Link Log for August 8

I am still in Kingsport. Because someone else is in a hospital. I need to be doing things at home. I am killing time on the computer. My loss is the gain of anyone out there who's addicted to links. Categories: Animals, Crafts, Food, Poem

Animals 

A reunion for all the cats who've been fostered in and adopted from the Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap sounds...doable. Online. The cats may even see their pictures, and the pictures of other cats they did and didn't know, on the computer.

https://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/its-the-great-cat-reunion-of-2015/

Crafts 

Fun with surplus PVC pipe (courtesy of Elizabeth Barrette):

http://homestead-and-survival.com/27-pvc-pipe-projects-yard-garden/

Food 

Everything you didn't realize there was to know about carrots, again thanks to Elizabeth Barrette for the link:

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history.html

Meatloaf that can be oven-free, dairy-free, and gluten-free if you have trustworthy oatmeal:

http://www.itsjustlife.me/recipe/saucy-meatloaf-on-slightly-savory-saturday/

Frugal 

+Marsha Cooper shares photos of frugal family fun:

http://marshasspot.blogspot.com/2015/08/frugal-friday-with-marsha-camping-trip.html

Poem 

Elizabeth Barrette posted this postwar poem with a warning. It is pretty intense.

http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/3744855.html

Psychology 

First, to get this out of the way: I think anybody who wants to be President of the United States has to have some tendencies toward narcissism. How else could they do that job? Narcissistic people can be very nice when it suits their purposes; there's just that fundamental constant focus on self, self-interest, self-admiration. The question is how well these narcissistic tendencies are controlled.

President Obama does consistently come across as a man who got through difficult emotional conditions, from childhood up, by telling himself and being told by others that he's special, wonderful, brilliant, handsome, a prince, a hero, an inspiration to others, etc., etc. And I'm sure it just tears some people up to admit that in his case, however unseemly it might be for him to say it out loud, it does happen to be true. He doesn't represent me, I don't believe he represents the United States, I wish he hadn't been elected and am not entirely convinced that he even was...but he is a man you don't meet every day. And knows it. (This web site is not interested in discussing the claim that he's the Devil.)

Then there's that guy whose computer so falsely claims that I had anything to do with his rise to the top of the polls as a presidential candidate. That he rose to the top of the polls is also dubious; this web site has linked to polls that showed other candidates in that position. Is he narcissistic? Based on his observed public behavior over the past thirty years, it's hard to doubt that; he's come across as the definition of narcissistic. And not just in the sense of being bright, handsome, and rich, and knowing it, either; in the sense of using and exploiting other people.

Does the use of the word "I" indicate narcissism? I certainly wouldn't say...frankly, when I started writing for the Internet, there were editors who wanted articles with lots of "you" and "I" and "I've actually tried this" and "The product I tested" and so on, and there were editors who wanted lots of "According to this source" and "persons interested in this" and so on. I've written both ways. For the type of things I wrote for the Internet (and, to be fair, for the type of things Donald Trump has written in his lifetime), the voice of personal experience works better. This Language Log post ridicules the idea that counting personal pronouns is an accurate measure of a writer's narcissism...

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=20584

Then, Mark Liberman asks for a bigger sample of Trump's use of "I" sentences. This web site is delighted to oblige. Here's an "I" sentence that clearly reveals that Trump's "I" focus goes way beyond just writing the kind of material that cites personal experience, as distinct from the more time-consuming and expensive kind that involves extensive research.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/08/07/after-debate-ratings-came-in-donald-trump-sent-a-blistering-message-to-the-network-you-should-be-ashamed/?

"I," Trump, "got the debates the ratings"? People weren't planning to watch the in-party debate before Trump was grudgingly admitted to it? "I clearly won the debate"? We've not read all kinds of claims that Fox News, or Carson, or Fiorina, or some other candidate, "won" the debate?

It's not that he makes Obama look like a class act; Obama is a class act. Deal with it. It's that Trump's making Nixon look like a class act.

Thank a Soldier 

Dave Urbanski's report is also fairly intense:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/08/07/marcus-luttrell-gets-the-word-out-about-husband-father-and-active-duty-soldier-battling-rare-stage-4-cancer-and-have-people-ever-responded/?