I've not posted a rant here for a while. Maybe I should...Sarah Arrow asked for a link to a rant. Right. Here we go. I just posted a bit of his E-Newsletter in which my Congressman discussed a measure that he and one of my U.S. Senators are backing, to try to prevent some of the more horrible effects of heroin-type "pain medication" by prescribing yet another drug with yet another list of secondary effects.
This bothers me. Not because I anticipate its having any effect on my life. Not because I doubt that Morgan Griffith and Tim Kaine are kind, decent men who sincerely care about the ever-increasing incidence of addiction to "pain medication," even in corners of Virginia where people are staunchly opposed to other kinds of drugs. But because the mere mention of heroin, or related addictive drugs with hideous withdrawal effects, shows me that my neighbors are not getting the benefit of what we know about pain control.
Most of these people are not dying of cancer; it's not that they need maximum-strength "pain medication." Too many of them are using "medication" for things like injuries incurred on the job. We have in southwest Virginia a whole class of good, hardworking laborers who just aren't learning what everybody and his cat seems to know in Washington, D.C.: that straining muscles or dislocating bones hurts, and if you continue to work through the pain it hurts like blue blazes, and if you take drugs to numb the pain, then when the effect of those drugs wears off it hurts beyond imagining...and for many of those people, much of the time, none of that pain is even necessary.
Maybe some of those people are going to read this post and think, "Oh, right, this is some yuppie writer talking about the pain and strain of typing on a computer. Has this woman ever even had a baby? What does she know about pain?" Right. Granted: given the choice I did find it more productive to take care of my health, study massage therapy, and help other people control pain, than to spend a great deal of time working in a factory. But I have worked in some of our local factories, where they require women to be able to lift 50 pounds and then expect us to lift 100 pounds, repeatedly, at speed. I did that for the experience, in my twenties, and incurred enough strains and sprains and bruises and dislocations to know what they feel like. Then I tested Bonnie Prudden's "Myotherapy" as a way to treat and cure the pain I was feeling. It works. Then I studied the modern form of Myotherapy, Neuro-Muscular Therapy, and practiced that for many years and helped a lot of other people with a lot of kinds of pain. Then I ran short of money to make ever-increasing payments into a bloated bureaucratic system, and so lost that certification...but not because NMT doesn't work, and not because anyone ever had a complaint about my practice of it.
Drug-free pain relief was the topic proposed for the last George Peters FacTape on which we were working before George Peters died. I read a lot. I shared what I read with a lot of active, intelligent retired people who could test this information on themselves and their friends. (The writer known as Ozarque was one of them.) I tested it on those impacted and damaged wisdom teeth (I still have one wisdom tooth, and sometimes it's still a bore), and on the strained ankle and sprained hip that drove me into online writing as a job in 2008, and on the pain of continuous food-poisoning-by-GMOs with which I spent a good half of the year 2014.
I was not simply "born tougher than other people." There are actual measurable differences in the way people develop nerve endings that allow us to feel more different sensations; some people are Highly Sensory-Perceptive. I'm one of them. But I've learned to use my inherited ability to feel "more" pain than the average person in order to suffer "less." If you are one of those people who just can't bear pain, this information is for you.
So what is this information? Short version: Your body can manufacture its own painkillers. Your body's own natural painkillers won't knock you out as fast as morphine or send you as "high" as heroin apparently do, but also they won't subject you to the horrific backlash morphine and heroin apparently cause. Most people can control their own pain without any drugs.
How is this done? We don't fully understand how it's done, and even a doctor who knows exactly what-all are contributing to your pain may not be able to offer a one-two-three formula that will work as fast, for you, as a chemical painkiller would work. What we have, at this point, are clues rather than a scientific system for controlling pain. But these clues have been enough for a lot of people who've been willing to work through very painful conditions without drugs.
Because patients tend to demand that doctors prescribe a pill or at least a procedure that will work right now, a lot of what we do know has come from writers who've survived painful conditions. What I read on those preliminary tapes that were going into the FacTape came primarily from patients' testimony: Ellen White's and Charlotte Selver's tuberculosis. Norman Cousins' arthritis. Ozarque's and George Peters' polio. Marjorie Karmel's (and many many other women's) drug-free childbirths. President John Kennedy's, Senator Robert Dole's, and Pete Egoscue's war wounds. Evel Knievel's 400-plus broken bones.
There is no way a Top Ten List on a blog post can substitute for medical care...but there are ways people can persevere in using this Top Ten List of what these and other survivors have taught me about using your own natural painkillers so that, even if a doctor actually hands you codeine or morphine or some such nasty thing, you can throw that poison away and manage your own pain all by yourself.
You will still feel some pain--but then, as long as people who medicate pain with drugs are conscious, they feel some pain; and if you've ever been around people who were completely unconscious during childbirth or treatment for bone cancer, you know some of them sound as if they were feeling more pain than you probably are.
You will be literally feeling your way toward relief of your pain. No two situations are exactly alike. If you opt to rely on your endorphin system, a word that literally means "self-produced morphine," rather than on chemicals for pain relief, you will have to retain enough awareness of your pain to be able to locate and treat the condition that's causing the pain. But it will be bearable pain. You'll know when you are and aren't ready to put weight on the injured leg, or whatever. You'll know you're not feeling your best while your body expels something harmful or while you're waiting to get a tooth filling replaced. You will want a local anesthetic for dental or other surgery. If you've had pain medication and are going through withdrawal, or have experimented with street drugs and are going through withdrawal, you will spend a few hours suffering torture. You will not collapse, lose your mind, or be unable to do a job, even (if need be) during the surgery. You will not have to pay for compromise medical treatments, e.g. "pain medication," that don't even try to cure the cause of your pain.
So, here's that Top Ten List of wonderful facts about the human body that people can use to treat their own pain without medication:
1. Antibiotics are wonderful things, but we're not built to rely on them to deal with all the viruses and bacteria that invade our bodies. Our immune systems were meant to take care of most infections all by themselves. There is no cure for the common cold because those cold-and-flu-type symptoms are the cure for infections. Taking care of your overall health can make your immune system more efficient and reduce the extent to which you suffer from cold-and-flu-type infections. Part of this improvement includes more efficient use of endorphin.
2. You're tired of hearing about diet and exercise, especially because everybody seems to be singing the praises of a different system. Yes, we all have different bodies that respond best to slightly different ways of eating and exercising. Cow's milk is "the perfect food" for a calf, an excellent food for some human children, and indigestible for most human adults. Wheat is "the staff of life" for a majority of humans and a deadly poison for a minority of humans. In order to get the benefit of your immune system and endorphins, you have to pay attention to what works for you.
3. Cardiovascular disease, including diabetes, is a major source of pain as well as a cause of premature death. For a majority of people under age 70 or 80, diseases in this category are preventable, reversible if they've not been prevented, and unnecessary. Mike Huckabee is currently marketing a system for reversing diabetes that adds just a little spin and hype to what John McDougall has been demonstrating, and what several patients had testified before Dr. McDougall's time...the "snake oil" at that huckabeediabetes site is that people are paying for a few new frills added to well-documented facts about diet and exercise. (And why has the medical establishment not been telling diabetics how to reverse diabetes without pills or injections? Actually, many doctors have been sharing that information, and finding that many diabetics aren't willing to use it. If there are diabetics who have enough faith in Mike Huckabee that contributing to his presidential campaign funds motivates them to work their anti-diabetic program, then their sending him money is a good thing...but you don't have to send anybody any money.)
4. "Wear and tear" is an obvious cause for some degenerative conditions, including painful ones like osteo-arthritis...but "wear and tear" is not the sole cause. A combination of rest and exercise, stretching, and pressure applied to muscles can perform miracles to reduce the "effects of wear and tear." Therapeutic pressure has been applied to muscles in several ways including electric shocks and injections of saline solution. For some people, a neutral saline injection in the right spot worked better than an injection of Novocain or Cortisone in the wrong spot. This led to the discovery that, if the source of pain is in a muscle, the shock or injection is unnecessary; the therapeutic pressure works just as well if it's applied by the NMT practitioner's hands--or, once you've learned to recognize the sensation of the muscle responding treatment, by your own hands.
5. Vigorous exercise helps us fight pain in several ways: it cues the production of endorphin, it forces the body to rebuild muscles, it keeps bones strong and solid, it boosts liver and immune system activity, and it even discourages other people and animals who might have been considering doing things that would cause us pain.
6. When vigorous exercise of one part of the body is contraindicated (you can't power-walk with a cast on your leg), exercising other muscles can still help prevent and relieve pain. When you're flat on your back in bed, or in traction, the key muscle to exercise is the diaphragm. The most enjoyable way to exercise the diaphragm is of course, as Norman Cousins reported, laughing out loud. If you don't feel like laughing out loud, try chanting or singing. If you're in a hospital where other people are trying to sleep, you may have to fall back on boring but effective diaphragm breathing.
