1894 When life doesn't imitate art

Michelle Williams claims, "Just being 'Mom' is enough." Wrong. All the studies show that marriage to the baby's father is the critical element in a child's well being. Doesn't matter how rich or educated you are or how many photographers follow you around, or whether you can hire a nanny or if you breast feed to boost baby's immunity.

At the boxoffice, she starred as a wife and met her baby's father. On the home front, she gets no prize from me for mother of the year. Of course, it also matters how many young women she might be influencing to follow her example.

Michelle Williams
Heath Ledger

1893 Holiday weight gain

That's an expression where it is accurate to use the word "holiday" instead of "Christmas," at least in my house and on my hips. Beginning with the last week of October (Halloween and cooler weather), through two November birthdays, Thanksgiving, various seasonal invites and dinners, Christmas and then New Years, it is easy to add the conventional six pounds and only lose two each year. So this year, I'm "watching out" and "telling why" in journaling with an e-mail buddy who also needs to lose weight. It's my usual ELMM plan--Eat less move more--with an occasional Slim Fast if a party falls within 12 hours.

Last night I made the most wonderful scalloped potatoes, and had two helpings. I realize a lot of people avoid potatoes when watching calories--and I often do. But potatoes are a wonderful, miraculous gift from God. I used Half 'n Half and cheddar cheese--but it is a delicious, wholesome dish made with low fat milk. I just happened to have those ingredients.

Somewhere when I was working as an agricultural bibliographer (fancy name for a librarian) I read that when combined with milk it is a near perfect food (it lacks calcium). Potatoes are high in vitamin C, have no cholesterol, are fat-free, have many vitamins and minerals and are cheap and easy to store. It's the gravy, sour cream and sides that give it a bad name for weight watchers. The introduction of the potato to Ireland in the 17th century caused a huge population growth among the peasants because it so improved their nutrition.

"The potato, a name derived from the native American Indian word "batata", was first cultivated by the Inca Indians in Peru over 4,000 years ago. The mountainous terrain of the Andes, fluctuating temperatures, poor soil conditions and elevations over 10,000 feet proved to be the ideal settings for the Symara Indians to develop over two hundred varieties of potatoes. The potato is a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) along with peppers, eggplant and tomatoes. The growth and quality of potatoes is greatly influenced by cool temperatures, moisture, light, soil content and nutrients. Ideal conditions for best yields are daytime average temperatures around 70 degrees F and cool night temperatures as these affect the accumulation of carbohydrates and dry matters in the tubers.

In 1536, Spanish Conquistadors conquered Peru, became aware of the potato and carried them back to Spain. In 1586, the potato was introduced in Britain by Sir Francis Drake. In 1770, a French pharmacist named Antoine Parmentier, saw the potato as a solution to the recurring famine problem in France and helped King Louis XIV popularize it by creating a feast with only potato dishes. In 1774, Frederick the Great sent free potatoes to the starving peasants after the famine of 1774, but they refused to touch them until soldiers were sent in to persuade them. During his presidency (1801-1809), Thomas Jefferson served "French Fries" in the White House as an introduction in the US. In the mid-19th century, the British introduced potatoes to Nepal and they soon became a staple crop. The potato is now a very common food item worldwide, grown in about 125 countries and all 50 states in the US." Potatoes

scalloped potatoes
holiday weight gain

1892 20th century war deaths

were exceeded by Communist governments killing of their own people--democide.

"Overall, the best estimate of those killed after the Vietnam War by the victorious communists in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia is 2,270,000. Now totaling almost twice as many as died in the Vietnam War, this communist killing still continues.

