927 Activities this week

My husband thinks he has too many shirts; this week that is good, because I'm behind in the laundry. Have you ever noticed that the more time you have, the less you get done around the house? In the bank of minutes and hours, I'm a millionaire. But I'm so far backed up on laundry, that today I'm doing a pile of blue hue shirts, a pile of green tones, and a bunch of brown/taupe/beige shade, and I've set the water level in the Maytag to "large" for each load. He's such a tidy person that he hangs up his shirts after wearing them, so that's how I get behind (ha ha, what an excuse--it's all his fault, right?).

So what else is going on around our fair city besides my laundry? Well, the activists are busy, busy. It's still cold despite Spring arriving tomorrow, and so they are congregating in meeting places planning events or listening to invited speakers. Here's the calendar for the week, as listed in Alive.

Democratic Socialists of Central Ohio discussing Irish Communist history
Progressive Libertarians
Ohio Medical Reform
Friends of Alum Creek Clean-up (FACT)
Interfaith Prayer Meeting observing the 2nd anniversary of the War in Iraq
Peace March (I think this is national and only for those who haven't heard the war is over and the Iraqis have installed their own government with a higher voting turn out than we had)
Central Ohioans for Peace--something about Israel and Palestine (one guess which side they are supporting)
Columbus Vegetarian Leafleting
Workshop for Social Activists
Stonewall Union
Green Party
Bicycle Advocacy Coalition
Progressive Alliance
Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE)
Earth Institute/Simple Living
IMPACT Safety programs (violence and abuse)
Jobs for Justice
NOW
Action Ohio (family violence)

Although I don't know if these groups ever accomplish their goals, they do provide friendship, camaraderie, a sense of purpose, snacks and protection from the weather for lots of people, and therefore are contributing to the betterment of the community. Sort of like churches who've lost their message.

926 Food phrases and foibles

Food writers have the best of both worlds--first they have to eat it, then write about it. In Alive, one of our local free papers that focuses on entertainment, the "Whine List" this week included restaurants in Clintonville, and most seem to be the small neighborhood, greasy spoon variety. Still, the phrases were creative even if the cuisine wasn't.

forgettable run-of-the-mill salads
stuffed with happiness
naughty sirens shimmering in the dessert case
petite primo pizza parlor
sex on the beach sorbet
Cowtown** champion
forks up champion chomp
you'll have the daily special or else
cooked-into-submission green beans
half pound burgers dressed in interesting fashions
down right evil wings
a touch of Youngstown**
small culinary bloom in a concrete garden

** Hometown people under 25 and non-natives of any age without children love to call Columbus a "cowtown"--even though you would never have enough time or money to attend all the art, music, theater and lecture events in the city. Now, you can actually see cattle in what is now the center of the the metropolitan area, because Ohio State has pasture land and barns for research on the west side of the campus (the city grew up around it). This slur is only neutralized by bringing Youngstown into the conversation, which then can qualifiy you as a local.

Last night we switched from "Old Bag of Nails" in the Tremont Shopping Center to "The Rusty Bucket" in the Lane Avenue Shopping Center for our Friday night date. Our suburb's recent non-smoking ordinance has moved all the smokers out of the Old Bag down to Grandview Heights, which means a lot of the alcohol sales are also gone. So in this one location, the owners have changed the menu and raised the prices, moving to more dinners. We like the "pub" atmosphere and seeing our friends and neighbors, so we decided to try Bucket, which opened about a year ago. The decor is just about the same with a little more of a sports bar feel (more TV screens than Old Bag), similar menu, and cheery young ladies to wait the tables. We thought the food was tasty, hot and well-prepared, and the noise level wasn't too painful. We'll probably go back--although we didn't see a soul we knew even though the two restaurants are within a mile of each other.

925 Peggy Noonan lays it down for Republicans

Ms. Noonan points out today that the Terri supporters are in the hundreds of thousands, and those who want to kill her number only one (or two if you count the judge). If her death is a mistake, it can't be undone, AND there will be a political price. To help Schiavo, she resorts to self interest.

