2952 Not Cheap

No wonder so many people depend on the internet to do genealogy. Yesterday I went to the court house and got copies with the official stamp of 8 birth certificates, 3 death certificates and one marriage license, and it cost $97! Wow. I had no idea. We went in the wrong building first, made some inquiries about genealogy, and were ushered into a small room with a film reader. But when I said I wanted birth certificates she said I had to go to the "county building" (I thought I was there), that she had only the criminal stuff! So I must have looked like someone checking out the skeletons in the closets. We said we didn't think we'd find any relatives in her department and went across the street.

I think everyone around here goes to Rockford or Freeport (different counties) to die, so the sources were limited, which is probably good considering how much I had to pay.

2951 A brief genealogy trip

We're here in the county seat this week, so we plan to take a trip to the court house and see what relatives we can dig up. I'm not sure what resources are here, but I think getting all your information from the internet probably isn't the best way to do it.

Had a nice long walk at a park in Mt. Morris today with a high school friend. The weather has changed and it is quite nippy today. We got a lot of nice autumn photographs yesterday when the sun was out. My niece and great-niece came by today bringing pumpkin donuts for tea time, and my brother came for dinner last night. We visited my aunt Muriel in Mt. Morris yesterday. She will be 90 soon but looks good.

Tiny Library

I think I'm in the country's smallest public library--in Oregon, Il. May add some photos later. The sign says I must register at the desk. Good old fashioned library rules. Gotta love 'em.

Updated October 14:

Oregon, IL Public Library

The building is on the historic register which is probably working against getting a larger facility for a thriving small town.

Monday Memories

For some reason, when I was in my 20s I thought a home wasn't complete without a piano. We bought our second home (keeping the first as a rental) in 1965 when I was a graduate student in library science at the University of Illinois, and I was spending my graduate stipend making payments on a piano! I didn't even play--had stopped taking lessons in grade school. After I bought it, my husband and I both took piano lessons from a grad student, but very briefly. I think we must have broken the poor girl's heart, we were so bad.


Our son could play piano by ear and even did a little composing, and our daughter took lessons in elementary school. When I stopped lessons around age 10 or 11, I just rarely played, but after she quit, she would play the piano almost every evening after supper for an hour or so for her own enjoyment. I was careful not to tell her how much I loved it, because you know how teens are! When she would come to visit (with her laundry) after she had her own apartment, she always spent time playing the piano. After she bought a house in 1996, I gave her the piano. And now it is just as lonesome and quiet in her house as it was in ours.

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2948 We've arrived

We rolled into Oregon about 1:30 p.m. and worked our way through streets jammed with cars for the "Autumn on parade." I'm not sure how strangers get through not knowing the streets and detours, but we finally made it to my sister's house on the other edge of town. We unpacked a few items, then went back to watch the parade, which seemed to be about 2 hours long.

The craft booths, as I understand it, are all by people from Ogle County, and we saw some wonderful items and great food (too bad, since I'm watching that). We would have stayed longer, however, there was a drill team from Chicago in the parade with amplified, canned music (no instruments that I could see). They were so loud that I could feel the vibrations through the sidewalks even a block away. We finally had to leave the area to get away from them. I think it is a form of child abuse to subject teenagers to that level of decibels, which must be like standing next to a jet plane holding a chain saw if you are in the group!

Later my Uncle Gene and Aunt Betty stopped by for a visit. Always good to see them. He is the next to youngest of my Dad's siblings. This week, I have some friends and relatives to see, but each time I come, there are fewer and fewer people I know.

I'm using a borrowed machine--can't find a spell check, so will just have to trust my instincts.

2947 Gitmo prisoners getting fat and well read

The detainees at Guantanomo Bay have access to a nice Arabic language library according to ABC News (HT Conservator):

"Nonfiction particularly philosophy, biographies and Arabic history is most popular, the librarians say. But fiction is also big. Popular authors include Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese-American; Agatha Christie; and J.K. Rowling, who penned the Harry Potter series about an English wizard in training.

The detainees are avid readers, according to the librarians. With detainees largely confined to cramped cells most of the day, reading provides an outlet and can help take their minds off the prospect that they may be jailed for years or even the rest of their lives with no trial."

But they are also getting fat because they can choose from a selection of about 4200 calories, one guy blimping up to 410. They get special cuisine and meals for holy days. The defenders will complain about lack of exercise, but we all know what taking in too many calories will do. And they can't even blame McDonald's or the fast food industry. They are choosing to over eat. What other bad Western habits are they absorbing?