To view this double standard from another perspective, both World Wars cost twenty-four million battle deaths. But from 1918 to 1953, the Soviet government executed, slaughtered, starved, beat or tortured to death, or otherwise killed 39,500,000 of its own people (my best estimate among figures ranging from a minimum of twenty million killed by Stalin to a total over the whole communist period of eighty-three million). For China under Mao Tse-tung, the communist government eliminated, as an average figure between estimates, 45,000,000 Chinese. The number killed for just these two [Communist] nations is about 84,500,000 human beings, or a lethality of 252 percent more than both World Wars together. Yet, have the world community and intellectuals generally shown anything like the same horror, the same outrage, the same out pouring of anti-killing literature, over these Soviet and Chinese megakillings as has been directed at the much less deadly World Wars?" War versus Genocide and Mass Murder

I'm posting this because I've come across some interesting revisionist history, which I'll go into later after I've done a bit more research. But just keep these figures in mind.

1891 Frozen car door tip

When car doors stick to the weather stripping around the doors in this cold weather, you can break a door handle trying to get in, or damage the weather stripping. Jonathan Welsh of WSJ suggests rubbing a bar of soap or wax from a candle on the weatherstripping. He also mentions a commerical product (Armor All) would probably work (didn't sound like he'd actually tried it).

However, I'm just not sure about all this, so I googled the topic. One site on auto detailing said never get car wax on the door frame seals, so I would think candle wax wouldn't be a good idea. Armor All was listed for door locks but I didn't see anything about weather stripping. Plus, remember, ladies, your coats or dresses may have to touch that weatherstrip when entering or exiting.

So my vote would be with the bar of soap. But then I read this:

The Pat Goss site recommends preemptive action with a silicone spray: "Luckily, prevention is painless. Spray the rubber around the doors with silicone, which is readily available in auto parts stores. It’s a good idea to spray silicone on all the weather-stripping surrounding car doors four times every year. Silicone is so slippery it prevents ice that forms on the weather-stripping from sticking to the car’s body. Your doors open easily when your neighbor’s are frozen solid."

We need advice from a Canadian.

1890 Feet binding 21st century

California Closets has an interesting example of torture for the sake of perceived beauty in a current ad showing a young woman in a pastel skirt and sweater standing in her closet with about 22 pair of leg and ankle killer 4" heels, with one pair of flats and one pair of athletic shoes. I saw it in Architectural Digest, and the same photo is on their web page, www.calclosets.com, but showing only about half of the magazine ad. To show off her legs they have her straddling a chair while standing up--I hope it wasn't a long photo shoot.

The only women I see dressed up are at the coffee shop, set for the work day in pants suits or slacks, with fairly sensible shoes. If the heels are higher than 2", the women are 25 or younger. I suppose they might change at work. I wore those torture instruments when I was in my teens and twenties too, but nothing higher than 2 7/8, which I think we called 3". They cause cramping in the calves and arches, sprained ankles, corns and callouses. They contort your torso and probably damage your spine, decreasing efficiency and mobility.

Not unlike the situation that Chinese women endured for the beauty of bound feet. This historical site said it is hard to imagine today, but I don't have any problem at all understanding it. Maybe you'll see the resemblance in these photos.



"Throughout history in all cultures a common ultimate goal is to achieve beauty. Just as all people look different, all people have a different outlook on the question, what is beautiful? For some time in the nineteenth century, in America a definition of beauty included corsets, making women's waists as small as possible. Over time beauty has resulted in a lot of pain and in this instance, resulted in broken ribs and damaged internal organs. Body piercing and tattoos fall under the same category although the consequences are not as severe. Great pain has been suffered for centuries for women to achieve perceived beauty. Probably the most detrimental act was one that approximately one billion women in China have preformed for nearly one thousand years. This act, foot binding, was an attempt to stop the growth of the feet. Foot binding is a bizarre and terrible custom, yet it is hard to understand exactly what foot binding was like with the modern outlook we have today. The reason for women binding their feet went deeper than fashion and reflected the role of women in Chinese society. It was necessary then in China for a woman to have bound feet in order to achieve a good life." Feet binding

1889 So it's not the economy, Stupid?

It's gasoline prices--that's how shallow Americans are, I am grieved to say. Yesterday's paper reported that the President's job approval rating has rebounded from 28% to 43%, depending on which polls you follow (some were lower than others). Apparently, lower gasoline prices have a lot to do with the uptick.

