#134 Acknowledgements--a public thank you

“Librarians at The University of Texas, the Library of Congress, and the Newberry Library helped me to find out-of-the-way material, and a grant from the Sarah Scaife Foundation provided additional writing time…” Central Ideas in the Development of American Journalism

It warms my heart to read a dedication or an acknowledgement to librarians. Occasionally, a graduate student would mention my help (along with Mom, Dad, and Wife) in a PhD thesis. A romance novelist wrote a thank-you on the title page once for help in researching a feline disease, but that’s not the same as making it into the acknowledgements. A dog show researcher mentioned my help in one of his articles and by donating a large sum to my library (he was an alumnus). One woman brought in a huge box of bakery goodies because I helped her father, a retired veterinarian, learn to use the internet. And personal thank you notes were always welcome.

But my favorite acknowledgement was from Richard Horowitz in his book Hog Ties: Pigs, Manure, and Mortality in American Culture (New York: St. Martins Press, 1998), a book based on the "other job" he held part time for fifteen years as a hired hand on a hog/grain/cattle farm in southeast Iowa.

Professor Horowitz and I had an e-mail correspondence across the corn fields and prairies about his research. I never actually met him in person, despite the fact we had some really important swine researchers at Ohio State.

Still, not every librarian gets her name in a book about pig poop!

#133 Down the road in (nationalized) health care

Women with breast implants are hospitalized and visit physicians more frequently than women who have not undergone implantation surgery, according to a retrospective cohort study funded by the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women's Health in Vancouver, Canada. . . Breast implant surgery is not deemed medically necessary and is performed — and paid for — privately in the vast majority of cases. However, it appears to directly contribute to an increased need for public health care services among the women receiving these devices. Canadian Women’s Health Network Report

#132 Spending like it’s 1999

The Dow was at 10,000--the report. Maybe that’s good economic news and the tax cut will prove to be good. I’m certainly seeing more hiring signs.

But I do wish George Bush would stop spending money like a drunken Democrat (no name, but you know who I mean). In fact, his spending increases are far greater than Clinton’s on domestic programs for the same time period in office. This makes it difficult for Democrats to criticize him on domestic policy, since those are their pet programs, resulting in a fractured and lack luster campaign. Also, it is hard for Republicans to rein him in, since he is their guy. A responder to a Cato Institute paper says he “has become the "Mother of All Big Spenders."

I do think something needed to be done about prescription costs for the poor, but the Medicare plan just signed smells a lot like vote buying. No one seems to be happy with it, but Bush will get the credit rather than the Democrats who couldn’t have done any better. The government can’t do anything cheaper or more effectively than private business. My husband is on Social Security, and his Medicare + Medigap (private insurance) costs us about $176 a month, and it doesn’t include prescriptions. My policy, through my pension, costs me about $160 a month and does include prescriptions. Mine will go up considerably in 2004, but so will my husband’s. My husband’s plan is tax supported and still costs more than a private plan. Will private companies stay in the business if the government takes it over or makes it so difficult to make a profit?

#131 A celebration

It was our final class in the study of the Gospel of John. It was an evening of celebration, review and games. And a lot of laughter. My husband said, “Isn’t this more fun than Lutherans are allowed to have?” One of the optional final activities was to prepare an outline for another group to study John--senior choir, Sunday school, an adult small group, etc. I was very impressed by the creativity and talent of my fellow class members.

Patty said she did a study of “sheep and shepherd” and came up with six handwritten pages. For a young class she would incorporate the movie "Babe“. She brought in the video, explained the story to us, how Babe the pig, with a sheepdog foster mother, came to be good at herding sheep. Then showed a few minutes of the story where the male dog’s terrible experience trying to save the sheep destroys his own dreams of being the sheepdog champion. “He is not THE good shepherd, but he was a good shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep,” she explained. Her enthusiasm for her project, and a wonderful husky voice had the class mesmerized.

