581 Lawrence O'Donnell and my blog

When I checked my site meter the last several days I discovered that searches for Lawrence ODonnell (MSNBC) accounted for about half of all google searches that directed to my blog. That's odd, I thought. I mentioned him on October 23 after he'd gone bonkers over Swiftboat Vets and was screaming "Liar," but had no idea what he'd done recently. Well, apparently he's really gone off the deep end again (or, as usual?) and suggested the blue states secede. So that probably caused all the google searches, which in turn caused a ripple at my web site.

I hope someone has shown him the county maps. The counties would have to secede, not the entire state. Look at Illinois. It would appear that the Chicago suburbs went for Bush, but the St. Louis suburbs (in Illinois) went for Kerry, even thought the metropolitan counties are strongly blue. Bush won 2.51 million sq. miles with 150.9 million population, and Kerry won 511,700 sq. miles with 103.6 million people. And the red counties have all the agricultural land! What will the blue counties eat? And what movies will those of us in the red counties see? Oh dear, we've lost Hollywood. How tragic.

Do the number of hits on a blog matter? For those who sell ads, absolutely. There is an entire cottage industry of bloggers and software that count and evaluate blogs. "The current arbiter of the blogosphere as a whole is the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem, an index of registered blogs whose evolutionary animal metaphor implies an ecological logic at work. Blogs are ranked by incoming links from other blogs registered in the Ecosystem making this a good analogy for a closed, but ever expanding, ecosystem operating in wider ecologies of the Internet. Blogs are ranked hierarchically from top predator InstaPundit described as a Higher Being down through tiers including Playful Primates, Flappy Birds, Lowly Insects all the way to Insignificant Microbes that subsist without a single incoming link to their name. Despite the animal metaphors the Ecosystem might be thought of as a Great Chain of Being as much as assertion of Linnean relationships. This is not only a description of energy flows but a catalogue of varying social status and influence in the blogosphere." Into the Blogosphere article. It is interesting to check out Bear and search the various blogs you like to read.

When I changed my site meter to not count my own visits to my site, there was a huge drop in the charts at Bear (I was already crawly scum), but there doesn't seem to be any standard for this-- whether you count yourself as a visit. But without my own visits, I get about 70 page hits a day.

580 Evaluating the blog evaluators

Today I came across “Into the Blogosphere” which calls itself the “first scholarly collection focused on blog as rhetorical artifact,” saying that blogs represent the power of regular people to use the Internet for publishing. It is hosted on the University of Minnesota Libraries website. I haven’t quite figured out how to use the site, but have noted a few inconsistencies in the plan.
Although one of the beauties of blogging (I have five) is there is no peer review, this particular site says that - - -

“The ethos of blogging is collaborative and values the sharing of ideas; bloggers are not dependent on publishers to get their words out.”

And then goes on to use a peer review process to evaluate blogging.

“Yet, as most scholars recognize, the peer-review process is important. Peer review provides a needed check and balance on information; it helps ensure the quality of research and the connection between individual research and the profession as a whole. . .”

Am I correct in thinking their “peer review” process is to provide the authors cache when promotion and tenure review comes up--intended for those write about blogs as a communication form, and not those who actually write blogs. Anyone know?

Here’s a sample sentence or two pulled out:

“In all likelihood, Weblogs will be incorporated into most major media organizations in some capacity if their popularity remains sufficiently high and user figures increase. However, a true blog revolution remains a future phenomenon at best. For the foreseeable future, Weblogs seem well positioned to continue to do what they do best: to allow a forum for open and autonomous debate about media texts in the discursive space that they provide and to function as a real-time virtual feedback loop fostering an interactive debate about the veracity of media texts.” Weblog Journalism: Between Infiltration and Integration, Jason Gallo, Northwestern University .

Notice the references to “future” --we don’t know “future” if we don’t know the "now" for the article, do we? Was this written in 2002 or 2004, January or December? Makes a difference in my interpretation. I can find dates on the comments (I assume these are the peers), but not the articles themselves.

