3605

The contaminated pet food

There will probably be law suits over this, even though last I heard they had still not determined the source. Just a quick reminder for those of you who think "natural" is the way to go for food--it isn't. Perfectly natural aflatoxins kill people and animals.

But, that's not my topic. In Columbus, a woman has been charged with killing over 650 animals "to save them." Problem is, she encouraged people to bring the animals to her, telling them she'd find a good home for them. Story here.

"I just want people to know that I was trying to prevent a long, protracted, horrible life on the streets with a 90-second death," [Maureen] McLaughlin stated. "It was only 90 seconds. I know it was awful, but it was only 90 seconds."

Prosecutors described those 90 seconds as "pure hell" for the animals.

"She put the crates in the water, put cement blocks in the crates and she would stand back while it was going on and she would pray for the animal in question," said assistant city prosecutor Bill Hedrick. "I mean, it's just sick."
McLaughlin will now undergo a psychiatric evaluation before standing trial.

"I think she's competent, that she's aware of what she did was wrong," Hedrick said. "At no point was she deluded in what she was doing."

I think I heard on the radio that even if she is found guilty on every charge, it is not a felony and it won't keep her from owning animals in the future, unless someone changes the law.

So here we have the terrible tragedy of a few pets dying or being made ill through no one's fault, and then a person who deliberately kills animals "to save them" (reminds me of the pro-choice argument) will go free. I'm guessing that because the pet food company has deep pockets, they'll be punished much more severely than Columbus' own Ms. Jo Black who helped hundreds to the Rainbow Bridge prematurely.

3604

Denial isn't the name of a river

Two weeks ago I blogged about my daughter's DVT--she put up with the pain in her leg making excuses, first that it was the antibiotic for her sinus infection, second that she'd forgotten to take her calcium (lack of a thyroid causes leg cramps). The blood clot meanwhile was moving up her leg toward her heart or lungs. Tomorrow a friend of ours goes in for a quadruple by-pass--one 100% blocked, and three 95% blocked. He was having chest pain and sweating profusely, so he drove himself about 30 miles to the hospital. Our friend was busy doing the Lord's work, and almost ended up in the heavenly choir. My father lived into his 90th year instead of dying at fifty, because when he started coughing up blood at 39, he quit smoking, cold turkey.

Folks. Listen up. Pain is a gift. Pay attention to it!

3603

If you were a kid

which father would you prefer? There are many styles of parenting. . .

3602

How to deal with college debt

At a time when fewer, not more, young adults should be considering college, law makers are scrambling to find more ways to loan more money--long proven to be the road to more debt. How will the student loan industry be fixed? By you and me picking up the debt, betcha?

What do students with $20-60,000 debt do when they graduate with an almost worthless B.A. that will get them a $30,000 a year job? They go to graduate school and take on more debt, of course. And why shouldn't they when the federal government subsidizes the poor decisions they made when they started college?

The federal government gave out $12.7 billion in Pell grants, and Bush, the education president, is promising $15 billion. Students take on almost $70 billion a year in debt. Education, even learning to read, can dramatically improve living standards in 2nd and 3rd world countries. In the U.S. it has become a status thing, especially which college or university. The actual monetary return for a Harvard or Yale education is less, if compared with other investments--stock or real estate or just going to work after high school--over forty years. The push to get into college, particularly high profile, prestige schools, does little except keep faculty, staff, and administrators employed. The return on a public school education is 4.2%, and on a private school 1.9% (statistics here).

Senator Kennedy and President Bush both have grandiose ideas on how to increase debt for students by making it less painful to repay (it's called making it more affordable, but the real word is debt). If this were one of these payday loan companies in the inner city, we'd call it a scam and there would be congressional hearings. Both men inherited wealth. Bush actually was a business man, so I give him a bit of credit for economics 101 (and his wife was a librarian), but Kennedy has never held a "real" job in his life. He's gotten fat, literally and figuratively, at the public trough. They both need to take a second look at why and how people sign on for debt. The ordinary American, even one with an income of $100,000, is not just drawing on a trust fund set up on grandpa's wealth.

I graduated from college in the 1960s with no debt. I paid for two years, and my parents paid for two years. There were government programs then for indigent and special cases. But most of the people I knew--didn't spend years paying off debt. In the 1930s, my father received a small scholarship from the Polo, IL women's club, for "the worthy poor" (his words, not theirs), and he spent a number of years paying it back in full, and the college gave him a scholarship to play football. Repaying debt is always difficult. Rather than just prolonging the pain, shifting the blame, and doing the same, let's do some review and see why during an era when everyone had less, we had more for our future.

3601

Only 7,000 dead and wounded

Today I was reading about the Battle of St. Mihiel in northeastern France in September 1918 during WWI. The chart says there were low losses--only 7,000 between the Americans and the Germans in the one week campaign. Usually I don't use Wikipedia as a source, but WWI battles are pretty well researched.

"For all historians, the battle of Saint-Mihiel is an example of advancing an army against one that preferred to leave a difficult to supply bulge. Overall casualties were low as defense was mainly rear-guard oriented. Strategically it was good news for the Allies. Compared to huge battles such as Verdun or the Somme, this was merely a skirmish. Its real importance is in the huge boost that this advance had on the US and Allied morale."

I had looked up this battle because in reading War Record of Mount Morris I noticed a WWII veteran from our town, Eli Raney, I considered "old" when I was young (although truthfully, I thought anyone over 25 was old). Born in 1892, he was 50 when he reenlisted during WWII and he served 14 months in frontline construction in New Guinea and the Philippines. So I flipped to the back of the book for his WWI service and see that he was a member of Company D, of the 104th infantry, and arrived in France in August 1918, just in time to be in this battle in September. He was not among the wounded, but was wounded in the Argonne campaign.

This is a public service announcement for the war protestors and peaceknickers who forget that most people don't want sons and brothers lost in battle, certainly not one that historians see as a "morale boost." Our recent marchers in Washington want the US to shame the memories of those who've died and to run out on the people it has liberated.

Iraq War

3600

Exercise

some horse sense.

Photo by my niece Amy who says it's time for the new foals.

3599

Happy Spring

It doesn't feel like it and I have on wool slacks today, but it is Spring. I've been using A Poem a Day edited by Karen McCosker and Nicholas Albery (Steerforth Press, 1999) and today's selection "Spring" is by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) and was written in 1877. Many poems of the 19th c. are quite predictable, but this one has some irregularities that I found quite charming, as the poet juxtaposes the freshness of spring with Eden before the fall. And don't we often have that same sense when walking out doors on a glorious day. In the notes it says that when Hopkins showed it to another, known poet he got a discouraging analysis because he used "several entirely novel and simultaneous experiments in versification and construction. . . and unprecedented system of aliteration and compound words. . ." I can't make my lowly blogger word processing component space appropriately, but I think I have the puncuation and lines recorded correctly.

Nothing is so beautiful as spring -
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. - Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worth the winning.

3598

From the front lines

This has been posted on many blogs, but I just saw it today when a high school friend forwarded it to me via e-mail. Sgt. Eddie Jeffers in Iraq writes: "Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word "quagmire" around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war.

Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job.

It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we've done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It's all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right."

Full letter here.

Iraq War

3597

The fallout of Vietnam--dragons and tigers

As misguided but sincere Christians return home from the pitiful march on Washington on the 4th anniversary of the war, some trying to recapture their youth and energy of the 60s and 70s, it's instructive to note this article in the Jan-Feb 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs. I am not familiar with the author, Lee Kuan Yew who was Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959-1990, and I would have preferred some attention to the 3 million people we abandoned to be slaughtered by the Communists, but he does have a less parochial view than American peaceknickers who think everything is about us. He presents an Asian viewpoint as to what the benefits of that war were.

