208 Index to themes, topics, passing thoughts, and ideas, updated

I am now also posting at Church of the Acronym on matters concerning religion and faith, and at Norma's Journal, on matters concerning books and libraries. So those topics won't be appearing here as often.

academe, libraries 10, 26, 29, 38, 54,67, 70, 75, 134, 176, 197
art and artists 54, 66, 102,126,148, 185
blogging 1, 32, 46, 56, 199,198
books and journals 2, 29, 31, 47, 51, 53, 57, 74, 90, 93,104,110, 115, 117, 119,149, 152, 155, 158, 166,170, 176
condo living 40, 42
culture 31, 41, 139,140,202
economy, finances 7, 13, 33, 43, 61, 96,101, 111,127, 132,163, 201
education 110, 175, 203
entertainment 72, 90, 109,123,129, 139, 186
faith and values 14, 30, 31, 32, 37, 46, 50, 63, 62, 68, 69, 87, 94,118, 127,130, 132,131,138, 141,145,152, 166, 168, 181, 202, 203
family 2, 4, 6, 21, 24, 28, 34, 36, 39, 55, 59, 67, 79, 80, 82, 86, 89, 98,122,128, 143,151, 156,160,165,169, 195, 196,197, 200, 204, 205, 206
fashion 21, 55
food, recipes, eating out 3, 8, 10, 11, 25, 35, 36, 42, 56, 59, 105,108,137,161,207
friends 9, 10, 21, 50, 54, 92,102,168
genealogy 19, 20, 24, 44, 67, 71, 73,106,200
health 23, 25, 36, 39, 48, 53, 61, 60, 81, 83, 88,128,133,146,156, 160, 178, 182,196
history 85
Illinois 44, 54, 63, 67
Internet, Usenet, computers 26, 32, 33, 37, 62, 190
language 117,124,125
nature 31, 42, 58, 57
observations, misc. 5, 12, 15, 49, 52, 113, 114,120, 121,136 154,162, 177, 179, 183, 184,187, 189,191,
Ohio 20, 40, 97,107
pets 27, 39, 56, 92, 122
poetry 14, 22, 44, 55, 63, 80, 153
politics 9, 43, 70, 76, 78, 87, 99, 103, 116, 132, 135, 147,150,159, 181, 188, 193.
science 2, 16, 29, 193
technology 96,142, 194
sports 192
war 100,119, 143,144, 147,
women 20, 23, 44, 63
writing 19, 62, 65, 67, 95,157,164, 180, 204

207 Retro Cook Books

Wednesday is Food and Recipes in the Columbus Dispatch. I noticed an article about Retro Cook Books. Most of mine are Retro, because they are either from my early married years, yard sales, or were my mother's.

The published recipe caused a gag reflex. "Tomato Pudding." I think mother called it scalloped tomatoes. It contains stewed tomatoes, some sort of bread product, and sugar. My dad often made the poor man's version--dump stewed tomatoes (home canned by my mother) into a bowl, crush a handful of crackers and place on top with a spoonful of sugar. He loved it. And if I ate supper at JoElla's house, her dad ate the same thing.

206 Don’t do this

Last week I locked myself out of my car at the shopping center. When I called my husband he asked if I had the remote with me. “Yes,” I said, “on the key chain inside the car.”

This morning, he called me from the Lake house. He had locked himself out of the car with the motor running, but had taken the remote with him. He discovered when returning to the car, what we didn’t know: the remote doesn’t work if the motor is running. I don’t know why this “failsafe” is part of the design, but fortunately the police came and opened the car, and he is on the way home.

205 Waiting for the plumber

My husband is recovering from shoulder surgery and using the time to practice for retirement. So he comes into the office and watches me write my blogs and answer e-mail, and watches me while I fix dinner, feed the cat, iron, fold laundry, etc.