It would be nice to know date of publication for citing purposes, rather than use the date of research (September 2003) buried in the text for this kind of material:

“Color alterations, changing the base color of a common weblog template, are present in 33.8% of the weblogs (Figure 1). Of those that used templates that had been altered for color, 57.7% (n=30) had female webloggers while 40.4% (n= 21) had male webloggers and one of unknown gender (1.9%).” Common Visual Design Elements of Weblogs, Lois Ann Scheidt and Elijah Wright, Indiana University at Bloomington

579 How to improve elections in the United States

Michael Mayo of the Sun-Sentinel (Broward Co., FL) has some suggestions for improving our elections, and except for #1, I agree with all of them. He wants to dump the Electoral College. I don't agree. I think the Electoral College may be more important today than it was in the 1700s when they didn’t want the populous states to run over the smaller states. With the right candidate, the Democrats can still win in non-metropolitan areas--Bill Clinton proved that. And he was a moderate, a conservative Christian, and a southerner.

2. Tighten registration procedures

3. Demand transparency from electronic machine manufacturers

4. Mandate voter-verified paper trails for every electronic voting system

5. Fix the absentee ballot mess.

6. Make early voting easier.

7. Smooth the Election Day rough edges. (This would vary by state.)

578 Prayer Job Jar

It's getting full. And I'm so poor about doing this consistently. Perhaps a jar on the kitchen table. I think perhaps the first prayer is that God will bring the list to mind. Today's list, in no particular order (I'll leave that to God)

Shoe, a librarian having seizures
My father in law, 91, recovering in a nursing home from small stroke
My sister in law, who takes care of him, recovering from back surgery
My daughter, grieving over the loss of her pet of 18 years
My neighbor, a recent widow, moving to a retirement facility
My good friend Nancy, off to California to greet a new grandchild
My cousin making decisions about a move
Several women struggling with separation, divorce, custody issues
My son, needing to move on after a failed marriage
The ladies I visit in the nursing home
The friend who coordinates all the people visiting the residents in nursing homes
Our pastors struggling to figure out how to serve a multi-campus congregation
Our President as he makes decisions that affect our lives
Safety and protection for our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq

577 The jobs lie

One of the biggest lies and collective misinformation during the recent campaign were about the economy, specifically jobs. I thought I'd go crazy every time I heard the mantra about the worst economy in 70 years.

The current down cycle for jobs began in July 2000. A stimulus package was proposed but not supported by President Clinton. By the time Bush took office in January 2001, 217,000 jobs had already been lost and by the time his economic plan became law in June 2001, job loss was around 600,000. His tax cuts didn’t go into effect until August 2001.

Two examples of positive moves by business, using advances made possible by the internet.

Hand written inventory forms no longer necessary. “In the past, when the 100 sales reps of TaylorMade visited the 10,000 golf shops around the U.S., they would spend nearly two hours a day counting the titanium drivers and 9 irons left in inventory before filling out order forms by hand. That all changed in January when TaylorMade doled out handheld devices that sport bar-code readers and Internet connections. Now reps simply point the handheld at the bar code on each club to automatically tally inventory. Then they can focus on helping the retail customer boost sales. Sales-rep productivity is up 25%. And the system helped boost sales this year, allowing TaylorMade to beat rival Callaway as the world's No. 1 golf-club seller.” Business Week. http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_47/b3859623.htm

Multiple computer systems that can’t communicate have been replaced. “In the mid-'90s, the appliance maker Whirlpool, after expanding around the globe, was stymied by hundreds of computer systems that couldn't talk with one another. Whirlpool couldn't figure out how many products to make or to hold in inventory. Today, there's far less guesswork at the $11.8 billion company. Nearly every Whirlpool site worldwide is linked by e-business software. This has helped cut inventories from 15% of sales in 1997 to 12% today.” Business Week.
http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_47/b3859637.htm

But keep in mind, improved productivity means fewer jobs in one place, and more jobs somewhere else. The company that supplies the paper inventory forms for the salesmen may eventually take a hit as more firms use this system. Fewer staff in the home office are needed to process the information. Shortened sales call time may mean larger sales territories and fewer salespeople. Fewer computer support people may be needed at Whirlpool if there are fewer competing systems that need constant attention. Salespeople and software designers of the older, less effective systems, may be hitting the streets looking for work. Maybe that means fewer people going out for lunch in the business location, less demand for wait staff; maybe those computer support people will live in India instead of Indiana; maybe the improved productivity will hurt the competition and some of its people will suffer.

