Christmas meme from 2006

 I'm looking through my blog for Christmas menus using pork roast, and found this meme from 2006.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg Nog, definitely. I purchase it, then cut it in 1/2 with skim milk. We can't tell the difference.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? We wrap--my husband always gets his under the tree first. My daughter's gift wraps are really elaborate and artistic. Mine are reused bows and paper.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? We have white lights outside, and colored on the tree.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No. We have open season on kissing in this house.

5. When do you put up your decorations ? Ours are up from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? It depends if I'm doing Christmas Eve or Christmas day. Lately it's been boneless pork roast with an orange cranberry glaze.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child The excitement. Particularly to see what doll clothes my mother had made.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Santa wasn't part of our tradition--I always knew the story, and sort of hoped it was true, but realized about age 7 it wasn't. My husband, however, was a true believer, until he noticed that under Santa's red suit was a shirt the same as his uncle's (Santa used to stop at his Grandmother's.)

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We did when I was a child, and when our children were young. Now we open them all on whatever day they are with us.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? No theme except tradition. We have very old decorations--some from our first Christmas in 1960; some handmade by our children. I used to buy one or two each year and date them, but don't any more.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? It's fun to see it fresh and white around Christmas, but I'm always anxious for it to melt to make better driving conditions.

12. Can you ice skate? No. I tried it a few times as a child and found it very difficult. Spent a lot of time sitting on the ice.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My father was discharged from the service in December 1945, and I remember that Christmas Mother got us (my 2 sisters and me) a doll house. It continued well through the grandchildren, and maybe great granchildren, being redecorated many times.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? The coming of Christ for our salvation.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Although I don't make them anymore, my husband's grandmother, Neno, made a fabulous sugar cookie cut-out.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Christmas Eve services at our church with lighted candles singing "Silent Night."

17. What tops your tree? An angel.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving presents? Giving.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Although it is secular, I love "White Christmas" sung by Bing Crosby. I heard it first in California where it was damp and foggy and we were homesick for Illinois. It makes some sense because it was written by a Jew, Irving Berlin, about a Californian.

20. Candy Canes Yuck or Yum? OK for decorating, but I never eat them. Fudge would be my choice for Christmas candy.

Will Biden and Harris do anything about the China Covid19 Cover-up.

“The New York Times and ProPublica reviewed “thousands of secret government directives and other documents” in creating their report. Specifically, there were “3,200 directives and 1,800 memos and other files” originating from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), China’s internet censor, created by CCP leader Xi Jinping in 2014. The report also draws from data from Urun Big Data Services, which helps China’s local governments monitor and censor China’s internet. The New York Times and ProPublica received these documents from the hacker organization CCP Unmasked, along with some duplicates from China Digital Times.”

Hacked Documents Expose China’s COVID-19 Cover-Up | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

“Though China makes no secret of its belief in rigid internet controls, the documents convey just how much behind-the-scenes effort is involved in maintaining a tight grip. It takes an enormous bureaucracy, armies of people, specialized technology made by private contractors, the constant monitoring of digital news outlets and social media platforms — and, presumably, lots of money.”

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/no-negative-news-how-china-censored-the-coronavirus/articleshow/79817668.cms?

No problem.  In the U.S. we have Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to do the controlling. They censor Conservatives.  We’ve got armies of Democrats.

First Corona virus death in U.S. February 29, 2020

Cases of a new virus from Wuhan, China, were being reported all over the world, and the few in the U.S. involved foreign travel. These were cases, not fatalities. 

On January 29, 2020 the President's Coronavirus Task Force it was established.

On January 30 the President closed tourism coming from China.

 On February 26, 2020, U.S. vice president Mike Pence was named to chair the task force, and Deborah Birx was named the response coordinator.

Then a man died in a Washington state on February 29.  President Trump had already closed travel from China at the end of January.  Ohio by March 3 had yet not had ANY confirmed cases, let alone deaths, when Governor DeWine began cancelling events. At this time, DeBlasio, Pelosi and Cuoma were still inviting tourists to come to their states/cities. 

On March 4, when many states had yet not had one case, the HHS announced the intent to purchase approximately 500 million N95 respirators and Secretary Azar announced that HHS was transferring $35 million to the CDC to help state and local jurisdictions that have been impacted most by the coronavirus.

