Welcome, Expat Yank readers

Welcome Expat Yank readers.

If you like Robert's blog, may I suggest checking out (listed in alphabetical order): American Future, Betsy's Page, Bookworm Room, Cafe Hayek, Considerettes, Dr. Sanity, Elephants in Academia, GM's Corner, Joust the Facts, No Left Turns, PowerBlog, and ScrappleFace, among others from my links list?

I especially recommend Betsy's Page and Joust the Facts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Election Day - Oregon Primary 2006

Cue announcer voice. Roll tape: Kathryn Judson has voted!

Sorry. Couldn't resist. I live in Oregon, which does all elections "by mail." This has its pros and cons, but one of the things I miss about the old way was that in the old days the poll workers would acknowledge your vote.

This was not consistent from place to place. The first precinct in which I voted, for instance, when I handed across my ballots the little old lady in charge of that part of the proceedings announced, rather importantly and none too quietly, "Kathryn [insert middle name and maiden name here] has voted!"

This startled me. As I remember it, I jumped about three inches, and scurried to the exit to minimize the time folks might stare at me after having seen me jump about three inches.

But after I had had a chance to get over my surprise, I decided I didn't mind the custom a bit. I rather liked it, in fact, once I got used to it. Face it, how often do most of us get to have our actions announced in a manner befitting doers of great things?

Besides (and you might as well laugh at this -- snickers won't hurt my feelings a bit just here), after some consideration I realized that much of my initial consternation was from the fact that previous to that experience at the polls the only time anyone had used my full name right out loud was my mother when she had reached the end of her rope. She had a nickname for me for normal use. Kathryn was trotted out when she was upset with me. Kathryn plus the middle name meant Serious Ire. Kathryn plus the middle name plus the surname was Off-the-scale Upset.

So, when I flinched upon hearing my full name I was being Pavlov Dog-ish. No question. But such things can be unlearned, should the circumstances line up right. Somewhere along the line in the years since I have switched to Kathryn for most uses, and stopped reacting like a five year old when people use it, even when it is used in combination with the middle name and/or the last name. But this is now and that was then. Then it was unnerving.

But back to the issue at hand.

In other places I've lived, there was no announcement when you finished voting. None. Discretion seemed the order of the day. Privacy. Decorum. I rather preferred the announcement-style precincts, but I didn't mind the latter. At least there was some ceremony, some sense of community effort involved.

Perhaps I should say I didn't mind much. After I'd been around the block a few more times, I found out that those ego-boosting announcements were also intended as anti-fraud actions. Somebody trying to vote under somebody else's name had to face the prospect of being recognized -- by someone else, anyone else, some knowing total stranger who just happened to be there -- as Not Who He Claims to Be. In some circles, this is thought to make criminals think twice before trying to commit vote fraud. I like to think it does, which is one of my objections to vote by mail, which strips voters of the protections, such as they are, provided by a polling place, monitored booths, and witnesses. But that's another story.

Fast forward to today. My husband voted days ago, and has had his ballot sitting around waiting for me to deliver it. We could mail it in, or there are several drop sites around, several of which are more convenient than the courthouse, but I like to drive the ballots to the courthouse and drop them in the county clerk's office myself. So, anyway, today I dug in and spent hours researching races I wasn't sure about already. I read what candidates had to say about themselves, each other, and the issues. I read endorsements. I read news reports. I pondered. I dug some more. Race by race I tackled it, and finally -- after fretting surprisingly long over who to vote for in the gubernatorial race -- I was done. Into the secrecy envelope the ballot went. The secrecy envelope went into the larger envelope with my name and address, etc., printed on it. I signed the outer envelope as required. I was well and truly done except for turning it in.

I took my husband's ballot and mine well in hand, got in the van, and drove south to the county seat, and to the county courthouse. (It's only about five miles round trip, so don't think I was doing something valiant.) I walked into the courthouse, walked up broad stairs, crossed the building to the clerk's office, walked up to the ballot box sitting this side of the counter and, one by one, semi-ceremoniously, put in my husband's ballot and then mine.

A lady to the left of me, working behind the counter, watched me vote, caught my eye, perked up and said, "Isn't the weather wonderful today?"

Uh huh. It is.

But...

I wanted to say, with emphasis: But. I. Just. Voted. And. I. Know. Enough. History. To. Know. That. That's. Nothing. To. Take. For. Granted. Thank. You. Very. Much.

But I didn't.

She was being friendly, and nice, and was perhaps a bit wistful at having to work inside on such a nice spring day. And she had watched me vote and given me a smile, which is more than I get most elections lately. So I agreed it was a nice day, and went on to my next errand.

New options for music lovers

In The Bernoulli Effect: A New Front In The Radio Wars, Jeff discusses how the internet has changed the music industry -- how, for instance, more artists are selling their CDs directly through the Web, and how more and better options are opening up for listeners, including a Web-based streaming-audio "music discovery service" that lets you input a name of a pop artist or song that you like, and then follows with similar songs, which you can give the thumbs up or thumbs down, the service learning your tastes as it goes.

Ward Churchill update

In Elephants in Academia: Find the time, buddy, AcademicElephant brings us the news that a panel investigating Ward Churchill is expected to deliver its report next week.

Ward Churchill is the tenured ethnic studies professor at the University of Colorado who rather idiotically tried to make comparisons between Nazis and people murdered in the September 11 attacks. As I understand it, this panel has been looking into allegations of plagiarism and misrepresentation unrelated to that mess.

Star-crossed lovers, movie versions

In Wittingshire: Tristan and Isolde, Amanda discusses a handful of movies - in which themes of passion, responsibility, family, and community are approached from different perspectives.

Note to self: Get a copy of Casablanca. (It occurs to me that I haven't seen it as a grown-up, unless you count catching snatches of it on television now and then. I suspect it's an entirely different movie if viewed as a grown-up and without marathon ad breaks breaking up the story and sending a person to the remote to change channels. Yes?)

Just because I haven't mentioned it lately, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the people responsible for the development and the availability of the DVD player, whoever you are. I would also like to thank the folks who make good stuff available on DVD. You have improved my life, and I appreciate it.

Songbirds, early stages

And now for a little nature study. To get from this (bluebird eggs) to a beautiful full-grown bluebird, you must pass through this stage (which, admittedly, doesn't look horribly promising).

Here's a nice, day-by-day Quick Reference Guide to Baby Bird Development, courtesy Messinger Woods Wildlife Care & Education Center in Holland, New York.

Update: Pipsqueak continues to chronicle her baby bluebirds.

Raising boys to be good men

At Amy's Humble Musings : Young men, Amy Scott writes about treating a son like the man he is becoming, not the boy he still is.

Links to related posts.

A salute to Sgt. Sarun Sar, awarded the Silver Star

How's this for an American success story?

Sarun Sar was born in Cambodia, survived the killing fields (although most of his family didn't), came to America thanks to a church sponsorship, joined the military a year after graduating from high school, became an American citizen, joined Special Forces, married a Polish lady, and has earned the Silver Star for valor in combat in Afghanistan. And what he wants to emphasize is the humanitarian work he and his men have been doing in Afghanistan.

Ralph Kinney Bennett has the story. (OpinionJournal, May 10, 2006)

Ben Stein: "What You Need To Know"

Writer/actor/economist/lawyer/etc. Ben Stein gathers some advice on what college graduates need to know to succeed at life. (The American Spectator, May 10, 2006)

Going to the source

Elephants in Academia: A quick public service has links to a New York Times story and to a transcript of the news briefing on which it was based, regarding (among other things) what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said about Gen. Michael V. Hayden's nomination to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

Expat Yank's Local News Roundup 4

Robert has more news out of England that you might miss if you only read the larger online news sites.

"Works-For-Me Wednesday"

This looks like fun (and probably useful, too). Shannon, the hostess at the Rocks In My Dryer blog, has a weekly feature called "Works-For-Me Wednesday" where bloggers share little shortcuts or ideas that make managing homes and lives a little easier.

