2545 More on media mush brains

So, the Globe and Mail got it [see previous entry] but. . .here's a humorous piece by blogger Greg Strange on how this was written up by another Canadian paper.

"As reported in the Toronto Star, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were certainly puzzled. About the terror suspects, it said this: "They represent the broad strata of our community. Some are students, some are employed, some are unemployed." And, said the Star article, "Aside from the fact that virtually all are young men, it's hard to find a common denominator."

Yep, this is a real puzzler alright, but let me see if I can make some kind of breakthrough here. Hmm . . . Now let me think for just a moment . . . Okay, I'm going to look at the suspects' names first and see if I can detect any sort of pattern. I'm seeing names like Mohamed, and Ahmad, and, let's see now-- Oh, there's another Mohammed (with a slightly different spelling), and Abdul, and, well, what a coincidence, another Ahmad.

Okay, I think I'm zeroing in on a clue here. Wait a minute . . .

Okay, I've got it. They're all Muslim! That's the common denominator! Somebody alert the Canadian authorities because this could be really significant!"

2544 The difference between the 2nd paragraph

and the 32nd is the Canadian border. I was listening to Glenn Beck rail against the NYT coverage of the Canadian bomb plot by Islamic terrorists. He couldn't find a word about Islamic anything until the reporter quoted a Canadian Muslim source who said he was relieved they'd been caught. I think it was around paragraph 32--or maybe 28, but it was way down. And then it was a quote. Then a caller to the show from Canada reported that in the Globe and Mail, hardly a conservative paper, it was actually mentioned in the second paragraph. So I looked and here's what I found--although it may not be the same article.

"The ammonium nitrate was delivered. The targets were set. After two years of a stealthily assembled counterterrorism web of surveillance, wiretaps and informants, police were ready to swoop down.

The operation was so complex and tightly shrouded that everyone involved — including all the roughly 400 police officers who scooped up the 17 suspected Islamic extremists Friday and Saturday — had to sign the Official Secrets Act, pledging total discretion."

I guess it all depends on whether Toronto or New York is being bombed. Did NYT get 9/11 and Islamic terrorists in the same story back in 2001?

2542 Will librarians ever think "children first?"

This is so tiresome, it makes me glad my children are 37 and 38, but I sometimes wonder if we're graduating LIS students who are 12.

"There have been multiple stories in the news in the last few months about schools, libraries, and colleges banning MySpace for reasons of bandwidth-hoggery (which in a select few cases could be well-argued) or what's being sold as "safety concerns," "behavior issues," or "user protection." That last one makes me sick when I hear library staff touting it. Physically sick. Why? Because it's censorship. Plain and simple." Librarian in Black

Because it is censorship. You betcha. Bad for bandwidth and she can support that, but not the protection of children. Someone doing cancer research won't get to look up body parts, maybe. No library is required by its mission statement to distribute entertainment free circ newspapers (like my P.L. which has made this a censorship issue) or to promote chat rooms or even e-mail. It defeats their information mission in many cases, if the CRTs near me are any example. Librarians will eventually kill the public library system, I predict, with their leftist gibberish. Not a peep when a librarian is sued for suggesting a conservative book, however.

Have these librarians never strolled through a room full of geezers and geeky kids side by side at computers? Parental control? Who are they kidding? They don't notice the parents who use the library as a free latch key program? Do they go online and check the addresses of the sex offenders? In MySpace they might as well reside IN the library. Do they have such great eyesight they can spot an 11 year old in MySpace pretending to be 20? Or that sweet 75 year old rubbing his privates while pretending to be a teen?

Really. My profession is such an embarrassment.

Monday Memories

Have I ever told you about Aunt Dorothy's Taco Salad?

We're heading into summer so this is a good time to tell you about "Aunt Dorothy's Taco Salad." As a new bride, Aunt Dorothy moved to California near the end of WWII, and never returned to Illinois except for visits. One of my earliest memories is her wedding which was held in our home, and I was allowed to attend. I was probably about 4 years old and was just stunned with the excitement and thrill--I thought she looked like a movie star with red lipstick and nails (although I'd never seen a movie, we had movie star paper dolls.) Later that month my Dad, left for the Marines and our quiet life changed overnight because we soon left for California too, leaving behind our house, friends, relatives, neighbors and pets--my whole universe. She and Uncle Charlie made a home in Long Beach and raised their two boys there. But I saw her from time to time over the years, most recently in 2003, and always enjoyed her lovely personality and cheerful Christian spirit.

