2186 Where do vacated banners go when they disappear?

Some go to the library, according to David Niven of the Columbus "Other Paper." If your team or coach is found to have had violations during a season, your tournament appearances are "vacated." Then the disgraced school must remove all displays, references, awards, and banners about the wins.

So what happens to those Final Four or Elite Eight banners? Michigan's went to Bentley Historical Library where librarian Greg Kinney, archivist, keeps them under lock and key. It would seem that all the University of Michigan Athletics memorabilia goes to Bentley, but even clicking around the site, I couldn't find any mention of vacated banners.

Other schools hide them in closets.

2185 Dude, what have you done with my library funds?

When I asked at Upper Arlington Public Library why we couldn't have more Christian magazines and books (one evangelical Christian magazine), I was given the librarian closed loop explanation: 1) they aren't in standard reviewing publications, 2) they aren't in the standard index databases, 3) they are too specialized for a public library (i.e., according to WorldCat other libraries our size don't carry this material), and 4) no one has ever asked or complained about our collection of Christian magazines and books.

Christians do have a view of our culture that encompasses art, entertainment, values, politics, commerce, law, finances, science, family structure, sexuality, and even library collections, but if evangelical authors and publishers are ignored by librarians and their review tools, then these books are not purchased. This is called censorship.

Although I think UAPL has just about the most difficult on-line catalog I've ever used, I did go into it and looked up Michael Moore. Now, I'm not saying he's the antithesis of what Christians want to read just because I don't read him, nor is he the anti-Christ (he's just not that important), I'm just saying here's an example of what we are getting instead of a more varied, reasonable, balanced, evangelical view of what our nation and culture is all about. For this collection, it is "How do I love thee Michael Moore, let me count the copies and formats."

The awful truth. 4 DVD

The big one. 2 VHS, 3 DVD

Bowling for Columbine. 7 VHS, 5 DVD

Canadian bacon. 1 VHS

The corporation. 4 DVD

Down size this. 1 print

Down size this, rev. ed. 1 print

Dude where is my country? 5 print, 1 audio tape, e-book download available, 1 large print, 1 book on CD

Fahrenheit 911. 8 DVD, 5 VHS, 2 paperback

Orwell rolls in his grave. 2 DVD

Roger and me. 4 VHS, 4 DVD

Stupid white men. 5 print, 1 large print, 3 audio books on CD, 1 audio tape

TV nation. 2 VHS

Will they ever trust us again? 3 print

The Yes men. 2 DVD

Someone in the media department is totally out of control or owns stock in Michael Moore productions!

(Disclaimer: it is possible that some of these may be replacement copies--as I said the record is very tedious and difficult to read, but why would you even need a replacement copy with this overload of MM?)

(Historical note: In the early 1970s, I complained that "Little Black Sambo" was being read at the children's story hour, and I was told no one else had ever complained and the children loved it.)

public libraries
Michael Moore
Upper Arlington, Ohio

2184 Middle East Peace

When Shlomo Ben-Ami, author of Scars of war, wounds of peace was introduced on C-Span Book TV today (recorded earlier this week), I think the woman said more Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded to authors of books on peace in the middle east (ala Jimmy Carter) than any other topic, and yet in the past month, the news has been exploding with happenings in that area. So much for the influence of books. Or peace prizes. Or Jimmy Carter.

2183 The problem with advice

You never know if anyone took it. Ladies, can we talk?

Hillary Clinton

2182 Blogging notebook

My spiral bound notebook that I take to the coffeeshop in the morning is about 1" thick, spiral bound, hard cover with an angel pasted on the cover (each one is different, so not all look like this). Today it was used to prop up our glass Frigidaire cooktop (ca. 1990) so my husband could measure the cut out so we can replace it. It has four burners, and one over heats and three underheat. When I cook supper, I start on the super hot one, then move the pan to also-ran, and start something else. The notebook was just about the right size since we couldn't get the back of the cooktop off the counter. Whew. It's really yucky under there. Fifteen years of crumbs and spilled-whatever.

A few weeks ago on Thursday Thirteen I wrote: "5. The built-in kitchen appliance that matches the cabinets will not be available in that style or color when it starts taking occasional naps." Now we can add, "the hole will be 1/2" too small to install it, and you'll need to hire someone to recut it."

If I didn't have a blog, and a blogging notebook, this fascinating piece of information would be lost forever among our other housekeeping details, such as we turned the mattress today, I washed all the bedding, cleaned out the kitty litter, filled the van with gas and mailed a letter to Lynne.

2181 Good people, good results

If he wrote the book on hiring, it wouldn't be very long. He tells me the new hires (bakers) start at $12/hour and get 2 raises a year. He just had an awards banquet honoring his bakers for step-up longevity, one year, five years, seven years, etc. He told me the industry turn over is 90%, but for his people it is 35%. They have to be self-starters, able to work without supervision (work at night), and hard workers. Good people. Good results. It's so simple, isn't it?

hiring
human resources

2180 Today's effort

Last week, actually the last two weeks, I was working on a hockey painting in my Friday workshop that really didn't work out. Looked like a paint-by-number by a 5 year old. Today I tried "Duckling," copying an oil painting by Jay Johnson in the book "Keys to painting fur and feathers." This book has many nice animal studies. But I've often wondered when I use these books why so few cats and dogs and so many parrots and deer and grizzlies? I mean, which are we more like to have around us to enjoy and study? I would love to find a really good "How to paint cats" book with studies that didn't look like cartoons or lab specimens.



