1066 Clearing out the Clutter

This morning I cleaned out three closets--just working on the one in my bathroom required rearranging two others. Do you save ribbons, bows and paper from Christmas and holidays? Goodness. I have enough bows to last until 2047! And those cute little gift (reuseable) bags--I had no idea I had so many. Birthdays. St. Pat's Day. Valentine's Day. Christmas. All purpose. I'm guessing I found about 25. And the gift boxes. Did I fear if I bought a piece of jewelry, it would come box-free? I think I had 3 color schemes of boxes from Lazarus, which changed about every 10 years, and now it is Macy's.

I took the largest shopping bag and filled it with dry cleaning bags, bows beyond their life span, beyond safe cosmetics, grocery bags (I must have had 522 small plastic bags awaiting reuse). This bathroom is also my dressing room, so I went through all the unmentionables and sleepwear and tossed anything with tired elastic or which I'll never wear again. I had some small pictures in a box and those got moved to another spot, which means that spot had to be cleaned too. In the guest room closet and chest I rediscovered old greeting cards from a variety of holidays that needed to be corraled, the tape from my wedding, and my sister-in-law's jeans which she left here in 2003. I'd started the day hauling a huge bag of clothes out to the car for our church resale shop, and found another 10 items or so and bagged those too.

When I was finished, I ate lunch and then went through my blogs and cleaned up my recipes into one linked collection, dating it October 1, 2003, which makes my blog look much tidier since I started on October 2. As I find more, I'll make more links, but I don't think I've really posted a lot of recipes. Next I'll link my poetry--there seems to be quite a bit of that here and there.

White House News Photographers' Dinner

Just watched President Bush's slide show live on C-Span. What a hoot. Can't imagine how mad the liberals are going to be. He just can't resist tweaking their blue noses--41, 43, 44, 45, etc. I'm sure the video will be out there on the web soon.

1064 Tagged by Grace

For this one I have to tell 10 things I never done, so here goes.

1. I've never lost any permanent teeth--I even have all my wisdom teeth.
2. I've never tasted beer--have you ever smelled it!
3. I've never been to Europe, but that will change soon.
4. I've never broken a bone.
5. I've never learned to program the VCR and now technology has moved on.
6. I've never painted a ceiling.
7. I've never completed reading the Bible.
8. I've never changed oil in a car.
9. I've never removed the cookies in my computer or the tags on my mattress.
10. I've never ridden in a helicopter.

Now I have to find 5 people to pass this on to. Vox Lauri, Ayekah, Greg S, Matthew and Walt.

1063 Tag you're it. . .If I could be

The game consists of answering five questions and then tagging three blogger friends to answer five questions. I can also add three categories. Vox Lauri has tagged me. The questions she sent are:

If I could be a scientist...
If I could be a farmer...
If I could be a musician...
If I could be a doctor...
If I could be a painter...
If I could be a gardener...
If I could be a missionary...
If I could be a chef...
If I could be an architect...
If I could be a linguist...
If I could be a psychologist...
If I could be a librarian...
If I could be an athlete...
If I could be a lawyer...
If I could be an inn-keeper...
If I could be a professor...
If I could be a writer...
If I could be a llama-rider...
If I could be a bonnie pirate...
If I could be an astronaut...
If I could be a world famous blogger...
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world...
If I could be married to any current famous political figure...
If I could be an Office Supply Salesman...
If I could be a Dog-show judge...
If I could be a Coal Miner...
if i could be a baker...
if i could be a comedian...
if i could be a monk.

My response:

If I could be a musician, I would play piano like my sister who is fabulously talented.
If I could be a dog-show judge, I’d be biased toward Dalmatians.
If I could be a farmer, I wouldn’t use pesticides or herbicides and eat corn on the cob with hot butter and salt in early summer.
If I could be writer, I’d show up at Regis and Kelly, Oprah and the bank while enjoying 67 weeks on the best seller list.
If I could be an Office Supply Saleswoman I’d set up a flashy web site and work from home while I blogged.

And I’m adding,
If I could be a publisher
If I could be a spy
If I could be a greeting card designer

And I'm tagging Karin, Cuppa, Pat in NC.

1062 Preparing for guests

Tomorrow I'm having guests for brunch/lunch. Some women are fastidious housekeepers, some are gourmet cooks and some are fabulous hostesses. I'm none of those, but for a few hours I can fake an average of the three. Maybe I can't be a 10, but I can be a darn good 5. Today I am cleaning and setting the table; yesterday I prepared most of the food. This will allow me to be a good hostess tomorrow and only pay attention to my guests instead of freaking out over water spots on the knife blades or a missing salad plate that's in the dishwasher.

