On Holiday

My most loyal reader called to ask why I wasn't blogging. Thanks, Bev! Hope you all (in the USA) have a nice holiday week-end; time to go to the cemetery, decorate some graves and say Thank You.

Meanwhile, I found an interesting blog for you to visit--especially if you've ever been a student or a teacher, which would be just about everyone. It's called Rate Your Students. Near as I can tell, both students and teachers send the site comments about classroom experiences and assignments which are then posted by the blog hosts. Here's a good one.

The next time you give a formal presentation and kick off your flip-flops on the way to the front of the room, perhaps you shouldn't come to me two days later demanding why your effort grade wasn’t higher. Also, I have no problem with you bringing your well-behaved child to a class because the daycare fell through, but I must admit that I wonder about your parenting skills when I lean down to warn you that we will be watching a couple scenes from an R-rated movie that contains adult language and you say, “Oh, we’ll just stay here. She’s used to it.” I suggest you reserve her “Girls Gone Wild” consent form in advance. Oh, and her suite at rehab. Maybe you can get a window room.

I mean, is that priceless, or what? Haven't we all seen that sort of effort or parent just about everywhere? Or this one from a music teacher:

Your knowledge is bounded by your bigotry. I get it. You're indie. You hate everything that reeks of formalism and conformity. You like bands with names like “The Decemberists” and “A3”, but you will immediately stop liking them as soon as you hear that I know they exist. Every time I give you an assignment like writing 4 part choral harmony, or programming a hip-hop drum part, you have to protect your indie cred by informing the entire class that this type of music sucks, and that you don't need to learn how to do this because your own unique artistic voice will always only consist of poorly played guitar riffs layered 50 times and washed out in reverb. Two things: first, the fact that you think Coltrane sucks does not, in fact, make Coltrane suck. It makes you a narcissist with a myopic range of cultural influences, which is basically the exact opposite of people I like. The second thing is this. Your parents are spending $30,000 a year to send you to this school, where you chose to study music in a formalized setting, from people who make their living in this industry, and where a significant portion of your education will come from imitating the artistic masters who came before you. I don't know what indie cred is, but I'm pretty sure that you lost all of it when you chose this path. Wanna be indie? Drop out, move to Silverlake, rent a room from a cross-dressing coffee shop owner, work at an organic grocery co-op in NoHo for minimum wage, and practice your instrument 9 hours a day. If you want to be the thing, be the thing, don't just wear the clothes.

RYS will be blogging light during the summer, but I'm sure the archives are good.

3851

New Blogger feature

Blogger.com has a new automatic save feature--at least I've only noticed it recently. However, something's not working right and I think it might be related to the SAVE NOW feature. If you ignore the automatic and save anyway, I think you might be turning off the comments feature. Four or five times recently I've discovered my comments feature has been turned off--not on the whole template, but just selected entries. I'm not doing anything to go into "options" and reset the comments feature, so I think something in the automatic saving feature is doing it. Also, the automatic SAVE NOW seems to be resetting the time. So if you've drafted something, let it sit a bit, do another entry, publish that one, won't the newly saved (but older) entry be out of order? Any thoughts?

3850

Women who snore

Yes, we do. Maybe not as loud as the guys, maybe we don't rock the house or scare the dog, but we snore. Especially if we are fat. Today I was reading "Menopause not always to blame for sleep problems in midlife women" in the May 2 issue of JAMA (I'm not caught up, sorry). Lynne Lamberg reports that sleep complaints from midlife women (and we all have them) may not just be menopause. They may be more subjective than objective, too, because sleep lab studies show that postmenopausal women had better sleep overall than premenopausal women! Just a guess here, but I'm betting Lynne hasn't reached the hot flash, soak-the-bedsheets, wake-up-dripping stage of life yet. Here are some of the other causes

job stress

care responsibilities for aging parents

ill spouse

bed partner's snoring (I think it's funny that you have an "ill spouse," but the person you sleep with is a "bed partner." But I digress

obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)

restless leg syndrome (RLS)

Women with sleep apnea (and you know who you are, dear readers) "commonly present with insomnia, depression, fatigue, and hypothyroidism, and they are more likely to have higher body mass indexes (BMIs)" than men who have the same condition. The article then proceeds to discussing the medical profession's cop-out--encourage the woman with OSA to use CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure). It only requires 6 hours of use nightly to restore sleepiness to normal levels--but it does nothing for the sex life, so many women refuse to use it.

