back to the book and chapter 9.

872 George Will calls public TV a preposterous relic

“In 1967 public television did at least increase, for many, the basic television choices from three -- CBS, NBC, ABC -- to four. Not that achieving some supposedly essential minimum was, or is, the government's business. In today's 500-channel environment, public television is a preposterous relic.”

Full essay here.

Are there any shows on public TV that you think couldn't make it commercially? If yes, is that a good reason to keep them on the air?

871 The Big Boys and Martha

Reading what male columnists and commentators have to say about Martha Stewart is like reading what the liberal MSM have to say about President Bush. They just don't get it. Someone who has a purpose, a direction, believe in self, who confounds the pundits and does exactly what she/he promised to do.

In his Wonderland essay today in the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henniger writes about the "Gates" exhibit in Central Park. He just can't resist sniping at Martha:

"Cristo and Jeanne-Claude use the tool of free media publicity as skillfully as any politician, or as naughty Martha Stewart is doing right now."

A slam with a put down. Nice work. Relegating her to the status of a kindergartner sitting in the corner.

870 Reading under pressure

Book Club is meeting Monday night, and as usual, it is crunch time and I'm still in the first chapter. The selection is a little odd--we usually read solid non-fiction, biography or genre fiction. This time it is Hugh Hewitt's book, In, But Not Of; a guide to Christian ambition and the desire to influence the world (Thomas Nelson, 2003). First I checked OhioLINK, then OPLIN, and I think there were only one or two copies in the state. Public libraries don't have very good collections of Christian material (considering that their clients are overwhelmingly Christian), but I thought I'd be able to borrow it. So I purchased it, knowing it was "gift book" material and maybe I could pass it along. So far I'm stuck in the preface and not enthusiastic. Of course, "ambition" was never my watchword, even when I was working, so as a retiree the concept doesn't hold a lot of interest. Maybe he has a really fresh take on ambition and influence. Hope so.

I look really sharp today. Mascara. New lipstick shade. Dark blazer. Ambitious. Sometimes it helps to look the part.

869 You can't tell a person by a face

This site purports to be able to determine your ethnicity, intelligence and personality from a submitted photograph. I submitted about 5, and got a different evaluation each time. I never got out of the average intelligence range although it fluctuated. The photo I'm currently using here at the blog (taken at Wal-Mart) had me eastern Indian and southern European, a white collar worker, maybe a secretary. I did best with my studio master's degree photo, which said I was 100% Anglo-Saxon (correct), a charmer, and brighter than I was when I was east Indian. I hope these guys aren't working on terrorist screening.

868 Publishing in the 21st century

For those of you doing more than blogging with your words, or who are selecting titles for public and university libraries, there is an interesting three part series over at Backspace on publishing in the 21st century, how the business is changing and how technology is influencing what authors, agents and publishers do for a living. Part One is an overview of the current state of the business, Part Two is a discussion (new to me) of what's become of paperbacks, and Part Three is, On the road to virtual.

867 When age doesn't matter

While adding a site to my coffee blog today, I decided this one might be worth another look here.

"We got together for coffee recently. We both live close enough to Panera's to walk. We are both retired--I in 2000 and she in 2004. I haven't missed work a single day, but she's having a bit more of a struggle--misses "her kids." I've lived in the community for 37 years, and she grew up here. I've been a member of the church since 1976 and she is a charter member. But when she mentioned her best friend in high school, I said, "but she used to baby sit for us."

When she was 18, I was 28. We were worlds apart. I was changing diapers, shopping for groceries, making the dollars stretch for wallpaper and drapes for the new house, feeling the oldest I've ever felt in my life--wondering where had life gone. She was going to football games, planning for college, looking forward with excitement to all that was to come. And now, that 10 years doesn't make much difference at all."

Today's Laugh

I saw this link at Schadenfreude. If you are old enough to remember Johnny Carson (Tonight Show) and Jack Webb (Dragnet), you’ll love this.

Johnny Carson and Jack Webb

865 Freed Martha

My cooking may be a bit slip-shod and borrowed from my Mom's recipe box of the 1950s, but I'm a big fan of Martha Stewart's products even if I've only read one of her magazines (the first issue). Sheets, bedspreads, towels, rugs, and kitchen utensils are all well designed and made.

Now she's getting out of prison. Some men are still complaining that she hasn't admitted to a crime, even though she's done the time. Could be that in addition to beingsmart, talented, successful and providing a lot of quality for value, she's also innocent. All those guys who were wrong about her stock (jumped 40% from the low last fall) are also wrong about her. See WaPo for a less than flattering story.

