3817

Tighty whities

Are tight, shorter length jeans back in style for all guys, or just gays? I saw a photo on the fashion page in WSJ of skinny leg, tight jeans, hitting snug in the crotch as well as the ankle just above the shoe. This wasn't the photo (from Sartorialist) but the same idea--tight and white. Quickly--hit the resale shops before all the 80s jeans are gone.

3816

A Mother's Day post

Joan has a great Mother's Day post today--stop by and enjoy it. I'm not a "goal setter," (I'm a problem solver), but I liked it. Not everyone wins in the gene pool, but Joan and her sibs (most are also bloggers) and my sibs and I were very fortunate. Joan's mom is Methodist minister (as was her father) and I've also visited her blog, and she's writing about her mom!

My mother wasn't a pastor, but she certainly did her share of teaching Sunday School, Bible school, and women's Bible study around her dining room table while volunteering for about 35 years at the local nursing home after looking out for her own mother and mother-in-law. My mom was a talented writer--even wrote some short stories--but I can't imagine her ever taking up blogging. She even destroyed my father's letters from WWII after we children found them in the attic. I have every letter she ever wrote to me--just filled with Illinois crop and weather reports and updates on my grandparents' health. Just fascinating stuff, but I enjoy seeing her handwriting.

Yes, Joan and I are blessed.

3815

Sometimes I have trouble with English, too

Perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised if newspapers are shrinking or folding and people are communicating in text messages with no capital letters, numbers for words, and no punctuation. English is a world-wide language, can be difficult, and each culture puts its own slant on it. I use English all the time, and sometimes I struggle. (I have a problem overusing adverbs and parenthetical statements.) Yesterday I was reading Terry Teachout's theater column in the Wall Street Journal (you can see part of it here on his blog). I don't do theater, although I did see a matinee in New York about 50 years ago, but I like to keep up. Please don't misunderstand; he's a superb writer, but I'm out of practice. It's like reading some of the old research articles from the 20s or 30s in JSTOR--it's good exercise, but tiring. Maybe it's my age, or the age we live in age in which we live. I was exhausted by my own pauses: read, reread and ponder the meaning. I knew the idioms and phrases weren't critical to the sense of the essay, that he was just enjoying being playful, but still. . . I love words, language and meaning, and it shouldn't be so difficult. For instance:

"not excluding," does that mean "including?"

"repays careful watching," does that mean you get back the time if you pay attention?

"a couple of much-admired revivals not with standing," does that mean yes, the play has had revivals that were good?

"it goes without saying," I know that means "I'm going to say something you'll agree with, but I'm saying it anyway," but . . . it's still confusing to say you're not going to say it and then you do.

"an actor who sings not a singer who acts," would mean one is better at cross over than the other?

"can't be anything other than gorgeous," means very pretty, but why do so many of our idioms use the negative to be positive? Do Greeks or Cambodians do this? Probably, if they speak English.

"would that this tale were something other than an ordinary celebrity vehicle," What do you call that construction of, "would that. . .were. . .other than"? Future pluperfect past something?

"deliver the goods with postage to spare," must mean it's beyond successful, but I'm not familiar with the phrase. Is it theater English? New Yorker English? An idiom from his school days? Pony Express?

"so transparent as to be but invisible" I'm sure this construction has a name (so . . .as to be . . .), but it's been a long time since English class.

"a pair of golf-playing straw businessmen in bespoke suits" Yes, I did have to look up "bespoke" which is past tense of "bespeak" which is a British tailoring term meaning you choose the material. And I know a straw man is something made up to knock down. But strung together (a play about African Americans), I'm a bit confused.

Friday Family Photo

Here it is. The new bed, with the new bedspread, and the new wall color. Not quite finished yet. The bathrooms still have some work now that the carpenters are finished (try to get that done before you paint). I'm hoping this will be the last bed. We've had a problem with that.

After: new color is light gold with some green undertones, flipping the wall and trim colors from the guest room, looks good with the wood tones. Coverlet is cream, gold, green and blue. Bed is from Amish Vault in Bucyrus, OH.
Before: with dark blue faux glaze that was awful to try to cover. Every room in the house was either faux glazed or wallpapered, but this one seemed to have an impenetrable glaze over the glaze--and was actually lighter than most of the other rooms, so we did it last.
Still a bit of work to do
Have you seen that ad on TV where the guy starts flipping the wall switch asking his wife in the next room what it is for? She has no idea. Meanwhile, down the street a garage door is going up and down on a car hood, "Life comes at you fast," is the voice over as it crashes onto a bewildered woman inside the car. We'd forgotten that switch that shows above the dresser top because it was faux painted too. No idea what it goes to, but if a garage door starts moving. . .

3813

Casual Friday Circus

On Friday I get "the best dressed" award. There's just no competition. Today I had on navy, non-faded jeans with a touch of appliqued lace and felt flowers on the left leg and a pressed white shirt, and black heels. My hair was combed; and I was wearing a touch of make-up--powder and rouge, but no lipstick. A watch, glasses and wedding rings completed the ensemble. Compared with my fellow coffee drinkers, I could have walked the red carpet at the Oscars. The competition wore pajamas, shower thongs, rumpled khaki knee-length shorts, skimpy t-shirts over colored bras, horizontal striped short shorts with full side pockets, hooded sweat shirts and rock group tour shirts.

The young lady in the sketch has a lovely face--I can tell now that she doesn't wear the Goth make-up she used to wear or color her hair odd hues. Her puffy muffin top spilled over her low-slung gray sweat pants, and her bra straps hung over shoulders, barely up to the job asked of them. The t-shirt reminded me of what men wore 60 years ago who worked summer construction. But she was well dressed compared to her friend wearing the flannel, print pj bottoms. These young ladies, who I think are students at the local high school, make the case for school uniforms.

Still, the teen years are for experimenting and rebelling. When I was a teen I wore faded boy-cut Levis and most of my friends didn't. I'm sure my parents just sighed and rolled their eyes. I did wonder about some of the adults I saw today. Some boomer moms come in and their kids are better dressed and coiffured than they are. Is that rebellion in reverse?

And now, from the folks who poisoned our pets

From Medscape.com:

"May 8, 2007 — Healthcare professionals and others who compound medications using glycerin are being reminded of the importance of testing for diethylene glycol (DEG) contamination before use, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned yesterday. DEG, a solvent, is a known poison used in antifreeze.

Although the US supply of glycerin is not known to contain DEG, contaminated glycerin is known to have caused deaths in other countries over the past several years, according to an alert sent yesterday from MedWatch, the FDA's safety information and adverse-event reporting program."

And we import glycerin from China. Didn't see a word about that in the Medscape article. Other medical sites aren't being so cautious, citing "lack of transparency" of Chinese officials. The first quiet, back page warnings about glycerin came out about 6 weeks ago; then NYT had an article a few days ago; then Medscape and some medical sites finally alerted their readers--they probably saw the NYT article. Glycerin is used in many products from toothpaste to cough medicine. Tell me again why the Federal Government should be in charge of all aspects of our health care.

Sopranos, Sex and the City and Albrecht

About a year ago, Chris Albrecht and Jeffry Bewkes, riding high with the success of smarmy, sexy HBO series, were being honored by Phoenix House for their contributions for substance abuse programs.

"There are few corporate leaders or companies as deserving of our Public Service Award as Chris Albrecht and HBO,” said Mitchell S. Rosenthal, M.D., president of Phoenix House. "They truly serve the nation, keeping troubling social issues like drug abuse, homelessness and poverty in the public eye."

"We are grateful to Chris and the many friends and associates of HBO who came out to honor him and support the work of Phoenix House. Thanks to them, we will be able to reach out to help more young people in need." Story in 2006

Now Chris Albrecht has resigned, claiming his physical abuse of a girl friend was caused by his alcoholic relapse. According to today's WSJ, Bewkes helped Albrecht smooth over a 1991 abuse of a female employee with a $400,000 settlement.

If it weren't for the 1991 incident, it could be a he said, she said case. But seems to be the chickens coming home to roost if you ask me, and you know what that smells like.

