Wishing you a safe and happy New Year

Our friends Tom and Pat are coming over from Indianapolis. The guys have been friends since their teen years, and Tom was the best man in our wedding. Our children are about the same age, and some day I hope to see their son Mike's name on the title page of a novel. Their daughter Rachel teaches in an urban school in Indianapolis.

We'll either go to a movie or a jazz concert--it's their call, then either to Old Bag of Nails or Rusty Bucket--our call--for something to eat, and then downtown to look at the lights, which so far, we've managed to miss. I think there is a Ferris wheel at Skate on State something set up to draw people downtown during the holidays. Hope we aren't too late.

I hope you have a wonderful, healthy, prosperous 2006.

May your investments do well,
your medical visits few,
May your friends be many
and love always surround you.

At least, that's what matters when you're my age!

1964 Why AmVet's won't take TV and microwaves

Am Vets picked up just about everything we put out yesterday--nothing was broken, and everything was in good condition and resaleable at their shop. But they will not take a TV or microwave. Too many poor people already have them. They didn't say that, but take a look at this.



HT Randy who found it at the Christian Science Monitor.

"The Census report also compares, from 1992 through 1998, people's perceptions of whether basic needs were being met. More than 92 percent of Americans below the poverty line said they had enough food, as of 1998. Some 86 percent said they had no unmet need for a doctor, 89 percent had no roof leaks, and 87 percent said they had no unpaid rent or mortgage."

Gee whiz. I know middle class folks who have unpaid rent and mortgages!

1963 Thorncrown Chapel receives AIA award

We had a wonderful trip to visit Frank Lloyd Wright and E. Fay Jones buildings last summer, about which I blogged here. The American Institute of Architects has awarded the Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, which we visited, the 2006 Twenty-Five Year Award for architectural design that has stood the test of time for 25 years.

"The small but soaring glass and cross-braced pine chapel, designed by the late E. Fay Jones, the 1990 AIA Gold Medalist, nestles into an 8 acre woodland setting on a sloping hillside in the Ozark Mountains. It stands 48 ft. with 24 ft. wide by 60 ft long dimensions for a total of 1,440 sq. ft. Its 425 windows, make of 6,000 sq. ft of glass, filter woodland light across its upward diamond-shaped pine trusses to form ever-changing patterns of light and shadow throughout the day and night." AIA Columbus, Dec. 29, 2005.

Approximately 5,000,000 people have visited Thorncrown which is the built dream of Jim Reed, who purchased the land in 1971. When raising money for the chapel, the banks told him that tourists wouldn't come to a glass chapel in his back yard in Arkansas. The Reeds son Doug Reed is currently one of the three pastors at the chapel which is supported by donations. Jim Reed died in 1985 and Jones died in 2004.

Jones's other chapel in the Ozarks, the Mildred B. Cooper Chapel, is also a delight, and one of my blogger links, Hokulea recently visited there for a Christmas service that sounded really special,

"Today the church pianist had a small gathering in her place of employment. She is the manager of the Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel check out the website and catch a glimpse of the gem of our lovely village. The place seats about 100 and was fills with people, most involved with the choirs of their churches. We sang for two hours watching the glorious winter sunset throught the barren trees. It was a delight."

Thorncrown Chapel
E. Fay Jones
Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel
Ozarks
architecture

1962 Why New Orleans failed long before Katrina

New Orleans used to have a thriving African American community, according to this article by Joel Kotkin which compares the paths to growth between Houston and New Orleans. It probably answers my general question in my blog about the robust U.S. economy about why so many cities with entrenched poverty also elect Democrats year after year and keep slipping backward.

“But during the 1960s, the push for economic growth that created an upwardly mobile working class was replaced—in New Orleans as well as most other cities —by a new paradigm that emphasized politics. Political agitations promoted various forms of racial redress, and the rights of people to receive government welfare payments. By the late 1970s, African Americans in many American cities had gained more titular power than they’d ever dreamed of, including the mayoralty of New Orleans.

The new political gains of black Americans were widely regarded as a major step toward an improved social status. This coincided with the rise of a new form of urban boosterism—which showcased downtown renewal districts and insisted that the dramatic decline of city quality of life during the 1960s and 1970s had been reversed in the 1980s and 1990s. Urban elites, including in New Orleans, burbled about the vigor of their cities. Right through last year’s Gallup poll, leaders and residents of the Crescent City had (along with San Francisco) one of the highest levels of municipal self-esteem in the country. That now appears sadly delusional.

