262 Child phobia learned in libraries

I read a number of blogs by librarians, and the experience of working in public libraries seems to make some of them either swear off ever being a parent or desire a child-free environment. Here's an example from The Well Dressed Librarian, a gay, Jewish, cataloguer-wannabe, who blogs about his experiences in library school where he has gone from being a fashion plate cataloguer for an auction house to a lowly page.

I have also come to another realization. I can not stand the sound of children whining or crying. Yesterday, Mother of the Year was in the library with all 5 of her kids. 3 of them were crying, and one was emitting this low, skin crawling whine that would not stop. I wanted to give the kids stickers to make them stop, but realized they were crying because their Mother was forcing them to play computer games that they didn't want to play.

She was making a 3 year old play a game with French and Spanish words. The kid couldn't even read, let alone two foreign tongues. I don't think from what I gathered that she could either. Finally, our very own Kentucky librarian came to the rescue. She explained to the MOTY that the games were too hard, and got them to play something else.

End of crying & whining. For 6 minutes.

Then the MOTY decided it was time to go, only the kids wanted to play more games. So she screamed at them. Then she couldn't find one of her kids. So, she decided to call for her, like she was in a State Park. Multiple times.

Finally they left, and I had one of the worst headaches I can remember. And I have a good memory.

261 Good for a laugh

People become librarians because they know too much. Their knowledge extends beyond mere categories. They cannot be confined to disciplines. Librarians are all-knowing and all-seeing. They bring order to chaos. They bring wisdom and culture to the masses. They preserve every aspect of human knowledge. Librarians rule. And they will kick the crap out of anyone who says otherwise.

From Librarian Avengers, on Why you should worship your librarian.

A reader responds: I have always been an "LL". . . .a Librarian Lover. To me, a Librarian was always a very special person. one who could move silently and swiftly through the stacks to find a particular book. From Aristophenes to Zane Gray, from C S Lewis to Ernest Thompson Seton, my Librarian could find any book I wanted. And even though she would never allow me into the library with my roller skates on, I loved her just the same.

260 Conservative Librarians are Blogging

Jack Stephens blogs at Conservator, Thoughts on Libraries and Freedom. If you aren't familiar with the issues in librarianship, it is possible that your image of a librarian IS conservative. That is usually not the case, especially among academic librarians who probably fall in that 84% of college faculty who voted for Gore in 2000. The leadership of the profession in American Library Association or Medical Library Association or Association of College and Research Libraries is in turn, more liberal than the core membership they represent.

Jack seems to be addressing some of these issues along with Shush, Tomeboy, and The In Season Christian Librarian.

259 Staying informed

In another group there is a woman who works in a library who says she doesn't have time to read the newspaper or watch TV--she gets all her news from NPR while in the car. That's pretty narrow. So I sat down to figure out what I read, watch or listen to on a regular basis--although not cover to cover or word for word.

Newspapers

Wall Street Journal
Columbus Dispatch
USAToday
Upper Arlington News (weekly)


Television
C-Span--especially Book TV
Fox News
ABC Evening news
local TV news

Radio

610 am local radio for drive time (owned by Clear Channel)
1550 am Spanish radio (for shouting out words I occasionally recognize)
104.9 fm Christian radio

On-line Subscriptions

The New York Times Headline stories
The Wall Street Journal Opinion
CNET News
ChemWeb Bulletin
BioMedNet
Medscape Week in Review
Campus Watch
New Republic Online
Books and Culture
GrammarCheck
some gov't committee reports
Around Columbus (things to do)
RootsWeb Review (genealogy)
OSU Today
Refdesk (web sites specializing in extensive topical information)
Food Reflections (Univ. of Nebraska Home Extension)
Boogie Jack (web page construction)

Magazines

Christianity Today
American Artist
Watercolor
Watercolor Magic
Architectural Digest
Wired
Home Magazine
Columbus City Scene
Upper Arlington (monthly)
Columbus Bar Briefs
Crosslinks (my church)
Decision (Billy Graham)
miscellaneous architecture journals

Looking through the list, I am reminded that if I could learn to paint by reading magazines, I wouldn't be blogging.