Another couple prepared a “cheer” for a young class based on John’s name, and we were their audience, raising our voices enthusiastically as Donna (a former teacher) led the cheer and husband Bob worked the flip chart. Another former teacher proposed an event for a children’s choir where they would reenact Jesus walking on water and the storm. Some children would be waves, some wind, some apostles, one Jesus and one narrator. Then she went around the room and handed out candy lifesavers to everyone.

But the evening had started on a very somber note with the announcement that Rick Allen our 2002 church council chair had died of a heart attack at age 47. The class was stunned that this vibrant young father had been taken so quickly with no warning. Rick knew and believed all the wonderful “I AM” statements in John’s gospel. And we know that today he is having more fun than we’re ever going to have on this side.

#130 How to give your child a longer life.

That was the headline in today’s Wall Street Journal in the health section. Immediately I thought, “you start with allowing *her to be born.”

Hippolyte has an interesting blog on “choice” and Planned Parenthood. He thought it was a joke when he saw the organization’s “Choice on Earth” Christmas card. They also had a similar "Choice" card in 2002. Choice, as he points out, is a code word for “kill” in this context (when used within a discussion of schooling, it means right wing conspiracy to give tax money to the Catholic Church). But what I found so interesting and very moving in the blog is his account of “once upon a time” he thought choice was OK too--that a baby was just some other impersonal collection of cells.

He concludes: "A holiday card that uses pretty designs to spread a message that is universally understood to refer to the killing of a yet-to-be-born child is completely disgusting. I predict society is waking up to this, and in time will look back on such brazen disregard with mystery and contempt."

Agape Press notes that Herod is alive and well at Planned Parenthood: "Herod the Great is most remembered for his decision to murder innocent children in his failed attempt to kill Jesus while he was still a baby. As the authors of the Life Application Bible say in their profile of Herod, "The murder of innocent children ... is a tragic lesson in what can happen when actions are motivated by selfishness" (p. 1645). Sadly, that lesson hasn't been learned by our modern culture. Millions of innocent children are the victims of a modern day Herod -- Planned Parenthood."

*More females than males, in all cultures, are aborted.

#129 TotallyAcappella Radio responds

I had a nice response from Loran Partigianoni of TotallyAcappella Radio (blog 123 ), who wrote:

Just in case you're not aware, we now have all (about 65 albums) of The Acappella Company's albums in our collection of albums. Hopefully, we'll have the last 26 albums added to our playlist before the end of this year. We've been busy adding Christmas albums for most of the last several weeks. The Acappella Company groups include Acappella, AVB (All Vocal Band), The Vocal Union and The Firemen. Other groups composed of former Acappella members that are on their website include X-Changed, Sweet Deliverance, and Watershed Worship. We have all of their music, too. You can request songs from our playlist, and search by artist, album or song title from the more than 3,000 songs.

Peace and Grace,
Loran Partigianoni
http://www.totallyacappella.com

#128 Cancer with the experts

At Thanksgiving our daughter wore an open neck sweater with a small necklace, and our son mentioned that he could hardly see her scar.

In late October 1997 she had blood tests, an ultrasound, and a radioactive iodine scan of her neck to determine whether she was having thyroid problems. In addition to weight gain, she was having muscle cramps, kidney pain, extreme fatigue, etc. The doctor found a large goiter on the left side (hot) and a small nodule (cold) on the right of her neck. The cold ones are possible cancer sites.

She was diagnosed at that time with Hashimoto's Disease, an autoimmune condition that runs in families and causes hypothyroidism. Relatively rare in women her age (30), it is quite common in women over 50. The goiter was not visible nor were any of her thyroid tests abnormal. So these things are hard to detect.

She was to return to the endocrinologist for another check in 3 months. She did that, he performed several biopsies on the tumor tissue which were benign, but he was very concerned by how fast the goiter was growing and said it would need to come out because it was compressing her trachea (windpipe). She was developing hoarseness, breathing problems and some chest pain. Within the week she had met with the surgeon and had another scan, at which time it was discovered the large tumor had grown down into the sternum and the small one had also grown. She was scheduled for surgery in 3 days, which didn't give us much time to think about it.