"It is not at all in the political interests of senators and congressmen to earn the wrath of the pro-Schiavo group and the gratitude of the anti-Schiavo husband, by doing nothing.

So let me write a sentence I never thought I'd write: Politicians, please, think of yourselves! Move to help Terri Schiavo, and no one will be mad at you, and you'll keep a human being alive. Do nothing and you reap bitterness and help someone die.

This isn't hard, is it?"

The article.

Listening to radio talk shows on this subject all afternoon (Medved and Hewitt on News Talk 870 KRLA) I think many callers and the hosts are missing the point. Even in a diminished capacity, she has a right to live. Regardless if she will get better (and I don't believe she will), we don't kill people for being less than they were, or less than they could have been if the treatment had been better. We also shouldn't let a man decide AFTER his huge monetary award from a jury, that his wife wouldn't want to live this way, when "this way" is the reason he got the money.

Peter Jennings' coverage on ABC tonight was one of the worst, most biased I've seen. But then, I'm not surprised. If Bush is for it, it must be bad.

924 Mass transit, 35 years later

P.J. O'Rourke wrote about mass transit hysteria in the Wall Street 2 days ago, and as usual, was funny until he got ridiculous.

He reported some number crunching on Minneapolis' "Hiawatha" light rail: "The Heritage Foundation says, "There isn't a single light rail transit system in America in which fares paid by the passengers cover the cost of their own rides." Heritage cites the Minneapolis "Hiawatha" light rail line, soon to be completed with $107 million from the transportation bill. Heritage estimates that the total expense for each ride on the Hiawatha will be $19. Commuting to work will cost $8,550 a year. If the commuter is earning minimum wage, this leaves about $1,000 a year for food, shelter and clothing. Or, if the city picks up the tab, it could have leased a BMW X-5 SUV for the commuter at about the same price."

Then he goes on to say this would be unfair to the poor, who would then be contributing to environmental destruction by driving SUVs. A good point on cost, but stomping it to death.

Two of the earliest neighborhood meetings I attended in 1968 when I was a new homeowner and young mother were about 1) the need for mass transit (actually decent bus service with more lines) in Columbus, and 2) need for a teen center in our suburb (our daughter was 6 months old). We had focus groups, neighborhood meetings, ballots, time and again. Many, many years later and we have neither. People really didn't want them.

I really wish we had decent bus service--convenient, timely and cost effective. I live about two miles from the agriculture campus of Ohio State, but I could walk (not jog) there faster than I could take the bus (which stops literally at my door), then transfer when I arrive downtown to another bus up High Street to the OSU campus, where I would transfer to a campus bus to ride to the west side. I'm guessing it would take about 1.5 to 2 hours. And that's the problem. In our spread out metropolitan areas, there is no convenient way to get from point A to B with light rail, bus or trolley for everyone who needs to get to work, school, shopping or church.

I'd much rather throw my support to train service between cities, so I didn't have to park in Toledo in order to catch a train to Chicago or New York.

923 The Auto Show, or Men in groups

We went to the Columbus Auto Show this morning. Unlike the malls, where the women reign supreme, we saw 10 men for every woman. Groups. Bands. Herds. Packs. Old men. Young men. Hispanic men. Black men. White men. Dads with sons. Grandpas with sons and grandsons. Dads pushing baby strollers. Teen boys sitting in convertibles. Peeking into SUVs and Hummers. Men in wheelchairs. Men with canes. Men limping on artificial knees. Ah, they love their wheels.

I showed my husband the Dodge Magnum, my favorite, because the Bentley, the Rolls and the Lambourgini all had "sold" signs so we walked on by after gasping at the prices.

Then we returned to the Scion, a Toyota made car about $13,000, 5 door hatchback, and very comfortable with good leg and head room. Not the boxy, ugly, awkward doored XB but the XA.

"Evidently you don't have to wear hip-hugger jeans or a backwards baseball cap to appreciate a $12,995 car that's fun, frugal, eminently practical, and bulletproof. Warranty: 3 years/36,000 miles total car; 5 years/60,000 miles powertrain. . . Scion market research showed that buyers wanted simplicity, so that's what you get. The xA's base price includes power-operated windows, locks and mirrors, A/C, antilock brakes, and a CD/MP3 player. The only functional options are an automatic transmission ($800), side airbags ($650), and keyless entry/alarm ($459)."

