Our Ireland Trip from K - M

Kilkenny Walking tour: Our guide had wonderful tales and insights as he led us on a walking tour after lunch on the 15th. We saw the Old Jail House, St. Francis Abbey brewery, the Black Abbey, the Rothe House and we heard about Dame Alice Kyteler, of Kyteler’s Inn (had lunch there) who was tried for witchcraft in 1323.

I don't remember his name, but doesn't he just look the part of a fine Irish guide to share a few stories? And we saw beautiful flowers everywhere. Next to the brightly painted stucco buildings it was quite charming, and Ireland was having an unusually warm September, after a cool, rainy summer.

St. Francis Abbey Brewery: This is Ireland’s oldest brewery and dates from the early 14th century when monks in St. Francis Abbey began brewing at this location. It brews Smithwick’s and also produces Budweiser for the Irish market.

I believe this building started as a castle in the 1200s, and was reconceived over the years until it has quite a mixed architectural heritage, trying hard to be classical, and a history of use as a town hall, courthouse and jail (gaol). There were jail cells on the lower level and we filled one to hear about the terrible crowding and conditions.

The Black Abbey, with some members of our group, Ann, Sue, Lila, Bill, Art and me in the lower right.

Limerick: Our driver John was from Limerick, so on the way through his town we stopped at a monument to the Treaty of Limerick which displays the stone where the treaty ending the war between the Jacobites and the supporters of William of Orange was signed in 1691.




Mayor of Kilkenny: After we unpacked and settled into our hotel rooms at the Kilkenny Ormande on September 14, we were off to meet the Mayor Marie Fitzpatrick where we learned about her interest in the social problems of teen-agers, particularly alcohol. She explained the city and county legal structure and educational system.



Moher, Cliffs of: On September 10th after visiting the Burren we viewed the incredible Cliffs of Moher. There is a new visitor and interpretive center which opened this year at a cost of about 30 million euros. A bridal party arrived, taking photos I hope, and not for the ceremony. The bride and her attendants were about to blow away.



As Irish buildings go, this one really isn't very old--maybe 150 years or so--built by a far sighted man who saw the possibilities for tourism.



If you don't blow off the cliff, it's probably a great background for a formal portrait.

Our Ireland trip from H-J

Hotels: In Ennis (County Clare) we stayed in the Old Ground Hotel September 9-13, some of it dating to the 18th century--lots of nooks and crannies and stairways--and fabulous food. In Kilkenny we stayed at the Kilkenny Ormande, September 14-19 (website not available when I checked) which was much newer. Both served a lovely buffet breakfast, on white table cloths, but we could order on the side almost anything we wanted from bacon and eggs to porridge (oatmeal) to grilled tomatoes. Good beds. I’d recommend both. Excellent staff.

Lots of golf parties at The Old Ground Hotel. We also met a wedding party from Chicago.

Part of The Old Ground was the former Town Hall, and is now a restaurant in the hotel.

Hurling: We were baffled--but this is a popular sport 2,000 years old with big rivalry between towns. With all the Irish we have in the U.S., I’m not sure why this didn't catch on here--they sure love it. Here on September 15 we are watching a hurling demonstration played with sticks at Brod Tullaroan, a Heritage Center which has a hurling museum, where we also enjoyed a wonderful dinner. Notice our puzzled looks. John, our driver, is helping with the demo, while drinking a cup of coffee.

Lake, Sheila, Joy, Adele, Barbara, Jim, Barbara, Roxanna, Robert, Ronald, Lou, James, Lila, Art, John, Colette, Jan, Pam, ?, Joe



Islands, Aran: There are 3 islands off the west coast of Ireland, with a landscape like none other--huge rocks and very little soil. Most of the islanders speak Gaelic, and Irish students can come here to a special school to learn the language. We drove to Connemara on September 12 and ferried across Galway Bay to Rossaveal, Inishmore, the largest Aran island where we climbed to Dun Aengus for a fabulous view of the Atlantic at the top. We also shopped a bit and saw some local scenery.

I'm betting this will be one of my husband's watercolor paintings next year.



We bought my husband's new hat at the Aran Island store. You can see the ferry behind us.

