1944 A visit from the puppy

Our cat hissed and ran up to the landing. Meanwhile, the little 4 month old Chihuahua carefully stepped out of her carrier, sniffed and barked. She's adorable. Lots of personality.

1943 Student story is a hoax

A U Mass student reported that agents from the Department of Homeland Security had visited him at home simply because he had tried to borrow Mao Tse-Tung's "Little Red Book" for a history seminar on totalitarian goverments.

"The story, first reported in last Saturday's New Bedford Standard-Times, was picked up by other news organizations, prompted diatribes on left-wing and right-wing blogs, and even turned up in an op-ed piece written by Senator Edward M. Kennedy in the Globe.

But yesterday, the student confessed that he had made it up after being confronted by the professor who had repeated the story to a Standard-Times reporter."

Story here. HT Conservator

Even Ted Kennedy was taken in and commented on it in his column blaming the Bush administration's intrusion on civil liberties. Laura Capps, a Kennedy spokeswoman, said even if the student's story was a lie, it did not detract from Kennedy's broader point that the Bush administration has gone too far in engaging in surveillance. My, that has a familiar ring to it doesn't it--sort of like the forged documents and Dan Rather. The truth doesn't matter--only the assertion that it could be true.

1942 Digging deep, piling high

Repacking boxes is just no fun. My back hurts and I think I pulled a muscle. I'll sit and write for a few moments--a blogrest. I keep finding things I'd forgotten about, but once I find them, I think I should reread them--especially if I wrote it. With lunch today I read an article by Utley (Francis Lee): "The one hundred and three names of Noah’s wife," Speculum 16, 1941, pp. 426–52. I'd printed it out from JSTOR in 1999, read it, filed it with unrelated stuff, and found it today.

Then I came across 8 pages (there was more but can't find it) I wrote in 1990 after attending a program on libraries and literacy. It was in preparation for the 1991 White House Conference on libraries and literacy. In 1990 I was still a left of center liberal and a Democrat, but I was obviously puzzled that librarians, with all they had to do, were taking on the responsibility for literacy, which clearly is a job that has been assigned to the schools. Reading through it, I see not much has changed--except computers and internet access. Now librarians teach the public computer literacy.

"Librarians have created every imaginable network, coalition, association, and service organization to lure people into their libraries, but they haven't been able to keep libraries in the schools, not even with all the dues we pay. We can't even get a librarian appointed as the Librarian of Congress."

"On October 1 (1990) the Wall Street Journal reported on the drop in literacy among school age children--even those whose mothers had spent hours reading to them as pre-schoolers. Children are too busy to read because of all their outside activities, no one converses with them, and they have developed two minute attention spans through TV and videos, concluded the article. So what is my public library offering this week? Four different programs using movies, three for pre-schoolers and one for elementary age, and three different craft programs for Halloween. Librarians didn't know how to lick the competition for children's time and attention, so they joined the opposition."

"One of my concerns as an academic librarian is not that my students are illiterate, in the sense they can't read, but they don't seem to be book literate. I use our Closed Reserve material heavily for answering reference questions. For example, I pull off a book on feline medicine to answer a question on anesthesia and hand it to the student. She eagerly begins leafing through it. I gently stop her. "Here, let me show you how to use this. Here is the index; look up the surgical technique or the name of the anesthetic. Here is the table of contents; it will show you how the book is arranged. See these little numbers? They will refer you to more things you can read at the end of every chapter." And I am surprised each and every time I hear myself explaining to a college graduate how a book is put together."

". . .libraries will be killed off too if they don't put the brakes on seeing themselves as the social change agent for the nation, believing: they can correct what the churches did wrong; they can teach what the schools didn't; they can prevent what the social workers missed; and stop what the government couldn't. . . Librarians will do more good in the long run if they leave Mapplethorp to the cultural arts commissions and instead see to it that a child can check out material on photography to become the best photographer she can be."

I was leaving the fold and didn't even know it!