High School graduationShe sent me this recipe in 1993 for a family reunion cook-book which I compiled. Of course, I had to try most of them (I didn't do the complicated ones like yeast rolls for Christmas morning) and added my own personal touch for our use. This is her version. I double this for company--doesn't seem to matter much what the proportions are how how many other ingredients you use.

1 lb. hamburger
1 medium head lettuce, shredded (chopped)
1 large tomato chopped
1/4 cup minced onion
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup KRAFT Catalina dressing (this makes it!)
1 1/2 cup mashed taco flavored taco chips
Kidney or garbanzo beans may be added

Saute hamburger as you would for tacos. Drain, set in refrigerator to cool. Mix together shredded lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cooled meat and dressing and mashed chips. Add chips just before serving.

I don't follow these instructions. I arrange all the ingredients in serving bowls and let the guests create their own salad. I don't like the taco flavored chips, so I use the regular yellow or white corn chips, and let the diner decide what to do with them--either put them on the bottom or the top or use as a scoop. I serve the meat hot cooked with the dressing and I use heated Brooks Hot Chili Beans. I put out a cup of sour cream to spred over the top. Shredded cheddar also comes with a taco flavoring. In fact, I've made so many changes, at our house, it is Dorothy and Norma's Taco Salad.

My husband liked this salad so much he used it for some of his week-ends at the Lake with his friends--making about 3 or 4 times the basic recipe. The guys would eat this the entire week-end. That may be why we haven't used it for several years.

Because we hadn't had it for awhile, I made it for our Memorial Day week-end at the Lake with Bill and Joyce two weeks ago. It was good, but not fabulous. Oh well, I thought, I'm probably just disremembering how good it was in the 90s. The following Monday on the drive home, I remembered that I'd left the lunch meat and cheese in the refrigerator at the lakehouse. And then it came to me. I also had neglected to put out the shredded cheese for the taco salad. No wonder it didn't taste, feel or look right.

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taco salad

2541 The Twenty Fifth Anniversary

Intolerance and social stigma, privacy and discrimination, poverty and access to health care. That's what it's all about if you all you read or hear about the 25th anniversary of AIDS is the American primary media. Not much about how a very powerful lobby in the 1980s of special interest groups who advocated for voluntary testing and patient privacy rather than protecting the general public through the usual epidemiological procedures we've used to conquer other diseases. To read the USAToday story, you’d think it was all about poverty, being a neglected minority, and homophobia.

There's been a lot of craziness in this 25 years. Like doctors and dentists getting sued for refusing to treat AIDS patients and doctors and dentists who have AIDS suing to be able to continue in their practice of medicine. And AIDS patients claiming protection under the ADA which was never the intention of that legislation. And all the while, the men having sex with men play the victim while drumming up activism, advocacy and research grants with fund raisers by movie stars and the arts community so they can continue life as usual. Other non-life style diseases limp along with inadequate funding because there's only so much money to go around.

This disease isn't about poverty and homophobia. It started as wealth and self-loathing. It's about a group that loves to live in danger and on the edge. We have this disease in developed countries because an extremely small number of highly promiscuous men, many well-to-do with good educations, had sex with men in exotic locations. Then many of them passed it along to unsuspecting faithful male and female partners, who then passed it on to the children. Yes, eventually there were dirty needles. Yes, there are some prostitutes. Yes, there is homophobia--but mostly that state of mind is among the men having sex with men who refuse to acknowledge what they are (and they call US homophobic?) and spread the disease to their wives and lovers. Like Governor McGreevey who recently wrote a really disgusting book about all his one night stands and affairs with men which he kept from his wife so he could keep his political career. "I knew I would have to lie for the rest of my life - and I knew I was capable of it. The knowledge gave me a feeling of terrible power," he writes. I lead a pretty quiet life, but even I personally know at least five women who found out after years of marriage that their husbands were unfaithful with men--during the heighth of the epidemic in the 80s. And it is rampant in third world countries where women are sexually mutilated in adolescence by cultural custom compromising their health and their husbands are so homophobic, that they pretend they don’t have sex with men.