The truth is that, rather than improving conditions for average residents of their cities, many urban politicians and interest groups have promoted policies that actually exacerbated a metastasizing underclass. Urban liberals tend to blame a shrivelling of Great Society programs for problems in cities. Observers such as former Houston mayor Bob Lanier have suggested, however, that the Great Society impulse itself is what most damaged many cities—by stressing welfare payments and income redistribution, ethnic grievance, and lax policies on issues like crime and homelessness, instead of the creation of a stronger economy.”

Sadly, the needed tax and business and local government reforms will be ignored and instead:

". . .our urban leaders and their enablers—from rich developers to social agitators—will insist their old strategies are working. The media will likely echo their press releases. This will work only until our cities crumble under pressure, as in New Orleans, explode from within, like Paris, or simply become irrelevant anachronisms at the margins of modern society."

Read the whole article in either html or a pdf file complete with pictures.

New Orleans
Great Society

1961 Remember stories and theater on radio?

Today I followed a link at Jay Kegley’s blog to a free radio site, LibriVox, which provides totally free audiobooks from the public domain. Volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain, and then LibriVox releases the audio files back onto the net (podcast and catalog). Their objective is to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet.

From that site I clicked through several other free audio sites, including old radio theater. "Bookworm" showcases writers of fiction and poetry. Podiobooks.com will feature your book if you are an author--a good way for you to get an audience. FreeAudio.org was featuring The Law by Frederic Bastiat. “The Law is one of the most important books ever written on the uses and abuses of law. While short, The Law has proven itself time and time again to be life changing to those who read it.” I’d never heard of it, but am finding it very interesting. This site seems to feature titles important to liberty and freedom, and includes Frederick Douglass’ autobiography.

You can spend hours mining these sites for novels, short stories, poetry and essays.

1960 Before and After the Clean-up

It may be difficult for you to see the difference in these photos, but let me assure you, except for one small tray (filled with rolled pennies, WWJD bracelet, buttons from shirts no longer worn, a high school ID photo, and pens that don't work) which my husband wouldn't give up, these shelves are now functionally organized.

Before the great clean out

After the reorganization

See the mat board in plastic peeking from behind the shelf? It is now resting comfortably in a flat file, which took days to purge. All the books from the bottom shelf (if we could learn to paint by reading books, we'd be making a fortune, but have instead spent one on books) have been moved into the art studio to shelves that were liberated of old notebooks stuffed with specs that were out of date. Then 15 years of American Artist were moved and are neatly shelved by year and month instead of jabber jibber. See all those cameras? They used to be all over the place, sometimes in a case, sometimes not. Now they have friends to keep themselves company. See those little plastic film containers building pyramids like cheerleaders? In the trash--we had about 50. See the box on top of the shelf. It contained slides which have all joined their slide friends in another cabinet behind those louver doors (the kitty litter is also behind those doors and that artificial floral arrangement is to pretend you can't smell it).

Now on the other side of the room is the larger 36" shelf we swapped with our son, and a few items, like those photo boxes were moved there. This shelving unit contains a lot of reference material--magazine photos, Christmas cards, sketches, etc. Also, loaded carousels for painting reference--probably every barn in northern Illinois is in there. The paintings on the wall are mine--all of Lakeside, OH. A mirror would have been nice, but after getting rid of so much stuff, I didn't want to start buying again.



Well, what do you think?

storage
art supplies

1959 Year-end assessments of the economy

Those of us concerned about the poor will be delighted to read all the year end assessments of the economy. If you were Kedwards people who believed all the sour economic news floated by the DNC during the election of 2004 please know nothing helps the poor more than a good economy--although it does hurt Democrats if they aren‘t in charge because then people aren't beholden to them.

Now that we’re retired on pensions and moving to the bottom quintile again, where we were in our early 20’s, I’m very happy with the thriving economy and am puzzled that liberals who claim to care so much are so unhappy. And it is a mystery to me why the cities with the highest poverty rates keep returning local Democrats to office to run things. You can fool some of the people all of the time, I suppose.

“Remember the 2004 debate over the "jobless recovery" and "outsourcing"? Here's the reality: The great American jobs machine has averaged a net increase of nearly 200,000 new jobs a month this year. Some 4.5 million more Americans are working today than in May of 2003, before the Bush investment tax cuts. The employment expansion in financial services, software design, medical technology and many other growth industries dwarfs the smaller job losses in the domestic auto industry.

