986 As the weather turns nasty in Ohio

The artificial floral arrangement I have on the outside wall next to the front door is looking springy and welcoming. I bought it at Merlin's in Oregon, IL when we visited there earlier in the month. It has to be one of the nicest foral/gift stores in the midwest, so if you're ever in the area, stop for a visit or call (815)732-2969 to send flowers in the area. However, even this attractive basket can't cover for the cold, sloppy turn our weather has made. Last week the 80s, and now snow is predicted, at least for the counties north of us. It may be the latest snow we've had on record.

While at Caribou this morning I noticed two moms dressed in their black and gold "crew" sweats. Recalling the times I've seen the chilled and wet supporters along the river when I went to McDonald's along Rt. 33 years ago, I said, "Is there ever good weather for Crew events?" They laughed and said they had actually been on their way to Cincinnati when they got word that the weather was so bad the event was cancelled. "So we stopped for coffee and thought we'd go stand in the rain to drink it," they laughed. They were soon on their cell phones consoling their kids who were already there and terribly disappointed at the cancellation. Moms. Aren't they just the greatest?

985 "Broader" clothing line for Latinas?

In keeping with my occasional highlighting of women bloggers of quality, today's feature is Latina Lista, who notes the unfortunate headline in the Chicago Sun Times business section that ""Sears partners with Latina magazine to sell new, broader fashion line." Her complaint is much the same as any other American woman--clothing is designed for tweens, teens and twenties, and the rest of us just look silly putting on that junk (and so do the kids much of the time).

Marisa Treviño is from Texas and tracks articles of interest to Latinas. I noticed her on the Media Bloggers list and right away picked up on her excellent and lively style. And no wonder! Can I spot them or what? When I read her bio I see she is a professional journalist and radio personality who has added blogging to her portfolio. She has also written plays.

Do you like fly fishing?

On Fridays I like to browse the real estate ads in the Wall Street Journal. I get my jollies wondering about people who sell $25 million dollar homes in the desert. But today I saw a cottage on the AuSable River in Michigan for $179,900. The photo looked pretty sweet--a log cabin built in 1930 with 700 ft. frontage and a private trout pond and boat house. Nice little porch--looked to be a smallish 2-3 bedroom, one bath summer place. Probably not the best kitchen or bath, but you can't beat the price and location (if you like to fish, and I don't). So I looked it up on the internet and found it after two or three clicks, despite not having a URL. Really cute. Go in with another two families and have yourself a nice fishing retreat.


AuSable River Cottage

Call Chad at 231-499-8292. Full info here.

983 For Grieving John Kerry Fans

Recently we heard that a woman in our former neighborhood sunk into a deep depression after the election, is getting a divorce, moving and selling the house. I thought some of those stories of post-election depression were a bit overblown, but I guess it really happened. In Boogie Jack's lastest Newsletter 124, he refers to a site called CDBaby; a little CD store with the best new independent music. This site includes album art, which I always enjoy browsing, and in it I found Independents 4 Kerry. You can sample all the songs, and if you are still depressed, I recommend "One of those days" by Doug Segree which is a foot tapping and happy song. The CD includes 2 hours and 20 minutes of executable video and streaming media, so depending on your state of mind, view at your own risk.

Now if you were pleased with the results of the election, the site also has a CD of comedy routines that includes hip-hop, disco and R & B called Kerry Waffles by Burt and Kurt.

It's really a very interesting site, and if you are a struggling but talented musician, it could be the place to sell your art. Thanks for the tip, Boogie Jack.

982 Not Catholic

James Lileks says it best, although I've seen this thought on a number of Protestant blogs:

"I have no stake in the matter of who’s the Pope – or do I? Choose a cardinal who issues a homily titled “On the Need to Gas Grandpa When He Starts Crapping Himself” – I’m sure it would sound better in Latin – and this might have an impact on the society where I hope to find myself in 30 years. The selection of Ratzinger was initially heartening, simply because he made the right people apoplectic. I’m still astonished that some can see a conservative elevated to the papacy and think: a man of tradition? As Pope? How could this be? As if there this was some golden moment that would usher in the age of married priests who shuttle between blessing third-trimester abortions and giving last rites to someone who’s about to have the chemical pillow put over his face. At the risk of sounding sacreligious: it’s the Catholic Church, for Christ’s sake! You’re not going to get someone who wants to strip off all the Baroque ornamentation of St. Peter’s and replace them with IKEA wine racks, okay?" Read it here.