Today I'm dusting everything at eye level, for anyone 5'2" to 5'8". The men don't care, so I'm only measuring the women. I'm really going after the cat hair too. You never know when a guest might have allergies and sneeze all over the end table you just cleaned. Also, I vacuumed the cold air returns. That's something you don't usually look at in your own house, but if you have a pet, your returns probably look like a piece of gray felt. Also, your HVAC will work a lot better.

I'm also really cleaning the bathrooms. Again, only women notice, but I hate going in to freshen up at a dinner party and find dust on the toilet and cobwebs on the mirror. Just makes me a tad suspicious about the food prep area, eh? Do you have Cross and Bible interior doors? Maybe you didn't know they were called that, but I'm married to an architect, and boy are they dust catchers--the doors not the husband. And computer equipment. Yikes. My desk is next to the only downstairs "powder room." Nothing attracks cat hair and dirt more than technology.

One of my guests is a collector--of antiques, seasonal ceramic things, and just about anything historical having to do with cooking. So I gave a swipe across my great-grandmother's "wachamacallit" (I think it was used to punch down rising bread dough) and my grandmother's ceramic butter churn that looks like a small cement mixer. People do like to touch, and I'd be embarrassed if they got dirty fingers (these things are dusted only if company is coming). One guest is a piano teacher, but I gave my piano to my daughter in 1996, so now she is dusting that.

That's enough blogging for now. I have to go poke the artificial day lilies around the patio wall and make a pecan pie. My husband hates them, but they are my favorite, so I only make one when I have guests around to eat at least 60% of it. The other pie is apple--for that, I am unmatched, a complete 10.

1061 Pepsico's gonna pay for this

Have you ever been in a group and noticed someone, usually an outsider, trying too hard to be an insider? That’s what Pepsico’s CFO Indra Nooyi did at Columbia’s Commencement Sunday. She gave the U.S. the finger. Just trying to be one of the good ol' boy blue staters. Suckin up, as it were. And then back peddling when she set even a few liberals, to say nothing of conservatives, back on their heels, she claims her speech was “misconstrued.” In this day of blogging, you’d better be ready to have your text analyzed and your hand gestures videotaped.

The Times of India reports: “She pointed in particular to paragraphs from her speech where she spoke of her fealty to her adopted country. "Although I’m a daughter of India, I’m an American businesswoman. My family and I are citizens of this great country," she said, adding, "This land we call home is a most-loving, and ever-giving nation -- a "promised land" that we love dearly in return. And it represents a true force that – if used for good -- can steady the hand along with global economies and cultures." “

Sweet. But I'm not impressed. Wes Martin, an MBA graduate in the audience reported (at Power Line) that holding up the middle finger "She launched into a diatribe about how the US is seen as the middle finger to the rest of the world. The rest of the world sees us as an overbearing, insensitive and disrespectful nation that gives the middle finger to the rest of the world. According to Ms. Nooyi, we cause the other finger nations to cower under our presence. But it is our responsibility, she continues, to change the current state of world opinion of the US. It is our responsibility to make the other fingers rise in unison with us as we move forward. She then goes on to give a personal anecdote about some disrespectful US business women in an Asian country and how that is typical of Americans overseas. No talk of what the US has done for the world throughout its history. No discussion about the ills that have been cured and the rights that have been wronged by the US. Just how wrong we are for the way we are perceived and how right they are in their own perceptions of the United States."

It’s a shame when a woman and a minority makes it through the glass ceiling only to embarrass herself digitally. Oh well, I needed a reason to stop buying Fritos.

Link to her speech

1060 Got gas?

For high flying frequent flyers.

Seen at Badaunt and My best gadgets.

1059 The Shopping Adventure

A few people are coming for brunch on Sunday so I needed some items and some kitty litter. Only one Kroger, the one south and west of the University carries "our" brand. While noticing the new construction on the campus I got in the wrong lane, and turned down another street, thus taking me past a huge new apartment complex near Krogers that I hadn't seen before. This area when it was on the rural far northwest side of Columbus was settled by African Americans in the late 19th century. Gradually, the white suburbs grew up around it and its little church, and from what I could see, it has now been pretty much obliterated by progress--and they probably got a hefty price for the lots.