 On March 6 the President signed an $8.3 billion bill providing $7.76 billion to federal, state, and local agencies for combating the coronavirus, and authorizing an additional $500 million in waivers for Medicare telehealth restrictions.

On March 11, the WHO announced it was a global pandemic, and the President in a speech to the nation said,  “We are cutting massive amounts of red tape to make antiviral therapies available in record time.  These treatments will significantly reduce the impact and reach of the virus. . . and he also said:

“The vast majority of Americans: The risk is very, very low.  Young and healthy people can expect to recover fully and quickly if they should get the virus.  The highest risk is for elderly population with underlying health conditions.  The elderly population must be very, very careful.”  Today, December 21, that is still the case.  Even with thousands of deaths, the fatality rate from this virus is about .3% with the elderly at higher risk, and young people suffering higher than usual deaths from non-Covid reasons. 

On March 13, the president also declared an emergency for COVID-19 under Section 201 and 301 of the National Emergencies Act. The National Emergencies Act (NEA) generally authorizes the president nearly unlimited discretion to declare a national emergency. President Trump Declares State of Emergency for COVID-19 (ncsl.org)

On April 29, Operation Warp Speed announced—a public private partnership initiated by the U.S. government to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.

My question for Democrats; if the President had extended the national lockdown to mandatory after the two weeks at Governors’ discretion, how would you or the national media have accepted the order from the president you’d been trying to impeach, whom you called a Nazi, whom you called illegitimate because he won the Electoral College and not the popular vote?  Also which has been more effective in your opinion, Operation Warp Speed or the lockdowns?

Gelid—will probably not use this

The Merriam-Webster word of the day is Gelid.  Never heard of it, and after reading the explanation, I doubt I would ever use it since I’ve gone 80 years without it.

“Gelid first appeared in English late in the 16th century, coming to our language from Latin gelidus, which ultimately derives from the noun gelu, meaning "frost" or "cold." (The noun gelatin, which can refer to an edible jelly that undergoes a cooling process as part of its formation, comes from a related Latin word: gelare, meaning "to freeze.") Gelid is used to describe anything of extremely cold temperature (as in "the gelid waters of the Arctic Ocean"), but the word can also be used figuratively to describe a person with a cold demeanor (as in "the criminal's gelid stare").

Examples of GELID

"A fleet of military aircraft and navy and merchant ships continue searching the gelid waters north of Antarctica for a Chilean Air Force cargo plane that went missing on Monday evening with 38 people on board." — Pascale Bonnefoy and Austin Ramzy, The New York Times, 11 Dec. 2019 "Back at school, January is gelid. The roads around campus are two inches deep in slush left behind from a New Year's Day snowstorm." — Koren Zailckas, Smashed, 2005 Latin and typing were the most useful classes I ever had in high school.  Every job I ever had and all during my retirement (now 20 years) I have appreciated what I learned then.

The science of doing something, anything

"Biden and other leaders claim to be following “the science,” but that obviously doesn’t include the research showing the high costs and low benefits of lockdowns and school closures. Closing schools was a dubious move in the spring, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that it would likely do little to stem the pandemic (and noted that school closings in other countries had failed to make a discernible impact). Today it makes even less sense in light of the accumulated evidence."

School closures and SARS-CoV-2. Evidence from Sweden’s partial school closure | medRxiv

Is the Coronavirus Lockdown Costing More Lives than It's Saving? | American Council on Science and Health (acsh.org)

After analyzing 23 countries and 25 U.S. states with widely varying policies, Andrew Atkeson of UCLA and fellow economists found that the mortality trend was similar everywhere once the disease took hold: the number of daily deaths rose rapidly for 20 to 30 days, and then fell rapidly.

Insufficient data, and the science of pandemics

". . . The CDC declares that “there are insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of vitamin D [to control the pandemic].”

Somehow, though, the “insufficient data” problem disappeared when it came to lockdowns and mask mandates. Before the pandemic, the official expert consensus was against those measures, but the consensus was promptly discarded in the hope that these sacrifices might help. The evidence since then could easily be called insufficient, given the lack of randomized studies and the inconvenient data showing that places with lockdowns didn’t fare any better than the places without strict measures. And given what has emerged about the minuscule rate of transmission in outdoor settings, you could certainly say there’s insufficient evidence to order people to stay inside their homes or to mandate masks outdoors. . .  

