1297 Our Tour Group

Our tour group at the Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel, Bella Vista, Arkansas

1296 Bartlesville and Frank Lloyd Wright [Friday]

As we drove into Missouri to get a better road, the "boomtown" atmosphere of NW Arkansas disappeared as did the ubiquitous Wal-Mart Superstores (I did not see any other place to buy groceries). Oklahoma flattened out and we tried to remember the words of the song when we started seeing cornfields. At 6 p.m. we rolled through Vinita, and the temperature sign said 106--and that was not the heat index, but the temp. Because my family drove to California on Rt. 66 in the 1940s, it's possible this was my second visit to Vinita.

The hot, tired Ohio travelers became quite energized as we saw the Price Tower over the trees of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, home and headquarters of Phillips 66. With its green copper louvers and peculiar triangular shape, it is every bit as impressive as the magazines have reported. If you've got the time here is a really brief video clip--and our hotel room looked exactly like that as did our dinner at the Copper Restaurant. Wright actually envisioned this building for Manhattan in 1925 as a multi-use site--shops, housing and work, but it was not realized. At the end of his career, he had the opportunity to have his dream built--like a tall tree in the rolling hills of eastern Oklahoma. (For some great photos see the June 2003 Architectural Digest.) The building was completed in 1956 for client H.C. Price. The building was purchased by the Phillips Petroleum Company in the 80s, and recently restored as an inn, restaurant and art museum.

And we crazies who fly and drive around in 100 degree+ heat looking at buildings had the thrill to actually spend two nights in a Wright building. There are 21 high-design guest rooms and suites, with all the interiors done by Wendy Evans Joseph. If they find someone with deep pockets, maybe we'll go back someday to see the expanded art museum by Zaha Hadid. After unpacking and settling in our rooms, we went to Patsy's "hospitality suite" for snacks, wine and cheese, and lots of laughs. She plans these trips and always does a wonderful job.

In the morning we met in the lobby and walked to the Bartlesville Community Center designed by William Wesley Peters (1912-1991), a sharp (or round) contrast of curves, circles, and ovals.

1295 North West Arkansas [Thursday-Friday]

Nothing prepared me for the vitality, beauty and economic boom of northwest Arkansas. What a lovely place! If I were 20 years younger, or if I were looking for a wonderful retirement area, that part of the country would be worth consideration. I'd say the building boom matches the Bradenton/Sarasota area and so do the trees. I haven't checked the stats, but the architects we visited said that unemployment is about 1.5% and has been for over a decade. Remember the disparaging terms, "Arkies and Okies," the folks who fled to California during the dust bowl? Well, now it is obvious there are outsiders flocking to that area, or maybe some are just returning home. Here's a realtor's site I just picked out of the blue with some basic statistics about the metropolitan area.

We arrived at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport at 10:45 Thursday morning, loaded our luggage on our chartered tour bus and stopped for a delightful lunch at Hog Haus, a restored brewery in downtown Fayetteville. From there we went down the street to Maurice Jennings + David McKee Architects. Both had worked for E. Fay Jones (1921-2004), an architect who used Wrightean elements in his designs. The two chapels we would visit the next day, Thorncrown and Cooper are his. The architects' offices were in the Underwood Building, and the first floor is a jewelry store designed by Jones, including all the wonderful fixtures. We had a great time looking through all the lovely items, and there is obviously enough wealth in that area to support that kind of a store.

We then visited the campus of the University of Arkansas, certainly much prettier than most, and the Fulbright Peace Memorial, also designed by Jones. From there we stopped at the DePalma Clinic, a medical building designed by Jones which had fallen into disrepair and was restored by a CPA.

From there we drove to Eureka Springs, stopping in Bentonville, the home of Wal-Mart, to pick up another tour member who had arrived a few days earlier. Of course, we needed to visit the newest superstore--for ice, snacks, and a skirt for Norma. Eureka Springs is apparently a wedding mecca for the midwest, second only to Las Vegas according to a couple we met in Oklahoma who had married there. Every cute little Victorian, flower draped cottage we saw on the winding, hilly streets seemed to offer either weddings or jacuzzis--or both. The 1886 Crescent Hotel is old, creaky, and supposedly visited by ghosts, but we had a beautifully restored room, and the group enjoyed a fabulous morning brunch in the delightful dining room. The gardens host many weddings--one the night we arrived.

