3324 Columbus' first baby of 2007

is Miguel Angel Naranjo. His parents Maria and Rodriguez left Mexico four months ago. Fearing a birth defect that runs in the family, they wanted the good care their infant would get in the the USA.

No word on legal or illegal entry, or whether they are married, or how they made their way to Columbus, Ohio, or who is paying for this. On the plus side, the child didn't have the defect, so we've been saved that cost and the child has been saved corrective surgery.

Cross posted at my blog on illegal aliens, Illegals Today.

3323 Listening to beautiful hymns

The hymns sung for the President's funeral have been wonderful. Right now, I'm listening to "For all the Saints." It makes me wonder if today's thingies sung at contemporary church services, the "it's all about me 'n Jesus" repetitious choruses, will ever sound this good if repeated often enough?

3322 Art is an investment

in beauty, the future, and good thoughts. We buy a lot of art. In fact, we have so much art we didn't know what we had until we threw an art party in December 2001 in our former home and set everything out for display, including t-shirts with original screened art for Bible school.

However, we don't buy and collect for investment. I don't envy our daughter trying to figure out what to do with it after we're gone and she and her brother have their walls and closets full. We already store some of my husband's paintings on their walls. At Christmas our son was "loaned" a golfing painting and a fishing painting for his house.

The December 18 WSJ had an article on investing in the art market. Art is illiquid, unregulated, commissions can eat you alive, galleries do not need a license, the art indexes do little, and no one seems to track unsold art. Whew! So much for investment value.

Our way is much better. 1) Buy what makes your heart skip. 2) Buy from artists who are also your friends. 3) Buy from a menu of representational and realistic art, with an occasional "mystery meat" to spice it up. 4) Buy small enough so it can rotate in and out of the storage closet. 5) Buy what works with your tastes and decor--it's your home, not a museum or gallery.

I've updated my spread sheet on artists and media, and we have 70+ artists in our collection--each one a little treasure. Friday we're taking down a show, and bringing one home that my husband bought from another watercolorist--I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure I'll love it.

3321 WTVN drops Glenn Beck

And they hear from me. (I've yet to find that writing a letter does any good, but I do it anyway.)

Program Director
WTVN 610 AM Radio
2323 W. 5th Ave.
Columbus, OH 43204

Dear Sir,

When I heard last week that you were dropping Glenn Beck for a locally produced talk segment, I couldn’t believe my ears. I immediately started switching to 700 am in Cincinnati just to see what was available nearby. And although it is irritating to hear all the commercials and announcements for events or companies I’ll never patronize, it will be better than listening to more hours like the Saturday morning guys who call Bob Connors to whine about the Buckeyes or pot holes .

My husband and I were furious when you dropped Dr. Laura in the fall of 2001, apparently for her opposition to gays adopting infants, because nothing else she was saying was politically charged--unless it was urging people to be faithful to their spouses. I suppose that might have offended some of your staff. When I called the station to complain, I got no response except “We’ll pass your comment along.”

It took awhile to get accustomed to Beck‘s style, but I do listen about 3 out of 5 days, depending on what my schedule is, and always in the car during drive time. I’m tired of being jerked around for whatever your program director’s personal biases are. I appreciate good business methods, and Beck was #1 in this market. Hello! Get smart this time. You’ve got a winner on radio!

You’ve lost this listener, not just for this time slot, but for others like Connors and Corby. I can get great talk shows from California on the Internet. I’m not going to take a chance on being part of your audience in this time slot again.

Glenn Beck
talk radio
WTVN Columbus
Dr. Laura

Monday Memories

In honor of the Dream Girls movie, which I wrote about here, I'll throw in a memory from the mid-60s when we were briefly landlords. The movie is based on the Broadway musical, which is loosely based on the lives and careers of the women in the Supremes.

Our first home in Champaign, IL, purchased in 1962, was a duplex--not a real one--it had been converted from a one family house, so the renters had 2 bedrooms, living room, bath and kitchen upstairs, and we lived downstairs. After we bought our home on Charles St. in 1965 we rented both units, and that paid for both mortgages.

