National Day of Prayer

I've never been big on ecumenical, national observances because they usually have to be pretty watered down to please everyone. Today was a little different. I went over to the Mill Run Church at 7 a.m. (after my early coffee down the street) and joined other members and guests for breakfast and a delightful film made by our own Steve Puffenberger and his Run of the Mill Productions for the UALC 168 Project. I've seen a lot (OK, a little) of Christian films using "the folks" and most of them look pretty homemade. The viewing public, even me who may see only 3 movies a year, and embed the occasional YouTube in my blog, has become quite sophisticated on visual messages. Steve is a pro--he's the owner of Advent Media--and somehow the pastor and the prayer team working with Steve put together an outstanding product. It's not preachy, not particularly Lutheran, and could be used for any program on prayer, not just for this event. It's personal, professional, prayerful, and possibly the best production of its type I've ever seen. You can get a copy to use with your church or group by making a donation to the 168 Project Team, 2300 Lytham Rd., Columbus, OH 43220. I watched it again after I got home.

And yes, we did pray for the President and Governor.

LAT and Kerry worry about bloggers?

They should have worried about advertisers--business, commerce, capitalism, free enterprise, the markets--whatever you call that which the media have been systematically killing the last 20-30 years. Yes, we lost the local newspapers first--why did LAT, NYT and WSJ think that somewhere down the road it wouldn’t be their turn? Yes, advertisers need customers (readers, subscribers), but customers need someone besides the government (at all levels) to be in business, to be providing a service, to be competing to out do the next guy. Yes, technology and instant everything have changed the dynamics of information--but killing the golden goose of business by denigrating it sure didn‘t help. And bloggers will be next--we have nothing to say if the media collapse under the weight of their own foolishness and government regulation. Tweeting and Facebooking are much easier than blogging--and that will also contribute to "citizen journalism." However, if journalism has “values” as the author of the piece below claims, it certainly isn‘t objectivity or providing the facts (who, what, when, where, etc.). After 8 years of Bush bashing, and 3 years of Obama coddling, the media today are standing first on one foot and then the other, not knowing how to procede.

“There also is the important question of whether on-line journalism will sustain the values of professional journalism, the way the newspaper industry has. The new digital environment certainly is more open to “citizen journalism,” bloggers and the free expression of opinions.

In the last eight years, we have gone from zero bloggers to more than 70 million, and news is broken over twitter feeds and cell phones instead of on local broadcast networks. Just look at the way Janis Krums, a New York City ferry passenger, broke the news that flight 1549 out of LaGuardia had landed in the Hudson River -- he took a picture himself and tweeted the feed to an audience of thousands.” Top of the Ticket blog, LAT

Will Obama be able to match Bush's record on women?

From Elinor Burkett's So many enemies, so little time, pp. 104-105

“But everything in Afghanistan was about gender. While men were punished for what they did, for defying the authorities, the Taliban’s relentless war against Kabul’s middle-class women wasn’t a simple equation of crime and punishment. There was a desperation to the floggings and the stonings meted out to these women, a hysteria behind the ruthless and uncompromising humiliation that spoke to just how powerless the fundamentalist leadership felt in the new world that had taken root in Kabul, the world inching toward modern values like diversity, tolerance and equality. The sight of an unveiled rosy cheek or a lock of hair tousled by the wind was the most intimate, thus the most potent, symbol of a world they could no longer control, despite Allah’s command that they control it. Only by concealing that swath of flesh, by reining in those unruly tresses, could the men in power regain the sense that they were masters of their perversion of a Koranic domain.”

George W. Bush has freed those women. He has done more for women than any American president in history. He freed more people than Lincoln. Millions of women in Afghanistan can again have jobs, education and civil rights because of him. And the Left (who would all claim to be feminists) in this country and Europe won’t even mention it except to castigate him. From my blog, December 07, 2004, "The Taliban--It was about Gender"

Cash for your clunker?

Obama and his Dems can fool CNN, but not me.

"WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) -- The Obama administration has signaled its support for a congressional effort that aims to boost the troubled car industry by subsidizing new cars sales for consumers who scrap old ones.

Congressional Democrats, emerging from a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, said they had struck a deal on a bill to establish a one-year program to encourage the purchase of 1 million new cars and trucks that get better gas mileage."

Who's to determine what is a clunker? And when they've taken the 20 year old automobiles that burn a lot of oil, why not my 2002 Dodge van that gets 28-29 mpg on the highway, or my husband's 2000 SUV? Why not force pensioners like us and low income people into buying new cars by removing all the alternatives, or force them to use public transportation (which we don't have in Columbus, OH)? Or how about they just force them into signing up for new car loans to resuscitate the credit business which the government (Obama and the Dems) now own but don't have a clue how to manage? Or force out of business all the auto repair shops, auto repair training programs, or classic auto restoration businesses, or all the auto parts and junk lots, the scrap metal recyclers? What's another 20-30 industries destroyed when you already control the banks, the unions, the auto makers, the school loans programs, the entire education business, and can tell churches where they can display religious symbols and what they can preach from the pulpit. All in the name of "protecting" the environment and the messiah's favorite projects. Let's make the earth unsafe for people. Even the junk yard dog can be euthanized under the Obamachine plan--people shouldn't have pets anyway, right?

The face of our nation

You've probably seen photographs of the incredible face of Connie Culp who survived a shotgun blast to her face and through a "face transplant" from a cadaver, is now able to breathe, smell, blink, drink from a cup and eat solid food. Connie's original face wasn't perfect, but she was quite attractive--perhaps more so than 85% of the women you might know. Her eyes didn't have 20/20 hindsight, her complexion wasn't unblemished, and her smile was a bit crooked, and she probably didn't always make wise decisions with the brain behind that face. But after the shotgun blast, her face wasn't even human, and she could do nothing a human face usually does, like see, smell, taste, talk, breathe, etc. She was afraid to even go out--people made fun of her. I don't know why her husband Thomas shot her, but he must have hated her enough to kill her, but didn't succeed. And she must have originally loved him, or she wouldn't have chosen him--perhaps she was so in love she didn't pick up on his evil tendencies or thought she was strong enough to change him, or perhaps he developed them later. But he was in fact evil to the core.

And this is America today. We weren't perfect before--never claimed to be--we even took for granted the blessings we had and were often careless. But someone very evil has taken a shotgun and blasted away what we had. A new face will be transplanted, soon people like Ben Bernacke and Congress will pronounce it "the best we can do" and future Americans after a time of great upheaval and pain will be thrilled because they can drink and be merry and never know what their parents and grandparents had. They'll be told how imperfect and arrogant the old face was, and no one will show them a mirror.

Who in the devil wrote this poem?

G. Campbell Morgan preached a series of sermons about 100 years ago on "The world, the flesh and the devil." [The Westminster Pulpit, book 3-4, pp. 183-208] He said that this trinity of forces are distinct from each other but that any two of them are powerless without the third. Then he went on to preach three sermons, one on each. I've reread them several times, and think they could easily make a series of 6 or 9 sermons for today's shorter sermons and shorter attention spans.

Attribution was not a big thing for Morgan and he didn't provide the author of this poem, very clever and timely, considering what the polls say today:

Men don't believe in a devil now,
As their fathers used to do;
They reject one creed because it's old
For another because it's new.

There's not a print of his cloven foot,
Nor a fiery dart from his bow,
To be found in the earth or air today!
At least—they declare it is so!

But who is it mixes the fatal draught
That palsies heart and brain,
And loads the bier of each passing year
With its hundred thousand slain.

But who blights the bloom of the land today;
With the fiery breath of hell?
If it isn't the devil that does the work,
Who does? Won't somebody tell?

Who dogs the steps of the toiling saint?
Who spreads the net for his feet?
Who sows the tares in the world's broad field.
Where the Saviour sows his wheat?

If the devil is voted not to be,
Is the verdict, therefore, true?
Some one is surely doing the work
The devil was thought to do.

They may say the devil has never lived,
They may say the devil is gone;
But simple people would like to know
Who carries the business on?

So I went to Google, and found most attribution were to Alfred J. Hough, one as early as 1885 in a New Zealand newspaper. When I Google this name, I found a poet of the same name in Oddfellows of Vermont publications of the late 19th century (haven't taken the time to determine if they are one and the same).