7. People living with painful conditions usually choose one or more "symptom-buster" activities. These may or may not involve vigorous exercise; the symptom-buster I discovered when recovering from painful viral hepatitis, and the one I still use when fighting the flu, is typing. Gardening, carpentry, knitting and other hand crafts, power walking, swimming, and various low-impact games are some of the symptom-busters that serve many people well. What makes an activity a "symptom-buster" is that the person doing it doesn't have to be in peak condition to do it well enough to achieve a "flow state," which provides a healthy natural "high." If doing your "symptom-buster" for an hour doesn't reduce pain to a level you can easily overlook, then it's time to do something about the pain.
8. Stimulant drugs, including large amounts of coffee or even chocolate, and definitely including Ritalin, LSD, amphetamine "diet pills," and serotonin-boosting "antidepressants," actively cause pain from muscle spasms. Usually the pain is not felt as an obvious cramp in one specific muscle, but as stiffness in the muscle producing pain and sometimes bizarre sensations in a nerve. Living with the damage caffeine does may be easier than giving up caffeine. Living with the damage the more intense stimulants do is often painful enough that people feel better, on the whole, after living through the backlash from giving up these drugs--although the backlash tends to include acute depression as well as acute pain.
9. When acute pain is unavoidable, simple distractions, including pain-relieving distractions like breath control exercises, can keep it bearable. The stretching and tearing process of childbirth is an acute pain, yet thousands of women have been able to control their awareness of that pain, and the pain of recovery, by counting different patterns of breaths. Those exercises work for other kinds of acute pain too.
10. The role and benefits of thought control, visualization, meditation, and prayer are less easily confirmed than those of breathing, stretching, and pressure on muscles. If these approaches all by themselves have an effect on a confirmed physical disease or injury, that effect may reasonably be considered a miracle. However, as an adjunct to the more verifiable physical techniques, mental and spiritual approaches to pain control do seem to help. How much they help varies; how they help, nobody really knows.
As an afterthought, I'd add that it's possible to relieve symptoms too effectively for the patient's long-term good. Even our own natural painkillers can mask our awareness of the underlying disease. If symptoms get worse not better over time, it may be advisable to test for something less common, simple, and treatable than the condition you've been managing.
My HSP husband thought he'd been successfully treated for a pre-cancerous prostate condition and was successfully managing mild hypertension and osteoarthritis, right on into the last stages of multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma is rare; if he'd had a more common and treatable kind of cancer, his annual blood test would probably have revealed it in time for it to be cured. In any case he did have the opportunity to compare the benefits of morphine with the benefits of singing and chanting, and, having practiced singing and chanting with temporary conditions like minor surgeries and a broken knee, he preferred them to morphine.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Morgan Griffith on Painkiller Addiction
It's not news to me that painkillers are too freely prescribed, and too addictive, in southwestern Virginia. It was news, though, that many local addicts are turning back to one of the deadliest drugs of all--heroin--in their quest for pain relief. As discussed in Morgan Griffith's E-Newsletter...I'm not satisfied with this solution. I'm posting it here because it's current news and part of U.S. history. Congressman Griffith's opinions are his own:
"Fighting Heroin Abuse & Overdoses
I have grown very concerned in recent years by the apparent increase in heroin use and resulting overdoses. As with similar issues, there is no simple fix for this public health problem.
However, on March 9 I led a bipartisan group of my colleagues in sending a letter to a few Administration officials (including Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Michael Botticelli, and Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan) urging them to see that overdose prevention – specifically through the use of naloxone, a medication designed to counter the effects of an opioid and prevent overdose – remains a priority issue. The letter calls on the Administration to identify existing sources of funding to be reprogrammed in order to provide communities with adequate financial assistance for expanding access to naloxone. Our letter also prompts the Administration to propose and put in place new, innovative ways to integrate naloxone throughout the health care delivery system.
On March 11, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) was among a bipartisan group of Senators to introduce a bill that, according to a press release, would “…protect first responders, health professionals and family members who are educated in administering an opioid overdose prevention drug, such as naloxone (also known as Narcan) in an emergency situation of overdose.” I look forward to reviewing this proposal, but am pleased to see this issue is important to Senator Kaine as well.
According to a January Washington Post story, “…the number of heroin overdose deaths in Virginia more than doubled between 2011 and 2013. The state recorded 213 fatal heroin overdoses in 2013 and an estimated 210 in 2014. (The 2014 total was extrapolated from figures for the first six months of the year.) The rates are higher in rural Southwest Virginia, while Fairfax and Prince William counties have seen the highest overall numbers.”
Too many Americans have been lost to opioid abuse. And sadly, many of those deaths are preventable. Working together, I know we can make a difference and, God willing, save lives."
"Fighting Heroin Abuse & Overdoses
I have grown very concerned in recent years by the apparent increase in heroin use and resulting overdoses. As with similar issues, there is no simple fix for this public health problem.
However, on March 9 I led a bipartisan group of my colleagues in sending a letter to a few Administration officials (including Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Michael Botticelli, and Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan) urging them to see that overdose prevention – specifically through the use of naloxone, a medication designed to counter the effects of an opioid and prevent overdose – remains a priority issue. The letter calls on the Administration to identify existing sources of funding to be reprogrammed in order to provide communities with adequate financial assistance for expanding access to naloxone. Our letter also prompts the Administration to propose and put in place new, innovative ways to integrate naloxone throughout the health care delivery system.
On March 11, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) was among a bipartisan group of Senators to introduce a bill that, according to a press release, would “…protect first responders, health professionals and family members who are educated in administering an opioid overdose prevention drug, such as naloxone (also known as Narcan) in an emergency situation of overdose.” I look forward to reviewing this proposal, but am pleased to see this issue is important to Senator Kaine as well.
According to a January Washington Post story, “…the number of heroin overdose deaths in Virginia more than doubled between 2011 and 2013. The state recorded 213 fatal heroin overdoses in 2013 and an estimated 210 in 2014. (The 2014 total was extrapolated from figures for the first six months of the year.) The rates are higher in rural Southwest Virginia, while Fairfax and Prince William counties have seen the highest overall numbers.”
Too many Americans have been lost to opioid abuse. And sadly, many of those deaths are preventable. Working together, I know we can make a difference and, God willing, save lives."
How Do People Find This Web Site, Anyway?
One advantage the Internet has over publishing a real magazine is that, although computers can't tell us who our regular readers are and what they're getting out of our web sites, computers can tell us who our random readers are, what they're looking for...
According to Google, not many people discovered this web site by Google searches all winter, but this week we were discovered by one person searching for each of eight things other than PriscillaKing.Blogspot.com. So this post contains a comment for each of those eight people, in alphabetical order:
1. Amazon River Dolphin, fun facts: Congratulations to anybody who searched long enough to find this tidbit (http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/03/fun-facts-about-amazon-river-dolphin.html). All I posted were links to two pages, both of which Google would probably have pulled up first. One of those links was broken when Associated Content collapsed. There are over 150 web pages that contain more fun facts, from alternate names for these creatures ("botos," "river manatees," more) to details about their mating habits some people probably prefer not to know.
2. Cheapest price for Porko von Popbutton: You probably found that at one of the other sites Google pulled up first, too. An intriguing quote Google also pulls up, from the archives of a blog some readers may enjoy (daddytypes.com): "I think the moral of the story is, fat kid learns to love being fat." Hmm. At the end of the book Pat's lost pounds, and at his age he's probably gained a few inches in height; I think the original words were "he had slimmed down."
3. "Is Vitarroz cornmeal gluten-free?" Although I bought several Vitarroz products, when I lived in Maryland, and thought most of them were a good bargain--at least as good quality as Goya, sometimes better, and always offered for a lower price--I didn't even know Vitarroz packaged cornmeal. I learned something today. I've not seen Vitarroz products in stores in my part of the world. From the company's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/vitarroz?rf=152555071421473) it looks as if they've started offering a nice, coarse-ground, all-maize cornmeal, which would in theory be gluten-free provided that the company can find natural, GMO-free corn. God made corn gluten-free. The evil Monsanto Corporation spliced genes from disease bacteria ("But it's a strain of Escherichia coli that rarely makes humans sick") into corn to produce "Roundup-Ready" corn plants that (a) produce grain containing proteins more similar to wheat gluten, so although technically they don't contain wheat gluten they still make gluten-intolerant people just as sick as if they did, and also (b) absorb glyphosate, an allergy trigger that can become poisonous if humans eat enough of it, which is sprayed onto many North American cornfields that are owned by people too lazy to swing a hoe. How well Vitarroz is doing at finding and marketing only the kind of corn God made, I don't know.
4. "Pictures of Tori Cooley in Gate City (Virginia)." Dream on, young man. This web site contains a couple dozen pictures taken by Tori Cooley, who is a gifted photographer as well as a model, but no pictures of Tori Cooley.
5. "Priscilla's where fun and fantasy..." Apparently this used to be an advertising slogan for a chain of lingerie stores that are currently called Patricia's.
