Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Web Log for 5.25.26

This web site officially hopes all its US readers had a happy Memorial Day. It was wet, here--badly needed rain--all night and in the morning, with a bit of sunshine for some relatives who came up to maintain their parents' graves. (Most of my elders didn't want to be buried near where people lived and raised crops, but a few of them reserved a small field for that purpose.) 

It's another day with lots and lots of e-mail, nearly all of it boiling down to "read my book," and more music links than any other kind.

Movie 

Free on YouTube, but probably not for long since Disney can still get money out of it, is Eddie Murphy's Distinguished Gentleman, a 1992 comedy about what might happen if some young people from a gritty city neighborhood happened to get into Congress. Eddie's character, Thomas Jefferson Johnson,  meets Congressman Jefferson Davis Johnson at a party where TJ and friends are working a scam on a rich older man. The party is a celebration of Congressman Johnson's successful surgery; whe he says "I never felt better," early 1990s audiences knew he'd be sicker or dead in the next scene. He's dead. Ballots with his name on them have already been printed. TJ obtains the Congressman's widow's blessing to campaign as"Jeff Johnson, the Name You Know." He wins. While he and his friends are frantically studying How a Bill Becomes a Law and other things most Washingtonians learned in grade twelve, young Jeff Johnson has to think hard about whether he's there to get rich, or to do good in a way that will impress a cute, earnest staffer.

For Eddie Murphy it's a surprisingly clean script--Murphy was known for what might then have been fresh, creative use of formerly unprintable words. There are scenes where it's obvious that people are misbehaving, but it's a Disney movie. We see couples with their clothes on incompromising positions, but no bare skin and no serious hitting. TJ Johnson is about as good as his slinky female cousin at impersonating the "Girls of Many Nations" who get a dollar a minute for smutty phone chat and get even more by threatening to tell clients' wives about their calls, but we hear only a few silly, suggestive lines. 

It's a nostalgia trip, ofcourse. In the early 1990s movies premiered in theatres, and all Eddie Murphy movies stayed in theatres for months on end; everybody wanted to watch them. And maybe, just maybe, the nostalgia might remind some people who are in our Capitol...it's easy to be no worse, ethically, than some Congressmen and their staff have been in history, but it's also possible to use those offices to help people.


MAHA! Do it for your grandmother! (By the way, most readers have probably seen the trailers for the CHD documentary about military personnel who rejected those new, untested COVID vaccines. If you have a group that rents theatres, you might offer The Courage to Disobey as a feature and The Distinguished Gentleman as dessert for those who sat through the grim facts...)

Music 

Lee Greenwood.


George Harrison.



Sam the Sham.


Queen.


Wu Fei.


Mark Knopfler.


Bing Crosby.


Enya.


Glen Campbell.


Mannheim Steamroller.


Handel...I think the thought has more to do with Memorial Day than some want to admit.


Albert Hash.


Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.


Hillary Klug. I'm fairly sure the story is a tall tale.


Advertisement for a guitar teacher, I think.


The Weakerthans. Warning: some depressive people rate this one depressing.


Pentangle.


Buffy Sainte-Marie. Warning: if you listen to the words, this one really is depressing.


Sam Hinton.


Beethoven. Definitely not depressing. 


Isaac Harris.


Gordon Bok.


War Story 

This: 

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Petfinder Post: Bergamascos and Other Very Hairy Pets

Next on the list of dog breeds the Busybodies of Britain would like to render extinct are the Bergamascos or Italian Sheepdogs. These dogs are so shaggy they're not always immediately recognizable as dogs. They look like very large wads of hair.


A show-quality Bergamasco. Photo from Google.

Although the object looks like a big wig, there is a dog inside the hair. Quite a large dog, in fact--show-quality females must weigh at least 55 pounds and males can weigh over 85 pounds. It doesn't look as if the dog could be healthy and happy inside such a mess but the consensus of veterinary opinion is that they are. The only hereditary health problem they're at all likely to have is weak joints. They are generally healthy dogs. Big dogs often have shorter lives, but Bergamascos often live longer than small dogs or cats, 13 to 15 years.

The long hair, which naturally forms felted dreadlocks, thrives on neglect. It helps the dogs survive the cold, harsh weather high up in the Alps. Breed experts say Bergamascos do best when they're not combed or bathed too often, and the coat should not be shaved. The felted hair doesn't shed! The hair starts to grow long when the logs are about a year old. When this happens, Bergamasco owners spend a few days "ripping" the matted hair into dreads. Then it's all done. New hair will grow into the existing strings and felt down so that it never sheds much, and the dog needs only two or three baths a year..

Bergamascos are typically less frantically energetic than some other shepherd-type breeds, but they do need a fair amount of exercise. According to the American Kennel Club they can't just be left in the back yard to burn off their energy. They were bred for a tendency to bond with one man and want to exercise with him, if not climbing the Alps together at least walking, running, and playing with toys together in a big yard or park. 

Bred to guard sheep rather than guide them, Bergamascos aren't usually entered in the athletic events in which some shepherd-type dogs compete. They can and should be trained in basic "good dog" behavior like walking at heel and using a designated "toilet" space. They are usually said to make good family pets, patient and protective, but even those who love these dogs say they see themselves as part of their master's family, peers rather than pets of his parents, wife, and children. They seldom attack anybody but growl and threaten outsiders who approach their home.

