2157 When the children are tucked in their beds

Family Man Librarian gets out a good book to read. And he keeps track of his reading and posts the titles on his blog with LibraryThing, which he'll explain here.

2156 No, we do not need to see this film

Or read the book, for that matter.

"I just read a ludicrous statement by some Christian pastor, calling for all Christians to go to see The Da Vinci Code when it opens. His statement was something to the effect of "Every Christian needs to see this film!" I beg to differ.

No. We don't need to see this film. We all know what is in it. (Especially me, as I have read the screenplay.) It is a movie which begins from the point that Jesus was a fraud. He was not only not Divine, he was less than a man. And His Church is a sham association of meglomaniacal conspirators whose unifying principles are in the oppression of women." Barb at Church of the Masses.

Just say no. Vote with your non-ticket. Check out one of the 105 movies recommended by Sherri and stay home.

2155 Politics from the pulpit in black churches

is a given. We've got a black newspaper in town, and if you've ever looked at it, there are politicians in the pulpit all the time. In a black church in Columbus, OH you can find a John Edwards or a John Kerry or an Al Gore or a Jesse Jackson, and they aren't up there directing the choir or praying for healing of the sick. Civic involvement is the 11th commandment at a black church, and I say Amen, sisters. So why have a group of Columbus pastors and rabbis joined forces to file a complaint with the IRS against World Harvest and Rod Parsley? Yes, World Harvest had a voter registration drive and I think they probably signed up more voters than liberals did, but they also passed out food to the poor, more than the liberals did, and distributing food has become a government job, too. What is this? Pulpit envy?

I've never been to World Harvest, and have only glanced at Parsley on TV, but his organization is HUGE. His is the Wal-Mart Superstore of Pentecostal, crying, hollaring, gospel singing, tell-it-like-it-is churches.
John Kedwards getting blessings from the black pastors in the 2004 campaign

Line between church and state, my foot. This really stinks. Next thing you know they'll say churches can't speak about marriage, or abortion, or gambling because those areas belong to the government and not the Lord. I wonder how many of these 30+ pastors and rabbis contribute to the ACLU?

2154 And I thought our income tax was complicated!

A law passed in Congress in 1994 called the Victims of Nazi Persecution Act of 1994 creates a special right for survivors of the Holocaust. When they apply for federally funded benefits or services that are based on financial need, the payments they have received based on their status as a victim of Nazi persecution are not counted in determining their financial eligibility for these federally funded benefits. This is an exception to the usual rule that counts all income and assets when determining eligibility for programs based on need. Part A of this brochure explains these rules. Part B explains how to find out how much restitution you have received over the years, in order to show how much of your savings do not count in determining your financial need.

This is taken from Selfhelp pamphlet, but the 12 pages of instruction are not legal advice so it might be necessary to contact the specific agency and this group isn't responsible for incorrect information.

Again, can we all say it together through April 15? Why does the government make taking our money so difficult?

2153 Can't you sit like a lady?

One of the Thursday Thirteens I have in mind to write is proverbs, sayings and comments from my parents that have stayed with me over the years. We all have them, even if Mom and Dad died years ago. Oh, maybe it wasn't your parents; maybe grandma, or a friend you admired who sort of mentored you. But they are there, little phrases and sayings speaking out when you need them. Or don't need them and wish they'd go away.

Sometimes I can hear Daddy calling across the living room, "Can't you sit like a lady," but yesterday he was saying it from my memory bank to the lovely young mother talking to me via the video screen/DVD at church. She has movie star good looks, a fabulous voice (I think she said she was a communications and voice major in college), a great sense of humor, wisdom and a presence before an audience that must be natural, because she couldn't be old enough to have developed it from experience or training.

In the final session she is not in front of a studio audience, but supposedly is in her own family room for a wrap up and review. With her Bible, she sits down on her couch, tucks one leg under her bottom, and brings one bare foot up and immediately hikes her knee (she's wearing jeans) up in front of her chest. Sort of casual for talking to a couple of million ladies in Bible study, wouldn't you say? And I think that was the point. . . Ladies, let's get real and personal here was the idea her director and writer wanted to convey.

