2687 Trip Tale: Touring Helsinki, pt. 2

After visiting the Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral we visited yet another church, this one very modern and built inside blasted rock, Temppeliaukio Church of the Rock, designed by Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen. There was a beautiful string quartet playing when we slipped inside.

Church of the Rock













From there we went to Finlandia Hall and viewed the problem of replacing the marble skin on the famous building designed by Alvar Aalto.

The severe winters cause the marble sections to buckle giving it a basket weave appearance, rather than smooth. If you buy a souvenir piece of marble, be sure to check it through in your luggage, not your carry-on. It sets off alarms. Ours is at the Helsinki Airport.




Next it was off to the Helsinki Train station to see where we would pick up our tickets for Russia, but also to look at the architecture. It was designed by another famous Finnish architect, Eliel Saarinen, whose home we visited the following Friday. He later moved to Michigan.



We looked at the Stephen Holl designed Museum of Contemporary Art, but it was closed on Monday. This is probably not the best view--sort looks like a downed blimp here.

View pt. 1 here.

Finland
Helsinki
Finnish architecture

2686 Trip Tales: Finland and Russia Compared

The border between Finland and Russia is like snapping a plumb line--neat and tidy as a post card on the west and trashy on the east. And it only gets worse as you move further east, because the USSR took that border area from Finland after WWII. We took the Sibelius train from Helsinki to St. Petersburg, a 5 hour trip, with a one hour stop in Vyborg ((Russian: Выборг; Finnish: Viipuri; Swedish: Viborg; German: Wiburg) while the Russians in smart green and white uniforms took our passports and reviewed them. This is the area that caused Finland and Germany to be on the same side during WWII--the Finnish people had all been removed by the Soviets, and they were fighting to get it back. After the fall of the USSR, many Russian Finns were "repatriated" and invited to live in Finland, but many of the younger ones are "russified," and don't speak Finnish or Swedish, and the older Finns still harbor hatred for the Russians.

We couldn't get a good photo of Vyborg, the old part of the city being some distance from the train station. But it is very old, and at one time was quite populous.

Finland is awesome--it's called "tiny," but only in population. It's really large and quite empty. Lakes and trees everywhere. Global warming--a few thousands years ago the glaciers melted--left lots of boulders. It lost 20% of its land area to USSR and has so overpowered its former enemy in every area that counts that it is stunning to see. Perhaps no better lesson of the failure of Communism than stepping from Finland into Russia.

Even so, I think the press is biased and negative here in the U.S., but it's nothing like the English language press in Europe. At least here, you might get a column by Medved or Sowell. Europeans and ex-pats never ever get another viewpoint. They are still hostages of the left in that area.

For American liberals who yearn for the good old days of "containment" as a meaningful foreign policy (as opposed to Bush's regime change) put in place by FDR and Truman, it would be good to remember the millions and millions of east Europeans and Finns who lived out their lives in Siberia. That policy didn't work so good for them.

Finland
Helsinki
USSR
Vyborg

2685 Trip Tale: The flag exchange

When Martti and Riitta, our hosts in Finland, left the USA in 1981, we had a going-away party for them with friends from our Lutheran church, which they also attended. We gave them a large US flag, specially stitched by the local Flag Lady.

My husband in the front in white shirt, next to Riitta in the navy striped shirt, next to Martti in the plaid shirt, and me next to Martti with my hand on his shoulder.

The night before we left Finland, they gave us a Finnish flag and an Alvar Aalto book. Notice the light--it was about 10 p.m. This flag was adopted in 1918; the blue is for the lakes, and the white for snows of winter. The official state flag has the coat of arms in the center.

Finland
Helsinki
Finnish flag

2684 Maybe I should stop more often?

I just checked my stats for this past week when I could't blog. They were better than when I do.

Page Views

Total ...................... 117,933
Average per Day ................ 225
Average per Visit .............. 1.4
This Week .................... 1,572

Sigh.

Visiting the library on Suomenlinna, an island fortress built in the 17th century by the Swedes (who used to control Finland). Now on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It was lost to Russia in 1808.

2683 Trip Tale: Touring Helsinki, pt.1

Our first full day in Helsinki was packed with many local sights and sites. First we stopped at "Fire Island" (don't know its Finnish name) where Martti had designed a housing complex on the former site of the North Korean Embassy. It had a setting to die for--at least in the USA, in central Ohio, where lake sites are at a premium.

Then it was on to the Central city, Senate Square, where you'll see all the tour buses stop filled with Russians, Koreans, Japanese, Germans and Italians. I believe it was two weeks ago that the New York Times ran a wonderful article about Helsinki in its travel section. Here we visited the gorgeous Lutheran Cathedral and walked across the street to visit the Helsinki University Library, probably not a stop for most tourists, but I enjoyed it. It is high-tech and high-touch, with computer terminals, digitized collections, and also wonderful old books.

Tuomiokirkko (The Lutheran Cathedral), Helsinki, exterior
Cathedral, Helsinki, interior. There was no "night" while we were there, but this photographer caught a good night shot.
Inside the Helsinki University Library, or National Library of Finland. Read about digitizing the "national memory" here.

Then we walked along Esplanadi Boulevard through Kauppatori, Market Square (looking at the interesting merchants' offerings and climbed the hill to Uspenski Cathedral (Finnish Orthodox).

Finland
Helsinki
Finnish architecture

2682 Trip Tale: Our hosts

Twenty five years ago we promised Martti and Riitta that we would visit them in 1985 for our 25th wedding anniversary. We were a bit late by visiting in July 2006, but that only sweetened it. We had become acquainted in the late 1970s when Riitta was getting her PhD in equine orthopedics (horse bones) at Ohio State, and her husband Martti, who didn't have a work visa but was studying architecture, volunteered at my husband's firm. They also became active in our Lutheran church and made many friends there. She is now a successful surgeon and department chair, and his home, residential, and commercial designs in Finland are some of the best I've ever seen in the 40+ years I've been following my husband around.

How delightful to visit them now with three grown children, the oldest also planning to be an architect, and see our hosts well-established and successful in their careers. If we had come earlier, we would have missed a lot--such as the family home which Martti has redesigned and completed in the last two years after the death of his parents (his father designed and built the original house in the early 1960s). Knowing friends' children is great, but meeting them as adults is even better in some ways, because they will be adults much longer than they were children (and they can help you with tour planning, rubles exchanges, and language). So, I think it is best that we visited in 2006 (when they were having a terrific, but warm, summer) rather than in the 1980s or 1990s.

