1591 Happy Birthday

Two years ago for my sixth blog entry, I wrote about my oldest son on his birthday. So this is a reprint.

A perfect October day.

The sky is an October color--a blue you see in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio this time of year, bordered in my side and lower vision with brilliant hues and just enough green left over from the wet summer to make a lump in my throat. But the lump is already there. Today is his birthday and I'm probably the only person who remembers.

As we drive past small towns and corn fields on a familiar route, I say to my husband, "Stanley would be 42 today." It takes a few seconds for him to pull up a memory of that plump, blonde toddler and reconstruct him as an adult old enough to be a grandfather.

"I wonder what he would look like," he says. I can't see his eyes behind his sun glasses.

"Probably just like you. Your baby pictures look so similar, except your hair was more red."

"Maybe he'd be bald by now--mine really started going after 45," he recalled.

I have little memory of what he actually looked like. I've browsed the photo album so many times that all I see when I try to recall his face are black and white and fading color snapshots and a color portrait taken at the department store in Champaign, Illinois. I do remember the way he looked when they placed him on my abdomen in the delivery room with that "what's happening" expression and the way he looked in that little casket in a new blue suit. No photos at the beginning and the end to blur history.

"We wouldn't have the kids now," he says, mentioning they'd be stopping by later to see the DVD of our trip west.

We are quiet. The harvest ready fields roll by and I think again of my favorite Old Testament verse, "Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten. . ." Joel 2:25

1590 Downshifting: inefficient fun

The only reason to downshift to slow down your car is that it is fun, writes Jonathon Welsh in today's car column in the WSJ. So the little woman was right all along! It's a lot cheaper to replace your brakes than your clutch and transmission.

In high school I dated a guy from another town--Woosung*. He wore cowboy boots, silver jewelry, a fringed leather jacket and tight jeans and didn't have a burr haircut--which made him about as noticeable as the kids wearing Black Goth and tattoos today. And what a car! I could stand in our front yard on a Sunday afternoon and hear him coming down Lowell Park Road when he was at least two miles outside of town (I think that's the name of the secondary blacktop road to Dixon, but I'm not sure). He had a great set of dual pipes on his dark blue Plymouth (I think it was either a 1953 or 1954), and he'd let up on the gas, downshift going around a curve, and I'm sure everyone between Polo and Oregon could hear him. I have yet to hear a car that sounded sweeter than that. Fun, but not good for the brakes or gas mileage. Don't you hate it when your mother was right?

Along Lowell Park Road at Stratford, but my title for this painting is "Ogle County Mall"

*Yes, it's a Chinese name. Samuel Brimblecom constructed the first house in Woosung in 1855. The community's name means "haven of rest," and Woosung was named after a town on the Yangtzse River in China.

1589 Dinner party conversation

Dr. Sanity comments on dinner party conversation, one you could hear in any university town, I suppose, even this one.

"At a dinner party this weekend I listened to a German professor who was talking about the arrogant United States and how they were "failing" in Afghanistan and Iraq. Almost all of the people at the party nodded sagely, agreeing with his assessment of their country (this is Ann Arbor, after all).

"Yes, yes it is a complete disaster," said an American professor. "Look at all the Iraqis dying because we are there.

"Bush is a moron," said another, as they all tripped over each other to agree that their country was arrogant; stupid; and evil.

One woman's statement also betrayed the underlying attitude that America was consistently in the wrong. She said to the German Professor and said, "Just remember that 49% of Americans agree with 99% of the rest of the world."

I'm sure she would agree that Bali brought these horrible murders upon themselves. That their foreign policy decisions in supporting Israel and America in Iraq and Afghanistan....oh wait. They didn't, did they? They are a predominantly Muslim country, aren't they?

Well, I'm almost certain that the policies of George Bush are behind the senseless and horrific murders of those innocent people in Bali. Aren't you?"

1588 Mommy study making bloggers mad

The only thing that surprised me about this study is that 1) they ever got funding to do it, and 2) they were allowed to publish it. Really, the pressure is that strong to assure us that children don't need parents--just government programs. And if the program doesn't work, it just needs more money.

"One of the longest and most detailed studies of UK childcare has concluded that young children who are looked after by their mothers do significantly better in developmental tests than those cared for in nurseries, by childminders or relatives."

Among other things in the article, I noticed this:

"Underpinning much of the problem revealed in the study was the discovery that most mothers leave organising childcare to the last minute before returning to work. This can have worrying consequences, concluded Leach.

She described the numbers of mothers not taking up references for child carers as 'staggering' and added 'there were mothers happy to leave a baby with an au pair, after one phone call conducted through an interpreter'."

It happens here in Columbus, Ohio too. I drove past a house on a busy street yesterday that had a handpainted sign in the yard "babysitting + phone #" and I was left to wonder if the resident was advertising for a sitter, or if she was offering to babysit. Either way, it's scary to think someone might chose a drive by babysitter that way.