Thursday Thirteen--My Book House

The carpenters and painters have left, and we've got most of the dust corraled (always, always turn off your furnace fan if you are remodeling or painting, or you spread the dust throughout the house). This morning I was putting back the bookshelves and knick-knacks, and dusted off "My Book House," which just happens to have 13 volumes. Oh, you only have 12 volumes? Then you're missing "In your hands, a practical guide for parents," which links special projects and crafts and advice for using the 12 volume set.

My mother got a set of My Book House as a bonus buy when she bought a set of Book of Knowledge encyclopedias probably in the early 1940s. At least, I don't remember a time we didn't have both sets. Ours was probably the 1937 edition. Sometime in the mid-1970s, I walked into a little antique store in Lakeside, OH, and saw a set for $25, a 1953 printing. It was a lot of money for something my children had probably already outgrown, but one of my siblings (with the first grandchild) had been given the family set. Our very most favorite story to cuddle on the couch with was, 'Wee wee mannie and the big big coo," because we loved to hear Mom do the accent.

1. In the nursery
2. Story time
3. Up one pair of stairs
4. Through the gates
5. Over the hills
6. Through fairy halls
7. The magic garden
8. Flying sails
9. The treasure chest
10. From the tower window
11. In shining armor
12. Halls of fame
13. [unnumbered] In your hands; a practical guide for parents, rev. ed., 8th printing, 1951.

The covers/binding of my set are like the above photo [taken from the internet, but that is from the 60s], and the set I grew up with was dark blue. The illustrations seem unchanged. Fabulous. A child can look for hours at one painting or drawing. The early sets from the 20s had only 6 volumes. Google Olive Beaupre Miller, the editor, for her very interesting story. Her papers are at Smith College. She lived in Illinois and some years back I read a very nice biography of her in an Illinois magazine, but I can't seem to lay my hands on it.

3809

New issue of City Journal

The Spring 2007 issue is up and ready--you won't be disappointed.

Andrew Klavan’s witty “The Big White Lie,” was up for a preview earlier--but others are brand-new. Kay Hymowitz’s “The Incredible Shrinking Father,” --artificial insemination and its troubling effects on our culture and jurisprudence; Sol Stern, in “Save the Catholic Schools!,” outlines the dangers they face, adding a story about a remarkable one in Harlem; Stefan Kanfer’s account of journalist, humorist, businessman, and impresario Elbert Hubbard, and Theodore Dalrymple’s study of novelist Arthur Koestler; Adam Thierer’s “The Media Cornucopia,” which describes the Left’s various arguments for shutting down our burgeoning 21st-century TV, radio, and Internet universe; Peter Huber’s “Germs and the City,” which I've cited here before based on his WSJ article.

3808

Get a Chihuahua?

A friend stopped to chat at Panera's and she told me she hadn't been to Bible study recently because she was taking advantage of the good weather to work in her yard (on Saturdays). Part of her yard problem was her dogs. Three Goldens. Big. Dogs. Eat. Poop. "But I feel so safe," she said. Well, Bottom Line Newsletter (Winter 2007) says one of the myths about safety is having a big dog. Most big dogs are not barkers. What is needed are small dogs that make a lot of noise, like Chihuahuas.

I've never known any dog that didn't bark when I walked up to a door. My son's huge (Mom, she's just a puppy) Lab barks. A lot.

3807

The case for vegetarianism

Not that I would, but medically, it makes sense. It's an impressive argument.

Some extremely common conditions in the Western world are relatively uncommon in purely or predominantly vegetarian and fruit-eating societies. These include 1) severe atherosclerosis and its devastating consequences (heart attacks, brain attacks, etc.); 2) systemic hypertension: in societies that eat minuscule amounts of salt, the systemic arterial blood pressure is usually about 90/60 mm Hg, a level near what it is at birth but a level in the Western world often associated with shock; 3) stroke; 4) obesity; 5) diabetes mellitus; 6) some common cancers (colon, breast, prostate gland); 7) constipation, cholecystitis, gallstones, appendicitis, diverticulosis, hemorrhoids, inguinal hernia, varicose veins; 8) renal stones; 9) osteoporosis and osteoarthritis; 10) salmonellosis and trichinosis; and 11) cataracts and macular degeneration. from William C. Roberts, "Facts and ideas from anywhere," Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2007 April; 20(2): 200–208. Also available as Roberts WC. Atherosclerosis: its cause and its prevention. Am J Cardiol. 2006;98(11):1550–1555

3806

Reasons to homeschool

Parents who choose to homeschool put in a lot of work and hours, but I think they get back more than they give. Sherry has a wonderful post about winding down the school year here. She writes one of the best book blogs on the internet. You'll never be sorry you visited.

But the essay on homeschooling by a Catholic mother at First Things really blew me away, Schooling at home by Sally Thomas. Something about her "day in the life" reminded me of my mother and myself--the way we taught while we parented, although neither of us homeschooled. Every moment was a teachable moment. Now when I yearn to hear Mom's voice (she died in 2000), I remember the days as a child wishing she'd just stop explaining, elaborating, using family stories and history, showing me the innards or roots of some animal or plant, how to hold a paint brush, where to put the horse's hock on my drawing, etc. etc. Homeschooling is good for kids, but it's really wonderful for the parent.

3805

Never forgive

The United States forgave Japan's war debts years ago, decades actually. But now Guam wants compensation for the occupation by the Japanese, so where to go, where to go. Why--to Congress for reparations of course. It failed last time, but now we've got Democrats in power.

Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo in March introduced the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act, which calls for federal compensation related to the Japanese occupation of Guam between 1941 and 1944.

Bordallo introduced the same bill during her last term, but it failed to pass. Story here.

It was supposed to come up this morning in the House Natural Resources Committee. Oh, that sounds green! Sure to make it this time. Any shade of green as long as it costs money.

Madeleine doesn't look very ethnic Pacific Islander, does she? Her deceased husband was the governor of Guam. Since 1973 Guam has had a non-voting delegate in the House. They do get to vote in committee, however, and she's a member of the committee to which this was proposed.

HT Hoystory

3804

Mort and me

It's phone tag in cyberspace. I occasionally drop by the blog, Octogenarian, written by a retired journalist living the good life as a snowbird in Florida. Mort is a secular Jew who had a fascinating career and is enjoying sharing his memories while upgrading his technical skills. Like me, he does get political. And he's a liberal. Earlier this spring his blogging was a story in the Palm Beach Post which he posted at his blog. I was a bit surprised, knowing all the problems in the world and his vast experience and talent, that what irked him most was "mean-spiritedness and lack of compassion of people, especially those from the religious right." I tried to comment, but the comments had been turned off for that one, so I went to an older entry and commented that compared to some really big problems (and I cited the ones exacerbated by the liberals) this seemed like an odd complaint.

When Mort found my comment he e-mailed me to clarify, which of course I had to answer with even more documentation. However, his e-mail server bounced my message, saying it was for spam abuse. So I had to go back to his blog, leave another message that in addition to facing closed comments, I was now blocked from replying to his e-mail. He has e-mailed me saying he doesn't know why, but of course, I can't respond. Nor can I leave my other e-mail address at his blog, because if I wanted that spread all over the internet, I wouldn't be using Medscape. Here's my comments in response to "mean spirited religious right" (code words for conservative Christians, not conservative Jews or Muslims or Hindus).

I was disappointed to see you set up the strawman "religious right" as what irks you most in life. I'm an evangelical Christian and a Republican, who was a Democrat until age 60. I can't imagine that you search the dial for conservative talk shows, and you certainly can't find conservatives on the network or cable news, unless you are watching the very timid Fox News. I, on the other hand, have almost no access to fairness unless I choose Fox, which sometimes is a bit too entertaining and giggly for my tastes. I read all the major papers, but am subjected to terribly biased opinion posing as news in the NYT, Wapo and WSJ. I don't mind it at all on the OpEd page where it belongs--just don't throw it into the news reporting. Because you are a liberal, I think you see this as "normal" or the way it ought to be because people can't be trusted to judge for themselves.

