Liberals are so transparent

The new black kid on the block is being banned by Congress; a white female conservative was run out of town on a rail by NBC. You gotta love 'em--they are true to their phony core. Just-Us.

The former Illinois attorney general said he was "not seeking to have any type of confrontation" over taking the seat that he was appointed to by embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But Burris, who would be the Senate's only black member, also said he was considering a federal lawsuit to force Senate Democrats to seat him.

Burris, the pol from Illinois, who has every right to be appointed by the Illinois governor and take his seat, is apparently being rejected by his own party. Then Ann Coulter, the loud mouth hussy from the other side of the tracks who's always making snide remarks about the liberal media, was banned by NBC because she's too harsh on the new president. Gee, that sure didn't stop the Bush hatchet men from appearing on the MSM air waves and flogging their books, did it? And we were in the middle of a war! According to Editor and Publisher, now that she's gone public with the witch burning incident, NBC's relented.

NEW YORK Apparently NBC was "Drudged." Columnist/author Ann Coulter, bounced from a Today show appearance today, has been re-booked for tomorrow.

Michael Calderone at Politico reports: "Coulter has been talking up being bumped by NBC for the past two days, both on other networks and the radio. A controversy erupted when Drudge splashed that she’d been 'banned for life,' leading NBC to deny that she was banned, and later offering her a new segment.

"On her website, Coulter writes that 'Drudge gets results: Today show changes mind.' She'll be appearing during both the 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. hours.

"So in the end, NBC will probably get more viewers and Coulter will sell more books—or at least further convince those in her camp that the MSM isn’t on her side."

Coulter appeared on the CBS morning show today and was accused of being "goofy" by Harry Smith.

Does Harry called liberals "goofy?" I'm not an Ann Coulter fan, but she's smarter than Katie and more interesting than the View, so it should help their ratings. I get the feeling that the MSM has a different standard for women. For liberals it's very low; for conservatives, extremely high. They'll put up with a Larry or Keith or Whoopi, but then climb on their high horse standards and ethics over Ann Coulter?

Oh, and about Burris. Emmanual has denied any connection with Blagojevich and the senate seat; Jesse Jackson Jr. likewise; and also Obama says he's pure as the driven snow on the issue. If no one struck out, was the pitch thrown? If no one talked to Blago, where is the impeachable offense; and he hasn't been impeached for not talking to the Illinois three; and he's innocent until proven guilty under our system and is still the legal governor of Illinois. So Burris meets all the qualifications, including being a resident of Illinois--was probably even born in the USA.

The differences between men and women

Reading a church newsletter (not my church--we don't have women pastors) about a clergy women's retreat, I was reminded of what I wrote about 2 years ago on this topic:



1) In a Protestant denomination that ordains both men and women, the men wouldn't be allowed to have a retreat limited to only men.

2) But if they could find enough guys to pull it off (women are outnumbering men in many seminaries), chocolate wouldn't be a featured part of the programming.

Latin America's Leftist regimes

How left is left?

"First, the multiplicity of projects reveals the loss of a common political referent. The failure of the socialist experience in the Soviet Union and Central Europe, and perhaps more significantly the deficits in economic development and human rights of the Cuban model, made marked impressions on many leftist movements and organizations. Today, only Venezuela, and perhaps Bolivia, Nicaragua, and to a lesser extent Ecuador, seek to emulate the Cuban experiment.

Second, the ‘various lefts’ of Latin America reveal that the region continues in the search for alternatives to deal with the historical legacy of economic dependence and profound inequality. Although broadly speaking there are two distinct strands of the Latin American left—one that it is committed to democracy and free economies and the other that is trying to emulate the experiences of the socialism of the 20th century—the consensus emerging in the majority of countries about how to achieve the goal of development and progress seems to prioritize a commitment to democracy, the understanding of the importance of the market, with its limits, as the driving force of economic growth, and the obligation to a social agenda aiming to address the burden of poverty and inequality in these nations. . . The people of Latin American are choosing leftist governments of several sorts, but they are choosing them through use of democratic procedures." Damarys Canache, University of Illinois

Choosing leftist government . . . well, at least we're in step with our neighbors. Just keep in mind that the "failed socialist experience" (the politically correct term for the 70 years of the former USSR) he refers to killed more people through democide (murder of your own citizens, not through war) than the Nazis in WWII with all out war, invasion and murder of the Jews.

