Something’s gotta give movie for Saturday

It’s a gorgeous day at Lakeside, one of the prettiest we’ve had, and after a stroll through the craft show I sat down and watched a throw away movie, “Something’s gotta give” with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Kind of predictable—the movie begins with him dating her (Keaton’s character) daughter, but in the end the two who are closer in age end up together. Lots of sex scenes and innuendo and jokes about heart attacks, eye glasses,  age and aging.  I wandered away a lot, looking for something crunchy to munch, but there was nothing but healthy stuff in the house.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337741/

What I found surprising was how up to date everything looked—from the fashion, to the phones to the kitchen counter tops.  For a movie that is 15+ years old, it has aged well.  If this were 1958 or 1968 and the movie was 15 years old we’d be giggling at the fashion and hair styles.

Around town

Dinner tonight: roast chicken, coleslaw, baked potato, grapes and cherries, and carrot cake.  The place is crawling with people.  The program tonight, Home Free, was the biggest draw in 2017, so they’re expecting a big crowd.  I think we’ll have to be at Hoover when the doors open at 7:30 if we want a good seat.

Here’s what I wrote last year. “Home Free, a "vocal band" put on a fabulous show Friday night at the Hoover in Lakeside. Pretty much a packed house--lots of covers of Oak Ridge Boys, Statler Brothers, Alabama, etc. Loved Elvira. Nice Johnny Cash Ring of Fire, too. A few of the hip hop genre I thought were inappropriate for our regular audience, but they are a quality, fabulous group. Don't miss them if they are performing near you. Amazing sound--all vocal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXQpDDcrN-w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W9ue85L9PA

Today’s smoothie

It was sort of clean out the tired and lonely fruit from the frig day. Heading back to Lakeside after a week at home so I needed to make some room in the cooler.

Carrot juice

Baby spinach

strawberries

1 orange

1 peach

This had a lot of fiber.

Christian community—a how to do list

“A good way to start loving God divinely is by generously loving your spouse, children, parents, siblings, and friends. It is doubtful that we will love anyone else if we fail to love the ones closest to us.

Love is the key, love is the secret weapon. Forget about how you feel. Love is not a feeling; it’s a decision to prefer the good of others. Make a habit of this and you will start changing things around you and your work will be amplified.”  Douglas Dewey

And then the author provides 10.5 rules for accomplishing the commandment to love God and others—forming Christian community.  Some may surprise you. https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/07/28/10½-rules-for-forming-Christian-community/

Exercising at Life Time

I enjoy working out at Life Time Fitness (117 centers in 26 states and 34 major markets under the LIFE TIME FITNESS® and LIFE TIME ATHLETIC® brands in the United States and Canada) on Henderson Rd., near our home.  I really do. I’ve been going about 5-6 times a week since January—treadmill and resistance machines.  I think it’s helping my balance and the strength in my hands.   However, as I read through its magazine, "Experience Life," I do sense that focusing totally on oneself--personal empowerment--body, nutrition, well-being, fitness, breathing (mindfulness and other eastern quasi-religious exercises are big), and "connectedness"--is a tad shallow even if it is a billion dollar business. "Small acts of kindness. . . offer great health benefits and make us feel more secure" and so forth.

The Founder, Chairman, and CEO is Bahram Akradi, who immigrated to the U.S. from Iran as a teen-ager. His father was in the Iranian Air Force and sensed a revolution was coming so sent his son to the U.S. to live with his brother. He's positive that embracing respect as our guiding principle is good for our health and the country. See what you think and whether something is missing.

https://experiencelife.com/article/a-healthy-dose-of-respect/

https://gym.lifetimefitness.com/upper-arlington/gym-columbus

The most useful course in high school—Latin

Three socialists. . .