By this time there were many players in the game: Dr. Olsen (her physician and employer who first suggested she needed the tests because her personality was changing); Dr. Blackman (endocrinologist specializing in thyroid); Dr. Shirck (surgeon); Dr. Blackwell (surgeon); and Dr. Anderson (oncologist).

On Monday, February 16, 1998, at 6 a.m. our pastor, our son-in-law’s brother and wife, and my husband and I met with our daughter and husband at the Hospital for prayer before she went into surgery. Her husband’s parents arrived later from Cleveland. Shirck did the surgery with Blackwell on call in case her chest needed to be opened. The surgery lasted 4.5 hours. She was in her hospital room by 2 p.m. A total thyroidectomy was done with no damage to her vocal chords and the parathyroid glands, which are very tiny and easily damaged, were in tact. Usually, they try to do a partial thyroidectomy because of the risks to those other two areas.

Papillary thyroid cancer was found, but not in either of the two nodules they knew about. It develops in cells that produce thyroid hormones containing iodine, and grows very slowly. This was encapsulated and completely removed along with 17 lymph glands. Pathology by Dr. Anderson revealed no spread of the cancer and nothing in the lymph glands.

She was declared cured, released from the hospital on Friday, and returned to work on March 2. Her husband took a week off and we helped out the second week. But then the "fun" began about what to do for follow-up. The clutch of doctors expanded. Her sister-in-law is a nurse, so her records were faxed to her and she knew an oncologist and an endocrinologist to consult. Her brother-in-law had a friend, an oncologist. Our daughter had more appointments with Dr. Blackman and Dr. Anderson, and of course, she saw Dr. Olsen daily at work.

The problem was whether to do an Iodine 131 scan with a follow up of radiation to kill any thyroid tissue found by the scan. Even with complete removal of the thyroid gland, there is still thyroid tissue in the body. The surgeon and oncologist (Shirck and Anderson) wanted her to do that to eliminate any return of the cancer. Her own doctor (Olsen) and the endocrinologist (Blackman) said the risk was so small, it was not worth the possible danger to the exposure of more radiation. She had already had 2 scans within 4 months. These scans apparently can cause cancer of the salivary glands and kidney (the kidneys have to clear all this radioactive material from the body and Hashimoto's Disease is hard on the kidneys) if there is over exposure. They can also interfere with future pregnancies because of the time needed to eliminate it from your body.

Dr. Olsen thought removing 17 lymph glands from her neck was overkill and because she had so many strep infections, he thought she needed them (although she hasn’t had a strep infection since removing the thyroid). The doctors also didn’t agree on when to do the follow up if she decided to have the scan. The endocrinologist said she must wait if she had it done; the oncologist wanted it within 30 days of the surgery.

It appeared to me we had the "slash and burn" guys up against "whole body" guys. Blackman (endocrinologist) had never had a patient who refused the scan/radiation who had further trouble. Anderson (oncologist) had never had a patient who refused it. Blackman said only 5% of papillary cancer patients have a reoccurrence, and only 1 out of 150 of those die because there are ways to spot it and treat it if it returns.

Her own doctor, who is not a specialist, but who hadn't been wrong about anything to that point, didn’t want her to have the further treatment. The other doctor in the practice who was out of the country, thought she should have it. The contacts of her sister-in-law said no; the contact of her brother-in-law said no. They were all so young and confident, those specialists, and I went to all those appointments with my daughter, and listened to them earnestly explain all this to her. She had an incredible knowledge about medical things and seemed to understand it all. (I didn’t.)

Even so, they all told her it was her choice! And she decided. No further treatment.

It’s been five years, moving close to six. She is cancer free, but still struggling daily with the right mix of medication to compensate for no thyroid. And we can hardly see that awful huge scar. But we remember--most assuredly we do.

