work in progress

My electronic scrapbook

2010-08-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

Because I have nowhere else to store it:

An article about SJYS

Don't expect 'dumbed down' performance from San Jose Youth Shakespeare

By Mary Gottschalk

mgottschalk@community-newspapers.com
Posted: 08/12/2010 08:04:59 PM PDT
Updated: 08/12/2010 08:04:59 PM PDT

In Silicon Valley one doesn't expect to hear Shakespeare quoted by youths as young as 8 years old, but that's exactly what San Jose Youth Shakespeare is all about.

On Aug. 19-22, children and teens ages 8 to 19 will be onstage at Historic Hoover Theatre and asking such questions as, "Are you good men and true?" or advising others to "Patch grief with proverbs."

Yes, for those who know their Bard, it is Much Ado About Nothing and it will be the 12th Shakespeare production by the group since 2004, when it started with As You Like It in Willow Glen.

Bob Rumsby, who co-founded the group with his wife, Barbara, says it began when his daughter Audrey was really interested in Shakespeare and had been studying it with other children. "The idea came up that we might be able to put on a show, and it took off from there."

Audrey and her younger sisters Jeannette and Evelyn were part of a group of children being home-schooled, and the initial membership of Youth Shakespeare was made up of these students and their families.

Over the years it has expanded to include youths from throughout Silicon Valley, and the age range has widened. Rumsby has served as director for all the productions, and his wife serves as general manager of the company.

Rumsby's enthusiasm for Shakespeare is understandable when you learn he is a native of Surrey County, near London, and before coming to the United States he was a member of the National Youth
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Theatre of Great Britain. He studied drama at the University of Birmingham before traveling in 1982 to UC-Davis, where he earned his master's of fine arts degree.

Now the Cambrian area resident works as a technical writer at ParAccel in Cupertino and calls his theater work "my hobby."

Rumsby refuses to dumb down Shakespeare in any way, sticking to the original language and length.

"We don't change anything," he says. "We do make small cuts here and there, the same thing that professional companies do. We don't cut the plays heavily, and that sets us apart from a lot of children's theater groups that reduce plays down to an hour or an hour and a half. If we reduce, it's to 2½ hours."

And he doesn't tamper with the Bard's language. "We really don't change any words at all, and we don't change any characters. The only thing we do is increase the number of characters in certain ways, and we use more people than the chorus lists."

As an example, Rumsby says that Much Ado About Nothing calls for a group of three to four watchmen, but he is using 10 in this production.

"When you add it up, you can do the script as written with quite a lot more people than the cast list would appear to call for," he says.

As for the language, Rumsby admits, "Some of them struggle. If they start out at 9 or 10, they do struggle, but by 13 or 14 they're doing really well. It's not as hard for the kids who have an intellectual interest in this as it might be for other kids."

Rumsby is particularly pleased with the teen musicians in this production. Sharon MacCauley is playing a full-size harp, Naomi Smith is playing violin and Maya and Ziad Khayat are playing Elizabethan-style classical guitar.

The group rehearses for at least three months before each show.

"It means once a week for eight to nine weeks and then two or three times a week for the remaining month. We work every Saturday basically for about five hours," Rumsby says.

When it comes to selecting each production, he adds, "We try to do different things, and I choose plays I think are reasonable for young people to do. I wouldn't try to do King Lear or Othello. It's too difficult in intellectual terms."

He says he tries to pick comedies or if not, he says, "They have to be simpler in some way and they have to have plots the children can really understand."

However, Rumsby has already chosen Hamlet for 2011 and admits, "It's a big risk and it's a real challenge. It will take a lot longer to rehearse."

This will be Youth Shakespeare's second performance this year at the Historic Hoover Theatre. Past performances were held at Mulberry School in Los Gatos, Canyon Heights Academy in Campbell and Theatre on San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose, and the group's first performance was at the Center for Spiritual Living in Willow Glen.

Rumsby says the Hoover theater has turned out to be very easy venue for the group's shows. "The facility is good, it's easy to find parking and it works out well for people."

The only drawback, he says, is that the stage is at one end of the theater, and he prefers to do shows in the round.

San Jose Youth Shakespeare presents "Much Ado About Nothing" Aug. 19-20 at 7 p.m., Aug. 21 at 2 p.m. and again at 7 p.m., and Aug. 22 at 3 p.m. at Historic Hoover Theatre, 1635 Park Ave. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door for adults; $5 in advance and $7 at the door for ages 8 to 17 and free to children 7 and under. Visit www.youthshakes.org or call 408.978.5516.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

2010-02-05T22:03:00.000-08:00

Maya (looking at the label on her dad's shirt pocket): Does your shirt say Calvin Kleenex?

The Western Skink

2010-01-31T10:05:00.000-08:00

We saw one.

