Why I Don't Live in Iowa Anymore, 2008 version

Actually, "anymore" is kind of an Iowa idiom. People say things like, "I'm so tired anymore." (Don't ask me.) Anymore, I love looking at all these beautiful snow scenes. The reason so many of the trucks are in the ditches is because Iowa gets ICE storms. First it drops down ice, and then it snows on top of that. This makes the roads very greasy, as my father-in-law used to say.

I got these photos from Erda, our Iowa correspondent. She says they were taken up north of Cedar Rapids. Ufda!

Do Unto Others

A Little Red Hen has a great post today about voting rights. Remember 2000? Here we go again...I hope not. LRH writes:

It happened Tuesday, February 19. Four days later and no mention in major media that comes into my apartment in New York City. Surfing, I happened upon this march in Texas at Bitch PhD, a feminist blog who got it via Pandagon, another feminist blog.

You see in the photo 2,000 students at historically black Prairie View A & M University as they march over 7 miles to exercise their voting rights. Because? The number of early registration sites near the campus--where there are 3,000 students registered to vote--had been reduced in the county around the school from six to one.

Their banner reads, “It’s 2008. We will vote.”* No one makes it hard for me to vote.

A YouTube video of the march is HERE at the Burnt Orange Report, a blog focused on Texas politics. Besides learning more about this significant voting rights event at Texas A & M, I read other sites new to me. With all the excess of narrow coverage on the primary races it was at Black America Web that I learned of the discordant exchanges between Obama and TV commentator Tavis Smiley--and responses to that in the African American community.

*The Rev. James E. Orange, a project organizer in SCLC and aide to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, brought young people like himself into the movement, died at 65 last week. It is his legacy that these Texas students continue.

I have not seen a word of this here in DC, either. As LRH says, we do live in a bubble. Let the bubble burst!

TEDTalk: On the right side of this post, Amy Smith talks about lifesaving designs. She's an engineering graduate of MIT and a MacArthur Foundation award winner. I love hearing young women like this.

Virtual Pub

It's Friday night...and Shakesville's Virtual Pub is open!

(Note to LAZY GARDENER: their Haloscan is all bollixed up, too.)

If virtual pubcrawling is not your forte, maybe you want to see how brainwashed you are! Take this great quiz.

TGIF!!!

Pathetique

Well, several of the bloggers i know are into a confessional mode these days. One very entertaining blogger has started a series called "How I Got to be Me." I really can't get into that kind of thing..."How I Got to be Mary Ellen, aka M.E." is just beyond me. I have NO IDEA how I got to be M.E. I just sort of happened, you know?

My mother wanted a girl, but she got me instead. It's not that I don't have all the right X & Y chromosomes, but something definitely got left out. I look at women's fashions and think, "Oh, ick! Who would want to wear this cheesy stuff?" On my way through MSN to my email, I see all kinds of girly articles on MAKEUP (I wore just enough lipstick and mascara to snag a husband almost 50 years ago, but now it makes me break out) and SKIN CARE (I swear by Burt's Bees Carrot Night Creme--one of the lovely skin tags that circle my neck got inflamed about a month ago...so i rubbed Burt's Bees Carrot Night Creme on it. It turned BLACK, and then it FELL OFF. Is this a miracle product, or what?)

Anyway, my boss said to me the other day....

"Wouldn't you like to stay working until this (PROJECT YOU'RE WORKING ON NOW) gets published? I know you haven't filled out your paperwork for your retirement (WRONG....I've filled it out twice but haven't been able to SEND THE LETTER). Don't you want to stay until you're satisfied with it?"

I said, "I couldn't care less. I'll go do the paperwork tmw."

Actually, I almost quit two days ago. The boss bawled me out in the meeting in front of everyone because SHE says I said the "F-word." I didn't. I said FREAKING, but the interpreters misheard me and made the sign for the other "F-word" I say quite often. At length I said, "Well, be that as it may, don't you think it would be nice to talk to me in private first? and then if I continue, you can lay me out in front of the whole group." She said, "I had to catch it right then and there. I wouldn't want the others to think THEY could start talking like that." And I said, "Fat chance. They're all a bunch of Church People, and they wouldn't be caught dead saying anything remotely naughty no matter where they were."

