NIMFY--Not in my front yard

It seems I’m destined to be the lone voice shouting into the wind that highly visible trash cans and recycling containers intended to improve the environment cause ugly visual pollution. I got absolutely nowhere complaining that our large suburban church put its Abitibi Consolidated Paper Bins (bright green and yellow) virtually in the front yard of the Mill Run Church, and is almost as obvious at the Lytham Road campus.

This year Lakeside has started a recyclable program with each cottage owner being charged $60 a year to have an extremely large, bright blue rolling container --where? Our properties in some areas are small--about 30’ wide, with driveways, set backs, landscaping, and garden sheds or garages which hold boats, bicycles, and junk. So guess where the trash and recyclable containers are? Either at the street for several days between pick-ups, or sitting in the front or side yard. At one place I stopped today I counted at least 10 trash cans from where I stood and Thursday isn‘t a pick up day. Sometimes it’s a renter problem. The renter checks out on Saturday, puts the trash at the street (we don’t have curbs), and it is not picked up until Tuesday morning. If the cottage isn’t occupied the next week, the trash cans may sit there for days, or until a neighbor drags it to the side of the house, where it’s only slightly less obvious. If I were to replace every trash can I see on my morning walks, I'd be gone 4 hours instead of 30 minutes. Some containers have a permanent home in the front yard. Since writing about garages, I’ve seen plenty of garages and sheds that could be used to hold the containers, but no one thinks of it. It would also keep the raccoons and skunks under control. Our shed is tiny, and so is our lot, but I've seen cottages with 3 sheds, a garage, and the trash cans in front. Our "big blue" is just as obvious as everyone elses, but it's not at the street.

One of the oldest streets, lots of room in the rear

One of the newest streets, beautiful paving and landscaping; no plan for trash

President Hayes once stayed here; the trash can never moves

Not a good first impression for a potential buyer

This is a park, so even the Association is careless

25 styles of blogging

Here's one for those of you who think you can't write a blog, or who just go anonymously to write comments at those blogs you don't like. 25 basic styles of blogging . I do most of them--some several times a day! Life blogging. Piggyback blogging. Guest Blogs. Memes. Events. Book reviews. And so forth. I didn't know anyone was keeping track or naming these styles. Must be librarians.

I came across the More Things on a Stick web site while poking around the topic "digital storytelling." I'd like to explain why this is important in academe, but haven't been able to figure out why it is all the rage. There was a workshop at Ohio State this summer. A former colleague, Karen Diaz, has written a book on its use in libraries. I can't learn anything in 2-3 minutes, especially not on video.

My grandmother Mary was a scrapbooker in childhood--began with pretty postcards and advertisements probably before she could read and then moved on to clipping cute sayings, recipes, and stories and pasting them into the old account books of her father to save on paper. I used her scrapbooks to determine what magazines and newspapers a 19th century farm family read. I would love to be able to lift some and read great-grandfather's farm accounts, but whatever homemade glue she used is like cement. Then my mother kept a "commonplace book" for years in a small 3-ring notebook of items she liked and clipped out of magazines. After her death, my niece Julie photocopied it and so its poetry, cartoons and stories from the 1940s through the 1970s were shared with a wider audience of grandchildren.

And of course, I blog. Eleven, or is it twelve, blogs. But digital story telling? Now that sounds like all work and no fun, and not enough writing.

Suits from central casting

Excerpted From VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: “His [Ted Kennedy] monument stands all around us”

"I was raised a New England Democrat. Far from hating the Kennedys, I suppose I almost worshiped them. I wish John and Bobby had not been killed. Though you would have had to be deaf not to hear older New Englanders note that the family money had come from crime (bootlegging, specifically); that JFK's multiple adulteries (including with Sam Giancana's Mafia moll, Judith Campbell Exner -- in the White House!), creating so much cover-up work for the press and the Secret Service, so disrespectful of the lovely mother of his young children, only echoed his father's famous affair with Hollywood actress Gloria Swanson; that he was asking for trouble when he asked the unions and the mob to help him steal the presidency by rigging the returns in Illinois and West Virginia -- and then turned his back on them, actually siccing his younger brother Bobby on them like an attack dog, as soon as he got elected.