Hiking the New Almaden trail at Quicksilver Park, on a sunny afternoon after extensive rain, we came across this reptile sunning himself in the path. Although we tried not to scare it, this is a pretty skittish reptile. After extensive arguing, we believe that this is the animal we saw -- it's so great that we could look it up on the internet while our memory of it was still fresh. Maybe now we can go to the library for some follow-up research.

Afternoon at the Ballet

2010-01-26T10:05:00.000-08:00

As I was leaving the house, Ziad said to me, "Aren't your legs going to get cold?"

As we were standing in the Opera House lobby, Maya said to me, "Why is your skirt so short?"

Sheesh. My dress may have been above the knee, but it was hardly a miniskirt. This is what happens when you spend most of your life in blue jeans. It's nice at my age, though, that my kids can actually make me feel so daring. A short skirt! What next?

The ballet, of course, was incredible. It was Swan Lake. That ballet inspires so much love in people that apparently many ballet companies are heartily sick of it, but there are so many reasons why it's a perennial favorite.

The music is beautiful. The costumes are beautiful. The story is structured so that the ballet covers all the bases -- romantic swans in the moonlight, richly costumed character dances for variety, joyous pastoral celebration, and of course, the beautifully sad ending. It was the perfect choice for the opening ballet of the season. The clip above has excerpts from each of the first three acts, and you should watch it to the end, because that's Yuan Yuan Tan dancing the black swan.

Here is a clip of her dancing in Othello.

Just amazing. She danced Odette/Odile on Sunday. What a perfect afternoon.

In which Ziad apologizes, and I have mixed feelings

2009-11-03T18:59:00.000-08:00

Behold Ziad's latest poem:

I'm not very smart and I know it
I'm also a terrible poet
I'm almost as smart
As a blackberry tart
I'm not very smart and I know it

This poem accomplished it's intended purpose, which was to make me laugh. Maya also found it very amusing. Still, I can't help wondering ... am I too hard on the boy?

Science Camp: The Good

2009-10-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to get a week at Science Camp. This is essentially the same Science Camp that public school children get, but the program was slightly modified to accomodate homeschoolers and their propensity for participating as families. So the children got to go off with their naturalist during the day and do various cool project, while the mom and siblings still to young to hit the trail chilled back at camp. It was a good setup.

There were cabins for the families to sleep in (bring your own sleeping bags, natch) and a dining lodge where meals were held. The lodge had a big fireplace, with a fire going all day, and the meals were surprisingly non-horrible. A few of them even attained goodness. In any event, we all ate a ton in an attempt to ward off the cold. Calories! Give me calories!

The meals also featured a surprisingly popular appearance by a recurring character, the Waste Wizard. Who was played by the naturalists, dressed up in ridiculous costumes. The kids went nuts! They loved it. Although the Waste Wizard had various things to say about reducing all kinds of waste, they would also carry around a bucket for the table scraps, which was used to measure how much food people had left on their plates. If, like me, you think the sight of children filling up their plates and then eating two bites is an abomination, then this is the place for you. After the first meal, there was much less of this behavior -- in fact, there was never a meal after that with more than half as much leftover food. Go, Waste Wizard!

We really enjoyed our time in the redwoods, even though it was colder and darker (those trees just don't let much light in, not even at high noon) than we had expected. A couple of mornings we were the first up, so we got to light the fire in the dining hall. There was actually an early-morning patrol, in the words of one regular attendee. She was the mom of a young child who didn't really let her sleep in in the morning, and it was great fun to hear her reading board books to her little boy. There was a guitar-strumming dad and his son, and various other drop-ins. Then breakfast, then off to the woods!

Ziad and Maya were in the same group, at my request. Not having been to this place before, our personal family protocol dictates that I keep them both in my visual sphere as much as possible, which means they HAD to be in the same group, and I had to accompany them. The very cool thing was that, despite the prevailing ethos of "Butt out parent! Your child cannot possibly achieve their full potential with you breathing down their neck!" we managed to land a naturalist who completely understood that I was NOT their to police him, my children, or their interaction, but merely to keep an eye on things and back him up if he needed it. Also to take note of any interactions during the day that might merit some discussion amongst ourselves in the evening. Because, really, no one needs to be in a group where Ziad has decided he is justified in carrying out some vendetta against a perceived slight. I actually think I may have averted that scenario, although, of course it's possible I'm exaggerating my own importance.

The days were very cool. There was a stream day, where they studied the invertebrate population of a stretch of water, and learned that the presence of the caddis-fly larvae, which cannot survive in pollution, indicated clean water. They also learned about a bunch of interesting insects and got to observe the fern-like gill structure of a salamander under a microscope. Then lunch on a huge fallen redwood, featuring runny grape jelly that was the most delicious I have ever tasted.

Next was a forst day, where they hiked up a hill to Big Tree, a large sequoia that we could not encircle with our arms, even though out of the eleven of us there, three were adults. That was also the Professor Trail, or each-one-teach-one day, where every student got to be an expert of one member of the forest biosphere and impart their wisdome, one-by-one, to the other members of their group.