Graigmile back for a 6th season in 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smIAuenhqBw

You don’t need to be Catholic to appreciate the excellent program offered in the summer by The Church of  St. Mary in Lake Forest, Illinois by Charles Craigmile.  He is a theologian turned businessman.  I’ve watched them all.  This season is about the culture and relies on the work of Pope Benedict, “Culture Lost, Culture Reclaimed: The Catholic Renewal.” 50 years ago the Pope wrote “Introduction to Christianity” (as Cardinal Ratzinger). 2018 is also the 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html and the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI.  Also the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx. 

“Lecturer Charles H. Craigmile holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy, with minors in Latin and Greek from the University of St. Thomas, an MA in philosophy from DePaul University, and an MBA from JL Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Charles has also completed three-years’ course work toward a graduate degree in Theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. Over the last 25 years, Charles has taught Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) programs across the Chicago area and led summer programs in recent years at Church of Saint Mary in Lake Forest. He is president and CEO of Revenova, LLC, the leading Cloud-based Transportation Management Application built on the Salesforce.com platform. Previously, he was president and CEO of Forseva which he sold to Equifax in 2014.” (From 2014 story in Daily North Shore)

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/10/fourth-annual-summer-school-of-faith.html

July 26, 1833 William Wilberforce and slavery

I have a morning routine of about 30 minutes which includes some reading and journaling, and before we went to the Lake I’d checked out of the UALC library “The One Year Christian History; a daily glimpse into God’s powerful work” by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten, c. 2003.  The passage for July 26 was on William Wilberforce (b. 1759) and his battle to free the slaves of the British Empire.  On July 26, 1833, when Wilberforce was on his death bed he received word that the Emancipation Act freeing the slaves of the British Empire was assured of passing. (The British slave trade itself had been abolished in 1807. The U.S. Constitution had written into it the abolishment of the slave trade in 1807 and which took effect  Jan. 1, 1808.)  He had been working with a group of Christian men and women, wealthy and powerful,  and although Wilberforce is the name known on both sides of the Atlantic as a dedicated abolitionist, his band of friends were essential to his mission.

This link (not in the book) is additional information on his group, and contains an interesting outline describing when Christians band together in common cause and take the long view, much can be accomplished.  ttp://www.cslewisinstitute.org/webfm_send/471 

The outline of how Wilberforce’s group functioned would itself make an interesting topic for a small covenant group or Sunday school class.

• They shared a common commitment to Jesus Christ and a clear sense of calling.

• They were committed to lifelong friendship and mutual submission was the norm. • Their advocacy was marked by careful research, planning and strategy.

• They worshiped both privately and publicly, gathering twice weekly at the Clapham Church.

• Their friendships were inclusive and focused on the essentials. For example, Wilberforce was a Wesleyan and his closest friend, Henry Thornton, was a Calvinist.

• They made family life a clear priority and delighted in each other’s marriages and children.

• They kept the “long view” on completing projects. Abolition of the slave trade took 20 years!

• They made no dichotomy between evangelism and social action. Their magazine, The Christian Observer, exemplifies this.

• Their faith was integral to all of life, family, career, friendship and more. It was a faith that the younger generation calls, “24/7.” They talked together of a faith that impacted every part of their lives. There were no “compartments.”

• They enabled one another vs. trying to “have it all.” They recognized each other’s passions and supported one another in addressing them.

The Rusten title would make a nice gift—especially for one with a shorter attention span but who can still make it through a few pages.  https://www.christianbook.com/the-one-year-of-christian-history/e-michael/9780842355070/pd/55073

Happy Birthday, Carol

Happy 81st birthday to my sister Carol who died in 1996 at 58. We still miss you. Photo is 1989 with her daughter and son. Recently we got to meet her great granddaughter who visited us at Lakeside with her grandparents. What a treat. Carol was the only one of my family with any fashion flair, and loved beautiful clothes, bright colors, stylish purses, shoes and jewelry. As an enterprising teen, she sold Avon products. Although her primary career was in nursing with a degree from Goshen College, she did own a dress shop in Bradenton, FL.