Restless leg syndrome (feels like bugs crawling) also is aggrevated by higher BMI and by smoking. It too can cause depression, drowsy driving, impaired concentration, anxiety and all that other stuff we mid-lifers get. Again, the medical profession recommends a medication that affects the brain center.

So after reading the article, I asked my husband a simple question: "Do you think I snore as much as I used to?" He didn't hesitate to think. "No."

I wasn't enormous--I was just at the tipping edge of my range on the BMI scale, but I did lose the 20 pounds I didn't need (see my TT about food triggers). The reason I asked wasn't just this article. I had noticed I wasn't waking up as much at night and was wondering what was different. I didn't connect it with the weight loss. This is not medical advice, but if you ask your doctor about your sleep problems, I'm guessing you'll be told to lose weight. I'd at least pass on the CPAP or the meds and try 10-20 lbs to see if that helps.

Whoa! Wrong blog!

The questions I see on my site meter (that bring strangers to my blog) aren't as amusing as some I see reported by other bloggers, but this one's got to be the best.

"i wan to collect money for a low income woman to go to college in texas"

I hope this was from the woman and not the boyfriend or husband wanting to cash in on a government program.

3848

Falling off the wagon

My husband was out of town last night, so we didn't have our Friday night date, and my Philly Cheese sandwich and fries that I look forward to all week. So I ate my vegetables alone. Then I ate several ounces of cheddar cheese alone. Then an ice cream bar alone. He still wasn't home by lunch today. So I ate my vegetables alone. And then about 10 small sugar free oatmeal cookies alone. Thank goodness he's home now and I can return to my diet maintenance and get a Philly Cheese tonight!

KeeWee has a really cute diet post. If I share it with all my women friends, I'll loose 10 lbs. Actually, I don't want to loose any, so I'm glad I know chain letters don't work. But you'll have a good time reading it.

3847

Depression in teen girls

A study published in a recent issue of Archives of General Psychiatry links low birth weight and depression among adolescent girls, but not boys.

There were 1420 participants in this study done in North Carolina, 49% of them females. The cumulative prevalence of depression among adolescent girls with low birth weight was 38.1%, compared with 8.4% among girls who had normal birth weight after controlling for other adversities. When adversities were present, they affected the low weight girls more than the normal weight. The thinking is that fetal development has consequences for stress response. Low birth weight did not predict other psychiatric disorders in either boys or girls.

"Prediction from low birth weight to female adolescent depression: a test of competing hypotheses," by EJ Costello and others. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2007;64:338-344.

Not much has changed in 13 months

Here's what I wrote about immigration on April 11, 2006

Bridges to nowhere. Gender politics. Pork Barrel Polkas. Deranged fringe elements of both parties. Killing the unborn legally with impunity. Really, I thought I'd seen every disaster our Congress could move out of committee, but this immigration thing takes the cake, doesn't it? And it's not immigration. That's what you do when it is legal.

This new thing, the one they are cooking up behind closed doors, the one to fix IRCA the 1986 law that only increased illegal immigration after establishing amnesty? I'm calling it Bipa-Pabi--the bi-partisan pandering bill, because big business likes it, big agriculture likes it, unions like it, Democrats like it, and . . . the President likes it. Be suspicious. Be very suspicious.

Bush is losing support of conservatives--not because of the war, but because of his amnesty course. Bob McCarty rescinds his legacy post: "I’m poised to rewrite the Bush legacy of 2060 five decades early: If “W” signs the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (a.k.a., the SHAMNESTY™ plan), he will lose my support and that of millions of truly patriotic Americans and, as a result, won’t deserve a place in history among our nation’s greatest leaders.

3845

Whales or racism?

I've lost count of how many times I've heard a radio news report on those whales who've gone miles upstream near Sacramento, CA. Or how many times I've heard the sad, sad story about a rural church in Ohio that burned down this week and now the members are struggling to "move on" with their lives. But the story about the 5 African Americans who kidnapped, tortured, raped, murdered and dismembered a couple of white college students? Not a peep except around Knoxville.

