3014 Buckeye Homecoming

44-0 doesn't quite seem fair, does it? Yesterday was so cold and rainy (parade, pep rally and tailgate) I couldn't imagine that we would end up with a gorgeous sunny, bright October day, a perfect day for football. You've got to feel bad for those Minnesota players. This seemed to go beyond the home team advantage, to just plain good playing.

Our daughter, son-in-law and his widowed father from Cleveland came over for lunch. Somehow we got to talking about games and I brought out the Boggle game. While the guys retired to the family room to watch (the game before OSU), my daughter and I must have played 10 or 15 sets. She's good! She enjoys words, as I do, but thinks Scrabble just takes too long. Her father-in-law got interested because you can also play it alone. In this game you try to find as many words of three or more letters as you can in 3 minutes. Form words by joining letters up, down, side-to-side and even diagonally. The longer and more unusual the words the higher your score. If you both find the same words, you cross those out and don't score with them.

HOME TEAM WINS FOOT BALL GAME

Ohio State University Football
Buckeyes
Boggle

3013 Before you vote

be sure to read Victor Davis Hanson's assessment of where we are in the Middle East. Then if you still want "cut and run" candidates, pause and say a prayer for all the millions of Vietnamese we sent to their death the last time we did that.

". . . by the historical standards of most wars, we have done well enough to win in Iraq, and still have a good shot of doing the impossible in seeing this government survive. More importantly still, worldwide we are beating the Islamic fundamentalists and their autocratic supporters. Iranian-style theocracy has not spread. For all the talk of losing Afghanistan, the Taliban are still dispersed or in hiding — so is al Qaeda. Europe is galvanizing against Islamism in a way unimaginable just three years ago. The world is finally focusing on Iran. Hezbollah did not win the last war, but lost both prestige and billions of dollars in infrastructure, despite a lackluster effort by Israel. Elections have embarrassed a Hamas that, the global community sees, destroys most of what it touches and now must publicly confess that it will never recognize Israel. Countries like Libya are turning, and Syria is more isolated. If we keep the pressure up in Iraq and Afghanistan and work with our allies, Islamism and its facilitators will be proven bankrupt.

In contrast, if we should withdraw from Iraq right now, there will be an industry in the next decade of hindsight exposés — but they won’t be the gotcha ones like State of Denial or Fiasco. Instead we will revisit the 1974-5 Vietnam genre of hindsight — of why after such heartbreak and sacrifice the United States gave up when it was so close to succeeding." VDH Private Papers

3012 Vocabulary builders

At Liberty Books last night (see previous post) I picked up one or two vocabulary drill books. They always look so interesting, but I know I won't do the exercises. Besides, I have two books on my shelves that I just love--and I don't know all the words yet!

The first is English Vocabulary Builder by Johnson O'Connor published by Human Engineering Laboratory, Hoboken, 1939 [c 1937]. O'Connor opens the book with an article he wrote for Atlantic Monthly, Feb. 1934, about the relationship between vocabulary and success. But note this from "Acknowledgments":

"The International Business Machines Corporation has enabled the Laboratory to have a set of data-handling machines for the accurate assembly of material. The Atwell Company of Boston has made it possible for the Laboratory to have Ediphone equipment which has contributed to the preparation of this volume."
Of course, we know what IBM is, so this book used the latest technology in 1937 (there were 9 men and 5 women listed as collaborators, which may have been less sexist than IT staffs today), but the Ediphone was used to replace stenographers. It was invented by Thomas Edison to compete with the Dictiphone. The Ediphone had a tube to speak in and the voice vibrations would be recorded on a wax cylinder. A secretary would then type up the recording and then shave the used layer of the cylinder so it could be reused.[scripophily.net]

O'Connor arranged this book by order of familiarity. In 1937, apparently just about everyone, including children, knew the word, "horseshoer," so it was #1. Seventy years later, you probably wouldn't find many children who had ever seen or touched a shoe for a horse, and if they had to draw one might sketch something resembling a Manolo Blahnik. Using the latest data crunchers of the time, the laboratory found 55 words known to all adults--including "fragrant," "quench," and "disordered." From known to all, he moves on to "unknown to 1 per cent," all the way through to "unknown to 99 per cent." The last group has words that 70 years later would not be that rare, like "brochure," "unconscionable," "utter," and "detraction." I was a bit surprised to see that 50% of high-schoolers knew the meaning of "elegiacal" and "asseveration" in 1937, which I might figure out in context, but would not likely use.

With most words, he gives the percentage that knew it or thought it was something else, and what group they were in (college seniors, adults, prep-school, etc.) and words that might be confused, like retinue and retainer or annulled and nugatory.

The second book I have is Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage by Bergen and Cornelia Evans, Random House, 1957. It's not really a vocabulary builder, but a correct usage guide. This book is lots of fun--snarky remarks about English all over the place. This book is old now, and the authors warn the readers that the language is constantly changing--that silly once meant holy, fond meant foolish, beam meant tree and tree meant beam. But I still like it, and am not ready to replace it with something until I learn all the words I should have known in 1957. Don't pay more than $1.00 for it if you see it at a sale.

Cornelia was Bergen's sister, not his wife, and his papers are at Northwestern; if you look through the description of the files, her name appears also. They had planned a second edition, but didn't complete it. She was also a novelist and wrote "The Cloud of Witnesses," and "Journey into the Fog," using the name Cornelia Goodhue. They were born in Ohio.

Bergen Evans
Cornelia Evans
English language
Vocabulary

3011 Why you should buy a world map

Last night after dinner (where I once a week forget turnip greens, tomato juice, and eating healthy) we went next door to Liberty Books. I'd been carrying around a gift card for ages. Although I was a bit surprised that my husband agreed to go in (he's got the male non-shopper gene), I thought perhaps he was humoring me. After much browsing for a premiere issue (there were none I didn't have), I selected a $14.95 paperback (I remember when new pb's were $.25, and trade pb's were $1.00), and he walked up to the cashier with a $4.95 folded world map.

