182 A picture is worth. . .

The Columbus Dispatch today carried a large photo of two young East High school boys at the door of the gym. In the hall, both sides, in front of the doors were soft drink machines. One young man, lean and carrying a gym bag, was going into the gym. The other one, overweight with no gym bag, was leaning over retrieving his soda.

In the 1950s in my high school we had a milk machine. For 2 cents we could get a small carton of milk (subsidized apparently, because even then that was cheap). I rarely used it, but if you were hungry, it was better than nothing.

Cokes, with a dollop of cherry or chocolate were for giggling and gossiping with your friends at Felker's Drug Store after school. One can of pop has more sugar than an entire day's recommended amount. According to the article, many kids drink three or four a day.

181 Howard Dean and his good friend, God

Don't you just wish Howard Dean would forget trying to sound religious? I'm embarrassed for him, and I don't even like him!

William Safire reported the other day that Dean was trying to make a point about how he reads the Bible and he had the story of Job in the New Testament and said it had a bad ending which probably wasn't the original. Then Christopher Buckley in an article "In God he trusts," said he Googled "Dean + God" and got 49,201 hits on the internet--mostly Dean taking His name in vain--goddamnit, God knows, and goddamn.

Then he said something about the hallmark of Christianity being how you treat your fellow man (good works). Nonsense. The moral and ethical teachings of Christ were all from Judiaism. The hallmark of Christianity is the person and work of Jesus Christ.

No wonder he left his church over a bikepath. He doesn't know enough about Christianity to chose a better reason. He should go back to winning the Bible Belt with talking about Confederate flags--he couldn't do worse.

Update: In the Jan. 9 Wall Street Journal, Geoffrey Norman has an article "God and Green Mountains." He points out that discussing one's faith in Vermont, Dean's home state, would be vulgar. But when going after the bubba vote, saying that Jesus is your inspiration just won't cut it. Football players and NASCAR drivers are an inspiration; Jesus is the Redeemer.

180 Cite your sources, please!

Newspapers running the New York Times Syndicate (Jan. 5, 2004) carried stories about how antidepressants affect the brain as compared to cognitive behavior therapy. The antidepressants reduce activity in the emotional center, and the therapy quiets the cortex, the area of higher thought.

I read it in the Wall Street Journal and made a few notes so I could look it up. I do prefer to read the original research of break through health information and if newspapers, consumer health magazines and websites were kind enough to actually site their sources, I could do that. But they don’t. This was a huge frustration when I was a librarian--people would bring in an article that cited “last month” or an acronym for a journal, or just “recent studies show.”

I went to the web first to see if the article were available on-line. My first time scanning the contents of January 2004 Archives of General Psychiatry, I missed the title (didn’t have a correct title to work from) and I hadn’t written down the authors names mentioned in the article. So I did a Google search and found the syndicate article from the Boston Globe and picked up two of the authors names and the clue that it was a Canadian study.

“[Helen] Mayberg, a professor of psychiatry and neurology who conducted the study while at the University of Toronto but recently moved to Emory University in Atlanta. . .Dr. Zindel Segal, a University of Toronto psychiatry professor who worked on the study. . .The study, published in this month's Archives of General Psychiatry, helps to contrast the two main approaches to fighting it.”

We should be able to just glance at the end of the article and find a two line citation, maybe in handy brackets to set it aside from the story. Instead, I have to scan the whole thing and try to glean clues.

Here is the citation. “Modulation of Cortical-Limbic Pathways in Major Depression; Treatment-Specific Effects of Cognitive Behavior Therapy” Kimberly Goldapple, MSc; Zindel Segal, PhD; Carol Garson, MA; Mark Lau, PhD; Peter Bieling, PhD; Sidney Kennedy, MD; Helen Mayberg, MD Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2004;61:34-41.

Similar item was posted at my LISNews Journal

179 Overlawyered

Interesting blog on our one million lawyers and what people are thinking. "Overlawyered.com explores an American legal system that too often turns litigation into a weapon against guilty and innocent alike, erodes individual responsibility, rewards sharp practice, enriches its participants at the public's expense, and resists even modest efforts at reform and accountability. " The author is Walter Olson.

I noticed one class action suit against a bank where the customers received payments of $.16 to $.84 for overcharges, and the lawyers got $9 million for winning the suit. Readers send in many of the examples.