Irish National Heritage Park, Wexford: Here on September 16 we walked through several thousand years of recreated Irish history from the stone age up through the early Christian era. Our guide showed us how they housed, clothed and fed themselves at various times in history.



The cross tells Biblical stories in the carvings.
Judy and John: Our tour guide and foster mother was Judy from Dublin. Our bus driver and color commentator was John from Limerick. Both had curly red hair and at times each was the other's second banana. I've never seen as much red hair as I saw in Ireland. Between the green fields, the sad songs, the ubiquitous pubs and the red hair, I was awash in what I thought were stereotypes.

Judy is not directing singing; she's getting our attention to get back on the ferry at Rossaveal. John was a bit less concerned. Although he didn't bring the bus over, he stayed in the town with those who didn't want to climb to the fortress.

Judy and John giving us our certificates at our Farewell Ceremony on September 18.

Our Ireland trip from D-G

Dun Aengus: A ruined cliff-side fortress on Inishmore, an Aran island, which we viewed on Wednesday with a hefty climb that challenged even our most athletic colleagues, up slippery rocks and stones, but well worth the trip. We also had a local tour in a small van of the island and lunch of salmon, rice, tomatoes and greens at the Mainistir House with tea and biscuits.





The fighting Illini, out of breath.
Economy: Ireland's economy really is the "Celtic Tiger." We were all stunned by the beautiful, new homes, the expensive cars, fashionable shops and the bustling towns. We saw many upscale developments, but also plush, single family homes. As the Guardian reported: "Hames ir far tae dear fer ordnar fowkquhan pit langside the wages oan the mainlan’. Developers pour ootbaag amounts o’ money fae their bottomless pockets." It would take 2 college educated professionals spending one income on the mortgage to buy a home in most areas.

In the tourism industry, the service people are almost all foreign--Brazil, Poland, Slovakia, Scotland, the middle-east, Philippines, Germany etc. The minimum wage is around 8 Euros, and apparently, not many Irish will work for that ($11.20) because they would lose their government benefits. The Manila waiter at our hotel is sending money home to his wife and 3 children--he goes home once a year. Controlling immigration is a bit easier on an island. Even so, the law has recently been changed; a baby born in Ireland is not automatically a citizen. We could learn a few things from them about anchor babies. Right now, they seem to think their immigrants are temporary and only in the tourist trade. Yes, we used to think that about our agricultural workers. They could learn a few things from us.

We stopped at a Catholic Church and the newsletter was bi-lingual--Portuguese and Polish. The outside sign was digital giving days and times of mass and events.

Famine: One can't over estimate the long term effect of the 19th century famine on the Irish, or the percolating bitterness against the English and the Anglo-Irish. Not only did it decimate its population, but it sent millions to the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, where they enriched our culture. The population which had doubled in the early 1800s after the potato was introduced and changed their diet, was cut in half by the famine and the exodus. Many of the ships that carried them were called coffin ships because of the loss of life among the already sick and starving emigrants. While the people where evicted from their homes and starving, other crops that could have kept them alive were being exported.



Gaelic and English language: The Irish speak English and learn Gaelic as a second language (although it is a first language for many), however, English sounds quite different depending on the region or county of the speaker. John, our driver, was from Limerick and his vowels all seemed to melt into "a" as in farty (40); or far (for); and TH sound disappeared as in turty (30). Our guide Judy was from Dublin, but had lived about a decade in the USA. She's also an actress and gave us a stretch of dialogue from a play by a Dubliner--I didn’t understand a word. Road signs and many business names were in both languages. RTE, the Irish National Radio, which we received in our hotel rooms had news and programming in Gaelic.

Galway Bay:We didn't know our driver John had such a beautiful voice until on our way to lunch on the 10th he began to sing, Galway Bay, and for a brief moment, we were all displaced Irish longing for home:
"And if there's going to be a life hereafter
And somehow I feel sure there's going to be
I will ask my God to let me spend my heaven
In that dear isle across the Irish Sea."
Lunch overlooking Galway Bay

Genealogy: Interest in their Irish roots brings millions to Ireland, and there are Heritage Centers in each county with experience searchers to assist. On Thursday the 13th, Antoinette O'Brian of the Clare Heritage Center gave a fascinating presentation. The Irish didn't own their land and the rental agreements were set up so that all land eventually went back to the landlord. After the introduction of the potato, their tiny lots could support 10-15 people, and when that crop failed, evictions began of whole families. Today Ireland has the highest percentage of owner-occupied houses--ownership means a lot. Some of these centers have complete ledgers of people forced to leave. 125,000 people left County Clare, more than the current population. But the Irish continued to emigrate right up through the 1950s, and many didn't speak of the past. What you may know from family stories of your Irish ancestors is probably incorrect, she told us, with date of birth almost always wrong. Parish records have been indexed.