576 When the you-know-what hit the fan. . .

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 donated a large sum of money to my library. 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 Horwitz 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 Horwitz and I had an e-mail correspondence across the corn fields and prairies about his research before the days of the web, and typing e-mail was somewhat complicated. 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!

575 Bridging our Culture Divide

Poor Jane Smiley. She’s been seriously hung out to dry by Liberal Larry. And he’s the better writer.

I compiled a list of ten people I know who voted Republican and gave them each a call, in which I basically laid out the real heart of the progressive philosophy in simple terms they could understand.

"RACIST BIGOT GAY-BASHING FASCIST MORON!" I screamed into the phone after dialing my first number. "BIGOT FASCIST RIGHT-WING IDIOT HATEMONGER!!!!"

"Why are you screaming at me?" Grandma asked. "This state went to Kerry anyway."

"NO THANKS TO YOU, YOU INTOLERANT EVANGELICAL NAZI WHORE!" I shouted.

"Jeezus!" Grandma gasped.

"STOP FORCING YOUR RELIGION ON ME YOU NAZI BIGOT MORON!" I demanded, and hung up the phone. Jesus indeed!

And so forth, as he outlines how liberals will bring conservatives back into the fold, to bridge the gap, so to speak.

574 Torturing iguanas

John Leo apparently left the Democratic Party before I did, but his reasons sound very familiar. The party left him.

"At a dinner party in New York a month ago, a dread moment arrived: Someone asked me to tell the whole table why I was going to vote for President Bush, which is deeply eccentric behavior in these parts. My fellow diners listened with the same polite detachment they would have shown if I were explaining that my hobby is torturing iguanas."

The party left him he said for its coercion, intolerance, and contempt for dissenters in the party and total distain for the values and culture of people living outside the major metropolitan areas of the east and west coast. Works for me, although he has more specific reminders at his Townhall column.

573 Let's Play Dress-ups

Remember when our mothers kept a box of dresses, old jewelry and worn out high heels so little girls could play dress-ups? I'm thinking churches need to have a "dress-up" day for adult women.

Today I was wearing a 10 year old blazer which was maybe $29 when new, a 4 year old white cable knit sweater bought on sale, and a skirt I bought for $10 last spring at Meijer's after winter sale. That's the good news. The bad news is, I was one of the best dressed women at church, and it was communion Sunday. They aren't alone. The only men I saw who were wearing suits were over 65. But I'm only addressing women here.

Please don't remind me that God doesn't care what we wear to worship. That's pretty obvious considering that Christianity is a world wide religion and 2000 years old. God has seen every imaginable style, fabric, adornment and head dress that can adorn a human body. My grandmothers both wore prayer bonnets. But that excuse has the faint ring of "I can worship God on the golf course just as easily as in a church." We've become so sloppy, so careless in our appearance, so casual, that I think we need a kick in the pants to jump start our pride, which certainly wouldn't be among the sins we confess at the altar these days.

I have never seen a woman who looked more attractive, graceful or feminine in pants than in a dress or business suit. Nope. Not even a $500 wool pants suit looks better than a $50 rayon dress. Especially women over 40. Doesn't happen. We have too many bulges, bumps and dietary indiscretions revealed in pants. Either our legs look like two sausages fighting for space in a tight package, or toothpicks flopping around in a round box. Perhaps a woman in snazzy slacks and layered sweater or dress jeans and jacket looks more stylish--if she were headed for a sorority meeting, the golf course, or a day at the mall--but she doesn't look like she stood in front of a mirror and said, "This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it."

572 Amazing Dog Story

When I was the Veterinary Medicine Librarian at Ohio State, I was privileged to hear some pretty amazing things about animals and about the people who care for them. One of the women I've added to my blogroll, Florida Cracker, tells the story of a German Shepherd, Lily, and her rescue from a life of pain and certain death, and her inclusion into a loving family. If you move forward from the Oct. 22, you'll see some photos.