178 As health costs climb

A photograph on the front page of the Combus Dispatch today was startling, and indicative of what obesity is costing our health care system. Two staff people were each standing behind a wheelchair, regular and modified. The regular one costs $400. Next to it was a custom made wheelchair, perhaps two and a half times as wide for larger patients. Its cost was $4,000.

I wonder what cost is added in for injured medical staff who have to assist?

177 What you don't want to hear

I'm a morning person and like to go out for coffee early--before 7 a.m. I might visit three or four different places in a week. After awhile the faces of the customers and staff become familiar. Today I heard the words you do NOT want to hear any place you eat or drink.

I could see and hear the regional manager, but not the person in the back area (food prep) he was talking to. "You're sick, man. I'm ready to call 911. You're going home. You're sick!! (Protesting from the back room) Go home. Take care of yourself." He did. I passed on the free samples set out for the early birds.

176 A source for children’s reading

If you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or pushover mama to the neighborhood, you might enjoy reading back issues of The Bulletin of the Center for children’s books (University of Illinois) for help in selecting gift books or library books for your little ones. Sorry I didn’t mention this before Christmas, but there are always birthdays and graduations from kindergarten.

I mention back issues for two reasons--that’s what is on line if you carefully work your way through the links (they don’t make this too obvious), and with children’s books does it really matter if they don’t have the latest? Don’t you want something with 1) beautiful illustrations, 2) wonderful use of the language and 3) timeless lessons to be learned?

I first clicked to the Blue Ribbon Archive then clicked on any year before 2003 and was able to read the feature articles and blue ribbon selections and special subject focus lists. The Bulletin’s Dozen is a theme based list, available only on-line. July 2002, for instance, listed 12 books about farms and farming with brief annotations, for example: Hall, Donald. The Farm Summer 1942; illus. by Barry Moser. Dial, 1994. 6-9 yrs. "While his father and mother serve their country, Peter spends his summer caring for animals and listening to family stories on his grandparents' New Hampshire farm." These lists can be printed in pdf double sided, tri-fold.

Also an interesting article on storytelling and libraries in the August 1997 issue, some of which will hold true when you curl up in a big chair with the little big ears, but also important to know if the child in your life goes to library story hours.

#175 The expectation gap

It seems there is a significant gap between achievement of white students and black and/or Hispanic students, but the gap between white and Asian is even larger.

Clarence Page writes commenting on the book, "No excuses, closing the racial gap" by Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom: "Among the most intriguing possible reasons for this disparity is an intriguing group difference in the way students measure their family's "trouble threshold," according to one study that the Thernstroms cite. The "trouble threshold" is the lowest grade that students think they can receive before their parents go volcanic with anger and start clamping down on TV time, etc. In the survey by Laurence Steinberg, a Temple University social scientist, published in his 1996 book, "Beyond the Classroom," most of the black and Hispanic students surveyed said they could avoid trouble at home as long as their grades stayed above C-minus.

Most of the whites, by contrast, said their parents would give them a hard time if their children came home with anything less than a B-minus.

By contrast, most of the Asian students, whether immigrant or native-born, said that their parents would be upset if they brought home anything less than an A-minus."

When I was in school in the 1950s and 1960s it was MY expectation that mattered. It hovered around an A minus. I wanted A’s, but knew it might not happen in math or the sciences, my weak and low interest areas. My parents expected at least a B. So worrying about what my parents might say was just never an issue--my expectations were higher than theirs! I once got a C in tennis at Manchester College, but no one cared about sports except as it affected a GPA. If I suspected I was not going to do well, I dropped the class. But I averaged about an A- in high school and college.