Friday I was racing around gathering items for my art class. "What time is the plumber coming?" I asked. "9 a.m." he replied. At 8:59 he pulled a chair up in front of the kitchen window to watch for the plumber. "You're new at this, aren't you," I laughed as I rushed out the front door. I told the ladies in art class. It got a chuckle. We'd all spent many a day or two waiting for service people to show up, having been stay at home Moms before or after our careers. After class, we took in a small art show and went out for lunch.

When I got home, the shower drain was working again. Snaking had done the trick. "What time did he get here?" I asked. "About 5 after 9," he replied. "What is his name?" I asked. "Matt Miracle."

204 Handicrafts some of us didn't do

We had such a good time in writing class today at the Public Library "Writing family memories." The instructor asked each of us to bring in something that either we had made or something crafted by a family member.

Some of the women had knitted, crocheted, decoupaged, painted ceramics, embroidered, cross stitched, and sewn for themselves and their children. One woman's great grandfather had been a tailor and his wife was a seamstress. She brought in a maroon velvet suit he'd made for her great uncle, and she had a photo of him wearing it when he was 10.

Another member of the class had written about her project of decoupaging wedding invitations for about 25 years, and brought along her box of supplies, including the stained gloves. After not knitting in years, another has taken it up recently and is loving it and showed us a lovely wrap she is working on. She told of sewing her children's clothes in a bandana fabric that matched her maternity top and then taking them on adventures to get them out of the house. "I never lost them," she said. The youngest member of the group--the only one who still has children at home--showed us a lovely fabric hand bag she had just finished when her husband took the children for an outing.

I was never very crafty--don't like to measure or do detail, and that seems to be essential. But like a lot of women my age I did learn to sew, learning both from my mother and from 4-H projects. A month before I got married, I bought a sewing machine for $50 and I still have it--it goes forwards and backwards, but nothing else and I probably haven't used it in 15 years.

So I brought along and passed around a selection of my old Simplicity and McCalls patterns--my 1960 wedding going away dress (blue silk), a ruffled red wool for a New Year's Eve party in 1964, the dress I made of flocked white organdy to match my daughter's baptismal dress in 1968, bell bottom pants and tunic I made in bright lime green in 1969. a midi in brown wool tweed and vest made in 1970, a school dress for my daughter made in 1973, and a denim wrap around jumper made in the early 80s.

Next week we have to write a story about the items we brought in.

203 Teaching children to give

I’m definitely out of touch. I didn’t realize there were funded organizations and programs and websites “to teach children to give.” So the public schools, the very folk who pushed all religious training underground and drove millions to home schooling, now are filling the values gap with “teaching to give.” At a web site dedicated to workshops, lesson plans, history of philanthropy, and civic engagement we read:

“We have relied in the past on churches, families, friends and neighborhoods to teach children the value and significance of service and giving. We have assumed that our children know their heritage as citizens who do not need to be "empowered" by an outside agency, but who are born empowered as their inherent right of citizenship. It is sadly ironic that today, as emerging foreign democracies seek our assistance in establishing philanthropic traditions of their own, the traditional forces for teaching this ethic to children in the United States are eroding.” Learning to Give

Recently I visited a friend homebound due to a fracture. She lives close to my church, it was a Sunday morning, so I skipped the 9 a.m. service and made a house call. We were comparing our faith’s teaching on this. “In the Jewish faith, doing a mitzvah, a good deed, is very important,” she told me. “Visiting the sick is called the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim.” “Same in the Christian faith,” I replied. “Jesus taught that when the sheep and goats are separated on judgment day, those who fed the hungry and visited the sick and took in the stranger, will be treated as though they did it for Him.”

According to the website, the DotNet generation (16-26) have a high level of faith in government and support for much of what it does, but very low levels of involvement in civic life or volunteering for others. Well, I’m not surprised! They probably think the government should do everything all major religions teach their adherents to do!

