Alexander Mccall Smith, The Sunday Philosophy Club

I've started a new novel. I'm on about p. 100. Nothing has happened since about p. 2. "Amateur sleuth Isabel Dalhousie is a philosopher who uses her training to solve unusual mysteries." I think I know why I almost never read mysteries.

Chubby Checker at Lakeside

We enjoyed the Chubby Checker show at Lakeside Chautauqua last night (born Ernest Evans, October 3, 1941.) I didn't know he was still alive--although I hadn't actually been pondering his career. He's 73 and puts on a great show. I’d love to manage those stairs without hanging on to the railing (stage to floor).  Early on I had a little trouble understanding him (although rock and roll songs were not written for their wonderful use of language), but he seemed to work into it using a lot of audience participation. Thankfully for those of us who have not had our hearing destroyed by rock concerts, the band played within a range that didn't drive me out of Hoover after 2 numbers. Sax man was awesome. He does a very good Elvis impression, and not bad with the Beatles.  Then a spectacular fireworks on the lakefront; a nice finale for our last evening. A fine ending to a great season of spiritual growth, intellectual stimulation, and cultural challenges. Also, way too many trips to the pie lady booth at the Farmer’s Market. By the end of the season, I could walk 2 miles plus and was faithful to do my physical therapy for bursitis.

Bus parked at Hoover.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chubby_Checker

Michael Brown’s juvenile record leaked

This is why there needs to be a complete investigation instead of rioters demanding the death of a policeman and Eric Holder showing up. 1) The store security cam showing Brown roughing up the owner after stealing; 2) eyewitnesses who claim Brown struggled with the policeman; 3) autopsy report not what witnesses claimed; 4) a juvenile record that suggests he wasn't a gentle giant. Leaks and rumors won't cut it.

Éclair cake, no bake

Ingredients

• 2 (3.4 oz) packages Vanilla Instant Pudding mix, dry
• 3½ cups whole milk
• 12 oz. cool whip
• 2 (14.4) oz packages graham crackers
• - FROSTING -
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 3 Tbsp. milk
• 3 Tbsp. cocoa
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Blend milk and vanilla pudding packets for about 2 minutes. Fold in Cool Whip.
2. In a 9x13 pan, Layer graham crackers to cover entire bottom of pan. You may need to cut and shape the crackers to fit nicely.
3. Pour half of pudding/cool whip mixture on top and level.
4. Put another layer of graham crackers to cover entire surface. Cut and shape crackers accordingly.
5. Put the second half of pudding/cool whip mixture on top and level.
6. Put the final layer of graham crackers on top with bumpy side down. This will help the top look more smooth when you go to put the frosting on top. Once again, cut and shape crackers accordingly to avoid pits and cracks.
7. FOR THE FROSTING: Microwave butter and milk just enough so that they are melted together. You do not need to boil it. Add cocoa and powdered sugar and blend together. This will be a runnier frosting/glaze. Pour over top of graham crackers and smooth out nicely. (**I usually double the frosting recipe)
8. Refrigerate overnight and Dig in!

http://www.chef-in-training.com/2010/08/eclair-cake/

No strategy yet

Huckabee on Obama’s strategy

“You know, the president keeps talking about I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” Huckabee concluded. “Well, let him get that pen and write down the list of all these counties who are going to be far more affected and much more immediately that we are…. And then get on that phone of his and call these guys and explain to them in explicit terms that we’ve got to seal off our own borders right now.”

Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/watch-mike-huckabee-calls-arab-nations-aid-defense-isis/#gWmKvs4M0jXvKOxp.99

Leading from behind

I love cats, but . . .

Akron 18 year old Trevonte Mitchell who kicked a cat and his friend posted it on FB earlier this month has been sentenced to 6 months and $1,000 fine according to a Cleveland station. Over paid Ravens player Ray Rice assaulted his girl friend (she later married him showing she's as challenged as he is) in an elevator and got a 2 game suspension. "Ravens coach John Harbaugh said: "It's not a big deal. It's just part of the process. . . . He makes a mistake. He's going to have to pay a consequence." I love cats, but this just isn't right. Mitchell was just a dumb kid who kicked a feral cat--Rice was a role model and millionaire who beat on the woman he claimed to love.

Both Mitchell and Rice are black; apparently some unkind things have been said on twitter and Facebook (go figure!) so now they are claiming racism.  Really?

http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/akron-police-arrest-cat-kicking-suspect-1.513227

http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2014/08/its_about_time_roger_goodell_admitted_his_mistake_about_ray_rices_punishment.html

Mothers and daughters

My retirement advice, redux

Are you in your 50s or 60s and thinking about retirement? Here's my advice written some years ago, but still true. http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2007/06/3915-retirement-experts-jonathon.html

Hands up, don’t shoot meme

“What actually happened in Ferguson: Within 10 minutes of committing robbery and assault at the QwikTrip store, Brown, together with his accomplice, Dorian Johnson, encountered a police officer. An altercation took place, and Brown was shot and killed under circumstances that are currently under investigation.

The accomplice, Johnson, claimed later that Brown had been shot from behind while h held up his hands in surrender.  Two other witnesses later backed Johnson’s account, although at least one of the two changed her story when it was reported that an autopsy showed Brown was hit in the front.  Johnson, it should be noted, has served jail time for lying to the police. Other witnesses said that the 6’4”, almost-300-pound Brown hit the officer in the face, possibly breaking his eye socket, and tried to take his gun away (which would have put the officer in mortal danger).  At this point, no one seriously claims that Brown was running away with his hands up when he was shot.”

http://capitalresearch.org/2014/08/the-court-of-memes-why-people-believe-fake-facts/

Homicides of children

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/187239.pdf

Not a pleasant topic, but I keep misplacing the link.