I believe I saw a survey that journalists were about 12:1 liberal to conservative; but you have nothing on librarians, who are 224:1 liberal to conservative. These are the folks who buy all the anti-Bush and anti-Christian books they can get their hands on, while insisting that another view must make it through the accepted review channels of Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, both owned by the same publisher.

What irks me most isn't left wing harangues, blogs or reporting. That is so much hot air. It's the result of leftist and socialist ideas that make it through congress or into the business world that result in real damage. What irks me is millions of Africans dying of malaria because do-gooders got DDT taken off the market; what irks me is the 60% poverty rate for single women and children when it is only 3% for married women, an almost direct result of militant feminism; what irks me is the head long rush into silly, expensive regulations and crushing business decisions that global warming fundamentalists are trying to impose--it's just a new age religion in different robes; what irks me is journalists who buried on the back pages the Christians who were tortured, mutilated (disemboweled, castrated, throats cut while alive) and murdered by Turkish Muslims, when Muslim terrorists who were "subjected" to wearing women's undergarments made the front pages for weeks and months.

Republicans are weak and disorganized and religious conservatives have all the same problems as anyone else--divorce, obesity, ill health, mortgages, etc. You need to find a bigger, stronger enemy to face down, and unfortunately, I think it is going to be the anti-semitic left wing of your party.

So in an e-mail he clarified it: hate in talk radio seemed to be the culprit. Well, here again, I'm pretty sure Mort doesn't listen to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, but I do. And I also read or watch the major media. If you watch CBS, NBC, ABC TV or read NYT, WaPo, WSJ or USAToday, you can't get away from the liberal media. You'd have to look for the conservative media--and talk shows are opinions and don't pretend to be news, balanced or otherwise. The major media vehicles publish opinion as news. That's a HUGE difference.

And I read the web sites like Media Matters, that slices and dices and dispenses the raw meat to the liberals, what they think the talk show hosts are saying. Maybe 2 lines from a 3 hour show. But this I do know. If Rush Limbaugh is a Christian, he never mentions it. Glenn Beck is open about being a Mormon. Michael Medved and Dr. Laura are very open about being observant Jews. Laura Ingraham is very open about being a Catholic. Bill Bennett is some sort of conservative Christan (Southern Baptist?), but I don't know which brand, same with Hugh Hewitt.

Parody and poking fun is not "hate speech," Mort. Pointing out inconsistencies in Michael Fox's ads for political candidates is not "hate"; just because he has a disease doesn't mean he gets a pass to lie. Although I'm sure our Democratic Congress will try to make it so. What Rosie O'Donnell says IS hate speech because you get her words combined with her hate-filled expressions on TV, but if she can find a sponsor for it, let the public decide with their consumer dollars whether to support her hatefulness. Even so, she wasn't removed for her words, but for her demands for more money.

Rush Limbaugh (the non-religious talker) is first of all an entertainer, former disc-jockey, and sportscaster. He uses phrases and voice clips from the people he parodies--like "Barack the magic Negro," a phrase from the left coast LA Times, or the Justice Brothers, sound bites of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton singing duets about victimhoodness. His term "Feminazis" is close--but still no cigar, because it was a term applied many years ago to just a couple of shrill women in the media, who in fact, do support programs and ideas that would probably result in the demise of the male gender if taken seriously. Rush will often just read the words of a liberal columnist or journalist--that's all--just read it aloud. With pauses. Giggles. Sighs. Laughter. Now is that hate speech? One of his favorite phrases is the "drive-by media" (journalists who don't actually listen to him but take pot shots) who use the phrase "mean-spiritedness."

And "lack of compassion?" Mort, there have been so many studies on the generosity of conservative Christians--they far exceed the liberals and humanists, and liberal Christians. Protestant denominations and Catholic orders take Matthew 25 very, very seriously. That is our marching orders, not the belief that we will change the world. That's why humanistic-academic social plans so often fail or make things worse in the long run--they have no roots, no deep source and just enlarge the problems they try to solve. So, here I, the librarian, just have to tell a journalist to go back and review your sources.

A WSJ story about a new test for Down Syndrome ran yesterday. Although it mentioned the number of false positives, it did not say that 90% of women whose babies tested positive for Down Syndrome chose abortion. Now that, Mort, is a liberal slant to a news story. It was what was left out.

But sometimes it is the word choice. White intermarriage. Black miscegenation. Two phrases in the same story about intermarriage of races.

Or how about these.

Global warming. Climate change.

Pro-choice. Anti-choice. Pro-abortion. Anti-life.

Iraq debacle. Iraq conflict.

Right wing conservatives. Democrats.

Lots of ways to slant the news.

3803

God Bless America

‘God Bless America’

We hear George Bush say it regularly; in fact in all our imported US TV and films, the phrase ‘God Bless America’ is a very natural and normal expression in the USA, as well as talking about praying.

The use of God and prayer in public life by public people is a question of your sanity in the UK. The US has a separation of church and state, yet has a very religious society. The UK has a state church, but a very secular society.

But if the UK prime minister used these phrases, there would be outcry; they are inconceivable in public life, except maybe for our Queen. In deed earlier this year Tony Blair in an in-depth and wide ranging interview referred to his belief in God in guiding him, and there was a public outcry, and fear that he was a religious maniac.

Even our Queen, can only make a statement of broad general spirituality, rather than a definite claims of God being for us as a nation, and an appeal to prayer.

There is a voluntary principle in the USA with no tradition of church-state, yet the US is a country that claims ‘One Nation under God’ and that ‘in God we trust’. Whilst 40% claim to attend weekly in the US, with people seemingly anxious to be seen as churchgoing, in the UK the claim for church association is 5-7%. It is 1% in many of our largest towns and cities.

Religion in the UK was imposed until recent times, but we can now choose our religion. In the USA, religion has always been personal choice. I’m not sure if that qualifies us to make any observations, but it might explain some of the ways we see things taking shape in the USA, and I hope help you understand us better." Brian McLaren , a Letter from London

One percent attend church in some of your towns. Who is writing you letters? Sounds like you could use some encouragement and a little Gospel of Jesus Christ. And looks like Americans should never advocate a state church.

3802

The Kansas Tornadoes

Have you seen the photographs of the flattened Greensberg, KS? Then before they could even pull people out of the rubble, some more came through the same area. Fortunately, the people were prepared with a warning system, or there would have been a huge loss of life. But. . .



Did you hear the Kansas Governor, Kathleen Sebelius, thinks that if Bush weren't in office, the National Guard could make this terrible scene better? Better than what? What is left to guard? It amazes me how the Bush Derangement Syndrome blows into town to affect otherwise intelligent, capable people, aka Democrats. Before this silly comment, she'd been a Democratic rising star. Must be burn out.

I looked at the death count--10, for a town of 1,600. Isn't that a higher percentage than New Orleans' Katrina? Does Bush hate white folk? Rural people? He waited 4 or 5 days before going there. Did Kansas have tornadoes before Global Warming?

3801

Porn again Christians?

You can go to this site for all the details and follow the links to come to your own conclusions. I'll just pull out a few. I wouldn't say I've seen porn on Christian blogs and websites, but I have seen some pretty unseemly, sloppy stuff, and I've heard of it creeping into our local churches in careless attempts to be "relevant" in reaching out to unbelievers.

Said [Chris] Rosebrough, "Rupert Murdoch is a born-again Christian and Rick Warren claims to be his pastor. As a Christian, Murdoch is committing an egregious sin by owning, expanding and profiting from pornographic channels and Rick Warren, as his pastor, has a Biblical duty to call Murdoch to repentance and/or put him out of the church."

I didn't know that Murdoch owns Zondervan, the publisher of Warren's best selling Purpose Driven Life. This is sad, sad indeed.