"Most of the prisoners at Guantanamo picked up in Afghanistan and other conflict zones were slightly underweight when they arrived. Since then, they've gained an average of 20 pounds, and most are now"normal to mildly overweight or mildly obese,"according to the most recent measurements, he said.

The meals include meats prepared according to Islamic guidelines, along with fresh bread, vegetables and yogurt. With nearly all detainees fasting in the daytime during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, authorities have arranged for a post-sunset meal and a midnight meal. Traditional desserts and honey also are served during the Ramadan observances."

Guantanamo Bay
Terrorists
Muslims
libraries

2946 We're back

My blog has been displaying a blank page; have no idea why, but that's certainly scary. I periodically save my template as a text file, but I'm not sure I'd know how to reload it if I had to. I've made a bazillion changes in it over the years, some of which I don't know how to undo.

But actually, we're leaving again. First to Lake Erie, then to Illinois. I never know if I'll be able to log in somewhere. Maybe the library in Oregon (IL) has Wi-Fi. Oregon is having its "Autumn on Parade"--not sure we'll see much of it except for the traffic jam. Fall events are nice. There's one at Lakeside and Marblehead next week-end too, but we'll miss that.

"AUTUMN ON PARADE
Corner of Rt 64 & Rt 2, Oregon
Autumn is celebrated with enthusiasm in Oregon, Illinois at the annual Autumn on Parade (AOP) festival. Autumn on Parade features a Farmer's Market, with homemade items from over 100 vendors, plenty of live entertainment, a variety of food, and the ever popular Harvest Time Parade held on Sunday afternoon. Most of the activities and vendors will be found at the Ogle County Courthouse Square located at the corner of Ill. 64 and Ill. 2 in downtown Oregon." Oregon site

2945 Ross has been Rathered

So a blogger got the identity of the 21 year old former Congressional page (who was 18 at the time of the IM exchange with Foley) from the ABC servers which kept it available for 5 days. Hmmm. And the former page has hired a lawyer. Do you suppose he'll go after a penniless blogger or a deep pockets network television station for ruining his career? (He's working for an Oklahoman pol.) Hmmmm?

And the media and Democrats and even Republicans running for cover are still calling Foley's behavior "sick," even though it was with a consenting adult. What is this? Bash the nearest gay week?

Now that Hastert has brought in the big guns "for a thorough investigation," and we've found out the identity of the page who blew the whistle, and that some of the pages who knew Foley was gay were egging him on as a joke, I have this observation:

We wasted months on the Clinton sex scandal which probably did distract him from protecting the country--not his encounter with an intern, but the mess Republicans made of it trying to impeach him. Let's not tie up our very expensive talent in Washington with another consenting adults picadillo.

Only the lawyers are laughing. All the way to the bank.

Brian Ross
Dan Rather
Mark Foley
Dennis Hastert

Thursday Thirteen

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Thirteen things about the Thursday Thirteen I deleted.
1) I started working on it several days ago.
2) When I saved it in draft, I changed the date and time to read Oct. 5, 8:15.
3) Began polishing it yesterday afternoon.
4) Went to Google and found just the right photograph to illustrate it.
5) Brought up the photo, and for once was able to get the words "Thursday Thirteen" in the right size and color just where I wanted it, first try.
6) Decided it was sort of lengthy, so I cut one entire introductory paragraph.
7) At 6 p.m. Columbus had a huge storm with tornado warnings.
8) We talked to both of our kids twice.
9) Our daughter who lives a few miles west of us had baseball size hail in her yard.
10) Then it hit here.
11) To be really cautious and not lose my work, I turned off the computer, and watched that TV show about people who disappear on TNT.
12) When I rebooted after the storm, my carefully crafted TT really didn't look that great.
13) So I hit the delete key and went to bed.

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2943 Democrats are circulating a list

of gay Republican staffers. Nice touch. The magnanimous supporters of gay and lesbian rights, the folks pushing gay marriage legislation, seem to be saying there should be no gay Republicans, or that before a Republican hires a staffer, he much check into his or her sexual preference. Or maybe they'd prefer no gays at all in the government if it would bring down Bush?

