767 Don't be cruel

This is "No Name Calling Week" in middle schools. Maddie Dog has gotten around this by comparing Barbara Boxer's resume to Dr. Rice's. No contest. Although Boxer didn't call her mammy or Aunt Jemima or the n-word, she implied all those words at the recent hearings for confirmation of Secretary of State.

Today on Glenn Beck (radio show), he was making fun of a survey (by a blue stater) that concluded red states were dumb. (Apparently calling over half the electorate dumb is not name calling.) Ft. Wayne and Corpus Cristi came in as #1 and #2 dumbest cities in the U.S. So, as a put on, he invited callers from those cities to answer questions. It was either radio's biggest put-on, or there really are some dumb people in those cities. A woman from Corpus Cristi, who selected the category of Oscars, answered Hugh Heffner when Glenn asked what movie about a famous eccentric was nominated. She also said, in the category of "secretaries weak," that the Secretary of Defense was Dr. Rice. Glenn was so hysterical, maybe it wasn't a put up job.

766 Medved on Hollywood and The Passion

". . .The sloppy, dishonest, brain-dead habit of equating "The Passion of the Christ" with "f-9-11" reveals more about Hollywood's bias and blindness than any aspect of the major awards the two films won't receive." Michael Medved in WSJ 1-27-05. On his website, The Passion is beating out the other offerings as most "overlooked." Medved suggests a number of points in his WSJ article to consider about Gibson's movie released last Ash Wednesday.

1) Timeless religious message that takes the New Testament literally.
2) Earned $370 Million in domestic box office receipts.
3) Sold equally well in red states and blue states, unifying the mass audience like the movies of the 40s and 50s.
4) No political endorsements or activism.
5) Had no affect on church attendance.
6) United Christians of all faiths and cultures.
7) Will live on as a timeless classic continuing to draw audiences for years.
8) Snubbing it for awards has displeased the movie going public.

At his website where Medved's article in USAToday is posted, he adds to that list

9) Hollywood wasn't afraid of religion (fake) when it awarded Last Temptation of Christ which only grossed $8 million and offended most Christians.
10) Top award nominations this year are going to suicide, abortion and anti-American themes.

He closes the WSJ article with: ""The Passion" clearly dwarfs such skillful but slight works as "Sideways" or "Finding Neverland" (both nominated for Best Picture) in terms of thematic and historical significance. Members of the entertainment elite may confuse faith and politics--viewing religiosity as suspect and subjective, while embracing left-wing ideology as a form of Ultimate Truth--but the mass audience now and in the future will reliably recognize the difference."

In 1993 Medved published a book called Hollywood vs. America which had chapters on "The Attack on Religion," "The Addiction to Violence," "Promoting Promiscuity," "The Infatuation with Foul Language," "Kids Know Best," "Motivations for Madness," among others. Nothing has changed, apparently. Instead of Hollywood being at fault then, it was the ticket buyers voting with their dollars. Now we've changed our vote, but Hollywood has disenfranchised us.

Meanwhile, Christianity Today has found religious themes in unexpected places with its list of Ten Most Redeeming Films of 2004. Hat tip to Sherry.

765 Reading the help wanted ads

Four or five people in my prayer job jar are looking for work. Some want more pay. Some less stress. Some will take anything if it is a "living wage." So I skim the advertised jobs occasionally and read the career column in the Wall Street Journal. Sometimes I think their ads are a test for comprehension and following instructions.

1) Raymond James advertises a drug free workplace. It doesn't mention tobacco, but I know some firms are now turning down smokers because of insurance costs.
2) If you don't include ad number and job title, Johnson Controls won't even look at your application. Their web site says they have worked on the Pentagon, the Eiffel Tower, the Kremlin and the Sydney Opera House, so I suppose following instructions is key.
3) A DOE position at the NBL is a CH-SES-05-01 and must be applied for on-line.
4) Whoever applies for Chancellor at the University of Denver will need to watch out for the following verbs: lead; increase; improve; build; elevate; extend; and cultivate. Sounds like Jesus' job description.
5) Pilgrim's Pride may be the "2nd largest poultry producer in the U.S. and Mexico" and the 1st in Puerto Rico, but you will be working in "beautiful east Texas."
6) Apply to MorningStar on line, but only if you have a "healthy dose of skepticism."
7) There's a golf course for sale in SC--recently renovated. I'll bet there's a bankruptcy story in there somewhere.
8) While looking, you can feed the poor and homeless by donating your yacht.