(This is a conversation I can't win, btw....Church People feel very negatively toward what they call "cursing." And I suspect my boss is a Church Person. She brought us Valentine candies with a religious theme last week. Little "Jesus loves you" lollipops and stuff like that.)

It's like Elizabeth Taylor says..."People who hate Vices also have some very annoying Virtues."

Over and Out.

Little Hunter Hayes is Growin' Up!

The little accordion player whose video I posted a week or two ago singing "Jambalaya" at age 5 (not age 4, sorry) with Hank Williams, Jr., is a ripe old 16!

Here's a video of him singing within the past year. He's reputed to be an exceptional guitar player now, too. In fact, he's mastered 11 instruments since his early toe-tapping accordion-playing days and is a wildly popular musician ("The Amazing One") on the Cajun circuit.

He has his own website, too.

More Minnesota Jokes - one more, too

Ole bought Lena a piano for her birthday. A few weeks later, Lars inquired how she was doing with it.
"Oh," said Ole, "I persuaded her to svitch to a clarinet."
"How come?" asked Lars.
"Vell," Ole answered, "because vith a clarinet, she can't sing."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lena: "Der is trouble vit da car, sveetheart. It has vater in da carburetor."
Ole: "Vater in da carburetor? Dat is ridiculous."
Lena: "Ole, I tell you da car has vater in the carburetor."
Ole: "You don't even know vat a carburetor is. I'll check it out. Ver is da car?"
Lena: "In da lake."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Three Minnestans go down to Mexico to celebrate college graduation, get drunk, and wake up in jail, only to find that they are to be executed in the morning, though none of them can remember what they did the night before.

The first one, Sven, is strapped in the electric chair, and is asked if he has any last words. He says, "I yust graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield and believe in the almighty power of God to intervene on the behalf of the innocent." They throw the switch and nothing happens.;

They all immediately fall to the floor on their knees, beg for Sven's forgiveness, and release him.

The second, Lars, is strapped in and gives his last words, "I yust graduated from the Concordia College in Moorhead and I believe in the power of justice to intervene on the part of the innocent."

They throw the switch and, again, nothing happens. Again, they all immediately fall to their knees, beg for his forgiveness, and release him.

The last one, Ole, is strapped in and says, "Vell, I'm from the University of Nort' Dakota in Grand Forks and yust graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering, and I'll tell ya right now, ya ain't gonna electrocute nobody if you don't plug this t'ing in."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

One day Ole was at the store and was talking with a gentleman when he said, "I really don't know what I should get Lena for our anniversary."
"Well, what did you get her last time?" asked the other.
"I took her on a trip to Germany," answered Ole.
"Maybe you should take her on another trip," suggested the other.
Ole thought for a while and then said happily, "It would be the perfect gift! I'll send her a airline ticket so she can come back!"


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ants

Deborah Gordon (in the new TEDTalk just posted here) studies ants in the Arizona desert. A professor at Stanford University, Gordon is the author of Ants at Work.

As the APF Reporter says,

What (Gordon) has discovered by charting the life cycles of 300 ant colonies spread across a 25-acre swath of chapparal are findings which upset many of our assumptions about how the world works.

I'm wondering which of my assumptions about how the world works could have come from my observations of ants. I don't recall observing ants so much as destroying them whenever I could. During much of my early childhood and that of most kids I know, my encounters with ants often consisted of killing them on sight--stomping on them with my shoes (never my bare feet) or smashing them with my fists. Perhaps assumption number one thus would have to be "anything that's not human is fair game." Where did this come from?

My sense of superiority to ants came only from encounters with single ants, however. When I saw LOTS of ants all at once--as when the ants moved en masse to a new place, or when two colonies of ants, similarly en masse, attacked each other, I watched from a safe distance. Also, we children learned to distinguish by their color which ants had the potential to cause us pain if we messed with them. The black ants never bit. Red ants, however, did bite, and it hurt!

Ants appeared to cooperate in large tasks, also. Sometimes two ants had to carry something large. Did I learn cooperation from watching them haul the eggs from their old nest to a new place? Don't think so.

What did ants teach me about how the world worked? I haven't watched Gordon's talk yet. I'm curious to find out which assumptions about ants the APF Reporter is talking about....

Lakshmi Pratury?

I posted the video of Lakshmi Pratury's TedTalk because of what she said about writing letters by hand. But then I got curious about her. Why was she a participant at the annual TED gathering? Not just because her father wrote her letters!