Hmmm. How's this? It's a very small tip, but it's saved some hassle around here. Many years ago I kept the bags used to line wastebaskets in the pantry, and so every time I went to empty wastebaskets I had to go to the pantry, sometimes to find I didn't have enough bags left. A friend told me that she kept plastic bags at the bottom of each wastebasket. That way, when you remove the trash, you just reach down for the replacement liner - and you can see at a glance whether you need to get more bags. Saves steps, saves fuss. Works for me.

hat tip: SFO Mom

An old kitchen, nice for baking a cake

One of the nicest things about this new place (new to us, as of a few months ago), is that the kitchen is so much nicer to work in than the one I left.

The old one was built either in the 1960s or 1970s, depending upon who is doing the remembering, and it was based on the modern/efficiency/ergonomic model. You know the type. Everything is supposed to be within a few steps of everything else, and built-ins are the height of cool. This might have been fine in theory, and I suppose there are women out there who like that sort of thing, but in my case I'm not thrilled with a narrow alley with appliances either side. And, in this specific case, the built-in idea didn't take into consideration that the building might settle, a serious oversight in an area of town built over what was left behind when a gold dredge chewed its way through the valley. To make a long story short, the building did settle, which slanted the floor, which slanted the oven and the stovetop, and since they were built-in they couldn't be adjusted. Oops. I finally more or less gave up on making cakes. I'm sorry, but pans with much more batter at one side than the other just don't produce good results. (I suppose I might have invented some sort of gadget to prop the pan up, but it hardly seemed worth the trouble.)

The 'new' kitchen is from the 1920s or 1930s, depending upon who is doing the remembering, and it's got room to move around in. I've got a smallish, lighter-weight version of a butcher block table in the middle for an island. I've got what used to be my library hutch along one wall, providing drawers and shelves. It holds a microwave on what used to be a desk top, and my most-used saucepans and casserole dishes on its shelves. The hutch sits across the room from the painted floor-to-ceiling cabinets put in when the house was new. The painted cabinets have a real butcher block countertop. It's obviously been used as a cutting board more than once. (Not by me.)

The lighting can be a bit sparse, with only one ceiling fixture in the middle of the room, turned on and off with a chain pull that dangles from it. Electrical outlets are at a premium, especially three-prong. But those are quibbles. This is a kitchen to cook in, and slow down in, and enjoy, with its old-timey feel and roominess.

This is not to say it's a big kitchen. It's not. But it's definitely not an alleyway with appliances either side. Nicest of all, two people can work comfortably in it at once, and I suspect three or four could manage without a great deal of trouble. (When I was younger, I didn't like to share my kitchen. I'm not sure I remember why. But I've outgrown that.)

There are other advantages, this kitchen over the other. For instance, the oven is larger than the one I left. I don't have to be careful about what size pans I buy, because this will take all the standard sizes. A broiler pan, much liked, bought years and years ago, is finally out of storage and back in use.

And the list goes on.

The subject comes up because I am winding down from a busier than normal day by making a cake. A spice cake. Made with applesauce instead of oil.

Do you know that trick? I read it in some cookbook a while back, that you can usually substitute applesauce for any oil called for in a cake recipe. I didn't believe it at first, but I've had good results, overall. Supposedly it's healthier, but around here we like the taste and texture, too. Usually, it's not the least bit apple-y, by the way. Go figure.

I've reached the point where the cake is out of the oven and cooling. The smell is driving me nuts.

My husband has taken the trouble to inform me that the aroma is making him quite hungry. That, of course, was part of the plan. :)

The difference between knowledge and habit...

...becomes readily apparent when your computer crashes (as mine did yesterday) and it is decided that as long as it's on the bench it might as well be brought up to speed with a new operating system, etc.

Now that I'm back up and running (yay!), I am having the somewhat odd experience of almost knowing how to run things around here.

I am also having a hard time not playing with new features just because they are new. But that's another story. ;-)

Success!

From Michael Perry, writing for Reuters:

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Two Australian miners trapped a kilometer underground for 14 days walked out of the mine on Tuesday defiantly thrusting their arms into the air after rescuers reached them shortly before dawn.

Miners Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, wearing mining helmets with their lamps shining brightly and yellow jackets walked confidently to a large board and removed their name cards — declaring they had ended their shift underground...

Nice touch, that... :-)

Previous related posts May 8, May 6, May 4, May 1.

Blog find: 25 Things for Charity

Started in October 2005, 25 Things for Charity is a group blog for fiber crafters (crochet, sewing, knitting, that sort of thing). Members commit to making things for charity, the benchmark being 25 things in a twelve-month period, but with each crafter setting her own goals (see The Rules, which begin by explaining that there are no rules). There seems to be a lot of sharing of info on projects, patterns, needs, and charities. It's a large group already, but they're still advertising for new members.

hat tip: Elizabeth at Daily Inklings

Resource note: Australian Newspapers Online

The National Library of Australia has links to Australian Newspapers past and present, sorted by title, or by state, or by town. There are lots of good links to online editions of today's papers. There are also some archives focusing on 1840-45, if you would like a stroll through the past.

Closer, but still not there in mine rescue

From Greg Ansley, writing for The New Zealand Herald, a couple of reports on the mine rescue underway in Tasmania, where two men have been trapped three thousand feet down under a rock slide for two weeks now:

Trapped pair rewrite record books
Rescue for miners just arm's length away

Close but not there yet in Australian mine rescue

Now comes the really tricky part of that mine rescue in Tasmania.

From Town waits and prays (Herald Sun, May 7, 2006, reported by Carly Crawford, John Ferguson and Kelvin Healey):

TRAPPED miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell were helping their rescuers early today as freedom moved tantalisingly closer.

The courageous Beaconsfield miners spent six hours stabilising the rock around their cage with special grout designed to help prevent a rock fall as the rescue team edged towards them.

But late last night, Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten said the rescue of Mr Webb, 37, and Mr Russell, 35, had been further delayed because the rock between them and the rescue team was much harder than anticipated.

[snip]

As night fell yesterday, rescuers finished tunnelling with massive drilling equipment and then, just before 11pm, miners began using hand tools – diamond-tipped chainsaws and small pneumatic drills – to punch through the crust to reach Mr Webb and Mr Russell.

The rock through which they were boring is believed to be five times tougher than ordinary concrete.

Mr Shorten said: "If you can imagine lying or kneeling in a space just a metre wide, using a hand drill to cut through rock five times harder than concrete – well that's what the rescuers are faced with.

"The simple fact is that the rock is harder than hoped. The men are using knee and elbow pads in 40 degree heat. They want their men home, but it looks like it will take much longer than we had hoped."

Mr Shorten was full of praise for the rescue team.

"These are unassuming men. They have not sought to big-note themselves over the 12 days of the rescue," he said.

"But they are determined they are going to get the men out. I can tell you one thing – I wouldn't want to be the rock between the rescuers and the miners."

[snip]

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that a lot of baby boys in Australia will be named Todd and Brant in the near future. These men have done Australia proud with their spirit and sense of humor while trapped. (Well, I'm assuming they won't turn into total jerks when they get out and get mobbed by the media. That would spoil everything, I think. Well, not everything. But it would sour feelings considerably, I think.)

And need I mention I'm in awe of the rescue team? This is not, by any stretch, a usual sort of rescue attempt.

Previous posts: Updates on trapped Tasmanian miners, Trapped miners get food, water, medicine

Happy 500th Anniversary, Swiss Guards

Let's see. 1506? The United States of America was, figuratively speaking, not even a glimmer in someone's eye. It would be, for instance, a full century before The First Charter of Virginia was written.

In 1506, it would be another 356 years before a gold rush brought the first serious influx of settlers to what is now my hometown.