 

Never a snowflake, after high school graduation in 1955 Carol went into Brethren Volunteer Service and did incredible tasks for one so young, like doing church plant surveys in Denver, helping with clean up after flooding in Pennsylvania, teaching Sunday School and leading worship in Kentucky where she road horseback to services because there were no passable roads, and being a "healthy volunteer patient" aka guinea pig at NIH in Maryland. I wonder if she is one of the results cited in this article.  https://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/about/news/newsletter/2007/oct07/newsletter.html  

She was a survivor of childhood bulbar polio and struggled with many health issues, but cared for many as a home health nurse in her last years.

Today’s smoothie

About 10 white grapes (seedless)

6 large strawberries

1 medium banana

8 oz. carrot juice

few handfuls baby spinach, washed, not stemmed

White grapes are used as a natural sweetener, so this one was a little sweeter than usual.  And things were a little messier since I didn’t have the appliance screwed together tightly and some carrot juice leaked out.  Always check!

Hair today, gone tomorrow

 

January 2016

September 2010

 

Fall 1947

 

Spring 1966

 

May 1996

 

July 1984

 

August 2007 

 

Today, July 24, 2018, new perm

The drive to spy on and impeach Trump

“If the information in the FBI’s Carter Page warrant constituted probable cause for wiretapping an American political campaign, then the process and the officials involved in it carried out one of the most significant known violations of American civil liberties in recent history,” Penn writes at The Hill. “The documents released over the weekend reveal quite clearly that the only information that even remotely connected Page and the 2016 campaign to Russia came solely from Fusion GPS dossier and a Yahoo News report that was based on the same information from the same source.”

The evidence is there was no evidence.

Mark Penn, former Clinton pollster, writing at The Hill.  thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/398276-carter-page-warrant-reflects-attack-on-our-civil-liberties?

Comment on Ocasio-Cortez by request

 

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ’S EMBARRASSINGLY INCORRECT CLAIM
By Kevin Ryan

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made several bizarre claims in an interview with Firing Line’s Margaret Hoover last week that has a lot of people scratching their heads. Ocasio-Cortez, the left’s new darling and self-described socialist, was asked about the strong economy and low unemployment rate. She offered a bizarre explanation.

“Unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs,” she explained. “Unemployment is low because people are working 60, 70, 80 hours a week and can barely feed their kids.”

Huh?

Ok, first of all, that’s not even how the unemployment rate works. It’s a measure of how many people are looking for a job but can’t find one. Neither holding multiple jobs, nor working overtime affects the calculation at all.

Secondly, “everyone has two jobs” couldn’t be further than the truth. The percent of workers with more than one just is near its all-time low, under 5%.

And people aren’t working longer and longer hours to make ends meet. In fact, people are working fewer hours, not more, meaning it’s actually easier than ever to feed your family.

Ocasio-Cortez then goes on to blame capitalism for the above-mentioned made-up problems. Ironically, her dire description of the economy is a more apt description of what life was like BEFORE capitalism, when everyone worked extremely long hours, including children, just to avoid starvation. She seems to long for those days.

“Capitalism has not always existed in the world and it will not always exist in the world,” she said.

SOURCES:
http://www.pbs.org/…/firing…/video/alexandria-ocasio-cortez/
https://www.bls.gov/…/multiple-jobholding-over-the-past-two…
https://www.bls.gov/…/multiple-jobholding-in-states-in-2015…
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS12026620#0
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRS84006023#0
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/AWHAETP
http://www.politifact.com/…/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-wrong…/
https://www.factcheck.org/…/ocasio-cortez-wrong-on-cause-o…/
https://reason.com/…/…/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-unemployment

NOTE ON METHODOLOGY: Weekly work hours is based on the BLS “Business Sector: Average Weekly Hours” index, which I’ve converted from an index to actual hours. There are many different measures of “weekly work hours,” but all show a long downward trend in hours worked, not an upward trend as Ocasio-Cortez contends.