Here they are walking through the small forest with us near their house, down to a public beach. They live on the island outside Helskinki proper where they grew up. One of the streets in their area has four homes designed by Martti.

The main house in which they live was originally a two level on a steep hill and Martti redesigned it, incorporating the large boulder on which it sat into the new living room wall. The house now has four levels. Finland has long summer days (didn't really get dark while we were there), but very short days in winter, so the house has a lot of glass to take advantage of the sun when it is available.

This photo is from the master bedroom level, looking over the living room into the kitchen where Riitta and I are at the table. You can see that much of the living room is glass, as is the kitchen ceiling. The period furniture of Martti's parents was reupholstered for use in the new living room. The white walls and wood cabinetry and floors set off a riot of color in flowers and plants.

Brief comments during the time we were in Helsinki when I could use a computer, here, here, and here.

Other entries I wrote about the Helsinki, Finland area
The flag exchange
Finland and Russia compared
Helsinki, pt. 1
Helsinki, pt. 2
Illiterate in Finland
The new veterinary hospital
Suomenlinna, a fortress
Saarinens' summer home

Technorati Tags:
Finland
Helsinki
Finnish architecture
Monday Memories

2681 Back from the lake via Parvoo

We Christians believe we will have a resurrected body someday, and I think God has planned for us to exist someplace like the Southern Karelian forest in Finland. I've never seen such a lovely place--the pine and birch brush the heavens, the water is crystal clear, and our host designed and built a fabulous cottage and separate sauna house. Indoor plumbing would have made it perfect, but even that was nicely designed. I have much to blog about when I get home, and I'll select a few of the hundreds of photos my husband has been taking. I even have one of me in the only 1950s full coverage swim suit still on the racks.

We came back via Parvoo, the second oldest city in Finland with wonderful old wooden buildings. For you anti-Walmart folks, yes, they bulldoze forests here too for shopping centers. There are fabulous shopping malls, some with consumer items I've never seen or knew I needed!

Tomorrow we're off to St. Petersburg, Russia. I understand that my buddy George is there.

2680 Today we're off to the countryside

Our hosts have a summer cottage about 2 hours north of Helsinki on a lake and that is where we go today. Yesterday we were in Tallinn Estonia. This country has only had its freedom from the Soviets for 15 years, but the economy seems to be booming. Those of my readers (and you know who you are) who are closet marxists are just blind I suppose. It is wonderful see a country that had been so beaten down as Estonia was just bloom from the ashes of Communism. We had a little extra time and toured a small museum dedicated to the Soviet years.

On Tuesday we toured probably the finest veterinary hospital in the world--until the next one is built because they all build on the shoulders of the one before in technology. But not all vet hospitals have a sauna for their staff! We're also having some fine architectural tours since that is our husbands' interests.

Not much computer time, so this may be it for the trip. Our tickets to St. Petersburg are causing a bit of a problem. Hope we make it! Goodness, I heard so much Russian being spoken in Tallinn.

2679 We're here in Finland

We arrived about noon Sunday. I didn't sleep on the plane so I'm about to crash. We are enjoying our Finnish friends wonderful hospitality and plan to do some interesting sight seeing this week. We've met all 3 kids, and her mother, and toured the house Martti recently renovated. The guys are both architects, so that's seems to be keeping them busy and we've walked through a lovely forest over to a street where Martti has some homes. I've never seen so many lakes in my life!

Probably won't be doing much blogging--the keyboard is different. No MM or TT this week. Just hoping I can find some coffee in the morning.

Interrogating the historical literature

Chapter 11 can be a form of bankruptcy, but it is also an interesting chapter in "Companion to American Immigration" (Blackwell, 2006), my summer reading. I must leave it at home as we fly off to Finland and Russia. Read the whole entry at Illegals Now.

Jeffrey Melnick, author of Chapter 11

begins with the obligatory "mythic images," of American immigration, all inaccurate according to Melnick, but they only get a brief paragraph. He quickly moves on to genocide, mass enslavement, annexation, violence, and pernicious cultural works that destroy everyone they touch. He is a master at "interrogating the historical literature." That's where you take every historical monograph written before 1960 (but ignore original sources), tie them to a chair in the faculty lounge and torture them until they spill their guts about how awful the United States is, was, and forever will be. It's like the torture and interrogation (called deconstructionism) the feminists perpetrate on novels of the 19th century, only more violent. You make the literature say things it would never even whisper if it weren't bound and beaten by faculty seeking tenure at any cost.

2677 What does it mean to be 22 today?

Elise has just graduated from Hofstra and with her mom is staying in our Lakeside cottage this coming week with our cat while we fly off to Helsinki to see Riitta and Martti. Her mom will be teaching some art classes and she'll be assisting. She was pretty tired, having driven through from NY, and we sat on the porch chatting Thursday morning before my husband took her sailing. She was eating cold nachos and sour cream for breakfast. She laughed, and said, "I'm just being 22."

It reminded me that I really don't know very many young--really young--adult women, except through the internet. Mainly through Thursday Thirteen. For all I know, cold nachos for breakfast is the cold pizza of the 80s (which my kids thought was great). It surprises me to come across women bloggers 25 or 26 talking about their school age children. It wouldn't have surprised me at all when I was 25 (one of my close friends from high school is a great-grandmother), but these days, adolescence seems to stretch into the early 30s. When I meet women directly with babies and toddlers, they seem to be late 30s or early 40s.

When I was 22, I was a working, going-to-grad-school mom. I've never felt as old or tired as I did then. I don't regret any of it, but don't remember that translating Russian medical journals in a tiny apartment with a cranky baby was a lot of fun. Still, I distinctly remember that when I was a child, my only goal was to become an adult and be independent. Mission accomplished.

2676 Now this is library humor and parody worth reading

No FatStalker here. This is the real thing. RLG. Regressive Librarians Guild. It's so regressive, it actually uses the word "librarian." Think Kelo on steroids. They want to take your land so they can build libraries on it. They want everyone to dress like a librarian dress in drab Communist gray.

2675 The Fat Cat

Edie, my son's cat, is jealous that Abby (my daughter's Chihuahua) has had so much time on my blog, here and here. I suggested she lose some weight first, but she stomped her dainty little paw, then tipped over, and said, "Does this kitchen tile make me look fat?"