Republicans fail by losing the presidency when they do the sensible thing: nominating old Washington hands like Bob Dole, a perfectly decent fellow who knew the ropes and probably would have made a competent if uninspiring administrator. A "go-along" kind of guy with unarticulated (if any) economic principles who never stood in the path of the profligacies of Ted Kennedy and his ilk, Bob Dole was no hero of mine.

But Democrats do something far more interesting. Democrats fail -- not incrementally but massively, disastrously -- by winning the presidency, which they do by nominating virile younger men in whom Americans see the image of the brave, handsome, smooth-talking, dapper guy they wish they were.

John F. Kennedy was woefully unprepared to be president. His lack of experience and his health problems, so obligingly covered up by a press corps that loved him -- Addison's disease, colitis and back problems so severe he had to wear a brace, possibly caused by his decades-long steroid treatments, while all we got to see was touch football on the beach -- left him woefully inadequate in his summit meetings with Khrushchev in Vienna. Khrushchev read the callow young president as a playboy dilettante and decided he could get away with deploying missiles to Cuba, bringing the world to the brink of war.
Did Kennedy "bravely stand him down," as we were all taught? Kennedy agreed to pull our own missiles out of Turkey. (We're told "they were obsolete, anyway." We won the battle of Guadalcancal with stuff that was more obsolete.) Khrushchev won ... in the short run, which is all the victory a socialist can ever hope for, given that their underlying philosophy will always breed poverty and disaster in the end.

Bill Clinton was of the same mold but worse -- a greedy crook with his hand always out for a check (whether it be a corporation looking for a contract in Little Rock, or the Chinese military seeking our satellite and missile technology), but nonetheless a big, handsome teddy bear of a foul-mouthed multiple adulterer, if not (as I believe) something closer to a serial rapist.

And now the Democrats have given us Barack Obama, a handsome, dapper, smooth-talking, virile younger president who is -- hard as it is to believe -- vastly less qualified for the presidency than John F. Kennedy.

He has no idea he has taken an oath to protect a Constitution that promises us a government of sharply limited powers. (Where in that Constitution does he find any authority for federal bureaucrats to manage auto companies? To meddle in medicine or insurance?) He has no experience commanding even the small military units once officered by JFK or Jimmy Carter -- let alone the mighty administrative experience in matters of life and death once shouldered by Washington, Jackson, Eisenhower.

He has never worked in, let alone managed, a small business that had to meet payroll by selling actual merchandise to actual customers. (At least Harry Truman once sold shirts.) He is the perfect creature of the arrogant leftist academy -- actually believing in the magic power of rhetoric to alter reality, seeing no need to test out such theories on some little hamburger or yogurt stand before attempting to micro-manage the largest economy in the world.

For six months, Barack Obama has had it all his way, with a populace virtually hypnotized into allowing him to advance a far-left agenda learned at the knees of his mother's communist friends, aided by such powerful and privileged yet philosophically hollow allies as Ted Kennedy."

Bob Latta (R-OH) read HR 3200

A reminder for seniors about health

As I've noted before, "you can't beat good genes. That's still the number one factor in good health and a long life, and you didn't have a thing to do with it. If you're still alive tomorrow, give thanks for your parents and grandparents who gave you a good start. My mother died in her 88th year, her brother at 99, her father at 94, and her sister is still going at 92. Dad died at 89, his father at 92, and his grandfather was 88 in 1950 when he died, and one of his daughters (my grandmother's sister) recently died in her 93rd year.

Second, don't smoke;
third, drink alcohol only in moderation, and if you think a 6 pack after work is moderation, you need to relearn the meaning of the word;
fourth, reduce your calories;
and fifth, get some regular exercise."

And then, fight the President and Congress tooth and nail against their take-over of the health care industry. It won't be good health for you, that's for sure.

It's about love

"Lakeside is for lovers" is a phrase I’ve seen on cards, buttons, t-shirts and other memorabilia. And it’s true--and not just for the strolling, hand-holding lovers you see on the dock.

Several years ago I wrote a poem which was published in the weekly newspaper called “The last day of July” about a young couple who met and parted at Lakeside during WWII, planning to see each other the next summer. But it didn’t happen. Finally, when both were great-grandparents some 60 summers later, they met again, but it was the last day of July and their summers were over.

