1111 A teacher reflects on the last day of school

Brian, a middle school teacher, writes An Audience of One . Yesterday he reflected on the last day of school.

“This year is in the books now. I won't forget it for a variety of reasons. I had a successful professional year, not letting all of my inner turmoil affect my work to any great degree. I gained the respect of my colleagues. I worked with a lot of children and grew to love them. I formed good relationships with scores of parents. My principal approved of the work I did. All of that is something that gives me a very good feeling. I'm proud of what I accomplished professionally this year. I always am. I must be a lucky man to have always loved my job every year of my professional life. I've crossed paths with hundreds of teachers and many thousands of children. They've taught me many things and enriched my life. I keep saying it so much that I sound like a broken record--I wish it was transferrable to the other areas of my life. . .

I started so long ago with a head still full of hair and idealism pulsing through my veins. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of kids. I wanted to notice them like I craved to be noticed as a shy, soft-spoken, child. I knew I'd never get rich, but I've been enriched in ways that matter a helluva lot more than that green stuff people obsess about. I won't be counting my money on my deathbed. I'll be counting my memories. If I had it to do all over again, I'd do it in a New York minute.”

I haven't read enough of his blog to know what the inner turmoil is all about, but I'm glad he feels good about his life's purpose. I loved my career as an academic librarian, and although I was mentioned in a few prefaces and acknowledgements in theses, there will be no life time impact on others like a good teacher in the early years has, or a college professor who is a mentor for careers to come. I had a few teachers like Brian--his students are very lucky.

1110 The Methodists are Coming!

We're off to the lake to prep the cottage for the Methodists--Ohio East and Ohio West. We only rent two weeks of the summer and the United Methodists conferences in Ohio have their annual meeting there. I've never been there during those weeks, but I've heard the place swarms and bustles, the restaurants are packed, and the shops do the majority of their business in two weeks (sounds like Christmas season, doesn't it?).

So, I put all our personal items away and remove the food from the kitchen cabinets. It shouldn't be such a big deal but think about removing all your personal toiletries and clothes and food stocks from your home and storing them someplace, and you'll see the problem. In the last few years, the back seat of my van has doubled as a storage closet.

We're having a hot spell here (90s, humid) and there will probably be summer storms. We'll slip down to the Lake for a few minutes, maybe with an ice-cream cone, to catch the breeze.

1109 The Cheerful Oncologist

Considering my own experience with oncologists (my daughter's thyroid cancer), "cheerful" is not the adjective that comes to mind. However, when I was working I always enjoyed reading the poetry and essays published by doctors in the medical journals (usually the last page). Many are beautiful writers. The Cheerful Oncologist really has some thought provoking posts. I liked this thought in "Tell me that you'll wait for me."

"All of us have a one-way ticket out of here. As we drift off to sleep tonight, let us give thanks for the opportunity to serve those who are ahead of us in line, as we ask those behind us to do the same when our flight number is called."

1108 Medical Marijuana

This is not a topic on which I am even minimally informed, but I'll weigh in anyway. I've never understood why conservatives are against using marijuana to releave suffering and pain, especially considering the devastating side effects of some prescribed pain meds. And please don't tell me it's because pharmaceutical companies (owned by eeeeviiiil Republicans) don't want the competition from something cheap and natural. We hear that about every vaccine and miracle drug that comes down the pike--what would happen to this particular health care bureaucracy if a disease were really cured. I worked in a medical library for over 14 years and constantly browsed the serials, and let me assure you there are plenty of diseases re-emerging (just check out this month's CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases on my links) or today's article in WSJ about the increase in drug resistant TB. The real danger is the left killing off incentive to invest in R & D and the health care industry.

However, medical marijuana doesn't have the poisoning side effects or even the addictive powers of many of the chemical potions we've created in the lab. I have a relative who's had two major surgeries (different body parts) in the last 3 years, and both times had to take special treatments to get her off the pain killer addictions even though she was extremely careful.

More disturbing to conservatives should be the Supreme Court seeing this as the commerce clause and striking it down for that reason.

"Writing for the court majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said the case was "troubling" because of users' claims that they needed marijuana to alleviate physical pain and suffering. But he concluded that the court had no choice but to uphold Congress's "firmly established" power to regulate "purely local activities . . . that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce." " WaPo article June 7

Makes you wonder what the Supremes were smoking while coming up with this.

1107 Party Hardy

Staying up late, partying and eating poorly can all increase those dark circles under your eyes. But so can gravity, heredity, skin color and the natural aging process which decreases the fat pads under your eyes. (I'd love to have a fat transfer from my thighs to my eyes.)