Memorial to a starving, orphaned child trying to get into the workhouse. The inscription begins: "Gentlemen, There is a little boy named Michael Rice of Lahinch aged about 4 years. . . "

Our Ireland trip from A to C

ABC: What our bus driver called many of the ruins--"another bloody castle." They really are everywhere, some accessible for tours, other in farm yards with the animals, some just a pile of rocks.

Here we see a 4th century fortress attached to a 17th century house and there is a cow and bull in the yard.

Alumni tour: Our AHI tour group was primarily from the University of Georgia and the University of Illinois, with one couple from Indiana University. By the final week, we were almost interchangeable, and had become good friends, sharing stories, travel tips and health tips (Irish coffee for our shared colds).

This is the Illinois group on one of our final excursions, at Woodstock House and Gardens, a national park near Inistioge being restored to its mid-19th century look. Lots of unusual plants and flowers--including a large redwood--and thick limbed bushes that looked like what we see in Florida. Four miles of foot paths.

Anniversaries: The U of I Alumni Association sent a bottle of wine to our room for our 47th anniversary. We also celebrated the anniversary of my birth--so there was a candle in my dessert the night of our "graduation" party.


Billboards: The Irish countryside is beautiful--just as green as you could imagine, fields outlined with rock fences around pastures filled with beautiful cows, black faced sheep and muscled horses. One thing contributing to the beauty is the lack of billboards. Nothing to block your view. We didn't see any until getting close to Dublin. According to the stats, Irish agriculture is about 9% of the economic output, but I think they should throw in a little tourism into that figure--truly the most beautiful rural scenes I've ever seen.




Cill, Church: Cill in Irish (Gaelic) means church, and we saw a lot of them. If you see Kil- in front of a place name, there’s probably a church in its history, like Kilkenny where we spent 5 days. Ireland was Christian before it was Roman Catholic. Many churches and monasteries were partially demolished by the various invaders--the Vikings, the Normans or the English--and there's been so much divisiveness and wars in Ireland between the Catholics, Church of Ireland, and Protestants, I couldn't begin to keep score. But from what I learned in the lectures, and overheard from the people and guides, the Irish are a bit schizophrenic when it comes to the Catholic church. Although they would not think of converting to something else, they also don’t want the church to control their lives as it did in the past. Few young people go to seminaries now, depleting the priesthood and religious orders. Maybe the scandals started it, but the booming economy, called the "Celtic Tiger" is the death blow--perhaps their most serious invader to date. I hope it doesn't become just a part of the history lectures and tours.

This is Ennis Abbey, originally scheduled for our first day, but we were delayed getting in due to fog in Shannon.

Replicated windows in the Black Abbey in Kilkenny.

Coole Park and Thoor Ballylee: Coole Park was the estate and home of Lady Gregory, a playwright and friend of W. B. Yeats, which we toured on September 11. Then it was down the road to Yeat's summer home, Thoor Ballylee, a 16th century castle. We saw a film at both places for additional information. The morning segment before the excursion was a literature lecture that I had a little trouble following--too many parenthetical phrases and too many beliefs in mysteries and fairies.

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We're back from Ireland

In Ireland green I caught the grippe
while touring onboard a famine ship.
In Waterford it was crystal clear
blogging would be light when I got here.
Bus to Dublin, a Chicago flight--
On to Columbus, to sleep all night.
When I’m back on top, I’ll check my notes,
photos upload and unload my totes.
The reconstructed Dunbrody which carried Irish immigrants to Canada, 1845-1870. Unlike some that were "coffin ships," this carrier had a good captain, and most arrived alive.