"I am not among those who say that it was wrong to have gone into Iraq to remove Saddam and who now advocate that the United States cut its losses and pull out. This will not solve the problem. If the United States leaves Iraq prematurely, jihadists everywhere will be emboldened to take the battle to Washington and its friends and allies. Having defeated the Russians in Afghanistan and the United States in Iraq, they will believe that they can change the world. Even worse, if civil war breaks out in Iraq, the conflict will destablilize the whole Middle East, as it will draw in Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey." p. 3

"Conventional wisdom in the 1970s saw the war in Vietnam as an unmitigated disaster. But that has been proved wrong. The war had collateral benefits, buying the time and creating the conditions that enabled noncommunist East Asia to follow Japan's path and develop into the four dragons (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) and, later, the four tigers (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Phillippines, and Thailand). Time brought about the split between Moscow and Beijing and then a split between Beijing and Hanoi. The influence of the four dragons and the four tigers, in turn, changed both communist China and communist Vietnam into open, free-market economies and made their societies freer." p. 7

He also predicts the next president (I'm assuming a Democrat) will be facing a long-term fight against Islamist militants, a battle which is only in its early rounds. And I predict lots of career building activity for our leftist protestors as the older ones go into nursing homes and make way for the younger.

Iraq War

3596

Homosexual adoption

Honest, I was looking for the amount of CO2 termites contribute to global warming, and somehow wandered into this strange story of the granddaughter of IBM founder, Thomas Watson, who adopted her adult lesbian partner, then they split, and now about 15 years later, the ex-partner is trying to get herself listed as the 19th grandchild of her ex-lover's biological mother so she can help support her own biological mother, who apparently had no objections to giving her up for adoption. Serves the greedy little twit right if she loses her suit. Serves the flaky IBM granddaughter right if she loses in court to her ex-lover. Story here. Some people give adoption a bad name. Some people give women a bad name. Some people give money lust a bad name. Some do all three.

Monday Memory

Aunt Betty
My Aunt Betty is in poor health and has entered a nursing home; we are all very sad for her and her husband, one of my dad's younger brothers. Betty is 8 years older than me, and I remember when I was about 14 or 15, we went to a Mother-Daughter Banquet at church together, she as a stand-in for my mom who was busy doing something else. In small town churches, these were big events with a dinner and program and music. I think we dressed in our best and even wore hats! We giggled and laughed like kids--which looking back, I suppose we were. She is a wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, aunt, loyal friend, and former avid golfer and bridge player. She was Mrs. Clean, a perpetual cleaning machine, and had an energy level that just wore me out. She lived a few doors from my grandparents and was a big help and comfort to them as were her children. This photo was taken at her job, and I don't know the year, but I'm guessing maybe 25 years ago. The flowers indicate it may have been a special day.

3594

Check your pet food!

The list of contaminated pet food is growing. We use 9-Lives and Purina One Hairball, and so far, they aren't on the list. In fact, I can't even get the list to connect, but here it is.

Matthew, a nurse/librarian who occasionally leaves comments here, writes: "I have one can of Iams sliced chicken in gravy cat food that has been recalled. I should say that I have one can left, Baxter ate the other several dozen I bought on my last trip to the grocery store. I had to have my cat euthenized last Sunday due to acute renal failure.

Unfortunately I had Baxter cremated so any lab work is now out of the question. However they did do labs last week so perhaps they saved the sample, I know we do for people." from his journal at LISNews.com

3593

Dinner Party Plans

Today we're having two couples over for dinner and photos of my husband's trip to Haiti, Sharon and Eric and Joan and Jerry. Joan has also participated in medical mission trips to Honduras, so she's bringing her photos too. If they are on a disc, we've got a wee problem (my F drive is being fussy and our VCR isn't sophisticated enough or have the right gee-gaws to give us a slide show), but we'll find something. Either my laptop or theirs.

I'm of the "clean once, party twice" school of hostessing. Next Sunday we're having friends who know Martti and Riita (Finland) for dinner and photos of our trip to Finland last summer--Nancy and Bob, and Pam and Dave. Now, because of cat hair, I will have to push the vacuum around again before next Sunday, but I'm hoping I can keep the clutter under control, and not put away the good china.

Today's menu: Sweet sour meatballs, potato salad, fresh asparagus, tender crisp carrots with honey glaze, hot rolls, relish dish, sugar-free, fat-free lemon fluff pudding with fully-leaded St. Pat's shamrock iced cookies from Cheryl's Cookies. I'm thinking of adding a small dish of black beans and rice, just for the theme.

Next week's tentative menu: Boneless pork roast with orange-cranberry glaze, cole slaw, chunky applesauce (home made), probably carrots again, rolls, and maybe chocolate peanut butter pie (sugar free).

3592

We're not losing

"In terms of fundamental historical changes favoring 21st century freedom and peace, what Free Iraq and its Coalition allies have accomplished in four short years is nothing short of astonishing." The story of how a fossilized society is coming to life ready to meet the 21st century is here.

Iraq War

3591

Can 83% of Americans be wrong?

Yes. Someone surveyed Americans (don't know the source--I got it second hand from WSJ) and 83% said they wished they had more time with the family.

This is so easy! Confiscate all the i-pods and cell phones, take down/turn off the cable/internet connection. Put the whole family in the car, but don't go anywhere, not even to a movie or fast food restaurant. Find something to talk about.

It may not be quality time, but you'll change your answer on that next survey.

3590

Food Porn

You do not want to go here. It's titillating, tempting, toothsome, tantalizing, teasing, tormenting, and you'll put on weight just looking at Columbus Foodie's photo.

3589

America 100 years ago

Although I’ve browsed some of the pricey, recent, multi-volume histories of the United States and the World at the public library, I’ve been disappointed by the revisionism* of current authors and publishers, so I was pleased to pick up this title at the library book sale, and wish I had the other volumes. Our Times, The United States, 1900-1925, vol. 3, Pre-War America by Mark Sullivan, The Chautauqua Press, Chautauqua, NY, 1931. I may try to track the other 5 volumes down, but probably won’t get them for $3.00. Chautauqua Press was "liberal" in its day, but liberal in the classic meaning of the word, not socialist as it has come to mean today, but open to new ideas. Chautauqua had a broad Christian base, but wasn't fundamentalist in outreach. Liberals of today are afraid of a little "sonshine" and have minds so open, their brains are in danger of falling out because nothing can be right or wrong (except GWB). Their publications reflect that, so it is difficult to get an intelligent synthesis of history because every culture and religion is presented as being of equal value.

Vol. 3 begins in 1890 with the developing friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft when they were both subordinates of Benjamin Harrison, Roosevelt as Civil Service Commissioner, and Taft as Solicitor-General; and moving calendar style, it ends with 1908 as alcohol prohibition is getting established (reminds me a lot of the smoking bans we see today, state by state), unemployment and breadlines caused by the panic of 1907, and women's outrageous fashion (sheath skirts considered a step toward the fig leaf, huge hats, fishnet stockings) and behavior (smoking and attendance at cheap moving picture theatres). There will be many stories in this volume I’ll enjoy researching further, such as spelling reform, hookworm humor (laziness was declared a disease), and Roosevelt's relationship with African Americans.

This volume was published in the early years of the Great Depression, yet the paper is good quality, there are excellent photographs and plates, better footnotes and indexing than I see in some modern histories, and the author is careful to note where he has copyright permission and carefully cites the sources. For some sections the author allows the events to speak for themselves, others are heavily laced with opinions. Because Chautauqua had such a strong cultural bent (still does), and Sullivan was a popular culture buff there are interesting photos contrasting the early 20th century with the late 1920s, for instance, a photo of two working women, one in 1907 and one in 1928 showing the differences in clothing and office technology on p. 479, and comparing shoe advertisements from a 1927 Scribner's Magazine with one from Theatre Magazine of 1906 on p. 434. Apparently the hunger for "big hair" in 1910 was filled by the locks European women, Chinese women and the goats of Turkestan. There's a delightful section on the historical significance of the popular songs of the pre-war era.

