What's in your kitchen?

This was written in April 2006 when I was commenting at another blog, that kitchens encourage us to over eat, by design. I noted all the stuff that wasn't food in my kitchen, but which keeps you in there--eating.

What is in your kitchen and kitchen cabinets that has nothing to do with your eating or food preparation and storage? Here's my list:

small TV (never on during meal time)
radio/cd player
car keys
stash for charge card receipts
basket for mail
cat's food and water bowl
junk drawer for candles, pencils, addresses, stamps, calendar etc.
telephone
notepad
reminders of appointments
artwork
magazines
cleaning supplies
kleenex
flower vases
several games
seasonal decor as needed
medications
flashlight

Looking around today, I could add

prayer job jar
cell phone
calendar
recent letter
grocery circular
candles and matches on the counter (storm warnings)
hand lotion and alcohol wash
bag of garbage (too cold to take it out last night)
greeting card to be sent
invitation to a party
church newsletter
husband's sunglasses
cat's medication

Looks like it is time to tidy. The only thing from the first list moved out is the cd player.

Thursday Thirteen--13 discussion starters

In the margins of my Serendipity Bible for Groups (4th ed. NIV) there are "warm up" questions of a personal nature to get members of a small group talking. Most are non-threatening and deal with childhood, the thinking being I suppose that the members stay off the topic of co-workers or current relationships. I'm not fond of "ice-breakers," but I've enjoyed looking through these and thinking about them. Here are 13 from the margins of Romans in the New Testament. Can you pick one to answer?

1) When you write a letter are you more likely to write until you run out of paper, or keep it short and to the point? They got me on this one. I definitely use up the paper, even if I have to add an afterthought. Then I'll write in the margins to keep from using another sheet, because I'd have to fill it!

2) When you were growing up, what chores were you expected to do around the house? Dishes--rotated with my two sisters, and lawn mowing--and my brother was in on that rotation.

3) What is the biggest scam or junk mail offer you have fallen for? It was either the life-time free ink cartridges or the 15 sex crazed 3-legged mountain climbers. Just kidding.

4) In your family, who tried to keep the peace? Mom or Dad? Mom.

5) Who do you take after in your temperament, your mother or your father? Father.

6) What about abilities, like music or art? Most likely my mother, but for those we'd probably go back to grandma.

7) What is the closest you have come to losing your life? I almost drowned as a child, and another girl who really didn't swim well saved me.

8) In your first real job, was your boss easy to work for or a slave driver? Not easy, but then who would be with a bunch of teens? I see it differently today.

9) What New Year's resolution have you made only to have it fizzle? Could I just list the one or two I've ever kept?

10) What signs of aging or weathering are you starting to feel in your bones? Ah, let me count. How much time do you have?

11) What was one thing about which your folks used to say, "Wait 'til you're older, you'll understand then?" I can't remember this specific phrase, but it undergirded every lecture from my mom I heard (and ignored). The woman had advice on absolutely everything--the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

12) When you were a child, what did you do to earn your allowance? At least when I was little, my allowance wasn't tied to anything. Family chores were not connected to money, just expectations and maturity level. As a teen-ager, the allowance was supposed to cover my clothes (except shoes and coats).

13) Describe briefly your first best friend. Are you still in touch? Smart and sort of goofy, but deep thinker, even then. Yes, we're still in touch.

Dear IRS

I hardly ever buy a T-shirt with text, but this is tax time and I thought this one for the Internal Revenue Service was cute: "Dear IRS: I would like to cancel my subscription. Please remove my name from your mailing."

On or before the first Monday in February, the President of the United States is required to submit to the Congress a budget proposal for the following fiscal year, beginning in October. The Congress reviews it and makes changes, setting its own priorities. In fiscal year 2006 (Oct. 1, 2005 - Sept. 30, 2006) here's what they did with $2.655 trillion (income of $2.407 trillion, deficit of $.248 trillion).

1. Social security, Medicare and other retirement took 36% of the income.

2. Social programs like Medicaid, food stamps, needy families, health research, public health, unemployment compensation, assisted housing and social services got 13%.

3. Physical, human and community development--agriculture, national resources, environment, education, commerce, energy, community development, science, etc. got 12%.