The last full day was the ocean day, where everybody trucked down to the coast to look at the nature center, take a hike on the bluffs, then head to the beach for some habitat restoration. Then they got stainless steel water bottles with an insulating cover and carabiners attached to the tops! Way cool.

The last day ended at noon, and consisted largely of cleaning the cabins, cleaning around the camp, and saying good-bye. It's a very good program, and I would recommend it highly.

Two links

2009-10-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

First, second in a series of articles on homeschooling, first appearing in Salon:

Second, an article on women in Iran. Sadly, I can only link to an abstract; however, anyone wanting to read the article in it's print form is welcome to borrow it. Just give me a call.

Life in the Spectrum

2009-08-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

Reading this article about autism made me grateful. I'm grateful that my own son's condition is so mild, but grateful also that someone has articulated so clearly what it's like to coexist with such a child.

Interestingly, I just read an article in the New Yorker about a neuroscientist, Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, who is looking at autism, among other disorders, in light of brain structure and neuronal organization. This link is to an abstract, but the article itself is good reading if you care to register (It's free).

Time it was, oh what a time it was

2009-08-03T00:04:00.001-07:00

My husband's aunt is in town. She is the kind of woman who will always be the favorite aunt -- warm, affectionate, funny, interested in everything, and always open to new experiences. We wanted to have her over to dinner before she went back to her home in Florida, so we bit the bullet, cleaned the house as best we could, and got cooking.

Because she is on a restricted diet, I made some food especially for her:

chicken marinated in fat-free yogurt with onion and spices, then broiled and sliced and served with the baked marinade as sauce

potato salad with olive oil and apple-cider vinegar instead of mayonnaise

apple sauce

string beans lightly steamed and then tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and fresh basil

steamed corn

For everyone else I made

hamburgers stuffed with feta cheese

macaroni and cheese

lavosh rollups with cream cheese and smoked salmon

and lastly, a tossed green salad that was probably enough for about twenty people

It was a lot of food for twelve people. In fact, I had trouble fitting the leftovers into the refrigerator. At least I won't have to cook too much this week!

While I was putting the food away and getting desert out, Maya and Ziad played the piano and the guitar for their family. They sounded surprisingly good, at least the part that I could hear from the kitchen.

For desert we had the plum sorbet I made from Village Harvest plums, a chocolate cake from the bakery and elephant ears from Costco. With coffee and tea.

After dinner we all went out on the deck and looked at the moon through the telescope.

After everybody went home, my husband and I sat at the kitchen table for a long time, just talking about his childhood and his family.

It was a lovely evening.

Fruits of Summer

2009-07-29T09:11:00.001-07:00

For the last few years, the apricot tree in my in-laws yard hasn't really had much fruit. I've gotten out of the habit of making jam. This year, however, there was a fair amount of fruit; my brother-in-law, who often picks the fruit for them, was unavailable; and my mother-in-law, who makes the most amazing fruit preserves imaginable, isn't as energetic as she used to be and isn't really up for making jam. Slow on the uptake as ever, I didn't really mobilize myself to get the fruit picked and preserves made until it was almost too late. To make matters worse, I seem to have completely lost my jam-making touch. I hope it comes back to me next year.

Anyway, in addition to making jam, this year I decided to try to glace some apricots. I started out with this technique, which is flat-out insane. I was OK for the first couple days, but taking the fruit in and out of the syrup got old after a while, and when I tried to add the extra sugar and it just sat there on top of the old syrup, it seemed as though there was just too much sugar in the mix. My plan for next year is to modify the technique as follows:

Make a simple syrup of one cup sugar, one cup water
Simmer the fruit in the syrup briefly, remove from heat.
Next day remove fruit, add 1/2 cup sugar, boil the syrup, return the fruit, remove from heat. Do this two or three times.
Leave the fruit in the syrup for a few weeks, bringing it to a mild simmer every two or three days.
Remove the fruit and dry it.

The apricots are drying now, and they are more sugary than any fruit has a right to be. Until today I had several cups of very fruity syrup which I was thinking of using in champagne cocktails, but instead I am using most of it in a plum sorbet.

Here is my plum sorbet technique:

Wash the fruit, put it whole in a pot and heat until the skins pop open. Simmer briefly. Put the whole thing in a strainer and press out as much of the flesh as possible, discarding the pits and skins. Add syrup. Cool, then add one or two egg whites, depending on how much puree you have, and freeze in an ice-cream maker.

I am also making plum brandy. This is a very simple technique as well. You take two pints of plums, add 4 cups sugar and 1 quart vodka. Put them all in a container in the refrigerator, stir once a week for four months, and strain. Voila! I thought I had a foolproof plan in deciding to make park day my plum-stirring day, but I have forgotten to stir every Tuesday since I put the plums in the refrigerator. As far as I can tell this is an arbitrary exercise, though, because when I open it up to stir it there is just a clear purple liquid with a bunch of fruit in it, and I can't see what purpose stirring it serves. It's probably a good idea to keep checking on it, though.

