Friday Family Photo

Home on Hannah Avenue
My parents owned this home in Mt. Morris, IL from 1951-1958, then moved to Lincoln Street until 1996 when they moved to the Pinecrest Apartments. However, it was the third house Dad bought in Mt. Morris that year. It was his habit to buy a home for his family sight unseen by my mother. I think she got tired of remodeling old clunkers, and said NO to the nice new home on the east side of town because she thought it was too small. So then he bought a new two story on the east end of Lincoln Street, but it was too small also. So he traded that home for this lovely big old house on Hannah Avenue. It also had room for Dad's truck since it had a large barn/garage, a full basement, full attic, 4 bedrooms, and a den/office that doubled as a music room.


My brother and the barn on HannahThis was a great "kid" house. Within two blocks of us lived many children and it had an extra acre in the back yard. It had a tree in the front yard (not in photo) that was perfect for climbing, and I staked my horse in the back. Mom had a huge garden (although that wasn't so great for kids because we had to help) and for awhile we even had chickens (loose zoning). For slumber parties, I took over the living room and Dad's office/music room, and my sister Carol had hers in the attic which had a high pitch and windows on 3 sides. I could have the whole CBYF church group (probably 20 kids or so) on the front porch. When a girl friend moved to Florida after our junior year, I had all the girls from our class in the living room for a good-bye party. Different groups and classes from school used our barn for floats.

Although I wasn't around the summer the decision was made to sell this, my favorite house, it was sold after Mother remodeled everything! The next house, which they lived in for 38 years was cramped, small, had no style and only one bathroom. However, she spent about 1/3 of the value of the home just remodeling the kitchen, and Dad didn't sell it until they were ready to go to a retirement apartment! She used every clipping she'd been saving for years on this kitchen and had a carpenter custom make all the cabinetry because she was short. I call it her payback kitchen.

3006 Did you get your flu shot?

We got ours Sunday at church. I haven't had a bad case of the flu--the achy, breaky, two weeks and flaky kind since the epidemic of 1957 (Asian flu--about 70,000 died) when I was in college. But I do now get a flu shot. Some people don't believe in vaccines. I do.

I read in the paper that there will now be a vaccine, Zostavax, for shingles for people over 60. I will definitely get this. It is a terribly painful and debilitating condition. It emerges from dormant chicken pox in blisters and a rash, and it can turn into severe neuralgia or chronic nerve pain. My dad had it for awhile on his scalp (it is also ugly and leaves scars), and my Aunt PeeWee (yes, that's what we all called her) became a shut-in from it. Sometimes an outbreak is brief, a few days or weeks, and sometimes it can drag on for years.

"There are an estimated one million new cases of shingles in the United States each year, and the risk of contacting the disease rises with the aging of the individual. It is estimated that one out of every two individuals over 85 is at risk for getting the disease. About half of all cases occur in people over 60, but the risk is also extremely high for younger people with immune problems, AIDS sufferers and people with cancer." TheRubins.com

Read the FDA notice here.

Zostavax
Shingles
vaccines
flu vaccine

3004 Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen books going to the library sale!

Do you bite off more than you can chew? Are your eyes bigger than your stomach? No, this 13 isn’t about food, but a bad habit--buying books at used book sales, thinking they look really good. Last week in a frenzy (about 10 minutes) of office cleaning I pulled a stack of books off my shelves to take to the library sale. Bookshelves need a little breathing room to look good in a home. I just counted them. Thirteen. And all came from sales--$.25-$2.00.

Great, I didn’t have a topic ready like I usually do. One I actually read several years ago and thought it might be nice to own, but I never opened it. One was pretty marked up and I found a better copy. One was a duplicate of what I already had on my shelves. Several are how-to books for writers--the publishing information is out of date, but the articles in the front are still good--but I read them years ago and really am not interested in publishing anymore. Yes, Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo, Get Along Little Volumes, it’s time for the last round up. In the box you go.