The one we saw was sort of a purplish-red. Hmmm. I'll really have to think about this.

922 And they're probably not bloggers

This week I've seen two women at Panera's in the morning wearing pajamas. And possibly one man. I'm sure if I questioned them, they'd tell me to MYOB, or it's the style, or I forgot to dress. Still, it was a bit disconcerting to see a young couple sitting in the lounge chairs by the fireplace, drinking their morning coffee, wearing wrinkled pj's and winter coats. She was in pink, yellow and white stripe with pink rick-rack along the pant leg hem line. She carried a large purse in similar colors. His pj's were sort of a grey and white check.

Novelty pajamas were noted as a fashion trend 3 years ago. It's probably taken awhile for it to get to the Columbus suburbs, and for me to notice.

921 What's going on in Pennsylvania?

The price index for real estate in today's WSJ showed that the average sales in zip code 19085 has changed 72.8% in one year. I suppose it only takes a few sales at the high end to change the figures. That's going to make all the web-sites about Villanova out of date.

920 The male's advantage,

Listen up Harvard. You don't need your President to suggest that maybe men and women have different brains. Just look at their feet!

I saw an ad in USAToday (3-18) for Zappos.com (sells shoes). It was a simple, classy black and white ad with a powerful message at several levels. The shoe on top was a man's dress, slip-on business shoe. I wiggled my toes. I breathed deep. Casual, but dressy. Youthful, but with the message, "I know a few things."

The second, lower shoe was an ankle-breaking, corn-festering, 4" sling-back for women. My feet hurt just looking at it. I frowned. Hers had a message too, "I'll look good no matter what, no matter the price."

The bold words screamed from the page, "You're going places." Yeah. But the men will get there faster and be more rested and comfortable.

The March issue of Nature has an article about the X chromosome factor in the brains of women and men. As they further investigate how the X factor affects social behavior, maybe they'll come up with a foot-fetish clue that causes male designers and women consumers to think alike.

House acts to save Terri

This website of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee contains the press release on H.R. 1332, the Protection of Incapacitated Persons Act of 2005.

"H.R. 1332 authorizes the removal of cases in State court to U.S. federal court to vindicate the federal rights of incapacitated persons under the U.S. Constitution or any federal law. Such proceedings would be authorized after an incapacitated person has exhausted available State remedies and the relevant papers must be filed in federal court within 30 days after the exhaustion of available State remedies.

“What’s going on in Florida regarding Terri Schiavo is nothing short of inhumane. She’s facing what amounts to a death sentence, ensuring she will slowly starve to death over a matter of weeks. Terri Schiavo - a woman who smiles and cries and who is not on a respirator or any other 24-hour-a-day medical equipment - has committed no crime and she has done nothing wrong. Yet the Florida courts seem bent on setting an extremely dangerous precedent by saying we must stop feeding someone who can’t feed herself. Who’s next - the disabled or those late in life? This legislation is the humane and right thing to not only protect Terri Schiavo, but also to reinforce the law’s commitment to justice and compassion for all, especially the most vulnerable."

918 A lovely Library in Dublin

I've already blogged about this day at 916, however, in checking a link to the Book of Kells that wasn't working right (probably too many hits today), I found this lovely web page for Trinity College Library of The University of Dublin, with a very friendly and attractive newsletter on site.

"Trinity College Library is the largest library in Ireland. Its collections of manuscripts and printed books have been built up since the end of the sixteenth century. In addition to the purchases and donations of almost four centuries, since 1801 the Library has had the right to claim all British and Irish publications under the terms of successive Copyright Acts. The bookstock is now over four million volumes and there are extensive collections of manuscripts, maps and music." [from library web page]

So as I clicked through some of the databases, I came across the "Early English Books Online," but of course, I needed a login and password to use it. EEBO, I learned, was: "Launched in 1999 as a joint effort between the University of Michigan, Oxford University and ProQuest Information and Learning, the partnership allows participating libraries to help shape this full-text archive. Partnership is open to libraries that purchase Early English Books Online (EEBO)."

