1163 Site meters can enslave

Some bloggers become slaves to their site meters. Not me. I only check, oh, 4 or 5 times a day. I'm too cheap to pay for one, so I have a freebie with limited features. If I don't check every 100 visits, I'd miss all the fun. I don't get the really wild questions like Vox Lauri or Paula, but I do have some persistent favorites. Three out of every 100 queries are people wanting to know how to fix a broken zipper, something I asked last October, but no one could tell me. Now my own question has corralled others, as though I am the guru or maven of broken zippers (the pants were 20 years old for goodness' sake).

About four out of every 100 are visitors who have found the photo of the kittens belonging to the Agricultural Librarian at Ohio State. I saw the photo in her office and thought they were so adorable I asked if I could scan it, and she gave me one. (I've heard that some photographers use freeze dried animals to get those cutsy poses, but these kittens were alive and well.) And as the weather has warmed, I'm getting about three clicks a day to my own painting of my children sitting in front of the Marblehead Lighthouse.

The other day someone read 45 of my entries spending an hour and a half, and I hope she comes back and helps the stats again. Many readers seem to start at Shush's or Conservator's blogs, can't leave a comment there, so I think they come on over here. The best way to get visitors is to leave comments at someone else's blog, but most of the time I can't think of anything to say. Especially if I think it is really awful.

And I have many ethical people visit here. My stats are highest over the lunch hour, so they aren't reading during work time. Peak days seem to be Wednesday and Thursday. By Friday my readers are in TGIF mode and who wants to read a retired librarian when leaving work early for the bar?

So here's the formula for breaking 90 visits a day: zippers, kittens, lighthouses and comments. I've looked at some of the blogs drawing 1,000 or more visitors a day, and I'd need to be much saucier, sassier and younger than I am. I give up a lot for my craft, but I won't be anyone but me.

1162 Teaching English ain't easy

Nathan Bierma loves the English language, but he has discovered that teaching grammar is different than using it professionally. Here's his English 101 story from the Chicago Trib. I occasionally try reading the blogs of college young people and have definitely experienced his #1, #2, and #4.

1161 What children ask for

Yesterday's question in VBS was something along the lines of "If you could have anything you asked for, what would it be." Apparently, only one little girl (probably watches beauty pageants on TV) thought beyond material needs and did indeed ask for world peace, according to my husband who teaches the class. Most asked for material things, but not a bike or a pony like my generation would have done (we were self-centered too), but a house! One little girl asked for a shopping mall! Now THAT is materialistic. "What do you suppose children in Third World countries ask for," my husband mused.

1160 Give them the gate before 2008

"Opinion polls suggest that John McCain and Rudy Guiliani are the two favorites for the Republican nomination in 2008." WSJ 6-21-05. Why not just hand the presidency to Mrs. Clinton and save all the expense and rancor of an election?

Stories from Lakeside

At the end of the week we’ll be heading for our summer home at Lakeside on Lake Erie, a Chautauqua community. We’ll be reversing the days of summer that we had all those years when we were both employed, which was work four days, take a day of vacation and spend three at the Lake. Now we’ll play three weeks, come home to attend to details for a few days, and go back to more play. It's a tough life being a DINK living in a NORC.

Lakeside Summer 2004

Memorial Day Week-end, 2004
All about Mayflies
Thoughts on July 4
Week-end entertainment
Friends of the Hotel Sale
The week’s entertainment, mid-July
Art Show Opening
Pleasant surprises
First Donut of the season
Complementary colors
Entertainment just steps away
The Last Day of July
Client Appreciation Party
Week Eight at Lakeside, 2004
Colors of SummerCottage Decor
Week Nine at Lakeside, 2004
Packing to go home

And for 2005

Week One, 2005
A Lakeside Wedding
Mind and Memory class
Blueberries are brain food
Perfect Day at Lakeside
Lutheran Chautauqua
The Secret is Out
Another perfect summer day
Lake Erie Cruise
Thirty years ago at Lakeside
First time visitors
Our Town
Apple Pie Sailing Weather
Peace Week
The Big E
Sailing the Front Porch
Resurrection Lilies
Baby in the hotel dining room
Lakeside art class
Kelley's Island
What I haven't seen this summer
Photo Album at the Antique Sale

Summer 2006
Suspenders
Yard Saling
Lighthouse-opoly
Walk along Lake Erie
Remodeling at Lakeside
Our Lakeside cottages over the years
My office nook at Lakeside
Wooden Boat Show
First week's programming
Chinese Acrobats
July 4, 2006 at Lakeside
Lakeside archives
Tram Tour
Kids' Sail
Week 8 at Lakeside
Lakeside dock scenes
Purple Martins at Lakeside
Antique Show, pt. 2

Summer 2007
Tony Campolo preaches at Lakeside
First time visitors
Lakeside is open
Fourth week visitors
Third week programs and activities and
class on geology of the Great Lakes and
art show opening
Flowers of Lakeside

1158 I love my mom, but. . .

My husband is teaching Vacation Bible School this week. This is an enormous undertaking for our church--I think about 3,000 kids are enrolled for one week sessions over a two week period. There is even a special VBS class for developmentally disabled children. Anyway, yesterday at lunch he told me that in his fourth grade class he has 17 children from 15 schools, and one of those schools is about 70 miles away. I think that is amazing. When I went to VBS back in Forreston, IL, we had town kids and country kids--two, possibly three schools and probably 4 or 5 churches.

The theme is something about Africa, and one of the questions was "if you were lost in the jungle on safari, what one person would you want to have with you?" Most of the kids said their dad, a few said their mother, but one little girl said, "Well, I really love my mom, but she's always getting lost, so I'll say my dad."

Of course, I would have asked why we were lost if the dads were so great at asking directions.

1157 Words and phrases for pundits

Words mean something, unless they are overused. Then they become posters, or occasionally poetry. I'm working on a list of the typical words and phrases used by the left or right about the right or left. On this first day of Spring I'm just taking them out of my word safe, holding them up to the light and deciding if they can be strung together as an essay, a poem, a joke or an obituary for discourse. Here are some of my jewels found along the way. Step lightly.

Democrats' favorites include:
outraged
shocked
horrified
politicize
crony
rich buddies
anti-choice
anti-science
hypocrites
idiots
morons
backwater
Haliburton
coalition of the rich and religious
dismantle
high-profile fundraiser
stolen elections
red-meat-but-no-brain
Bush lied
Nazis, Hitler
Gulag, Stalin
polls show
talk-radio
right wing spin
wingnuts
fake but accurate!
Rovian
WTF?

Republicans are currently using these treasures:
MSM
pro-abortion
anti-gun ownership
freaks
baby killers
tired
socialists
communists
disinformation
anti-American
snobs
left-coast
wackos
Deaniacs
kooks
unhinged
Moore lies
snookered
spittle-flecked
high-profile fundraiser
tax and spend
radicals
Clintonesque
SF-180
Bush-wackers
tin-foil headgear
moonbats
fake but accurate?
whiners
wusses
WTF?

1156 Noonan's plan to save PBS

Peggy Noonan has a plan to save PBS that is so sensible and so good, that I just know no one will take her suggestion. Congress seems incapable of coming up with these ideas.

"Why, then, doesn't Congress continue to fund PBS at current levels but tell them they must stick to what they are good at, and stop being the TV funhouse of the Democratic Party? Nobody needs their investigative unit pieces on how Iran-contra was very, very wicked; nobody needs another Bill Moyers show; nobody needs a conservative counter to Bill Moyers's show. Our children are being raised in a culture of argument. They can get left-right-pop-pop-bang anywhere, everywhere.
PBS exists to do what the commercial networks should and won't. And just one of those things is bringing to Americans who have not and probably will not be exposed to it the great treasury of American art, from the work of Eugene O'Neill (again, ABC won't be producing "Long Day's Journey" anytime soon), outward to Western art (Shakespeare) and outward to world art.

And science. And history. But real history, meaning something that happened in the past as opposed to the recent present, with which PBS, alas, cannot be trusted.

Art and science and history. That's where PBS's programming should be. And Americans would not resent funding it."

Complete essay here.

1155 Letters from Gitmo Dick

Iowahawk has uncovered some of Dick Durbin's personal letters (D-IL).

1154 More exceptions for faculty women . . . and a few guys

OnCampus, the Ohio State Newspaper for faculty and staff, had this interesting item about the need for even more exceptions for part time female faculty, who can’t meet the expectations that promotion and tenure might involve 60 hour work weeks.