Homicides of juveniles in the United
States are unevenly distributed, both
geographically and demographically.
Rates are substantially higher for
African American juveniles and for
juveniles in certain jurisdictions. Yet,
85 percent of all U.S. counties had no
homicides of juveniles in 1997. . .

Most homicides of young children are
committed by family members through
beatings or suffocation. Although victims
include approximately equal numbers
of boys and girls, offenders include
a disproportionate number of
women. Homicides of young children
may be seriously undercounted . . .

Women are responsible for 43 percent of
the deaths of children under age 12 who
are killed by identifiable persons, a percentage
that has been relatively stable
since the 1980s (Federal Bureau of Investigation,
1997). Women overwhelmingly kill
very young children (75 percent of their
juvenile victims are under age 6) and members
of their family (79 percent). . . .

http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/victims/qa02310.asp?qaDate=2011

Colder-than-normal and wetter-than-usual

That’s the Farmer’s Almanac prediction for the winter of 2014-15.  It was correct last winter.

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/apexchange/2014/08/24/us-farmers-almanac.html

Uniters have a dream, dividers have a scheme

Monday Memories—summer of 1956

During yesterday’s sermon Pastor Jennings was preaching about Joseph and his brothers and said something about kids of 16 or 17, and from there on, all I could think of was, “what was I doing the summer I was 16.”  I have a clear memory of summer 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1960 but am drawing a blank on 1956.  I figure I worked at Zickhur’s Drug Store; I think I’d dropped out of the high school band where I played trombone, so I wasn’t doing the summer practice.  I found one mention at my MMHS blog—a going away party for our exchange student Klaus at our house, before he returned to Germany.  My boyfriend had graduated with the class of 1956 and was getting ready for college in Iowa, but can’t remember if we did anything special or went shopping. My family still lived in the big white house on South Hannah. I was the art editor for the Mounders yearbook for 1957, so the junior editor and I did get together to do some drawings that summer. I knew I would have to do a 25 page report for history, so I collected articles all summer about the election in hopes it would be my topic.  Julie Clark was born in July, so I probably spent some time there (they lived in our back yard in a trailer). So, what happened in 1956?

 

If I needed another t-shirt. . .

Suicide attempts among transgendered

The prevalence of suicide attempts among respondents
to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey
(NTDS), conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality,
is 41 percent, which vastly exceeds the 4.6 percent of
the overall U.S. population who report a lifetime suicide
attempt, and is also higher than the 10-20 percent
of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults who report ever
attempting suicide.

http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/AFSP-Williams-Suicide-Report-Final.pdf

The Williams Institute is dedicated to conducting rigorous, independent research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy.  A national think tank at UCLA Law, the Williams Institute produces high-quality research with real-world relevance and disseminates it to judges, legislators, policymakers, media and the public.

The Williams Institute has done a state by state economic analysis of how gay marriage can boost state economies.  Ohio has about 20,000 same sex couples, and if 50% wanted to marry that would bring in about $70.8 million in spending on weddings and "tourism" (aka people traveling to attend the wedding). Well, if that's all it takes to boost Ohio's economy, why not insist that all couples living together without benefit of marriage just get married? Elsewhere I've seen estimates of the number of same sex couples that want to marry, and it really isn't all that high. The reasons are about the same as men everywhere give. 

Prominent Conservative Think Tanks

The term “think tank” seems to have arisen in the 1950s, but there were organizations of that type even back in the 19th century.  Many were established to address the problems of war (not successfully I’ve noticed), and others social, environmental and education policy.

The three most-cited conservative think tanks are

the Heritage Foundation, fifth most influential think tank in America.

the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the seventh most influential think tank in America.

the American Enterprise Institute, the eighth most influential think tank in America.

One can only conclude from 5th, 8th and 7th being conservative, that 1-4, 6, 9 and 10 are liberal think tanks and reporters would be quoting them more often. But this list is for my own convenience so when I read quotes, I’ll know whose bias is what.

Other conservative think tanks include the following:

Cato Institute
Hoover Institution
Manhattan Institute
Lexington Institute
Project for the New American Century (according to Wikipedia, is extinct, 2006)
Center for Security Policy
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Center for Immigration Studies
Claremont Institute
Hudson Institute
http://www.ehow.com/list_5553767_list-conservative-think-tanks.html

Where are the war protesters?

Peggy Noonan and James Taranto (Wall St. Journal) have noticed the lack of war protesters over Obama's recent war action. In 2001 Bush had near 100% support and in 2003 he had 70% and he had made the rounds for international allies. Still, he had protesters marching at the White House. I remember a corner in Columbus where they gathered to call him names and chant War is not the Answer. So where are they when Obama didn't ask Congress and didn't line up allies? Did they all go to Ferguson to divert our attention?

http://online.wsj.com/articles/best-of-the-web-today-the-missing-protesters-1408735767

http://online.wsj.com/articles/a-new-kind-of-terrorist-threat-1408662080

Corbat the Norman

I was reading an Ancestry.com explanation of English surnames, but mine wasn't included because it came with the Norman invasion in 1066, and of course, the Normans were descendants of those terrible Scandinavians, so who really knows. Here's to you, Corbat the Norman.

http://www.1066.co.nz/library/battle_abbey_roll1/subchap133.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corbet_family

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/corbettonenamestudy/First/People/anglo.htm