Once I saw the word "ProQuest" I was pretty sure I could get into this by switching to the Ohio State University Libraries web page (which is not pretty or easy to use like Trinity), so I did. And if you have some connection to a major library, or even visit one, you'll be able to see this marvelous resource, including the facsimiles of both the most famous and most obscure works in pre-1700 English (including North America) language, literature and culture. I chose the author William Tyndale to search (77 entries).

From the EEBO webpage: "Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.

From the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this incomparable collection now contains about 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. Libraries possessing this collection find they are able to fulfill the most exhaustive research requirements of graduate scholars - from their desktop! - in many subject areas, including: English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science."

Although I'm a confirmed "book person," I am many times overwhelmed by the richness of resources on the internet that time, space and money would never allow me to see otherwise.

917 The economics of health

We had a low budget wedding and received modest, but useful gifts--many of which I’m still using after 45 years. Like the butcher knife I used on the corned beef slab to make it fit in the crock pot this morning; the turquoise color nesting Pyrex bowls I use everyday to either mix, serve or store food; and the white metal bathroom scales I haven’t stepped on in the last four weeks. I looked through Google’s images to see if I could post what this little treasure looks like with all its 1950s sleek, aerodynamic design, but couldn’t find one. I remember the couple who gave it to us, but not their names. Indianapolis. The husbands worked together as draftsmen for a coal company. She was a hair dresser. They were about 45-ish, so have probably gone to their rewards now. This metal scale has followed me through lots of dress sizes over the years, and depending on what that is, may accumulate dust for months at a time.

However, today in a WSJ article about new household appliances and gadgets I noticed the "HoMedic Total Body Fat Analyzer Scale." It sells for about $140 and will tell you where the fat is on your upper and lower body (currently I use a mirror for that), and what your optimum levels are (I've had this body for 65 years and I think I know that answer). It measures how much body water you have, skeletal muscle mass, and the calories you can have to maintain the weight you want.

In 2003, the most recent date I could find for comparison, $10.00 in 1960 would be $62.16 using the Consumer Price Index; $50.21 using the GDP deflator; $76.13 using the unskilled wage; $129.77 using the GDP per capita ; and $208.66 using the relative share of GDP Relative value. Relative value

In 2004 the adjusted dollar cost for a gallon of gasoline was the same as the 1960 price ($1.79), but it would take 20 new cars to equal the pollution of one 1960 car (which we didn’t have in 1960 so we were polluting even more). But I digress--the price of gasoline in 1960 really doesn't have a thing to do with this story. So I’m thinking I could probably buy the $140 scale, and go with the GDP per capita figure (adjusted a little for 2005), and completely justify it in my mind as the replacement for a 1960 scale. Still, the 1960 scale was a gift, costing us nothing (because the wedding was in Illinois, they didn't attend). Maybe I’ll just keep it and use the mirror and tape measure and start walking to the coffee shop.

916 Happy St. Patrick's Day

The best book you'll ever read about Ireland is "How the Irish Saved Civilization." But the best card is the one I saw last week at the St. Pat's dinner at our friends' home. The main cartoon showed a weary man behind the wheel of a car with a bunch of snakes stuffed in the back seat some leaning out the windows. The caption said something like, "Why St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland." The snakes were saying things like "I gotta pee," "Are we there yet?" "He's touching me," "I want the window." All the parents howled. Even after all these years how well we remember those car trips with kids in the back seat.

"Cahill tells of how the Roman and Irish worlds met in a young Roman kidnapped from his British home by Irish marauders. Born Miliucc, he would spend six years in slavery, escape, and return as a Christian missionary. That missionary had learned much about the Irish people during his time as a slave and, blessed with a gentle faith and a wonder of the world around him, would make Ireland the only land converted to Christianity without violence. The Irish in turn would come to love their St. Patrick and approached Christianity with energy and fervor. A form of Christianity evolved that allowed the Irish to maintain some of the Celtic traditions that were an integral part of their world.