So, if the dogs typically have long healthy lives and seldom attack other animals or humans, what's these people's problem with the breed? Well...the Bergamasco doesn't look like their fantasy of how dogs ought to have evolved, or be evolving. These people may place faith in evolution as their God but they don't trust it enough not to try to control it. If the Bergamasco has adapted to survive in the Alps, they fume, it can't be well suited to exist in England. 

The dogs' need for veterinary care is usually minimal. The busybodies' need for help...hey, nobody's claimed that they can be helped, but there ought to be humane ways of keeping them from making themselves tedious to the rest of society.

There are not and don't need to be a lot of Bergamascos in the United States. As a result there aren't a lot of Bergamascos in shelters. Petfinder doesn't even have a category for this breed. This week's photo contest is for large shaggy animals, both dogs and cats. In the US neither species' ancestors are likely to include Italian Sheepdogs but shelters do offer opportunities for anyone who fancies the Bergamasco to live with an animal that has an abundance of fur.

Zipcode 10101: Shiloh from Houston by way of NYC


Rescued from a hoarder, called Shiloh because he is shy, this big friendly mutt doesn't want to hurt or scare anybody and acts scared as a submissive display until he gets to know people. He has put up with abuse from smaller dogs. He needs a home where the senior dog, if there is one, will play nice. They think his ancestors include terriers, retrievers, poodles, and who knows what else. His healthy weight is over 80 pounds. 

Akuna from West Nyack 


Yes, that's her sister's paw kneading her flank. The two Maine Coon cats grew up together and were put up for adoption when someone suddenly developed allergies. Probably the cats were blamed for triggering reactions to one of the poisons in the current version of "Roundup." Anyway they're a large fluffy breed so they're big shaggy cats, well behaved, used to being house pets.

Zipcode 20202: Felicity from Texas by way of DC



Felicity's ancestors include Great Pyrenees (like Huck) and probably Golden Retrievers (like Marley). She likes to play and might get to like other animals, but she wants to have a loving home and may cling to a human whose pet she wants to be. Being in a cooler climate seems less important to her than being a house pet again. The shelter staff sound a bit like control freaks--instead of talking about fostering to find out how this dog might fit into your family, they brag about their ability to place dogs with people who say the dog they've rescued is a perfect match, possibly because that's easier than going through the shelter's "screening process" again. However, if you want a big shaggy sweetie-pie of a dog, this is one. Felicity's base adoption fee is high, as if she were a purebred Great Pyrenees, and a fee will be added for transportation depending on mileage and, by the look of things, whether the driver wants to visit your city. 

Honor from Stafford 



Honor and her sister Freedom have separate pages so you can fall in love with one cat's photo, but they're a package deal. They are not for everyone and come with low price tags but fair warnings: They are wary of new people and especially wary of men, children, and dogs. A home without small children or dogs would be best. Honor is the bold sister who likes to park her considerable weight (each cat's healthy weight is in the 12-15 pounds range) on top of her human, lick skin, and drool to show affection. Freedom is the shy sister for whom staying in the same room with you means she's getting to like you. They like to nap on, under, and among blankets and quilts. Apparently they grew up in an all-female home and would acclimate most easily to another all-female home. 

Zipcode 30303: Zoe from Tennessee by way of Atlanta 


Great Pyrenees dogs have a lot of hair. Strangers come up to their humans and tell them earnestly that it's not good for dogs to be obese, when the dogs are healthy and well exercised under their thick heavy coats. Like other very hairy dogs bred in cold climates, the dogs get some insulation from their coats but may still overheat easily and do best in colder parts of the US. In the South they tend to like lying in front of the air conditioner.

Zoe's ancestors probably include Great Pyrenees and Australian Shepherd, and other things. Somebody fell in love with her big hair and found that there was too much dog underneath for some lazy body to handle. Zoe and her sister were rescued from a house where they were kept chained up outside all the time. She does need a large yard with a high board fence, not a chain-link fence--she likes to climb on and over chain-link fences. She needs attention and walks and games and love. Zoe is cautious about new people and situations, but affectionate with the right people. 

Reginald from Fort Oglethorpe 


Thought to be part Maine Coon, Reginald's healthy weight is in the 12-15 pounds range. He is about ten years old and has outlived his original human. He's friendly, but set in his ways and likely to take his time about bonding. 
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Book Review: Mystic Brews and Malice

Title: Mystic Brews and Malice

Author: Karen McSpade

Date: May 26, 2026

Quote: "For a second, I thought I heard someone singing."

Samara Snow is just starting to enjoy the second half of her life in Winter Haven, Maine, but doesn't feel really "settled." Her "first perfect feeling" there arrives on a date with Jack. But Jack is a Mundane, a Muggle--isn't he?--and Samara is a psychic witch, as featured in TV sitcoms. How will Jack be able to handle his relative lack of contro?

That'd be telling. Anyway, first things first. They have to find out whether a local politician murdered his campaign opponent, and find and lay to rest the Siren who's been leading ships astray.

Samara doesn't know it for sure yet, but she has "come home" to a town that accepts witches, friends who will become her family, and a Partner for Life. She's even bonded with her familiar, Pumpkin, a cat who speaks English. She enjoys having a tea shop, though she's not learned to bake her own tea cakes yet. And it's lucky that she's a good sailor, because a substantial part of the action in this story takes place in boats.