"In a couple of weeks the socialization of the United States will begin. Government ownership of bedrock banks will start. Widespread downturn of the economy will be guaranteed. Some say it was planned by the left. Some will say that it was just a fateful turn of events that led to the republics demise. All hail the new Leader of the United Socialist States of America. No longer will you be pressured to stand at American demagoguery such as Pledge of Allegiance, America the Beautiful, or Old Glory. The country was taken not by a communist country, but by a hidden socialist orator from within, promoted by a historically left leaning media, and by the new Brownshirt brigades formerly known as Acorn. Hail the One, the deliverer from racism, from selfishness, from capitalism." Comment at Houston Chronicle on Chavez' relationship with Obama

Update: I wrote this before I saw the book review in today's WSJ, "The threat closer to home" by Douglas E. Shoen and Michael Rowan, about the demogogue who is depicted as savior to the poor.

Another media myth

It's expensive to lose weight. And usually, if you read the entire article, someone explains that it is processed food that is expensive, not fresh or frozen.

It's January so newspapers are promoting their diet plans which probably have tie-ins with processed food companies, TV reality shows, and pharmaceuticals. News articles will also encourage coupon use, because they print them (they are ads that exercise your scissor muscles). Coupons cover up price increases and introduce the 15th type of Ritz cracker.

It's not expensive to eat fresh food, or even food labeled "organic," although that probably doesn't make a lot of difference, except to increase the cost slightly. The advantage to your health of not buying food fertilized or contaminated by sewage is probably huge, but by the time you get down to the minuscule, unmeasurable amounts of herbicide and pesticides on commercially grown food, which is where we are today with our health gate keepers who want to return American women to long food queues like Europe, the cost and health benefit is pretty small. You have a much better chance of getting Grandma's genetic links to cancer and heart disease than developing problems from eating too much fish or chicken on hormones. News flash. If you live long enough, everyone gets cancer or their heart gives out.

Anyway, today for lunch I took out about 5 spears of tender, fresh asparagus, rinsed them, and arranged a few "baby" (peeled) carrots from a bag, (always, always rinse) on a glass plate and zapped in the microwave uncovered for 1 minute. Add a dollop of low fat sour cream, a little salt and pepper, and enjoy. Then I had my sliced apple and 1/2 cup of walnuts, because I missed breakfast due to exercise class. The entire lunch/breakfast probably didn't top $2. You couldn't make and eat a bagel sandwich with potato chips for less than $4.

One thing mentioned in the USAToday article on dieting that I agree with is that half of all food dollars are spent eating out or take out. Combined with my morning coffee and our Friday date night, that's certainly true for us. However, I count about half of that as "leisure and entertainment."

Real food is cheaper

New Year's Resolution No. 6

Join the exercise class at UALC, 2300 Lytham Road, Upper Arlington, Ohio 43220, 614-451-3736, www.ualc.org. I much prefer walking outside (actually, I'd prefer to not do anything--I'm really a non-athlete), but it's just too cold.

9:15 a.m., Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you live in the Columbus area, you are welcome to join us, too. It's $3 a class, or you can buy a ticket, $35 for 18 classes.

I'm all set. Got my sweats on and my clunky athletic shoes, ready for the new year with the 7 lbs I gained over the holidays, the average for Americans.

Sorry, fella, wrong blog

Someone arrived here looking for sex drive boosters, and found one of my library posts about the terminally perverted who hang around the library terminals.

Where was the investigative reporting three years ago?

The Wall Street Journal top notch investigative reporters, who could find every flaw and mispronounced word in a George Bush speech or each supposedly murky thought of Karl Rove, couldn't see this one coming. A 47% increase in Hispanic home ownership fueled through a combination of congressional misdeeds, a collection of myths about red lining by banks and realtors, pressure from low income housing groups taking money hand over fist from federal agencies, and a coalition of groups pushing subprime mortgages--all of which ignored sound credit practices. And to think we criticize other countries for lack of a free press. Maybe if they'd spent less time lionizing and chasing every speech of the man from Kenya, they'd have seen what was under their noses.