202 Myths we want to believe

In a women’s group Saturday at a suburban church we were discussing materialism. "The world" is a favorite topic of Christians, and consumerism truly is our golden calf. So not much has changed since Moses’ day. I mentioned the ABC 20/20 Friday night news program hosted by John Stossel, "Lies, Myths and Downright Stupidity; Stossel’s List of Popularly Reported Misconceptions." I believe he has written a book by this title.

One of the myths, # 7, was that "Money can buy happiness." It fit with our discussion. Everyone agreed it is a myth. Sure, we’ve all heard the proverbs and the songs, but still virtually everyone thinks, more is better. He cited a study that showed money does buy happiness if your family income is below $30,000, but by $50,000 it doesn’t affect your sense of well being at all.

A number of the myths in Stossel’s book have to do with wealth, the good life, or even all the issues politicians fight over.

10) Cold temperatures give you colds. Not so--it’s viruses.
9) We have less free time than we used to. Not so. People were asked to track their time, and were watching 3 times more TV than they estimated. 36 million golf; 65 million camp; millions go to the beach; millions flock to sporting events (more than go to church I think)
8) Families need 2 incomes just to survive. Not so, in most cases. It’s a choice. One of the women in the interview group who insisted she had to have a part time job was using the money for a third car (2 drivers in the family).
7) See above--money and happiness.
6) Republicans are for small government. Not so. No Republican administration in 75 years has reduced government. The Bush Administration has grown government by 25% and has increased domestic spending in education, labor, the environment, etc. beyond anything in the Clinton Administration.
5) The rich don’t pay taxes. For this a Democratic Presidential candidate was interviewed and he really dropped the ball--and evaded the question, because he wants taxes on the rich to go up. The richest 1% ($300,000 and up) of Americans pay 34% and the top 5% (over $125,000) pay more than 50% of all federal taxes.
4) Chemicals are killing us. No. We obsess over it, however. A group of children were interviewed and their fear of chemicals was striking. In Uganda two to three million people die annually because the USA won’t make and sell DDT. “It’s fine to be a rich, white environmentalist,” says Amir Attaran on the show. “It’s not so fine if you’re a poor black kid about to die of malaria.”
3) Gun control is making a difference. Not even close. For this they interviewed convicted felons who said they’d never purchased a gun legally, so the laws made no difference to them. They feared armed citizens more than the police or jail they said.
2) We’re drowning in garbage. No. This myth got started with that floating barge of garbage back in 1987. There are plenty of landfills, and many become useful space after compacting and resurfacing.
1) New York harbor is filthy and polluted. For this myth, Stossel jumped into the water. I’m not sure I would do that to prove a point. He isn’t looking quite as healthy and vibrant as he used to.

Myths are hard to give up, especially if they give your life meaning and definition, and especially causes to work for. There’s plenty out there to do for others--just open the Bible to find your “to do” list. It will also take care of the free time problem.

201 The Proposed Lifetime Savings Account

Sometimes I have to work a bit to remember what it was like to be 35. Although we had a savings account, it was really a “put and take” account. If we deposited our tax refund check in May, it was a guarantee we’d need four tires in July, or the summer storms would rip limbs out of the oak tree in the front yard requiring $400 of tree surgery. Vacations? A week at my mother’s farm. So I try to relax about the way my kids save and spend their money. They are no worse or better than I was at their age.

The Bush Administration has proposed a change to the Roth IRA plan and a new Lifetime Savings Account. Both accounts would offer tax-free withdrawals with contribution limits of $7,500 each with contributions to both allowed for a total of $15,000 per person. However, Lifetime Savings Accounts would have fewer restrictions both for contributions and withdrawals. For detailed information on the Lifetime Savings Account, see link. As I understand it, the dividends will not be taxed and there will be no withdrawal penalty.

Americans have one of the lowest savings rates in the world. I don’t know that 35 year olds will suddenly start doing a better job than I did, but maybe it is worth a try?

