Decorating the tree for 2015

Bob put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. We love looking at the old, tired ornaments--like the one our daughter's first grade teacher made (can teachers do that today?) and the little wood guitar I bought for our son, the cute wood ornaments purchased from a disabled woman (Jodi) at the UA Labor Day art show in the 1970s, and the various mementoes from our travels. We probably bought this tree in 1993 or 1994 at our daughter's urging--and have certainly gotten our money's worth. I suggested we go to a small table size tree like my parents did in their later years, but he said an emphatic NO.

When we moved to Columbus in 1967, I remember I went to the hardware store in the little Tremont shopping center behind our apartment complex and bought a package of gold painted angels which we used for years.  They are still in the box of decorations, but we haven’t put them on for a few years—the tree is a bit crowded.  We also have some table decorations we can hang from our years in the FCC Couples Circle 50 now about 48 years old. Of that couples group, I think Bob is the only man still living. We have some little cloth birds made by my mother into which she tucked money for the children.  The tree scarf was made by my sister I think for Christmas 1976, and we use it every year.

Same tree, 2010.

Same tree, 2012, with our niece and nephew, Julie and Joe from Indianapolis.

Same tree 2006, different glasses.

Same tree, 2000, with Dad, his first Christmas without Mom since 1934.  He made the “grand tour” and visited his children in three cities.

Computer scams and hoaxes

The last several days I've been getting phone calls from people with accents and noise in the background telling me they want to help me with my "windows" problem, or my reported computer problem. Usually I just hang up, because callers sitting in booths reading from a script need to earn a living and move on to the next sucker. But I've played along for a few questions then I ask them why they are running this scam. I chastise and castigate them before hanging up. Feels good. The economy has been completely restored, we're told, so no one needs to be working jobs like this even in India.

Non-use of technology

Periodically, I do a “fast” of Facebook or Blogging.  I sign off.  But when I return, there’s just as much posting as before.  Maybe more.  It’s a bit like a diet.  I can do it for awhile. In the “old” days, people gave up watching TV.  I can see myself in most of these studies.  Read on.

Resistance, addiction, and identity

“There are a number of studies that have focused on cases of deliberate, even conspicuous, non-use, as in when people swear off e-mail during their vacation or give up Facebook for Lent. In these cases of deliberate refusal of a technology, one of the key traits of the individual is her or his ability to resist the temptation of using technology. Approaches that frame (social) media and technology use as addiction fall into this mold (e.g., Andreassen, et al., 2012; Stieger, et al., 2013).

In other cases, non-use may represent an individual’s attempt to regain (a sense of) self-control over their own technology use (e.g., Ames, 2013; Baumer, et al., 2013; Schoenebeck, 2014). In many of these cases, the discourse is one of control. Because the resulting non-use may be partial or negotiated, these kinds of studies tend not to frame “use” as a monolithic concept for which non-use is the binary opposite.

Moving beyond the individual, the voluntary non-use of technology may function as the production or performance of a particular sociocultural identity. For instance, abstention from Facebook becomes an act of performing a particular identity, one bound up with “conspicuous non-consumption” and a rejection of neoliberal values of commodification (Portwood-Stacer, 2013).

Non-use (and use) of the smartphone app Grindr also figures prominently in partners’ negotiations about the status of their own relationship (Brubaker, et al., 2014). In another example, the Christian period of Lent becomes, for some, an occasion to limit use of social media (Schoenebeck, 2014).”

I tried to resist and regain power over my life, but just now I posted on Facebook:

Donald Trump is such a jerk, and he's the perfect Trojan Horse (for those who haven't studied history, that is not a condom but a trick) that the Democrats will use to elect Hillary. This woman has committed more crimes than most people already incarcerated, and will complete what Obama has left unfinished.

Academe—we reap what we sow

“After 50 years of teaching at Harvard, I have never met a less courageous group of people than tenured faculty.” Alan Dershowitz.

“There’s clearly a double standard. Minority students, gay students, transgender students, Arab students generally have a greater leverage and a greater voice, and their grievances are taken far more seriously than the legitimate grievances of Jewish students, Zionist students, Christian students, conservative students.”

http://dailysignal.com/2015/11/20/these-are-tyrannical-students-what-a-former-harvard-professor-thinks-of-college-protests/

Donations for personal hygiene

We took about $50 of groceries to the Thanksgiving service at UALC on Thursday (nicest church service of the year with the best hymns).  But I kept aside a bag of personal care items I’ve been buying—shampoo, sanitary napkins, deodorant, bar soap, toothpaste, tooth brushes, liquid hand soap. These are for Tammy Jewell’s ministry, “God’s Hygiene Help Center,” which offers basic hygiene care to people who have lost their dignity because they simply can’t afford everyday items.  Some are for children, some for out of work men and women looking for jobs, some for the elderly and homeless.