#174 Index to themes, topics, passing thoughts, and ideas, updated

academe, libraries 10, 26, 29, 38, 54,67, 70, 75, 134
art and artists 54, 66, 102,126,148
blogging 1, 32, 46, 56
books and journals 2, 29, 31, 47, 51, 53, 57, 74, 90, 93,104,110, 115, 117, 119,149, 152, 155, 158, 166,170
condo living 40, 42
culture 31, 41, 139,140
economy, finances 7, 13, 33, 43, 61, 96,101, 111,127, 132,163
education 110
entertainment 72, 90, 109,123,129, 139
faith and values 14, 30, 31, 32, 37, 46, 50, 63, 62, 68, 69, 87, 94,118, 127,130, 132,131,138, 141,145,152, 166, 168
family 2, 4, 6, 21, 24, 28, 34, 36, 39, 55, 59, 67, 79, 80, 82, 86, 89, 98,122,128, 143,151, 156,160,165,169
fashion 21, 55
food, recipes, eating out 3, 8, 10, 11, 25, 35, 36, 42, 56, 59, 105,108,137,161
friends 9, 10, 21, 50, 54, 92,102,168
genealogy 19, 20, 24, 44, 67, 71, 73,106
health 23, 25, 36, 39, 48, 53, 61, 60, 81, 83, 88,128,133,146,156, 160
history 85
Illinois 44, 54, 63, 67
Internet, Usenet, computers 26, 32, 33, 37, 62
language 117,124,125
nature 31, 42, 58, 57
observations, misc. 5, 12, 15, 49, 52, 113, 114,120, 121,136 154,162
Ohio 20, 40, 97,107
pets 27, 39, 56, 92, 122
poetry 14, 22, 44, 55, 63, 80, 153
politics 9, 43, 70, 76, 78, 87, 99, 103, 116, 132, 135, 147,150,159
science 2, 16, 29
technology 96,142
war 100,119, 143,144, 147,
women 20, 23, 44, 63
writing 19, 62, 65, 67, 95,157,164

#173 Unshelved Comic Strip

To see more about this comic strip set in a public library, check the primer.

#172 2004 Financial Outlook

As 2004 begins, I’m thankful that when I was young, I didn’t take any loans to get through college. I’m thankful that I entered a stable marriage with a guy who had the same values. I’m thankful that when I was younger I learned to depend on one income and save the other (when I finally did go back to work). I’m thankful that I grew up in a household culture that looked disapprovingly on accumulating possessions. I’m thankful that I learned in my 30s that at least 10% comes off the top for God, and the next 15% goes to savings. Then there will always be enough to meet both the bills and the expectations.

I have a teacher’s pension. It’s about $18,000 a year. I’m not eligible for Social Security--neither on my own record of earnings nor my spouse’s. If you taught, say the first 25 years out of college, then retired and started a consulting business, or really ramped up your writing career and sold a novel or two, or maybe that guidebook that was on the back burner for all those years spent listening to hormonal 8th graders, you may be thinking that between your pension and your Social Security and your private investments, you’ll be able to be comfortable.

Think again. A teacher’s pension offsets Social Security benefits. (Government Pension Offset). It’s been this way since the mid-80s, but maybe you didn’t think about it when you retired, or didn’t know. If your spouse dies, you won’t get his/her SS spousal benefits either (Windfall Elimination Provision). Unless your teacher’s pension is really tiny, and even then you’ll get a fraction of a spouse who never worked. It may be one of the few issues NEA and I ever agreed on.

Fortunately, your private investments are doing well. In 2003 Nasdaq composite up 50%; S&P up 26.4%; Dow Jones up 25.3% (WSJ Jan 2, 04). So I hope you were socking it away back when you were young and carefree.

#171 Happy New Year

The jazz concert and worship service at church last night was a huge success. No one knew what to expect since this was a first, but about 800 people came. Pastor Paul asked members of the congregation, “who brought visitors,” and many hands went up. Paul admitted he doesn’t know much about jazz, but in the sermon he drew a large rectangle in the air and said that although the musicians had great freedom, they were working within a framework. Our life with God can be that way he promised. Great freedom, but within God’s laws.

The six piece group, which included Tom Battenburg on trumpet and Vaughn Wiester on trombone, started with some secular music at 5:30 with video of New Orleans, Chicago, New York and San Francisco, as well as a lovely rural film clip for “Autumn Leaves.” Then we had a rousing hymn sing using old hymns in the public domain, arranged I assume by staff member Russ Nagy, the pianist. We got up and moving with “Standup, standup for Jesus,” which was probably too danceable for my grandparents’ generation in the original, but works nicely as jazz, “Crown him with many crowns” (I didn’t think this one could pass muster as jazz), “Amazing Grace,” and “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun.” We closed with a familiar but probably unsingable hymn (for the visitors) to the familiar tune of Auld Lang Syne with great gusto.

One new freedom last night was carrying coffee cups into the sanctuary. Previously (one year ago our senior pastor of 18 years retired), no food or drink was allowed in there. I don’t worship often at Mill Run campus (this one opened four years ago, but we have three locations) because the slope of the stadium seating in the sanctuary is uncomfortable when standing and when sitting I slide off the seat. I think the drink restriction was a wise one. If coffee is spilled in row 20, someone in row 10 who has put her purse and Bible on the floor, is going to really be unhappy. Fortunately, by the time I kicked mine over returning from communion, it was empty.