So, who put that gas hog SUV in your garage? Who forced you to buy a bigger house further away from the workplace with cheap mortgage money? Who did you elect to Congress who won't let us drill for oil in Alaska (actually, quite a few Republicans), or build refineries? When will the [wo]man on the street step up and say, "It's my fault."

The economy has never been better. The GDP grew 3.8% in the third quarter, the 10th consecutive quarterly increase of above 3%, which makes this the longest streak of growth since WWII! Unemployment at 5% is lower than the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and you hardly hear anyone mention inflation, unless they are reminiscing about Jimmy Carter's presidency. And would you believe that Bush is rated poorly in the polls for the economy? That's sheer ignorance, or somebody's sniffing gasoline fumes.

U.S. economy
polls
gasoline prices

1888 This President believes

and openingly acknowledges that he is an evangelical, born-again Christian, that we are saved by the grace of God through our faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. He believes in equality of treatment among citizens in taxation and the law. He believes we need to be stewards of the earth. He would protect the interests and security of our nation through military action, but would like to avoid it. He would do everything he could to reduce the desire for abortion. This President is Jimmy Carter, but I think he and George Bush would be in complete agreement on these statements. [Based on Carter's editorial in the USAToday yesterday]

Consistency counts

in parenting
in budgeting
in dieting
in learning a new skill
in relationships
in gas mileage
in fashion
in teaching
in the workplace
in scheduling
in worship
in volunteering
in training puppies
in winning awards
in blogging

Freepers and Pinkos picket outside Walter Reed Hospital

Homespun blogger Tom has a post about the pro Castro Code Pink picketers (about 11) and the pro-troops counter supporters (about 26) demonstrating outside the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC. "Wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are taken out to dinner [by the Free Republic supporters] every Friday night on a luxury bus, and return to the hospital at about 9:30 They reenter the hospital right where the Pinkos hold their protest. We want the troops to see a pro-troop rally, and not just the Pinkos. As it is, the Pinkos have been packing up and going home at 9pm, we suspect so that they won't have to look at the troops on the bus flipping them off, which they have done."

So much for "we support our troops, not the war." I can't imagine the hate and loathing it takes to picket wounded soldiers who defend your right to hold up that sign!

1885 Is it crabs?

That's what comes to my mind as I click through the channels and come across young black rappers grabbing their crotch and dancing around with their legs spread and pelvis lifted. (Should crotch be plural? Groups of grabber-rappers mean more than one crotch, but each grabber only has one.) It apparently has a hostile meaning. Rap groups actually hire "hand gesture" experts to help them look more intimidating, and I'll bet you a cup of coffee they are women. So much for authentic culture. I went to a poetry reading at the public library and a perfectly nice white boy could hardly keep his hands decent while performing.

"Why do white liberals accept the “gangsta” persona as a perfectly legitimate expression of black culture? . . . Hopping around and making violent hand gestures, their long gold chains swaying, pants drooping low and eyes shaded, backed by adoring, barely-clad, pelvis-grinding young black women—with the sound off, the thuggish menace of these performers was unmistakable. The sensibility reverberates across the globe at present, from urban Morocco to the burning suburbs of Paris. [French Muslim rappers use the same moves]

Black parents have decried to me the presence of such trash on BET, but liberal white America, especially its suburban progeny, tends to see black gangsta imagery as culturally authentic—to be respected and understood rather than subjected to the condemnation or mockery it deserves." Read the whole article here: 10 November 2005 Thugs on Parade, City Journal

There's a lot of guilt in liberal white America and it's making a lot of entertainers rich.

crabs
gansta rap
hand gestures

1884 War's trauma wears on the children left behind

is the headline in the USAToday (December 13, 2005) with a color photograph. In March 1944 my father enlisted in the U.S. Marines. Things didn't look good either in Europe or the Pacific for the U.S. The same nay-sayers were around that we hear today. I don't remember being resilient or fearful, either one. But I know this. I looked to my mother and other adults like grandparents, aunts (all the uncles were gone to war) and neighbors for clues on how to behave and what to think. How do we know that children are helped by being asked to express their fears publicly about their mothers and fathers in uniform? We didn't draw pictures of airplanes and bombs to send to dad--we drew flowers, blue skies, and houses, with happy children. I'm sure the Marines were teaching him about bombs and guns--we needed to remind him why he'd enlisted.