It’s not surprising that groups with disproportionately high rates of Covid mortality are also prone to vitamin D deficiency: African-Americans and other minorities, the obese, residents of nursing homes and other elderly people. Levels of vitamin D tend to decline with age, and because the vitamin is synthesized in the body by exposure to sunlight, people tend to have lower levels if they spend less time outdoors or have darker skin that absorbs less ultraviolet radiation from the sun."

 Pandemic Penitents | City Journal (city-journal.org)

And now we're in a second wave, and possibly a mutation that will be moving much faster so we'll just do more of what hasn't been working. So, the more we stay inside, the less sun and less Vitamin D, and the more depression from lack of sun and lack of socializing.  So, the experts tell us to do more of what's killing us.

The link between vitamin D deficiency and Covid-19 in a large population | medRxiv

Association of Vitamin D Deficiency and Treatment with COVID-19 Incidence | medRxiv

“Effect of calcifediol treatment and best available therapy versus best available therapy on intensive care unit admission and mortality among patients hospitalized for COVID-19: A pilot randomized clinical study” - ScienceDirect

Vitamin D supplementation to prevent acute respiratory tract infections: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data - PubMed (nih.gov)

There are no peer review articles supporting wearing a mask for Covid19, but there are many for using Vitamin D.

There's a skills gap, but the myth is racism

"Black students never catch up to their white and Asian peers [8th grade proficiency tests]. There aren’t many white-collar professions where possessing partial mastery of basic reading and math will qualify one for employment. The SAT measures a more selective group of students than the NAEP, but even within that smaller pool of college-intending high school students, the gaps remain wide. On the math SAT, the average score of blacks in 2015 was 428 (on an 800-point scale); for whites, it was 534, and for Asians it was 598—a difference of nearly a standard deviation between blacks and whites, and well over a standard deviation between blacks and Asians. The tails of the distribution were even more imbalanced, according to the Brookings Institution. Blacks made up 2 percent of all test takers with a math SAT between 750 and 800. Sixty percent of those high scorers were Asian, and 33 percent were white. Blacks were 35 percent of all test takers with scores between 300 and 350. Whites were 21 percent of such low scorers, and Asians 6 percent." The Bias Fallacy | City Journal (city-journal.org)

I looked at the charts, and by the way, the white students never catch up to their Asian peers either.

If all these liberal and leftist organizations from non-profits to universities to big tech are looking for black people to fill positions of responsibility and high skills, there will not be enough people to go around based on testing, except by continually adding "people of color" who are immigrants or visiting foreign scholars. 

Zoom--will there be more to come?

 I'd been concerned about how dependent American churches had become on Zoom.  Hate to see this story about infiltration by Communist China.

Zoom employee was Chinese spy who shut down anti-China video - TheBlaze

Zoom helped China suppress U.S. calls about Tiananmen, prosecutors allege - The Washington Post

FAQ on Zoom Security Issues - The Citizen Lab

Zoom’s Waiting Room Vulnerability - The Citizen Lab

"Zoom and other providers have experienced breakneck growth as people around the world get used to working from home and communicating with family and friends online.

For Zoom, that growth has also revealed security vulnerabilities and a relationship with China that had at least one conservative pundit calling for a boycott.

"Stop using Zoom immediately," said Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in a tweet. "Any tech company that aligns with China must be ex-communicated from our country. The Chinese Communist Party is using Zoom as a way to spy on our citizens." " Politifact

Things you didn't need to know about the movie Hoosiers

 My husband was a Hoosier in high school (Arsenal Technical High School) and knew well the story about little Milan High school winning the state championship in basketball in 1954.  In those days all schools competed against each other, not just schools their own size. 1954 State Champions - Milan Indians - Milan 1954 Museum (milan54.org)  So when the movie Hoosiers came out in 1987, we of course had to see it, and have watched it many times.  It also makes it more interesting that Duke Low, one of Bob's high school buddies has a small part in it.  It goes by so fast, I can never catch it, however.  Duke has been active in community theater most of his adult life and we see him at reunions.