170 End of the Year Wrap-Up, December 31, 2003

I made a note in April: "Mice who lived in enriched cages with toys and wheels had far more neurons in a key part of the brain than mice in bare cages." So the one with the most toys really does win?

I made a note in August: "Free lance photographers earn 35% less than 18 years ago."

I'm still wondering about Richard Grasso. How many people would refuse a pay package for more than they are worth? He was fired for accepting his $140 million package--it appears.

I made this note in April: In my father's lifetime--there were 12 democracies when he was born and 121 when he died.

I must be ambitious in the morning when I take these notes because these are the books I noted and thought I would read, but haven't:
"Sudden Sea: The great Hurricane of 1938" by RA Scotti
"The five people you meet in heaven" by Mitch Albom.
"Betting on myself" by Steven Crist.
"Dogs never lie about love" by Jeffery Masson
"The Stones of Summer" by Dow Mossman
"Shelby Foote" by C. Stuart Chapman
"Doing our own thing" by John McWhorter
"An unfinished life" by Robert Dallek
"Escape from slavery" by Francis Bok
"Storyteller's Daughter" by Saira Shah
"The mind and the brain" by Begley and Schwartz
"The retirement savings time bomb" by Ed Slott
"Beyond the river" by Ann Hagedorn

Websites noted during the year, but still not checked:
nccam.nih.gov
www.ftc.gov
www.issg.org/database
www.dnr.state.oh.us/dnap/invasive/
FoodTV.com
Homemadesimple.com
www.u.sit4less.com
www.nhtsa.dot.gov

Recipes copied and not tried:
Crab cakes
Spinach bacon deviled eggs
Creamsicle Cake
Rice pudding
Hot chicken salad
Crustless pumpkin pie
German apple cake

#169 New Year's Eve

These years come and go so fast. I haven't even made a list of problems to solve (my replacement for New Year's Resolutions) in 2004. We're debating about what to do. There is a jazz concert at church tonight beginning at 5:30. I could drop my husband at the door and park, we could attend the concert, and be home at a decent hour. He went to his men's Bible study group at 7 a.m. this morning, and that went well, and he's had a few walks around the grounds in the last few days.

The "children" will stop by tomorrow for turkey sandwiches and snacks, the makings of which I purchased today at Kroger's using someone else's loyalty card. I bought 4 tiny bottles of wine so we could toast the new year, and noticed that the check out slip recorded my birthday as October 10, 1910. Wow. Time is going faster than I thought, and I'm much older than I dreamed.

#168 The gift of Helps

Yesterday I visited a friend recently released from Dodd Hall at Ohio State Medical Center where she was in rehab for a fractured pelvis, sustained about three weeks ago when she fell in her kitchen while mopping the floor. We met in 1978 when she was the part time temporary Agricultural Librarian at OSUL and I was the part time, temporary contract agricultural economics bibliographer funded by an AID grant for a special collection on foreign credit. Eventually she became the Journalism Librarian and I became the Veterinary Medicine Librarian, fields in which neither of us had started, so we‘ve stayed in touch over the years.

Back to the visit. When the emergency squad arrived after her fall, they had to break in because she couldn’t move. So a repairman was there when I arrived who was creating a new door frame, and he will come back to hang a new metal door when it arrives. Finding good service people is always a headache, so Eleanor uses Angie’s List, which is how she found him. Homeowners support the list to receive recommendations and ratings of services in over 250 categories.

We chatted a bit with the young man as he was about to leave and gave her the bill. “Do you have someone to bring you food?” he inquired of Eleanor who was sitting in a wheelchair. “My church can bring you meals.” Although I and other friends had offered to bring in meals, I was stunned that a complete stranger had volunteered his church! My church is located across the field from her condo, and I don’t think we are set up to do that for non-members.

Turns out he attends a small Baptist church on the near west side of the city, gradually losing membership as people move to the suburbs, as his family has done. They are a wonderful, warm group, he told us. I should say so! They warmed my day.

#167 Wireless libraries

I just checked the Wireless Librarian Web Site, which tells which libraries in the U.S. are set up for wireless networks, and see that North Dakota has more sites than Ohio. The only public library in Ohio which has it is in Euclid, a suburb of Cleveland. Come on, Columbus, home of Battelle, Chemical Abstracts, OCLC, and Ohio State University Libraries*. The information mecca of the mid-west, home of the university with the great-grandmother of all automated library systems (LCS, now retired) is lagging behind. Maybe there are more, but they haven't alerted this site.