But I've seen women do that on national television. On Oprah. On David Letterman. Usually they are in jeans, occasionally in slacks, and I've never seen anyone do it in a dress, even if the dress would cover the exposed legs and bottom. Why do women sit that way? My mother's generation didn't (b. 1912). Nor did my grandmother's (b.1876). Sloppy posture and ungainly poses only started when women began wearing jeans and slacks in public (farm women and factory women wore them much earlier than urban women) in the 1940s. They aren't imitating men, because usually only gay guys sit that awkwardly, and I assume they are imitating women.

So from my daddy's lips to your ears and hips:
Can't you sit like a lady?

2152 The ACLU is after the Scouts again

They've got some blogging milmoms they'll have to fight. Blue Star Chronicles for one.

"So, while the ACLU defends NAMBLA they wage war against the Boy Scouts. They maintain NAMBLA is not harmful to our children. The Boy Scouts, on the other hand, are 'bigots' espousing values such as honor, integrity, discipline, self-reliance, participating in the community and helping others."

2151 Olympic thoughts

Badaunt is a New Zealander living in Japan teaching English and she had some thoughts on the Olympic skaters with the fire of passion in their helmets during the opening (truly the weirdest thing I've ever seen and I fully expect some kid to try it). She drifted into her fright from a bacon fire on her stove and some thoughts on teaching English:

"I have become very good at suppressing the occasional urge to shout obscenities. It is a side effect of working in a language classroom, where students who refuse to learn the most basic English will pick up rude language at lightening speed EVEN IF YOU ONLY WHISPER IT, and will repeat it back at you at every opportunity." Badaunt

Another thing children will imitate.

2150 If you film it they will come

Average rate of return on investment by film rating


from interview with Christian film maker Ralph Winter at Religion and Liberty

You vote with your entertainment dollars, not your protests.

2149 How not to marry a high maintenance woman

Since I wrote on How not to marry a jerk, I thought I should give women equal time. A female jerk is a "high maintenance woman," and we're not talking just money here, but time, energy and emotions. They wear you out and exhaust you with their games, chatter, nagging, gossip and whining. Again, I don't have personal experience with this, but I have friends and family who do. I even checked the internet on this one, and when guys talk about this, they usually mean $$$$. Women have a different interpretation, so I had to do some interviewing to write this one.

She might be high maintenance if

• every crisis is about her. When 9/11 happened, she was worried about her trip to NY, not about the victims or the country.
  
• she's never available to help. She wants you and your buddies to help her move, but she can't even hang a towel or run the vacuum at your house.
  
• she only calls when she needs something. You might as well say, "Hello, what do you need now?" when you see her number come up.
  
• she can't save money. Can't be bothered with learning the magic alphabet from 403-b to 401-k.
  
• she's paying off credit card debt at the minimum, and should have that entertainment center paid for in 2035.
  
• she still depends on daddy to bail her out of messes. He and not she has furnished that nice house and bought the expensive clothes, and he's hoping to unload her.
  
• she interacts very differently with others than she does when it's just the two of you.

She's definitely high maintenance, so just cut and run because it is hopeless if

• You've set the date and she's turned into Bridezilla.
  
• the ring isn't big enough, the right color, yada, yada.
  
• she can't rearrange her schedule because of her hair, her make-up, doesn't have the right clothes, etc.
  
• her clothes take up all the closets in the apartment, and yours are in a box in the basement, but you shouldn't be living together anyway, so you're a putz too.
  
• she is always on a diet, or says she is, but you suspect an eating disorder. Food is missing, or she spends a lot of time in the bathroom after a meal. This will only get worse and you'll be paying for hospitals and therapists.
  
• you've never seen her without make-up. Her bathroom looks like a cosmetic counter at Macy's. If she gets a zit, the world is ending.
  