Then there were two Catholic publications of recent years (one citing the other, I think) that listed Herbert Trench, Irish-born playwright (1865-1923) as the author, and he seems to believe the rumor, but wonders who's creating the mischief just the same. That version had some slightly different verses:

Who dogs the steps of the toiling saint
and digs the pit for his feet?
Who sows the tares in the field of time,
wherever God sows His wheat?

The devil is voted not to be,
and of course, the thing is true,
But who is doing the kind of work
the devil alone should do?

We are told he does not go
about as a roaring lion now,
But whom shall we hold responsible
for the everlasting row

To be heard in home, in church, in state,
to the earth’s remotest bound,
If the devil by a unanimous vote
is nowhere to be found?

Won’t somebody step to the front forthwith,
and make his bow and show
How the frauds and the crimes of the day spring up,
for surely we want to know.

The devil was fairly voted out,
and of course, the devil is gone.
But simple people would like to know,
who carries his business on?

Of course, it's possible that Trench was publishing as early as age 20, but given the early dates of circulation, I think I'll swing toward Hough with some borrowing, tweaking and weak copyright law by Trench.

Book Club Selections for 2009-2010

Can you believe we're writing 2010 already? Where did Y2K hysteria go? Into the current Swine/Mexican/Sebelius Influenza zone? Usually, I have the list up on my blog next day, because I take notes, but last night I was in the kitchen pouring lemonade and iced tea while the ladies lobbied their titles for next year. I remember a few--my choice of "Dewey," about the library cat of Spencer, Iowa; Three cups of tea; memoir of the lady who writes Ann Landers; The Virginian; something about Julia Child with a cooking lesson; Pilgrim's Progress; a really long title about a ladies' club on an island during WWII. I'll add the rest when I get the list.

The hostess doesn't need to supply the snacks, she has a co-hostess for that. Marcy brought dessert, so all I had to do was put out plates and serve the drinks--iced tea and lemonade and decaf. I used my good china--which I'm doing more often. What am I waiting for? No one touched the decaf and I had tea and lemonade left, so I mixed that together, but sent the yummies home with Marcy so I wouldn't be tempted. She'd made ginger snaps to go with the fresh fruit and dip, and my goodness! they were good. I think the only kind I'd ever had were factory made. Huge difference! My husband directed traffic to the neighbors' drive-ways--someone in another condo was also having a party, so parking was very tight.

Voting--finally--NO

We voted today. It wasn't easy. We've lived here since 2002, and this is our 4th polling location. No wonder some people just give up. I went to the location I thought was right and nothing was there. Came home, looked it up on the internet, and didn't even recognize the name of the building, but we eventually found it. The Catholic church where we last voted had purchased a fraternal building across the street and turned it into a parish hall, so that was the new location. However, when we got there we followed signage to nowhere, because what the arrow meant was "next door" not follow the arrow. We told the ladies at the bake sale about it, but nothing was changed when we left. I have always found polling places to be the most obscure, poorly signed buildings I've ever been to--for years we voted at St. Mark's in our old neighborhood, and they were always changing the room within the building. The voting machines are confusing for people who don't use computers--or even those of us who use them a lot. But that only matters in "ethnic" neighborhoods where Democrats might have a close vote. Anyway, just in case there were others who think our $25 million library levy is absurd and outrageous for the challenging times but couldn't figure out where to go to vote NO, I also voted against the Franklin county park issue. Normally, it would have had my vote easily. I can't take a chance on two local tax increases with Washington going crazy with economy killing measures.

Ohio will be hit very hard economically by Obamanomics, so we don't need more local taxes, although Mayor Coleman (an Obama-wannabee) is looking for "loose change." (He's as light skinned and handsome as Obama, but is a more fluent and traditional Democrat--seems to manage the English language without heavy reliance on the teleprompter. His wife's DUI problem has held him back.) Not only does Obama intend to kill our coal industry, but he has already killed the auto industry for us (yes, we are very close to Michigan in this area, not just geographically). The death of the auto industry will help in shuttering our local newspapers and local TV coverage, since they were heavy advertisers. But that's fine--all we need is the national media, right? And when they too are gone, there's always the government.

. . . the costs of accepting federal dollars from the ARRA will be a long-term drain on the private sector. The ARRA will increase the government expenditure wedge from 49.16% to 52.41% for an overall 3.25% increase. This increase will reduce the growth in real net business output by 2.5%, which translates to a reduction of 1.7 million jobs nationally - of which between 66,400 and 91,200 jobs will be lost in Ohio. Buckeye Institute

Oh NUTs
Nagging
Unfinished
TaskS
Blogging brake ahead.

Our health care system

And I use the term loosely, since it really isn't a system in any sense that we understand that word.

"In 2009 Medicare expenditures will exceed $400 billion, representing 13% of the federal budget and about one-fifth of all US expensitures on health care." JAMA, Feb. 11, 2009 citing Medicare: A Primer 2009,

and remember please, it isn't "free" for those of us who use it. Also, the early boomers hit 64 this year. Someone didn't do the math back in 1965. All the years I worked, I paid into Medicare (because I wasn't on Social Security), and now I pay quarterly to use it, plus I have to buy Supplemental to a private company if I really want any coverage that's meaningful. Of course, this can't be sustained, but we also have Medicaid and SCHIP, so don't kid yourself, Obamacare will cost even more. Also keep in mind, that the more successful our Nanny State is at getting people to stop smoking, eat more vegetables and fruits, lose weight, exercise more, and not visit bathhouses to have sex with infected men, the longer people are going to live, which is just going to add to the health costs as 90 and 100 year olds eventually wear out from all that healthy living.

Obama Bans Waterboarding Terrorists, But Pentagon Won't Say If It Still Waterboards Military Trainees

"Although President Obama has prohibited the use of waterboarding in interrogating captured al Qaeda terrorists, the Defense Department will not say whether it has stopped using waterboarding in its training of certain U.S. military personnel, as was discussed in a 2002 government memo made public last week. CNSNews.com April 22, 2009"

You might have seen a letter circulating around the Internet--it details the "torture" that our own U.S. Navy Survival Evasion and Resistance Escape (SERE) used to train pilots--this one during the Carter years. It has gone "viral" I'm sure, so if you haven't seen it yet in your e-mail, just google it. It's pretty gruesome and goes way beyond waterboarding. The DoD memo stated, "that waterboarding had a “near 100 percent” effectiveness rate in extracting information from [our Navy] trainees, while no soldiers were harmed physically or psychologically by it."

The retired pilot suggests that if there are any charges brought against the Bush administration officials, then there should be a class action suit against all those presidents in office, including Carter and Clinton, whose administrations participated in torturing our Navy pilots.

He also asks why John McCain, who is against torture, supported SERE.

Good point. HT Howard.

Counter Terrorism at the liberal Aspen Institute

On April 9, 2009, Michael Leiter, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a holdover from Bush in the new Obama administration, addressed members of government, industry, media, and the public policy community convened by the Aspen Institute’s Homeland Security Program at the Institute’s Washington offices. I'm sure he would have preferred being invited to Aspen in the summer, but oh well. . .

Director Leiter discussed the current state of Al Qaeda. According the the Aspen Institute website . . . "he argued that efforts to kill or capture senior leadership in the last year or so have succeeded in significantly diminishing Al Qaeda’s ability to strike the homeland. Still, the group continues to be a major security threat, and defeating it must remain a top priority for policymakers, notwithstanding the economic crisis and the many other domestic and foreign crises that now vie for our leaders’ attention."

During Q & A (very hard to hear the quetions) he sets the record straight--it's no accident that the U.S. wasn't attacked during the Bush years. But if we are attacked during the Obama years, it doesn't mean we have failed. "Intelligence is an imperfect business . . . " It's called CYA.

I sensed the host was trying to trip him up a bit, but he really is covering his bases here. This was before Napolitano's Tea Party fiasco. This is not the most scintillating talk I've ever heard, but these kinds of things are going to become less and less available, unless a non-government, non-Aspen site is archiving them (unlikely). I'm guessing that Mr. Leiter will soon be among the unemployed and that the NCTC will either disappear or quietly be folded into something else, and never be heard from again. After all, our current President believes his personal charm will protect us.