The trip, A-C
The trip, D-G
The trip, H-J
The trip, K-M
The trip, N-P
The trip, Q-R
The trip, S-T
The trip, U-Z
The trip, Thirteen things I noticed about Ireland

Posting from Ennis, Ireland

We're having a great time--now visiting the DeValera library which is inside an old church ruins (Presbyterian, of course). We're enjoying our colleagues from the University of Illinois and the University of Georgia, and our Irish lecturers and tour guides. Today we're walking around the town, while about half the group took the bus for a shopping tour of Blarney. Yesterday we visited the islands--more about that later with photos!

We're off to Ireland

Although I had access to a computer when we were in Finland last year, I don't expect to be blogging from Ireland. I've posted our schedule and sites here. I'm hoping the weather will be coolish, because I've packed more fall clothes than summer. I've got lots of things here for you to read, in case you miss me.

It's not cheap to travel, but thanks to President Bush's tax cuts we can. I've written about this before. I watched our investments and my 403-b stagnate and sink the year I retired (2000), then they took another hit from terrorists the following year. Our house was on the market on 9/11, and talk about real estate going nowhere! But we've weathered the storm, and the economy has been booming regardless of how the Democrats have tried to stop it and nay-say it.

Mr. Bush and I don't agree on many things, like immigration reform, North American union, and his inability to regroup his Republican Congress so that he could push through some much needed reforms in Social Security. The war hasn't gone well, many mistakes were made, but I'm thankful we aren't abandoning the Iraqis like we did the Vietnamese, or negotiating millions into starvation the way we did in Korea. And looking at the current crop of candidates, he may be the last Republican president who will hold the line on killing the unborn and using them for medical research.

However, I do thank him for this wonderful trip to Ireland to visit the home of my ancestors (Scots-Irish, 18th c., settled in TN), a place about the size of Ohio but with a much bigger history, a fascinating culture and a now booming economy.

Thursday Thirteen--13 communication tips for fathers

In today's Wall Street Journal a father of 3 writes to Sue Shellenbarger's column looking for resources he can read on spending better quality time with his children. As a former librarian, I'm always happy when someone wants to read a book, but even suggesting that the amount of time you spend is less important than what you do with the kids, rubs me the wrong way. Most kids just would like more time with dad. They are reading you each moment you are with them. They've got the rest of their lives to go to Disneyland, or play golf, or attend recitals, or listen to dad blather and rant on his favorite topic. Parents needs to be reminded of something I often overlooked: your children will be adults much longer than they will be minors.

So here are my 13 tips for quality time with your children, dad. There are lots of ways to communicate (we have 5 senses) and sometimes, keeping your mouth shut is one of them.

1) Show affection and respect for their mother. No longer married? Never married? Don't say a single negative thing about their mother, your own mother or her mother in front of them. You are modeling good male behavior. You are not only the man of the house, but you are Every-man to them.

2) Get home from work at a decent hour and eat a sit-down, in-the-home dinner, not in front of the TV. It's nice if you know how to cook, but not essential. Let the kids help with prep and clean up--it is time together, and a learning opportunity for you both. Save the eating out--even at fast food places or pizza--for special events. You'll also save a lot of money.

3) Always be the grownup around their friends. Clean up your mouth. No dirty jokes, swearing, cussing around the little boys. No flirting or over the top or slobbery compliments for the little girls. They just might be laughing at you instead of with you if you're pulling those stunts.

4) Don't dress like a slob or from the box of donations, even when working in the yard. Don't imitate the kids' fashion trends--you'll look silly and embarrass them. Buy a decent pair of long pants and a shirt with a collar so that when you are in public the waitress knows who gets the check. Pay attention to your personal hygiene. Shave. Haircut. Deodorant. You know--the basics without smelling like the Tommy counter at a men's boutique.

5) Make your home a tech-free zone for at least an hour when you are all at home together or after dinner. No gaming or other addictive behavior. No checking e-mail, blogging, or alternate reality cybersurfing. No cell phones, i-pods, blackberries. No TV, TIVO, or DVDs. Zip, nada, zilch. You'd be surprised when you unplug how you will learn to talk and listen to children.