Not all of it, though. While challenging the wicked witch of Winter Haven, Samra will learn to fly. She learns although that traditional English witches never flew on broomsticks, a broomstick is like training wheels for a beginner...and onto her broomstick and off to the fray she goes. 

If you're going to be an escape fantasy trope, it always helps to be a nice one. Samara is as easy to like as Sidney Grace, the witch in this author's earlier popular series set on Flroida, only at the other end of life and the other end of the United States' Atlantic coast. You'll enjoy the slow steady realistic pace of her relationship with Jack and her willingness to face danger to keep her townsfolk, even the ones she doesn't like much, from being unfairly condemned. 
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Monday, May 25, 2026

New Book Review: Murder and the Coffee Bean Betrayal

Title: Murder and the Coffee Bean Betrayal

Author: Andi Cane

Date: May 25, 2026

Quote: "This is not what was ordered."

The coffee beans ordered in big heavy sacks have included sacks of what used to be called Hollow Roast--sacks with inner pockets that concealed smuggled goods, in this case collectible silver medallions. Hattie thinks that was just an historical curiosity until the man who's pronounced a sack "not what was ordered" is found dead. 

This is not the chatty, charming sort of cozy mystery where recipes and cute animals play an important role. Hattie learns a fair bit about coffee, collectibles, and smuggling, and sweats over a plan to make people willing to believe who committed the murder. It's not really a "hard-boiled" story, with only one murder solved by a little old lady and a few friends, but neither is it the kind you revisit after solving the mystery just for the pleasure of the characters' company. 


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Web Log for 5.24.26

One of those days when it looked as if it were about to rain, but hardly a drop fell, all...day...long.

Animals 

In Greek literature Calliope was a woman's name. In English it's a musical instrument, but it's also a species of hummingbird found in some Western States. 


Photo from https://roadsendnaturalist.com/2026/05/22/calliope/ , which has more photos and live video of the little guy stretching his wing and tail feathers. 

A flamboyance of flamingos:


Book 

For snark aficionados: A memorable moment in the history of a copy of Andrei Codrescu's book Bibliodeath, which this web site warmly recommended more than ten years ago, and recommends still. 


Christian 

C.S. Lewis fans will remember that, in his writing about the pure essence of friendship, Lewis often seemed to have in mind his admiration for one of the Inklings in particular: a younger Christian writer called Charles Williams, who died before most of the older Inklings did. I've not seen a copy of Williams' nonfiction Christian book yet, though I have read his brilliantly strange fantasy fiction. (Once the background reading's been done the fiction makes sense. Not before.) Here, anyway, is a selection from a US edition of The Descent of the Dove that may still be in stores.


Conspiracy Theories 

A right-wing correspondent reports that people are voluntarily wearing face masks again. Is it a new conspiracy to revive the COVID panic? 

Save your fear energy, right-wingers. Some of my other correspondents are freely discussing their use of face masks. (No link, because nobody needs to harass these people.) It's what's called a dry season. Great for people with mold allergies; not so good for people with pollen and dust allergies. Rain's not dampening down the pollen and dust. Nor is it washing down the chemical pollution that I suspect really causes the reactions that pollen and dust merely trigger. Some people find that by wearing masks they can enjoy more sunshine before they start coughing and sneezing.

Really.

Not that it might not be a good thing to address the pandemic of government dependency, which has reached such dysfunctional depths that people actually imagine that governments should somehow be able to manage diseases. Not that it might not be useful to lock down government offices, reduce the government workforce by two-thirds, raise the cost of regulations to a level where anything less life-and-death urgent than a glyphosate ban could end a bureaucrat's career, and generally bring government budgets down in proportion with the way the COVID panic brought the economy down. Not that non-essential, not-really-even-government organizations like WHO shouldn't go the way of your neighborhood ethnic restaurant.

But what's with this sexist bigotry of blaming (mostly women) for trying to cope with their own allergies in their own harmless way? Isn't that the old coward instinct to attack what appears to be a weak target and never mind whether it has anything to do with the actual threat?

Funny 

Well, I chortled.


Arguably this should go under "Politics," but when the "politician" in question is the bad boy character from a scripted "reality TV" program of years gone by, and the opposition is coming from the sister-in-law of a has-been comedian whose show was cancelled for making groundless accusations of murder...


Memorial Day 

As regular readers know, I don't have a lot of patience with the idea of decorating graves. If people were worth remembering, and of course they were, it was for what they did, for what they gave to this world. Remember that. Carry it on. In whatever tiny, inept, unworthy way, carry on a little of what your departed friends and relatives did.

I'm not claiming that I, personally, have a lot to build on the foundations my departed friends laid while they were alive. I don't. All I'm saying is that I think whatever I can do toward their goals is a better memorial to them than a lot of flowers left on a grave. It's good to maintain some reminder of where graves are, so that people don't inadvertently dig them up; there's no need to be mawkish about it.

But it's worth remembering, too, that Memorial Day started out as a day to remember the war dead. 

This link is to a grim, gruesome, disgusting war story. I think Dennis Santaniello timed this story for this weekend for a reason. I think it's appropriate to reflect on those killed in wars, and how they died, and what they died for. The characters in this story died in what they were told was a war to end all wars. 

What have we done toward that goal?