Librarianship
Literacy
1991 White House Conference on Library and Information Services

1941 Mrs. Felker's Sunday Coffee Cake

Friday night we went out to eat with Joyce and Bill and then we stopped here for dessert. Joyce presented us with a lovely wrapped loaf coffee cake which was nice. However, when I opened it Christmas morning and had a taste, I was pretty sure I recognized Mrs. Felker's coffee cake from the drug store in Mt. Morris, IL. Both the Felker's and Zickuhr's Drug Stores had lunch counters managed by the wives of the pharmacists. They were the after school hangouts for the high school kids and the Monday morning quarterbacks. They were wonderful pieces of Americana, now gone. I worked at Zickuhr's in high school and during college breaks, and I think one of my sisters worked at Felker's.

I put together a family cookbook in 1993 for a family reunion ten years after the death of my grandparents who had been married 71 years when they died in 1983. Each member of the family was asked to submit a recipe with a brief comment. Some contributed more than one, some not at all, but my sister-in-law submitted "Mrs. Felker's Sunday Coffee Cake" because she had worked there at one time in the 1960s and knew how popular it was. I've only made it once, for a wedding breakfast, and it truly is the most delicious coffee cakes east of the Mississippi. I'll ask Joyce the next time I see her, but I'm pretty sure this is it.

Sift together:
2 cups sifted cake flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
Cream well:
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 sticks of butter
Add, beating well:
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix in by hand:
1 small carton of sour cream
Set aside:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Topping mix:
6 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa
2 1/2 tsp. butter

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Grease and flour an angel food pan. Spoon in half of the batter. Sprinkle with 1/2 of the topping mix plus 1/4 cup of chopped pecans. Spoon on remaining of batter and the rest of the topping mix, plus 1/4 cup of pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes.

This coffee cake was a regular feature at the lunch counter on Sunday mornings at Felker's Pharmacy in Mt. Morris, IL before it was removed.

1940 Face Recognition needs some tweaking--I hope

MyHeritage.com has a face recognition site where you can be matched with celebrity photos. It thought my husband looked like Hilary Clinton (when he was in high school, had red curly hair and weighed 120 lbs.) and that in 2003 I looked like the young Britney Spears when I had medium blonde hair. But in a 2004 photo when I had longer brown hair, my celebrity face was Yasser Arafat! If it is measuring face maps for genealogical purposes, it is quite a distance from Arafat to Spears! So I tried a third photo and got Kim Jong Il.

I Googled Mr. Kim and found this out: "Say what you like about Kim Jong Il's appearance -- at least it's distinctive. Absolutely no one in North Korea ever has to ask "Who's that squat little man in the glasses and khaki windbreaker?" Also, there's his signature hairstyle. The dictator artfully conceals his diminutive stature by wearing platform shoes and whipping his hair into stiff peaks. So what if the autocrat feels a little self-conscious about his height? That's understandable -- he's only 5'2". Napoleon was four inches taller. . ."

I tried a fourth photo and got Harry Belafonte. So I sent them some feedback. Four different ethnicities?

HT Daddy's Roses.

1939 A glorious Christmas morning

We were communion servers this morning and that is always such a privilege. There was only one service instead of four (there were probably 10 or 12 last night), and it was quite full. It is so wonderful to hand the bread and wine to a person who comes to the rail looking like he is at death's door (and aren't we all?), and see his face light up with peace when I say, "The body of Christ given for you," and my husband then says, "The blood of Christ shed for you." Particularly the elderly seem to really understand the gift--many can't kneel so they just stand and smile. Perhaps you need a lifetime of thinking about this.

When we were putting on our robes in the back room, the lector, who had to read the OT lesson (Isaiah 52:7-10), the NT lesson (Hebrews 1:1-9) and the Gospel (John 1:1-14), said, "I've been doing this since 1963 and I still get stage fright (although he used a much more colorful expression dealing with bodily functions).

And Tony Gonzaga sang "O Holy Night," and that's worth the trip in the rain and cold right there. Our choir loft is in the back of the church, but he could have been three blocks away and we would've heard him. And we got to sing out of the hymnals which only happens about once a year (screens have words but no music), and say the Nicene Creed, and hear the liturgy. Yes, a lovely Christmas morning.

1938 We think she's the one

After a year of grieving the loss of her beloved Chihuahua (who lived about 17 years), our daughter and son-in-law visited a 4 month old at the breeder's home, and decided she's the one. They were not getting their hopes up--were waiting to see her and interact. Here she is. They'll pick her up tomorrow.