"A Million Movies" is a series narrated by Jeff Terrel and if you are even just an ordinary, once a year movie goer, you'll enjoy the behind the scenes peek at the movies you've forgotten. Here's "Fifteen things you didn't need to know about Hoosiers" https://youtu.be/10ZJHLm-0NU  A really great underdog story.

A fan of the movie and the series writes in the comments: "My son and I went to visit as many filming locations from Hoosiers in June of 2019. My son just graduated high school and he and I love the movie. The main gym is a tourist attraction in Knightstown, IN. One of the playoff games’ gym is at Saint Phillip Neri School, in Indianapolis. This gym has not been preserved well. Butler field house, where the state championship was filmed, is exceptional, and the Cafe was in New Richmond, Indiana. Another playoff gym is in Lebanon, Indiana. That gym is part of a senior living facility. The old Hugh school has been converted, and other living corridors have been constructed. If it had not for the head maintenance man, we would not had been able to play on it. This gentleman, and everyone we met in Indiana, were unbelievably kind and welcoming to their Texas visitors. It was so cool to visit those sites."

Watching the Cheddar channel

I've seen the Cheddar app scroll by on my screen, so today I decided to try it.  Sunday is not a regular news day, so I don't know how typical it is.  It was offering a subscription to a service called Curiosity Stream. I came in the middle showing how a change in type face saved the New York transit system--Helvetica, one of my husband's favorite fonts.  But it went on to discuss LEGEND which has been studies to show improvement in reading speed.  I don't need an additional service, have too much TV now, but some good documentaries would certainly be a relief from some of the distasteful, overly sexualized and violent offerings. How the NYC Subway Was Saved By a Typeface on Cheddar 

CuriosityStream to Go Public via Reverse Merger Deal on Cheddar

As seen on Cheddar--why is all the Great Christmas music from the 40s and 50s  https://youtu.be/4bK1inqVb_Y 

I've always thought "I'll be home for Christmas" (1943) is the saddest of all holiday songs.

Corona virus mutation

 "Health officials have announced a new coronavirus mutation that has been discovered in the UK, which seems to be spreading quickly in some parts of England."

I was watching Israeli TV this morning (i24) and one of the big stories was that a fast spreading mutation of the Covid19 has been found in England.  Israel has closed out tourists from that area, and is imposing new lockdowns.  I think the virus laughs at lockdowns and masks, and particularly is making fools of the Democrats who spread the hoax that the deaths and numbers on the increase are President's Trump fault.  Other countries are having the same problems, but the Trump haters used the virus to "impeach" him because he is such a threat to the entrenched politicians and bureaucracy.  

A new coronavirus mutation was discovered that’s spreading rapidly – BGR

England COVID Mutation 'Out of Control' Health Secretary Says (msn.com)

Israel to ban people entering from 3 countries due to new UK strain - DeasileX

No surprise to me--it was McCain who leaked

I've seen several news sources--all conservative--carry the story about McCain's leak.  

"newly declassified text messages from former FBI agent Peter Strzok indicate that McCain leaked the infamous 'dirty dossier' to legendary journalist Carl Bernstein."

No  big surprise, the Democrat media, the so called mainstream media are ignoring the story.  The Democrats hated McCain until he turned against the President in the battle over Obamacare, and then suddenly he became a war hero, again. When he was campaigning against Obama in 2008, they even had a whisper campaign against his adopted daughter as a "love child."  So of course, the President is on a twitter rage.

• Trump vented his fury at late Senator John McCain in a tweet late on Wednesday
• He was responding to the release of newly declassified texts from Peter Strzok
• Former FBI agent Strzok led the Bureau's Russian collusion investigation in 2016
• Texts with his FBI lover reveal probe may have opened earlier that admitted
• Also say that McCain leaked British ex-spy Christopher Steele's 'dirty dossier'
• A McCain aide previously testified that he handed off the dossier to journalists
• Watergate legend Bernstein's byline was on the CNN story revealing the dossier 

From Trump blasts John McCain after new texts from FBI lover Peter Strzok | Daily Mail Online

Text Messages Question the Start of the ‘Russia Collusion’ Investigation - Sara A. Carter : Sara A. Carter

The only way the MSM can get the story out is to focus first on McCain's daughter (who can't deny it), but is understandably supportive of her father's meanness. Meghan McCain Tells Trump 'You Still Obsess over My Dad' after He Calls Him 'Overrated' (msn.com)

DOJ releases texts from disgraced Fmr FBI Agent Strzok, gives inside look at Mueller probe | One America News Network (oann.com)

Are you sick of theories, studies, and guesses about Covid19?