Accuracy in Media noted in 2006 that "the Aspen Institute is the number one sponsor of privately funded travel for members of Congress, having spent $3.4 million on Congress from 2000-2005. Aspen is one vehicle whereby left-wing billionaires like George Soros work to influence politicians on Capitol Hill by bringing them to luxurious places, hotels and resorts, and listening to mostly liberal and left-wing speakers."

Repeating myself on George W. Bush

I wrote this in December 2008 after looking through a Sept. 18, 1939 Life magazine about the WWII we hadn't yet entered. It's even more true now.

"The writers even called it a world war--and we weren't in it. I looked through several issues. Despite Bush's failures on the financial front in 2008, I was again so glad that he pursued the terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq and has kept his word for all these years. He acted with virtually total support of both parties, and one by one they fell away, abandoning principals and allies.

Really folks, the USA's record for the 20th century is pretty crummy. Yes, you can talk about the "greatest generation"--they did respond after millions had already died in Europe and China. But we dawdled around in WWI, jumping in at the last moment/months of the war. We abandoned millions of our east European allies to the Soviets in 1945. We negotiated Korea and 55 years later we're still messing with north Korea. Then we ran out on the Vietnamese thanks to our home-grown spoiled boomers like Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and Jane Fonda.

God bless George W. Bush and we'll let history decide if we had any Presidents in the last 100 years who had all the body parts those guys are reputed to possess--spine, balls, and guts."

This week's bargain--Urbie Green and Umpteen Trombones

Doing jumping jacks in aerobics class can cause heart rate problems for me (born with an extra circuit that causes A-fib), but so can finding a great bargain. But a bargain with trombones! Be still my heart!

Thursday at the Discovery Shop (resale shop for American Cancer Society) I found a CD titled, "Umpteen Trombones" featuring Urbie Green and 20 other trombonists (Kai Winding, Eddie Bert, Wayne Andre, Will Bradley, Bill Elton, Phil Giardina, Mervin Gold, Mickey Gravine, J.J. Johnson, Barry Maur, Lou McGarity, John Messner Jr., Buddy Morrow, Jack Rains, Sonny Russo, Charles Small, Chauncy Welsch, Jimmy Cleveland, Harry Di Vito). I knew nothing about it, but for one dollar, it would have to be very bad or a pirated copy not to be the deal of the month, or year. I bought it and 3 others for a total of $4.00, Regis Philbin (2004), Charlotte Church (1998), and Jack Widner at the Clarmont (local pianist, n.d.). I popped it into my CD player in the van on the way home--and WOW! I thought I'd cry, it was so beautiful. My right hand was trying to do that little slide vibrato movement while I drove, and that's just not safe!

So I needed to find out something about it and turned to Google. Here's the most helpful item I found about Umpteen Trombones after looking through what seemed like dozens of newsletters about jazz and listservs about trombones and prices ranging from $4 to $200:

Rich Woolworth on The Trombone Forum in 2005 wrote: " "Umpteen Trombones," released on CD in 1987, is "Twenty-One Trombones" (Volume 1), originally released in 1967. Several years after Volume 2 was released (1968) Project 3 re-released both as a two-record set. To my knowledge Volume 2 was never released on CD.

Volume 1 is mostly ballads and showcases Urbie's gorgeous tone and tasty style. Volume 2 is nowhere near as good as Volume 1. Volume 2 leans more heavily on pop tunes of the day with a boogaloo beat and novelties ("The Green Bee" is of course a rock version of "Flight of the Bumble-Bee" and was considered for the the theme song to the 1968 TV show "The Green Hornet". It seemed like a perfect match but Al Hirt's version was selected). Volume 2 does have some nice Ellington tunes, and "Timbe" by Tommy Newsome is a study in bell-tones."

At All About Jazz I found a brief bio about Urbie Green and his son Jesse Green:

"[Urban] Urbie Green was born [Aug. 8, 1926] and raised in Mobile, Alabama, and by the time he was sixteen was working professionally with Tommy Reynolds band. There followed music and years with Jan Savitt, Frankie Carle, Gene Krupa, and finally, Woody Herman. In October 1950, Urbie became part of Woody Herman's Thundering Herd, and in 1954 won the Down Beat International Critics Award for NEW STAR.

Urbie became one of the most sought-after trombonists for recording and club work in New York City. He is a multiple winner of the Most Valuable Player Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and perhaps the most recorded musician of all time. He has recorded with Gene Krupa, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Leonard Bernstein, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee, Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, Mile Davis, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Barbara Steisand, Perry Como, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, J.J.Johnson, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Burt Bacharach, Buck Clayton and Herbie Mann, to name a few. . . Urbie Green actually settled in the Poconos and raised a family with his wife Kathy Preston, herself a big-band singer. Pianist Jesse Green is their talented son, and he still calls Delaware Water Gap home. . .Jesse Green dips his toes into the New York scene occasionally, but he spends most of his time teaching piano and trombone out of the home he shares with his wife and three daughters.

So I'm happy.

The Charlotte Church CD turned out to be a Christmas album, but that's OK. The Regis CD wouldn't play in the car, but worked in the office. The Widner CD has some serious issues--a little faint background squeek, and some burps, but I gave it a good rub on my sweater, and it improved a lot. (David Meyers notes that Widner is in the Columbus Senior Hall of Fame, 2003).

Soapy, the Germ Fighter

So, it looks a little corny for today's audiences, but it gets the message across about washing your hands. Good information, fun piece.

From Internet Archive. It's got great old movies and documentaries and commercials.

Perspective on the Sebelius Flu

"In 2005, the flu killed 63,001 people in the United States, according to the CDC. But that year the President of the United States did not use a primetime news conference to admonish the American people that they must wash their hands, and the Vice President did not say he would not want his family to have to ride on a plane or a subway because someone might sneeze near them.

An average of 36,171 people died each year of flu in the United States from 1993 to 2003, according to a recent CDC study.

Despite the recent fervor surrounding swine flu, conventional flu viruses have killed far more people than other, more publicized, strains in recent years. Avian flu, for example, has killed 257 people worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. It has killed no people at all in the United States."

Finish reading the article here.

On March 15-20 about 170 of us from the Columbus area returned from the Middle East. About 20 of us got sick on the way home. Some got sick after arriving home--some 2 or 3 days later with fever, aches and chills. It took about 4 weeks for my GI track to return to normal, although I didn't go to the hospital. Still I was lying on the floor of the airport for several hours, and someone had to get me to the front of the line at customs. I'm just thankful it wasn't during this scare. I'd still be at LaGuardia!

The illiberal left

It's never more apparent than in a discussion about Sarah Palin--one of the few women politicians I can recall who didn't get to office on her father's death, or her husband's coattails (or wealth). Liberals hate her for being successful without them, and for not aborting her baby whose disability was known before birth (93% of babies with Down's are aborted). This is terribly threatening to feminists. But they can get riled up at a photo of a bear sofa.



The comments confirm it. They'll wear leather jackets, or sandals, though. . .

Two areas of concern where I support Obama

Better rail service between cities and reducing the prison sentences for possession of crack. Those are totally unrelated issues, but both needed some high profile attention. We love to travel by train, but unfortunately AMTRAK is exhibit one of the way our the government runs a business. In 2003 we took the train to California and back to my father-in-law's 90th birthday. We stopped to visit the Grand Canyon on the way, and Glacier National Park on the way back. It's a relaxing, friendly way to travel. Another time we parked the car in Toledo and rode the train to downtown Chicago for about $6.00 (it was a special)--cheaper than we could pay to park.


Prisons are schools for crime, and they are universities for young black men sentenced for crack possession when young white men would get much less time for powdered, if they got time at all. It's probably one of the most racist laws still on the books, and if it takes a black president to get it removed (black legislators pushed for it, as I recall, because of related crime in black neighborhoods, not realizing the unintended consequences), so be it.