1937 Is Detroit differently abled?

Detroit's handicapped stickers, placards and hanging tags are on the increase causing a serious problem for handicapped finding parking places, according to this article in the Detroit News.

"The number of drivers with disability license plates, placards or free-parking decals jumped 17 percent from 2000 to 2004, while the state's population grew only 1.8 percent, according to the U.S. Census. Today, more than 10 percent of Michigan's 7.2 million drivers have a disability designation. The Secretary of State runs the program."

Disability advocates say the causes include growing over-65 age group which grew 10 percent from 1990 to 2000. . . African-Americans and Hispanics nationwide have higher rates of disability and 82% of Detroit residents are black and the city's Hispanic population is growing. . . 33 percent of residents live in poverty and nearly 30 percent of Detroit's workers are employed in the manufacturing, construction and transportation/warehousing industries which tend to have higher rates of injuries.

I might add, if you build them (handicap accessible parking spots) they will come. I don't know how it's done in Michigan, but I know relatives and friends of disabled or elderly people who have the tag and sticker because they supply the transportation. Many disabled people don't drive at all because they can't see or use their arms, legs or hands well enough to drive. However, their drivers don't use the service just when the relative or friend is with them, but all the time just for the convenience of getting a parking place close to a restaurant or shop.

HT to Perry Peterson, another retiree blogger.

1936 Outsourcing education

While I was Christmas shopping this week I noticed that all the labels on sheets, blankets, and towels at Macy's were from India and Pakistan. Global competition isn't new, but it did make me remember what a healthy textile industry we used to have in the United States. It isn't my intention to research this topic right now because I'd be in way over my head trying to sort out NAFTA, improved technology, role of unions and environmental regulations, and trade agreements, but here's a site for North Carolina that does present some positives and negatives in the textile industry.

What I did sit up and take notice of was an article in Kiplinger's about outsourcing math and science tutoring to India. Growing Stars is a California based on-line tutoring service which uses Indian tutors with American English accents. They charge $20 an hour, which is about half the rate you'd pay if you used a homegrown math genius for Susie. Smarthinking in Washington DC also uses foreign tutors from Chile, India and the Philippines who were educated in the United States.

1935 Vince Morris returns to Columbus

Didn't know he left--didn't know he existed, but now he's back and playing at the Funny Bone at Easton Town Center (I also didn't know that our comedy club had moved--I'm so behind).

Anyway, it is reported that he will have material on everything from ignorance and self-respect to hip hop, and he's thought provoking, but not preachy.

Big deal. So's my blog. Well, maybe I'm just a leeeetle bit preachy and I'm hip-hop-lite, but I'm all that other stuff and no one will pay $15 to see me blog.

1934 Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?

That sad old hillbilly song may have to be updated.


It is reported that Kenny Chesney told Life in October that the break up of his marriage to Renee Zellweger was "like opening the door of your house and having someone come in and take your big-screen TV off the wall during the big game, and there's nothing you can do about it."

My toe is tapping along with the keys, but I haven't quite got the tune.

1933 Dear Donna Sapolin

Actually, I may address this letter to Laura Dye Lang. Ms. Sapolin is the Editor-in-Chief of Home and Ms. Dye Lang is the Executive Editor. Magazines have the most bloated titles you've ever read, but that's another blog. This one isn't about that, but is about a suggestion made in the January/February 2006 issue, a suggestion I'm seeing more frequently as print magazines have tie-ins with their websites. So here's my draft:

I see you tell your readers to go to their local library to use the internet to set up a free e-mail account and then visit your website to get into a contest for free giveaways.

As you at Hachette Filipacchi Media well know, these giveaways aren't "free" for your company. Neither are libraries. The library staff will have to assist anyone who doesn't understand simple computer functions (using a mouse, pressing the enter key, finding a login and password that works, to say nothing of going through the advice they'll need to even find a free e-mail website, etc.) This could take 15-30 minutes of staff time depending on the level of comprehension or computer savvy of the client. And if they don't have a computer and are relying on the library, that ability may be fairly limited.