200 Four years ago

Today is the fourth anniversary of my mother’s death. I’m sitting here with a package of her letters mailed to me this week from my cousin Marianne in Iowa. In genealogy, one uses the word “cousin” a bit loosely but warmly. Marianne is the grand daughter of Mary Ann, the sister of my great grandfather, David. She is my second cousin once removed. She is a serious genealogist who authored “The Jacob George Family of Adams County, Pennsylvania” (1998). She and my mother had corresponded for years about this genealogy, but I recognize that some of the material in the book is what I pulled together for her from Mom’s records.

I didn’t wait until Mother’s death to canonize her as some have done with their parents. I’ve always known I had an exceptional mother (well, not counting those awful teenage years when I knew everything and she knew nothing!). And I’ve never known anyone who thought otherwise. She was, however, a rather private person, kept her own counsel, I think is the phrase. Didn’t dabble in controversy. Didn’t gossip. Didn’t argue. So her letters from 1975 to 1998 are less than forthcoming. Weather report. Crop report. Grandchildren report. Health report (as they aged).

Each year Mother wrote promises or near-promises to travel to Iowa so they could see each other in person, but as far as I can tell from the letters, this only happened for Thanksgiving in 1988, although the Iowans did visit in Illinois in the late 70s.

Since Marianne was her cousin and also Brethren, she did share some thoughts on their common heritage on Christmas: “[at a 1978 retreat] no one of Brethren background could recall Christmas trees except at our country school programs. Most of us hung up stockings as children. Christmas dinners with relatives and programs at church and school seemed bigger than our present celebrations. Gifts were mostly homemade. We had lots of fun and excitement as we remembered.”

She fretted a little on Memorial Day 1975 that she and her sister were the only ones left to place flowers at the grave sites of parents and brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, something their mother had always done. In 1987 she recalls visiting in Iowa her great Aunt Annie as a young child--“the comb honey served at meals and the fat feather mattress we slept on reached with a little foot stool. I wish I might have known them at a later age when memories wouldn’t be so dim and one could appreciate more.”

Finally, in 1998, Mother writes Marianne that “I try to tell Amy (granddaughter, early 30s) stories about the family [learned from Marianne’s mother] so someone remembers how the George family spread out and came west.

199 The answer to my question

In response to my question about why I'm advertising for you know who for you know what, the friendly robot at Google has replied:

Hello Norma,

Thank you for taking the time to contact Google AdSense.

Since the ability for us to serve ads on a site depends on a number of factors, such as our ability to crawl the site, the content of each of the web pages, and the availability of related AdWords ads, Google does not guarantee that we'll always have relevant ads to display.

We appreciate you taking the time to offer us this feedback, and we
encourage you to continue to let us know how we can improve Google
AdSense.

198 I don't choose my ads for Blogspot

I'm using Blogger el-cheapo. So I have a small discreet ad in blue at the top of my web log. Nothing flashy. For free, I can live with it. But in 197 or so blogs, I've probably mentioned Howard Dean once. So whose name is flashing at the top of my Collecting My Thoughts, why Mr. Dean, of course (at least as I'm typing this).

How is that paid for--does a crawler go out and grab anyone who has ever mentioned him? And what if someone talks about Dean Howard, or Dean Martin, or Dean's Milk? Would that flag an ad? Or is it anything political?

Google has asked for feedback, so here's what I've written:

Dear Friendly People at Google:

You seem to be doing an OK job on ads for my http://uglyacronym.blogspot.com, and have included Lutheran and hymnal ads which is about right since I am a Lutheran and blogging about religious topics.

But on my other one, http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com, which is about anything and everything, recipes, genealogy, memories, etc., I've probably mentioned Howard Dean once in 196 posts, politics in 10 or 15, but his name appears in the blogspot ad. What's up with that?