• she speaks in psycho-babble. "You're never there for me!" "We need to talk" is a prelude to torture.
  
• Narcissis could be her middle name, or her favorite flower, but it's always all about her.
  
• she lies, particularly about her ex-, former jobs, sexual harrassment, what things cost, or even the time and temperature if it brings her the attention she craves.
  
• there are many signs that she is overusing alcohol or doing drugs, but you keep making excuses for her behavior, her tardiness, her missed days at work, her damaged relationships because you like feeling like a hero. If you couldn't rescue her, what would you do with your time?
  
• she can't say no to people, particularly her parents.
  
• she is so overcommitted on activities you have to both get out your PDAs to even have a coffee date.
  
• she won't consider your church--its too liturgical or too informal or too big or too small, or too Catholic or too Pentecostal, but she never attends her own.
  
• she doesn't have custody of her children, and misses her child support payments.
  
• she ridicules people who have disabilities, or who are different than she, or who are a different race or ethnic group.
  
• she's a potty mouth. She knows more bad words and dirty jokes than you do. It might be funny now, but think about your future children and the board of directors if you ever go that high.
  
• you are looking for someone to fix, or someone to fix you.

2148 Looking for a good movie

to check out from the library for the week-end, or maybe for Valentine's Day? Semicolon has a list of 105 with a brief review. I'm guessing she's seen every one of them, too.

17. Chariots of Fire (1981)
Chariots is absolutely the most inspiring movie about standing firm for what one believes that I've ever seen.
Eric Liddell: I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure

21. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
This movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1989, and Jessica Tandy won Best Actress. It's about the friendship between an elderly Southern Jewish lady and her black chauffer. Organizer Daughter says it's extremely boring, but I like old people and relationship movies.

25. Father of the Bride (1950)
Spencer Tracy makes a better father than Steve Martin, more twinkle-in-the-eye. And Elizabeth Taylor is beautiful as usual.

32. Gone with the Wind (1939)
Classic. "I'll think about that tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day." "I don't know nothing about birthin' no babies, Miz Scarlett." "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." You just have to get the accent right.

40.It Happened One Night (1934)
Clark Gable is a reporter in this romantic comedy about a run-away rich girl.

55. The Miracle Worker (1962)
Anne Bancroft plays Teacher Annie Sullivan, and a young Patty Duke plays Helen Keller. The scene in which Helen recognizes her first words at the water pump is classic-worth the whole movie.

Well, just look at the whole list. It's fun.

2147 Dianne's so relieved!

"Iraq war protester Cindy Sheehan announced Thursday that she would not run against U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, sparing the Democratic incumbent a high-profile challenger in the June primary.

At a news conference in San Francisco, Sheehan sharply criticized Feinstein for voting to authorize President Bush to invade Iraq." (LAtimes.com)

Like she had a chance. Democrats are not stupid.

2146 Well Dressed Librarian

There aren't very many. And this one is taking a "sebatical" and may not be back! I don't link to him, but have always enjoyed his posts. He's funny, observant, endearingly gay, Jewish and extremely fashion conscious, but is he spelling-challenged? So I checked Google, and over 16,000 hits come up for "sebatical" instead of "sabbatical," which had over 17 million. It comes from the Hebrew word for rest, and the Sabbath is the seventh, or day of rest. Maybe he's not that observant?

2145 Wafting

". . .an odd bread-like, sweet, yeasty smell wafted through the room. Every student in the room involuntarily smiled wryly and said...mmmmm that’s the distillery." (Smithie, an AZ blogger living in KY). Wafting is a sweet old fashioned word that means "a slight or gentle movement of air" and often I associate it with smells, don't you? It is also used with sounds.

Wafting--as I move. I just got out of the shower and am ready for our Friday night date. I'm wearing black slacks and a red velour top with black, shiny spangles (it's Valentine's week-end, you know), and low black heels. And I'm wafting. I smell like a perfume factory, and haven't so much as sprayed a drop of cologne or perfume.