The dramatic change in fashion for women and the amount of flesh exposed after WWI is very apparent in this plate. As more leg is exposed, the less the waist and bust are emphasized. Skirt length dropped again almost to the ankle in 1930.

*With contemporary 21st century authors, it is difficult to determine if the Soviet Union was ever a big threat to us in any meaningful way, and hard to tell if the Christian church had any impact on American society except for amusement to be pilloried in cartoons and obscure court cases.

Dan Rather on Mark Sullivan: "Mark Sullivan was one of the most widely respected journalists of his day. One of the original muckrakers, he became America’s leading political reporter and columnist in newspapers and magazines for nearly half a century. A committed Republican, he had unrivaled access to the leaders of his party, including Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Harding, and contacts like these made him the ideal chronicler of his age."

You'll enjoy this movie on climate change

It's not CO2, it's the sun that is driving global climate change. But of course, you and I have little control over the sun. When the Soviet Union fell, there were a lot of people who needed a cause, and destroying western civilization by blaming capitalism for global weather change, which happens continually, became it. Add to that the fact that you can't get funding for research unless you have a controversy. Right now, money is flowing for global warming research, including from our own current administration. The climate change industry is huge--because my husband is an architect, we hardly see an article that doesn't have "green" in it. So, watch the result of some really bad science. . .


or click here

3587

Canadian voice of calm

in a heated debate in which some want to shut down the alternate viewpoints. This interview with Dr. Tim Ball appears on the site of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy,

"FCPP: Alarmists point to the rapidity of climate change as evidence of some sort that humans cause it. But you’ve shown that swift changes in weather patterns are normal. Could you describe the proof?

TB: The underlying philosophy of nature and world view of western education is called uniformitarianism. This holds that change is rapid and significant all the time. You only have to look at any climate record on any time scale to see this. For example, in 1970 the scientific consensus was that we were heading for another Ice Age. On a longer scale, notice that most of the record cold temperatures for Canada were in the late 19th century. Further back, we have the Little Ice Age with a metre of ice on the Thames and other evidence of cold from around the world. Vikings were farming in Greenland in soil that is now permafrost.

FCPP: What about open ice in the Arctic? Is that a new phenomenon?

TB: No. The Vikings were sailing in Arctic waters that are now permanent pack ice. Every year, the 16 million square kilometres of pack ice melts down to approximately 6 million square kilometres. So about 10 million square kilometres melts every summer. The records are only accurate from 1980 to the present, and they show some variability but little significant change. So far this winter, the ice has developed ahead of schedule and is almost at its maximum extent right now."

I thought this was an interesting, but level headed response (we've actually been to Stanley Park):

"FCPP: The CBC interviewed one expert from storm-battered Stanley Park who made a lot of sense, but he was drowned out by the howls from everyone else about manmade global warming. Has the din out there reached a fever pitch?

TB: Among the west-coast fanatics, since there are many of them, it is always at a fever pitch. B.C. does you a favour by harbouring them. I flew over the Park twice last Monday and most of the damage is concentrated in one small ocean-facing side. Of course, like all natural disasters it is nature’s way of thinning the herd. Unfortunately for hikers and cyclists, nature does the pruning but she doesn’t do the cleanup. Or at least she lets it take time, so nutrients are formed and build back into the system."

HT Amy at National Center

3586

The Old man's draft registration

Some time back, I mentioned that I was able to find my grandfather's draft registration for WWI. He was 44 years old and plans were in place to also draft women for support positions. I wasn't aware that there was an "old man's draft registration" for WWII. It's available at Ancestry.com, and I'm not sure I can bring it up at my library's system, because the website is too vague. But if you are a subscriber, you should be able to.

On April 27, 1942 men who were born on or between April 28, 1877 and February 16, 1897 were required to register. That means they were between 45 and 64 years old and not already in the military. This information is useful for genealogists because it includes name, age, birth date, birth place, residence, employer, name and address of who knew the registrants whereabouts, and physical description. Not all states are included yet, and some states destroyed their records. My paternal grandfather (51) would have been required registered, and my maternal grandfather (68) just barely was too old. However, Illinois isn't one of the states on the completed list, and Tennessee (for other relatives) destroyed its records.

As the party of death, destruction and defeat and the media (and you know who you are) attempt to undermine all efforts in Iraq because "American lives are being lost," or "it's a quagmire," or "it's gone on too long," they need to take a look at our history, at a time when we lost more men in one battle than we've lost in this whole war, and when we defeated a world threat by uniting with other free countries--but just barely.

Iraq War

3585

Break a leg, Sally

This phrase often said to thespians almost came true for one of my blog links, Sally Lomax, of England. She was performing in "Memory of Water" in rural Herefordshire, and "flew off the stage" (not in the script) requiring a trip to the hospital and is now on crutches, achieving some unwanted fame in the local paper.

Poetry Thursday #11

Today's totally optional challenge is to find a word we don't know in the dictionary and write a poem using it without looking up the meaning. I think this is called the "dictionary game." I didn't choose the topic, but did use a dictionary.

Here are some e-words that can cause problems for writers. An elegy is a song of mourning or lament; a eulogy is an oration of praise; an epitaph is a phrase that appears on a grave stone; an epigraph is an engraved inscription or a quotation at the beginning of a literary work; a epithet is a disparaging word or phrase; an epilogue is the conclusion or the final chapter; an epistrophe is the repetition of a word or expression at the end of successive phrases or verses; an epode has a long verse followed by a short one; an epopee is a long poem. I checked several sources for the proper poetic form for an elegy, and the phrase "Here lies. . ." seems to be what they have in common.

I told what little I know about this baby, Alma Fay, in my Monday Memories. She was the daughter of my great grandparents born after they left Tennessee and moved to Illinois and is buried in Plain View Cemetery.

This elegy is for anyone who has lost a baby through miscarriage, abortion, adoption, or death. Maybe you have a grave to visit, maybe not. Perhaps all you have is a dim memory. But someday. . . the graves will open for the Resurrection. Reassembling dust, molecules and DNA, no matter how scattered, is no problem for the designer and creator of the universe.

Elegy for little Alma Fay, August 26, 1908 - October 3, 1908
by Norma Bruce
March 12, 2007


Here lies quietly, baby Alma Fay
with no one to remember
save one sister old and gray,
her name engraved on heart shaped stone,
among the grass and clay.

Here lies peacefully, auntie Alma Fay
with nephews, nieces, cousins,
who lived well and had their say,
a harbinger of the good life
in land so far away.

Here lies listening, precious Alma Fay,
with none left to grieve for her,
these one hundred years or pray,
but God, the Three in One, will call
on Resurrection Day.

Here rises victorious Alma Fay--
the graves are emptied at Plain View.
Praise God! she's flown away.

Poetry Thursday, elegies, Mt. Morris Illinois, gravestones

Thursday Thirteen

It's been awhile--let's see if I can remember how to do this. Here's some random thoughts for a Thursday.