My husband has done some beautiful watercolors this week. Because he is an architect he's particularly good with barns, but likes to stretch a bit, and did a nice study of our son fishing off the dock at Lakeside.

watercolor
painting animals

2179 Friday Feast

This is a re-run, according to the list owner, but I haven't done one for awhile.

Appetizer
If you were a color, which color would you be, and why?
Alizarin Crimson. It's bright and transparent.

Soup
When was the last time you went to the doctor, and what was your reason for going?
Yesterday. Annual check up. I'm very healthy, but broad band internet is broadening more than just my horizons.

Salad
What do you collect?
I collect premiere issues of magazines, and write about it at In the Beginning. It is very hard for me to pass a magazine stand.

Main Course
What were you like in high school? Name one thing you miss and one thing you don't miss about those days. (If you're still there, imagine how you'll remember it in the future.)
I haven't changed much since kindergarten. Social. Opinionated. Very good student with A grades. Avoided joining lots of activities, but I played 1st chair trombone and sang in various choruses. Worked during afterschool hours. Dated a lot. Active in church. There is nothing I miss about high school, although it was not terrible, I much prefer being an adult.

Dessert
Pretend you're standing in front of your home, with your back towards your home. Describe the view - what can you see? Trees? Cars? A zoo? Wal-Mart?
I see the other units in our condo complex, which in the beginning all looked alike to me, but now I see wide variations. No matter where I've lived in the last 40 years, there are always repair, service or remodeling trucks parked on the streets or in the drive-ways.

Friday Feast

2178 Redevelopment Trifecta

It's tough to bring jobs to a poor neighborhood. Eric Stevenson's new Wendy's on Columbus' east side hasn't opened yet and he has 300 applicants for 45 positions. It has taken three years and $80,000 in legal fees, according to today's Mike Harden column to get to the March 5 opening.

He had to meet the standards of

• The Long Street Business Association
  
• Mount Vernon Business District Association
  
• King-Lincoln Group
  
• Near-East Area Commission
  
• Olde Town East Neighborhood Association

Snobbery because it's fast food?
Prejudice because Stevenson is a black entrepreneur?
Classism because most of his customers and employees will be from households making less than $20,000.

Imagine if someone was trying to bring a Wal-Mart to a poor neighborhood to provide inexpensive, accessible merchandise within walking distance and new jobs.

Thursday Thirteen Posts

Here are links to my Thursday Thirteen posts.

The last 5 days The first Thursday of 2006, and what I’d done since New Year’s Day.
Parenting Hind sight is always 20-20, isn’t it?
National Popcorn Day Thirteen places or events where I’ve eaten popcorn.
Appliances and equipment Thirteen things that will go wrong.
Prayer job jar It’s on the kitchen table.
13 magazine subscriptions It’s not all of them, but most.
13 cookbooks on my shelves There’s more where these came from, but these have family ties.
13 things I blog about
13 illnesses and conditions
Singing in the choir It's so much fun
My date to the St. Pat's Ball
Thirteen Poems on my blog
Thirteen things about librarians
Thirteen things to write for Monday Memories
13 things about my cat
13 things I absolutely know
13 enjoyable things since last week
Exercises and Excuses
13 things about DaVinci Code
13 numbers about illegal immigration
13 things about our cars
13 things for Thursday night dinner
13 things that puzzle me
13 things we did when the budget was tight
13 things to make the world better
13 Medical studies
13 places we visited in July 2006
13 food and health myths
13 food triggers
13 points about women and finances
13 thoughts and proverbs about money and finances
How to become a sweet old lady
May 3rd 13--painting the master bedroom
Thirteen items on the Thanksgiving Menus
13 American attitudes and beliefs
13 discussion starters
13 phrases I could do without
13 ways to save money for gas

Thursday Thirteen

2176 The Left's Love for Islam

It's a puzzle isn't it, considering that if they were in power, their heads would go first. Open minds often have holes you can drive a small hybrid car through.

"Western journalists and intellectuals' reaction to what the columnist Charles Krauthammer has called the "studied frenzy over the Danish Muhammed cartoons" in the Muslim world is by no means an isolated event, nor should it be a puzzling one. In fact, the Western Left has had a remarkably consistent and predictable set of attitudes toward religion in recent decades. The contrasting treatment of Muslims on the one hand, and of Christians and Jews on the other, reveals the real priorities of the Western Left and their most immediate political concerns." Pieties and Piss Christs

2175 Mashups

It's a good article, well written, beautifully paced, but I still don't get it.