"In Ohio State’s 2003 faculty work/life survey, one-third of female assistant professors and 20 percent of male assistant professors expressed interest in reducing their work hours to have more time for family and personal needs. While the university has a provision in its faculty rules for part-time tenured and tenure-track appointments, fewer than two dozen of the nearly 3,000 regular, non-clinical faculty currently take advantage of this option and this mismatch between policy and behavior may be hampering not only retention but the recruitment of talented faculty."

"Institutional culture plays a key role in fostering acceptance of those who wish to take advantage of a part-time appointment. The work group found that most chairs, many deans and faculty governance leaders weren’t aware of the provision in Ohio State’s policies. “But the biggest issue is the cultural norm — the expectation that people must work 60-plus hours a week or they don’t get anywhere, and that unit excellence depends on 150 percent effort by each faculty. That is the cultural norm in academia, and that is the norm we have to break if we are going to embrace part-time tenured or tenure-track faculty,” Herbers said." OnCampus June 8, 2005

Call me crazy, but it would seem to me that if you are working part-time AND given more time to complete your research, you have waaaay more time at the library, lab or computer than the woman who shows up at work every day on the usual tenure clock. What am I missing here? Women who work full time and who have teen-agers in the home could teach these new mommies something about time management. I recall interviewing a faculty woman applying for research funds who had eleven children and was home schooling!

One of the ideas is to grant automatic extensions to the tenure clock for each baby (by birth or adoption) instead of making people request it. Come on. These are grown-ups! They need to read the rules and see what applies to their case. The baby rules are nothing compared to facing a panel of peer reviewers to get published. Women already get opportunity to purchase retirement credit for time off work when having or adopting a baby, although my case was a loophole because my tenuring unit (Libraries) changed retirement systems (from PERS to STRS) while I was off work in the 1960s raising my babies, and neither system would let me claim the time their own silly laws said I had coming to me.

Having been there, I have some advice for 18-19 year old women who are thinking of an academic career. Complete your education in a reasonable 6 year time table. Don’t live with your boyfriend before marriage or try to live in Europe or Asia just having fun--it really messes up the time schedule. Marry and have your babies (reversing that REALLY messes it up). Stay home, enjoy them and raise them to school age. Go back to work part-time. Ease into full time. You really do have enough time to do it all as long as you don’t extend your adolescence by 15-20 years with loans from daddy and Uncle Sam, messy relationships and out of wedlock babies. Also, without social security reform, you’ll be working until 75 anyway, so there’s plenty of time.

1153 Durbin needs to talk to this Illinois Chaplain

Kent Svendsen is a military chaplain and a pastor of a United Methodist Church in rural Illinois. This is his bio, and you’ll see he hasn’t come to his faith position lightly. According to a Google search on his name, his church is near Forreston, IL where I used to live.

Here is his advice to anyone investigating (or protesting ) the Gitmo “torture” stories, as a chaplain who has been there.

1152 The Fair that changed America

Columbian Exposition 1893
In 1992 I attended a library conference in Chicago and had the opportunity to visit a display of the photos of the Columbian Exposition held there in 1893. My grandmother was a young teen-ager and attended with her parents, probably getting on the passenger train that passed through their farm near Ashton, IL. Later they would probably follow the trial of the serial murderer who had stalked his innocent victims in the White City. I'm reading a fascinating book about it and mention it at Coffee Spills.

1151 The Dean or the Dick?

Which Democrat will drive more people way from the party? Diarrhea-of-the-mouth Dean or Tokyo-Rose-in-Drag Dick? It's been many a year since I lived in Illinois, but my recollection of those days is that about a third of Chicago was Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Ukrainian, Belorus, Slovak, Czech, Hungarian or European Jew. About half my classmates at the U. of I. were children of the escapees from Hitler or Stalin. Some had lost their accents, but they never lost their memories of starvation, forced marches, refugee camps, and grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins they'd never see again. And if their memories ever did dim in the usual frivolity of the teen years of dating, music and partying, you can bet your ass mascot their parents would remind them.

Mark Steyn says he doesn't question Durbin's patriotism. Well, why not? He's insulting the children and grandchildren of first generation Illinoians, many of whom are probably in the military being demoralized and humiliated as he spews his ridiculous insults.

"Just for the record, some 15 million to 30 million Soviets died in the gulag; some 6 million Jews died in the Nazi camps; some 2 million Cambodians -- one third of the population -- died in the killing fields. Nobody's died in Gitmo, not even from having Christina Aguilera played to them excessively loudly. The comparison is deranged, and deeply insulting not just to the U.S. military but to the millions of relatives of those dead Russians, Jews and Cambodians, who, unlike Durbin, know what real atrocities are. Had Durbin said, "Why, these atrocities are so terrible you would almost believe it was an account of the activities of my distinguished colleague Robert C. Byrd's fellow Klansmen," that would have been a little closer to the ballpark but still way out." Durbin slanders his own country

The name "Durbin" doesn't have a Slavic or East European ring to it. Sounds sort of Irish. Maybe next time in the voting booth it should be NINA Dick.

1150 A brief history of UnAmerica

Eamonn Fitzgerald tells the story of the short lived nation known as UnAmerica.

"Future historians poring over the records will note that as far as longevity goes, the nation known as unAmerica was remarkably short lived. After all, it lasted a mere two years, which is all the more noteworthy given the popular support it once enjoyed and the resources available to it. But just as the great Aztec and Incan civilizations crumbled in the face of change and left puzzling ruins for coming generations to wonder at, unAmerica fell as dramatically as it had risen."

Essay here.

1149 The Father's Day Card

On May 18, 2002 I was at the Columbus Museum of Art waiting for an exhibit guide, and selected a Father's Day card for my Dad at the gift shop. When I got home that afternoon, I learned he'd died about the time I was selecting it. Here's part of the essay I wrote about that, and the pastor included it in his memorial service.

"Picking out appropriate cards for a no nonsense, tough old bird like my Dad was never easy--he didn't golf, or fish, was never gushy or lovey dovey, didn't do any of the stuff that Hallmark Dads did year after year in muted masculine colors. But this card, without giving credit, superimposed a Bible passage over a newspaper stock report, "spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge." I recognize that this passage refers to the Spirit of the Lord resting on the shoot from the stem of Jesse in Isaiah 11 because it is repeated in baptism in the Lutheran service. Still, it seemed to fit--particularly since I saw him many times pouring over the newspaper business section or working cross word puzzles. The words and art. I thought, I'll take it along to Illinois and slip it into the casket.

Most of us are "adult children" of our parents for many more years than we are "minor children," therefore it is never too late to be a good parent, or a grateful child. As a child I yearned for a dad that would give me a hug or attend my school functions or praise me for good grades (although I don't think I knew any fathers like that). Although I noticed he worked 12 hour days, visited his parents every Sunday, never missed church, and treated my mother with respect and love, it doesn't mean a whole lot when you are a typical, self-centered, moody adolescent. As an adult, it gives you strength and comfort.

It never occurred to me in the 1950s that he probably didn't enjoy driving a car-load of screaming teen-age girls to the White Pines roller rink on his only day off, or that he didn't have to let me pasture a horse in our back yard (which he personally road home from the farm where I purchased him to be sure he was safe). And having my mother be the primary parent means I still remember the occasional ice cream treats he'd bring home, or that he would drive us 40 miles to see a movie in Rockford once in awhile.

But the memory that brings the tears is Dad with my sister Carol: first, carrying her out of our quarantined house to be admitted to the hospital for polio 53 years ago, and then standing beside her hospital bed to support her own children as the life support was removed after a stroke many years later.

No, it is never too late to be a good parent or a grateful child.

1148 Funniest interview of a Christian I've ever read

Tears rolled. I choked on my coffee. Barb Nicolosi is a writer for various organizations and writes the blog, Church of the Masses. She has a paraphrase of an interview she did with a NYT reporter who was trying to sniff out links between the vast right wing conspiracy, the Christians, and Hollywood and wouldn't take "Ain't one" for an answer. It is an absolute hoot--and unfortunately, it really did happen.

Thanks to Fr. Japes.

1147 This is your brain on a political hot button

The May issue of Scientific American has an article on the brain differences between men and women, “His Brain, Her Brain.”

Before getting into differences, the male author makes the obligatory, law-suit protecting statement that . . . “no one has uncovered any evidence that anatomical disparities might render women incapable of achieving academic distinction in math, physics or engineering.” (That’s sort of a straw woman, because I don’t remember Summers saying women were incapable of achieving academic distinction, only that they were different in achievement, and it’s the Summers flap the author probably is referring to.)