My mother must have been fearful--I regret that of all the things we talked about over the years, I never thought to ask that. I can't imagine how she made it financially with four small children, let alone emotionally. But looking up at her from the vantage point of a four year old, I saw only confidence, resolve, determination, integrity, honesty and love. She was who she was and she never changed the whole 60 years I knew her.

One day Mike Balluf, whose father was in the Navy, and I were riffling through the trash behind his house (he lived directly behind me). We pulled out a beautiful, dark brown ceramic teapot. We didn't have anything this pretty in our house, so I carried my wonderful find home to show my mother. She turned it over, saw the "Japan" mark (I probably didn't know how to read), and put it in our trash. You don't always have to talk an issue to death for children to learn that war is serious stuff.

Sarah Silverman rude, crude and salacious

I'm just repeating the words of the reviewers who love her--this Jewish comedienne is rude, crude and salacious. I'll never attend her shows or watch her on TV just on the basis of the title of her show: Jesus is Magic. With her fog screen of excuses, which includes all of those from the last 25 years, "It's your right to be offended," and "You can't please everyone" I know where she's going without paying an outrageous price to hear myself insulted. If you think insults of other's race, ethnicity, religion, culture, sexuality and gender are amusing, well, welcome to the 1950s. It was consider a hoot back when I was growing up, and I'd hoped we were past that. But I suppose each generation has to reinvent humor. She's bound to grow up (or is that down?). Although Richard Pryor didn't--setting himself on fire free basing, years of womanizing and developing MS didn't change his style of hanging over the edge of hell.

Sarah Silverman
Richard Pryor

1882 My Best Questions

I ask a lot of questions on my blogs--it's just my style of writing. Then I answer them, because most of you don't stop long enough. Here's a selection of my best of the best questions from May-June 2005. If you click the question, you can read the whole entry.

What would you call a group of librarians?
Somewhere I've seen a collective noun for a group of librarians congregating. Everything the librarian tells you has previously been worked out in a meeting--even the pauses and punctuation. What would be your vote? (listed some choices like peep, mob, brace, pride, etc.)

What woman would admit to this?
I've often wondered if later in life, while living maybe in San Diego or Houston, a woman would admit to a past of being [the Forreston] Sauerkraut Queen or maybe the Ogle County Pork Queen (another biggie in our farming county)?

Where do I join?
The National Coalition to End Judicial Filibuster. Where do I join? In fact, let's not stop with the judiciary, let's dump the filibuster altogether. Can you think of another organization that uses this? And it is misused by both parties--I'm not pointing fingers at the Democrats, at least not in this paragraph.

Guess the trendy car ads
Guess which ad goes with the car of your dreams. My favorite ad (although not the car), is definitely #9. It’s edgy--like a Laura Bush joke. Answers at the bottom of the page.

Do you save ribbons, bows and paper from Christmas and holidays?
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 (reusable) 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?

Is there ever enough storage?
. . . in Ohio, we have $100,000 basements. At least that's what you're led to believe if you sell a house without one. For 34 years we lived in a lovely neighborhood of more expensive homes because our two-story, colonial house was slab on grade. When we put it on the market in 2001 we were always told how much it could have sold for if only we had a basement. . . We thought we'd left basement woes behind us, but the other night my husband took a phone call from someone interested in buying that house (it has been on the market because the new owners are divorcing). Would you believe the guy wanted to know if he could jack up the house and put a basement under it?

Would you spend $40,000 a year to send your daughter to Smith if you couldn't even figure out the restrooms?
Roger Kimball who wrote about tenured radicals 15 years ago when things were simple (plain vanilla Marxism) suspects, that along with Mark Twain's demise, the death of the counterculture is greatly exaggerated. I agree with his solution. Dump tenure which has become a means to stifle dissent and fresh ideas. Seems to be the only way.