1) My bath soap is a green deodorant bar.

2) I also used a vanilla scented body wash--it smells lovely, but I think it undoes whatever the magic the soap did and it makes the shower very slippery.

3) My shampoo and moisturizer is Aveda which has a very distinctive smell.

4) I used a body lotion after the shower for dry skin (caused by the soap and hot water) and it is perfumed.

5) I brushed my teeth with Crest, minty flavor.

6) I applied an anti-perspirant, also scented.

7) My lingerie smells like a well-known laundry detergent under my elegant outfit.

8) I slathered Merle Norman moisturizer on my face and it is delicately scented.

9) I followed that with Merle Norman foundation (I'm very pale) which has a much stronger smell.

10) I brushed my cheeks lightly with some Merle Norman color, which I'm sure has a scent, but by now my nose was waving a white flag and my eyes were bleeding.

But I'm not wearing cologne. It would be overkill.

odors
fragrances
smells
cosmetics

2144 Long ago and far away

when I worked for the Ohio Department of Aging (1982) I learned that the AARP is really a front for insurance, not a lobby group for the retired. They aren't really representing anyone, 55+ or even liberals, although the organization does lean to the left on political and social issues.

There is an organization for conservative retirees, however, called Sixty Plus Association, and Pat Boone, yes, old love letters in the sand, is one of their representatives. I remember attending one of his shows at Lakeside--a few years before he did that black leather and jewelry routine, which I think he grew out of (or it was all a joke). His voice was unbelieveable.

60+ seems to be against the "Death Tax." "Make no mistake, repeal of the death tax is not, I repeat, not a tax cut for the “wealthiest of the wealthy” as Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) describes it, or as her husband called it, a “windfall for the wealthy.” Both Clintons know their position is a con job of the first order. Both know the “wealthiest of the wealthy” don’t pay this confiscatory tax. Either that or they’re both stupid." Abolish death tax

Yes, this is true. Whenever you hear liberals whining that the rich aren't paying their share, but they will if we just increase taxes (like Friedman talking about raising gasoline taxes to reduce driving, which would probably hurt the poor the most), they ignore that the very wealthy can hire legions of accountants to protect them with all the loopholes Congress writes into the tax law, loopholes none of the the rest of us can qualify for or afford accountants and lawyers to interpret.

For all I know, 60+ Association might be selling something just like AARP. But keep your eye on them. Afterall, do you want the federal government or your grandchildren to get the results of your labor? A bridge to nowhere in Alaska, or a little nest egg for their college?

2142 Do you have hair on your toes?

Well, you should if you've got a good blood supply. If you don't, you might have PAD, Peripheral Arterial Disease. "PAD is a problem with blood flow in the arteries. Arteries carry blood to the muscles and organs in your body. When you have diseased arteries, they become narrow or blocked. The most common cause of narrow or blocked arteries is the buildup of fatty deposits. This is called atherosclerosis. The most common complaint of people who have PAD is claudication."

"Claudication is pain in the calf or thigh muscle that occurs after you have walked a certain distance, such as a block or two. The pain stops after you rest for a while. Each time the pain occurs, it takes about the same amount of time for the pain to go away after you stop walking."

Not everyone who has PAD has symptoms. But look for hair on your toes.

There are two articles about PAD in the Feb. 1 issue of JAMA, "Does the clinical examination predict lower extremity peripheral arterial disease," and "Medical treatment of peripheral arterial disease." Many public libraries carry JAMA. And that's its real title, despite the constant misuse of its old title in all the media (Journal of the American Medical Association).

2142 If you disgrace yourself you can always write another book

"It was sad watching [former President] Jimmy Carter making a fool of himself at the funeral of Coretta Scott King." Larry Zin, reader, USAToday, 2-10-06.

2141 Ashes in the bedroom

A woman wrote Dear Abby (today's Columbus Dispatch) that her widower boyfriend keeps his wife's ashes in his bedroom (which she's obviously using, too). How did I miss that one in my blog about How Not to Marry a Jerk.