From the Alderson, West Virginia prison Martha wrote her staff about foraging for wild greens on the grounds, decorating the chapel for a memorial service, and cooking impromtu recipes in the microwave with whatever the commissary had for sale. She read voraciously with the new found time she had, taught yoga, crocheted gifts, cast and painted ceramics from old molds she found, and played cards and scrabble (as reported in the latest issue of Living). This lady knows how to make lemon-ade from even dried up lemons.

You go girl! And welcome back.

Note: Last March I started my blog about premiere issues with a few paragraphs about Martha:

"The reasons people give for starting a new journal are wonderful, and that will probably end up being my focus, rather than ISSN or editor or publisher or cost. For instance, I have the "Preview Issue" of Martha Stewart Living, Winter 1990, published in the fall of 1989 for the coming holiday season. She quotes Samuel Johnson, the famous 18th century writer: For at the end of the day, no matter who we are or what we do, we want to go home. Our philosophy was nicely stated by Samuel Johnson a couple of hundred years ago: "To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition."

The issue is filled with wonderful recipes, projects, and decorating ideas. I don't think she ever changed her plan (I also don't think she is guilty, but that's another blog. The pages are drying out a bit, so I have to be careful when I open to the stencils of stars and moon to be carefully removed to spray paint a table cloth. I smile when I see the photo of the golden threads of spun sugar on cups made of brandy snaps holding black currant icecream topped with caramel syrup. Ah, Martha, nobody does it like you!

864 How did you meet your spouse?

SmockMomma of Suma Mamas writes: “we met in january of ’90 in a class entitled “ethics and moral issues” at Texas Tech. i thought he was the spawn of jimmy swaggart because he quoted lots and lots of scripture, and right from the hip, too. he thought i was a wiccan hippy – but aside from my habit of wearing lots of black and espousing very militant pro-choice, pro-gay/lesbian/transgender, rabid feminist, anti-established religion views, i can’t imagine why he thought that. i mean, he was the dingleberry who voted for a democrat, not me. he thought all i needed was a little salvation and i thought he prolly just needed to get a little. there must be something to that “opposites attract” theory cuz fifteen years later here we are, albeit a tad more complacent 'n civilized.”

Bloggers are interviewing each other, and this was one of the questions she was asked--a mother of four with two on the way. The ones I’ve read are tailored to the writer and are not the general “what is your favorite beverage” type question. I thought this one could be a general conversation starter--it works better than “how old are your kids,” even if the person is divorced or widowed. And if she is single and never married, you’ll hear an even better story.

I’m not as funny as SmockMomma, but I can tell you we met at an ROTC function and that on our first date, The St. Pat’s Ball at the University of Illinois, my husband told me he was going to marry me. When I returned to the dorm that night and went to Sally Siddens’ room to return dress, I told her, “You won’t believe the line I heard tonight. And he can dance.”

863 A hitch in my git-along

Remember that old expression? I don't think I've ever actually said that one, but I know it means something hurts and isn't working right, or it means something's been thwarted depending on the area you're from. Yesterday I added two really great writers to my list of writing links, and one or both caused a hitch in my get-along. Right away, my page started having trouble. First, their pages loaded really slowly. Then mine started to balk. I'd had this happen last summer when one of them was on my list. I'd added Sal and PJ that time, and it kicked up a fuss. The template change never would work right after I made that change. So I deleted both. I snuck PJ back in (great recipes) and had no problems. So recently, I added Sal and Inkmusings. Now both are relegated to my bookmarks. I'll still return to their sites--just won't be directing you there. You geeky types will probably tell me this is just a coincidence, but rather than have people fall asleep waiting for it to load (actually, no one waits on the internet--not even me), I'd rather let them fall asleep reading my prose.

862 Dress like a voting booth

Mark Steyn comments on all the changes going on in the Middle East, Full story here, “Arabs Berlin Wall has Crumbled;” my, but I do love how he turns a phrase.

“Why is all this happening? Answer: January 30. Don't take my word for it, listen to Walid Jumblatt, big-time Lebanese Druze leader and a man of impeccable anti-American credentials: "I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, eight million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world. The Berlin Wall has fallen."