4. National defense, veterans and foreign affairs takes about 23%, most of that for the war on terrorism, or 19% of the government's income, and the rest for veterans, economic assistance to foreign countries, and embassies abroad.

5. Interest on the debt eats up about 8%.

6. Law enforcement and general government gets 2%.

The above percentages are from p. 33 of the 1040EZ booklet, which despite 35 pages, contains no forms. The government figures you will use 26.4 hours ($207 average) to do your taxes--most of that in preparation and gathering information. (p. 32)

Most of the taxes in the United States are paid by the wealthiest income earners--the people in the top quintile. Many people at the bottom receive from the government, they don't pay the government--except gasoline taxes, cigarette and other sin taxes, but those are called "miscellaneous," not income taxes. (This is not true at the local and state levels because even the poor pay real estate taxes, sales taxes, etc.--often far beyond a reasonable percentage of their income). Ohio doesn't charge sales tax on food, but many states do. Now, I've never been in the top group, but for awhile in the 80s and 90s, when we were "DINKS" double income no kids, we did make it to the 4th. Now, being retirees, we're back in the bottom quintile like when we were first married. Income, however, does not mean assets, so therefore, many retirees are very well off because we're in good health, saved when we were younger, sheltered some of our income when we worked, inherited from our parents, or just had good luck.

At my age, true wealth is figured in how healthy you are, your relationship with God, and what is the status and proximity of your social and family network.

Dana Jacobson

If she'd been this insulting to blacks as she was to Catholics, her bosses wouldn't be excusing her for being drunk. She would have been fired. People who customarily drink too much should always bring along duct tape to public functions as well as a driver. And why didn't the people at her table or in her party just take her home? Women get drunk on less alcohol than men, BAC chart.

“My actions at the roast were inappropriate and in no way represent who I really am,” she said. “I have personally apologized to many of the people involved. I won’t make excuses for my behavior but do hope that I can be forgiven for such a poor lack of judgment.” MSNBC

You are forgiven. Now get help.

When I'm 64

We're going to a "When I'm 64" party this week-end (Beatles song) for a married couple who are both turning 64 in the same week. Maybe eventually, insurance companies will be insuring your children under your policy to 64. Jim Raussen-R, Springdale, has launched HB 456 to cut Ohio's uninsured population--insurance companies will need to include "children" up to age 29 on family policies.

When I was 29, I had a master's degree, 2 children, had owned 3 houses and rented several apartments, had owned several cars, and paid my parents back for college loans. My health care was pay as you go. What parent insures a child through age 29, and why stop there? Why not 64? There are families who will always need to protect fragile members, but I think we already pay into social security and medicaid for that. This is one more income transfer from the low income worker to the higher income worker.

With Republicans like Mr. Raussen, who needs Democrats? Ohio faces a budget shortfall of $1.9 billion, and the "starting point" health care legislation he's proposing (it contains lots of other goodies) is estimated at $150-$500 million but who's counting? We know it will be much, much higher.

Entrepreneurship

Next to diphtheria and ophthalmology, I think entrepreneurship is one of our most frequently misspelled words--I misspelled it about 5 times drafting this. Now this book will shatter a lot of myths, "The illusions of entrepreneurship," (by Scott Shane, Yale University Press). Reviewed in today's WSJ by Nick Schulz. My take aways (not quotes):

In the U.S. each year more people start a business than get married or have children.

A typical U.S. entrepreneur is a married white male in his 40s who attended but didn't complete college, and he lives in a city like DesMoines or Tampa, not in California or Michigan (where they chase people out with high taxes and regulations).

The richer the country, the lower its rate of business starts.

Entrepreneurs earn less than those who work for established businesses.

Encouragement by the government to go in to business through the use of protectionist subsidies and tax breaks actually encourages people to enter highly competitive fields, making them more likely to fail.

The surrogate mother

I'm baffled that either feminists or Clintonians are happy with Hillary hatching Bill's third term. He just gets more bizarre and brazen the longer he's on the campaign trail. It happens with real babies and real people, it can happen to plastic people candidates who run as a team for the same office. Sometimes the surrogate says, "I did all the work and had all the pain, now it's my baby." These are not nice, let's-play-fair people. People die. Careers are shattered. Women are violated. The battle of the sexes and ex-es has been the story of their marriage and careers. Let's not put them back in the White House.