I just scored 100% in that quiz on religion that Newsweek ran about 2 months ago. You don't have to get an A in religion to know in your gut that pornography hurts women and children, hurts marriages, hurts society, grinds the soul and mind into the dirt, and makes mega-millions for the owners and producers. Mixing Christian books into the TV soft porn business? Come on, Pastor Warren, step up [to the collection plate] and do some counseling. I like a good investment portfolio, but there are certain products I won't buy--alcohol, nicotine, and viaticals. But I thought I was pretty safe with Christian books.

3800

Book club selections for 2007-2008

In May our book club meets at Barb's lovely home. It has never looked more lovely that last night--almost like a park with trimmed beds and lovely perennials and potted flowers. Our final and fun selection for our book year was Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray, who published her first novel when she was 60. Then with one minute to lobby our choices, the members offered suggestions for next year's reading, with the absentees sending theirs with another. Here's what we'll be reading, although all of the suggestions sounded terrific.

September: Learning to Bow by Bruce Feiler. My caution would be that this is based on his teaching experience in Japan in 1987-88--20 years ago, and was published in 1991. We probably wouldn't want our culture evaluated by a just-out-of-college, one year visitor's first book.

October: Field work by Mischa Berlinski. A first novel by another American visiting a foreign country. A trained classicist, Berlinski worked as a journalist in Thailand where this story of two clashing American cultures--anthropologist and missionary--takes place.

November: 1776 by David McCullough. This is the title I threw into the mix. McCullough's use of diaries and letters and his ability to weave in the stories of the little people we never heard in our history texts is just awesome. George Washington managed to write almost 950 letters in that year, while running the war campaign.

December: Inside the Kingdom by Carmen Bin Ladin, Osama's sister-in-law (half brothers whose father had 22 wives), affords a peek into her life in Saudi Arabia. From the book jacket cover I thought she might use Michael Jackson's surgeon. Do you see a resemblance?

January: A tree grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is a 1943 classic that was made into a movie. It will be an interesting comparison with the immigrant life today.

February: We'll be doing something Shakespearean with a special guest, who actually taught my children when they were in elementary school.

March: Digging to America by Anne Tyler is a story about two families who adopt Korean children. Tyler is an excellent writer, popular with women, and I'm sure there will be enough stereotypes to go around.

April: Amazing Grace by Steve Turner, a pop/rock journalist, is the book [or part of it] about the hymn on which the movie was based.

May: I'm proud of you by Tim Madigan, yet another journalist, the story of Mr. Rogers.

Also suggested (but we only choose 9) was Unknown world by E. J. Edwards, Snow falling on Cedars by David Guterson, For the Glory of God by Rodney Stark, and Religious literacy by Stephen Prothero. I scored 100% on .Prothero's quiz, and 71% scored 80 or above

Monday Memories--The Stereopticon

There are so many memories in this photo I almost don't know where to begin. The room is the north living room of what had been my grandmother's house, but which was the house of my daughter's grandmother in 1973, my mother. It is my recollection that my great-grandfather purchased this property when another farmer lost it to debt, maybe in one of the late 19th century panics. He and his son Ira farmed a lot of land in the Franklin Grove-Ashton area of Lee County, Illinois. Ira died from an infected cut finger in 1908 at the Ashton farm. Around that time my grandparents who were living in Wichita, KS, lost their little baby, Oliver, at birth. Grandfather David offered them this farm if they would come back and help--he being about 80. At least that's what I have in my head. Around the same time he made significant gifts to the Brethren Church in Wichita where my grandparents worshiped.

It was an unspectacular, 8 room, boxy farm house. Grandma had it remodeled adding a huge gracious dining room, a second staircase to a lovely bedroom with a canopied balcony, a big airy kitchen with "modern" features like a built in corn cob storage for the blue and black cookstove, manual dishwasher, table with flour bins, a walk-in pantry/storage room, an upstairs servant's bedroom, plus two bathrooms, a dumbwaiter, a generator and a sink at the back door for washing up before entering the house.

By the late 1960s the house had fallen on very hard times and was almost unliveable, and when my grandparents died, my mother went to work to transform it to the house it actually had never been, and it became a family and religious retreat center. One item you can see through the windows are the grape arbors my mother rebuilt and coaxed grapes into growing again. Thus my little family traveled from Ohio and took a week's vacation there for about 10 years.

My daughter is five years old in this July 1973 photo and totally engrossed in the stereopticon my mother and her siblings had used, and which my siblings and cousins had enjoyed on the slow Sunday afternoons we had visited in the 1940s and 1950s. She's lying on the couch that my Grandma bought in the 1950s to update the look--the arms were so wide you didn't even need TV trays (there also was no TV)--with her head on the pillows her grandma made.

The little girl in the photo would still jump into my arms and sit on my hip with her long brown legs almost touching the ground. She has a band-aid on her foot from running barefoot all day, and her golden brown hair had not yet seen a scissors. She's wearing a little green and yellow nightgown I remember well, so I think it was twilight--my kids didn't run around in the morning in night clothes. From the looks of the dirt on her feet, we had probably skipped bathtime, and I'm guessing that under all that thick curly hair was a sweaty, sweet smelling, damp neck--the windows behind her are open to bring in a little air.

Ah, the Monday memories. As I was finishing this, my daughter rushed in the door to use the computer. "Oh mom, do you have a band-aid?"

All aboard the gravey train

I noticed this in the BOMA Newsletter [Building Owners and Managers Association]. This is going to be a very high priced ticket to nowhere:

"Whether or not you trust in the science of global warming and mankind's ability to reverse it, policymakers from both political parties at all levels of government are looking at how to "green" their communities and reduce carbon footprints.

Early in the 110th Congress, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made it clear that the issue of global warming would be a legislative priority. "Scientific evidence suggests that, to prevent the most severe effects of global warming, we will need to cut global greenhouse-gas emissions roughly in half from today's levels by 2050," Pelosi stated in her opening remarks at a February hearing of the House Science and Technology Committee. Speaker Pelosi went on to say that the committees with jurisdiction over energy, environment, and technology policy have been asked to report legislation on these issues by June in hopes of having "legislation that will be a starting point on global warming and energy independence through the committees by July 4 so that, this year, Independence Day is also Energy Independence Day."

To accomplish this task, Speaker Pelosi has created a Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which will develop policy and strategy recommendations. Already, several bills have been introduced in the House and Senate, and several more are anticipated, including ones by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-MI) and Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

One of the issues that BOMA Intl. will closely watch is whether a carbon "cap and trade" program will be included in any legislation that is enacted. This approach, which would cap greenhouse-gas emissions and permit emitters - such as utilities and industrial customers - to trade carbon allowances, is strongly supported by many Democrats in Congress, but not by President Bush. However, support for this type of approach has gained some followers from business. In January, 10 major corporations and four environmental groups came together to form the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP). The groups, which include DuPont, PG&E, BP America Corp., and the World Resources Institute, are calling for mandatory carbon reductions from major emitters, including commercial buildings."

Note: that is "grave" as in tomb, not the sauce.

3797

France's new leader

My horse didn't win in the Derby (Street Scene won), and I wasn't even thinking of offering an opinion on France's race. I'm mean, I didn't want the leftist lady to win, but secretly I thought she would. Often countries do vote themselves into total loss of freedom. Anyway, Sarkozy won. I'll say this, France can put forward some good looking candidates. Both.

I know you knew that, but this is a log so I need to keep up. Seems he wants to save France for the French. What a concept.

3796

Training ground for biased big media?

The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper is one of the hundreds (maybe thousands) of struggling free circs, those piles of newsprint and skinny magazines you see in the lobbies of coffee shops, shopping centers and libraries. Technically, they offer an alternative, but if they become successful, a bigger paper usually buys them. I hear they pay well, and the slant is, well, very, very one way or the other. The Stranger is left, although I've only read one article. It's anti-religious right. Yawn. That's like an elephant being afraid of a mouse. There is not a single leftist program proposed since FDR that hasn't succeeded. Conservatives, at best, toss an occasional banana peel, and a baby might make it out alive in the Dakotas that otherwise would have been thrown in a trash can.