But in 1506 the Swiss Guards were already on the job at the Vatican. See Amy Welborn's open book: Happy Anniversary, Swiss Guards for info and links on celebrations marking the milestone.

Nice radio links

Remember Gary Owens? Did you know he's still working as a disc jockey?

I was steered to Sunny 1550 KKAD today, and have been listening to Owens' show for over an hour and a half and enjoying every bit of it.

KKAD is part of the Music of Your Life network, which is kind enough to list radio stations that aren't part of the network but play the same sort of music, which they call Adult Pop Standards.

Right now I'm listening to Nat King Cole... :-)

Trying to clean up Moscow...

The BBC World Service has a Learning English section, which has, amongst other subsections, something called Words in the News, which highlights and defines words and phrases in news stories. You can listen to the story, or just to the highlighted words, in addition to reading the text.

What caught my eye today was a May 2, 2006, story out of Moscow, Russia, where city authorities have declared a clean car month, imposing fines for noncompliance -- and some folks are, uhm, perhaps not cooperating in the spirit hoped for by the city officials, shall we say?

Do any young folks understand how amazing it is that Moscow radio programs are, according to James Rodgers, Moscow correspondent, "informing drivers of their rights and encouraging them to challenge officers who stop them"?

Or that a newspaper did an online poll which found (bolding in original, showing highlighted English to learn): "46 per cent agreed a car was dirty if the number plate wasn't visible. 23 per cent said it was if the car had "wash me" written on it, 22 per cent if the make or the colour of the car couldn't be determined. A stubborn nine per cent maintained that a car was dirty only if the actual driver was invisible."?

Updates on trapped Tasmanian miners

From the BBC: Rescuers inch to Tasmania miners.

From The Herald Sun: Close encounters for miners' parents. (The parents of the miners might be taken down into the mine to talk to the trapped men.) Also from The Herald Sun: Townsfolk cook up support (how locals are pitching in) and Harley awaits his mate (about the loyal Labrador of one of the miners, who has been keeping vigil). There's also a graphic of the rescue plan, and a live cam. (What days we live in, with live cams on the web for anybody to access...)

The bottom line seems to be that it's been more than ten days since two miners, Brant Webb and Todd Russell, were trapped by a rock slide a kilometer down at the Beaconsfield mine. They're alive, they're getting supplies through a PVC pipe, they're talking with rescue crews, and it's still anybody's guess if what's being called a freedom tunnel can be built to them without triggering more deadly rock slides.

Here's hoping for the best.

BBC NEWS | Photo journal | Rebuilding education in Aceh

The December 2004 tsunami devastated Aceh, Indonesia. But it's coming back, in some ways better than ever, according to Maida Irawani, formerly a teacher in Aceh, and now with NGO World Vision.

Deer in this town like geraniums...

...(especially the flowers) and petunias (just the flowers) and strawberry plants (any part they can get their mouth over, apparently) but don't like zinnias (flowers or leaves).

Or at least that is my working hypothesis after surveying (what is left of) my flower garden that I planted a few days ago. The geranium was such a hit it was pulled out by the roots, and moved to a more convenient location.

(I live in town. I live rather in the middle of town, actually. In case you were wondering.)

Book note: Guests of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden

The author of Black Hawk Down spent several years researching the Iranian takeover of U.S. embassy in Tehran and the 444 day hostage ordeal that followed. The result is:


Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam

Reuel Marc Gerecht has a review and commentary. ("Radical Islam's Eruption: Mark Bowden puts the Iranian hostage crisis in perspective," OpinionJournal, May 3, 2006)

Earl Woods dies

Earl Woods, the father of golfer Tiger Woods, has died at age 74. Mr. Woods was, I think, a great role model not only for his son but for the rest of us. My condolences to his family and friends.

Alibris Donate-A-Book Program

Alibris.com, one of the online bookseller sites where my husband and I sell books (that should take care of full disclosure duties, I hope), has launched a Donate-A-Book Program, where schools, libraries and nonprofits may provide wishlists, and Alibris customers who are so inclined can help fill their bookshelves. Alibris has some libraries, etc., lined up already, but:

Donate-A-Book is brand new, with a limited number of enrolled pilot schools and libraries. Please help organizations in your community: Ask them to create wishlists for the books your town needs.

There's an emphasis right now on New Orleans, but Winston Salem Bible College in North Carolina is also being highlighted today.

For my state (you can browse wishlists by state if you like), there's only one public library listed, which says it especially needs board books. (Personally, I have trouble with board books shared amongst too many different babies -- board books get chewed, for pity's sakes -- but it's their wishlist, I guess.)

I've been browsing the whole list, and one of my favorites so far is Boys Read Too, at the School Library, Kendrick Lakes Elementary, Lakewood, Colorado. From their intro:

Help us close the gender gap. We want to supply more books that will foster a love of reading for boys in the intermediate levels, grades 4-6.

The wishlist is crawling with biography and adventure and jets and sharks and monsters and time warps and all that good stuff that boys tend to get into.

It's also got some books that look interesting that I didn't know about, and authors who are new to me...

Hmmm, this could be a good way to discover good books...

I can think of another (probably unintended) good thing about this project. If your local school library is enrolled, you can see what sorts of books they want to add. I think that could tell you a lot about what's going on, don't you?

Seriously, though, why not consider enrolling your church school or public library, etc.? Let's try a little community building without the government for a change, eh?

A faith-based military news site

A Greater Freedom.com is (according to its "About Us" page):

...a faith-based military news site that reports the positive news stories often missed by mainstream media.

We exist to inform, encourage, and inspire those serving in the Armed Forces, their families, and local churches wishing to help church members currently going through deployment.

This site was created by Sara Horn, writer and editor of A Greater Freedom: Stories of Faith from Operation Iraqi Freedom (Broadman & Holman, 2004). In 2003, Horn took two trips to Iraq with photographer Jim Veneman to report on stories of Christians in the military, and more specifically, Christians in the midst of war. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Oliver North, host of Fox News’ "War Stories," was executive editor of the project and is a contributor to this site as his schedule permits. The book received recognition as a finalist for the prestigious 2005 ECPA Gold Medallion Awards in the inspirational category.

In addition to original news stories and stories obtained by various news wires and other sources, we offer commentary by a variety of contributors.

Our site is non-denominational by design and evangelical in conviction. While denominations vary by degrees in issues concerning theology, we approach this site with the unified belief in God’s Son, Jesus Christ...

Go here to read about other contributors to the site.

Click on the book cover to go to Barnes & Noble:


Greater Freedom: Stories of Faith from Operation Iraqi Freedom

Book notes: The Head Girl's latest reviews

The Head Girl at The Common Room blog provides quick takes on The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin, Women Who Make the World Worse by Kate O'Beirne, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Forging Freedom: A True Story of Heroism During the Holocaust by Hudson Talbot, Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story by Ken Mochizuki, and Five Children and It by E. Nesbit.

Trapped Miners Get Food, Water, Medicine

Good news from Tasmania. Two miners trapped a half mile underground at the Beaconsfield gold mine for nearly a week with nothing but groundwater in their mineshaft to sustain them are not only alive, but talking -- and rescuers have managed to get food, water and medicine to them through a narrow tube. They're not out of danger yet, and no one's estimating they can be dug out before tomorrow at the earliest (and most officials appear to think that estimate is wildly optimistic), but no one's giving up on them just yet.

Miners get food, but danger remains (John Ferguson, Herald Sun)

Rick Rycroft of AP reports (ABC News)

Update: In the cage: a prison, a haven (Andrew Darby and Gary Tippet, The Sydney Morning Herald)

I've been looking at various reports, and I'm beginning to think I should have said "amazing news from Tasmania" instead of "good news" in my initial post. Conditions appear to be very hazardous not only for the two trapped men, but for the rescuers trying to get at them. It's a miracle these guys are alive, but it's going to be tough to get them out of there.

