Would posting calories help?

For lunch today I had onions, peppers, carrots, broccoli and cucumbers grilled in a little olive oil. It was fine; tasted good. But I topped it off with some sugar-free peanut butter chocolate ice cream. The calories were posted on the carton. And I ate it anyway.

Will posting calories prominently really make Americans think twice and order more healthy items? "Anecdotally, you hear constantly about people who've changed their choices," say [New York City] Commissioner Frieden. "You go into fast-food places and you hear a lot of buzz online."

Elisabetta Politi, director of nutrition at the Duke Diet & Fitness Center, isn't so sure. "Some of our clients know so much about nutrition they could teach the classes, but does that help them control their weight? Absolutely not," she says. From WSJ Health Journal

The editor of this story needed to find a different photo to show how rising prices for food are hurting people.

Lakeside children grow up quickly

Lakeside is a summer community on the shores of Lake Erie established by the Methodists in 1873. Some people come just for a week; today a first timer sat on our front porch reporting all their experiences. Some come year after year for a few weeks; some of us own our homes and when retired, we can stay most of the season. At last night's awards for shuffleboard, one little boy was from California, one girl from New York. But whether a weekly, monthly, or seasonal family, the children seem to grow up over night because you see them just a few days each year.

Not too long ago, a young mother to be--daughter of a friend--ate a meal with us, then the next summer brought along the baby, and now that baby will be a sophomore at Dartmouth. Zip. Just that fast! The hormone-energized teens I used to watch under the street light on the corner are now bringing their own kids here to spend time with grandma and grandpa.

For awhile we had a little one who sat on the porch, played tea party with dollies on the deck and fished off the dock. We lost her in the divorce, but she has 9 other grandparents, so really didn't need us. About four years ago my husband painted her fishing at the dock from a photo. The picture looked so much like her we really couldn't hang it, so finally it went up for sale. Last week I looked at it, and suggested we put a "sold" sign on it--I really didn't want to sell it. And this was the third season it was for sale. Last night we got a call from someone who had seen it in the restaurant and inquired. He called us and said his 4 year old granddaughter had fallen in love with it, and would we sell it. So we did. Well, I still have the dollies.

Monday Memories--Mother's garden

I've got beets and beet tops in separate pots on the stove; fresh zucchini, asparagus and green beans in the frig; a half finished blueberry pie on the counter; an ear of corn and a paper sack of peaches on the table. Except for the peaches, they all remind me of Mother's garden in Franklin Grove (the fruit trees were there, but except for the cherry tree, rarely produced). Raspberry bushes were along the west side of her garden, and blueberry bushes next to the corn field fence. Asparagus grew wild along the lane to the house and the country roads around Franklin and Ashton. Occasionally, we could encourage Mom to stop a few minutes to chat or have a cold drink of water, but could see her fingers twitching in her gloves, anxious to get back to the rich soil and pesky weeds.

Norma's most wonderful adventure

When our children come to Lakeside, we think it's really odd that they leave for places outside the gates like Sandusky or Port Clinton. One place I've often heard about is The Kenny House in Port Clinton--massage therapy. This year my daughter gave me a gift certificate for a massage. This morning I drove to Port Clinton to meet Ms. Magic Fingers, Nancy Barna, M.T., Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Reflexologist. Wow. I've only had one other massage in my life--maybe 5 years ago--and they just don't compare. From my little toes to my neck, to all the lumps and bumps on my back, Nancy gently removed all signs of stress and age. Yes, folks, I'm only 30 years old this afternoon. I stopped by Wal-Mart on my way back to Lakeside, and upon checking out the clerk asked me about my day, and I told her it was fabulous and why. I even smiled when I ran the plastic for my groceries, something I never do. I ate potato chips all the way back home, something I shouldn't have done, but it seemed a great way to top off the experience (I gave up chips in 2006), and I sang along with the Carpenters on the oldies station. Treat yourself if you're vacationing or live on the peninsula.

