2663 We're going to the dogs

These guys are dressed up for the Fourth of July.





Lakeside, Ohio

2662 Where to eat in Lakeside, Ohio

We're eating in today (holiday) but there are some great spots for such a small town. The hotel also has a dining room, but we haven't quite figured out the schedule. Changes each summer.
The Abigail Tea Room, full dinners, closed on Mondays. Home made pies.
Erie Food Market, for great deli items to go and a full service grocery with a personal touch. At noon there is a guy grilling hamburgers and brats outside.
Last year this was the Irish Tea Room, now it is Oo-La-La--haven't tried it yet
Sloopy's Sports Cafe--the only game in town off season
The Patio--fabulous warm donuts in the morning, great complete dinners with specials. My husband has an art show here. On the left is the Whistle Stop for ice cream and sandwiches.
Coffee and Cream is the coffee shop which also runs an outdoor grill for special events and week-ends. Toft's Velvet ice cream, Bassett's bakery and deli items.

Lakeside, Ohio

2661 Fond baseball memories

The family renting the cottage across the street has a bunch of kids, and each has a baseball glove. We've enjoyed watching them from our porch. One little guy who is really plucky, has a glove that almost goes up to his elbow. Back in the years when we had a grand daughter (lost her in the divorce), she was here one summer eyeing the kids (different family) playing catch in the street. She sauntered out and stood near-by in the grass, shagging their missed balls. Then the dad invited her to join in and she was out in the street in a flash. What they didn't know was that she was a darn good little athlete--she clobbered the "locals." Soon their dad was throwing mainly to her.

2660 The Traveling T-shirt

We're going to take some Lakeside t-shirts with us to Finland. Our FinFriends are BIG people--and I hope they fit. No sense trying for a "made in America" shirt, because technically they don't exist. But they do, actually, regardless of what the label says. Chances are the cotton was grown in Texas, the designs were done by an American graphic artist, and the retailers and wholesalers are from Florida, NY or NJ. But most importantly, the trade agreements and restrictions are crafted by our government.

I've been paying more attention to the lowly t-shirt since I began reading, "The travels of a t-shirt in the global economy," by Pietra Rivoli (Wiley, 2005). Unfortunately, it is in my stack of vacation reading, and on top of my immigration title, my book club selection, and boning up for Finland and Russia, I won't get it finished. It is still a 14-day book at my public library, so I'll be returning it tomorrow.

Here's the final conclusion, so as not to leave you wondering: To the World Trade protester she writes "Appreciate what markets and trade have accomplished for all of the sisters in time who have been liberated by life in a sweatshop, and . . . be careful about dooming anyone to life on the farm. . . . the poor suffer more from exclusion from politics than from the perils of the market, and [activist energy should be focused on] including people in politics rather than shielding them from markets." But the author also provides kind words for activists who she believes [and follows in the book] have made a difference--but she urges them to look both ways.

I highly recommend this book for an easy, enjoyable, fascinating read/course in the global economy written by an economist with a gift for story-telling.

2659 School teachers and pay scales

Per hour, they make more than many professions--certainly more than librarians. Why do we persistently argue that teachers are underpaid?

"Data from the U.S. Department of Labor show that in 2002, elementary school teachers averaged $30.75 per hour and high school teachers made $31.01. That is about the same as other professionals like architects, economists, biologists, civil engineers, chemists, physicists and astronomers, and computer systems analysts and scientists. Even demanding, education-intensive professions like electrical and electronic engineering, dentistry, and nuclear engineering didn't make much more than teachers per hour worked. And the earnings of teachers are much higher than those of registered nurses, police officers, editors and reporters, firefighters, and social workers.

Some argue that it's unfair to calculate teacher pay on an hourly basis because teachers perform a large amount of work at home--grading papers on the weekend, for instance. But people in other professions also do offsite work. The only important question is whether teachers do significantly more offsite work than others."

Read the entire article about myths and education.

What freedom means

Because tomorrow is the Fourth of July, the Cleveland Plain Dealer carried small op-eds about the meaning of freedom, apparently publishing submitted essays. Mary Nguyen wrote that her parents were immigrants from Vietnam--"there hasn't been one conversation about my future that hasn't included the fact that they left their entire families, their entire lives, behind so their children could have freedom in America." Her parents dedicated their lives to raising 6 children to give them the finest education they could afford. Now, she says, she has the freedom and opportunity to fail, falter or learn.

I don't know how old Mary is, but she will always be older and wiser than another woman whose essay seemed to focus on a "watershed" event in her life--Angela Davis' afro. To her, freedom was wearing her hair any way but straightened--braided, natural, or blonde. Yikes.