Just so. Left to their own devices, the House of Saud - which demanded all US female air-traffic controllers be stood down for Crown Prince Abdullah's flight to the Bush ranch in Crawford - would stick to their traditional line that Wahhabi women have no place in a voting booth; instead, they have to dress like a voting booth - a big black impenetrable curtain with a little slot to drop your ballot through. Likewise, Hosni Mubarak has no desire to take part in campaign debates with Hosno Name-Recognition. Boy Assad has no desire to hand over his co-Baathists to the Great Satan's puppets in Baghdad.”

861 On fathers and dads

Tomorrow morning my husband will fly to California to see his father who had a heart attack on Saturday. He is refusing all "heroic" measures, including his regular medication, so it is possible that father and son won't meet again this side of heaven. A divorce when my husband was two years old means they didn't live together, but you don't have to be in the same room with them too long to see that they are related.

We sent our children out to see him for a week when they were about 14 and 15, and our son, who is an incredible mimic, can still do a comedy routine of Grandpa nipping into the candy bowl and frying bacon. In August 2003 we went out for his 90th birthday party, a huge bash in my brother-in-law's decorated backyard. He is a popular guy with many friends half his age. During WWII he had what must have been the dream assignment of the war--arranging entertainment for the troops. That 2003 visit was only the second time his four children had all been together with him at the same time, the other time being in Indiana sometime in the 1950s. I know it sounds sort of distant and cool, but it is amazing to me who grew up in an intact family with grandparents and great-grandparents in the same town, how close they all are and how they share mannerisms, speech patterns and body language. My father-in-law had eight brothers and sisters who took family very seriously and included his two little ones in everything. This is a blended family (I could write volumes) which sets the bar for that term.

In 1977 we flew to California with the children for an extended visit. A large athletic man, bigger than either son, my husband's father had lost about 50 pounds that year, as had my own father, and my husband's step-dad. I joked that I had lost one entire dad just from dieting.

In 1995 we were both at work when we got the call about my husband's step-father. We threw things in the suitcase and quickly drove to Indianapolis, but we were too late to say good-bye. He was already on a respirator. Both fathers were at our wedding, but this was the father who paid the mortgage, put food on the table, disciplined for misbehavior and smartmouthing, mowed the lawn, went to ballgames, attended our kids' parties, and told the funny stories on holidays. My husband delivered the eulogy at his funeral, finishing with "I love you, dad." The only time he ever called him "dad."

We've been blessed to have our fathers (mine died in 2002) such a long time.

860 Music on the Internet

A few of my favorite links are to radio on the internet. I don't pretend to understand this, or know who puts it out or how, but I get really good music, some from other countries, with no commercials.

Music weblogs are even more a mystery to me. People write about the music they enjoy and then post a link. I'm not sure if what I'm doing--listening--is legal--I guess it is. But if you drop down to the bottom of my left hand links to a music weblog icon, Impudent Marriage.com and click, then go to Feb. 14, you hear something I think is really good:

Julie writes in her music blog: “This song is a perfect blend of hip hop and blues. The lyrics are haunting and convey a sense of newfound independence. The tune is catchy and fun, but at the same time low key and reminiscent of a dirge.” The Truth from "Handsome Boy Modeling School"

Apparently, there is web karaoke, too. A kid named Gary was catapulted to fame and is now in hiding because he danced the Numa Numa and put it on the internet. I watched it, laughed, and thought, "This kid has a lot of talent." I can't lipsync in Romanian, can you?

859 I'm not dead yet

"If you ever watched the TV mini-series "The Holocaust" with James Woods as an artist. In that movie they depicted the destruction of people not just in concentration camps, but prior to that. Before they started to destroy Jews and Gypsies and political dissidents, they first started destroying retarded children, people with brain defects. And they put them into vans and piped in carbon monoxide and killed them all. They looked on it as good because these people were difficult, they were expensive, they were awkward. They didn't have the quality of life required of the Third Reich. They were expendable. And from that came the Holocaust." Gregory Koukl

858 Whiny women

Articles like this one reporting women in the sciences at Harvard are still looking for excuses really make me steam.

"Students cited their experiences in introductory courses as particularly traumatic—saying that some male teaching fellows would drive their classes at relentless rate and would deflect questions from female students.

To counter this, Tracy E. Nowski '07 and Patricia Li '07, co-chairs of the policy committe of WISHR, suggested optional sections created specifically for women, perhaps being even taught by female teaching fellows."

So, after 35 years of workshops, tutoring, special classes, Title 9, and bumping men from application lists at prestigious schools, women still can't take the heat and now want their own classes at the college level?