6. "PriscillaKing.Blogspot.ru." When I set up this Blogspot I had no idea that Blogspot.com pages also show up, still in English, as Blogspot.ru. Also Blogspot.fr. Hmm. Blogspot.ca? Yup. Blogspot.uk? Nope--U.K. readers are redirected to Blogspot.com, and according to site statistics they don't keep coming back as faithfully as French and Russian readers do, possibly due to online publishing issues. (I just had to see how my blog looks in French...it looks pretty bad. I don't know why translation software stumbles over such simple things. "Sanctuaire Dog"? Why not "Sanctuaire Chien"? And why was it not obvious that a "today" would have been "aujourd'hui"?) The foreign URLs bring up this web site, but not all of it seems to get through; links and sometimes photos just disappear; there's more white space, presumably where international publishing agreements block access to some links. Interesting.
7. "Seventh-Day Adventist interracial." Only yesterday, while digging through real documents for something else, I turned up a copy of Insight magazine's "Fudge Marble" issue. October 1987? I think. I didn't bring the magazine to the computer center. The synchronicity bemused me enough today that I not only found, but e-mailed, Insight's current staff at http://www.insightmagazine.org/.
8. "Walnut Caterpillar survival." Datana integerrima is not an endangered species. Though not common in the Eastern States, they're very common in the Central States, and in Texas they even manage to become pests. However, if you type those three words into Google you'll pull up http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2013/12/know-your-pests-walnut-caterpillar.html, I think because that post mentions that trees usually survive infestation and that a few caterpillars usually survive True Green methods of extermination.
According to Google, not many people discovered this web site by Google searches all winter, but this week we were discovered by one person searching for each of eight things other than PriscillaKing.Blogspot.com. So this post contains a comment for each of those eight people, in alphabetical order:
1. Amazon River Dolphin, fun facts: Congratulations to anybody who searched long enough to find this tidbit (http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2012/03/fun-facts-about-amazon-river-dolphin.html). All I posted were links to two pages, both of which Google would probably have pulled up first. One of those links was broken when Associated Content collapsed. There are over 150 web pages that contain more fun facts, from alternate names for these creatures ("botos," "river manatees," more) to details about their mating habits some people probably prefer not to know.
2. Cheapest price for Porko von Popbutton: You probably found that at one of the other sites Google pulled up first, too. An intriguing quote Google also pulls up, from the archives of a blog some readers may enjoy (daddytypes.com): "I think the moral of the story is, fat kid learns to love being fat." Hmm. At the end of the book Pat's lost pounds, and at his age he's probably gained a few inches in height; I think the original words were "he had slimmed down."
3. "Is Vitarroz cornmeal gluten-free?" Although I bought several Vitarroz products, when I lived in Maryland, and thought most of them were a good bargain--at least as good quality as Goya, sometimes better, and always offered for a lower price--I didn't even know Vitarroz packaged cornmeal. I learned something today. I've not seen Vitarroz products in stores in my part of the world. From the company's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/vitarroz?rf=152555071421473) it looks as if they've started offering a nice, coarse-ground, all-maize cornmeal, which would in theory be gluten-free provided that the company can find natural, GMO-free corn. God made corn gluten-free. The evil Monsanto Corporation spliced genes from disease bacteria ("But it's a strain of Escherichia coli that rarely makes humans sick") into corn to produce "Roundup-Ready" corn plants that (a) produce grain containing proteins more similar to wheat gluten, so although technically they don't contain wheat gluten they still make gluten-intolerant people just as sick as if they did, and also (b) absorb glyphosate, an allergy trigger that can become poisonous if humans eat enough of it, which is sprayed onto many North American cornfields that are owned by people too lazy to swing a hoe. How well Vitarroz is doing at finding and marketing only the kind of corn God made, I don't know.
4. "Pictures of Tori Cooley in Gate City (Virginia)." Dream on, young man. This web site contains a couple dozen pictures taken by Tori Cooley, who is a gifted photographer as well as a model, but no pictures of Tori Cooley.
5. "Priscilla's where fun and fantasy..." Apparently this used to be an advertising slogan for a chain of lingerie stores that are currently called Patricia's.
6. "PriscillaKing.Blogspot.ru." When I set up this Blogspot I had no idea that Blogspot.com pages also show up, still in English, as Blogspot.ru. Also Blogspot.fr. Hmm. Blogspot.ca? Yup. Blogspot.uk? Nope--U.K. readers are redirected to Blogspot.com, and according to site statistics they don't keep coming back as faithfully as French and Russian readers do, possibly due to online publishing issues. (I just had to see how my blog looks in French...it looks pretty bad. I don't know why translation software stumbles over such simple things. "Sanctuaire Dog"? Why not "Sanctuaire Chien"? And why was it not obvious that a "today" would have been "aujourd'hui"?) The foreign URLs bring up this web site, but not all of it seems to get through; links and sometimes photos just disappear; there's more white space, presumably where international publishing agreements block access to some links. Interesting.
7. "Seventh-Day Adventist interracial." Only yesterday, while digging through real documents for something else, I turned up a copy of Insight magazine's "Fudge Marble" issue. October 1987? I think. I didn't bring the magazine to the computer center. The synchronicity bemused me enough today that I not only found, but e-mailed, Insight's current staff at http://www.insightmagazine.org/.
8. "Walnut Caterpillar survival." Datana integerrima is not an endangered species. Though not common in the Eastern States, they're very common in the Central States, and in Texas they even manage to become pests. However, if you type those three words into Google you'll pull up http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2013/12/know-your-pests-walnut-caterpillar.html, I think because that post mentions that trees usually survive infestation and that a few caterpillars usually survive True Green methods of extermination.
Events This Web Site Probably Should Report On But Won't
Two sets of Tea Party events this month have caught my attention; I regret having to miss them because they're just a little too far from home. I would get up early and join a car pool if someone was going to any of these things.
First, from Patricia Evans: no link, so I'll just paste in the whole e-mail...
"Our Founders KNEW that we would struggle to keep the republic and that only a moral, religious, educated and informed people could sustain it. Their wisdom is painfully obvious given our current state of affairs.
An RSVP will help us ensure that everyone has a seat. Please RSVP HERE and include the number of people attending. Contact information would be helpful also. Thank you!
--
First, from Patricia Evans: no link, so I'll just paste in the whole e-mail...
"Our Founders KNEW that we would struggle to keep the republic and that only a moral, religious, educated and informed people could sustain it. Their wisdom is painfully obvious given our current state of affairs.
Please join us for “America: A Miracle That Changed the World” , a 3-part seminar to re-discover God’s blessing of liberty through exploration of 28 Principles of Freedom our Founders deemed essential to any society that desires to remain at peace, prosperous and free.
Event:
America: A Miracle That Changed the World
Discover how 28 Principles of Liberty, in just 224 years, has done more to advance the global human condition than anything before!
When:
Saturday, March 14th 2:00 – 6:00 – Part 1
Saturday, March 21st 2:00 – 6:00 – Part 2
Saturday, March 28th 2:00 – 6:00 – Part 3
Where:
Smith Mountain Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church
10802 Moneta Rd.
Moneta, VA 24121
Maps, Get directions here:
Hosts and Contact:
Chuck & Cathy Angier
434-927-5030
434-688-2208 (cell & text)
PLEASE don’t hesitate to contact us. Email contact will probably be more productive than phone, but either is fine.
Please RSVP:
--
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." - Thomas Jefferson"
If I know Seventh-Day Adventists, and I do, I can fairly well predict where the seminar's going, but it would be interesting to watch Adventists and Tea Partiers interact. (Two different groups of people, both of whom are likely to be wary of stereotypes that misrepresent them as having more in common than they do...which might or might not keep them from appreciating how much they do have in common.)
The other set of events is displayed on Publius Huldah's web site:
Recommended to Republicans.
If any readers are able to make it to any of these gatherings, please report!
It Ain't Necessarily So Reprise
(Reclaimed from Bubblews, where it appeared on February 5, 2014. Image credit: Mantasmagorical at Morguefile...there are no true "missing links" to support the notion of macroevolution, but the concept's been useful to some people...
http://cdn.morguefile.com/imageData/public/files/m/mantasmagorical/preview/fldr_2008_11_28/file000334806620.jpg )
http://cdn.morguefile.com/imageData/public/files/m/mantasmagorical/preview/fldr_2008_11_28/file000334806620.jpg )
A few years ago, while reflecting on the biblical parallels to the plot of "Porgy and Bess," I found the following lyrics running through my mind. Those who remember the song "It Ain't Necessarily So" will notice that these words don't quite fit the Gershwins' tune; they have a tune of their own that's sort of a variation on the one in "Porgy and Bess."
It ain’t necessarily so. It ain’t necessarily so.
The things that you’re liable to hear people say when they criticize the Bible ain’t necessarily so.
Now it may have taken more than twenty-four hours for humankind to appear;
Twenty-four hours, or twenty-four centuries, that part is not perfectly clear,
But still, we know even the sorriest junkie
Is not even the great-great-grandson of a monkey.
It ain’t necessarily so.
It ain’t necessarily so. It ain’t necessarily so.