Then he goes on to list all the research on brain differences, the hypothalamus, cognition and behavior, including memory, emotion, vision, hearing, the processing of faces and the brain's response to stress hormones, the size of cortex and amygdala, the orbitofrontal-to-amygdala ratio, differences in utero, and differences in behavior in the nursery on day one. And he also provides a lot of animal studies of differences in male and female brains.

I’m a little surprised people are allowed grants to study the differences in men and women’s brains. I hope he hasn’t ruined his career. This puts feminist hard-liners in a tough spot. If they continue to insist there is no difference, they deprive women of important research on how medications affect the brains of men and women differently and thus condemn women to treatments that work for men but not for women and vice versa.

1146 Here comes the bride. . .who?

I went to a wedding today. The groom is a friend--his wife died about two years ago. I was sitting with a guy from our church, and he didn't know the groom but knew the bride. I'd never met the bride, had never heard her name until receiving the invitation, but I'd heard our friend talk about her. Can't remember exactly the last time we talked, but apparently the situation changed some. Actually, a lot. As the bride and groom processed, following their children and grandchildren down the aisle, it was a different woman. Boy, was I surprised.

1145 Talking to Number One

Here's your chance to follow Michael follow around the number one guy on his "talk to list", the Command Sergeant Major of Coalition Forces in Iraq. Michael Yon online.

1144 Will the liberals change?

Rob Paulsson is just an ordinary guy blogging at Shiningright.com. He's finished an analysis of Paul Starr’s gloomy American Prospect article, “The Liberal Project Now.” He concludes that there is a cottage industry of liberals who disagree with Starr‘s assessment:

“The presidential election in 2008 will put this thesis [that the last two presidential elections were flukes] to the test. For the first time since 1968 the race will not include an incumbent president or vice president which should make it evenly matched. If the Democrats win the White House with a left of center candidate, Starr's obituary of American liberalism will be proved premature. If, on the other hand, Republicans win again it will be increasingly difficult for the left to sustain its belief that there really is a progressive majority in America just waiting for the chance to express itself electorally.”

Starr wrote: “The liberal project of the post–World War II era was to awaken the public to long-ignored problems, to make liberal government bolder, and to get its leaders to take political risks. In the public mind, liberalism was the innovative and outward-looking force in American politics; conservatism, the stodgy and parochial source of resistance. Under those circumstances, liberals had power to the extent that they could bring about change, while conservatives had power to the extent that they could stop it.

Now the relationships have been reversed, and liberalism risks getting defined, as conservatism once was, entirely in negative terms. Liberals certainly need to defend liberal accomplishments and oppose conservative measures, but they cannot allow themselves to become merely defensive and oppositional. That, of course, is how the right would like to cast them. The liberal challenge today is to avoid this trap, to make the case for liberalism’s first principles, and to renew the project of liberal innovation.”

Starr is a good writer, as Paulsson points out. Yes, that’s sort of how I remember the 60s and 70s and being a Democrat. Positive change. And the right isn’t just “casting them as defensive“--they are defensive and oppositional. Name one positive thing a Democrat has proposed about Social Security reform, or education, or health care, or illegal immigration? What’s their solution for Iraq--withdraw so we can have as many Iraqis murdered as Vietnamese back in the 70s when we withdrew and left our allies to be slaughtered? "Death and taxes"--could be the party‘s motto.

Other than abortion, which in a weird way reduces the problem, what comes up consistently in every election? Fewer babies = fewer old people. Even in the “old” days I was never pro-abortion--I always stepped away from the party on that one. It’s just too hard to bury two of your children and then watch other women throwing theirs into slop pails, even if it did take me 30 years to call it quits with the party. Call me Mommy One Note, but it just became the party of death, disaster and dread by making abortion a key plank in every platform.

1143 Changing the Template

If you ever visit this site and get some sort of message about not being available, or Norma is dead or something, I'm probably changing the template. This takes much more time than posting. When I've finally settled on something, deposited the correct html, previewed it and then hit "publish," it grinds through the back room of blogger.com very slowly, blinking 0%, then 2% then 10% and it may hover over 99% for awhile. So I've developed a list of tasks that can be completed (one, not all), because a watched template never loads.

1. Reheat my coffee.
2. Floss.
3. Put a load in the dryer.
4. Brush up cat hair from the couch.
5. Wipe off kitchen counter.
6. Load cereal bowls in dish washer.
7. Reposition my artificial hydrangea blooms (outside my office window on a real bush).
8. Go around and turn out lights I've left on.
9. Blow dry the kink in my hair, just above the right ear.
10. Scoop the kitty litter.

I'm sure you could add to this list. Feel free. This morning I drug a kicking and screaming (metaphorically, because I had an html problem) Jesuit to my growing list of blogging instructions. Fr. Japes I think is his name, but I've called it "Blogging Religiously."

1142 So much for "confidentiality"

The Chief and his clerks gather for a reunion, maybe their last, but a reporter is there to ease them through breaking their vows of confidentiality.

"The bond between Supreme Court justices and their law clerks is forged from shared in-chambers experiences that are as confidential as they are intense. Half a dozen sources who agreed to discuss the event with The Washington Post cited that relationship in insisting on anonymity." WaPo

1141 We knew this, didn't we?

A writer who claims to be a teacher (lecturer) at Northwestern, Bill Savage, has proudly admitted to the bias, evangelizing and missionary zeal of the left in the college classrooms of America. And they think there's a problem at the Air Force Academy?

"I don't need to have kids to create mini-me voters: I get classrooms full of other people's kids, most already of voting age. And I'm not alone. As right-wing hysterics have recently noticed, universities in America are dominated by lefties like me." Here's a link to a link, because I don't want the scrummy page on my links.

The whole article sounds like a vicious hoax to discredit leftist professors to me--especially the illustration that looks like paper doll clothes for a farm kid, complete with red meat stamped USDA, and the WWJD baseball cap. No left wing nut is that stupid. . . OK. Maybe there is a real Bill Savage, I mean, we know he's real because if you've been on any university campus or sent your kids off to college, you know he's real. But I mean really real, as in a flesh and blood human being with identification and credentials that will soon be pulled.

1140 Friday Feast 52

Appetizer
What's one word or phrase that you use a lot?
“For Pete’s sake,” (also "for pity's sake") and “by Jove,” both of which are substitutes for swearing, but I didn’t know that when I picked them up from my mother.

Soup
Name something you always seem to put off until the last minute.
I’m pretty bad about returning phone calls, or calling to make or change appointments.

Salad
What was the last great bumper sticker you saw?
I heard about one yesterday, but didn't see it. Rush had just done a stinging report on Durbin whining about Hummers slurping gasoline (the implication being it was Bush's fault, war for oil, etc.). A caller reported that he was on the free-way following a Hummer with a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker.

Main Course
If you could be invisible for one day, how would you spend your time?
I would follow President Bush around, just to see if he is as evil as the Dems think and to learn if Karl Rove is really running the country.

Dessert
Describe your hair.
I have medium brown hair with blond highlights, short, wavy, with bangs. All of this is thanks to Melissa, my hair dresser. Only the slight waviness is natural.

1139 Do the math

"Wal-Mart wields its power for just one purpose: to bring the lowest possible prices to its customers." Fast Company article about pickles

Why do the anti-success people give Wal-Mart such a hard time? I'm really sick of it. Always whining about their employment practices, benefits, size and quality of merchandise. This guy from Limited/Victoria Secret quoted at CircuiTree (have no idea what this is--Google found it) has it all wrong:

"Is a $100 Victoria's Secret bra ten times better than a $10 one from WalMart? Sure it has better fabric and better stitching, but how is it that it could be ten times better? It's worth it if it makes the wearer feel special.... Remember, we are trying to get beyond mere money math. Spend $100 on giving your wife ten WalMart bras for Valentine's Day, and what have you given her? Grounds for divorce."

I would love to buy $100 of Wal-Mart bras. I have six of them, costing $2.50 each, and bought them back in the late 1990s. Eventually they will wear out, and I'll have to wear one of those God-awful things 1) lined in foam or 2) girded with metal tubing and stays, or 3) cut from stretch t-shirt fabric with the support of a butterfly's wing. The women of the mid-19th century fought a battle to get out of stays and corsets, and now the women of the 21st century meekly submit to these torture instruments. I'm guessing the designers are misogynists.

I checked at Wal-Mart the other day, and they are still there for $2.50--or it looks like the same design--at that price there is no foam and no metal. However, I tried one on and the design has changed ever so slightly--probably to compete with the $100 name-brand kind (also made off-shore). I wasn't fooled. However, if I ever decide I want everything shifted backwards and resettled under my arm pits, I know where to go for a bargain.