I have been picking fruit with Village Harvest (thanks, Vivian) for the past few weeks and also have a nice pile of greenish apples and large plums. I will probably make applesauce with the apples, but I think I will try my modified glace technique on the plums. As I've been working on the apricots, it made me think a lot about preserving fruits, and candying them, and the fruitcake my family always makes, which uses candied fruits made from dried fruits. I wonder if making candied fruits from fresh fruits and putting them in fruitcake would make the fruitcake even more wonderful, or if it would just ruin the texture. Come Thanksgiving, I am to find out. Stay tuned.

Early one morning

2009-07-20T08:27:00.000-07:00

I'm going to preface this entry by mentioning that we appeared to be having a yellow-jacket free summer. That is, until my husband decided to bait the yellow-jacket trap. Now they are attracted to it, but apparently unable to actually get into it, and last night for the first time we were unable to eat dinner outside because they were so ferocious. I am not pleased.

A more charming addition to our back deck is the large family of quail that now feel comfortable coming to eat crumbs and seeds we leave on the fence railing for them. Quail have to be the most adorable birds in existence. Their plump little bodies, their cute little beeping noises and charming call, their odd little flutter as the jump on and off the fence, the way the adults always keep guard while the babies forage. California quail are especially handsome, to my way of thinking, and I love watching them. There are also some scrub jays who seem to take a proprietary view of the fence, but the quail aren't scared of them, and it's especially fun to watch them negotiating boundaries along the fence.

So this morning, there they were, quails and jays, eating and chirping and fluttering around. Suddenly there was a big commotion and a smallish hawk swooped quite low over the quail, easily coming within six inches of the fence where they were feeding. They disappeared into the bushes beyond the fence, and the hawk, having failed to snatch one, perched on a nearby fence post. The quail expressed their alarm in loud and agitated peeeps from the bushes as the hawk shook out his feathers and scratched his leg. A yellow-jacked flew around his head, but he took no notice. A pair of swallows circled his vicinity, but he didn't really care. He kept his eyes on the bushes where the quail who continued voicing their distress in no uncertain terms.

I saw a pair of hummingbirds make an almost vertical rise into the air, flying beak to beak. I don't know if they were courting or contesting territory. I've never seen them do that before. Eventually they perched in the branches of a young oak sapling, along with some finches. The quail were gradually growing quieter. The hawk was still sitting on the fence. He switched his attention to a mockingbird in the next yard over. Finally I decided that I really should be watching with my binoculars, so I went into the next room and got them. And of course when I got back, there was nary a bird to be seen. No hawk, no finches, no hummingbirds, nothing. Only a lone yellowjacket, circling the trap and looking frustrated. That trap has got to go.

Crazy days of summer

2009-07-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

I found a summer camp I want to enroll my kids in. (Did she just end a sentence with a preposition? ZOMG!!!)

Anyway, money is a consideration. These are some pretty privileged kids, with the guitar lessons, the piano lessons, the tennis lessons, and god knows what else from time to time. Yet for some reason, I still think it's reasonable to send them to summer camp in Santa Cruz to cook for 5-6 hours a day (I'd be glad to tell you why I think that's reasonable, but really, how many digressions can one blog post support?)

So I asked my husband, "Well, how about if they trade some music lessons for cooking lessons?" my estimate being that about four guitar lessons would be the equivalent of the cooking camp. His answer? "No, that's OK. They can do it, but you owe me." Which made me realize how much I personally want this for them. It's not for me, it's for them, but still I really want it. Enough so that when my husband said, "OK, well, we'll just consider it your birthday present," I was actually on board. WHO SENDS THEIR CHILDREN TO SUMMER CAMP FOR THEIR OWN BIRTHDAY PRESENT???? Especially since this not one of those getting the children out of your hair kind of thing. I like being around them and miss them when they're gone, plus if I drive them to Santa Cruz, where the camp is, I'm not going to be coming home to get stuff done or anything. Is that the attraction for me? Guaranteed six hours out of the house for five straight days? Probably not. That actually sounds kind of tiring.

Being a mom is confusing, that's for sure. I still haven't untangled this all in my head.

GMOs are not the answer

2009-07-15T07:21:00.000-07:00

Here's some text from an e-mail petition making the rounds:

... the Obama administration along with members of the U.S. Congress are using this singular moment to move their own agenda: propping up U.S. biotechnology companies like Monsanto. They hope to accomplish this by promoting genetically modified seeds and chemical inputs as tools to fight hunger, despite research that shows that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have little impact on crop yield and do not fare well in drought-prone regions that need the most help.

...

Please have a look and take action.