Saving a culture through its books

99% of the people who visit the National Yiddish Book Center can't read the books, and neither could Aaron Lansky when at age 23 he set out to save thousands and thousands of priceless Yiddish books, books that had survived immigration across many countries and destruction by Hitler and Stalin. The older, Yiddish speakers were dying, and their treasures were being thrown out. Yiddish books were a portable homeland, and after Jews had a homeland, many people forgot them. His first visit to an elderly man involved sitting down with him to hear the story of each book. Stop at the home page and click on the brief film about the National Yiddish Book Center. (I was unable to embed the video.) I had tears in my eyes and marveled at the story of this young man who saved a culture that spanned hundreds of years and many cultures.

And now, through Internet Archive, you can visit too. The National Yiddish Book Center, founded in 1980, "is proud to offer online access to the full texts of nearly 11,000 out-of-print Yiddish titles. You can browse, read, download or print any or all of these books, free of charge. These titles were scanned under the auspices of our Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library, and have been made available online through the Internet Archive."

The index isn't difficult to use, the tags are self explanatory, and even if you don't read Yiddish, you can enjoy the pictures, like the 1926 vegetarian cook book I looked through.

I started my professional career (as a graduate assistant) unpacking and dusting off hundreds of PL 480 books in the bowels of the library at the University of Illinois. I can start sneezing from the memory of mold of the boxes and boxes of books brought to the vet library from the barn after grandpa died and no one knew what to do with his books. So I have a tender spot for this story. Many years ago I'd read about Lansky's efforts--probably before he had a building, and long before digitization made it possible for me to see his efforts. A truly amazing rescue work.

Government waste

Obama certainly isn't the first president to burn tax dollars at an alarming rate, although he's gone far beyond anyone's wildest dreams last fall. Even so, I wouldn't have given approval for GWB to establish the National Counterterrorism Center for Kids, and if Obama eventually gets around to taking it down, he'll have my full support. Kids should be out riding bikes, or fishing, or climbing trees, not surfing the internet looking for information on terrorism. (You can tell the age level by the cartoon figures.)

The NCTC was created to defeat and deter international terrorism. We were created in order to bring together all the abilities of the United States Government to help in this cause.

The people who work for the NCTC and our partner agencies have a vested interest in keeping the country and the world safe from terrorists and terrorist acts. Thinking of their families, friends, and country is more than motivation enough in this fight against terrorism.

Does Geithner know this?

Here's what it says on the Treasury Taxes web site--this could be serious for Timmy and other Obama appointees if they were serious

"Collecting taxes in a fair and consistent manner is a core mission of the Treasury Department. Treasury's priorities in tax administration are enforcing the nation's tax laws fairly and efficiently while balancing taxpayer service and education to promote voluntary compliance and reduce taxpayer burden."

But while I was there I signed up for a newsletter on taxes. Should be fun. Now that Obama has killed Chrysler, I probably won't be needing this. I love my Dodge van. I doubt that I've ever seen a 2009.

Country Reports on Terrorism 2008, April 2009

This recently released report for 2008 is just fascinating--not only for what it reports on terrorism (don't know how that word slipped past the current censors), but for all the "soft" influence such as media--TV, radio, internet, books--and education we've been supporting, particularly in Muslim countries. Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 is submitted in compliance with Title 22 of the United States Code, Section 2656f (the "Act"), which requires the Department of State to provide Congress a full and complete annual report on terrorism for those countries and groups meeting the criteria of the Act.

For instance, I don't know if Sesame Street (It's not easy being green) has ever been proven to have any long term affect on the education of American children (it's over 40 years old so we should be able to see something if it has had an influence), but it is a huge hit in Bangladesh.

USAID also supports the extremely successfully television program, Sisimpur (Sesame Street), which is the most widely viewed children‘s television show in Bangladesh. It is estimated to reach 7.5 million young children weekly, nearly half of all three to six year olds. The television episodes aim to improve skills such as literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking, as well as hygiene practices such as hand washing and dental hygiene. The TV program also portrays positive socio-emotional and cultural knowledge, values, and skills; appreciation of diversity; illustrates the capacity of children with disabilities; depicts successful women across professions; and demonstrates self-respect and respect for others. Combined, the two programs have helped to combat traditionally low achievement and high dropout rates in the lower primary grades.

Also there's a detailed list of terrorist organizations with brief, pithy descriptions, acronyms and A.K.A. names beginning about page 282:

Abu Nidal Organization (ANO)
Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
Al-Shabaab Ansar
al-Islam Armed Islamic Group
Asbat al-Ansar
Aum Shinrikyo
Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA)
Communist Party of Philippines/New People's Army
Continuity Irish Republican Army (CIRA)
Gama'a al-Islamiyya
HAMAS
Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami/Bangladesh (HUJI-B)
Harakat ul-Mujahideen
Hizballah Islamic Jihad Union (IJU)
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jemaah Islamiya (JI)
Al-Jihad Kahane Chai (Kach)
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LT)
Lashkar i Jhangvi (LJ)
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
Libyan Islamic Fighting Group
Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
Mujahadin-e Khalq
Organization National Liberation Army (ELN)
Palestine Liberation Front – Abu Abbas Faction
Palestinian Islamic Jihad – Shaqaqi Faction
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command
Al-Qa’ida
"Description: Al-Qa‘ida (AQ) was established by Usama bin Ladin in 1988 with Arabs who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. The group helped finance, recruit, transport, and train Sunni Islamic extremists for the Afghan resistance. AQ‘s near-term goal is uniting Muslims to fight the United States and its allies, overthrowing regimes it deems "non-Islamic," and expelling Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslim countries. Its ultimate goal is the establishment of a pan-Islamic caliphate throughout the world. AQ leaders issued a statement in February 1998 under the banner of "The World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders" saying it was the duty of all Muslims to kill U.S. citizens, civilian and military, and their allies everywhere. AQ merged with al-Jihad (Egyptian Islamic Jihad) in June 2001, renaming itself Qa‘idat al-Jihad."
Al-Qa’ida in Iraq (Tanzim Qa‘idat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn)
Al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)
Real IRA Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
Revolutionary Nuclei
Revolutionary Organization 17 November
Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front
Shining Path
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia

Read the full report--about 330 pages with a statistical annex by Gary LaFree, University of Maryland, dated March 2009.

Help Wanted

Looking for a gay (or bi- or ambivalent or transgendered), disabled, Hispanic-Asian biracial female who was a teen-age mother on welfare (or the daughter of one), but has overcome all those challenges and finished high school, and possibly college. An abortion or two is a given, of course. If you know anyone, Obama needs a fail-safe nominee to please the most donors to his campaign for a Supreme Court appointment. Oh yes, tax problems would be a plus.

Brand Loyalty

Yes, we are a consumer society--authors published mega-hits writing about how we shouldn't buy so much because it was rotting our souls--all the while, hawking their books on Oprah or Dr. Phil. When unemployment was 4.5 in Ohio, newspapers were still writing sob stories about "this economy" and why we should elect a Democrat. Now it's 9.7 and they are just starting to see how they contributed to the problem. But that's history. We've got the man. So what will you give up now that we're in a recession and you can't whip out the credit card, or you're looking forward not to the next career step up, not the next promotion, but just hoping for the next payday.

Would you be willing to change. . . in no particular order

Laundry detergent? Yes, and I have, but occasionally purchase my favorite because I love the fragrance.

From dryer to clothes line? I'd love to have a clothes line, but our city doesn't allow it. It's also good exercise. I use one at Lakeside in the summer. Added advantage of bleaching the hubbie's underwear.

Dishwasher detergent? Yes, and I have, however, I discovered I was using too much.

Beauty school hair cut rather than your regular hair dresser or barber? Absolutely not.

Veterinarian? I've heard people say they'd give up their family doctor before they'd give up their vet. I love our internist, and wouldn't change. The vet's nice, but . . . yeah, I'd change, or use her less frequently.

No hair color? Hmmm. That's still on the table. My mother looked awful with gray hair, very smart with white hair. I have her coloring (very pale). I may have to wait a few more years for white. Although it would save money. It might depend on Obama and how long he can extend this poor economy.

Thrift shop, or remainderer rather than a "sale" at a major retailer. Sure, do it all the time. Those items are often newer than what's in my closet since I retired in 2000. Other bargains too. Yesterday I got a fabulous trombone CD for $1.00.

