Gentleman in Moscow, September book club

I'm reading "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles for September book club. It's a great read, and I admit to being thrilled I recognize some of the names and events being a Russian major in college and taking all those history courses.  But I had to laugh at a perfect example for all the mush brained snowflakes and Bern babies who think socialism is so great. Count Rostov is indeed quite the gentleman, knows his wine, and which goes with what. One evening in the dining room of the hotel he can’t leave he orders a specific wine, a bottle of San Lorenzo Barolo, 1912, and was told he can order either red or white. He repeats his order, so the manager takes him to the wine cellar of the Boyarsky dining room of the Metropol Hotel where he discovers that 100,000 bottles of wine have had their labels removed. He inquires and is told:
"A complaint was filed with comrade Teodorov, the Commissar of Food, claiming that the existence of our wine list runs counter to the ideals of the Revolution. That it is a monument to the privilege of the nobility, the effeteness of the intelligentsia, and the predatory pricing of speculators."
"A meeting was held, a vote was taken, an order was handed down. . . Henceforth, the Boyarsky shall sell only red and white wine with every bottle at a single price."

Censorship

The socialists are lying to you about the "shrinking middle class."

"The American middle class has been doing just fine. In 1967, 33.7 percent of all American households earned between $50,000 and $100,000; by 2014, that number (in constant 2014 dollars) had fallen to 28.5 percent of American households. That means the death of the middle class, right? Wrong. It turns out that everybody just got wealthier. In 1967, the households earning an annual income of $50,000 or less constituted 58.2 percent of all Americans; as of the end of 2014, just 46.8 percent fell into this group. And while only 8.1 percent of American households earned more than $100,000 a year in 1967, today, 24.7 percent do. That’s not a collapsing middle class. That’s a growing upper middle class."
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/01/middle-class-income-not-stagnating/
Yes, the middle class is moving up, to upper middle class, and socialists hate that and lie to you, like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders.
And let's not forget how many Americans are now retired--like the Bruces. Socialists want you to forget that figure. "If we compare full-time workers ages 25 to 64 in 1979 with that same subset of workers in 2013, income exceeded inflation and grew 33 percent total."
A lot of these figures are from the Obama era--they even lie to you about that!

The morning exercise routine

Until this summer, I usually walked about two miles in the morning, always choosing a flat street to accommodate my bursitis pain and getting at least a mile along Lake Erie.  Then the Wellness Center opened in 2018.  Now I walk there (about 1 mile to get there), exercise on a cycle and a treadmill (about 4 miles), then walk home, about 1 mile, and pick up 2 or 3 miles during the day walking to various programs and activities.  Returning home through the woods has been especially nice.

 

 

From a drone photo

White privilege and Whoopi

Whoopi Goldberg is worth $45 million and goes on TV (ABC The View) spewing hate and bigotry and decrying various justice "gaps." She would never need to work again, but loves the platform. This morning on my walk I talked to a white woman, probably about Whoopi's age, who works 40 hours a week at near minimum, then goes across the street and works another 4 hours at a nursing home. I guess that's white privilege.

The Alex Jones fiasco on the left

There's a least one liberal who understands what's happening with Big Tech silencing Alex Jones, and he writes for CNN. Keep in mind how often Facebook Zuckerberg met with President Obama. That bromance is still strong.  Fascism thrives when big business cozies up to the government, and we still have a shadow, swampy government resisting the one we elected.
“Restricting offensive or harmful language for the greater good is all fine and dandy until you become beholden to a definition of ‘greater good’ you don't agree with,” Granderson writes at CNN.com. “Or when you oppose a politician’s view of ‘offensive.’”
Granderson is a black journalist who has come out as gay, formerly married to a woman so he has a son.  He can expect some of the Candace Owens blacklash. (Owens is the black conservative recently attacked by white radicals in Antifa for eating breakfast in a restaurant.  Shades of the 1950s lunch counters)
Big Tech has been restricting conservatives and libertarians like Dennis Prager or various bloggers while outlandish conspiracy buffs like Jones gets more attention while excusing and ignoring the hate speech and protests on the left. If they [Big Tech] were to release the HR searches they've done on their own employees, I think you'll find that they have no diversity of thought in hiring, promoting or development.
So why would incredibly successful capitalists (like Bezos who is the richest man in the world and Zuckerberg who owns your social life) side with oppressive, regulatory government administrations teetering on the cliff of fascism? To keep the start ups at the gate through increased taxes and regulatory power.

What socialized medicine looks like

What you have to look forward to if the socialists like Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders win in 2018: "Native Americans have received federally funded health care for decades. A series of treaties, court cases and acts passed by Congress requires that the government provide low-cost and, in many cases, free care to American Indians. The Indian Health Service (IHS) is charged with delivering that care." [IHS web site quote].

The per person cost is about 1/3 of what the other Americans spend, but is in line with Europe. Also, native Americans have a life expectancy 5.5 years less than all other Americans.

https://www.ihs.gov/newsroom/factsheets/disparities/

Francis Asbury, 1745-1816

On August 7, 1771, Francis Asbury answered John Wesley's call for Methodist preachers to go and evangelize the colonies. In 45 years he covered about 300,000 miles on horseback and crossed the Appalachian mountains more than 60 times; he ordained more than 4,000 Methodist ministers and preached more than 16,000 sermons.