The article that was sent to me is "Cross Purposes" by Erica C. Barnett. For some reason she thinks it is sad that Seattle's old line, dying liberal churches are shrinking and becoming irrelevant. When we joined UALC [it's a conservative congregation within a liberal denomination] in 1976 our pastor had formerly been a Lutheran pastor in the northwest--can't remember if it was Oregon or Washington. But I remember him saying that the mountains were white capped from all the letters of transfer that never made it. That means, for you non-Christian readers, when people headed west, they left their relgion back in the east or midwest and started worshiping Mother Nature. If they needed a little familiarity for a wedding and cozy pot lucks, they could always join the Unitarians. So I don't know where Erica's been hanging out, but it ain't church.

So she writes a lengthy story about the "new conservatives." But she has a very odd hitch in her gitalong. Seems to really focus on externals, hoping I think, to turn off . . . who, exactly? In describing the people she's afraid of (i.e. conservative Christians) seen at two different gatherings, tiny Church on the Hill, and big Mars Hill:

T-shirts and jeans
overalls and sweats
casual sportswear
bearded guy in sweats
blond man in sneakers and faded blue jeans
brown long-sleeved t-shirt
thrown-together, house-party-ish scene
heavily gelled hair [preacher]
sloppy, untucked dress shirt
wooden bead necklace
trendy wide-strapped brown leather watch
girls in glittering half-sweaters
sloppy emo boys with tattooed arms
disheveled hair
pregnant women in stylishly expensive maternity jeans
loud and a bit slovenly [preacher]
Jimmy Kimmel-esque comedian [preacher]

I haven't seen that much fashion description except in my own complaints about what people wear to church these days.

When describing the liberal Mainline Methodists in Ballard, WA she says. . . not much about their appearance, but does cite their criticisms of the new kids on the church block, and they have a serious case of edifice envy.

"Very much your father's conservatism"
"women are the nurturers who should go home and have babies"
"negative, almost misogynistic view of women"
"emergent or emerging" [these are 2 different terms, but she doesn't distinguish]
"They've built a show that attracts masses of people. That legitimates it"
"it's possible they are simply not paying attention"
"an astonishing number believe in reincarnation, which is not a Christian doctrine"
"we're in a time when people pick and choose what they want from their religious experience"
"appeal to people who think we live in apocalyptic times"
"creates a system where people can have a feeling of control"
"they see themselves as cutting edge, whereas mainline churches are struggling to keep their doors open"
"theology of fear"
"they're cool and they can go out into the world"
"they'll outgrow it"

Oddly (or, not so odd since she wants a job with a "real" paper), Erica sees the mainline church goers (most with gray hair and canes), as more tolerant and diverse because there is a sprinkling of gay couples, and some female pastors. She thinks it is quite OK for the Methodist pastor to be preaching on the "evil empire" the U.S. is becoming with obscene tax-cutting, but not OK for the Mars Hill guy who's preaching that the suburbs have just as much evil as the city. She calls the conservatives intolerant with retrograde political leanings (she only sites homosexuality and women as evidence of "retrograde"), and apocalyptic, rebelling against the pop culture while appropriating its language and styles.

Yes, Erica's looking for a job with a playa.

Who makes Don Imus look like a choir boy?

Michael McGee Sr. Oh please, Lord, let him be a race, nationality, religion and party we've never heard of. We've got enough problems in the media.

Word inflation

Or is it word deflation? I like Staples. Shop there for my paper and computer needs. Yesterday I needed ink. Took in my little cartridges for the discount. Folded inside my receipt (which I just looked at) is an ad that says, "Salvation from PC frustration. See an associate for assistance." That's a stronger altar call than we get at church!

My candidate has a plan

All the others want is a vacation.

[from Taranto's column] The Associated press asked the candidates for president what they would most like to have if stranded on a desert island. Here are the responses:

Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Duncan Hunter and Mitt Romney said they'd bring their wives. (Notably, Hillary Clinton did not say she'd bring her husband.)

Mrs. Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama and John McCain all said books. Rudy Giuliani said "books and music."

Chris Dodd said "coffee with cream and sugar."

Sam Brownback said a tarp.

Mike Huckabee said a "laptop with satellite reception."

Tom Tancredo said a boat.

Bill Richardson said "BlackBerry and a Davidoff cigar."

Buy Jinky's book

Here's a photo of Jinky and his "mom." First he had a blog, now a book. It's a bit racy for me--after all he's a Hollywood dog--but some of my readers, especially dog lovers who want to help a good cause, will love it.



My other blogs about Jinky.

3790

The spread of poverty

I've often said that the way middle class families lived in the 60s and 70s would be considered poverty today--one car, 1.5 baths, 3 bedrooms, no AC, no dishwasher, one TV--and of course, no cable, no cellphones, no computers, etc. But I didn't expect the Census Bureau to agree with me.

"Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

Eighty two percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 35 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning. Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions; Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception; Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher."

Instead of broadening the base of poverty (to induce guilt, get more votes and more taxes), it would be better to focus on the really destitute. TCS Daily article.

3789

It's a horserace

Tiago
Among the Republican field I will support Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney or Tom Tancredo. I have no interest in McCain, Rudy or Newt; they haven't treated their wives and ex-wives well. Maybe that's why they play it fast and loose on abortion? Some of the candidates I've never heard of.

For the 133rd Derby, I think at Donna and David's party Saturday night I'll go for Tiago, 15:1. He won at the Santa Anita Derby. His jockey rode Giacomo to victory, and John Shirreffs is the trainer. He is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Moss. There are no good stories this year--no female jockeys, no blind or deaf horses, no murky backgrounds among the owners--or if there are, it's so common the reporters are ignoring it. I had to find the list on page 6 of the sports section this morning.

Would you like a cute Chihuahua?

No, not my grand-puppy, but one at this Chi Rescue. Look at that talented pup who walks on his two front legs. Jinky, the Hollywood dog, is out advertising his book, making a case for rescued dogs. He's led a pretty fabulous life, first blogging which is how I met him, and now as a celebrity author. You'll fall in love with the Lambster, an abused Bichon, that Jinky writes about.

New stories at the reunion blog

The ladies' breakfast

Center School in Trot Town

Town hang-outs

My first document in Zoho.  I stopped by Aunt Lora's blog, from which I clicked on a blog by a father of an autistic child from which I got to Zoho.  It is an online word processor that I can access from anywhere--I think. 

Ooh.  I like the background color feature and the type font.

--------------->

OK. Now I'm back in the blogger.com posting template. I'm not exactly sure when or where I would use this Zoho. I always type in the "edit html" feature of blogger, except occasionally I switch to "compose" when I want to add some color or change the font. I can get into blogger.com from any computer. Does anyone know why I need Zoho Writer? I haven't tried the other features. Maybe I'm not techie enough to know what a jewel it is--the reviewers raved about it. Easy sign up.

Friday Family Photo--another cousin

This is a photo of my cousin Gayle when she was the queen of May at Manchester College in North Manchester, IN. That's her roommate taking a photo of her. I think Gayle told me her roomie made the dress which Gayle later used as her wedding dress. Isn't she pretty? I found the photo at an MC site.

3784

Please scratch that itch at home

While refilling my coffee cup the other day at Panera's, I saw a very large woman with her hand down the inside front of her capri pants. Later I looked up from my blogging notebook to see a man at the counter with his hand inside the back of his knee length jersey shorts scratching his bottom. And it wasn't even casual Friday!

Speaking of notebooks, I start a new one today. The one I'm using was started Mar. 22, and is a Kathryn White design represented by Art in Motion of Vancouver, BC. I found an interesting blog called Notebookism which features not only interesting notebooks for a variety of purposes (most too expensive for me), but also stories about notebooks of various artists, writers and poets. I like stiff covers and a spiral bind, because the sewn or glued pages often don't hold up to writing on the verso.

Thursday Thirteen--We're painting the master bedroom

Banner by EmilyThat's a "royal we." I don't paint. I just wring my hands, give advice and worry. But this time, my husband isn't painting either, although until we moved here, he always did for 40 years. Two years ago I decided I could at least strip wallpaper to save money, and before the painters came to do my office, I nearly killed myself and had a sore back for months. Don't do that. Here's some tips learned and relearned along the way.