Homocon has a few choice words for liberal Catholics, like Andrew Sullivan, who claim to be political conservatives:

"Cruising by Andy's website of late has become akin to slowing down the car and craning for a better look at the bloody wreck by the side of the road -- it's messy, it's ugly and thank God it's not me.

From his petulant, foot-stomping dislike of the current President (and Karl Rove), his outright campaigning for John Kerry (who represents the worst sort of excesses of the Democratic Party), his Eeyore-ic mutterings regarding the necessary political and cultural revamp of the Middle East (starting with Iraq), and now his flailing, spittle-flecked tantrums over the Catholic Church's selection of a Pope who embodies the moral, social and political philosophies of, well, the Catholic Church, I think we can all safely assume that little Andy's "I'm a Gay Conservative . . . really!" charade is long past over."

981 Majoring in minors

Roger Simon wonders about whether the Committee has grasped the major concepts of UN dysfunctional family in this Bolton discussion: "I have no personal knowledge of John Bolton or of the degree to which the administration's nominee for UN ambassador is a hothead who mistreats subordinates, but color me suspicious he is much worse than the clowns who sit in judgment of him on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." Read the rest here.

980 First they drank my soda pop

Now they are watching my movies! Those average Americans are at it again. This dentist says there are enough carbonated soft drinks consumed in this country each year for each American to drink 53 gallons, so since I drink two or three max, someone is drinking my pop! (There is enough sugar in one can of pop to get the maximum for one day, and even the diet pop has enough acid to eat the enamel on your teeth, so you can have mine.) Now USAToday says that in 2000 Americans spent 57 hours a year watching videos and DVDs, and now it is up to 83, and projected to be 98 for 2007. So far in 2005, I've watched one Blondie DVD, or about 80 minutes, and last year I think I had a few videos on Spanish verbs and one on train travel from the library.

979 What does he say about authors he dislikes?

About five years ago, Harold Bloom, defender of the Western Canon, offended millions of fans by calling Harry Potter a total waste of time and energy. “And yet I feel a discomfort with the Harry Potter mania, and I hope that my discontent is not merely a highbrow snobbery, or a nostalgia for a more literate fantasy to beguile (shall we say) intelligent children of all ages. Can more than 35 million book buyers, and their offspring, be wrong? yes, they have been, and will continue to be for as long as they persevere with Potter.” (Wall Street Journal 7-11-2000). Here.

In today’s Wall Street Journal he writes that “J.K. Rowling and Stephen King are equally bad writers. . .” and advises one to reread Hans Christian Andersen, Dickens, Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear for the real thing rather than Rowling and King. And although he admires Andersen’s stories (I think) and recommends him for “children of all ages,” he certainly doesn’t think much of the man. He calls him a narcissistic pagan, prophet of annihilation, blithely insouciant, sadistic, endlessly wandering to Byzantium, a theorist of seduction, monument of narcissism, self-obsessed monomaniac, of solipsistic vision, sexually frustrated homoerotic, a pagan in his art, driven by fame and honor and animistic.

The article is a messy stroll through the Western Canon, and either Bloom is not a particularly fluid writer himself, or some WSJ editor had to hatchet his way through it to reduce its size. In a marathon of name dropping he mentions: Nietzsche, Whitman, Kierkegaard, (Rowling, King, Dickens, Carroll, Lear), Heine, Hugo, Lamartine, Vigny, Mendelsohn, Schumann, the Brownings, Hoffmann, Gogol, Kleist, Lawrence, Kafka, Shakespeare, Blake, Tolstoy, Freud, Byron, Hemingway and Schopenhauer. That’s a lot to pack into an article about a guy who is famous for kids’ fairy tales.

And to think that the very first book I was given as a child was “The Ugly Duckling.”