Just for laughs

John Hinderaker at Power Line has a Jack Benny video clip (rather long), for any of you who could use a dose of comedy without an agenda. (The Jack Benny link is at the very bottom of the post.)

Harper Lee

A belated Happy Birthday to Harper Lee, who turned 80 yesterday.

A train trip in France

Katherine of the K's Café blog shares some observations from a trip with her family on the Train Grande Vitesse (high speed train) in France. For example:

10:20am: There is a lightly bearded man on the train with his two young children. He's in faded jeans and a white T-shirt, and looks confident and strong, while self-controlled. He's wearing one earring, two rings, two bracelets and a watch. It is a blessing to see him gently take his son on his knee, and then tenderly brush his daughter's hair and fasten it with a scrunchy, making a neat pony tail for her. Later his son curled up on his lap to snooze. It is a quiet but communicative family, loving, patient and disciplined. People's actions say a lot more than their clothing and accessories.

Yay, daddies.

And now for some encouraging news (lots of it)

CDR Salamander says Have a good weekend and know that you live in the “good ‘ole days.” And he's got some links to back up his optimism.

hat tip: Bookworm Room

Update: See Not Harvard Bound, by Terrence O. Moore (Touchstone, May 2006) for some more good news -- young people showing some solid moral character, not to mention some spirit.

hat tip: A Circle of Quiet

Minding Our Manners, etc.

In Minding Our Manners (The American Conservative, April 10, 2006 issue) Theodore Dalrymple discusses the thinking, or at least the attitudes, behind much of the rudeness of today. The essay begins:

My parents had conflicting views about the nature and origin of good manners. My father took the Romantic view that they were the expression of man’s natural goodness of heart and that they therefore emerged spontaneously—that is, if they emerged at all. If they didn’t, it was because of the social injustice that inhibited or destroyed natural goodness. My mother took the classical view that good manners were a matter of discipline, training, and habit and that goodness of heart would, at least to an extent, follow in their wake. The older I grow, the more decisively I take my mother’s side.

My father, who was left-wing in everything except his life, believed that manners in my mother’s sense were but etiquette and that in turn etiquette was but a code by which the elite distinguished itself from hoi polloi in order to maintain its economic and cultural dominance. An elaborate code of conduct with arbitrary rules was a mask for sectional self-interest...

On a side note, now that he mentions it, I have known people who more or less fit that "left-wing in everything except his life" description, although I hadn't thought of them that way before this. Hmmm. I need to think about this a while.

And, in case anyone was wondering, the older I grow, the more decisively I take his mother's side, too. Definitely.

Theodore Dalrymple is a British doctor, a contributing editor of City Journal, and Dietrich Weismann fellow of the Manhattan Institute. His latest book is Our Culture, What’s Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses.

An earlier book:


Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass

hat tip: A Circle of Quiet (who gives her hat tip on this to The Autumn Rain).

Settlement Agreement Ends State Investigation of Rush Limbaugh

Roy Black, Rush Limbaugh's attorney, has released a statement concerning a settlement agreement with the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office.

History Repeating?

In History Repeating?, Giacomo at the Joust the Facts blog provides an excerpt from the end of the chapter on Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers in Daniel J. Flynn's Intellectual Morons: How ideology makes smart people fall for stupid ideas, and wonders if we can see anything similar happening these days. (He provides clues.)


Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas

Book note: Fighting for Dear Life by David Gibbs available for pre-order

Bethany House's website currently says that Fighting for Dear Life: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo and What It Means for All of Us by David Gibbs is coming in August. The Barnes & Noble website (click on book cover below) says it will be available July 1. I'm not even going to guess why there's such a discrepancy...

What does seem certain is that it is available for pre-order:


Fighting for Dear Life: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo and What It Means for All of Us

Book notes: Jane Jacobs

Via Cafe Hayek, the author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, among other books, died this week at age 89. (The link is to an article by Adam Bernstein, Washington Post, April 26, 2006.)


The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library Series)


The Nature of Economies


Schoolteacher in Old Alaska: The Story of Hannah Breece

Previous posts referring to Jane Jacobs here and here.

One Queen, two birthdays

Celebrating the Queen's 80th Birthday > One Queen, two birthdays explains why Queen Elizabeth, born on April 21, officially celebrates her birthday on a Saturday in June.

That article is just one of the features at the official web site for The Queen's 80th birthday celebrations in 2006.

hat tip: BBC Radio 4's "The Queen at 80" special section

The 101st Fighting Keyboardists looking for a few good bloggers

Captain Ed of Captain's Quarters and a couple of other bloggers have formed the "101st Fighting Keyboardists" and adopted the chicken hawk as their mascot and "We Eat Chickens For Lunch" as their motto. They're ready for recruits, especially those with "a sense of humor as well as a sense of purpose." (Using silly names for people who disagree with you is not a sense of humor, by the way. In fact, being branded with funny nicknames by "friends on the port side of the blogosphere" is apparently what led to this enterprise in the first place.)

It's probably not my cup of tea (can you see me saying I eat chickens for lunch without my nose growing? or people collapsing in laughter?) but I can think of a few of you who might want to enlist.

Crosswalk.com - Hollywood Newcomer Maddy Curley Proves She Can "Stick It"

Annabelle Robertson, entertainment critic for Crosswalk.com, interviews Maddy Curley, one of the actresses in "Stick It", a new movie about gymnasts. Curley is young, enthusiastic, competitive, determined, and Christian (and she says nice things about Jim Caviezel, by the way).

Were you at the game? Do you have pictures? Memories of what it meant to you?

Thirty years ago this week a couple of guys tried to burn an American flag during a major league baseball game at Dodger Stadium. They didn't reckon on Rick Monday and company. May I suggest that you take two minutes and twenty seconds to listen to the recording of Vin Scully's call of the event (one of several links at the top of the article)?

There's an effort underway to find any fan pictures that might be out there of Monday's risky rescue of the flag (it was doused in lighter fluid, and the 'protestors' tried to douse him with lighter fluid, too), and to collect thoughts from people who were at the game, or military veterans. See the bottom of Ben Platt's April 25, 2006, MLB.com article (linked above) for more details and the e-mail address.

hat tip: The Anchoress (via Benning's Writing Pad)

Favorite gardening books

A Circle of Quiet recommends some favorite gardening books - including one aimed at "Children and Their Grown-Ups" (as the cover copy says).

She also has a post on children's books about John James Audubon.

I like her parting shot on the Audubon post:

Grab your binoculars and a sketch pad and spend a few quiet minutes enjoying the birds in your area.

(But, then, I'm the sort of person who thinks that sketch pads can be the perfect gift for a child. Or a grown-up, for that matter. And I like birding...)

If you don't mind sharing, which gardening or nature-related books have you found helpful or inspiring?

Book note: Hamlet on the Holodeck, by Janet H. Murray

I'm not familiar with this book...


Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace

...but Jordan Ballor gives it a thumbs-up.

Canada's National March for Life 2006 is Thursday May 11

If you live in Ottawa, expect a lot of pedestrians May 10 and 11. The annual March for Life will be May 11, but there are vigils and religious services the day before. Canadian pro-lifers who can't attend the march can pay for candles to be lit for them at the main vigil, which is held at the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights monument. LifeSite has more information, and pictures from previous marches.

Southern California says goodbye to commercial airplane production

From the article Californian aviation comes in for a landing by Gary Gentile, Associated Press, April 27, 2006 (published in The Washinton Times):

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- The last Boeing 717 has left the factory.

The slender airliner, trailed by dozens of the workers who built it, was rolled out before dawn last week and towed across a boulevard to Long Beach Airport.

Its delivery to AirTran Airways next month will mark the end of seven decades of commercial airplane production in Southern California.

At another sprawling complex nearby, thousands of workers produce the Boeing C-17 military cargo plane. However, no new orders for the aircraft are in the proposed Defense Department budget.