 This one is about Vitamin D levels. 

New Study Found 80% of COVID-19 Patients Were Vitamin D Deficient (healthline.com)

• A new study that looked at 216 people with COVID-19 found that 80 percent didn’t have adequate levels of vitamin D in their blood.
• The study also found that people who had both COVID-19 and lower vitamin D levels also had a higher number of inflammatory markers such as ferritin and D-dimer, which have been linked to poor COVID-19 outcomes.
• A different study found that COVID-19 patients who had adequate vitamin D levels had a 51.5 percent lower risk of dying from the disease and a significant reduced risk for complications.
• Medical experts theorize that maintaining adequate vitamin D levels may help lower risk or aid recovery from severe COVID-19 for some people, though more testing is needed.

Are there still rational Democrats?

 Asked Mike Huckabee in today's newsletter

"In recent weeks, Rep. Gabbard has backed bills to protect girls’ sports from males claiming they’re female, to bar abortions of babies that have developed to the point of being able to feel pain and to require doctors to give a base level of care to babies born alive during abortion procedures. Not long ago, all three of those measures would have struck the average American as unnecessary because how could anyone in their right mind think that a boy who claims to feel like a girl really was a girl, that doctors shouldn’t give life-saving care to any newborn baby, or that babies in late stages of development should be allowed to be butchered in the womb?

Unfortunately, we've not talking about people in their right minds, we're talking about people with left minds. Today, the Democratic Party has become so radical in its embrace of transgenderism and abortion that Rep. Gabbard is being vilified by the left for tiptoeing even one inch outside their approved circle of insanity.

Rep. Gabbard was a guest on my TBN show when she was running for President and being treated very badly by her own Party (that claims to stand up for women, but only certain women with certain beliefs.) We disagree on most issues, but we had a friendly conversation about things on which we found common ground. I’m sure she was vilified by the left just for talking to me, too.

It’s long been said that a conservative is a liberal who got mugged. I’m hoping and praying that Rep. Gabbard, if she stays in the Democratic Party at all, represents the start of a coming awakening and revolt by Democrats with common sense who are tired of having their grasp of reality mugged by radical left insanity."

I thought Gabbard was a three time winner in the primaries--a female, minority veteran.  But it wasn't to be so, instead we got a senile old white guy with 40+ years in the biz (and now compromised by his China connections) and an Indian-Jamaican American with a very bad record as a prosecutor that not even 1% of Democrats wanted in the primary, so she called them all racists.  Well, Mike, I hope you're right.  It would be good to see some sanity.

Mom's Meat and Potato Quiche

 I was looking through my box of handwritten recipes the other day, and saw, "copied from Mom 1990" Meat and Potato Quiche.  So I decided to try it today because I had all the ingredients.  It's in the oven now, but I don't have great hopes for it.  It uses shredded potatoes for the crust, and I'd forgotten that potatoes are very watery and turn pink when shredded.  Directs say, press them into a 9" pie dish, bake for 15 minutes at 425 then add the meat, cheese and egg mixture, then put it back in the oven for 30 minutes.  I could see immediately that the egg/milk liquid seeped through the crust, so I expect a very difficult clean up.

Meanwhile, I checked the internet, and found several versions of this, and finally one that was an exact match.  Yes, watery potatoes, and liquid seeps through!  But one comment said, "Exactly like 'More with Less Cookbook,' and I know Mom liked that.  So I got mine out, and checked.  Exact match.  You can use diced chicken, ham or sausage, and I used some of the Thanksgiving turkey.  Taste test will be later.

Meat & Potato Quiche Recipe - Food.com

Doris Janzen Longacre wrote "More with less" cookbook and also "Living more with less." She was a Mennonite missionary.  I wrote about this cookbook at my blog in 2014.  She was my age and died when she was 39, but her cookbook sold over a million copies. In the 70s we thought if we had/ate less, we some how would help people who were poor with few material goods.  We know now, that isn't how it works. Life for the poor is improved when they have viable jobs and a decent government. One that doesn't abuse them.  Being careful with money, calories and nutrition is its own reward. Better health and less stress.  At that 2014 blog I included this, "Life is too short," which sounds like her philosophy and she might have written it, however the link is broken, so I can't tell for sure. But it was definitely my philosophy as a young mother in the 1970s. And life is too short to spend time tracking down obscure and broken links (although I do it often) in your 80s.