Here's some cites that you probably won't find in the NYT or WaPo, unless they are buried in the 25th paragraph.

"To avoid social isolation, discrimination, or verbal or physical abuse, many men who have sex with men (MSM), especially young and minority MSM, do not disclose their sexual orientation." JAMA. 2003;289:975-977. MMWR. 2003;52:81-86

"Twenty years after the first report on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in the United States, studies of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and sexual behaviors suggest a resurgent HIV epidemic among men who have sex with men (MSM)." JAMA. 2001;286:297-299. MMWR. 2001;50:440-444

"After declining steadily for 10 years, the number of reported cases of primary and secondary (P&S) syphilis more than doubled in New York City (NYC) from 117 in 2000 to 282 in 2001.1 The increases have occurred primarily among men who have sex with men (MSM)." JAMA. 2002;288:1840-1842, MMWR. 2002;51:853-856

"Of newly diagnosed HIV infections in the United States during 2003, CDC estimated that approximately 63% were among men who were infected through sexual contact with other men, 50% were among blacks, 32% were among whites, and 16% were among Hispanics." JAMA. 2005;294:674-676. MMWR. 2005;54:597-601

"Of an estimated 1,000 MSM in Chicago who stated that they had engaged in oral sex during the preceding 60 days, more than 75% never used condoms for either oral insertive or oral receptive sex (CDPH, unpublished data, 2003). Oral syphilitic lesions disrupt the protective epithelial barrier and recruit HIV target cells, increasing the risk for HIV transmission. Although oral sex might carry a lower risk for transmitting HIV than other forms of sex, repeated unprotected exposures, especially in the presence of syphilitic lesions, represent a substantial risk for HIV transmission. Syphilis might also increase progression of HIV disease." JAMA. 2004;292:2459-2461. MMWR. 2004;53:966-968

“Recent estimates of HIV diagnoses suggested a leveling of the downward trend in HIV infections nationally and increases in HIV infections among certain populations.2 Reports of syphilis outbreaks and increased unprotected sex raised concerns regarding increases in HIV transmission among men who have sex with men (MSM).” JAMA. 2004;291:417-419. MMWR. 2003;52:1145-1148

"Evidence suggests that since highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) became available, the prevalence of unprotected sex and the incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have increased." JAMA. 2004;292:224-236.

Safe sex won't save us; compassion and fund raisers won't either. But sensible epidemiology and public health measures might have.

HIV/AIDS
Men who have sex with men

2540 I know nothing about Haditha

But I know a lynch mob when I hear, read, and see one. I've started changing the channels because each report is based on the same no-information. You've heard one, you've heard it expanded.

"Who. What. When. Where. Why. These are the fundamental questions of good reporting. Apply them to what is being presented by the major media about Haditha, and see how very thin factually is the reporting. Speculation, instead, leads, with comments by those with no special information, surrounding small snippets of leaks from those on the periphery of actual involvement or investigation, any cautions quickly passed over or relegated to the end of the “story.”

Regardless of where the truth ultimately is, at this point the major media’s treatment of Haditha is little more than a literate lynch mob in a rush to judgment."

Continued at Democracy Project here and here.

2539 The CBS Sunday Morning Show

I had intended to give my readers a head's up about the CBS segment this morning, because Marilyn, one of the shopkeepers at Lakeside, stopped by our table Friday evening and told us there would be a rerun (it ran on July 3, 2005). I just check my stats, and I had at least 10 hits in about 2 hours searching the topics Lakeside, or honor system or some combination. Since I'd also written about the yard sales last week-end some of which used the honor system, those also got some hits as well as the item in the July archives. When it first ran last summer, the director got phone calls from all over the nation from people who remembered vacationing there as children and wanting to reconnect.

I didn't see it this morning--the choir sang at 3 services, but it's a neat segment.

Check here for information on Lakeside.

2538 New Wal-Mart Super Store

The Lakeside Coffee 'n Cream wasn't open this week-end (season hasn't started yet), so this morning I drove out to Bassett's for my morning coffee (it's a lovely store with a great coffee shop). As I was parking, I glanced over at the Wal-Mart because I had planned to stop there later. It was gone! Not the building, but the store. I don't know why I didn't notice it last week. So I asked the coffee shop clerk, and she said there was a new Super Store a mile down the road. So I visited there after I made a few purchases.