• ARE YOU SOMEBODY? THE ACCIDENTAL MEMOIR OF A DUBLIN WOMAN by Nuala O’Faolain
  
• DATABASE NATION; THE DEATH OF PRIVACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY by Simson Garfinkel
  
• ELIZABETH I CEO; STRATEGIC LESSONS FROM THE LEADER WHO BUILT AN EMPIRE by Alan Axelrod
  
• HELPING PEOPLE THROUGH GRIEF by Delores Kuenning
  
• A HISTORY OF THE WESTERN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE by Gerald L. Gutek
  
• HOW TO QUIT GOLF; A 12-STEP PROGRAM by Craig Brass
  
• THE INTERPRETATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE by Walter M. Dunnett
  
• NOVEL & SHORT STORY WRITER’S MARKET 1995
  
• POET’S MARKET 1998
  
• PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen
  
• SHIP OF GOLD IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA by Gary Kinder
  
• TRULY THE COMMUNITY by Marva J. Dawn
  
• UNTO THE HILLS by Billy Graham

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! Leave a comment and I'll add your name and URL. View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Visitors and visited:
Amy, BabyBlue, Barb, Barbara, Beckadoodles, Blessed Assurances, Brony, Bubba, Buttercup and Bean, Carey, Carmen, Caylynn, Chaotic Mom, Chelle Y., Cheryl, Dane, Danielle, Darla, Dawn, Denise, DK Raymer, Domestic Geek, Dorothy, Factor 10, Faerylandmom, Expressing myself, Friday's Child, Gattina, Ghost, Irish Church Lady, It’s all about me, Jane, Janeen, JB , Joan,, Joy Renee, Just Tug, Kate, Kathy, Kaye, Kelly,Kendra, Lady Bug, Lazy Daisy, Mrs. Lifecruiser, Lyndsay, Lynn, Ma, Mar, C.A.Marks, Mary, Michelle, Mistress of the dark MommyBa, N.Mallory, Nat, Nathalie, Raggedy Randy, Ribbiticus, Shannon, The Shrone, Southern Girl, Sunny Days, Sunshine Blues, Susan, Tammy, TC, Test, Tigerprr, TNChick,

Clear Channel for Sale?

Saw this on the news. That's our local talk show channel, and just about everything else. I think they own 1100 stations.

3003 Family Living Courses in High School

Although I have no recollection of a course like this in high school, it may have been a component in the home economics course in the 1950s. If you were aiming for college, you took Latin (our only foreign language), math, all the sciences, and the required social sciences--with maybe one or two electives. I had to battle with the principal to take second year typing, but I think typing and Latin were absolutely the most useful courses I had in 12 years of public education--one taught me to read, spell and write, and the other how to get it down in lightening speed. Computers have slowed down my typing speed, but I can't recall a job where I didn't type for some reason.

But back to my point--family living courses. Today I came across an article "Family Life Education Survey" by Reuben H. Behlmer, in Marriage and Family Living, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Aug., 1961), pp. 299-301. What makes it so interesting (to me), it was offered in my husband's high school, Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis, which in student enrollment was larger than the entire town where I went to school (76 acre campus with 5,000 students). I asked my husband if he was aware of this course, but he'd never heard of it.


The survey probably came to just the right conclusion for the author to get a grant--that's why people do surveys. But the other perk is you then publish them to pad the resume. Less than half the 950 returned the survey, but of those who did 98.2% said the course should be continued and 67.6% said they would not have received the information any other way, and those who got the information in other ways, said it wasn't very accurate (yeah, I can imagine!) Although the survey didn't provide for comments, they got them anyway, with some of them suggesting it needed to be offered before the senior year--maybe freshman--because values and attitudes about sex were pretty well established by senior year. And to think now they want to introduce sex education around first grade.

I've written about his school before--the 1997 reuions, and The SLOBS (social fraternity).

family life courses, surveys, Marriage research

3002 I love Michael J. Fox

but the press is having a field day because Rush Limbaugh dared to question him as an "untouchable" spokesman for Democratic causes because he has a debilitating, progressive disease. Rush believes that if you become a political advocate, you are fair game. Democrats and the media believe you need to tippy toe around completely capable people who have a problem and treat them like children. But only if they are on the left end of the right side. They don't tippy toe around women who've been scarred by the abortion experience, or families of drug addicts who want stricter laws, or vicitms of drunk drivers.