764 Hoping the elections will fail

It's bad enough that we have Americans who cast aspersions on our own elections, who register dead people to vote in Chicago and Seattle, and try to disenfranchise minorities by saying they are too dumb to figure out voting machines or ballots and therefore we need recounts. But now they try to mess up the Iraqi elections too! Oh, probably not the same people, but the same attitudes, rumors and lies.

Sunday the world will watch as millions of Arabs go to the polls (I realize that not everyone in Iraq is an Arab or a Muslim, but the majority are). Arabs in non-democratic countries will be watching on their government TV what they don't have--a free election. I get absolutely misty eyed watching the stories of ex-pat Iraqis in the USA driving 8 hours to register, and then repeating the same trip this week to vote. They and the candidates and the poll workers risking their lives have set before us a very high standard (especially those of you who didn't even bother to vote in November--you know who you are).

Belmont Club in a 3-part series on the Iraq election has little good to say about the naysayers, letting one dig his own hole for a foundation for his "shrine of half-forgotten causes":

"Whatever the War on Terror is, it is a duel to the death. A glance at Juan Cole's website -- which is a reliable thermometer of Leftist temper -- is a case in point. It should be the website of a respectable academic but it's a shrine to half-forgotten causes and a casket of exorcisms against half-apprehended devils. To illustrate the right of peaceful assembly he has a photo of flag-draped military caskets being shipped home. To illustrate the the 8th Amendment he has an Abu Ghraib photo. Noonan worries about religion. So do I, coming upon a room of stubbed out and smoked ideas. As for the elections, Cole says they are a joke, and it is doubtful if any poll would persuade him otherwise."

763 Krispy Kreme can't match Spudnut

First it was our waistlines, then their market. It wasn't just the low carb fad (now fading). Krispy Kreme diluted its "specialness" by opening too many stores and selling doughnuts in 20,000 supermarkets. I heard on the radio this morning they've hired a restructuring agent to replace Scott Livengood at $760 an hour and all the doughnuts he can eat!

I rarely eat a donut today--maybe a donut hole or two with coffee between services at church. The church switched from Krispy Kreme to donut holes after the Visual Arts Ministry told them they were easier to eat while browsing our shows.

No modern donut can match up to those of the "Spudnut" shop in Urbana at the University of Illinois when I was in college. I believe they were made with potato flour. You could sit at the counter and watch the crew dump the dough into the hot oil and dip them into the icing. In those days I could eat six or seven at a sitting and hardly burp. My initiation into this delicacy was on my first visit to the campus when I rode the bus from northern Indiana to attend an ROTC ball there. I think I took back a sackful for my floormates of Oakwood Hall at Manchester, but ate all the goodies along the way (it was a long bus ride).

When I Googled "Spud Nut" I discovered many other folks lost in memories of their delicious taste and texture, usually reminiscing about a college town, Urbana IL, Lawrence KS, Richmond IN, Madison WI. I also found a doughnut discussion board, where the hopeful restauranteur was looking for Spud Nuts: ". . . are there any SPUDNUT franchises? I haven't had a Spudnut doughnut for nerly 50 yra. I remember making a special trip after church on sundays to the Spudnut shop in Lawrence, Ks. It folded and I haven't seen any since. K-K's aren't anything special."

And there is a Spudnut Shop in Washington that also serves sandwiches, but I don't know if the name comes from the stores of the 1950s and 1960s. An obituary of a former owner of a Spud Nut Shop also turned up. Spud Nuts. R.I.P.

762 Batteries aren't cheap

And cheap ones are really expensive. I read an article in the WSJ that reported on the battery wars. According to this writer, Duracell alkaline will last 4 times longer than any brand labelled, "super heavy duty." "Heavy duty" technology was state of the art 50 years ago, but Duracell's cooper top is 27% more powerful than it was in 2000. It's a real pain to change batteries--I've obviously been going for cheap rather than thrifty.

