surely not first?

Good morning, unexpected topic to chew with on Saturday.

After the harvest mouse kit I wasn't prepared for this.

"The Starseed had a rule: "We will not invalidate a member's beliefs, opinions or experiences."

This is also how policy gets made in Washington"

Need to get a price quote on some yard signs for Joel's Truth Party.

Count me in. I've been depressed this morning ever since I read the link to Sullivan's blog. It is so dispiriting to read about Ann Coulter and the people who cheered her wildly. Objective truth ain't high on their priority list.

I'd worry more about the shrinking Y chromosome! *l*

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4225769

http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s932887.htm

Over the last 300 million years, the once-proud Y-chromosome has shrunk from about 1,500 genes to its current miserly 78 genes. And if it keeps shrinking and mutating at the present rate, it'll be totally useless in just a few million years.

First that poem now this. It will be a Saturday of reflection.

Good morning all! Just want to remind folks that there'll be a total lunar eclipse tonight.

According to the article I read, the Earth's shadow will begin moving across the moon at 3:18 p.m. EST Saturday, with the total eclipse occurring at 5:44 p.m. EST and lasting more than an hour.

Perused this book yesterday and was most tempted to buy...the 2006 "Scientist as Rebel" by Freeman Dyson:

http://www.amazon.com/Scientist-Rebel-Review-Books-Collection/dp/1590172167/ref=sr_1_6/102-8715687-0092122?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1172934112&sr=1-6

Distinguished physicist Dyson is a clear and compelling writer, gifts highlighted in this collection of 33 previously published and frequently updated essays and reviews. Organized into sections on contemporary issues in science, war and peace, history of science and scientists, and personal and philosophical ruminations, these works demonstrate Dyson's far-ranging interests and skill in writing for educated and curious generalists, qualities that ensure this volume's wide appeal.

Some readers may feel a thrill reading Dyson's comments on military strategy; others may prefer Dyson's thoughts on such physics-related people and issues as Isaac Newton, Edward Teller, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, Norbert Wiener, and string theory.

But whatever a reader's passion, Dyson's emphasis on rebels within science rather than upholders of the status quo makes the book especially satisfying.

Boy, reading those comments on the Editorialist blog makes me so happy we have our Boodle.

From the last boodle first, Martooni loved the poem.

Boko thanks for posting the Doris Anderson link, as a Canadian woman I owe her much. By the way did you lose power yesterday? You don't happen to post on the G&M occasionally do you? Just curious about a poster from Lanark county :-)

Apple is running a high-def movie clip featuring the inside workings of washingtonpost.com:

http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/washingtonpost/

Tried to spot Joel, but no luck.

Howdy. That was a fine poem, Martooni, and that's the truth. Also a fine Kit. Were you and Joel psychically connecting somehow. Oh, sorry, that was "psycho".

Here examples abound of crazy beliefs based on absolute certainty. I'm always amused when the Boy pops out with some "fact", usually about the physical world or history, that is not the case. I always say I hadn't heard that before and ask where he got it. Usually it was some sort of schoolyard information. I then remind him that he can't take that sort of thing as true, and there are resources to check such things. I also often, particularly on matters of sex & drugs (he already knows rock 'n roll) remind him to ask me or Ivansdad as we will tell him the truth. Not that I'm setting myself up as the Arbiter of Truth. This is strictly small-t stuff.

I myself have a crazy belief that I can fix our entire fence, and it will matter in some vague way. Nothing in empirical experience supports this belief, but it helps fill my weekends.

Ivansmom... we each have our "fence" to fix, don't we?

One of the few cures for mass delusion is an authority that is trusted. Long ago, that was the government (no, really). Less far off in memory, it was the media. Now, judging from the arguments posted around the 'net (and too many student research papers), I'm desperately afraid it's Wikipedia.

We're all doomed, I tell you, doomed!

(starseeds? I tried to plant moon-and-stars melons last year - that them?)

Upon further thought, the Ultimate Authority appears to be snopes.com.

(and I'm really glad they're there...)

There are a couple of well-meaning souls at work who routinely send around hoax emails. I often gently email them back and say "No." If something sounds too amazing or unlikely to be true, it often is. Unless it is propagated by the current administration, of course.

Just this morning I learned the husband has never read a Wikipedia article. This came up after the daughter's recent self diagnosis of tonsilitis from a medical web site. She jumped right to surgery as the best course of action but I was able to persuade her to try salt water gargling and other self care mentioned first. The sore throat soon departed and her tonsils are intact.

I would be upset that she would trust some web site over mom's judgement, but this was an improvement over her previously most trusted source of medical information-televison commercials. There was that alarming bout of "acid reflexes" in 5th grade when some now popular OTC meds were still prescription only. Once she demanded that I climb on a chair and kill a crawling spot as she was convinced it was a tick. When I refused to remove the harmless critter her retort was "If you get Key Lyme Disease, don't come crying to me." I'll take my Key Lyme with a little whipped cream please.

I'm amazed at the stuff perfectly intelligent people will forward, thinking it's true. I am always tempted to respond with a simple link to the snopes.com page that debunks their story, but only have the nerve to do that to my sisters or other very close friends who already know what kind of b!tch I am.

BTW... I'm thoroughly enjoying re-reading the Kits of March 2005 (brought on by Joel's link to Rob Anderson's student paper).

This Joel fellow can really write, you know?

Oh gosh.. Ivansmom, I didn't mean to imply that you share that characteristic with me! Forgive me please!

Here's a factoid I have been bandying about for a while on the slimmest of evidence. I supposed I should hold off on doing so until I ascertain if it's true. "The Allies killed 1 million civilians in the last 6 months of WWII."

That would mean physicists would have been hired to do things such as calculate how to intensify firestorms caused by bombs in cities such as Berlin and Dresden. And offhand, I can't name a one.

Boodlers-how do you feel about internet petitions?

In the last few days I've been asked to sign electronic petitions to stop military recruiters from visiting schools (funny considering the family business), stop changes to rules protecting wolves in the Rockies, support both sides of the current union organizing debate, and a dozen others too tedious to enumerate.

Am I just a little too quaint in believing that if I'm really moved to support something I should put my thoughts on paper, and that they should indeed by my thoughts?

SCC- be my thoughts, not by my thoughts

Is there any moment more distressing than watching the hourglass hang there with no way to retrieve the typo?

clever Kit today!

frostbitten, re: petitions. I think you have a mannerly attitude towards issues. My question is do the ultimate recipients really care that x people have signed this petition?

No offense taken, TBG. Perhaps a chuckle of recognition.

I tend to think about Internet petitions the same way I do most others -- they annoy me unless I support their position. My main problem with them is people send them to my work email. That is a gummint judge-type thing, and I don't use it to comment on politics, send petitions, or really anything that might seem inappropriate. So I just delete them. Of course, I also don't ever say, "hey, why don't you send this to me at home".

Joel
Duct tape and bungee cords,maybe bungee cords.....but Duct tape......OUCH

Ivansmom, you're a judge?

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Knitters know all about shrinkage. It is called felting. Knit a giant shopping bag; shrink into a tiny evening bag. Felting is now very cool and an it-thing among knitting circles.

My grandmother would have been horrified at shrinkage. So too, are some men, I guess.

Seinfeld, of course.

I await the pointy-sciencey types to talk shrinkage ratios, at any time.

I'll try to rustle up some knitting shrinkage ratios.

We can compare.

Fun times in nerd town.

CP-while I can admire felting as an art form I still can't get over a "Why didn't they just start with dog hair?" feeling when I touch it. Then again, if I were in school today I'd probably be diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome for all the tactile "problems" I have.

dbG-good point. To me petitions have always seemed like the ultimate form of political expression, for eighth graders. (Exception for those that get issues/candidates on ballots.)

frostbitten, on internet petitions: I've never been able to see the logical use of them (other than for email harvesting, which I suspect is the main reason they exist). It doesn't matter how many email addies they have at the end, because there's no way for each and every address to be verified as belonging to a unique individual of the right age to sign or verify something. And if they need snailmail addresses with unique names, those also have to be verified the hard way, one by one, and unless someone somewhere *requested* a list of supporters for this or that and had the staff to verify if all the supporters listed actually exist, are over age 18, and actually 'signed' the petition themselves, one is better off going door to door and face to face. I consider them spam, trash, bogus, wrong, Not Good and usually a trick.