Why do we get swamped with stories about the Duke lacrosse students being guilty before the evidence is even gathered with national coverage and the Jesse noose posse getting ready to hang them on the basis of the accusation of an exotic dancer who's done this before. But barely a word except on the internet on what was obviously a racially motivated, brutal torture and killing. If this had been a bunch of white guys (and one woman) torturing and raping a black man and woman, or someone cutting off the penis of a homosexual, we would have had riots in the streets with the network and cable news media whipping up the frenzy with hordes of cameras and "journalists."

I have no doubt that the psycho-sicko crew will get their much deserved punishment, or that we have sufficient laws to cover this without hate crimes legislation--the two young people couldn't be more dead if there had been a motive other than hate. But what sort of punishment should the media get for slobbering all over the Duke story peeking under every possible rock looking for racism (except on the part of the woman) when some white athletes hire a woman who has willingly chosen this lucrative type of profession, and ignore the other? And Don Imus using the word Ho to insult black female athletes--the media acted like the world would come to an end. Well, it actually did end for Newsom and Christian. Why do we get endless hours of Anna Nicole or whales who try to swim upriver and yet the two older Ohio women who disappeared 4 weeks ago barely get a blip. It took 3 weeks to make it to AP and Fox.

I don't want the media to make news; I just want them to report news.

WaPo defends the media coverage of the mutilation murders

Dear Pat W. Johnston, Director of Consumer Services

Give it up, Pat (I think it is a made-up name like Betty Crocker, or Mr. Goodwrench). Stop sending me credit card offers. I don't care if you have NO ANNUAL FEE. I don't want your 20,000 bonus miles. I don't need your annual percentage rate of 9.24% (0.02532% daily) because I never carry a balance on my credit card. You have spent so much money, time, paper and postage on me. Do you think I'm being coy when I send your love letters back? And if I were to accept, here's what I'd have to do:

Authorize you to check my credit and employment history (which you've already done to pre-approve me)

Authorize you to transfer my current balance (don't have one)

Agree to limit my legal rights, including my right to go to court, to have a jury trial, and to participate in class actions

Accept an offer that is void to residents of GU, PR, VI and all other U.S. dependent areas, but apparently not to illegal immigrants who might be using my SS number and Tax ID that Ohio State lost in a hacking incident recently

Accept that I won't know my limits or the full details of the agreement until after you approve me

Accept that if you do make a mistake in billing, I must contact you no later than 60 days after the first bill, but if I phone to report the error (press 1 for English), I won't be preserving my rights. I need to write you a letter!

If I stop payment on an automatic withdrawal from my bank account because of your error, the letter (not a phone call) has to reach you three business days before the automatic payment is scheduled

After I've jumped through all those written letter and mail deadlines, you get 90 days after the 30 days you took to acknowledge my letter. You know what Pat, if that is really your gender-free name, this is beginning to sound as though you've got all the goodies on your side, doesn't it?

And if the merchant is the problem, he has to be in Ohio, within 100 miles of my current mailing address.

Then you have another bunch of rules specially made for Ohio residents about anti-discrimination. Credit must be equally available to all creditworthy customers and credit reporting agencies maintain separate credit histories on individuals upon request. In Ohio? Really? So that's how you got my name and address and put me in your data base? You can't get credit reports in other states except Ohio, New York, and Vermont? And I can't even begin to figure out what you said about married Wisconsin residents, but it sounds pretty strange.

Now that I've read all the way to the bottom, I see that you've already looked at my credit report and pre-screened me. Instead of tearing up these offers, I should have been calling the consumer opt-out number 1-888-567-8688. What do you want to bet that they'll ask me my social security number and there won't be a live person, and the recording will assure me all this is confidential?

Derek has been keeping track of Pat's letters. According to one of the commenters at his blog, these are more than just benign, pesky offers--these scum scams check your credit rating twice a month which degrades your credit! Another commentor added that calling the opt-out number didn't stop the offers.

3843

Dry Clean Only!

This is a terrible dilemma. The tag says dry clean, but you haven't worn it in ages, and you hate to even donate it if it isn't clean. What to do? What to do! Wash it on gentle, slow cycle, in Woolite and see what happens.