2674 The well-dressed librarian (retired)

Here's the fashion plan for the trip to Finland and Russia: black, cream/khaki and white. Boring but easy. No one will accuse me of being a fashionable, stuck up American tourist (although they might guess my career track). I ran into K-Mart this morning and picked up a few things--I mean, summer stuff is on sale. If it shrinks or rips, I can always crochet a rug like Mom did (lol--that'll be the day).

I bought a little black dress, probably too little, it is an 8 and it's been 20 lbs since I wore an 8. Folded for travel, it is about the size of a farmer's hankie. I bought a swim suit--a style that I swear I haven't seen since the 50s. 50% off and 50% more coverage than most suits. It might be my ticket into the sauna. I do not do naked. I used to belong to a health spa when I was in my 20s and was shocked to see what 45 year old women looked like. Now I'm 20 years the other side of awful! It's also a size or two too small, but K-Mart is providing mirrors that make you look slimmer instead of like you're at the carnival fun house.

I don't have time to do my usual watercolor sketch, but here's the general plan for the suitcase. For the plane trip (very long) it will be the loosest black slacks, a coral t-shirt, a cream jacket with generous pockets, and coral print scarf. I'm so pale, coral looks good on me.

This trip will be quite international. Most of these clothes were made in China and Mexico, however, in looking over the tags, I also saw Costa Rica, Lesotho, Australia, Ukraine, Vietnam, El Salvado, Cambodia and Bangladesh. Hey, better there than here if workers are being shipped in containers to work in sweatshops or coyoted across the border. Trade agreements will keep potential illegals in their home countries (instead of joining labor unions here and becoming democrats). If they are going to take American jobs, better to do it there.

2673 Friday Family Photo

Thirty years ago we flew to California to visit my in-laws. Because my husband's parents divorced when he was very young, we didn't know them all that well. We had a great week and particularly enjoyed getting to know my husband's brother and sister. I think this is Huntington Beach. We're visiting the sibs in September for his sister's wedding.

Thursday Thirteen

13 Things I wouldn't know if I didn't read the Black Swamp Trader and Gazette.

There are a lot of local festivals in small towns in the Firelands area of Ohio. Some areas of Ohio used to belong to Connecticut, and during the American Revolution, British troops destroyed property along the sea coast of Connecticut. In order to repay colonists for their losses, Connecticut gave these colonists 500,000 acres of land. These were called the "Firelands" and were set aside at the western end of the Western Reserve. This newspaper serves some of these small communities as a "free circ."

1. Mondays are grandparent days at the President Hayes Center in Fremont, OH.
2. Bowling Green is having a classic car show on Main Street July 8.
3. Grand Rapids, OH is having Rally Days, July 8-9.
4. Pemberville, OH is having a German Christmas on July 8, and a cruising night on July 6.
5. Genoa, OH is having a classic car and truck cruise-in every Wednesday.
6. Mansfield, OH and Richland County are having Fall Foliage Festivals--there are several--and you can visit Malabar Farms where Bogie and Bacall were married.
7. Marblehead, OH had its 7th Annual Ice Cream Social on July 1.
8. Norwalk, OH is having a classic car show with live radio broadcast every Thursday through August!
9. There will be a Dutchtown Hatchery Festival in New Washington, OH on July 7-8.
10. Milan, OH is having a Food and Wine Celebration with 20 renowned chefs on the grounds of The Culinary Vegetable Institute on July 15. On Tuesday nights, all the cruisers will be in Milan.
11. Berlin Heights, OH is having its 2nd Annual Marble Tournament on August 6.
12. Fostoria, OH is having a Fostorial Glass and Heritage Festival on July 14-15.
13. The 2nd Annual Lincoln Highway Yard Sale (through Ohio and Indiana) is noted for Bucyrus, OH, August 10-12 and stretches for 250 miles. Bucyrus Bratwurst Festival is August 17-19 (don't try to drive through Bucyrus on those days unless you want to eat).

Since I've only been to Marblehead, Bucyrus, Milan, and Mansfield, I can't guarantee these are all fabulous places to visit (or even that they are all "Firelands"), but there are small town festivals and events everywhere which support local history and merchants. Visit one in your area this summer.


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

2671 Who is this masked librarian?

Someone is attempting to write a right wing librarian parody--at least I think that's what it is. Shush, Annoyed, Tomeboy, Oyarsa, and a few others get featured with the word RIGHT very prominently. And since I write right on more often than they do (I'm retired and they have to work for a living) and because I rightly pointed out a flaw to a very sensitive but excellent writer who writes in parenthetical phrases too deep to plumb some time back (around the time the blog started) for using the word "right" but not the word "left" in discussing the WIDE range of thought among librarians, pardon my run on here, I think my astute analytical skills have figured this one out. I think he really took it hard that time I said I felt no obligation to provide marijuana culture books or advice in the agriculture library since it is illegal. Oh those baby boomers!

But since I only get occasional hits from that parody, I guess I'll be big and overlook his tantrums because no one seems to be reading it. He doesn't pick on the guys much. Just old pensioners like me. Sigh. His regular stuff (technology) is outstanding, but politics just doesn't seem to be his gift. Besides, it helps the stats if someone wanders in. It's been up almost a year and I've just come across it.

2670 You're getting this third hand

Politics. It's never very pretty.

"The upper echelons of the ALA [American Library Association] are a wasteland of irrelevant political intrigue and foolish commentary. The ALA Council either is itself composed mostly of scoundrels, or (as I believe) lets itself be hijacked by political scoundrels who, in the words of one SRRT scoundrel I overheard in New Orleans, "really know how to get resolutions passed." She considered it a point of arrogant pride that they were able to herd the other librarians like sheep. I was too polite to tell her what a rude and ill mannered little troglydyte she was. And of course how unimportant she is."

Annoyed Librarian

The SRRT's [social responsibilities round table] siblings and cousins are in every fraternal and professional organization, including churches, herding the sheep. Ignoring them or not attending the meetings doesn't discourage them--it emboldens them.

2669 The Oath and the Pledge

Sure, you can say the Pledge of Allegiance; it's not a government document and was actually first written for a children's magazine by Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist.

But could you say or even read and commit to the Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America?