I've loved Fox's TV role as the conservative son in a liberal family in Family Ties, and his movies. Didn't care much for the Spin City role and didn't watch it. But I've read Fox's book, "Lucky Man," and enjoyed it. The reason he does not make a convincing case for stem cell research in his book (for this reader and fan) is because he doesn't tell the whole truth. First of all, it's not illegal, and secondly, it is not the great and only hope for PD that he makes it out to be in the book. Third, he says antiabortion activists opposed embryonic stem cell use even though the embryos would be discarded (i.e., aborted). He never deals with the ethics of using what amounts to the destruction of a potential human, to allow experimentation, nor where it would stop when there aren't enough aborted and "discarded" embryos [and now cloned in this lastest flap] for all the lab jockeys who want to ride them to fame and fortune. Democrats continue to spread these lies, and the media continues to lie about what Rush said. I was listening. I know what the conversation was about.

• Fox admits in his book that he is a political advocate for Democratic candidates, that he opposed George W. Bush in 2000.
  
• Fox admits he is pro-abortion and doesn't much like right-to-life Republican legislators.
  
• Fox tells in his book that he has written an Op-Ed piece for the NYT criticizing Bush as governor of Texas on this issue.
  
• Fox ridicules the concept of "compassionate conservatism" because of stem cell research.
  
• Fox tells he gets a lot of media coverage for his personal lobbying activities.
  
• Fox takes credit for getting President Bush to allow federal funding to go forward for stem cell research (which obviously reverses everything you hear about it being illegal).
  
• Fox's distain for the President literally drips off the pages of this book--sort of like Andrew Sullivan is about the President on gay marriage. There is no other issue.

So tell me, why a radio talk show host who discusses politics and sports, and is a Republican, and supports Bush on most issues (not immigration, and not his failure to rally the troops on Social Security), tell me why Michael J. Fox isn't fair game on his show?

Fox writes on page 247, "I made a deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication. It seemed to me that this occasion demanded that my testimony about the effects of the disease, and the urgency we as a community were feeling, be seen as well as heard. For people who had never observed me in this kind of shape, the transformation must have been startling. This is exactly the issue that Limbaugh addressed--had Fox gone off his medicine to produce the political ad which, according to Limbaugh, didn't really address a stem cell issue.

Michael J. Fox, Rush Limbaugh, Parkinson's Disease, celebrity advocacy, embryonic stem cell research, fetal research

3001 Sometimes you just need a little Anglo-Saxon

Now here's a segue--from toilet (previous entry) to 4 letter words.

Usually I eschew the four letter words on this blog--you'll be tossed if you leave any or de-linked if I go to your blog and have to hold my nose. They are way overused and lose their punch, but occasionally, they are the only words that work. They've mostly come to us from our impoverished peasant Anglo-Saxon ancestors (although scatolinquists quibble over this). However, it would be a bit difficult to read an account of this lawman's encounter with the drug culture using our more descriptive Latin based words.

In this account, he'd just stripped down and left all his clothes outside so he could shower after a drug bust and wonders why anyone would glamorize the drug culture. He's a bit more graphic than what you see on TV. Jack at Texas Music is always a good read. I thought about this when I heard on the news today of yet another city (or state) trying to legalize pot in small amounts.

"Fuck all those who profit from and glorify and rationalize the daily horror show that is the American drug abuse epidemic, from the cartels to NORML to the recreational pot smoker. You all have blood on your hands.

You want to know why my boots are outside?

Because they have shit on them.

I tried to be careful, but it was splattered around pretty good by the door, where he wrestled with the two mid shift cops. That dude was multi-tasking. Wrestling with the cops, crapping all over the motel room floor, and shooting up.

All at the same time."

Writes about bagging the evidence, and he concludes. . .

"There's some people who badly need an education on the truth about drug use in America. They need to walk a mile in my boots sometime.

They're the ones that are outside. With the shit on them."

3000 What's in your toilet tank?

Because I had blogged about having emergency kits, I was checking on our stored drinking water, wash water, and flush water. We'd been thinking about getting water conserving toilets, when it occurred to me I could store the flush water in the tank! I filled a plastic 1/2 gallon jug, and opened the tank and inserted it where it wouldn't bother the arm. I flushed it with the lid off to make sure everything was working correctly. Then I noticed a lot of black mold under the lid. So I cleaned that up, and replaced the lid.