Another type of love I see so often at Lakeside is that of adoptive and foster families. On my corner of Lakeside I’ve seen the American melting pot of special needs and international adoption. Now some of those children are grown and bringing their bi-racial, multi-ethnic children to be Lakesiders too. I saw these children only a few weeks of the year, so their growth and maturity are compressed. First they were toddlers and then it seemed overnight pouty teen-agers with more than the usual identity issues, and now their kids are almost as tall as grandma and grandpa.

At Lakeside I see a love for a past that is often a nostalgic fantasy. In the 70s Lakeside looked to me like the sleepy towns of the 1940s or 1950s, and now it seems to be a spiffy stage set for a 1970s or 1980s TV show, but with i-pods instead of boom boxes and rip rap along the lakefront instead of flat rocks easing into the lake. But it is always “that’s how life used to be” to people who came here as children, like my 92 year old neighbor who began coming when she was 6 months old.

Lakeside has porches often filled with four generations of family--laughing, telling stories on each other, playing monopoly or scrabble. I’ve attended 90th birthday parties and 50th wedding anniversary celebrations for people who were younger than I am now when I met them in our early years at Lakeside. But I’ve also written a poem about a college student who spent the summer riding her bike up and down the streets gazing at the homes where her family used to be--a family now torn up by divorce and scattered, a family that would never again have all those generations together.

On my walks along Lakeside streets (around 100 this summer) I see memorials and plaques for people I didn’t know had died--and family and friends wanted them to remain a part of the community with a tree, or flower bed, or a shelter for a potato digger.

At Lakeside, one can compress a love of learning into a week or a season--environment, Civil War, literature, music, politics, current events, health or finances. We do more and hear more these few weeks than all the rest of the year. I go home to Columbus in September vowing to find similar activities, but as the cold weather and early sunsets descend, I give up on being a Lakeside lover until the next year.

Reagan statue unveiled in Dixon, Illinois

The city of Dixon, Illinois on the Rock River hopes to revitalize the downtown area and has developed "Heritage Crossing Riverfront Plaza." Poet William Cullen Bryant, a proponent of Manhattan’s Central Park, called the Rock River “one of the most beautiful of our western streams,” and Ronald Reagan who was a life guard at near by Lowell Park in 1926, remembered the "Hudson of the Midwest" fondly. On August 14 a statue Reagan, "Begins the Trail" by Dixon native and sculptor Don Reed was unveiled and dedicated. The artist said "he hoped the figure captured some of Reagan’s “energy and warmth” and that residents would be able to “identify with him as someone a lot like us.” Nancy Reagan sent a letter thanking the city, and said "Ronnie would be pleased." The statue "depicts the future California governor and two-term president of the United States as a 39-year-old movie star riding a horse in a hometown parade, prior to his entry into politics." (All information from various editions of saukvalley.com) Another account reports that the dammed up swimming area where he was a lifeguard for 7 years was very dangerous and he is credited with saving 77 swimmers.

I haven't had much luck with a good photo to download, but here are two from Shaw News Service. Didn't find one in the Rockford paper. Reagan lived in Dixon until 1933; he attended Eureka College.

DNC Astroturf

The DNC (Pelosi, too) has called grassroots tea parties and protests "astroturf." Now they have the nerve to call their own organized group a "grassroots project." [for a Columbus, GA gathering]

"As Members of Congress get ready to head back to Washington, Organizing for America (OFA), a grassroots project of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) dedicated to supporting the President’s agenda for change, will hold a rally Tuesday, September 1, 11:30 . . . "

HT IMAO and it wasn't a joke (a humor site)

Health Care for Obama Now (H-CON)

Here's a video of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) instructing the ethically challenged in how to prevent the opposition from having a voice at Jan Schakowsky's (D-IL) townhall meeting. Nice. "Be civil, but shut 'em down with HEALTH CARE NOW until they get frustrated." I wonder if they've ever been smacked with a cane? Seniors are getting a bit testy at free care for illegals, and limited care for those who paid for the system.

State of Emergency--dialysis for illegal immigrants

The University Medical Center in Las Vegas is a tax supported hospital and is required by federal law to treat illegal immigrants. Illegals (or foreign nationals) come to the ER for kidney dialysis and the cost at UMC can run from $11,000 to $18,000 per visit for an emergency dialysis patient because of the testing required and because they are so sick when they come. The federal government has kicked the can down the road on the immigrant health issue as it has on many unfunded mandates, and the costs land on the local medical facilities. Read the full story. This is just one hospital spending $24 million a year; it's even worse in California, and nationwide it’s in the billions.