197 Mother and the library

This week is the fourth anniversary of my mother’s death in 2000. To honor her memory, we set up a memorial with the library foundation for the public library in my home town which was raising money for an expansion and remodeling of its tiny building. I haven’t lived in Mt. Morris since the late 1950s, but I know 6 of the 10 people on the library foundation board.

Like many small town libraries, the Mt. Morris Public Library was established by a community club, a current events club, that loaned books in the 19th century. Around 1931 a public library was organized and my mother had library card #13 obtained that year and used until she died. In the early 20th century, Mt. Morris wasn’t your average little town--it had both a Christian college and a printing industry--a town of the Book and books.

By the late 1990s, the little library building was busting out at the seams, so a foundation was set up to raise the funds and an architect was hired. It was dedicated in November 2002, and last July there was a special ceremony to honor all the librarians who had served there with a tree planted for each one.

The library’s web page is utilitarian and informational, but doesn’t really show the amazing transformation and lovely interiors. For that, you’ll need to check out the web page of the architect.

196 When doctors made house calls

I drove my husband to the doctor's office this morning and instead of the usual array of magazines to read while I waited, I found a nice book, "Medicine's Great Journey; one hundred years of healing" (1992). I had recently seen the cover photo someplace on the web--it's by W. E. Smith for Life Magazine in 1948 of a doctor in coat, tie and hat walking through the weeds to a rural home.

One of the last house calls I remember was in 1949, when a doctor who drove from Mt. Morris to our house in Forreston to see my ill sister, gave my parents the bad news that she might have polio. I have few tender memories of Dad, but I still see him carrying her, a good sized adolescent, wrapped in a blanket, out to the family car to be taken to the Freeport IL hospital. She survived the disease and therapy, and we were all quarantined. Dad couldn't return to our home after the sign was put on our house. Our library books had to be destroyed rather than returned. My school classmates wrote me letters which were brought to the house and left on the porch. Odd what children put away to remember.

She survived, but post polio syndrome returned to haunt her later years and contributed to her death from a diabetic stroke. I will blog about that in February, the anniversary.

A few weeks before her hospitalization in 1949, my cousin Jimmy had died of the same bulbar polio. We had all been at a Sunday afternoon family dinner together the day before he became ill. In my mind's eye Jimmy was the golden child--handsome, athletic, black curly hair, charming.

Two years ago I went back for a high school reunion and one of the guys, an all-sports athlete, and still an active golfer and little league coach, gave us a walk down memory lane of all the athletes that had come out of our little school. The two in our class who actually made careers out of it were women, and we had no organized, competitive sports for women in the 1950s.

In the course of that presentation he talked about Jimmy. How even at age 12, playing basketball and football, he was spectacular--everyone knew he had the potential to be a state champ. I was so shocked to hear his name--in my years at that school (I transferred there 2 years after his death) I'd never heard him mentioned. I suppose I thought only family remembered him. Odd what children put away to remember.

195 I hate Loyalty cards rant

I've already blogged about how much I dislike playing games with these stupid loyalty cards and rewards programs. Here's a story about how the desire to save a few pennies (well, OK, so it was $15) can really cost you.

I don't have loyalty cards, but I do use my friend Adrienne's. Today I was doing my usual shopping at Meijers, paid for my groceries, and waved to a check out clerk down the line who used to work at the library (a story for another day). She said, "Did you get your 15% off with your Big Bear Wildcard?" I looked a little puzzled. But Big Bear has gone belly up here in Columbus, so in an attempt to win over its customers, Meijer's is offering 15% off the total this week only. Of course, my check out clerk hadn't mentioned it.

I took the groceries to the car, across the ice, snow blowing in my face, debating what to do. I really hate these cards, but have used A's cards occasionally because it's a bit of a hike to Meijer's. After unloading the groceries, I couldn't find my slip, so I got into the car and went through my pockets and purse until I found it. I went back into the store to customer service, and got back about $15 in cash, but they made me turn in the card (sorry, Adrienne, I didn't know they would do this).