(so I don't sign them)

Fine Kit today!

What an interesting morning. The snopes.com entry on electronic petitions led me to the portmanteau slacktivism.

I'm not ready to abandon bedevil as my word to stick with. But, it's nice to have a good word for this feel good by hitting the forward button, or visit a web site, or put a yellow magnet on your SUV, or wear a wristband, form of supposed action. Many apologies if I'm the last boodler on earth to discover it, but I'll find an excuse to use slacktivism in conversation at least twice today.

That "366 and 1/4 revolutions" bit threw me until I thought about it a little. It's because the earth's axis is itself in rotation round the sun, so we "lose" a day vice if the axis were stationary, right? I think there was a contested question on the SAT some years ago related to this. And isn't this phenomenon sort of why Phileas Fogg still won the bet?

For those who are interested, I struggled with Vista this morning, and declare it a draw.

First of all, a warning. Anyone who purchases an inexpensive computer pre-installed with "Vista Home Basic," is not going to get the eye-candy featured in many of the advertisement. To get the fancy bits one needs to "upgrade," which means "spend more money." To facilitate this process, VHB comes with a lovely full-color brochure and a CD. That Microsoft was willing to bundle this stuff with the OS, yet was unable to provide either a reinstallation disk or a written manual tells me a little something about its corporate priorities.

On the positive side, Vista easily identified my printer and internet connection with no intervention from me. I simply had to flip the system on, wade through the expected adware from the computer manufacturer, and let the system do its bit.

I am not terribly impressed by the new interface. Perhaps I am just set in my ways, but after 12 years of expanding menus I don't see a lot of reason to switch. Fortunately, Vista does let one maintain this "classic" menu, in which case the OS becomes basically indistinguishable from XP with a facelift.

The security center is more annoying than was the case in XP. Although the center reports the status of various options, one cannot change those options without going elsewhere. Yet this annoyance is far surpassed by the default security feature that asks for your permission before it does anything. Even such mundane tasks as moving a shortcut requires your explicit approval. (This feature reminds me of those sexual etiquette manuals that appeared in the 1990s which mandated that it doesn't matter how many times in the past your girlfriend has said it is okay to touch her "there" you still needed to ask each and every time. Yet I digress.) I disabled this feature, even though I know it makes the system a bit more vulnerable.

Also, as might be expected in a new OS, weird things keep happening. For example, my recyling bin icon keeps vanishing. Most irritating, though, is the frequent appearance of a window stating that ""navigation to web page was canceled" even when I'm not on the internet. What's worse, the idiot window cannot be closed. I need to log myself out and then back in again to eliminate it.

Bottom line: Unless you are willing to pay for the fancy extras, the basic home version of Vista doesn't seem to be much of an improvement over XP.

RD.. have you seen this ad?

http://movies.apple.com/movies/us/apple/getamac/apple-getamac-security_480x376.mov

RD, You live to tell the tale! Bravo. We are in the midst of a computer purchase at work, and the IT people, say nobody goes Vista for at least a year, or till they work out the bugs, and till they play with it on a non critical station.

I hve a great sense of timing. the day my new home computer arrived, was the day windows started putting up those Vista is coming things.

thanks, dr, dmd and ivansmom...

just curious... (and this is for Joel, especially), what is the Boodle's take on self-publishing through places like lulu.com?

Is it vanity?

Is it "sticking-it-to-the-man"?

The reason I ask is that if I ever publish anything it will most likely be in the poetry genre, which everyone knows is the most least profitable combination of ink and paper (unless you die a tragic early death, of course, or happen to catch Oprah's eye before sticking your head in an oven).

Seriously... I have a "body of work" that could (with significant editing effort) be turned into a publishable collection, but it seems to me that people invest their book dollars only in those poets who already have a name or who are just so strange and outside the social fabric that they refuse to be overlooked.

I've looked into "lulu" and it's not a bad deal. They don't do any promotions or bookstore shelf-placement stuff, but I've bought a few titles from them and must say the production quality is excellent (even if the content wasn't).

Any thoughts for a Bukowski-ish fumblemuck who has heard "you should be published" more times than he can count but has never had his door beaten down by an agent or anyone else from the "traditional" publishing world?

martooni, I have a friend who had good luck with iUniverse.com.

One is reluctant to delve into the world of delusion lest some of our own pets be lighted up. Congratulations to all who endeavor to focus the light of truth.

TBG...ruh-roh. I didn't realize that linking to snopes when one receives egregiously hysterical e-mail nonsense was b!tchy. I live in a very, very red area of a what I hope is becoming a purple state (I'm sort of periwinkle) and I used to get oodles of really scary e-mails and once I started sending back Snopes info, they miraculously slowed to a trickle. Nobody called my any names...at least to my face.

I also enjoyed reading the old kits. I particularly liked the one on David Duchovny. My 16 yr old son looks very young and Joel's description of being treated by a hamster by girls exactly describes my son's relationship with girls. His father assures him it's going to work out well.

SCC- called me any names. There was that dang hourglass, mocking me.

Criminy- like a hamster, not by a hamster.

That lulu.com interface looks so familiar I checked to see if they sell Fresh Whole Rabbit.

Actually, martooni, it looks like a pretty cool site. It would be worth it just to print one to give to someone special, if you were so inclined.

Maybe the bean would like a book of Daddy's lighter poetry for her fifth birthday?

Martooni, have you considered submitting something to McSweeneys/The Believer? mcsweeneys dot com, believermag dot com.

dbG, I work for a judge. Someday maybe if I'm very good and lucky I'll get there myself. One never knows.

RD, thanks for the detailed update. Ivansdad was nearby and has been curious about Vista so I read him the highlights. Very useful. Go have some wine now.

Another wrong-side-of-the-bed day gone right after lunch. Jim Harrison said something like that. "When all else fails, eat lunch?"

A polar shift in the universal truth-magnets is what the internet has wrought. Snopes and Wikipedia, North and South. Lies spread faster by email are countered by faster access to reasonably reliable urban-legend debunkers. In the past, the one speaking loudest about the Punic Wars would de-facto win the argument. Now, a reasonable approximation of the truth can be verified from multiple sources almost instantly. The Bar Bet itself has changed its character, in an internet cafe.

frostbitten, I had no idea snopes.com had a whole section on internet petitions! My opinion of them is based on a non-profit I work for occasionally getting a rabid volunteer, sure that all we need to do is put one out and let people know "the problem" (whatever the problem may be).

It's truly spring. The sunny-side windows were covered with ladybugs attempting to exit the house and get on with spring buggin' duties. Only six months until they're on the other side trying to get in.

I'm much more tolerant of the little buggers since I saw one casually catching and eating a flea, so I assist them in getting back out intact - although I do my best to keep them from coming in in the first place.

Somewhere in the books in our house lie basic answers to most of the factual questions the Boy may ask on pretty much any given subject. I often say, "We have a book about that." He still prefers to ask the Internet.

Good evening, friends. Martooni, that poem was lovely, and hope the word "lovely" doesn't offend, but that just what I thought.

One day we're talking about length, the next shortness or shrinkage. I'm holding out for somewhere in the middle.

I don't understand how adoption and the circumstances surrounding slavery are related? Perhaps I'm not understanding the conversation? I don't see a similarity in that?

Mudge, and Mrs. Mudge, enjoy.

There are so many untruths that people believe, and one can't change their minds. I'm convinced that some of this stuff people just want to believe. They don't want to know better because it may rock some of that other stuff they're holding onto, like the core. Of course, some people believe that my religious beliefs fall in that category, not changing.

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

Jim Harrison actually said, "Sometimes the only answer to death is lunch." (Warlock)

I would guess that the people who receive internet petitions -that is, those who receive the final tally - consider the amount of time spent per person per "signature" in evaluating their importance. And the actual value of multiple instances of an arguably impulsive act. I know I would.