Oath:

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

According to chapter 2, "Naturalization and nationality" in Companion to American Immigration the right to naturalize recognized in the U.S. Constitution represented a conscious repudiation of feudal subjectship when individuals were bound without their consent to sovereign overlords and states they ruled. The Articles of Confederation left citizenship up to the individual states, however the U.S. Constitution empowered the federal government to establish naturalization (Article 1, Sec. 8).

A new oath of allegiance was being planned for 2003, but the CIS came under heavy criticism for not allowing enough time for public debate. I would guess that following on the heels of the demonstrations by illegals held in May, the public discourse if held in 2006 would not be kind to diluting this oath.

There are many Americans living abroad for many years who would never be able to say this oath if it were required for coming back. Not that they want to (return), but the country in which they reside probably won't allow them to become citizens (few countries make it as easy as the U.S. and Canada), and they don't want to be stateless.

Cross-posted at Illegals Now.

2668 Are expensive shoes worth it?

You probably don't think $90 is expensive for a pair of shoes, but it's about $80 more than my favorite pair that has held up for three years. Perhaps I shouldn't be depending on a librarian for fashion advice, but Blonde Librarian who is living in Germany says that white athletic shoes really give you away as an American. I don't know why that should be bad, but I remember we used to chuckle at the German exchange students who even in high school wore hose and sandals for every day wear when everyone with a plug of sense knew you should be wearing white, roll down anklets and suede tie oxfords.

But I digress. About three months ago I went to the New Balance store in the Tuttle Mall for some hoity-toity, colored athletic shoes. Well, I didn't want them to glow in the dark or enable me to leap tall buildings with a single bound or be wrapped in velcro, so I chose a very handsome sleek black leather loafer style by the Dunham label. I was even able to get them in 8.5AA, my size. But they were $90, with a 90 day wear guarantee.

I broke them in gradually so they would be comfortable on our trip to Finland and Russia, beginning with about an hour a day. I even wore them a few times on short one mile walks to make sure they wouldn't be a disaster for a day outing. They are extremely comfortable and I don't feel like I've dressed from the missionary barrel when I wear them. This week I noticed that the inside lining is starting to disintegrate and I can feel the impression of my foot and toes on the inside--like I might expect if these were a year old or more. All shoes these days are made in China, but not all Chinese shoes are equally durable. You can keep your snooty name brands and expensive advertising; it's back to K-Mart for me.

2667 New Jersey Casinos forced to close?

Is this supposed to be bad news? Will Grandma have to stay home and read a book, go out to lunch with her former bridge club friends (they've lost contact), or put some of her check in the bank instead of playing the slots for an artificial high? Tell me why this is bad. That New Jersey won't be raking in money from the poor, addicted and addled.

2667 On Being White in America

Although I haven't found a scholarly article that traces when the worm turned and it became bad to be White in America, I'm sure I could find such a chapter in a Tammy Bruce, Ann Coulter or Bill O'Reilly book (I'm aware of them, but haven't actually read any of their titles). At the university level, however, such an expose wouldn't get you promotion or tenure in 2006, and even having such a title or article in your library, might get you censored or suspended.

It would make an interesting bibliographic essay or review article--just tracking the literature, beginning around 1965. But because wiping out WIA, all vestiges of the European in the United States, is a positive goal for academics, I'm not anticipating finding a department or area studies** program to determine and anlyze the motives, money and machinations behind this movement among historians, educators, sociologists and college administrations. Economists and political scientists are still a bit conflicted--waiting to see which way the wind blows. Just throwing the phrase "marxist hegemony" or "mainstream media" at the problem just doesn't explain such self-hatred, or why the majority have bought into the brainwashing. Have our collective brain synapses been tangled by our entertainment industry? Is it the fast food that is causing our brains to turn to mush? Is it the happy, clappy music at church in place of Euro-based liturgies?

This theme ungirds just about everything I read about "diversity" or "multiculturalism." The push for multiculturalism is not rooted in the idea that we all benefit from exposure to difference cultures (although the early proponents may have thought that), but that it is bad and evil for this country to be majority white and anglo. Every other culture and ethnic group has value--but ours must be destroyed. The push for abortion begins and ends with the educated white women, not with the poor and minority women, whose offspring still have value. Increasingly, being Catholic, if you are also white, will get you no "brownie points" (pardon the pun); and if you are a middle-class or wealthy African-American, you just might be white on the inside (oreo) and have sold out your heritage since you are too rich and educated to be an Uncle Tom. If your surname is Hernandez you will be more welcome in academe than if it is McAdams, even if your grandfather settled in Indiana and no one has spoken Spanish for 3 generations.

If you've seen a bibliographic essay which traces this peculiar death wish for the last 40 years in our society, please point me to it.

[These thoughts emerged while reading A Companion to American Immigration (Blackwell, 2006), which although it depends heavily on secondary sources, also includes many interesting (and biased) scholarly works.]

**In a flash of library humor, some of our workshops on handling specialized digital material when I was at Ohio State, used the fictional "Department of Canadian Studies"--perhaps the organizers thought there was no such field, at least not in Ohio. However, wiping out the White Canadian is also a goal of multiculturalism, so we share more than a long border.

[Disclaimer: I used to call myself an 8th generation American, but then I started doing genealogy in retirement and dug up all manner of evil white ancestors on our eastern shores and colonies before the 18th century.]

2665 The Lakeside Kids' Sail

Members of the S.O.S. (Society of Old Salts) volunteered their time yesterday to take children out for a sail on Lake Erie. It was supposed to have been Sunday, but the water was too rough. These guys took 71 children out for a good time. One by one.





Lakeside, Ohio

2664 Celebrating our 230th anniversary as a nation

Lakeside had two parades--the children's at 10:30 and the regular at 11 a.m. It was hot and humid, but everyone was in great spirits.

Even the spectators were dressed up!

Kevin Sibbring, the Director, was our parade marshall

The Guys Club Cordless Drill Team: their motto is, "We're working on it."

One guy is probably Uncle Sam, but the other looks like he's supposed to be in the fall festival parade.

Lakeside, Ohio
July Fourth

2663 We're going to the dogs

These guys are dressed up for the Fourth of July.