Jewell is a former victim of human trafficking who came to know Jesus. Now she reaches out to addicts and trafficking victims.  When she shares Jesus, she also offers some small material aid.

From UALC.org Cornerstone, Nov. 22-26, 2015

A hoarder’s collection becomes art

We’ve all known a hoarder—and maybe there’s a little of that in all of us.  I don’t think of myself as a hoarder, yet I do have favorite “collections,” like small pieces of Hull Pottery, works by Ohio artists, kitty boxes (small) made of glass, ceramic, card board, etc., glass and crystal that belonged to my mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, books I’ll never read but like to look at on the shelves, old photographs, and when we put up the tree yesterday, I could see decorations 40-50 years old. I even have three editions of old Encyclopedia Britannica, about 100 years old. And of course, my clothing “archive,” dresses or jackets I wore in the past to dances, weddings, Easter services, etc. The oldest is from winter dance 1955, if you don’t count the dolls and doll clothes which are from the 1940s. These dollies (mine) are sitting on my great grandmother’s chair next to my husband’s grandparents’ secretary. But is that hoarding or saving antiques? Ask my daughter after I’m gone and she has to dispose of it.

         

  

This daughter was ashamed of her mother’s hoarding, but eventually learned to turn it into art.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/a-mothers-hoarding-a-daughters-art/?

http://www.stephanielcalvert.com/resume/

          

The turkey monster

Our cat has always had "issues" about food--she was abandoned and homeless, then dropped at a rescue where the other cats terrified her, then she found us--for 18 years now. For 18 years she's believed she will be put on the street and must eat. Obviously, childhood memories don’t go away with lots of love.  Yesterday I cooked up the turkey carcass, but my SIL had done such a great job of cleaning it, there wasn't a lot left for casseroles or soup. So I chopped up the bits of skin, meat and fat after straining it thinking I'd dole it out to Lotza over the week-end. She demanded the whole thing! This morning she slept until 5 a.m. (instead of 3) in a turkey stupor. Now she's turning her nose up at the canned Friskies turkey. She's just staring at me, which if you've ever had a cat, you know the look.

Cats like to stir the water in their bowl, so her bowl is very heavy and says, “Dog.” When she would spill it on the marble, we couldn’t see it.

This is her favorite napping spot. . . my husbands’ legs.  Once she moves to our bed, she likes to sleep on my legs. She’s really not very large, maybe 6.5 lbs, so she a heat seeker.

Other turkey/cat stories:

This is humor.  http://www.catster.com/lifestyle/humor-cat-behavior-turkey-thanksgiving-tryptophan

Turkey is not toxic. https://www.facebook.com/notes/aspca/animal-poison-control-faq-turkey/455486574631

http://www.darwinspet.com/our-raw-foods/our-raw-cat-food/natural-selections-for-cat-turkey/

Three Word Wednesday for November 25

I must have been thinking turkey and pumpkin pie, because the 3WW day slipped right past me.  The clues this week are:

Habitual, adjective: done or doing constantly or as a habit, regular; usual.

Illustrious, adjective: well known, respected, and admired for past achievements.

Jumbled, verb: mix up in a confused or untidy way

and there is an event being reported on TV.

“Active shooter situation, Colorado Springs”
Norma J. Bruce
November 27, 2015

Several are injured, and the police are swarming.
Jumbled thoughts as family and friends agonize.
By-standers send in video and reports.
Waiting.  Waiting. A hostage is released! Then another!
These shootings seem to be habitual.
Except the victims and aggressors are different each time,
Illustrious of past events of which they were never a part
And could not ever imagine.

INCIDENTAL COMICS: Collecting My Thoughts

INCIDENTAL COMICS: Collecting My Thoughts

Thanksgiving 2015, Friday family photo

Isn’t this beautiful?  My husband has been taking guitar lessons for about a year, and his teacher, Dr. Smoot, wrote an arrangement for him and our son to play together.  So they were practicing in the living room and our daughter came in and looked in the piano bench for something in the same key.  I got all teary.  Had to eat another piece of candy.

It’s my recollection that I bought the piano in 1965 when I was a graduate student at the University of Illinois.  Which would make it 50 years old.  So I looked around and found a photo.

We had some great food, all prepared by my daughter, but she hasn’t sent the photos yet (she was having a contest with her sister in law in Colorado).  All I have are the pies.  For only 5 people, that’s a lot of pie. Hers are always very artistic.