The things that you’re liable to hear people say when they criticize the Bible ain’t necessarily so.
Some have more, and some have less, and it’s always nice to share,
But letting government take it all is never going to be fair.
The sons of the Soviet Army
May now admit that their fathers were barmy.
It ain’t necessarily so.
It ain’t necessarily so. It ain’t necessarily so.
The things that you’re liable to hear people say when they criticize the Bible ain’t necessarily so.
The baby wants Mother all to himself; that’s known as original sin,
But back inside Mother’s body is the last place he wants to get in.
People long for movement, air, and sun,
Not that forgotten place where they had none—
That dark, warm, moist grave’s no one’s idea of fun!
It ain’t necessarily so.
It ain’t necessarily so. It ain’t necessarily so.
The things that you’re liable to hear people say when they criticize the Bible ain’t necessarily so.
When we hear people saying things that we know cannot be right,
All we have to do is remember what’s true; we don’t need to run or to fight,.
The Christian-phobics come on so strong
Because they know that their beliefs are all wrong!
It ain’t necessarily so.
It ain’t necessarily so. It ain’t necessarily so.
The things that you’re liable to hear people say when they criticize the Bible ain’t necessarily so.
Book Review: Better Homes & Gardens Needlepoint
Title: Better Homes & Gardens Needlepoint
Author: Better Homes & Gardens magazine staff
Date: 1978
Publisher: Meredith Corporation
Length: 96 pages, with many color photos and diagrams
Quote: “Crafting beautiful fabric is what needlepoint is all about.”
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some things this book shows readers how to stitch are a wreath of roses on canvas, a bargello bench, a weird geometric wall canvas that I wouldn’t have recognized as depicting apples (in different stages, including one apple that’s been eaten down to the core, which looks a bit like a dog’s bone), a welcome mat that might be too blue-and-white-clean to step on, a mirror framed in flower images, lots of pillows, a miniature rugs for a doll’s house, needlepoint flowers cut and shaped round wire, a plastic-canvas jewel box, a pair of pillow-shaped dolls, a big round hassock with a landscape on it,a string-embroidered canvas rug that looks like a knitted lace sampler, a chair seat, small baskets for holding bobbins or pencils, a wreath of fruit images, an impressionistic fishpond picture worked as an odd-shaped rug, a distinctly weird-looking Nativity scene with pillow-shaped people, and a pyramid-shaped psychedelic-colored figure that I had to be told was meant to be a lion rather than (perhaps) a member of the Muppet Show orchestra. I think some of these projects are indeed beautiful, and some are pretty silly, myself.
However, with the possible exception of the psychedelic “lion,” they’re not things that go out of style. They’re still things people can enjoy making today. If you have the more desirable kind of friends and relatives who will appreciate the honor of your doing handwork just for them, rather than the vulgar kind who prefer money, then you can still enjoy even the pleasure of giving them as presents. Even that psychedelic “lion” would look kind of cute on the shelf beside those Beatles LPs, if you are or know a person who still has Beatles LPs.
And, as usual with needlepoint books that present a great variety of simple patterns, some of the designs would look good in cross-stitch, intarsia knitting, maybe even filet crochet, too. (The sizes and proportions would change, of course, but the designs would still work.)
Better Homes & Gardens Needlepoint is not the work of an individual author and thus not part of the Fair Trade Books program. To buy it online, you'd still need to send salolianigodagewi @ yahoo.com $5 for the book + $5 for shipping. If you buy it along with a Fair Trade Book, you pay only one shipping charge and some deserving writer, or his or her charity, gets a dollar or more. So, this web site recommends that you buy a Fair Trade Book and throw this one into the package.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Link Log for March 13
Categories: Amnesty International, Animals, Babies, Books, Good Thoughts, Immigration, Math, Politics, Technology
Amnesty International
Margaret Atwood's charity, not mine. I'm usually wary about petitions on behalf of strangers in foreign countries. However: if this isn't on AI's short list of petition topics, it should be.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/13/little-boy-who-begged-obama-to-bring-his-dad-home-
Animals
Good news for hens today...
https://www.change.org/p/aramark-stop-purchasing-eggs-from-battery-cage-farms/u/10009486?tk=Gv5iqwXgvnXoPEZqzOsPmRCvOd_GRvrlvvSq-x4mt2c
Babies
Yet another good reason to make sure you don't have one...
http://helpforsingleparents.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-often-should-i-change-my-newborns.html
Books
I can only second this endorsement:
https://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/the-monday-book-writing-down-the-bones-by-natalie-goldberg/
...no, wait, I can add that Goldberg wrote a sequel:
http://www.amazon.com/Thunder-Lightning-Cracking-Writers-Craft/dp/0553374966/ref=sr_1_1?
Good Thoughts
+Theresa Wiza reflects on prayer:
http://philosophicalmusingsandinsights.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-power-of-prayer.html
+Ruth Cox expresses "balance" as an emotion:
http://ruthcoxpoetryprose.blogspot.com/2015/03/is-life-balanceable.html
Immigration
One special category of legal visitors/immigrants to these United States are the people who've helped our troops in Afghanistan and other countries. If violent anti-American people are still active in their countries, these people are walking targets for violence. Hence Matt Zeller's petition to "Save My Afghan Interpreter," which continues to open up issues. Basically the government now makes it easy for interpreters and others who have worked with our troops to come to the U.S. but leaves it up to their friends to make sure they can find homes and jobs here.
https://www.change.org/p/save-my-afghan-interpreter/u/9992096?tk=ecXDEwN_5yaGaeQx3eFuXhCfq6lZIZUPGdR8nuFnsrg
Math
Happy Pi Day (tomorrow)! +Alex Bellos shared:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2015/mar/13/pi-day-2015-memory-memorisation-world-record-japanese-akira-haraguchi
Politics
Too often, people working for political change send out e-mail after e-mail about what they don't like and forget to spread the word about what they do like. Patricia Evans' group e-mail thanking two of her elected county officials, "Tim Barber and Coy Harville, Voices of Fiscal Sanity," is relevant to people who don't live in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, because it reminds us that sometimes our elected officials get something right too. Some of them don't even send out press releases about it; they patiently wait for constituents to commend them, on our own. Anyway, here's a link to the news story about Tim Barber and Coy Harville:
http://www.godanriver.com/news/pittsylvania_county/some-supervisors-against-raise-for-board/article_e43e4524-c83d-11e4-a803-ef22b86d54d6.html
Technology
Bob Greene considers whether current standards for record keeping are really better, or just more elaborate, than the standards of former years...
http://junkscience.com/2015/03/13/over-reliance-on-computers/
Amnesty International
Margaret Atwood's charity, not mine. I'm usually wary about petitions on behalf of strangers in foreign countries. However: if this isn't on AI's short list of petition topics, it should be.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/13/little-boy-who-begged-obama-to-bring-his-dad-home-
Animals
Good news for hens today...
https://www.change.org/p/aramark-stop-purchasing-eggs-from-battery-cage-farms/u/10009486?tk=Gv5iqwXgvnXoPEZqzOsPmRCvOd_GRvrlvvSq-x4mt2c
Babies
Yet another good reason to make sure you don't have one...
http://helpforsingleparents.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-often-should-i-change-my-newborns.html
Books
I can only second this endorsement:
https://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/the-monday-book-writing-down-the-bones-by-natalie-goldberg/
...no, wait, I can add that Goldberg wrote a sequel:
http://www.amazon.com/Thunder-Lightning-Cracking-Writers-Craft/dp/0553374966/ref=sr_1_1?
Good Thoughts
+Theresa Wiza reflects on prayer:
http://philosophicalmusingsandinsights.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-power-of-prayer.html
+Ruth Cox expresses "balance" as an emotion:
http://ruthcoxpoetryprose.blogspot.com/2015/03/is-life-balanceable.html
Immigration
One special category of legal visitors/immigrants to these United States are the people who've helped our troops in Afghanistan and other countries. If violent anti-American people are still active in their countries, these people are walking targets for violence. Hence Matt Zeller's petition to "Save My Afghan Interpreter," which continues to open up issues. Basically the government now makes it easy for interpreters and others who have worked with our troops to come to the U.S. but leaves it up to their friends to make sure they can find homes and jobs here.
https://www.change.org/p/save-my-afghan-interpreter/u/9992096?tk=ecXDEwN_5yaGaeQx3eFuXhCfq6lZIZUPGdR8nuFnsrg
Math
Happy Pi Day (tomorrow)! +Alex Bellos shared:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2015/mar/13/pi-day-2015-memory-memorisation-world-record-japanese-akira-haraguchi
Politics
Too often, people working for political change send out e-mail after e-mail about what they don't like and forget to spread the word about what they do like. Patricia Evans' group e-mail thanking two of her elected county officials, "Tim Barber and Coy Harville, Voices of Fiscal Sanity," is relevant to people who don't live in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, because it reminds us that sometimes our elected officials get something right too. Some of them don't even send out press releases about it; they patiently wait for constituents to commend them, on our own. Anyway, here's a link to the news story about Tim Barber and Coy Harville:
http://www.godanriver.com/news/pittsylvania_county/some-supervisors-against-raise-for-board/article_e43e4524-c83d-11e4-a803-ef22b86d54d6.html
Technology
Bob Greene considers whether current standards for record keeping are really better, or just more elaborate, than the standards of former years...
http://junkscience.com/2015/03/13/over-reliance-on-computers/
Grandma Bonnie Peters's Gluten-Free Rice Biscuit Bread
This recipe appeared on Associated Content many years ago and later appeared on Bubblews. Since it's no longer available there, we're re-releasing it here.