I walked up and down the aisles finding things I didn't know I needed. Then I saw something in ladies' lingerie that just amazed me, but did answer a few things I'd been wondering about. Low-riding, hip-hugger knee-length girdles. Think about that. If a woman needs a girdle to squeeze into her low slung slacks or hip hugger jeans, and the shirt short, that girdle is going to push her belly up and over, isn't it? I'm just saying, where's a gut going to go? I thought they just had a rollover when I saw that, but now I know they had help.

2537 The Bravest President

Tonight I listened to Richard Land on radio compare George W. Bush and Harry S. Truman. But first he quoted from this article by Michael Novak who said "after Washington and Lincoln, Bush is the bravest of our presidents." Now, he doesn't say greatest, wisest, smartest, or most fluent, but bravest.

"On the number-one issue facing the nation—the war declared upon us by fascists who pretend to be religious—he has not wavered, he has not bent, he has stayed on course and true.

In Iraq, civil society, nearly comatose under Saddam Hussein, is today alive and full of vitality. Newspapers and television and magazines are full of diversity and energy, political parties multiply, private associations are functioning by the thousands, most of the country is more secure than some American cities. Iraqi exiles from around the world, far from fleeing, are coming back in droves."

He will be vilified even more this week for his support of the marriage amendment.

Land say Harry Truman put into place the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO--the machinery needed to fight international Communism. He made the tough, unpopular decisions--like getting us into the Korean War. His approval rating was 26% when he left office in 1953. Fifty years later he is considered one of the greatest Presidents of our country, and Land thinks he is the third most consequential after FDR and Reagan. But when he left office he was vilified. Land thinks Bush was the first to see that we will be in a very long battle with Islamofacism, and in 50 years people will look back and marvel at his foresight. Bush isn't concerned by the polls or popularity, says Land, and neither was Truman.

Land's web page.

2536 What starts with C?

I saw this over at Send Chocolate--write about 10 things that start with the letter C. She didn't tag me, but I'm ready for a nap, so here goes.

C is such an excellent letter and has to work very hard with several different sounds, such as K and S and CH. Imagine a concrete cellar chute. I couldn't decide if I wanted adjectives or nouns, so I used a little of both.

1. Christian faith. And I'll toss in here church family, church attendance, church service--because it's a package deal. I blog about this at Church of the Acronym.
2. Cherished family and friends. Husband, kids, siblings, their families, new friends, old friends.
3. Collection of books. A house full. And libraries too, of course.
4. Condo community. We love our "new" place--moved here 4 years ago, and still seems new.
5. Choices and challenges. Retirement has been much more fun than I thought. I haven't missed working at all, even though I loved my job.
6. Choir practice and concerts. This is totally new for me--we made a CD this week.
7. Church volunteer opportunities. Gets me out and about--keeps me from becoming too self centered.
8. Cat on my lap. She's a sweety. Nothing is more relaxing than watching a cat take a nap.
9. Computer creativity. Love to read and explore. Have 8 blogs.
10. Creek in the back yard that attracts ducks, birds and deer. What a lovely view.
11. Contentment with my life.
12. Constitution of the United States. It's just awesome. Amazing that they could have created something so sound, yet flexible.
13. Comfortable lifestyle.
14. Couch potato. Yes, I do a bit of that. Like to nap with the TV on. With the cat.
15. Convictions. You betcha. They're all here for you to read.
16. Chronicles. I print out my blogs. Don't trust pixels.
17. Capitalism. It has its flaws, but provides the best for the most.
18. Chautauqua. We have a summer home Lakeside, OH, a chautauqua community.
19. Chocolate peanut butter ice cream for dessert tonight on the deck while the
20. Cottonwood trees are blowing their seeds all over our ice cream.

If you want to play, I think the instructions were for 10--I got carried away. Consider yourself tagged.

Friday Family Photos

My parents' wedding day, 1934

Their 65th anniversary celebration, 1999
The oldest of God's institutions (Gen. 1,2) is marriage, and its choicest blessing is children, described in the Bible as God's gift. Children exist not only for their parents; but parents also for them--for physical support and, above all, for careful nurturing for moral, mental, and spiritual imprint. Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics.