1138 Is it a sack race if it's not burlap?

My eye caught the color photo on the front page of our community paper of three children in a summer recreation program participating in a "sack race." In plastic bags! I was horrified. Everyone knows you must have a gunnysack for a sack race. And I don't mean those teensy imposters made of high tech fabric that walkers strap around their middles. Real gunnysacks are made of burlap or jute. They have advertising. They are stinky from half rotten potatoes. They are dirty and the crude falls in your shoes. They scratch the heck out of your legs, naked in summer shorts, so that you hop even faster to get it over with. At least, that's how I remember it. Plastic bags indeed!

1137 The Democrat's Diversity Dilemma

Ruben Navarrette Jr. writes in his syndicated column about his frustration of being either deferential or defective in the eyes of the Democratic Party. He also appears occasionally on radio discussing Chicano/Latino issues. Bio.

"So this is the Democrats' dilemma. How are they supposed to market themselves to minorities as the one-and-only party of opportunity when Bush is putting nonwhite faces in high places? Better to try to paint the Republican Party as a restricted club, as Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean did recently when he described the GOP as "pretty much a white Christian party." And minority Republicans as aberrations.

I bet all this would come as news to Janice Rogers Brown, who attends church regularly. Just as I bet it would come as news to Miguel Estrada, the Hispanic gentleman who, at one point, seemed headed for the D.C. appeals court for which Brown is now confirmed — until his nomination was unfairly derailed by rank racial politics.

Estrada is a top-shelf Washington lawyer who had, after coming to the United States from Honduras and graduating with honors from Columbia University and Harvard Law School, worked as an assistant U.S. attorney and an assistant solicitor general. Yet none of that prepared Estrada for the meat grinder of the judicial confirmation process. Before long, Estrada was — in an experience that must have seemed surreal to him at the time — fending off accusations from white Democrats that he "wasn't Hispanic enough." That was Estrada's defect. It was also complete nonsense."

Article here.

1136 What, me worry?

Usually, I record my coffee shop observations over at Coffee Spills And I'll probably double post this one, but it made me laugh. Hope you like it.

"Are you worried about something?" the friendly clerk inquired when the woman picking up coffee while her husband waited outside in the car mentioned that she hadn't slept well last night. "No, nothing," she shook her head with a puzzled expression. Then added, "Well, I have one daughter having a baby and the other is getting married."

Gracious, lady, I'd be tossing and turning too, and you don't know why you're lying awake staring at the shadows on the ceiling counting all the what ifs . . .?

1135 Vanity, your name is. . . man!

You're not going to see these stats on just any blog, so it's my responsibility to inform you. Since 1997 there has been a 385% increase in tummy tucks for men (343% for women); a 932% increase in lower body lifts for men (583% for women); a 1409% increase in buttock lifts for men (262% for women); a 1489% increase in thigh lifts for men (349% for women); and a whopping 8977% increase in upper arm lifts for men (551% for women).

Upper arm lift? I didn't even know they existed, yet 17,052 procedures were performed in 2004 and 10,595 in 2003 (total, both sexes). I wondered how some of these do-wop stars still looked so good on stage at Lakeside.

All figures from American Society for Aesthetic Plastic SurgeryStatistics, 2004

1134 Tonight's Finger Foods

Our condo association is having the Spring party tonight, and instead of a dish to pass like the fall event, each unit brings finger foods (appetizers). I don't have a lot of success with this, and PJ's recipe blog is on hiatus, so I googled a few things. Found a yummy taco dip, but it looked so good I thought I'd be camping by the table eating it all evening. So instead, I made a delicious fruit dip and will serve it with fresh fruit of the season. It looks very pretty and festive. Here's the simple recipe.

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1-2 tablespoons maple syrup
Fresh fruit

Combine cream cheese, sour cream, sugars and syrup; beat until smooth. Chill until serving. Serve with fruit. Yield: 2 cups.

My serving plate has the built in dip container, and it wouldn't hold quite 2 cups, so I'm eating it right now with some sliced apples. Yummy. For the fruit I'm using large red strawberries, cantaloupe and white grapes, alternating, so it is very pretty. I used Splenda and sugar-free syrup, and I suppose you could use low-fat cream cheese and sour-cream, but I didn't.

It costs more and takes more time than making my fabulous, world famous pie, but they didn't want that. Oh well.

1133 Women Blogging

Remember when I was complaining maybe a year ago I couldn't find good women bloggers so I started my own category of links, Ladies First? Everytime I'd sign up for something, I felt like I'd walked into a men's locker room. That has obviously changed--or I'm just finding them. There's a new group and their Third Cotillion Ball is at Darleen's Place. She shares hosting duties this week with Right Girl and Denita of Who Tends the Fires. Brief summaries with a link. Interesting stuff. Sweet smellin'.

1132 Battlefield Access

It's not hard to get access in Iraq writes Michael Yon.

"A journalist not wishing to embed with US forces is free to apply for an Iraqi visa, fly to Baghdad, and hire a car and an interpreter who can drive them around town. They can knock on doors and talk directly with people; visit hospitals, talk with doctors; stop by the side of the road and talk with shepherds; or even hang out in a village and help make the goat cheese. Iraqi people are generally polite and usually more than willing to offer opinions about what's happening in their neighborhood.

Of course, the major problem with eschewing a close military presence is the enemy's proclivity to kidnap and behead journalists whose reports portray insurgents in a negative or violent way. This puts ethical journalists in a tight spot where they have the freedom to roam but not to report the truth; whereas journalists who embed with US forces often report very negatively. I recall the stories of one magazine writer in Baquba who spent days looking for disgruntled soldiers—of course she found them—and wrote negatively. The same writer came to Mosul. The soldiers may not like people who do this, but they certainly will not behead them. Whether reporters elect to travel with the military or to go it alone, the fact is that any journalist who wants battlefield access will find it in Iraq."

1131 The Jackson Family Circus

Even ignoring this story as I have done, yesterday it was difficult to turn on the TV and not find breathless anticipation and nonsensical speculation. Is it just me, or did the media get this one about as right as it gets the Iraq stories? Do they just talk to each other for spin?

"In one fell swoop, the jury rendered its verdict and acquitted Michael Jackson of all charges. The aftermath of the verdict from a media perspective is stunning. Journalists from more than 34 countries around the world had gathered around this small courthouse in Santa Maria, California, and had set up shop in makeshift tents. Print journalists, radio broadcasters, television anchors, cameras, crews, technicians, producers, bookers had all set up shop on the asphalt in the parking lot of the courthouse. You staked your claim to a piece of parking lot and called it home for several months. Yet immediately after the verdict was announced, the place started to empty. Crews packed up, journalists left, and the media began to leave town. The frenzy died down almost instantly." MSNBC Susan Filan

These high profile cases are ridiculous. I thought there wasn't enough evidence to convict Scott Peterson, but the jury hated him because he was scum, so he was guilty. Any other man in his forties inviting little boys to his home and sleeping with them would be guilty, but the jury hated the boy's idiot mother, so he is not guilty. I think my faith in the jury system would be stronger if they weren't allowed to interview the jury afterwards.

1130 Architectural Digest Cover

John McCain and his rich trophy wife are on the cover of this month's Architectural Digest. Even with the record of the Kennedys and the Clintons, I think the Democrats fare better in the marriage marathon. McCain's first wife Carol worked for his release all those years, hid from him her terrible health problems caused by an accident so he wouldn't worry in prison, and then he drops her and marries within the month. Sweet. The marriage was "broken," he claims. Well, I guess! It would have been at least a kindness to pretend loyalty and fidelity for a year or so to let the poor woman save face. Without his current wife's money and connections, he wouldn't be where he is today--on the cover of my second favorite magazine--with awards and medals on the wall behind them. Doesn't fool me.

"It seems that McCain, who had once revealed to fellow prisoners of war in Vietnam that he wanted to be president, was restless in 1979. As Navy liaison to the Senate, he didn't have the career momentum he had counted on to propel him into an admiralty and on to the White House. He was 42, mired in stifling ordinariness. (Civilians call it "midlife crisis.")

But McCain was making bold career moves on the home front, hotly pursuing a 25-year-old blond from a wealthy Arizona family -- while married. Carol, his wife at the time, had once been quite a babe herself apparently, until a near-fatal car accident (while her husband was in Vietnam) left her 4 inches shorter, overweight and on crutches. The couple had three children, whom Carol cared for alone while her husband was in Vietnamese prisons.

McCain's strategy worked perfectly: After chasing Cindy Hensley around the country for six months, he closed the deal late in the year, had a divorce by February and was married to Hensley shortly thereafter. Bingo! McCain was a candidate for Congress by early 1982, his coffers full, his home in the proper Arizona district purchased." Jennifer Sweeney, Mothers who think.