I have a white linen, two piece outfit that definitely says, Dry clean only. Linen is just awful for wrinkling. So, pay $10 for drycleaning and have it look like I'd kept it for 5 years in my computer bag the minute I fasten my seat belt? I wore it a few times in 2002, but we're at the lake most of the summer, and for the last two summers I was too fat to get it zipped. Now it fits, but is 5 years old. So I washed it. Seems to be OK, but if not, at least it will be clean when I donate it.

After I stopped working, there was little need for blazers, and I've gradually eliminated them, keeping a navy blazer, and a beige one, which is linen and rayon. Its label too said "dry clean only," but so what. I live on the edge. I'm a retired librarian with 10 blogs! It seems to look fine, my arms have grown a bit in the last 7 years, but I wore it today because it was a bit cool.

Friday Family Photo

Yesterday the WSJ ran a parenting article about overscheduling children in their summer activities. In my mind's eye I replayed the dozen or so summers I remember when I was a child--they seemed to run forever--hot, hazy and relaxed with hours of finding shapes in the clouds and bugs in the grass and bubbles in the tarred streets for bare toes.

At first I couldn't imagine my mother managing my summers for me, but looking back I realize she was quietly (she was always quietly doing something) planning my schedule. In Forreston I attended summer recreation program at the community school for games, swimming and sports. From age 11-16 I attended summer camp at Camp Emmaus. In elementary school I had babysitting jobs; in high school I detasseled corn, worked at the drug store, at a feed company and the town library. I had a horse, or my friends did, and we rode them down hot, dusty roads. After age 14 I was dating and going on picnics at the Pines, to the roller rink, to movies out of town and locally. My church CBYF had weekly Sunday evening meetings; my girl friends and I had slumber parties; the town had summer band concerts (still does) where you bought bags of popcorn and hoped to see someone special even if you didn't hear a note; and there were 4-H projects to get ready for the county fair. And the projects Mom would invent to keep us busy! Gardening, canning, cleaning, cooking, sewing, laundry. Oh my! That could cut into a sleepy summer day's reading.

Obviously, this is not a summer photo, but my mother's camera broke around 1945 and we don't have many pictures of my childhood. There was no extra money to get it fixed, she once told me. I thought hanging upside down was just about the most fabulous trick, and it was performed on our back yard slide on Hitt Street in Mt. Morris. The two board and batten barns you see in the background were actually garages, but in those days, many barns from an earlier era had been converted. We had a "real" garage, one side for us and one side for our neighbors, the Crowells. The barn nearest in the photo was behind Mike Balluff's and Dick Zickuhr's homes, and the one further away I think was behind Doug Avey's house or possibly the Aufterbecks. At the left edge I think I can see a chicken coup. There were no horses in town, but a lot of people still had a few chickens for fresh eggs.

There are no leaves on the trees, and I'm wearing a coat, head scarf, and slacks which must mean it was cold. Little girls only wore slacks if it was really cold--the rest of the time we were in dresses. The coat was probably a hand-me down from one of my sisters. I think it was navy blue, double breasted with large white buttons, most likely made by my mother.

So maybe childhood schedules aren't so different. What do you think?

3841

This 'n That

Are you happy yet, Algore? Food prices are soaring--hurting the poor. Putting corn in the gas tank to please the global warming fundamentalists is raising gas prices, raising the cost of corn that is used in a lot of products, taking some products out of production as farmers switch to the high demand for bio-fuels.

Best quote in the Republican debate was the one from Tancredo on conversions on the road to DesMoines. Fox questions are definitely better than the softball lobs the other media mavens throw.

The Lexus LS 600hL ($104,715) owner's manual has 1,097 pages, according to WSJ story. Gone with the Wind has only 960 in paperback. But it has been edited, so it could've been larger. It won't fit into the glovebox, so needs a special place in the trunk (who reads books in the trunk?). There is a supplement of 74 p. for a quick reference.

The growing middle class of China and India might have a thing or two to say to folks who think they'll turn around global warming by reducing the life style of Americans.