Now here's a no brainer

"Female genital mutilation, which is practiced in several countries and estimated to affect more than 100 million women worldwide, adversely affects obstetrical outcomes, according to a report in the June 3rd issue of The Lancet." Reported at Medscape.com

2533 Sometimes it's better not to post

your firing on the internet. Could come back to bite you. E-mail announcement here.

2532 The Muirfield Memorial Tournament

is all the talk around here this week. My husband and son were supposed to go today, but something got messed up with the tickets. In honor of all the slicing, hooking, topping, shanking and chunking golf crazed addicts who read this blog, I submit this book that I found for 50 cents this week at the library book sale. . . apparently donated by someone who fell off the wagon golf cart


It is written in the 12-step style--you know the drill, admit you are powerless, believe a power greater than yourself can restore your sanity, (I hope I'm not offending anyone who has to attend a meeting tonight), made a decision to turn your will and your life over to the pursuit of something other than golf. . .

"No one can spam God with pleadings to be granted the gift of length, accuracy, and touch, and expect to wake up one Sunday morning, skip church, and go out and set the course record. Tour professionals can play the game because they are freaks of nature, and they pray every day for God to keep them in this mutated state." p. 191

2531 Yes, your dog will bite

All dogs will bite if they sense a threat or if provoked. Your problem as a pet owner is you aren't a dog and don't see or smell or sense what they do. You do not perceive a small child's behavior and movement the way a dog does--as prey. Most dog bite situations have several things in common: 1) owner is likely to be a male adult or teen, 2) who owns a young, intact, male dog, 3) who bites a young male child, and the dog is most likely a member or a mix of one of these breeds, pit bull, Akita, Rottweiler, Doberman, Chow, German Shepherd, Huskie/Malamute type and Doberman.
Dog bite, eye

Dog bite, lip

Today's WSJ has an article about pet owners putting up a fight about breed specific insurance restrictions and local codes. This isn't new. I remember many articles in the breed magazines (veterinary library) even 15 years ago about this. What is new, I think, is that more people believe pets are "part of the family" with the same rights to freedom and choice that people have. Their dogs are definitely of greater value than your child. Restricting any behavior--even pooping in the neighbor's yard--is now considered "discrimination" by many self-centered, obnoxious, dangerous dog owners. What? Read a book or take a class in dog control and behavior modification? You've got to be kidding--I've got my rights, yadda, yadda.

Love your dog; but give it dog love, and save the people love for people. Keep a leash in your house and when visitors come and the dog goes insane with barking (realizes a stranger is in his territory and a threat to the peace), leash the dog out of sight in another room. Neither your guests nor your pet should be subjected to such upset. And you won't look stupid shouting NO NO BAD DOG at an animal who obviously doesn't understand English.

I've talked about this before.

Thursday Thirteen about cars

Kiplinger's Personal Finance (May 2006) says the average American household will buy a total of 13 vehicles. Seven are purchased after the head of the household turns 50. So that put me to counting. We've had more than 13, but here are what I'll call family cars--and that works out to 13:

1. We started married life in 1960 with a 1951 Oldsmobile 88. This car used to stall at intersections in Indianapolis and I'd get out and open the hood and jiggle something to get it going, occasionally with a push from the next guy in line. Just Married 1960, 1951 Oldsmobile
2. Dad said the tires were worth more than the car, so when the steering went bad we gave it to him (he'd bought the tires) and I think we just had a bicycle for awhile. Then we got a cute little used black Renault. I found a restored 98 Olds on the Internet for $75,000.

3. After the Renault we bought my mother's 1961 or 1962 blue Comet, which up to that time had been a perfect car, but then turned into a lemon. Don't buy automobiles from relatives.

4. Our first new car was a deep blue 1964 Volkswagen. It was on a cool fall morning the first week we owned it we discovered in Wisconsin that the heater wouldn't turn off--and the day became very warm as we returned to Illinois. I was pregnant--not a happy camper.