This story punctures the myth that the poor don’t have health care, or that the billions spent on illegals for their health care isn’t a huge problem which the federal government, regardless of who’s in the White House or Congress, has steadfastly refused to solve. Mexico really doesn’t want its citizens to come home. If the brilliant minds from anarchist to liberal to libertarian in Washington haven't been able to solve this small piece of the puzzle for just one disease for one specific group, what makes you think they can take over the whole enchilada without a huge, ongoing case of indigestion?

Recommended on-line medical journal

I recommend journals, as well as websites. I can't help myself. If you or anyone you care about has a problem with thyroid, you can sign up for a free subscription to Clinical Thyroidology, published by the American Thyroid Association. Oh sure. I can't understand everything. But I can read an editorial, abstract, summary and conclusions. Waiting for CBS or ABC to give it a snippet really isn't satisfactory.

Obama less popular than Bush

The leftists among us are blaming everyone but themselves for the Obama Slide. They can't believe the average voter actually understands that health care bill, or that we care about the trillions he's spending, or that we don't approve of him destroying business or that we know cap and tax is a huge hoax to enrich the same people and pols who already own the energy supply.

In March, 50 days after taking office and before the big health care debate, Obama’s poll numbers were falling, primarily because of his handling of the economy.

“Overall, Rasmussen Reports shows a 56%-43% approval, with a third strongly disapproving of the president's performance. This is a substantial degree of polarization so early in the administration. Mr. Obama has lost virtually all of his Republican support and a good part of his Independent support, and the trend is decidedly negative.” via WSJ

And then, end of July, 6 months into his term, despite his stumbling defense of Obamacare:

“30 percent of the nation's voters "strongly approve" of Mr. Obama's job performance, according to a survey released Monday by the Rasmussen polling organization. The poll showed that 40 percent "strongly disapprove" of the president's performance, marking the first time the disparity has reached double digits.”

Now at 7 months, it’s about 37% approval for Obama--depending on the topic and pollster.

George W. Bush was in office 37 months with an unpopular war before he fell to the Obama historically low level according to Gallup.

“President Barack Obama's approval ratings, once seen as historically high, could soon be among the worst early poll numbers for a modern American president.
He has already, however, outlasted the brief honeymoon of the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton.

The Gallup Organization — whose polls show Obama at just 50 percent approval rating less than eight months into his first term — says only two modern presidents, Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton, saw their approval ratings drop below 50 percent by this time in their presidencies. Ronald Reagan is the next in line, with his numbers dipping after 10 months, while Jimmy Carter retained positive approval numbers for more than a year.” via Politico

Traveling south

Purple Martins on June 30

Purple Martin house on Aug. 30
We have five Purple Martin houses at the end of our street. In June, they were all full occupancy, with parents raising families and busy eating insects. Now they are empty. Gone to winter in Brazil.

I'd planned to go back to Columbus this week, but the weather forecast was fabulous, so I decided to stay. This is Senior Venture Week at Lakeside and the theme is "Ohio history: from the Ice Age to Ice Cream." There are two days of lectures on Ohio canals, two on various ice age topics (our under a glacier period for you g-warmists), and lectures on our 8 Presidents and Toft's Dairy (my favorite ice cream). Maybe there will be samples? Love that Moose Tracks!

Last night after the movie, "My sister's keeper" based on a Jodi Picoult novel, we had a discussion on biomedical ethics led by a local pastor. Some people in the audience had read the book, and weren't happy with the change in ending. SPOILER--don't read this:

"The Book: Anna wins her case, but before she can announce whether she's decided to give her kidney to Kate, she's involved in a car accident and becomes brain-dead. Her lawyer, who has power of attorney over Anna, grants the kidney to Kate, who lives -- believing that she was given a second chance because Anna took her spot in heaven.

The Movie: Before the case is decided, Kate and Anna's brother Jesse reveals that Kate no longer desires to undergo operations. Their mother comes to terms with the impending demise of Kate. After Kate dies, Anna's lawyer visits the house with legal papers claiming she has won the case and now has medical emancipation from her parents."