That may have been the shallowest essay on the meaning of freedom I've ever read, and why we need immigrants (legal) to renew our faith.

2657 Sex Economics

"By one reckoning, boosting the frequency of sex in a marriage from once a month to once a week brings as much happiness as an extra $50,000 a year." No word in the survey if they asked men or women.

However, this item is from the LATimes newsletter of highlights and editorials, which along with a few other assorted sources (aol.com, a .edu, my sitemeter, and some spam) is getting through to my e-mail; but just about everyone else medscape.com thinks is spam.

Oh, and btw, in the Gross National Happiness indicators, happiness peaks around age 51.

Monday Memories

The Lakeside Wooden Boat Show was just yesterday (July 2) however, it brought back many memories for a lot of people. This is only the 2nd year, but like classic car shows, it really brings in the people, particularly in the Lake Erie vacation land. The Lakeside Wooden Boat Society also builds boats in a tent in the park so people can learn how to do it.







Lots of activity here for people learning how to create and put a finish on a wooden boat. Children and old folks welcome.


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Lakeside, Ohio

2655 Closed until further notice

Bill Keller's mind. Unfortunately, his pie hole is open and flapping. Not only does he reveal government secrets to follow the terrorists funding during a war, but he can't stop defending his actions. What a spoiled brat.

Who died and left you President?

"The issue is your decision to publish classified information that can only aid our enemies. The founders didn't give the media or unnamed sources a license to expose secret national security operations in wartime. They set up a Congress to pass laws against disclosing state secrets and an executive branch to conduct secret operations so the new nation could actually defend itself from enemies, foreign and domestic."

Bill Keller
New York Times

2654 Thank you, Hobby Lobby

for the beautiful, patriotic full-page ad in the USAToday. It was interesting and very well done. I read every word. Here's the on-line copy.

Kathleen Denis, artist

It's new notebook time--I filled the last page of my lovely notebook with pink roses and calligraphy, and today I'll start one from Martin Designs of Ashland, OH with artwork by Kathleen Denis. The webpage doesn't seem to function but I found her name with numerous gift items and wallpaper. The calligraphic background of this notebook is a verse from "Amazing Grace."

Ashland, OH is the home of the Brethren Church, sister denomination of Church of the Brethren. The two anabaptist groups had a spat about the meaning of "being in order" and split in the 1880s from each other and the Old Order German Baptist Brethren. The college/university in Ashland has some interesting archives for all Brethren groups which I have used in my own research. A lovely town.

Update: Columbus Business First: Martin Designs went out of business in 2008 after a line of Chinese-made SpongeBob SquarePants notebooks it was selling was recalled because the spiral binding contained high levels of lead.

Kathleen Denis
Ashland University
Ashland, Ohio

2652 When to tell a secret

Sister Toldjah tells ya:

"In a rare joint move, the editors of the LAT and NYT (Dean Baquet and Bill Keller, respectively) have an editorial posted in today’s New York Times (and I’m sure it’s in the LA Times as well) which tries to answer the question: “when do we publish a secret?”

They’ve given you the long answer. I’m giving you the short answer:

When a Republican is in the WH.

That was easy enough."

You go girl.

2651 How to spot a recent illegal immigrant

"The prevalence of obesity among immigrants living in the United States for at least 15 years approached that of US-born adults." JAMA. 2004;292:2860-2867.

2650 My new margin photo

At Hugging and Chalking I have added a new margin .gif--sacbutt players on horseback. I think it is sort of cute. Take a peek and come back.

2649 The Chinese Acrobats

It was a crowd pleaser to say the least. Last night the Golden Dragon Acrobats, continued a 2700 year tradition, and 28 years of touring in the U.S. at the Hoover Auditorium in Lakeside, Oh. Hoover holds about 3,000 people, and I didn't see many empty seats. Initially, it was gasps and polite applause, but by the end of the program, people were on their feet cheering, whistling and whooping. They have been all over the country, and this morning we saw the young people in their cut-offs and t-shirts, strolling around Lakeside with their backpacks and overnight bags. Last night it was all grace, beauty and brilliant colors.

One thing is noticeable about this group--they are small, well-muscled, and very strong, but not anorexic-looking like so many American athletes who are acrobats and gymnists. Wonder what they eat?

Lakeside, Ohio

2648 Truth, Justice, and "all that stuff"

I realize he's just an American comic book character, but didn't the super heroes of the past believe in something a bit more specific than "all that stuff?" I'm reposting here for my own enjoyment my June 23 photo of my super hero in 1988.