1. Congratulations and good luck for the TT new hostesses who are making it truly a family affair.
2. I've been doing Poetry Thursday for the last 11 weeks, instead of TT. Here's the one for today. An elegy for a baby but dedicated to anyone who has lost a child.
3. Doing both PT and TT wouldn't be a problem for me since I write so much, but it is the visiting and leaving comments that takes the time, so I had to choose.
4. Today I'm having lunch with a young woman who has asked me to speak to her Bible study group next week--I think their theme is older women mentoring younger women in the church, so each hostess invites a guest to speak.
5. I think I'm older than her mother, so that makes me a wise old woman of the church!
6. If you read my blog in the fall when we got back from my sister-in-law's wedding in California, you may remember I'd decided to lose my blogging weight--20 pounds.
7. Yes, indeedy, that's what I gained when we got broadband and I started blogging regularly in 2003. It sort of snuck up on me, here a pound, there a blog, but it all added up til I was 150 lbs, the heaviest in my adult life.
8. So I wrote a Thursday Thirteen about my plan to avoid 13 food triggers.
9. It was slow going, and the holidays were rough, but I hit 130 lbs. on February 1. A lot of weeks I lost nothing at all, and nothing has budged in the last 6 weeks, but the tape measure does change.
10. I've learned, and I'll warn you--130 lbs. is arranged very differently at 67 than 35. My waist is much bigger, but that's an advantage because nothing ever fit before. Now I can wear a size 8 slacks and not have a 2" gap at the waist.
11. I've had a blast buying some new clothes that don't come from K-Mart. I discovered the Discovery Shop just up the road a mile, which is all donated, good quality clothing to benefit the Cancer Society.
12. Last week I bought a fabulous Pendleton pants suit (already shortened to fit my stubby legs) for $20. It will be incentive to keep the weight off for next year, since it is a gorgeous, all lined, 100% wool, made in the USA. I look for quality brands with dry cleaner tags still attached.
13. And finally, if you're doing much traveling, either because of work assignments or spring break, please read my blogs about DVT.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! Leave a comment and I'll add your name and URL. View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

3582

My letter to Rush

Dear Rush,

I listen to you most days, and take you along on my walks in the park enjoying the effects of global change. I'm right with you on how silly Al Gore has become, that the Republicans don't know how to defend themselves, that John McCain is a joke, and that the Democrats are the party of death and defeat in Iraq.

However, today I had an epiphany. You don't understand women. At all. We don't think it is hilarious or insulting or witty to be called a woman! Nope. We actually like being women. So when you can think of no other way to ridicule Presidential candidate John Edwards than to call him a Breck "Girl" or to use the song "I am woman" to introduce him, or to call him a female candidate, that falls pretty flat for your female audience, even those of us who are conservatives.

The nonsense today about the abortion e-card just caused me to change the channel. Neither pro-life (me) or pro-choice women (just about everyone I know) see anything funny about abortion. It has caused the deaths of about 35,000,000 babies in the USA and a lot of pain for women who thought or were misled at the time that they had no other option. Not funny, Rush. Nope. Not at all. You've really insulted your female audience this week, plus you gave that silly woman with the e-abortion card a promotion on your airtime she could never afford to buy.

3581

Alternative Medicine--buy this book!

Alternative medicine; the Christian handbook, updated, expanded, Zondervan, 2006 by Donal O'Mathuna, PhD and Walt Larimore, MD (£13.57 / US$26.37 /EUR19.99) is a good investment for your home or public library. I know the author personally (he lives in Ireland, but got his PhD from Ohio State and married the daughter of friends) and Zondervan is a publisher I trust. It is written in a rather dry, non-confrontational, common sense style that I'd almost forgotten existed in books for the general public, especially for a topic that exalts in sound bites and teaser phrases like "secrets to," "seven steps to," "never before revealed," "they don't want you to know this," "as seen on television," "all-natural," and "suppressed." If you are familiar with the term "evidence based medicine," or "literature review," this would be that. These authors take the claims of alternative therapies (acupuncture, chiropractic, energy medicine, herbal medicine, garlic, noni juice, etc. and many others) and then look at the clinical and research studies (if they exist) and give the therapy, claim or technique ratings. At first I found the rating system of 1 to 4 a bit off-putting--check marks (4 for multiple high-quality randomized controlled trials), x-marks (evidence against, 4 for multiple high-quality randomized controlled trials), recommendation scale of happy faces (4 for 75%-100% confidence that the therapy is potentially beneficial), area of spiritual concern of interest to Christians is designated with thumbs down (4 thumbs down is a therapy involving spiritual practices in direct conflict with biblical teaching). But once I got used to it, found the system easy to follow.

Noni juice, for instance, a product I've only tasted, gets 2.5 pages--what it is, what the claims are, the study findings, the cautions, recommendations, dosage, treatment categories, whether its claims are scientifically questionable, is it quackery or fraud (these differences are explained in another chapter) and further reading.

Some concerns are: 1) there are no quality standards unlike most herbals, so there is no way to judge what you're buying; 2) some companies take the leftover by-products of juicing and sell as "100% noni fruit powder," and so the product would not have the ingredients of noni juice, 3) the published literature is for a tree native to Hawaii, but most of the products come from trees grown on other South Pacific Islands which probably have different chemical constituents, 4) "wild harvested" is not of consistent quality or origin, 5) when commercially grown, it has pesticides and herbicide residues, including some not allowed in the U.S. and Canada, 6) some, but not all, noni juice is pasteurized, which kills pathogens but may inactivate some compounds, but no studies have been done.

Noni juice can interact with other medications (and drinkers may neglect to mention it to their doctor who is prescribing a diuretic or blood pressure medication) causing nausea or cardiac arrhythmias, and shouldn't be used by anyone with kidney or liver problems, and the authors don't recommend it for breast-feeding women. There were no spiritual claims for this product.

However, the authors say it does have many vitamins--just no curative properties for arthritis, menstrual cramps, digestion or cancer, and if what you're buying hypes that, disregard it and just enjoy it as a juice that smells like rotten cheese that tops the list of worst tasting and best selling to a very gullible public.

The book has 510 pages, is well indexed (by subject, scripture and therapy) and formatted, has lengthy bibliographies, a rating system, and the authors are a medical doctor and a pharmacist whose PhD research was in identifying potential new drugs from herbal remedies and an MA in theology from Ashland Seminary in Ohio and who taught at Mt. Carmel College of Nursing here in Columbus. And as mentioned above, I know him--went to his wedding which was during the worst spring snow storm in the history of central Ohio. The minister couldn't get there.

3580 To report abuse

Have you ever thought of picking up the phone when you see this statement on a government publication: "To report fraud, waste, and abuse in Federal programs call. . ." Each year about this time when we get our tax returns from our accountant and will pay her $400 so we can pay the government more of our pension this phrase sticks in my mind (don't bother to tell me to buy brand x tax software or do it myself--she's actually worth every penny, but charges a higher hourly rate than architects). I just can't think of a single Federal or state program where there isn't fraud and waste. Can you? Katrina rebuilding is probably the most pitiful and worst example, but it has just shown us how bad things are when federal money is mismanaged at the local and state level and the people reelect the clowns stealing our tax money. I'm grateful (I think) that we have the GAO to report on such things but when it takes 100-150 pages to report it and no one in Congress does anything, or they pass a new regulation which requires more taxes and more paper, and more review and reports by GAO, I do sometimes think it is part of the problem abuse.

3579

Have schools gone off the deep end on being "safe?"

Glenn Beck interviewed a father, Frank Harmeier, last week whose ten year old son Casey pulled a fire alarm cover off in the hall of the school (Texas) on a dare. When the cover was replaced, the alarm went off. It wasn't one that goes off at the police station, or even the principal's office, but is local for that area so a teacher can be summoned to investigate. When the teacher came (he didn't try to run away--he knew he'd done something wrong), he admitted his crime. Then the police were called, he was arrested and taken to the police station and interrogated for four hours before his parents were called. They are charging him with a felony; the parents are calling it child abuse. And as it turned out, the alarm went off because a school staffer pulled it when she tried to replace the cover. For its mistake, the school hasn't apologized for terrorizing a student, and has only asked that the felony charge be reduced to a misdemeanor. The juvenile authorities, according to Casey's father, wanted the parents to go through a family counseling and parent reeducation (North Vietnam comes to mind, doesn't it), the problem is they ARE counselors, she having given up her job to be a stay at home mom. And the father works in that school district. Series in the Houston Chronicle.

Imagine all this fuss and police involvement with illegals flooding across the border of Texas. Seems like some misplaced power struggles, doesn't it. The reporter following this story has discovered that gum chewing will also result in arrests.