1587 The pay isn't bad for going to jail

Now we know why Ms. Miller went to jail over a source that she already had permission to talk about. $1.2 million for 3 months in jail. Not bad.

1586 SUVs and fuel economy

Sort of sounds strange in the same sentence, doesn't it? Actually, we have a Ford Explorer, manual shift, 2 door. It's probably more fuel efficient than most sedans--maybe 25 mpg on the highway.

Of course, my back feels like it's just been massaged by a friendly chocolate lab who hasn't learned her manners after I've ridden 3 blocks in it. In fact, unless my van is in for service, I won't ride in our SUV. But your mileage may vary. SUVs are trucks with bad shocks, in my opinion. Mini-vans are cars for adults who want to see over the sedans. Adults over 30 should ride in mini-vans if they don't want their kidneys and teeth rattled.

1585 Honeycrisp apples

When I bite into an apple, I want to hear a crack so loud that my husband hollers from the living room, "Is someone at the door?" I want it to be so sweet my teeth are set on edge. I want it to be so juicy that I need to keep a towel close by. So I'm eating a huge Honeycrisp apple, and it's the second one I had today. Yummy.

1584 She used to be a full service blogger

but now that St. Casserole has returned home to Mississippi, only Katrina is on her mind.

"Katrina is a marker event and not just for me.

Believe me when I tell you that I am stunned at the number of people who went through hours of pitch black darkness with little children, old people and pets who held onto this life by sitting in a Boston Whaler they swam to in rising water then held onto the gutters of a neighbor's two storey home to wait out the storm. Jean, my young bankteller, swam out the second floor window of her apartment with her seven year old son. She broke the window and swam with her child to the safety of the roof. She climbed out the window into cold rising water with her child to try to stay alive. Rachel got into her attic with her two young children, husband, mother and dog to try to stay alive. People I know and strangers I meet did dramatic things to stay alive in all the water. We don't even live in a flood area. The water came up so high that Catfish let out his lines on his shrimp boat in the Back Bay 40 feet by swimming to the lines in the hurricane winds to save his boat. Strangers tell me remarkable stories of swimming to a neighbor's home for safety. I am stunned. These aren't young athletic kids. These are regular people who wanted to stay alive in a situation no one could predict. It is extraordinary that more people didn't drown."

St. Casserole's blog.

1583 Google's new blog finder

Google has a new feature whereby you can find blogs by the blogger's name, or topic. I tried it with my name and then my name + a topic and found it very easy to use. http://blogsearch.google.com. However, it also makes it easier for the blog spammers to be target specific. These are the "Hi, great blog. Come and visit mine on [your topic]. So I'll have to add the stronger filters to the comments. My topical blogs are all getting hit, Coffee Spills, Hugging and Chalking, Church of the Acronym. In the Beginning does not get comments. What are they going to say? It's my hobby and I'll blog about journals if I want to!

Not all bloggers use their own name, so that's where the topic helps. The results when I entered "Norma library" were pretty good. Also found a few librarian blogs I hadn't seen before that I'll check out. It also picks up "normal" and I certainly am that, right?

1582 Rescuing pets in disasters

There's been a lot of talk about the problem of getting people to evacuate without their pets. Before you work to get them included in the rescure efforts, ask yourself if you want your cat or small dog on the same helicopter as these pets.

They love their pets too and their pets might want to take yours to lunch

1581 Gertrude Bell, the Desert Queen

The selection for Book Club tonight is Desert Queen by Janet Wallach. This biography of Gertrude Bell, an English woman born in the 1860s is very interesting on several levels--her personal struggles as a multi-talented women who longed to be a wife and mother but was instead an advisor to Kings, her need for excitement and adventure to hold back depression and desire which took her on breath taking trips and explorations, and the feeling of today's front page news since she literally designed modern day Iraq after the end of WWI.



Unfortunately, I didn't find Wallach a particularly fascinating writer--certainly she didn't have the skill of Ron Chernow who wrote last month's selection, Alexander Hamilton. I did come across an erie quote by Winston Churchill (as Colonial Secretary one of the British drawing the boundaries of modern Iraq) in my side reading (may also be in the book).

June 14, 1921: it was Britain's intention to ". . . reduce our commitments and extricate ourselves from our burdens while at the same time discharging our obligations and building up an effective Arab Government which would always be a friend of Britain." Sort of has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it?

I have the 11th, 12th and 13th editions of Encyclopaedia Britanica, the last of which was published in 1926. So I looked up the Iraq article to see if Gertrude Bell was mentioned, but she wasn't. It was current through Spring 1926. Then I noticed the initials of the author of the article--and she had written it! Because she committeed suicide in July 1926, the article for Britannica must of been one of the last of her many publications.