The Kenny House
226 Adams Street
Port Clinton, Ohio 43452
1-419-734-5943
By appointment

To be a licensed massage therapist in Ohio requires 600 hours of training and passing the state exam (State Medical Board, Massage Licensing Division, 77 S. High Street - 17th Floor, Columbus, OH 43266-0315).

Don't be fooled! Ask for the best!

Is there a word in English for this "ism"

A friend sent me Eli Saslow's article "In Findlay, Ohio False Rumors Fly" from WaPo, July 7-13 (weekly). Frankly, it is one of the most outrageously hateful mish mash of anti-middle America that I've ever read. Anecdotal? It's beyond that. A whole article about how white midwestern small town folk are anti-Obama based on one person living in Findlay, Ohio. Imagine a whole race or segment of society condemned because of some behavior of a black citizen or an Asian or Hispanic--the outrage would put the journalist out of work. I'm amazed. Just amazed. Even for WaPo this is one of the worst stereotypes of white (older), small town Americans I've ever seen.

I'll just have to remind you what I think about people who are afraid of Obama and his cronies. I wrote this on May 20 for this blog, while the "is it racism or sexism" debate about Hillary and Obama was still going on, when Iraq and its outcome was still an issue, and before Obama did his World Tour as our emperor-to-be.

Conservatives believe that if a black candidate talks about raising our taxes until our investments are destroyed, regulating what car we can drive, wants judges who will make the constitution their personal playground of their own values and beliefs and waffles on what he said about concessions to militant Moslems who want to destroy our ally Israel, that he's not a good guy to put in the White House. We have a lot of history books (at least those published before the early 90s) that tell about what happens with appeasement--either pre-WWII with the Germans or post-WWII with the Soviets, or with North Korea to close out the Korean War, or even the worse course which was to run off whimpering the way we did in Vietnam. Millions died from our "talks and concessions."

This blogger confronts Saslow's article falsehoods.

Newsbusters busts him for fuzzy math in a different pro-Obama article.

I've looked through Saslow's archives. He is so in the tank for the left, he should be a librarian!

Lakeside 2008, John Davidson

Lakeside has its roots in the Methodist camp meeting tradition--but Bible class with J.C. Penney and WCTU conventions were never like this. John Davidson was a crowd pleaser last night--a real pro. He graduated from Denison University in 1963, so he even stopped by our gathering of the Directors Club Reception, hosted by a Denison president, at the hotel early in the evening. The dimpled, cute hunk of the 70s and 80s hosted the Tonight Show over 80 times and was popular on Hollywood Squares and still performs in musical theater and night clubs. Increasingly, he’s popular with us older folks with a versatility ranging from big band to hip hop and rap. I was sitting next to two stunning 80-somethings, tall, straight, silver haired and beautifully dressed, so John’s put-on temper tantrum (lying on the floor of the stage) about being 67 and a grandfather might have fallen a bit flat for some in the audience well beyond that. Especially since he seems to be in terrific condition for running down aisles, up stairs, and dancing with his back-up singers, The Inflatables. He has always been able to make an audience laugh by making fun of his image as America’s dimpled sweetheart. He said he used to “be cuter than Donnie Osmond--no, I used to be cuter than Marie!” Got a good laugh, although the young’ens might not have known what he was talking about. Although he’s been gray for a number of years, his hair was brown again having been dyed for his role in Chicago. Here’s a little video that shows some of his talents.

His final piece was from Man from La Mancha and he closed with "Impossible Dream." We have a Lakeside music box (attached to a painting of the pavilion) that plays that and for years we'd play it as we left our cottage--the impossible dream that came true.