Then I went to my husband's bathroom to do the same thing. However, when I took the lid off I found a pile of stones inside the tank--maybe 1/4" diameter each. I fished them all out, placing them on the counter, and put the 1/2 gallon container filled with water into the tank. There weren't enough to displace a meaningful amount of water--maybe 20 small stones.

Now my mind has been busy today thinking about those little rocks. Could they be valuable nuggets of something like gold or silver, stored there and forgotten by some previous owner to fool the burglars?

water conservation
toilets
emergency kits
disaster preparedness

2999 Women at the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893

My grandmother was a teen-ager attending Ashton High School in Illinois at the time of the Chicago Columbian Exposition. Along with 27 million other people, she strolled through the exhibits and marveled at the sights from foreign lands, and the fabulous architecture of the "White City." One of the most stunning books you'll ever read about murder, mayhem and architecture is Devil in the White City. I'd seen many knick-knacks, guidebooks and souvenirs in her home.

It was very easy to get to Chicago from their farm--much easier than today. In fact, I think the train came through Franklin Grove depot 5 or 6 times a day and the family often shopped in Chicago, visited friends and saw a doctor there. Her father owned property in Chicago and it was later donated to the Church of the Brethren for the Bethany Sanitarium and Hospital. So I just love to read about the fair, and in 1993 when the Medical Library Association had its annual meeting there, I thoroughly enjoyed all the exhibits of the 100th anniversary of the fair.

Libraries and Culture, Vol. 41, no. 1, 2006, has seven essays on the Woman's Building of the Exposition. The Woman's Building [floor plan]contained a library with 7,000 volumes authored, illustrated and edited by women,(including 47 translations and editions of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin) produced between the 16th to 19th Century. If you are from Illinois, you'll be interested in the article about the 58 novels in that collection which were authored by Illinois women. Libraries and Culture (which will be changing its title to Libraries and the Cultural Record, which seems a bit redundant to me and will mess up serial records in thousands of libraries with vol. 42, is available on-line if you have a login to a library that has a subscription. Or you can ask for it from interlibrary loan at your local library.

2998 Delicious pumpkin recipes

As announced publicly here 4 weeks ago (after a summer of wonderful travel and even more wonderful eating on the run) I planned to cut back on the calories and step up the exercise. I posted my 13 food triggers. So far, that has worked very well. I'm not a list maker by nature, but this is working for me, and I would probably throw out my shoulder again patting myself on the back. I'm feeling something I haven't experienced in a long, long time--space in my jeans.

But it is boring! Say what you want about fruits and vegetables, all their health benefits and antioxidants, vitamins, etc., they just don't satisfy the way a cracker with butter and cheese would. However, let me tell you about pumpkins.
Photo borrowed from "on the rock."
Pumpkin doesn't have to be cut from the vine and cooked and mashed. No, Libby's has done that for you! If you're the mother earth type, be my guest. One serving (can label) has only 40 calories, 20% of your fiber needs for the day, and a whopping 300% of Vitamin A (80% as beta carotene), and also has small amounts of C, E, Calcium and iron. And there's nothing in the can except pumpkin.

"The key nutrient that boosts pumpkin to the top of the SuperFoods Rx list is the synergistic combination of carotenoids, powerful antioxidants which have been shown to decrease the risk of various cancers, including those of the lung, colon, bladder, breast, and skin, lower the rate of heart disease, and decrease the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration. Pumpkin contains one of the richest supplies of bioavailable alpha-carotene and beta-carotene to be found. Canned pumpkin is one of those foods that give the lie to the notion that fresh is always best." SuperFoods Rx.

So here's what I did:
1 8oz. fat free cream cheese blended with
3/4 C. Splenda
drop or two of vanilla
pinch of salt
2/3 can of pure pumpkin (about 10 oz.)
1/2 8 oz. carton of sugar free Cool Whip
Use spices accordingly--label calls for cinnamon, ginger, cloves in varying amounts--because this isn't cooked after you mix it, I'd go easy.