Library instead of book store? Normally, I'm a heavy library user, or was for many years. I've been using OSU more than UAPL because it's so handy in its temporary location on Ackerman (soon to close). I think I did purchase more books in 2008 than any other year, however. If UAPL manages to fool the public and get this $25 million levy passed, I may just have to boycott it.

Dollar movie or first run? We see so few movies, that they are almost always at the dollar theater by the time I notice them. Two tickets plus a small bag of pop corn equals the price of one first run ticket.

Sit down or carry out? I'm not much for carry out except for the occasional pizza. A meal out with friends is entertainment plus a meal.

Supermarket frozen pizza prepared at home or pizza shop fresh and hot at home? Definitely not the frozen. Like eating cardboard--no savings there if your tastebuds rebel.

Invite friends for dinner at home or eat out? Either, but serving friends dinner is cheaper than eating out, even at McDonald's and the plus is, you'll probably clean the house.

Coffee at home or designer coffee at the shop? For me, it has to be "out." I read the newspapers, write in my blog notebook, talk to friends and neighbors, and listen to music--that's a lot for $1.69. Also, I don't make very good coffee.

Public pool (or tennis) membership for the family or private club? It's been since the early 80s that we had a family membership at the pool, but if you live in a nice town with a good recreation program for which you're being taxed, why would you not do this (ours was within walking/biking distance)? Snob appeal?

Change banks to avoid high fees? We haven't done that--yet. We've been at Huntington since 1967. I think they are all high, but we don't use a lot of services that could get us into trouble. Same with credit cards. We've never had a fee or interest charge.

Change churches to avoid stewardship sermons? Our church has "the talk" so seldom, that wouldn't be the issue if change were in our future.

Use cheaper or free exercise facilities and drop the club membership? Yes, exercising at UALC Lytham is about $1.33 per session which probably doesn't even cover the utilities. We get weights, resistance, stretching and cardiovascular. Walking outside is free, of course, the last I checked.

Buy house brand frozen vegetables rather than name brand? Yes, but only certain vegetables would I buy frozen--except for corn and peas, most of them taste like mush. Fresh is better.

Tithe regularly from the top or pitch in occasionally from the bottom as the plate goes by? For us, the tithe (10% of gross) has been the way to go--no problems since we started that about 35 years ago. Then pitch in for the extras like special campaigns, other good causes, diseases, disaster relief, etc. But this works out differently for other families.

Day 100, and counting

"Today (yesterday April 29) marks the 100th day of Barack Obama’s presidency; a presidency that is every bit as comfortable as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s was in blending the power of big government, big business, and big labor into one national industrial policy. And just as under FDR’s National Industrial Recovery Act, the result of the Obama agenda will be fewer small businesses, less jobs, and a longer recession. UCLA economists Harold Cole and Lee Ohanian have found that the NIRA accounted for 60% of the weak recovery and prolonged the depression by seven full years. President Obama’s senior advisor David Axelrod has called the 100-day benchmark a Hallmark Holiday. Does Hallmark sell a condolence card for the death of free enterprise?" Free enterprise's 100th Day Death March

Treated and sent home

Yesterday those of us in the Ohio State community received a "personal" e-mail from Provost Alluto and Lewellen, the HR guy:

The Ohio State University Medical Center provided treatment to a patient who was diagnosed with probable swine influenza A (H1N1) virus, which is pending confirmation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The patient is an employee of the Medical Center who contracted the virus outside the workplace. The patient responded well to treatment and is being discharged this evening.

OSU Medical Center staff followed all recommended precautions to prevent the spread of the illness to others. Individuals who had contact with the patient prior to admission are being notified. The Medical Center is providing prophylactic/ preventive medication to those individuals, in accordance with standard CDC recommendations.

The Medical Center’s normal patient visitation schedule remains unchanged. The hospital continues to urge all visitors and staff to follow infection control steps including covering your mouth and nose if you have a cough or sneeze, and not visit patients if you are ill. Frequent use of waterless hand sanitizers is also recommended.

OSU Medical Center is working in collaboration with the CDC, Ohio Department of Health, and Columbus Public Health and following all appropriate guidelines.

So apparently, it's business as usual when you have good health care. But what a boon for Sebelius and Obama!

Thursday Thirteen
13 economic stories in today's headlines

Glancing through today's stories in the WSJ, we seeing that Obama's WAR (War against Recovery) continues with nary an objection from Congress or the Media. The other War, the one in Iraq, Bush's War, is also on the uptick, but that one is buried in the back pages because Obama's policies, promises, and apologies have emboldened the terrorists insurgents in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan, creating more civilian deaths and making the Middle East and America less safe.

1) Time Warner prepares to shed AOL
2) Chrysler nears bankruptcy
3) ArcelarMittal posts loss
4) As profit cools, Starbucks plans price campaign
5) Cessna to suspend new jet
6) Renault USA revenue slid 31%
7) Bayer AG earnings plummet 44%
8) German tire maker Continental AG reports loss
9) SAP AG's profit declines 16%
10) Flextronics Int'nl fell 28%
11) Google top exec departs
12) Time Warner cable posts 30% drop
13) FBI looks into losses at Freddie [this investigation began under Bush but will go no where because it will lead to Democrats in Congress]

Renaming the swine flu

President Obama formally picked Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services with nary a squawk. She is another tax cheat, now almost obligatory for an Obama cabinet member, and daughter of Ohio's former Governor Gilligan. She is a tax and spend Democrat getting Kansas deeply in debt during the good years, and most recently solved a financial crisis in her state by cutting education funding. The nomination went through easily because of the made-up hysteria by the press and the government (Emmanuel: "never waste a crisis") about the pandemic called "the swine flu." Sibelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services will oversee a massive department with wide-ranging responsibilities, the key to the President’s vision for health care--to nationalize it--or spread limited, low level care, as it were. The 61 year old Sebelius was raised a Catholic in Cincinnati, however, she will have no problem rescinding whatever few rights and protections are left for the unborn American children. Being a Catholic means nothing on this issue (Kennedy, Kerry, Pelosi, et al)--party comes before Pope and Church when you've got a new messiah to follow. President Obama owes the radical, pro-abortion feminists because he squashed their dream of a woman president, just like he owes the unions and ACORN handing them the auto and mortgage/foreclosure bailouts.

Therefore, I propose renaming the swine flu the "Sebelius Flu." For too long, American women have languished in the background with very little named for them--diseases, laws (even Roe v. Wade didn't use a real name), mountains, buildings, etc. With four syllables, eight if you count influenza, the newly named disease will help fill up the time on the 24 hour cable news, broadcast news, and presidential news conferences. Although an awkward space filler on a teleprompter, Sebelius Influenza can be learned by even the least fluent of speakers.

They know who really supports them

HT Beth

Blogger "Just a Regular guy" noted:

"The new commander in chief, Barack Hussein Obama, made a trip to the Marine Corp base at Camp Lejeune North Carolina to talk to the troops about his vision for Iraq and the future of our military under his vision as president. As the Marine Corp band belted out ‘Hail to the Chief” Obama was announced and he soon emerged from behind a blue curtain.

The silence was deafening.

In fact the troops made more noise as they sat down than when Obama strolled out to the podium. . ."

The audacity of truth--The Obama Files

is the title of Sister Toldjah's collection of columns on Barack Obama. This one on the newest virus of amnesia affecting Democrats in Congress. . .

"In the fall of 2002, while I was chairman of the House intelligence committee, senior members of Congress were briefed on the CIA’s “High Value Terrorist Program,” including the development of “enhanced interrogation techniques” and what those techniques were. This was not a one-time briefing but an ongoing subject with lots of back and forth between those members and the briefers.

Today, I am slack-jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as “waterboarding” were never mentioned. It must be hard for most Americans of common sense to imagine how a member of Congress can forget being told about the interrogations of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. In that case, though, perhaps it is not amnesia but political expedience." Porter Goss

Unfortunately, the media are unable to lift their heads with Obama's foot on their necks (not that they want to), but gradually the truth might seep out. They probably haven't been able to "correct" and modify every digitized report from those years--that's the value of paper, you know.

Happy Birthday Israel

This item is from Atlas Shrugs.