761 Don't blame June Cleaver

“If modern mothers ever had an enemy, it is June Cleaver. Perhaps more than anyone else in history, June created in us the idea that the good mother spends her day happily meeting the needs of her family. She cooks a hearty breakfast, keeps a tidy house, and welcomes her weary charges home each afternoon with a plate of warm cookies and a tender smile. We never see June complain or wish for a more fulfilling role. We never see her sigh when she finally gets a minute to sit down only to be interrupted by yet another request from the Beav. She certainly never asks Ward to watch the boys for a night because she wants to go out for some "mommy time." June is the superhuman mother who sets us all up for disappointment.” Carla Barnhill, on the “real desperate housewives.”

June Cleaver? Oh please! I’m probably old enough to be Barnhill’s mother. I never watched Leave it to Beaver until this year when I came across it on a channel that reruns old TV shows, and in the episodes I‘ve watched, June hardly appears at all. But I did all the above--until you get to the sentence about not complaining or not going out. I went to a lot of evening meetings and even did my grocery shopping at night because I didn’t like hauling the kids around on errands and I rarely hired babysitters. It was my mother (1912-2000), 10 years older than Barbara Billingsley the actrees who played June, who fits that paragraph.

June Cleaver is being set up a “straw woman.“ I’m not exactly a “modern” mother by this author‘s definition. (I should be a grandmother by age, training and talent.) Many of my peer mothers had gone back to work, at least part time, by the mid-1970s, so many of today’s mothers actually did have employed mothers, or mothers who were returning to graduate school, as models.

A little over 30 years ago I was in a women’s Bible study at First Community Church called “Harried Housewives,” whose members ranged in age from about 30-50. But by the time we gathered for a third anniversary, most of us were in the workplace. One of the women in Barnhill’s story sounds just like the reason we housewives had gathered back in the 70s: "I got blindsided by the responsibility, the emotional ties, the worry, the exhaustion, the discipline issues, and the day-to-day care of children. The reality for me is that motherhood is very draining and tiring and humbling. On a regular basis I feel like a failure as a mom. My walk with the Lord has suffered since I became a mom. Spending time with God feels like another obligation—just one more person wanting something from me."

If Carla Barnhill is correct, the modern women’s movement (then in its infancy), has done absolutely nothing for mothers. Increasingly more casual and relaxed lifestyles have done little for women. Technology certainly hasn’t saved them any time, just made them slaves to beeps and downloading. More how-to-books, exercise classes, and workshops on feelings and empowerment really don’t do much in the long run to rescue women. Much of the article is anecdotal whining, and she’s incredulous that gardening or sewing could be substitutes for board meetings and coffee breaks. But she eventually gets to the conclusion that happy stay-at-homes are there because no one forced them to be and their church encourages them to use their talents, which is the theme of her book, The Myth of the Perfect Mother: Rethinking the Spirituality of Women (Baker, 2004).

760 Women writers for the Wall Street Journal

As usual, I was skimming the stories in the Wall Street today for interesting idiomatic expressions, checking the articles written by men, who use lots of gambling, sports and agricultural idioms, against those written by women, who use almost no idioms. This results in the male written articles being much more lively and readable, less dense, and more padded.

But then I noticed an unusual number of articles by women. I'll have to go the to library to check (can't browse a newspaper on-line because you need to have an idea what you are looking for), but I'm wondering if Monday is "Ladies Day" at the Wall Street Journal. Maybe the guys take long week-ends and don't want to meet the deadlines for the Monday edition?

You rarely see a woman's name in section A, but today Section B and C had: Brooks Barnes, Ellen Byron, Lynn Cowan, Agnes Crane (2), Ann Davis, Alessandra Gallone, Leah McGrath Goodman, Laura Johannes, Miriam Jordan (2), Kathryn Kranhold, Melissa Marr, Katie Martin, Sarah McBride, Ann Marie Squeo, Shayne Stoyko, Suzanne Vronica, and Ann Zimmerman. [It is possible that Lynn and Shayne are men, and I skipped the non-euro names since I can't identify gender].