Here's the petition.

Of course I signed this. I hope you do, too.

How awesome am I?

2009-07-02T18:11:00.000-07:00

You know how some days everything just clicks? You're efficient, you're energetic, you're getting stuff done, and then you write a blog post about how much you've accomplished and it looks really impressive and all your friends say how awesome you are?

Well my whole week has been the opposite of that.

The Mysterious Benedict Society

2009-06-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

The Mysterious Benedict Society
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey

by Trenton Lee Stewart

There is a website.
There is a Wikipedia page, but I don't think it's very good.
Of course, Amazon's page has lots of customer reviews.
There's even a third book due in October (available for pre-order now).

So what's all the fuss about? This series-in-the-making features four unusual children, lots of logic puzzles, action and adventure, interesting supporting characters and a strong dose of whimsy. I'm not surprised it's popular. When I read the first book, I had a feeling of deja-vu before I realized that it vibes a lot like the Lemony Snickett books. And all of a sudden I thought, "Voracious reader boy character? Check. Inventive female character? Check. Small but stubborn and precocious child? Check." There is, in addition, a boy with photographic memory and an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure facts; interestingly, he's the only one of the four who isn't an orphan.

There's also something about the general tone that reminds me of the Series of Unfortunate Events. The difference being that I could stand to read these two books, even though one of them is about as long as four or five of the Lemony Snickett. They're not so unremittingly sombre, for one thing, and perhaps less predictable in that things go right more often than they go wrong, but at any given point they could go either way.

There are also shades of Harry Potter in the strong emphasis on ethics and compassion. Just as Harry Potter lets an enemy escape rather than kill in anger, the protagonists in these books, while not shying away from conflict or violence when necessary, refuse to kill. In general, though, there is more trickery than fighting, making them much more readable for people like myself. And of course this sustains the narrative, since the main villain always escapes to menace another day.

I plan to give these books to my children for summer reading. I think they'll enjoy them, and look forward to reading the third this fall. I'll probably read the third one, too. These books are well-written, the characters are varied and interesting, and I know my kids will enjoy the puzzles and their solutions. Not great literature, but very enjoyable, I would recommend these books to anyone.

Tired of waiting at the park?

2009-06-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

So, the other day, it was getting to be time to leave the park. Ziad had taken his shoes off, scattered sand toys all over the sand area, and was deep in a game of tag on the climbing structure. I somehow extricated him, then got distracted myself as I made my way to the exit. When I got myself back into leaving mode, he was playing tag again. Which would be OK, except that he hadn't done anything about getting his stuff the first time I started to leave. Which made me mad. So I said to him, "I'm going home. If you can your stuff and get to the car by the time I leave, I'll give you a ride."

Which, surprisingly, lit a fire under him. (I mean, did he really think I was going to leave him at the park?) It was a long walk from the play are to the parking lot, so I knew he would be more than able to get his stuff and get to the car about the same time I did. I don't walk all that fast these days, and I certainly wasn't setting my fastest pace.

As Ziad comes panting up to the car, we see a mom back at the play area calling him. We realize he has his sand toys, all right, but does he have his shoes? No. So I had him stow his toys in the car and run back for the shoes, while I pulled out of the parking place and pulled up to the curb of the park entrance. A few days later I heard from another mom that as he ran back for his shoes, the look of fear on his face was striking.

I think I'm an excellent candidate for mean mom of the year.

Not so silent after all

2009-06-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

From the Wikipedia article on Silent Spring comes this quote from the book itself:

No responsible person contends that insect-borne disease should be ignored. The question that has now urgently presented itself is whether it is either wise or responsible to attack the problem by methods that are rapidly making it worse. The world has heard much of the triumphant war against disease through the control of insect vectors of infection, but it has heard little of the other side of the story—the defeats, the short-lived triumphs that now strongly support the alarming view that the insect enemy has been made actually stronger by our efforts. Even worse, we may have destroyed our very means of fighting. ... What is the measure of this setback? The list of resistant species now includes practically all of the insect groups of medical importance. ... Malaria programmes are threatened by resistance among mosquitoes. ... Practical advice should be 'Spray as little as you possibly can' rather than 'Spray to the limit of your capacity' ..., Pressure on the pest population should always be as slight as possible.

That last bit deserves to be repeated.

Practical advice should be 'Spray as little as you possibly can' rather than 'Spray to the limit of your capacity' ..., Pressure on the pest population should always be as slight as possible.

This was written in 1962. Since then, we have seen the consequences of ignoring this advice in other areas, too. Antibiotic resistant staph? TB?
Wikipedia quotes a 1999 Time magazine article about Silent Spring:

Carson was violently assailed by threats of lawsuits and derision, including suggestions that this meticulous scientist was a "hysterical woman" unqualified to write such a book. A huge counterattack was organized and led by Monsanto, Velsicol, American Cyanamid — indeed, the whole chemical industry — duly supported by the Agriculture Department as well as the more cautious in the media.