978 Pope Benedict XVI

Eamonn Fitzgerald summarizes and collects comments on the new pope here.

977 Democrats don’t want young workers to benefit?

The calculator being used at 16 Democrat websites to figure the Bush overhaul of Social Security is inaccurate, according to Fact Check.org.

“Democrats have been using a web-based "calculator" to generate individualized answers to the question, "How much will you lose under Bush privatization plan?" For young, low-wage workers it projects cuts of up to 50% in benefits. And a $1-million TV advertising campaign is amplifying the claim, saying, "Look below the surface (of Bush's plan) and you'll find benefit checks cut almost in half."

In fact, the calculator is rigged. We find it is based on a number of false assumptions and deceptive comparisons. For one thing, it assumes that stocks will yield average returns of only 3 percent per year above inflation. The historical average is close to 7 percent.

The calculator's authors claim that they use the same assumption used by the Congressional Budget Office. Actually, CBO projects a 6.8 percent gain.”

Everyone agrees that as the boomers age and there are fewer and fewer workers to support them, someone’s going to have to water down the soup to make it go around. That’s how my grandmother managed when poor neighbors showed up at the door close to dinner time during the Depression. Add a little water to the gravy.

It won’t matter to me--I’m not eligible for SS, but who will be there for my children, now middle-aged? Democrats really don’t want any Bush administration plan to work, but especially not this one. It takes some of the control away from the government and hands it back to the worker--especially that choice and inheritability thing. Ohhh! That’s so scary. A constituency that doesn’t need the party for favors is one that might vote libertarian or Republican. It cuts into their base.

And Republican congress people are really lackluster in their support, too. In yesterday’s WSJ Ed Crane of Cato Institute commented that inheritability and personal control, which he considers the best features, are rarely even mentioned, even by Republicans. And Democrats NEVER do--but that’s no surprise at all, now is it? Choice is OK to kill a baby (although not for your breast implants), but not OK for your money.

Cell phone follies

My husband has a cell phone which I rarely use. It's hardly ever turned on, so consequently the messages build up. But we don't know how to access them. In 2001 we loaned the phone to our son, so the message is his voice and 4 years old with all the wrong information. During our trip to Illinois it began beeping whenever we had it on, so we turned it off, which meant anyone who tried to call us, got the 4 year old message. When you've been married 45 years, it's the little things that start to bug you--like why don't you just go to the local office and have them show you what to do?

Today I left the house with the cell phone in my purse and was determined to find out how to listen to a message. They were nice at the cell phone office, but since he hadn't listed me as an owner on the account, they wouldn't give me the password which is needed to get the messages. They did offer me a nice deal on new service with 2 phones, however. Each person who looked at our cell phone said something along the order of, "my, this is so old I've never even seen one like it." Reminded me of the time I took my camera that still had film in it from 1957 to a shop in 1975 and the camera was older than the clerk.

My husband didn't know his password, so finally we called the 800 number which instructed us in the 337 numbers we had to enter to change the password. Finally I got it figured out. There were about 5 messages from a female Indian or Pakistani doctor who had been paged, supposedly from our number. There were a couple of hang-ups and one with people just talking in the background. Then 3 from my brother-in-law telling us about a detour, and then from Duke inviting us to stay for lunch on Saturday.

I'm still thinking about the offer of new service and phone. Sounded like a good deal. And no one would laugh at our poor little phone.

975 What I heard about you

If you've ever lived in a small town, you know exactly what this poem is about, and if you haven't, you just wouldn't understand. And speaking of small towns, this trip we did manage to see Brownsburg, Indiana and Plainfield, Indiana, both under 20,000. Until Saturday, Brownsburg was a place to buy gas. Plainfield has a new library that looks really terrific; easy access to Indianapolis if any librarians are looking for a good spot for a dual income family. I checked to see if a photo was on the web, but didn't see one. The closest I could come is the history site.

What I heard about you
by Norma Bruce

I heard you’d gone to Canada;
I heard you’d crossed at night.
I heard you loved the open space,
and spoke their English right.

I heard you’d moved to Oregon;
I heard you’d gone for good.
I heard you took your saxophone,
and a wore a woolen hood.