How to save lives

During the last gasoline crisis in 1973-1974, 11,000 people didn't die in auto accidents. Maybe one of them was you, or your father so he was around to see that you were born. Americans will protest the war and/or high gasoline prices (not necessarily the same people), but ask them to slow down or drive less? Heresy! But like 35 years ago, fewer people are dying on our highways. Just here in the midwest, "Indiana fatalities are down 26%; Ohio's rate is off 20%, and the state recorded just six deaths over the Memorial Day weekend, the fewest in 38 years; Illinois' total also is off 20%, and Wisconsin is down about 30%." Traffic deaths fall

And for all our healthcare penny sorting and pie charts, trying to guess if Joe Sixpack would just lose 20 lbs how much would the nation save in diabetes or cardiovascular treatment, think of all the people who weren't even in non-fatal, but injury producing accidents. The savings in medical costs must be astronomical when you add those non-injured people to the list of 11,000.

Yes, cars are safer; roads are better; cops are being more vigilant. But if you drive 55 you really are more likely to arrive alive, that's not just a slogan. (In metropolitan areas you may even arrive sooner because traffic flow is smoother.) And you'll also save a few tankfuls on a long trip. But common sense isn't very common, is it?

Unfortunately, no one has figured out how to do this

"Yesterday [July 20] the Trust for America's Health released their report Prevention for a Healthier America: Investments in Disease Prevention Yield Significant Savings, Stronger Communities. They found an investment of $10 per person per year (that would be 2.7 or 3 cents a day) in proven community-based programs that included ways to increase physical activity, improve nutrition, prevent smoking, and stop use of other products containing tobacco could save the United States more than $16 billion each year within the next five years. The ROI (return on investment) would be $5.60 for every dollar spent." Seen at the National Nurse Blog

Do you know of any community or private or personal program to increase exercise, stop smoking or lose weight that actually "works?" It has to be a personal decision, and some people have been dealt a bad set of genes and can't really do much. I read health and medical journals like an addiction, and I have yet to see one program succeed. And for all that, you would be, if it worked, adding years in the 80s and 90s, which would eat up any savings, because we've all been told how expensive end-of-life care is.

Do you know what I saw at the hospital on July 2-3 after my return from our fabulous Italy trip? A hierarchy of obesity among health care staff based on education, age and position. I was treated by two female doctors, both trim (and I suspect foreign). They were hospitalists, probably early 30s. The RNs were all attractive with normal BMI (if there is such a thing), but a little older and heavier than the hospitalists. The med techs were younger than the RNs and much heavier, some were obese. The food service women were older and much heavier than the med techs. The housekeeping staff, if foreign born were very thin, if American, extremely over weight.

I'm just saying, if nurses (or the office of a National Nurse) know what to do about unhealthy lifestyles, they can start letting hospital staff in on the secret. I have no idea who Trust for America's Health is, but a quick browse reads like a liberal lobbying group/think tank which will support itself on endless taxpayer and foundation grants and then become a regulatory agency with great power over our
lives.

Eat less, move more. Fight FEMA-tizing your health care.

How much water this year?

All the Great Lakes have above average water levels this year. The lowest was around 1934. Our high yesterday for Erie was 174.35--Lake Superior is the BIGGIE at 183.400. You can check all this and other interesting stuff at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Great Lakes Water Levels Site.


Yesterday was a perfect day in the neighborhood. After breakfast at Avery's in Marblehead, we drove over to the Marblehead Lighthouse and took a stroll.

Lakeside 2008, Week 7

Some great programming this coming week. Tonight is John Davidson at Hoover Auditorium. There is a lecture series on the middle east in the mornings, and a global health lecture series in the afternoon. All the programs look good. The one on bird flu will be given by my old friend and Sisson Hall colleague Dick Slemons of the OSU Vet school.

I've looked at the Rhein Center offerings and see two art classes I'll try (i.e., sign up for since there is a lottery system to prevent overcrowding). "Beginning Pastels" by Jean Garverick is offered M and T at 3:30 for $10 (she's the featured artist in this summer's art show), and there's a one shot class on oil painting with Harol Cunningham on Thursday morning. I don't work in either medium, so this might be a nice introduction.

Last week's watercolor class was a bit truncated because we were in Columbus on Monday and Tuesday. Friday we did portraits, not my strong suit since it is best if the painting resembles the person. I didn't have much here, but this is me from a 2006 photograph. In the transition from photo to watercolor I lost 10 lbs and 20 years and appear to have picked up a nasty sunburn.

