2910 A healthy heart

If you're reading this, you're probably younger than me, just because of the average age of bloggers. Maybe feeling smug about that? I'm your mother's age--or gasp, your grandmother's? Touch of ageism? That's OK. I was that way too when I was in my 20s and 30s. Thought the good life was all about being young. Why, I'm not sure, since most of the really happy and secure people I knew back then were all older! They'd all successfully met challenges and were enjoying life. Go figure. I didn't know then I would live to be over 65 or be married almost 50 years--just assumed it. Most people in my family did.

It's a fact. Everyone ages; but we don't all do it the same. And it's always been that way. The maximum life span really hasn't changed much. We're saving a lot more babies, and licked many childhood diseases, so the average lifespan has changed, but we've always had the old-old. If I can trust my genealogy research, many of my great-great-greats lived well into their 80s and some into their 90s. In fact, you can't choose your parents, and for all the hoop-la about environmental hazards and mad-cow and E. coli, there's only one thing you can do that's a sure fire way to get older by extending your own lifespan.

I was born with a heart problem--an extra circuit that acted up more and more as I got older. I didn't know I had an electrical misfire, and neither did my doctors, because unless you're having tachycardia or arrhythmia while you're at the hospital or clinic for something else, no one finds it. And if you've lived with it all your life, you just think light-headedness is normal. This flaw in my circuitry was discovered 10 years ago and I was medicated to control it. I had an ablation in 2002 to destroy the circuit, was medicated again until the rhythm was right, and then since about 2004 have had the heart God intended.

Miracle of modern medicine--pharmaceutical research and surgical skill. You bet I am. But the only thing I can do personally to slow down the actual aging of my heart is caloric restriction. It is not the same as lowering my body weight. Reducing body size through exercise doesn't have the same effect. "Decreasing caloric intake by 30% or 60% significantly prolongs maximal lifespan in laboratory animals when instituted at young or middle age." [Journal of the American College of Cardiology, vol. 47, no. 2, 2006]

This is bad news for those of us raised on a typical Western diet. We want to blame the transfatty acids, or McDonald's or dirty air, or something in the water, or the Bush Administration for not funding more programs in schools, but the fact is we're in charge of prolonging our lives by reducing our caloric intake. Caloric restriction delays or prevents other problems too, not just heart problems, and I'll leave it to you to look it up. PubMed (Medline, National Library of Medicine) is free and you can get the articles at your local library.

I guess that's why the really old people we see are so skinny. With a BMI of 19.7 (the mean in human studies), people would probably think I was 90.

2909 Speaking of photos

When I take photographs, I'm always reminding people to take off their sunglasses. Big black blobs on the face don't make for good pics unless you're a bumblebee. But in this Wordless Wednesday at Ribbiticus' site, you can see the eyes and nothing else. Makes you wonder why they even bothered or how they would know if a stranger stepped in.

2908 Rescuing old photos and diaries

When the family was cleaning out the apartment of Neno, my husband's grandmother, after her death in the 1970s there was a large box of photos that no one wanted. I glanced through it, didn't know most of the people, but grabbed it like it was gold. It is such a treasure! I just can't imagine anyone tossing old family memorabilia. And that's how Travels with Jean became a retrospective blog. It tells the travels of Jean Ritchie, a British maiden lady, a mid-wife, who traveled with her mother and sister, keeping detailed diaries illustrated with photos, postcards and trip memorabilia. After her death in the 1960s, most of her diaries were destroyed--deemed worthless by the people who settled her estate. But her sister had 3 of them, and her sister was the godmother of the person who is posting Jean's diaries on the internet so they won't be lost like the others were. Isn't that great? Stop by and take a look.

2907 Friday Family Photo

This old photo is new to me. We just got it last week while visiting my husband's family in California.



It was taken July 4, 1953 at Lake Webster, Indiana, where my husband's grandfather and aunts owned a summer cottage together. Although he rarely saw his father, the aunties made sure my husband and his sister were included in everything and they have many happy memories of summer vacations at the lake with aunts and uncles and cousins. This photo includes my husband's sister Jean (in the swim cap), his cousin Darlene, his cousin Janie Kay (daughter of cousin Alberta) sitting on his knee, and a friend Katherine Ring.