Behind every great man--is a babe or two.

1129 The Media Generation

The Kaiser Family Foundation reports on the media and your children (too late for mine--they're adults). Sounds like someone needs to get out in the sunshine more, don't you think? Buy them a pony the next time they ask for a gadget that blasts music or plays games.

"A national Kaiser Family Foundation survey found children and teens are spending an increasing amount of time using “new media” like computers, the Internet and video games, without cutting back on the time they spend with “old” media like TV, print and music. Instead, because of the amount of time they spend using more than one medium at a time (for example, going online while watching TV), they’re managing to pack increasing amounts of media content into the same amount of time each day.

The study, Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds, examined media use among a nationally representative sample of more than 2,000 3rd through 12th graders who completed detailed questionnaires, including nearly 700 self-selected participants who also maintained seven-day media diaries."

You can read this as a news release, a summary (41 p.), or you can read the whole thing, if you aren't busy with a video game or blogging. You can also listen to the report.

Just a few years ago, we were wringing our hands about the "digital divide" among children, but evil capitalists rose to the challenge and have taken care of that, and the increase is greater in homes of minorities and low income families than in higher socio-economic educated households. You can now buy a computer for under $300 that cost me over $2500 eleven years ago.

"The majority of young people from each of the major ethnic and socio-economic groups now have Internet access at home, and the increase from 1999 has been higher among children and adolescents of color and those from lower socio-economic levels. For example, over the past five years there has been an increase of nearly 40 percentage points in home access among children whose parents have a high school education or less (from 29% to 68%), compared to an increase of just under 20 percentage points among those whose parents have a college or graduate degree (from 63% to 82%)." (Summary, chapter 13)

The lower income kids go on-line less often, which probably makes them the advantaged group now. They're hanging out with their friends, visiting grandma or going to church, maybe. Kids still read, but the ones with TVs in their bedrooms (probably the richer kids) read less than those who don't have them. The kids who really get into video games read more than the ones who don't.

1128 Final plans

We're going back to the funeral home this morning to finish our "pre-need" plans. We've learned a lot through this process and talked about things that just never came up in 45 years of marriage. For instance, flat, markerless cemeteries that look like prairies with urns of plastic flowers have little appeal, but we both liked the mausoleum, something we'd never considered. Some areas we just never came to an agreement, so we've pledged, "I'll do what you want, if you'll do what I want." No amount of talking was going to budge either of us.

One thing (among many) we didn't know is that you can't buy these services before needed--but you can purchase an insurance policy that covers in detail what you have selected, whether that is next week or in 30 years. Yes, you can designate an account from which all these expenses would be paid, but just make sure your spouse or children have access to it.

We also learned that although no one in our family was too excited about our pre-planning (reactions ranged from "What's wrong, are you sick?" to "No, no, no, don't even talk to me."), our pastoral staff was delighted. They have faced this problem with baffled and grieving parishioners many times, and they believe making the arrangements before you need them is a priceless gift to your family members.

We also don't agree on all the paragraphs in the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (Ohioans can download a copy free, so don't pay for one), particularly the hydration/nutrition clauses. Some of the most recent 2004/2005 research from medical journals I've printed out says withdrawing hydration causes unneccesary pain and discomfort and doesn't affect the outcome. The Living Will (included with the DPOA) appears to be a very scary document, and had no appeal to either of us, so we aren't using that.

You don't have to search too far through the medical literature to find that doctors and "experts" disagree on pallative care. Here's how I see it. Dehydration in a non-terminal patient causes immense suffering and complications, so why add that to the burden of the dying patient? There is plenty of research to show that hydration makes the patient more comfortable, and it does not extend the life of the dying.

Both these documents, the DPOA and the Living Will, link "artifically or technologically supplied nutrition or hydration." I think you need to look very carefully at that and read the research. The Journal of Clinical Oncology, April 1, 2005, v. 23, n.10 reported there is a disconnect between what is done in the clinical setting and what is done in hospice, but "studies suggest that hydration can reduce neuropsychiatric symptoms such as sedation, hallucinations, myoclonus, and agitation."

No matter what you select for a funeral, even cremation, or buying your casket from Montana and using it as a bookshelf until needed--it isn't cheap. So you might as well make the decision when you are not traumatized, ill or overwhelmed with grief. Even the death certificates cost $15-25 (depends on the state), and you'll need one for each bank or financial institution.

Oh yes, something else we learned: obituaries are more expensive on the week-ends, so die on Monday if possible.

1127 Small, shrinking comfort

Apparently the Australians have discovered that even though your brain starts shrinking after age 60, that doesn't impair your cognitive functions. Oh yeah? Just where do they think those brain parts are going? In men, they go to their ears and nose(s), and in women they settle either on their waists or thighs, whichever area they've been battling all their lives. I'm using my extra 10-15 pounds as a cheap cosmetic solution to fill out my facial wrinkles, but I'm suspecting my brain cells have settled on my waist. All my life my waist has been too small to wear with the clothing size my hips demanded. Even in the days I wore a size 8 jeans (now memorialized in my clothing archives), the waist gapped. Now when I put my hands on my hips to display the body language of "I don't believe you just said that," there is a roll of flesh protruding between my index and middle fingers. Brain matter, most likely. Mystery solved, because my honed reference skills can still figure out the more important problems of the world, even if I can't understand the Jackson verdict.

1126 Look out Christians; we’ve got us a live one

The new crime drama, The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick playing a CIA-trained interrogator who takes over an almost all male special police homicide unit in Los Angeles, premiered tonight. We watched it and found the main character, Brenda Johnson, the super-sweet, quirky Southern Belle quite convincing. Sort of a female Lt. Columbo with quirks and surprises and hunches.

But Oh surprise, surprise! The murderer is a “good Catholic girl,” pure and virginal who still lives with her mother, and is so homophobic that she smashes the victim beyond recognition when she discovers her “lover” is a lesbian.

There were no commercials, just product placement--and of course, that obvious anti-Christian bias. But that’s becoming increasingly common, particularly in crime shows.

Photo of Sedgwick as Brenda Johnson

1125 A Homeschooler looks back

Brian gave us a wonderful summary of his year of teaching. Now MaMa T tosses the catalogs into the trash and gives us a look back at 12 years of homeschooling her son. Very touching. Lucky kid. Lucky Mom.

1124 There's good news from Iraq, including libraries

Arthur Chrenkoff is an Australian who keeps track of the stories you don't see or hear and periodically reports on them. The most recent account is at the OpinionJournal today and at his blog, Chrenkoff.

Checking one of his sources (USAID), I noticed this item about libraries: "University facilities, such as libraries, computer and science laboratories, lecture halls, and buildings, have been rehabilitated at colleges of law, engineering, medicine, archeology, and agriculture. In addition, books and electronic resources have been provided to university libraries."

1123 Why are Democrats asking for return of the Draft?

Dr. Sanity asks and answers this question.

"It is only the Demoncrats who have need of one, so that they can once again climb up to that moral highground they may have once held during the Vietnam war. Their party is anchored to the spot 40+ years ago, when they actually stood for freedom and cared about the rights of individual. I agreed with them back then, and opposed the military draft (although I did not oppose the war), which I believe has no place in a free society.

But those days are long gone. Democrats now feel most comfortable in the position of encouraging pathetic victimhood (like most of the Left) and there is nothing they'd like more than to have a military draft (which they will keep introducing) so that they can revert to being the stalwart defenders of the the poor and helpless victims of the evil military industrial complex again."

1122 Speed limits and traffic cushions

The news today is reporting that law enforcement is allowing a 10+ mph cushion above the 65 mph limit on most major highways, which is dangerous and inconsistent. It's been about 10 years since Congress increased the speed limit from 55 to 65 mph.

It's virtually impossible to find unbiased statistics on what all these limits, no-limits fiddling means (although I only spent 3 minutes looking through Google, it didn't take long to size up the politics of it). It's a real political football.

My recollection is the speed-limits were reduced to 55 mph not for safety, but to conserve gasoline back during the shortage in the later 1970s. As a parent with young children in the back seat I immediately noticed how much smoother and less traumatic driving to Indianapolis became. We had become so accustomed to seeing accidents and emergency vehicles and to long back-ups and traffic snarls that the amazing transformation after the 55 mph limits was very pleasant. Even congested urban areas smoothed out. The reduction in deaths on the highway was sort of by-product, at least that's how I remember it.