Monsanto. You don't say.

The thing that strikes me about the text from Silent Spring is how moderate it is. One last quote from Wikipedia:

Carson had made it clear she was not advocating the banning or complete withdrawal of helpful pesticides, but was instead encouraging responsible and carefully managed use, with an awareness of the chemicals' impact on the entire ecosystem.

It seems to me that I see this phenomenon on an almost daily basis. Person A makes a statement. Person B wildly overreacts. Perhaps Person B didn't really hear all of what Person A said. Perhaps Person B only heard a few words and filled in the rest out of their own imagination. Or perhaps person B has some idea about Person A, either from experience or just innate prejudice, that makes them assume they know what Person A is saying. It may sound nebulous and vague when it's described this way, but my opinion is that practically every flame war on the internet fits this pattern to a greater or lesser degree.

This troubles me. First of all, there is so much needless energy and emotion expended with people flying off the handle. Even worse, there is no resolution. The argument goes around in circles and never gets anywhere. There is no hope of compromise, and no problems are solved.

Of course, I include myself among the guilty parties.

Mariposa Lillies

2009-05-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

White

Yellow

We saw both of them hiking today, and pink ones, too.

Tired of nagging your kids?

2009-05-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a line that works really well for me:

"Because I love you, I'm going to give you a chance to put that toy away before I throw it out. Next time I may not warn you, and if you see it in the garbage you're just going to have to leave it there."

The thing I like about this is, that not only does the kid pick up the toy, but they even, occasionally, thank me. And if they leave it there and I get to throw it out? Less clutter. This is a total win-win for me.

mother's day menu

2009-05-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

Ziad made pasta with the new pasta roller we got yesterday. I cooked it up, then tossed it with extra salt and pepper, butter, olive oil and parmesan cheese.

Jenny made a vegetarian lasagne with lots of yellow squash sliced paper-thin in the mandoline.

I grilled some artichokes in a lemon garlic marinade.

Ziad made a Caesar salad dressing for our Caesar broccoli salad.

For an appetizer we had brie with fig jam, and crackers from Whole Foods. For desert, a lemon-meringue pie that a friend of hers makes.

We drank pinot noir from Chateau St-Jean.

It's been a long day, and I'm bone-tired, but what a delicious meal we had. And the best part is that so much of it was made by my children. It took Jennifer 30 years, but she finally cooked for me.

Rule of three

2009-04-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

* Keeping my kitchen clean makes me really happy. More happy than I could have realized during most of my life when I wasn't keeping it clean on a regular basis. However, knowing this, I should really make cleaning the kitchen more of a priority. Note to self: get on it.

* If you're the kind of a person who, at any given moment, can think of three things you need to do, three things you want to do, three things that would be really fun, and three things that you've been meaning to get to for a while, but haven't; then, seriously make a schedule. Otherwise you'll spend the whole day going around in circles.

* A friend of mine once told me that when she finds she's having trouble keeping her house clean, it's usually because she has too much stuff. While this is true, and even relevant in my case, I find that when I'm having trouble keeping my house clean, it's because I'm not in it enough. Something to keep in mind when I'm getting that kid-in-the-candystore feeling about the plethora of cool activities around here. On May 9, for example, there are a solid five mutually conflicting but very intriguing activities to choose from. Maybe I should just stay home.

Get your ballet clips, right here

2009-04-26T21:13:00.000-07:00

Ooh, look! It's an ad for the San Francisco ballet.

I really like this particular piece, which was choreographed by a former dancer with the company. I love his choreography -- always clever and unexpected, and usually really funny to boot. See if you can see the dancers sliding. The first time I saw this move used in a ballet I could hear people gasping. I'm pretty sure they thought the dancers had lost their balance.

And now two clips of the male dancer I believe is the bes the company, Davit Karapetyan. I'm so glad I get to see him dance every year. Here he is in a piece from Don Quixote,

and check out the coda

These seem to be his only clips on You Tube. Too bad. We saw him dance today in the Balanchine ballet Jewels, and he was truly amazing. He has the most beautiful sense of line of any dancer in the company, and the grace in his arms and hands is really remarkable.

I have often remarked on the fact that my husband rarely gives me actual presents, as in "Here, honey, I got this for(your birthday, our anniversary, Valentine's day, whatever)" Sometimes when I see the cool presents other people get, I feel kind of wistful about it. Whenever I think about how generously he makes it possible for Maya and me to experience this wonderful dancing, though, I think I'm coming out way ahead.

We're all about the crafts

2009-04-26T01:50:00.000-07:00

You can keep your fancy woodworking kits. My son, clever, clever child that he is, has managed to burn the word MOM onto a piece of wood using only a magnifying glass and the light from the sun. I'll treasure it forever, of course.