"It's Israel Independence Day. I went to a zimreah (a night of Jewish songs) and I have to tell you, watching these Jewish children singing the "greatest hits" of this ancient genre in Hebrew, clapping and dancing, the parents kvelling, against the majestic architectural beauty of an old shul, I couldn't help but think -- despite the thousands of years of persecution and prosecution, the blood libels, the hate, the abject cruelty, the jealousy, the violence, the unremitting hunger for our annihilation, the constant boot in one costume (SS) or another (Hamas), I looked at the joyful throng of ebullient parents, children, bubbies and zaydees and I thought, I'd rather be on the receiving of all that evil than be on the other side.

Baruch Hashem. Happy Birthday Israel!"

Maggie's Notebook has a blog entry on the birthday, plus the anniversary of the founding of Tel Aviv in 1909.

Behind the scenes of the pirate rescue

This came through e-mail today, so I looked it up--not a whole lot more satisfactory, but if you want to join the conversation, at least Atlas Shrugs has a lot of people commenting. She says it came from Free Republic.

The flight of the FBI's passenger jet took a little less than 14 hours at 500-some knots to get to Djibouti. BOXER'S helos picked them up and transported them out to the ship. The Navy SEALs were already there, staged, and ready to act by the time POTUS's FBI arrived on board later that evening. Notably, the first request by the OSC (On Scene Commander) that early Friday morning to take them out and save Captain Phillips was denied, to wit: "No, wait until 'my' FBI people get there."

Behind the scenes of the pirate rescue

Off to buy a mop and kitty litter

Lately, I've become careless--I've been stopping at the grocery store after exercise class. Appearing in public in the retiree's uniform--sweat pants and athletic shoes is something I swore (in 2000) I wouldn't do. Lately, I've been telling myself a lie--"No one will notice." But yesterday I listened to Miss Smarty Pants on BlogTalkRadio, and she cautioned against this. And she's absolutely correct--you can wear white shoes after Labor Day, but Oh Dear, if you're my age, please do not appear in public looking like you've just been to exercise class (unless you're getting your exercise outdoors). No matter how good your legs were when you were 25, those days are gone--usually around your knees.

So I came home, showered, shampooed, and now I'm heading to Meijer's where I'll probably buy more than I intended, but I won't frighten small children and dogs.

Obama's second term

My husband, who follows main stream Obamedia closer than I do, stuck his head in my office this morning and mentioned that Obama's second term is just a given when you listen or watch the news. I'm not surprised. In today's Columbus Dispatch there was a small article about the trial of some of the Obama campaign workers who helped steal Ohio for him. It certainly won't be any different a year from now when he begins campaigning seriously. The "Vote Today Ohio" three, Daniel Hausman, Amy Little and Yolanda Hippensteele, were just the tip of the iceberg of outsiders brought in by the busload to an important swing state. Obama couldn't have made it without Ohio, whose electoral vote he absolutely needed. We were flooded with these "illegal" Obamaniacs. These three got the proverbial wrist slap--a year's probation, $1,000 fine, and 60 day suspended jail sentence.

For the press, the younger lady whined that this could ruin her career in public service, but I don't think so. Oh honey, you'll be a martyr--you'll be richly rewarded. Maybe a cabinet post in the next term. The strings are firmly attached--just learn to dance.

Fancy Nancy

Scooter Libby went to prison for the "outing" of a desk-jockey CIA agent. He forgot conversations. Pelosi forgets briefings. And the outing of our entire intelligence apparatus by Democrats is OK. Story here.

Swine flu--Mexico and the U.S.

In Mexico, they are dying. In the U.S. they are getting sick, being treated, and going home.

Besser CDC update today, Apr. 28:"The CDC today raised the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. to 64, with 45 of them in New York. No deaths have been confirmed in the U.S. That will change, Besser said."

In Mexico, no one really knows how many are sick, or how many have died. I doubt that the government has reported it accurately. The government is in charge of their health care and their media may have about the same independence (none) as ours. So that may be the head scratcher answer for our journalists who can't seem to figure out why Mexicans are dying and Americans aren't.

The Mexican government for years has been dependent on money sent home by its illegal immigrants in the U.S., instead of developing its own infrastructure. Mexico is a country rich in natural resources, but entire cities and families have been descimated by emigration (who are probably now returning home). So far, their health care system hasn't even been able to get help to family members of those who have died, and this is spread person to person. I saw this from a blogger in Mexico (Medical News Today)

I live in Cancun, on the Caribbean coast of Mexico, about 1hour and 30 minutes by plane from Mexico City. Mexico City is the Swine Flu ground zero. A few days ago most of the Cancun population watched news coming from Mexico City with detachment. "This is over 1000 kilometers away," I heard one person say "we are fine." Gradually, local attitudes have changed.

Yesterday we all watched the national news and heard that restaurants, nightclubs, schools, theatres, sports stadia, and anywhere that might hold large groups of people had not only been closed in Mexico City, but along the vacation resorts of the Pacific coast - Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, Zihuatanejo. Can you imagine the economic consequences of closing restaurants, bars and nightclubs in tourist resorts?

Friends in Mexico City phone me and describe empty streets. The few who do venture out wear masks and go about their business as swiftly as they can.

The whole of Mexico is scared. "Will I get this? If I do what will happen to me? Am I hearing the truth? They say it is not so bad and easily treatable, but they would say that, wouldn't they?"

I heard a young mother say today that she was told not to bring her daughter to preschool because she had a temp (teething), but she had the little girl at the senior center where I was volunteering. Doesn't seem to be much alarm here--although I think that was poor planning on her part, considering many elders are immune compromised. Probably because Americans know they don't have government health care. YET. However, a pandemic will be a good excuse for the government to take over, just like Obama took over the auto industry, to share it with the unions, who supported him and the banks. If we already had Obama-care, I think there would be a different story--a much larger, faster spread and many already dead. The government handled the last swine flu outbreak (1976) badly, with more people dying from the vaccine than from the flu.

Another thing journalists are asking is why young, healthy adults are dying. My parents' generation didn't die in the last flu pandemic in 1918. They were young children. It was young healthy adults that died--like our soldiers called to fight in Europe, but dying before they got there. That's how it spread--lots of young, healthy people crowded together. We lost more soliders to the flu than we did to the war, a war in which it wasn't unusual to lose more men in one campaign than the 6years we've been in Iraq. Most of that generation is gone now. The immunity is over. It died with my parents' generation.

We know now how to treat the effects of the flu, but it will be interesting to see if Obama uses this as a crisis to take over health care with out a vote or objection.

If we already had Obama-care, we'd be holed up in our homes like the Mexicans, whimpering, wondering why the people ever voted for the man who nationalized our industries, destroyed our military, created a constitutional crisis by attacking the former president, and groveled and pandered before foreign leaders. Oh well.

Update: In Wednesday's WSJ article about the swine flu, you had to get all the way to the end to find, "the sorry state of Mexico's public and private health system. . . patients often wait hours to days to see the doctor." Just the kind of Obama-care we need north of the border.

Update 2: On the way to the grocery store Wednesday I heard a young child had died in the U.S. of swine flu. On the way home, I learned the child was a Mexican brought to the U.S. for better treatment. It's a tragedy for the family, but a plus for Obama's team which is looking for opportunities to nationalize health care, so maybe it's not as good as an American death, but it's close.

The story of small town recreation in 1957

According to a July 1957 issue of the Mt. Morris Index (a weekly newspaper that launched the printing career of the Kable Brothers), a movie company came to Mt. Morris, Illinois on July 3, 1957, to do a recreation advertisement movie. The filming crew returned on July 15 because they needed several more people to film another segment. A classmate of mine, Nancy, remembers being in the film along with her parents and brother and when we had coffee during my Easter visit to Mt. Morris, she mentioned it.

Coffee with Lynne and Nancy at the Mounder Cafe
She found the article in the Index which reported that it was a 20 minute color motion picture and the title of the documentary was "Town & Country Recreation.” The Director was Oz Zielke, Cameraman Frank Plieffer of Dallas Jones Productions of Chicago, and Gene Balsley, Unit Manager. The film was sponsored by the nonprofit Athletic Institute of Chicago and was designed to show towns and villages how they can offer their citizens the most recreational opportunity at the least cost per person. The fictional city in the story is "Spring Valley," however, most of the actors and the majority of the locations were to be taken from the Mt. Morris vicinity, since the sponsors of the film felt that Mt Morris was representative of what can be accomplished by a good recreation program, including both town & farm families.