I really miss this

As a former Veterinary Medicine Librarian (1986-2000) and before that an Agriculture Librarian (1978-1982) I really miss books like this. Yes, even at $195 I would have purchased it, taking it to lunch and coffee break, swooning over relationships and paradoxes. I might have even posted the cover on my bulletin board and reviewed it in my monthly newsletter about new titles. Reading about bugs always builds my faith in creation. Helminths, arthropods, nematodes, bacteria, worms. Oh, it's all so interesting, but who has the time to keep up?

Word Alone Newsletter

A Lakeside friend noticed my "Digging for the pony. . ." blog essay on the ELCA sexuality statement in the printed Word Alone Newsletter. Look through the archives--it's an interesting publication even if you aren't a Lutheran. All mainline protestants are going through the same battles.

My final paragraph where I urge UALC to leave ELCA was deleted from the reprint.

I don't know what our congregation (UALC) is waiting for--it took this sexuality task force seven years to write a mish-mash and hodge podge and submit it to the people of God as a serious work. Every paragraph looks like the sentences were drawn from a hat of former reports and pasted to a page. It is an insult to our common sense and a travesty of our faith. It's time to go. It really is. These people will not back down; they'll just wear us out.

Getting fat on the border

There is a restaurant called "On the Border." I checked a map, and we have one in Ohio--in Columbus. Think fish or beans and rice are a healthy, low calorie choice? Think again! On the Border Dos XX Fish Tacos with rice and beans tops out at a whopping 2100 calories, 130 grams of fat, 169 grams of carbs and 4750 mg of sodium. My arteries are clogging just writing this!

It costs $9.49 and features 3 fresh flour tortillas, stuffed with Dos XX beer-battered fish, creamy red chile sauce, shredded cabbage, cheese and pico de gallo.

To think they're blaming McDonald's for the obesity epidemic!

I've learned to like beans and rice. I make a package of boil-in-the-bag rice (can't cook rice to save my soul--worse than my coffee) and mix it with a can of drained black beans and refrigerate it. It will last about four lunches. I grill some onions and peppers in olive oil, add a cup of the beans/rice mix, and toss in some frozen corn. Heat about 2 minutes in the microwave in a glass dish covered with a damp paper towel. Yummy. And it probably has under 350 calories. High in protein, calcium, iron, as well as all the stuff that rice is fortified with, and flavor. It will take you through all the way to supper.

It's just Disney

That about sums it up for me. He's a cute cartoon character who gives wow'em speeches.

The New York Times’ David Brooks looks at the same speech [in Germany] more analytically. “When I first heard this sort of radically optimistic speech in Iowa, I have to confess my American soul was stirred. It seemed like the overture for a new yet quintessentially American campaign. But now it is more than half a year on, and the post-partisanship of Iowa has given way to the post-nationalism of Berlin, and it turns out that the vague overture is the entire symphony. The golden rhetoric impresses less, the evasion of hard choices strikes one more,” Brooks writes. The only semi-controversial point Obama made in the speech was when he “called on Germans to send more troops to Afghanistan. The argument will probably fall on deaf ears. The vast majority of Germans oppose that policy. But at least Obama made an argument…Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But substantively, optimism without reality isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney.” From WSJ Blog on politics summarizing the media flush and rush to Obama

Lakeside 2008 Tour of Homes and Craft Show

Yesterday (Thursday July 24) was the Tour of Homes sponsored by the Lakeside Women's Club and the Craft Show on the lakefront. At the show I met photographer Roger W. Fair of Catawba Island who has two books about Lakeside available, Lakeside: Flags of our nation, and Chautauqua chairs. I looked through them, and he has really captured the community.

I also helped on the tour by pointing architectural features and history of Green Gables, the home of the Women's Club. Here I'm explaining about the technology used by American carpenters to achieve the fancy trim on the carpenter gothic cottages.