Although it’s crumbly, this gluten-free bread has a flavor that really can replace traditional buttermilk biscuits...
UTENSILS for Grandma Bonnie’s Gluten-Free Biscuits:
Mixing bowl and spoon
9x13” pan
A blender or food processor, and a 9x13” Silpat liner sheet, are not essential but very helpful in following this recipe.
INGREDIENTS for Grandma Bonnie’s Gluten-Free Biscuits
3 cups organic brown rice flour
½ cup cooked brown rice
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon salt
2 ounces oil (GBP uses a mix of 2 parts olive and 1 part canola oil)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Warm water
METHOD for Grandma Bonnie’s Gluten-Free Biscuits
1. GBP starts by soaking the rice flour in 1-1/2 cups warm water. Soaking for a few hours may make the biscuits less dry. They will be dry, and need to be chewed and savored thoroughly, in any case.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly oil the Silpat liner in the 9x13” pan.
3. Put the cooled rice, applesauce, salt, soda,and oil in the blender with another ¾ cup warm water. Blend until smooth. This could be done with a mixer or eggbeater, but it would take a long time.
4. Stir to combine these mixtures.
5. Bake 20-25 minutes. The Silpat liner ensures that the bread bakes slowly and evenly, and will have a flavor and texture similar to buttermilk biscuits.
6. The key to enjoying this bread as you would enjoy buttermilk biscuits is not to try to eat it exactly as you might eat buttermilk biscuits. Since gluten is what holds bread together, gluten-free breads tend to fall apart when butter and preserves are spread on them. Work with this tendency. Leave the bread flat on the plate, spread biscuit lubricants on top, and pick up one piece at a time, the way polite people used to eat sliced bread.
Blogging About German Roaches Paid Off
(Reclaimed from Bubbles, where it appeared on February 27, 2014. Image credit: http://cdn.morguefile.com/imageData/public/files/r/rmontiel85/preview/fldr_2007_09_24/file000628892721.jpg.)
Here's a small success story for other bloggers. Almost a year ago, an e-friend posted something on a news blog. A comment on her post was inane enough that I replied to it with a full-length blog post: http://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-get-rid-of-german-roaches.html.)
A few days later, a local lurker who owns a trailer, in a trailer park, dared me to get rid of a serious roach infestation.
Some people think that, because I don't go to agencies asking for cleaning jobs, I'd be insulted by being offered one. Like I wouldn't be one up on my depressive sister, who's become a full-time professional charwoman because it's paying better than being a substitute teacher, if I were doing her job. They are wrong. Respect for honest work, including unskilled labor, is another thing taught at Berea College, along with freedom from race prejudice. I am aware that when adults with resumes that include skilled labor go to agencies that place unskilled labor, we're 90% guaranteed to be insulted by the agents and also 99% guaranteed never to get a job, but actually I like odd jobs, the odder--and the more physical exercise involved--the better. And I like tearing into a really dirty house, though; like one of Elizabeth Enright's fictional characters, I like cleaning when I can see it making a difference. And I'm not depressive.
What's bothering me these days is that although the techniques discussed in that blog post have made it a rare week when I've seen a roach, while scrubbing and vacuuming the trailer, apparently this person's testimony was not enough to motivate someone else to dare me to rid a big country house of rats.
Anyway, no worries, these nice and polite people took the time to word their offer as a dare bet rather than an offer of an ongoing job. Like that makes such a difference. The point is: the trailer is roach-free, and the payoff has just about covered my grocery bills for the past year.
Book Review: Maminka's Children
Book Title: Maminka’s Children
Author: Elizabeth Orton Jones
Date: 1940
Publisher: Macmillan Company
Length: 108 pages with some blank pages and uncredited colored pencil drawings
Quote: “All there is of the why of this book comes out of the love they gave me for Bohemian things and Bohemian ways and Bohemian people.”
“They” in this introductory story are two Bohemian hired women with whom Mrs. Jones grew up. The rest of the stories are fictional, based on stories the hired women told.
The stories are generic bedtime stories for very young children—more suitable for reading aloud to three-year-olds than for pleasure reading by eight-year-olds. They feature turn-of-the-century Bohemian customs and fashions. Some of the stories involve amiable little deceptions that will make them sound like magical tales to the three-year-olds, while the eight-year-olds will know they’ve been let in on secrets like why the goose’s singing sounded like an accordion and how the hen laid the colorful Easter egg.
Reading this book is meant to feel a bit like listening to stories a friendly cook might have told you if you were a small child in 1940, about things that seemed long ago and far away even then. Middle school students may feel talked down to. Adults may still be eligible to enjoy the nostalgia trip (Maminka's Children was still recommended to and anthologized for primary school readers into the 1970s), or may read or tell these stories to children.
This is a collector's book. I hadn't checked its current resale value online when I sold the copy I physically owned for $1. To buy it online here, you'll need to send salolianigodagewi @ yahoo.com $15 for the book + $5 for shipping, It would be pleasant if Elizabeth Orton Jones still had any use for $2, but that's no longer the case.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Phenology: Sydney, Wasps, and Peepers
Today's weather is delightful. After a month of ice and snow, we're finally walking around, comfortably, on dry, solid ground, in sweaters and windbreakers rather than heavy coats. Temperatures in the fifties and sixties (Fahrenheit) have finally made it across the Virginia-Tennessee border.
Gnats and the despised Brown Marmorated Stinkbugs are hatching. So are the paper wasps who do so much good at the Cat Sanctuary. I've seen two of Polistes fuscatus so far, one at home and one at the Dog Sanctuary. This is especially good news because I've not yet seen any of Polistes dominulus, the invasive species that can displace and out-compete the paper wasps who belong here.
(Image credit: Mrmac at Morguefile, http://cdn.morguefile.com/imageData/public/files/m/mrmac04/preview/fldr_2008_11_28/file0001137602340.jpg )
P. fuscatus are about an inch long; dark-colored, as the name suggests, though if you look closely you may see red or yellow as well as dark brown on the body, with black transparent wings. Mature males and females don't even have stingers, although the females can scratch and nip. Wasps of this species who fly toward humans are sometimes hunting for the gnats or mosquitoes we attract, sometimes just checking us out. They have very keen senses of sight and smell and use these to recognize humans as threatening or non-threatening. Once you convince the "queen" of a paper wasp family that you're harmless, you can enjoy protection from nuisance insects with very little risk of being stung. The slightly smaller "worker" wasps, who do have stingers, hatch later and usually take their cue from the queen. I think of these little animals as a sort of non-cuddly pets.
Of course, at this time of year, paper wasps and hornets are not our only natural protection from gnats, flies, and mosquitoes. Songbirds are passing through. This morning Gate City's green space was full of sparrows, wrens, warblers, and finches, as well as blue jays, crows, and cardinals. All of them are hungry, and most will eat insects. But in summer, when most of the songbirds have gone further north and the others are replacing their wing feathers, paper wasps will be our primary defense against nuisance insects.
They will have support, competition, and occasionally danger, from another insect-eating species, the little frogs called spring peepers. (Image credit: SoundMan73 at Morguefile.)
We always hear spring peepers' chorus ("cree-ee-eek") from a distance; they stop calling and hide when we come near.
Parts of Grogan Park are still under water. The Little Moccasin Creek, which flows through the park, is still muddy and close to the tops of its banks. Spring peepers don't mind this extra water and seem to be advertising--"Creek! Creek!"--at the tops of their little lungs.
I had promised Sydney, the Australian shepherd dog, that I'd walk with her in the park when the snow and ice went away. Yesterday, when a light rain kept the ground very wet, she seemed to be expressing disappointment that I hadn't done that; she barked, and when I asked her what she was barking about she tried to herd me toward the door. So this morning we walked in the park. Sydney behaved very well--no barking, no pulling on the leash, no effort to intimidate a smaller dog we saw from a distance. I had taken the camera phone, with some vague idea of making this post a series of pictures and calling it "Dog's View of Grogan Park," but the phone's battery was too low.
After the walk Sydney was definitely ready for breakfast, but before she settled down to eat breakfast she grinned at me and wagged her tail. She liked the walk. She likes this March Thaw weather.
Don't we all.
Gnats and the despised Brown Marmorated Stinkbugs are hatching. So are the paper wasps who do so much good at the Cat Sanctuary. I've seen two of Polistes fuscatus so far, one at home and one at the Dog Sanctuary. This is especially good news because I've not yet seen any of Polistes dominulus, the invasive species that can displace and out-compete the paper wasps who belong here.
