899 Revenge of the Blog People

"The tail" is the 95-99 percent of blogs that are not giant traffic getters, according to Hugh Hewitt's book, Blog (2005). That's me. I'm in the tail--there are millions of us in the tail. I get about 70-80 hits a day on this blog, and 10-20 on my other four blogs. The one in the group blog, LISNews.com, may get more hits than all of them because there is sort of a "bound with" audience there. The top ten bloggers may get millions of visitors. More people will read them, more librarians will read them, than will ever read Michael Gorman. See! You don't have a clue who he is, do you? (Unless you too are a librarian). He doesn't have a blog. He's pouting. Yes. Pouting and saying blogs don't matter. People who see their name in print on a somewhat regular basis just hate it when others pass them by on the other side.

Conservator, a librarian blogger says: “Nine months before Michael Gorman sneered at blogs and bloggers in an opinion piece in Library Journal, Rory Litwin sneered at blogs and bloggers in an essay in his online journal, Library Juice.”

Shows you how much I know! I thought Rory Litwin was a blogger. He can call his screed an e-zine if he wants just because it has enumeration, but mine has numbering too. A blog is just a contemporary "commonplace book," something people in earlier centuries enjoyed. Collecting and annotating on the Internet. It is thinking out loud and watching to see who catches on and wants to share in the discussion. It's done a lot for research and writing skills, even for children and teens. But I admit, I only glanced at Litwin's a long time ago (because it’s gone over the left edge of common sense and is of little value to the library world or my world.)

Where was I? Oh yes. Michael Gorman. He wrote about the wrath of the "Blog People" attempting to drag him into century 21 because of his op-ed piece in the LA Times in December, 2004: (although most librarian bloggers are liberal, he'd apparently only seen conservative blogs): "It is obvious that the Blog People read what they want to read rather than what is in front of them and judge me to be wrong on the basis of what they think rather than what I actually wrote. Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs. In that case, their rejection of my view is quite understandable."

898 A Fog Feed

Our Irish dinner at the home of friends was delicious and educational. Our hosts tell us that "Fog Feed" is Gaelic for "An Extravagant Meal," and it surely was. Here's the menu and their notes:

Bacon, leek and potato soup with cheddar--Sir Walter Raleigh gave potatoes from his farm in Virginia to the poet Edmund Spenser, who became the first person in Ireland to cultivate them. The Walter Raleigh Potato Festival is still held annual in Ireland.

Shrimp cakes with lime mayonnaise--In the early 19th century, shrimp accidentally caught in the nets of Dublin Bay fishermen were considered a waste product and sold to the poor by fish mongers.

Fluthered Chicken--Cooked in stout.

Ham potato patties--The Irish almost never serve chicken without being accompanied by ham.

Oatmeal bread--Oatmeal was introduced by the Celts.

Pickled beetroot salad

Apple dumplings with raisins and mincemeat served with cream

Coffee, wine and Irish dark beer.

My ancestors on my father's side were Scots-Irish who came to the United States in the 1730s. I don't think they ate this well.

897 It's the week-end

Again snow! Last night we went to the dollar theater to see "National Treasure" with Nicholas Cage, and when we came out it was again a winter wonderland, but in the second week in March, that is getting a bit old. Huge flakes, blowing. We could barely see to get out of the parking lot. We had planned to go out to eat after the movie, but decided to head for home and eat left-overs. The cat was pleased--she just hates our Friday night dates.

But the movie was very good and we enjoyed it. We had some popcorn, saw some friends. It's an adventure movie, but a minimum of killing that I could see. I think one guy disappears into a pit never to be seen again (bad guy); someone is shot but we learn later he was not killed. No sex. So it's fairly safe if you want to take the younger folks--or the older folks like me who are sort of picky about language and violence in films.

Tonight we're going out for dinner at the home of friends who are marvelous cooks. Their home is filled with wonderful antiques, and the other guests are always interesting. It should be a fun evening. It's coming up on the anniversary of our first date--1959.