Roots and Tongues

I am bothered by the roots of things
and the slipperiness of tongues:

the way roots tend to branch and burrow
and taper away into nothing,
as if ashamed of their paleness;

the way tongues tend to obscure truth
with quick darts of venom
and silvery meanderings;

the way they both tend to shrivel
under the scrutiny of light
and so occupy dark places.

I am bothered most, I suppose,
because I am a being of both:

unable to fathom
the depth of my roots
or know the dark pools they sip,
I fear my tongue
is but an instrument
beyond my control.

// (c) a bad martooni production...

Totally off today's topic (which is, by my calculations, "who is your favorite Beatle, really?"--I'll have a comment on that at some point and hope we can have that discussion.)

This is along the lines of "something happened, and I immediately thought, I have to share this with the boodlers..."

I was on the home stretch of a big urban hike this morning, headed home along Dixie Highway, which follows the Florida East Coast railway and is the traditional dividing line between black and white in our part of the county (that's historically speaking--in recent years the white population has leapfrogged over the former black ghetto and established suburbs further west, which have in turn become much more integrated over time). Anyway, it's still true that as I walked along, 9 out of 10 pedestrians and shoppers I saw were black.

I was wearing a t-shirt that says "Peace" in English, Hebrew and Arabic, in bold letters, so that probably affected how people interacted with me.

It's a straight, level road, so the man saw me walking towards him a long time before we passed on the sidewalk. I was lost in thought and tired from my long walk so I didn't see him until he was right in front of me. I looked up and said, "hi," gave a little smile. He said hi back, and then he said, "You know what I was thinking when I saw you walking?" I said, "Huh?" -- hadn't been expecting conversation, was caught off guard. He repeated the question, I said, "what [were you thinking]" and he said, "I was thinking, that in the old days I would have had to do like this"--here he stepped off the sidewalk and stood still with his head down--"when you were passing by."

Wow. I am old enought to remember those days, but I didn't live in Florida back then. Oklahoma was racist and segregated; maybe the main difference is that my home town just had a smaller black population, so I never experienced anything like that.

I didn't know what to say, really, but the man was friendly and I wanted to make some kind of gesture so I put out my hand and he shook it and I said, "We're equal now!" in a jocular tone. I think it might have been the most serious thing I've ever said in that tone of voice.

And then we continued on our opposite ways.

Golly. What an experience, kbertocci. What a surprise mid-afternoon. Thanks for sharing.

Cassandra, I don't think adoption and the circumstances surrounding slavery are related at all. It's just that the Robinson piece seemed to me at least in part to be about how slavery took away people's history, so descendants of slaves may always feel in limbo, never really knowing their history. This got me to thinking about other ways in which people may "lose" their family's past. My own personal experience with non-agency, pre-paperwork adoption left me with a similar lack of any idea who my father and mother were, much less any more distant relatives. Of course, as I added, I don't feel that as a lack, and that is because I was always fully a family member of my adopted family. Particularly because of that -- still having a history, just not a "blood" one -- I'm not suggesting adopted people and descendants of slaves have related issues, or anything like that. It was just a random tangent.

When I was teased as a child about being adopted, I'd reply: "Your parents had to take you. I was picked!" Kids are evil.

Cassandra, I loved your comment about how the Boodle went from length to shrinkage. All the Boodle guys probably hope life doesn't follow art.

kbertoci, that was a great story thanks for sharing. A touch bittersweet at the thought that that gentleman ever would have had to step aside and bow his head. I liked your response, not sure I would have known what to say but that you extended your hand to show how things have changed was wonderful.

Interesting observations about losing the past Ivansmom. My maternal grandmother was one of 14 children of parents born in Finland. I am the 4th generation in my family to live on the property where I am currently moaning the late onset of spring. (Begging our genetic capacity for making wise real estate choices.) The daughter, who can remember her bio mother, has an enormous attachment to this place. The family cemetery her great-great-grandfather started in the great flu pandemic, the place where Nanna was put in the wood stove in lieu of an incubator because she was so small at birth, the dock where her favorite aunt used to hang her arm in the water to catch leeches. Her father on the other hand doesn't know anything about any of his relatives beyond his immediate family and one cousin. The story is there for the asking, from his parents who are still alive, but he doesn't take much of an interest nor does anyone else.

It just seems that family stories are lost and found for a multitude of reasons-some tragic, some just out of the way people are.

SCC I swear I typed kbertocci, so about that.

dmd, that's okay, as long as you pronounce it correctly.

:)

kb, that is quite a story. Certainly glad times have changed.

My mom and dad could trace their families back a few generations, and had some documents - marriage licenses, Civil War commemorative poster, diaries, photos - that made it interesting, at least for my sister and me. My mom also owned a piece of the land that her ancestor who came from Scotland settled on (which we finally wound up selling after our dad passed on, with much regret). I don't know that not knowing about my heritage would have bothered me, but since I did, I can see how frustrating it would be to have it wiped out - by war or slavery or oppression.

Good story, KB. Headlines depress. Boodle uplifts, as well as pushes giggle buttons, and science buttons etc.

Frosty: Are your forebears Finnish or Swedish-Finnish? I married into a clan of NorSwedish people, with the Swedes coming from Finland circa 1910 into the Duluth-Superior area.

Warning: stereotype. These Scandihovian people tend to be silent!!!!! I learned quite a bit about the Swede-Finn line by asking questions while rolling dough for pie. I learned enough that recently came in handy: my middle daughter applied for a scholarship here in Maryland, reserved for people of Swedish extraction... the scholarship has not been claimed for 22 years. I think she has a shot. Ironic in many ways, however, that she asks me for the family history details.

Further sidenote: both sides from Norway and Finland were changing their names each generation until about 1910-1920. I even heard tell about a few names like: Clara Arnesdattir. In Iceland, these -dottir conventions still exist.

Some care. Some don't. Some chat. Some don't.

Apparently, my in-laws like me, but it is hard to tell, because they don't talk. Ever. Really. Garrison Keillor describes them pretty darn well...

Can anyone see the eclipse? I am heading out, opening to see a peek but we have clouds on the horizon....Report?

I looked CP, but between those trees and clouds, I can't see nuthin.

I can trace my mother's family back to about 1890 when they moved to Oklahoma. Before that we have no idea. And on my father's side, anything prior to 1909 would require several trips across the Atlantic. I am afraid that being cut off from one's past is more common than one would like.

Haven't almost all North Americans in particular lost their heritage at one point only to be replaced by a new heritage.

I look to all that the black communities have brought to North America and wonder at why the focus on what was lost not what was created?

Nope, CP... last night we saw the moon clearly from the restaurant window down the street.

Tonight? Clouds and trees seem to be in the way.

CP-We're all Finn on that side, and in my experience that silence thing is no stereotype, it's true.

CP, eclipse is almost full here. I wish I knew how to take a photo - took the camera out but it didn't pick it up. Right now, all we see is a hangnail sliver on the lower left side. The rest of the moon is in shadow and can be dimly perceived. Lovely!

I have the genealogies from both my maternal grandparents, who descended from families that settled in this area in the mid-18th century. My parents are buried in the third cemetary of the church that my grandfather's family helped found around 1751 (the second church building burned so they lost the records). The first cemetary still exists, and the gravestones of my grandfather's first family members are there and legible, although one is broken.

That history is precious to me, and I hope it will be important to my children also.

I can see the eclipse very clearly too. Some clouds passed by but that only added to the drama.

for the record...

the semi-poetic thing i posted was not written about being adopted, adopting, or anything about adoption, but it fit the moment.

it was about digging for roots and finding that you can never reach or touch the originating seed. it was also about how we're so quick to spout off when we think we know the truth, but that's when we all fall down that epistemological well called life and realize we've never even seen the original seed, so whatever we have to say is as relative as pigeon guano on your new hat.

am i smoking? maybe.

but i may also be making sense in a twisted way.

I can see the eclipse is about halfway, but don't know if it's waxing or waning.

Just a sliver of shadow visible here now. Caught it at the same point as Slyness with our first clear sky in days.

Martooni, if you can set poetry to guitar you might be able to get a little more mileage out of those words. It always amazes me how people will appreciate songs and play them over and over again, yet never crack a poetry book.

On the other hand, a book of poetry with illustrations could sell. Shel Silverstein published quite a few children's poetry books, and he originally started out with adult poetry, I think.