CNET and the new media

Years before I'd heard of WWW, hypertext protocol, and linking (just struggling to ftp and code some e-mail), I subscribed to CNET at work. I can't remember when I stopped reading it or looking for comfort there in an IT world fast spinning out of my control. And I'd never heard of blogging before 2003 and now I'm in my fifth year with eleven blogs. But, you don't see any ads here, do you? Or winky, blinky, noisy things. No, I'm no threat to CNET. But Kevin Delaney of WSJ yesterday wrote about CNET's competition--and blogs are a part of that. Blogs and their ads. When I subscribed in the early 90s I think CNET was about pretty serious stuff, but it has moved on (without my help or support) to gaming, entertainment, and news (I'm not denigrating the billions invested, but for me it's the same appeal as viaticals). I get a tech/business combo with cheese now and sometimes dump it before I read it. Delaney writes

"The investor battle raging over the iconic Internet media company offers an object lesson in how high-tech Web firms that miss a beat can be vulnerable to succeeding waves of Internet technology. With the Web in its second decade as a popular consumer medium, some well-known companies that arose in its first decade, like CNET and Yahoo Inc., now face heightened competition. . . As tech blogs proliferated, CNET's News.com and ZDNet tech sites lost 27% and 4%, respectively, of their U.S. readers over the past year, according to comScore Inc."

It has sold off some underperformers and does have its own blog now (crave.cnet.com) but I don't think I've ever stumbled into it (which is how I get to most technology blogs). Delaney will explain how this working for investors.

Three word Wednesday

Each week Bone posts three words and writers choose to use them in an essay, poem, story. Words you use every day, but perhaps not together. Then you leave a comment at the 3WW site letting people know they should visit your blog. This week's list for January 30 is

Approach
Bottle
Smooth

The approach

Pour the truth of the moment
from a bottle of pragmatism,
or smooth this rough patch
with comfort words?

The approach is obvious.
No one’s been maimed and broken
to die along the roadside
by a bottle unopened.

I asked the same question

when we were in Russia in 2006. Where did all these gorgeous Russian women come from? Now we know. It's market forces.

Poverty and crime

We used to visit prisoners in the honor dorm of the Ohio State Penitentiary as part of a church program. Somewhere we have this album--we were probably there the night it was recorded. In fact, one career criminal with whom we developed a relationship we visited in 3 or 4 different facilities. I remember a charming, handsome young man in his mid-20s--Jack, I think--who told me he was there on his first offense. Before I could shake my head at the cruelty of the system (because O.P. was indeed an awful place with a reputation of terror and abuse), he chuckled and assured me it was just his first conviction. He had been leading a financially successful life of crime since before his teen years, and when business was bad, he pimped for his wife. She didn't visit, so he was always happy to see the "church ladies."

There's a very disturbing article in today's (Jan. 29) USAToday about the pattern of crime and incarceration that runs in some families. At least I hope it is disturbing to journalists, social workers, and politicians who seem to track all of society's problems to poverty and not sin. The article leads with a pathetic story of three brothers, all in jail, all abused by their violent father and abandoned by their mother. But the final disturbing truth is buried at the end. There was a study done in Boston in a crime plagued neighborhood of 19,000 that showed 457 of the residents were responsible for 12,000 "law enforcement contacts" (i.e., crime). Some crime families were 5 generations deep. If poverty were the cause or major contributing agent, what miracle happened to the other 18,500 residents who don't commit crimes? Indeed, I often think the media regularly insult poor people by predicting horrendous outcomes based on their financial condition, when in fact, the crimes of upper classes are the ones most likely linked to their financial sins--greed, avarice, risk, gambling, and envy.

Update: Maybe I should go look for that album. I think we probably sold it in a yard sale or gave it away.
Update 2: Found it. Still shrink wrapped. Autographed by all the band members. I started to check a few names. At least one still in the system in 2001. Think I'll have my son put it on e-bay; if I haven't listened to it in 36 years, I probably won't start now. I think it was pressed in 1972, at least that's when I bought it.