(Image credit: Mrmac at Morguefile, http://cdn.morguefile.com/imageData/public/files/m/mrmac04/preview/fldr_2008_11_28/file0001137602340.jpg )
P. fuscatus are about an inch long; dark-colored, as the name suggests, though if you look closely you may see red or yellow as well as dark brown on the body, with black transparent wings. Mature males and females don't even have stingers, although the females can scratch and nip. Wasps of this species who fly toward humans are sometimes hunting for the gnats or mosquitoes we attract, sometimes just checking us out. They have very keen senses of sight and smell and use these to recognize humans as threatening or non-threatening. Once you convince the "queen" of a paper wasp family that you're harmless, you can enjoy protection from nuisance insects with very little risk of being stung. The slightly smaller "worker" wasps, who do have stingers, hatch later and usually take their cue from the queen. I think of these little animals as a sort of non-cuddly pets.
Of course, at this time of year, paper wasps and hornets are not our only natural protection from gnats, flies, and mosquitoes. Songbirds are passing through. This morning Gate City's green space was full of sparrows, wrens, warblers, and finches, as well as blue jays, crows, and cardinals. All of them are hungry, and most will eat insects. But in summer, when most of the songbirds have gone further north and the others are replacing their wing feathers, paper wasps will be our primary defense against nuisance insects.
They will have support, competition, and occasionally danger, from another insect-eating species, the little frogs called spring peepers. (Image credit: SoundMan73 at Morguefile.)
We always hear spring peepers' chorus ("cree-ee-eek") from a distance; they stop calling and hide when we come near.
Parts of Grogan Park are still under water. The Little Moccasin Creek, which flows through the park, is still muddy and close to the tops of its banks. Spring peepers don't mind this extra water and seem to be advertising--"Creek! Creek!"--at the tops of their little lungs.
I had promised Sydney, the Australian shepherd dog, that I'd walk with her in the park when the snow and ice went away. Yesterday, when a light rain kept the ground very wet, she seemed to be expressing disappointment that I hadn't done that; she barked, and when I asked her what she was barking about she tried to herd me toward the door. So this morning we walked in the park. Sydney behaved very well--no barking, no pulling on the leash, no effort to intimidate a smaller dog we saw from a distance. I had taken the camera phone, with some vague idea of making this post a series of pictures and calling it "Dog's View of Grogan Park," but the phone's battery was too low.
After the walk Sydney was definitely ready for breakfast, but before she settled down to eat breakfast she grinned at me and wagged her tail. She liked the walk. She likes this March Thaw weather.
Don't we all.
Link Log for March 12 (#1)
This is the Link Log for what I found this morning; there may or may not be another Link Log this evening. Categories: Books, Food, Least Competent Criminals, News, Obituary, Technology, Traffic.
Books
Hurrah! A new collection of fiction--a short story sequence, apparently--from Pamela Dean and Patricia Wrede...in paper, so I should be able to read it.
http://pameladean.livejournal.com/165351.html
Food
If the recipes make you drool, run don't walk to Big Stone Gap to buy the books.
https://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/cooking-the-books/
And you might want to buy a few extra cans of this'n'that. Boxes, bags...anything non-perishable.
http://www.tricities.com/news/food-bank-challenge-issued-to-wise-county-attorneys/article_3f8efcb0-c862-11e4-84d6-03f7c77556a9.html
Least Competent Criminals
Marci Gore reports on Gate City's dumbest, a thief who mistakenly believed that (a) one of the smaller churches in town would have a lot of money or valuables lying around, and (b) he could break into the church in broad daylight without being stopped. I don't know...he has a local name all right, but there's usually a reason why a young able-bodied adult would be in the low-income housing project...
http://www.timesnews.net/article/9085825/citizens-tip-thwarts-gate-city-church-burglary
News
It's pleasant to be able to agree with Eric Holder about something:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/12/eric-holder-shooting-of-two-ferguson-officers-inexcusable-and-repugnant/?
Y'know, most cats do have the neurological structures that allow their eyes to see colors, and if you really work at training a cat to demonstrate that it recognizes a color it will probably learn to, but cats have little use for color and don't easily learn to pay attention to colors. Likewise, since there's no competing version of the Apple logo on the market, most of us don't remember exactly which of the possible "apple" shapes the real logo uses. So why does it matter whether you remember which way the Apple logo faces, as in yesterday's quiz? Because the fraudulent nonprofit the Washington Post is currently investigating bilked our government for the full price of Apple computers, and bought knock-offs with...hey, that's the mirror-image logo I picked as the correct one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/nonprofit-contractor-sent-government-11-million-bill-for-parties-and-retreats/2015/03/12/eeadfdf6-c365-11e4-9271-610273846239_story.html?tid=sm_tw
Obituary
Terry Pratchett died...only 66, but he had Alzheimer's Disease. I didn't start collecting his books early enough. I'll miss him. He had released this statement about his demise...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ltxl7?ocid=socialflow_twitter
Neil Gaiman remembers:
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2015/03/terry-pratchett.html
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/24/terry-pratchett-angry-not-jolly-neil-gaiman
Technology
Search engines step on their own feet. Some browsers run everything typed into the browser bar, even if it's a complete web address, through a search engine...thus revealing that Americans apparently "search for" things any idjit can remember how to find all by him-or-herself, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and Amazon.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/12/what-are-americans-really-googling-this-new-ranking-has-the-answer/?
What about the Internet will change due to the "net neutrality rules"? Read the rules (in PDF, sorry):
http://www.teaparty.org/fcc-finally-unveils-text-net-neutrality-rules-88595/?
Traffic
I care about people, therefore I don't drive. You're welcome.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/11/charging-people-more-to-drive-saves-lives/?tid=sm_tw
Books
Hurrah! A new collection of fiction--a short story sequence, apparently--from Pamela Dean and Patricia Wrede...in paper, so I should be able to read it.
http://pameladean.livejournal.com/165351.html
Food
If the recipes make you drool, run don't walk to Big Stone Gap to buy the books.
https://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/cooking-the-books/
And you might want to buy a few extra cans of this'n'that. Boxes, bags...anything non-perishable.
http://www.tricities.com/news/food-bank-challenge-issued-to-wise-county-attorneys/article_3f8efcb0-c862-11e4-84d6-03f7c77556a9.html
Least Competent Criminals
Marci Gore reports on Gate City's dumbest, a thief who mistakenly believed that (a) one of the smaller churches in town would have a lot of money or valuables lying around, and (b) he could break into the church in broad daylight without being stopped. I don't know...he has a local name all right, but there's usually a reason why a young able-bodied adult would be in the low-income housing project...
http://www.timesnews.net/article/9085825/citizens-tip-thwarts-gate-city-church-burglary
News
It's pleasant to be able to agree with Eric Holder about something:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/12/eric-holder-shooting-of-two-ferguson-officers-inexcusable-and-repugnant/?
Y'know, most cats do have the neurological structures that allow their eyes to see colors, and if you really work at training a cat to demonstrate that it recognizes a color it will probably learn to, but cats have little use for color and don't easily learn to pay attention to colors. Likewise, since there's no competing version of the Apple logo on the market, most of us don't remember exactly which of the possible "apple" shapes the real logo uses. So why does it matter whether you remember which way the Apple logo faces, as in yesterday's quiz? Because the fraudulent nonprofit the Washington Post is currently investigating bilked our government for the full price of Apple computers, and bought knock-offs with...hey, that's the mirror-image logo I picked as the correct one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/nonprofit-contractor-sent-government-11-million-bill-for-parties-and-retreats/2015/03/12/eeadfdf6-c365-11e4-9271-610273846239_story.html?tid=sm_tw
Obituary
Terry Pratchett died...only 66, but he had Alzheimer's Disease. I didn't start collecting his books early enough. I'll miss him. He had released this statement about his demise...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ltxl7?ocid=socialflow_twitter
Neil Gaiman remembers:
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2015/03/terry-pratchett.html
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/24/terry-pratchett-angry-not-jolly-neil-gaiman
Technology
Search engines step on their own feet. Some browsers run everything typed into the browser bar, even if it's a complete web address, through a search engine...thus revealing that Americans apparently "search for" things any idjit can remember how to find all by him-or-herself, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and Amazon.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/12/what-are-americans-really-googling-this-new-ranking-has-the-answer/?
What about the Internet will change due to the "net neutrality rules"? Read the rules (in PDF, sorry):
http://www.teaparty.org/fcc-finally-unveils-text-net-neutrality-rules-88595/?
Traffic
I care about people, therefore I don't drive. You're welcome.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/11/charging-people-more-to-drive-saves-lives/?tid=sm_tw
Thai Names for the Siamese Kittens? Update
(Reclaimed from Bubblews, where it appeared on April 14, 2014.)