"It would seem that if you can't win an election on the issues, you win it on outing the gay members of the opposite party. Color me not surprised. Politics as pure perversion. If the moderates of this country have come to believe that the Republicans are "capable of anything," just wait until they get a load of what the New! Improved! and Even More Degenerate Democrats can do." American Digest

The motive, of course, is to win congressional seats so they can impeach Bush. But does the gay community want to take the fall for this?

Here's what Gay Patriot has to say to Mr. Corn (the liberal with the list):

"Did it ever occur to Mr. Corn that the representatives and Senators he mentions that may or may not have gay staffers do not care about their sexual orientation yet value their participation as public servants? Is it not rational that you can hire a gay staffer, but at the same time oppose PUBLIC POLICY POSITIONS that you are morally or philosophically opposed to without being labeled a homophobe?

Perhaps Mr. Corn is ignoring the fact that most gay conservatives identify more strongly in our American Identity than our Gay Identity. Did that ever cross your mind, Mr. Corn? Probably not since you seem to have had no problem outing a CIA agent and then letting others take the fall for your actions." Gay Patriot on the Democrats' Witchhunt(Just an idiomatic expression for burning at the stake--I have a Witch who comments here)

Remember when John Kerry decided to "out" Dick Cheney's daughter--he personally doesn't care I'm sure, but he wanted to divide and conquer the Republicans so he threw her overboard. I see a pattern of gay intimidation here.

Mark Foley
Democratic Party

2942 Homophobia in Washington

Sometimes "homophobia" is just disgust by non-homosexuals; sometimes it is throwing your natural gay allies over the side of the boat for the sharks for political gain; and sometimes it is hate by fellow gays for homosexuals who pretend to be something else. All this and more is going on in the Halls of Congress and the Closets of the DNC and GOP.

I find it interesting and disgusting that a U.S. Congressman who happens to be a Republican, gets more press inches and words on cable and network news and pixels on blogs for his perverted Instant Messages than a heterosexual pervert who planned to tie up and rape little girls, but instead murdered them. If the little girls hadn't been Amish so that half of the story could be a popular culture rehash about the quaint Amish custom of forgiving enemies, that story would have been even smaller. If the pervert had gone after little boys, it might have been a match for the Foley story for a day or two. But girls and women are assaulted, raped, fondled and receive attention from "dirty old men" in positions of authority and power every minute of the day, and the press just looks the other way; as does Congress. (Unless it happens in Aruba.)

And even though the age of consent is 16 in DC, and the "children" were mature teens considered the best and brightest, able to live away from home in a sexual cesspool of political intrigue, and so far there is no evidence of kiddie porn being sent, groping, touching, fondling or oral sex with a subordinate, the Democrats continue with their phony outrage and real outing. They want every Republican who knew to resign.

Buried in the stories, usually at the bottom where stuff like this belongs, is the information that there's quite a political in-crowd of influential gays in DC whose loyalty transcends party. Sort of a bi-partisan, bi-sexual, buy-me-for-information-or-sex sort of club. Maybe it's not as dicey as the Barney Franks' lover running a gay sex-for-sale house, or Congressman Studds and his young page lover getting a wrist slap. But they are protecting each other, and obviously were protecting Mark Foley from harm. The Democrats, in hopes of disgusting the conservative base, have "outed" the whole smarmy mess.

So who are the real homophobes?

Update: I heard an interview this morning with the guy who took the Instant Messages off AOL and figured out who MAF54 was and who the page was, then tracked him to MySpace. At the time of the IMs, he was 18 and no longer a page and living in Oklahoma. Hmmm. Have they outed all these folks for consensual sex between gays?

2941 Old Aprons

Last November I started a memory blog using an old apron as my idea to jog my memory. Now here's a really cute apron blog. I think the whole blog's about this and using thrift store items for decorating. She's really good at using the colors and themes. The 40s and 50s colors, fabrics and dishes look a lot better in the 21st century than they did in the 20th!

2940 Would you be more likely to. . .

Last night I received a telephone political poll and I stayed on the line just for the jollies--it was so obviously slanted to the Democrats. The young man was so garbled and talked so fast that at first I thought it might be phone sex! If Democrats are using these polls to rally the troops, they are in trouble. John Kerry was in town yesterday campaigning, and I think there was even a question on him.

The questions are never gray or middle of the road or multiple choice. It was something like: "Are you perfectly 100% satisfied with the direction of this country, or is Bush taking us to Hell in a handbasket" (I'm paraphrasing here). No one is completely happy with Bush's performance. He's made a mess of immigration trying to satisfy the Democrats; he couldn't rally his own troops to straighten out and save Social Security; and on education he's spent money like a drunken Kennedy. When the final question was on Mark Foley, it was BINGO. Gotcha.