*The Law Library and Health Sciences Library at Ohio State do have wireless but are not part of OSUL.

#166 Girl meets God

Book club is meeting next Monday night and the selection is "Girl meets God" by Lauren F. Winner (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2002). The one copy in OhioLink was checked out, so I've borrowed a copy from another member of the group. First chapter has held my interest. Study guide on the net helps. Having been a convert to orthodox Judaism, then a convert to Christianity, Winner has certainly put more thought and effort into her faith than most of us garden variety Christians.

#165 Meeting a champ

Ohio State 2003 football team captain and scholar Craig Krenzel doesn’t exactly have rock star status in Columbus, Ohio, but it’s close. My daughter was waiting in line at a store with Christmas purchases, when she recognized that Craig and another football player were in line behind her. After paying for her purchases, she turned her head and wished them luck in the Fiesta Bowl (where he led the team to the 2003 championship last year), and walked into a wall.

#164 Lost and Found

In writing class about a year ago, the instructor asked us to go around the room and suggest words for two columns of information--what you might toss in the trash (junk mail, beer can, expired coupons, etc.) , and what you would place in a shoe box used for small treasures (postcard, baby teeth, dog tag license, were some suggestions). A third list was words describing a snow storm (log smoke, deep drifts, dead battery, etc.) I think we developed a female character from the first two lists and incorporated her into a winter story using words from the third list. Or maybe we did two stories. It’s been awhile, but that’s my recollection. Nancy Zafris was her name http://www.nancyzafris.com/pages/reviews.html

While waiting for the children to descend on the nativity scene at church this morning, I looked at the next cubicle (there are four, gated like store fronts in a mall, two used for the library, and two to grow), and noticed the “lost and found” items were stacked on the shelves.

Adults (I presume)
3 umbrellas
2 casseroles dishes
1 glass pie dish
1 glass deviled egg dish
4 Bibles, NIV, Amplified
dark forest green knit head band
3 insulated metal coffee mugs for cars
Dr. Scholl’s moleskin package
Casio handheld calculator
Glasses case
Albuterol Sulfate Solution
1 red glove
1 pair of black leather gloves
Man’s white dress shirt, size 17 neck
Book, “The treasure principle”
Book, “Understanding the last days”
Book, “Pride and prejudice”
Book, “Bad girls of the Bible”
Book-of-the-month-club canvas bag
Ceramic white cherub
small notebook

Children
plastic hippo
Spiderman activity book
Snowman sequined purse
Barbie purse
plastic baby bottle with nipple
toy plastic pliers
plastic turtle
“Very hungry caterpillar” video
Black plastic hair band
right athletic shoe, about size 8--really used
right black patent Mary Jane, size 3--brand new
Timex athlete style watch, Velcro band, working with correct date
Plush puppy, Dalmatian
Book, “Fall secrets”
Book, “Meet Kirsten”
3 jackets, various sizes and colors
White hair ribbon
Plastic purse
Hello Kitty music box
pink underpants size 8, Hanes
plastic turtle
clothe diaper, ca. 1963 style (pre-disposable)
four Bibles, children’s style, bright covers

I wonder what family stories, arguments, and upsets go along with these lost items? I’m not sure I could get a story out of this--real lists aren’t nearly as interesting as make believe lists. This is probably representative of most Protestant churches’ lost and found collections.

#163 Killing the golden turkey

In Ohio, employers could be sued if an employee was injured in a non-work related auto accident and driving her own car if she didn’t have insurance to cover her injuries--called Scott Pontzer (85 Ohio St.3d 660). I was on a jury in such a case. It is referred to in one article as "the golden turkey" award because it even extended to family members of the employee with no connection at all to the employer. The Ohio Supreme Court recently changed all that in Westfield Ins. Co. v Galatis, 100 Ohio St.3d 216, 2003-Ohio-5849, according to a recent article. It now applies only if the accident happens within the course of employment. This brings Ohio in line with most other states.

The Columbus Dispatch today noted that a cow is not a car according to a recent 11th District Court of Appeals decision. A motorist tried to sue a farmer who had no liability insurance through the uninsured motorist clause of her auto insurance when she was injured hitting his cow. I couldn’t tell from the editorial if this odd law suit was because of the Scott Pontzer decision which had also been mentioned. I thought I could find this case through Google, but I actually found another Scott Pontzer case which involved a different cow and different motorist.