258 Slow Job Growth

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal today (March 12), economists are puzzled about the reason for the slow job growth. Only 16% of them think offshore jobs are affecting US job growth.

I'm no economist, but I think we need to blame the people who have influenced every cultural, social, economic and educational trend in this country since the end of WWII--The Boomers. You reach a stage in life when you don't need "things" any more, when you aren't buying the latest entertainment gizmo whether it is a something to listen to or to watch or to play with, when you can't bear the thought of one more silly fashion gaffe hanging in your closet, and your 3 year old car looks just like the one on the show room floor. The Baby Boomers are now at that age, and they aren't buying as much as they used to.

The tax refund encouraged a lift in the spending, but a lot of us had what we needed materially, so instead we want to be making a difference in life, and that doesn't mean fingering the merchandise in the mall or kicking the tires at the auto show. Also, the Boomers had smaller families and probably have fewer grandchildren, or had them later, so they aren't even buying in that niche.

I don't want to give up my $5.00 shoes made in China that I bought 3 years ago and still look good as new. If I had had to buy them Made in the USA by a union plant, I wouldn't be able to afford many other things. The global economy helps the third world in ways government foreign aid never could. A low wage here that is scorned is a magnificient sum in some countries and the product comes back here to be distributed, sold and enjoyed by Americans at lower prices. Then we can put that savings into buying a piece of a business through stock.

Some people, like TV evangelists Benny Hinn and Joyce Meyer, want mansions and $100,000 cars and flashy rings, but most of us by 55 have learned money might buy comfort and fame, but it doesn't buy a good marriage, a loving friendship or a sense of purpose.

257 Just walking my dog

“I’m just walking my dog, singing my song, strolling along,” Nellie McKay.

A neighbor described Susan Lindauer, 41, as "a regular American who walks her dog in the mornings and the afternoon." The former journalist and press staff person for several Democratic Congressmen in the 90s has been charged with being an Iraqi spy.

According to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Lindauer made multiple visits from October 1999 through March 2002 to the Iraqi Mission to the United Nations in New York.

There is a 1998 deposition on the internet by the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin (2001) of the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon and the Middle East Forum in which she claims to have been the victim of assassination attempts and her home was bugged and there were little red laser lights in her bathroom vent. Yes, indeed. She sounds strange enough to be a spy for $10,000.

256 Free Uncle Remus

A library blog site called "Shush" has an interesting comment about Disney's decision not to re-issue Song of the South for fear of offending African Americans.

Free Uncle Remus!

"The closest thing that I know of in terms of censorship is Walt Disney's refusal to re-release one of their greatest movies, Song of the South. A friend of mine owns a blackmarket copy of this film that they loaned me to watch. Its a terrific story about childhood friends (white boy, black boy, and white girl, how pc can you get?) and their relationship with an old black man, Uncle Remus, who works for the white boy's grandmother. The movie is based on The Tales of Uncle Remus and is set shortly after the Civil War. Uncle Remus is a wise man and meant to be admired and respected in this movie. Walt Disney's decision not make it available for fear of offending the black population is completely inverted because it robs that same people of a strong role model. . . [remarks about American Library Association]

"Free Uncle Remus!"

We took our children to see the re-release of Song of the South back in the late 70s or 80s. I had seen it as a child at a friend's birthday party, and thoroughly enjoyed it as an adult. And I was a liberal back then, very sensitive to PC-isms long before we named it. I found nothing offensive in it. Beautiful color, strong characters, and wonderful songs. For soap opera fans, Ruth Warrick, "Phoebe Tyler" of All my Children has a starring role in this movie. She still sings and has an album. She also dated Liza Minnelli's husband David Gest for some years, although 35 years his senior.

255 Do we want this woman in the White House?

The Cranky Professor referred to The Bleat who linked to the John Kerry for President Blog site, for this ugly story that happened on December 7. I checked the site, and it really is there. Shame on you, Ms. Heinz-Kerry.