896 Kate Adamson's story

Like Terri Schiavo, Kate Adamson had a serious brain accident and was trapped in a body that wouldn't function. However, her husband, unlike Michael Schiavo who is trying to end Terri's life, followed through on rehabilitation. Read her story here.

WICatholic reports: "A disability-rights activist, who was once dependent on a feeding tube and considered "a vegetable" by medical professionals, has joined the fight to save Terri Schindler Schiavo and hopes to visit the 41-year-old disabled Florida woman by mid-month."

895 The Jackson Trial

I'm really getting sick of Michael Jackson’s trial coverage. First of all, he should be accorded the same rights as other citizens, and he is innocent until proven guilty. I plan to click “mute” whenever it comes on the T.V. I can still remember seeing him at a downtown Columbus hotel when he was a cute little African-American child in bell bottoms and a bright shirt singing with his older brothers.

Second, commentators and pundits are really getting graphic with the details and then moving on to tell salacious and lascivious stories that have nothing to do with Jackson, but everything to do with weird behavior and a strong desire for ratings. They are using this case to snicker and giggle. Pedophilia is not funny.

One radio talk host with the initials G.B. went on and on about how he wouldn't know what to say to his kids if they were in the car listening to reports of the trial, and then he went into a comedy shtick that caused me to be thankful no other adult was in my car. And so I changed channels. I had the impression he thought he was doing a nightclub comedy routine instead of drive-time a.m.

Jackson is strange, horribly disfigured, and a has-been publicity seeker. What's the excuse of the people reporting on the trial?

894 Library Journal Nonsense

You can’t always trust a librarian, particularly if it comes to politics or religion. If you saw all the anti-administration and new age books on the "new book" shelves at my public library you'd see what I mean. You can, of course, trust me, because I used to be a humanist and a liberal, and I‘ve seen the light. And I'm also a blogger, part of the "information reformation." However, I do remember all the good things, like having an open mind--so wide open you could drive a dump truck of misinformation through it and come out the other end empty. Anyway. Enough about me. According to Books and Culture this precious bit of hyperbole appeared in Library Journal:

“The Library Journal has this to say about Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code: "This masterpiece should be mandatory reading. Brown solidifies his reputation as one of the most skilled thriller writers on the planet with his best book yet, a compelling blend of history and page-turning suspense. Highly recommended."“

Brown does use a lot of historical material, which he freely mixes with fiction, misinformation, lies and gnosticism--just about anything other than Biblical truth. My dear relative (who faithfully attends church on Easter, Christmas and Mother’s Day) loved it and millions like her have kept it firmly on the best seller list.

Church members, particularly women, have contributed to its popularity. Teaching and preaching is so weak in our male managed mainline and evangelical churches, and women are relegated to such a minor role, particularly in the pulpit and seminaries, that our Christian leadership has left us sitting ducks for the Dan Browns of this world.

Jesus and Mary Magdalene? Mystery religions? Hidden, rediscovered gospels? If you know anything about cults and false teachings over the last few centuries, or even popular fiction, there is nothing new here. Brown just writes a better story. And that story is as old as the serpent chatting up Eve, “now, sweety, what exactly is it God said you could eat?” But also, if the churches taught the true role of women given to them by Jesus reported very clearly in the New Testament Gospels (have you ever noticed women followers always “got it” when the male disciples were still scratching their heads), maybe we wouldn’t have so much drivel on the best seller list. Sigh.

893 Introduction to New Links

Two new ladies I’d like to introduce today: Sal in Virginia and Jordan who has loads to do. I think they meet my criteria for good writing, sharp wit and insightful thinking. Sal recommends an article in NYT on religious blogging. Some interesting stuff going on and some URLs I recognize because I read and link to some of those bloggers either here or my other, other blog. Sal and Jordan are already on one of my rolls, but they’ll be easier to find in my special “ladies only” group.