Where do you cut costs?
Economically, it makes absolutely no sense for me to leave the house every morning at 6 a.m. and drive to a coffee shop. If you don't do this, you could exclaim, "But that costs you nearly $600 a year, when making it at home is about five cents a cup." Very true. But I read 2 or 3 newspapers, and see 4 or 5 people I know, chat with various folk, so as a social informational event, it's pretty cheap. Compare that $600 to a golf hobby, and you can see it is really pretty cheap.

What do children in Third World Countries ask for?
Yesterday's question in VBS was something along the lines of "If you could have anything you asked for, what would it be." Apparently, only one little girl (probably watches beauty pageants on TV) thought beyond material needs and did indeed ask for world peace, according to my husband who teaches the class. Most asked for material things, but not a bike or a pony like my generation would have done (we were self-centered too), but a house! One little girl asked for a shopping mall! Now THAT is materialistic. "What do you suppose children in Third World countries ask for," my husband mused.

Which Democrat will drive more people way from the party?
Diarrhea-of-the-mouth Dean or Tokyo-Rose-in-Drag Dick? It's been many a year since I lived in Illinois, but my recollection of those days is that about a third of Chicago was Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Ukrainian, Belarus, Slovak, Czech, Hungarian or European Jew. About half my classmates at the U. of I. were children of the escapees from Hitler or Stalin. Some had lost their accents, but they never lost their memories of starvation, forced marches, refugee camps, and grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins they'd never see again. And if their memories ever did dim in the usual frivolity of the teen years of dating, music and partying, you can bet your ass mascot their parents would remind them.

best blogs
blogger questions

1881 Unintended Consequences, pt. 2

I ’ve been thinking a lot about unintended consequences after reading about polio epidemics following on the heels of the improved sanitation provided by flush toilets and toilet paper. Most recently, we’ve seen some unintended consequences in connection with Hurricane Katrina from personal and government generosity.

An outpouring of generosity for the gulf coast victims resulted in a corresponding shortage for local charities and foundations in our closer-to-home neighborhoods. I watched the Charity Newsie guys collecting on the streets yesterday, wondering if they were freezing their buns off and getting less.

Jobs are going begging in the hurricane areas as people wait until the FEMA money runs out before looking for work. Businesses can’t reopen with out workers, and residents won’t return home if there is no economy to support the rebuilding efforts.

Mega churches are drawing huge crowds, but destabilizing and blighting older neighborhoods as churches move further out for more land. (Sort of the WalMartization of religion.)

More insulation and tighter buildings in response to higher fuel costs has resulted in more allergies and respiratory problems.

Improved highways, better gas mileage and safer cars resulted in business loss and decay to small town and rural businesses as people drive to distant shopping malls or larger towns.

Improved air conditioning and cheap energy have created building growth in formerly uninhabitable areas, like coastal areas (recently hit by hurricanes), deserts, bringing damage to environment and loss of life in storms.

Health concerns and animal products and the popularity of vegetarianism have created a greater demand for fruit and vegetables resulting in more food poisoning from crops contaminated by animal runoff and greater use of herbicides and pesticides.

Harvesting of rare plants for medical research and homeopathic medicines are contributing to the destruction of rain forests.

The invention of canned milk many years ago made it convenient for women not to breast feed resulting in lowered immunity in infants and toddlers and more women entering the work force. This continues to this day in poor countries where it is watered down.

Summer breaks were created in the school calendar because child labor was needed on the farm in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but schools still let out for the summer months resulting in significant loss of learning even though we outlawed child labor years ago.

Introduction of the potato to Ireland so improved nutrition among the poor that there was a huge increase in the population. Then the blight of that monocrop resulted in the starvation, malnutrition and emigration of millions.