6) Go to religious services with them; don't just drop them off, or let the bus pick them up at the door, or send them with a friend. Know when the special events are and show up. Find one thing you can volunteer for which will help free up another over-committed dad, but don't let it become something that takes time away from your children.

7) Don't turn your sons into sissies or swaggering macho-men.

8) Don't turn your daughters into prissies, sassies or baby britneys.

9) Eat healthy in front of them. Don't give them cause to fear you will drop dead from a heart attack, COPD or diabetes. Don't smoke or become drunk in their presence. Children watch that behavior like hawks. They see all the ads and billboards--then look at you to see what you're doing.

10) Model good financial habits. Don't ever cheat or skip out on a responsibility--especially not a support payment; pay your bills on time; watch out how you use plastic; teach them a few acronyms and numbers like IRA, FICA, 401-k and 403-b and expand their vocabulary with key words such as equities, mortgage, taxes and mutual funds.

11) Let them see you active, but not so obsessed with running or golf or the gym that it takes you away from them. Don't expect them to enjoy your favorite sport--or any sport, but get them in the habit of moving something besides the finger on the remote or keypad of the cellphone.

12) Spend time with them at bath time when they are little and bed time at least up to age 10; listen to their prayers, tuck them in at night. One by one. Quiet time alone. It may not do a thing for them, but it will do a lot for you and help keep your head on straight about priorities and why you are working so hard.

13) Don't be afraid to do things with them just because it's good for them--art shows, concerts, visiting relatives or volunteering. Tuesday we went to the Columbus Museum of Art with our son and his friend at his invitation and reminisced how we took him to art shows when he was little, protesting the entire time. It's not his favorite thing to do even today, but it's nice to know he can hold up his end of a conversation about art.



Visit the Thursday Thirteen Hub!

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What happened to drowning worms?

Health and sex education for young people in the 1950s ended with high school--and about all I can remember is a matronly woman dropping a worm in a bottle of Coca Cola so we could see that it would die. Or did she force it to smoke a cigarette? We certainly didn't have any required sex or health courses in college.

In today's WSJ Christian C. Sahner, who must have had the dream job of the summer as an intern of sorts at the paper before he is launched as a Rhodes Scholar, writes about sex ed at Princeton:

"At Princeton, the freshman class must attend "Sex on a Saturday Night" (SoSN) during its first week. It's a university-organized, student-performed play designed to warn about sexual assault and alcohol abuse. Many schools have similar programs. Its noble intentions are overshadowed, however, by a deleterious message: College is time to get busy (and not just in the library)!"

The play includes 10 characters, telling raunchy, crude jokes with one hokey abstainer who uses a copy of Playboy. The message isn't neutral at all, Sahner reports. It presents "consent" as the only moral principle in "hooking up," whether gay or straight, male or female. All other considerations like pregnancy, STDs, or depression stemming from treating sexual relationships like a college sport, are all irrelevant.

It would be nice, given the statistics on moral students from in tact families that he suggests, if the students just laughed this off the way we did the worms in the bottle. But why is Princeton force feeding such a degrading view of sex with this compulsory, repulsive requirement?

Parents: you're paying the bills. Is this what you want for an education?

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Hillary's math

She likes to point out she has more experience than Obama. "I don’t think, based on my 35 years in fighting for what I believe in, anybody seriously believes I am going to be influenced by a lobbyist or a particular interest group." Thirty-five years. Let's see. Wife of a two-term governor, wife of a two-term President. Some time in a law firm with squishy billing and ethics. Time fighting for the civil rights of the Black Panthers; time working as an intern for an American Communist. Since 2001 she's been a senator from New York, having moved her residency there in order to run. As a member of the Armed Forces committee, she's had the inside track on the build up to the war and voted for it, confirming the information on WMD. But even if I add in PTA, baking cookies, church committees and the time she was a Republican (which could count as fighting for what you believe in for millions), I just can't come up with 35 years.

However, in listening to an interview with an author who has written about how the U.S. has failed to take the Iran threat seriously, the author ran through all the presidents who have ignored the growing problem, saying, ". . .not Jimmy Carter, not President Reagan, not the Bushes, and not the Clintons." Was that a slip or did he see those 8 years as a co-presidency?