Then in Oregon, "Two McMinnville middle school boys are in Yamhill County Juvenile Detention facing sex abuse charges after school officials said they inappropriately touched classmates.

The 12- and 13-year-old boys’ parents said students were part of a group of boys and girls at Patton Middle School who would spank each other’s backsides as part of a handshake or dance." Story here. Again, the children were arrested and the parents weren't called. What is this, the abortion trend in parent notification?

Kind of makes me glad we're going to our 50th class reunions this summer--you young folks in charge of our institutions are going bonkers. I hate to think what my generation would have been charged with. Eleven year old boys actually thought it was great fun to sneak up behind the girls and snap their bra! Now we've got libraries with really smutty stuff and fighting internet filters while insisting it's about about freedom of information, while 10 year olds are going to jail? The world is upside down.

3578

Pamela Hess, UPI correspondent

Don't miss her interview on C-SPAN talking about what she saw in Iraq. I don't think I've ever seen a reporter cry when talking about what is going on there. She had been there in 2003 and makes some comparisons.

Iraq War

3577

It's naughty to be not nice

DePauw University (Greencastle, IN) has pulled its approval from the Delta Zeta sorority. It seems that 23 of the sisters were asked to take "alumna status" and leave the house because they failed to meet recruiting goals. DZ National's story. The sisters claimed it was because they weren't pretty enough. The photo in the USAToday shows some not unattractive, 20-something ladies with too much mascara and some extra poundage.

Sororities, cliques or social clubs for women (or men) whether in high school, college, or real life aren't designed to include everyone. Their very existence says, "we are somebody," and you aren't. Why is it worse to exclude a woman because she is not attractive than because she isn't a good athlete or a good student? Will black sororities be required to include whites? Will Jewish sororities have to rush Bahai's? Do engineering fraternities have to include thespians?

All 23 of those women when they went through "rush" knew they got in because someone else didn't. They knew that with the next class, they'd be the ones excluding another young woman whose grades would bring the average down, or she drank too much and embarrassed them, or her table manners were poor, or . . . she was homely. Is prettiness more superficial than bad manners or poor grades? I disliked the Greek system from the get-go, and never participated when I was in college. I lived in an independent dorm and loved it. It was the judging and exclusion stuff I disliked. But this is childish! Talk about "in loco parentis!"

Ladies, it's a big bad world out there. Deal with it. Don't be a victim. Don't join the Greek system and then whine about exclusionary behavior like this is all new to you and you just had no idea what was going on.

3576

Advice for the 2008 presidential candidates

While cleaning out some files, I found this one written for the 2004 campaign. No one listened to me then, so I'll give it another shout out. This is for the Democrats or Republicans or Libertarians.

Jobs: Make Cleveland, Detroit, New York, etc. "union-free" areas--no unions in industry, in the schools, or any areas of government, or in non-government associations. Unions are strongest in cities with the most serious poverty problems. Time to run a test and see if there is a cause and effect relationship. Invite industry in. Let in some fresh air. If these cities can turn around in say, a decade, move the system to other cities.

The War: Let the Iraqis have as much time to settle into independence and democracy as the United States did--about 15 years--1775-1789 (I said this in 2004--so knock four years off the remaining time). Remove US troops as quickly as possible without endangering the Iraqi people. Rid America of the "instant solution" mentality (this is now called Murthanizing).

Energy: Allow drilling in Alaska as a trade off for more economizing and more fuel efficiency.

Health care: Introduce more competition, not less. Move away from government interference and control as quickly as possible, so we don’t lose the best system in the world.

Prescription drugs: Reduce the red tape and regulations for drug development to reduce the price of development.

Transportation: Get our passenger rail system going again. Terminals in every major city. Environmentally, it makes a lot more sense and is probably cheaper than messing with forests and farm lands for biofuels and windmills.

Nation building: Make English the official language of the US, but offer many more foreign language options, and make at least one a requirement for graduation from high school.

Terrorism: Secure our borders, improve our airport, train and bus screening. Use profiling to find terrorists.

And I ought to add something about global change.

Require anyone spouting hot air to answer questions from the press and audience. That will cool things down in a hurry.

3575

Compression hose

I've been checking regularly on my daughter, diagnosed with deep vein thombosis (DVT) a week ago. She had three shots in her abdomen to dissolve the clot, and is now on coumadin. She says that although she still has a lot of pain, the compression hose help a lot. Since we're flying to Ireland in the fall, I thought I'd try them. Her vascular surgeon (actually not "hers" specifically, but she has worked with him in his medical practice and he is consulting with her) recommends that everyone wear compression hose for travel--even men. There are medical level and comfort level, so I went to CVS and bought a $15 pair of compression hose designated 8-15 for tired legs. My legs weren't tired, but I am only experimenting, remember.

Before I put them on, both my shoes and the waist band in my slacks fit. Within 2 minutes of putting them on (and that's not easy), the shoes were too big and the waist band too small. It's the first time I've ever had any body part go north instead of south.

Monday Memories--Little Alma Fay

Some time in the 1990s I heard about Alma Fay, baby daughter of my great grandparents, born in Illinois after they left Tennessee. The story I heard from my father is that grand dad, as he called him, sold the little property in Tennessee left to him upon the death of his mother, and had a choice to take his family to either Texas or Illinois where he knew someone in both states. Apparently, the train to Illinois came through Dandridge first so the family got on board, and he and his large family became part of the core group who moved north for new opportunities. Many friends and relatives followed, including my grandfather, his brother and his cousin who married three of grand dad’s daughters, and he'd help each family get established. When the large Tennessee Reunions were held in northern Illinois in the 1920s - 1940s, my family was probably related to most of them. Four babies were born after the move, although I never heard my grandmother mention little Alma (her sister). Uncle Orville told me she was born in 1908, but that’s all I knew. Then a few years ago my friend Sylvia and her husband were cleaning up the cemetery records for Plain View where my great grandparents, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and sister are buried, and she sent me a photo with the birth and death dates.

I haven't become inspired by this week's Poetry Thursday topic, a version of the "dictionary game," but I thought I'd write an elegy for baby Alma. It is a word you don't hear often. Stay tuned or come back to visit on Thursday.

Monday memories

3573

Music outside the box

My friend Sharon performs with the trio, Synchronicity--piano, cello and violin. I've long enjoyed her musical talents--she sings in our church choir and teaches piano. The benefit this afternoon was titled "Music Outside the Box" and as narrator she announced that the brother of the violinist Dick Reuning is a professional musician and sent him a box of music he didn't need with pieces for a trio. They were like kids in a candy shop and spent months experimenting and practicing for this performance which had a freewill offering for Lutheran Disaster Response and a team from Gethsemane Lutheran heading for Biloxi, Mississippi. It was really a delightful program with selections from Clementi, Klengel, Gade, Mendelssohn, Loeillet and some lighter pieces based on folk dance traditions.

A week before the performance, the cellist broke a finger! Can you imagine the panic, especially since they'd been preparing music that was a bit different. But they found a freelance cellist, Jane Van Voorhis, to replace Bruce Posey, and although I'm no expert, I think she did a wonderful job. (My mother play cello, and I love that instrument.)

Every community large and small has talented musicians who enrich our lives--they direct and sing in choirs, teach the children, play in the community bands, write and publish music, perform in musicals, stay up late at night and worry that nothing will turn out, and then they do it all over again the next time. To all of you, a huge thank you.

