2828 Do we need more or less government to fight fat?

Trust for America’s Health released a study in late August about obesity, linking it to poverty. They must have a good marketing arm, because this information has been out there for years, in medical studies, at ball games, at county fairs, and in direct observation at schools. If you haven’t noticed that the USAn is getting fatter by the year, you’re staying at home munching in front of the TV or computer screen. Monday I was at a local art fair that drew thousands and commented to my husband that overall, people who go to art shows are not as fat as people who attend sporting events.

“According to an August 2006 report from Trust for America's Health (TFAH), adult obesity rates continued to rise in 31 states over the past year while government policy efforts have consistently failed to provide viable solutions to the growing obesity crisis.”

But why is it government policy is creating the problem? Do we even have a policy on obesity? Or do we have a hodge-podge of programs design to prop up agricultural interests with food surpluses and school lunch and breakfast programs? Do we have a huge bureaucracy at the federal and state level designed to keep people helpless? This report acts as though no middle class or wealthy people are over weight. It assumes that poor people cannot be held accountable for their poor choices at the store. That they only buy “energy dense” foods because they can’t afford more nutritious food.

They’ll blame fast food restaurants and high prices at neighborhood mom and pop stores, and then scream bloody murder if a Wal-Mart Superstore with acres of fresh fruit and vegetables tries to build in the neighborhood, serve the community and employ the residents.

You can walk into any gas station/grocery kiosk or mom and pop store and buy milk, eggs, orange juice, bread, peanut butter, canned soups, fruits and vegetables and probably small amounts of meat and canned fish like tuna, baby food and cereal. I'm not sure you can buy dried beans, but you can probably get canned beans. But you do have to by-pass the candy, cookies, chips and dip, the soda pop and beer. Life is full of choices, even for poor people with limited incomes. You might even have to choose better food for the family over cell-phones, cable and artificial nails.

Women still make most of the food choices in the U.S. If a woman has finished high school, married the father of her children, and is out of her teens when she has her first baby, the chances are she will not be poor. Fat maybe, but not poor.

obesity
poverty
low income
nutrition

Gas prices in Ohio redux

We paid $2.49 in Bucyrus driving home from the lake on Sunday, but this morning in Columbus, in some areas, it is $2.20. How about your area? Does this increase or decrease the pressure to drill in Alaska, to build new refineries, or find alternatives? Will the recent information about new oil find in the Gulf hurt or help environmentalists and/or Democrats? While lying awake in the middle of the night (recovering from my cold) I listened to a radio talk show--2007 GM cars will have a 100,000 mile warranty.

The one constant is that movie stars will continue to drive the biggest gas hogs while telling the rest of us to conserve.

Gas Prices

2826 In sick bay

I've banished myself to the guest room because I've come down with a bad cold. I know where I got it--I think she reads my blog. So I'm really pleased that we finished the redecorating in that room that used to be electric bright yellow with hundreds of yards of drapery fabric and canopies (decorators used to live here). Actually, they hadn't painted the room yellow--they had made it a dark forest green--the next owners changed it to yellow. Now it is something called buttercream with a slightly darker shade on the trim. It is warm enough to have the window open, so I just stayed in bed and looked at the magnolia in the day light and the moon at night. We're using my parents bedroom suite from the 1950s in that room.


I have a number of things on my agenda during the next few weeks, including my sister-in-law's wedding, so I hope this doesn't turn into bronchitis like last year.

2825 Trip Tale: Touring St. Petersburg by water

When we returned to St. Petersburg after visiting Tsarskoe Selo the six of us decided to go on a canal boat ride to tour the city. Peter the Great admired European cities, so it was carved out of swamp land on the Neva River. During the time it was being built aristocratic families were required to move there and masonry building was not allowed anywhere else, reserving the resources for Peter's city. It was renamed Petrograd in 1914, Leningrad in 1924, and returned to its original name in 1991.

The guide dropped us off in the canal boat area and we negotiated with the ticket vendors. If you're pressed for time, you can skip this unless you find one with a guide narrating the sights in your language. The loud speakers were ear splitting in a very brisk but monotone Russian, but the wind was even more brisk. Gloria and I took shelter under a canopy and swaddled ourselves in one of the blankets for some shelter.