Section R, however, was the motherlode (pardon the pun). The entire supplement on how businesses benefit from benefits was written and edited by women. The lead article was by Ellen Schultz who summarizes 10 ways companies benefit from benefits plans. The rest of the articles in the supplement were written by Vanessa Fuhrman, Joann Lublin, Kris Maher, Sara Munoz, Karen Richarson, Sarah Rubenstein and Jennifer Saranov. The illustrator was male.

I checked Ellen Schultz in Google and she has won awards for her reporting on this topic: joined the Wall Street Journal in 1990; covered personal finance, mutual funds, medical insurance and benefits; named a special writer in April 1995 and a news editor in June 2001. Worked for Fortune magazine from 1987 to 1990.

Miriam Jordan who had 2 articles in today's edition frequently writes on gender and minority issues for WSJ, according to a Google search--female infanticide in India, agricultural workers in California, career women following globe trotting husbands, and Nestle marketing infant formula to American Hispanics are examples of her topics.

Agnes Crane, who also had 2 articles, writes often for the investment and marketing section and also writes for the Dow Jones Newswires, and thus her name pops up regularly in other investment newsletters.

I'll update this when I look at a few more Mondays.

759 Really, really poor taste

Some bloggers are crying "political correctness" run amuck, but I think this teddy bear is simply poor taste. What makes it worse, some Christian blogs are being even more insensitive for criticizing the critics. Mental illness for the family is no laughing matter. It causes grief, sleepless nights, and years of roller coaster emotions. Not funny, folks.

758 No blue blood required for these legacies

The Washington Post has an interesting round up of the congressional and administrative positions obtained either through the death of a relative or appointment upon the retirement of a relative, or appointment because of a family connection here. The recently widowed Mrs. Matsui of California will join 18 Senators and many Representatives who obtained their seats this way.

Names and family ties matter in administrative appointments. "President Bush, who rose to power with a famous political surname, has rewarded several children of his ideological allies. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's son became chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's daughter was made inspector general at the Health and Human Services Department, Justice Antonin Scalia's son was appointed to a top job in the Labor Department, and Vice President Cheney's daughter and son-in-law scored prestigious positions in the State and Justice departments."

"Bush also chose the wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) to be his labor secretary, and the sons of Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn as his press secretary and Medicare director. And in 2001, he chose former House member Asa Hutchinson, brother of then-Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.), to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration."

"According to the Center for American Women and Politics, 45 women have been elected to Congress to fill vacancies created by their husbands' death. There are least three widows of former congressmen now in the House: Reps. Mary Bono (R-Calif.), Lois Capps (D-Calif.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.). In the Senate, there are three wives of prominent politicians: Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), [Hillary] Clinton and Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), wife of former Maine governor John R. McKernan Jr."

This web site lists even more.

More than once I was asked if I was Earle Bruce's wife (football coach at Ohio State University in the 1980s). But that's as close as I can get to trading on a family name.

757 Patty Davis has returned

to being a snot nose, little whiner. Her attempt at political humor is here.

If her name doesn't ring a bell, she changed it. She used to be Patty Reagan. She disliked her Dad so much in her younger years that she took her mother's maiden name, which Nancy had taken from her step-father. When her Dad no longer knew her, Patty did a stint as dutiful daughter and got a lot of sympathy and some good writing contracts.

756 Remember how deep snow was when you were a kid?

Up to your knees, maybe your waist? Ha--gotcha! Last night on ABC News they told us the snow really was deeper in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, and then the weather pattern changed. We got some big storms in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, but not often. My own children remember primarily the winters of 1977 and 1978 when schools were closed here in Columbus. I have photos of my dad in Illinois shoveling snow off their roof. John Stolzenbach, one of our pastors, was a Columbus school teacher back then, and I remember they did a special program on TV for the school children stuck at home, and he was one of the hosts.

So what’s up with the weather? Apparently, not global warming. Experts were interviewed for the weather story last night--and whooda thunk it--they disagreed on what was causing it!