But it was a good discussion even with the movie ending. Sept 3-6 is "Julie and Julia" at our movie theater (the only one in the county). Our book club is reading My life in France by Julia Child this year, and so far I've barely been able to read a page, so maybe the movie will help.

Spending in the name of Obama

It's amazing how many advertisers are using Obama's name to hawk their product. Reminds me of the Dr. Oz, Oprah, and Rachel Ray ads which traffic in their names without permission. I've seen ads like

"President Obama wants you to go back to school"

"President Obama wants you to have a new car"

"President Obama wants you to save your home"

and this one by an American whose eyes were opened by his schooling in Iran selling his gaming technology,

"This unique approach is the embodiment of “e-diplomacy,” and reflects the new “soft diplomacy” approach favored by the Obama Administration."

But here's one I saw in my e-mail this morning that should really be an eye-opener for fund raising if he tells the truth:

For those of you who want to learn the secrets of the Obama Campaign's online fundraising success and how you can apply them at your college or university, there will be a live, 60-minute Webinar:

"Fundraising Secrets from the Obama Campaign Your College Can Use Now"
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 1:00 - 2:00 PM (ET) . . .

Before joining the Obama campaign in Chicago, Steve managed online organizing at the Center for American Progress [Clinton retreads now in Obama Camp which became leading war room for escalation in Afghanistan], where he built support for progressive [i.e. socialist/marxist] positions on issues ranging from alternative fuels to ending the war in Iraq. Steve has also managed online operations for the Children's Defense Fund and American University's College of Arts and Sciences.

Somewhere I read (and blogged) about that cottage industry of loyal compaign worker bees at their computers and the pittance the people received who worked in that e-campaign.

Are songs too long?

Murray's going to Washington!

Murray from Illinois has e-mailed his group:

"OK THAT'S IT, I'VE HAD IT!!! I've written to my legislators and received no satisfactory response. Plus Senator Durbin refuses to even acknowledge I exist. He refuses to hold any town meetings and professes that he'll not be "suckered punched" by a bunch of crazies like me. So I'll be off to DC to join the thousands of other crazies on 9/12 to protest the destruction of our great country. You know... the one Obama calls the greatest country in the world that he wants to change??

Anyway, just in case I run into one of your senators, tell me their name and what you would like me to say to them. Just so you don't ask me to tell him/her to keep up the good work!"

Monday Memories from my cousin

Bill and Gayle were married August 30, 1959 in the Mt. Morris, Illinois Church of the Brethren. She writes this about the memories of the last 50 years.

"We grew up on the same street, went to the same school and attended the same church. Our first date was on June 5, 1955. Our first home was Mrs. Isley’s upstairs apartment 3 blocks from the campus of the University of Northern Iowa where we were students.

Gayle remembers:
-purchasing an Eureka vacuum cleaner with wedding money
-washing, starching, hanging, sprinkling and ironing ALL our clothes
-being afraid to light our gas oven & burning cookies
-waxing our linoleum floors every Saturday
-shopping at Cardinal Grocery & saving King Korn yellow stamps
-attending all of Bill’s varsity basketball games
-being relieved to learn that my new husband cleaned his own “game”
-wearing skirts, never slacks or jeans, to class
-playing Johnny Mathis, Ray Conniff, Nat King Cole, Percy Faith & Henry Mancini records on our stereo (no TV)
-intertwining “homemaking” with “homework”

Bill remembers:
-driving our ‘48 green Plymouth sedan
-having a basketball scholarship to help with expenses
-eating at the Panther Pizzeria after games (Pizza was new back then)
-working at the Western Auto & selling a lot of Lawn Boy mowers (new)
-hunting for pheasant and quail on Iowa farms
-having teammates over for meals
-juggling basketball practices, games, roadtrips and classes

We laughed a lot that first year and we still do; but the important relationship with our Lord and Savior didn’t come until we went to Alaska to teach. It has been our joy to follow Christ through the ups and downs of life for many years now. We’ve been blessed with four beautiful children and eleven grandchildren so far. We are grateful for our fifty years together. We want to encourage you to trust and obey God on your personal journey too!"

Thank you Gayle--wonderful memories and good advice!

I vaguely remember ironing.

Another one who has read the HR 3200

Michael Connelly, a constitutional lawyer writes the Truth about the Health Care Bills.

After reading the bill, “I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated. If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.