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson was published and good intentioned protests caused American companies stop producing DDT. This resulted in the deaths of millions in third world countries from malaria and huge loss of GNP in malarial countries. "The Malaria epidemic is like loading up seven Boeing 747 airliners each day, then deliberately crashing them into Mt. Kilimanjaro." Dr. Wenceslaus Kilama

In 1996, manufacturers introduced 3,434 new “low-fat” or “nonfat” food products. In 2003, 700 “low-carb” or “no-carb” products hit the market and in 2004, 3,431 such products followed. This has resulted in more obese Americans, apparently from the unintended consequence of people consuming more calories in the search for satiation and flavor.

Green architecture--glazed windows, efficient lighting, reflective roofs, below grade buildings encourage larger homes being built further out due to their efficient use of energy resulting in no savings at all to the consumer and more urban sprawl.

The closing of energy consuming, polluting factories resulted in jobs going overseas to less restrictive areas and the deterioration of workers‘ life style.

Wind farms (aka tax farms or cuisinarts of the air) produce low emissions and cleaner air but very expensive kilowatts and result in the deaths of many birds and the rise of rodent populations. Or as they say, “How many dead birds equal a dead fish equal an oil spill?” They may also produce climate changes locally.

Modern refrigeration changed our diet and made us safer from food poisoning, but contributed to the growth of cities, the rise of large distant feed lots for cattle, the importation of off-season foods and the deterioration of the environment.

Modern air conditioning changed our driving, employment and entertainment. Outdoor landscaping for shade and front porches no longer were essential for comfort changing how we interact with our neighbors.

Bird feeders cause migrating birds to share diseases, change eating habits of local birds causing them to not eat insects, and attract rodents, like skunks. Increased insects and rodents may cause the rise of disease or increased use of pesticides.

Strong recycling codes and laws in the cities have resulted in trash being dumped in the rural areas because you can’t burn it or bury it.

Successful and cheap waste management systems of the early and mid-20th century using landfills and incinerators resulted in a throw away mentality for generations. American households throw out 467.2 pounds per year - not including what goes down the garbage disposal or into compost piles. Annual cost of food waste is more than $43 billion per year, broken down roughly as follows: meat - $14 billion; grains - $10 billion; fruit - $9.6 billion; and vegetables - $9.1 billion. (Biocycle, May 2005)

The Passion of the Christ the movie that earned $370 million at the domestic box office and drew in religious people who had for years complained about movies, did not bring people into the churches nor change what Hollywood offered once they found out what the people liked.

There’s much more--entire articles and books have been written on this topic. These are just the ones that came to my mind. Here’s an article on unintended consequences from the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. You can also google this topic--unintended consequences + [whatever law, event or movement you think of]. Or just try inserting the word "google" after that plus sign.

Technorati tags:unintended consequences, Hurricane Katrina

1880 Where's Canada

I used to have an up-to-date World Atlas that left out Brazil, so when I saw this the first thing I thought was "Where's Canada?"

Here's the link for a better view.

1879 Hears cheese and smells blogs

My cat is just amazing. She knows when I blog about cats and jumps in my lap. She doesn't come to the kitchen when I warm up coffee or look for the corn chips my husband has hidden, but the minute I reach for the cheese, she appears in the doorway with that, "You called?" look on her face.

1878 Pushed ahead in the queue

I added a new magazine to my hobbylog today, In the Beginning. I should have made it wait its turn--I have about 20 under my office couch patiently waiting to be added. But I'm sort of fond of Meredith Publishing, although not its best know product, Better Homes and Gardens, so I took Real Life Decorating to coffee the other day, and so it jumped ahead in the queue. I'm also trying to help Chuck set up a blog, and I think this one might fly--he knows how to type and he has something to say. It's a plan that often makes a successful blog.

1877 Just like mother

When my college roommate and I got together in Seattle in 1996 we both said, "You look just like your mother." So we here in the U.S. (and probably Canada, too) look just like old momsy across the pond. If the government tries something and it doesn't work, the solution is to make it even bigger. Melanie Phillips writes about sex education in Britain, and the story is going to sound uncomfortably familiar.

"All the evidence suggests that its sex education policy is a disaster. Britain has the highest rate of under-age teenage pregnancies in Europe. The proportion of 13- to 15-year-olds who are getting pregnant is rising. Sexually transmitted diseases among young people are going through the roof."