3572

Mismatch: Why our world no longer fits our bodies

The review of this 2006 title in Nature, Feb. 8, 2007, caught my eye because of the 1/3 page photo of an obese guy, remote in one hand, huge bowl of chips in the other, sitting on the edge of his easy chair so his belly could rest on his thighs, bathed in the blue light of the TV, probably watching a sporting event while reliving the memories of the days he could put one foot in front of the other without heavy breathing. According to Michael Sargent, the reviewer who is a developmental biologist at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, authors Gluckman and Hanson believe humans are not adapting in the proper evolutionary way to increased energy dense food and our 21st century sedentary ways. Look at that guy. He has adapted just fine! All that's happened is he's just not "evolving" in the direction biologists had hoped. According to their theories, those species who don't adapt, die off. Aren't we doing just that? No. We just get fatter--and they've been keeping track since our Civil War. But the line that really made me burst into laughter (well, OK, just a smile) was Sargent's: "[I was] horrified by persistent references to the 'design' of organisms--a usage notably obstructive to an understanding of the evolutionary process, the disclaimer notwithstanding." Mr. Sargent, sir, deal with it!

Mismatch: why our world no longer fits our bodies, by Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson, Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

3571

Move over guys

Here come the ladies(?) you've seen on Dr. Phil and Jerry Springer spilling their guts and glory story. Story at CNET news.

3570

NIMBY

A survey by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, revealed that 95% of the 400 scientists surveyed across a wide range of disciplines agreed that science and technology were important if sustainable solutions were to be developed for the future. However, only 40% said they considered the effect their own work would have on the environment when planning their research because they believed it wasn't relevant to their area of science. Most scientists have no idea what their lab's electricity bill is--the more modern the lab (in Britain), the worse its energy consumption. Ventilation costs to meet health and safety requirements eat up a lot. "Experimenting with efficiency," Nature, Feb. 8, 2007.

Friday Family Photo--Leesburg VA

This photo of my mother, sisters and two nieces was taken in October 1986. Mom would have been 74 that year. She always kept herself in good shape with a healthy diet, a positive attitude, helping others and lots of hard work in her garden and yard, walking and sweating for miles behind a lawn mower. She said it was good for the upper arms and solving the problems of the world. Mom died in 2000. She was a blessing to all who knew her.

I'm a bit fuzzy on the details of the location, but I know one of my nieces either owned or rented a farmhouse near Leesburg and the "ladies of the club" must have had a gathering there. I think another niece took the photo.

Poetry Thursday #10

This week’s (completely and totally optional) idea is simply: Red.

I was really stumped. It's not a favorite color. The word makes me think Communist, blood, anger, flag and . . . walls. The walls of our condo when we bought it. High-end, very expensive, Architectural Digest walls. Orange dining room, brown living room and red family room--each with multiple faux glazes, each with matching ceilings. So here's some silliness; just some fun about seeing red.



Decorator Red
by Norma Bruce
March 5, 2007

"Do the walls have to be so red?"
she said.

Decorators, a team,
had a bad color scheme
a bit off the beam,
'twas sometime before
we opened the door.

They’d toned it down with faux,
a touch of gold, just so.
"Why didn’t they know
it reflected pink
in the bathroom sink?"

"The floral drapes are mauve and peach,"
she’d screech.

"Carpet is green and thick,
hearth is a reddish brick.
I just might get sick--
clashes so with red
now hurting my head."

"These walls drive me wacky,"
he mumbled, "By cracky,
Let's paint them khaki."
"Good-bye to the red,"
she agreed and said.

3567

Magnets to the rear, please

An Iraqi national with a green card living in the U.S. tries to board a plane with a magnet in his "body cavity" and wires, but he's not a threat?

"The man, identified by law enforcement officials as Fadhel al-Maliki, 35, set off an alarm during passenger screening at the airport early on Tuesday morning.

A police bomb squad was called to examine what was deemed a suspicious item found during a body cavity search of the man. Local media reports said a magnet was found in his rectum." Story.

You do wonder what he was trying to attract other than attention. I wouldn't want him on my plane.

3566

We sure do need more legal recreational drugs, don't we?

USG (Undergraduate Student Government) at Ohio State University voted to give $1,000 to Students for Sensible Drug Safety to cover security and safety costs at their annual Hempfest, which "is meant to educate the public on current drug policies and issues."

To draw suck the students in, they have at least 50 musical groups. It's a First Amendment Rights issue said their leader. The group also sponsors a bake sale (brownies perhaps?).

I wonder if a Christian group could get $1,000 from USG, invite bands, set up displays on aborted babies, educate the students about the value of abstinence, pass out literature on legislation, recruit for missions organizations and say it's a First Amendment issue (it is actually, but the left really howls about "separation," although that's not in the Constitution or Bill of Rights). I'm not saying they don't--it's possible they do that at Urbana, which draws about 20,000 students interested in missions, and need the crowd control.

And please. Don't give me that line about the money being needed for security not the event itself. In the past, they had to pay for that too out of the money they raised to support legalization. (What? Druggies and rock bands are rowdy?) If you are an alcoholic, and you've spent half your month's paycheck on your habit, and you come to me for money to buy food because you're hungry and broke and the end of the month, am I buying your food or your alcohol at the beginning of the month?

Story from the Lantern.

3565

Deep Vein Thrombosis

If you see a leg on local TV tonight, it's not Dick Cheney's, it's my daughter's. He flew 25,000 miles; all she did was fly to Florida to give a workshop, a two hour trip. There's apparently a number of myths about DVT, because she and I knew them all--like long flights and older people. But her vascular surgeon who told her she shouldn't have ignored the pain, says the cabin pressure, wearing high heels at the workshop, standing on her feet long hours, then getting back on the plane and not enough hydration, had a lot to do with it. He told her he's had a number of patients in their 30s who travel a lot develop pulmonary embolisms and not survive.

She was taking an antibiotic for a sinus infection, and thought this was why she was having leg pain. Also, because of her thyroid cancer of some years back, she is calcium deficient and gets leg pains from that, so thought maybe she just needed some calcium. Then she caught the flu from her husband and was sick over the week-end, and she works in a doctor's office, so you know how those folks are. By today she knew something was really wrong with her leg, but kept thinking it was a muscle or tendon. She finally agreed to a doppler test because the pain was so bad and her ankle was swelling. She was stunned to hear she had a blood clot moving up into her thigh. Her employer/doctor who does a medical story once a week on WSYX was planning to do a story on Cheney's DVT, so I think the film will be my daughter's leg. She's had a blood thinner directly into her abdomen, so we're praying this will eliminate any immediate danger. She'll be on coumadin for some time.

If you're flying, even short trips, pay attention to any unusual leg pain. FAA Safety brochure.

Update: She has finished the round of shots (extremely painful) and now has to wear compression stockings (ca. $180 a pair) to relieve the swelling, can walk upstairs only once a day, and must keep her leg elevated and do nothing physical for awhile. Her doctor told her that if we fly or even if we're just traveling in a car (men or women), we should wear compression stockings (the non-prescription type that only cost about $50).

3564

Running the Numbers

My New Year's Resolution was to read the Bible through, something I've never done. I'm using the One Year Bible, NIV edition, where you get some OT, NT, Psalms and Proverbs all in one sitting. Genesis is pretty interesting--lots of good stories. Leviticus--well, you can see some general principles about being separate from the culture and not hanging out with the bad guys. But Numbers. Oh My! That's why I'm glad to have Pastor Brad. When he talks about the Book of Numbers he throws in some biscuits and gravy.

3563 Kwitcherbitchin

"I would like to be doing a Judy Dench career. But I'm a black American living in the United States so that's not terribly realistic." WSJ story, March 6, 2007, D6.


Oh, please! Ms. Carroll. You've got a "ring with a piece of ice large enough for a skating rink," four ex-husbands, affairs with David Frost and Sidney Poitier, beautiful grandchildren, a face so classic, plastic and fantastic there's not a wrinkle or line to be seen, you've done broadway, TV and movies, and done it your way, and you grew up in a loving nuclear family with a mom and dad who adored you and supported your career.

Come rain
or come shine,
some folks gotta whine.
No one's too hot
to give librarians a shot,
mega-stars we're not.
It's never enough,
oh, life's so tough,
sure got things rough.
Diahann Carroll,
here's a quarter,
from those in the carrel.