This part is not the canal, and it felt a bit like being a thimble bouncing on the ocean. These are some of the cruise ships that bring tourists by the thousands. Smaller cruise ships travel the river between Moscow and St. Petersburg with stops along the way.

2824 Trip Tale: Where to eat in Pushkin, Russia

The town that grew up around Tsarskoe Selo (the summer palace of the Russian imperial family) was renamed Pushkin in the 20th century.

Street musicians, "Dark eyes," and "White nights."

Tsarskoe Selo had huge crowds, but we arrived early.

Beyond the main palace area there is a battered residence of the tsar's cossacks. After the Revolution, one of the buildings was used as a kindergarten. Then in WWII the buildings were badly damaged by the Nazis. Our van went down a quiet side street where there is a tiny restaurant among these buildings called "The High Tower." It has about five tables and wonderful food. Our guide said it was her first time there and she would report back to the tour company that we were all pleased. We had a fresh salad, soup, poached chicken with sauce and a delicious cranberry dessert.

Monday Memories: My 10 minutes of fame

Recently I wrote about the Hillbilly Housewife and her food budget. In September 1982 I was front and center of the food section of the Columbus Dispatch, "Scratch cooking saves money," written by Becky Stiles Belt. It says, "Not many families with two adults and two teen-agers eat for $55 a week. Norma Bruce and family do. . . She spends less than the government allots for a family of four on food stamps. She contends that not only does her family save money, they eat more nutritiously.


"Bruce makes almost all her meals from scratch. She calls herself a "wall shopper"--a person who shops along grocery store walls where produce, meat and dairy products are located and avoids the largely processed foods in the center of the store. Bruce's meals are built around "whole foods"--grains, meats, natural cheeses and a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits."

The article goes on to mention that I worked part-time and sympathized with harried working parents--that I saved time by preparing one-dish or make-ahead meals such as soups and casseroles and master mixes such as biscuit mix, cocoa mix and granola.

The big issue for me, which was down played in the article because of advertising revenue, was that I never used coupons. "Her research of government and independent studies led her to believe that time she would spend clipping coupons for processed foods would be better spent making the foods from scratch. 'The time Mom used to have for home-prepared meals is now used matching ads, making trips to different stores for double coupon day, attending coupon trading get-togethers and attending special classes on how to save money refunding,' said Bruce in a consumer newsletter she wrote for friends. Her own sample studies in coupon clipping, storing and use indicate about four extra minutes are needed for each coupon used."

I was also interviewed on this topic on a radio talk show, and in a morning television spot, and invited to speak at ladies' luncheons. I don't think anyone believed me, because people want to believe in a "free lunch."

Ah fame. It is such a fleeting thing.

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My visitors this week are:Mrs. Lifecruiser, Friday's child, Nea, Nightingale, Reverberate58, The Shrone, Ma, Chelle Y. Irish Church Lady, Randy Kirk, Susan, Gincoleaves, American Daughter (be sure to read her on-line journal by the same name)

2822 What do you think of your blog? A meme

At one of Nea’s blogs, I noticed this meme.

1) Are you happy/satisfied with your blog with it's content and look?

Now that I’ve learned to change the background of the standard template, I like it a lot. I use a different template for each blog, some are easier to read than others. I get a kick out of going back and rereading the old entries. If I enjoy it, that’s whom I write for.

2) Does your family know about your blog?

My sibs and son read occasionally, my daughter doesn’t use the internet except for business. I think some cousins, nieces and in-laws take a peek once in awhile. I print it for my husband, who doesn’t use a computer, and the family stories I print and send to my aunt.

3) Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog or you just consider it as a private thing?

Goodness no. I tell everyone who will listen. I flog my blog. I have even taught blogging.

4) Did blogs cause positive changes in your thoughts?

I have always written essays and a lot of letters, so this is a natural for me. However, I was never a diary person. The only change is now whatever I see or read becomes and idea for a blog. I’m glad I have it particularly for trips and vacations and things I want to remember. It has also kept me much more engaged in current events and politics.

5) Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or you love to go and discover more by yourself?

Although I have met some interesting people through commenters, I get my best leads reading comments on other people’s blogs and going to their sites. That’s how I found Nea (and this meme). I probably have hundreds of links (on the left column), but those are people I do recommend, or they are part of a group I belong to. I try to read them.

6) What does visitors counter mean to you? Do you care about putting it in your blog?

I have 2 different free statistics site meters on this blog, and a third type on some of my other blogs. They all track stats slightly different, but only show the last 100. I’m always puzzled when the numbers suddenly go up (like they did last week), or down.

7) Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?

I’m not sure what this means, but I use real photos, and most of the people I visit do also.

8) Admit. Do you think there is a real benefit for blogging?

I was in education, so anything you do to improve communication skills is positive, but occasionally I come across blogs that make me wonder why the person bothers--bad grammar, spelling, topics, potty language, etc. I also get concerned that people who think they blog anonymously reveal so much information about themselves, and negative things about their employment. Not a good idea. These digital comments never go away.

9) Do you think that blogger-society is isolated from real world or interacts with events?

The bloggers I read regularly or recommend are all very good and quite aware of world events. Even the mommy blogs, almost totally focused on babies, children, and school show the woman is really paying attention to details. I am wowed by the photographs, art, and crafts that are posted. Hobby blogs are just amazing.

10) Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it's a normal thing?

I’ve never met a person who loved criticism. But I do write for me. And I’m my biggest critic.

11) Do you fear of some political blogs and avoid them?

Some are outstanding. I avoid the name callers and potty mouths. Extreme left or extreme right are flip sides of the same pancake. Only the paranoia has a different odor.

12) Did you get shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?

Never heard of it.

13) Did you think about what will happen to your blog after you die?

If it is like comments on listservs or old webpages I did in the mid-90s, it may live longer than me. But I do keep a hard copy.

14) What do you like to hear? What's the song you like to put its link in your blog?

I don’t want to open a blog and find music.

15) Five bloggers to be the next "victims"? Let's see ...

If you liked this and found something interesting, take a stab.

2821 East Harbor State Park beach

Global warming has been messing with Ohio long before Al Gore heard of it. We used to have glaciers. East Harbor State Park used to have a three mile beach. When we first saw it in 1974, it had already been destroyed. A huge storm had ravaged it in 1972, so only about 1500 ft. remained when we enjoyed the white sand beach and tall trees.

However, even 30 years ago, the locals told us the beach was destroyed not by Mother Nature, but by good intentions with unintended consequences--a man-made break wall installed in 1957 to stabilize the peninsula during winter storms. Instead, some believe it resulted in the loss of the beach.


Dick Taylor of Findlay is campaigning to have it removed. Engineers (the same guys who built the levees in New Orleans?) disagree on the solution. Taking it out now would cost millions, but it needs a new study. The last one was done in 1981.

The Toledo Blade Story.

2820 Has someone hacked the Target site?

Take a look at this presidential action figure page. See anything odd about President Franklin Roosevelt?


HT Florida Cracker

2819 An odd public service announcement

The other day on the radio I heard a health public service announcement asking parents to teach their children to cover their mouth with their hands or a tissue when they sneezed or coughed--because of the threat of bird flu. Huh? How about those 150 cold viruses. Don't they count? What about common courtesy? Good manners?

Bird flu kills AFLAC duck

2818 Praying for your child's future spouse

In looking back at my stat meter to see what people had been reading, I came across a 2004 blog on the fragility of males (more are conceived but fewer survive).

There was a comment attached to this which I thought was worth a reminder. The woman's name is Brenda, but there is no profile to link to. So, thanks Brenda.

". . . it is never too early to start praying for your sons and their future wife. I started praying for my two sons when they were 9 and 10. Both are married now and between them we have three wonderful grandchildren. I would encourage you to pray specifics; you know your sons best and what their personalities are and the type of godly women they will need to bring out their potential as well as what will be a balance in their lives."