As Christianity settled in, monasteries were established throughout Ireland. The monks became passionate scribes not only of the Scriptures but also of other classical texts that were as risk of being lost after the fall of the Roman Empire. Celtic art forms were among the traditions that survived into the Irish Christian era and would lead to the development of spectacular illuminated manuscripts at the monks' hands. The Book of Kells is one well-known example of the monks' phenomenal artistry. "

When I went into the kitchen to feed the cat this morning, on the counter was a card, a small gift and a huge St. Pat's day pin from my husband. And what did you get your spouse? (Confession: I always forget, and didn't even have a card.)

915 Kerry blames the media--just not the right ones

Now John Kerry is blaming the media for his failures last fall. Says they are biased toward Bush. That’s so absurd it is laughable--just pathetic. Every book store and library I stepped into was loaded with anti-Bush material. The mainstream media went out of their way to report negatively about Bush and ignored the charges of the Swiftboat Veterans when they surfaced in March 2004. Even when their book was on the best seller list, it wasn’t reviewed in the major sources. It seemed half the country knew about the Swiftboat Vets but ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN were afraid of Kerry--or hated Bush too much.

So Kerry isn’t pointing fingers at the MSM, because he can’t. According to Howard Kurtz in WaPo,

"'We learned,' Kerry continued, 'that the mainstream media, over the course of the last year, did a pretty good job of discerning. But there's a subculture and a sub-media that talks and keeps things going for entertainment purposes rather than for the flow of information. And that has a profound impact and undermines what we call the mainstream media of the country. And so the decision-making ability of the American electorate has been profoundly impacted as a consequence of that. The question is, what are we going to do about it?'"

A sub-media that keeps things going for entertainment purposes? Wouldn't this include "Hardball" and "Crossfire" as well as O'Reilly? Al Franken as well as Rush Limbaugh? Cable networks going wild over Scott Peterson and the Jacko trial? For some reason, Kerry exonerates the mainstream media for some of the same sins he sees in other parts of the news/info world.”

Yes, it does look like bias--but not against Kerry. Fortunately, says John O’Neill, in a recent interview, Kerry threatened stations after the first ad appeared in August (the Vets had hoped their March story would keep him from being nominated so the Democrats would have time to select someone else--many weren’t Republicans).

“The threats against the station managers led to extensive publicity, particularly on the "Hannity and Colmes]" show and then on other FOX News shows. Then it spread to CNN and to MSNBC. More than 1,400,000 people downloaded that first ad, and it swept through the Internet. It also allowed thousands and thousands of people to start donating money to us at our Web site.

Three weeks after it was put up, half of all the people in the United States had heard about that ad and about us and yet there had never been a story about us on ABC, NBC, or CBS or in the New York Times.”

Some good has come out of the torturous months and threats the Swiftboat Vets endured. O’Neill says:

“It haunts all of us that the first Vietnam veteran nominated for President would be John Kerry--the very last person most veterans would pick for high office. But it is ironic that his run for the White House may have finally initiated some less fictionalized thinking about the war.”

914 Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

This hymn in 4/4 time with 4 flats is almost 120 years old. Written by Elisha A. Hoffman based on a passage in Deuteronomy 33:27, it can be slow and nasal, or toe tapping, hand clapping and sprightly, “what a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms.” I came across it today because it was the March 16 selection in the book “Amazing Grace; 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions” (Kregel, 1990).

I don’t recall ever hearing this hymn in my home church in Mt. Morris, Illinois--we rarely sang anything with a strong beat, a waltz tune, or revivalist vigor--and you could almost do a slow jitterbug to this one. So I will forever associate it with a tiny church in Flat Creek, Kentucky, (near Manchester) where my sister Carol served with Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) in the summer of 1956. The only service I attended in the little church included this hymn, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” but they sang it like a mournful dirge. The small, poor congregation, who leaned not only on God but each other, the nasal harmony, and the heat of that summer have always stayed with me reminding me of Carol when I hear it.