Lakeside, Ohio

2662 Where to eat in Lakeside, Ohio

We're eating in today (holiday) but there are some great spots for such a small town. The hotel also has a dining room, but we haven't quite figured out the schedule. Changes each summer.
The Abigail Tea Room, full dinners, closed on Mondays. Home made pies.
Erie Food Market, for great deli items to go and a full service grocery with a personal touch. At noon there is a guy grilling hamburgers and brats outside.
Last year this was the Irish Tea Room, now it is Oo-La-La--haven't tried it yet
Sloopy's Sports Cafe--the only game in town off season
The Patio--fabulous warm donuts in the morning, great complete dinners with specials. My husband has an art show here. On the left is the Whistle Stop for ice cream and sandwiches.
Coffee and Cream is the coffee shop which also runs an outdoor grill for special events and week-ends. Toft's Velvet ice cream, Bassett's bakery and deli items.

Lakeside, Ohio

2661 Fond baseball memories

The family renting the cottage across the street has a bunch of kids, and each has a baseball glove. We've enjoyed watching them from our porch. One little guy who is really plucky, has a glove that almost goes up to his elbow. Back in the years when we had a grand daughter (lost her in the divorce), she was here one summer eyeing the kids (different family) playing catch in the street. She sauntered out and stood near-by in the grass, shagging their missed balls. Then the dad invited her to join in and she was out in the street in a flash. What they didn't know was that she was a darn good little athlete--she clobbered the "locals." Soon their dad was throwing mainly to her.

2660 The Traveling T-shirt

We're going to take some Lakeside t-shirts with us to Finland. Our FinFriends are BIG people--and I hope they fit. No sense trying for a "made in America" shirt, because technically they don't exist. But they do, actually, regardless of what the label says. Chances are the cotton was grown in Texas, the designs were done by an American graphic artist, and the retailers and wholesalers are from Florida, NY or NJ. But most importantly, the trade agreements and restrictions are crafted by our government.

I've been paying more attention to the lowly t-shirt since I began reading, "The travels of a t-shirt in the global economy," by Pietra Rivoli (Wiley, 2005). Unfortunately, it is in my stack of vacation reading, and on top of my immigration title, my book club selection, and boning up for Finland and Russia, I won't get it finished. It is still a 14-day book at my public library, so I'll be returning it tomorrow.

Here's the final conclusion, so as not to leave you wondering: To the World Trade protester she writes "Appreciate what markets and trade have accomplished for all of the sisters in time who have been liberated by life in a sweatshop, and . . . be careful about dooming anyone to life on the farm. . . . the poor suffer more from exclusion from politics than from the perils of the market, and [activist energy should be focused on] including people in politics rather than shielding them from markets." But the author also provides kind words for activists who she believes [and follows in the book] have made a difference--but she urges them to look both ways.

I highly recommend this book for an easy, enjoyable, fascinating read/course in the global economy written by an economist with a gift for story-telling.

2659 School teachers and pay scales

Per hour, they make more than many professions--certainly more than librarians. Why do we persistently argue that teachers are underpaid?

"Data from the U.S. Department of Labor show that in 2002, elementary school teachers averaged $30.75 per hour and high school teachers made $31.01. That is about the same as other professionals like architects, economists, biologists, civil engineers, chemists, physicists and astronomers, and computer systems analysts and scientists. Even demanding, education-intensive professions like electrical and electronic engineering, dentistry, and nuclear engineering didn't make much more than teachers per hour worked. And the earnings of teachers are much higher than those of registered nurses, police officers, editors and reporters, firefighters, and social workers.

Some argue that it's unfair to calculate teacher pay on an hourly basis because teachers perform a large amount of work at home--grading papers on the weekend, for instance. But people in other professions also do offsite work. The only important question is whether teachers do significantly more offsite work than others."

Read the entire article about myths and education.

What freedom means

Because tomorrow is the Fourth of July, the Cleveland Plain Dealer carried small op-eds about the meaning of freedom, apparently publishing submitted essays. Mary Nguyen wrote that her parents were immigrants from Vietnam--"there hasn't been one conversation about my future that hasn't included the fact that they left their entire families, their entire lives, behind so their children could have freedom in America." Her parents dedicated their lives to raising 6 children to give them the finest education they could afford. Now, she says, she has the freedom and opportunity to fail, falter or learn.

I don't know how old Mary is, but she will always be older and wiser than another woman whose essay seemed to focus on a "watershed" event in her life--Angela Davis' afro. To her, freedom was wearing her hair any way but straightened--braided, natural, or blonde. Yikes.

That may have been the shallowest essay on the meaning of freedom I've ever read, and why we need immigrants (legal) to renew our faith.

2657 Sex Economics

"By one reckoning, boosting the frequency of sex in a marriage from once a month to once a week brings as much happiness as an extra $50,000 a year." No word in the survey if they asked men or women.

However, this item is from the LATimes newsletter of highlights and editorials, which along with a few other assorted sources (aol.com, a .edu, my sitemeter, and some spam) is getting through to my e-mail; but just about everyone else medscape.com thinks is spam.

Oh, and btw, in the Gross National Happiness indicators, happiness peaks around age 51.

Monday Memories

The Lakeside Wooden Boat Show was just yesterday (July 2) however, it brought back many memories for a lot of people. This is only the 2nd year, but like classic car shows, it really brings in the people, particularly in the Lake Erie vacation land. The Lakeside Wooden Boat Society also builds boats in a tent in the park so people can learn how to do it.







Lots of activity here for people learning how to create and put a finish on a wooden boat. Children and old folks welcome.


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Lakeside, Ohio

2655 Closed until further notice

Bill Keller's mind. Unfortunately, his pie hole is open and flapping. Not only does he reveal government secrets to follow the terrorists funding during a war, but he can't stop defending his actions. What a spoiled brat.

Who died and left you President?

"The issue is your decision to publish classified information that can only aid our enemies. The founders didn't give the media or unnamed sources a license to expose secret national security operations in wartime. They set up a Congress to pass laws against disclosing state secrets and an executive branch to conduct secret operations so the new nation could actually defend itself from enemies, foreign and domestic."

Bill Keller
New York Times

2654 Thank you, Hobby Lobby

for the beautiful, patriotic full-page ad in the USAToday. It was interesting and very well done. I read every word. Here's the on-line copy.

Kathleen Denis, artist

It's new notebook time--I filled the last page of my lovely notebook with pink roses and calligraphy, and today I'll start one from Martin Designs of Ashland, OH with artwork by Kathleen Denis. The webpage doesn't seem to function but I found her name with numerous gift items and wallpaper. The calligraphic background of this notebook is a verse from "Amazing Grace."