3562

Smoking and movies

No matter what you say about violence, sex and dirty language in movies, they aren't going to kill your children (later in life), but cigarette smoking will. And it is on the increase in movies. Over at Facts and Fears, which warned in an op ed about this a few years back they now report a study published in a pediatric journal:

"A new study appearing in this month's Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine evaluates the relationship between smoking initiation and movie-going habits from a different perspective -- but the results are analogous, to an amazing degree. The authors, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, evaluated 735 youngsters, aged twelve to fourteen, at the beginning of the study, in 2001. One of the key measures they recorded was which of ninety-three popular films they had seen over approximately the past year. Two years later, the researchers re-interviewed the study group to determine how many of them had begun to smoke, and the relationship of smoking to their earlier, self-described moviegoing habits.

White teens who had higher exposures to R-rated movies -- and about two-thirds had such exposures -- had an almost three-fold higher rate of smoking than their peers who had lower or no R-rated movie exposures. (Interestingly, and for no obvious reason, black teens did not have that same increased rate of smoking based upon R-rated movie viewing.) Girls and boys both had higher smoking initiation with increased attendance at R-rated movies.

The authors point out that several other studies -- one of which is the study I discussed in my 2003 op-ed -- have now confirmed that young teen exposure to movies that portray, or are likely to portray, smoking have a significant impact on initiation of smoking by a factor of about three (this degree of elevation was found in all the studies). It should be noted here that approximately 100% of R-rated movies do have smoking scenes."

Personally, I don't know why you are letting your kids see R-rated movies, but maybe you need a heads up here.

3561

Walter Reed Investigation and Shake-up

At first I was shocked. Now I'm just suspicious, very suspicious. Don't we have congressional oversight for this? Why do they need a new hearing? What has that committee been doing? Whenever I've been on a committee we were expected to be doing something besides meet during a crisis. Aren't these the same people who want us all to have national health care supplied and overseen by them? If the medical care is this bad, why would we want that? And what about all those photo ops we've seen of politicians, including the President, with wounded soldiers? Parents and wives. Weren't any of them writing Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or Deborah Pryce? What about those war protesters (Code Pink?) camped outside Walter Reed? Are they so stupid they would have kept this quiet all these years? Gosh, fire those guys and get some new commies. Is this just one more way to bad mouth the war and embarrass the President? At the expense of our troops and the Iraqi people?

3560

Ann Coulter

I've never been a fan of Ann Coulter so I hadn't been following her speaking events, but Jon Swift has summarized this last one at CPAC, and it sounds like she's gone round the bend. Other conservatives are obviously tired of her adolescent behavior. Others can make excuses for her, but I won't. It's ugly.

American Mind taking her to the Pat Robertson woodshed: "Ann Coulter used to serve the movement well. She was telegenic, intelligent, and witty. She was also fearless: saying provocative things to inspire deeper thought and cutting through the haze of competing information has its uses. But Coulter’s fearlessness has become an addiction to shock value. She draws attention to herself, rather than placing the spotlight on conservative ideas.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2006, Coulter referred to Iranians as “ragheads.” She is one of the most prominent women in the conservative movement; for her to employ such reckless language reinforces the stereotype that conservatives are racists.

At CPAC 2007 Coulter decided to turn up the volume by referring to John Edwards, a former U.S. Senator and current Presidential candidate, as a “faggot.” Such offensive language–and the cavalier attitude that lies behind it–is intolerable to us. It may be tolerated on liberal websites but not at the nation’s premier conservative gathering."

3559

Robins who winter here

When I was a girl growing up in Illinois, we always watched for the first robins as a sign of spring. Because I see so many robins in central Ohio all year, I thought it was just our more mild climate. When we had that terrible cold snap a few weeks back I was surprised to see so many dead robins in the street. They didn't seem to be able to get out of the way of the cars, and the streets were snow packed so I wasn't sure why they were in the road. Then in today's Columbus Dispatch I noticed an article about robins staying around because of the spread of the honeysuckle bush. Its red berries provide winter food for them when there are no worms or bugs. The plants are foreign to our area (you might call them illegal immigrants who have gotten out of hand) and have killed off some native species. When I checked Google, I see that robins are also wintering in the western suburbs of Chicago, but those may have come south from Wisconsin.

Whatever is keeping them here in the winter--dried fruit and berries from ornamental trees or invasive species--our terrible cold snap must have been too much for them. It either covered up or iced over their food supply or disoriented them enough that they weren't able to fly.

3558

As seen at Joan's blog

She found this meme--so I decided to try it. Tag, you're it.

1. How often do you shave your legs in the winter? (Guys, I'm expecting this to
be zero, but if it's not, don't hold back) It's rare; slacks and age decrease the need.
2. Do you make your bed every day? No, but my husband does. He's the last one up and I'm usually gone by then.
3. Do you floss every day? No--about 4-5 times a week.
4. Do you eat something sweet every day? Yes, if fruit counts.
5. What is the one routine thing you do every day that you wish you didn't have to or could do without? If I had any routines I didn't need, I would have dumped them.
6. Are routines important to you or do they drive you nuts? Yes; No, I like an orderly life.
7. Do you enjoy driving or is it just a necessity to you? Do you always ask two questions in one? I don't like to drive; it is a necessity of urban living. Our city fathers didn't believe in sidewalks. I get sleepy when driving. See #2 above.
8. Do you make your lunch or buy it on most days? I make my lunch every day.
9. If you could change one thing about your appearance what would it be? I'd change all the time I spent worrying about it in the past. It did no good.
10. Do you believe in spirits crossing over? Gracious no. Crossing over where? I'm a Christian; we are Easter people and believe in the resurrection of the body, not disembodied spirits cavorting here and crossing there.
11. Do you love, like, tolerate, dislike or hate your job? I'm retired; but I loved the job I used to have. Except for meetings. Librarians have way too many meetings.
12. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood? I've never seen a woodchuck chuck anything.
13. Do you watch American Idol? I've never watched an entire show, but have seen some pretty awful auditions.

Joan got it from Irish Church Lady who did it as a Thursday Thirteen.

3557

Up and Running Again

For a week or two, I haven't been able to update two of my blogs, and had developed a queue which I stored at a blog that I had finished in November 2005. But being somewhat forgetful, I discovered today when Blogger finally restored them, that I had written some entries twice. Anyway, the class reunion blog has now been updated with some Girl Scout stuff in February and March, our 8th grade trip to Chicago, and a Christmas party in December. All the stories and photos are from the 1950s, contributed by classmates. As everyone knows from watching Happy Days reruns, the 50s was an era of no problems, Elvis Presley, I like Ike, and all the children were thoughtful, well behaved, and never caused any trouble. Oh yeah! Enjoy.

3556

Talking to a Democrat

There is a talkative mid-life lawyer at the coffee shop who will deign to chat with me, a lowly, female retiree of a different faith and party, if there's no one else for him to talk to at. He's also trying to practice his Russian, so that makes for a pretty small group, plus he thinks all the men there are bigots and idiots (he told me one time) because they're talking sports. Anyway, today I made him the same offer that I did Chuck, as he scarfed down one of their fabulous muffins (he's put on a few pounds this winter). He could have my calories I wasn't using and they wouldn't count on him. He could eat with impunity knowing I wasn't. He didn't understand the Gore carbon footprint/exchange so I tried to explain it. I think his legal mind realized it is a scam, but he right away switched the topic to Gore's movie.

But when I said something about Clinton not signing the Kyoto Treaty, he went ballistic. Thought I'd have to scrape him off the ceiling. "You Republicans blame Clinton for everything!" he bellowed (I think he's a defense attorney and tries intimidation.) The fact that it just happened to be true and that Kyoto hasn't done a thing for those countries that did sign it, and that I had been a Democrat who voted for Clinton, also did little to defuse him. His mouth was like the roaring lion in the book of Daniel (no sinister allusions to Satan here--I know he is a liberal Catholic and has a good heart).