If congressional efforts to restore the program fail, the last of those flying warehouses will be delivered in 2008, and all airplane production would end in California -- once the center of commercial and military airplane construction in the nation.

"More aviation history has been made in Southern California than in any other place in the world," said Bill Schoneberger, author of "California Wings," a history of aviation in the state.

"But we've evolved. The aeronautics industry has moved from an airplane business into a systems business," he said...

Read the rest of the article

California Wings: A History of Aviation in the Golden State by William A. Schoneberger and Paul Sonnenburg (American Historical Press, 1984) isn't available new at Barnes & Noble these days, but there are some used copies there, if you're interested.

Culture and civilization are not to be confused

From a Dr. Demarche post at American Future (April 19):

...The blogosphere and mainstream media teem with variations of the "is this a clash of civilizations or is it not" debate. I, for one, have finally made up my mind. It is not. It takes two to tango, after all, and I have become increasingly convinced that our opposition not only is uncivilized in broad terms, it also has no concept of civilization. They have a culture, to be sure, one of violence and fear, under which horrific acts are justified as supporting the will of God, but culture and civilization are not to be confused...

How to speak 'Wisconsin'

There is now a website for people who want to know how to pronounce Wisconsin-related words. (Via The Star-Tribune.)

Local heroes and pro-life leaders born since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion.

This is an interesting approach -- folks born after January 22, 1973, calling themselves Death Roe survivors, and listing their birth month and year as their release date.

They're asking for nominations for Survivor Heroes (anyone born after Roe v. Wade who has had an impact in the fight against abortion).

hat tip: Open Book

Pearl S. Buck on euthanasia

Having seen it spelled every which way lately, I was double-checking the spelling of euthanasia in my favorite dictionary (The Penguin English Dictionary, 2nd Edition) -- and found that the definition included this quote (this dictionary is good about including word histories and quotes):

Euthanasia is a long smooth-sounding word, and it conceals its danger as long, smooth words do -- Pearl S Buck

Update: I've found the quote in a longer context, and find it's even better there. See here, at the blog Soli Libri.

Book note: In the Gray Rain by Hazel Severson McCartney

Some books beg to be read in one sitting, and others beg to be read in bits, with breaks between chapters to let what you've read sink in. In the Gray Rain, by Hazel Severson McCartney (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1955, 1957) fell into the second category for me. I think I've been dipping into it off and on for a couple of years, but over the weekend I read the last eight chapters, since they seemed tied together. It's a good book, one I'd recommend to anyone interested in history or Japanese culture.

According to the dust jacket copy, after graduating from high school, the author spent three years as a secretary to a missionary in Japan. During World War II, she worked at a Japanese relocation center in Colorado, and then moved to the Tule Lake, California, center with her new husband, who was a counselor there. After the war, they moved to Japan to work in Lutheran schools there for four years. In 1955, Mrs. McCartney went back to Japan to complete this book.

Also from the dust jacket:

"I have read IN THE GRAY RAIN by Hazel McCartney and I have enjoyed the experience. Mrs. McCartney gives a lovely picture of Japan, subdued and gentle, and certainly very true, in the area of her experience." - PEARL S. BUCK

In the Gray Rain is a fascinating look at Japan after World War II. I think we tend to forget (if ever we learn in the first place) what real devastation looks like, and real courage and perseverance. These true life tales are full of families brought to their knees by constant malnutrition, of old men and old women working themselves to the bone, of devotion and a sense of duty, of cheerfulness and grit, of faith, and loss of faith.

It is a perceptive book, well-written, about people pushed to their limits, but rebuilding both their own lives and their war-torn country.

Each chapter opens with a haiku written for it. The first chapter's haiku:

In the harbor
only the seagulls
show no scars
from the long war

As she goes on to prove, though, there's a difference between being scarred and being destroyed.

In the Gray Rain is out of print, but at present it's easy to get a used copy on the Internet and prices are low.

Niche marketing

Did you know there's junk mail for blind people?

Contrary to what people might tell you...

...it is possible to wind a sewing machine bobbin by hand and get away with it.

This I know because the other day, still digging out from our recent move, I came across a box with yards and yards of fabric I bought years ago for quilt blocks and quilt backs. Well, I don't need any more quilts, thanks, but I have been wanting workaday, everyday skirts. And I needed some curtains for various windows around here, which are still covered in various jerry-rigged bits of one thing and another.

I haven't machine-sewed anything in a few years. My husband and I put our heads together, and neither of us can recall me getting the sewing machine set up in the apartment we just left. There just wasn't a good place for it. At any rate, I'm almost certain I haven't machine-sewn since we got cats, which would have been early 2001, if I remember right. Bottom line: I'm rusty when it comes to sewing. Very rusty.

But here I was, fabric in front of me, yards and yards of it; ironing board and iron in known locations and easy to get to, the sewing machine in easy reach (in the bottom of the closet in my office), and with an office with a work table large enough for both the computer and a sewing machine. And I've been reading blog after blog where ladies have successfully been making things...

So, Thursday night, armed with a very nice tutorial, I decided to have a go at it.

I started getting everything together, and realized that the sewing machine was easy to get to, but the power cord and foot pedal were not with it. Of course not. Life shouldn't be too easy. But I found the cord/foot pedal in the second unpacked box I got into. (Miracles happen.)

The instruction book I couldn't find. Nor extra bobbins. Nor the various extra presser feet or plates. Oh, well. All I wanted was the ability to do a straight seam. I didn't need the fancy stuff. And I only use one bobbin at a time, right? I figured that if I kept it wound with a neutral color I should be all right, right? At any rate, that I was reduced to something akin to bare bones didn't make the project seem impossible.

I live about a block from a drug store which I presumed carried thread and sewing notions (it did, including bobbins, to my surprise), and so soon enough I was in business. And right after that I remembered why I'd put the sewing machine into storage in the first place. It's broken. I'd meant to get it fixed, but never got around to it. The presser foot won't stay up by itself, for one thing. And the bobbin winder is broken, for another. The presser foot problem was immediately apparent, but could be dealt with by manually holding up the presser foot when moving fabric in or out. The bobbin winder difficulty I didn't discover until the bobbin already in the machine ran out of thread -- halfway through my first skirt.

But I was inspired by this time, and not inclined to stop for minor things like that. And so I set up the thread through the tension spring for the bobbin winder, put the bobbin between the thumb and forefinger of one hand, and centimeter by centimeter, keeping the tension steady, wound the bobbin about a quarter full and tried that. It worked. I've done this a couple times since then, the last time going whole hog and winding the bobbin full. Hah. The pioneer spirit lives!

I was sitting around feeling ingenious and resourceful, when my husband stuck his head into my office to say hi, and saw me winding a bobbin by hand. He was distressed. He muttered something to the effect that sewing machines are cheap on eBay, before running off to download the instruction manual to this machine to tide us over...

The first skirt I made using more or less the pattern in the tutorial (I rarely follow recipes or patterns exactly - I like to tinker with them). But it seemed a bit full for me, and with lots of fabric at the waist. I mean, it looks good, but I thought I could improve on it.

So the second skirt I made A-line, sans pattern, just cutting the panels at an angle that felt right (leaving the waist big enough to go over my hips, of course -- it's no good making a pull-on skirt that's too narrow to pull on). I got a wild hair and made it a lined skirt. That turned out all right, too. But I thought I could improve on it.

So here I sit, in skirt number three, made with half as much fabric as the first, straight and longish, with walking slit. And I'm plotting making a dress. And maybe some shirts. I feel ready for buttons and zippers, if it comes to that. And did I mention I finished the curtains for the back bathroom? And that I'm designing curtains for the rest of the house?

I figure that if anything turns out a total flop, I can always cut it into quilt pieces after all. (Just because I don't need any more quilts doesn't mean I won't make any more. Quilting is one of those hobbies that can get into a person's blood.)