A good book for the New Year

I really like key #2. That was the name of the newsletter I used to write--No Free Lunch--about coupons, refunds, green stamps (remember those?), wooden nickles, sweepstakes, and so forth. Loyalty cards and clubs hadn't yet made much of an appearance in the early 1980s, but it's all the same--the belief that there is a free lunch. The latest edition is 2005, the 10th. We'll see if the basics have changed to meet the challenges of today's investment climate.

How do you find the time, Part 2

These are tips on how to be a good non-grandparent. I'm a little new at this, so if you don't have grandchildren, perhaps you have more ideas. I always thought I'd be one.

1. Find some friends in the same boat. These people might be available for movies and dinner out. We find grandparents have a very tough time scheduling because they are always on call. If dinner is at 7 p.m., they'll call at 6:55 with an emergency and you're already at the restaurant.

2. Find some new friends whose grandchildren are grown and live out of town. They still might not be around on holidays, because even college age grandchildren sometimes drop in for a day or two for 3 hots and a cot. However, these days even gramps might be checking the e-mail and texting his grandson. Be patient. You'd be doing the same if it were you. There's a corollary: if you meet someone who moved to your town to be near their grandchildren, it might be best to just pencil them in. If they made that kind of effort to be near the grandchildren, they aren't looking for a social life.

3. Meet grandparents your age somewhere neutral. We recently tried this with my sister-in-law and husband. We had to drive 100 miles to a Bob Evans, but we had an uninterrupted meal and a good time. We did get to talk to our nieces via the cell phone who found us at the restaurant. And no clean up!

4. Always ask about the grandchildren and admire the photographs. This works best, for some reason, right after "Hello, it's great to see you." These are the days of digital cameras and even the cell phones are loaded either with stills or video. Grannies are getting very good with this technology. It's a whole lot more interesting than the back surgery, arthritis or golf game.

5. We contribute money to causes that will save lives of children. We're the stand-in grandparents who didn't insist on aborting, but who think shacking up is a dumb idea for the long term solution. And say so. We know that you can't overcome poverty, AIDS, poor reading skills or autism by killing the children before you know what the outcome will be. Besides, haven't you noticed how many middle class children are now afflicted with the very problems we used to think only other people had?

How do you find the time? Part 1

Isn't that the oddest question? When interviewers have a famous guest on the show, that's often the first question. This morning I heard it addressed to Liz Curtis Higgs, while I was driving to the coffee shop. She is a fabulous speaker, and our Women of the Word group did one of her video series a few years back. But you know what? Liz and I have the same 24 hours a day and 60 minute hours that the rest of you have. Oh Norma, you're retired. Yes, indeedy, and even when I wasn't, I was usually not busy. When I retired in 2000--something I did very deliberately--I didn't know very many retired people--especially librarians, but most of the OSUL group I knew in the 80s and 90s (some earlier) have now retired, plus many of the women in the reading club I joined in 2000 have now retired; I signed up for some art classes, and all of those people were retired. Women who were frantically busy and over scheduled when they were employed, are that way as retirees. People like me who always paced themselves and said "No, thank you" a lot, we are still pacing ourselves, taking naps, reading books, blogging and volunteering in meaningful activities. See my "Six reasons to be late to the party."

As I've opined many times in this blog, all the verbs you use with money, you use with time. Now, occasionally, I have "found" money--like a quarter in my winter coat the first time I put it on in the fall, or a stash of pennies in the drawer of the guest room. But money, like time, gets invested, spent, wasted, frittered, and saved.

In the United States, if we are employed we are protected from a lot of time decisions--our employer tells us what to do, when and where. Our employer may even decide we need more exercise or a different diet just because it pays for our insurance (doesn't really--that benefit comes from our labor). We may make our fashion decisions based on what our co-workers wear, or see the movies they recommend, or buy the computer they are raving about. There are so many regulations protecting us from decision making when we work, our brains possibly have become a bit flabby by retirement.

Here's my second opinion about time. You can have it all, but not all at the same time. In recent years, I've also learned you need to redefine the word "all" to suit your stage of life.