Although we really didn't want to rent to female students (we preferred married couples), after a few weeks of no rent for one unit, we relented. Not. A. Good. Idea. Oh, did they party (we found out later from the other renter). And didn't pay their rent. Finally, they just left, owing back rent. When we let ourselves in, things were a terrible mess. Spoiled food. Dirty clothes. And bills from the local hospital for food poisoning. Also bills for pregnancy testing and services. We weren't the only people in town these girls stiffed. I called their parents (on their university records) who were clueless--thought they were enrolled at the university living in a dorm. They had left behind all the "free" records on a membership in a record club (33 1/3 at that time), including the first by the Supremes. We may still have it somewhere.

This record by the Supremes was a keepsake of our years as landlords and I got a lot of enjoyment from it. Wikipedia lists the songs as:

Side one
"Love Is Like an Itching In My Heart" (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
"This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak For You)", (Holland-Dozier-Holland, Sylvia Moy)
"You Can't Hurry Love" (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
"Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)" (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
"Baby I Need Your Loving" (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
"These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" (Lee Hazlewood)

Side two
"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
"Get Ready" (Smokey Robinson)
"Put Yourself in My Place" (Holland-Dozier-Holland, John Thornton)
"Money (That's What I Want)" (Berry Gordy, Jr., Janie Bradford)
"Come and Get These Memories" (Holland-Dozier-Holland)
"Hang on Sloopy" (Wes Farrell, Bert Russell)

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

3319 Judith Who?

Reviews of the this Prada look-alike book almost make me wish I liked fiction:

From Booklist--[Bridie] Clark, who once worked for publishing mogul Judith Regan, makes her debut in a devilishly funny companion piece to Lauren Weisberger's Devil Wears Prada (2003), substituting the book business for the fashion industry. Claire Truman, who works for a top-tier New York publisher, is about to lose her beloved mentor to retirement. Then she runs into her old college crush, wealthy Randall Cox, who begins squiring her to all the trendiest restaurants in town and lands her a job interview with Vivian Grant, a highly successful publisher known for churning out best-sellers on porn, pulp, and politics. Things start promisingly, especially when Claire is given the go-ahead to sign up talented first novelist Luke Mayville, but Claire soon starts receiving midnight phone calls full of impossible demands from her imperious new boss. Faced with a soul-crushing workload and a marriage proposal from her too-good-to-be-true boyfriend, an overwhelmed Claire must suddenly make some life-altering decisions. This entertaining novel rises above its predictable plot and sometimes-flat characters on the strength of its humor--Vivian's vitriolic tantrums are laugh-out-loud funny. Joanne Wilkinson

According to Readers Read, "Judith Regan had no comment about the novel, no doubt because she's busy getting ready to sue HarperCollins for millions of dollars for wrongful termination, slander, libel and who knows what else."

I thought there must be something other than the O.J. debacle that led to her demise.

3318 New treatment for wrinkles approved by FDA

Possibly you were too busy over the holidays developing wrinkles and frown lines while buying gifts for the in-laws and anticipating those January bills to notice that the FDA has approved a new treatment for those deep lines--something that lasts longer than Botox and Restylane. It's called Radiesse and is produced by BioForm Medical Inc.

And if you don't care about lines and wrinkles, you might use it to plump your retirement portfolio (while it flattens your wallet). Sales are expected to rise 15% annually through 2010--just 3 years away-- to $935 million.

Cross posted at Growth Industry, the blog I write for people over 50.

3317 Can universities tolerate free speech?

Mike Hardin's column in yesterday's Columbus Dispatch would indicate that some Ohio State officials can't handle criticism. You're aware that each time you buy a t-shirt, ball point pen, tail-gate supplies, necktie, billiard balls, floor mats, shower curtains, thermometers or piece of stationery bearing your college or university logo, you are buying into a license agreement that the vendor has to obtain. In towns like Columbus, this is a huge business ($5.7 million in royalties last year to OSU with 500 licensees) and if a local vendor would lose the right to OSU logo merchandise, his business would be in huge trouble. AP story on sales.

Hardin reports that a west side vendor, Mike DiSabato asked questions in the Dispatch about Nike's attempts to get an exclusive sweetheart deal with the university which would cost him 56% of his business in jerseys. He was terminated as an OSU licensee. He had also been attempting to get permission from the university to use the logo and name to donate some of his proceeds to a local charity, a fund raiser to honor an OSU athlete killed in Iraq. A percent of sales would go to the Ray Mendoza charity. Mendoza, 37, a former OSU wrestler, was killed on his third tour of duty. Two of Mendoza's brothers work for DiSabato. 5 page form for a proposal

Rick Van Brimmer, Director of Trademark and Licensing at Ohio State, refused to comment according to Hardin, so we haven't heard OSU's side. It will need to be really good to clean up this PR mess. In 2003 Van Brimmer, whose deceased wife Barb was a university librarian and curator of special materials in the Health Sciences Library, and who worked with me in planning the new Veterinary Medicine Library, developed an innovative program, "Treasury of Fine Art," to license the various art stored in the university libraries. Whether the OSU Libraries gets a percentage, I don't know.