Jonathon Clements of WSJ advises new college grads to aim at accumulating a savings goal of 2x their projected income. He suggests funding your employers 401(k) plan and your own Roth IRA. I suggest you first look for the sound investment of a good marriage. The new financial divide isn't racial, it's marital. Nothing like the support of 2 sets of parents for a good safety net.

Washington DC ranks second (New Hampshire is first) in per capital alcohol consumption in the U.S., falling to 4 gallons/person in 2004 from 6.6 gallons in 1970. (Politico, May 14)

I overheard a woman from Bulgaria telling her co-worker that she was surprised that the planners of her high school reunion in Bulgaria were able to track her down in another country with another name (married now) to invite her to the reunion. Maybe our government could learn something about tracking immigrants from the Bulgarians?

The federal government is taking over the private Richard Nixon library which had been managed by a private foundation. Nixon's papers, 44 million pages of records and 3,000 hours of audio tapes are "secure" in the National Archives. NARA security was no problem for Sandy Berger who barely got a slap on the wrist for stealing 9/11 documents. Timothy Naftoli will be the librarian. Of course, he's not a librarian, he's a historian, more evidence of how weak and disrespected the American Library Association is. Maybe they should try being less political and more librarian?

I was listening to Catholic radio talk show today. A grandmother who has custody of her grand daughter called with concerns about what was being taught at her parochial school. They were designing mandalas in art class and being taught yoga in gym class. For this Catholics are paying money?

There's a Relay for Life in our suburb May 18-19. We're about 99.5% white; due to international adoptions and some university folk, the population mix of the schools might be 98% white. The poster must come from "headquarters," which this year has decided on a diversity push. So the poster shows 8 happy, smiling young people participating--1 Hispanic, 2 African American, 4 Asian, and 1 middle-eastern.

For Mother's Day I got the DVD of Dreamgirls.

Between 1962 and 2004 the marriage rate for black women has steadily declined from 62 to 36%; among whites, from 84% to 64%. At mid-20th century, the least educated were the most likely to be in an interracial marriage, but by the end of the century, the most educated were most likely to intermarry.

It was no surprise that Upper Arlington's library levy passed. They've raised our taxes another $800,000 even though they have more money than they know what to do with. That's $61 per $100,000 of assessed home value.

3836

Poetry Thursday--Oft in the stilly night

This poem by Thomas Moore (1779-1852) was the selection for May 17 in my "A poem a day" book, so I decided to do a little research. It certainly reflects the thoughts and conversations of people my age. That stays consistent over the years. It was put to music and very popular in the 19th century. I haven't written any poetry for awhile, but am reading it.

Oft in the stilly night
Ere slumber's chain has bound me,
Fond Mem'ry brings the light
Of other days around me:
The smiles, the tears of childhood's* years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm'd and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken!
Thus in the stilly night
Ere slumber's chain has bound me,
Sad Mem'ry brings the light
Of other days around me.

When I remember all
The friends, so link'd together,
I've seen around me fall
Like leaves in wintry weather,
I feel like one
Who treads alone
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed!
Thus in the stilly night
Ere slumber's chain has bound me,
Sad Mem'ry brings the light
Of other days around me.*boyhood's was in the original

Moore was a precocious child, publishing his first verses at the age of 11. As a boy he studied French, Italian, and music, and in 1794 he entered Trinity College. Later, by dint of his verses and singing, he became a familiar and well-liked figure in London, where he had gone to study law.

With the first publication of his Melodies, he found himself both rich and a popular hero. Although not a revolutionary, he was a friend of Robert Emmet; and his songs, which were performed for and acclaimed by the English aristocracy, had the effect of arousing sympathy for the Irish nationalist movement.

Influenced in part by Scott's historical novels, Lord Byron's "oriental" tales, and the popularity of the newly translated 1001 Nights, Moore in 1817 published Lalla Rookh, a narrative poem set in the Mideast (or at least an 18th-century Irishman's conception of the Mideast). It was wildly successful, selling out in a matter of days and running through half a dozen editions over the next six months. It quickly became the most translated work of its time. In 1818 Moore published the first of his National Airs, and in that collection appeared the song "Oft in the Stilly Night." Lord Byron was a devoted friend; and after the poet died in Greece, his personal memoirs fell into Moore's possession. In one of the great belletristic tragedies of the Romantic period, Moore and the publisher John Murray decided to burn these priceless pages — probably out of concern for Byron's reputation. Moore later wrote a biography of the poet, which was published with the Letters and Journals of Lord Byron (1830). In poor health and his mind failing, Moore died in Wiltshire, England, in 1852. Thomas Moore, Music in the works of James Joyce

Do you read the ads?