Vivian and Johnny Cash

Today I had a stack of books and CDs to return to the library, so I was browsing the new book shelf and came across the memoir of Johnny Cash's first wife, Vivian. I'm not much of a Cash fan or even a celebrity hound, but I love to look at the old photos, and I could see the book was full of them. I took it to a lounge chair and read most of the text that wasn't photocopies of the letters (I think I read at another site that they had written about 10,000 pages--a regular John and Abigail Adams, they were) or photographs. After (or during) his drug problem and affair with and later marriage to June Carter, Vivian pretty much retires from public view and leads a quiet life with her second husband. I think they were married 12 years and had four daughters. But June died before John, so Vivian and John sort of make up and they agree (according to her) that she should write "their" story. If you've known any of these "I had nothing to do with the divorce" second marriages, you'll probably believe Vivian.

But what makes this interesting is a few lines in the book about "Ring of Fire," which she says was written by Johnny while they were still married, and that he told Vivian he planned to give June (just a friend and performer) one-half the credit because she needed the money. He also told her it is about a woman's vagina. Based on the memoir, the story about who wrote it was tracked to witnesses (it was written on a fishing trip), and apparently now there is a law suit by his four daughters (and maybe by Vivian's second husband, since some of the millions would have been hers). It wouldn't be the first time good old dad neglected the children of wife number one when it came to the estate, but in this case it involves millions in royalties, and his son by Carter has control of that.

Again, I have no dog in this fight, I'm not a fan. However, based on the fact that Vivian stayed completely quiet and out of his life all those 40 years when she could have made things really difficult for the famous pair, I'd go with her story. Vivian died before the book was published last fall.

Good economic news

if you're a landlord. But doesn't this sound just a bit . . . greedy? Opportunities exist. . .

Apartment builders and operators are preparing for a busy year. Approximately $216 billion in subprime and Alt-A mortgages will reset for the first time this year, which could ultimately push 3 percent of all outstanding mortgage debt into default. As a result, a large number of households will return to the renter pool throughout 2008. To compensate, builders are expected to expand existing apartment inventory by 1.1 percent, or more than 100,000 new market-rate units. Apartment developers are concentrating much of their efforts in metropolitan areas with above-average job and population growth; however, opportunities exist across all regions of the nation. Buildings, Annual Industry Forecast, 2008.

The economy is fine, really

says Brian Wesbury in today's WSJ. I went back and checked his other articles during various gloom and doom (usually media driven) periods in the last seven years. He's always been right--let's hope he is this time.

There's a lot of squabbling about the stimulus package, and I really doubt we can or should spend ourselves out of this problem. Each party wants to look like a savior and is afraid to look like the bad guy. The Democrats aren't the liberals they say they are (if they really cared about the weakest and smallest they'd be pro-life) and the Republicans aren't the conservatives they claim to be during election years. If they were, they wouldn't always be looking to the government to be the sugar daddy of big business, farmers and the military.

So why not take a look at what an economist says? He says the $100 billion loss on subprime loans represents 0.1% of the $100 trillion in combined assets of all U.S. households and U.S. non-farm non-financial corporations. Feel better? Exports on the other hand are 12% and growing at a 13.6% rate.

He says that the Great Depression deepened when Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt tried to fix the economy. President Hoover's tax hikes in 1932, and FDRs anti-capitalist government activity (remember all the alphabet soup of government programs you had to learn in American history class?) killed the American economy and drove unemployment to 20%. We know the Democrats plan to raise taxes--the worst thing they could do; then they'll add all sorts of new programs and regulations. This is not the way to go.

Read the article. You'll sleep better tonight--unless you plan to vote Democratic.

4578

Bush's Legacy

From 2002-2004 the median net worth of Americans rose 25.8% nationwide, doubling for minorities, but net worth jumped 76.7% for women. (CFED report) Not only did President Bush free the women of Afghanistan and Iraq, he was good for American women. The subprime mess has changed many of those figures, I'm sure, since they included real estate assets. Many low income people were encouraged to buy into "the American dream," when they would have been better off renting. Still, many didn't lose anything because they didn't build equity--but the damage to their neighbors is awful, and that will show in the next report--perhaps for many years. Because of the housing slump and home values, you'll be hearing a steady drum beat from the candidates about the fragility of the poor and the awful Bush years. (Although we heard it in 2004 until the day after the election.)