I sense a business opportunity here, jumping right on the eco-friendly bandwagon. Mail-order solar-powered wood-burning kits!

Globe lilies

2009-04-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

Also known as Fairy Lanterns, or calochortus albus. Now beginning to bloom in Almaden Quicksilver Park. These are relatively late-blooming flowers, so their blossoms let you know the wildflower season will soon come to an end. Right now it's at it's peak. Several kinds of lupine, blue-eyed grass, poppies, sunflowers, and buttercups are making the meadows beautiful. This is definitely the time to be outdoors hiking, while the air is cool and soothing, the hills are green and leafy, and the flowers are at their best.

The best laid plans ....

2009-04-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

Ziad is sick, and my plans have gone agley indeed. Ever since Thursday, when his first waking thought was "Can we reschedule the playdate we have planned?" life has been on hold. Passes to the ballet dress rehearsal? Adieu. I don't so much mind having missed it myself, but by the time I realized that there was no way for me to be comfortable leaving such a sick child, it was too late to find someone who could use them. Not that I didn't try. Reservation-only, docent-led wildflower hike on private land in Santa Cruz not normally open to the public? Oh, man, letting go of that one hurt. Ballet tickets tomorrow? Well, those, at least, I can exchange.

I'm not by any means bucking for martyr of the year award. Part of me is perfectly content to hunker down and mark time waiting for him to get better. Plus, really, how many moms could really enjoy themselves knowing their child was languishing on the sofa, coughing pathetically?

Thursday he spent dozing off in odd situations. Friday he seemed better, but all of a sudden I realized at four o'clock that the weekend was coming, he had a high fever, and medical help was going to be limited to emergency rooms if I didn't deal with the situation a little more proactively. I called the doctor's office, and after talking to the nurse I knuckled under and took his temperature, something I try to avoid doing because it usually scares the hell out of me. Guess what? 104. Damn. Actually, I guess I can pat myself on the back, because my guess ahead of time was 103. Do I know my kid or what? Anyway, a long conversation involving three or four calls ensued, because my children's tylenol had expired, so I wanted to give him some adult Tylenol instead. Except that had expired, too, and all I had was some Advil. Plus there was an involved discussion of why three tablets with 160 mg. of acetominophen are better than one with 500 (the difference is 20 mg if you don't feel like doing the math). Isn't one pill that you swallow better than three that you chew, especially if you are a picky eater who doesn't like fruit flavors? He ended up taking 400 mg of Advil, leaving him 80 mg short, but it seemed to do the job. He felt much better and left off his imitation of a wood-burning stove.

And yet, here he is today, coughing lethargically while his temperature steadily rises again. Good times.

I find myself accusing myself of being incredibly self-involved, because I tend to think of this medical situation in terms of how I feel about it. Can I handle my little boy having a high fever, or am I going to freak out and need to rush around doing stuff? I keep forgetting that he's old enough now for me to ask him how he feels and what he prefers. Does it hurt too much, does he feel like he needs medicine, or does he want to tough it out (always the preferred option in my book)? Can he be persuaded to drink enough fluids to help his body cool down? Does he understand that popsicles are better than tea for soothing his throat? Yes, yes he can and does. Good times.

Chronology

2009-03-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

Perhaps, like me, you have wondered about the temporal relationship between Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Anthony Trollope. In that case, the following will be of interest to you.

From Wikipedia:

Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist whose realism, biting social commentary and masterful use of free indirect speech, burlesque, and irony have earned her a place as one of the most widely read and most beloved writers in English literature.

Charles Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, in Landport, Portsmouth, in Hampshire, the second of eight children to John Dickens (1786–1851), a clerk in the Navy Pay Office at Portsmouth, and his wife, Elizabeth (née Barrow, 1789–1863).
...on 9 June 1870, he died at his home in Gad's Hill Place. He was mourned by all his readers.

Anthony Trollope ( 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882 ) became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era.

So now you know, if you didn't before, that Jane Austen was writing in a period more or less following the Revolutionary War in America, while Dickens and Trollope were firmly established in their own writing careers during the American Civil War. These events leave little to no impression on the works of these authors, even though the histories of America and England were finely intertwoven throughout both events.

For good measure, let's include some more British authors:

Charlotte Brontë (21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was a British novelist, the eldest of the three famous Brontë sisters whose novels have become standards of English literature. Charlotte Brontë, who used the pen name Currer Bell, is best known for Jane Eyre, one of the most famous of English novels.

I find it interesting that even though the Bronte sisters were writing well after Jane Austen's literary success, they still felt it incumbent upon themselves to use masculine pen names.

William Makepeace Thackeray (18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.

I include Thackeray because I know that Charlotte Bronte and Anthony Trollope both admired him tremendously. And now I know, which I didn't before, how contemporary all of these authors, excepting only Jane Austen, were. I wonder, two hundred years from now, which of our popular writers who will continue to find audiences as these writers have done.