The only problem with self-publishing is that you have to be pretty darn aggressive about marketing them yourself. So you might as well put in that kind of work for your entire opus as well-- poetry readings and music concerts and so on.

CP, have you seen this?
http://www.gaea-creations.com/pishawl.html

Did anyone notice the moose and rabbit hand silhouettes? That was me.

We saw the eclipse. Around here, it was already ending, so we could see the yellow bottom crescent of the moon slowly get larger and brighter. Splendid. It is almost bright and full again.

I was wondering, Boko. Do Snakes on a Plane next time?

Thanks for reports. Chilly out there and dang those clouds moving in at sunset. My neighbors and I huddled over hot chocolate and some very good whiskey that tastes of smoke and peat, watching. We got a smudgie of something a few minutes ago, but no red or orange as some thought we might get.

Anyone see the red or orange cast?

Martooni: in the same post are these terms 1) epistemological well called life and 2) pigeon guano.

Good to read you.

Frosty, thanks for the data check on Finnish-Nordsk-Sverge peeps. My experience of them is that the quietness is partly cultural, but also seems hard-wired. They see me as almost Italian in my gestures. "Dear, do you have to move your hands so much when you talk? It distracts so" My Italian cousins think I am quiet.

Viva la difference.

Frosty--the knitting ability seems also very strong in the Nordics. My father- in-law and his brothers (sisters too) were expected to knit their mittens and scarves. He could walk and knit, with something growing on double-pointed needles. I showed him circular needles, once but he was not interested. Polite, mind you, but no thank you. He had stainless steel needles, which he sanded or rubbed with steel wool. Apparently, the family had whalebone and ivory needles around the house from the old country but they were discarded for modern needles. Oh the HORROR.

Martooni: Lao-Tse said "The Tao (way) that is knowable is not the true Tao."

I liked the juxtaposition of tongues and roots. It made me think of language families and many other unknowable issues concerning origins.

Oh by the way, if you're really hard up for money, I guess you could also try and start your own religion. It was a moneymaker for Heinlein.

Matt Damon as Captain Kirk?
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/preview/1809752800

I first saw Shel Silverstein's work in Playboy. He also wrote most of the lyrics for the band Dr. Hook. I've wished I could remember the poem about Sarah Stout. Hey. I have an idea. I'll check the internets.
Thanks Wilbrod.

MostlyLurking -- wow. Is that you? Such knitting prowess. I admit to scarves and hats and some mittens. I have a hard time keeping tract of complex patterns due to busy life. Perhaps when I am in assisted living in Tuscany, with staff etc, I will knit such complexity. Come see me then?

I adore Elizabeth Zimmerman's books -- really about life. Her book _Knitting Without Tears_ can be "read" as knitting without crying or knitting without making big holey mistakes.

I have a lime green hat on circular needles, to be trimmed with purply-green thicky ribbony yarn -- very insane. My children are horrified, routinely, by these choices.

Knitting is very quieting....off to knitting myself into relaxation.

Glad so many can see the eclipse.

Heinlein, Wilbrod? Shirley you mean Hubbard.

Boko, let me know if you can't find the poem my daughter has three of Shels books of poetry.

Ivansmom, I think my point about Robinson's piece is that African-Americans not only don't have the history to some extent, but for me, and I suspect maybe others, denial of our very existence. The "nothing-ness" of it all. And that may not make it any clearer, but that's the best I can do.

Kb, that story was somthing else. And in my part of the world, that is slowly dying out. The older generation did that. They had to stop and lower their heads. They could not look your race in the eyes or it was seen as being belligerent or not knowing our place. It was good what you did, shaking hands and what you said. You think quick on your feet, but your heart I suspect is in the right place. And that always makes things easier.

I have a story, but quite different from yours, Kb. I took my grandchildren to McDonalds this morning for breakfast, all three. It was very busy, and I had to wait a long time to get the food. Before I got the food, the manager came to me and ask me if I would mind changing my order. I could not understand him, so I said, I am deaf, I don't know what you're saying. So he got a piece of paper, and wrote it down. I agreed to the change. A woman fixed the order and bagged it, but I had told the cashier we were eating in. When she offered me the bag, I said we're eating in. She put the food on a tray, and shoved it to me, and turned on her heels and walked away.

There were a lot of people standing behind me, and everyone just kind of looked away. I stood there for a minute, and I signaled the cashier that I wanted to speak to the woman, so she got her. I said to her, I am sorry if I offended you in stating that we were going to eat in, but I don't think it was very nice of you to shove my food. I have no idea what she said, I just took the food and left. When I got to the table some of the order was as cold as if it had just come out of the refrigerator. I took it back, and they microwaved it.

Imagine being me, black face, deaf, yet willing to make you feel better, but even that won't do. My people spend their little money at these places, and so often they are treated just horrible. The lady I'm sorry to say was white. And all the people standing around were white, at least most of them. The only saving grace to this morning's incident is that my grandchildren did not see this because they were at a table away from the counter.

The incident has made me feel just so bad, although I've tried not to show it because I don't want to upset my grandchildren. It really does hurt. There was another grandmother there with her little granddaughter and she saw what happened and she just shook her head. At this same McDonalds one of the cashier refused to repeat something she said to me, and she was looking at the hearing-aid. My grandchildren like McDonalds so I go to please them.

As one who Believes Strange Things, I couldn't possibly comment on this weeks' Achencolumn.

But on a slightly related topic, I enjoyed this review of a book called "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know -- and Doesn't"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/01/AR2007030102073.html

******

Bob S., thanks for that link to the article on medicine in the previous 'boodle. Indeed, I did enjoy it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to find me some of that cayenne pepper . . .

dbG | I tried but dislocated my shoulder just past mother.

Cassandra, I am so sorry that happened to you. Some people are just rude, but that doesn't make it easier to bear.

Boko, :-)

Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would Not Take The Garbage Out
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would not take the garbage out!
She'd scour the pots and scrape the pans,
Candy the yams and spice the hams,
And though her daddy would scream and shout,
She simply would not take the garbage out.
And so it piled up the ceilings:
Coffee grounds, potato peelings,
Brown bananas, rotten peas,
Chunks of sour cottage cheese.
It filled the can, it covered the floor,
It cracked the window and blocked the door
With bacon rinds and chicken bones,
Drippy ends of ice cream cones,
Prune pits, peach pits, orange peel,
Gloppy glumps of cold outmeal,
Pizza crust and withered greens,
Soggy beans and tangerines,
Crusts of black burned buttered toast,
Gristly bits of beefy roasts...
The garbage rolled on down the hall,
It raised the roof, it broke the wall...
Greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,
Globs of gooey bubble gum,
Cellophane from green baloney,
Rubbery blubbery macaroni,
Peanut butter, caked and dry,
Curdled milk and crusts of pie,
Moldy melons, dried-up mustard,
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,
Cold french fries and rancid meat,
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.
At last the garbage reached so high
That finally it touched the sky.
And all the neighbors moved away,
And none of her friends would come to play.
And finally Sarah Cynthia Stout said,
"OK, I'll take the garbage out!"
But then, of course, it was too late...
The garbage reached across the state,
From New York to the Golden Gate.
And there, in the garbage she did hate,
Poor Sarah met an awful fate,
That I cannot right now relate
Because the hour is much too late.
But children, remember Sarah Stout
And always take the garbage out!
Shel Silverstein (steen?)

Cassandra, I didn't used to complain about rude cashiers, etc., but now I do, and have always received a response. I think of it as raising their consciousness so they're nicer to the next customer.

Would you consider giving McD's corporate offices feedback? I think even your middle few graphs would be helpful.

http://www.mcdonalds.com/contact/contact_us.html

Sorry for the length of the Silverstein poem but the boodle title awakened my inner twelve year old. I'm better now.

I've been reading and skimming, trying not to fall behind now that I can't read the boodle at work.

Great poem Martooni. I know you have many talents but you still manage to surprise me with new ones.

We tried to see the eclipse tonight, even drove to the 'good' beach. There were a lot of cars there with like-minded people in them, but the clouds were solid at the horizon and we saw nothing. We did see a bit of it later at home but I'm disappointed that we couldn't see the moon actually rise out of the water (so to speak).