DiSabato and his brothers are former OSU athletes. He also believes the athletes should be getting some of the license fees (in a trust fund), which obviously wouldn't make him too popular with Van Brimmer.

3316 Happy New Year!

Now there's an original post. As I drifted off to sleep about 11 p.m. last night I said to my husband, "Remember when we stayed up to watch the millennium events of 2000 . . . zzzzzzz."

3315 You are so blessed

This one will make you think about your blessings as we enter 2007.

You are so blessed

3314 Dream Girls

is the movie I wanted to see this week-end, but there is wall to wall football, and you know what that means. A stunning review in Rolling Stone.

My husband says it's a chick flick, and even if there were no football he wouldn't see it. What do you think?

3313 Does this book make me look fat?

This surprised me a bit. Not sure how to take it.

"As a woman ages, she lets up a bit on what she sets as her ideal body weight. Systematic studies have found that over the age of 30, a woman will rate her ideal figure as significantly larger than that perceived as most attractive to men." p. 146, The Longevity Bible.

I like to think women over 30 are just less influenced by what the ad agencies say look good. What do you think? If I weighed what I did in high school--120--which was fine for a 17 year old, I'd probably be rushed to the hospital.

body image, self perception, attractiveness

3312 Friday Family Photo

Our fifth Christmas in the condo.

Christmas Eve 2006

Christmas 2001, our 34th and last in the house where the children grew up

Thursday Thirteen

Having the New Year's Talk about Finances

About once or twice a year we go over our finances. The upcoming new year is a good time to think about projects and special gifts that dip into our savings account. So this week we had "the talk."

1. My husband is going on a mission trip to Haiti--or as our daughter has reminded us since she heard, "one of the most dangerous countries on the planet." However, he isn't going to Port au Prince. Then our son-in-law chimes in with snake stories even though we tell them he will be in the city. He will be helping with construction projects for a Christian school where one of our pastors is teaching that is closer to the border with Dominican Republic than to the capital (which really is crime ridden).

2. Special one time gift for our church which seems to have hit a financial rut in the road to support three campuses and eleven Sunday services.

3. Annual gift for the Lakeside Association, the Methodist Chautauqua community on Lake Erie where we own a cottage.

4. IRA contributions for our children.

5. New stove top for the kitchen. This has been on the list for two years. Only two burners have a work ethic--the other two work when they feel like it.

6. Repaint the bedroom. It looked pretty good to us when we moved here compared to the dark brown and gray living room, orange dining room, electric yellow guest room and red family room, but now the dark blue faux stripe walls are looking a bit, um, dark (male decorators used to live here). We'd like to find a color that will work without replacing the carpeting. I asked my husband if he'd like to do the painting himself, and he quickly and emphatically said, NO.

7. Replace the ceiling fan in the bedroom. We really need the fan because it gets hot in the summer. It works fine, but has an ugly problem. Are there attractive ceiling fans? I've never seen one.

8. Replace the cheap medicine cabinet in my husband's bathroom. It's so cheap the door bends when you open it. Add a second mirror with a nice frame.

9. Replace the light fixture in the bathroom, which doesn't cover what it replaced.

10. Find a better bookcase for the bedroom (I've rearranged it and it looks better, but I have to leave it on the list or I won't have 13).

11. Try to find a head board for our bed that matches resembles our 1963 oiled walnut contemporary dressers. I believe this was on last year's list.

12. Find new bedding that works with the new wall color and the new headboard.

13. Replace the wall mirror in the dressing room area which has become streaky with age and can't be cleaned up.

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
Visited and visitors last week and today:Alison, Amber, Amy Christopher, Anale, AnnaMary, Beth, Bookworm, Bubba, Carol, Caylynn, Celfyddydau Chelle Y. Cheryl, Chickadee, Cinderella, Cindi, Christine, Dane Bramage, Darla, East of Oregon, Gracey, JAM, Jane, Janeen, Janet, Jen, Julie, Katia, Kitty, KT Cat, Lady Bug, LaughingMuse, Laura, Leah, Lisa, Ma, Mar, Melissa, Mikala, Misti, Momtoanangel, N. Mallory, Pippajo, Rashenbo, Sanni, She, Shoshana, Silver, Skittles, Something Blue, Sonny, Southern Girl, Smurf, Sparky, Staci T, Susan, Susan (Mustang), Teena, Terrell, Terri, Tiggerprr, Wackymommy, West of Mars.