Camp meetings, August 6

Today is the birthday/anniversary of the organized camp meetings and revivals that turned America back to Christianity, August 6, 1801, called the Cane Ridge Revival in Bourbon County, Kentucky, ca. 20 miles west of Lexington.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-45/revival-at-cane-ridge.html
Lakeside Chautauqua began as a Methodist camp meeting in August, 1873. "On Aug. 27, 1873, Reverend Henry O. Sheldon, the first presiding elder of the East Toledo Methodist Episcopal district, preached the first sermon of the Lakeside camp meeting from a basic preacher stand surrounded by twenty canvas tents". There will be a marker placed on September 2.
https://www.lakesideohio.com/calendar/event/12895

20 years a spy

"Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) reportedly had a Chinese spy infiltrate her office for some 20 years. "According to reports from Politico and The San Francisco Chronicle, the mole from the communist government served as Feinstein’s driver, an office gofer, a liaison to the Asian-American community, and even attended Chinese consulate functions on behalf of the senator."
And when she was advised of this, she fired him. Good. Close the door after the horse has escaped. And that's usually enough on that team, but if it happens to a Republican, it is hell to pay. And God forbid someone who knew someone from the Trump team should have played golf with or attended an event where there was a Russian.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/34030/report-feinsteins-personal-driver-20-years-was-amanda-prestigiacomo

Out and about on the peninsula

Shopped at Walmart this morning. Noticed the hiring banner at the door. $11.50 starting wage. I've also noticed at various Walmarts that their employees resemble all God's people-- black, white, brown, tattoos, nose rings, obese, anorexic, burka, autistic, disabled, well spoken or not so much, and most are helpful and well informed in their department or will find help if they don't know. I’ve never understood why people want to ridicule.
I read at a trombone website that some people use WD40 for slide lubrication.  So I bought a small container.

Neighborhood block party, August 3

In August the home owners on our Lakeside street will get together for a pitch in dinner and games, and this year it was our turn.  We had everything set up (top 2 photos), and then it started to rain about 4:30, so we moved a few things inside.  By 5 the rain had stopped, but it was pretty hot, and many chose to stay in the air conditioning.  We had 20 people in our little house/yard/deck counting us (one neighbor brought their friends from Indianapolis who were visiting), and I served sweet/sour (meatball recipe) sloppy joes on buns, and the guests brought fruit plate, vegetable plate, chips, cookies and brownies—all finger food so we’d have minimal clean up. We broke up about 7:15 so everyone had time to get to Hoover to see Point of Grace, a trio of Christian women who had replaced the original program, Sandi Patty. https://www.thoughtco.com/point-of-grace-biography-709697

Protected speech

Here’s what Todd Thorton who works for the airlines said about this:
“So I post [on Facebook] about flight attendants and get 281 reactions, 11 comments, and 182 shares among 1,100 friends. I post something about Trump and the same 25 or so friends see it. Tell me Zuckerberg and his thought police aren’t actively engaged in throttling back anything conservative. Apparently such views are against their community standards.”

The porch mysteries

Bob is starting his 9th mystery of porch reading of the summer. So when he announced at 8:30 a.m. that Andrea had been murdered (in chapter 1) I was a little startled. Although I was the librarian, I don't read mysteries or even much fiction. Our daughter supplies them by the sacksful. He's been through all the Maisie Dobbs, and Charles Todd, now roaring through Mary Higgins Clark, and has sampled a few Agatha Christie.
Titles by Higgins Clark read this summer:
No place like home
I’ll walk alone
The last years
Pretend you don’t see her
Daddy’s little girl
Before I say good-bye

Today’s smoothie

Eggnog made with honey

watercress

one orange

one frozen banana

frozen peaches

Free college tools and courses 2018-2019

There are many free courses on the internet, and I’ve taken 2 from Coursera, one of which I completed (Medical Statistics) and one I didn’t (Gut microbiota).  Today I came across a listing of free courses at Ivy League colleges https://qz.com/1263050/here-are-300-free-ivy-league-university-courses-you-can-take-online-right-now/   at Awareness Watch http://awarenesswatch.virtualprivatelibrary.net/V16N8.pdf and looked through the Harvard listing for the Book in medieval liturgies.

“When we think of liturgy today, we imagine short, formal, congregational events happening periodically within the confines of churches. Medieval liturgy, however, took up many hours of every day, filled the city's largest meeting halls, and even spilled onto the streets. At the center of the medieval liturgy were the books we will study in this course.

In this module of The Book: Histories Across Time and Space, we’ll explore and explain the beautiful service books of the medieval church. No prior knowledge of liturgy or Latin is required, but there will be a lot of both, along with music.”

This course is part of a group of courses called The Book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=LwHbfJAYqJw

Sounds very interesting—the big question, do I want to work that hard.  You can go at your own pace in a free course, but when I enroll I want to do well.  Sometimes stretching the mind is painful!

Lakeside Symphony Orchestra 2018 season

The Lakeside Symphony orchestra was established in 1963 and after 40+ years the conductor has retired and they are featuring guest conductors, whom I assume are applying for the job. Tonight is Matthew Kraemer and the theme is musical postcards. Guest soloist is Jinjoo Cho on violin. She was here a few weeks ago with a group of very talented students from the Cleveland area.

http://matthewkraemer.com/bio/

Bob’s lunch date with the guys

Have you seen them?

It makes no sense to put a virtue signaling sign in your yard about "in this household we accept everyone" when you live in a gated community and even the cheapest homes are north of $200,000.

Lakeside changes in 40 years

After I left the Wellness Center this morning, I saw something on my walk back to the cottage that caused me to reflect back 40 years when things at Lakeside were so much more simple. I passed a couple carrying backpacks as I made my way to the old rail tracks which are now a walking trail. Thinking maybe they were getting ready to do the Appalachian Trail or El Camino in Spain, I paused. They unloaded their packs, put down yoga mats and opened their laptop computer which was playing an exercise routine. You've come a long way Lakeside.