Critics of the U.S economic model charge that income gains for workers still have not caught up with the losses from the 2000-2001 high-tech collapse. Now they have. The Treasury Department reported last week that "real hourly wages are up 1.1% versus the previous business cycle peak in early 2001." Workers are now earning more per hour in real terms than they did at the height of the 1990s expansion.” Rodney Dangerfield Revisited in today’s WSJ

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Jan. 2006 reports a very positive picture: "As we begin the 50th month of economic growth this new year, not too much has changed. You can expect 3% growth in 2006 to follow the 3.6% of 2005 -- an excellent showing considering the massive hurricanes, record oil prices and relentless Federal Reserve Board interest-rate hikes. . . The U.S. will create two million new jobs in 2006, on top of 1.8 million in 2005, enough to hold the unemployment rate to 5%. With jobs plentiful, employers will add nearly 4% to paychecks. . . Corporate America's balance sheets and profit margins are the strongest they've been since the 1960s, with only a few industries, such as airlines and U.S. automakers, in trouble."

U.S. economy
unemployment
economic growth
jobless recovery

1958 Mere Magazines

In today's Wall Street Journal Dr. Thomas P. Stossel of Harvard Medical School takes on the hypocrisy of some of the top medical and science journals. Recently, some high profile U.S. journals like JAMA, NEJM, and Science have been caught with their data down, publishing articles from India, China and Korea ranging from cloning to stem cell research to nutrition after heart attacks that would never meet FDA scrutiny in the USA because of the limited clinical trials and bad data. His gripe with these journals' editors is that they quick to criticize the pharmaceuticals (i.e. big business that took the risks) but seem to be blind to the power trail in academe or their own flubs.

"Many [academics] would run over their grandmothers to claim priority for a discovery, impose their pet theory on the field, obtain a research grant, win an award or garner a promotion. . . We exercise our ambitions by publishing research papers in journals."

And he concludes: "If reporters understood that journals are magazines, not Holy Scripture. . ." Oh I love that.

I can't find a free link to Dr. Stossel's article, but here's one he wrote for Forbes with similar information and different details called "Free the Scienctists."

medical journals
anti-business bias

1957 Book Club selection for January

This coming month's selection is "Beyond the River" by Ann Hagedorn. The subtitle: the untold story of the heroes of the underground railroad. The action takes place in Ripley, Ohio, across the river from Kentucky--a free state and a slave state. I'm not far into the book, but the writing is good and draws the reader into the story immediately with setting the scene and building the characters. However, when I read about this era, which according to Hagedorn begins in the 18th century with people who were against slavery and believed they were born to change the world, I can't help think of our current battle between the pro-life and pro-choice forces. What is a life and what is its value. There are many paragraphs that with a few word changes could describe our politics today, where every court nominee depends on what was said about abortion 20 years ago in some clerking memo.

"As news of the Missouri Compromise reached Carlisle, Kentucky, where [John] Rankin lived, and nearby Concord, where he preached, Rankin felt the pulse of his community quicken. He sensed the anger in the hearts of slave owners and the frustration among antislavery advocates when he stood at the pulpit seeking to prove that slavery was as great a crime against the laws of God as murder, and arguing that every slaveholder must free his slaves to adhere to the teachings of the Scriptures..."

Also, I'll need to check my Family Tree database. John Rankin was born in East Tennessee in 1793, and that's where my family's ancestors settled after service in the Revolution (Scots-Irish who hated the British), and I think I remember some Rankins in the family.

1956 Bush book critics

Over the holidays, the President is reading "When Trumpets Call, Theodore Roosevelt After The White House," by Patricia O'Toole, and "Imperial Grunt, The American Military On The Ground," by Robert Kaplan. A talk show hostess like Oprah can recommend anything and the MSM falls all over her. But every time it is reported in the news that the President is reading a particular title, some literary snob jumps in and makes snide remarks about his choices, his ability to read, his grades in college, or his conclusions.

The president enjoys reading biography, history, military science and economics, and Literary Saloon reacts predictably--doesn't think he can read two books, and doesn't believe he is an avid reader. She/He probably believed Kerry's opinion about the worst economy since the Depression. If you hate Bush, you'll believe--or not believe--anything. This summer when he was reading "The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History," "Salt: A World History" and "Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar" journalists and critics were "reading" all sorts of strange things into his choices. Oh yes, and they criticize him for not watching their newscasts. Reads and doesn't watch TV. Sounds smart to me.