#127 Preachers Corrupted by their Wealth

"Health-wealth" gospel, if you aren't familiar with the pitch, promises financial gain to the donor (or good health). Sometimes donors receive prayed-over trinkets for their money. Completely bogus, in my opinion, especially if you’ve read your Bible or history of the church. These ministries make the pre-reformation medieval churchmen with their schemes for accumulating wealth by bilking believers look like pikers and amateurs.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch ran some hard hitting columns in mid-November on the "health-wealth," "word-faith," "name it-claim it" preachers--Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn, Marilyn Hickey, Creflow Dollar, the Crouches, etc. All have TV ministries, live in mansions, drive Mercedes and Rolls, own private jets, and keep their adult children within their ranch compounds and on their payrolls, all provided by the donations for “God’s work” from whoever believes that this is why Jesus died.

Most of the articles concerned Joyce Meyer, who lives in the St. Louis area and takes in about $95 million a year. At the bottom of the column discussing hers and others’ ministries are two click-to paid ads for her books and tapes! Now is that marketing savvy or what? Will her devoted fans be irate about the expose, see the ads, and send in even more money?

Then below her ads is an ad for a Christian news service with an article about where believers can send money at Christmas (obviously, not to any of the organizations in the Dispatch article). Before sending money, check out MinistryWatch.

#126 The Photographer's Eye

Why do we, The Visual Arts Ministry, work so hard to hang art shows at our church (three campuses)? Our vision statement. Everything at UALC has a link to evangelism, and that includes bringing the unchurched into the buildings. However, our members also enjoy the shows and one young mother stopped me yesterday and told me how important they think the shows are for their children (the largest hanging area is the main traffic corridor for Sunday School classes.)

Saturday Bob, Ken, Steve, Bev and myself became a lean, mean hanging machine, and hung a show with about 120 pieces on our Arakawa Hanging System. Then on Sunday we provided a reception, with the assistance of the Hospitality Ministry, for the artist to meet the congregation and visitors. You can see what we hung here at the artist's web page.

Also during Advent, we are sponsoring an exhibit of reproductions of the Italian presepio, which used small carved nativity scene figures in the eighteenth century, made by the Fontanini company in Italy and collected by two of our members, Margie and Dick. Each week the scene changes as the time of Christ's birth approaches. Yesterday more than 200 people stopped by the exhibit to talk to Dick about the display. Next Sunday members are invited to bring their own nativity scenes for display, and Dick will lecture on the meaning and significance of the collection.

In January we will be hanging a quilt show, and then in February another one-artist photography show. From memory I'm thinking we'll then display the art of children of Highland Elementary School on Columbus' west side, and in May, the Upper Arlington Art League will again hang its Spring Show.

#125 Word of the Year vote coming soon

The American Dialect Society votes each year on “Word of the Year” and for 2002 it was “weapons of mass destruction” receiving 38 out of 60 votes, coming in ahead of “google” as a verb and “blog” which received 6 votes (both of which I use much more frequently than WMD) .

The next vote, on words for 2003, will take place Friday, January 9, 2004, at the American Dialect Society's annual meeting in Boston at the Sheraton Hotel. Possibly it is too late, but they say on the web site that nominations for words of the year 2003 are welcome anytime. Send them to the chair of the society's New Words Committee, Professor Wayne Glowka of Georgia College and State University, at wglowka@mail.gcsu.edu.

American Dialect Society sponsors the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE). There is a link on the DARE site to the reading of material by people from various regions. In “Arthur the Rat,” I thought the woman from Wisconsin sounded best, but then I grew up in northern Illinois, probably within 100 miles of her.

124 Mother was right--four letter words may mean you lack language skills

To write well in English, a knowledge of Latin is most useful--maybe essential. I had two years of high school Latin and have never regretted it (at least not after I was an adult). Apparently our shorter, earthy, and scatological words developed from the language of the Anglo-Saxon invaders, and Latin and French was the language of the upper class after the Norman invasion. Mixed together in all their diversity, they created the marvelously flexible and creative English language which no longer belongs just to the people of England, but to the whole world.