Music 

Not many music links today, but here's Wings.


John Scalzi...has done much better "covers."


Obituary 

Vince Staten remembers Frank Gibson.


Weddings 

According to actual scientific studies, it may be best for the marriage if a wedding party skimps on decorations and goes wild on invitations. Apparently, the investment that really shows commitment is not the biggest diamond or longest skirt, but the number of relatives who gather to celebrate. 


In line with which, a party idea I've always liked specifies that bridesmaids must wear skirts (provided) and groomsmen must wear bow ties (provided). This allows the bride to pick a color scheme and enforce it without anyone having to spend a lot of money on a dress or suit that the person considers unflattering, overpriced, or itchy. 
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Butterfly of the Week: Tabora Lady

Or Miombo Lady, or Tabora or Miombo White Lady, Swordtail, Swallowtail... Graphium taboranus looks very similar to Graphium arisbe, Graphium schaffgotschi, Graphium morania, and others, so some authorities don't even list them as separate species. Some sources list Graphium arisbe taboranus or Graphium taboranus morania or some other combination as if these are only subspecies. This view may be fully accepted some day. Scientists have yet to gather enough facts about these butterflies to  debate intelligently.

There are also scientists who want to split the Graphium genus, which certainly has a lot of species in it, and use Arisbe as the genus name. I only report these things.

Anyway Graphium taboranus, which for our present purposes we shall accept as a species, is found near a mountain called Tabora, and in and near a forest called Miombo, and in several places in sub-Saharan Africa. Is the species endangered, or is it just that some local populations have declined sharply? How could you tell? Even experts who dissect dead butterflies aren't too positive about identifying the White Lady species. They're not exactly alike, but casual visitors to nature parks can't be sure which is which when the butterflies are flapping their wings.

Graphium taboranus is reported from Zambia to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has a wide range. It's not uncommon or thought to be endangered, but is believed to be less common than the look-alike species that share its range. In Angola, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia, it is probably active for most or all of the year. It is believed to live on trees in the genus Annona, small trees that typically have toxic leaves but bear edible fruit. 

As a result of this confusion, there aren't a lot of photos of living Graphium taboranus on the Internet. It's popular--it's featured on postage stamps--but all people know for sure is that it looks like other butterflies that share its range. There are no photos of this species on sites like Inaturalist. Of 189 links  Google pulled up in a search for this species, over 150 were just checklists of all the Graphium species.


At the time of writing, one of these Botswana stamps was for sale for $7 on EBay: 


Taboranus means "of or from Tabora" and doesn't sound like either of the two English words it can be broken into. When words Caesar never heard are "Latinized" there's room for legitimate differences of opinion about how they ought to sound. Not this one. In English, at least, it's ta-BOR-an-us. 



Photo by Adalbert Seitz, 1924, public domain.

Photos ofa female museum specimen, top and bottom views,are at the bottom of page 19 of


Graphium taboranus could and may hybridize with look-alike species arisbe, endochus, morania, ridleyanus, and schaffgotschi. Filling in the records of how these butterflies are alike and different, how they live, and whether they are especially valuable to humans or merely an important part of the ecosystem, are still wide-open opportunities for Africans to become famous.

The life cycle is currently undocumented. By now regular readers can guess what the egg, caterpillar, and chrysalis will be found to look like. It remains for Africans to confirm or disprove our guesses.
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Sunday, May 24, 2026

Web Log Weekender for 5.22-23.26

I didn't spend much time link hunting this weekend. Too much reality kept going on.

Advertising, Vile


Found on the Meow, credited to Look magazine, 1966. Thank goodness I never saw THAT ad. Mother was just about to purge white sugar from the house. I minded. Even in 1966 I was capable of planning a campaign of intolerable brattiness...

Some people undoubtedly planned such campaigns and succeeded. They're the ones still telling farmers that the farmers need "pesticides."

Music 

Another Schneeman bowed psaltery demonstration.


The Beatles.


Jakob Longfield.


Politics 

The majority of Americans are not, never were, and never will be Loony Left globalists. The majority of politicians' biggest donors are Loony Left globalists. That's why it's important that even the Bright Young Things lapping up the attention to their petty fights need to stop with the in-fighting. We can disagree; we don't need to attack one another.


Shared by Robert L. Malone, whom some of us need to stop attacking. He's not perfect, he may be wrong about some things, but stop with the hysterical leftist language about it. If you don't agree with him, state your case without any screeching about how he's a traitor, he's a horse thief, he probably molested your grandmother when she was ten years old, blah blah blah on--no doing the haters' job for them. Anyway Lens traces the meme to somebody called Curejoy Inspirations on F******k.
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Book Review: The Strong-Willed Child

Title: The Strong-Willed Child

Author: James Dobson

Date: 1978

Publisher: Tyndale

ISBN: 0-8423-6661-X

Length: 240 pages

Quote: “Most parents have at least one such youngster who seems to be born with a clear idea of how he wants the world to be operated.”

It’s James Dobson, so you know what to expect, right? Religious Right? Right! Dobson may be remembered as an advocate of physical correction for children.