Most people my age, most retirees I know, stay very busy with grandchildren. One of my friends from high school has great-grandchildren. If our friends aren't driving half way across the country to help out with a new baby or to attend a dance recital, they are actively babysitting 2-3 days a week so their daughter (usually) can pursue her career or education. One of the biggest cultural beams I've had to remove from my eye is my amazement at women who worked full time and juggled parenting with a complicated schedule of babysitters, day-care, and private schools while I was staying home raising mine, and they are now virtually full time nannies for their own children's children. And not complaining at all! They love it. They can't wait to get that baby in their arms, or drive the carpool or volunteer at the school and attend all the games they missed 25 years ago. So now they can "have it all."

In my case, ALL will not include grandchildren--it's one of those concepts that rests on someone else's decision, and my two children have decided not to be parents. I'm OK with that now, but it took a long time--their advancing age and health problems encouraged acceptance of my new definition of ALL. And please, no cheap grace about the joys of volunteering with children as a "just as if" grandparent. We all have unique gifts--and that one isn't mine, plus I did that back in the 1970s.

Photo: My grandparents and their 9 children at their 50th in 1962. I don't know how many of us there are now but in 1993 it was around 100.

Part 2 will be tips on how to be a non-grandparent.

Money

Do they play this at bailout board meetings? Citigroup, one of the "family" that has access to all the information (see my post on the 200% interest) Macy's collects about me has agreed to take no bonuses for 2008--and yes, they promise to keep a tight leash on expenses, and "limit" their lobbying efforts. I am deeply comforted. As I've always said here, I don't care generally how much these CEOver-the-toppers pay themselves for their mansions, mistresses and private schools for the kids as long as the stockholders don't care, but now that they want us to share the risk for their negligence and bad investments, I think it only right we have a say. According to Bloomberg, "Overall, the federal government has committed $8.5 trillion in trying to jumpstart a shrinking economy." And Obama hasn't even started filling the pot holes and killing talk radio yet!



Bloomberg.com summary of 2008, a year the writer calls a "Darwinian" event--only the most fit species survived. It may be the only type of Darwinian event I can believe in!

HT No Runny Eggs

Moral clarity

It's not always possible to know right and wrong, especially not on the international scene. But on the current (and on going) Israel-Hamas conflict, Charles Krauthammer says we know:

"Some geopolitical conflicts are morally complicated. The Israel-Gaza war is not. It possesses a moral clarity not only rare but excruciating.

Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life that, risking the element of surprise, it contacts enemy noncombatants in advance to warn them of approaching danger. Hamas, which started this conflict with unrelenting rocket and mortar attacks on unarmed Israelis - 6,464 launched from Gaza in the past three years - deliberately places its weapons in and near the homes of its own people. . . For Hamas the only thing more prized than dead Jews are dead Palestinians." Link

What a dilemma for Obama. He has something Bush never had--adoring, sycophant followers who are expecting the 2nd coming of American popularity throughout the world. That will only happen if he abandons Israel. Someone is in for a terrible fall--and I'm guessing it's the Jews and Catholics who supported him thinking that all his marxist leanings would disappear after November 4 and we'd all sing glory, glory, alleluia to the new king as we marched blindfolded into the sunrise to our reeducation camps.

Poets and Writers

It's been a lot of years since I picked up a writing magazine. I used to write some fiction back in the mid-1990s. It was lots of fun. The stories just came from no where and I was always surprised by the outcome. I'd write the first line, and the rest came. Then they stopped. First line and all.

Yesterday at the library sale I picked up for a quarter the Nov/Dec 2008 Poets and Writers. Do you think writing--fiction, non-fiction, biography, poetry, mystery, romance, sci-fi--is better today than the days before all the prizes and contests, degrees and workshops? Are the people on the best-seller list the best? Did they get there by entering contests? Or are contests just useful for paying off the organizers and their staff. Look at these

Fence Books awarded Elizabeth Marie Young of Berkeley the 2008 Motherwell Prize for her poety--$3,000 and publication of her book.

University of Evansville awarded David Stephenson of Detroit the 2007 Richard Wilbur Award for his poetry collection--$1,000 and publicantion of his book.