This morning I noticed a full page ad for Allstate.

Why do most 16 year olds drive like they are missing part of their brain? Because they are." [graphic showing a brain with a piece missing]

A teen-brain hasn't finished developing. The underdeveloped area is called the dorsal lateral prefontal cortex. It plays a critical role in decision making, problem solving and understanding future consequences to today's action.

Car crashes injure about 300,000 teens a year and kill 6,000."

Other research shows that if you add alcohol or drugs to that teen brain, the hole really never fills in the same way it would if it had the opportunity to be drug free. Immaturity in the 30s and 40s may be a result of a teen brain that never grew up in a timely fashion. The fabric to stretch over that hole is thin and frayed. Important things that should have been learned at 16 or 17, come much harder if learned later.

The other day I heard that if you can keep your teen from drinking or smoking until they are 20, the chances are good it won't become a problem for them. They'll have the maturity and self discipline to limit their behavior. Sounds like we could save a lot of lives just by raising the legal driving age a year or two. If you can keep a teen-girl from having sex with her boyfriends until she is out of her teens, chances are good she will not end up on welfare because she will probably finish her schooling and not be popping out babies or having abortions.

Just a bit of digression. Who do you suppose it is, social/political conservatives or social/political liberals, who think teens need early freedom to experiment, to "learn to be responsible" by making the wrong choices, who need to find their gender identity by exploring, who don't need filters on computers or ratings on music, or should have alcohol at the parties their parents provide. Who is it that wants to park the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff rather than put up some road blocks and fences along the dangerous curved road to prevent the disasters? Hmmmm. Who seems to have a piece of their brain missing and can't foresee the future consequences of illegal immigration, diversity laws, over regulation of business, special hate speech laws, "taxing the rich" out of business, running out on our allies, and aborting the future generations at about a million a year?

Just wondering, of course. About that missing piece of brain among our legislators and candidates for 2008.

Allstate information on teen drivers

Another reason to give up smoking

This is a new one on me. Back pain. I've had back problems and pain off and one since my horse fell on me when I was 12 years old. Holding two babies, one on each hip aggrevated it when I was in my late 20s. But I've never been a smoker. Just the mother of one. Now there are new guidelines for aching backs from the NCQA, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (I assume that's medical insurance). $90 billion a year is being spent on x-rays, CT scans, injections and surgeries! Wow.

One of the top suggestions of the guidelines is to quit smoking. Smokers with back pain have more severe back pain that lasts longer and they have poorer outcomes after surgery.

Fear of litigation on the part of doctors is the primary reason you might getting the help you don't need.

Let's see: Cancer; heart disease; lung cancer; wrinkles; body odor; bad breath; slow healing; COPD; and now back pain. Geesh. Smoke gets in your eyes--and everything else, apparently.

Seen in the WSJ.

Lil Luke still needs a home

This beautiful, badly injured Bichon is healing nicely in his foster home, but still needs a permanent home and some help with the vet bills. Checkout Hollywood Dog for details. Jinky really wants him gone!

If you'd like to help, or are interested in providing a family:

Brent Air Animal Hospital
11560 West Olypmic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
310-478-0011

Thursday Thirteen--New Cable Shows

Cable is increasing original series. We started watching "The Closer" which premiered in summer 2005 because there wasn't much else on. I've really enjoyed Monk, too. Yesterday in a special advertising section I noticed a list of those that will start this summer or early next year. Unfortunately, we'll miss most of the premieres because our summer home doesn't have cable. But here goes.

USA--"The Starter Wife," mini-series with Debra Messing

TNT--"The Company"--about the Cold War era.