571 Where now Democrats?

Watching some of the election rehashes on c-span, I'm thinking there are some who just don't get it--like the woman raging about various "irregularities" like long lines, shortage of machines, requests for ID, provisional ballots, and malfunctioning equipment. Well, here in Franklin County, that happened mostly in the suburban, affluent areas which had experienced the largest turnout, but don't let the facts confuse you. She wants to make it an issue of minority disenfranchisement--it won't fly.

But the Democrats need to address their success. Yes, the success they've had over the years with various programs to get more minorities and poor into jobs, college and office. They've been so successful (I know since I was a Democrat), there have been huge shifts in the demographics. People in this country don't permanently reside in an economic percentile. I've been 4 out of the 5 myself. Someone needs to continue to concentrate on the newest citizens, on the minorities, and on the fringe beliefs, or we really will have disenfranchisement. If the Democrats stop doing that because the numbers aren't there to get them elected to power, then none of it meant anything. And let's hope they jettison their left wing fanatics and anarchist nutsoes--they don't represent at all the majority of the Democrats, but they get into the news way too often.

In the last decade, the programs promoted by Democrats seem to encourage keeping the poor and minorities stuck where they are by never letting them break out, always remaining dependent on the gov't. Like lock step for abortion rights but not supporting abstinence programs, or fighting school choice for poor people. If Bill Clinton wants a legacy, let him look to welfare reform, which his party didn't want, but which happened on his watch. When people break out, they may change parties, unless their immediate jobs depend on party affiliation (unions, universities, civil service, etc.).

Also, there have been huge successes in the environment. Would I own a summer home on Lake Erie if Republicans had been pushing changes in pollution? Hardly. However, you can only up the ante so far before people begin to see this is never going to stop until someone brings the economy to a halt, or cigaretts become illegal to smoke anywhere.

I've read some pretty specious research that Democrats aborted their future voters (abortion rate is higher in blue counties), but I think it is more likely that they've helped their constituency to leave the party through economic and social advancement.

The panel I'm watching--at Georgetown University Public Policy Institute--consists of E.J. Dionne of Washington Post, Melinda Henneberger of Newsweek and a Republican pollster and a Democrat pollster. Ms. Henneberger can barely contain her dislike for Bush, even as she says Democrats need to be less condescending toward middle-America. Dionne, who appears to be the moderator, is doing a good job of being fair and keeping his biases to himself.

570 Miscellaneous Post Election Musing

Birdie of NYC who writes at LISNews sighed: "I know that I lost, but I feel disenfranchised, as if I don't belong here. The people have spoken, but the people. . .I just don't know who they are."
I responded: “A huge voter turn out, a very respectable showing by your candidate (more than Bill Clinton ever won by either percentage or voters), no violence, no challenges, thousands of people waiting in line for hours in the rain. Could it be you need to get to fly-over country once in awhile and out of the secluded, thin air of your city? I was fully prepared for my candidate to lose and to support the process.”

Apparently, Americans will watch entertainers, but they just don’t want to be lectured by them about how to vote. Even the young people, only one out of ten who voted. Michelle Malkin writes: “The MTV vote windfall for Democrats failed to materialize even after Herculean efforts by Ramen noodle-wielding Michael Moore, Bush-bashing Eminem, scare-mongering Cameron Diaz, fist-pumping P. Diddy and "Vote or Die!"-vamping Christina Aguilera. (Interestingly, exit polls showed that "morals" was one of the top issues among the youth vote. Go figure that one out, Paris and Leonardo.)”

Captain Ed (I think he is in MN) writes on November 3: "One aspect of this election that may have been lost in all this analysis is that we successfully held a national election in the middle of the war on terror -- and while we had a highly negative and immature discourse, no one shied away from speaking out, and we turned out in record numbers (at least it looks that way now), rather than cower under our beds. Democrat or Republican, Libertarian or Green, pat yourselves on the back. You just won a major battle against the terrorists." Captain's Quarters

569 Baseball and the Election

Blogging Babs, whom I’ve recently added to my blogroll under “Ladies First” likes both baseball and Dubya and hits a homerun with her analogy. She writes:

“The Dems rolled out the heart of their line-up, and they whiffed. Daschle, fanned. Edwards, caught looking. Kerry swings for the fences and misses. George W was on the mound and he was throwing heat. Note to Kerry, when you run, jump and throw like a girl, don't even think about charging the mound. And stop arguing with the umpire. It's embarrassing. You didn't see Pete Coors act like an amateur when he struck out.