1580 White Guilt

Blogger Oh Snap apologizes for a heavy post, but I think she’s needed on the team to rebuild New Orleans’ schools. She really, really wants to be a teacher but is finding the program a bit, um, harmful for children and teachers. She’s student teaching and for some odd reason, seems to be (in my opinion) a lot smarter than her co-workers and professors. She sees students setting the agenda, and progressive ideas holding students back with low expectations. I hope she makes it to the end of the term without bailing. The negative effects of white guilt have been known a long time, and I'm surprised no one but student teachers notice how damaging it is to the people they want to help.

“Someone with white guilt decides that she will go out and, in some small way, correct the wrongs done by her forefathers, and thus be able to live with herself. It is a daunting and burdensome task. And it is incredibly destructive for all those people she intends to help. This is why: everyone with whom she interacts, particularly African-Americans, becomes a living embodiment of the tragic past. This student standing in front of her represents "the African-American person" and she, "the white person." She is constantly anxious not to oppress this young man, this race of people. She walks on eggshells, always on edge. She goes out of her way to be friendly, ingratiating. She doesn't want to do anything to upset him, to repeat past wrongs. Consequently, she can ask nothing of the student. She makes excuses when he breaks the rules, when he forgets to do his homework, when he arrives an hour late, when he swears, when he acts immaturely, meanly, or inappropriately. She doesn't ascribe these negative behaviors as those of a child who needs guidance, but those of an oppressed minority who needs power. So she gives him more, and, being a child, he wastes it. She makes excuses, blames herself, gives him more, and round and round we go."

1579 Remembering Nancy Walker

This morning while cleaning the kitchen sink I thought about Nancy Walker who played "Rosie" in the Bounty commercials in the 1970s. According to Wikipedia, the 4'11" actress died in 1992. You occasionally see her in old films, but mainly she's known for pushing the paper towel that would hold up under a lot of abuse and as the mother of Rhoda on the Mary Tyler Moore show and its spin-off.

I was scrubbing the double ceramic sink with a single folded section of Bounty and a sprinkle of Bon Ami when her face and message came to mind. Then I rinsed it out, and wiped down all the cook-top and the tea kettle. I rinsed it again, then wiped all the counter tops. Rinsed again, then wiped the cabinets and the oven fronts and handles. That little piece of paper still looked pretty strong, so I rinsed it again, and wiped up the spots on the floor before I threw it out.

I never used paper towels in the 70s--much too extravagant for our budget. I doubt that I started using it because of the commercial, but through trial and error discovered it was a good buy. A paper towel that holds up that well and then can be tossed so you're not keeping the yucky rag around until you accumulate enough to wash a load, deserves a blog.

At the Bounty website, you can create your own Honey-do list.

1578 Substitute Blogger

St. Casserole is a member of the clergy who's been through Katrina and is just now returning home to Mississippi. She let one of her cats, Dibley D'Wayne, "guest blog" and it is really sweet. She has some amazing photos of the damage, too.

St. Casserole and her family got out of harm's way and stayed at a friend's home in NC.

1577 It's my Blogiversary

Two years ago I took the plunge and started blogging. I started on October 2, 2003 with this entry.

You'll see that I've since added some Oct. 1 entries, collecting some common threads, just to fill out the month, but I really did start on the second.

1576 Alvin and the Chipmunks

It's nice to know that classy stuff pays off, isn't it? Ross (Jr.) and Janice Bagdasarian are selling their Meditaerrian style mansion in Montecito, CA, for $24.9 million. It has 13,000 sq. ft., a 2,000 sq. ft. master suite, and sits on 4 acres. They create children's programming based on the ground breaking work of his father. His father Ross, created Alvin and the Chipmunks in 1958. Now there's a tune, Badaunt, you really don't want to hear over and over and over at Christmas (See comments at 1575). He also wrote those timeless classics, Come on a my house and Witch Doctor.

So it's a bit pricey. But these two really do sound like bargains. Near Tehachapi, CA in the Southern Sierras, you can buy 20 acres for only $159,900. Ad was in both WSJ and LA Times. "Clean, crisp mountain air with calendar cover views. Majestic oaks, streams, ideal for horses, Country getaway." Because its FSBO, I couldn't find a photo, but other houses in the area look nice and don't look even as expensive as homes in this area. Call the owner, 1-888-914-5253. This one sounds like it might have a view. Noticed in WSJ. 140 acres in New Mexico for $90,000. Call 1-877-670-7964.