Put in a graham cracker 8-9 in. crust, or to reduce calories more, use small dessert cups. Top with some Cool Whip after letting it set-up in the frig for a few hours.
I drizzled some sugar free hot fudge on top--yummy combination. Neither chocolate nor graham cracker crust are food triggers for me, even so this is so yummy, next time I'll put it in a dish.

Then because I had 1/3 of a can left over, I decided to try pumpkin egg nog. I wasn't sure how this would work out--had never even thought about it, but here's what I did, and it is yummy too.

1 qt. low fat milk
2 eggs
4 Tbsp Splenda
1 tsp vanilla
teeny pinch of salt

Beat with egg beater until eggs are thoroughly mixed.
Put 5 oz. pumpkin puree in the blender and add about a cup of the milk/egg mix.
Whirl a few seconds. Canned pumpkin is sort of thick and this smooths it out. Add back to the milk/egg mix.
Cook at low heat for 5-10 minutes or so. (Don't ever eat raw or uncooked eggs--I was a vet med librarian and trust me on this! The stories I could tell!)
Sprinkle to taste with cinnamon and/or nutmeg.

Chill. Although warmed up is good too. Enjoy a healthy, low fat, refreshing and seasonal drink in front of the fireplace.

Elevator accident at Ohio State

You probably saw this story on the national news--about the freshman at Ohio State who was crushed by the dorm elevator. According to the report I heard yesterday, there were 24 students jammed in the elevator, about 1100 lbs. beyond the weight limit. The accident is under investigation, but the version I heard was that the doors wouldn't close as it started to move, so Andrew Polakowski, a freshman pre-business major, tried to escape by climbing out. The other 23 were stuck in the elevator and I just can't even imagine their horror as they watched him struggle. I know they get counseling for elementary kids after school disasters, but surely this is an image that will stay with them the rest of their lives.

The elevator passed inspection in July, but now the local news is finding students who report problems they've had in the past. The crowd around that freshman dorm is probably made up of lawyers.

Columbus Dispatch account

Monday Memories

October is National Roller Skating Month! Take the family skating. When I was a young girl, there was a roller rink across from the White Pines State Park, about 7 miles south of our town, near Dixon, Illinois. There is still a rink at that location, but I don't know if it is the same building. The rules certainly look the same. The floor was made of terrazzo, there was an audience seating area, a place to check out skates if you didn't own them, a changing area with nice murals of the area, and a snack bar. I'm not sure when it was built but I remember that my mother used to take us there on Saturday afternoons when I was in grade school, and if she would fall down, all of us would rush over and help her up.

White Pines Rink in early 50s

Borrowed from the rink site
On Sunday afternoons, someone would beg a parent (often my father who didn't seem to mind even though he drove a truck 6 days a week) to drive a carload to the rink. When I was a freshman in high school I dated a senior from Polo, Illinois, called "The Cisco Kid" by my schoolmates because he wore a leather fringed jacket and cowboy boots. He was a wonderful, graceful skater, so in order to keep up, I had to learn too. My skating days outlasted the relationship.

There was a short, plump woman who played the organ. The sides of the rink rolled up in sections like garage doors and the gravel drive way was slopped allowing people in their cars and watch the skaters. Sometimes in the summer you might look out in the dark and see a disgruntled boy in a car, and the ex-girlfriend was skating with someone else. Oh, it was very exciting! In the winter, the rink was all closed up, so you skated in extremely dusty conditions, and when you got home, your hair was gray!

The rink manager would announce certain "skates," and the really good skaters would show their skills--a waltz, or backward skate, or ladies choice, or a progressive skate, where you skated in a large circle and the men moved forward to a new partner. I don't remember the name of the owner, but for awhile in the 1970s my cousin Ron owned it.

First I used my mother's skates, then she gave me my own pair in a fancy blue case for Christmas one year. I think I kept them for over 40 years, and probably donated them when we move here. Skating isn't like riding a bicycle, I discovered. It's a skill that must be used or you forget how to balance. If I were to get on skates today, it would be the same as the very first time--but the bones are not quite as flexible. The last time I was on roller skates was probably in college.