Since I'm probably 15 years older, I did a little history review with him and asked him to cite a single program proposed by the liberals in the last 20-30 years that had been defeated by the conservatives. Couldn't do it of course, because liberals try to put up conservatives, particularly Christian conservatives, as some sort of powerhouse bringing down the government. No one has been a bigger spender on social programs than the Bush administration. Medicare. Biggest gains under Republicans. Illegal immigration. Huge muck job by Republicans--who was president in 1986 for IRCA? Social Security. Reagan was President when I lost mine. Legal abortion. Last time I checked, we're still killing babies--what--25-35 million since Roe v. Wade? If Christian conservatives manage to roll back a week or two in a sparsely populated rural state, the Dems go crazy (oh no, a baby's made it out alive), but the law's still there. DDT. Last time I ran the numbers, we'd killed more Africans with malaria in the last 30 years than died being shipped across the Atlantic as slaves in the 18th century, but not a single bird, let alone human, ever died from spraying DDT on mosquito eggs in standing pools of swamp water. Rich Americans like Bill Gates are using their billions to buy mosquito netting and print brochures instead of reversing that disaster. Clean air laws. We've got bunches of empty factories in Ohio that have no smoke belching from the chimneys--the jobs went first to the southern U.S.A., then to Asia. Women's Rights. Leading cause of poverty in the U.S.A. is unmarried women having sex and babies before finishing school. The poverty gap is no longer racial, it is marital. And Dems have a fainting spell if someone introduces an abstinence program or a chastity pledge.

But he was so old-school-liberal in his views he only was willing to concede that blacks weren't being lynched and had moved a little closer to the front of the bus. Actually, I didn't get to bring up all these points for him--old Democrats wouldn't sit for that. His patronizing attitude for everything the liberals my age accomplished over the years is a real turn off--makes me think that nothing I did or supported for forty years mattered because it is never enough for them until we turn the country over and under.

3555

Bluffton University Tragedy

Last night I watched CBS News (Couric) which I rarely do (please, someone have a heart and move her back to her comfort zone) because I wanted to see an update on the bus tragedy that killed and injured so many Ohio young people. I wasn't terribly familiar with this school near Toledo, and knew little about it. Then I switched to Fox News and saw a totally different report. Yes, they talked about the tragedy, the family, had interviews, etc., but featured the information that Bluffton was a school affiliated with the Mennonite Church. Fox even had footage of the prayer vigil, held BEFORE the team left. Then I realized that often when I request books of a religious nature (not available at my public library because they don't collect in that area, or Ohio State University) they usually come from either Bluffton or Ashland, a Brethren college and seminary.

Almost all colleges in the U.S. founded in the 18th and 19th century were established by Christians. Some long ago left their roots and rootedness, like Harvard and Yale, and some keep the flavor and tone of the denomination with trustee appointments, faculty statements, contributions from churches, but only enroll about 20% of the faithful among their students. This includes Bluffton, Ashland, Wittenburg and Capital(Lutheran). The Columbus Dispatch reported that after the accident phone trees for the 75 Mennonite churches that make of the 11,000 membership of the Ohio Conference of Mennonite Church USA went into action for a prayer line.

I'm not sure why CBS skipped it (or possibly I was out of the room), or why Fox included it. Sure sounds like one was a bit more fair and balanced than the other.

3554

Friday Family Photo--The wedding

This handsome young couple, Edna and Jesse Weybright, were married December 25, 1911. Jesse was the 2nd cousin of my mother and her siblings--which means they had the same great grandfather, who came to Ohio from Pennsylvania around 1803. So the groom is my 2nd cousin once removed. He was about 21 years old here, and my mother hadn't been born yet. We didn’t know any of these people because our branch stayed in Ohio (near Dayton) until about 1894 (some longer), then on to Illinois, and this group moved on to Colorado and the family has been there over 100 years.

Isn’t that just the most wonderful hat you ever saw?

The minutes of our lives

This is the title of a WSJ feature on blogging. I saw it advertised but haven't seen it yet--not sure if it's due Friday or for the week-end edition. Based on the advert:

The Minutes of our Lives
by Norma Bruce
March 2, 2007

No experience is
too personal is
too sacred
not to be shared
immediately.

Chronicling
milestones, meetings,
weddings, births,
divorces and dinners.
Displaying
libraries, bodies,
vacations, toilets,
knowhow and knitters.

Blog and snog
MyFace, MySpace,
MyMoBlo or YouTube,
let's all vlog.

Download, edit,
scan or IM-it;
text-it, phone-it,
block, chop and drop it,
record, tag and
upload your snippet.

No experience is
too personal is
too boring
not to be shared
immediately.

Watching me,
Watching you.

Poetry Thursday #9

This week for Poetry Thursday, we are invited to write about something beautiful without using its name. This feels like it is still in draft stage--changing right up through Wednesday night.


In my unformed thoughts,
in my wildest dreams,
when this mattered
(and it doesn't so much now),
I never expected we’d meet.

You were so distant and aloof,
a prisoner of your past,
corrupt and sinful
(yet charming and alluring),
Did I even want us to meet?

Now that I’ve seen you,
heard your velvet voice,
minor and sad
(but dark eyed and lovely),
I know I’ll never forget us.

Are we allowed to leave a hint? (Очи страстные и прекрасные)

3552

Gore-ge yourself, be my guest

Today I passed up the samples of the peanut butter banana crunch bagel at Panera's (I'm assuming this is in honor of Elvis Presley, but I didn't see a note). So using the theory of carbon credits, you can now eat 200-300 extra calories today because I didn't, and therefore your calories won't count, make you fat, or hurt your heart. Al Gore is doing it the other way around. He's using massive amounts of energy to heat his home and swimming pool, but it is OK because he is rich and "buying" credits to do this from some place that scams tracks the public use of energy. So he's using what someone else isn't or didn't need. I'm not using those calories today, so you can be my guest. And I won't even charge you anything.

3551

Albums, scrapbooks and memories

Last night we searched the nooks and crannies of the house looking for photo cards people send at Christmas and the art cards we save from artistic friends. This turned out to be a much bigger job than we thought--might be a week instead of an evening.



The album in the back holds the work of a number of different artists, several of whom have died since we started the album. Our good friend Erkki Alanen died about 2 years ago--he was from Finland, lived in El Paso, and was a cartoonist, graphic artist, and architect who lived with us in the 1970s.

The album in the foreground is dedicated just to one artist, my college roommate, Dora. She was born in China and her parents immigrated to Brazil to escape the Communists. We both married architects who paint watercolors in retirement, so some of our 40+ years of Christmas cards reflect his art as well as hers. Then a few years ago they became grandparents. Now. . .

We decided to take some of the photo cards (usually family pictures) and add them to the pages with the art work.

Dora and I at the U. of Illinois

A very good buy!

Yesterday I was at the Discovery Shop (American Cancer Society) and noticed a basket of flatware. I couldn't tell exactly what or how many, but for $35 it looked pretty good. So I went home and checked the internet. Then I went back and bought the set to replace my 1960s-1970s stainless purchased with Betty Crocker coupons from cereal boxes and processed foods (something I would never do today). On e-Bay the individual pieces (couldn't find a set) were going for $10-$20, and I think I got 57 pieces, including a cake server, slotted spoon, butter knife, 3 serving spoons, gravy ladle, sugar spoon, etc. There were 16 teaspoons, plus 8 of everything else, soup spoons, salad forks, etc. The pattern is Reed & Barton, 1776, hammered finish and it was an active pattern between 1976-1979, now discontinued. The pieces are heavy and have a much nicer feel than stainless, and are probably worth more than my "good" silver plate, but that pattern will have pride of place since it was a wedding gift.

Serving spoon, $17.50 on e-Bay; I got 3