However, once in awhile I come across an English sentence that is so Latinized, I can hardly read it. Such is the sentence on p. 36 in "Wide as the Waters, the story of the English Bible and the Revolution it inspired" for which I needed my Second Ed. New International Merriam-Webster to read:

"At the time, the deaneries of Lichfield, Salisbury, and York, and archdeaconry of Canterbury (the wealthiest benefice in England), together with a host of other prebends and preferments, were held in absentia by foreign born cardinals and priests, who collected through their London agent twenty thousand marks a year for the papal treasury."

English words that pre-date the Norman invasion of 1066 have an asterisk. All others on this list are based in Latin or Greek or both.

*time--Middle English from Old English, tima, akin to Old Norse, timi, means a measurable period.

dean--comes from Middle English from the French from the Latin meaning chief of 10

archdeaconry--Middle English archedeken from Old English from Latin archidiaconus from Late Latin from Late Greek meaning a district or residence of an archdeacon, a clergyman who assists a bishop

benefice--comes from Middle English from Middle French from Middle Latin, beneficial from the Latin word beneficus, meaning favor.

host--Middle English from Old French from Late Latin from Latin hostis, stranger, an army, large number or multitude.

*wealthy--may come from the obsolete, weal, Middle English from the Old English, wela, or wel, meaning well, or prosperous (before the 12th century)

prebend--Old French from the Latin praebenda, from praebere, meaning to hold forth. The word means a daily allowance or meals. Stipend.

preferment--Old French from Latin, preferred, an act of bringing forward, a state of being preferred. Prefer can mean to point to a benefice.

in absentia--from the Latin meaning absent

foreign--Middle English, forein, from Old French from Late Latin from Latin, forus, meaning outside. Situated outside one's own country.

cardinal--Middle English from Middle Latin, cardinalis, from Late Latin meaning a hinge. In the 14th century meaning of basic importance or main.

priest--Middle English, preist from Old English, possibly modified from Late Latin presbyter (from the Greek), one authorized to perform sacred rites of religion

collect--from Latin, meaning to bring together into one body or place

agent--Middle English from Middle Latin from Latin word, agere meaning to drive, act or do.

*twenty--Middle English from old English Twen + tig meaning a group of 20.

*thousand--Middle English from Old English word, thusend, from a prehistoric Germanic language

*mark--Middle English from Old English, marc, probably of Scandinavian origin, similar to Old Norse--a unit of weight in silver or gold

*year--Middle English from Old English gear, akin to Old High German, jar, a period of 365 days.

papal--Middle English from Middle French from Middle Latin from Late Latin, papa. Means of,or relating to a pope.

treasury--Middle English from Old French word tresor, a place where wealth is kept.

So the Anglo-Saxon, the language of the Germanic barbarians (with the asterisk) who invaded the British Isles, was useful for swearing, cursing, naming common things like animals, counting money and time, but for just about everything else, Latin and French words needed to be imported by the Normans (originally were Vikings) when they invaded Britain in the 11th century (which is also the origin of both my maiden and married names).

#123 All a cappella

I’ve been enjoying a web radio station that is all a cappella, and this morning heard a delightful “Growing up with King James.” Having just read “In the beginning” and now reading “Wide as the waters,” both about the creation and influence of that Bible, I just had to laugh. So I googled the title, and found a web site for The Acappela Company with a link to the album with that song by the All Vocal Band. The album is titled, “What’s your tag say?”

#122 The night the cat died

The first Christmas at our daughter’s new home, the exterior outlined with lights, was lovely. Our son-in-law moved the kitchen table into the empty dining room and with the extensions, it seated nine easily. She prepared turkey and ham, several vegetables, lots of non-alcoholic wines and beer. With our son and our daughter's in-laws we had a full table.

About 5:00 p.m. our son got a call from the emergency room veterinarian where he had taken his cat in the morning. He had noticed that she'd been losing weight and had stopped eating. He asked me about it on the 24th and I said to call his vet immediately, which he did but couldn't get an appointment for her until the 26th. Christmas morning he could hear a rattle when she breathed and she couldn't jump up on anything. So he rushed her to a clinic on the northeast side.