Today’s smoothie

Banana

blueberries

Strawberries

carrot juice

watercress

water

Here’s the problem.  Blue and orange are used in watercolor to make a vibrant gray, but in food it’s just a yucky brown.  But the taste was fine.

After the boat show we packed up and drove back to Columbus, so our daughter and son-in-law could enjoy their vacation at the lake.

When Trump won, you may have lost some family and friends

"On November 9, you awoke from a self-induced, eight-year-long political coma to find that White House press secretaries shade the truth and top presidential advisors run political cover for their boss. You were shocked to discover that presidents exaggerate, even lie, on occasion. You became interested for the first time about the travel accommodations, office expenses, and lobbyist pals of administration officials. You started counting how many rounds of golf the president played. You suddenly thought it was fine to mock the first lady now that she wasn’t Michelle Obama. Once you removed your pussy hat after attending the Women’s March, you made fun of Kellyanne Conway’s hair, Sarah Sanders’ weight, Melania Trump’s shoes, Hope Hicks’ death stare; you helped fuel a rumor started by a bottom-feeding author that U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley slept with Donald Trump. You thought it was A-OK that Betsy DeVos was nearly physically assaulted and routinely heckled. You glorified a woman who has sex on camera for a paycheck.

You have learned all kinds of new things that those of us who didn’t willfully ignore politics for the past eight years already knew. For example, we already knew that illegal immigrants were being deported and families were being separated."

And there’s more.

https://amgreatness.com/2018/05/30/dear-ex-friends-in-the-resistance/

Week 6 at Lakeside 2018

Usually we go home on the Saturday our daughter and son-in-law have their vacation at our cottage, but this year our friends Rod and Judi will be here for the wooden boat show so we’ll go home after church on Sunday.  This promises to be a good week-end of programing so I’m glad we’ll be here. Although I’m sure the artists are disappointed, we were thrilled to welcome the rain around noon.

From the newsletter:

“A collaborative effort blending the craftsmanship of the Lakeside Wooden Boat Show and the artistic expression of the Plein Air Art Festival will create one of Lakeside’s most unique weekends of the summer from July 20-22.

This three-day event begins on Friday, July 20 when more than 30 plein air artists from across the Midwest arrive to paint outdoor landscapes until Sunday, July 22.

The term “en plein air” means painting “in the open air.” The artists will be painting scenes throughout the entire community, and all are invited to watch them paint.  

On Sunday, the Lakeside waterfront will transform into an outdoor showroom of classic wooden boats, as cruisers line the dock and the lawn of Hotel Lakeside for the 15th Annual Lakeside Wooden Boat Show from 12-4 p.m.

More than 80 wooden boats, each classified by the year it was made, will be featured.

The boats are categorized as historic (prior to 1918), antique (1919-1942), classic (1943-1975), early contemporary (1976-1984) and late contemporary (past 30 years). The sizes of the wooden boats featured range from 9’ to 57’.

The show is coordinated by the Lakeside Wooden Boat Society.

And just for fun, I’ve been cleaning the basement for two days.  It’s not a huge basement—maybe 10 x 10—but when you have one, you just save a lot of stuff that should have been thrown away.  So I have 2 sacks of useable things for the Archives (or Hotel) sale on Labor Day like coffee cups, flower vases, cat dishes, 3 iron skillets, some plumbing repair thingies to fix what we don’t know, and then lots of stuff went to the curb (we don’t actually have curbs) for Friday recycling day (some of which disappeared over night because someone needed it), but they would take the old humidifier.  Now we also need to  find a toxic waste collection site for 30 year old cans of paint. I also washed the rugs and rags, so. . . I’m feeling very self-righteous.

Arguing with a liberal today compared to a generation ago, guest blogger

“I have two "friends" who oppose Trump and do Facebook politics. One is a Democrat and the other is a Never Trumper.