A group of us walked the "short cut" through a wooded area down to Spring Street, the business district, but they really do roll up the sidewalks about 5 p.m. so there were no stores open. We did find a nice Italian restaurant, but took the hotel shuttle back up the hill. The guy posing for the picture here was our waiter, I think.

In the morning we visited Fay Jones' Thorncrown Chapel in a wooded area close by, and then drove to Bella Vista to visit his Cooper Memorial Chapel. Both are indescribable and even the photos don't do them justice. You really need to sit inside and soak up the peace and beauty. Thorncrown (from the words crown of thorns) opened in 1980, and over 5 million people have visited. Our volunteer guide provided a wonderful presentation on the Reed family who purchased the land and had the vision, and their relationship with Jones.

"This exquisite chapel in the Ozark woods is small (24 feet by 60 feet by 48 feet high) and walled with glass. It rises from fieldstone floors and two low fieldstone walls; otherwise it is built almost entirely of standard-size lumber worked with the attention to detail of a master cabinetmaker. Repeating diamond shapes loft upward to its overhanging peaked roof. It has been compared to Lloyd Wright's Wayfarers Chapel...." from Sylvia Hart Wright. Sourcebook of Contemporary North American Architecture: From Postwar to Postmodern. p 63.



The Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel in Bella Vista is different but just as lovely, and I'd have a tough time if I had to choose. John Cooper had purchased Bella Vista, a resort community begun in 1915 and reestablished it in the 1960s as a retirement community.

According to the history of the community, "Everyone was a member who bought property, a homesite or home, and was entitled to use the amenities-- golf courses, clubhouses etc. He then turned these facilities over to a Property Owners Association to own and manage. Between 1965 and 1989 the Cooper Company, known after 1971 as Cooper Communities, Inc., built five golf courses (the POA built two), seven lakes, four major club houses and other amenities. The Property Owners Association, a private corporation governed by a board of directors, owned and managed the facilities for the members. From May 21, 1965, when the first lots were sold, until 1995, CCI sold 37,060 lots or homesites, and built hundreds of homes."

The parents of one of the members of our tour group had lived there for 28 years, so we had a lot of inside information, and her aunt who also lived there invited the entire busload over for dessert after we finished our afternoon tour. Her husband who is 89 had already played 18 holes of golf that day--and the temperature was near 100 degrees. It is really one of the loveliest retirement communities I've ever seen. Of course, all the services needed to support such a large community has brought in trades and professions of all types--education, medical, social services, government services. Everywhere we looked there was a new library, or a new shopping center, or a new church. (I seem to be overusing lovely, delightful and beautiful in this entry, but I can't help it.)

We said good-bye to Arkansas and drove north briefly into Missouri to pick up a better road to take us into Bartlesville, Oklahoma and the Price Tower designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. We did make a brief stop at the original Sam Walton 5 and 10 store just to pay homage to the family that has brought so much wealth and growth to this area.

1294 Spider update

A few days ago I wrote about Elmo's Cousin living in our cottage basement at Lake Erie. When our daughter and son-in-law picked us up at the Columbus airport last night, Mark reported that he bravely stood at the top of the basement stairs and dropped the Scattergories game on "Cuz." Says he had teeth. My daughter describes him as "furry." Mark's brother said, "I can't believe you slept in the same house with him."

1293 See you Monday

We're off to Arkansas. See you Monday.

1292 Bat Girl

R Cubed gives us a wonderful natural history lesson.

1291 Beauty and Grace

Gary Irving finds beauty and grace close to home--mine.

1290 The Right attacking Roberts

The Democrats just kill their young; the Republicans eat theirs. The hardest thing for me to get used to these last four years as a Republican is how they just can't stick together. Our weepy Senator Voinovich (R-Ohio) being a recent example. Here's Ann Coulter's take on the John Roberts appointment:

"It means absolutely nothing that NARAL and Planned Parenthood attack [Roberts] him: They also attacked Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy and David Hackett Souter.

The only way a supreme court nominee could win the approval of NARAL and Planned Parenthood would be to actually perform an abortion during his confirmation hearing, live, on camera, and preferably a partial birth one."

She makes a living being outrageous, but does she think she'll get a bigger audience by handing the left the appointment by default? Are there no issues of importance in this country other than abortion?

1289 So why are you fans?

OK, all you Firefox fans. Tell me what's so great. I'm now viewing my pages in IE and everything looks fine. Switch to FF and I can hardly read the archive dates they're so tiny. Also, blogger's "Compose" doesn't work in FF (retaining all the hyperlinks I painstakingly worked on in text)--at least not for me. At one of my other blogs a reader using a MAC said that Compose was the big advantage. I periodically check my site meter for browser stats, and see that FF is creeping up in percentages, but so far it's just not turning me on. I see a divorce in our future.