"We believe the weather pattern we are currently in is very similar to what we saw in the 1940's, fifties and sixties; that is, a log of extremes," says [Bernie] Rayno [Accuweather.com].

He looks not just at today's snowstorm, but at the entire weather picture for the past year — hurricanes, tornadoes, mudslides in California, and bitter cold in the Midwest.

"The overall weather pattern we see over a given amount of time, a given amount of years also fluctuates," says Rayno. "And right now we do believe we are in a cycle that will lend itself to a lot of extremes over the next five to ten years." It is reminiscent, he says, of what happened in those earlier decades. In 1947, for example, New York City suffered one of its worst blizzards ever, 25 inches of snow that paralyzed the city for days.”

In the Chicago Tribune they reported what dumped on the city and then moved on east: “The storm raged on as it moved quickly through Ohio and Pennsylvania, continuing to dump up to a foot of snow far north of its path. The storm was expected to further intensify off the New Jersey coast, and blizzard warnings were issued for a good portion of New England, including New York and Boston, where snowfalls up to 20 inches were forecast.”

Our daughter called last night from Cleveland where they were visiting her in-laws. “Mom! They know how to handle snow in Cleveland,” she told me breathlessly. “We’ve had a foot of snow in the last 24 hours, the streets are clear and we’re going over to [cousins] for pizza. ‘Sposed to get more tonight. How much have you had?” “About 1.5 inches,” I sighed. “The town’s a mess and all sorts of things were cancelled.”

Some things about winter in central Ohio never change.

755 More on Barbara Boxer's racism

Colbert I. King ponders after comparing Barbara Boxer's comments to Oliphant's racist cartooning of Rice:

Bush listens to Condoleezza Rice because he believes that she knows what she is talking about. Which makes the attacks on Rice even more curious. What prompts Rice's critics to portray her -- a former Stanford University provost who managed a $1.5 billion budget, 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students -- as a flunky who, when ordered, simply salutes and runs out to play huckster?

Washington Post article here.

754 Spinsanity is pulling the plug

Spinsanity is a website that analyzed political articles for spin. "Countering rhetoric with reason" was its slogan. January 19 was its swan song; it has folded its tent, got on the bus, Gus, rode off into the sunset, and said, "Good-bye, farewell and Amen."

The three writers wrote an anti-Bush book while blogging for four years. I questioned their own spin when they tried to deny the last recession started in 2000, six months before Bush took office. I have some account sheets for my 403b I'd like them to look at. Either that, or TIAA-CREF hired some really, really poor fund managers.

753 More about egg safety

The January cover of Emerging Infectious Diseases has a 17th century genre painting by Diego Velázquez of a woman cooking eggs. The description is lengthy, but I noticed this passage, because I mentioned Salmonella Enteriditis in blog 741.

“The 17th-century Spanish diet was known for its parsimony. A main concern in the common kitchen was the long-term availability of food. The safety of food, a more modern concern, was probably not on the mind of Velásquez' food preparers. Unlike our contemporary equivalents, they would have known little about the dangers surrounding food. Nor would they have understood Savarin, whose sensitive 18th-century palate might have recoiled at the sight of eggs poaching slowly in oil on a clay stove.

An ancient staple, eggs have run the gamut from plentiful protein to gourmet delicacy. Yet, basic food and epicurean aspirations converge at one point: safety. With high levels of Salmonella Enteriditis in shell eggs, adequate cooking and proper temperature of the eggs overrule tradition, challenging the consistency of the sauce and the moment of delivery to the table. In our times, safety issues concerning not only eggs but all foods beg a different interpretation of another well-known Savarin aphorism, "The destiny of a nation depends on the manner in which it feeds itself." "

The article in this issue suggests between 180,000 and 200,000 illness a year in the US from Salmonella Enteriditis. The figures are not firm because only about 2,000 hospitalizations and 70 deaths occur. But still, make sure those eggs are thoroughly cooked before you eat them.

Blog 741 began with spelling problems, particularly the phth combination, diphtheria being one of four common English words that have such a combination. In the same issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases there is an article about diphtheria causing the death of the painter Georges Pierre Seurat at age 31.