Don't get me wrong, the library staff are willing to help, but perhaps if libraries are helping you, you could help them by reminding your readers to support their local libraries when bond issues or levies roll around. You could maybe work in some decorating themes or ideas for homey furniture groupings in libraries."

Well, it needs a little work, but that's what I've got so far. It is in response to this item on p. 18 with instructions for entering a "giveaway" sponsored by the magazine where the details and rules were only posted on-line. "If you don't have internet access, inquire at your local library about how to set up a free e-mail account, and then visit our website. No purchase necessary to enter or win."

1932 A change of menu plans

Did I tell you what happened to my wonderful $26 standing rib roast (it was on special so I bought it about a month ago). When I took it out of the garage refrigerator/freezer Thursday it was soft! I nearly died. Also about $12 worth of chicken. Had to dump it all because I didn't know when it happened. The turkey was rock solid in November--took about 5 days to thaw in the frig and even then had some ice crystals in that bag of gunk I always toss. So I don't know when the freezer died. So it will be a boneless pork roast with cranberry topping for our Christma Eve dinner tonight, which is too bad because my daughter's serving that Sunday (in Cleveland) when they visit her in-laws. Then I'm also having the festive Christmas salad (cauliflower, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, and hard cooked eggs), spiced honey carrots, apple/onion dressing, something-potatoes (haven't decided) and pumpkin pie. I think the nice bread I had frozen will probably be too stale, so I'll have to do a bit of shopping this morning.

I love to get out the china and crystal and silver(plate), and say hello to all the visiting memories of Mom, grandma, my husband's grandmother, my sisters, all of whom either passed down or gifted some lovely pieces, rarely used but always appreciated.

1931 Wouldn't this add to the cost of your couch?

Home Magazine's latest issue suggests buying a $600, 4 megapixel digital camera to take with you when shopping for furniture, then you can send the photo to a friend for instant suggestions or confirmation on your choice. p. 33. If you're that insecure, spend the $600 on an interior designer.

1930 Pieces of string and bad photographs

Years ago I heard a story (maybe on Paul Harvey) about a frugal lady who died. In cleaning out her home her children found a ball of string labeled, "Pieces of string too short to use." We are in the midst of a huge housecleaning and room shift, which involves all our art materials, paper scraps, old references from yellowed newspapers, dried up watercolor tubes, maskoid and gesso that's looking doubtful, old supply catalogs and rusty paper clips. I found a large file box full of photos and negatives that we'd forgotten about because we stored it so well. So I'm trying to sort and pitch. I found one envelop labeled, "Bad photos of paintings." Obviously, my frugal husband's work.

We also traded a small 24" bookshelf for a larger 36" one with our son. Originally, the whole set was ours, but one unit was too big, we thought, and let him use it when we moved here. Now after rearranging, we have room for the larger one, but not the smaller unit. So my husband drove there today and made the trade. After some struggle and maneuvering, we got it past light fixtures and down a turning staircase and set up where we wanted it. As it warmed up from the cold, the entire lower level of our house began to smell like cigarette smoke. If wood absorbs this much smoke in 4 years and has to gas out, imagine what's happening to his lungs, liver, kidneys, skin, hair, tongue, etc. which have been enduring this torture for over 20 years. Sigh. And I took such good care of him as he was growing up.

Disclaimer: he reads my blog.

1929 Instructions for writing to Santa Claus

The Post Office will help here.

If first mistyped this, "Stanta." Which reminds me, I almost got a letter from Stan last week. He wrote a note on an envelop in which he'd placed something and inserted it in the Christmas card. I'm going to save it and put it with the one he wrote me in 1967.

HT Michael, the Library Despot.

1928 The Crunk Awards

This website "Regret the errors" lists corrections in the news--like writing "Jew Jersey" instead of New Jersey, "socialist" instead of socialite and "beef panties" instead of beef patties. The typos get corrected--the media myths that I listed earlier, are just left dangling out there to continue confusing the public.

HT to ACRLog.