In 1997 the federal government started a big program with three mandated summits to insure that Americans start saving more for retirement. The boomers are starting to retire, and if they didn't do anything proactive 25 or 30 years ago, I'm not sure even a government summit will help. We all know what happened to Bush's plan to save Social Security--not even Republicans supported him, joining with Democrats to make sure nothing got privatized.

[From the 2002 SAVERS Summit] 90% of people over 65 receive Social Security, and it is 38% of their income; 41% have retirement plans which are 18% of their income. That leaves a lot dependent on savings and investments, and 59% of seniors have that. Another 22% of over 65 year olds are still in the labor force.

Americans United for Change, a liberal lobbyist group (change seems to be the word of the moment) plans a year long campaign ($8.5 million) to besmirch Bush's record so he can leave office without claiming a legacy. Story. Since Clinton couldn't earn one (he's trying again), Bush's has to be taken away. Everything's about the gap and envy, isn't it? They are raising funds to do this. Even if I hated Bush, I think I'd want my money to go into something a bit more productive. But then, I'm not a rich Democrat.

4577

How can I tell?

A customer satisfaction questionnaire that pops up before I've been able to read anything is a bit off putting. For instance:

"Thank you for visiting US Census Bureau

You have been selected to take part in a customer satisfaction survey. This survey is conducted by an independent company.

The feedback obtained from this survey will help us to enhance our website. All results are strictly confidential."

I was visiting the U.S. Census Bureau site for mining, manufacturing and construction statistics. I selected a newsletter that I thought looked interesting. No longer published. So I moved on to a pollution abatement survey that hadn't been updated in 18 months. Then I looked at a 2003 Remodeling Data Research report that said it was published every 2 years, but I didn't see any for 2005 or 2007, and the report said the data for 2000/2001 wasn't correct and there would be information reissued in 2004. Didn't see it.

Our tax dollars at work. I'll pass on taking the survey until I find something to read.

Is Juno really a comedy?

The first thing that isn't funny is the cost of Saturday matinee tickets at the Lennox--$7.00--and a small bag of popcorn, $4.50. If the theatre weren't 5 minutes from our house, I'd add travel costs and call it a $20.00 date. And then there's the movie. Not funny, folks. If this is what Canada and the Academy call a comedy, I'd hate to sit through a tragedy. The cast, however, is outstanding as is the writing (Amazon.com says Cody is a former phone sex operater--is that a joke?), directing, the setting, and the graphics. Music not so much.

Spoiler coming, from a member of the Triad, so don't look if you want to be surprised. The plot is about a nerdy, smart-mouth, cursing/cussing teen who gets pregnant by seducing her best friend, a blank faced guy in her band. The sex act isn't explicit, but you certainly get the idea. We see mostly his skinny legs and his love-sick, droopy eyes because he runs track during all seasons and really loves Juno, who never lets him in on a single decision she's making about their baby. The fact that it involved a lounge chair (which she dumps in his front yard when she tells him) is a joke that must appeal to the young. I heard loud guffaws. Same with the toilet scene pregnancy test. I didn't even smile.

Juno and her best (girl) friend first pick out an abortion clinic, which fortunately she rejects while in the waiting room with really obnoxious people, and then together they find an adoptive couple in a fish-wrapper newspaper. This is why the reviewers call her whip-smart and "mature." Again, it didn't impress me.

Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner are outstanding as the mismatched adoptive couple Juno finds in an ad--he hungering for freedom and her longing for a baby. Their part of the story line is also the saddest, in my opinion. Juno will go on with her life (we hope), but that mommy will be raising a baby alone. As far as maturity goes, Juno is way more mature than the father she has picked, who initially she likes more than the would-be mother because they can talk about alternative music (I don't know the genre--what would "Moldy Peaches" be?). Are you beginning to grasp what mature means in today's films?

The one, true, "real" mother in this movie is Juno's step-mother, Brenda. Juno's own mother abandoned her years ago--part of her motivation to find a true family for her baby. The scenes between step-mom and daughter are just delightful. I really did laugh in the scene of the ultrasound, where Bren tells off the tech. Dad (J.K. Simmons) is OK--good lines, but he's about as casual as he is on "The Closer." Always seems to be playing himself.