Cassandra, I am so sorry that happened to you. I may catch he11 for saying this, but generally, in places where the pay is low and the turnover high, you are much more likely to run into rude servers. Not that it's any excuse for such behavior as there is no excuse for it.

Saw a few photos online of our ex-governor Mitt smiling broading with Ann Coulter at his side - I sure hope this comes back to haunt him. What a phony sack of well coiffed hair he is!

Cassandra I composed a long reply to you stating how sorry I was you were poorly treated and then accidently wiped out my window and the reply.

If that happens to you again, I hope it doesn't, please don't feel bad, a person who would treat you like that is not worthy of you.

Good heavens, no, CP, that is not me! But it is a "pi" shawl, apparently - a circle -
EZ says "the geometry of the circle hinging on the mysterious relationship of the circumference of a circle to its radius. A circle will double its circumference in infinitely themselves-doubling distances, or, in knitters' terms, the distance between the increase-rounds, in which you double the number of stitches, goes 3, 6, 12, 24 and so on."

Hmm - "Believing is Seeing" & "Truth to the Vote."

Instead of receding genitals, substitute "Global Warming" and you have a moderate case for an Oscar for Al Gore.

I have to add that all I'm doing lately is *reading* about knitting. I have a couple of unfinished crochet projects that keep me from starting anything new. I'd like to go buy some new yarn, but I have a ton of stuff in bags that I ought to sort through...and make into something. (I'm craving some of the neat self-striping sock yarn, or alpaca yarn, or something).

And I saw this about the DVD release of The Johnny Carson Show (which predates Who Do You Trust, which I remember watching as a child) -
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/television/2003596209_johnnycarson020.html

Boko, I meant that other sci-fi author. I have an innate antipathy to even typing his name. However, I do apologize (but not too much) for the slur to Heinlein's good name.

Cassandra, I have seen many McD's that I hated, and I have a white face. The whole set up is just designed to make it hard to place an order. And if you're caught in a crowd, goodness me, I always feel so awkward about taking up the extra time to ask for pen and paper to write down my order.

McD's has been sued by deaf people before because deaf people used to be refused to give their orders by pen and paper at the drive-in windows instead of speaking into the clown's mouth. They do somewhat better; now more McD's have menus you can point to on the countertop, but not all.

I can remember the day when I had to read the menu to my deaf-blind friend, who could see to read somewhat, but not the big menu so far away above her head. It took so long. I tried asking for an menu she could read, but no go.

It is all too easy for business to design it to be very difficult for disabled to get their orders, whether by high consoles, etc.

One of my favorite fast-food restaurants for general accessibility was the Roy Rogers in Rosslyn, because you could just take what you wanted, cafeteria-style, the people were helpful, and the checkouts were low.

You might consider checking out the competition in your area if the McD's franchise serving your area is that rude.

I think I didn't eat at a McD's for 10 full years unless I had to.

Nowadays I eat at McD's now and then and I do see SOME progress (not enough), particularly in the drive-ins and the availablity of countertop menus. I am happy to say service dogs haven't been a problem.

We did see a yellow/orange cast to the moon during the eclipse.

Cassandra, I agree and understand your thoughts on Robinson. As I said, I just went off on a tangent (sorry, Tangent).

That McDonalds story is horrible. Not, alas, surprising, but just awful. I suspect some of it may well have been race, some age/deafness, some of it may have been the problems with underpaid workers & high turnover. There is a McDonalds here we don't ever go to because the workers never get the orders right - they just don't care - and that is without the other complicating factors. Please take that link from dbG and report this to corporate headquarters. It is inexcusable. I sympathize with your wanting to please your grandchildren (it is good you had the boys too!) and I'm guessing that's the only McD's nearby. Perhaps you could persuade them that there is a problem with the restaurant (rats? bad food? you're probably to nice to lie) and you have to go somewhere else for a while. That McD's certainly doesn't deserve your business.

martooni, you're impressing me over here. I hope you follow up on those suggestions regarding getting published (and not just self-publishing), that LiT and others mentioned. You might be able to pull a few welcome extra $$ of income.

Cassandra & kbertocci, thanks for sharing your stories, they both bear thinking about; how far we've come, and how far we've to go.

I was one of the lucky ones who say JA deliver a version of this live and uncensored (ahem)

Joel didn't say what he was attaching that bungee to, didn't think he was into any autoeroticism or anything...

bc

Actually, bc... if you remember, JA said he'd use yarn.

Oooh, so my knitting references weren't so far off topic!
http://www.simplysockyarn.com/Page.bok?template=SockYarn

Ha!

You're right, of course, TBG. The duct tape and bungees were purely for effect in the rough Draft.

At least he didn't say catgut.
*That* would be unseemly.

bc

martooni writes:

it was about digging for roots and finding that you can never reach or touch the originating seed. it was also about how we're so quick to spout off when we think we know the truth, but that's when we all fall down that epistemological well called life and realize we've never even seen the original seed, so whatever we have to say is as relative as pigeon guano on your new hat.

am i smoking? maybe.

May I introduce Dr. Spencer Wells of University of Texas Austin and National Geographic (yes, I think you were smoking)...

http://utopia.utexas.edu/articles/alcalde/wells.html?sec=science&sub=biology

Good gravy Joel, you are going to be hearing from the attorneys for this development:

http://www.koroisland.com/koroislandcom/

Surely the lawyers for Koro won't have the b***s to contact Joel over this kit!

Martooni, have you sent your poems to the "little" poetry magazines? Having been published, somewhere, would make your work much more salable.

My mother wrote poetry, short verses usually. Little bits of nature, mostly. And she was published, in the little magazines. This was LONG ago, but you should look into this area.

I'm actually with Martooni on this one.

Scientific analysis of what the original seed must have been like is NOT the same as reaching or touching the original seed.

When we confuse ideas with reality, we fall into innumerable fatal errors in thinking.

We have made trees out of tongues (languages) but we don't know for sure what the language(s) our ancestor spoke beyond maybe 10,000 years ago might be like, let alone the Ur-languages of mankind.
Likewise, we can only know what genes HAVE passed on and survived natural selection-- we will never know what diversity was lost in evolution; humanity has gone through quite a few bottlenecks.

Genetic evidence suggests that at one point the entire sum of humanity may have collapsed to less than 1,000 individuals. What happened, what the world was like then, etc. We will never know.

The past has shriveled up.

I think Wilbrod's last post was very profound. I just wish I understood it better.

I've posted the first entry in the Pi Day competition on http://yokiskitchen.blogspot.com

Wilbrod, how long ago do they estimate that reduction to 1,000 might have been? Do they think it was before the diaspora over the continents (of all humans, I mean, not the later Diaspora) or after? That's kind of scary.

Just realizing that I want to know the answers to these questions made me remember that when I was 12 or so I really wanted to be an anthropologist. Can't even remember when or why I gave up reading about it.

LiT... I actually submitted something to McSweeney's once and have the politely phrased rejection letter to prove it. They only accept sestinas (which I usually refer to as "fording sestinas"), and while I appreciate and have dabbled in the formal "forms" of poetry, I tend toward the more free-wheeling, free verse "imagiste" style. Here's a link to a short essay I wrote on my poetry site regarding the experience: http://www.substanza.com/ws_onform.php

I was a late-comer to the poetry party. When I was young and full of promise, I squandered my exuberance in the pursuit of girls and money. Neither worked out as I intended/fantasized, but I did rather well in both departments in spite of myself.

And then not so well.

It wasn't until I had mortality forcibly shoved in my face (Mom died at 48, her brother at 42) plus the fact that I was dating a true lioness of a poetess at the time, that I began to pay attention to the genre and started to write.

I love all the "beat" poets (and many others from various pigeon holes), but due to my lifestyle and life experience I seem to have identified with Bukowski more than any other (not really a "beat" poet, though they try to lump him in with them) and willingly or not have emulated his approach (if not his style) -- bittersweet and cynical recollections and observations of the world and society that you would not typically share with your mother. I like to think that my style is my own, but I gotta give credit where it's due.

So here I am (again, as usual) at nearly 4:00am, trying to self-medicate myself back to sleep.