“So Teresa Heinz-Kerry passes out buttons that say “Asses of Evil,” with pictures of Bush, Cheney, Rummy and Ashcroft on them. There you have it: the President of the United States is an Evil Ass. I’d love for someone to put this question to Kerry in the debate: Senator Kerry, your wife handed out buttons that called the President an Evil Ass. Do you believe he is Evil, an Ass, or both? And if I may follow up, I’d like to ask if you can possibly imagine Laura Bush doing that. Thank you.”

254 More on Martha

Mark Styen writes:
"Martha may, indeed, be a bitch, though she's always been rather droll and charming to me (I once baked her a cranberry pecan pie with lattice crust). But, even if she were as mean as she's painted, even if (as the government of Nova Scotia might argue) her use of fruitcake is hurtful to the domestically feeble, I'll take her and her entrepreneurial energy over some deadbeat regulators any day. Martha, it seems, will be going to jail for telling a lie. Not in court, not under oath, not perjury, but merely when the Feds came round to see her about a possible crime. They couldn't prove she'd committed a crime, so they nailed her for lying while chit-chatting to them about the non-crime. And for that they're prepared to destroy her company.

It's true that it's an offence to lie to the Feds. But, as my New Hampshire neighbours Tom and Scott, currently in my basement stretching out a little light carpentry job to the end of the winter, are the first to point out, the Feds lied to the public about Waco and Ruby Ridge (another bloodbath) for years. If the Feds can lie to the people, why can't the people lie to the Feds? Lumping Martha Stewart in with Enron and Worldcom is the most pathetic overreaching on the part of the authorities: unlike the other "corporate scandals", Martha's business isn't a flop or a fraud; it made a hugely successful contribution to the economy until a bunch of government bureaucrats decided to target it for demolition."

253 Innovation and outsourcing

In Thomas L. Friedman's column today in the Columbus Dispatch (here for the on-line version) he explains, through the eyes of an Indian woman, why outsourcing jobs is typical of America's innovative spirit. These are the characteristics that have made America great, he concludes:

extreme freedom of thought

emphasis on independent thinking

steady immigration of new minds

risk-taking culture with no stigma attached to trying and failing

financial markets and venture capital system that is unrivaled at taking new ideas and making new products.

Bangalore, he writes, has a lot of engineering schools, but the local government is corrupt, half the city has no sidewalks, there are constant black-outs, the rivers are choked with pollution, the public schools are dysfunctional, the street beggars constantly cause a traffic grid-lock, and the infrastructure is falling apart.

Mindless protectionism will end all that, he says. Yet, everytime I hear the media tell one more whiney story about jobs being exported, that seems to be what they are promoting--let's build a big fence around our borders and protect our unions and our manufacturing and computer jobs.

252 Mona Lisa Smile

There are a number of movies on my “I’d like to see” list: Calendar Girls, In America, Something’s Gotta Give, Master and Commander, Big Fish, Win a date with Tad Hamilton, and Lost in Translation. Recently I’ve seen Girl with the Pearl Earring with a friend from art class, and last Thursday at the dollar theater, my husband and I enjoyed Mona Lisa Smile, now available on DVD. Not exactly Oscar quality, nor a gripping story, but enjoyable.

Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) is the new art history teacher at Wellesley, which is depicted as a very conservative college, for the 1953-54 school year. Katherine’s first class reveals highly motivated, intelligent young women way ahead of her prepared material. The story is more or less narrated by Betty (Kirsten Dunst), sort of a leader of the rest of the girls, who is about to be married in mid-year. She writes for the school paper, blows the whistle on the school nurse for supplying birth control, and later has it in for Katherine who’s not sympathetic with her missing so many classes. Betty is controlled by her mother’s ambitions for her, and believes Katherine is interfering in the life of another student Joan (Julia Stiles) by encouraging her to go to law school.

Men don’t fare well in this story--Katherine's (Julia) love interest turns out to be a guy who lies about his WWII service, and her old boyfriend sort of took her for granted. Betty’s new husband is unfaithful, and Katherine’s landlady/friend, played by Marcia Gay Harden, was apparently dumped during the war and lives in an alcoholic fantasy world of an "old maid."

Having lived through the 50s, I thought it a bit heavy handed with the “conservative” imagery, but it was after all, 50 years ago. Viewed through the lens of the current era when young women live with boyfriends they don’t plan to marry, live in dorms with men, and rack up $40,000 in debt before leaving college, I suppose the 50s do look somewhat ossified and girdled.