Do you ever feel this way?

Special words

Liberté, égalité, fraternité and #blacklivesmatter

Although the media told us the recent events in Paris by Islamic jihadis were the worst since WWII, it was certainly not the worst religious violence in its history. Compared to what the French did to the Catholics, it was kids' play. In the French Revolution of the late 18th c., France was de-christianized, with thousands of citizens with ties to the church were murdered, imprisoned or deported. Churches, schools, nunneries, monasteries, schools, hospitals, etc. were violently destroyed. About 40,000 churches were destroyed and parishes left with no priest. The violence was at first against the throne with its ties to the Catholic church, then against everything Christian. Cries of Liberté, égalité, fraternité like the cries for "justice" and one group's lives mattering by our spoiled university students of today were meant only for a select few.

http://catholicexchange.com/a-new-look-at-the-french-revolution

http://www.wnd.com/2008/12/84742/

http://www.inthevendee.com/vendee-wars/vendee-wars.html

Ridiculous Black Friday stories

After we left our daughter’s home yesterday they were going to go out to buy . . . king size sheets.  One of the specials for Black Friday which started on Thursday. She should have been exhausted from her 2 days of cooking and planning, but there’s something about shopping that energizes some people.  Maybe I had that sort of energy in my 40s—and just don’t remember.

On Fox this morning I saw a story about 2 women who had shopped for “mini-sports” cars for their kids, and the containers for the toys wouldn’t fit into their cars.  So with the Fox reporter guarding their finds, they went off to find a rental car that would hold their treasures.

Now, think about it.  How much money can be saved if you need a rental car to haul home your treasures?

Students demand the President of Princeton stand up to bullies

Dear President Eisgruber,

We write on behalf of the Princeton Open Campus Coalition to request a meeting with you so that we may present our perspectives on the events of recent weeks. We are concerned mainly with the importance of preserving an intellectual culture in which all members of the Princeton community feel free to engage in civil discussion and to express their convictions without fear of being subjected to intimidation or abuse. Thanks to recent polls, surveys, and petitions, we have reason to believe that our concerns are shared by a majority of our fellow Princeton undergraduates.

http://100percentfedup.com/finally-fed-princeton-students-fight-back-black-lives-matter-terrorists-demands/#

I’m feeling safer already

This quote looks like it should come from The Onion, but unfortunately, it’s just our President speaking stupidly.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/analysis/2014/08/28/Experts-ISIS-makes-up-to-3-million-daily-in-oil-sales.html

Nellemann estimates that taxation has quickly become "the largest share of ISIL's income, both through taxation schemes of the local populous," various mafia-like schemes forcing payment with the threat of violence, as well as human trafficking. The expert suggested that "in 2015, [the smuggling] business is likely going to exceed a total of $2 billion, of which the Islamic State will slowly increase their share."

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20150912/1026925384/smuggling-migrants-isil.html

http://www.worldbulletin.net/economy/144677/how-isil-uses-syrias-oil-to-fuel-its-advances

In its online English magazine, Dabiq, ISIS lays out its justification for its brutality against the Yazidis on religious grounds:

"Enslaving the families of the kuffar [unbelievers] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah [Islamic law] that if anyone were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Qur'an and the narrations of the Prophet."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/08/middleeast/isis-rape-theology-soldiers-rape-women-to-make-them-muslim/

As our president says silly things about the climate and terrorism, these women know first hand that it is an evil ideology, not climate that has created these rape farms and mass graves.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/12000148/Islamic-State-sex-slaves-Sinjar-mass-graves-show-what-were-fighting.html

What was the golden age of television for you?

In November 2011 Peggy Noonan wrote a column about the two golden ages of TV,  for which she was giving thanks that year. Here’s what I wrote about my TV memories in 2011.

“Looks like I missed both golden ages. My parents didn’t have TV when I was growing up so if I ever saw Playhouse 90 (1956-1961) I don’t remember it. I was just too busy going to school, dating or working at the drug store to sit down and watch TV. And of the second group I’ve only seen Law and Order (now in its 20th season), and much of it only in reruns--miss Jerry Orbach. Hardly ever watch it these days--too predictable. The others in the second golden age I’ve never seen. [Noonan cited "The Sopranos," "Mad Men," "The Wire," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "ER," "24," "The West Wing," "Law and Order," "30 Rock." ]