Here are the questions I'd like to hear from a pollster:

• Who is more likely to put radicals or progressives on the Supreme Court? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to raise your taxes? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to restrict our basic rights? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to let more illegals into the country? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to register them to vote? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to fight voter ID laws? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to try to destroy the largest employer in the world? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to want poor people to have your tax money, rather than lower priced consumer goods?
  
• Who are more likely to tell you the economy is tanking and is the worst since the Depression? The Democrats
  
• Who are more likely to blame a Republican President for being on vacation, rather than a Democratic Governor and Mayor who were on site? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to release private phone records to the media of a U.S. Congressman while screaming for protection of the phone records of international jihadists released to the Department of Justice? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to snoop in your pantry and your church pew? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to encourage you to abort your children? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to disrupt investment in medical drugs research and technology? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to have moles within the government who can provide leaks to the press? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to fail to protect our interests at home and abroad against terrorists?
  
• Who are more likely to abandon the Iraqi people as we did the Vietnamese? The Democrats.
  
• Who are more likely to stand up to Iran? North Korea? China? The Democrats. Yeah, that'll happen.
  
• Who are more likely to abandon Israel? The Democrats.
  

Political polls
Democratic party
Franklin County, Ohio
Pollsters

2939 Squats

The cure for this.

2938 Calorie Restriction is . . . boring!

OK, so you live longer on a calorie restriction diet because it is better for your heart. Or does it just feel that way because it's no fun? Just eating half a hamburger and fewer French fries doesn't officially compute as "calorie restriction." Darn. You must be eating "nutrient dense." Garlic, lentils, chickpeas? Are you kidding me?

This may be artistic, but it is inaccurate. I don't think mushrooms or eggplant have any food value at all--but I suppose they take up space in your tummy.
Also, you should lose weight slowly. Losing quickly will actually shorten your life, not extend it.

Getting started with calorie restriction (very boring, and you probably already knew all this--I did).

This is the Journal of American College of Cardiology article (in common English) that I cited a few days ago.

"It may even be possible that eating a very low-calorie, nutrient dense diet reverses declines in diastolic function. People in the study averaged only six years on the diet, but their hearts looked 15 years younger." It probably felt like 15 years, too.

2937 Спутник

Not even my kids know this story. I'm not sure I've ever told anyone about how one little event that the whole world knew about completely changed the direction of my life. Спутник. Sputnik.

My date, D.B., and I were returning to Manchester College after seeing a movie in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and we heard about the Sputnik launch on the car radio. I doubt if I paid much attention to the news in those days, and even TV news, which I never saw until 1960 was only 15 minutes when I did start. But D.B. knew the score. He was a sophomore chemistry major and today we would call him a geek, but in 1957, he was just a brain. I was a freshman no-major and I'd describe myself if I could, but really have little memory of that girl's personality. But both of us were sort of overcome with a feeling of dread--that the Soviet Union was now going to overwhelm the United States. I imagine I listened to him explain the seriousness of it--because I still remember how frightened I was in those days of the Cold War.

A few weeks later I walked past an article posted on a bulletin board about the USSR's superiority in science and math, and it had a graphic of the cyrillic alphabet. I stopped to examine it and was fascinated--and made the instant decision I wanted to study Russian. Since Russian wasn't offered at Manchester, I would need to transfer. It was offered at the University of Illinois, my home state, and so I made preparations to transfer for my sophomore year.

And that's how I got to Columbus, Ohio, to take a position in the Ohio State University Library in Slavic, where I put down roots, raised a family, and retired (from the veterinary medicine library, not Russian, which I've totally forgotten), and started writing blogs. Thank you, Спутник.

Where were you October 4, 1957?

Sputnik
Cold War
1950s
career decisions
serendipity

2936 Fall down go poof

My F: drive has stopped working. It recognizes files on a disk, I can even use them. But if I try to copy from my hard drive to a disk, it tells me to put a disk in. This means if I down load my photos to my computer I can't select and copy to a disk to have them printed, because the drive never finds the disk. Also can't back anything up on a disk. Anyone know what the problem is?