I reached into my purse for the car keys and couldn't find them. I hustled to the car hoping it hadn't been stolen because I was pretty sure I would've put the keys in the ignition by rote while looking for the grocery slip. No, not stolen, but the keys were in the ignition and the doors were locked.

My husband, of course, has the other key, but because of his rotator cuff surgery he can't drive. Adrienne actually lives rather close, but I'd had coffee with her at 6:30 a.m. and she told me she was taking the grandchildren out for breakfast. So after a phonecall home, and a neighbor's help, my husband found me at the store just hanging up the phone from my fourth call. So instead of $15, my refund was more like $13, because pay phones are now $.50.

194 Bush's Space Iniative

Remember the movie "October Sky?" Homer Hickman, who wrote the autobiographical book on which the movie was based, had an editorial in the WSJ Jan 13, 2004 (A14) which is really worth reading. He says it is the only government program that returns billions to our economy in new products that put Americans to work.

"I don't agree with President Bush about everything, but he's starting to remind me of Harry S. Truman. He gets with the program. You can argue with him about what he does and you might even be right, but you can't fault the man for getting out front and leading. That is, after all, what we hire our presidents to do."

193 Al Gore: Give the guy a break

Some people are making light of Al Gore's global warming warning speech yesterday during NY's terrible cold weather. But I think we all know that isn't how global warming is judged. Here a day, there a day. Here a century, there a century.

But we also know, or should, no one knows the reason, or whether the weather is just a continuation of the melting of the glaciers that used to cover Ohio. So I was a bit unnerved to see an item in the University of Illinois LAS News Fall 2003 (arrived yesterday--global slowing I suppose) that said on p. 18,

"Despite the dramatic climate changes in store, most people still don't know what causes them, according to a recent international public-opinion study by LAS sociologist Steven Brechin. Only 15% of Americans surveyed correctly identified the burning of fossil fuels as the primary culprit in global warming--fewer than in Cuba (17%), Mexico (26%) and most developing nations.”

Possibly we have more educated people than those countries? Who or what are we blaming for all those other periods in history when temperatures were rising and falling? And why is a sociologist doing a study on global warming? There is no consensus among scientists about fossil fuels, so I'm surprised that social scientists are so sure. Well, no, I'm not surprised.

192 Shoeless Joe and Clueless Pete

Here in Ohio, the sports buzz is about Pete Rose, known as "Charlie Hustle" when he was an up and coming baseball player. Little kids idolized him back in the 1970s. Probably the only book my son ever read in grade school was about Rose.

Finally, now that he has a book to sell, My Prison Without Bars, he admits he has been lying all along about not betting on games. He wants in the Hall of Fame, and actually admits that he doesn't feel that lying is any big deal.

So a sports columnist in the Columbus Dispatch said, why not the other 18 players who have been excluded from the Hall of Fame? Mike Nola, a baseball historian, maintains a web site for Shoeless Joe Jackson, an illiterate, famous baseball player who supposedly signed a confession that he fixed a game, but was later acquitted by a Chicago court in 1921. Nola is working to get Joe into the real Hall of Fame, rather than the Virtual Hall of Fame.

So, who is more deserving Pete or Joe, or both? Or should I be posting this on my religious blog, Ugly Acronym?

191 Predictions for 2004

I don’t often pay attention to full page ads in the Wall Street Journal, but “10 surprises of the New Year 2004” in yesterday’s paper did catch my eye. It’s Morgan Stanley’s predictions, but with somewhat more credibility than a crystal ball. The full list can be found at the about Morgan Stanley Web site, which for some reason has the odd date, January 5, 2003, even though it contains all the summaries for 2003 and predictions for 2004. Some webmaster didn’t update correctly, I guess. I’ve sent them an e-mail about this boo-boo. so it might be fixed by now.