Ashland, OH is the home of the Brethren Church, sister denomination of Church of the Brethren. The two anabaptist groups had a spat about the meaning of "being in order" and split in the 1880s from each other and the Old Order German Baptist Brethren. The college/university in Ashland has some interesting archives for all Brethren groups which I have used in my own research. A lovely town.

Update: Columbus Business First: Martin Designs went out of business in 2008 after a line of Chinese-made SpongeBob SquarePants notebooks it was selling was recalled because the spiral binding contained high levels of lead.

Kathleen Denis
Ashland University
Ashland, Ohio

2652 When to tell a secret

Sister Toldjah tells ya:

"In a rare joint move, the editors of the LAT and NYT (Dean Baquet and Bill Keller, respectively) have an editorial posted in today’s New York Times (and I’m sure it’s in the LA Times as well) which tries to answer the question: “when do we publish a secret?”

They’ve given you the long answer. I’m giving you the short answer:

When a Republican is in the WH.

That was easy enough."

You go girl.

2651 How to spot a recent illegal immigrant

"The prevalence of obesity among immigrants living in the United States for at least 15 years approached that of US-born adults." JAMA. 2004;292:2860-2867.

2650 My new margin photo

At Hugging and Chalking I have added a new margin .gif--sacbutt players on horseback. I think it is sort of cute. Take a peek and come back.

2649 The Chinese Acrobats

It was a crowd pleaser to say the least. Last night the Golden Dragon Acrobats, continued a 2700 year tradition, and 28 years of touring in the U.S. at the Hoover Auditorium in Lakeside, Oh. Hoover holds about 3,000 people, and I didn't see many empty seats. Initially, it was gasps and polite applause, but by the end of the program, people were on their feet cheering, whistling and whooping. They have been all over the country, and this morning we saw the young people in their cut-offs and t-shirts, strolling around Lakeside with their backpacks and overnight bags. Last night it was all grace, beauty and brilliant colors.

One thing is noticeable about this group--they are small, well-muscled, and very strong, but not anorexic-looking like so many American athletes who are acrobats and gymnists. Wonder what they eat?

Lakeside, Ohio

2648 Truth, Justice, and "all that stuff"

I realize he's just an American comic book character, but didn't the super heroes of the past believe in something a bit more specific than "all that stuff?" I'm reposting here for my own enjoyment my June 23 photo of my super hero in 1988.



Here's one scholar's conception (in 2003) why our old "mythos" needed to be revised:

"The representation of crime and justice in the superhero mythos is predominantly derived from a conservative or "right" oriented perspective (as evidenced in the aforementioned comics code). . . Miller identifies five "crusading issues": (1) "excessive leniency toward lawbreakers," (2) "favoring the welfare and rights of lawbreakers over the welfare and rights of their victims, of law enforcement officials, and the law abiding citizen," (3) "erosion of discipline and of respect for constituted authority," (4) "the cost of crime," and (5) "excessive permissiveness" (1973, p. 143). These "crusading issues" of the political "right" are virtually mirrored by the crusades of the superhero mythos.

The messages portrayed in the comic book superhero mythos are clear. We are being told that we must preserve the status quo, or, as Superman might put it, "democracy and the American way"; threats to the status quo must be extinguished. We are presented with a world in which there is clearly right and wrong, good and evil. Good must prevail and social order must be maintained. The dominant hegemony is safe in the hands of the comic book superhero." Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 10(2) (2003) 96-108.

Well, not anymore!

Superman

A tequila soaked worm--Mexico

Read Deroy Murdock's column on the corruption of the Mexican government, which expects the U.S. to continue taking in its poor. China is eating Mexico's lunch.

Folks, this bleeding heart, oh-the-poor-immigrant attitude, especially among Christians, is like bending the elbow of an alcoholic. You are ENABLERS.

2646 This week at Lakeside

Last Saturday night (June 24) we enjoyed the Hunt Family Fiddlers who performed Celtic, bluegrass, inspirational and popular music, all while step dancing.

Mid-week we had the Chestnut Brass Company (June 28)--I didn't know that old trombones were called "sacbutts" or least that's what it sounded like when they explained the precursor to the trombone (my instrument). They used many historical instruments and had a few funny routines.

Tonight it is the Golden Dragon Acrobats from China. They are from Cangzhou, Hebeiprovince in China.

Tomorrow is the Wooden Boat Show down at the dock.

Lakeside, Ohio

2645 Do we need a LAMP to attract more students to library science?

Last time I looked, potential librarians were not in the dark. People [just talked to a library staffer last week who was choosing a different field] are deciding NOT to become librarians because of limited job opportunities and poor earning potential. Are we paying to train buggy whip makers and keep library schools afloat? Even "underrepresented populations" should be steered to more lucrative careers.

"Library Access Midwest Program (LAMP)" project, will receive $972,839 from the Federal Government through its 21st Century Librarian Program. Graduate Sschool of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the University of Illinois will work with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Science to develop LAMP, a regional alliance that will attract 20 promising college students to careers in librarianship. Special emphasis will be placed on recruiting students from statistically and historically underrepresented populations. In addition to the direct effect it will have on these 20 students and their contributions to the library field, LAMP is designed to be a replicable model for other regions."

From the GSLIS newsletter, Volume 5, Number 4: July 2006

An illegal immigrant nanny can make $15-20 an hour--I'm not sure a beginning librarian with a master's will get that.

2644 Also reading at the Lake, Suomalaisia Kuvia

a book we received from Martti and Riitta (he's an architect and she's a veterinarian/academic) in 1980, dedicating it to the trip we promised we'd take in 1985 for our 25th wedding anniversary.

Well, we’re coming up on our 46th, and this year we are actually flying across the pond. On the 25th, or for the 25th, in 1985, we went to Hawaii--a fabulous trip I'll never regret. And on the 30th, in 1990 I was in the middle of re-establishing my career--writing, publishing, attending conferences, networking, etc. It was a busy time with limited vacation, plus we bought our second home and needed to sink all discretionary funds on it.

Then in 1995, my husband was establishing his sole practice. He could barely break away from his clients, and his mother was increasingly frail. In 2000 the year my mother died, we returned to Illinois so we could celebrate our 40th anniversary in the church where we were married and with my family. On the 41st, 9/11 happened and it didn’t seem a good time to go anywhere--for some time. Then in the next few years, my husband’s family and father needed us in California, so our trips combined responsibilities and travel. Last year for our 45th, we took a cruise on the Danube--our first to Europe.