I personally believe that parents have a right to use reasonable physical correction on children. I was spanked as a child, by other older people as well as my own parents, and I don't think it did me a bit of harm. In fact one of the more loving things my father ever did for me, as a child, was to knock me down flat...before I could step on a venomous snake. I'd hope I'd be able to do that for a child today. However, apart from a few obvious correctives like "Don't step on that snake" or "Don't play with matches" or "You're not allowed to hit other people," I don't remember spanking doing me any good, either. It didn't leave physical or psychic scars but it completely failed to teach me what adults wanted me to do instead of whatever I'd been doing. Before trying to justify slapping a little hand, adults need to consider what we want the child to learn. If it's "Keep the house clean," then instead of slapping the child who carelessly spills food on the floor, it makes more sense to direct the child to clean up the mess. Venting emotions at children may or may not scare them; it does distract them from absorbing information. It teaches them "Teacher doesn't like me" instead of "Kicking the back of the seat ahead of me is rude."

If you have a reasonable level of tolerance for Dobson’s school of thought, there’s still room for doubt about how useful a book about rearing children can be. Dobson can’t even claim extensive firsthand experience with being the parent of a strong-willed child; according to him, the member of his household who best exemplified this trait was a dog. Dobson is an expert on applying Bible teachings to family matters, but in this book he is admittedly out of his field, and it shows. Strong-willed children can be introverts or extroverts and this is one case where the distinction is crucial: the way adults relate to an introvert child’s will needs to be almost opposite from the way they relate to an extrovert child’s will. Dobson’s approach is geared only toward extroverts.

Dobson’s dog was never very well trained, but it did eventually learn to obey “a few simple commands.” One day, after years of obeying “Go to your bed,” the dog defied Dobson and wanted to spend the night on the fluffy toilet lid cover near the heater. It growled, snapped, tried to bite. “That tiny dog and I had the most vicious fight ever staged between man and beast” before Dobson moved the dog into its bed. The next night, when told “Go to your bed,” the dog went. Dobson reports that during the next four years it didn’t challenge Dobson again.

Strong-willed children, Dobson is saying, are like his little “alpha dog.” They challenge adults. A young father whose idea of quality time with his child was to take a three-year-old to a basketball game told the kid, “don’t go past this line.” “He had no sooner returned to his seat than the toddler scurried in the direction of the forbidden territory...and deliberately placed one foot over the line.”

The archetypal, or Archie-Bunker-typal, right-wingers in Dobson’s intended audience clearly believed that parents and others who work with children need to be “tough enough to make [the children] obey.” Those who believe that humans should “obey” other humans only in the sense of respecting others’ rights and boundaries, that the way to teach children math or manners or morals is to call their attention to our examples when necessary, may not like this book.

The strong-willed or Type A personality trait is sometimes considered basically an extrovert trait—the only functional personality trait that is correlated with extroversion. That may account for Dobson’s neglect of introvert children. However, the trait is independent of extroversion. In fact Type A’s who don’t show the more fully developed neurological “wiring” of true introverts still tend to be high-functioning extroverts, who “like to get things done, whether with others or alone,” and while they like to take control of their environment they don’t compulsively clamor for control of other people’s attention. To assume that “the strong-willed child” is an extrovert is probably a mistake. 

Introverts are not shy so much as inner-directed; if what they want to do can be better done with a group, they can organize and lead the group without showing any interest whatsoever in maintaining “social leadership” as a form of ongoing control of other people. The “natural leader” of one activity may, in the absence of personal hostility, prefer to let someone else be the “natural leader” of another activity. It’s possible for Type A’s who identify as extroverts to be survivors of twentieth century America’s cultural war on introversion, during which we were told things like “You aren’t, or don’t want to be, an introvert—you’re not shy, you’re attractive, persuasive, a natural leader when you choose to be...” Neurological tests might quantify how many Americans who consider themselves to be extroverts are, in fact, no such thing. It would be interesting to know the results of neurological studies on many celebrity politicians, movie stars, athletes, and business leaders. Successful musicians are typically introverts; I suspect successful people in other fields may be strong-willed introverts too.

Little introverts may or may not be particularly strong-willed, but when they are, it’s unlikely that even the human version of a “vicious fight” will do them much good. Unlike dogs, children grow bigger and stronger, and see that adults grow less strong, every year. A strong-willed introvert child who is subdued for the moment by forcible correction will eventually hit back. On the other hand introverts have that inner sense of “rightness” that, if the child is not battered, will naturally teach the child that hitting other people is as wrong as singing off key, coloring outside the lines, or leaving a mess on the floor. Parents can recruit the strong will of an introvert child. This is the child who may need occasional correction, but generally behaves reasonably. Misbehavior is usually best corrected by addressing the reason for it. Attempts to “break” a strong-willed introvert child can be physically dangerous to the adult, or to a younger or slower-witted child on whom a child like Charles Schultz’s “Lucy” may dump emotions. This child must be reasoned with.

Practical rewards and punishments for these two types of children are almost mirror images. Almost all children perceive candy as a reward and beating as a punishment, but obviously neither candy nor beating can be used every day. What introverts want in social relationships is the kind of respect that backs off and allows them to do things by themselves; they don’t particularly want attention, and may perceive group attention as a punishment. What extroverts want is control of as many people’s attention as possible; they like to be liked or respected, but they’d rather start a fight and lose it than be left to do something by themselves. Parents can use their attention to reward and punish specific behavior. Introvert children respond well to directives like “When you’ve accomplished X, you earn points toward (money, computer time, etc.).” Extrovert children may need directives like “When you’ve been completely quiet for one hour, then I’ll listen to you for five minutes.”