That Kroger has also changed since the last time I bought kitty litter. I spent a lot of time just wandering the aisles looking at dishes, small kitchen appliances, and the new book and magazine sections, much fancier than the old ones. It had everything imaginable--even a Starbucks--except the one item I really needed, Half n half. I got so carried away looking at the goodies I also forgot to pick up the white flour for the apple pie.

When I got to the check out I asked for a courtesy card, and was told "We don't do that any more, but you can type in your phone number." "I don't have a Kroger card and don't want one." So I tapped the guy in front of me and asked if he'd slide his card through for me. And he did (he gets the goody points for my purchase). The flustered clerk then told me I wasn't allowed to do that (it was done by then). I told her it still recorded the purchase, so why did it matter. She had no answer, but I think she thought it was cheating. She then told me I could go to the office and get an application, and again I repeated, "But I don't want a Kroger card."

Oh well, I suppose I could try stealing the kitty litter. It might be easier than going through this routine each time. Loyalty cards are the 21st century's wooden nickle. I do let them stamp my coffee card at Panera's, but no one asks me to fill out an application to get it. They sell that information, you know--probably a bigger profit than Half n half.

1058 Reducing Radiation Exposure

“Use of a custom-designed lightweight tungsten-antimony shield during chest computed tomography (CT) examination reduces the radiation dose delivered to female breasts by 43% to 73%, without compromising diagnostic information or image quality, according to the results of a study presented here at the annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society 105th Annual Meeting.”

Story at Medscape.com, now celebrating its 10th anniversary

1057 Flush out the Perps

Library books and some Portage County taxpayers are victims of the stacks urinator in two public libraries. Sounds like a guy thing, although I've seen pictures of women urinating standing up, so you never know. Blake reported this at LISNews.com. This has as much appeal for library users as the unfiltered terminals with porn that librarians seem unable to handle.

What color are you?

you are palegreen #98FB98

Your dominant hue is green. You're logical and steadfast, focused on figuring life out and doing what makes sense. You value being trusted because you know you're taking the time to figure things out and everyone should just follow you. Your saturation level is lower than average - You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do. Finishing projects may sometimes be a challenge, but you schedule time as you see fit and the important things all happen in the end, even if not everyone sees your grand master plan. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

1055 The next bogus news story

It's just a hunch here, but I'm thinking the next news story proven to be bogus and blown out of proportion (with fewer casualties than the Koran flushing story) will be the one about pushy Christians at the Air Force Academy. It seems to have originated with a female Lutheran Chaplain, if the one I saw on TV is the person referred to here.

"A chaplain at the Air Force Academy has described a "systemic and pervasive" problem of religious proselytizing at the academy and says a religious tolerance program she helped create to deal with the problem was watered down after it was shown to officers, including the major general who is the Air Force's chief chaplain."

I'm a Lutheran (but not pre-natal or sprinkled--I grew up anabaptist and have been immersed) and I know Lutherans are touchy about their wallets and tongue tied about evangelizing. If a Baptist were to breathe a word that he found his relationship with Christ a help in times of stress or battle, a Lutheran might be clueless because that's not "our" terminology. Also, Lutherans believe baptism and communion are sacraments and a means of Grace, but only those two, so that too might cause some disagreements, say over coffee or even in the classroom, with Catholics or other Protestants. Christians can get very heated about this, and feel quite threatened if someone hints their belief system doesn't measure up. And this problem seems to have arisen in the "Respecting the Spiritual Values of all People," class or R.S.V.P, created by Capt. MeLinda Morton. If she attended a Lutheran seminary, she probably skipped the class on "How to share your faith."

But the fact that the New York Times , WaPo, and the Socialist web sites are on this story like ants at a barbeque makes me suspicious that the story is a lot of hot anti-Christian air.

I would have tossed her program just for the cutesy acronym.

1054 Is Poverty Generational--Answering Vox Lauri

In response to my blog about “Easy does it,” the ten easy, personal lifestyle choices of the last 30 years that are causing people in the their 30s and 40s to fall behind their parents’ standard of living, Lauri, a college educated librarian who is the primary support of her family, wrote:

“You made mention of your stable, supportive family that helped you start out in the world, that, as you know, is priceless. Imagine trying to live and pay for your future while going to school. Even a state school can break someone with no funding. Add into that mix kids who have never had squat wanting to fit in with kids who have new clothes and cars, you end up with bankruptcy. And once you are in debt, good luck getting out-- I swear the system is rigged to keep you down. And ironically those who shrug off astronomical interest rates as "punishment for foolishness" well they pay too in taxes to support social service agencies and greater demands on charity.”