4116

Edwards on health care

James Taranto at Best of the Web wonders about this story: ". . . liberals, who these days are more or less uniformly pro-abortion, invariably speak of that practice in terms of "privacy" and "choice." But how in the world can anyone who values privacy and choice more than life itself possibly countenance a policy of forcing women to have mammograms?"

Monday Memories--from Nigeria and Iowa

This holiday week-end four of my third cousins are gathering to honor their parents 90th and 91st birthdays. I sent a note of congratulations and remembrance, because for a number of years I have been corresponding with their mother, Marianne, who assembled a huge family genealogy and had it published in 1998. I've never met her, but her grandmother (Mary Ann George b. 1843) and my mother's grandfather (David George b. 1828) were brother and sister born in Adams County, PA, both moving to the midwest as adults [this made Mom and Marianne second cousins because they shared the same great-grandparents]. My mother had visited Marianne's family in Iowa with her family when Mom was a little girl, but I think it was the 1970s before the families reconnected, and Mom began to assemble family information with my help for the pending genealogy (which didn't appear for another 20 years).

Marianne and her husband were missionaries for the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria for 13 years, and upon returning to Iowa, she got a Master's in Social Work and had a second career in hospital social work and was an adjunct faculty member at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Her complete biography, list of publications, and details of her work in Nigeria and Iowa can be found in the university archives. She wrote articles for the Gospel Messenger when she was in Africa. Although we received that magazine in our home, I doubt that my mother recognized her married name, or knew that this was the cousin she had visited as a little girl.

Shortly before she moved to a retirement home a few years ago (in 2003 I think), Marianne sent me some family antiques, all hand crafted. The pottery pieces were made in Maryland; the flax blanket was woven in Pennsylvania by an itinerant weaver, but spun by the girls in the family. The pastry wheel probably belonged to my great-great-great grandmother if I read the information correctly (possibly Rachel Danner, but that looks a bit murky), and is beautifully crafted. Would probably still work. The pottery and blanket belonged to yet another brother (of David and Mary Ann) Cornelius George b. 1827 and his wife Caroline Evans, who are buried in Ashton, IL.

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Why the Democrats have become the party of wealth

Actually, I don't know the answer to this. Guilt? Boredom? Easy to sell their votes? Foreign interests? But I think there was a lot of ignorance displayed in the comments to this column at wealth report.

"Democrats are winning the war on ideas."
• Have they had a new idea since the 60s?

"being a Republican is increasingly associated with cultural conservatism vs economic conservatism–anti-abortion, fundamental Christianity, and on some level, a general hostility to gays and ethnic minorities."
• But Democrats ran on this in 2006 as soft and squishy, pro-family and loving Jesus, and won. They watched what the Republicans did in 2004 and imitated them.

"nobody seems to have fully recognized the fault line between Burke-ean/Kirk-ean true communitarian conservatives vs Locke-ean/J.S. Mill-ean individualistic liberals."
• Huh?

"Republicans have surrendered or been highjacked by the “(im)moral majority” and neo-con paranoids, the normal people in the middle are left to vote democratic."
• Show me where these so-called "moral majority" folks are in power. Where is the community that doesn't have abortion clinics, or judges saying gays can marry, or isn't tied up in regulatory red tape trying to save a spider or worm. Yes, where is all this conservative power?

"A reason for the rich (especially those from tech industries) to turn away from the Republican party? Creationism, to which the base is attached."
• Oh sure, creationists just have so much power. I started school in the 1940s and was NEVER taught anything but evolution. The commenters have been watching too many old movies. This is a media-made straw-man and these commenters are the proof. You can't put 5 Christians in a room and get them to agree on a 24-hour day, or a billion year day.

I have no idea why the rich are supporting Democratic candidates, but I know they go where they think they can make the most money. The Republicans abandoned their base and were voted out; now Democrats are abandoning theirs.

4113

The UA Labor Day Art Show

The Upper Arlington art show must be one of the largest and warmest, one day shows in the Columbus metropolitan area. We remember when it was small enough to be held at the city building, and when my husband entered.

1975 Labor Day Art ShowThirty two years later it is huge with musical performances, special events art participation for children, food concessions, TV cameras, and huge crowds. Also, people wear a lot less clothing today than they wore 30 years ago--especially senior citizens!