When he didn't come back to the table after the call, I went into the family room and found him quietly sobbing with the vet on the phone. She had told him there was a 50-50 chance his cat couldn't live through the night--kidney failure. They had rehydrated her, but without functioning kidneys even that could kill her. He told her he'd call back. We talked a bit and although he first said he couldn't bear to be there, I told him I didn't think the pet he loved so much should die without him. So we made our apologies to our hosts and the other guests and we drove him to the clinic--he was so distraught I knew it wasn't safe for him to drive.

With no traffic, it was still a 30 minute drive to the emergency clinic. I will never forget the sight of this big man--190 lbs, over 6' tall--on his knees cradling the kitty he says saw him through everything the last 10 years--"all the shit"--as he so aptly put it. The IV had perked her up and she looked pretty good, but I could see she didn't try to crawl out of the blanket or off the table and didn't seem to respond to his voice.

He cried and swore and told her he was sorry. I dealt with this often in my job--people had a sick or dying or dead pet--horse, cat, dog, guinea pig--and they’d call for reassurance they have or are doing the right thing. But I'd never seen or heard anything like this. Or it was worse because my “baby” was suffering too. The vet was kind, told him he could wait, but he said to go ahead. When we got back to our daughter’s home, he had calmed down enough to drive himself home.

When we got home about 9 p.m. I called him and spent an hour on the phone with him. He was still crying, full of all the "what ifs," saying he'd killed his pet, wanted to talk to the vet, was afraid he'd done the wrong thing. He was very grateful we'd gone with him and touched that we'd petted her before the injection. When I talked to him the next morning, he was much better and was caring for his girlfriend‘s kitten, and said he was surprised that it was a comfort to him.

I told him that the Bible says nothing about animals going to heaven, but if in order to be perfect for him, his kitty will be there waiting for him, because we do know from scripture, that there is no sorrow in heaven. He’s had several cats and dogs since that Christmas Day of 1997, but none will ever take her place.

#121 Dump him

She was the morning, cheery part-time, counter assistant when I first met her at the coffee shop. An English major. We joked she was going to write the “great American novel.” She was excited about graduating from college, and even took some time off in June to travel to New York to check into grad school.

I’ve stopped asking her about her plans. She now has an official store name tag. She has a title. And responsibilities. Doesn’t smile as much. She, or her parents, probably spent $70,000 on her education and she is figuring schedules, taking complaints about spilled coffee, ordering supplies, training new college students to take orders and doing quality checks.

Some mornings I see her making furtive phone calls before 6:30 on her cell phone. The smile and bouncy step are gone. I suspect she has settled. She hasn’t settled for marriage instead of career or grad school--the way my generation might have done in the 60s. She’s not even a fiancée. No, I suspect it is “significant-otherhood.” Or maybe just shacking up, with no commitment beyond next week-end.

Dump him, honey. Move on. He doesn’t deserve your talent and sense of humor. Chase your dream. There’s plenty of time later for guys who will waste their lives and yours sleeping in.

#120 Classification theory

"Sorting things out; classification and its consequences” by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star (read a few chapters here) begins:

“To classify is human. Not all classifications take formal shape or are standardized in commercial and bureaucratic products. We all spend large parts of our days doing classification work, often tacitly, and make up and use a range of ad hoc classifications in order to do so. We sort dirty dishes from clean, white laundry from colorfast, important email to be answered from e-junk. We match the size and type of our car tires to the amount of pressure they should accept.

Our desktops are a mute testimony to a kind of muddled folk classification: papers which must read by yesterday, but which have been there since last year; old professional journals which really should be read and even in fact may someday be, and which have been there since last year; assorted grant applications, tax forms, various work-related surveys and forms waiting to be filled out for everything from parking spaces to immunizations. These surfaces may be piled with sentimental cards which are already read but which can’t yet be thrown out alongside reminder notes to send similar cards to parents, sweethearts, or to friends for their birthdays, all piled on top of last year’s calendar (which who knows, may be useful at tax time).