Kittens at dawn

Jan who's been feeding the feral kittens has gone back to Virginia, so they showed up here this morning. The smallest one, who apparently was the tamest, wasn't getting any food. When I stood up they all scattered, but then she ran up to the bowl. I was able to touch her head without her running away. The others kept their distance. There were 7 of them, but I think two ran under the neighbor's car. There is a group here who captures feral cats and has them neutered and released. Obviously, the mommy of this little troop got away.

2816 Good Food on a Budget

Hillbilly Housewife has some interesting budget and food plans. Back in the days when I wrote "No Free Lunch," an anti-coupon newsletter, I could feed a family of four on less than the amount the USDA charted for poor people--can't remember if it was called the Thrifty Plan then (she mentions this). My point was that games you play with your food (coupons, sweepstakes, clipping barcodes) cost you money at the check-out. Food companies aren't in business to give their products away. She has a menu plan for $45 a week for four-six people, that I doubt I could have put on my table. There's very little meat in it and a lot of beans and rice. However, it is nutritious and inexpensive, and we'd have less of an obesity problem and healthier children if more people put these dinners on the table.

Emergency menu for $45

Make your own convenience food

It's a fun site, easy to read and follow, even if you don't want to cut your food budget.

2815 Do you suppose

smokers know what they smell like? Like a 10 year old athletic shoe. On a homeless person. Deceased. For quite awhile. In hot weather.

2814 You are invited to my other blogs

Who would write eight blogs? Me. You are invited to visit the others. Usually, the entries are shorter and less frequent.

Church of the Acronym is about my faith and my church, UALC in Columbus Ohio and other religious things. This link is about our trip to Columbus, IN for an architectural tour. This was my second blog, so it's coming up on its second blogiversary. The emblem at the top is called a Luther Rose, and depending on your screen, some views are better than others.

So then I decided it would be fun to have a blog about my hobby, collecting first issues of journals and magazines, In the Beginning. Here's what I wrote about the first issue of Wired.

I was seeing so much crazy research on obesity related health problems I decided to start blogging about it, at Hugging and Chalking. Here's one I did about immigrants picking up our eating habits.

Because I go out for coffee every day and overhear conversations or talk to total strangers, I started a special blog called Coffee Spills. Yesterday I had to drive 5 miles to a McDonald's I used to visit often. It had been remodeled and the whole routine had changed, but all the old crowd was there. Here's a poem written at a Caribou, one of my favorite places for coffee.

Ordinary Time is a group blog about walking. All the bloggers are ladies, and several seem to be ministers or wannabees. Not sure why I was invited, but it helped me with my walking plan to get in shape before we went to Europe.

In November 2005 I wrote a one month blog, Memory Patterns, about sewing based on my old patterns and memories. It was so much fun. I wasn't a very good seamstress but my Mom and one of my sisters were. Lots of old photos and old patterns on this one. Here's one about a baby quilt made by my mother. This blog gets about 10-15 visitors a week, usually people looking for a specific pattern.

My most recent blog effort is Illegals Today. I didn't activate comments to discourage weirdos from positing, and I try to pull up and post some interesting research. Much of it is a critique of a college textbook on immigration, most of which is pretty anti-American and anti-western culture. But even the poor chapters were interesting. This post was about how Mexico treats its illegal immigrants. Only democracies have this debate. Totalitarian and marxist countries just jail or shoot them.

So there it is. All my other blogs.

2813 When bloggers go on vacation

WSJ reported that going on vacation is a problem for high profile bloggers. Not me. My stats actually increased when I was in Finland and Russia. I'm not sure what that means. Were people checking back often? Of course, the article was about blogs that may get 70,000 hits a day and hundreds of comments, where the regulars chat with each other. For no reason that I can figure, my stats changed this past week from an average of about 177 a day to 240. I think my readers are coming back from vacation.

Me on a blogger's vacation
High profile bloggers sometimes have guest hosts blog while they're gone. The closest I come to a guest host is MurrayT who actually has his own blog but he gets more readers for his positive, upbeat style here. He's a clever guy. But I appreciate all my readers and commenters.

Next week the Thursday Thirteen is an assigned topic. I probably won't write it because it would be like school or work.