Maybe after I've finished all my "duties" for the day -- still working on that damn remodeling project, still catching up on the "day job's" to-do lists, still trying to keep my liver and pancreas from asploding -- I just might dig into my archives and do some serious picking/editing and assemble something publishable on "lulu".

Working title: "Whiskey Dreams and Madness"

btw... genitals don't shrink, they just retreat to an undisclosed location.

Kinda like Cheney.

Good morning, friends. I'm up, and heading for the shower. Just wanted to touch base, and say good morning. *waving*

We're going to try and make Sunday school and service this morning. That will be work and more work. This crowd wants to stay up late, and sleep even later.

Thanks Ivansmom, and dbg, and all the rest. There is another McDs, and we probably should try that. It is in Wal-Mart.

Where I live, we have people that use the mobile chairs. They use them like cars, to get around doing errands and stuff. One of the gentlemen got mugged the other night on the next street from me. He did not get hurt badly, and he did not have money on him. The police took him home. I feel bad for him too. Screaming won't help, but that's exactly what I feel like doing.

Hope your weekend is going good. Enjoy the rest of it. It has turned slightly chilly here. We will have to wrap up this morning.

Give God some of your time, show your family that you love them, and get some rest. God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ. Peace.

Good morning, Cassandra, everybody.

martooni, you're on fire lately.

That 4:12 AM, well, it's a good thing I wasn't sipping coffee at the time.

I'm off a little later this AM to do some research on some articles I'm writing, should be on the road much of today.

Wilbrod, martooni, think it would have taken 1,000 of our ancestors to start putting up the tower of Babel?

bc

Whoo.

I read this story about unwanted children in need here in DC, and had to take a deep, deep breath.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/03/AR2007030300959.html

Heartbreaking.

bc

Cassandra, I want to relay to you an experience I had a few days ago.

My wife went to the hospital to have a tumor removed from her neck. I came up to visit her while she was in recovery and was waiting for her room to get prepped. As I was more or less in the way it was suggested that I go up to her awaiting hospital room and wait for her there. As I was led to a chair in the room, I was informed that there was another patient in the ajacent bed.

I felt like an intruder. I thought that certainly there had to be some hospital policy on letting a man alone in the same room where a sick woman was laying in bed. So I just sat in my chair for almost 2 hours, like high school detention, just sitting there, in the dark, saying nothing, worrying about my wife, wanting to be anywhere and too scared to get up and go somewhere else, not that anywhere else would be any different than where I was.

come to find out that my wife's roommate was an 83 year old black woman, still working as an office assistant, unconcerned that she was diagnosed with cancer.

How did I find this out?

My wife's sister, upon visiting, overheard some of the conversation between the nurse and roommate and offered her a ride home. The elderly lady accepted.

Now I'm kicking myself for not saying "hello". The knowledge, understanding of black history as told by someone who lived through it in the DC area that I could have absorbed is unrecoverable.

If I could have any 2 hours back to do over again all this year, those would be it.

Good Morning. I enjoyed the interveiw with genetisist Spencer Wells as I enjoyed his PBS special. He did make what I think is a rather silly comment when he dismissed the idea that humans killed off the neanderthals because we haven't found evidence of a neanderthal Waterloo. A series of small skirmishes could have disrupted neanderthal hunting patterns pushing them over the brink. I wonder if sapien and neanderthal artifacts have been found together. This might indicate cohabitation or cultural borrowing, and perhaps interbreeding.
My reading of humanity leads me to favour the displacement hypothesis.

Sorry Cassandra. Manners and courtesy seem to be lost. I think you experienced downright rudeness and ill will.

I sometimes respond with "Oh my goodness," in a tone I imitate from my grandmother that somehow is polite surprise with a dash of disaproval.

Your kind dignity is part of your lovely personality, Cassandra. Lead with that, as I expect you do.

A letter to McD's would help too. I am reminded to treat all who wait on me with kindness and a smile.

My children are beyond the McD phase. An old McDonald site was taken over by a Turkish couple who are struggling to make a go of their diner. We try to go there. The price is about one dollar more, but the food is better and we are served with such graciousness. I am a regular now, so my hot tea is ready when they see my car pull in.

A grill cheese sandwich might please your granddaughter as much as McPieces of Chicken. Another neighbor gives small toys to this restaurant. The couple keep them in a box. Children can choose one before they leave. Instant Happy Meal token.

Plugging: Little Giant on Route One near East West Highway -- have a gyro!

Best "ziggy" sauce ever -- Tszigi? Tszyggy? How do they spell that?

Spencer Wells is a hotty.

Re bc's "Unwanted Children" link-I know it's heartbreaking, but after the daughter's experience I almost had to laugh at "You'd be surprised how many times people don't know the people they're sleeping with's last name," says Michael O'Keefe, president of the Family Court Trial Lawyers Association." No suprise at all to me. The daughter and I are going to write a book together. Our working title is "The Day My Brother Fell Out a Window and I Landed in Foster Care."

CP... if you pronounce "gyro" as "yee-roh" (with a rolling "r") they just might give you your tea for free.

I always called them "jie-roes" until I spent a year playing with a Greek band. I also learned the only two other Greek words required to have fun at a Greek party: "Hopa!" and "Yassoo!" (which both roughly translate as "Rock On!" and "Whoooohooo!")

Now I'm hungry for stuffed grape leaves.

Quick note of interest to some (jack, Error Flynn, etc.):

There's no Nextel Cup race this weekend, but the NASCAR Busch series race (the rough equivalent of AAA Baseball) being run today at Mexico City is being broadcast by ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN's coverage is in Espanol, ESPN2 in English.

bc

I don't like to brag, but I used to be a swing manager at McDonald's. What Cassandra described should never be tolerated.

Anybody else read Weingarten's WaPo Magazine column? Very funny, as usual, but I kept feeling that the underlying message was, "Hey! I frequently drink beer with Dave Barry!"

//btw... genitals don't shrink, they just retreat to an undisclosed location.
Kinda like Cheney//

Thanks 'Tooni, I'll never be able to go swimming again.

Martooni -- thanks! But can you spell ziggy? Do you now, or have you ever, played a bazouki? And, for 10,000 dollars how on earth did that Greek-Levantine bango-guitar enter into Irish music?

RDP -- What theme song was McD's sporting then? "Have it your way?" I wore a paper crown and hair net for a joint called Sandie's...no chains or franchises long ago and far away.

Boko... don't fear the cold water. Shrinkage is just nature's way of protecting you from the "snappers" when swimming.

I'm no Greek scholar, but the yummy sauce that defies spelling is "tzatziki".

All I know is that the Greeks know how to party.

All respect and everything, CP, and I *know* Yoki requested early submission, but more than 10 days early? 10 days!!!

Finishing a doc 5 minutes prior to a meeting is early. Finishing as the meeting starts is on time. 10 days early is unearthly, even if it gives you time to eat your pi and have it too.

Great. Now I've got to worry about Cheney and prehistoric looking reptiles. Oh. Sorry.

bc, I saw JPM qualifying for that the other day... I was somewhat confused until I remembered it was a Busch race. He was tearing it up.

Grand Am was great yesterday. I just love those prototype cars.

CP - My glory days at McDs were in 1980 when my corporate masters were dictating that "you deserve a break today." (Manilow at his best.)

Although I still get all jumpy at the sound of electronic buzzers, I enjoyed working at McDs. We were all teens and had an insane amount of fun cleaning the store at 1 AM to "Cheap Trick."

And have any of you have ever seen the "Sponge Bob Square Pants" training video for "The Krusty Krab"? Pretty much true to life.

The thing is, we took it all seriously. So when I go into a store and see poor service or actual rudeness, it makes me feel irrationally sad. Part of me want to put back on that Yellow Shirt and shape those people up! Why in *my* day things were different!

Sorry. The special pills haven't kicked in yet.

Other funny thing. It doesn't matter what else I might accomplish in life, to my daughter nothing will ever be more impressive than the fact that I used to make Big Macs.

DBG -- We made and ate the pie in our neighborhood fest of hoping to see the eclipse. I am typically chasing a deadline and was stunned to be early, but note the typo on Oreo.