Last summer we ran into some residents of Lake Webster while we were at Lakeside. I believe they told me that it is no longer a vacation destination, but primarily an area of permanent homes.

Lake Webster, Indiana
old photographs
families
1950s

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Food Triggers
Last week I wrote on my TT: "I watch my weight. I watch it go up. And then I'm really careful and I watch it go down. This is called yo-yoing, and all the ladies know this is not good, but we all do it."

We all have them. Certain flavors, snacks or habits that throw all our good intentions to the wind. I don't have a problem with candy or desserts or ice cream. Here are my triggers--obviously a few more than 13 which is why I grouped them. If I can avoid these, I don't even get hungry.

1. potato chips or corn chips
2. saltines or Ritz
3. Anything wrapped, inserted, folded or inside pastry--could be apple pie, chicken pot pie, or taco salad
4. cheddar cheese or American cheese or cream cheese especially on #2
5. pizza any type, but especially pepperoni with double cheese
6. peanut butter anything, especially with chocolate
7. French fries
8. sour cream or gravy
9. biscuits, rolls, bread
10. butter or margarine especially on #2 or #9
11. Lots of choices, buffet, snack trays
12. Reading food blogs, recipe magazines, watching Food channel
13. Snack food aisle in grocery store

Do you know your triggers?

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2905 Solitary

is the title of a piece of fiction written by a policeman who blogs. Go over here to Texas Music and read it. It's one of the best I've read on the net, or maybe anywhere in a long time. And I know a bunch of writer wannabees. Then stop at Joel's blog and read his comments on it.

2904 Sometimes you get what you pay for, and then keep on paying

I often wonder what the unintended consequences will be for some of the modern "green" designs. A school board in Illinois is suing the architect of their new $1.5 million multipurpose room at the school that is unusable. The concrete construction was supposed to be cheaper and more energy efficient, but instead, the sound is deafening.

"The Pontiac-William Holliday school board voted Tuesday to sue the architectural firm that designed its new multipurpose concrete dome building.

At issue is a deafening echo and reverberation in the $1.5 million circular building that houses a gymnasium and band room at William Holliday Elementary."


Full story Archi-Tech Magazine. The dome shape was one of the reasons the bond issue passed. Story here. Still listed on the architectural firm's resume.

Isn't there a way to test this stuff ahead of time? When Frank Lloyd Wright began using concrete block and ran into structure and water problems, you could say new material and methods were to blame. But in 2004?

2903 Coming soon at this blog

Tomorrow for Thursday Thirteen I'm going to list my 13 food triggers. These are the tasty morsels, memories or events that make you want to eat more. I've sent the list to my sister so that when we visit in October, she will have nothing delicious or yummy in the house.

As far as I'm concerned, all the diet advice is wrong or at least misleading. What actually works is so boring no one would read it so it is rarely published. Except here. As I've said many times, here and to your face, losing weight isn't rocket science (unless you have a malfunctioning endocrine system, then it's a bigger challenge). Think ELMM. Say it. Sing it. "Eat less, move more."

Last year about this time I noted that winter is on the way, the season we Midwesterners plump up from lack of light and becoming couch potatoes. We put on fat layers like we were bears ready for hibernation. I was doing pretty good in 2005--lost 5 of the 20 lbs and then I visited my sister in October. It's not that we ate so much--oh, we went out a few times--but it is cozy, comfortable and chatty to be with her. That's the death knell for for changing bad habits into good. It requires peanut butter on toast, or something sprinkled with cheese. That brings on the "Oh, well" attitude. But I don't want to get ahead of tomorrow's Thursday Thirteen. Stay tuned.

2902 I watched 3 TV shows!

I overslept this morning until 6:15. My inner clock is confused with the trip to California, where I was waking up at 4 a.m. which was 7 a.m. in Ohio. However, I watched three TV shows last night--"Dancing with the Stars," the premiere of the new Ted Danson show, "Help me help you," and "Boston Legal," which I'd never seen. Thoroughly enjoyed them all. We love to dance and enjoyed ourselves at Debbie and John's wedding reception Saturday night where the disc jockey played a minimum of the boomer tuners and almost nothing of Gen-X era stuff.