Speaking of which, I do wish Christian bloggers would be a bit kinder and gentler to each other. (If you’re not a Christian and reading this, you are not even in their cross-hairs.) The other day I found a directory of Lutheran churches for travelers so they could find liturgical services while on the road. However, if the church also offered an alternative informal service in addition, with praise choruses instead of liturgy and hymns, they couldn’t be listed. It was a pretty short list, and I didn’t see any in Columbus. So I guess the travelers either stay in the hotel that day, or find an Episcopal service. Some of these churches will offer Spanish language services, but not services that a graying ELCA boomer or a tattooed, pink-haired Gen-X-er who sort of speaks English might enjoy. If you are in town, come on over to http://www.ualc.org, we’ve got three locations, and two of the ten services will have liturgy (usually, well, maybe).

I love a formal service--it‘s my favorite choice for worship, but come on folks. And it isn’t that I’m picking on Lutherans--I see the same attitude among the reformed and the baptist style bloggers only the squabble isn't about liturgy. Let’s show a little charity. The big guy loves it. Something about neighbors.

892 The oldest resident in Hyogo Prefecture

Or they thought he was 107. The town officials had been sending him gifts but hadn't actually seen him in recent years. No one knows how long he'd been dead. Bad Aunt, a New Zealander who teaches in Japan, speculates on the family's conversation at meal time.

891 My thoughts exactly

"I certainly hope all this anxiety of the threat of FEC regulation of the blogosphere is misplaced. But it's not too early to express the opinion that they can stop us from blogging and saying whatever we think, especially about political candidates, when they pry our keyboards from our cold, dead fingers. I mean, really. If some combination of the FEC and the courts really start to say, oh, you can't say that on your blog within 90 days (or whatever) of election day, I think we are really talking about a time for civil disobedience. Think Poland, Lebanon, Tianamen Square. OK, not Tianamen Square, but the rest. There are too many of us, and too few of them. Just let them try to squelch this new realm of free speech." Thomas at Right Coast

890 Spring Sale

Torture instruments. That's what the high heeled sandals in today's newspaper ad look like to me. Like the pointy foot bindings that Chinese mothers used to crush the bones of their toddler daughters so they would look "sexy" and attractive for male suitors. Why would a woman hobble herself in 5" heels with straps of alligator, snake or dead cow? To look sexy. They surely aren't functional or comfortable, nor do they offer any protection from the elements. It's 19th century China in the shoe department. Look at the second photo on this page and see if it doesn't remind you of the drawings done by Manolo Blahnik for his shoe designs.

"Footbinding is a bold issue, as for many Chinese people the practice is so linked to sex and sexuality that it makes them uncomfortable to discuss it and consider it seriously. For others the topic is embarassing because it suggests a backwards or barbaric streak in Chinese Culture.[39] For men footbinding is troubling because it suggests not only that men are capable of perceiving a gruesomely crippled foot as an object of seductive pleasure, but that they are further capable of using their superior social position to coerce women to conform to a standard of beauty that is both deformed and grotesque. For women, footbinding is unsettling because it reveals a willingness to cripple their own daughters to meet an aesthetic and criterion of social behavior defined by men." Paper by Marie Vento

Substitute a few words, and you have 21st century shoe fashions.

889 Too cute for words

But only if you like cats. This site is a random kitten photo generator. I saw it on blogjam. Looks like you can add/send your own kitten photos.

888 The Blog as a business tool

A few days ago the Wall Street Journal had an article about using a blog as sort of a "handshake" for the community or customer. It reported that 32 million people read blogs, and increasingly, those blogs are professionally edited and maintained by businesses. One of the companies listed was Green Cine, so I checked out its blog, Green Cine Daily, and I must say it is outstanding. Green Cine describes itself as "The #1 DVD Rental Site for the Alternative Scene! With the best selection of indie, arthouse, anime, foreign, classics, documentaries and other esoteric fare. Including rare titles available at no other service."