Frederick Reiken won the Fiction Open, $2,000, and his story will be published in the Winter 2009 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

And so it goes. But look how much money these organizations bring in with their contests:

University of Evansville Wilbur Award competitors need to submit $25 per manuscript--what if 1,000 people send something? Yes, it takes some staff and handling, and someone has to read the submissions, but usually you know after the first paragraph whether it's worth it, and you've got that $25 check in hand.

Glimmer Train which is sold on newstands and certainly isn't cheap, collects $20 per entry for the opportunity to win that $2,000 prize. That journal is very well known and marketed, and I'm assuming gets thousands of hopefuls.

That Fence Books Motherwell prize will cost each entrant $25, and since it is for a first or second book of poetry by a woman, it probably gets thousands writing about baby spit up or lost loves. Here's one of mine based on the Suze Orman TV show. It's timely, got name recognition, pathos, and a snappy ending.

Girlfriend, Suze said,
while you imagined love
there's a slight chance
you missed the bounced checks,
school loans, credit cards,
child support and gambling debts,
a mortgage about to reset,
a house that hasn't flipped,
and his mother who has.

If you want to write for money, you might be better off putting ads on your blog page.

Flipping through this issue, I do see a few that have no entry fee, like National Council of Teachers of English and Nebraska Arts Council, but they are outnumbered by the for-fee contests/prizes/awards.

There's a photo on p. 18 of a party in 1963 for the founding of Filmwrights International, sort of a union. Most noticeable, given today's casual culture, is that all the men are in suits, and none of the women are identified. But the famous authors in the photo, none of whom had probably won an award to launch their careers or attended a writing workshop in Iowa or Arizona, are George Plimpton, William Styron, Ralph Ellison, Peter Mathiessen, H.L. Humes, Truman Capote, and Mario Puzo.

Call me crazy, but I think if you're good, someone is going to find out without your sending $25 to 100 contests to win $500.

Personal information about me they can pass along

After reading that Macy's was legally allowed to charge over 200% on a 30 day charge account, I looked a little closer at the teeny-tiny print on the itsy-bitsy pieces of paper that came with the bill.

First they told me my personal information was protected. That information included
Information I gave them on my application--name, address, phone, dob, ss, dln. Information about my transactions with Macy's their affiliates and nonaffliates--account balances, payment history and account activity Information about me from a consumer reporting agency, such as the credit bureau reports and other information relating to my credit worthiness Information about me from other souces, such as my employer, democraphic firms, and other third parties [isn't that a little vague?]
Then armed with all that which includes just about everything except my blood type and the name of the horse I owned in 7th grade, Macy's tells me that they can share that with all other affiliates about me--and that includes
the family of companies controlled by Citigroup Inc. the family of companies controlled by Macy's, Inc. affiliates in several different businesses, including banking, credit cards, consumer finance, insurance, securities and retail sales of goods and services Macy affiliates dba CitiFinancial, CitiMortgage, Smith Barney, Primerica, Macy's and Bloomingdale's
Nonaffiliated, "non-family" get to have my personal information too
financial services providers--banks, credit card companies, etc. non-financial companies, such as those in direct marketing and selling on consumer products and services and others, like non-profits (ACORN? Why not--they were able to bring down the banks.)

On a second tiny piece of paper there is an Opt Out Form (retain for your records). This replaces the wording on another piece of paper I don't have, or if I do, I don't know where it is. But upon reading it, I see it isn't the opt out form at all; no, no, it tells me the finance charge percentages, about which I just complained in the previous blog are going up to annual 22.9% instead of 21.6%, and if I miss a payment twice in any 6 mo. period it goes up to 24.9%; a $29 fee for returned check, and a late payment fee of $15 for balances under $50, $25 for balance of $50 and over, and so forth, until the late fee for over $1,000 is $35.

And get this. "You authorize us within each account type to apply your payments and credits in a way that is most favorable or convenient for us." Well, no wonder the print is so small and on itsy bitsy slips of paper. Then comes the "opt out option," which if I choose that, my account will be closed!