Now everyone is using statistics to try to prove a point--cars are safer, fewer deaths; more cell-phones so drivers are distracted at any speed; more miles travelled than 30 years ago, thus more deaths, and so on. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out a drunk driver is more dangerous at 65 + a 10 mph cushion than he would be at 55 or that talking on your cell phone at 65 + a 10 mph cushion makes you even more likely to mess up.

We Americans are still killing more young people on the highways than "insurgents" are in Iraq. It wouldn't hurt, and might actually save some lives to go back to 55. Or at least enforce the 65. If he's your kid, the pain is the same.

Illinois: ". . .300 additional accidents per month in rural Illinois, with associated increases in deaths and injuries. This impact was apparent on both 65 and 55 mph roads. There is some evidence of traffic diversion from 55 to 65 mph highways plus traffic generation and speed spillover." Accid Anal Prev. 1995 Apr;27(2):207-14.

New Mexico: "The rate of fatal crashes in the 1 year after the speed limit was increased was 2.9 per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled, compared with a predicted rate of 1.5 per 100 million vehicle-miles based on the trend of the 5 previous years." JAMA Vol. 262 No. 16, October 27, 1989

Israel: "After the raise, speeds rose by 4.5%–9.1%. Over 5 years, there was a sustained increase in deaths (15%) and case fatality rates (38%) on all interurban roads. Corresponding increases in deaths (13%) and case fatality (24%) on urban roads indicated "speed spillover." " April 2004, Vol 94, No. 4, American Journal of Public Health 568-574

California: Death rates decreased with the change to higher limits, however in the first year the average mph only changed about one mile. In other areas, "In the first two years of higher limits, the number of fatal accidents increased 8.7 percent over the previous two years on the 2,317 miles of highway where limits were raised from 55 mph to 65 mph. Fatal accidents increased 9.7 percent on the 1,297 miles of highway where limits went from 65 mph to 70 mph. Relatively few people, however, are killed on freeways, with most dying on surface roads where hazards such as cross- traffic and the lack of center dividers raise the risk." SFGate

1121 Some Sanity on enabling behaviors

Dr. Sanity in response to a claim that Feminists don't kill anyone so why not focus your energies on something more important.

" . . .it is not enough to focus on just the drinking of the alcoholic, a good therapist must also deal with the environment of the alcoholic and people in that environment(the psychosocial supports) that enable that alcoholic--i.e., who buy him the alcohol, who encourage him to drink it etc. If you fail to do that, then your intervention is in vain. Or, let's take the latest public obsession--the Michael Jackson trial as an example. Whatever Michael Jackson was or wasn't doing with those young boys was hardly a mystery to the boys' mothers and/or families, which had to be complicit and enable Jackson's behavior (the kids didn't get to the Ranch on foot, nor did they stay overnight without permission). No, it served the purposes of the parents to enable Jackson's behavior. It serves the purposes of the Feminists et al, to ignore the brutality of Islam towards women, in favor of demanding that the Harvard President whimper and wallow before them in abject apology for remarks that were scientifically justified."

Dr. Sanity's blog on enabling terrorists

1120 Sounds just like my kitchen

"Since it opened in 1986, Rigsby's has continually reinvented itself, offering new dishes on a regular basis and challenging the palates of its customers. But now, in celebration the many changes that have taken place in the Short North area, it has undergone an all-out face-lift, modifying its name to the more homey-sounding "Kitchen." Along with a high-tech, marble-topped bar with groovy retro chairs. . ." City Guides

I've always wanted to eat there, but never have, and now it sounds like my kitchen, marble-topped bar, retro chairs and called "kitchen." Our chairs are REALLY retro--we bought the set in 1963, Paul McCobb, walnut stain. Marble is just plain awful in a kitchen. Pretty but not durable. Don't ever get it.

1119 Too Ugly to blog about

When I read Debra Burlingame's article last week, the story was so ugly, I didn't finish taking notes on the story or record my own thoughts. You probably won't read about it in the evening paper or see it on MSM, but the World Trade Center Memorial has been hijacked.

Cox & Forkum
Buzz Machine
Michelle Malkin
Little Green Footballs
Take Back the Memorial
SISU

1118 Where are they now?

Over at LISNews, Brian says he is shocked "by the decrease in education and funding to support school libraries." Not me. I'm shocked that conservatives continue to support the administration's thowing money at education when there is no evidence that this is the problem! Bush has spent far more on education than Clinton did. Even the NCLB was essentially demanding that schools live up to the standards and goals they had set instead of ignoring the poorest and the weakest.

Last week Milton Friedman in the WSJ pondered the dropping SATs since 1970. He mentioned several dates, but didn't seem to connect a lot of dots: 1965 NEA converted from a professional association to a trade union; 1983 "A Nation at Risk" was published spawning even more government attempts to fix education; defeating voucher system in California in 1993 and 2000. Friedman never mentions the changes in the lives of women during this period.

Let's go back to the early 1970s. Abortion becomes legal and the feminist movement really builds up steam. Possibly the brightest and best were aborted--I mean over 30 million Americans who were the spawn of young college bound and career women just disappeared. (Poor and minority women didn't really get on that bandwagon right away. They still believed that children were their future, not a glass ceiling job.) We'll never know what their contributions could have been or how they might have influenced the scores and results of school testing. Then when their putative mothers did have families, many of those later-in-life children were put in the care of less capable women during their important formative years.

I don't think there's enough federal money in Washington to fix the mess of the last 30 years, much of it created by women.

1999
2001
2003
2004

1117 Just don't call him late for lunch

Howard Dean is quite successful at getting himself and the DNC into the news--like the ignored toddler who will take any attention he can get, even negative, just to get noticed. David Freddoso over at NRO uses Dean's pearls to turn a nice phrase:

". . . now I don’t think it’s spin anymore. Howard Dean is just totally nuts.”

"[he] calls Republicans “evil,” “corrupt” and “brain-dead” “liars” who “never made an honest living in their lives” and “are not nice people.”. . . But Dean assures us, “We’re not going to stoop to the kind of divisiveness that the Republicans are doing.” Quite a relief!"

"There is much legitimate debate over what makes for a good party chairman, but one criterion that nearly everyone can agree on is that he should not be his party’s greatest liability."

"When Dean starts speaking, even Barney Frank gets nervous and starts looking for the door."

"Dean will have to do the same thing [as the RNC with $30.1 million] with only $7.4 million and a foot wedged tightly in his mouth."

". . .the good doctor has worked with such zeal alienating voters and contributors that Republicans can only sit back and enjoy."

Don't get too smug guys. This looks too easy.

Update, June 12, LA Times: "Recycling old saws about the GOP being the party of the rich ignores the fact that one of the reasons the Democrats have been faring so poorly in recent elections is that they've lost the white working-class vote. If Dean spent his time pointing to inequitable tax policies that punish the middle class and reward the rich, or dwelling on the costs of restricting stem cell research, that would be one thing. Instead, he is indulging in outdated caricatures of Republican voters. So far, Dean has done a good job of pulling the party together — the Republican Party."

1116 The Columbus Rose Festival

When we moved here 38 years ago, we went around to see all the local sights and sites--Old Man's Cave, German Village, Park of Roses, and some of the state parks. But then regular life set in and I think I'd only been back to Whetstone Park where the Festival of Roses is held a few times to watch my kids play soccer.

This week-end is the 19th Annual Festival of Roses at the Park of Roses, which was established in the early 1950s, in the Clintonville area of Columbus. Although it was a little overcast and drizzled a few times, it was a perfect morning for Bev and me to browse the lovely rose gardens and many floral memorials. There are 11,000 rose bushes and 350 varieties of roses. There were numerous vendors of community action groups, local restaurants, artists and clubs in tents along the brick sidewalks. The Festival is today and tomorrow, but the roses will continue to be on view. The two day event is free and draws 25,000 visitors. We spent about two hours oooing and aaahing, bought a sandwich and drink from a vendor which we ate under a tree on a picnic bench, and then Bev drove me through some of her favorite neighborhoods in Clintonville.

One of my favorite rose bushes was next to the guys in the Dixieland Band where we stopped to chat (I like a good trombone). I noticed the plaque said, "Forth of July." I asked Bev if she thought it was misspelled or if it meant "forth" in another meaning "out in view" or "out of." We meant to ask a guide, but forgot. The Dispatch gallery of photos of the roses lists a "Fourth of July" variegated that looks just like the one we admired, however.


Fourth of July

1115 Basic Black is Back

Oh goody. Basic black is back for fall. I can whip out that black number I bought in 2001 with the sparkly bodice. I think I've only worn it three times. I've never had the reason or opoortunity to buy the feminine, colorful frocks popular the past few years.