Life is too short to ice cakes; cakes are good without icing.
Life is too short to read all the church periodicals.
Life is too short not to write regularly to your parents.
Life is too short to eat factory baked bread.
Life is too short to keep all your floors shiny.
Life is too short to let a day pass without hugging your spouse and each of your children.
Life is too short to nurse grudges and hurt feelings.
Life is too short to worry about getting ready for Christmas; just let Christmas come.
Life is too short to spend much money on neckties and earrings.
Life is too short for nosy questions like "How do you like your new pastor?" Or—if there’s been a death—"How is he taking it?"
Life is too short to be gone from home more than a few nights a week.
Life is too short not to take a nap when you need one.
Life is too short to care whether purses match shoes or towels match bathrooms.
Life is too short to stay indoors when the trees turn color in fall, when it snows, or when the spring blossoms come out.
Life is too short to miss the call to worship on a Sunday morning.
Life is too short for bedspreads that are too fancy to sleep under.
Life is too short to work in a room without windows.
Life is too short to put off Bible study.
Life is too short to put off improving our relationships with the people we live with.

So maybe I'll browse some more in that cookbook. . . and think about Mom.

Here's another blog written by someone else. Life-Changing Cookbooks: More-with-Less - Paste (pastemagazine.com)

15 minutes later: Taste test. Not ready for prime time; glad I didn't try this one for company brunch.

You'll be back, a musical parody

 https://youtu.be/CFduNE4pXAQ

This parody was written by Lonnie Lacy, an Episcopal priest living in south Georgia. Behind the Hamilton Video – GOD NEARBY (lonnielacy.com)  I thought it was very well done, and he heard from many about how it had helped in a bad time.  It has had over a million views, but I missed it earlier, so here it is.

The ending where he replaces the hymnals and communion elements made me  teary.

The President's Christmas Message

 https://youtu.be/XIIP6Tq_iqk

For Christians, this is a joyous time to remember God's greatest gift to the world. More than two thousand years ago, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. He said, ‘Do not be afraid, you have found favor with God.’ The angel told her that she would give birth to a baby boy, Jesus, who would be called the Son of the Most High. Nine months later, Christ was born in the town of Bethlehem. The Son of God came into the world in a humble stable.

As Christians everywhere know, the birth of our Lord and Savior changed history forever. At Christmas, we give thanks to God and that God sent his only Son to die for us and to offer everlasting peace to all humanity. More than two millennia after the birth of Jesus Christ, his teachings continue to inspire and uplift billions and billions of people all over the globe. His Divine word still fills our hearts with hope and faith. And, Christians everywhere still strive to live by Jesus' timeless commandment to his disciples, ‘Love one another.’   Dec. 3 National Christmas Tree lighting

You are not alone--New Book by Roger D. Blackwell, Ph.D.

How do you survive birth as a still-born baby in the Missouri Ozarks, learn hard work as a kid on the farm, and obtain a college education without debt or money from parents?  Those are just a few of the topics in a new book by Dr. Roger Blackwell, You Are Not Alone and Other Lessons a Teacher Learned from Parents, Professors, and 65,000 Students (Union Hill Publishers, 2020).

After studying at Northwest Missouri State and the University of Missouri, Dr. Blackwell received a Ph.D. from Northwestern University before becoming Professor at The Ohio State University in the Fisher College of Business and the College of Medicine.  At Ohio State, he taught Marketing and Consumer Behavior in mega sections of 1,000 students per quarter as well as courses in Quantitative Research, Thanatology and Black Business Studies.  His 65,000 students over 40 years at Ohio State is believed to be more than any other U.S. professor.  He also co-authored Consumer Behavior, a pioneering textbook used throughout the world in multiple languages and editions.  His previous 39 books were about business and economics but his new book You Are Not Alone is about lessons from life observed over many decades teaching and researching on six continents.  Among lessons he learned at an early age was how get an education while working part-or full-time and how to buy a rental property at age 16 and use it to finance graduate education.

