Lakeside--a favorite place to eat

We haven’t been doing much eating out in restaurants--just our little concession to higher prices--but we are outside. Some things get repeated on the house menu because of leftovers, but they’re still tasty.


Sunday

bratwurst
Potato salad
Asparagus
applesauce
Rice pudding

Monday

Salmon patties
Asparagus
Tomatoes with mozzarella and olive oil
Fresh blueberry pie

Tuesday

Pork chops
Potato salad
Fresh beets
Blueberry pie

Wednesday

Meat balls in tomato sauce
Fresh green beans with onions
Beets
Fresh peaches with Cool Whip and cookies

Where's the sweet corn, you ask. My husband hates it. So I eat it either for breakfast or lunch, by myself. Two minutes in the husk in the microwave. Fabulous.

Silly, inaccurate campaign ads

It's nothing new, of course. Campaign ads are intended to misinform, to terrify and mangle the truth. Take McCain's ad about the Obama "celebrity" status. Frankly, when I see an articulate, emotional speech in front of masses of Germans, Britney Spears is not who comes to mind. I'm just saying. . . It's scary!

And when Obama looks deep in our eyes and assures the TV audience that he wants to bring us back to some fabled time in history when we were such terrific folks with a proud past just as the U.S. Congress votes to apologize for slavery and Jim Crow laws, I do wonder how much this son of an Kenyan knows about being black in America.

Gigolo Golf--If I'd only known

This appeared on Craig's List

"Please help me out as I need a place to stay next week near OSU. I am coming to town for the golf tournament. I am in my 40s, SWM, 6'3" with an athletic build. I have an air mattress so only need a room. Thanks"

View from our place, complete with outhouse
Now why do you suppose he described himself if he only needs a room? At least he can spell. If he'd checked a map, he'd see that the golf course is a long way from OSU. You could probably walk it in 45 minutes, or take the bus for an hour.

Dress code violations

There’s been a lot on the news lately about public schools instituting a dress code--mostly to get the guys out of those saggy, huge, underwear exposing jeans and the girls to tuck it in a bit. I’ve been “on vacation” for four weeks and I’ve seen every violation from skimpy to slovenly to salacious--but mostly on people my age or older! When I was a child, “slovenly” was an older adult with only one working strap on the bib overalls and tobacco juice dribbling down the chin, or a blue haired woman wearing a food stained, feed-sack apron with a run in her stockings. Today, that is practically formal wear for the over-60 crowd at leisure.

Honey, it’s OK to cover up your sagging saddle bags, lumpy knees and purple spider veins--truly it is, please! The wrinkled look was in style a few years ago, but that was for 100% linen. In polyester cotton with a touch of lycra, it’s just messy. Ladies and Gentlemen! Where is the pride, dignity and good taste you had in the 1950s, 1960s, and even the 1990s? The other day at a public event on the lakefront I saw a woman who must have been a stunning prom queen in 1949--very long legs and a lovely figure with beautiful white hair. But in short shorts? Oh my. She wasn’t wearing glasses, but I was. Those kinds of dimples are for old Shirley Temple movies.

This was OK for the 1950s
“Hang on droopy” as we sing at football games in Columbus. As the waist expands, and you purchase capris or shorts to accommodate, there’s nothing to fill out the back of the pants. I’m walking behind you or sitting in the aisle seat at the auditorium. It’s not pretty.

The younger people, however, are cleaning up their acts. I’ve seen some gorgeous 30-something moms pushing baby strollers, wearing cute circle skirts and full coverage darling t-shirts and sparkling sandals. They look fabulous. Then comes granny--often 10 years younger than me. She looks like flattened fauna, as we used to say in the vet library. I’ve even seen some mini-skirts on the 20-somethings that look great--but that’s the last cut off for looking good in that 1960s fashion retread. The younger women are heading for the dock in beach cover-ups; Oh! that their grandmothers were doing the same.

Ben Stein laments the demise of the neck-tie in the business world, but he apparently hasn’t taken a look at vacation wear.

Another blogger gone

In my last post, I mentioned some links to women bloggers, now silent. David Durant, Heretical Librarian, also turned in his blogger keys and has left the building. Dave is the trifecta of librarianship bravery. Not only is he in a female dominated profession, but he is a conservative in a profession where liberals outnumber conservatives 223:1 (which accounts for the real banned books--the ones that never get to your library's shelves), and in addition he joined the North Carolina National Guard after the war started. He gained some fame by having one of his blogs printed in the Chronicle of Higher Education. During my last remodeling of my web page, his link fell off my list of librarians, so as an apology, I'm listing HIS very interesting list of links on terror, international affairs, and radical Islamism. I'm slowly looking through them, only some of which I've read before, so I don't know how many are still current.

The War on Terror and International Affairs

Across the Bay
American Enterprise Institute
American Footprints
Benador Associates
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Committee on the Present Danger
Council on Foreign Relations
The Counterterrorism Blog
Defend America
Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
The Jamestown Foundation
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)
Long War Journal
Michael Yon
The National Interest
9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America
Small Wars Journal
StrategyPage
Threats Watch
Victor Davis Hanson's Private Papers
Winds of Change

Radical Islamism, The Middle East and Reforming Islam

Ali Eteraz
Apostasy and Islam
Arab Media & Society
Asharq Alawsat
Big Pharaoh
Center for Liberty in the Middle East
Center on Islam, Democracy, and the Future of the Muslim World
Daily Star (Lebanon)
Daniel Pipes
Faith Freedom International
Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism
Hammorabi
Healing Iraq
Initiative for an Open Arab Internet
Interfaith Strength
Iraq Blog Count
Iraq the Model
Iraq Updates
Irshad Manji
Islamist Watch
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Jihad Watch
Laura Mansfield
Martin Kramer on the Middle East
The Mesopotamian
Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
Middle East Times
Middle East Transparent
Secular Islam
Site Institute
Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Watch

It's happened again

Now Deborah has closed for repairs. If you are a woman blogger, and I link to you, it's almost a given that you will fold your tent, change jobs, leave your husband, or enter a family crisis that will prevent you from blogging. I'm coming up on the 5 year anniversary of blogging, and there will be no gal pals to help me celebrate. Last I looked, The Laundress and Florida Cracker were still plugging away.

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