There are color czars or forecasters that decide all this for us--popular colors don't just happen. In home decorating, what we used to call "avocado green" is now "wasabi green." But black is black--I don't know if they've found a way to rename it. Widow's weeds black. Coal miner black. Horsefly black. Tar baby black. I mean, black is black, right? About every 3 or 4 years, the fashion people proclaim that the little black dress is back. I'm ready for them this year--now I just need an invitation.

I do like the swingy, floral and colorful skirts cut on the bias or a circle I see the young women wearing, topped with dressy t-shirts and short jackets and high heels. They brush the knee, show off the legs, move gracefully, and they are so feminine. And so 2004 apparently.

1114 Second hand porn

The Lion's Den, a local (chain?) "adult" porn store has a large print ad for "turn your stash into cash" in the newspaper. Yes, you can get cash for all those gently used and abused magazines and DVDs. What a disgusting way to use perfectly good trees and energy resources.

I wonder how the obituaries of porn industry CEOs read? Do they write their own or leave it up to a family member to fill it with euphemisms? Do they die without a verb?

1113 Beyond concrete and plastic

Have you ever seen someone putting out such effort that you wanted to stop and shake her hand or give him an award ribbon? Yesterday I saw two such people.

1) A Chinese immigrant (and I'm sure this was her ethnicity and status) who works in the shopping center at Jasonway and Bethel in Columbus was carrying water across the parking lot to water a garden she had built on the narrow grassy strip between the parking lot and road. The soil was mounded up inside planks and she'd probably purchased and brought it there, and the little plot was about 6' x 6'. I don't know if it is a vegetable garden or a flower garden because the plants are only about 6 inches high and I was traveling about 35 mph. I'm guessing she carries water to it every morning before starting work (I saw her about 7:30 a.m.), or takes it there during her break.

2) While passing through Delaware, Oh I saw a man laboriously walking behind his wheelchair through a grassy field--about the size of a football field, only not as well groomed. He was moving each leg with great effort. If you've ever tried to wheel a bicycle through grass, you get the idea how difficult this was for him. I've seen disabled people push their wheelchairs on sidewalks or in malls for exercise, but never in a bumpy field of weeds. Whether his car was at one end or the other, he'd have to make the trip across and back.

1112 Friday Feast 51

Appetizer
Name one thing that made you sad this week.
We had a phone call Saturday from the wife of a good friend. I've never met her, but she was going through her husband's files calling people who didn't know about his unexpected and sudden death. He lived with us about 33 years ago and really livened up our household.

Soup
What was the last object (not person) you took a picture of?
In May I took photos of our flowering magnolia "bush" which is really taller than our house. It was truly magnificent, but the photos didn't do it justice.

Salad
Who do you talk to when you need help in making a decision?
My friend Nancy keeps up on fashion trends and good buys for the home--she reads a lot and those are topics I don't pay much attention to. But for technology I check with our daughter--not gamer-generation stuff, but things like cell phones, answering machines and DVD players. For spiritual advice, we see a pastor/friend we've known for 30 years.

Main Course
If you were a weather event, what would you be, and why?
I would most likely be a partly-sunny, or partly-cloudy forecast. This makes me perfect for living in the midwest--Illinois, Indiana and Ohio--where we only have about 40% of the days in full sunshine.

Dessert
Suggest a website that you think your readers would enjoy visiting.
I visit a number of sites every day or once a week--like Belmont Club, Captain's Quarters, City Journal, First Things, and most of the Ladies I list on my links.

Friday Feast is located here.

1111 A teacher reflects on the last day of school

Brian, a middle school teacher, writes An Audience of One . Yesterday he reflected on the last day of school.

“This year is in the books now. I won't forget it for a variety of reasons. I had a successful professional year, not letting all of my inner turmoil affect my work to any great degree. I gained the respect of my colleagues. I worked with a lot of children and grew to love them. I formed good relationships with scores of parents. My principal approved of the work I did. All of that is something that gives me a very good feeling. I'm proud of what I accomplished professionally this year. I always am. I must be a lucky man to have always loved my job every year of my professional life. I've crossed paths with hundreds of teachers and many thousands of children. They've taught me many things and enriched my life. I keep saying it so much that I sound like a broken record--I wish it was transferrable to the other areas of my life. . .

I started so long ago with a head still full of hair and idealism pulsing through my veins. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of kids. I wanted to notice them like I craved to be noticed as a shy, soft-spoken, child. I knew I'd never get rich, but I've been enriched in ways that matter a helluva lot more than that green stuff people obsess about. I won't be counting my money on my deathbed. I'll be counting my memories. If I had it to do all over again, I'd do it in a New York minute.”

I haven't read enough of his blog to know what the inner turmoil is all about, but I'm glad he feels good about his life's purpose. I loved my career as an academic librarian, and although I was mentioned in a few prefaces and acknowledgements in theses, there will be no life time impact on others like a good teacher in the early years has, or a college professor who is a mentor for careers to come. I had a few teachers like Brian--his students are very lucky.

1110 The Methodists are Coming!

We're off to the lake to prep the cottage for the Methodists--Ohio East and Ohio West. We only rent two weeks of the summer and the United Methodists conferences in Ohio have their annual meeting there. I've never been there during those weeks, but I've heard the place swarms and bustles, the restaurants are packed, and the shops do the majority of their business in two weeks (sounds like Christmas season, doesn't it?).

So, I put all our personal items away and remove the food from the kitchen cabinets. It shouldn't be such a big deal but think about removing all your personal toiletries and clothes and food stocks from your home and storing them someplace, and you'll see the problem. In the last few years, the back seat of my van has doubled as a storage closet.

We're having a hot spell here (90s, humid) and there will probably be summer storms. We'll slip down to the Lake for a few minutes, maybe with an ice-cream cone, to catch the breeze.

1109 The Cheerful Oncologist

Considering my own experience with oncologists (my daughter's thyroid cancer), "cheerful" is not the adjective that comes to mind. However, when I was working I always enjoyed reading the poetry and essays published by doctors in the medical journals (usually the last page). Many are beautiful writers. The Cheerful Oncologist really has some thought provoking posts. I liked this thought in "Tell me that you'll wait for me."

"All of us have a one-way ticket out of here. As we drift off to sleep tonight, let us give thanks for the opportunity to serve those who are ahead of us in line, as we ask those behind us to do the same when our flight number is called."

1108 Medical Marijuana

This is not a topic on which I am even minimally informed, but I'll weigh in anyway. I've never understood why conservatives are against using marijuana to releave suffering and pain, especially considering the devastating side effects of some prescribed pain meds. And please don't tell me it's because pharmaceutical companies (owned by eeeeviiiil Republicans) don't want the competition from something cheap and natural. We hear that about every vaccine and miracle drug that comes down the pike--what would happen to this particular health care bureaucracy if a disease were really cured. I worked in a medical library for over 14 years and constantly browsed the serials, and let me assure you there are plenty of diseases re-emerging (just check out this month's CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases on my links) or today's article in WSJ about the increase in drug resistant TB. The real danger is the left killing off incentive to invest in R & D and the health care industry.

However, medical marijuana doesn't have the poisoning side effects or even the addictive powers of many of the chemical potions we've created in the lab. I have a relative who's had two major surgeries (different body parts) in the last 3 years, and both times had to take special treatments to get her off the pain killer addictions even though she was extremely careful.

More disturbing to conservatives should be the Supreme Court seeing this as the commerce clause and striking it down for that reason.

"Writing for the court majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said the case was "troubling" because of users' claims that they needed marijuana to alleviate physical pain and suffering. But he concluded that the court had no choice but to uphold Congress's "firmly established" power to regulate "purely local activities . . . that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce." " WaPo article June 7

Makes you wonder what the Supremes were smoking while coming up with this.

1107 Party Hardy

Staying up late, partying and eating poorly can all increase those dark circles under your eyes. But so can gravity, heredity, skin color and the natural aging process which decreases the fat pads under your eyes. (I'd love to have a fat transfer from my thighs to my eyes.)

Now there is some hope for your dark circles and spider veins with Vitamin K cream. I'm kind of wondering how this works, because I know you're not supposed to eat food high in Vitamin K when you take a blood thinner like Coumadin. Those foods are liver, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and green leafy vegetables (e.g., spinach, Swiss chard, coriander, collards, cabbage). It must decrease the little blood vessels breaking up. So if you eat more greens, could you skip the cream? This one costs $27 for 2.5 oz.

1106 Left or Right?

I can't tell if this t-shirt supports the left or right. I thought the left loved Che. Does this mean they love our vice president, too?

1105 Medical malpractice?

Even the pro-abortion folks have to be turned off with the pain these babies suffered before their lives were snuffed out by their teen-age parents.