The cats have been helpful, but not as bad as I feared. George does tend to see fabric laying around as prey which must be pounced on and dragged triumphantly off -- if not snatched boldly from someone's hands -- but now that I know that I can outwit her (most of the time). For that matter, playing at bullfights and teasing her might be fun, now that I think about it... Gracie ran for cover when she first heard the machine, but then contented herself with coming in from time to time and complaining of neglect and loneliness. That I can solve by playing with her during my work breaks, which I like to do anyway.

Life is good.

Yes, yes, I know. I'm easily amused. But life is good.

I've worn two of my three new skirts in public so far. Nobody asked me where the party was, no one pointed or stared, I didn't hear any snickers, and children didn't dive behind their mommas, so I'm calling the experiment a success so far. I wanted everyday skirts that looked good without being dressy, that were one-of-kind skirts without being in the least weird. So far, so good...

I've put future projects on hold until we can get the sewing machine fixed or replaced, but then, watch out. I've got several yards of fabric left, just laying around begging to be made into something. :-).

Just because

For some gorgeous rainbow photos, go here and then follow the link.

A "twirly skirt" how-to

If you have a girl to clothe, you might want to check out I have to say...: A "twirly skirt" how-to, for step-by-step instructions for making a skirt that's notably fun to twirl or dance in. This is an simple design that doesn't require anything fancy (or difficult) like zippers or buttons -- just cloth and elastic and thread. (Via Mrs. Happy Housewife.)

Picture book recommendation

In Here in the Bonny Glen: Another Book from the Baby Pile, Melissa Wiley says that The Maggie B by Irene Haas is "One of my favorite picture books ever."

This isn't a book I know (yet), but I'll take her word for it that it's worth checking out.


The Maggie B.

What kids dress up as these days in _______?

Can you guess the country where this just happened?

Emily's school (kindergarten through 5th grade) staged a fancy dress parade through the village a week ago. It threatened to rain, and maybe made good on a few drips, but otherwise the weather cooperated. Pirates, flamenco dancers, brides, Harry Potter, witches, princesses, native Americans, knights, soccer players, and cowboys strode along the narrow streets bordered by wisteria, throwing fistfuls of confetti...

Go here for the rest of the post, with pictures, (and the answer to my question).

Trying to take judges out of micromanagement

According to Democracy by Decree (OpinionJournal, April 18, 2006), Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander and Arkansas Democrat Mark Pryor introduced legislation in the Senate last month to limit the use of federal consent decrees, and similar legislation is pending in the House. Mentioned in the editorial is this book --


Democracy by Decree: What Happens When Courts Run Government

-- by New York Law professors David Schoenbrod and Ross Sandler. I've linked to the paperback edition (Yale University Press, September 2004).

From the publisher (via Barnes & Noble):

This valuable book explains why schools, welfare agencies, and other important state and local institutions have come to be controlled by attorneys and judges rather than by governors and mayors. The authors discuss why this has resulted in worse service to the public and what can be done to restore control of these programs to elected--and accountable--officials.

How cheaper cotton cloth changed the world

In Cleanliness, godliness, you know the drill, Lars Walker explains how a religious revival and the cotton gin combined to change life for the better for the less-well-off (and everyone downwind of them, for that matter).

The New York Times looks Hamas in the face, doesn't like what it sees

It appears that Hamas has dismayed and disgusted highly placed people at the New York Times. This April 19, 2006, editorial running under the headline "The Face of Hamas" begins:

After the Palestinian election, the burning question was which part of Hamas would dominate the new government: would it be the political organization that provides a desperate people with vital services, or the terrorist group that advocates the violent destruction of Israel? Now we have the answer, in Hamas's monumentally cynical and dimwitted applause for the bombing that killed nine people and wounded dozens in Tel Aviv on Monday.

In contrast, Israel's prime minister-designate, Ehud Olmert, has taken the high road, at least for now...

hat tip: The Moral Responsibility of Civilization at AlbertMohler.com.

Update: The LA Times isn't happy with Hamas either.

U.S. Army Capt. Mark Flitton -- from pro golfer to soldier

Following your dreams can make for some interesting turns in life.

A Different Kind of Tradition

While we're on the subjects of family-friendly fun and Easter egg hunts, here's a wild (and wet) way to have an egg hunt.

Memories are made of this...

The only thing the following links have in common is that they're about the sorts of things that people tend to file away in the "gee, we had a good time, didn't we?" slot in their memories.

Daniel Akst tells about watching old movies with his young sons. For a hint, Laurel and Hardy and the Marx brothers are hits, "The African Queen" left them cold. (OpinionJournal, April 14, 2006).

Back in 1981, fifth-grade teacher Art Payne got it into his head to teach juggling to his students. (And never mind that he had to teach himself how to juggle first.) Mr. Payne is retired now, but each year the fifth-graders at North Baker Elementary School, Baker City, Oregon, start learning how to juggle after they get back from Christmas break, and go through a six-week program to hone their skills. (Baker City Herald, February 21, 2006, reported by Lisa Britton).

Ruth at the Ruthlace blog remembers the 1930s -- including "pound parties." I don't remember my folks talking about pound parties, but my husband remembers his parents remembering them fondly. Ruth explains what they are toward the end of the linked post, in which she relates how she met and got to know her husband.

Finding a forgotten stack of 21 Kismet score sheets stirred up a host of memories for Shannon Woodward, hostess of the Wind Scraps blog. I don't remember the Kismet game, but she explains that it's like Yahtzee, only a step up.

Last but not least, Danielle Bean plays for laughs as she explains an annual tradition at her house. Me, personally, I have been known to do this more often than once a year, but never at regular intervals or to a schedule...

Book note: Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton's picture book Coat of Many Colors, based on the hit autobiographical song of the same name, is in its second decade in print. It's a good book for pointing out what makes a family rich (hint: it's not money). The illustrations by Judith Sutton are full of life.


Coat of Many Colors

This sounds like my kind of Easter egg hunt

I've never quite figured out why those mad dashes of mobs of children out onto football fields to grab eggs in plain view are called Easter egg hunts. This is an Easter egg hunt, with a not-so-Wild West twist.

Ah, springtime...

Not that it matters much, I know, but my lawn needs mowing. And it's snowing.

Flying off the shelves

National Geographic has smaller birding field guides for specific regions. I don't know about other bookstores, but this spring at the BookStation we can't seem to restock the local guide fast enough.


National Geographic Field Guide to Birds: Washington/Oregon

The larger, countrywide field guide is also popular:


National Geographic: Field Guide to the Birds of North America

As are:


The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America


Sibley's Birding Basics


Identify Yourself: The 50 Most Common Birding Identification Challenges


Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America

There are more, but you get the idea. Right now, birders' field guides are hot, and there are lots and lots of options.

Clicking on any of the above book covers will take you to Barnes & Noble.

(Shameless self-promotion) My thanks to those of you who have been buying there after going through a link here. I am an affiliate, and I do get commissions on everything you buy on a Barnes & Noble visit initiated from this blog. (/Shameless self-promotion)

The UK to have vending machines for phones

Vodaphone plans to offer phone-dispensing vending machines across the UK this year. See The Scotsman - Business - Fife firm at the heart of Vodafone's revolutionary phone vending plans by reporter Jennifer Hill for details.

(That noise you just heard was fiction writers screaming as their manuscripts just got outstripped by innovation again. But, Mommy, why didn't the hero just buy a phone at a kiosk? Couldn't he have called spy headquarters that way?)

Dewey's Treehouse: Good Friday Kiffle

I like food traditions that go along with holidays, don't you?

Next year for Good Friday, perhaps you'd like to make Good Friday Kiffle, aka Kolacky aka Kolache (but not to be confused with kipfel).

Addition: Danielle Bean shares a recipe for "Resurrection Rolls".