Confusion is understandable since strong-willed Type A’s are the ones who invented the idea of “ambiverts.” Either they have introverts’ neurological assets or they don’t. Mostly they don't but, given adequate motivation, they can be comfortable either working alone or organizing groups of people to focus on the tasks of their choice. Usually they’re intelligent enough to see the advantages of working well with others, so after the toddler tantrum stage they develop good, often charming, social manners. Their strong personalities can easily seem to have both introvert and extrovert “personality strength.” They tend to like this idea; they like to think they’re in full control of their own personalities. However, for purposes of behavior modification, it will help adults to know which a child really is.

While Dobson is probably right about it being good for young children to know that their parents’ wills are even stronger than theirs, the image of a “vicious fight” may still be inappropriate. Type A’s can perceive their ability to laugh off punishments as desirable enough that they actively invite punishments. While some Type A’s internalize the idea of not only strict but harsh physical discipline, and grow up to be child abusers, others convince themselves that they’ve been martyrs for their “cause” of sloppiness, irreverence, profanity, sexual self-indulgence, or disrespect of their elders. The prudent adult will use insight into their temperament to reinforce desirable behavior with positive rewards. Type A’s respect a firm consistent stand longer than they do a “vicious fight.”

By overlooking neurological differences, Dobson produced yet another twentieth century book that may be useful to parents of extroverts, but drifts in and out of touch with reality as introverts know it. By 1978 the world didn’t need any more of those.

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Saturday, May 23, 2026

Book Review: Death at the Hargrove House

Title: Death at the Hargrove House

Author: Blossom Cole

Date: May 22, 2026

This is a full-length, tersely written murder mystery with lots of clues and plot twists. Even more than a mystery, though, it's a novel about the way we think of people.

Mystery stories can be told in different ways that suit different readers. When a clue is found, I'm more likely to pay attention and get into solving the mystery if I'm told what it is. "The dog smelled something" is a clue in itself; if I were there in real life I probably wouldn't know what the dog smelled either. "She picked something off the floor" might be a clue if we're watching "her" from outside the window, but if the story's being told from "her" point of view, I tend to lose patience with the detective who doesn't tell me what she picked up and why. If I were there in real life and didn't see the object first, I'd have a good look at that bag! If you enjoy the micro-mystery of trying to guess what amateur detective Mari (short for Marigold) has spotted, you will enjoy this book and want to buy the author's other published book about her, too. 

If you enjoy a study of how emotions creep in and distort our most logical thinking...I would have preferred a counter-stereotype study of how this works for a man, but that dynamic is easy to observe in the real world after all. This is an excellent study of how it works for a woman. 

Some readers will also appreciate that only one character is murdered in the time frame of the story. There's a second murder, but it occurred a long time ago. I like detectives who can do something with the evidence from one murder and not wait for another one.

Some will like the mix of Mari's hardheaded logical approach with the cozy atmosphere of her small-town bakery and cute dog. Ginger is a "goldendoodle," a "designer breed" produced by crossing golden retrievers with poodles. Some people might enjoy and draw out the lovable goofball side such a dog probably inherited from its retriever ancestors. Mari appreciates and draws out her pet's sensitive, quietly observant side. 

Some will enjoy the slow progress of Mari's friendship with a police detective she still calls by his family name, Cross. He might have been a bit "cross" with her, even seeming to work at "cross purposes," in the first volume of what feels like a building series. He respects her and Ginger now. "You work well together," someone tells Mari, who bristles: "He does his job and I do mine." "That's what I mean," she's told. Will they become a couple? Will they become a role model of sex-free friendship? Keep reading...
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Friday, May 22, 2026

Bad Poetry: Dead Tree?

Almost every year I think
"That peach tree's gone to come no more."
I turn my back on it, I blink,
and it's borne peaches by the score.

This herky-jerky winter, mild
days coaxed it into early bloom
the night before a hard freeze. Wild
trees mostly fall to such a doom.

The Feral Peach Tree's blossoms clung
on through the freeze, and bloomed still more
when it had passed. The first fruit hung
before Memorial Day. There's more

where that fruit came from. It's a tree
not seen before, nor seen again.
An evildoer slipped out free
from those who said they'd keep him in,

sprayed poison on the Feral Peach.
The branches that the spray could touch 
look dead now. Dormant, all and each.
Men have been hanged for half as much.

"The peach tree's dead," a visitor said.
Don't count on it. I think, like me,
that tree has vowed to keep its bed
and watch until the night we see

the evildoer on the ground,
by his own poison felled at last,
condemned to lie as he is found
till ninety days and nine have passed.

The tree will drop a rotten peach
to draw ants to where he did fall
and he will lie there and beseech
that someone come out, help to call,

and as he's made air so unpleasant
those who believe we should forgive
this vain, presumptuous, cringing peasant
stay in the houses where they live,

and I will call the notary,
the lawyer, and policemen, too,
to see our common enemy--
he can't repent, but how he'll rue!

And he'll learn, as his victims learned,
that doctors are no use at all
when glyphosate is what has burned
the skin that's doomed to rot and fall.

And I don't doubt the peach tree, too,
in its own way, will laugh to see,
unfailingly, the poison do
more harm to him than it or me.

Optional cut-off point for tired eyes.