And someone please toss a rule book to Terry McAuliffe. Better yet, whack him over the head with it. The game doesn't go into extra innings when you're behind. The fat lady has sung, and she's home rubbing her bunions.”

568 Voters who throw away their vote

A local radio news program this morning reported that 93,000 Ohio punch card ballots were thrown out, but that's better than in 2000 when 95,000 were not counted. When I think of the long lines of people waiting to vote, many in the rain--70% of registered voters, lower than in some other states, but high for Ohio--it makes me sad. I think I have heard that the reason we don't have the Florida hanging and pregnant chad problem, is that our laws clearly state what will be counted and what won't. I believe at least 2 holes have to be clearly punched in order for the ballot to be valid.

I used a punch card this year because we voted absentee, and I was surprised by how easy it was to have one or two not push through. I held it up to the light several times and found hanging chads.

The provisional ballots are not so serious--most of those will be thrown out anyway. But registered, valid voters getting it wrong out of carelessness--that's unfortunate.

567 Post Election Media

After flipping through the channels Tuesday night, I went to bed about 10 p.m. I got up about 3 a.m. and watched the returns. I skipped CBS when I saw Dan Rather, so I have no comment about its coverage. O'Reilly at Fox says Rather was the best of the MSM--but they are friends. Peter Jennings seemed to be behaving himself; I saw no facial tics or sneers when he mentioned the President. Brokaw just looked tired, even that early. Fox just reported, and for news, I think they do a better job of balance. They include bombastic left talking heads on their opinion shows, like Susan Estrich, who all but called Kerry the winner based on Exit Polls. Liberals don't see Fox as a viable alternative because they are always in shock to see a different viewpoint.

But the day after, when it became apparent that counting Ohio's provisional votes (we had many counties with more registered "voters" than we had adults eligible to vote, and guess who had signed them up) wouldn't make any difference, I clicked through again. Really, the main stream media was practically in a state of grief. They put the most negative spin possible on what was good news to 51% of the voters.

This morning CNN is covering at great length the obsurd coverage of far left newspapers in Britain, like the Guardian which tried to influence the vote in Clark County, Ohio and called (jokingly, they said) for Bush's assassination. One paper pondered how 60,000,000 people could be so dumb. I think I can see through CNN's little game here. And they practically have a catch in their collective throats when they rerun Kerry's concession speech. Now the news babe (looks like a model) is whining that the media get blamed, when all she wants to do is give us information--this after she expressed her own disbelief at the number who said they thought Bush could unite the country (a CNN poll).

I watched Kerry's speech. For the first time I believed him--when he spoke of his sadness and dashed hopes. On this he probably won't change his mind, and we can only hope he doesn't turn into a raving sorehead like Al Gore.

566 Salty Snacks and Rebuilding Iraq

“In 2004, the U.S. spent 4 percent of our GDP on national defense. That is far less than the 10 percent of national output consumed by military efforts during the Vietnam War. It is but a drop in the bucket compared to the 38 percent of GDP eaten up by defense during World War II.

Last year when Congress was wrangling over the request for $20 billion to help rebuild Iraq, I went searching for baselines against which I could measure that mind-numbing sum. I did some math and discovered that Americans will spend $37 billion this year on salty snacks like pretzels and potato chips. We'll collectively spend $31 billion on candy. Can we afford $20 billion to help set a free Iraq on its feet? We might better ask whether we can afford not to. Particularly when you consider that just the immediate damages done to the U.S. by the attacks of 9/11 have been estimated at $161 billion.”

Here for the rest of the essay by Karl Zinsmeister

565 Be Prepared with something useful and beautiful

Sweet Earth Casket and Cradle Shop of Kalispell, Montana, will create for you a simple wooden casket of pine or mahogany and if you wish to get some enjoyment out of it, you can buy it with shelving and use it before you go, for books, guns, file cabinet, mementoes or photos. Included with the purchase is a book on how to have an alternative, simple funeral.