This Morguefile picture (donated by Kornrolla, http://cdn.morguefile.com/imageData/public/files/k/kornrolla/preview/fldr_2008_11_28/file0001189857498.jpg) shows what one of my cats' new kittens ought to look like in a few months. (Update: Sisawat's adult coat is actually the color cat fanciers call "blue," meaning gray without conspicuous tabby stripes, and she no longer shows the "color points" by which people recognize Siamese cats on sight. She does have a high voice and make a wide range of "Siamese" sounds.)
Resident cats Heather, Irene, and Ivy had brought their favorite uncle Damian, who is neutered but doesn't realize it, to the house. (Damian lives down the road, with some humans who probably miss him when he's staying with us.) Ivy had apparently been faithful to that blasted Manx tom who was the father of last year's kittens, and I'm glad to report that he may have been neutered too...Ivy's not pregnant. Heather and Irene had, however, told the Manx tom they didn't want any more bobtailed kittens (they said that loudly and clearly, though not in English). So the question on my mind was how they managed to get pregnant. I hadn't seen another male cat in the neighborhood, but obviously one had been there.
When the kittens arrived a week ago, I knew right away who their father was. Although both Heather and Irene show bright, undiluted coat colors, all but one of their kittens have diluted coat colors. One of them has Bucky Cat cartoon ears. Others have show-quality Siamese-cat ears and the beginnings of "points," two have yet to show any dark "point" markings at all, and there's a tabby and two calicos, but all of the kittens have that long, lean Siamese look along with the partial albinism. Yes, someone in the neighborhood owns a Siamese tomcat.
The unusual thing about these kittens is not their Siamese father, but their highly social mothers. Heather, who went into labor first, seemed to be having trouble delivering the first kitten on Monday morning. I thought I might have to call the vet if the kitten hadn't been born by the time I got back from town. When I got back from town, Heather and Irene had curled up in one cardboard box, like a yin-yang, and were massaging each other with their paws. Apparently each had five kittens, all born alive, and lost one during the first week. However, apart from a birth defect Irene passed on to two of her kittens (which means these ought to be her last kittens) and the vestigial extra toes Heather passed on to one of hers, no human will ever know for sure which kittens belong to which cat.
The remaining kittens are growing fast--one actually opened her eyes yesterday. There's no guarantee that even one of them will live to maturity, and I'm not trying to find homes for them on the Internet. (There's a web site called Petfinder for that purpose; I've never received a response from it that wasn't obviously spam, and certainly wouldn't use it to place social cats.)
However, when I looked in on the kittens yesterday, it did occur to me that Bubblews might be a good place to find names for them. There's an old American tradition of giving Asian names to Siamese cats, in honor of their remote-past ancestry. I know some good Thai names for humans, but the Cat Sanctuary has generally tried to avoid giving human names to cats...the color name Heather, and the science-fiction character names Iris, Irene, and Ivy, were pushing the limits. Lots of Asian people use Bubblews, so perhaps youall can recommend some Thai names for places, colors, etc., that aren't used by humans, and that won't sound truly obnoxious as they will be mispronounced by English-speaking people.
(Update: Only one of the kittens' names was proposed by a reader. I did find Asian names, some of which commemorated the relatives the kittens resembled: Siri looked a bit like Iris, Kiba looked a bit like Biscuit (the diminutive form of "Biscuit" being "Bic-bic"), and Gwai looked a bit like Mogwai. Siri was apparently eaten by our house snake around the time the kittens' eyes opened, and the two smallest and palest kittens died before that. Kama, Tom, and Sisawat are alive and well. Bucky, Khon, and Kiba died during the week after poison was sprayed along Route 23. I've not heard any recent news about Gwai.
Although a few busybodies predictably said "You ought to have all those cats spayed," none of them put any money where its mouth was. +Protecto Shell posted a helpful list of organizations that offer help with veterinary expenses. I thought about applying to them for help to get Irene spayed, then went home and looked cautiously at Irene, and...yes, the poor dear is pregnant. Yes, already. That mild weather we had in January...)
Book Review: Techniques for Casual Clothes from Threads
Title: Techniques for Casual Clothes from Threads
Date: 1994
Publisher: Taunton Press
Length: 95 pages including many graphics and index; subscription card sheet
Quote: “Comfortable, casual clothes...are what we wear most of the time. There’s no better reason to sew than to make such personalized favorites.”
For serious crafters, this book needed an announcement more than a review. Threads is a magazine that’s always packed with informative articles about all the textile crafts. Each article explains a technique and gives a few examples of how to use that technique. Usually the magazine avoids full-sized pattern pages or stitch-by-stitch instructions; writers assume that you’re familiar with the basic techniques of the craft and can figure out how to copy the example piece, or make something different with the same technique, with just a thumbnail sketch of a shape to fold and stitch, an embroidery stitch method or knitting or crocheting stitch pattern.
This book is a collection of articles reprinted from Threads in the 1980s and 1990s. The articles reprinted are “Straight Line Design,” “Marvelous Melton,” “Making Great Strides: how to put a perfect pleat into a straight skirt,” “Buttoning Up,” “Making a Kilt,” “Hand-Felted Jackets for Kids,” “Sophisticated Stenciling:a simple way to print on fabric and clothing,” “The Embellished Vest,” “Clothes to Live In...in one flat-fell swoop,” “Sew Yourself a Sweater: sewing machine solutions for handling textured knit yardage,” “Who Needs Calvin Klein: how to draft and construct a pair of authentic jeans,” “Sewing Workout: fabrics and techniques for constructing stretchy activewear,” “Tips for the perfect Shirt,” “Embroidery with Texture,” “Two Jackets in One: reversibility,” “A Surprising Turn of the Pleat,” and “Sewing the All-Weather Raincoat.”
If you’re not a regular reader of Threads, you may be wondering, “Yes, but can I use these articles?” Some of them, like “Straight Line Design,” in which you tack squares and rectangles together to make drapey shirts, unfitted jackets, and baggy britches, should be easy enough for anyone who can hem a skirt and sew on a button. Sewing a raincoat will be more of a challenge. The explanations will help. If you have not done much sewing you'll probably need help to use the articles.
Collections from magazine archives, like this one, don't qualify as Fair Trade Books. However, Techniques for Casual Clothes is slim enough to fit into the same package with a Fair Trade Book, with no extra shipping charge. To buy it here, send $5 for the book + $5 for shipping to salolianigodagewi @ yahoo.com.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Link Log for March 11
Today's Categories: Animals, Armed Citizen, Books, Censorship, Christianity. Crafts, Excuses, Food, Phenology, Philosophy, Quiz, Videos
Animals
Happy-faced dog:
http://www.dogpawsitivetidbits.com/2015/03/happy-hound-dog-on-gulf-shore.html
Author Mei Lian Hoe, whom I discovered just now through AsexualArtists, shares a video of a cat who knows how to get attention...
http://thecutestofthecute.tumblr.com/post/104906796145/bucky-oh-bucky-whatsbetterthanfantasy
(Irene does something similar; when I step out onto the porch she'll climb onto the stepladder to catch my finger with one paw and try to guide me to the part of her head she wants to have stroked.)
Armed Citizen Foils Crime
Some web pages and newspapers don't feature these stories. So we do.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/10/mother-opened-the-door-for-a-person-she-thought-was-a-ups-deliveryman-then-he-put-the-gun-to-my-face-thats-when-her-brother-with-a-shotgun-stepped-in/
Books
"Author is she? Why have I never heard of her?" someone said when reading the reference to Mei Lian Hoe. Possibly because publishers don't do much to promote new books and authors these days; they'd rather sit around wailing about the drop in book sales, thereby marketing illiteracy instead of marketing books. Anyway, I've not read it or even peeked inside it (warning: there's some offensive language on her blog), but here's the link to MLH's murder story:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unremarkable-Murder-Mei-Lian-Hoe/dp/1495976211
Censorship
When a baby is definitely on the way, it's too late to scold the baby's mother for taking chances. Still, the position of this web site is that failure to support Chaplain Modder's freedom of speech--especially, in his position as a chaplain, speech about his understanding of the Bible--is "shaming [all of us] in the eyes of God." Something much worse than young people's tender little feelings about themselves is at stake here. Feminists really scored an own goal with that blather about the "right" to abortion, as Germaine Greer observed, and homosexuals will really score an own goal if they are allowed to continue this insane babble about their "right" to censor any speech with which they don't agree: as with the pro-abortion feminists, their own blood is likely to be the first spilled.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/11/military-chaplain-was-praised-as-the-best-of-the-best-until-he-expressed-his-biblical-views-now-hes-battling-the-govt-to-keep-his-job/?
Y'know, just for the record, I think Ms. Flunder has the right to speak too. At a Christian college? I think that depends on whether the college is paying her, or merely letting her speak.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/11/included-in-a-christian-college-presidents-explanation-for-inviting-lesbian-pastor-to-speak-is-a-very-controversial-claim-about-christianity/?
Christianity
Here's a good example for Christians to follow. Seriously.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/10/i-hiredsome-prostitutes-preachers-shocking-blog-confession-comes-along-with-a-major-twist/?