I asked a friend who was in college in the early 50s what she thought of the movie, and did it represent her experience at a private, exclusive Midwestern college. She wrote:

“I enjoyed Mona Lisa Smile. I surely did not go to an elite Eastern School, and as in most artistic works the motif seems somewhat exaggerated. Anyone doing any research whatsoever would not have come to [my college] in 1951 hoping to find a husband. The Korean War was on and it was the last year that the school did not have an ROTC unit. Therefore, guys who came were subject to the draft unless otherwise ineligible. I heard years later from a college administrator that as of July 1 that year they had 7 men enrolled. They obviously trolled the waters before Sept. Social life for the majority of women was almost non-existent. The town was dry and women were not allowed to have cars. The guys all migrated to a nearby town to drink beer on Friday night. There was almost no student union activity and you could not get out of town to a movie. I am sure that is why so many of my friends transferred after the sophomore year. I knew of only one gal who married and stayed in school. I would rather have died than tell my folks I wanted to get married. As for goals after graduation they were the usual education or "something" indefinable. We did not have elementary ed courses. One of my professors said casually during my second year, "You are going to graduate school aren't you?'' The thought had never occurred to me up to that point.”

251 Perceptions and the media

“Since the president's tax cut was fully implemented last May the unemployment rate has dropped rapidly from 6.3 percent to 5.6 percent today. Everyone knows this. It's one of the fastest declines in unemployment in decades. The problem is, this is a presidential-election year. Hence, improving economic statistics will not be accepted by the mainstream media no matter what those statistics say.” National Review Online

I noticed a snapshot statistic in USAToday that graphed “satisfaction,” and was quite surprised to see that 34% of Americans are fairly satisfied, and 57% are very satisfied, meaning 91% are fairly or very satisfied. But this isn’t what we hear, read or gossip about because who would turn on the news or buy a magazine that shouted, “Americans are satisfied and happy, but believe everyone else is in trouble.” I suppose one of the components of feeling good is believing someone else is worse off. But just like the mythical Jones family, “someone else” isn’t out there either.

250 The Modern Witch Trial

Both the feminist left and the good old boy right white guys club hate Martha. She's been found guilty, but had she been a lower profile male, more likeable, or hadn't shown the guys up at their own game, she'd have had a slap on the wrist. Had she been a female CEO embezzling or misusing funds at a leftist foundation, the feminist pundits would have been all over this case. But because she focuses on the "happy homemaker" and making homes and gardens more lovely, they don't really give a hoot.

"While those suspected crimes [of other CEOs] resulted in some of the largest bankruptcies and investor losses in history, it was Ms. Stewart's trial in a downtown Manhattan courtroom, focused on a stock sale that netted her about $45,000, that grabbed much of the spotlight." NYT

So for $45,000 (and even that is questionable) the trial costs investors and they have lost many millions more--sort of an Enron in reverse where the government grabs the goodies instead of the CEO.

249 Spin Sisters

I haven't read "Spin Sisters; How the women of the media sell unhappiness and liberalism to the women of America," but the title seems to tell all. I keep a few Family Circles and Women's Day up at the Lake house, and occasionally glance at a cover at the grocery store. The theme of the magazines are usually

beat stress

kill germs

walk off 20 pounds

have great sex

and disease of the month.

Myrna Blyth was the editor of Ladies Home Journal, which many years ago was one of the finest magazines available (my grandmother began subscribing when she was 12 years old), and I still have a few copies from the 1890s. It had fallen on hard times and Blyth managed to nudge it in the right direction, according to Independent Women's Forum. She retired two years ago, so no one can touch her now, and she's spilling the beans.

She says the media is run by the elite who came of age in the 60s and 70s and never questioned that "bigger, better government is the answer to many personal problems." According to the Wall Street Journal, it is well researched, and she read two years worth of nine women's magazines.

In the real world, writes Ms. Blythe, women are not concerned about abortion rights, they favor the death penalty, they supported the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, and they are more likely to vote than men.