View More Monday Memories Participants
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My visitors and those I'll visit this week are:Ma, Viamarie, Mrs. Lifecruiser, Debbie, Lazy Daisy, Lady Bug, Janene, Michelle, Anna, ChelleY. Jen, Melli Becki, Paul, Friday's Child, Irish Church Lady,Cozy Reader

National Roller Skating Month
roller rinks
1950s

2995 American families are unprepared

"Drs. Richard Dagrosa and John McManus, both emergency physicians in the military, surveyed people in San Antonio, Texas, including patients in two military hospital emergency departments. The survey results show no significant differences among military, retired military and civilian families in regard to having a disaster plan, designating a meeting place or having a disaster kit. Only half the families in the survey had prepared any kind of disaster plan, and only one-third possessed a disaster kit." Their survey was released during the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) in New Orleans, October 15-18. Dagrosa is stationed at Wright-Patterson near Dayton.
Story from Responder Safety.

You can get the Emergency guidelines and recommendations from the American Red Cross which provides a list for Disaster Supplies Kit.

2994 Two day golf tournament

Friday when I was returning from a few errands, streets around here were filled with cars and the golf course was crowded with young people. It was a 2-day, 36 hole tournament, and the Upper Arlington (our community) team beat the defending Division I Dublin Jerome team. UA had two powerhouse members, but they couldn't have won without the full team.
The sun came out the second day

Same scene with zoom
As I've mentioned before, I think golf is as much fun as watching ice melt, but I have to admit, it makes more sense for a young person to build their eye hand skills and team rapport in golf than in basketball or football, or in computer gaming, because they can play well into their 80s, if they like the game. My father-in-law had knee replacements from punishing his legs in basketball long after they should've been benched, and my brother-in-law has done the same thing in hand-ball. Not that you can't throw out your shoulder or back in golf, but most of the life time injuries I've seen from sports have been from over use and under smarts.

Newly renovated Scarlet course, which was built in 1938, and completely revamped supervised by Jack Nicklaus in 2005-2006.

golf tournaments, high school sports, leisure activities

2993 The New York Times Editor admits to being a blabbermouth

Now he admits the terrorist banking data surveillance program was legal and that there's no evidence that anyone’s private data had actually been misused, so the story shouldn't have been leaked! Well, isn't that just so special. Michelle Malkin takes him to the woodshed. His reason--that the Bush administration had been critical of the Times--makes no sense at all. It's not like the Times hasn't been dishing it out. Besides, it's a newspaper, not a kid getting bullied on the playground. Riehl World View suspects the NYT wants Hillary in the White House, so they don't want the uber-left mucking around for 2 years.

New York Times, Byron Calame, surveillance program

2992 The Foley Follies

Flipping through the channels yesterday, I skipped c-span's coverage of the Foley investigation. I noticed there was a WaPo story in the paper today. Buried in it was:

"No one interviewed could cite any instance in which Foley had sex with a former page."

Three dozen interviews.

. . .his behavior was within "well-accepted norms of the page program."

Three dozen interviews.

"one page played along" because he had political ambitions. He never considered reporting Foley.

Now, when does the investigation begin of Congressmen who approached female pages and staff with inappropriate or sexual remarks, innuendo and little side trips to death? You know, those who know how to drive a car and use a phone, but might not be capable of IMs or who follied in the days before e-mail? Massachusetts seems to have a corner on the sex with staff and page problem--Kennedy and Studds.
Even so, I award this to the media, who just can't get enough of this non-story.

Media bias
Mark Foley
Liberal MSM

2991 The scariest blog out there

Last night blogger seemed to be down--so if your site meter took a hit, that's why. I couldn't read a single blog hosted at blogger.com--not my own, and not yours. So I flipped through my bookmarks just to see if I had some that were not located on this blog's links (which is usually how I find my favs). Sort of wish I'd watched TV instead. I read through 5 or 6 items in Counterterrorism Blog, and folks, I gotta tell ya, that's one scary website. You won't need any Halloween preparations--just read that one.

Scanning the list of biographies of the contributors, I thought this author has an interesting perspective, having been a member of all the "big-3" religions, and on both sides of the terrorism fence.