Crafts
+Marsha Cooper shares more quilts. Does the Internet need another "The Dress" sort of meme? This web site demonstrated, last fall, how one image can show up in different colors on different computer screens...I'm seeing the "wall hanging" as mostly a shade of pinkish brown that I consider beautiful, like cedar heartwood. Are you?
http://marshasspot.blogspot.com/2015/03/wip-wednesday-31115.html
Excuses
He didn't shovel his sidewalk because he doesn't have a sidewalk. Good enough? Should he have shovelled a path, anyway? Should his neighbors have shovelled it for him, noticing that he's 70 years old? There are serious ethical ramifications here...
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/10/city-repeatedly-tickets-man-for-failing-to-shovel-his-sidewalk-man-does-not-have-a-sidewalk/?
Food
"Federal food police"? It's not just a joke any more.
http://fauquierfreecitizen.com/fresh-local-real-life-hunger-games/
News of the Weird
Several of these stories are sort of weird if you think about it, but how weird is a marathoner running across North America to raise money for missions in Ethiopia? He's run as far as Illinois, and he's recruiting volunteers to run with him in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. (Thanks to Liz Klimas for sharing the story.)
http://www.rundarenrun.com/about
Phenology
+Marsha Cooper gives thanks for the March thaw weather, which we're now enjoying too. Yesterday and today have been drizzly, but warm.
http://www.bubblews.com/news/9891022-gratitude-journal-31015
Did youall know that Google + has a label for phenology? Not as well used as it could easily be, but still...
https://plus.google.com/u/0/explore/phenology
Philosophy
+Theresa Wiza reflects on the nature of love:
http://philosophicalmusingsandinsights.blogspot.com/2015/03/why-we-marry-have-children-or-own-pets.html
Billy Hallowell asks whether men who smile and open doors are guilty of sexism. I think the problem here is defining "too much." There's nothing sexist or otherwise bad about being nice; there is a fairly well known (and easily recognized, most of the time) pattern in which people act too nice as a camouflage for covert nastiness. In real life I think most women can spot the difference, oh at least nine times out of ten, between a genuine smile that says "I'm glad to see you" and the hateful smirk that says "Walk into this trap, fool." And so can men. At least, nine times out of ten, Highly Sensory-Perceptive people can. If that's one of the things extroverts genuinely aren't able to see, at least that would explain why people are still urging other people to tell themselves to "smile" when they're not actually pleased or amused...(Does this even have anything to do with sexism? Only about as much as it has to do with every other form of ill will.)
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/11/are-men-who-smile-too-much-at-women-and-hold-the-door-for-them-guilty-ofsexism/?
Quiz
Quick and easy word-association game with some people who are trying to map the "mental dictionaries" of the English-speaking countries:
http://www.smallworldofwords.com/en/
Can you remember, without looking, which way the Apple logo faces? I mirror-imaged it, myself.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/11/can-you-correctly-identify-the-apple-logo-more-than-half-of-individuals-cant-study-finds/?
Video
Revisiting the question whether people's confrontations with the law should be videotaped, this Greyhound passenger videotapes a woman violently attacking a female officer:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/10/woman-caught-brutally-beating-state-trooper-during-stop-but-see-how-the-rest-of-the-bus-reacts-to-the-brawl/?
Animals
Happy-faced dog:
http://www.dogpawsitivetidbits.com/2015/03/happy-hound-dog-on-gulf-shore.html
Author Mei Lian Hoe, whom I discovered just now through AsexualArtists, shares a video of a cat who knows how to get attention...
http://thecutestofthecute.tumblr.com/post/104906796145/bucky-oh-bucky-whatsbetterthanfantasy
(Irene does something similar; when I step out onto the porch she'll climb onto the stepladder to catch my finger with one paw and try to guide me to the part of her head she wants to have stroked.)
Armed Citizen Foils Crime
Some web pages and newspapers don't feature these stories. So we do.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/10/mother-opened-the-door-for-a-person-she-thought-was-a-ups-deliveryman-then-he-put-the-gun-to-my-face-thats-when-her-brother-with-a-shotgun-stepped-in/
Books
"Author is she? Why have I never heard of her?" someone said when reading the reference to Mei Lian Hoe. Possibly because publishers don't do much to promote new books and authors these days; they'd rather sit around wailing about the drop in book sales, thereby marketing illiteracy instead of marketing books. Anyway, I've not read it or even peeked inside it (warning: there's some offensive language on her blog), but here's the link to MLH's murder story:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unremarkable-Murder-Mei-Lian-Hoe/dp/1495976211
Censorship
When a baby is definitely on the way, it's too late to scold the baby's mother for taking chances. Still, the position of this web site is that failure to support Chaplain Modder's freedom of speech--especially, in his position as a chaplain, speech about his understanding of the Bible--is "shaming [all of us] in the eyes of God." Something much worse than young people's tender little feelings about themselves is at stake here. Feminists really scored an own goal with that blather about the "right" to abortion, as Germaine Greer observed, and homosexuals will really score an own goal if they are allowed to continue this insane babble about their "right" to censor any speech with which they don't agree: as with the pro-abortion feminists, their own blood is likely to be the first spilled.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/11/military-chaplain-was-praised-as-the-best-of-the-best-until-he-expressed-his-biblical-views-now-hes-battling-the-govt-to-keep-his-job/?
Y'know, just for the record, I think Ms. Flunder has the right to speak too. At a Christian college? I think that depends on whether the college is paying her, or merely letting her speak.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/11/included-in-a-christian-college-presidents-explanation-for-inviting-lesbian-pastor-to-speak-is-a-very-controversial-claim-about-christianity/?
Christianity
Here's a good example for Christians to follow. Seriously.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/10/i-hiredsome-prostitutes-preachers-shocking-blog-confession-comes-along-with-a-major-twist/?
Crafts
+Marsha Cooper shares more quilts. Does the Internet need another "The Dress" sort of meme? This web site demonstrated, last fall, how one image can show up in different colors on different computer screens...I'm seeing the "wall hanging" as mostly a shade of pinkish brown that I consider beautiful, like cedar heartwood. Are you?
http://marshasspot.blogspot.com/2015/03/wip-wednesday-31115.html
Excuses
He didn't shovel his sidewalk because he doesn't have a sidewalk. Good enough? Should he have shovelled a path, anyway? Should his neighbors have shovelled it for him, noticing that he's 70 years old? There are serious ethical ramifications here...
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/10/city-repeatedly-tickets-man-for-failing-to-shovel-his-sidewalk-man-does-not-have-a-sidewalk/?
Food
"Federal food police"? It's not just a joke any more.
http://fauquierfreecitizen.com/fresh-local-real-life-hunger-games/
News of the Weird
Several of these stories are sort of weird if you think about it, but how weird is a marathoner running across North America to raise money for missions in Ethiopia? He's run as far as Illinois, and he's recruiting volunteers to run with him in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. (Thanks to Liz Klimas for sharing the story.)
http://www.rundarenrun.com/about
Phenology
+Marsha Cooper gives thanks for the March thaw weather, which we're now enjoying too. Yesterday and today have been drizzly, but warm.
http://www.bubblews.com/news/9891022-gratitude-journal-31015
Did youall know that Google + has a label for phenology? Not as well used as it could easily be, but still...
https://plus.google.com/u/0/explore/phenology
Philosophy
+Theresa Wiza reflects on the nature of love:
http://philosophicalmusingsandinsights.blogspot.com/2015/03/why-we-marry-have-children-or-own-pets.html
Billy Hallowell asks whether men who smile and open doors are guilty of sexism. I think the problem here is defining "too much." There's nothing sexist or otherwise bad about being nice; there is a fairly well known (and easily recognized, most of the time) pattern in which people act too nice as a camouflage for covert nastiness. In real life I think most women can spot the difference, oh at least nine times out of ten, between a genuine smile that says "I'm glad to see you" and the hateful smirk that says "Walk into this trap, fool." And so can men. At least, nine times out of ten, Highly Sensory-Perceptive people can. If that's one of the things extroverts genuinely aren't able to see, at least that would explain why people are still urging other people to tell themselves to "smile" when they're not actually pleased or amused...(Does this even have anything to do with sexism? Only about as much as it has to do with every other form of ill will.)
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/11/are-men-who-smile-too-much-at-women-and-hold-the-door-for-them-guilty-ofsexism/?
Quiz
Quick and easy word-association game with some people who are trying to map the "mental dictionaries" of the English-speaking countries:
http://www.smallworldofwords.com/en/
Can you remember, without looking, which way the Apple logo faces? I mirror-imaged it, myself.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/11/can-you-correctly-identify-the-apple-logo-more-than-half-of-individuals-cant-study-finds/?
Video
Revisiting the question whether people's confrontations with the law should be videotaped, this Greyhound passenger videotapes a woman violently attacking a female officer:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/10/woman-caught-brutally-beating-state-trooper-during-stop-but-see-how-the-rest-of-the-bus-reacts-to-the-brawl/?
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