But at least "Saloon," the blog of Complete Review, knows what it is: "The Complete Review makes no claims whatsoever to any form of objectivity in its reviews and opinions. We acknowledge that the biases and personal views of the editors colour all aspects of this site." That's refreshing, isn't it?

1955 A wonderful love story

between a brother and sister that will have you laughing and crying at the same time. Read Jake's story about the mysterious Christmas puzzles.

1954 Podcast is Word of the Year

Nathan Bierma who writes "On language" for Chicago Tribune reports:

"The editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have validated the sudden spread of podcasting by naming "podcast" the Word of the Year for 2005.

"Podcast," defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player," will be added to the next edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary.

The word originated as a play on the word "broadcast" using the name of Apple's popular handheld digital music player, the iPod."

He goes on to say that the word "pod" isn't from the Greek, as in "podiatrist," but rather, "The word "pod" began as "cod" in Old English, meaning "the husk or outer covering of any fruit or seed." The 'pod' spelling isn't recorded until 1688, according to the Oxford English Dictionary." No one seems to know why the P replaced the C, but apparently numerous English words meaning swollen or protruding start with the letter P, but let's not go there.

1952 The Travesty of Daniel

Insulting, demeaning programming about Christians wouldn't be so bad if there were anything to balance it. Like a show about an actual Christian who wasn't a ghost or an angel. The new NBC show, Book of Daniel, about a dysfunctional Episcopal priest is supposed to "edgy," "challenging" and "courageous." Yea, and I'm Madonna in a reality show about Detroit. The series is written by Jack Kenny, a non-Christian who describes himself as being "in Catholic recovery," and is interested in Buddhist teachings about reincarnation and isn't sure exactly how he defines God and/or Jesus. "I don't necessarily know that all the myth surrounding him (Jesus) is true," he said.

All you can do is turn it off--not just the show, but the whole channel--or write to the advertisers and let them know you will vote for this show with your non-dollars. Complaining to NBC will probably just give it more publicity. You know how the liberals love to whine about censorship.

1951 Just about packed up

We decided to rearrange and repack and give-away, and I've written about that ordeal here and here. AmVets are supposed to come tomorrow to pick it all up, and we've taken everything to the garage, hoping we don't have to move that car today. And I use the royal "we" here because everything was too heavy for me to carry.

I think there is over $10,000 of drapes in the pile--however, used drapes have no value especially if they've been created for specific windows. And there are size 37 sport coats and suits, an almost new pair of black loafers that hurt my feet, bright fuschia Capri pants size 8 with an even wilder top (what was I thinking?), winter sweaters, Hawaiian shirts, a 20 cup coffee maker, about 50 8-track tapes, pictures in frames, a double bedspread with matching pillow shams, twin bed skirts, two director's chairs, b & w TV, microwave, books, toys, a number of cookie tins nesting, notebooks and paper and pencils, portable typewriter, a tall chair for a drawing table, and other stuff I've already forgotten. Three 40 gallon trash bags of shredded documents went out with the trash pick-up this morning.
Some things were rescued and redistributed--like jewelry from the 70s and 80s to a niece who can reuse the beads in her art, and itty bitty figurines and toys for a friend who makes dioramas. We pulled out a framed photo of the Columbus skyline at the last minute deciding we could reuse the frame.

This is going to feel good when my muscles stop hurting.

AmVets
donations
housecleaning
clutter solutions

1950 Hostile aggressive drivers

are also hostile and aggressive in other areas of their lives and are also more likely to drink and drive, according to a report I heard this morning on drivers from 18-45. I guess we knew that intuitively, didn't we? So when you hear the squealing tires, the horn blaring, and you get the finger, just imagine what his wife and kids are putting up with.

1949 Love cats, and the occasional dog

This is a thought from the writer Anne Lamott, in "Mothers who think," July 22, 1999, www.salon.com.