Newsweek, Ms. and NYT of course don't like this book and point out that she herself participated in all the tricks she reports on.

248 I love Martha

I wrote this story a few years ago, and it is still one of my favorites. I really like Martha Stewart and her products and believe if she weren't such a successful woman, there would be no trial.

* * *

My daughter called from aisle 4 of the super market--about a mile from here.

"What's a 'cornichon'?" she whispered.

"A what?" I shouted, "Spell it."

"C-O-R-N-I-C-H-O-N-S," she hissed, "I think it must be type of pepper and I'm standing here in spices and can't find it."

Carrying the phone to the kitchen bookshelf I looked through a few cook-books. No cornichons. I walked into my study to look at my encyclopedia of cooking, no cornichons.

"Did you spell this correctly?" thinking of all the times she creatively spelled.

"Well, I think so."

"How much does the recipe call for?"

"A Tablespoon."

"Hmmn, doesn't sound like pepper," thinking of all the times she creatively "substituted," when learning to cook.

"Can't you ask a store employee?"

"Have you ever tried to find someone in this store? Get real," she whooped.

"What is this for?"

"Deviled eggs."

"Hang up so I can use the modem and I'll check the Internet," wondering what's wrong with my mustard and mayo Deviled Eggs that she needs to reinvent a tradition and add cornichons--a Tablespoon even. Her faith in me shaken, she reluctantly agreed to wait while I matched my PC against her cell-phone. The first 10 on the Google search seem to be in French. This isn't looking good. We're in Cl'mbus O-hi-o for Pete's Sake. Finally, a definition.

Crisp tart pickles made from tiny gherkin cukes. I call her right back.

"It's a pickle. A tiny pickle. You are in the wrong aisle."

"A pickle," she screams. "I'm going to kill Martha Stewart."

247 Core Knowledge in Spanish

"Para los alumnos del tercer grado, al igual que en los años anteriores, la experiencia inicial del arte debe provenir de realizar actividades: dibujar, pintar, cortar y pegar y trabajar con arcilla u otros materiales. Acá sugerimos unas cuantas actividades, pero se pueden desarrollar muchas más para complementar el descubrmiento que hará su niño de la imagen y la luz, de la forma y el color."

I’m always looking for ways to improve my Spanish--an learn something new, too. I’ve started listening to 1550 AM from Delaware, Ohio which is central Ohio’s only Spanish language station, although I did find an all-Spanish program on 1580 AM the other night.

Now I’ve discovered Core Knowledge website for schools promoting consistent, graded curricula for children that build on core knowledge in literature, art, math and sciences. There are many, many links to materials and programs and essays supporting the concept of teaching children this way (most in English, but some in Spanish).

246 A Writer in her own Right

It was probably not a pleasant experience, but Rose Wilder Lane, a successful writer was outshone by her own mother of "Little House" fame whose work she selflessly edited. She was also very political, going from very liberal to what sounds like a libertarian in today's political scene, and considering the era she lived through, much makes sense today. Some of her writing is available on line at the WPA's Federal Writers' Project.

"The Federal Writers' Project materials in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division are part of a larger collection titled The U.S. Work Progress Administration Federal Writers' Project and Historical Records Survey. The holdings from Federal Writers' Project span the years 1889-1942 and cover a wide range of topics and subprojects. Altogether, the Federal Writers' holdings number approximately 300,000 items and consist of correspondence, memoranda, field reports, notes, graphs, charts, preliminary and corrected drafts of essays, oral testimony, folklore, miscellaneous administrative and miscellaneous other material."

In a WPA autobiography included in the above collection, Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote in 1938-39:

“Politically, I cast my first vote -- on a sample ballot -- for Cleveland, at the age of three. I was an ardent if uncomprehending Populist; I saw America ruined forever when the soulless corporations in 1896, defeated Bryan and Free Silver.

I was a Christian Socialist with Debs, and distributed untold numbers of the Appeal to Reason. From 1914 to 1920 -- when I first went to Europe -- I was a pacifist; innocently, if criminally, I thought war stupid, cruel, wasteful and unnecessary. I voted for Wilson because he kept us out of it.