I heard you’d flown to Arkansas;
I heard you’d sold your horse.
I heard you sang the old sad songs,
and found your twang, of course.

I heard you’d camped in Alabam;
I heard you’d snared a crook.
I heard you set a clever trap,
and then you wrote a book.

I heard you’d traveled Iowa
I heard you’d hired a boat.
I heard you bought a soybean farm,
and that was all you wrote.

I heard you’d biked to O-hi-o;
I heard you’d tried to call.
I heard you lost your BlackBerry,
while browsing Tuttle Mall.

I heard you’d entered Mexico;
I heard you’d seen the Rio Grande.
I heard you searched for ancient tribes,
and all you found was sand.

So nowadays I don’t pretend
the tales I hear are strange;
if anyone your name brings up--
my plans don’t rearrange.

Home again speaking 85% General American English

We left town on April 8 and got back last night around 6:30. The cat looked at us suspiciously--she enjoyed being spoiled at our daughter's home.

At Jen's site this morning I noticed a link to a quiz for the type of American English. Perhaps it was just the trip to Illinois and Indiana, but I came out 85% general American English, and midwestern with a smattering of southern. That's probably because we had lunch with Duke and Kinga yesterday and they lived a spell in Kentucky before moving back to the Indy area. The quiz didn't ask how I pronounce Warshington D.C. or dish warsher.

Your Linguistic Profile:

85% General American English

10% Midwestern

5% Dixie

0% Upper Midwestern

0% Yankee

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

972 Spring Break

Taking a break to write some poetry, paint watercolor and clean up the art room, take a brief trip, and work on a pile of books. If I blog at all I will try to catch up on my hobby at In The Beginning.


Spring Break

April is National Poetry Month
By Norma Bruce 2003

April is National Poetry Month
So gather your poems today!
Take out your favorite paper and pen
And let words on the pages play.

Stop VCR, TV and DVDs,
Store heavy coats and woolen clothes,
Write a happy or serious poem
Put away winter’s weather woes.

Any meter, form or period,
Free style, irregular or rhyming,
Sit in the sun or watch the birds,
April’s best for the poet’s timing.

Lavender lilacs, yellow daffodils,
Buzzard to Hinckley, dove or wren,
Housecleaning, grass seed or garden,
All lovely topics--’cause it’s Spring again.

From the archives

If there's anything worse than cleaning out the garage, it is cleaning out computer files--drafts, quotes, used-up, moved-on, out-of-date, etc. While on my blogging break, I'm browsing files to see what can be thrown out or recycled. Very tedious. I can't find that I ever posted this one about the product called Octavo. I was alternately impressed and depressed as I read about this wonderful opportunity. According to the file date, I wrote this in January 2004:

Digital editions of famous, beautifully illustrated, ancient and old texts are available from Octavo. For instance, Josiah Dwight Whitney’s Yosemite Book is a spectacular record of a 19th century survey with 28 photographs--a book that helped convince the Congress to preserve Yosemite is available for only $25, a digital Wycliffe New Testament in Middle English could be mine for $40, the Gutenberg Bible in Latin for $80, and a Latin Mercator Atlas for $65. Even for personal use, these digital editions are affordable.

However, my concern would be the next generation or three of computer technology. I now own three, built in 1994, 2001 and 2003--less than a decade. Octavo has already issued three versions corresponding to the abilities of Adobe Acrobat. None would work in my oldest computer, and maybe someday, a version wouldn’t work in my 2003. To work back and forth is a headache if it were even possible.

What I buy digitized today, will it work in 3 or 5 or 10 years, or sit in the back of the cabinet with the old “floppies,” fat cables for printers, switching boxes, early USB cables, photo imaging software? When I look at my book shelves, I can pull off books owned by my grandparents and great-grandparents and immediately access.

From the archives #2

While I'm noting changes in computer software (see previous post), might as well include this one about your homemade CDs and DVDs I wrote last June.

Although I think librarians have known about this guide for some time, the Wall Street Journal in June 2004 featured a story about Dr. Disc, mild mannered Fred Byers of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He’s promoting a seal of approval for a disc’s longevity.