My epiphany came about 10 years ago when I walked into the women's restroom in Sisson Hall (Ohio State) and saw a list posted on a toilet stall door of 50 organizations on campus to help me be a poor lil' oppressed woman. "Are we that weak?" I wondered as I kicked aside a huge cockroach. "We can't survive without all this stuff to prop us up?" There would be a lot of women in administration who would have to go out and get real jobs if they ever convinced other women they really can do what they want if they are willing to compete. If they don't want to compete, that's not the men's problem. Don't make it into Harvard, spend $40,000 a year of dad's money and then start trembling in your Nikes because men are acting like nut-cakes.

857 Truth is stranger than sarcasm

"In another move designed to show his love and compassion for his wife, Michael Schiavo today announced he would auction off his guardianship of Terri Schiavo on eBay."

Full story at ScappleFace

856 Listening to the Oscar chatter

Two miles north of here, I can get WJR Detroit, so I was listening to a talk show driving home from grocery shopping this morning. No one who called in was happy with Chris Rock's performance. It was not a left/right, black/white thing. People long for the "good old days" when comedians could perform for a national audience and not be political or slanderous. I suspect that time never existed, but it would be nice.

One of my readers says she used to enjoy the Oscars--particularly seeing the clothes. She went to bed last night at 9. No fun these days--she hasn't seen any of the movies, and often doesn't know the stars. And she sees a lot more movies than I do. Me? I don't think I ever watched an Oscar show.

Robin Williams' allusion to the Focus on the Family Sponge Bob Square Off was only slightly amusing, a caller to WJR said (although better than Rock). It's not clear to me if Williams was on the show, or if the caller was just comparing the two comedians. The MSM and all of Hollywood left get that Dobson story wrong. James Dobson never said the cartoon character was gay. He objected to a link on the video which used a number of favorite cartoon characters, produced by "We are Family Foundation" for children promoting explicitly homosexual material. I think the left coast all know that, but what would be funny or slur-worthy about that? What fun is it to make fun of a Christian leader when he is speaking the truth and common sense?

"If you had told me a month ago that I’d be devoting my February letter to a cartoon character named SpongeBob SquarePants, I’d have said you were crazy. Nevertheless, by now you probably know that I have been linked to that famous talking sponge by hundreds of media outlets, from the New York Times to "MSNBC" to "Saturday Night Live." The story of how this situation unfolded is somewhat complicated, but it must be told." Dr. Dobson.

You should see what librarians did to Dr. Laura! But then, that's another show.

855 Slivers and hyphens

At my other other blog, Church of the Acronym, I'll write more about the wonderful artwork of Dr. Tennyson Williams (can't find my notes at the moment). The Visual Arts Ministry hung his show on Saturday morning. Sometimes the equipment isn't the best and my husband picked up a sliver in his hand from the step ladder. A metal sliver. So I found a needle and a tweezers for him (he was on his own then--I'm squeamish).

I've written before about hyphens, and I think they are useful used with discretion, but when over done they pierce like a sliver. Hyphens are irritating to the flow of language when poking around where they aren't needed. A one column article on technology by Lee Gomes in today's WSJ had at least 14 hyphenated adjectives--my eyes were glazing over.

innovator-entrepreneurs; open-source; free-flowing; eye-glazing (yup!); start-up; hedge-fund; heat-seeking; computer-programming; space-time; already-crowded; high-tech; file-sharing; write-up; earth-shaking.

I'm thinking Mr. Gomes didn't slap all those hyphens in there on the qwerty keyboard--he'll get carpal tunnel of the little finger--but would they have that many editorial assistants with nothing to do? Is it a hyphen-gap-finding-inserting program?

These ladies are looking for you

The Summa Mamas, Catholic mothers, are blogging for Terri and looking for comments.

"We are within 22 comments of our 3000th comment. Poster who is number 3000 will get a big ol' smooch from the Mamas! (And who knew it would be such a great conversation? We appreciate each and every one of you so much.)"

I've got just the guy for them.

853 Speaking ill of the dead

Not being particularly well-read, I didn't mourn the death of Hunter Thompson--in fact, I'd never heard of him, although when I read his obits in the various columns, some of his early titles sounded vaguely familiar. But so did Sandra Dee's. Now it has come out that he shot himself while on the phone with his wife, with his young grandson in the house. Can this be the guy people are eulogizing like he is some sort of iconic literary figure?