So what should be done? Why begin even earlier, of course--with five year olds and compulsory sex education. In education, if it doesn't work, expand the program.

"No sooner will a child have found his or her coat-peg and be measuring up the competition for the climbing frame than some teacher will be rattling off where babies come from. So while many children are not taught to read properly at five — indeed, a disgraceful number can barely read and write when they leave primary school at the age of 11 — they will be given ‘more rounded’ lessons on sex and relationships. Is this not grotesquely inappropriate?"

So the gibberish about relationships and responsibility is just moved down a few years. Oh my. How do you clarify values that haven't even been instilled?

"The increase in sexual promiscuity among children and teenagers is not due to ignorance but to the deliberate destruction of the notion of respectability. Not only are official blind eyes turned to enforcing the legal age of consent, but sex education actually targets under-age children.

Moral guidance is nowhere. Instead, sex education seeks to ‘clarify’ the child’s own values. But children need clear boundaries of behaviour. Treating them as if they have adult values is to abandon and even abuse them."

1876 Why Santa must be a woman

I got a chuckle out of this one. In part:

"Another problem for a he-Santa would be getting there. First of all, there would be no reindeer because they would all be dead, gutted and strapped on to the rear bumper of the sleigh amid wide-eyed, desperate claims that buck season had been extended. Blitzen's rack would already be on the way to the taxidermist. Even if the male Santa DID have reindeer, he'd still have transportation problems because he would inevitably get lost up there in the snow and clouds and then refuse to stop and ask for directions. Add to this the fact that there would be unavoidable delays in the chimney, where the Bob Vila-like Santa would stop to inspect and repoint bricks in the flue. He would also need to check for carbon monoxide fumes in every gas fireplace, and get under every Christmas tree that is crooked to straighten it to a perfectly upright 90-degree angle."

Holiday Junction: I think Santa Claus is a Woman

1875 A multitude of topics

Isn't it strange that after I signed up for Holidailies, which tells me I absolutely must, have to, need to write a blog each day, I dried up. I guess I don't like the thought that it might be work.

I took a lot of notes today, but nothing really appealed. For instance, did you know that guano (bird or bat poop) has 54% protein and only 1% fat, compared to a Big Mac that is 23% protein and 33% fat. I think we do better using it as fertilizer and thus getting those benefits indirectly. Maybe Fear Factor could use this. BioEd I checked a site that sells it for fertilizer, and there is a difference between bat guano and bird guano-- bat guano is high ntrogen and marine sea bird guano is high phosphorus.
Best Quality Available. "Organic Guano Fertilizers add a complexity and fullness to the flavors of any produce."

Also I noticed an item that only 9% of the U.S. public believes the pharmaceutical industry is honest. I wonder what percentage is willing to give up their zocor or prozac, or coumadin, or tamoxifin or any of the other wonder drugs that are making our lives better and fattening our 401K and 403B and pension plans? Bat guano!

Also, the coffee plant Coffea canephora is almost a perfect gene-for-gene match for the tomato plant, Solanum lycopersicum. Coffee bean pizza, anyone? Actually, I'm not too surprised. The human genome sequence is almost 99.9% exactly the same in all people. It's that little .1% where all our differences and diseases occur. God, the designer is also a recycler. If it works, don't mess with it.

I started working on the topic, "unintended consequences," after reading that polio epidemics began because of health improvements in sanitation, like the flush toilet and toilet paper. I'd been noting some as I went along, but then tried the google search, "unintended consequences" + [topic like wind power]. I spent so much time reading the articles, I didn't get my blog finished. Virtually every technological advance and environmental proposal has unintended consequences that change lives. So maybe tomorrow.

For instance, you probably know about the potato famine in Ireland. But before that the introduction of the potato as a family food source made the Irish peasants the best fed in Europe and the population skyrocketed. When the blight killed the potato crop it sent 1.5 million Irish to the other countries, mostly Australia and the USA, and killed another million through starvation. Unintended consequences of introducing better nutrition.