1. Osama will be found.
2. Productivity continues to improve.
3. Stock market remains strong.
4. Mutual fund questionable practices will drop from the news.
5. Euro weakens.
6. Pharmaceuticals outperform.
7. Conditions in Saudi Arabia deteriorate--energy stocks outperform.
8. Silver becomes precious metal of choice, $8/oz, gold ascends to $500.
9. Japan’s economy picks up.
10. And here’s the big surprise prediction, in my opinion: Bill Frist will replace Dick Cheney on the ticket. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz resign, saying their work is done.

Bill Frist was my top choice with Condi Rice for the Republican ticket in 2008, but I never thought about him for VP in 2004. This would be a good leg up on the campaign against Hillary in 2008, wouldn't it?

190 ASAP at the dentist's office

Time is a funny thing. My dentist is 50 years old. Some of my fillings are older than he is. A visit to the dentist 50 years ago seems like yesterday, and reading about the tech boom of the 90s seems like 50 years ago.

I pulled a magazine from a stack to read at the dentist’s office where I was having a filing replaced. ASAP October 4, 1999. I was stunned to realize that I hadn’t even thought about what used to be one of my favorite sources of dreams about the future of technology since, well, about mid-2000. It's now so . . . yesterday! I used to read ASAP cover to cover--and until I saw the date, I hadn’t even realized it was gone. Who could forget the Happiness Issue? (Actually, I’ve forgotten all the content, but not the concept.)

By the mid-nineties when I started reading it, it was an excellent tech magazine, very readable even for the non-geek like me. And I loved George Gilder--although, truthfully now that I look back, he really did write strange English. The ads were absolutely lush--encrusted with good taste and dripping with money. Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Wolfe, Muhammad Ali, Tom Peters and George Gilder are in the issue I look at while my face goes numb from chin to eyebrow.

Our accounts started to do that (go numb) in summer 2000, my TIAA-CREF account held its ground only because my 15% contributions covered up the fact it was losing money. So don’t tell me Bush did it. The over heated tech stocks burned up. Three years after the date on this 1999 issue, October 4, 2002, Forbes announced ASAP was shutting down.

“During a period when blind optimism got the better of so many, no one was more blithely optimistic about our wired future than Gilder. Beginning in the mid-'90s, he advanced the argument that the businesses which most aggressively embrace fiber optics, wireless communication, and other telecommunications breakthroughs would soar in the meteoric fashion of an Intel. It was Gilder, as much as anyone, who helped trigger the hundreds of billions of dollars invested to create competing fiber networks. Then everything imploded, and company after company went under. The telecom sector proved to be an even greater financial debacle than the dotcoms. Yet he's still convinced he was dead-on right in most of his prognostications.” Wired, July 2002.

George Gilder got side swiped by his own enthusiasm and lost a lot of money in a new publishing venture. However, his predictions, made in the mid-nineties about the future of high speed internet seem to be coming true, just a little later than he thought. Particularly that one about overthrowing the tyranny of the mass media, which bloggers seem to be doing, 5 or 6 million strong. Of course, he was wrong about world peace. . .

189 Piso Mojado

Last fall I watched as a man spilled a full cup of coffee at the bakery where I read the paper in the morning. It went all over the white tablecloth, the floor, his shoes and pants. He just stood there and looked at the mess. Another man standing behind him, looked too; both seemed paralyzed. Then the second guy went over to the counter and picked up a stack of napkins and brought them back to help clean it up. It was like emptying the ocean with a teaspoon. The customer who spilled it was still staring at the huge brown puddle on the floor and eating the free samples.

So I got up and took matters into my own hands since men aren’t accustomed to cleaning up after themselves, and suggested they call for staff to come and clean it up. Which they did, and soon the table with the free samples was tidy again with a clean linen cloth.

Monday morning I too spilled a full cup sitting at my table. But I didn’t waste any time, and told the staff immediately. It was mopped up before I could get back to my table with a fresh cup. Always call the expert. So I drank my coffee with a bright yellow caution sign in two languages at my feet.