Each entry in the daily blog is loaded with links and bits of info about films, and not just esoterica, since I recognized some of the film stars' obituaries that were noted. I'm not much of a film buff, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the restoration process of Bambi, to which the blogger, David Hudson, supplied the link. If your taste in films is edgier than mine (and that would be just about everyone), you'll really like this site.

887 The John Bolton appointment

The left is apoplectic. The right is ecstatic. That cowboy sure does dig in the spurs.

Frank Gaffney Jr. at NRO reports:

"President Bush is responding to these tough times at the U.N. with a bit of tough love. His selection of Undersecretary of State John Bolton to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations signals a call for systemic change, not merely superficial behavior modification.

After all, Bolton has been one of this country’s most thoughtful critics of past U.N. misconduct. During his stint during the Bush-41 administration as assistant secretary of State for international organizations — the bureau in Foggy Bottom responsible for relations with the United Nations — Bolton became intimately familiar with the institution and its shortcomings."

Many of the left bloggers made a joke of the appointment with Michael Bolton playing a reluctant second banana:

"What’s that?

Not MICHAEL Bolton?

Someone even LAMER than Michael Bolton, you say?

It’s hard to imagine someone lamer than Michael Bolton, but leave it to George W. Bush to find him…." American Street

886 Update

Last week I reported my husband was flying to California to be with his 92 year old father who'd had a heart attack. I'm pleased to report Dad is doing well (must have agreed to take his meds) and has returned to the nursing home from the hospital. I've talked to him every day on the phone for a few minutes when my husband is there. My husband is very pleased with the care he is receiving. He's also had a chance to enjoy his brother and sister, some excellent restaurants and some glorious California weather. I've got an apple pie ready to go in the oven, and now the only trick is to get to the airport tomorrow during rush hour. I've been known to get lost on the inner belt which everyone tells me is impossible. If you see a white knuckled, traumatized driver who looks lost, wave and point her to the airport exit.

Update 2: I just talked my daughter into driving me to the airport. Whew!

885 Promoting the success of others

Last night’s discussion at Book Club of Hugh Hewitt’s book In, but not of was quite lively. There were parts of the book which puzzled all of us. His recommendation that a young person aim for Harvard, Yale or Stanford and try to live in New York, Washington DC or LA immediately after college was a bit off-putting for us mid-westerners--even those who had lived in those cities or attended those schools. (Our host had a Harvard alumnus chair, so the leader of the discussion sat in it.)

However, some sections made a lot of sense, regardless of age or career goals. Chapter 19 “Success Is Not Zero-Sum, So Promote the Success of Others” brought out an interesting viewpoint from one of our members who has lived in Africa. The point of the chapter is that if you want to advance in your career, help others advance in theirs.

“There is no denying the fierce competition for entry-level positions in any meritocracy, and elbows can be very sharp indeed. Once you’re inside any door, however, the key to life-long success is a habit of helping other through that very same door or through other portals to opportunity.”

“Promoting rivals? Helping someone who could conceivably edge you out? That’s career suicide, or so you would think. But it’s not. Indeed, at the highest levels it is the mark of the most successful people.”

He provides a caveat--warns against promoting friends just because they are friends. You do not do anyone a favor by recommending him for a job which he can’t perform.

Now back to Africa. The member who had lived in Africa remarked that in her village, if someone did well in school or succeeded in business or got a scholarship to study abroad, they would be verbally attacked and shunned by their neighbors and peers. It was as though everyone had to be at the same low level if they couldn’t all rise together. Even if the successful returnee had much to offer the village. It was the difference between a “community” based value system and a system that values individuality. Now how many times have we heard this trumpeted as being positive? How many times have we heard that every child in the class needs to be honored, not just the ones who excel? Perhaps that cultural pattern is holding back an entire continent.

884 Why blog?

Michael DeBakey, the famous heart surgeon, is interviewed in today's Wall Street Journal (March 8, 2005). He is 96, and although a light eater who doesn't drink or smoke, he believes "work" provides the boost to longevity.