Odd but satisfying pie, in the tradition of those recipes in church cook books that specify a brand name like

*Campbell's Tomato Soup chocolate sheet cake or

*Sprinkle the tuna hot dish with Lay's Potato Chips.....

or the Lutheran Covered Dish staple that relies on
one can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup....

Note: I capped LCD because that IS a sacrament in Norwegian-Swedish-Finlandia. That and very hot coffee, rather weak, so you you drink barrels full.....

Notice to all: Martooni did not admit to playing a bazouki, so I think he has.

Off to Mass: will remember you'l and all you love.

Good morning, all. RD, my stock with the fifth grade crowd went up exponentially recently. A long-time colleague's 13-year-old son has a rock band, Refuje, which has gone beyond boy band/garage band status and plays actual grown-up venues (where kids are allowed, that is). One of the Boy's classmates was beside herself because, "You know Ford's dad!" (Squeal). An eleven-year-old groupie. Ford's dad is Jim Chastain, who wrote "I Survived Cancer but Never Won the Tour de France", which I keep recommending. He also recently published a book of poetry [note to Martooni: publication in "small" magazines followed by the book with a local press]. I told her I'd known Ford's dad for years and had all his books. Suddenly I am Coolest Mom Ever. She told the Boy she wanted to be his sister, to his extreme consternation.

Mostly and CP, all these knitting links are leading me down the garden path. Don't ask about my addiciton to certain sites, or that I now spend a lot of time going to yarn places on the internet. I just wish I had something other than dial up so the whole process would move along.

I worked at McD's as an adult. It was one of the few places that would match my schedule to the kids school schdule, when the boys were younger. In those days what happened to Cassndra would not have been tolerated, and I do agree, she should send an email to the corporate head office.

Actually maybe a hand written letter would be better. I think anyone who takes the time to write an handwrittn letter is aysing this is serious, and I have taken some time on the matter, and I want to be heard.

Very hot coffee CP? When I visit civilization I have to specify 180 degrees for my barista. The husband can't even hold the cup without a double sleeve.

I hope you are having a splendid Sunday Cassandra.

Back in '05 McD's tried an advertising campaign to increase the cool points of working there. Wages, and working conditions aside, it couldn't hurt to have workers who take more pride in what they do.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from bc's early morning link is this commentary on Extreme Parenting
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/02/AR2007030202042.html

Wilbrod writes:

>>I'm actually with Martooni on this one.

Fine, be with anyone you want.

>>Scientific analysis of what the original seed must have been like is NOT the same as reaching or touching the original seed.

OBVIOUSLY! Of course! We must make a distinction about recent ancestry, mid-ancestry, and deep ancestry. I need to SCC something I wrote yesterday. I wrote "If I were Hispanic..." Records show that I am Hispanic, from the late mid-ancestry period about 1,000 A.D. and moving forward from there in time. Before 1,000 AD. the genealogy evidence is sketchier. And if Celts originated from Iberia, then I am also Hispanic or Iberian, as genetic evidence begins to move into the deep ancestry.

Harder for each of us to say, "I am African," if deep ancestry shows that humans originated in the Rift Valley of Africa--or we collectively say "I am Middle Eastern," if our ancestors migrated into the Fertile Crescent from the Rift Valley.

Yet, we are manifestations of the original seed and the genetic record is in our DNA.

>>When we confuse ideas with reality, we fall into innumerable fatal errors in thinking.

As Bryan Sykes points out in his most recent book, physician John Beddoe didn't get it quite right with his widespread documentation of obvious physical characteristics--and huge data gathering effort--of eye and hair color in the Isles. Nor did Landsteiner get it completely right with his ABO blood groups, nor did Hanka and Ludwig Herschfeld nor Arthur Morant. But they were all moving science forward, incrementally, inch by inch.

>>We have made trees out of tongues (languages) but we don't know for sure what the language(s) our ancestor spoke beyond maybe 10,000 years ago might be like, let alone the Ur-languages of mankind.

Language trees are just ONE of the pieces of evidence, combined with other facts and areas of study, to create a multidisciplinary approach to help better leran about our deep ancestry.

>>Likewise, we can only know what genes HAVE passed on and survived natural selection--we will never know what diversity was lost in evolution; humanity has gone through quite a few bottlenecks.

Dr. Spencer Wells is more concerned about the loss of ancient genetic records, as contained in our DNA, by our now elatively physically easy and worldwide migrations--hence his efforts to gather blood as rapidly as possible from truly indigenous groups.

Even evidence from Cheddar Gorge in southwestern Britain from 12,000 years ago shows that genetically these settlers were pretty much modern humans.

The useful mutations are the ones that survived. The ones that didn't provide a benefit were discarded via lack of progeny. More useful to ask is why our DNA also has parts that resemble the DNA or RNA of bacterium and viruses?

>>Genetic evidence suggests that at one point the entire sum of humanity may have collapsed to less than 1,000 individuals. What happened, what the world was like then, etc. We will never know.

Don't know if I'd use the world "collapsed," but rather "expanded from." (Gee, when did Gutenberg invent the printing perss?)

Thanks to corresponding, rather parallel, rapid advances in computer technology, along with genetics, we now have a greater likelihood of knowing, from DNA evidence--our coding, about our origins than ever before.

From Wells' 2006 book, "Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project: The Landmark DNA Quest to Decipher Our Distant Past, " Wells, in his introduction, acknowledges the assistance from IBM. "...IBM became involved, and their computational biology team will be instrumental in helping us to analyze the complex dataset [supercomputers?] that takes into account genetic data, linguistic pattens, the archaeological record and stories told by the participants who have given us [DNA]samples."

>>The past has shriveled up.

I beg to disagree. The past is opening up.

Fabric Care Help Needed!
My Mother left me several 'stitch by number?' pictures she had done. I've vaccuumed the surface dust off but they are slightly discoloured from when I was smoking the pernicious tobacco.
Is there something I can do or should I take them to the nice ladies at the fabric store where I buy my buttons?

Did Spiny Norman have a theme? No matter, we'll just borrow one:

http://www.moviemusic.com/audio/jaws_1.mp3

Boko-I need more info. Do you know the fabric and thread/yarn composition? Was this needlepoint, crewel embroidery? Is your goal to preserve these pieces forever, or are you willing to risk making things worse?

Good Thought...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1l8mt7u1fw

Disarm NOW!

For Martooni, another poet. In our paper this morning, and perhaps of some help in name of publisher, etc.

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispotribune/living/16832032.htm

I think I fixed the typos, CP. Have a look.

You knitters, do you know The Yarn Harlot? http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/ I think she's fabulous.

frostbitten |I've seen these pieces elsewhere so I assume they're from kits.
They're not embroidery and though I can't imagine Mum doing anything crewel I suppose they could be of that class.
I have no idea what composition the yarn is I definitly can identify the material as yarn. It has been stitched onto a closely woven substrate.
I opened the back, unfortunately there is very little material that could be experimented on and no white at all which is the colour most badly effected.
I won't risk making things worse to make them better.
This may be one of those instances were just asking the questions supplies the answers.

Martooni specifically said we can't find the original seed. That's because the seed has become a tree with roots, capsice?

The key to understanding science is to maintain an attitude of healthy skepticism and reminding yourself that the interpretion of evidence is only as good as the evidence itself and the people interpreting them.

Of course, I know people who need to be reassured by KNOWING for sure. For them, I recommend taking up religion.

The evidence will always be incomplete when probing the past, as palentologists well know. This is due to unchangeable physical laws of nature.

And of course people less than 1,000 years ago are modern humans.

However, population characteristics do change over time as various characteristics spread or shrink in the gene pool according to sexual selection, disease, genetic drift, etc.

I will invite you to take a good look at the bygone statues and paintings portraying real-life humans in Greece and Roman times.
Note how characteristically "Roman" or "Greek" they look. Is it the artist's style or how the people really looked back then? I believe the latter.

Likewise, the "Chinese" look may be relatively recent in expanding and blending so far and wide to the indigenous people of Vietnam, Burma, etc. (the original stock was afro-asiatic meaning they'd have had wiry black hair adapted to the heat, and darker complexions for the sun)...thanks to Genghis Khan and other conquerors.