3310 The MSM dissing President Gerald Ford

No, it can't be about him or his family, it has to be their agenda--anti-Bush, anti-war. I'm thoroughly disgusted that our media can't let the man's body even chill, can't get him brought home to Michigan. Just jump right in--it's all about you guys, right? It's not like you haven't had six years to beat this monotonous drum. Ford deserved better. We the people deserve better.

I listened to Sam Donaldson (former news grump) interviewed on radio yesterday. Of course, he had to mention it was a kinder, gentler time back then when Ford was president, that the 70s weren't like today--much less partisanship! Huh? It was Watergate, Sam. It was the Vietnam War, smug face John Kerry, the protestors, the failure to protect millions of our allies when we cut and ran. So Sam doesn't recall how the press was all over Ford for pardoning Nixon? Sam! What planet are you living on these days?

And then WaPo and Bob Woodward decide the day after his death is the day to release comments he didn't want published while he was alive. What'd they do? Post someone at the door of the bedroom and text message it in? And then ABC News had an interview with some idiot professor who taught History of the American Presidency who just guffawed about what an "ordinary" president he was, and how clumsy he was even though he was our most athletic President.

You guys ought to be ashamed.

Gerald R. Ford

I was surprised when the tears came. He was a fine man who dedicated a large part of his life to his country. His memorial site.
The Ford family in 1976

3308 No more fat lips

My daughter gave me a lip restorer for Christmas. Yes, when I was young having fat lips was not in style, and now that they are and women pay a lot of money for all sorts of unhealthy enhancements, mine have pretty much disappeared (it's called aging). I don't try anything new without reading the ingredients--especially on my mouth. It's a two part system. In the first part I noticed "benzyl nicotinate." Sounds nasty, doesn't it, like it might be from tobacco? So I found this neat site called, "Science Toys" which I think is for kids, and it explains various chemical ingredients. It's a B vitamin, and a vasodilator, so I suppose that's what its purpose is in a lip plumper (doesn't that sound funny?)--opens the capillaries and makes the skin red.

Then in part 2 I found an ingredient called butyro spermum Parkii. Now that really sounded gross until I looked it up and its common name is Shea's Butter. It comes from a tree in Africa, and you can buy it in bulk to make your own cosmetics, or in health food stores, and you can even buy it fair traded from cooperatives like you do coffee.

The print is very small and I have another 10 or 20 to look up. But the next time you see me I just might have my fat lips back.

3307 Not everything grows old gracefully

When leaving the public library this morning, I walked by the reference/ reserve section for . . . well, children I suppose. But very old children. When I was the librarian in the Veterinary Medicine Library at The Ohio State University, I was horrified by the science fair projects that brought school children to my library. Because school children can't get there on their own, they were usually with their parents and if I was on duty I could warn the parent that the project was not appropriate (if it involved the health and well-being of an animal). At that time, I looked at what was available in the public library so I could make referrals to better sources, but discovered many hadn't caught up with the times in terms of animal welfare.

So I stopped and looked again today. Here's the copyright dates I noticed--1950 [outdated even when I was in school], 1962, 1970, 1974, 1980, 1982, 1984. There were many from the early 1990s. But I was really stunned to see "Science projects with computers," with a 1985 copyright date. These books belong in a history of science teaching collection.

Although the general concepts and plans can remain the same in the revised editions, the bibliographies and web content information needs to be updated--many of these books pre-dated the web--and also this visually sensitive generation needs illustrations that don't look like mom and dad or grandpa when they were kids. I use a very well-heeled public library--it can afford to print color bulletin board displays that reproduce book cover images on deep hue backgrounds that must require gallons of ink. Surely it can spring to update the science fair collection and withdraw or send to storage the out of date materials.
Borrowed from a Manitoba science fair


science fairs
public libraries
children's books

3306 Three Silly Chicks

is the name of a group blog effort that reviews funny books for kids. The three contributors are also authors of children's books and have their own personal journals. Stop by here--if you have children, or grandchildren, and you love to put books in their hands, you'll really enjoy this site.