Yes, a stable, caring family is a wonderful asset. I can’t tell you how thankful I am that often Dad said, “No,” when I wanted a loan. It caused some hurt feelings and arguments, but “father knew best,” as the saying goes. Also helpful was the fact that in the early 1960s banks would not consider a wife’s income in calculating how much money they’d loan for a mortgage. Tithing our income for church for the last 30 years also had the added benefit of never having any extra cash for eating out or movies. All this worked together to start a pattern for us of never relying on my income until my husband went into business in 1994. And by then the children had left home, the cat died, and I had tenure, benefits and a wonderful career.

Generational poverty is a nice theory, until you really look at the sons and daughters of my generation. Most of my peer group--the educated, upper middle class 4th and 5th percentile group, living in some of the finest suburbs with the best public schools and private schools--have children and grandchildren making many of the “easy choices” I listed, and some will probably never be able to permanently attain their parents’ standard of living until the will is probated. Even if they inherit a generous amount, a life time of bad choices may cause them to squander that. I can’t think of a single family in my social group whose adult children haven’t lived together before marriage, or brought a "before the union" child into the marriage, or experienced falling income from a divorce or two or three, or filed for bankruptcy from extensive consumer credit, or leased too many a new cars, or bought a bigger home they didn’t need, or had problems with alcohol and drugs decimating the family income. Suicides, jail terms, prostitution, gambling and lots of returning prodigals--you name it, and my financially comfortable generation has seen it happen in their families.

The level of CEO salaries, the outsourcing of American jobs, and being a wage “slave,” Lauri’s other points (and I agree CEO’s salaries are way out of line, but we've taxed American businesses into leaving the country) would not have changed any of this spiraling downward creating the income gap between generations. We are still a nation of great opportunity and freedom--but freedom of choice comes with a huge price tag that says "WAIT," and for some that price is just too high and too painful.

Update: Read Walter E. Williams' article on How not to be Poor. A family of four is "poor" by our gov't standards with a household income of $18,810 (2003). Although my 10 easy steps were about a gap developing between generations in the upper percentiles, not poverty per se, it is clear that unmarried parents are the biggest cause of poverty among children, so single parent homes aren't helping the middle class stay afloat either.

1053 Hard to believe where this came from

"The filibuster is an inherently reactionary instrument most famously used to block civil rights legislation for a generation. Democratic senators themselves decried the filibuster not long ago when they were in the majority and President Clinton's judicial nominees were being blocked.

Frist is on the verge of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. He plans to bring the nomination of Priscilla R. Owen, a Texas Supreme Court justice, before the full Senate today. Democrats have blocked her nomination in the past, and Frist is now threatening to force a change in rules to prohibit filibusters of judicial nominees. That would be a great triumph for the American people. It would be an even greater triumph if the Senate were to destroy the filibuster altogether."

LA Times editorial, May 18, 2005 (unless this is an example of one of those "pharming" tricks).

1052 The Newsweek Story that Killed

http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/05.05.15.Flushed-X.gif

I heard a former MP from "GITMO" call in on the Glenn Beck show yesterday and he outlined the careful procedures to protect the Koran. He disbelieved this story from the first time he heard it. In fact, he thought the military was at risk. He said only a Moslem chaplain could touch it, and the MPs were not allowed to look through them for hidden explosives.

Christians know that God's Word is not on the paper. Whether we print it out from the Internet, read it in 16th century English, or recite what we learned in Bible School 40 years ago, it is all God's Word. Nor is our freedom in the flag or the pledge. Not so with Moslems and the Koran, and I think terrorists will take advantage of how the US bends over backward to protect the beliefs of that faith group.

1051 Cold and Creepy--Planning my Funeral

When we married in 1960 we had a huge emotional and financial safety net--between us we had six parents, seven grandparents, and one great-grandmother. Not to mention our own siblings and all the siblings of our parents and grandparents. We brought to our marriage about $200, some wedding gifts I'm still using, an old Buick that stalled at every intersection, two incomplete college educations, and a lot of youthful naivete. I know we didn’t appreciate the wealth in that bank of knowledge and support--I mean, no one is smart in their early 20s, right? I remember an uncle helping me with the income tax property depreciation in 1962, and my dad explaining mutual funds to me in 1990. My mother’s wise counsel went far beyond finances to religion, marriage, parenting, gardening, cooking, sewing, reading and friendships. One of my aunts never failed to appear with a cheery hello and her bubbly personality when we visited my parents, making us feel special even in our mid-50s. Now they have all “gone to their reward,” “passed on” or are “in the arms of Jesus.” (see my poem “Dying for a Verb). I will always miss my grandmother who died when I was 43.