1. We decided to flip the colors from the guest room painted two years ago. This idea worked really well with the dining room and living room.
2. We discovered we didn't have a drop of the wall color left--not even a stir stick.
3. This painter uses a different brand, and even with two of us eyeballing those little paint strips and both being artists, do you think we could find an exact match? My advice is, always keep a little paint even if you have to buy an extra quart you don't use.
4. It takes two people (one of them preferably another man--your son-in-law) to move a queen size mattress and box springs into the hall.
5. No matter where you decide to move things, something will be in the way. With the mattresses being in the hall, all the paintings and art work had to be moved, and most space was already taken with the paintings from the room to be painted.
6. Faux glaze has a texture and requires sanding and a special primer to cover. That increases your cost and the dust factor, so cover everything in the closets.
7. If your dressers were on hard wood floors in the last house, you've probably forgotten that there are levelers on the legs, and they will snag the carpet in the new place.
8. Mirrors on dressers are much heavier than you remember (and you are much older) when you try to remove them.
9. Always have the carpenter come before the painters. Somehow I missed that by having my husband make all the arrangements for putting a soffit in the bathroom. That is going to be oodles of touch up, plus if I remember this guy, he doesn't show up when scheduled.
10. If possible, don't schedule a meeting at your house while you're painting. We messed up on that, too. I just may have to close some doors, since we've moved a lot of stuff to where ever we have space. I think Thursdays are bad too, because if they don't finish, and have a Monday conflict, you're stuck until the following Tuesday.
11. Cover the cable connection/outlet with tape. We found it had been painted over in the guest room when we moved our TV this week.
12. When we removed one of our paintings, we found the intercom system. We'd forgotten there was one. Nothing works in an intercom that is 30 years old. Don't even install one. Just shout or use your cell phone.
13. Try to agree before all the tools have been put away what exactly is being removed from the walls. "Why didn't you take down the lamps?" "What? You want the lamps (with about 10 screws each) removed?"

So I'm down here in my office blogging like it's just another day, trying not to think of another 13 things I can add next Thursday.

3782

Before you screw

in that new energy efficient CFL lightbulb, maybe you'd better wait until they figure out how we're going to safely dispose of them when the incandescents are no longer available. They contain mercury. You might need to call the hazmat folks if you break one, and that could up the cost just a bit. National post story.

Also, they are all made in China, where the factories are coal fired. So think about the black smoke you're belching out on their country side. I've bought a few, but for now, I think I'll stick with the old, less efficient ones until the Gang Green settles down a bit.

HT Amateur Economist

3781

I am not alarmed

"The U.S. economy is expected to add 1.5 million IT jobs by 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Labor statistics. At the same time, research firm Gartner Inc. predicts that by 2012, 40% of women now in the IT workforce will have moved away from technical career paths to pursue more flexible business, functional, and research and development careers."

Not all men want this career track, why should the same percentage of women want it? I'm not at all alarmed, except by the alarmists who drum women out of the home, teaching, nursing, and retail where they are comfortable, and insist we must be little drones who work 16 hours days, move around the country, smooze at bars and on golf courses, and become "one of the guys." I have a girl friend who entered the computer field full-time right out of college. At about the age I retired, she has gone back to college to become a nurse.Story about this "alarming scenario" in Computer World.

3780

Last words--let them be Thank You

Robert E. Johnson, a practicing anesthesiologist for 35 years, treating thousands of patients, has these comments on "last words" in JAMA, April 12, 2006, p. 1624.

"Few plan their last words. They usually speak them unknowingly. And I hope I'm not hearing them. I've learned to say some appropriate lines of explanation and comfort for trachael intubations though, and then pause. Patients usually respond, "Thank you." If they survive, nothing is lost, if they die something is gained. The light of their final gratitude can shine on memories of them forever."

And while I'm thinking of it, when you say "Thank You," wouldn't you rather hear, "You're welcome," rather than, "No problem," or "Bakatcha?"

Sticks and Stones--HR 1592

Unlike the Republicans who wimped out on things they said they'd do if we elected them, the Democrats really are trying to rip out the freedoms we were guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, just like they promised in actions and words along the way to congressional control. Have you read the text of HR 1592--the so called hate crimes prevention bill? It is so preposterous, I almost can't believe it. Who kills the most black and gay men in this country? Other black and gay men (gay men as a group are the most highly educated and wealthiest of all our little diversity groups--so don't count on that to equal common sense when it comes to legislating hurt feelings). Aren't they just as dead as they'd be if the perp had called them a nasty, hurtful name, or if they perceived it right before the bullet, knife or club hit? Look at this text--

`(A) IN GENERAL- Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, in any circumstance described in subparagraph (B), willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability of any person--

You are really, really special and set aside for preferences in this bill if you are a mentally ill [disability], Muslim [religion] lesbian [sexual orientation] from Guatemala [national origin] who's had a sex change operation [gender identity].

Perception = full and fat employment for lawyers and out of control prosecutors. Remember, macaca and water buffalo are now hate words. Can chocolate and almond be far behind?

The Bible assures us that all sin originates in the mind first, and we are held accountable by God for what we think, not just what we do, but Biblical admonitions by pastors and leaders will also be outlawed in this bill.

Update: My representative, Deborah Pryce, was one of the few Republicans that voted for this ridiculous bill. I think she's a stand-in for the Democrat woman she narrowly defeated in a final count in November. "On the National Day of Prayer, a majority of the Members of the House of Representatives have slapped Christians in the face with passage of H.R. 1592. Though allegedly designed to help local law enforcement officials deal with violent hate crimes, this legislation actually creates two new federally-protected minority groups: “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” – both of which are undefined by the law." [Call to conservatives]

Although I think the special, bifurcated, bi-level system of justice is unnecessary, UnAmerican, and foolhardy, I think it is the "perceived" hate against the "disabled" that will bring the expensive lawsuits, and gays could be paying through the nose on that one too. Do you want a mentally ill person like Cho perceiving hate and bringing a lawsuit against anyone trying to help him? The big question: if your gay lover shoots you, is it done out of love or hate? And are you more or less dead? Will he serve less time in prison if you are both gay than if one of you were just pretending?

3779

What the President really said four years ago

"We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We're bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We're pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes. We've begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated. We're helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself, instead of hospitals and schools. And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by, and for the Iraqi people.

The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done. Then we will leave, and we will leave behind a free Iraq.

The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 -- and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men -- the shock troops of a hateful ideology -- gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that September the 11th would be the "beginning of the end of America." By seeking to turn our cities into killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy this nation's resolve, and force our retreat from the world. They have failed."

OK, so the terrorists got it right about the resolve of the Democrats because they do want to retreat and fail, but eventually I hope Bush will be proven right.

3778

Maybe they are in Aruba?

Two women from central Ohio disappeared about two weeks ago when they went shopping, and no one knows where they are. It wasn't reported immediately because one is a widow with no children, and the other's daughter just stopped to check on her mom and found out the neighbors hadn't seen her for some time. On April 19, Mary Ellen Walters, 68, and her friend, 80-year-old Ada Wasson, left their homes at the Otterbein Retirement Living Community in Lebanon in southwestern Ohio to go shopping, and seem to have disappeared. Walters' husband was in Florida caring for his 93 year old mother. We're still hearing on a regular basis about every clue in the disappearance of a pretty teen-ager Natalee Holloway 2 years ago in Aruba. Are these women less important? It seems Warren County is scaling back the search, which has been aided by Methodist church volunteers. Has Geraldo or O'Reilly or Greta reported on this? Have you seen them? Here's the photos from the CD.

3777

Women are the problem

"How do we start dealing with what's happening?" asks Roberta Garber in the April 19 Columbus Dispatch story about poverty's new address in Franklin County (Columbus) Ohio.