1927 A second look at the public library collection

Yesterday I mentioned that there was only one evangelical Christian magazine subscription at our public library, quite lopsided when compared to what might loosely be called the "popular arts" serials. Today I went back and looked at books. There were two titles, both from the early 60s on Lutheranism. Maybe three on Methodists and Baptists, several shelves of Catholicism, and 5-10 each on Amish and Shakers. Except for the Amish books, all looked pretty old just viewing the shelves. I'm not sure what is out there on the history of Lutherans in the United States, but I'm sure something's been published since the early 60s--there have been numerous mergers of synods, if nothing else. Lutherans were pretty clanish and ethnic, so I don't think they had as strong an influence as Methodists (the great awakenings, abolition of slavery, temperance movement, woman's movement) on the American culture. However, this community has one of the larger Lutheran churches in the country and there is a Lutheran college and seminary in Columbus.

Then I stepped into the huge video/DVD section to look at those journals (they are separate from the general content journals) and here's what I found:

Absolute sound
Air Fare (WOSU)
Animation
Box Office
Camcorder
Camcorder and computer video
Cineaste
C.F.Q.
Cinefex
Electronic gaming
Emmy
Entertainment
Film Comment
Film Quarterly
Film Maker
Films of the Golden Age
Gramophone
Guitar Player
Guitar World
Jazz times
Keyboard
Mojo
Hollywood life
Perfect Vision
Premiere
Rolling Stone
Sight and Sound
Sound and Vision
Stereophile
Take One
Widescreen Review

In the other journal section of the reference room there are two Mac and four PC journals, that I noticed. I don't think I'm comparing apples and oranges here. I'm looking at the total serial budget (something the librarians apparently haven't done) and am asking does this breakout reflect the activities and interests of the community, or a few people on the staff? There are two golf titles and three boating titles--and even those seem a bit stunted compared to the popular culture/entertainment titles.

When I was the vet librarian at Ohio State, if I'd purchased one title on dogs and 31 on llamas just because I liked or raised llamas, I think I would have been fired. (Actually, there aren't 31 health or breed journals on llamas--or there wasn't in the 1990s--so this is just hyperbole to make a point, just in case you are a librarian who's a stickler for detail.)

1926 Is there a doctor in the house?

Your house? The December 7 JAMA has a review of "Seventy five books from the Osler Library" edited by Faith Wallis and Pamela Miller, $40, ISBN 07717-0625-1. It's probably too late for Christmas, but perhaps an IOU? The Library is at McGill University in Montreal. The reviewer, Elizabeth Fee, is from the History of Medicine Division of NIH and comments:

"gorgeous book"
"polished little miniatures of scholarly erudition"
"well designed"
"fine quality paper"
"some surprises"
"exquisitely decorated manuscript"
"delightfully illustrated"
"sprinkling of curiosities"
"elegant little essays"

The reviewer suggests that doctors buy it for their waiting rooms as an engaging alternative to People, Time and Fortune.

1925 December 21st, a poem

I posted this two years ago, and here it is, December 21 again.

Christmas will be here in only four days.
House is festive--we found the artificial poinsettia
in the attic with other mementoes of holidays past.
A big roll of wrapping paper--blue with snowmen--and scissors
wait on the dining room table for those final exchange gifts
we’ll take to Indiana, socks for a guy, gloves for a girl.
The decorative shopping bag waits for its next assignment.

Christmas will be here in only three days.
It’s always been a pagan holiday, but now it’s more so.
The cranky ACLU is just spinning its wheels in snow
because not even Christians can make it religious these days.
Mistletoe, holly, evergreen trees, candles, and Santa Claus,
feasting, caroling, office parties, gift giving and shopping.
It’s all worldly or completely secular, therefore legal.

Christmas will be here in only two days.
The early Christians scooped up local winter festivities
in a giant snowball, soft and white, and pronounced it holy.
The godly let the Angles, Saxons and Romans keep their ways.
People do not care who they worship if they have a good time.
Our Puritan forefathers tried to stamp out the revelry.
They were the nay sayers of yesterday, spoiling the party.

Christmas will be here in only one day.
Yes, there really is a new born babe, and a sweet young mother,
and angels announcing to shepherds in the fields, Peace on Earth.
But Rachel is weeping because Herod is killing her sons.
One baby lives on only to die on a cross for my sin,
including celebrating his coming rather than going,
his birth, not his death and resurrection.

Christmas poetry
Christmas customs