We wear short shorts.
Art on the lawn
Community orchestra
Activities for children
Our friend Linda Langhorst at her booth
It was a great show, but we're leaving--too hot!

Update on my walking goal

I really hate setting goals. Walking 2.5 miles a day for 100 days should not have been all that hard, but I only got in 167, according to my ticker. I'll try to get some in today and round it off at 170, throwing in a few steps for walking in parking lots, stores, and to and from the programs this summer. Maybe I forgot to update it? Maybe some days in the 90s it was too hot to walk? Maybe I stopped at too many yard sales to look at the books?



Here's my original plan.

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When levees break and bridges fall

both Republicans and Democrats do a lot of finger pointing, but the reality is there are no votes to be had by shoring up the collapsing infrastructure of our cities. People expect good roads, sound bridges, clean water, working telecommunications systems and power lines that don't fail, but they lust after the pop and sizzle of arts centers, sports complexes, convention centers and riverfront toys.

California is spending barely 3% of its state budget compared to 20% in 1960 on infrastructure. 80% of state transportation officials admit their 10 year plan will be inadequate. $1.6 trillion is needed to update our transit systems. More regions are having blackouts. Politicians, special interest groups, and environmentalists squabble over who brings home the pork and who will fry it. The highway system, for all the raging over polluting automobiles, has returned $6 in increased productivity for every $1 invested; sports stadiums return nothing, and often cost cities more than they invested.

Read the sad tale at Joel Kotkin's "Road Work."

An Op Ed in the WSJ last week (I think it was Aug. 28) pointed out: One group finding opportunity in New Orleans--maybe as many as 100,000--are Hispanic construction and clean-up crews, who are also branching out into small retail stores. If they are illegals, the author thought that was just fine. Because so many people have left, that would mean almost 40% the populace, if estimates are correct that the city only has about 273,000 with many residents deciding to start over in other states.

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How do I look in New Orleans

We received some sort of cable upgrade (digital, music, + oodles more channels) shortly before we left for the summer, so last night I sat down with a piece of sugar-free peanut butter chocolate pie to explore and become reacquainted, since I don't watch much TV. I stopped at a familiar face while clicking through--Finola Hughes, was was doing soap operas back when my daughter was addicted to General Hospital in the 1980s. Goodness. She looks fabulous and hasn't changed a bit. But even if she had, I'd know that voice anywhere.

She hosts a show called "How do I look?" and for its 100th edition, they selected three school teachers from New Orleans whose lives had been up-ended by Katrina. Their stories were heart wrenching. All had very nice middle-class homes. Two of them had evacuated with their children, after first not paying much attention to the warnings (they were very accustomed to hurricane warnings) and the third had been preparing for a family reunion and didn't even know about it until one of her children called. At first, she wouldn't leave her home because of her pets, but was finally rescued by a neighbor with a boat after the levee broke. Later she had to leave her beloved dog behind anyway, as rescuers further down the line wouldn't take the dog. She cried. I cried, and held my kitty a little closer (the pie was history by this time).

With a Style group of consultants, Finola lavished them with three new outfits ($1200 budget I think she said), a massage, manicure, pedicure, new hair styles and make-up plus bunches of gifts. One of the teachers had lost 45 lbs. after the storm and was living in a trailer, still wearing clothes 4-5 sizes too large. She'd lost the weight because the storm had changed her thinking about what was important--living a healthy life for her children. One woman (with the dog) had formerly been accustomed to dressing really sharp and loved high fashion. She'd lost not only her home, but everything in her closet--damaging her sense of self as a large, attractive career woman. Another who had evacuated with her baby, then lived elsewhere for 4 months, was living with a relative in a cramped house with no space for her personal belongings. She was reduced to t-shirts and jeans, like the others. She was probably the most articulate voice for NOLA survivors I've seen on TV.

Each woman got an outfit for work (teaching), a transition outfit, and a dressy, on-the-town ensemble, all with the right accessories like jewelry and shoes. Truly, they looked fabulous, and the children of the school were the audience for the "reveal," and they were an adorable, appreciate group.

A fun, heart warming and hopeful message for all. Thanks, Finola and Style TV.