For starters, read your own research. You start with women. Dump the feminist, anti-male agenda, and start preaching and teaching marriage--in the schools, the homes, the churches, the housing codes, the books, the newspapers, the libraries and the community organizations. Stop promoting and glamorizing the celebrities who have 2 or 3 babies either before marriage, or skip marriage all together, whether Fiddy or Goldie or that smirky Sarandon. Call 'em what they are: The Pied Pipers of Poverty.

Nearly one half of all female headed families with young children lived in poverty in our county in 2004, while only 3% of married couples do. Hello! How much more writing needs to be on the wall, blackboards and social-worker flip charts to tell us that white, bored, middle and upper class women of the 70s and 80s fed the whole nation a huge plate of cow poopy, beginning with the idea that we had to kill babies first in order to have career choices and keep children from being poor or deformed, then rubbing our noses in it with trumped up salary discrepancy statistics.

Ms. Garber, look at your data dates. 1970-2004. Franklin County population grew by 27.9% and the poor grew by 59.1%. What else took off in those 35 years? Militant feminism. We had a Democratic congress for most of that time, a Democratic city government in Ohio's three largest cities, and tenured liberals in our state and premiere colleges and universities. All they've been able to come up with is more of the same.

Time to start fresh. Begin by admitting the women and all their male lackies in NOW, the unions, and universities, were wrong.

3776

Our class reunions

We're going to two high school class reunions this summer, one in June, one in July. Enrollment at Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis was larger than the town where I lived, Mt. Morris, Illinois. Tech is a fabulous place--and I love it. It is very different now than in the 50s, but you still feel and see the beauty, warmth and history when you step onto the campus. My husband was in a social club called the SLOBS, so many of his closest friends were not actually in his class, but the group has its own reunions.

So I've been looking for just the right outfit to wear. I'm waving the white flag. I've lost the battle on dressing up--no one does that anymore--not for church, or theater, or cruises or special events. Oh, maybe a wedding might the be last hold-out where you would see a skirt or dress. So I bought a cream colored pants suit, 3/4 length sleeves, and am choosing the color of blouse--I'm looking at red (not my good color, but one of the school colors), deep blue, taupe, or coral. I'm very pale, so coral or taupe are my colors. The taupe blouse really doesn't fit that well and will probably be too hot, so I think I've eliminated that. Here's the suit--ignore the paintings on the floor--my husband is getting ready for a show and has no place to put them. The walls are full.

3775

The Scarlet Letter - A

is for Amish. Someone should hang a big "A" on the back of their buggy. The Columbus Dispatch yesterday had an editorial about the terrible problem of puppy mills--the indiscriminate breeding of dogs, poor conditions, and the resulting auctions. Reading between and above the lines--Millersburg and Holmes County, the only words missing are, "Amish farmers."

But on Sunday, April 22, the Dispatch wasn't so reticent: "There are 186 USDA-licensed breeders in Ohio, and more than 100 of them are in Berlin, Millersburg and Sugarcreek, the heart of Amish country." The editorial in yesterday's paper says Holmes County licensed 478 kennels in 2006, a 40% increase. So a county license and a USDA license are not the same, if these numbers mean anything. Not only will these dogs not be healthy, but their resulting behavior problems will cause their early death at the hands of owners (who will have them euthanized) who wanted to save a few bucks by going to the pet store.

The photo says it all

from The World According to Carl

3773

Getting ready for the painter

We're trying to get as much out of the bedroom as possible to give the painter room to work. This morning I moved all the books, the shelves, paintings, and knick-knacks, and pulled things out from under the bed, like the old drapes, which have now left the house and are in a donation pile.

Faux combing, not wallpaper
One of the books is an oldie, The Outline of History by H.G. Wells, I bought at a yard sale maybe 20 years ago. I was going to put it in the pile to donate, then started leafing through. Look what they were saying about global warming in 1920 (or in the revision of 1949). It just seems so sensible, like maybe mankind isn't in charge:

About these changes of climate that are always in progress on the earth's surface: They are not periodic changes; they are slow fluctuations between heat and cold. The reader must not think that because the sun and earth were once incandescent the climatic history of the world is a simple story of cooling down. The centre of the earth is certainly very hot to this day, but we feel nothing of that internal heat at the surface; the internal heat, except for volcanoes and hot springs, has not been perceptible at the surface since first the rocks grew solid. Even in the Azoic or Archaeozoic Age there are traces in ice-worn rocks and the like of periods of intense cold. Such cold waves have always been going on everywhere, alternately with warmer conditions. There have been periods of great wetness and periods of great dryness throughout the earth. They depend upon astronomical and terrestrial fluctuations of extreme complexity.

And, in accordance, we find from the Record in the Rocks that there have been long periods of expansion and multiplication when life flowed and abounded and varied, and harsh ages when there was a great weeding out and disappearance of species, genera, and classes, and the learning of stern lessons by all that survived.

It is probably that the warm spells have been long relatively to the cold ages. Our world today seems to be emerging with fluctuations from a prolonged phase of adversity and extreme conditions. Half a million years ahead it may be a winterless world with trees and vegetation even in the polar circles. At present we have no certainty in such a forecast, but as knowledge increases it may be possible that our race will make its plans thousands of years ahead to meet the coming changes.

Isn't that interesting. The authors saw the warming as positive for mankind. Skipping ahead, he comments on the spread of Islam, which the author saw as a better culture to replace the decaying Roman system in the 7th century:

"While the armies of Islam were advancing triumphantly to the conquest of the world, this sickness of civil war smote at its head. What was the rule of Allah in the world to Ayesha [favorite wife of the prophet] when she could score off the detested Fatima [daughter of the prophet] and what heed were the Omayyads and the partisans of Ali [adopted son of the prophet and husband of Fatima] likely to take of the unity of mankind when they had a good hot feud of this sort to entertain them, with the caliphate as a prize? The world of Islam was rent in twain by the spites, greeds, and partisan silliness of a handful of men and women in Medina. That quarrel still lives . . . Shiites and Sunnites. To watch this schism creeping across the brave beginnings of Islam is like watching a case of softening of the brain. . . From the first the complicated household of Muhammad was like an evil legacy to the new faith. He was an illiterate Arab, ignorant of history, totally ignorant of all the political experiences of Rome and Greece, and almost as ignorant of the real history of Judea; and he left his followers with no scheme for a stable government embodying and concentrating the general will of the faithful, and no effective form to express the very real spirit of democracy (using the word in its modern sense) that pervades the essential teaching of Islam.

Maybe that's why they wrap their women in black robes--two women started this mess, so now they'll all have to pay. Interesting that he thought there was a spirit of democracy in Islam.

Roger Vernam, illustrator

Some of my biggest thrills in blogging have been e-mails from people who can answer some of my questions, or I have answered theirs. Recently I heard from a woman whose mother attended the same college as my parents--she'd found me looking for the Granddaughter's Inglenook Cookbook; another woman was looking for the lost chapters of Mary Margaret McBride's Encyclopedia of Cooking about which I had blogged; I heard from several people who loved and longed for Spudnuts [donuts made from potato flour]; someone wanted to buy my 17 year old first issue of Martha Stewart Living; my Fornasetti entry [I need to go in and change the link, which seems to have disappeared] gets almost as many hits as my "how to fix a broken zipper." And now, Roger Vernam. Am I excited, or what?

What little girl who loved horses wouldn't be crazy about this?
"Hi- saw your note about Eight little Indians and your comment about whether they(author and illustrator) were pseudonyms. Actually, Roger Vernam is real and was well know personally to my family-grandparents and mother. I grew up reading the books that he illustrated and they are still among my favorites. I’m re-settling my library after an annoying but much needed renovation and just came upon one of my most favorites, Monkey Shines, by Elinor Andrews. Always a joy to revisit and remember!!"

David M. Wood
Cape Cod Multi-Services

Thank you, Mr. Wood. And you have a nice web page--the type I wish libraries had. Attractive, easy to read, clear; even with some of your pages under construction I give you a B+. Most libraries get a C- or D+. Good luck with your business.

Happy First of May!