During the grief of losing each parent (only one was sudden and unexpected), we’d vow to pre-plan (called pre-need in the funeral business) so that cost would be covered and our children or surviving spouse wouldn’t get drawn into bad decisions at a difficult time. Now it is just us, so yesterday we met with a person (salesman? director? planner?) at a local funeral home.

After all the paper shuffling, throat clearing, chit-chat and carefully chosen words, we went back into the room with all the overpriced paper goods and the array of caskets. It was very cold and dark in there. Frankly, I don’t think I need to buy a Kincaid register book for $110, or a $50 box of thank you cards. But if you think you’ll save money by ordering your casket from somewhere else and using it for storage until you need it, think again. We discovered the casket is a very small expense, at least the style I selected, a tasteful olive tone in 20 gauge steel for $1795. Even the Monticello Oak, which was very handsome and simple and my husband’s first choice was under $3,000. The ballooning costs are in the vault (ground or mausoleum), the transportation, and opening and closing the grave.

It’s a good thing we had this little chat, because we definitely discovered we had very different tastes in funerals! (We’ve always had trouble agreeing on furniture and décor, so I suppose I’m not surprised.) It reminds me a bit of planning my daughter’s wedding in 1993. I started with a how-to-book and a dollar figure, and she took it from there. My husband’s plan came to about $13,000 and mine was under $5,000. And yes, you can pre-pay, but it is actually an insurance plan, and it only looks good if you pay at the beginning, because if you pay over 10 years, it doubles the cost and probably eats up any savings. We brought all the worksheets home, and we’ll have to hammer out a few more details, but here’s a break down of their charges (not necessarily what we chose):

Basic services and overhead $1,245
Embalming $ 595
Body prep $ 260
Facilities for viewing $ 425
Ceremony at funeral home $ 495
Memorial service at funeral home $ 325
Ceremony at another funeral home $ 495
Ceremony at any other facility $ 495
Memorial service at any other facility $ 325
Anatomical donations $ 495
Organist $ 70
National music service $ 20
Refrigeration $ 75
Cremation $ 275
Transfer of remains (30 miles) $ 175
Hearse (30 miles) $ 225
Limo (30 miles) $ 195
SUV (30 miles) $ 175
Caskets $795 to 24,000
Outer container $595 to 18,000
Burial clothing $100-$200
Forwarding remains $2,315
Receiving casket from another mortuary $ 895
Immediate burial (no ceremony) $1,720
Direct cremations (no ceremony) $1,664
Cremation containers $95 to $3,975
Package basics $2,195

On top of these costs are the cemetery costs which we’re still looking at. Per square foot, this is pricey real estate, probably Hawaiian coastline prices. I don’t think anyone will be visiting our grave site, especially if we live as long as our parents. So a little flat marble slab in the ground is sufficient, and I haven’t looked at the prices. These prices don't differ greatly from a 2002 article by Motley Fool, but you can see the price creep in just 3 years.

I used to think cemeteries that looked like set-aside prairie reserves or jogging parks were nice, but after visiting Buffalo’s Forest Lawn Cemetery last summer to see the Frank Lloyd Wright’s Blue Sky Mausoleum, I’m lusting after marble monuments and mature trees.



I’d like to write a somber but pithy concluding paragraph for this entry, and usually they come to me if I just keep typing, but somehow, nothing comes to mind.

* * *

Five things not to say at a funeral is at my other, other blog. Caution: contains theological concepts.

1050 Easy does it, the widening gap between rich and poor

If you are a liberal and you don’t read the Wall Street Journal, you’re missing a great opportunity to find out what is wrong with our business driven economy and culture. It won’t do you much good to read a left wing or socialist screed--everything you read there will be incorrect and biased. Preaching to the choir, as it were. But the WSJ comes down hard on misbehavior in business, government and education and doesn’t pull any punches. The female journalists are particularly ruthless in finding graft, fraud and the soft underbellies of the capitalist system.

Right now the WSJ is running a series on the widening gap between the rich and poor in the United States. The first installment by David Wessel had the oddest statement about American politics that I’ve seen in a long time: “Americans have elected politicians who oppose using the muscle of government to restrain the forces of widening inequality.” Really? Ever heard of Title 9, or Medicaid? Earlier in the article was the phrase, “Despite the rise of affirmative action. . .” Can both statements be true? It would appear to me that the constant tinkering our government has done (and for most of my adult life, the people I elected, the Democrats, were in control of the Congress) has made our life what it is today.