"If you hang around sober alcoholics long enough, you will hear at least a few of them pronounce that God's will for them is to be happy, joyous and free. I personally believe that this is a bit of a stretch, or at any rate, a very American conviction. My priest friend Tom Weston says that God's will for each of us is to have a life. "And it is up to us to go and get one. Find some work, some love, some play. Taste things. Be of service. Feed the hungry and clean the beaches and clothe the naked and work for justice. Love God, love your neighbor. Help build a world where it is safe to be a child, and where it is safe to grow old. And love cats, and the occasional dog." I think this pretty much says it."

1948 Are there two of you under one roof?

For over a week, we have been discarding, rearranging and repacking our files, books, art work, church records and memorabilia. All so I can move my drawing table and art space into the family room/husband's office which has nice north light. If you have two musicians, or two artists, or two doctors in your house, you will understand the problem. We are two organizers trying to share space. My husband is more tidy, but I'm the better organizer. I can think alphabetically, chronologically or by keyword. But all three mushed together drives me crazy. After he was hitting the home stretch yesterday (I'm not even close), I took a peek. I looked inside a box labeled, "Hawaii and stuff." I found some papers from church workshops of 30 years ago, never looked at after the event; some black and white photos of my husband when he had hair and polyester suits; a 1994 NCARB memo; a 17 year old letter; and some items from our 1985 trip to Hawaii.

When I looked at the boxes and boxes of old financial records, I discovered not only did we have all the cancelled checks, but all the invoices, bills, and statements too. He was too discouraged by my displeasure to even think about another reorganization, so I went to Staples and bought a small paper shredder, and am going through about 15 years worth of bills, etc. I have no idea where the first 30 years are--but apparently I've done this before. I decided to shred them because of all the account numbers. They don't mean anything to me, but with the ever growing number of databases on the internet tracking us, I just didn't want them floating around the garbage dump, or where ever these will finally be buried or incinerated.

Earlier in the month I'd planned to hire my friend Bev to reorganize us, but now see the folly of that idea. We got ourselves into this, and no professional organizer (or marriage counselor) will get us out. But Bev, there is still the garage! It is very tidy, but I can't find anything in it because he organized it.

Here's the polyester suit. I also found the bill for the removal of the two apple trees that show in this photo which happened about 20 years later.

1947 Women can’t take this anymore!

NOW and the Feminist Majority have launched Enraged and Engaged as part of Freedom Winter '06 to stop the confirmation of “extremist” Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. So watch out for some funny stuff because I’ve read through their news items with all the alarmist words, but can find not one single specific thing they can point to--just the usual “call your Senator, send e-mails, send us money, lots of money” rant, rave and hoop-la.

Samuel Alito
Supreme Court
Politics as usual
National Organization for women
Feminists

1946 The Road to Kelo is paved with wheat

"Beginning with its 1938 term, the Court actively promoted broad national authority over economic and social affairs, at the expense of state power. The justices relied on novel and expansive interpretations of the spending and taxing power, the general welfare clause, and, above all, congressional power over interstate commerce. The high point (or low, depending on your perspective) occurred in Wickard v. Filburn (1942), where the Court decided that even wheat grown by a farmer for his own consumption was nevertheless in interstate commerce and therefore subject to federal control. After Wickard, it was hard to see how any activity, no matter how small or remote from national interest, could escape potential federal regulation. The idea that the federal government was a government of limited powers gradually disappeared, with the approbation of the federal judiciary."

As we move toward the Alito hearings, this is an interesting summary of the 2005 Supreme Court and how we got here. "John Roberts will be an improvement, but one vote is still only one vote—which is why the battle over the next vacancy will be so bloody."

1945 A mother's poem for her sons at war

One of the boxes I pushed around today was genealogy, and I found a poem written by my grandmother in 1945. The hand writing was my aunt Marian's because my grandmother was blind. She had three sons in the service during WWII. I've been seeing a lot of service people sending holiday greetings, so here's to all of you who wait for them to come home. You're not alone.

As I sit alone,
thinking back over time,
I recall pleasant memories
that once were mine.

When I rocked two little boys,
One in each arm,
and tucked them in bed
without fear of harm.

A few years later
the third son was there
to occupy his place
in the old rocking chair.

Little did I think then
that the day would come when
they would all be scattered afar
to serve in this awful war.

Poor John fights desperately
to see Germany collapse,
while Howard guards our shores
from those terrible Japs.

Joe Russell will fight on
Till the battle is won,
and the last Japanese
is brought to his knees.

To myself, and all mothers I say,
be patient, and brave,
and never cease to pray
until the boys come home to stay.