I would agree that keeping the brain active and challenged is important, but work in your chosen profession doesn't always do that. My final two years--the years that pushed me into setting a retirement target--were spent in mind numbing meetings about the design, construction and decorating of a new building which would house my library. Others, like my husband and the associate dean who oversaw the project, thrive on that sort of thing. For someone who lives for information, it is a mind shriveling experience. I pouted, I whined. I lost part of the sight in my left eye--and although I can't prove it, I think my body was refusing to look at one more electrical or plumbing scheme. I was not a nice person to be around--especially as I saw chunks of MY square feet reassigned to administrative space (afterall, isn't everything free on the internet?). And eventually, when my part of the task was completed, I put in my letter of resignation. It isn't fun to go to work that way.

So there are other ways to keep your mind busy and exercising. Volunteering. Reading. Writing poetry and essays. Attending concerts and lectures and workshops. Even selective TV viewing can occasionally inspire a brain cell to take notice. Even blogging. Hugh Hewitt has a lot more faith in blogging than I do--he's written an entire book on it. Even in his little career guide, "In, but not of" he has a brief chapter on the blog.

"The advantage of blogging is that it will oblige you to live in the world of ideas and debates, and to do so at the modern pace. . . Because blogging is the genuine marketplace of ideas, your site will prosper if you are any good."

Well, blogging does keep me investigating, reading and writing, the three things I really enjoyed about my profession. However, Hewitt hasn't got it quite right. There are some really awful blogs out there that get a lot of traffic, and some terrific ones that get very little. There are a lot of blogs with only two or three entries and disappeared owner/writers. There are others that had a great run for a year or two, and then died but still float around in cyberspace. Then too, the world doesn't need five thousand David Horowitzes or Pat Buchanans or Susan Estriches--they've got that territory covered. There are some flag waving good old boys and some deep dyed commies blogging who just ought to pack it up for awhile.

Setting aside the teen-age angst blogs written in instant messenger English, and the 20-something let's-go-get-drunk-after-work blogs, I've been most disappointed in the blogs written by women. It's not that they shouldn't write about day to day life--I do that--it is after all, a diary. (I never knew there were so many miscarriage stories out there.) But somewhere there should be women who are not professional journalists who write with the same investigative and writing skills as the top male bloggers (I'm excluding the two blondes who get interviewed everytime the story needs a female blogger). I put the published pundits (like Michelle Malkin) in a separate category because they've already got a track record and ran their flags up the blogpole when they saw the possibilities and the extra income.

When Hewitt talks about an "information reformation" and blogs changing the world, he isn't talking about diaries like mine, and unfortunately, he isn't talking about women in general.

883 A first hand account

Tom Brodersen met Terri Schiavo, the brain injured woman whose husband is attempting to end her life by removing her feeding tube, in the fall of 2002. After reading his account of her abilities, I think I was wrong in saying her condition is the same as the church member with whom I volunteered for several years in a nursing home. She actually has a higher level of functioning and can respond to more stimuli than my friend who has been on a feeding tube since she was 18. Here’s Tom’s story.

“During the period of September to November 2002 I spent time with Terri Schiavo, as a person briefly on her visitors list. During that time I . . .sang to her, played music for her, and encouraged her to vocalize. Over the twenty days or so that I visited with Terri . . . she gradually warmed up to me.

Terri responds to a variety of stimuli, including responding to both her mother's and my voices, both in person and over the phone, by fixing her attention and frequently by laughing. When I sang to her, she often vocalized, in her best effort to sing along with me. She recognizes and takes great pleasure in certain singers and songs which are her favorites—most especially John Denver singing "Country Roads." She learned to love several songs I sang to her with which she didn't seem to be familiar with, but others she never learned to appreciate. . .