Now there is some hope for your dark circles and spider veins with Vitamin K cream. I'm kind of wondering how this works, because I know you're not supposed to eat food high in Vitamin K when you take a blood thinner like Coumadin. Those foods are liver, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and green leafy vegetables (e.g., spinach, Swiss chard, coriander, collards, cabbage). It must decrease the little blood vessels breaking up. So if you eat more greens, could you skip the cream? This one costs $27 for 2.5 oz.

1106 Left or Right?

I can't tell if this t-shirt supports the left or right. I thought the left loved Che. Does this mean they love our vice president, too?

1105 Medical malpractice?

Even the pro-abortion folks have to be turned off with the pain these babies suffered before their lives were snuffed out by their teen-age parents.

"A 19-year-old accused of causing his teenage girlfriend to miscarry two fetuses by stepping on her stomach was convicted Monday of two counts of murder."

His girlfriend, 17, who asked him to do it so she could abort her babies, was not charged. Apparently, her participation was just legal "choice," but his was murder. Story here.

"Erica Basoria, 17, acknowledged asking Flores to help end her pregnancy; she could not be prosecuted because of her legal right to abortion. The defence contended that Basoria punched herself while Flores was stepping on her, making it impossible to tell who caused the miscarriage."

At most, he was practicing medicine without a license, or having kinky sex outside of the red light district, or having sex with a minor, but murder? The guy in Utah who murdered his pregnant wife and buried her in a garbage dump wasn't sentenced for killing the baby--and he only got 6 years.

I hope you pro-abortion folks are pleased with the slime pit filled with human blood and flesh at the end of the slippery slope.

1104 A hopeful look at Iraq's future

Michael Yon's site has wonderful photographs of Dohuk and a peek into what we can hope will be the kind of future for all Iraqis.

"Approaching Dohuk, a short drive north of Mosul, brings to mind the countryside in Italy. The war is over in Dohuk. After suffering perhaps a half century of fighting, the people have finally gotten the peace they wanted long ago. With the old Iraqi government vanquished, Dohuk is thriving. In fact, this Iraqi city appears to be doing at least as well as--perhaps remarkably better than--many comparably-sized towns in Italy. A visit to this place affords more than a break from the rugged routine of war; it also provides a postcard of a possible future for all of Iraq."

Continue reading

1103 Hurricane Season, 2005

I haven't forgotten the storms of last year, and Floridians certainly haven't. Ivan devastated and flooded parts of Ohio, and PA and W VA were also a mess. However, Doyle comments on a squabble between the government sponsored weather agencies and the private companies that repackage that information using our tax funded NWS. I'm not so sure we need NPR or gov't sponsored children's programming for TV, but I'd really feel more secure if we not privatize the bad weather.

1102 There’s a new term in town--Exempt Media

It’s probably been invented by Captain Ed, because most blogs link back to him eventually when using the term “exempt media.” I think it means the mainstream media or MSM. What exactly they are exempt from (standards? good writing? handsome incomes? ethics? supervision?) I’m not sure. I did find a tax code that refers to exempt media, but that was about restaurant menu boards which for tax purposes were not to be considered in the same class as newspapers, TV, graphic advertising, etc. I suppose it is possible that the term derived from the suggestion that the MSM really weren’t communicating at all. Both the “define:” function in Google and the Wikipedia told me there was nothing on this term. But here are some results from my search:

“The Exempt Media is dying for one reason. They abandoned journalism in order to advance the Gramscian Marxist agenda. Nobody believes their claims of impartiality any more. The only effect of their impartiality pose is that they refrain from serving up the kind of "blue meat" that Kos, Atrios and Willis regurgitate on a daily basis.” Buzz Machine

Jack Shafer pens an interesting look at the similarities and differences between blogs and the Exempt Media, and postulates that parity may be coming between the two. In his opinion, the Schiavo memo shows that both sides can get stories equally incorrect, and that both sides should have the latitude to do so -- as long as corrections are published in a quick manner: Captain’s Quarters

First it was MSM, then it became CM (Corporate Media), courtesy of CJR Daily (Thank you ... thank you very much ... but please hold the applause until the waiters clear the tables of the rock-hard dinner rolls ...) And now it's EM (Exempt Media), courtesy of Captain Ed? Exempt from what, exactly? Apparently not criticism, thank God. CJR Daily

1101 Self Control

Occasionally something during the sermon strikes home--and it may not at all be what the pastor intended. Our pastors were finishing up a sermon series on Fruits of the Spirit, and Self-Control was the final topic (10 services, various pastors). Sylvia and I attended the 8:30 at Lytham (Pastor Jeff) and the 10:00 at Mill Run (Pastor Dave), and although technically we are one church, the sermons and locations of the buildings were miles apart. Jeff commented almost in passing that when he asks parishoners what areas of their lives are out of control they usually respond either eating or finances.