The Famous Feral Elberta Peach Tree currently has three high branches, each loaded with more peaches than they look as if they could bear. Once again it's hurt, but I don't think it's dead. It has more life in it than all the other peach trees in the orchard had, together. 

That stubborn sell-out everybody loves to hate, you know, the old man who looks a bit like our late founding member Oogesti but has lately started looking "older" than Oogesti ever did, has put some obstacles in what looked like the clear path of Glyphosate Awareness. This week a local case involving pesticide vapor drift was judged in favor of the poisoner. 

So? I said to the Bad News Bear who drove up to bear this bad news. Is it not said that, when the pretty girls line up on one side of an issue, that side is about to win? All the young, pretty female Congressmen voted the right way on the Farm Bill. Spraying poison should be recognized as a violent crime against persons in another year or two. Meanwhile, even that judge who's about to retire reportedly said "Spraying on someone else's property is a different matter." I don't think my neighborhood is going to have a Bad Neighbor for very many more days. 

About the old man in Washington, I don't know. I hope he does have a soul that is capable of real repentance. I think people should be praying that he has.

As for the peach tree...you probably have to be local to appreciate this. Peach trees do not usually live long, this high up the Blue Ridge. The long hard freeze killed most. The sudden late freeze killed most that had survived that. The poison spraying? Hah. It's bearing fruit. 

Some trees are super-fertile the year before they die, but this one's been super-fertile for ten years in a row already. I think it thinks it's an apple or persimmon tree, something that's supposed to be strong and hardy. It did not get the memo that peach trees are supposed to die if you look at them the wrong way.

I doubt that anybody will get the full, rich flavor of an Elberta peach off the famous tree this year. It wouldn't be fit to eat, this year, anyway. Next year I won't be surprised if that tree is bowed down to the ground with sweet, ripe peaches, as so many times before. It does not rest for years in between crops, as other peach trees do.

Somewhere, one of the pits of one of its fruits will sprout into another tree like it. One, but probably not two. 
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Web Log for 5.21.26

It rained off and on all day. Cleaned the air, good for the land, good for any crops that may manage to grow this summer after the crazy winter and spring weather. A lot of things that would normally be starting to bear fruit have yet to bloom. I spent a good part of the day sleeping, because there were good reasons to stay awake all night, and most of the rest waking myself up with the mad mix of music e-friends had posted. Lots and lots of links came in today! And almost every one of them was to a book somebody wanted me to buy or sell!

Camping Weekend

The Bruderhof confirmed: it's free of charge. Three days in Walden, New York, good food, lots of Christian seminars and discussions, aimed at the Millennial Generation. They respect non-Christian beliefs. Of course, this weekend is especially recommended to those who think they might be interested in joining a Christian community, pooling resources and working for the good of the group. This is the real experience socialism tries (and fails) to replicate: people freely choose to live like an extended family. Each one has per own immediate family and personal paraphernalia. Other resources are pooled, so nobody has to buy a car and every licensed driver has the use of any of the cars the group agree that they need. The groups become very close-knit. Young people who want to stay in the group naturally want to meet people their own age who don't feel like cousins. If you ae young and think communal life might be for you if you found the right people, here is a chance to find out more about the lifestyle and a group that's ready to expand. You will not be asked for money. Poor but talented people can join. You should take a nice guest gift anyway.

It should perhaps be emphasized that a Bruderhof community is not for slackers. You will be assigned a job. You will be expected to work as long as you're physically able. The Bruderhof are best known for furniture factories. Some groups do other kinds of work, like looking after people with massive brain damage. You can drop out of the corporate rat race but you will be spending a good part of each day doing something that other people find useful. 


Music 

Sandy Denny.


Beethoven.


Tom Petty.



The Mighty Sniper.


Avishai Cohen.


Barcelona Gypsy Klezmer.


The Beatles.


Jack Soref Trio.


Fairport Convention.


Jesse Colin Young.


B.J. Thomas.


Bach.


Etienne de Lavaulx.



Elton John.


G.E. Schneeman demonstrates an instrument called the bowed psaltery.


Shirley Temple.


Ludovico Einaudi.



Neil Young.


ZZ Top.


Politics 

Maybe some people can follow the concept better in a video.


Word 

Although this web site has favorably reviewed novels by Lyssa Lund, this web site always wonders about people who name their daughters Lyssa...

In Greek the prefix A- meant "not." Alyssa, a traditional human name, means the opposite of Lyssa. Freedom from Lyssa. Alyssum, a fragrant plant that was supposed to deliver people from Lyssa's power.

So who was Lyssa? In Greek the word meant hatred, rage, fury, frenzy, even rabies. It was written with that letter that was transcribed as either U or I, apparently spelling the sound in between them as used in modern French and German; not "lissa" but "luessa." Wolves, lykoi, were noted as susceptible to rabies and lyssa was what drove them to attack humans, which they would not normally eat, as well as sheep. The ancient Greeks recognized that this was not a normal human emotion. It's not even mentioned in the Greek New Testament, which advises believers to resolve situations that provoke normal healthy human anger. Christians received spiritual deliverance and protection from Lyssa.

The Greeks thought Lyssa was a demon--in the modern sense of an evil spirit, as distinct from the classical sense of a spirit of place, person, mood--and a disease. In the Iliad, Lyssa was what brought Achilles out of his monumental sulk and drove him to kill men, and some say women, children, animals, and whatever else he saw, in an insane excess of revenge for Patroclus. 