Over the years we’ve enjoyed Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966) both when it was current and later in reruns; Mary Tyler Moore (1970-1977) and the spin-offs Rhoda and Phyllis; Love Boat (1977-1986) was great for seeing all the stars not usually seen; Cheers (1982-1993); the Bill Cosby Show (1984-1992) and still laugh and identify with the family situations and love the fashions [aside: unfortunately that memory has been tainted by recent sex charges]; Murder she wrote (1984-1996) with Angela Lansbury was never missed and we enjoyed it in reruns too; Golden Girls (1985-1992) although I think I saw this mostly on reruns; Murphy Brown (1988-1998)--great ensemble cast; Frasier (1993-2004) again mostly seen in reruns; Ellen (1994-1998); some of the movie channels like TNT and AMC for the movies I never saw when they were current; Third rock from the sun (1996-2001)--hard to believe Tommy is almost 30 [now 34]; we enjoyed Dharma and Greg (1997-2002); Monk ([was]still current and watching it tonight); The Closer ([then] now in the 5th season).

And remember the great variety shows--Sonny and Cher (1971-1974), Donny and Marie (1976-1979), The Captain and Tennille (1976-1977), Hee Haw (1969-1993) and now we even watch Lawrence Welk, which we never would have done in the 1950s and 1960s, as archives were dusted off with added interviews from the “Welk family” (1986- current) for its old time slot on Saturday evenings (tomorrow will be the Thanksgiving special on PBS). “

Democrats try to destroy the spirit of Thanksgiving. . .

I’d heard this before—actually from all the talking heads in the news, about how everyone is supposed to stay off politics on Thanksgiving.  But Democrats have carried it to new levels (low), according to James Taranto, of the Wall Street Journal.

“It’s Thanksgiving, and the Democratic National Committee is declaring war on uncles. “The holiday season is filled with food, traveling, and lively discussions with Republican relatives about politics sometimes laced with statements that are just not true,” the DNC declares on a website called YourRepublicanUncle.com. “Here are the most common myths spouted by your family members who spend too much time listening to Rush Limbaugh and the perfect response to each of them.”

There are 10 “myths,” with accompanying talking points in response—five about Republican presidential candidates, five about political topics. If you’re a Republican uncle and want to stump your DNC-informed niece or nephew, you might want to say something disparaging about Hillary Clinton or bring up national security, as these don’t make the list.

The talking points are unsubtle and tendentious enough that one suspects they were written by the unwieldy named Debbie Wasserman Schultz herself. Example: If your uncle says, “I like that Donald Trump! He says what he means,” you’re supposed to respond:” . . . you can fill in the blanks.

Happy birthday to my bouncing baby boy

From the first day he’s kept our life interesting and lively. He’s got the curly hair and long legs I’d love to have. Smart as a whip and intellectually stimulating.  Loves to talk politics with mom.  The light in the corner is probably his guardian angel checking in.

Posters about the jihadi risk in immigration

One of the memes/posters going around Facebook in the last few days concerns America’s rejection of European Jewish refugees in the 1930s, equating it to the current fear that there might be jihadis among the newest Syrian immigrants with no way to vet them. Let’s parse what was happening in the 1930s.

Our government’s response to the Great Depression.  In the 1930s the U.S. was weighed down by a terrible economic depression, and had the leadership of the Democratic party and Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) who continually failed to reenergize the economy. I don’t personally remember, but it colored the lives and behavior of my parents who were teen-agers in 1929.  Other countries had pulled out of that world wide depression in 3-4 years, but with the tinkering and social goals of FDR, we were well into it for a decade. People lost their savings, careers, farms, businesses, dreams and self esteem and were not thinking about the problems in Europe. Many Americans were still first and second generation immigrants from WWI and 19th c. recessions--thousands returned to their birth country.

The role of the media.  There was no social media in the 1930s, but radio and newspapers did a good job of misinformation and propaganda. Then as now the media lied to the American people about the seriousness of the situation.  Just has they sat on the information about the slaughter of the Christian Armenians and the Ukrainian famine and who was to blame (Moslems in Turkey and the USSR in Ukraine), so American intellectuals, Communists in the administration and politicians kept the public in ignorance.

Blame the Jews. America then as now, was awash in anti-Semitism.  If you think the publicity about Israel and Palestine on college campuses is lop-sided now, go back and read original material from the 1930s.  Rich Jewish bankers were blamed for everything that was wrong with our economy,  just as the “rich,” banks and investment companies were blamed for the collapse in 2007-2008.  Then as now, it was government manipulation of the markets and regulations  not Jews that created the mess, but a scapegoat was needed.  Following the traditions of centuries, it was “blame the Jews.” Today, even though the income gap is greater under Obama than any previous president, “the rich” has become a code word for our problems and Jews.