"Although this isn't the original, notice the "gingerbread" on the peak. By the mid-19th century, the steam powered scroll saw had been invented, and there were pattern books for homeowners to select the design and detail. The earlier Gothic Revival style used actual stone, but this was something the ordinary citizen could afford. Carpenter Gothic houses were constructed all over the nation during the mid-19th century, but especially in campgrounds and resorts like Lakeside. The original design of Green Gables lays out like a cross, and this wasn't only spiritual symbolism--with windows on all sides it was good ventilation. The windows look like chapel windows--there was a sense that this lifestyle was wholesome and spiritual. Carpenter Gothic homes are easy to add to at anytime. Steamboat Gothic is more elaborate and tried to imitate the wooden railings and columns on steamboats."

After saying this about 20 times I was losing my voice and stepped inside for some lemonade and cookies in the meeting room, the flat section that was added on to the original building.
Then in the evening, a near full-house at Hoover Auditorium enjoyed the fabulous and versatile Sandi Patty. Wow. What a voice. And her warmth and interaction with the audience were some of the best I've seen here. In the early 90s she was the highest paid CCM performer and then had a huge fall due to an adultery/remarriage scandal, but is quite popular again.

The Obama Band Wagon

The media suck-up for the Obama campaign trip abroad has really been amazing. Obama's credentials, both foreign and domestic, are so weak it's like a cram before the final exam. I read one account where there was one photographer left to cover the McCain campaign at one northeast stop. Another where a reporter asked someone about the McCain candidacy and the guy didn't know who he was. Last night I was walking through the living room and caught a few moments of Charley Gibson covering the McCain campaign in Ohio. They actually interviewed 3 Ohioans on what they thought of Obama! Nice balance there. It really doesn't matter what Obama says or does on this trip--he's getting so much free face time with the folks, that if there really were a "fairness" doctrine, all the broadcast and cable corporations would lose their licenses. No bias here. Move along.

Perhaps my memory of former presidential campaigns has dimmed, but I don't remember candidates needing to assure the audience (foreign) that they really do love their country (then follow it up with all that we've done wrong). Do you suppose the Germans were puzzled? I do remember the 2000 campaign and that Bush promised to heal all the hostility and distrust the Clinton administration had spawned. Obama's lines here are just sort of rip and read from 8 years ago.

Obamania in Germany

Michael J. Fox Foundation awards 9 grants

"$2.4 million has been awarded to nine research teams to validate nine promising therapeutic targets in Parkinson's disease. To attract an industry sponsor with the resources and expertise to chaperone any new therapeutic requires a critical mass of evidence. This award could help any one of the nine teams bring a target to the point where optimization, preclinical work and ultimately clinical testing, will be viable. Projects funded in this cohort of Target Validation awardees fall into three categories: targets for therapies to alleviate symptoms of PD; approaches focused on dyskinesias, the excessive, uncontrollable movements brought on by long-term dopamine replacement therapy; and targets with potential to slow or stop progression of Parkinson's." From The Alchemist, July 23

Here's an item from 2007 on the circumstances of his illness, his first book, and his second, which was supposed to be out by now, but I haven't seen it. It also includes an inaccurate reference to the dust up over his 2006 campaign ads--I was listening to Rush Limbaugh that day, and know he didn't say what he was accused of by liberals--rarely are they accurate in their interpretation. The media watch dogs, always looking for an opportunity to bash talk radio, really rose to the occasion making a molehill into a volcano. The real moral issue, killing embryos for stem cell research, the left never wants to address. But Fox's viewpoint that he is "lucky" is inspiring to read. I really enjoyed his first book. Monday night at Lakeside we'll be seeing "Back to the Future," one of my all-time favorites.

Lakeside 2008, week 5

Last night at the auditorium we enjoyed the wonderful toe tapping performance of Rhythm in Shoes from Dayton. Their program says, "Based in Dayton, Ohio, the creative capitol [sic] of the Heartland, RIS has toured in 47 states as well as Canada, Japan and Ireland, pursuing the company's mission: to engage the world in music and dance." I had no idea Dayton was more creative than Columbus, Indy or Chicago.