The Boston Legal show was the premiere of season three and the introduction of some new characters (I think). Here's the scoop from a fan site: "New attorney Jeffrey Coho and Denise Bauer defend a judicial clerk suspected in the death of the married judge he was sleeping with. Alan enlists successful domestic law attorney Claire Simms to help an adoptive mother who was fired for requesting maternity leave, made all the more challenging when she meets her client, a large African-American transvestite. Denny is accused of being a dwarf bigot and Shirley demands the complaint against him gets resolved before it tarnishes the firm." I thought it was hilarious and touching, especially the big black guy Clarence who thought he was more funny as Clarissa. The Denise Bauer character was great. The dwarf episode shows up everyone's inner bigot.

I also enjoyed the Ted Danson premiere even though some critics panned it. I recall one contract job I had for a library network in which we shared the building with a psychiatrist and his clients. We often heard screams and yells from his office, and sometimes I think it was he and his wife, so I'm not surprised that counselors have significant personal problems.

The Dancing show always suffers from a weak female host, this year Samantha Somebody. I find it hard to believe that with all the female celebrity wannabees they can't find someone who at least looks happy to be on camera. Maybe they do that to keep Tom Bergeron looking quick and funny?

My husband kept saying, "Who are these people?" But I think I recognized more than I did in season 1 (when the soap star I'd never seen before showed us way too much), which was a summer replacement that caught on, wasn't it? Here's this season's bios, but the website is way overdone with annoying advertising. Bruno has a blog. Jerry Springer, a fellow Ohioan, wants to hang on only long enough to learn the waltz for his daughter's wedding. He was the worst male dancer, so that was probably a ploy for votes.

Boston Legal
Dancing with the Stars
Help me help you
season premieres
Our California Trip

Hypochondria

You Are 0% Hypochondriac

While your physical health isn't always perfect, you don't freak out about it. You know there's only so much you can do, and worrying doesn't change anything.

Are You a Hypochondriac?

2900 Snot funny

I was just browsing one of my favorite lady bloggers. Talented, professional gal. Not yet 40 and has had several strokes. So what's she doing? Getting drunk. Not often, in fact rarely. But I think she needs all the brain cells she's got left. We all do. Maybe the stroke took her critical decision making skills.

2899 Journalist pot calls blogger kettle black

Robert J. Samuelson writes for two well known publications, Newsweek and the Washington Post which syndicates him in other mega-cities. Millions of readers see his photo. He runs around the country speaking to big poo-bah conventions and picking up awards. I read his tirade against bloggers column in the Orange County Register.

I find it a bit disingenuous for a man who earns his living telling others what to think with the printed word with his face attached to the column to say that bloggers "scream for attention." Or that they "aim to make money." Or that they don't fear a violation of their right to privacy (he's a liberal, but I'm guessing he has little privacy). Or that they are extroverts in crass self-promotion. Or that some who claimed to be amateurs were really aspiring film makers (like no "real" journalist has ever scammed the public?). Or that only 11% of bloggers write about politics and government (how many newspaper columnists do as compared to entertainment and fashion another form of crass self-promotion?). Or that bloggers have "undiluted passion for self-publicity" (he has never signed a contract with an agent or griped to an editor about column inches?).

What a cry baby.

2898 The most powerful women

The Sept. 15 issue [I think that was the date] of Forbes features a story on the 100 most powerful women. I was somewhat dismayed to see that Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, and Meredith Viera were listed. Shouldn't they be on the celebrities list? I mean, gosh, they read the news from teleprompters! The U.S. only got 53 slots and 3 go to celebrity news readers? They don't create anything, not even money like Oprah does (she's justifiably on the list). And Melinda Gates? She married well. Laura Bush at least helped George be a success with some tough love; I think Bill Gates made it with little help from Melinda, no matter what she thinks about malaria (and I personally think she's wrong).