The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. . . “

Read his resume at his website. Contact him, not me if you disgree with his arguments which include the bill rations health care, particularly for senior citizens and other classes of citizens, provides for free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession and eventually would force private insurance companies out of business and put everyone into a government run system.

Maddy has Crohn's Disease--an ethics tangle

Quite by accident, I discovered that one of my blogs on HR 3200 appeared as a link on a college reading list on medical ethics (so if you commented, you‘re there too). That got me interested in the program and I began browsing some of the other offerings. Some true to life scenarios were presented for students to discuss, and I thought this one about Maddy who has Crohn’s Disease was very interesting. I have a neighbor with Crohn’s (she’s 92, so has managed it well living longer than my parents who had no significant health problems until the final month of their lives at 88 and 89), and I used to work for a dear woman who had IBD (irritable bowel disease) which can be very debilitating.

Reading through the ethical responses by the hospital, her doctor, her friends, and society at large was really interesting. But there was no response from Maddy‘s point of view. What should have been her ethical response as a 25 year old to her illness, which she had known about since junior high school?

According to the information given, she had graduated from college, during which she’d had very few flare ups, but now had become very ill with frequent problems brought on by skipping doctor’s appointments and not eating right, worsened by moving away from home (just a guess, but Mom probably watched her diet). She’d become dehydrated and malnourished, terrible conditions for someone with Crohn’s, but the underlying assumption of the writer of the problem was this was caused by lack of insurance. She then required hospitalization, IVs, antibiotics, and surgery, which she didn’t choose. Her parents in the meanwhile (but not at the beginning) were experiencing financial set backs and she didn’t want to bother them with her problems. So, if I read the responses correctly, the problem then falls in the lap of the doctor, the hospital, the friends, and society at large.

Here’s my thoughts about Maddy.

1) If a person has a chronic or debilitating illness, she may have to modify her life’s dreams and career options. Her chosen field didn’t look promising to me either for income, or for a reduced-stress life (very important for these types of diseases). I don’t know what you do with a degree in “health psychology” but having worked in academe most of my professional life, it sounds like a way to keep the faculty employed. There are thousands of programs at the university level that lead nowhere except to frustration, low-income and living on credit.

2) She, her parents, and doctor had about 12 years to plan for this event (living on her own), knowing her student or parents' insurance would end, and that employer insurance may have requirements about pre-existing conditions.

3) She most likely, although it doesn’t say, became careless about the flare-ups since they had been rare before she graduated. Young people suffer from lack of learning from hindsight and planning with foresight.

4) She began missing doctor appointments and meds after graduation, rather than giving up other things in her life. This has a huge snowball effect. I don’t know what these could have been, and I know it sounds cruel and unAmerican to say “drop cable, cell phone, hair appointments, or nights out with friends“ so you can pay for your meds, but if you know the consequences of these missed steps, you can’t expect to stay healthy.

5) As a result of her own bad decisions, she is forced to return home a sick woman who will get even sicker to live with her family who is already under terrible stress from her father’s lost job and two younger children to support.

[Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located in California's Silicon Valley, offers its more than 8,000 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's, Ph.D., and law degrees.]

Filthy lucre and H1N1

Filthy Lucre usually means obscene or shameful profit, but just plain old paper money is really dirty. I learned this sanitation tip when I was clerking at Zickuhr's Drug store in high school. According to a cartoon health item on the dangers of swine flu I saw this morning viruses can live on paper money for 2 weeks. I always shudder a bit when the coffee clerk pats or rubs the top of the paper top while serving me after handling the money. It would be much better to have the customer pick up and place the cover over the cup.

When I was the veterinary medicine librarian at Ohio State we were constantly washing our circ desk where the returned books came in--zoonotic diseases, you know. Books and hard surfaces in libraries, including keyboards, are really dirty--you could probably scrape them before you washed them.

Americans have a really bad nervous tic of constantly touching their face, nose, eyes, ears or hair while speaking, either casually, in conversation or from the podium. They even do it while on the phone, although the listerner can't see them. Thirty years ago I used to attend the "brown bag" sharing of the agricultural credit group at Ohio State. Over half of the grad students were from Asia or Africa. Since it wasn't my field (I was the librarian), I would amuse myself by noting face touching and nose rubbing by the speakers. I almost never saw a 3rd world student do that--it was about 100 to 1, in favor of the Americans.