So now, finally, we are ready to see Finland, and also take a trip into Russia to visit St. Petersburg. I’m reading the book that the Tulamos gave us in 1980, and am studying (or at least looking at) Russian grammar and conversation from a book published in the 50s when everyone was still "comrade."

Here are some photos of Martti's work.

2643 Also reading at the Lake, Team of Rivals

Actually, I'm listening to Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, the story of how President Lincoln packed his cabinet with some of the most brilliant minds and anti-slavery people of his era. However, the book has over 900 pages, so since I'm only on disk 10, I don't think I'll finish before we leave for Finland. The author is particularly outstanding in fleshing out the main characters with their wives, children, and close associates.

". . . The comparative approach has also yielded an interesting cast of female characters to provide perspective on the Lincolns’ marriage. The fiercely idealistic Frances Seward served as her husband’s social conscience. The beautiful Kate Chase made her father’s quest for the presidency the ruling passion of her life, while the devoted Julia Bathes created a blissful home that gradually enticed her husband away from public ambitions. Like Frances Seward, Mary Lincoln displayed a striking intelligence; like Kate Chase, she possessed what was then considered an unladylike interest in politics. Mary’s detractors have suggested that if she had created a more tranquil domestic life for her family, Lincoln might have been satisfied to remain in Springfield. Yet the idea that he could have been a contented homebody, like Edward Bates, contradicts everything we know of the powerful ambition that drove him from his earliest days.

By widening the lens to include Lincoln’s colleagues and their families, my story benefited from a treasure trove of primary sources that have not generally been sued in Lincoln biographies. The correspondence of the Seward family contains nearly five thousand letters, including an eight-hundred-page diary that Seward’s daughter Fanny kept from her fifteenth year until two weeks before her death at the age of twenty-one."

In my opinion, both the feminists and the male biographers of some of our most famous Americans have ignored or scorned the roles women played in their lives. Mary Lincoln comes out of this looking better than most portrayals, simply by using original sources, rather than Lincoln's enemies as the source. This has been an excellent review of the issues of slavery (which I think strongly resemble many of the immigration issues of the 21st century), and also the power and education levels of women "who also served." Also, Lincoln's nature and bouts with depression make a lot more sense when viewed through the sufferings of some of the other men around him, like Edwin Stanton, who nearly went insane after the death of his wife and daughter. According to his sister, at night he would lay out her bed clothes and walk through the house crying and calling out her name.

"In addition to the voluminous journals in which Salmon Chase recorded the events of four decades, he wrote thousands of personal letters. A revealing section of his daughter Kate’s diary also survives, along with dozens of letters from her husband, William Sprague. The unpublished section of the diary that Bates began in 1846 provides a more intimate glimpse of the man than the published diary that starts in 1859. Letters to his wife, Julia, during his years in Congress expose the warmth beneath his stolid exterior. Stanton’s emotional letters to his family and his sister’s unpublished memoir reveal the devotion and idealism that connected the passionate, hard-driving war secretary to his president. The correspondence of Montgomery Blaire’s sister, Elizabeth Blaire Lee, and her husband, Captain Samuel Phillips Lee, leaves a memorable picture of a daily life in wartime Washington. The diary of Gideon Welles, of course, has long been recognized for its penetrating insights into the workings of the Lincoln administration." From the author’s introduction

In this age of e-mails, text-messaging, and blogs, I do wonder what historians will have to work with when they write about our current crop of 20-somethings who will someday be in the halls of Congres.

2642 Pity the American Canadian

If you studied American History a few decades ago, back when the 17th through early 19th century mattered in our school curricula, you may remember that many citizens of the U.S. emigrated and went to Canada after the Revolution and after the War of 1812 (unlike certain movie stars of the 21st century who have only threatened).

Read about Margaret Wente's sad fate of demanding reparations from herself at my Illegals Now blog. Since the "mass migrations" in this country happened after slavery, I've often wondered if the Czechs and Poles and Russian Jews were going to buy into it.

2641 La Raza hosts Rove

Here's a stunning line up that is one-upmanship for librarians, who only secured Laura Bush to inflame its membership. KKKarl Rove will be speaking to La Raza (i.e., the only race that matters is these guys).

"The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., announced today that former President Bill Clinton, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are among the confirmed speakers for the upcoming NCLR Annual Conference which will be held July 8-11 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA.

“We are deeply honored that President Clinton has accepted our invitation to address more than 2,000 community leaders from across the nation, and we are also excited by the wide array of speakers from the worlds of business, labor, government, nonprofits, and politics who will be joining us at this year’s Conference,” stated Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO." But it's just for lunch. News release

2640 The best fashion advice

is right here at Coffee Spills.

2639 Marxism may be dying out in the former USSR

but it is alive and well in the history and sociology departments of American colleges and universities. One of the eye-opening experiences of reading Companion to American Immigration (Blackwell, 2006) is its foundational assumptions based solidly on Marxist thought and scholarship. Not that I was naive about the Marxists in our universities, but reading essay after essay--about food, education, demography, social customs, microeconomics, politics, and law--all rooted in and rooting for Marxism is quite an eye opener as I read along at the Lakeside coffee shop, a vacation spot more like the 1950s than a TV "Happy Days" recreation.

If you've ever wondered what became of the "tenured radicals" who went from sit-ins in the presidents' offices in the Halls of Ivy in the 1970s to populating them, read this book! They are indeed the adopted intellectual grandchildren of the 1930s faculties and labor activists who were pacifists until Germany invaded Russia and then had to go underground when the Gulags were being revealed after WWII. When the Berlin Wall fell, they used chunks of scholarly concrete to rebuild their fables.