She responded to gentle requests if given time and patience, such as lifting her right leg (three times out of four requests, the other time she lifted her left leg instead). While she does not have consistent control over her eyes to blink or look this way or that, she has excellent control over her breathing, diaphragm and voice, and will vocalize in various patterns if asked. While trying to work out a yes/no system with sounds, Terri initially answered the question "Terri, are you ten feet tall" by moaning twice, which is the response for "No," then she spontaneously whispered the word "No" in response to the question "Terry, are you purple?"
At that point I abandoned the sounding system and started trying to teach her to say "Yeah" as best as she could. Bob Schindler has several recordings of her sort of saying the word "Yeah" shortly after that.”

That’s a lot of progress in just two months, isn’t it? Terri will never be a perfectly functioning worker or employee or wife or mother, able to meet the challenges of the world, but who among us is? Perfect, that is. Can you really be completely self-sufficient and require no help from anyone else to meet your daily needs? She is a human being who has a God given soul, and no one, not the state or her husband or public opinion or general apathy about the misfortune of others should end her life. She's one of the people in Matthew 25 we are specifically told to serve. And she's one of the people our Constitution says is protected by our legal system.

882 Never heard of him

Yesterday I printed off a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights planning to read them at coffee sometime this week when I finish the other reading on my to-do list. Because of reading so many blogs, I see a lot of trash talking and nonsense about the constitution--or at least I think I do. It's been a long time since senior history class and it's entirely possible I was a typical teen-ager more interested in getting together with my friends than I was in reading American history. What got me interested yesterday was watching the program on C-SPAN (streaming video) about the statues of the men who worked on it (see my comments at 876). I wish other interviewers would learn a few lessons from Brian Lamb.

Speaking of the constitution and interviews, I saw Mark Levin interviewed on Neil Cavuto's show. I'd never heard of him, but sounds like he has an interesting book.

"Radio talk-show listeners know Mark R. "F. Lee" Levin well. President of the Landmark Legal Foundation, Levin is a frequent guest on/fill-in host on the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity shows. He's also got his own show on weeknights in New York (WABC). But his first love is the Constitution, and that's the focus of his new book, Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America. In Men in Black, Levin gives a brief, accessible history of judicial activism and offers possible solutions to curb it." NRO Interview

I wish political writers of both the right and left could use less inflammatory subtitles, but maybe that's what sells. Spill your guts on the cover.

881 Saying good-bye to Mary

She was managing a small agricultural economics "closet" library on the third floor and I was the agricultural economics bibliographer in the "real" library in the same building when we met. I liked her right away. Tiny, white haired, spry, friendly and talkative. And now that I've seen her birthdate on the funeral bulletin today, I realize that in 1978 when we met, she was the age I am now. She was a month younger than my father, born in 1913. Ohio State had a mandatory retirement age back then, and she left there and I believe worked downtown for another 10 or 15 years. I'd see her at church from time to time and she was always cheerful and busy. The pastor at her service today said she always talked about her husband, who died 35 years ago, and her son who died 22 years ago, as though they'd just stepped out of the room.

She was a charter member of our church which started in a basement and now has 10 services and three campuses. At 92, she outlived many of the people who knew her, so it was a small group who gathered to say good-bye. Two years ago her family had a 90th birthday celebration for her in the old fellowship hall/former sanctuary. The pastor said she'd probably helped sand the beams of that room.

The funerals of the old saints are wonderful services. Often worth going to even if you didn't know the person. We hear some great stories, sing the old hymns and hear the Gospel. While waiting for the service to begin, I read through the Order of Burial and compared it to the bulletin. We only used parts, but all of it was lovely. The pipe organ, which had been out for several months repairs and cleaning, was back in place to send Mary on her way.

"Into Your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend Mary. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech You, a sheep of Your own fold, a lamb of Your own flock, a sinner of Your own redeeming. Receive her into the arms of Your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light."
Commendation, Order of Burial, Lutheran Book of Worship.

880 True or false

This story may be anecdotal or even apocryphal--you never know on the internet. Still it's a really great story.