Can you believe we are so far into 2007? Time used to fly; now it just evaporates. Each morning I read a section in The One Year Bible (NIV), and a poem from A poem a day. Today's poem was "Happy the Man" by John Dryden (August 9, 1631-May 1, 1700). The notes say he was translating Horace, Odes, Book III, xxix. So here is me adjusting Dryden's pronouns translating Horace:

Happy the woman, happy she alone,
She who can call today her own:
She who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do your worst, for I have lived today.
Be fair or foul or rain or shine
The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

Monday Memories--The last May

This photo was taken at the retirement apartments lobby where my parents were living in May 1999. Mother died the following January. I think I had been in Chicago for the Medical Library Association meeting, and took the bus to Rockford, where my sister who lived in DC, met me. Mother's birthday was in May, and I think we had chosen that time, and I'm so glad we did. The four of us had a wonderful visit. I remember my sister, mother and I drove to Forreston where we had lived from 1946-1951 and drove around looking at our former houses and where we'd gone to church. Mom showed us a little garden plot she had behind the retirement complex, and we attended some of the special program functions with her that the facility offered. I think I arrived on a Friday or Saturday, so we probably went to church together. I would be back again in August, 1999, to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary, but this was our last May. When your parents are in their 80s or 90s, you often wonder, "is this the last" birthday, concert, family holiday, mother's day, etc.

Mother's Day is coming up on May 13th. Go to church with your mom if you are fortunate to still have her with you. Even if you are no longer Baptist or Catholic, or have converted to another faith, or you have to rearrange your schedule, or you don't like her pastor, or you like informal music and she likes traditional. Honor your mother--be a blessing and get a blessing. It's the only commandment that includes a promise.

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Cleaning up the environment

Our local community paper showed the photos by a senior from Upper Arlington High School of her senior thesis of abandoned buildings in Columbus, titled "What about my generation." Her idea is that, "We should fix it up or turn it into parks." We shouldn't be building new shopping and housing areas in green farmland until we've restored these blighted areas, she proposes.

Do they teach civics, history or economics at UAHS? Does she realize she is making decisions about private property, or that some codes and regulations actually keep the less-than-UA-wealthy from improving their property? Or that if you improve your property your real estate taxes go up? Should she, or others on a board or committee of environmentalists, be making the decision on how and to whom a retired farmer east or south of Columbus should be selling his acreage if he can get market value from a developer? Does she know that huge parts of Upper Arlington used to be orchards and farm land?

Here's what I'd like to see for a senior thesis on the environment.

Get permission from the parents of 6 of your friends to go into their teen's bedroom and photograph the mess. I'm sure a lot of parents would be willing to cooperate and teach them a lesson that "environment" starts at home, in your own house.

Then move out into the community where you actually live. Photograph the trash and debris left after a community festival or art show.

Photograph the plastic bags and cups the teens leave just a block or two from the high school around Donato's or Wendy's or Giant Eagle.

Photograph the beer bottles left in the parking lots and streets for other people to drive over,

or the yards they "turf" when they are out having fun.

Ask the kids to ride the city bus to school for a semester instead of each driving one of the family's two or three cars--help with that carbon footprint stuff--photograph them in the snow and rain, waiting.

Photograph any of the hundreds of middle aged and older people working to landscape and beautify their yards and then contrast that with the young people helping them or chipping in on the cost.

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My son had a date with a stranger

the other night. By that I mean I don't know her (I never do). I wonder if he told her about the livestock, Rosa, who can knock down a grown woman with her tail, and Edie, who looks like a fat sausage link on toothpicks. Aunt Purl has a post about how to tell a guy on the first date (or first pick-up line) that you have four cats. A lot of people must identify, because when I read it she had 199 comments.

Samples:

When I was dating after my divorce, I used the cats to test the dates! If the cats didn't rub on them and totally fur-a-late them the first time they came over---no more dates! Bad mojo! If the cats didn't like them, I was suspicious. I swear, it worked! When I ignored the cat hate of one guy, he totally turned out to be a jerk later! I swear! When my now-husband came over, one of my cats sat on his lap and rubbed his face on his jacket zipper--love at first sight!

Sorry, I have you beat here :) I'm a librarian! Thankfully I only had one cat when I meet my husband. Now we have 3 adorable fur babies. And he kids me that he saved me from becoming "an old maid librarian with cats".

I will trade two teenage boys and dog for a cat. Any takers?

I only have 1 cat but 3 ex-husbands, and let me tell you, THAT is a serious dating handicap, in my mind, at least!

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Walking with 1776 by David McCullough

Four miles yesterday and two miles today, 45 miles for my 50 miles of Easter Walk (it started to rain so I quit). I'm in chapter two, "Rabble in Arms." Deeply moving to know the deprivation, hardship, and yes, ignorance that undergirded the poorly clothed and dirty men in the army of General Washington. It was a very long war, and the book just covers one year. Today I listened to the story of 16 year old John Greenwood, a fifer, from Boston.

"After reaching the army encampments, he was urged to enlist, with the promise of $8 a month. Later, passing through Cambridge, he learned of the battle raging at Bunker Hill. Wounded men were being laid out on the Common. "Everywhere the greatest terror and confusion seemed to prevail." The boy started running along the road that led to the battle, past wagons carrying more casualties and wounded men struggling back to Cambridge on foot. Terrified, he wished he had never enlisted. "I could positively feel my hair stand on end." But then he saw a lone soldier coming down the road.

. . . a Negro man, wounded in the back of his neck, passed me and, his collar being open and he not having anything on except his shirt and trousers, I saw the wound quite plainly and the blood running down his back. I asked him if it hurt him much, as he did not seem to mind it. He said no, that he was only to get a plaster put on it and meant to return. You cannot conceive what encouragement this immediately gave me. I began to feel brave and like a soldier from that moment, and fear never troubled me afterward during the whole war.

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Nancy Pelosi on partial birth abortion and your daughter

"Here is how the law defines partial birth abortion:

"An abortion in which a physician delivers an unborn child's body until only the head remains inside the womb, punctures the back of the child's skull with a Sharp instrument, and sucks the child’s brains out before completing delivery of the dead infant."

Here is what Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says about partial birth abortion:

"This is about a procedure that any parent would want her daughter to have access to if she needed it. And to frame it as an abortion issue is doing a disservice to medicine and to our young women and our country. So I hope we can get the focus back on the fact that this Supreme Court is deciding what medical procedures are necessary for child-bearing women."

from Denny Burke's blog

How could any abortion supporter say she would want her daughter, or anyone else's daughter to have this procedure, killing her grandchild in such a vicious, cruel way? Wasn't she parading her grandchildren before the TV cameras not too long ago?

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Will Sweden disappear? And who's next

"Sweden was presented during the Cold War as a middle way between capitalism and Communism. When this model of a society collapses – and it will collapse, under the combined forces of Islamic Jihad, the European Union, Multiculturalism and ideological overstretch – it is thus not just the Swedish state that will collapse but the symbol of Sweden, the showcase of an entire ideological world view. . . Native Swedes have thus been reduced to just another ethnic group in Sweden, with no more claim to the country than the Kurds or the Somalis who arrived there last Thursday. The political authorities of the country have erased their own people's history and culture." Read here about what's happening in Sweden's third largest city.

HT Mere Comments, which includes a lengthy poem about the requirement that Swedish men sit when urinating. Yes, feminism as come to this. Excerpt from Here sits Sweden:

"Should some Swedish Rip Van Winkle
Wake in Stockholm, all a wrinkle,
Still he'd have to sit to tinkle.

So he sits, obeys our rule or he
Finds how fast we punish foolery --
Confiscate his family jewlery!"

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No, it's not a good idea!

I was browsing a library blog today reading about all the things he'd seen at a conference. He said he could hardly wait to apply some of the new ideas to his library's web page. Thank goodness, I thought-- library web pages are often awkward and hard to navigate. Not the most exemplary sources of information I've seen on the web, especially for clarity and readability. So what was his brilliant idea? To jazz up his 404 page. That's the error page. No, a thousand times No. Get to work on correcting the four columns, the things that wiggle, and the no-way-to-contact-the staff-by-name problem.