The Christian church is not growing in Europe or the United States (which makes one wonder about the hysteria on the left about evangelicalism). Christians are suffering from the same secular and cultural problems like gambling, habit and substance addictions and divorce as any other group. However, the church is growing by leaps and bounds in South America, Africa and China. The faith grows amongst the poorest of the poor in part because Christianity often elevates the level of living where ever it sprouts, especially if it is persecuted (which may be why we should thank the hot-headed lefties in this country). But I can't imagine anyone in a thriving third world church saying that eating too much or spending too much was the primary concern of their Christian witness. In fact, I can't imagine that young American Christians like my parents in the 1930s would have even thought that.

1100 Throwing bad money after worse

Usually you say throwing "good money after bad" to mean wasting more money than you already have in hopes of recovering a loss, but I don't think Harvard's President can win at all at this "woman problem" because the team he's on, the liberals, have created it. Now he has created a $50 million flush fund (I started to type "slush" but slipped, and think I like this one better) for gender diversity when Harvard has already spent millions beating the bushes looking for qualified women and minorities.

"Even Harvard’s bottomless resources cannot buy a miracle, however. So instead of a magician, the university has brought forth the next best thing: a report on “diversity” that, like all such products, possesses the power of shutting down every critical faculty in seemingly intelligent people. For connoisseurs of diversity claptrap, Harvard’s just released “Report of the Task Force on Women Faculty” is a thing of beauty, a peerless example of the destruction of higher learning by identity politics. Because the report will undoubtedly serve as the template for future diversity scams in colleges across the country, it’s worth studying." City Journal's Heather MacDonald. McDonald outlines the plan: 1) Collective amnesia; 2) a new bureaucracy; 3) subdivide the Big zero into little zeros; and 4) rechristen all the diversity words.

I don't really care how Harvard chooses to waste its private alumni funds, but you just know this will slop over eventually into the federally funded grants for science and research and state supported schools (i.e. you and I will end up paying for this folly). Less qualified candidates are going to receive research grants, tenured faculty positions, and appointments on university committees just because he let slip in public what most people, even women, believe. Men and women are different. Not unequal, but different. This means down the road, a woman will receive a worse education or carry an untreated disease because Lawrence Summers blabbed the truth.

I'm already feeling more safe, listened to, and valued, aren't you?

Full report of the Task Force here.

Week-end Activities

My friend Sylvia is staying with us this week-end. We met when we were about 6 years old, attended the same church, elementary and secondary schools, camp and college (Manchester). Also she has relatives, the DeWalls, who are from Forreston, where I used to live. So nice to have a friend who shares your own history! Despite the time zone difference, she was up early to go out for coffee with me. I made a lame attempt at showing her the campus of Ohio State University, but everything was so torn up and there were so many new buildings (and it had been awhile since I was on the Oval), I don't think I did it justice. Taking the "short cut" to get home, we ended up in traffic thick and deep at what appeared to be a high school track and field event being held on campus and a graduation ceremony.

Also she was game to go to the art festival, an annual June event here in Columbus. I started to wilt after about two hours in the almost 90 degree heat. This event draws artists from all over the country. Sylvia is a musician so we stopped at a booth where the artist made small wooden stringed instruments played with a bow and he provided a demonstration. To my untrained ear they sounded a bit like a harpsicord. Another booth had hand made harps with beautiful inlaid celtic designs, but it also provided lovely CDs by the co-artist.

We visited the booth of Stephen Sebastian a North Carolina artist whose work we had purchased about 16 years ago, although his technique and style had changed so much I wasn't sure it was the same guy and was about to move on. He hollared out, yes it's me and said you have to keep changing to stay fresh. After 15 minutes in the shade and a lemonade, we were making the last lap back to the car and we stopped at the booth of Gary Curtis. We were so charmed by his watercolors of light reflecting on simple objects of glass, ceramic, metal, and fabric, that we purchased a print of one titled, "Communion." We recognized his work immediately because he has appeared in American Artist and Artist's Magazine.