Pratury is an MBA who spreads her talents among profit enterprises, venture capital, and nonprofit organizations. She is a leading force in the American India Foundation and founder of Tamarind Grove and the Digital Equalizer program, which brought technology education to more than 80,000 schoolchildren and 2,000 teachers in India.

I love what she says at the end of her page on Invincibelle: "If you haven't been rejected three times, then you're not trying hard enough." In the 40+ years when I was deaf, I came to know the wisdom of that intimately.

Tuesday Blogscan - plus one more as of 1:58 pm

Melissa, that very funny lady at Shakesville, regularly offers a post in which she lists blogs that she feels have especially good current posts. She often does this on Friday. It's only Tuesday here in Snoozeville, but what the heck...here's my list:


1. A Little Red Hen...create your own condom amulet for Valentine's Day [CAUTION...this involves knitting][or you can just submit your own design]

2. Hearing Loss...with some good You Tubery on Obama/McCain ads.

3. Rook's Nest...for the adorable hatching chick at the top counting down the days till her first grandchild arrives. (As of this typing, the kidlet is officially one day overdue.)

4. Diary of a Mad DC Cabbie...how to earn $10,000 a week driving a cab.

5. Lazy Gardener...a chilling tale of mice (and a great photo of LG's pink Wellies)

PLUS LATE ADDITION/LATE EDITION:

6. Shakesville....recent post "My Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart"....guess who won a medal with her French bulldog at the Westminster Dog Show???? Go see....

Check 'em out.

TED: What Thinking Looks Like

I've fallen in love with TED. (You can read the whole"About TED" page yourself, but this little snippet tells you basically what TED is.)

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. Almost 200 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.

A couple of weeks ago, Major Reader had a post encouraging readers to check out a fascinating TEDTalk, “5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do” by Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, where kids "play with power tools.”

Tulley’s talk reminded me a bit of A.S. Neill’s Summerhill, a Radical Approach to Child Rearing, published in 1960, two years before the birth of my first child. Scottish teacher Neill’s whole approach to child rearing was predicated on his belief that in order to learn, children should be happy, and that the way to ensure their happiness was to give them freedom.

His school, the eponymous Summerhill, was a democracy where each child’s vote was equal to each teacher’s or Neill’s own vote. Class attendance was voluntary, etc. All Victorian and authoritarian practices, so common in many English boarding schools, were tossed out.

I enjoyed remembering the Summerhill discussions my friends and I had over coffee and my own (short-lived) attempts to insert a little more freedom into my kids’ lives. It was hard to let them run free when I couldn’t hear what they’re doing.

That particular problem was solved when we moved to a house on two acres south of town. Two acres of yard surrounded by open fields populated by ground squirrels allowed plenty of room for three little girls and, later, a baby boy to explore.

But back to TED. The whole idea of TED fascinated me, and I looked up the list of TEDTalks. What I found continues to blow my mind daily.

Membership in TED and subscribing to the TEDTalks are both free.
TED encourages its members to help spread the word about its existence. The themes of the talks have grown beyond the original “Technology, Entertainment, Design” to include Business, Science, Culture, Arts, and Global Issues.

TEDTalks are nourishing my mind in a way that television and newspapers don’t/can’t/won’t. The speakers at the TED annual meeting in Monterey, California, include such personal heroes as Robin Chase, founder of Zipcar, and Jane Goodall of Gombe chimpanzee fame and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute.

As I get older, for which thanks be, I’m finding thinking is especially splendid recreation. It goes nicely with the senior discount on bus and metro fare. Besides doing my bit for the future of the planet, taking public transport gives me even more time to think!

Deaf Operated KFC in Cairo, Egypt

Here's something to alter your perceptions:

A deaf American student visiting Cairo, Egypt, films a deaf-friendly KFC!!

Transcript of the video:

Now I'm on vacation in Cairo, Egypt, outside of Kentucky Fried Chicken. All of the employees here at KFC are deaf. I heard about it, so I wanted to come and meet them-- [I did not meet] all of them, but they as deaf employees run the place.

Manager: Hi you're deaf? Where are you from?

You're American, wow. You came here Wednesday? Are you from Gallaudet? I see you live close to Gallaudet. Two years ago I flew to the US and visited Gallaudet. I work here. I have worked here for 13 years. You are a kid!