So I checked Google to see who was on the list of the 100 most powerful men, or even most powerful people, but there wasn't such a list. I wanted to see if Charlie Gibson or Matt Laurer made it, or any spouses besides Kerry and McCain whose political careers would be toast if they hadn't married money.

There are 4 Israeli, 2 Indian, and 7 black women (from various countries); no Canadians. 30 are in government and 48 run corporations. I question that Hugh Hefner's daughter should be on the list--surely there are more important women in publishing.

Incidentally, all things being equal, women earn as much or more than men. Single woman without children earn more than single men without children; and any woman working 80 hour weeks, willing to travel and relocate and have absolutely no life other than work, with a supportive spouse, gets the same compensation or better. See this Forbes article It seems that women have different career goals than men. Huddathunkit.

Forbes
women
gender
economy
celebrities

2897 Who is President Tom?

While walking in the park with my radio yesterday morning I was listening to Glenn Beck talk about "President Tom." Who is that, I wondered, figuring it was a nickname and he'd clarify. I don't watch his TV show (in my opinion his radio presentation has weakened a bit since he has to devote so much time to TV). His callers seemed to know President Tom. He said he was afraid of him. So I looked it up. Google, which has been annoyingly anticipating all my questions lately, didn't throw it up on the screen. So I found the Glennpedia, which reported:

"President Tom is Glenn's name for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran." Some liberals progressives don't like it that Glenn has compared President Tom's speeches to those of Howard Dean and Michael Moore. I'm just saying. . .

No comment

You Should Weigh 141

If you weigh less than this, you either have a fast metabolism or are about to gain weight. If you weigh more than this, you may be losing a few pounds soon!

How Much Do You Weigh?

Monday Memories

This photo is from my sewing blog, but I'll repost it here because I can't get blogger to upload the photo I wanted to use.


So I'll just list the items here that are "memories." The quilt was made by my grandmother's sister Martha who died in childbirth at age 34 in 1889 leaving a husband and two little boys; the two cloth dolls are mine, one made for me by a neighbor, Ruth Crowell, and one by my mother; next to them is a handmade by my great-grandfather, stackable spool thread holder and pin cushion, with 19th century thread; the 2 glass jars have decorative glass lids and were used for jelly and jam made by my grandmother from her grape arbor; the decorative plate belonged to my husband's grandmother, Neno; the odd shaped metal thing lying on its side was used by my great-grandmother Susan to punch down bread dough back when that activity consumed a lot of a woman's time; the blue glass insulator is from an electric pole probably replaced in the 1940s; the dark cup is actually a sterling silver engraved baby cup given to my daughter by her paternal grandparents (needed some polish); in the cup are engraved baby spoons given to our oldest son; the long flat object is a rug hooker in its original box used by my great-grandmother and I think it was used for repair, not for making rugs.

Hanging on the wall in a ca. 1930s frame is an embroidered saying about mothers, and I think it was made by my husband's mother when she was a teen-ager; the subject of my husband's watercolor on the wall is the barn hay loft on my mother's farm, originally owned by her grandfather, now owned by my brother; the scenes on the quilt over the chair are of buildings in Mt. Morris, IL where my family lived; it is folded on the chair of my husband's grandfather refinished and recaned in the 1970s; and my grandparents' lamp in the foreground was converted from a kerosene lamp to an electric lamp in the early 1900s and is now in my living room.

Along the ceiling is a wallpaper border with book patterns which covered up the cats stenciled there some years before. This room was my office in our house (sold in 2002), and I really liked it because I could look out over the trees and enjoy all the family memories. However, the realtor said we should convert it back to a bedroom in order to sell the house, so we did by packing all this away and borrowing some furniture and toys.

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2894 The high cost of living in 1913

While waiting for my luggage to be delivered (it went to Las Vegas instead of Columbus yesterday) and being put on hold by Road Runner (my internet connection was down after some big storms in the midwest), I decided to clean off my desk. My goodness! What a nest of useless scraps and bits. In addition to old phone numbers and messages from only God knows, I found an article I'd printed about a year ago called, "The waste of private housekeeping" by Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman*," author of The Home: Its Work and Influence. It was published in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 48, 91-95, July 1913. I don't recall why I printed it--perhaps so I could make fun of it in a blog?