Home made CDs and DVDs are coated with dye, and the laser burns a pattern. But the dye can fade, particularly in the sunlight.

The guide http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/ is dated October 2003 and is 50 pages, or try thenice one page summary, http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/disccare.html

971 Power

Who was the only one with no power in this story? Terri Schiavo. The president had it. The congress had it. The governor had it. The courts had it. Michael had it. Even her parents with lawyers and friends and supporters, had it. Even we the people had the power to speak out. Only Terri was powerless. [paraphrased, March 30 broadcast] Glenn Beck.

970 Judicial Oligarchy

That's what Glenn Beck was calling it this morning when it was announced that Terri Schiavo "died." Government by the few. Government by one branch of the three. We elected the Congress. We elected the President. Judge Greer and all the judges who refused to take another look overrode our system of government. The judges didn't find it odd that Michael only recalled her wish to die after the trial and the money award. Greer ruled that the evidence showed she wished to die, and all the other judges fell lock step in line. (Goose step might be a better phrase.) "What will we do now?" Beck asked. I'm hoping there will be some changes made; that we don't continue to have the courts make law and run the country.

When parents of the handicapped are polled on the value and importance of life, the figures are very different than when you poll the general public, Beck said. Do you suppose they know something we don't? He told of a family living a few blocks from Terri's hospice facility with an adult daughter in the same condition since 1991. Her husband gave her back to the custody of her parents and moved on with his life in another city. Her parents, in their 70s, consider it a privilege to have her. Her former husband visits her several times a year with their son. "Who loses in this arrangement?" Beck asked.

Glenn Beck started talking about Terri five years ago and brought her case to the attention of the public. I first heard about her through his program three years ago (Dr. Laura was pulled from this market and replaced by Beck after 9-11, probably because of pressure from gays). He is the one who got the ball rolling to save her life. And Terri has brought to our attention a multitude of issues through her final struggle, not the least of which is we've become a culture of death.

969 Ideas have consequences

One of the things that has disturbed me about the Terri news coverage is that the outrage about the starvation and thirst (even the callous Europeans are horrified), might actually work in favor of the pro-death crowd. Denyse O'Leary writes: "Starting slowly in the early 20th century, but now picking up speed, naturalism has begun to make deep inroads into our culture, including the school systems. And we are seeing the results.

At one time, only unborn children slated for abortion were treated with complete indifference to their possible suffering. Now it could be you. And if you complain that Terri is being treated cruelly, you will be told that a lethal injection would be more humane. In other words, going the whole way of treating all humans as animals would be more humane.

So, even if you are not religious or not socially concerned, but merely selfish, wake up and care."

The whole essay is well worth reading.

Cross-posted at Church of the Acronym

968 The explosion didn’t change who I am. .

Thirty six year old Maj. Tammy Duckworth of the Illinois National Guard was interviewed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC on C-SPAN today. Her amazing courage, positive attitude, sense of humor and devotion to her country are inspiring. Her husband of 12 years, Capt. Bryan Bowlsby, was with her and he is also in the National Guard. She has lost her right leg above the knee and left leg below the knee. Much of her right arm was torn away or crushed and it has been rebuilt with skin flaps and muscle from her stomach and chest. She hopes to return to active duty as an aviator, and that is her goal and why she is working so hard in therapy. She demonstrated her C-leg--a computer leg which should enable her to walk without a limp. “The explosion didn’t change who I am, and I am honored to serve. . .it is a privilege.” Friends in Illinois are rebuilding their home. Her civilian job is with the Rotary. The day before the interview, her father had been buried at Arlington Cemetery. The program was called “Conversations with U.S. Soldiers Wounded in Iraq.”

NPR also interviewed her.

967 Million dollar coupon

If you clip and save coupons, I've got a deal for you. In the WSJ today the O'Keefe Group at Russ Lyon Realty has a coupon for $1,000,000! It is only good on the Jensen Estate, priced at $9,950,000, near Scottsdale, AZ.

If you've ever wondered if a coupon was worth the paper on which it is printed, this should give you an idea. (Hint: It isn't.) Small print: one coupon to a customer please. Affirmative action marketer.