Usury

(yū'zhə-rē) I seldom use my Macy's credit card--must have pulled it out by mistake when I shopped there on December 19. Today I got a "red star rewards" statement for the period ending December 21. I charged about $60 (2 presents for my husband and 2 for me!) and the minimum payment is due on Jan. 15. So that's 25 days for a 30 day billing account. If I choose to pay less than the full balance, $1 will be added to my revolving account balance, which inexplicably is recorded as $22.41 even though I had zero balance on Dec. 19. It says in upper right corner of page one that the average daily balance is $5.98, the daily periodic rate 0.05918%, which corresponds to an annual percentage rate of 21.60%. On the second page is the note "A finance charge in the amount of $1.00 will be added to your Revolving account balance if you choose to pay less than the full balance by your due date. If that happens, the actual ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATE charge on that account is 200.64%.

Anyone with better math and English skills want to explain this, without using the words usury, obfuscation, exorbitant or onerous?

Two ways to judge the economy of the 21st century

If you're retired, or were near retirement in 2000, as I was, just go back and look at your statements. My pension carrier, State Teachers Retirement of Ohio, in the mid to late 90s was busy throwing money at art and a newly remodeled building with all the latest of everything for its employees. They had so much money they didn't know what to do with it. Then came the tech bust and the party was over by 1999. At least that's what my 403-b statements from TIAA-CREF said. President Bush inherited a floundering economy in 2001--and I don't blame Clinton--there were too many dollars chasing too few opportunities and people were throwing money at any app, widget and dot com business that had a 23 year old in sweats and T running R&D. My funds had fully recovered by December 2003, I think it was, and then soared. Not bad considering 9/11 and all the bad media sob stories about "this economy." Team Kedwards in 2004 really moaned about the terrible economy--worst since the Great Depression Kerry and Edwards said. The day after the election on 2004, the Democrats shut up. But not for long. They drug out the same sad, sad stories from Appalachia and poverty moving to the suburbs for the 2006 elections, and took many seats in Congress. And Republicans let them do it. Here in Ohio our candidate, an African American, was smeared because of Governor Tafts golfing misdeed. Also, he didn't talk and walk white or spread guilt around or write autobiographies about non-accomplishments. Democrats also said we were losing the war, but that's another non-story that worked.

I have another way to judge the economy, both that of the mid-90s and the mid-2000s. My premiere issue magazine collection. Advertising out the wazoo during the days when the media was telling us how awful things were in mid-2000s. Id' seen the same thing in the late 1990s--Wired was so fat you almost couldn't find the stories. Industry Standard, before it went belly up, was just an amazing array of ads. So much advertising, and much of it inappropriate for the readership, that you almost can't imagine what the marketing departments must have been thinking. People in those positions must have thought they had the golden touch, that they couldn't do anything wrong.

I'm getting ready to review the premier issue of Cottage Living, September/October 2004. Here's the ads that appear before page 60.

Woodbridge wine--full page
kitchen appliances 2 full pages, 1/3 mostly white
women's fashion 1 full page each for J. Jill and Talbot
Andersen window 2 full pages
Pergo 2 full pages
Princess Cruises 2 full pages
VISA
ROC
Neiman Marchus
Ford Expedition
Chevy Equanox 2 full pages
Levi Strauss 2 full pages
Citi 2 full pages
Highlander
Jenn-Air 2 full pages
LL Bean
Lowes
Harchow
Bulova
Megerian rugs
Gevalia
WISP (Glade)
Emend (chemo therapy) 2 full pages
Show House (Moen faucets)
Norwegian Cruiseline

Yes, the run up was heady. So much money chasing so few products. Meanwhile, back in DC, every American had a right to a home, whether or not they could make the payments, whether or not their credit rating was awful, whether or not they when it balooned, they couldn't possibly make the payment. Money was being handed out by the fistful from a variety of government agencies to non-profits to make sure enough people got signed on--no down payment? no problema. No job--not to worry. The value of the house was supposed to go up. And so we had a really toxic mix; tainted investments, and the boys minding the store were just watching the boys.

Now we'll have to wait and see if we'll have the Bush-Obama version of Hoover-Roosevelt. Let's hope Obama doesn't give us a 10 year Depression the way FDR did.

How do you clean sticky Tupperware?