Here's one scholar's conception (in 2003) why our old "mythos" needed to be revised:

"The representation of crime and justice in the superhero mythos is predominantly derived from a conservative or "right" oriented perspective (as evidenced in the aforementioned comics code). . . Miller identifies five "crusading issues": (1) "excessive leniency toward lawbreakers," (2) "favoring the welfare and rights of lawbreakers over the welfare and rights of their victims, of law enforcement officials, and the law abiding citizen," (3) "erosion of discipline and of respect for constituted authority," (4) "the cost of crime," and (5) "excessive permissiveness" (1973, p. 143). These "crusading issues" of the political "right" are virtually mirrored by the crusades of the superhero mythos.

The messages portrayed in the comic book superhero mythos are clear. We are being told that we must preserve the status quo, or, as Superman might put it, "democracy and the American way"; threats to the status quo must be extinguished. We are presented with a world in which there is clearly right and wrong, good and evil. Good must prevail and social order must be maintained. The dominant hegemony is safe in the hands of the comic book superhero." Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 10(2) (2003) 96-108.

Well, not anymore!

Superman

A tequila soaked worm--Mexico

Read Deroy Murdock's column on the corruption of the Mexican government, which expects the U.S. to continue taking in its poor. China is eating Mexico's lunch.

Folks, this bleeding heart, oh-the-poor-immigrant attitude, especially among Christians, is like bending the elbow of an alcoholic. You are ENABLERS.

2646 This week at Lakeside

Last Saturday night (June 24) we enjoyed the Hunt Family Fiddlers who performed Celtic, bluegrass, inspirational and popular music, all while step dancing.

Mid-week we had the Chestnut Brass Company (June 28)--I didn't know that old trombones were called "sacbutts" or least that's what it sounded like when they explained the precursor to the trombone (my instrument). They used many historical instruments and had a few funny routines.

Tonight it is the Golden Dragon Acrobats from China. They are from Cangzhou, Hebeiprovince in China.

Tomorrow is the Wooden Boat Show down at the dock.

Lakeside, Ohio

2645 Do we need a LAMP to attract more students to library science?

Last time I looked, potential librarians were not in the dark. People [just talked to a library staffer last week who was choosing a different field] are deciding NOT to become librarians because of limited job opportunities and poor earning potential. Are we paying to train buggy whip makers and keep library schools afloat? Even "underrepresented populations" should be steered to more lucrative careers.

"Library Access Midwest Program (LAMP)" project, will receive $972,839 from the Federal Government through its 21st Century Librarian Program. Graduate Sschool of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the University of Illinois will work with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Science to develop LAMP, a regional alliance that will attract 20 promising college students to careers in librarianship. Special emphasis will be placed on recruiting students from statistically and historically underrepresented populations. In addition to the direct effect it will have on these 20 students and their contributions to the library field, LAMP is designed to be a replicable model for other regions."

From the GSLIS newsletter, Volume 5, Number 4: July 2006

An illegal immigrant nanny can make $15-20 an hour--I'm not sure a beginning librarian with a master's will get that.

2644 Also reading at the Lake, Suomalaisia Kuvia

a book we received from Martti and Riitta (he's an architect and she's a veterinarian/academic) in 1980, dedicating it to the trip we promised we'd take in 1985 for our 25th wedding anniversary.

Well, we’re coming up on our 46th, and this year we are actually flying across the pond. On the 25th, or for the 25th, in 1985, we went to Hawaii--a fabulous trip I'll never regret. And on the 30th, in 1990 I was in the middle of re-establishing my career--writing, publishing, attending conferences, networking, etc. It was a busy time with limited vacation, plus we bought our second home and needed to sink all discretionary funds on it.

Then in 1995, my husband was establishing his sole practice. He could barely break away from his clients, and his mother was increasingly frail. In 2000 the year my mother died, we returned to Illinois so we could celebrate our 40th anniversary in the church where we were married and with my family. On the 41st, 9/11 happened and it didn’t seem a good time to go anywhere--for some time. Then in the next few years, my husband’s family and father needed us in California, so our trips combined responsibilities and travel. Last year for our 45th, we took a cruise on the Danube--our first to Europe.

So now, finally, we are ready to see Finland, and also take a trip into Russia to visit St. Petersburg. I’m reading the book that the Tulamos gave us in 1980, and am studying (or at least looking at) Russian grammar and conversation from a book published in the 50s when everyone was still "comrade."

Here are some photos of Martti's work.