Lyssa was also what Odysseus or Ulysses' father lamented his son's being subjected to by envious relatives, as an island king. Odysseus' mother had given him another name but he was always called "the hated one." In the Odyssey he lingers too long with other island queens, rather than hurrying home, because he anticipates having to deal with those relatives who feel lyssa for him, who present themselves as "suitors" for Penelope's hand while blatantly just wanting her husband's title.

In modern Latin-English, Lyssavirus is the genus of virus that includes rabies: 


If you want your daughter to know you were wishing her well when you named her, call her Alyssa, or Melissa, or Elissa, or Lisa, or Lucia, or some other name.
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Book Review for 5.12.26: Spell if I Know

Title: Spell if I Know 

Author: Elle Wren Burke

Date: 2025

Quote: "Okay, Page. What book does my soul need today?"

People walk into the sentient bookstore, place their hands in circles on the counter, and wait for the book their soul needs to float out to them. In this hilarious fantasy the bookstore helps a team of witches, fairies, and familiars stop two spell-cursed books snapping and snarling at people, while the host witch's familiar, a cat, keeps nagging her to get a dog. 

Too silly for some readers, this over-the-top fantasy will delight others. I chortled.
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Book Review for 5.11.26: Love's Harvest

Title: Love's Harvest

Author: Linda Shenton Matchett

Date: 2018

Quote: "[Y]ou will lose your family's farm if you don't bring the outstanding loan up to date in sixty days."

Basil Quincey's father died and left Basil a mortgaged farm. Basil accepts the 1940s wartime offer of employing a bunkhouse full of "Land Girls," women who were sent around to do the chores of farmers who had gone to war. At their best the women are less efficient laborers than men. A Mrs. Hirsch is the slowest of all. Basil considers sending the whole troop back but there's something about Mrs. Hirsch...

What I received breaks off there. It's meant to be a trailer for a longer novel. This web site officially disapproves of the practice of sending people fragments of books. This book is not so delightfully written that anyone would want to linger over every word of Basil's impending romance with the widowed Mrs. Hirsch.
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Book Review: The Grumpiest Fireman Next Door

Title: The Grumpiest Fireman Next Door

Author: Maggie Blume

Date: 2025

Quote: "I'm not even supposed to be here...inches from colliding with the rear bumper of a fire engine."

Luke, whose name apparently flashes into Emilia's mind before he's told her it, has reasons not to fall in love with Emilia the minute she steps out of her car and admits she's been distracted while driving. It takes a few days. But this is a sweet romance with some kissing, so you know how it's going to end. 

It's a short, cute, wholesome small-town romance with not room for much beyond the progress of the couple's attraction to each other. They have time for her to decide to stay in the small town and get to know him. 

Maggie Blume's e-mail about a new romance in her "The Grumpiest" series caught me during a phase of resolution to cope with the e-mail. I agreed to read an advance reader's copy of the book that's due to launch next week. The advance readers' copies ran out before I got to the e-mail with the link to open mine. No worries. I expect they're all more or less alike. If you can forgive the misuse of "grumpy" to mean "polite, even when the person has reasons not to be, but not instantly infatuated with Wonderful Me," the series should be nice stories about nice, reasonably cautious, levelheaded people finding each other.
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Thursday, May 21, 2026

Book Review: Rug Hooking Made Easy

Title: Rug Hooking Made Easy

Author: Charlotte Kimball Stratton

Date: 1955

Publisher: Harper & Row

ISBN: none

Length: 214 pages

Illustrations: many photos and charts

Quote: “If I were to teach an inexperienced pupil, the first lesson would be entirely on the technique of making the loop.”

Nevertheless, possibly guessing that most of her readers will be experienced rugmakers (she keeps calling them “hookers”), Mrs. Stratton begins with chapters on design, dyes, and materials, and gives the lesson in making the loops only on pages 48-49. After that, pages 51 through 207 give geometric patterns, shaded picture patterns, and tips on making a variety of elaborate design.

Rug Hooking Made Easy provides an intermediate step between the blind-follower stage, in which crafters buy beginners’ kits and try to make something exactly like the picture on the package, and the advanced-crafter stage, in which crafters design their own projects.

Stories of old-time rugmakers fill out the back of the book.

For knitters, like this reviewer, rugmaking can become a source of frustration. It’s another textile craft that can be done with the same material (heavy wool yarn), so supplies are usually shelved together in stores, and books are usually shelved together in libraries... and almost everything that’s right for one craft is wrong for the other. Rug patterns can be fun to knit, but they won’t look right. Yarn that makes comfortable socks and sweaters is always too soft, and nearly always too thin, for rugs. Rug yarn can be made into caps or sweaters, but few people want to wear them.

The good news for knitters is that rugmaking is easy to learn, and rug hooks, rug yarn, and either pre-stamped or unstamped rug canvas (backing material) are quite cheap. If you’re a knitter or a practitioner of some other needlecraft and would like to expand your horizons, Rug Hooking Made Easy will take you as far into rugmaking as you want to go, whether that’s the plain doormat, or the stair carpet with fifteen different detailed landscapes between the sixteen steps. (Yes, Mrs. Stratton hooked such a thing, and patterns are included.)
 
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