5. I promised I'd get a license if we got an automatic (hadn't driven since the Renault), so we bought a light blue Plymouth sedan that was about as plain and basic as a car could be. After we moved to Ohio, my brother came from Illinois and drove it back, and eventually it became my aunt and uncle's car for many years.
1965 Plymouth sedan, visiting in Indianapolis
6. It was replaced by our first (and only) luxury car, a 1969 4 dr. Oldsmobile (used) very dark green, almost black, purchased from my husband's employer--it had all the bells and whistles--even an 8 track tape deck, and we put two baby car seats comfortably in the back. The only photo I could find was lifting the Christmas tree out of the trunk.

7. Our little brown 1974 Ford Pinto was our first "second" car--lots of fun to drive.

8. A beige 1977 4 dr. Buick sedan replaced the Olds. When we were shopping, my husband wanted a sportier 2-door. I looked at our little guy and said, "The kids are going to be big some day, I think we should get a 4-door, because it will be hard to stuff them in the back seat." And I was right, because he was over 6' and our daughter was 5'8" by the time we traded it. This is the car in which our kids learned to drive and get into trouble even though it was a really boring sedan. "Our life is so beige," my daughter complained. (Also had a cream colored house and company car.)
Our 1977 Buick after a snow storm
9. In 1986 I replaced the 9 year old Buick with a 1983 (or maybe 1981) maroon Buick 4 dr. Skylark which had all the luxury options, plush unholstery, sound system, etc. Possibly the most comfortable sedan we ever had, but being a used car it had some mechanical problems.

10. Which gave me an excuse to buy my dream car--a 1987 red Mustang, which I had wanted lusted after since my brother bought one in 19631964 1/2. I had a tenure track job at the university and was wallowing in empty-nest grief--so I deserved some happiness, right? However, the night I drove it off the lot it rained buckets, and I discovered that the Mustang model had no gutter around the door frame so if you opened the door after a rain (and it rains a lot in Ohio), you got soaked as the water sheeted off the roof. I hated my dream car, and because it was low to the ground, it also just killed my back. Couldn't wait to unload it.
1987 Mustang in same location as the 1951 Olds photo. See how much the trees grew in 28 years

11. I fell in love with my Plymouth mini-van, white, used 1989, and never looked back. The seats are exactly right for me, and I've tried other vans and SUVs. I sold the Mustang to a lady in Worthington looking for something cute for her teen-agers to drive to school. I think a week or two later they wrecked it.

12. Traded the white van in 1994 for a 1995 green Dodge mini-van, which I drove until the air-conditioning died in the very hot summer of 2002 and we were expecting company. Its age and mileage didn't warrant the repair costs.

13. Traded the green van for my 2002 silver Dodge mini-van, which I still love.

We had several company-owned cars which we drove as a second car--a brown Audi, a cream color Ford Fiesta, a beige Nissan Sentra. A car for personal use is absolutely the best perk you can have because all we did was pay for the gas (tax laws may have changed, but you didn't report it as income). The Fiesta and the Sentra we eventually owned. Then when my husband started his own business in 1994, he leased 2 different Ford Contours (both a shade of beige), then bought a 2000 Ford Explorer which he still has.

During all these years, with the cars we owned, or drove as a company car, or leased, we've had only one accident. My husband rear ended someone in one of the Contours in the mid-90s--minor damage, but the high pitched squeal from the alarm damaged his hearing because he couldn't get out of the car and the air bag smacked him around a little. Still, not a bad record for two boring, beige people.

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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vintage automobiles

2529 Dan Brown's Truthiness

Rodney Clapp in the May 16 Christian Century writes about the errors in Da Code. It's not a journal I regularly read (too liberal most of the time), but I thought he had some good points. Be careful--this may hurt some conservatives' feelings.

1. The book is written like a movie script.
2. The characters have no inner dimension.
3. It's designed for tourists.
4. It is the striptease of truthiness--the seductive solving of obscure and opaque puzzles.
5. Resembles the "Left Behind" series which decodes the Bible through dispensational theology.
6. Plays to a culture that stays close to the surface--a sand castle on the beach that will erode and melt from view.
7. People most drawn to Da Code tend to be ex-Catholics.
8. The anxiety and urgency of the post 9/11 world made it easier to tap into fears of dungeons and theocracy.
9. As a novel, it is a cop out--the hero never locates proof.
10. Brown's claim to doing research--39 books--is nothing in the academic world. [I used that many for just a journal article in library science.]