FX--"Damages" Glenn Close as a ruthless attorney

TNT--"Heartland" about an organ transplant specialist

TNT--"Saving Grace" has Holly Hunter as an Oklahoma City cop

USA--"Burn Notice" is a spy thriller

TBS--"The Bill Engvall Show" blue collar comedy

TBS--"House of Payne"--family sit-com

Comedy Central--satirical comedy "Lil' Bush"

Bravo--"Hey Paula" reality show about Paula Abdul

A&E--(to start Jan.1, 2008)"Confessions of a matchmaker" reality show about Patti Novak of Buffalo

USA--"The Coreys" reality show about former kid stars Corey Hains and Corey Feldman (I'm not familiar with either one of them)

Discovery Channel--special even series "Ten ways to save the Planet"

3835

Making the pledge

Apparently there is a push (from somewhere left of center) for college graduates to take "the pledge." I noticed it at a Manchester College peace studies site, and it has taken up the cause. Obviously, the definition of "peace" has expanded a bit since I attended Manchester in the 1950s. It's not about war anymore, or personal behavior. They don't pledge to abstain from promiscuous sex; or to be responsible in their use of alcohol; or to make changes in their community by running for office or voting regularly; or to be pleasant and non-confrontational at work; or to avoid jobs that will support the killing of the unborn, or euthanizing the sick and elderly; or to only look for jobs that will pay off their college loans so their parents or future spouse aren't burdened with debt. The students get to define "responsible," so maybe they will do the right things. But they do pledge to consider the environment, and it started on the left coast. Surprise, surprise.

"Humboldt State University (California) initiated the Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility. It states, "I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work." Students define what being "responsible" means to themselves. Students at over a hundred colleges and universities have used the pledge at some level, at schools which range in size from Whitman, to Harvard, to University of Wisconsin. This now includes some schools overseas, graduate and professional schools, and high schools. Graduates who voluntarily signed the pledge have turned down jobs they did not feel morally comfortable with and have worked to make changes once on the job. For example, they have promoted recycling at their organization, removed racist language from a training manual, worked for gender parity in high school athletics, and helped to convince an employer to refuse a chemical weapons-related contract."

Didn't people always do this without signing a pledge card? Would someone who registered as a CO for the draft 40 years ago have gone to work in the armaments industry? In the 80s I refused to apply for a women's studies position at the OSU library because I knew I'd have to buy books that supported abortion; I refuse to buy stock in companies that make their profits creating alcohol or tobacco products, which in turn creates death; I don't want viaticals in my retirement portfolio; I won't buy tickets to movies or plays or buy or read books that demean and ridicule women; I write to advertisers of shows that ridicule and criticize Christians; I regularly write my congresswoman who is a Republican in name only and remind her of conservative principles; I let my pastors know when the message is weak and not gospel centered, offering false hope; I recommend books to my public library, even when I know I'm ignored; I don't laugh at jokes or watch TV programs that belittle women or Christians or the elderly or the not-so-bright; I tithe my income and I'm pretty careful to whom it goes; I am an advocate for the Mexican people's government shaping up and creating opportunity in their own country; and I would have never needed a pledge made at college graduation to know that racist language had no place in a training manual, but I'd have to be pretty desperate for a cause to turn down work because of gender parity in athletics or anything else.

The pledge was seen at something written by Neil Wollman, Senior Fellow, Peace Studies Institute, Manchester College. I'm not sure how old the item was, but it seems Manchester now is the source for this pledge that originated in California.

3834

Reading about another war

Many of the passages of David McCullough's 1776 have been very moving and informative. I didn't know Americans in 1776 had a higher standard of living than any people in the world.

"The Hessian and British troops alike were astonished to find Americans blessed with such abundance-substantial farmhouses and fine furnishings. "In all the fields the finest fruit is to be found," Lieutenant von Bardeleben wrote after taking a walk on his own, away from the path of destruction. "The peach and apple trees are especially numerous .... The houses, in part, are made only of wood and the furnishing in them are excellent. Comfort, beauty, and cleanliness are readily apparent."

To many of the English, such affluence as they saw on Long Island was proof that America had indeed grown rich at the expense of Great Britain.