Today the craft show on the lakefront begins. I've already inspected the early set ups and saw some great things. The Women's Club Tour of Homes is also today. Marian the Librarian called me Saturday with a plea to help as a hostess. Usually, I say No to these things, but based on the time schedule and job requirements, it looked pretty easy. So today I'll be telling people about the architecture and history of Green Gables, the home of the Women's Club, which is Steamboat Gothic and built in 1883. I have an encyclopedia of American home styles here at our cottage (picked up for $1 at a Port Clinton book sale) and looking at it, I think Green Gables is actually "carpenter Gothic," not "steamboat Gothic."

Steamboat Gothic architecture, a term popularized by Frances Parkinson Keyes novel of that name, is sometimes confused with Carpenter Gothic architecture, but Steamboat Gothic usually refers to large houses in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys that were designed to resemble the steamboats on those rivers. From Wikipedia

This week I'm taking a watercolor class from Bob Moyer. We bought one of his paintings last year in the art show. I missed the first two classes because we were in Columbus.

There was a huge storm when we got here yesterday, but it then cleared and now it is cool and sunny, just perfect for all the activities and visitors today.

On education, a voice from the past

This is a repeat--I came across it today while looking for something else. Here's an excerpt:

"I remember my father's opinions on schools and education. Children, his own or relatives or yours and mine, who had problems in school had one of three problems (or all three): they were 1) lazy, or 2) dumb, or 3) delinquent. With so many siblings, nieces and nephews, cousins, children and grandchildren, most of them well educated and living nearby, he learned eventually to keep his unpopular opinions to himself, or leave the house if education came up for discussion. But if you had asked, that would be the answer. He didn't believe in pathologizing bad behavior or sin, and the only acronyms that would have passed his lips were BS and SOB.

Dad was an observant man and may have learned this in his own family. Although Dad went on to college, his brother 17 months younger didn't finish high school. If family lore can be believed, this kid was a problem from the beginning--definitely "oppositional defiant disorder." He had to be "encouraged" to attend the local country school by my grandfather walking him there with an occasional swat and nudge with the boot. But one of Dad's little sisters was reading the newspaper to her blind mother at age 4, and they weren't quite sure how she learned to read so she started school at that age. The brother grew up to be bigger than my dad with a mean, rebellious streak which kept him alive in many dangerous missions in WWII. There's a place for everyone, and apparently it isn't always school."

Dad was born in 1913 and died in 2002--just to give you some context.

Is there anything new in this study?

JAMA reports that decreased physical activity plays a critical role in the increase in childhood obesity in the July 16, 2008 issue, but doesn't really supply any evidence that activity and obesity are linked. Think back to your own childhood. Weren't you much more active at 10 than at 16 or 17? If they have data for the 1950s and 1960s, I'm betting it shows the same decrease, yet kids are fatter today.

I lived in two small towns--I walked (or ran) everywhere when I was a kid. I even rode my bicycle 5-10 miles to the next town to visit friends. I had a horse and went on trail rides--if I could catch him. I went to summer camp where we hiked. I earned extra money by detasseling corn (a gross, awful but very physical job). At 16 or 17, the automobile had taken over my life, and even though I could occasionally talk my mother into a ride to school, I had a driver's license for my social life.

At my class blog, I have a photo of a group of us on our bicycles ready to go on an overnight camp-out as Girl Scouts, then some photos of us four years later on a picnic to which we had driven. Which required more physical exertion--biking or stuffing our faces?

I'll let Sandy take this report apart line by line, she's good at that; for me and my peers, I'll just remind you that teens are pretty much the same today as we were in the 1950s. All this study does is document that 9 year olds are more active than 15 year olds in the U.S. They'll need to look for other causes for obesity, because teen girls have always had this pattern of activity. The conclusion is, of course, there is a need for a new government policy or program to address the problem. FEMA-tize the children.