The Democrat posted a meme the other day that said something along the lines of "Avocado farmers can't get enough help to harvest the crop. Now's a good time for Trump supporters to prove these are not jobs Americans won't do."

He's a welder and a union man. He's about 60 years old and is only a Democrat because his dad was. Many years ago, I argued politics with his dad, when he was a middle aged man and I was a teen. (Yes, I've been that bad for that long.) He's been gone for several years now, but occasionally, I spar with his son.

I commented something like this:

"What a strange twist of fate. Many years ago, I would have argued with your dad about this. I would have been on your side, arguing that we should have massive immigration (though I think I would have argued for legal immigration, not illegal immigration) in order to keep prices down for consumers.

"Your dad would have argued that the American working man deserved that job and the companies could pay him enough to persuade him to work for them.

"It's funny how life turns around."

He never responded, but a couple of days went by and he deleted his post.

This week, the "conservative" never Trumper, who is a bureaucrat in DC, posted an article from WaPo about Helsinki and commented that he couldn't believe anyone still supported the president.

The conversation went on at great length, but it included me mentioning his own Pauline Kael moment, the fact that Trump may not have given a well thought out answer, but that the reporter was stupid for thinking he should turn and call Putin a liar to his face.

I went on, after he said I was defending the GRU, to ask where in the world did he get that from and to say that the entire thing was a farce and theater for the weak minded. That if they were actually interested in stopping Russian election activity, it wouldn't have happened in a special prosecutors office, which was staffed with activist Democrat lawyers.

It would have happened secretly in a counter intelligence unit and they wouldn't have announced anything in a press conference, telling everything they knew, but would have worked behind the scenes developing policies and procedures to prevent further damage.

He deleted the post.”

Thank you, good post (used with permission, but no name please).

Today’s smoothie—taking a risk

Today I added a little honey, figuring it might just taste a little—mmm odd.

1/4 yellow bell pepper, seeds removed

2-3 leaves of beet greens, without stems

carrot juice

cantaloupe chunks

banana

1/2 teaspoon of honey + water

Beet leaves are the best part of the beet—the roots really don’t have that much nutrition, although I like them either cooked with butter and salt, or served cold with a sweet sour dressing. Beet greens are an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), vitamin C, copper, potassium, manganese, vitamin B2, magnesium, vitamin E, fiber and calcium. They are a very good source of iron, vitamins B1, B6, and pantothenic acid, as well as phosphorus and protein. World’s Healthiest foods.  I didn’t cook the greens, but I think that would be best. If you’re watching your Vitamin K due to a blood thinner, this might not be a good option, since it has over 700% of daily minimum.

And beet greens are more powerful and nutritious than kale. https://www.care2.com/greenliving/8-vegetables-that-are-healthier-than-kale.html

Abandoned art

Artist (at the Rhein Center, Lakeside, OH) Bev Beatty is leaving small pieces of art around our little community called “abandoned art.”  Whoever finds them can keep them, or leave them for someone else to find.  Today at the Wellness Center I noticed something on the window sill and thought someone had forgotten something.  Then I noticed the note inside that it was abandoned art just for me to find or leave as is.  It’s a tiny Christmas tree in blue, pink and taupe, just the colors of our cottage, so of course, I brought it home for the fireplace mantel.

Today’s smoothie

First I prepared an eggnog with honey and vanilla, gently cooked it. Then I used carrot juice, watercress, romaine lettuce and a banana.  Very mild, pale yellow green.  For breakfast.

“Romaine lettuce is an excellent source of vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), vitamin K, folate and molybdenum. In addition, romaine lettuce is a very good source of dietary fiber, manganese, potassium, biotin, vitamin B1, copper, iron and vitamin C. It is also a good source of vitamin B2, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B6, phosphorus, chromium, magnesium, calcium and pantothenic acid. “

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=61