Would I see it again? Yes. I'd like to catch some of the lines I didn't hear during the inappropriate laughing because people think it is so hilarious when a tiny 16 year old pregnant girl swears like a Marine.

Who is anti-women and children

A commenter said I hated women because I pointed out the obvious about women and poverty in my recent post about Clinton and Schwarzenegger's WSJ article on payday loans. Male heads of household have about twice the household income as female heads of household, and the biggest reason isn't the economy, or gender bias, or President Bush. It's the marriage gap. Women who didn't marry the father of their children are a large part of that gap. Divorce, for what ever reason, down the road hurts women economically more, too. You can just about track from the early 1970s the women's movement rise as marriage was denigrated and the corresponding financial slump for children--although I can't actually point to such a graph. I'm sure a pro-life, pro-marriage site has one (and my commenter, a Democrat, would find something wrong with that, too). But if that makes me anti-female, I guess that means the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth hates women too. For sure, it's not impossible for a child to climb out of the mess her parents created, but 56.7% of your life below the poverty line probably isn't fun. Opening more banks so mama can get a "real" loan at a lower percentage rate and a credit card probably isn't going to change a single child's life.

Are you really ready to podcast?

Every time I hear the voice of Bob Connors, John Corby, (610 am) or my son, I am reminded that not everyone has a voice for radio. These men are magnificent--a pleasure to the ear (yes, ladies, I'm still taking applications for a daughter-in-law). Now with so many experts, journalists and bloggers going to podcasts I have at least two problems. Oral/aural comprehension is my disability. While my brain is sifting through your prepositional phrases pondering how they fit with the subject and predicate, you have moved on a few paragraphs. But also, it's your voice. Mumbly. Nasal. Slurred. Muffled. Too high. Too low. Ticks of speech. Inappropriate laughs. Microphone noises.

I tried to leave this comment for a woman blogger who was interviewed at a podcast, but her spam filter screened me out, I think. At least it asked several times for the secret code, and I never did see a message that reported success. So here it is, and it's for all you folks who would be shown the door if you applied to do voice-overs.

I listened to the first few minutes. I much prefer to read information, but do occasionally click to a podcast. I have a suggestion that will make this easier for listeners. I'm not sure when it started (1980s?), but the habit of speakers and lecturers raising the voice at the end of a sentence or phrase as though it had a question mark, is so difficult for the listener. That's our cue for "question?" Perhaps a little practice with play back could fix that. Women seem to do it more than men, and I suspect it began as an attempt to sound more tenuous, less threatening and not so assertive as women moved into positions of power and management. Now, it's just a habit.

Ylvis lives!

This morning I was reading hymns for my morning devotions, using the 1995 "With One Voice" by Augsburg-Fortress. Our congregation (ELCA) doesn't use it, although some of the newer hymns do appear from time to time on the screen, and I can see from lightly written pencil marks (I used the church library copy), that a musician has used this copy. I came across one of my absolutely most favorites, "I was there to hear your borning cry," which is sometimes used at baptisms, sometimes funerals. It brings tears to my eyes each time I hear it, therefore I had no idea is was "new," with a copyright date of 1985. Believe me, in hymnbooks, that's new.

It's against copyright to jot down all the verses (there are only 3), but it's about God's love at all stages of life--birth, baptism, confirmation, wandering away from the faith as a young person, coming back in mid-life, and finally,

"When the evening gently closes in
and you shut your weary eyes,
I'll be there as I have always been
with just one more surprise."

REFRAIN

"I was there to hear your borning cry,
I'll be there when you are old.
I' rejoiced the day you were baptized,
to see your life unfold."

In other words, this hymn is about me! And maybe you. So I googled the author (text and music) and found all this stunning information about John Ylvisaker (pronounced like Elvis) an accomplished Lutheran musician, hymnist and writer about my age. Here's the story of how this hymn was "birthed." I also discovered websites that discuss vintage Jesus vinyl of all things (see Heavenly Grooves), and a lovely journal from Luther Seminary (St. Paul), Word & World, which I've linked to on the left. I've printed off to read at the coffee shop today, "Imaginative use of the arts; music and audio: 10 steps toward responsible innovation," (5/3 1985) and "Which way are you leaning?" (12/3 1992).

God is alive and on the Internet, battling the forces of evil, as he has been doing for eons.