I poked around on the internet and found a description of such a film in a database of old marketing and documentary films, from the 1930s through the 1980s. Films about bullying from the 1950s; and visiting an airport in the 1940s, etc. According to a description of Audiovisual Geeks on Internet Archive, it is: "The A/V Geeks Film Archive is an ephemeral film collection curated by Skip Elsheimer. What started as a hobby more than ten years is now a lifetime commitment. His collection has grown to over 20,000 films gathered from school auctions, thrift stores, closets and dumpsters. He presents themed film shows in his home base of Raleigh, North Carolina and he's taken his shows on the road across the United States. Films from Skip's archive have been released on DVDs. For more information about A/V Geeks upcoming shows, the DVDs, stock footage inquiries and donating to the collection, visit http://www.avgeeks.com. Skip is happy to be able share these selected films from his collection online - giving them a life beyond their intended purpose as little cultural time capsules of our immediate past. Enjoy!"

So we're waiting to hear from "Skip." My friend Nancy is hoping this is the film, and if it gets transferred to video and put on the internet, or to DVD, we’ll all get to watch “the way we were.”

I have never cataloged or described a film (I was a cataloger of Slavic material back in the 1960s), but I think the numbers tell how far into the film the description is. I don’t know what some of the abbreviations mean. They could be descriptors or tags for what the camera is doing or of the film quality--I just don’t know. I’ve looked in the Library of Congress Thesarus for graphic material, but don’t know if the person who did this description used it or something more simple like a homemade template for the video database. I think CU might be “close up,” WS could be “white space,“ FG possibly Foreground. But these are wild guesses. Maybe I’ll check with some other retired librarians.

There is no lake in Mt. Morris, so I'm wondering if that scene might have been taken at Lake Louise near Byron--because school buses may have taken children there. I remember it well--I almost drowned there!

“Shows how ‘RECREATION ROT’ was eliminated in the small rural town when a young doctor took the advice of a county extensionist and built a live-wire activity program around a paid recreational leader. Color 1957 Documentary-promotional film about town planning, cast as a drama. A young doctor decides that his town is so boring that a general depression is settling over the populace, so he resolves to involve the community in a plan to develop recreation facilities. Some good images of idealized small town Americana; the color is pretty good. 00:00:26:00 Color 1957 cu Sign: WELCOME TO Spring Valley THE TOWN THAT ENJOYS PROGRESS. 00:00:29:00 Color 1957 vs Montage of small town life: Suburban street, boys riding bicycles; PAN over Main Street; various houses and buildings; WS farm with cornfield in FG; farmer on tractor; two men greet one another on sidewalk; elderly man raking lawn, woman brings him water. 00:02:30:00 Color 1957 ms Man enters office, hangs hat and coat on coat rack, looks out window through Venetian blinds. 00:07:30:00 Color 1957 vs Community meeting: various men and women around conference table; CU faces - they read as ordinary citizens. Also at 0:13:30. 00:11:26:00 Color 1957 ms Two women hanging laundry on clothesline. 00:16:18:00 Color 1957 cu, ws Sign says CAR WASH $1.00; PAN to group of teenagers, mostly girls, washing cars. 00:16:34:00 Color 1957 ms Woman at mailbox, opens it, retrieves newspaper. 00:18:30:00 Color 1957 ws PAN from lake to school bus; group of children in bathing suits exit school bus, run toward CAM; children run across beach; bus driver blows whistle, they all stop. 00:19:00:00 Color 1957 vs Montage of community recreation activities, brief shots: middle-aged people square-dancing, good; adult-education class, man draws diagram on blackboard; teenage boys in shop class, jig saw; softball game, girl hits baseball; tennis instruction; skiing and sledding; camping, children emerge from tent; elderly men playing dominos; boy with stamp collection; badminton; golf instruction; family packing car trunk (a Buick station wagon, two-tone aqua & cream) for camping trip; Buick station wagon drives down country road."

BlogTalkRadio

Today I checked into BlogTalkRadio and was tickled to find Fly Lady. I used to get Fly Lady e-mail and followed the instructions for a week or two. For the clutter-challenged, she's (they) great. Take a listen on how to make your bed while still in it.

Then I looked at Missus Smarty Pants Fashion Rescue--I think that's more down my aisle. For clutter, I have a neatnik husband.

Obama at 2 months, looking for 3?

This doesn't include Korea, or the pirates, or hacking the weapon system, or the swine flu, or trying to create a constitutional crisis.

Why the Axelrod-Rahm team feared the tea parties

This Texan, Katrina Pierson, knows the dangers of socialism, she knows the founding fathers, she knows her choices.

A message from Joe Alutto and Larry Lewellen

The Provost and Vice President for HR of Ohio State University want you to do what I was taught in kindergarten. "Understand that the symptoms of swine flu closely resemble seasonal flu and include fever, weakness, coughing and lack of appetite. It is contagious. The best way to prevent swine flu is to continue to follow these steps:

Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue or your forearm (not your hand) when you sneeze.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth to prevent germs from spreading.

Wash your hands often with soap and water and use hand sanitizers.

Avoid being in close contact with those who are ill. If you are ill, please limit your exposure to others by staying home from work or school.

Swine flu can be successfully treated with medication. If you think you might have the flu, please see your primary care doctor. He or she can test you for the flu and will be able to identify the strain of the flu you may have. University students should call or visit the Wilce Student Health Center if they have questions or concerns."

I remember about 15 years ago we had a big cost cutting campaign in the OSU Libraries. My suggestion was to launch a hand washing campaign to cut down on sick days. I was told it was not a line item, therefore it wouldn't count even if we could do it. All the things they are saying about prevention are common sense, and you should have been doing anyway. I also carry a squeeze bottle of alcohol hand rub in my car and my purse. And every time I see a cashier pick up my coffee cup by the lip and hand it too me, I want to smack him.

Also, if swine flu had been on the uptick after George W. Bush had returned from Mexico, you can bet your patooty that the press would have blamed him. As it is, because Bush stressed the spread of disease as a weapon of terrorists and beefed up that component of security, we should be in good shape--as long as Obama doesn't wait as long as he did with the pirates. But if he fails, he can blame Bush anyway as not having done it right. Nothing was achieved in his 100 days, and he can either use the excuse he was a baby, out of the office campaigning in Illinois, or it was Bush's fault. The press was so sickening over this 100 day meme over the week-end it was enough to give one flu symptoms. And nothing but taking over large sectors of the economy, creating a constitutional crisis over interrogation techniques and raising more debt has been accomplished. Way to go BO.

It's been hot, hot, hot

The flowering trees won't do so well in this heat, but it's always nice to see them in bloom. These are from Saturday.







north creek

south creek

view from our patio

If disco had lasted longer. . .

Maybe we wouldn't have an obesity problem?
Boogie, Oogie, Oogie. Taste of Honey.



HT, 2nd cup of coffee

Our President parsing

John Crace The Guardian, Friday 3 April 2009
Article, Barack Obama, the World's Greatest Orator (™all news organisations), didn't exactly cover himself in glory when the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson asked him a question about who was to blame for the financial crisis. Normally word perfect, Obama ummed, ahed and waffled for the best part of two and a half minutes. Here, John Crace decodes what he was really thinking ...