1575 Buy it, burn it, return it

Some of you seem to think you need a thousand tunes on your iPods, or that you need to burn those CDs on your shelves to your computer. This is a phenom that has really passed me by. Who would want all that noise all the time, she wonders. I've noticed in the last 5 years it is increasingly difficult to understand what someone is saying if music, TV, or yard crew are in the background. Head phones, which I use occasionally while walking, are really irritating. My theory is your brain only can process so much sound in your lifetime and continue to make sense of it, so all that extra noise ends up growing nose and chin hairs. I think people now in their teens and twenties will probably be experiencing this by the time they are 35. So look out, kids. Anyway. . . Wall Street Journal featured a story on some music store owners who decided they'd have to join the downloaders or lose their business. Sort of like our church adding yet another X-Alt service to our already crowded worship schedule to satisfy worshipers who want damaged ear drums and racing heart rates along with their Bible.

"earlier this year, the four-store chain [Scotti's Record Shops] announced its new "Buy It, Burn It, Return It" policy. Customers can buy a used or new CD, take it home, listen and, if they want, burn a copy to a computer. Within 10 days, they can return the CD for 70% store credit."

They're running into legal problems, but maintain they need to remain creative or go out of business. Story here.

1574 Fashion Fugs won't worry about me

Go Fug Yourself is a fashion blog that tracks celebs. So I guess my entries about fashion and my photos of what to wear on a river cruise are safe. I'm not only not a fashionista, I'm not even a disaster. I see them at the coffee shop but I don't want to be one--especially not one of the over-50's in the short skimpy tops showing waistlines with love handles, or the strolling spandex follies. But Go Fug Yourself written by 30-somethings is a must read for some, even for the celebs it criticizes.

An aside. I was flipping channels and came across a Dukes of Hazzard rerun the other day and thought I'd look up Daisy Dukes and see what she looks like today--after all she's 51 and a lot of women in their 50s look smashing. EEEEEEEK. Don't do it. She's gained a tremendous amount of weight, but wears clothes that definitely don't flatter a larger woman.

Back on track: But blogging about fashion isn't easy, according the the site's webmistresses:

"Like a lot of people who have succumbed to the blogging craze, Ms. Cocks and Ms. Morgan are discovering that the medium has huge challenges. The money is minimal. So far, Go Fug Yourself is generating just $3,500 a month through advertising. Getty Images, the big digital photo supplier, threatened a copyright infringement lawsuit and temporarily shut them down. They sometimes wake up in the morning to profane, raving emails from readers.

Most of all, the blog treadmill is exhausting. Blogs require constant updates to recruit new fans and keep existing ones coming back. So the two women scramble to answer hundreds of emails from readers on their lunch breaks and spend hours scouring the Internet for photos to post. "Some days I start looking in the morning and there's just nobody who looks bad enough," says Ms. Cocks. "If I haven't found anything by midafternoon, I start panicking." "

I know just how they feel. Here it is 5:30 a.m. and I'm writing about people and clothes about which I have absolutely no interest.

1573 Happy Birthday

I had my birthday while on the Danube Cruise. At dinner they turned out the lights and brought out a fabulous chocolate cake/mousse spouting a huge sparkler, which is good, 'cause that many candles would have set the ship on fire. Our table of 6 was able to eat half the cake and then shared the other half with another table.



I took this quiz on what age I act, and first got a 24, so I went back and redid it trying to select more mature answers like Creme brulee instead of banana split, and I got it up to 29. Some questions, like TV shows I just had to take a stab since I didn't recognize them.

You Are 29 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

1572 Hugh Hewitt and James Lileks on the Media

Hugh Hewitt interviewed James Lileks, one of my favorite essayists/journalists who is on line and in Minnesota. It was recorded at Radioblogger.com on Thursday September 29.

"HH: Now let me talk about the media and New Orleans. I just did this...oh, it was so classic PBS, sitting around the table talking with three people about something that nobody's going to watch. But it was fun. And they're defending the media down there, and you know, the slashed baby throats, and the forty people in the freezer, et cetera, as, you know, they were the captives of Ray Nagin. What do you make of this?

JL: I think, I'm going to defend the media here, because I think that if somebody runs screaming out of the dome, shouting that a giant octopus is eating people in the upper deck, I think it's the duty of the media to report that. Because if the media went inside, they might be eaten by the giant octopus. So I'm on their side in this one.

HH: But couldn't they have spared a couple of cub reporters to snap a picture of the octopus before they got eaten?

JL: Cub reporters? No. Because generally, you know, there's a lot of investment with these people, because there's a whols rigmarole you got to go through with social security. I say send in some interns. And if they don't like it, you know, catapult them in. You know, use some sort of giant bungee cord to actually shoot them in, gather their impressions, and they'll spring right out, and you can run with that. No, Hugh, I think you're absolutely right. And it's fascinating to me to see how the pride and the chest thumping that went on after Katrina, the media had finally grown their kumquats back, and they were going to stick it to the administration. Now it seems to have been replaced by sort of a muttered coughing and a looking away, and saying oh my."