Thinking maybe I missed something important, that perhaps 30-40 years ago he might have had something to say, I scanned my bookshelves for a clue. There was a two volume Norton's up there (given to me by someone who had finished an American lit course). It can be a nice door stop, or a quick reference, less biased than googling his name.

So I dipped into "American Prose since 1945" in Volume Two. Quite a few names I recognize, even some I've read: Vladimir Nabokov, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, James Baldwin, Tom Wolfe, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, Bobbie Ann Mason, Alice Walker, and Louise Erdrich (but not her husband--interesting--but that's another story since he was the better writer). Even Arthur Miller, also recently deceased and eulogized beyond what was necessary. Who would remember him if he hadn't married Marilyn Monroe? But no Hunter Thompson. Good. Apparently a lot of people didn't think he was worth reading when something better was at hand.

852 Sweet Sour Meatloaf

When I retired in 2000, I had two unfinished research projects; black veterinarians in Ohio in the early 20th century, and free central Ohio newspapers and magazines. Although it was my job to teach students how to use a systematic method to prepare papers, I never followed what I taught. My method was to accumulate as much interesting material as possible, throw it in a box under my desk, and periodically bring it out and look for an interesting starting place. The next step was to go into the stacks and browse. Trust me, no one would ever actually teach others to do research this way, but I did get to Associate Professor, so it worked for me.

I was further along in the veterinarian project and actually had "hard" data drawn from material in my stacks that probably no one else would ever dig out since most of it wasn't indexed. One piece of information had been taped for years to a class photo poster in the hospital. My preliminary conclusion was that the pre-1950 classes at OSU in veterinary science had a higher percentage of African American students than the post-1970 classes when they were actively being recruited, but I couldn't find an angle on which to pitch my story. Also, the registrar doesn't let you look at student records (for residence, high school, etc.) without a darn good reason.

The free-circulation newspapers topic, on the other hand, was huge, cumbersome, and I couldn't find a soul writing on it except me. I'm guessing that over the years I'd accumulated 50 titles under my desk to explore. Normally that is a good thing if you're writing a PhD thesis, but I wasn't. It could just possibly mean no one gives a hoot, so why bother? Libraries don't collect them; indexing services ignore them; circulation compilations don't report their stats. From an information history angle, they don't exist if you can't find them. In libraries, we have a term called "gray literature." Free-circs go beyond gray into invisible. Disclaimer: this may have changed in the last 5 years.

But I still pick them up when I see them (newspapers, not black veterinarians); I can't resist. Today I noticed The New Standard; an independent Central Ohio Jewish Semi-Monthly at the coffee shop, sitting along side some other free newspapers. It is a mix of local and boilerplate with nice formatting, very healthy advertising inches without being pushy, good cartoons, interesting editorials, and a very full calendar of events, most of which I didn't know about since I'm not Jewish.

And now to the title of this blog entry. Chef Lana Covel had an article in The New Standard some time back about how she couldn't make meatloaf. So in this issue (Feb. 24-Mar. 9, 2005) she reprinted the e-mails and suggestions she received from her readers--some very funny, others quite helpful. And there is was! My Sweet Sour Meatloaf recipe that I have been using for 45 years and which I give new brides. According to H.G. who submitted it, it came from the B'nai B'rith Women's Cookbook, 1978, but mine is a bit older, having come from Mary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia of Cooking, c 1959, 1960, p. 642. It truly is the best meatloaf you'll ever taste, and if you've failed before with dry, tasteless gunk, throw away that onion soup and ketchup; this one will work for you.

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1/4 C brown sugar
1/4 C vinegar
1 t. prepared mustard
1 egg
1 small onion, minced
1/4 C crushed crackers
2 lbs. ground beef
1 1/2 t. salt (I use less)
1/4 t. pepper

Mix tomato sauce with sugar, vinegar, and mustard until sugar is dissolved.

Beat egg slightly; add onion, crackers, beef, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce mixture. Combine lightly, but thoroughly.

Shape meat into oval loaf in a bowl; turn into shall baking dish, keeping loaf shapely. Pour on rest of tomato sauce mixture.

Bake in hot oven (400 degrees F.) 45 minutes, basting occasionally. With 2 broad spatulas, lift onto platter. Serves 8.

And there is an on-going class on Maimonides 13 Principles of Faith at Temple Israel each Tuesday from 12-1 p.m.

Got the munchies?

Dogwood Blue blog has some interesting photos, especially this one. Think I'll pass.