Although there's not much chance of marriage here, is there? This guy is such a limp, spineless noodle that he's letting his dead wife give her the message that they have no future together. Maybe he's looking for someone who is smarter?

Some women! Makes me embarrassed. Truly.

2140 Comparing disasters

Perhaps you saw the article in the USAToday (2-10-06) comparing the desire and speed for rebuilding after historic disasters, the Chicago fire (1871), The Galveston hurricane (1900), the San Francisco earthquake (1906), and Katrina (2005). Sometimes I talk back to the TV; sometimes I write the story under the headlines. For this one, I answered before I read it.

It's the government, stupid.

Government aid, dispensed with government incompetency first at the local (mayor Nagin), then state (governor Blanco), then federal level (FEMA), government bureaucracy and red tape at all levels (zillions of pages of laws, rules, regulations, guidelines, codicils, codes, zoning), floating in the muck of a city that should have never been built so low but propped up by government engineers and local levee boards, peopled by a citizenry held hostage through dependency on the government for housing and jobs and medical care, having all their initiative, skills and energy drained dry by the government.

Unintended consequences
Hurricane Katrina
Natural disasters
government policy failures

2139 Don't play with your food

Have you ever said that to your kids? Maybe you're setting a bad example trying to get a free breakfast? I have in front of me a handsome, slick insert from the newspaper that conjoins Holiday Inn, Visa, Home Depot, the lure of a gift card, a coupon, a voucher, four luscious breakfast entrees for "free" and a night in a hotel. And although I haven't figured this part out, the models in the ad would get the worst-dressed retro-1970s award. At least I think that's the last time I saw a guy wearing tight-fitting, brown stripe pants with a lime green floral shirt.

Here's the game plan. In order to get a free breakfast you have to

1) stay at a Holiday Inn--one that is participating in the game, and one that isn't a Holiday-Express

2) you have to book at least one standard room

3) which qualifies you for a coupon redeemable for breakfast (none of which look healthy to me) in the hotel's restaurant

4) but only in the amount of $20.00

5) and only if you've put the room on your VISA card (but that's a bit fuzzy in the wording)

6) and saved a voucher you get only at check-in

7) which is useable if you mail it and the hotel receipt and allow 4-6 weeks for delivery for a $10 gift card to be used at the Home Depot

8) which location must be participating in the bed and breakfast game

9) at which only one of you in that standard room in the non-Express Holiday Inn gets a coupon for breakfast, but the children eat free, if they are under 12 years old

10) and all of which is void where prohibited.

Ohio prisoners may have to do without my Snickerdoodles

Today I decided to bake cookies for the Kairos Ministry for prisoners at the Ross Correctional Institution. The guys going in from the church need 660 dozen cookies. I'll let that sink in. That's probably end-to-end from here to Cleveland in cookies. So I decided on snickerdoodles and found a recipe in my mother-in-law's 1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook. When I was finished mixing I noticed they needed to chill before baking, so I put them in a bowl, and I made a cherry pie for my husband while the dough chilled out.

Later I formed the little balls of dough, rolled them in a sugar/cinnamon mix and put them in the oven. I didn't think I was making them too big, but did only get 25 instead of 5 dozen, like the recipe said. Oh well.

After about 5 minutes I smelled something burning, so I opened the oven, and they were melting! And falling over the side of the cookie sheet, splatting on the bottom of the oven set at 400 degrees. It looked like a disaster of major proportions, so I left them in a few more minutes to firm up a bit and pulled them out, with minimal dough falling on the floor of the kitchen. By this time, I had one huge piece of cookie dough. I kept about 5, and dumped the rest in the trash. They actually taste wonderful, but I would eat every last one. (My husband eats sugar free cookies, and these weren't).

Rechecking the recipe I'll just say I think I didn't notice that last cup of flour. Or it was the ghost of my mother-in-law who really didn't like to cook.