In 1917 I became a convinced, though not practicing Communist. In Russia, for some reason, I wasn't and I said so, but my understanding of Bolshevism made everything pleasant when the Cheka arrested me a few times.

I am now a fundamentalist American; give me time and I will tell you why individualism, laissez faire and the slightly restrained anarchy of capitalism offer the best opportunities for the development of the human spirit. Also I will tell you why the relative freedom of human spirit is better -- and more productive, even in material ways -- than the communist, Fascist, or any other rigidity organized for material ends.”
( Federal Writers' Project 1936-1940, http://memory.loc.gov/wpa/15100107.html)

245 A Senior Sandwich

I'm a senior sandwich. On the one hand, I'm involved in a homebound ministry through my church, which will include both nursing home and hospice visits, and visits to those who will be getting better and returning to health. I could be visiting church members old enough to be my parent. I am also signed up for the Senior Partners Program at The Ohio State University Health Sciences Center and might be meeting with a medical student young enough to be my grandchild.

This program pairs a medical student with senior adults around the community for four years, tracking any changes in health status that may occur, and I hope building a friendship and level of communication that will help the medical student when he/she is dealing with an aging population. We will meet about every 4-8 weeks throughout the academic year for 2-3 hours each time. Specific objectives will be set for each meeting, perhaps a medical history (mine, not his). OSU Lantern story here.

If you live in the Columbus area and are interested in this program, you can call 614-293-7914 and they'll send you a packet of information. If you are in another large metropolitan area that has a medical school, there are programs like this throughout the country. ABC evening news covered such a story a few weeks ago.

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

academe, libraries 10, 26, 29, 38, 54, 67, 70, 75, 134, 213, 226
art and artists 54, 66, 102,126,148
blogging 1, 32, 46, 56, 234, 240
books and journals 2, 29, 31, 47, 51, 53, 57, 74, 90, 93,104, 110, 115, 117, 119,149, 152, 155, 158, 166,170
campaign 2004 228, 229, 231, 233, 239,
condo living 40, 42
culture 31, 41, 139,140
economy, finances 7, 13, 33, 43, 61, 96, 101, 111,127, 132,163, 218, 220, 230, 232, 235, 242
education 110, 224
entertainment 72, 90, 109,123,129, 139, 215, 216, 222
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, [created new blog Church of the Acronym] 223
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, 213, 220, 242
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, 209, 222, 227,
health 23, 25, 36, 39, 48, 53, 61, 60, 81, 83, 88,128,133,146,156, 160
history 85, 224
Illinois 44, 54, 63, 67, 224
Internet, Usenet, computers 26, 32, 33, 37, 62, 211, 212,
language 117,124,125
media 210, 217
nature 31, 42, 58, 57
observations, misc. 5, 12, 15, 49, 52, 113, 114,120, 121,136 154,162, 241
Ohio 20, 40, 97,107
pets 27, 39, 56, 92, 122
poetry 14, 22, 44, 55, 63, 80, 153, 221,
politics 9, 43, 70, 76, 78, 87, 99, 103, 116, 132, 135, 147,150,159, 213, 215, 225, 236, 237
science 2, 16, 29
sports 217
technology 96,142,
war 100,119, 143,144, 147, 219
women 20, 23, 44, 63, 238
writing 19, 62, 65, 67, 95,157,164

244 Get Fuzzy

This is one of the funniest cat cartoons I've ever seen.

243 Speeding and fatal crashes

Last week a "snapshot" in the USAToday showed that speeding is a factor in 30% of all fatal crashes. Of those crashes, 70% are men, and 30% are women. In the 16-34 age group, 315 tickets are issued per 10,000 drivers, in the 35-54 age group, 153 per 10,000, and for 55+ (my age group), only 37 per 10,000. A reader calls it a "me-first" attitude, and I agree. I see people zipping around on the freeway only to get to the light at the same time I do, but having endangered the lives of others.

And some parents aren't the smartest when it comes to putting temptation in the path of their youngsters. While going to my car last Wednesday morning, I noticed there was a very new, red BMW convertible parked next to my van. As I unlocked the van, I saw two teen-age girls get in the convertible and head for school. I know. I know. MYOB.