When you look at human migrations, it does make nonsense of sharp ethnic lines.

The fact that the Celts came from the Ibernian peninsula is not sure. It could have been a waystop from Carthage and Phoenicia. The Romans might have thought so, since they named Ireland and Spain similarly. But they never say so, and Hibernia means "Winter" in Latin.

What we do know is that the Kelts were apparently the first Indo-european speaking peoples to colonize Europe, along the coastlines, so far north. The ancient Ireland religions with the cult of the white horses, etc. bear a certain similarity to ancient Aryan traditions in India.

However, the celtic languages basically died out in Europe except for a stronghold of Briton that persists in northern France, and the British isles.

The Romance and German languages replaced them. To believe this occured without any genetic mixing into the native populations would be naive; humans will breed with other humans whereever they are encountered; language is our major reproductive barrier.

So unless your ancestors until recently spoke pure Erse, you might as well say your ancestors are Saxon, Italian, etc. as much as Celtic by way of Spain.

If you've been following the real meat on the genetic journey of man, you will know that chinese traders have interbred with some coastal african tribes, leaving their genetic imprint there.

Likewise, the possiblity is raised that Thomas Jefferson is Welsh but descended from a Jewish male ancestor. But do we know for sure? It's just what the evidence points to for now, and our best interpretion.

The mummies of blond and redhaired people have been found in China, near central Asia.

Needlepoint! That's what it's called

Boko-two avenues for your needlepoint. If the yarn is wool ask the ladies at the fabric store to recommend a drycleaner who is capable of doing conservation work-no "spot cleaning" and can handle individual items. If the work was done in the '70s when kits were all the rage you may be lucky and both the yarns and the needlepoint fabric will be synthetic. A gentle saturation with a mild detergent could be fine, rinse, dry flat-but even this takes a great risk with the inegrity of the weblike fabric.

As a quilter and quilt collector, I find most people in the textile world are satisfied if they can get cigarette odor out and learn to live with the stains.

Thanks frostbitten. There's no gross staining, it's just that the whites are muted and they're supposed to be highlights.
The big one is of a fisherman in his sou'wester smoking a pipe stuck in his face at a preposterously improbable angle.
I love it.

Yoki, I discovered the Yarn Harlot a few weeks ago and have mentioned her and her blog here till I thought the boodle must be sick of it. She is hilarious - and obsessed (and Canadian). I was skimming through her book Knitting Rules when I found the reference to the Pi Shawl - Elizabeth Zimmerman's circular shawl.

Sorry mostlylurking; the perils of Boodle-skimming!

nellie... thanks for the link. Barrett sounds like an interesting read.

I should probably do something quickly since it seems the market is hot right now for poetry books (and books in general) about addiction and self-destruction. Maybe we'll see a resurgence of punk music?

Neo-punk is having a resurgence already, where I live. One of the young guys in my office plays in two bands, both of them decidedly punk.

We were talking about his music one day, and he asked me 'what was it like back in the old days, when punk was new?' I don't think he'd really believed me before that conversation that the middle-aged woman before him was *there* and part of the whole movement. Made me feel about 100!

Dooce fans may know this already: The Last Knit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ZjMWLqJvM

Ha - that's great! I love the yarn, don't you?

Is it that automatic stripe yarn? I love it when she picks up the scissors at the end.

Yoki... one of the local bars here that used to be a regular venue for punk bands did a major remodeling/renovation job -- lovely place to listen to jazz and drink wine now.

Thing is, they still wanted to host punk bands every once in a while because that was so much a part of the bar's history. A few years ago a local punk band had a reunion gig there and packed the joint -- was like inviting several biker gangs into your grandmother's "parlor" and expecting nothing to be broken or stolen.

It actually went pretty well until some of us "old-timers" tried to introduce the youngins to slam dancing and they took it personal. What really amazed me is that the owner sided with the youngins and threw all us old punks out. It's not like he didn't owe us for two decades of successful business or nothing.

But justice can be had even by anarchists... when the band realized what happened and who got thrown to the curb, they packed up their equipment and left in mid-set. Rumor has it that they didn't even ask for their pay (probably because their bartab was more than they would have got anyway).

They still hire "alternative" bands, but they also hired some very large bouncers to make sure nobody smashes the fine china or steals the silverware.

Reading punks referring to themselves as old makes me feel ancient. At least the punks stomped out disco. If anything needed a good killing it was that mindless pap.

Several weeks ago the trivia question at Caribou Coffee in Bemidji, home of the BSU Beavers, was "What musical movement killed disco?" At 4:00PM I was told I was the first person with the correct answer all day. The inference I drew from the barista's look was that I was the first person she'd seen old enough to remember how punk saved the world.

boko... the punks may have stomped out disco, but then the gay/lesbian/not-that-there's-anything-wrong-with-that crowd picked it up, had it dry cleaned and manicured and gave it shelter in night clubs with names like "The Blue Door".

Ivansdad was a punk rocker back in the day, during college. Their band opened for The Judys and I don't know who else. He was also a DJ for our college radio station and introduced a lot of punk from his own collection. We still have the albums. The Boy is one of the few in his class to have heard, and seen, vinyl.

I hate most poetry. I see it in Harpers (ha - read their disclaimer on the small-print title page) and don't get it. I attended poetry slams at the gallery, and what a bunch of limp, self-absorbed, going-nowhere, evocative-of-nothing, junk it was. Rap is the only fresh thing to happen to poetry in a long time, but I sure don't listen to it. I just sort of vaguely wish the poetry people would incorporate the excitement of rap into their efforts. I'm the sort who has vague support for Kipling and Service, and then go and re-read some of it and think it's only about half-okay anyway. I read a poem by Neal Cassidy once (he didn't get very many down in writing, and I WISH I could find it again) and it struck me as better than anything by Ginsberg or Kerouak altogether. So only the very best poetry speaks to me. Does that make me a good critic, or a lousy one? Should someone apparently without the "poetry gene" even comment? I dunno.

So what does that mean about the fact that I like Martooni's poem a whole lot? It just keeps going, I haven't exhausted the meanings yet. Good work, man. Thanks for it.

This story about a painter of icons is kinda neat:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/02/AR2007030201209.html

Re.: McDonald's et al: They said we were moving to a "service" economy, so why can't I GET any?

Wheezy, still advocating fixed equity positions for someone who didn't get out last week? And if you don't mind, your basis for the judgment?

There's a crapload of cash sitting around, credit's fairly loose, and by most measures with which I'm familiar the world economy is growing steadily.

Where else would you suggest investing? I don't think that "under the mattress" will turn out to be a very satisfying option.

Re vinyle, several weeks ago the family was watching Breakfast at Tiffany's, at one point a record is playing. My eleven year old asked what is was, I explained they understood (I felt old) my the 6 six year old continued to explain to her sister that they were what you used to do "scatching" (rap background). I then felt really old.

This was after I had an interesting discussion as to the occupation of the two main charaters of the movie.

*sending up a flare to mark my place as I doggedly try and catch up after a week of vacation*

:-)

Boko, have you tried the National Gallery in Ottawa for advice re your moms needlepoint, if they can't provide it they may know where you can get good advice.

Boko, one more tip, there is a large needlework/craft supply store in Paris, Ontario call Mary Maxim, they have a website, someone there may also have helpful advice on how to clean the needlework. There website is the name plus dot com.

Jumper, I don't like a lot of Kipling's works anyway. And I've looked at Ginsberg and... just ugh.

As far as I'm concerned, most beat poets can go beat themselves to death.

I like the meat and metaphor over the formal patterning.

I like to see poetry appear like prose, only better written and more significant. Hence, I'd rather read Robert Frost over Robert Service, anyday.

I also like reading international poetry in translation looking for the rare gems that strike me. My favorite is an chinese poet, translated, whose poem went something as follows (it's been 10 years and I have to paraphrase):

"Upon His Son's Birth

I through intelligence
having wrecked my whole life;
Wish stupidity upon my son
So he will end out his peaceful days
As a government minister."

Tastes in poetry change a lot, and the prevailing style becomes... well, a formula. There's only so much end-rhymed formal meter you can swallow without coming across as bland.

Ideally, poetry shoul