752 More ice and snow hit Ohio

Here in Ohio we're getting what those of you just west of us received earlier. I'm setting out for the coffee shop but may have to turn around and come back if it is too bad. Some people here were without power for over a week over Christmas, then it flooded when it thawed. In a few weeks we'll head for Florida to spend some days and grab some rays with the greatest hostess in the world, my sister-in-law. Life is one big party with lots of laughs, and I love key-lime pie. The down side is listening to them in the car. They truly are the world's worst back seat drivers--they deserve each other.

751 Americans begin earlier

As reported in WSJ this week, AXA Financial has produced a report that says Americans begin retirement planning at an earlier age and save larger sums on average than other people.

According to the press release, "Nearly 80 percent of Americans surveyed have a plan for where they want to live, what they want to do, and how much money they’ll need in retirement. Most people started planning for retirement early, in their 30’s.

Americans are taking responsibility and making themselves more knowledgeable about retirement issues, with 90 percent of respondents saying funding retirement is primarily their individual responsibility – not the government’s or their employer’s."

"Working Americans are saving, on average, $687 per month toward retirement. (Based on other responses, this figure reflects their investment in such savings vehicles as conventional savings plans, life insurance policies and pension plans.)Retirees save $535 per month, on average.

Retirees, on average, say they are retiring at 58 years old. American workers, however, say they would like to retire at 55, but, in reality, don’t expect to retire until they are 63."

Although we know many people who have retired in their 50s (including my father), they all started other companies, jobs or went into consulting. So I think many "retirees" are actually workers. I retired at 60, and my husband began turning down clients a year ago, and is just finishing up contracts now at 67, but still has a few dawdlers on the books.

This looks like an interesting report in light of the President's proposals to let Americans have Private Retirement Accounts to ease the SS squeeze. However, it is 97 pages--not sure it is THAT interesting, but take a look and see. Also, AXA is in the investment business, so I'm sure their surveys differ from a survey with a political agenda.

A total of 9,200 people were interviewed in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States. 813 Americans between 25 and 75 were surveyed, of whom 403 were working and 410 were retired.

750 Sometimes Blogs become Usenet

Usenet is sort of a big messy bulletin board with some nice people (see my links to Writers and Wannabes, most of whom I met at a Usenet forum) and a whole lot of crazies who have PHDs in four letter words, viciousness and sarcasm ad nauseum. Blogs usually don't become that discussion oriented because the writer/owner of the blog can delete comments. But discussions can get intense and sort of "real time-ish." Witness this one, mostly between Michael and Jo. Belmont Club and Captain's Quarters also have lively discussions among the readers.

749 Verbs on the Financial Page

The markets are quite verbal, aren’t they? Prices, markets and stocks don’t just “go up” or “go down,“ or simply “move,” which must make it difficult for learners of the English language. Today I read that they hold, tumble and plunge. Then they rally, rollick and pick up speed. Sometimes they rise, shift, climb and fly. Occasionally they stall and need a push. Some are assertive--they dictate, decide, post and report. Some suffer, then shrug it off. And how about those that ignore, droop, lag behind and drag? Oft times they strengthen, support, gauge and ratchet up. They fall hard when they drop.

If you think reading about financial verbs is too dull, stop over at Ariel's site and look at basketball in metaphysical terms. Now there is a vocabulary (in English) that's pretty dense for me.

748 Boxer continues to hit below the belt

Two cranky Democrats voted against Dr Rice‘s confirmation to be the first African American woman to attain such a high office in government--the failed contender John Kerry and California Democrat Barbara Boxer. She’ll be confirmed, but this kept her from being Secretary of State in time for the 2005 inaugural and the most important woman in the government. So we can have blacks providing the prayer and singing anthems at the inauguration for the last 50 years, but we dare not let them be seen in positions of power? Unless a Democrat appoints them, that is. Rice, who says her parents raised her to believe she could accomplish anything, even during the darkest days of segregation, is up against Democrats who think blacks should stay on the plantation if they work for Republicans.



What a team. They grandstanded their dislike for Bush and grilled her for 11 hours. Everyone knows she will be confirmed. What a bunch of sore losers. Correction. What a bunch of losers.