"What's the copyright date on that?" I asked. He looked surprised--so did the clerk. It was all wrapped up, but she went online and looked. "All I want is a world map," he said, sensing his prize slipping away. "It doesn't have to have last week's coup on it." "Nope." I said, standing my ground, "if we need a map, we need the latest." "January 2003," the young lady chirped. "We needed something newer," I said. "This was the only one," he persisted.

So we bought the book and the map. I'm such a softy.

Later that evening I noticed it was spread out on the living room floor. I squatted down (which is much easier to do since I've lost 8 lbs.) and started looking over the map. "China doesn't look as large as I remember," I said, "but, my goodness, Russia is huge!" "And here are the Canary Islands that some of the bloggers I read talk about as vacation spots." And then, "Oh my goodness, in my mind's eye I had New Zealand on the wrong side of Australia! It's been a very long time since geography class in fifth grade."

My husband sat there looking quite pleased. "Yes, but now look at how tiny Israel is, and all the surrounding countries that are trying to destroy it." Even with my glasses, it was hard to spot it. And very sobering to know how many countries are doing everything they can to remove it from the next edition of this map.

Yes, do buy a world map.

world maps
book stores
Love
date night
copyright

3010 Almost makes me wish

all my old photo albums hadn't fallen apart. Isn't this a fun site?

Blogger burps

My site meter has plummeted this week to about 200 a day. Blogger has been having significant problems. I checked their updates:

"You need to look no further than our status blog or perhaps your own experiences to know that Blogger had a significant number of unplanned outages this last week (forgive me my euphemisms?) and a handful of planned ones to clean up from the unplanned ones. It’s been a Murphyesque cavalcade of power failures, fileserver trouble, and wonky network hardware, and I hope you’ll believe me when I say that the Blogger staff is even more sick of it than you are."

Don't you just love the techie talk: "Murphyesque cavalcade of power failures," and "wonky network hardware." Right up there with thingamajig.

All I know is, I couldn't upload my photos today, and had to borrow some from one of my other blogs. But we finally got my classmate Sylvia added to the reunion blog.

3008 Fourteen super foods

I've been reading SuperFoods RX by Steven Pratt,MD and Kathy Matthews. It's interesting, but I can't imagine how one could eat all this stuff as often as the authors recommend. Here's the list, along with what the authors call their "sidekicks," or substitutions, which helps expand the group. But read the book for the details on the micronutrients, health benefits and the shopping suggestions.

• Beans--all beans such as pinto, navy, northern, lima, garbanzo, lentils, green, snap peas and green peas. Try to eat 4 1/2 cup servings per week.
  
• Blueberries--purple grapes, cranberries, boysenberries, raspberries, strawberries, currants, blackberries cherries, and all other varieties of fresh, frozen, or dried berries. 1 to 2 cups daily (!).
  
• Broccoli--brussel sprouts, cabbage, kale, turnips, cauliflower, collards, bok choy, mustard greens, swiss chard. 1/2 to 1 cup daily.
  
• Oats--wheat germ, ground flaxseed, brown rice, barley, wheat, buckwehat, rye, millet, bulgur wheat, amaranth, quinoa, triticale, kamut, yellow corn, wild rice, spelt, couscous. 5 to 7 servings a day.
• Oranges--lemons, white and pink grapefruit, kumquats, tangerines, limes. 1 serving daily (can be orange juice).
• Pumpkin--carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, orange bell peppers. 1/2 cup most days.
• Wild Salmon--Alaskan halibut, canned albacore turna, sardines, herring, trout, sea bass, oysters and clams. Eat fish 2-4 times a week.
  
• Soy--tofu, soymilk, soy nuts, edamame, tempeh, miso. At least 15 grams of soy protein, divided into two separate meals and not from fortified products.
  
• Spinach--kale, collards, Swiss chard, mustard greens, turnip greens, bok choy, romaine lettuce, orange bell peppers. 1 cup steamed or 2 cups raw most days.
• Tea--1 or cups daily
• Tomatoes--red watermelon, pink grapefruit, Japanese persimmons, red-fleshed papaya, strawberry guava. One serving of processed tomatoes or sidekicks a day and multiple servings per week of fresh tomatoes.
• Turkey (skinless breast)--skinless chicken breast. 3 - 4 servings per week of 3-4 oz.
• Walnuts--almonds pistachios, sesame seeds, peanuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, macadamia nuts, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews. 1 oz. 5 times a week.
• Yogurt--kefir. 2 cups daily.

I'm dizzy. I have a tummy ache. I can't imagine eating 2 cups of yogurt a day! A dollop on my fresh fruit, yes. And soy? Tofu? Eeeyew. I'm fine with the oats, OK with the OJ, turkey and pumpkin--terrific; but blueberries I might have 3 or 4 times during the summer.

And I'm crushed that apples aren't on the list! I eat an apple every single day. A day without an apple is just not worth waking up for. Tea I'll drink when I don't have coffee.

So today I had a big giant Honey Crisp apple, 6 oz. tomato juice, 1/2 cup of turnip greens/turnips mixed with about 1/4 cup of yellow corn (really makes the greens taste better), a 1/2 cup cantelope, 1/4 cup of sliced carrots mixed with 1/4 cup fresh pineapple topped with fat free cottage cheese. And of course, coffee with cream.

And it's Friday so we're going out to eat and I'll have my favorite sandwich (philly cheese loaded with onions and peppers) and french fries. You can imagine how great that's going to taste after mustard greens for lunch.

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.

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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.