Her thesis is that wives and mothers do the domestic work of servants, without regard to fitness or experience, and that this is extremely inefficent. First, only incompetent people would be servants, and second, marriage keeps women in perpetual apprenticeships, because it is inefficient to have 15 out of 16 families using "mother-service." If you were around in the 1970s or 1980s, you'll recognize all this since the feminists pulled it from the archives and dressed it up a bit.

Mrs. Gillman, of course, was one of the 1/16 who paid someone else to do her wife and mother work (probably a woman) while she pointed out the waste in having the other 15/16 doing repetitive work in a single kitchen whereas "one properly constituted kitchen can provide food for 500 people, equal to one hundred families, and with space, fittings and supplies certainly not exceeding those of 10 private kitchens." She was quite specific about the savings in sinks, ranges, tables, refrigerators, pantrys, cupboards, fuel, to say nothing of breakage and repairs, and purchasing in quantity. Ten skilled experts, she estimated, using proper tools and conditions, would be cheaper than 100 clumsy beginners (newly married women in imperfect kitchens).

She concluded: "The professionalization of cooking, cleaning and laundry work should be hailed not only by the economist but by the hygienist, the eugenist, and the social psychologist as a long upward step in world progress."

Ah, Ms. Perkins Gilman, welcome to the progress you envisioned--of gleaming fast food kitchens, long commutes in gas guzzlers to the day care center, millions of mommies wrestling each other at the glass ceiling, coming home to a housecleaning and gardener service that employs people of questionable green cards, and a home health company that sends a Somali to take care of grandma.

[Gilman is a favorite in women's literature classes for "The Yellow Wallpaper," a short story about a woman who goes insane from domesticity.]

I love California, but. . .

it has its share of odd-balls and trouble-makers that try to set trends for the whole country.

"California attorney general Bill Lockyer has been busy sticking his nose into a host of places it doesn't belong. For example, announcing that he has evidence to indict people in connection with the spying "scandal" at HP. Now he's filed a "lawsuit against leading U.S. and Japanese auto manufacturers, alleging their vehicles’ emissions have contributed significantly to global warming, harmed the resources, infrastructure and environmental health of California, and cost the state millions of dollars to address current and future effects." The premise of the suit is that the cars are a public nuisance; i.e., "an unreasonable interference with a public right, or an action that interferes with or causes harm to life, health or property." " Professor Bainbridge

Maybe he should ask Californians to give up their cars first--just for health, of course.

2892 A beautiful wedding

Our purpose for being in California was to attend the wedding of my husband's sister who is 10 years younger. He and his brother walked her down the aisle at the beautiful Jones Victorian Estate in Orange. Friday was a bit cool and cloudy for the rehearsal, but Saturday was a bright, golden California day. It was a happy relaxed crowd with a guest list of long time friends, new friends, co-workers, in-laws and former in-laws. Both the bride and the groom's former spouses and former in-laws attended, so not only did we get a whole new bunch of relatives, but we got to see the ones we "lost in the divorce."

Deb in the ladies dressing room

A tear in my eye, but I leaned over and got this photo of the brothers with their sister bride.

Deb's daughters and grandson and her best friend Sue were her attendants. John's little great grandsons had scampered away before I could click the camera. John had his son, brother and nephew.

A new niece and nephew, Carol and Jeff, the groom's children

The wedding cake had attendants also, served in an open garden arbor with scattered rose petals, in keeping with the red rose theme.

Wedding Planning
traditions and customs
families

2891 The Gamble House

The city of Pasadena, celebrating its centennial this year, has taken good care of the the Gamble House, the winter home of the Cincinnati Gambles of Procter and Gamble. The Greene brothers, Charles and Henry, had attended MIT and were on their way to California to join their parents when they visited the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 and were charmed by the Japanese pavilion. [Note to my family: My grandmother attended this with her parents when she was a teenager and I've always thought her home had elements of design influenced and made popular by Wright and the Greenes]. We toured this lovely home, but photos were not allowed on the inside. It had an extensive restoration, reopening two years ago.