Money the bank can't give to customers

I was at the bank this morning, and the man just to my left casually -- too casually -- asked the teller if he had any one thousand dollar bills. The teller said they weren't made any more, sorry about that. The guy said he knew that, but he still wanted one. The teller said he'd never even seen one, nor a five hundred dollar bill, either, for that matter. The guy tried to make the teller promise that he'd hold any thousands or five hundreds that came in, just for him. The teller said he didn't think he could do that, sorry.

At this point an assistant manager came over and explained that the bank was required to send any $1,000 or $500 bills to the Federal Reserve, and was forbidden to give them out to customers.

Whereupon the customer swore he'd never ever tell.

Whereupon the bank people told him that wasn't the point.

Whereupon the guy begged. And got no sympathy. So then he tried to ferret out how much they got in silver certificates, and whether they ever got something else (I didn't catch it clearly, but I assume it was another bit of no-longer-issued money).

Whereupon the assistant manager explained that the bank wasn't in the collectibles business, sorry.

Whereupon the teller waved the next customer up. End of exchange.

I almost said something to my teller to the effect of "I wonder how long ago they stopped making them?" Thank goodness I didn't, because now that I find that, ahem, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, uh, it seems that "The $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 denominations have not been printed since 1946."

1946? Before I was born? There haven't been any $500 or $1000 bills in my lifetime (except in old books and movies, of which I've taken in several) and I never noticed?

I guess that tells you something about my lifestyle ;-).

From the same page linked above at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta:

Silver certificates, authorized in 1878 and issued in exchange for silver dollars, accounted for nearly all of the $1 notes in circulation until November 1963, when the first $1 Federal Reserve notes were issued.

Now that I got the memo on. I was rather young in 1963, but I remember a lot of fretting associated with going away from silver certificates. Don't ask me now what the fuss was all about, but some folks seemed to think it was a big deal at the time, and frightened some of us kids with their open anxiety. That's all I really remember, the sense of fear and disruption. Thank goodness the worrywarts were wrong yet again, eh?

For lots of links to sites with answers to commonly asked questions about U.S. money, past and present, see this page provided by the Library of Congress.

Young Iraqis helping watch churches during Easter celebrations

From Zenit News, as published at Catholic.net:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, APRIL 13, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Unarmed young people, along with the police, are keeping watch over Catholic churches in Baghdad during the Easter triduum celebrations.

"In this way, we would like to convey a feeling of tranquility and give a sign of peace in this special time of prayer and meditation," Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad told the SIR news agency.

"Our youth will help, pointing out people who are not known to the community or suspect vehicles that want to stop in front of the places of worship," he explained.

The bishop said that for the initial celebrations this Holy Week the "churches were brimming with people and everything is going in the best possible way, without any problems."...

Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is looking for new members

I was at FirstGov.gov looking for something else, and noticed an announcement asking for applications by April 28 for something called the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel:

Are you willing to serve your country and speak up on issues that impact taxpaying citizens nationwide? Are you aware of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issues in your community that are customer service or grassroots in nature and need to be addressed? A unique opportunity exists to influence how the IRS delivers services to the public by becoming a member of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP).

The TAP is a group of dedicated citizens who have volunteered to help the IRS identify ways to improve customer service and satisfaction. The Panel is a Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) group established under the authority of the Department of the Treasury and is composed of representatives from all States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

TAP is now accepting applications to fill member vacancies in the locations listed below...

It's a longish list, with qualifiers, so I'll let you go to the website to see if there's an opening for your part of the country. That's if you're interested, of course, and if you can meet the mandatory qualifications:

Be a citizen of the United States of America
Be current with all Federal tax obligations
Pass an FBI background check
Commit to serve a three-year appointment and devote approximately 300 to 500 volunteer hours per year to the Panel

Official recruitment page.

Applications may be made online.

So, now you know.

And, yes, now that you mention it, opening up applications from March 21 through April 28, neatly bracketing the federal tax deadline of April 15, strikes me as interesting timing. Gutsy, even. I'd hate to be the person screening some of the applicants who feel inspired to come forward just now, but luckily that's not my problem.

This kind of stage mother I can live with :-)

A pregnant Toronto television host had a 3D ultrasound while on the air. It's a heartwarming video clip, which you can catch over at Lost Budgie Blog.

hat tip: LifeSite.net

Life with kids...

Danielle Bean shares some of what she's learning about being a mother. Such as:

When the kids have been riding bicycles all day and hours later, after dark, you back the car out of the driveway and feel a sudden thud followed by a crunch, you might think you have run over a bike. But this is not so. You have merely enjoyed your turn on a carefully constructed "speed bump" made of a giant stack of logs and boulders...

(Children can be soooo industrious, can't they?)

She also has a nice explanation on why her family is having Thanksgiving dinner tonight (sans pumpkin pie).

I like this lady's style.

Using their imagination along with their legs

This sounds like a cool idea. Lake Grove Elementary School, in the Lake Oswego, Oregon, school district, invited kids to form four-kid teams to run, jog or walk around the playground three days a week during lunch recess. Teams get to chart their miles on a map, with the goal being to run the equivalent of a trip to the coast (a hundred miles) between April 10 and the end of the school year. For more, see the school's Bulletin for March 20-26, for starters. Look for the Lake Grove to Coast Relay for Kids (two entries).

hat tip: The Oregonian newspaper, dead tree edition, April 11, 2006, page B4.

What sorts of imagination-mixed-with-action activities does your local school have? Or your family? Or your neighborhood?

You know you're having a bad day when...

1. OK, so your kid tells you there's a wasp in the bathroom. What would you do?

You probably don't want to do this.

2. So you notice your boys need haircuts?

You probably don't want to call Larry Miller. (Although, of course, one hopes he's learned a few things about what not to do...)

Boys and work

To continue the theme of On the care and feeding of boys, I offer Sparrow's post at Intent which begins:

One of the driving factors in our decision to move to the country was the reality of raising three boys. Boys need room and space to play, sure - but more importantly, they need room to WORK...

Time well spent, quietly

Sometimes, a person should just sit back and ponder, don't you think? Karen Edmisten suggests that there's much to be said for some Masterly inactivity in people's lives.

Here in the Bonny Glen: How Do the Seasons Affect Your Reading Habits?

There has been a fair amount of talk in some circles lately about how long a book "stays read". Something about that concept has been nagging at me, but I hadn't been able to put my finger on it until I read this post by Melissa Wiley, in which (among other things) she says it suddenly struck her that she didn't necessarily want a book to stay read.

I think perhaps she's on to something. Why don't you go on over and let her explain what she means?

Putting climate change into perspective

Bob Carter, a geologist at James Cook University, Queensland, who is engaged in paleoclimate research, says There IS a problem with global warming... it stopped in 1998. (UK Telegraph, April 9, 2006)

In the article, Carter looks at the temperature curve for the last six million years, at the data from recent years, and at the difficulties in presenting scientific information in a political and cultural climate that rewards people who jump on the global warming bandwagon.

hat tip: Rush Limbaugh

Our gremlins turn out to be larger than anticipated

Yesterday evening, fixing supper, I heard a noise. I couldn't really identify it: voices but not voices, owl hoots but not owl hoots, with an underlay of clacking, none of it loud, and none of it clearly identifiable as anything I knew. I turned to my husband and asked, "What was that?"

He didn't know either, and was equally unable to describe it to his satisfaction. We agreed that it seemed to be one of those noises you think you've heard, but aren't sure you've heard. We tiptoed to the bathroom window, which seemed to be closest to the noise-that-maybe-we-heard-and-maybe-we-didn't, and looked out. (Yes, I know. When two people are not sure whether they've heard something at the same time, it's a good clue that there was a noise. But this noise was so odd, it was hard to believe I'd heard it, even with the evidence.)

Off and on all evening, we kept thinking we heard noises, sometimes like the first batch of noises, sometimes different. My husband, working in his home office after dinner, kept thinking he heard something walking around in the laundry room, and kept getting up to check. He couldn't find anything, and neither could I.