Any part of the home, school or workplace reveals some such system of classification: medications classed as not for children occupy a higher shelf than safer ones; books for reference are shelved close to where we do the Sunday crossword puzzle; door keys are color-coded and stored according to frequency of use.”

This is certainly a relief--I thought it was just me, a former cataloger, who sorts, classifies and arranges by size, price, theory, type, temperature, eye color, whim of the day, size of the electrical cord, frequency of use, but with a desk that looks like last year‘s tornado passed through. Now I know we all do it even without training at the University of Illinois School of Library and Information Science. I did make some paragraph breaks in the above quote--because this is pixels on a screen and not a printed book page lovingly held in your hands.

I have a system at the supermarket. Shop the walls first--that’s the fresh produce, dairy and the bakery. If you buy most of your food from the walls you automatically avoid a lot of processed food which increases your food bill as it saves time and adds calories. Getting my choices out of the cart is another problem, because I reclassify on the moving conveyor belt and have to move quickly as I add the balance in my head.

First all the taxables--often that can be a fourth of the total amount--soap, paper products, cat food, soft drinks, and what is known in the industry as “health and beauty.” Dairy stands together, liquid separated from solid, but sometimes by shape and weight. Fresh meats are together, and frozen items are strategically huddled together. Sale items, the two-fer and three-fer usually are attractively grouped so I can make sure the clerk catches the reduced price. Tagged sale items are put where I can keep an eye on them has the price appears on the screen.

These days my system doesn’t work all that well, but I still cling to it to bring a sense of orderliness to my day. First of all, fresh produce is now sort of in the “narthex” of the store--apples, pears and bananas greeting me as I take a cart. On the way out, the computers that figure my bill have another agenda--they scramble my carefully devised system--they can’t even subtotal what I purchased for charity so I have to take the clerk’s word for it that I purchased $19.95 for Cat Welfare and remember to note it on my bill.

#119 Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson apparently doesn’t have a blog. I’ve looked. He’s in the public eye so often, perhaps it doesn’t matter. A Google search turns up about 14,000 possibilities if you enter those terms, but it is just others blogging about Hanson and the calm, sensible way he has of laying it on the line. He has about as much inflection and charisma as a weather reporter, but he’s always engaging because he presents his case meticulously. I’ve seen him on Book-TV several times and perhaps it is his training in the classics, but he does have a larger grasp of our current problems in the Middle East.

December 2003

November 7, 2003

November 3, 2003

September 28, 2003

September 15, 2003 (audio)

June 11, 2003

April 8, 2003

March 28, 2003 (audio)

‘Hanson has a lot more to say on many other subjects, among them the privileged Arabs, "driven to murder by hatred and envy," who are the real terrorists, and about the privileged Americans in academia and among the illuminati -- he cites "the likes of Mary Beard, Eric Foner, Frederic Jameson, Barbara Kingsolver, Arundhati Roy, Edward Said, Susan Sontag, Alice Walker, and a host of others" -- who "are not merely ignorant of politics, history and culture, but often downright immature, hysterical and inarticulate." As is so often the case, he is right.’ Washington Post, August 29, 2002

#118 Fairly traded coffee

I noticed an announcement in the newsletter from my home church (Church of the Brethren) that they are now using "fairly traded coffee" for the church social hour and events. The Inter-faith Coffee Program buys direct from the farmer. Then I saw in the WSJ that Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and Procter and Gamble were also purchasing fairly traded coffee.

"By serving Equal Exchange fairly traded coffee at your place of worship, home or office, you can share fellowship with our neighbors in coffee-growing countries, making a difference in their lives while enjoying a delicious cup of coffee. Through the program, farmers earn a fair price for their products, receive affordable credit, and gain a long-term trading partner that they can trust. By pooling their resources in democratic cooperatives, farmers are able to invest in training, health care, and agricultural improvements in their communities. Every cup you serve helps these farmers as they build better lives for themselves and their families."