2812 Ask a Librarian

For years librarians have looked for ways to bring more people into the library. No problem now. The federal and state governments are increasingly sending them in to file forms via computer. I don’t have an answer, but I understand the problem. At our house, I’m the "Ask a Librarian."

My 68 year old husband doesn’t use a computer. I do all his documents for his business, search for information for him, accept his e-mail for meetings, send attachments, etc. If he wants to read my blog, I print it. The other night he asked me how long would it be before the ordinary person wouldn’t be able to function without knowing e-mail and the Internet. What’s spurring him on, I think, is his new digital camera. He needs a way to download and edit his photos.

So I said, "First you need to learn how to use a mouse. Let's start with the Solitaire game." Oops. He's never played Solitaire. I have to begin with plugging in the laptop and turning it on and closing it down. Doing it wrong, or getting impatient, I’ve learned the hard way, can erase everything.

Shirl Kennedy in reviewing an article in Current Cites about libraries being drafted for e-government in the current issue of Library Journal says:

"he problem is obvious. Among other scenarios, this article describes how, earlier this year, senior citizens signing up for the Medicare prescription drug plan "were encouraged to seek information and register online." As a result, public library staffers not only had to assist these folks in using the Internet, but they also had to become familiar with the ins and outs of this particular government program. Hurricane Katrina, in the areas affected, resulted in an influx of people who needed to use library computers to register for FEMA benefits. I've tried to help several people in my library sign up for federal financial aid for college online...or file their income taxes. Privacy issues aside, this stuff is time-consuming...and while I am tied up extensively with one customer, several others are being inconvenienced. "

I can’t even imagine the work load on public libraries for these tasks. There seems to be money for computers, but not additional staff for hand holding. Sometimes I don't understand the information that comes up and I use a computer everyday, so there must be a lot of anxious seniors who don't even know what "enter" means or how to move a mouse cursor.

Here's a school in Illinois that has 7th graders teaching senior citizens how to use the computer.

2811 The Devil wears Prada

It's been a slow week at Lakeside, so we went to see a movie. From the looks of the audience, so did everyone else in town.

"From beginning to end, the movie is funny and fascinating and real. And Streep rules it like a particularly nasty goddess."


Although I might not have thought it was as good as this reviewer, Orson Scott Card, it was much better than I expected.

Perhaps the best movie I've ever seen for Meryl Streep. Anne Hathaway seemed to do a lot of running, sort of like those car chase scenes you see in action movies. If you've seen one gallop in 4" heels, you've seen enough.

2810 A shocking experience

Rolling at a stroll pace through the Wal-Mart Superstore, I felt a tingling in my right hand, the only one actually on the cart handle. I stopped. Shook my hand, thinking I'd pressed a nerve, and kept going, moving down a side aisle. When I returned to that aisle heading for the groceries, both hands on the handle, I felt a very distinct shock, coming through the cart handle. It was a bit stronger than hitting your "crazy bone" in your elbow or building up static electricity with your shoes on a carpet. I lifted my hands, the tingling stopped. Put them back on the handle, it returned. I moved to a side aisle, it stopped. I returned to that main aisle, it returned. Hmmm.

Wal-Mart, Target, other big box stores and some large libraries use an RFID, radio frequency identification, tagging system that consists of a tag with a microchip in the merchandise and a reader, which has a transmiter and receiver. It can track a lot of information about point of use and where an item is in transit or storage. I can't imagine it was tracking me, but I'm wondering if my cart or some merchandise in it was misbehaving with something embedded in the aisle material?

When I checked out, I told the cashier (sales associate?) and she looked surprised. I told her she should report it to someone. I turned around and Dave Kilbreth a local contractor was behind me in line. I asked him what he thought, but Dave's a lumber and nails sort of guy, and he was as mystified as I.

Friday Family Photo

Here it is September already. We were married in September 1960, and in our little photo album, there was no photo of us with Rev. Carl Myers, who married us. So we fixed that in 1999 at my sister's wedding in the same church, same pastor (although he was retired from the pulpit). His brother was my high school English teacher. Carl also officiated at my father's funeral and I think he was the soloist at my mother's funeral.