In my pretend move, I'm reaching to the back of the tall kitchen cupboards, standing on a chair. And what do I find? A large Tupperware canister, suitable for a one lb sack of potato chips or a few dozen cookies. It is so sticky, it almost wouldn't leave my hand once I took hold. The usual things I try don't work. Is it decomposing? Is it absorbing chemicals from the cupboard finish? Is this left over potato chip grease from the 1960s? So I go to the internet and google "how to clean sticky Tupperware" and someone suggests Bon Ami, which is the only ceramic cleaner I use. I dampen my piece of Bounty and go to work. Wow. This really works. And while I was at it, I buffed up a handmade ceramic bowl I found in there too that had some marks on it probably from metal. From the color scheme--gray, gold, taupe and cream, I'm guessing early to mid-1980s, and probably purchased at an artsy-fartsy shop here in Columbus, or at an art show. The name on the bottom is huge both upper and lower case, Wilks. So I google that and find a Kelly Wilks from Arkansas who works in clay, and I e-mail the supply house with which she is associated and teaches. Waiting to see if I've found the artist.

Let's pretend we're moving!

On my list of New Year's Resolutions is #11--clean out and rearrange the kitchen cabinets by pretending we're moving! We're not, of course, we absolutely love it here and haven't missed our home of 34 years even one day. So today, I'm standing on a chair cleaning a cabinet I can't reach unless I'm on a chair. Top shelf had only the waffle maker and my mother's decorative ceramic pie holder. But the next shelf down, the one I can reach, Oh My! Empty containers and a ton of supplements.

I found CVS Natural Fish Oil 120 mg, 100 softgels, probably about 90 left in the container. I looked it up here and here and here. So, I guess I'll keep them. We don't eat a lot of fish. Burp.

Floor lamp saga

Regular readers know that one of my New Year's Resolutions is to stop sitting in the dark, straining my eyes. I'm on the prowl for a floor lamp, one my mother would love, and my husband will probably hate. When I find the lamp, different from all the rest, I'm going to christen it, "Olive the other floor lamps." Hey! After 48 years, I think our marriage is secure. So yesterday about 4 p.m., while husband is watching his 97th football game of the Christmas New Year season:

"Would you like to go shopping for a floor lamp now? I saw a new store about 2 miles from here."

"No, that's OK. You go."

Ten minutes later Norma walks into a contemporary furnishings store on Bethel Road.

"May I help you find something."

Gulping down her shock and surprise at the woman's slovenly, ready-for-the-trail-ride appearance, "Yes, I'm looking for a floor lamp. Do you know how much wattage this lamp uses?" The tag didn't say, and there was one tiny bulb in it, but it did work. The price was $115, which I thought was reasonable because it was a very nice design.

Slovenly saleslady earns points by admitting she knows nothing about the lamp, but would check the catalog. Meanwhile Norma browses. There are floor lamps that look like three giant mushrooms stacked atop each other; there are floor lamps that spiral; there are floor lamps that swing out 25 ft. or so like bending broken cherry pickers on a windy day; there are biblical floor lamps that hide their lights under a bushel.

Saleslady returns, and says as her chin stud sparkles in the wavering light of weird and bizarre lamps, "It will take a total of 125 watts, with 2 bulbs."

It would hurt too much to look at her pretty face which she has mangled with a variety of holes, so Norma mumbles to saleslady's combat boots, "Thank you, but I need something a bit brighter."

After a spin through Marshall's which only had table lamps, and K-Mart which had floor lamps in boxes, one a "natural light" with a goose neck for close sewing that might be a possibility if hidden in the corner, she returns home to husband who hasn't moved from his lounge chair and the football game.

Are you smarter than the people you elected?

It shouldn't be difficult. The most recent annual report on Civic Literacy, released by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in November revealed an average score of F by both citizens and elected officials. I'm not surprised. Remember the election video where Obama's supporters said it was OK for him to be running with Sarah Palin and thought she'd do a good job?

"More than 2,500 randomly selected Americans took the test on Civic Literacy, and more than 1,700 of them failed. The average score was a 49%. More shocking, the average score of elected officials was 44%, meaning that our public officials performed worse than citizens selected at random. Less than 1% of those surveyed (21 of 2,508) earned an A on the test (90% or higher)." I scored 78.79 %, which isn't all that great, but apparently better than the folks I elected. When I looked at the ones I missed, there were two I just didn't read carefully, and the others I guessed (wrong). But bad either way.

Take a stab.