564 The Deer Kill

Last April I blogged about seeing the dead deer in the median of the Interstate west of Columbus on our way to Illinois. Saturday on our way to Indianapolis, I counted 14 between the west side of Columbus and the exit at Richmond, Indiana. After that, I saw none, or the counties had been more aggressive about picking them up. It is very sad to see, but according to the information I found the last time, 500,000 are killed on the high-ways annually in the US, and about 31,500 just in Ohio, but more are killed in fences and by dogs.

563 Blog topics, free to a good home

Cryptic notes. What did I plan to write? Must have sounded good at the time. Throw aways. See what you can do. Or check back.

I ran into my "step-sister" Gloria at Panera's. We worked together in 1985 in a program called Ohio STEPS. Great lady.

"The fashion of torn jeans is an insult to all those who must wear clothes with holes in them for lack of better ones. . .No doubt, laborers toil somewhere in the Third World to produce those careful rips--the rich do the poor no favor by wearing rags, even by famous designers." Theodore Dalrymple. I have no idea who this is or what I'd planned to say about it.

TV story about the men and women who drive supply trucks in Iraq. Some like the risks and excitement. Some like feeling a part of something important. One 54 year old black grandmother says she does it for the Iraqi people.

The top 1% of tax payers pay an average rate of 27.25%, and the Kerrys pay 12.4%, and they are billionaires. Kerry's proposed tax rate increases would have the effect of making his wife more wealthy because when tax rates rise, so do the value of tax-exempt bonds, thus increasing the value of Kerrys' portfolio.

A blonde woman wearing a large pin that said "DORK" was giving a tour at Panera's to eight nicely dressed 20-somethings.

An ad for eton shortwave radio said, "Be an informed voter from BBC to NPR, get all the international and domestic news from different angles." Different from what? Certainly not each other.

Live-in Nanny--$27,664/year
Live-out Nanny--$30,000/year

German study published in NEJM shows traffic can bring on health problems.

"The herd of independent minds," describing I think, academe. Ruth Wisse?

Donations from lawyers: Kerry $21,781,718; Edwards $11,491,519. Club for Growth ad.

Flu kills 36,000 and hospitalizes 200,000 each year. How does that compare with HIV/AIDS?

Low carb fad is fading.

Average weight of Americans is up 25 lbs. since 1960.

Jaguar ad in booklet form is rubber cemented into strips in glossy magazines with a page each for: 1. Lust. 2. Greed. 3. Pride. 4. Sloth. 5. Envy. 6. Wrath. 7. Gluttony. I guess sex doesn't sell anymore.

Ad for diamonds: "Your left hand loves candlelight. Your right hand loves the spotlight. Left--commitment. Right--independence. Women of the world, raise your right hand."

Ad for Jenn-Air: "To some, they're just magazines. But to you, they read like romance novels." Shows a wall magazine rack in a stainless steel kitchen with all storage below the counter so you can see the ocean.

Amy Tan's quote about having a brain sounds like it took all the effort of a junior high insult on the playground. And she calls herself a writer?

I didn't know Columbus had a Bible College until the women's dorm was evacuated for carbon monoxide poisoning last week.

Undisconnectibility--internet election addiction. But what an interesting word.
net--from the word for knot
com/con--to bind, with
connect--to join or fasten together
dis--apart
disconnect--to sever a connection
un--not, do the opposite
-ible and -ity--suffixes handy for converting verbs to nouns,
-ibility--overkill suffix for making an adjective into a noun

This week we've had phone calls from Rudy Giuliani, Laura Bush, G.W. Bush, John Glenn and a few unknowns, some still calling election day.

Thirty known STDs are not blocked by condom use.

The Asian Carp can eat 40% of its body weigh in a day and grow to 150 lbs.

T.D. Jakes has marketed his new film "Woman, thou art loosed" through hair dressers because hair stylists talk to a lot of people.

562 Small World

Book Club met tonight. Evensong by Gail Godwin, a prolific writer born in 1937 who often writes about strong women and weak men. Abandonment. Depression. She's got issues. Anyway, there is a character in the book named Tony. As the story unravels, we learn Tony had spent some time in prison while in the service, specifically Fort Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis. That's where the reunion was Saturday night. Not in the prison of course, but Fort Harrison is no longer a military base and is being used for commercial and community development.