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross is a senior consultant for the Gerard Group International, a Massachusetts-based counterterrorism and homeland security firm. He frequently works with federal and local law enforcement, providing analysis of possible terrorist threats and activity as well as conducting topical training seminars. Daveed brings a unique perspective to his work. Born into a Jewish family, he converted to Islam in his early twenties and ended up working for the head U.S. office of the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, an international Wahhabi charity that served as a major al-Qaeda financier. Prior to 9/11, Daveed left the Islamic faith for Christianity. By the time the FBI raided the Al Haramain offices where he worked, he was ready to assist the investigation. The experience is detailed in Daveed's first book, My Year Inside Radical Islam, which will hit stores in February 2007.

counterterrorism
Homeland Security
War on Terror

2990 Halloween Party

It's probably been 20 years since we've been to a Halloween Party, so when my husband asked yesterday if we still had our masks and costumes to wear to T & J's, I was pretty sure we didn't. When we were celebrating our son-in-law's birthday Friday night at the Rusty Bucket, they mentioned their friends T & J were having a party and would we like to tag along as their guests. We had nothing going on, so we said yes. It was within my husband's 24 hour range for being spontaneous.

T's father brought along some emergency costumes, so my husband did dress up a bit after we got there in a pink hat and glasses--actually a good disguise--I pretended not to know him! The food was catered--yummy brisket, bbq pork, baked beans and cole slaw, with a dessert contest, contributed by the guests. The hosts have a home with a big yard in our old neighborhood with lots of activities for the children--karaoke, one of those inflatable play gyms, a haunted house, and even a porta-potty to take care of the beer that was passing through. Free standing log burners provided us some warmth for the night chill. With the catered meal and the activities for children incorporated, the hosts were able to mingle and have a bit of fun with their guests.

I visited What Geeks Eat this morning and found a recipe for bbq and cole slaw--just in case you want to have a party.

Halloween Costumes
party ideas

2989 Ranting about Safire

One of my links, Language Hat, doesn't much like William Safire's columns on language. Here's a recent rant. . . about the word rant. It's a word that bloggers use frequently, so you need to compare and contrast the two versions.

"Today's column is about the word rant. I'm used to his pretending that whatever word or phrase he's decided to pick on is "enjoying a boom" and having a "sudden, unforeseen blossoming," so that's not what bothered me. No, it was this, from his obligatory paragraph on etymology: "The German verb ranzen, 'to dance about gaily, to frolic,' was picked up in English in Richard Brome’s 1641 play, 'The Joviall Crew': 'The more the merrier, I am resolved to Rant it to the last.'" There are two species of idiocy here. The first, the Common or Garden Variety of Safire Idiocy, is the pretense that the first citation in the OED is the very first time the word was used in English, so the user (in this case Ben Jonson's pal Richard Brome, pronounced "broom," whose comedy A Jovial Crew was the last play performed before the closing of the theaters under the Puritans) is said to have invented it or personally imported it, whichever applies. The second is the claim that it is from German ranzen. Every dictionary I have says it's from the (obsolete) Dutch verb ranten, which (as you will note) looks and sounds a lot more like the English word; the OED (presumably where Safire or his assistant went for the information) adds "cf. G. ranzen to frolic, spring about, etc." Cf. means 'compare,' and the German is added as a related word; it clearly was not the direct source. And whatever the source, the word was presumably borrowed by somebody who hung out with foreigners and liked the word enough to start using it; it caught on and was used by an unknowable number of merrie olde Englishmen before Brome put it in his comedy and became the First Citation. Please, Safire & Co., use your heads before repeating this tiresome error!

William Safire
English language
blog rants

2988 Fiddling with the template

I subscribe to Boogie Jack's Almost a Newsletter. He's really writing for those of you who have web pages for business, and he's got a new book just about due, but I often find little tips I can use for my blog. Today, I learned how to bold an italicized phrase or quote. It's pretty simple, and is imbedded now in my template, so you'll probably be seeing it often if I can remember to use it. I also learned how to make an outlined indented list of items, but I don't have any particular use for tha at the moment.

Also I've created another blog! This one will have a limited audience and will disappear sometime during 2007 because I made it for my class reunion next July. I'm hoping to find some other class members to be on the "team" but it will be my first time at creating a blog with other writers. The instructions at blogger weren't all that clear. Here's the site for the reunion.