Top 10 New year's Resolutions

Will you be making any New Year's Resolutions for 2007? Even if we don't keep them, it's always useful to reflect on our habits and lifestyle to assess what might need a change. The only resolutions I ever kept for any length of time were 1) to stop biting my fingernails, and 2) always put my keys in the same place in my purse. Those two tiny changes made a huge difference in my appearance, and my frustration level--and I did it about 30 years ago. There is nothing more off-putting than watching someone nibble at their hands (unless it is watching them smoke or getting smashed). By not digging many minutes a day in my purse, I bought myself a lot of time.

These are from Goals Guys website, and the original article, with permission to reprint, is much longer, but I've shortened for use here, adding a few asides.

Top Ten New Year Resolutions

The following list is the result of our extensive survey, which consisted of over 300,000 responses worldwide.

1. Lose Weight and Get in Better Physical Shape

Are you ever going to be fit again as long as you live? The answer is unless you make a resolution to get fit – you’re never going to be fit – ever. The choice is yours; it begins by opting for the stairs instead of the elevator, fruit in place of chocolate, and active rather than sedentary activities. I've lost the weight, now I need to add the exercise. I'm wearing my new pedometer I got for Christmas!

2. Stick to a Budget

The good news is that most people find the longer they can stick to a budget, the easier it becomes. We had to do this for a few years when my husband started his own business; wasn't that hard because we'd always been careful. But we are going to sit down together and review our year's expenditures.

3. Debt Reduction

Make a resolution now to stop charging anything and to get financially stable. If you can't pay cash for it, you don't need it, make it just that simple and you will find yourself out of debt in no time at all. We have no debt, so I can skip this one.

4. Enjoy More Quality Time with Family & Friends

Starting right now, you can begin to make choices and take day-to-day actions that will create nothing short of a phenomenal family. You can choose to have one if you just resolve to do it and know where to put your focus. Making our families stronger and healthier is important to our communities, our state and our world. We'd love to spend more time with our friends, but we seem to have more time than they do--grandchildren! Thinking about inviting a few folks in before I pack up the Christmas dishes.

5. Find My Soul Mate

Soul mate relationships Marriage gives both partners the fulfillment that deeply satisfies them and makes them feel that they have found the most wonderful person in the whole universe. I did this many years ago, and I think "soul mate" is an inaccurate, misleading term, so I struck it out. Soul mate sounds awfully narcissistic to me--not for the long term.

6. Quit Smoking

Becoming a non-smoker is probably one of the best decisions you can ever make, and is a life changing as well as a life saving decision. I am so thankful that I never got mired in this mess--in fact, I'm not sure I even feel sorry for you smokers anymore like I used to. If you don't care about yourselves, why should I?

7. Find a Better Job

It's corny, but true -- most of us get reflective at this time of year and if we are in jobs already, we begin thinking: Am I on the right path? Do I like where my position and my company are headed? Am I even in the right career? Oh yeah--I'm retired and loving it. But I still enjoy libraries and all they offer.

8. Learn Something New

Whether you take a course or read a book, you'll find education to be one of the easiest, most motivating and beneficial resolutions to keep. Challenge your mind in the coming year, break out of currents routines and challenge every comfort zone and watch your horizons expand. That's why I blog and why I read your blogs--so don't disappoint me in 2007.

9. Volunteer and Help Others

Resolve to replace the pursuit of success and materialism with the pursuit of contribution and generosity. For this to occur, the critical question must move from, “How can I become successful?” to, “What can I contribute that will significantly impact other people's lives?” By focusing on what we can contribute, we automatically become successful. Yes, I could use a little work on this one. Maybe a lot. Haven't quite found the right fit.

10. Get Organized

Resolve this year to plan your days, reduce interruptions, clean off your desk, say "No", and make detailed lists. The benefits of getting more organized include being able to save time, as you no longer look for the same things over and over again or need to replace things you can’t find at all. Last year at this time we did a massive clean out and reorganization, but I see some clutter reappearing behind closed doors--I'll try to nip it in the bud.

Goal Guys Reprint Policy: You can freely reprint this material (full version, not mine) with the following reference source: Gary Ryan Blair is the inspiration behind the 10MillionResolutions.com phenomenon - www.10MillionResolutions.com

New Years Resolutions