While a graduate student at Northwestern, he also learned the answer to what he considers the most important question anyone can ask, Does God Exist? In You Are Not Alone, he explains how to answer that question along with many other lessons from his early life in Missouri, near death experiences, and teaching on six continents.

You Are Not Alone also describes how after retiring from the university, he was sentenced to a Federal Correctional Institution where he tutored hundreds of inmates to receive a GED, and learned lessons about a nation that can only be learned in prison. He found helping inmates prepare for a better life after their release was just as rewarding as placing hoods on Ph.D. students in universities.  Before prison, Blackwell defended God; in prison, he learned to depend on God.   While in prison, Blackwell also began writing Saving America: How Garage Entrepreneurs Grow Small Firms into Large Fortunes, his other recent book describing how to start and grow a successful business, also published by Union Hill.

Blackwell now lives in Columbus, Ohio where he continues his career serving on boards of private organizations and teaches business seminars in the U.S. and other nations. You Are Not Alone and Other Lessons a Teacher Learned from Parents, Professors and 65,000 Students is available from Amazon and other booksellers and his website www.rogerblackwellbusiness.com.    

We remember, Joe—author unknown

Here is my little bitty small issue with the whole "let us all be the United States” again, from Joe Biden.

For the last 4+ years, the Democrats have gone scorched earth on the Republican party.

You have salted the fields and now you want to grow crops.

The problem is we have memories longer than a hamster.

We remember the protests the day of/after the inauguration.

We remember the 4 years of vicious personal attacks.

We remember “not our president” and the “Resistance…”

We remember being called racist and evil.

We remember Maxine Walters telling followers to harass Trump supporters in department stores and gas stations.

We remember the President's press secretary being chased out of a restaurant.

We remember hundreds of Trump supporters being physically attacked.

We remember Trump supporters getting Doxed, and fired from jobs.

We remember riots, looting, and desecrating statues.

We remember  a liberal "comedian” holding up the President’s severed head.

We remember a play in Central Park paid with public funding, showing the killing of President Trump.

We remember Robert de Niro yelling “F..k Trump” at the Tony’s and getting a standing ovation.

We remember Trump being accused of being a Russian spy and the media going with it.

We remember Nancy Pelosi tearing up the State of the Union Address.

We remember how totally in the tank the mainstream media was in opposition.

We remember the non-stop and live fact-checking on our President and his supporters.

We remember non-stop in your face lies and open cover-ups from the media.

We remember the partisan impeachment.

We remember the President and his staff being spied on.

We remember Republican congressmen shot on a ball field.

We remember every so-called comedy show turn into nothing but a Trump ridicule and hate-fest.

We remember 95% negative coverage in the news.

We remember the state governors asking for and getting everything they wanted to address Covid19, then blaming Trump for the pandemic.

We remember leftists threatening outside the homes of prominent Republicans.

We remember the attempted destruction of Brett Kavanaugh and his family.

We remember people pounding on the Supreme Court doors.

We remember that we were called every name in the book for supporting President Trump.

We remember many in Hollywood said they would 'leave this country' after Trump was elected and then, like the hypocrites they are, they stayed.                             

We remember a President who built the strongest economy this country had ever seen, the lowest unemployment rate, and a record low unemployment rate for Blacks and Hispanics, in spite of continued lack of cooperation from the Democratic Party.

This list is endless, but you get the idea.

My friends will be my friends, but a party that has been attacking for 4 long years does not get a free pass with me

.....So, Joe Biden, take your "let’s be united" and shove it

The Trump enemies still blame him . . . for Europe?

A “widespread and intense” surge in COVID infections in Europe has forced authorities to make an extraordinary plea to residents this Christmas.

Coronavirus Europe: Desperate plea for virus-riddled continent (news.com.au)

"The WHO’s European region is made up of 53 countries and includes Russia and several countries in Central Asia, a region that has registered more than 22 million cases of the new coronavirus and close to 500,000 deaths.

In the last seven days, nearly 1.7 million new cases have been recorded, as well as more than 34,500 deaths.

As a second wave of the novel coronavirus is sweeping over the continent, many countries have once again introduced tough measures to curb the spread."