The Church of the Brethren is a small, Anabaptist denomination founded in 1708 in Germany, and is often linked with the Quakers and Mennonites because of its pacifism and service. After WWII the church started a volunteer service program in 1948 with one or two year service opportunities preceded by a training program. Initially, it attracted mostly young people, but in the 60s began drawing more older and retired adults. Click here for history and service information about BVS.

My parents, brother and I had traveled to Flat Creek to visit Carol in the mountains where she lived with another volunteer and a “house mother” who sort of acted as a chaperone and helped with the domestic duties and a garden while the young women taught Sunday School and Bible School, provided recreational programs for the children and programming for adults. The mission also had a minister, but I’m not sure where he lived or if he may have served several churches. We went in July, so we may have driven down to be with her on her birthday.

I don’t know what the area looks like today, but getting there by automobile was quite a challenge in 1956. The unpaved roads seemed to be teetering on the edge, and if you met someone coming the other way. . . well, someone would have to give. The houses on the hillsides seemed to be built on stilts and cars and trucks on blocks shared the yards with chickens and dogs. To get to one of the little mission churches they served (may have been a home rather than a church building), Carol rode there on horseback. Since she’d never shown any interest in my horse, I found the sight of my older sister riding bareback almost more amazing than anything else I saw that week. I also encountered young girls my age who were already married, and some with babies--I was 15. We grew up in rural Illinois, but rural Kentucky in the mountains in the 1950s could have been another country--even the language didn’t sound like anything I’d heard.

We talk about kids growing up fast today because of the media influences, but after Mother's death in 2000 I brought home and re-read her letters to my parents she’d written that year and was just stunned by what the church expected of those very young men and women, many away from home for the first time, and most without even college or work experience. Today’s young adults of that age are in a time warp trapped in fantasy, make-believe and gaming compared to those teens of the mid-50s who were experiencing real life.

Training Unit photo. BVS unit 28

The training period was 8 or 9 weeks in New Windsor, Maryland, on the site of a former Brethren college. While she was still in her training, there was terrible flooding in Pennsylvania, and these kids were pulled from classes to go out and help clean up the disaster, which included finding a dead baby (mentioned in one of her letters). She served as a community surveyor in a suburb of Denver while living in the basement of the pastor’s house (and I believe babysitting was part of that job, too). She was also a guinea pig at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland before being sent to Kentucky. After Carol’s year in BVS she enrolled at Goshen College in Indiana and became an RN. Some years later she earned a master’s degree. She died of a diabetic stroke in 1996.

Looking back at her life that year and her subsequent years of ill health, I think Carol truly must have been “leaning on the everlasting arms.”

913 English and Alcohol

When I took the English test and got a score that said I was more knowledgable than 99% of the people in my age group, I thought WOW. But when I took the alcohol knowledge test and it also said I knew more than 99% in my age group, I figured it just wasn't running the numbers for my age group because not enough people were taking the test. I answered the alcohol questions randomly because I know nothing about alcohol and only have an occasional glass of house wine. I've never even tasted beer, so I left one of the beer questions blank which offer that option. Still scored pretty high. So I guess that's why I curved so high in English. Darn.

Update: The link to the test for Mr. Cloud.

912 LeetSpeek

If you’ve wondered why you see so many numbers, capital letters and screwed up spelling in some teens-on-line-chat, you’ve probably been reading “leet.” Take a look at this site, “A Parent’s Primer to Computer Slang” by Microsoft to decipher what those bilingual kids are talking about. If you come across pr0n (porn) or h4x (hacks), it may mean something bad is going on.
Tip from In Season Librarian

911 Worst Neighbor Award

When we were in Florida in February 2003 I recall reading in the local Longboat Key paper about the battles with street lights and dog feces. Now Florida Cracker has the follow-up to one of the stories I might have read.

"[Psychologist] Holli Bodner had a yearlong feud with Jean Pierre Villar about street lights and dog poop before committing him to a mental health center in April 2003." Tampa Bay 10 News

I debated about skipping this number because of all the false hits it will bring to this site, but it is also the date of our anniversary. So if you've wandered in here expecting something else, my apologies, but enjoy your visit.