1288 Elmo's Cousin

Right before we left Lakeside, my husband came up from the basement and said, "I think Elmo's got a cousin." Elmo was the name we gave an extremely large spider about 10 years ago. I'd been doing laundry in the basement for the last 3 weeks and the only spiders I'd seen were dead ones--big, but dead. "Oh, leave him alone. He'll eat the bugs," I said. "What about Mark?" he said. "We just won't tell him," I said, knowing our son-in-law's fear of spiders, "No sense spoiling his vacation."

Last night our daughter called about 9 p.m. Apparently Mark had gone to the basement to throw in a load of laundry and saw Elmo's cousin. Our daughter heard him holler, as he ran up the steps. She had to finish the laundry because he won't go in the basement. "This one's different, Mom, he just stands in the middle of the floor and watches you. I can see his eyes move."

She called again this evening to tell us they'd been seated at the sushi bar in the Japanese Restaurant (you have to leave the grounds for this) with our neighbors John and Katie and she thought that was quite amazing. We talked a bit, and asked her what they planned to do this evening.

"We're going to the laundro-mat," she said firmly.

1287 Our trip to Oklahoma and Arkansas

We’re going on an architectural tour to Arkansas and Oklahoma on Thursday. Wondering if we might be wandering into the after effects of Hurricane Emily, I looked at some weather reports for that area. Friday 97 and Saturday 98. But the humidity is low, compared to Ohio. The heat index seems to be about 110. Is that like the reverse of the chill factor?

I know we’ll see Fayetteville, Arkansas and Eureka Springs and the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa. We’ll stop at the Thorncrown Chapel and the Cooper Memorial Chapel for tours before arriving at the Inn at Price Tower, design by Frank Lloyd Wright in Bartlesville, OK. From there we go to Tulsa where we’ll see “noteworthy architecture.” If I sound a little vague it’s because I can’t seem to find my file about this trip.

1286 What's on the nightstand?

Tagged by Ayekah of the Deep South. . . .

What's On My Nightstand. . .Our “night stands” are actually two smallish, cream colored marble top end tables we purchased in 1963, which were moved from the living room to the bedroom about 15 years ago. The lamps are on the wall and came with the house. My side has a phone, a copy of Pilgrim’s Progress, a copy of Wired, a pencil and a small pink spiral bound notebook. And dust. None of these items except the phone are ever used. I fall asleep about 30 seconds after retiring or I watch TV, so it’s useless to have a book on the end table. I can't sleep with a clock.

I'll tag Rebecca, Badaunt, Doyle, and Sal.

1285 Firefox problems

Problems with the layout.

Update: As of 3:10 it looks OK on my screen. However, it did that yesterday too. I tried to delete some of the buttons I didn't need and must have elminated something important, so reloaded the template code (22 pages) I'd saved in wp before I started all this.

"Switching is easy." Yeah, tell me about it.

1284 Do as I say, not as I do: librarian's motto?

The editor of C&RL News sadly writes here:

“My children have a genetic disease. It is rare, not well understood, and there is no treatment or cure. However, the most disturbing obstacle we face is the wall around published scientific research. Information critical to health and biomedical research is held hostage by questionable and arcane publishing practices. It is time for publishers, both private and academic, to redesign their business models in response to a new age of information sharing and a stronger sense of the scientific commons.”

What puzzles me is that her journal, and most library journals, do NOT have open access (except for editorial remarks like hers) even though librarians beat the drum for everyone else to provide free information.

Yes, NIH is tax supported, but so are libraries and librarians salaries.

1283 Thirty years ago at Lakeside

We're actually not at the Lake, but I was poking around in my photo file and found this family photo of our week at the Lake in 1975. That year was one of the few where we had a cottage that overlooked Lake Erie. It was sort of a dump, but the view was fabulous, especially during storms.



That series of windows right above my head was our apartment. The huge rocks that lead to the water are about 2 or 3 feet in front of us. I think that apartment was the one where our son left the stopper in the sink and the faucet was left slightly on, filling up the sink. The overflow was clogged, so after we'd gone to the program at the auditorium, the water spilled over to the floor, which had a low spot. The water build up then soaked through the floor to the ceiling below, into the lamp fixture, filling it up, and finally dripping onto the dining room table. There it ruined the first floor tenants dog's medicine.