"A 19-year-old accused of causing his teenage girlfriend to miscarry two fetuses by stepping on her stomach was convicted Monday of two counts of murder."

His girlfriend, 17, who asked him to do it so she could abort her babies, was not charged. Apparently, her participation was just legal "choice," but his was murder. Story here.

"Erica Basoria, 17, acknowledged asking Flores to help end her pregnancy; she could not be prosecuted because of her legal right to abortion. The defence contended that Basoria punched herself while Flores was stepping on her, making it impossible to tell who caused the miscarriage."

At most, he was practicing medicine without a license, or having kinky sex outside of the red light district, or having sex with a minor, but murder? The guy in Utah who murdered his pregnant wife and buried her in a garbage dump wasn't sentenced for killing the baby--and he only got 6 years.

I hope you pro-abortion folks are pleased with the slime pit filled with human blood and flesh at the end of the slippery slope.

1104 A hopeful look at Iraq's future

Michael Yon's site has wonderful photographs of Dohuk and a peek into what we can hope will be the kind of future for all Iraqis.

"Approaching Dohuk, a short drive north of Mosul, brings to mind the countryside in Italy. The war is over in Dohuk. After suffering perhaps a half century of fighting, the people have finally gotten the peace they wanted long ago. With the old Iraqi government vanquished, Dohuk is thriving. In fact, this Iraqi city appears to be doing at least as well as--perhaps remarkably better than--many comparably-sized towns in Italy. A visit to this place affords more than a break from the rugged routine of war; it also provides a postcard of a possible future for all of Iraq."

Continue reading

1103 Hurricane Season, 2005

I haven't forgotten the storms of last year, and Floridians certainly haven't. Ivan devastated and flooded parts of Ohio, and PA and W VA were also a mess. However, Doyle comments on a squabble between the government sponsored weather agencies and the private companies that repackage that information using our tax funded NWS. I'm not so sure we need NPR or gov't sponsored children's programming for TV, but I'd really feel more secure if we not privatize the bad weather.

1102 There’s a new term in town--Exempt Media

It’s probably been invented by Captain Ed, because most blogs link back to him eventually when using the term “exempt media.” I think it means the mainstream media or MSM. What exactly they are exempt from (standards? good writing? handsome incomes? ethics? supervision?) I’m not sure. I did find a tax code that refers to exempt media, but that was about restaurant menu boards which for tax purposes were not to be considered in the same class as newspapers, TV, graphic advertising, etc. I suppose it is possible that the term derived from the suggestion that the MSM really weren’t communicating at all. Both the “define:” function in Google and the Wikipedia told me there was nothing on this term. But here are some results from my search:

“The Exempt Media is dying for one reason. They abandoned journalism in order to advance the Gramscian Marxist agenda. Nobody believes their claims of impartiality any more. The only effect of their impartiality pose is that they refrain from serving up the kind of "blue meat" that Kos, Atrios and Willis regurgitate on a daily basis.” Buzz Machine

Jack Shafer pens an interesting look at the similarities and differences between blogs and the Exempt Media, and postulates that parity may be coming between the two. In his opinion, the Schiavo memo shows that both sides can get stories equally incorrect, and that both sides should have the latitude to do so -- as long as corrections are published in a quick manner: Captain’s Quarters

First it was MSM, then it became CM (Corporate Media), courtesy of CJR Daily (Thank you ... thank you very much ... but please hold the applause until the waiters clear the tables of the rock-hard dinner rolls ...) And now it's EM (Exempt Media), courtesy of Captain Ed? Exempt from what, exactly? Apparently not criticism, thank God. CJR Daily

1101 Self Control

Occasionally something during the sermon strikes home--and it may not at all be what the pastor intended. Our pastors were finishing up a sermon series on Fruits of the Spirit, and Self-Control was the final topic (10 services, various pastors). Sylvia and I attended the 8:30 at Lytham (Pastor Jeff) and the 10:00 at Mill Run (Pastor Dave), and although technically we are one church, the sermons and locations of the buildings were miles apart. Jeff commented almost in passing that when he asks parishoners what areas of their lives are out of control they usually respond either eating or finances.

The Christian church is not growing in Europe or the United States (which makes one wonder about the hysteria on the left about evangelicalism). Christians are suffering from the same secular and cultural problems like gambling, habit and substance addictions and divorce as any other group. However, the church is growing by leaps and bounds in South America, Africa and China. The faith grows amongst the poorest of the poor in part because Christianity often elevates the level of living where ever it sprouts, especially if it is persecuted (which may be why we should thank the hot-headed lefties in this country). But I can't imagine anyone in a thriving third world church saying that eating too much or spending too much was the primary concern of their Christian witness. In fact, I can't imagine that young American Christians like my parents in the 1930s would have even thought that.

1100 Throwing bad money after worse

Usually you say throwing "good money after bad" to mean wasting more money than you already have in hopes of recovering a loss, but I don't think Harvard's President can win at all at this "woman problem" because the team he's on, the liberals, have created it. Now he has created a $50 million flush fund (I started to type "slush" but slipped, and think I like this one better) for gender diversity when Harvard has already spent millions beating the bushes looking for qualified women and minorities.

"Even Harvard’s bottomless resources cannot buy a miracle, however. So instead of a magician, the university has brought forth the next best thing: a report on “diversity” that, like all such products, possesses the power of shutting down every critical faculty in seemingly intelligent people. For connoisseurs of diversity claptrap, Harvard’s just released “Report of the Task Force on Women Faculty” is a thing of beauty, a peerless example of the destruction of higher learning by identity politics. Because the report will undoubtedly serve as the template for future diversity scams in colleges across the country, it’s worth studying." City Journal's Heather MacDonald. McDonald outlines the plan: 1) Collective amnesia; 2) a new bureaucracy; 3) subdivide the Big zero into little zeros; and 4) rechristen all the diversity words.

I don't really care how Harvard chooses to waste its private alumni funds, but you just know this will slop over eventually into the federally funded grants for science and research and state supported schools (i.e. you and I will end up paying for this folly). Less qualified candidates are going to receive research grants, tenured faculty positions, and appointments on university committees just because he let slip in public what most people, even women, believe. Men and women are different. Not unequal, but different. This means down the road, a woman will receive a worse education or carry an untreated disease because Lawrence Summers blabbed the truth.

I'm already feeling more safe, listened to, and valued, aren't you?

Full report of the Task Force here.

Week-end Activities

My friend Sylvia is staying with us this week-end. We met when we were about 6 years old, attended the same church, elementary and secondary schools, camp and college (Manchester). Also she has relatives, the DeWalls, who are from Forreston, where I used to live. So nice to have a friend who shares your own history! Despite the time zone difference, she was up early to go out for coffee with me. I made a lame attempt at showing her the campus of Ohio State University, but everything was so torn up and there were so many new buildings (and it had been awhile since I was on the Oval), I don't think I did it justice. Taking the "short cut" to get home, we ended up in traffic thick and deep at what appeared to be a high school track and field event being held on campus and a graduation ceremony.

Also she was game to go to the art festival, an annual June event here in Columbus. I started to wilt after about two hours in the almost 90 degree heat. This event draws artists from all over the country. Sylvia is a musician so we stopped at a booth where the artist made small wooden stringed instruments played with a bow and he provided a demonstration. To my untrained ear they sounded a bit like a harpsicord. Another booth had hand made harps with beautiful inlaid celtic designs, but it also provided lovely CDs by the co-artist.

We visited the booth of Stephen Sebastian a North Carolina artist whose work we had purchased about 16 years ago, although his technique and style had changed so much I wasn't sure it was the same guy and was about to move on. He hollared out, yes it's me and said you have to keep changing to stay fresh. After 15 minutes in the shade and a lemonade, we were making the last lap back to the car and we stopped at the booth of Gary Curtis. We were so charmed by his watercolors of light reflecting on simple objects of glass, ceramic, metal, and fabric, that we purchased a print of one titled, "Communion." We recognized his work immediately because he has appeared in American Artist and Artist's Magazine.

There are three things you shouldn't bring to art festivals: 1) babies, who are miserable in the heat and frying their delicate skin in the sun; 2) dogs of any breed no matter how well behaved--I've yet to meet a dog who appreciated art shows and crowds; 3) your credit card. Just kidding about that last one.

After a brief nap, we went out for dinner at The Rusty Bucket, then headed to Sylvia's Columbus relatives who were celebrating the graduation of a daughter from Dublin Scioto High School. Tomorrow we'll attend church at both the Mill Run and Lytham Road campuses of UALC and see two more art shows.