"Indeed, this is one of the paradoxes of the mashup: as the mashup artist busily deconstructs pop’s history, plundering beats and verses from hither and yon, somehow he is putting that history together. After you listen to a few mashups you start to feel not so much that the music has been stolen from its original place as reunited with its story, rescued from the atomized world of pop singles and the segregated landscape of decades-based radio ("Oldies of the ’50s and ’60s!” “Today’s hot hits!”). The Beatles and the Beastie Boys get to play together. How cool is that?"
Culture Makers, "Let's do the mash."

mashups

2174 America's Drug Problem

My husband's high school friend Mickey sent this to us. I think it's going around, but may be worth repeating. He's our age, so your mileage will vary.

"The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question, ''Why didn't we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?''

I replied: "I had a drug problem when I was young":

I was drug to church on Sunday morning.

I was drug to church for weddings and funerals.

I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather.

I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults.

I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn't put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.

I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profane four-letter word.

I was drug out to pull weeds in mom's garden and flower beds and cockleburs out of dad's fields.

I was drug to the homes of family, friends, and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood; and, if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.

Those drugs are still in my veins; and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, and think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin; and, if today's children had this kind of drug problem, America would be a better place."
~author unknown~

Our kids (raised in the 70s and 80s) were "drug" to church, family gatherings, community events, concerts and art shows, but I don't recall they were required to do any service projects for others, but they know how to volunteer when needed. When I was a child, if I was at a friend's house when it was time for chores, I had to pitch in or go home. I never did much in Mom's garden, but I sure did in the Masterson's.

Oops. Blogging is fattening

I had my annual physical this morning (actually it was for 2005, but I never made it in), and the doctor says everything looks good (he had to take my blood pressure several times though because we got started our public library that is totally unresponsive to community needs and wishes). I usually have really low blood pressure, so when it's high he knows to either change the topic or do it over. HOWEVER, since 2002 I've gained 14 pounds, and 12 of that is since September 2003. I started blogging in October 2003. But also, I think that's the date the rec center where I walked in the morning closed for early morning walkers. Still, keeping your weight under control isn't rocket science as I've said maybe a hundred times: eat less, move more.

bloggers

2172 Podium as a verb

If you've been watching the Olympics you may have noticed that 'podium' has been used as a verb, and that has some language lovers upset. Benjamin says that using podium to mean making it to the medals podium has been around for about a decade. He has the story here. Actually, I noticed the snowboarders, but missed the verb.

2170 What will you be doing in 4 years?

There is a quiz in the February 15 JAMA based on data from 11,701 Americans, 50 or older who took part in a 1998 national health survey. It determines your death-risk. It's like golf--you want a very LOW score. I think if you're reasonably careful, and have chosen the right grandparents (my paternal: 88 and 92; my maternal: 87 and 94) you're probably in good shape, if that shape isn't an apple, and if you're not a smoker, and if you exercise.

Later, I found the quiz in the Columbus Dispatch, but don't know if it was complete. I scored 2.

Link to quiz which is free on the JAMA site.

2169 Timeline for the Cheney shooting accident

The Wall Street Journal has published a timeline to help you figure out who knew what when and how outraged you should be. I, on the other hand, have already reported on why and how these things happen. Maleness. Not politics.

2168 Australia will be Muslim in 50 years?

"AUSTRALIA could become a Muslim nation within 50 years because "we are aborting ourselves almost out of existence", a Government backbencher says. . . "There are 250,000 children born each year," she said. "There are 100,000 abortions and 70 adoptions. Termination is more acceptable than adoption." " Story here.

2168 Turn down the volume

At my other blog today I write about the noise level in churches. We've got 10 services, so I can pick and choose by noise level that isn't painful, but what about the children? Read it here.

2167 Jesse Jackson's Worst Nightmare--Ohio's Ken Blackwell

"Right now, Ken Blackwell stands at a pivotal point in American politics. He’s taken an early lead in the race for governor of a state that was key to reelecting George W. Bush and that may well be even more crucial in picking the next American president. Moreover, Blackwell has built his early lead not by tacking toward the center of this swing state but by running on an uncompromisingly conservative platform that’s won him grassroots support from both Christian groups and taxpayer organizations—a novel coalition that makes the old-boy network in his own Ohio GOP as uneasy as it makes the state’s Democrats, who have begun a “stop Blackwell” campaign.

Ken Blackwell has so many people worried because he represents a new political calculus with the power to shake up American politics. For Blackwell is a fiscal and cultural conservative, a true heir of the Reagan revolution, who happens to be black, with the proven power to attract votes from across a startlingly wide spectrum of the electorate. Born in the projects of Cincinnati to a meat-packer who preached the work ethic and a nurse who read to him from the Bible every evening, Blackwell has rejected the victimology of many black activists and opted for a different path, championing school choice, opposing abortion, and staunchly advocating low taxes as a road to prosperity. The 57-year-old is equally comfortable preaching that platform to the black urban voters of Cincinnati as to the white German Americans in Ohio’s rural counties or to the state’s business community." City Journal

Thomas Sowell recently wrote about Blackwell in his column which appears in the WSJ and other papers.Read it here.

Ken Blackwell
Blackwell for Governor