I've learned a lot of new words and phrases for us and U.S. reading this book:

marriageways
nuptiality
marital endogamy

draconian reductions in immigration [during the Depression, duh!]
recovery from the Depression "eroded ethnic differences"

boutique farms
foodways
culinary nationalists
women as cultural conservators

aping the life of gentry
Anglo-Saxonism
Germano-Celtic
nativist sentiment
dominant society
host society
core culture

institutionalized nationhood
individualizing destiny
assimilationists
pluralist vision
voluntary pluralism
vocabularies of public life
civic homogenization

language shift
language loss
home language

schools as labor pools for industry
cauldron (instead of "melting pot")
well-socialized labor force
enforced schooling to empower the government

And academic gibberish even worse than library jargon:
gendered dimensions of transnational ties (I have no idea what this is!)
major shareholders of identity
ethno-cultural, creedal, and individualistic pluralistic models
contingent contagionists
immigrant transnationals

Incidentally, if there was a lynching, a killing, a riot, or a law about ethnicity, these are liberally interspersed at every opportunity to demonstrate the shallowness of the minority "dominant Anglo-Saxon culture." The chapter on religion isn't about religion at all--it is about the anti's--anti-Semitism, KuKluxKlan, anti-Catholicism, anti-muslim, etc.

2638 My office nook at the Lakehouse

The cottage is tiny, but I have a small corner, and use the coffee shop as my annex. We need to unplug that phone--we don't have a land line anymore, and I could use the space! Before that I used a pay phone at the hotel. In the 80s, there would be a long line of teen-agers waiting (including my own), but now they all have cell phones.

Friday Family Photo

More about cousins

These are photos of my son and his cousin Rich, who are about 8 months difference in age, which when they were children made quite a difference in size, but none at all when they grew up--in fact, I think Rich might be a bit taller. Both were almost white blonde as little guys, and now both are very dark. Rich is on the right in the 1973 photo and the left in the adult photo.

Easter 1973

And in 1999

2636 Stop the CCR

The CCR is working with and helping to fund the pro bono lawyers' work at Gitmo which is aiding terrorism.

The paragraph below is my rewrite of one the CCR had on its home page demanding Bush's impeachment (to send to your representative). Obviously, they didn't accept my editing--they're not that liberal! They are wetting their pants and their lips over the Supreme Court decision. I'm thinking their logo has a striking resemblance to a more familiar one with a bit of tweaking and flipping.

"The President of the United States should continue the course to save our country. He should continue the necessary surveillance of finances and communications systems to protect U.S. citizens. He should continue to tell the truth to the American public who are being lied to by anarchists and leftists who hate the U.S. to lead them to victory over terrorism. I urge you to join me and a growing number of your fellow bloggers calling for an investigation into activities of the Center for Constitutional Rights."

2635 The Guantanamo Bay Bar Association

Their pro-bono work is aiding the enemy. So how do these prisoners get a case to go up through the courts with some of the best lawyers in the country? Lawyers you and I couldn't afford? Well, we're paying for it--indirectly because they are being paid huge fees by firms we invest in.

Blogged about this in January. I wrote letters. Did you? Deroy Murdock's original article

It's a recruiting tool for these firms:

From Fredrikson & Byron
Fredrikson & Byron has put together a team of lawyers representing one of the Guantanamo detainees, Ahcene Zemiri. We are working to ensure that he has the opportunity to present the facts of his case to a federal court. Our lawyers worked with the Center for Constitutional Research (“CCR”)**, a non-profit organization based in New York, to arrange for our representation.

Although more than 150 Guantanamo detainees are now represented by counsel from across the country, Fredrikson & Byron remains the only law firm in Minnesota that is representing a detainee. Our habeas petition has become the model petition that CCR provides to other counsel planning to file petitions in their own cases. Individuals who have worked on this case include: Matt Boos, Ingrid Culp, Wade Davis, Jim Dorsey, Emily Duke, Lilhja Emery, Dulce Foster, Roxanne Gangl, Michelle Hanson, Sharen Keehr, Faye Knowles, John Lundquist, Nicole Moen, Debra Schneider, Jessica Sherman, Rhona Shwaid, Asmah Tareen, and Heather Thayer.

Sutherland Asbill & Brennan: "Here are a few highlights of our most recent pro bono work:

In January 2005, John Chandler accepted a challenge from the American College of Trial Lawyers to represent alleged "enemy combatants" detained at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On February 7, 2005, Sutherland filed a petition for habeas corpus and other relief on behalf of five Yemeni detainees. The petition, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, notes how "[e]ach of the Detained Petitioners is being held virtually incommunicado in military custody at Camp Delta...without basis, without charge, without access to counsel and without being afforded any fair process by which they might challenge their designation and detention." Because the U.S. government prevents lawyers from visiting Guantanamo detainees unless they have a pending case, Sutherland brought these cases through the detainees' relatives, who authorized the filings as "Next Friends" of the petitioners. Sutherland lawyers have since submitted security clearance forms that, once approved, will allow them to visit the detainees."

I wonder if these firms will do pro-bono work for Marines or school children who pray at graduation?

**The CCR is the group that has written a book on how to impeach President Bush.

Guantanamo Bay

Have I got a deal for you

We just toured a duplex owned by a friend, called the Plymouth House at 315 and 317 Sycamore Avenue in Lakeside, OH. Each side sleeps six, (3 bedrooms, 2 baths) and I've given it my personal inspection, and it is clean, clean, clean and beautifully decorated with eclectics and antiques. The kitchens are new, there's a laundry, AC, wireless, and overhead fans for those days when it's not quite hot, but you'd like a little air moving. A fabulous front porch, which every Lakesider knows is a must have.

You can view the details and photos at Lakeside Association Cottage Rentals.

2633 Baby Peeps

When I was a little girl, I lived two houses from a hatchery in Mt. Morris, IL. We children would just walk inside the brick, one-story building and look at and touch the baby chicks. I think my nose was about level with their itty bitty toes.

I suppose I've spent all these years thinking Mt. Morris was the center of chickenhood and hatcheries. And it is sort of, at least in print. Poultry Tribune and Turkey World are published there--or were the last time I looked. Imagine my surprise when I opened the Black Swamp Trader and Gazette and discovered that it was New Washington, OH. The Dutchtown Hatchery Festival in New Washington will have its 2nd Annual Festival on July 7th and 8th, and if I weren't flying to Finland on the 8th, I'd stop by, just for the sights and smells.

It seems that Michael Uhl invented a 200 egg capacity incubator on his family farm in 1885. He and his brothers went on to design and build a 10,000 egg capacity incubator and thus sparked an entire industry. So apparently "factory farms" aren't an invention of the 20th century. People near Croton, OH will be happy to know that.

He also is responsible for creating a system to ship newborn peeps across the nation, which is still used to this day. The World's Poultry Congress, which happened the year I was born, actually toured little New Washington's hatcheries.