2935 Is Brian Ross being Rathered?

The amount of Foley material being amassed by Brian Ross at ABC, and the length of time he has held it just to release right before the election is "Rather" suspicious. Is it gay bashing when you get this explicit Mr. Ross, or is it a gay outing by a militant gay group mad at Foley for not supporting them, or is it just politics as usual for the Democrats and their media buddies who are hoping Republicans will split over this? There is no type face to compare as there was in the CBS Dan Rather meltdown, just some instant messages from "who knows who?" An astute page clever enough to save that many messages? My, he must have a future. If these are real, I'm surprised Foley was bright enough to run for dog catcher let alone Congress.

The folks behind the folks behind Ross.

Brian Ross
Dan Rather
Mark Foley

2934 Glenn Beck's off base today

He's horrified, as we all are, by the killing of school children in Pennsylvania yesterday. The man who picked up the Amish farmers' milk everyday slaughtered their daughters and granddaughters and no one knows why. It is so unthinkable that even finding a motive won't clear your brain. Glenn's website.

But Glenn is using one man's madness to launch an attack on modern society. Why I don't know. He's tossed in cell phones, Hollywood, mothers who work, and families not eating together into one big foul stew. I think a lot of things are wrong with society, like Nagin being reelected by the people he failed in New Orleans, like our former pastor's adultery, like allowing felons to work at our ports, like encouraging young girls to yearn for stick like bodies, like U.S. Moslems turning a blind eye to Jihadism. But no, I'm not going to accept any of the blame for one crazy milk man from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania who murders children after hugging his own good-bye at the bus stop.

Glenn Beck
Amish

2933 And if he were your boss or colleague?

What would you have done? Because I was a librarian, I worked with many, openly gay men (and some that were in the closet). Certain careers have been gay-friendly over the years, and gay men have enjoyed positions of prominence, power, and publishing in library science and technology. Back in the 60s we just assumed the aging spinster librarians living together were doing so for convenience and security--the fact that they were lesbians in long term relationships went right over my head.

I knew the monogamous and the promiscuous ones, and several who had also formerly been married. One of my former male employees was still married to his wife the last time he visited me, but he's now a she, so I'm a bit out of the loop on the sexual dynamics of that coupling. It's just more than I want to know. My favorite boss of many years was gay, and his long time partner was often included in social activities. Even in the weeks before he died and I visited him in hospice, he tried to be cheerful and up-to-date on what was happening at the library despite his pain. And so the dilemma of what Foley's colleagues knew and when they knew, hits close to home for me. I truly don't know what I would have done, because it is human nature to make excuses for the failings of friends and colleagues. And it is also human nature to guard your own career ladder and not chop off any of the rungs you need to advance.

Mark Foley was openly gay, his homosexuality apparently well-known on the Hill, and a Republican congressman from Florida. The mainstream media isn't praising his fellow Republicans for accepting him for years as a colleague and friend. No, Foley's homosexuality is never mentioned, but the "failure" of his colleagues and superiors to protect underage boys is. Tricky business, ratting on a friend, a superior, or a "protected" person in today's political climate, isn't it?

In today's upside down world of political correctness, Foley's colleagues' assumed failures are looming much larger in the media than his known disgusting behavior. I think ABC was the first to break the story. A story they sat on for some time before it was trotted out after the deadline for a new Republican to get on the Florida ballot. They showed even less concern "for the children" than Foley did.

There's an editorial about this in the Wall Street Journal today, which has implications for your job and community too. Here's my thoughts:

• Do you assume the colleague's behavior is predatory if you notice something odd,
• or do you wonder if you're being homophobic, or prudish if the colleague isn't gay
• Or are you afraid you'll be accused of being homophobic putting your own career in jeopardy if you say something?
• Do you ask or tell another colleague about it
• or is that gossip if your suspicions are groundless?
• Do you talk privately to the offending colleague or boss (yeah, boss, that's gonna happen!) assuming he won't torpedo your career at the next team evaluation?
• Would you instigated an investigation of e-mail at work?
• Would you go to the ombudsman or personnel director if you knew they were also homosexual, or known to be promiscuous
• Would you know which privacy laws you might be violating?
• Would your private discussion go into your personnel record?
• Do you assume gay men are going to be targeting gay boys?
• And what if the gay boys like and encourage the attention the same way straight teens enjoy attention?
• is this another round of political correctness because of the big push for children to become comfortable with their sexuality?
• Would you alert the child's parents, who may not even be aware of his sexual orientation.

Yes, a lot to think about before you rat out a colleague.