Deaf KFC employees taking orders from the customers

Jehanne: How many deaf employees work here?

Manager: 12

Jehanne: How many all together?

Manager: 3 female and 13 male employees

Manager: Here is the hearing employee who handles the orders through phone/intercom.

Jehanne: Cool!

Group photo op: ILY sign.

Manager: Word in English… one second... OK here we go... the sign for Aswan (an ancient city in southern Egypt) is... the sign for Abu Simbel (ancient massive rock temples in southern Egypt) is... and the sign for Cairo here is...

Manager: Thank you!

[Please note that toward the end of the video, the manager signs some English words--"chicken," "french fry"--in Egyptian sign language]

What Does "Elder" Mean??

The Daily Om article (see the right side of this blog) talks about labels today. It got me thinking about all the various labels people slap on other people. One that especially puzzles me is “Elder.” I completely get “divorcee,” “drunk,” “Giants fan,” and “fallen away Catholic” (plus “lapsed Quaker attender," although I’m trying to think of what they call people who don’t go to the Episcopal church any more…Anglicans??) but “Elder”?

So I looked it up, and “elder” means simply “one who is older than you."

Using that label seems to be a good way to set up a fight among that vast group of people, some with grey hair, who now can get into movies for a coupla bucks less than regular price—and who often do so in the middle of the day while everyone else is working.

From my point of view, a person in their 50s or 60s who calls themselves an “elder” is, um, loopy.

And as long as there are plenty of people LOTS older than I am, I don’t feel the need to call myself an “elder.” Except around my kids, as in “respect your elders.”

If my true elders want my respect, I’ll give it to them in honor of surviving so long—as long as they don’t call themselves “Republicans.” There’s a limit to this kind of thing.

Happy Birthday, Franklin...a day late

My dad's birthday was Sunday (Feb 3). I was yukking it up in Philly with no opportunity to dig in my photo files for anything suitable for the occasion. I took this photo of the City Hall in Philadelphia on Sunday. I don't know if Ben Franklin ever saw it, but the name Franklin rang a bell. In trying to remember a humorous story about Dad, the one that came to mind in this election year is how Marty--our neighbor at the lake and one of Dad's good friends--used to call him "Franklin," after Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (Not after Ben Franklin.)

Dad was a staunch Republican in the days when Republicans were honorable (face it...Richard Nixon was better than the freak show we have in there now). And of course, Roosevelt was a three-term Democratic president. Everyone, including Dad, got a good laugh every time Marty called Dad "Franklin."

Still, FDR was honored in my time--he brought the nation through the Great Depression, during which Gene and I were born, and he got us through WWII.

I remember the afternoon when we got the news that FDR had died. Gene and Mom sat in the living room listening to reports on the radio while I played with the electric train on the floor. The radio reporter, Mom, and Gene were all very solemn, and Mom dabbed her eyes a bit.

Those seemed to be the days when it was not as fashionable to hate the other party, although Dad could get up a pretty good head of steam over Kefauver and the New Deal. He pronounced the senator's name "KEEfawffer," which may have been correct. Others called him "KeeFAWVer."

Anyway, happy birthday, Pop! You'd have been 114 on Sunday--six years older than Dan's mom, who is still percolating and will celebrate her 108th in a few days!!

He wrote a short story when he was stationed at Newport News, Virginia, during WWI. It was about a rube sailor from the sticks sighting a submarine for the first time. Mom showed it to me once, and then she put it away. I don't know what happened to it. Like most revealing, personal documents in our family, it doubtless was disposed of before anyone else could see it and realize the depths of our presumption! Heavens!

Dux Femina Facti*

*A woman's in charge!!

Nope, not talking politics now, although I saw this Latin phrase earlier this week on A Little Red Hen, where she does mention the p-word. Major Reader has a cool post (5 dangerous things your kids can do) from TED, which I looked up (you can, too).

One of the first things that caught my eye when i went to the TED website was a picture of Robin Chase. Chase is the founder of none other than my beloved ZIPCAR!!!--the fabulous car sharing network.

Chase has lots of fabulous ideas. Here's a video about more of her ideas...one of the TED talks you can watch for free on TED.

Hey...I know it's in the wee hours, but the old mind's being blown....