#117 Reading the Bible in English

I mentioned in blog #114 that we had 22 Bibles in the house. Now we have 23. Yesterday I bought Tyndale’s New Testament in paperback (Wordsworth Edition, Ltd., 2002). The English spelling has been updated, but the words and rhythm are original. I had printed off a few pages of a photocopy of an early edition from the Internet, and because I learned to read phonetically, I had no problem reading it aloud. The marginal notes of Tyndale and the introduction by Priscilla Martin enhance this new updated translation, for which Tyndale suffered and died.

In reading McGrath’s “In the beginning,” I learned that the use of thee, thou, thine and ye was already old-fashioned in 1611 when the King James version was completed. The archaic forms were continued because the translators were instructed to change only those parts of the older English translation that were inaccurate, so they included pronouns that were no longer in use, but which were not inaccurate.

Also, in 1611 use of the word “his” was just beginning to be replaced by “its” when referring to neuter nouns like cubits, or wood, or any inanimate noun. The translators went the conservative route, thus giving us some incredibly awkward sentence constructions not unlike what we have today with “his or her” following a singular noun describing people.

But most interesting was learning that the verb forms ending in “-eth” were most likely pronounced as “s” in the early 17th century. English isn’t phonetic in many words (through, tough, plough), and although the people were pronouncing “sayeth“ as “says” and “giveth” as “gives,” a hundred years later when the 1611 version really became almost universally used, no one corrected the pronunciation while reading. There are no recordings of how people spoke. The closest we have to English as spoken in the 17th and 18th century is our own Appalachian people in the U.S., since it is no longer spoken in England.

#116 A not so funny analysis

I don’t think I knew that Jackie Mason was still around, let alone that the comedian could make political sense. I wonder if someone can get him on the Democratic ticket?

In commenting on Billionaire George Soro’s anti-Semitism, Mason says: “The ovens, grown cold over the last sixty years, are there, waiting only for a spark to be fired up. The only thing in this regard that is different now from then, is that now there is a State that Jews can turn to, that righteous countries can morally and practically support, a State that even if it were abandoned by the whole world could defend itself and be a haven for all Jews.”

#115 Dakota by Kathleen Norris

I’ve been reading Dakota by Kathleen Norris. (I’m listening on tape, actually.) Because her grandmother lived in South Dakota and she vacationed there as a child, she isn’t exactly an outsider. However, her education and Eastern upbringing make her somewhat suspect when she and her husband move there in 1974. Much of Dakota appears to be a diary--spiritual thoughts and meditations. Amazing how the printed page helps you figure that out--but a tape gives no visual clues. I find I miss them terribly.

She writes about doing writing workshops--for children, for women. The plains women who want to be writers have a problem because there are no secrets in a small town (sounds familiar, since I grew up in a small Midwestern town). Hard to disguise your characters. The women belong to so many activities--clubs, church groups, extension--they can’t find time to write. People who do write about the plains successfully, have usually moved away. One woman who was successful and got a column in the local paper, found she was completely ignored by her friends. Nor do they want to read novels by plains people who have left--Norris says they want lies (that must have made the locals happy).

Norris seems to spend a lot of time in a Benedictine monastery (don’t know where, but on the plains), but is a member of a struggling Presbyterian church in Lemmon. One tiny church named Hope near Keldron she served as a lay pastor. Texts about Advent are accepted there, she says--in town they are eager to get on to Christmas. Waiting is something they are good at. She is humbled and in awe--and describes little Hope Church as near the top in per capita giving among Presbyterians in South Dakota.

Outsiders (and she is one) are never really accepted, she says. But she understands how homesteading had this influence--the women particularly had only each other to help. Only the toughest survived--and they had a love/hate relationship with the plains--and that has been passed on.

The internet has come into common use since this book was written, and I’m assuming much has changed in the last 10 years, although not the geographic isolation. Some of the towns and churches she mentions now have web sites.