Finally, after four this morning, we had another set of odd noises, louder, that seemed to be concentrated on the back porch. My husband went to look out the window that overlooks the porch. He found himself face to face with two mule deer, who proceeded to whistle and snort and coo at him through the window. I had no idea mule deer had such a vocabulary, or that they can sound like they're holding actual conversations. It was definitely the noises we'd been hearing. On top of that, the back porch bumps up against the laundry room, and both have floors made of old lumber. When the deer walked around on the back porch, it sounded like something was walking in the laundry room. Mysteries solved, all of them.

We knew we had mule deer around here. We have seen herds of them in both the front yard and the back, sometimes seven or so of them, sometimes twice that. We would have known, without seeing them, because of all the droppings they've left behind this winter. I can only hope that the 'conversations' we heard yesterday were serious discussions about whether it was about time to leave town and go back into the hills for the summer. They are beautiful animals, but I do want my yard back.

Eaking-Spay Ussian-Ray

Priceless.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

Today, as I was walking around town, almost everyone I greeted couldn't resist gushing about what a wonderful morning it was. The forecast has threats of snow in it yet, possibly tonight or tomorrow, but this morning was Spring Writ Large. The weather was glorious, spring flowers are popping up all over, and people were overflowing with good spirits.

Nobody, however, was belting out one of the great belting-out songs of all time, in honor of the season. But some radio stations in France are... :-)

A hundred years ago April 18...

We're coming up on the 100th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. The USGS has info on the earthquake, its aftermath, and on activities related to the centennial.

WaterWatch -- Maps and graphs of current water resources conditions

The local creeks and rivers seemed a little high for this time of year to me. So I went looking for data that might tell me whether my hunch was right or not.

And that's how I found this wonderful resource for streamflows in the United States. You can click on the map for particulars for an area.

And, yes, I was right (for a change). Our streamflows in this part of Oregon are higher than normal right now.

But, yikes, the Eastern seaboard looks dry, overall. And California, for the most part, looks quite wet indeed...

Person First, Disability Later

Robin A. Meltzer, writing at aish.com, a Jewish site, gives us Person First, Disability Later, a heartfelt article which begins:

It is Yom Kippur, one-thirty in the morning. A young Jewish couple is in a hospital delivery room, minutes away from becoming first-time parents. Anticipation mixes with the holiness of the night. This child will be another link in the unbroken tradition leading all the way back to Sinai. And then she is born. The parents are elated. But the nurses fall silent; the doctors look uncomfortably at the floor. Because the baby has Down Syndrome. And that young Jewish couple is informed that their daughter, their precious first-born child, is some sort of mistake.

I was the mother on that delivery table. And on that Yom Kippur, in the middle of the night, I learned that being Julia's mother meant being her advocate. My job started immediately. My basic philosophy has remained constant over the past nine years: Julia is a unique individual, not a diagnosis. She must be given every opportunity to develop her capabilities. She is a full member of the Jewish community, entitled to the birthright of Torah and a Jewish education.

After the reception she got at the hospital, I hoped that the Jewish community would be more welcoming. And generally it was. But there is a lot of fear and misinformation.

This, from later in the article, tore my heart out:

To our great dismay, we also discovered that some confused and frightened parents are advised by their rabbis to abandon their babies with Down Syndrome in the hospital. While it is true that not all parents are capable of raising a child with special needs and that placing a child for adoption is sometimes the only choice, many more parents would take their baby home if their rabbi did not inveigh against it. Too often, these misguided assessments are viewed as a merciful response to the family's fear and misinformation about people with Down Syndrome, and not based on true Torah principles. New parents need support to work through the initial shock of diagnosis. They need time to get to know their baby, to hold her and rock her and sing some lullabies. If given the chance, most parents will realize that they love their baby very much and are quite able to raise her.

Read the whole post. It's got some Jewish terminology, etc., that I don't understand, but the plea to accept people with disabilities as individual people first and foremost comes through loud and clear. Be sure and look at the comments. The author seems to have hit a nerve.

Previous related post: Children with extra challenges, and the parents who love them

New blog: Blog of Virtues

A Catholic homeschooling mom started Blog of Virtues March 21, 2006. In her first post, she says:

Welcome to my new blog, where I will be sharing all the resources I find on teaching virtues and character building.

A roundabout hat tip to Melissa, who steered me to here, where I looked at the sidebar...

More Phyllis McGinley fans surface

Denny Hartford at the Book Den seems to have started something...

He wrote about poet and author Phyllis McGinley. I picked it up with Remembering Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978). This is how I found out that two fairly regular commenters here on my blog are McGinley fans (see the comments for that post).

Carmon at Buried Treasure ran across the same Book Den post, didn't know about McGinley, thought she sounded interesting, so ran with it in the post Domestic and Accomplished. Headmistress at The Common Room, who is a McGinley fan, picked up on Carmon's post and came up with one of her own, Poetry for Domestic Divas, Redux, in which she rather avidly recommends Phyllis McGinley's works.

I missed The Common Room's post last year on McGinley, which, among other things, mentions a children's book McGinley wrote called The Plain Princess, which sounds rather good, but which I didn't know about. (This is not to be confused with the book The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye.) Sadly, The Plain Princess seems to be currently out of print, and fairly scarce. Rats. It sounds like a book I'd like to read, if I can find a copy at the library or otherwise within my budget.

Anyway, I had thought that perhaps Phyllis McGinley was being lost to the mists of time, and I'm glad to see she isn't.

Joust The Facts: Look Before You Leap

I was working on a post on what I thought about heedless potshots in the blogosphere regarding journalist Jill Carroll, but I see that Giacomo has already covered it, and probably better than I was going to.

Recognizing a baby in the womb

The baby in the following story is about 19 weeks along:

[...]

In the car on the way home, a funny thing happened. The tech had given me printouts of both kinds of image [2-D and 3-D]. We were driving away from the hospital before I had a chance to look at the pictures. Puzzled, I stared at the 3-D closeup of the baby's face. It seemed ridiculous to say so, but this didn't look like the right baby. It was a different face, one I did not recognize.

Scott noticed my bewildered scrutiny. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," I said uncertainly. "It's just...this doesn't look like our baby."

"Um, honey," he said, glancing at my belly, "I'm pretty sure it's impossible for someone else's baby to be in there."

"I know it sounds crazy," I said. That's when I noticed the name printed in the upper corner of the image. It wasn't my name...

Read the whole post at Here in the Bonny Glen, by Melissa Wiley.

Exploring Scotland with Martha Morse

Author Melissa Wiley, hostess of the Here in the Bonny Glen blog, is compiling a list of kid-level books and other resources for families who want to know more about 'things Scottish' after reading in her Martha Morse books.

Subject areas covered so far are Spinning and Weaving, Music, Poetry and Literature, and Useful Websites.

Martha Morse was Laura Ingall Wilder's great-grandmother. Wiley has written several books about her for the "Little House" series. For more information from Barnes & Noble on Little House in the Highlands or other books in the series, click on the book cover below.


The Little House in the Highlands: (Little House Series: The Martha Years)

Remembering being ten

In Dewey's Treehouse: Ten-year-old you, Mama Squirrel looks back at when she was ten, and invites others to do the same.

The Common Room suggests some books for the under-six crowd

The Common Room: Poetry with Pictures lists several of their family's favorite books to read to the very young.

Isn't it funny what gets missed sometimes?

I don't care what you do, there are always going to be gaps in a child's upbringing. Luckily, the mom at A Picturesque Life turned a surprising discovery into a wonderful post about a simple joy she didn't know was missing in her daughter's life.

It brought a smile to my face. I hope you enjoy it.

The Third Carnival of Children's Literature

Sherry at the Semicolon blog took a different approach for the Third Carnival of Children's Literature -- she broke it into almost-daily doses for the entire month of April. With sidenotes. This is what I believe is called a tough act to follow ;-).