Nick Robinson: "A question for you both, if I may. The prime minister has repeatedly blamed the United States of America for causing this crisis. France and Germany both blame Britain and America for causing this crisis. Who is right? And isn't the debate about that at the heart of the debate about what to do now?" Brown immediately swivels to leave Obama in pole position. There is a four-second delay before Obama starts speaking [THANKS FOR NOTHING, GORDY BABY. REMIND ME TO HANG YOU OUT TO DRY ONE DAY.] Barack Obama: "I, I, would say that, er ... pause [I HAVEN'T A CLUE] ... if you look at ... pause [WHO IS THIS NICK ROBINSON JERK?] ... the, the sources of this crisis ... pause [JUST KEEP GOING, BUDDY] ... the United States certainly has some accounting to do with respect to . . . pause [I'M IN WAY TOO DEEP HERE] ... a regulatory system that was inadequate to the massive changes that have taken place in the global financial system ... pause, close eyes [THIS IS GOING TO GO DOWN LIKE A CROCK OF SHIT BACK HOME. HELP]. I think what is also true is that ... pause [I WANT NICK ROBINSON TO DISAPPEAR] ... here in Great Britain ... pause [SHIT, GORDY'S THE HOST, DON'T LAND HIM IN IT] ... here in continental Europe ... pause [DAMN IT, BLAME EVERYONE.] ... around the world. We were seeing the same mismatch between the regulatory regimes that were in place and er ... pause [I'VE LOST MY TRAIN OF THOUGHT AGAIN] ... the highly integrated, er, global capital markets that have emerged ... pause [I'M REALLY WINGING IT NOW]. So at this point, I'm less interested in ... pause [YOU] ... identifying blame than fixing the problem. I think we've taken some very aggressive steps in the United States to do so, not just responding to the immediate crisis, ensuring banks are adequately capitalised, er, dealing with the enormous, er ... pause [WHY DIDN'T I QUIT WHILE I WAS AHEAD?] ... drop-off in demand and contraction that has taken place. More importantly, for the long term, making sure that we've got a set of, er, er, regulations that are up to the task, er, and that includes, er, a number that will be discussed at this summit. I think there's a lot of convergence between all the parties involved about the need, for example, to focus not on the legal form that a particular financial product takes or the institution it emerges from, but rather what's the risk involved, what's the function of this product and how do we regulate that adequately, much more effective coordination, er, between countries so we can, er, anticipate the risks that are involved there. Dealing with the, er, problem of derivatives markets, making sure we have set up systems, er, that can reduce some of the risks there. So, I actually think ... pause [FANTASTIC. I'VE LOST EVERYONE, INCLUDING MYSELF] ... there's enormous consensus that has emerged in terms of what we need to do now and, er ... pause [I'M OUTTA HERE. TIME FOR THE USUAL CLOSING BOLLOCKS] ... I'm a great believer in looking forwards than looking backwards.

Isn't it odd that he can be so crystal clear on abortion and the viability of unborn children (or aborted and alive children), and what a danger to society pro-lifers are, and yet be clueless about the economy. Knowledge? Values? Character? Education? Social-network? Broken teleprompter?

Mild mannered librarian on the road

My friend Jerry and her husband just landed in France yesterday. They are going to spend 3 months traveling around Europe. Sounds like fun, but having just returned from the Holy Land, I'm glad it's them and not me. Here's Jerry and I a few years back.

Our Friday night date

We usually go out to eat on Friday night with another couple--Joyce and Bill or Joan and Jerry or Ron and Jane or Sue and Wes, etc. But last night, everyone must have been busy or we gave up too early. So I suggested a movie. After some intense questioning (my husband resists change) we settled on "New in Town" at the dollar theater, which I think is now $1.50. It was billed as a romantic comedy, as was "Shopaholic," our other choice in that not G but not R group.

I thought I'd blog about it while I still remember the plot (24 hours later), because it is truly forgetable. And yet it isn't. When you're watching it (released in January 2009) you could swear you've seen this 4 or 5 other times. And you have. Only the names, climate, clothes and marital state change. This one is supposed to take place in New Ulm, Minnesota, but was actually filmed in Canada, and I guess they nearly froze their tushies off. Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick, Jr. play the leads--her the on the rise executive from Miami, and him the union boss--so you know where this is going. As smart as she's supposed to be, she doesn't seem to understand how cold it is in Minnesota, but as the movie moves on, and on, her clothing does change from 4 in. designer heels and skinny suits to muklaks and parkas. Nor does she seem to know you don't drink alcohol if you are stranded in a snow drift. I'm from balmy Ohio and even I know that. But drunken blondes are supposed to be funny, I guess. I'm not sure Min-e-so-tans talk like they do in this movie, but they did have to let them have the last say, even though they were scrapbooking Jesus lovers, because they were unionized. And all Hollywood has to make the executive the butt of the joke, so the worker can beat them, right? We watched about 5 minutes of credits scroll by at the end, and I wonder how many of those are small, independent contractors hoping to someday be big companies?

Just two other things, then I'm done. Renee's skin looked like she really had been affected by the severe weather--very red chapped and blotchy, and the small popcorn was $4.75--more than our two tickets.

Mercury spill clean up in Columbus

Those of us who are a certain age and living in Columbus were probably amused, or not, at the thought of the $300,000 mercury spill clean up at the local Volunteers of America last week. We used to play with that much mercury on a desk top when I was in grade school in Forreston. I'm not sure it was for science class--we probably just couldn't go outside to play so the teacher brought out some mercury.

People who have too much time

complete things like this. I saw it at a Canadian librarian's blog, who saw it at other librarians' blogs. I think I've done it before, but I've done more now. Still haven't been to Paris--never had any desire, but who knows? I didn't know how fabulous Turkey was until I visited.

Things you’ve already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicize
Things you haven’t done and don’t want to - leave in plain font

1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band.
4. Visited Hawaii.
5. Watched a meteor shower.
6. Given more than you can afford to charity. (Actually, you can always afford more.)
7. Been to Disneyland/World. (both)
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sang a solo.
11. Bungee jumped.
12. Visited Paris.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
15. Adopted a child.
16. Had food poisoning. (Just last month)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty. (I was there--can't remember how we got to the top)
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.
20. Slept on an overnight train.
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Hitch hiked.
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill.
24. Built a snow fort.
25. Held a lamb.
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Run a marathon.
28. Ridden a gondola in Venice.
29. Seen a total eclipse.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Hit a home run.
32. Been on a cruise. Just last month.
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
35. Seen an Amish community.
36. Taught yourself a new language.
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.
39. Gone rock climbing.
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person.
41. Sung Karaoke.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant.
44. Visited Africa. (Just last month.)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
46. Been transported in an ambulance.
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing.
49. Seen the Sistine chapel in person.
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling.
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud.
54. Gone to a drive-in theater.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China.
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia.
60. Served at a soup kitchen.
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Gotten flowers for no reason.
64. Donated blood.
65. Gone sky diving.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp.
67. Bounced a check.
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.
71. Eaten Caviar.
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Times Square.
74. Toured the Everglades.
75. Been fired from a job.
76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London.
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.
80. Published a book.
81. Visited the Vatican.
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Walked in Jerusalem.
84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited the White House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
88. Had chickenpox.
89. Saved someone’s life.
90. Sat on a jury.
91. Met someone famous.
92. Joined a book club.
93. Lost a loved one.
94. Had a baby.
95. Seen the Alamo in person.
96. Swum in the Great Salt Lake.
97. Been involved in a law suit.
98. Owned a cell phone.
99. Been stung by a bee.

Unintended consequences of trying to save the earth

The Army has a new blog--it's quite interesting. The Earth Day entry reports on how environmentally proactive the Army is, which was a surprise to the writer. What s/he writes about here I've seen up at Lake Erie. Attempts to control the lake and where it wants to be have been disastrous for the shore line, the beaches, the plant life, the fish, and eventually property owners. Imagine trying to hold back the ocean. Fortunately, the U.S. Army came to the rescue in Flordia.

"Just one example is the Soldiers with the 97th Transportation Company at Fort Eustis. They traveled to Florida to help dismantle the world’s largest man-made reef, and a manmade creation that had proven to be destructive to the coastal marine life, as the tires were dismantled by the pounding waves. This wasn’t just an everyday mission for the Soldiers - it was a project they cared about. In several interviews, the crew explained how their environmental standards are of the highest caliber, and they work hard to ensure that with every mission their environmental footprint is as small as possible. They were proud of the opportunity to help the coastal Florida community preserve the marine habitat."

You wonder how much damage is going to be done to our greatest resource--people--considering that only about 1% of our energy is supplied by the so-called alternatives. The measures to destroy fossil fuel through regulation and taxation before there is actually an alternative, to say nothing of the products made from petroleum that are NOT fuel, are mind boggling. We did this with DDT and malaria--millions and millions (mostly Africans) have died and they are just now hoping for a vaccine that might be 30% effective, and using bednets soaked in insecticide (who knows the side effects of breathing that?).

Save the earth; kill the people.