There are three things you shouldn't bring to art festivals: 1) babies, who are miserable in the heat and frying their delicate skin in the sun; 2) dogs of any breed no matter how well behaved--I've yet to meet a dog who appreciated art shows and crowds; 3) your credit card. Just kidding about that last one.

After a brief nap, we went out for dinner at The Rusty Bucket, then headed to Sylvia's Columbus relatives who were celebrating the graduation of a daughter from Dublin Scioto High School. Tomorrow we'll attend church at both the Mill Run and Lytham Road campuses of UALC and see two more art shows.

1098 Friday Feast 50

Appetizer
What comes to mind when you hear the word bizarre?
The most recent scandal in Ohio comes to mind; it is about state employees' pension money being invested in coins and some of it has come up missing. Investing in coins? A pension fund? Story was developed by Toledo Blade.

Soup
Using just a few words, describe your childhood.
I couldn't wait to grow up and be on my own. I was independent, sassy, opinionated, and resented authority figures; I was studious, had lots of friends, but could play alone, loved horses and dogs; I always envied the girls with the stylish clothes, and disliked cliques but was in one. That's about 50 words. Is that "few?"

Salad
Name one thing you do each day that you feel improves your appearance.
I eat nutritious, fresh foods, take vitamins, stay out of the sun, and don't smoke. That's more than one, but good habits come in a package.

Main Course
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how would you rate your self-confidence?
Depends on the task. Playing a trombone would be a 1; riding a horse a 1; but achieving my plans for retirement would be a 9. Obviously, I didn't include playing in a band or trail riding in that.

Dessert
Where did you last find a bargain?
I bought a handsome book on cowboy art for $2 at the library sale on Tuesday. Good quality paper and color, no damage, and it still has its book jacket.

Friday Feast site here.

1097 Who's the real Dummy?

Not us, says Walter Mossberg. He answers questions about technology in his column "Mossberg's Mailbox" in the Wall Street Journal. He assures his readers (in print, didn't see this at his web site):

"You are not a dummy no matter what those computer books claim. The real dummies are the people who, though technically expert, couldn't design hardware and software that's usable by normal consumers if their lives depended upon it."

Visit his website for help with your computer.

1096 Raising Awareness--Darfur

Save Darfur is a coalition of 129 organizations including Amnesty International and National Council of churches which tries to educate the public through ads, speeches, rallies, banners, yard signs, etc. Those two organizations alone would keep me from contributing, as awful as I think that tragedy is.

Raising awareness is NOT action, it is not research, it is not a cure and it definitely isn't a political solution. And yet, how many times have you been asked to contribute money to a disease race, walk or a cause only to find that the money goes to perpetuate the organization which advertizes the problem? I know where this particular ad campaign is going, because I've watched it progress on the op-ed pages. At first the Darfur civil war was reported as a massacre by the light skinned Arab Moslem Janjaweed militia murdering, raping and slaughtering the black African Moslem Darfurians. Then later it was reported that the U.N. peacekeepers and observers were standing by doing nothing in Darfur. Then this week I noticed that Nicholas D. Kristoff said the United States was not acting against the atrocities in Sudan (never mind the public outrage on the left that we acted against the atrocities in Iraq--now we're supposed to spread to Africa).

Kristoff is moving quickly toward blaming George Bush personally, because Bush mentioned Sudan on January 10, but things have gotten worse. Bush has provided food and shelter for 2.2 million homeless Sudanese, but he has not intervened and stopped the slaughter with American troops. Watch. This is going to end up being George Bush's failure--not the U. N.'s, not the Moslem racists', and not greater Africa's. Kristoff wrote, "above all they need the international community to shame Sudan for killing and raping people on the basis of their tribe."

When was the last time international moral outrage stopped the rape of women during wartime? Kristoff started his article with the words of some nobody, an isolationist, who had written, and then he put those words into the mouth of George Bush. What? Who and which party have been the isolationists a la 1930s?

1095 The conundrum of time and gadgetry

An article in today's WSJ on the ever increasing complexity of gadgets and their accompanying inflation of costs in time and money for the user set me to thinking. What gadgets or inventions or improvements in technology have actually made my life easier, safer, simpler or faster since I married in 1960 (the year I declared myself an adult)? The author, Cameron Stracher, points out that there is no escape from life's hassles. If you speed it up one place, it just backs up and slows down somewhere else.

Here's my list of changes and improvements in the last 45 years that have actually saved time, wear and tear on my body, and improved the quality of my life. The corresponding list of said "improvements" that really haven't changed a thing in terms of quality or time saved is longer than the YES list, and grows every day.