DaVinci Code
Dan Brown

2528 Let's have pizza tonight!

At the library today I was reading a history of the pizza industry/craze in the United States, so I think we'll have take out tonight. No other foreign food has ever immigrated so successfully. It first really took off about 60 years ago in the midwest--and I was there, reluctantly. The first time I ate pizza was in 1955 or 1956 on a date with a tall, dark and handsome Italian-American whom I met because we both played trombone. I think he wanted to really impress me so we went to an Italian restaurant in Rockford (40 miles from my home, so counting the distance from Oregon to Mt. Morris, then Rockford then back, then to Oregon, he must have driven close to 100 miles round trip for that pizza). I was aware of two condiments--salt and sugar. I'd never tasted oregano, or garlic, and probably had never had any cheese other than Velveeta. I didn't even know how to eat it and asked for a fork--embarrassing him I'm sure. Leonard, where ever you are, forgive me. I love pizza now. I'm sorry I didn't believe you.

The second time I had pizza I was a freshman in college at Manchester in Indiana in 1957, and a carload of us went to a restaurant in the next town (getting out of North Manchester was excitement in those days), and they all ordered pizza. Being weak willed, I went along. It didn't seem to taste too bad that time. And it wasn't the beer--I still have never tasted beer because it smells like rotten grain.

By the time I had my first big date with my husband in 1959 at the University of Illinois, he took me to a restaurant in Urbana after a dance. I thought pizza tasted pretty darn good that night (maybe it was love?). However, in the intervening 4 years, I think the fat calories had increased considerably because I could see my happy reflection in the grease puddles on the pepperoni slices. And I was hooked.



Before (L) and after (R) pizza

2527 Saying good-bye

Today I said good-bye to my medical student. I'm a volunteer, a "senior partner" for a medical student. Because I'm pretty healthy, he didn't have much to do, but I've enjoyed learning about his studies and activities. He's from Cleveland, is bright, personable and capable, the kind of guy any of us would love to have as a son or a doctor. He says he'll see me again even though my part of the program is over, but hey--I'm not so old that I don't remember that great line of handsome young men.

Another good-bye really is permanent. A friend who'd been in a church study group with us about 10 years ago died suddenly on Saturday. She and her family had just arrived at a restaurant and she went in the rest room, apparently not feeling well, and collapsed and died. When we walked into the funeral home this evening we saw a teen in a dark suit who looked so much like his grandfather it almost took my breath away--and it was confirmed by the old black and white photos posted of her and her sweetheart in his navy uniform. They were married 52 years had 5 children and 12 grandchildren. They will miss her laughter, love and wisdom. But as our pastor has often said, although it was a shock for us, God was not surprised.

2526 The U.S. isn't falling behind in stem cell research

as reported in the latest Wired (14:06, June 2006). "Ever since President Bush hobbled domestic stem cell research nearly five years ago, US scientists have been left with just 22 viable embryonic cell lines to use for federally funded projects." says Greta Lorge in "Where the cells are."

However, in the April 2006 issue of Nature Biotechnology there was a review of all scientific publications involving the use or derivation of human embryonic stem cells, starting with the very first paper in 1998 and ending just over a year ago. Librarians love review articles. The authors' intention was to blame Bush for the U.S. falling behind, but instead says The New Atlantis (Number 12, Spring 2006, pp. 112-115) . . .

"The study itself, however, tells a very different story. Owen-Smith and McCormick reviewed the 132 human embryonic stem cell articles published in 55 scientific journals since 1998. Far from showing the United States lagging behind in the field, they found that American scientists had by far the most publications—46 percent of the total, while the other 54 percent were divided among scientists from 17 other countries. They also found that the number of papers in the field published by Americans has increased each year, with a particularly notable growth spurt beginning in 2002. . . 85 percent of all the published embryonic stem cell research in the world has used the lines approved for funding under the Bush policy"

President Bush said, "We should not use public money to support the further destruction of human life," and I agree, but as it turns out both morality and scientific research can go hand in hand.

Thank you, Mr. President. At a time when a lot of us are scratching our heads over some of your other decisions, it is nice to be reminded how standing firm in the face of media criticism and poll numbers pays off.

stem cell research
Wired magazine