In fact, the Americans of 1776 enjoyed a higher standard of living than any people in the world. Their material wealth was considerably less than it would become in time, still it was a great deal more than others had elsewhere. How people with so much, living on their own land, would ever choose to rebel against the ruler God had put over them and thereby bring down such devastation upon themselves was for the invaders incomprehensible." 1776, p. 158

I googled "Lieutenant von Bardeleben" and found out that many of the diaries and letters of the German mercenaries fighting with the English have been translated.

Timeline

3833

Read the instructions before you purchase

I wrote that yesterday was a dusty day--a new cook top was installed (old one). We ate lunch out because the men were in the kitchen cutting a bigger hole in the marble counter--there was dust and noise everywhere. Tip: you'll need more than a 30" base cabinet to install a 28" cooktop. Anyway, when they were finished, I got out two of my favorite skillets, which are cast iron and over 45 years old, and fixed supper. Not good on glass cooktops when they were used for years on a gas stove (previous home). The residue from the bottom of the skillets applied itself to the top and I'm not sure I'll ever get it off. This was a very expensive mistake. I THEN read through the instructions.

Actually, everyone I know who's opted for some sort of trendy modern kitchen feature from glass tops to granite to Corian sinks will tell you it's not your mother's kitchen! Or even the one you used for years and years. I hate marble counters. Granite shatters and you can't pour boiling water into a Corian sink.

After reading the instructions I'm not sure I would have thought immediately that the bottom of my iron skillets were covered with grease and soot, although I should have realized it because I never washed or wiped off the bottom of the skillets--they were always oven or stove dried.

The brochure says ceramic glass cooktops are tough, resistant to heat and cold, and attractive and easy to clean. They lie. Oh, they lie. The next section is: Precautions.

Check each time that the bottom of the saucepan and the cooking zone are clean and dry.

Lift up the saucepans--sliding can cause scratches

Avoid peeling vegetables over the cook-top as this could lead to grit and scratching

Use saucepans large enough to avoid spillage onto the cook-top, especially if a it contains ANY sugar, as this can cause irreparable damage to the glass ceramic

Keep the surface clear--do not keep plastic or aluminium packages on it which could melt and damage it

Each and every stain or deposit on the cooktop surface must be cleaned off quickly once it has cooled down--unless it is sugar, then get it up quickly!

Use only special cleaning products

This brochure is first in French, then English, then Spanish

Then the safety instructions say

do not to operate or clean a broken glass cooktop, or you'll get an electric shock.

And to avoid steam burns if you're wiping up a spill

Use only a flat bottomed wok (don't have one)

Make sure the diameter of the pan matches the diameter of the surface unit (all stoves instructions say that)

Use only a flat bottomed pan

A pan with a rough bottom (like my iron skillets which are not specifically mentioned) may scratch the cooktop

Never us the griddle or similar cooking sheet on glass cooktops

Do not use plastic warp [sic] to cover food. Plastic may melt onto the surface and be very difficult to clean [I think they mean impossible, since grease is in the "difficult" to clean category]

Aluminum foil will damage the cooktop--do not ever use it

Not a good idea to even use aluminum utensils because they melt at a lower temperature than other metals (there goes my tea pot)

Metal marks from copper bottoms must be removed immediately after the cooktop as cooled or they will become permanent. All the pans and skillets I have that are not cast iron, are copper bottoms.

Oh--I found it--"cast iron, metal, ceramic or glass cookware with rough bottoms can mark or scratch the surface"

Do not use your cooktop as a work surface

Don't use bleach or ammmonia to clean the ceramic surface (there goes the glass cleaner)

Don't slide an oven rack across the surface

Never use a trivet or metal stand between the cooking utensil and the cooktop

Don't drop anything on it because it could break

Don't put any food items on it even when not hot because it will make cleaning difficult

Sugary spills can cause surface pitting

Bottom of cookware must be clean and dry

Minerals in water that collects and drips from cookware may cause a gray or brown film to develop.

Clean daily with special cleaner, but not when it is warm; toxic fumes will result

Never use that cleaner on anything else.

Boy! What they don't tell you at the store. I have a 20" electric coil stove at our cottage that is at least 40 years old, and all it does is cook, get dirty, get cleaned. I won't be able to let anyone else touch this cooktop unless we have a private lesson first!

If you need a new electric cooktop or stove, be a bit less fashionable and get coil burners at 1/3 the cost and 90% less worry!