In the YES column, the winners are:

Automatic garage door opener
Microwave kitchen appliance
Cordless phone
Central air conditioning
Warning lights in cars
automatic windshield washers and defrosters
automatic door locks in autos
Improved and longer wearing tires (safety, cost, etc.)
55 mph speed limit on interstates
portable, handheld hair dryers
velcro
permanent press and blended fabrics for clothing
TV remote with 2 buttons
card board file boxes with lids
one-use cameras
automatic defrost in refrigerators
flip top lids on cat food
advances in heart health--surgery and meds
improved picture tubes in TV (our newest set is about 15 years old)

In the NO column, the losers are
(OK, not exactly losers, but they haven't changed my life or health or given me more time to do other things)
computers
cell phones
VCR/DVD players
dishwasher
answering macines and voice mail
home security systems
automated grocery check-out
barcodes on merchandise and library books
TV remotes with 25 buttons
automated answering services in doctors' offices
"paperless office"
Digital camera
ATM
I-pod, mp3--any music conveyance beyond the cassette tape player
Any shopping gimmick invented after green stamps--coupons, sweepstakes, loyalty cards
Hanging screens in churches for reading text and hymns
Amplified sound in public spaces
ice makers
cable TV

Automobile improvements surprisingly topped my list, something I rarely think about. But between 1955 and 1965 I probably changed 5 or 6 flat tires. In recent years, I've had a few flats, but usually a slow leak with some warning, and have never been stranded on a highway thanks to improved tires and warning lights.

Your mileage may vary, but ask yourself how many time-saving devices really live up to their promises, or do you just spend more time reading manuals and replacing the hair you've pulled out?

1094 Wolfowitz on board at the World Bank

Jane Galt says, "The appalling poverty of Sri Lanka or Mozambique is not some bizarre aberration that can be tracked to a cause we can cure. We are the aberration; Sri Lanka and Mozambique are the normal state of human history. Trying to figure out how to reproduce those abnormal results in a couple hundred more countries is very, very hard. Fascinating, and unbelievably important. But tricky. If Paul Wolfowitz thought he was controversial before, wait until he tries to finance his first dam." Full article. And don't forget to read the comments.

Wolfowitz bio.

1093 Naked torsos, large

There are lots of words to cover a large lady, and Lane Bryant is one (or two). Owned by Charming Shoppes, a family of brands that specialize in "plus-size" clothing, Lane Bryant's headquarters are in Columbus. Lane Bryant was founded in 1904 by a young immigrant seamstress who must have had some foresight, because women are much heavier today than 100 years ago. Years ago, clothing for young, overweight girls was called "chubby," and for women I think it was "half" sizes. A 12 1/2 was for a plump, short size 12. Sizes for women used to be "juniors" and "misses" and now are usually just plain vanilla sizes (zero through 18) plus women's sizes, which are for large women, like 2X and so forth. Lane Bryant's sizes range from 14-28.

So today I'm looking at "AIA Columbus" (a section of The Daily Reporter) and I noticed a photograph of the new 135,000 sq.ft. Corporate Headquarters of Lane Bryant, decorated with large plus size naked mannequin torsos at the entrance of each office cubicle. These mannequins don't have particularly large bellies, as you might expect of a size 18, but they do have rather pendulous breasts. I think they represent the male fantasy of what a naked "plus size" lady should look like (no face, lots of chest), because they don't resemble any I've seen in the locker rooms and beaches of America. Sure, mannequins represent an ideal, and I occasionally see a naked anorexic mannequin in a store window (although you don't see many anymore), but I think seeing them in the hall at work would be a bit off-putting. Particularly for the female executives.

1092 How much for the school library?

I like organ music--wrote about the restoration of our church organ at my other, other blog. However, this story sounds like a less than useful way to spend FEMA funds:

"Over the years, Reseda [CA] Elementary's 900-pipe instrument has suffered through three earthquakes that damaged its internal workings — including the 1933 Long Beach temblor, which demolished the second floor of the original school building.

There was a repair job — financed by donations — in the years after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake. After the 1994 Northridge quake, organ technicians spent nearly two years restoring bent and mangled pipes. That $160,000 repair bill was covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency." LA Times story here

The organ in the elementary school has been hidden behind a wall for years, and even now is only partially working. I think it is nice that these grade schoolers have a very expensive organ, but do they have a library?

Another organ restored with FEMA funds, but it sounds like the earthquake was just a timely event that allowed for restoration of a non-functioning organ.