Today’s installment by Bob Davis was about easy credit, and most of his examples were from Utah, a state we generally think of as conservative, religious and Republican. I haven’t seen the rest of the series, but I’m offering my ten easy and ubiquitous reasons, in no particular order, why the gap has widened in the last 35 years.

1. Easy credit cards: We got our first credit card in the late 60s--I think it was a "Shopper’s Charge." We now have one department store credit card and one bank card--we’ve never carried a balance. Since the late 80s and into the 90s, many new households have never known what it was to live on their earned income.

2. Easy divorce: Christians now have the same divorce rate as anyone else in the culture. When we married 45 years ago, regular religious observance offered families some protection. No fault divorce particularly hurt women and children, pushing them economically into competition with two income families.

3. Easy sex: Casual one-night stands were glorified in the movies of the 70s and 80s. Although adultery and fornication had long been a theme in literature, drama and movies, casual sex and living together before marriage became the gold standard of relationships by the 80s, even though it’s been proven that it increases the divorce rate. Then easy sex came into the living rooms via TV so that even young children think who’s spending the night is no more important than what toothpaste mom buys. Women having and raising babies alone is the biggest cause of growing poverty.

4. Easy birth control and abortion: The millions of Americans that might have sprung from the loins of some of our best and brightest have been denied life itself, and thus their slots in the pie chart has been taken by poor, uneducated immigrants. Obviously this creates a huge gap between the middle class and the poor, who instead of having a solid footing as those aborted citizens might have had, flood across our borders or arrive as refugees with nothing.

5. Easy technology and gadgets: Time wasted on I-pods and text messaging and vegging out in front of bad movies on DVDs has certainly absorbed billions of hours that could have been invested in networking, education or advancing up the career ladder. Cable and cell phone monthly costs easily equal what we spent on a mortgage.

6. Easy bankruptcy: Load up the credit cards with consumer spending, mortgage your future, then make the rest of us pay it off for you. It might have been Plan B 20 years ago, but is now Plan A. Interest only mortgages, leases for larger and more expensive vehicles, second mortgages--for a generation who thinks the future will be paid for by someone else, it’s a recipe for a growing gap.

7. Easy leisure: Thirty five years ago (1970) few middle class families took vacations--if Dad had a week off (and most companies didn’t offer it) he spent it fixing the house. Sure it’s a huge industry and employs a lot of people, but we’re looking at the gap aren’t we? We’d probably been married 10 years before we took a family vacation (my parents never had one), and then it was at my mother’s farm for a week. Our daughter and her husband had been to Key West, Arruba and took a Mexican cruise in the first 5 years of their marriage.

8. Easy entertainment: This is related to leisure and technology, but today’s young families have difficulty being alone or quiet, it would seem. Even 30 years olds seem unable to walk around without head phones. They are spending their children’s future at movies, sporting events and theme parks. A visit to the library is most likely to pick up a movie, not a book.

9. Easy college loans: Instead of attending a state school, working during the summer or attending closer to home, many young people begin their working lives with huge debt, a debt that takes years to pay off, assuming they don’t default. Loans were so easy in the 80s, that parents who could well afford to pay tuition had their children at the public trough.

10. Easy shopping: You can be a couch potato or a computer novice and never leave home to shop. Addiction is easy. Just call in with the credit card.

See? And I haven’t even said a word about how much health care costs, or how the women’s movement changed our culture, public transportation or taxes. And while the government is tangentially involved in these areas, mostly it boils down to perfectly legal choices, choices which when they become ingrained in our way of life lead to poverty or slippage down by a quintile for the next generation.

1049 R.I.P. My New Yorker subscription has FINALLY died

Scott Esposito is blogging today about something he read in the New Yorker. I'm sure it's just great--I have myself occasionally found something worthwhile in the New Yorker. But I realized today when I was clearing the coffee table in preparation for company coming (removed about 13 magazines) that my subscription has finally ceased. Oh blessed day, I thought you'd never arrive. Scott's Blog, Conversational Reading, is a litblog and contains reviews. He's also a writer.

1048 Learning Denglish

The Blonde Librarian was surprised when she settled in Germany with her husband how many English words permeated German. But she was also surprised to find out they sometimes didn't mean what she thought. Read her story here about das Handy, das Mobbing, and der Smoking.

1047 Addicted to the Truth

I got 5 out of 5 correct on this test. See how you score.