I'm sure our little guy got blamed--although none of it was his fault. He was such an active, into everything, kind of kid, the blame always seem to fall on him. How many 7 year olds would know not to leave a stopper in the sink? How many tenants there for a week would know that the overflow in a 75 year old house sink didn't work? Who knew Fido was a diabetic?

This photo is so 1970s--my husband's long hair and mutton chops; his fancy screened print polyester shirt and bell bottoms; my granny skirt and helmet hair cut; my son's plaid slacks; the cute dress I made for our daughter. Now they are both way bigger than we are, and our roles are reversing, with us depending on them more and more as we age. And they still enjoy being Lakesiders for a week or so.

1282 Immigration and Security

Is there some reason we can't figure out how to have legal, controlled immigration AND secure borders?

Wall Street Journal article here fails to point out how employing illegals is also bad for our security. I've met many second and third generation Hispanics (who do not speak Spanish, btw) who are educated, middle class U.S. citizens, including a few relatives in Indiana. I've never seen such hard workers as the young immigrant Hispanic men I see around here riding in the back of landscape or construction trucks and sweating in the kitchens of our better restaurants. The Census Bureau reports are positive.

"Even more encouraging news comes from recent Census Bureau data on the economic advancement of immigrants themselves. The longer that immigrants are here, the better they do financially. For example, immigrants who have been in the U.S. for less than three years have a 7.4% unemployment rate. That rate of joblessness falls to 6.7% after 10 years here, then below 6% after 20 years. The income numbers show the same picture of immigrants climbing the ladder of economic success. New arrivals have a median family income of $31,930. For those who came in the 1990s there incomes average $38,395. And for those who have been here 20 years or more, family income approaches $50,000. Immigrants are economic investments with increasing rates of return over time."

But, if we need workers for jobs that Americans won't or can't do, let's set up a system, and close the borders. Mexico obviously isn't going to do anything, and why should it? These dollars flow into their economy. Sooo. . .follow the money. Illegals will work for less, and even low pay here is better than back home. In this case, American business is the bad guy.

1281 Is there really an autism epidemic?

Robert Kennedy thinks so. Good politics but bad science? His latest salvo (government plot) is in Rolling Stone and more interviews on MSM. He doesn't have an autistic child, but he does need something to keep his name out front. Medical researchers aren't finding it.

"Despite heightened media attention on the autism "epidemic," a report published in the July issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science offers three arguments against a true increase in autism prevalence. These include changes in diagnostic criteria for autism, with current criteria being more inclusive than when the diagnosis was first defined in the 1940s; methodological flaws in an unpublished California study widely cited as showing dramatically increased prevalence; and problems in using the U.S. Department of Education's annual "child count" data."

Continue at www.Medscape.com

And if you have a lot of time and a curious mind, take a read through just how we got the Bible of all disorders, DSM-III. Essentially, it's the work of one man.

1280 They miss a lot

Tony Gonzaga sang Psalm 27 at the traditional service this morning. Sometimes I think those folks who attend the "informal" (called "celebration" at our church) miss a lot. Anyway, it was like an early preview of heaven.

1279 Friday Feast (on Sunday)

Appetizer
What is your middle name? Would you change any of your names if you could? If so, what would you like to be called?
For security, I won't post it, but no, I like it and wouldn't change it.

Soup
If you were a fashion designer, which fabrics, colors, and styles would you probably use the most?
Natural fabrics like cotton and wool and silk. Warm colors--cream, taupe, coral, aqua.

Salad
What is your least favorite chore, and why?
Automobile maintenance.

Main Course
What is something that really frightens you, and can you trace it back to an event in your life?
Our safe, secure life as we once knew it is over; and that is scary. Worry about Clinton's misadventures now seems like child's play, even though we know all the planning of islamofacism was in place then with terrorist acts being planned.

Dessert
Where are you sitting right now? Name 3 things you can see at this moment.
My desk in my office. Family photographs. Books. TV.

1278 Just a brief review

Senator John Edwards said on September 19, 2002, "The only chance for Iraq to become a democratic, tolerant state -- and a model for the Arab world -- will be through sustained American involvement. We will need to help provide security inside Iraq after Hussein is gone, work with the various Iraqi opposition groups, reassure Iraq's neighbors about its future stability and support the Iraqi people as they rebuild their lives."

We're working on it, Mr. Edwards. Sustain and support for a secure and stable state.