The Blogger posting mechanism is really messed up and is double and triple posting entries.

910 Tara Parker Pope

Tara Parker Pope writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal on health, and she answers questions from readers. She also contributes occasionally to career articles. She has also written a book on the cigarette industry. I know nothing about her--I just think her name is fabulous and wonderful. Because she writes about health issues, I’m guessing she gets a ton of mail telling her that she is wrong, crazy or in cahoots with the evil pharmaceutical industry or conversely, the alternative medicine wackos. This entry is not about that. I just like her name. With a name like Tara Parker Pope, she should be in a sit-com or on stage, so I’ve written a poem about her.

Tara Parker Pope--
such a lovely name;
sing it, play it,
hang it on a rope.

Tara Parker Pope.
she of Wall Street fame;
read her, write her,
She will help you cope.

909 Mending is a sacred rite

Several weeks ago a button popped off my husband’s sport coat as he was getting ready to walk out the door to usher at church. He rushed upstairs to grab another jacket, leaving the button on the kitchen counter, where is sat until yesterday. About three days ago he brought the button-missing coat down stairs and hung it wordlessly in the hall, where it stayed for a day. I finally moved the poor thing to the dining room and laid the button on top. That put it within 5 ft. of my mother’s sewing cabinet. I think I was secretly hoping a needle and thread would appear and do the job. Meanwhile, the cat has discovered it and thinks the button should be on the floor.

Today I was looking through the photocopy of my mother’s commonplace book which she compiled between 1946 and 1999, although I think some things were published earlier, just not pasted in (poems about the war, for instance). Reading one poem about mending made me pause and wonder if young wives and mothers mend these days.

Women Mending by Nelle Graves McGill

All women at their mending wear a look
As legible as any open book;
And by the way in which they bend above
Each garment, show their wisdom and their love.

A girl just mends her dress to make it do--
Impatiently--till she has something new.
A young wife darns an unaccustomed sock,
With proud, expectant eyes which seek the clock.

A mother sews a tiny button in place
On baby’s gown, a glory on her face;
Or patches up a rent in son’s best breeches
As if she’d reinforce the youth by switches.

But grandma’s fingers touch a boy’s torn cap
As if it were his head upon her lap;
Her tremulous hands are light above the seam
Of grandpa’s coat, as though she darned a dream--
Most frail and beautiful--to make it last
Until his need, and hers, of dreams be past.

Old women know that women must repair
Life’s worn habiliments, to keep life fair;
They know that mending is a sacred rite,
To be performed with prayer, while God gives light.

I checked Google to see if Mrs. McGill might have a collection of verses. I didn’t find anything, but she is in my anthology of “Contemporary American Women Poets" (1935). However, I did find an obituary for her daughter Monna who died two years ago at age 93. She’d been a radio and stage actress in New York, had worked in Kansas City, and then returned to her hometown to live with her parents (probably to care for them) and worked as an editor and correspondent. She published short stories, poetry and essays.

I’m sure there is a story in there somewhere, but I need to go pray over a button while there is light.

908 Using Loose and Lose

Are you lost? Losing your way with the words "loose" (lus) and "lose" (luz)? “She had to loosen her slacks, so she dieted to lose weight and then her slacks were loose.” “Loose morals caused him to lose his way.”

lose, lost, losing--a verb
loose, looser, loosest--an adjective
loosen, loosened, loosening--a verb

“People who study errors in language make a systematic distinction between inadvertent errors -- in the case at hand, slips of the pen or typos -- and another type of mistake, which arises from imperfect command of the conventions at work in the larger community of language users -- in the case at hand, "spelling errors" in the sense of errors involving the conventions of spelling. Writing or typing "teh" for "the" is an inadvertent error, and a very common one. Writing or typing "loose" for the present tense or base form /luz/ of the verb whose past tense is spelled "lost" is, I maintain, almost always something else; people who spell this way, and there are a great many of them, almost always intend that spelling (while those who spell "teh" surely do not intend that spelling).”

Read the whole article by Arnold Zwicky at Language Log.