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen

2009-03-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

You're a mom. You drop your son and daughter off at a birthday party.

Your son comes home with a big lump on his forehead. He's also hurt his leg. He is sobbing uncontrollably, telling you about the crazy kid at the party who scared him and chased him and beat him after he fell down. How bad do you feel? All night you watch over your son to make sure he's OK, and you promise yourself he'll never have to be anywhere near that crazy kid again.

You're a mom. You know your kid has problems with large groups of kids, so anywhere you take him you've always got one ear listening to the background noise, waiting for any trouble, hoping you can intervene before things get out of hand. In fact you get up to check a couple of times and just generally see how the playing is going on. SO YOU FRICKIN KNOW YOUR KID HAS NOT BEEN HARASSING ANYBODY. Oops, I guess you figured out which mom I am.

I'm the mom who had to listen to the other mom tell me how she felt irresponsible for having let her children go to a party when she knew my son would be there. (The horror!) Who had to sympathize when she told me, crying uncontrollably, that she always liked me, and she knows I'm doing the best I can, and she feels so bad that she just couldn't ever ask her kids to be anywhere where my son was. She just couldn't do that to them.

I'm the mom who stayed at the party. Who heard the other kids say that it wasn't my son's fault that this other boy was running without looking where he was going, tripped, fell down, and hit his head. Who saw that same boy, apparently recovered from his trauma, play a board game and eat birthday cake, all in the presence of my monster son. Who now knows that this mom is going to need to vent (just like I do) and is therefore going to be telling people what her son told her, no matter how exaggerated and unfair.

I have to say, I appreciate her honesty. I genuinely like this woman. Without meaning to make light of her son's experience, though, that bump on his forehead is going to go away. The words she and her family are going to say about my son are going to circulate around our small homeschool circle for years. People who already don't like my son are going to know they were always right not to like him. People who've never met him are going to think they know who he is, but they won't.

You know what? No matter how much that mom wishes she hadn't let her kids go to that party, I wish the same thing about mine. Only more. Way more.

An addition to the lexicon

2009-03-11T15:43:00.001-07:00

Courtesy of Maya.

Hufflegrumping: This is what a bird is doing when it ruffles up its feathers and looks cross.

Normally I have no use for lolcats

2009-03-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

But I love this picture.

And since I'm dragging stuff over here, I like this one, too.

Competition Freakshow

2009-02-17T04:28:00.000-08:00

Maya and Ziad decided to enter a piano competition in Oakland. Their teacher was on the fence about their participation -- on the one hand, they haven't been studying piano all that long; on the other, it's an education in and of itself, what with hearing the other students and getting feedback from the judges and all.

So yesterday morning, Maya and I drove up to Oakland in the driving rain. She needed to be there by 9, and all I can say is that it's extremely lucky for me that yesterday was a holiday, because I don't think I would have made it on time if there had been commuter traffic. The rain was heavy enough to be scary at times, and at one point my windshield actually got splashed by an oncoming car on the other wide of a highway median. That, my friends, is a lot of water on the roadway.

We didn't know what to expect at the competition, and this is what we found: out of the many rooms devoted to various events, ours was a small room down a narrow hallway that for some reason felt exactly like a basement, even though it was on the ground floor. The room would probably have barely held the 50+ people trying to cram into it even if it hadn't had a big Steinway piano and a large table taking up at least half the space.

So we found a seat. The judges called out the name of the first pianist, and the competition was on. One by one, the students would go to the front of the room, play their piece, then return to their parents. The judges would take a few minutes to write some notes, then call the next one. The children played at a variety of levels; some had a really impressive degree of polish and expression, especially considering that this was the elementary level.

All of a sudden there is a commotion in one corner of the room. A very small boy, dressed in a full black suit with a red tie, is crying loudly. He is so cute, with his bright red cheeks and sparkling black eyes, even while he is raising a major ruckus. "My stomach hurts, it hurts. I can't do anything with it, it hurts." His mother is telling him he'll feel better soon. He subsides a little, and the judges call out the name of the next contestant. It's the same little boy, who now starts yelling even louder, and trying to cling to his mother. There is a longish interval of hysteria before one of the judges remarks "All great artists feel this way." General chuckling and sympathy. The other judge offers to let the little boy find a piano in another room to warm up on so he can get a little more comfortable. The mother declines. Eventually she gets him to go over and play his piece. He nails it. No question. Everyone is blown away. And in that moment I realize that he has won the competition, and that I have a big problem with this whole setup.

After all the contestants have played, another young boy rushes up and starts yelling at this boy. "David! Never do that! I don't care how much your stomach hurt! I was so embarassed! Never say that!" The mother tries to calm this boy, while her younger son starts hitting him. Everyone else is waiting for the judges to come back into the room and announce the results. When the young boy is given first place, he stands quietly looking at his certificate while his mother weeps openly. Maya says she saw the older brother kiss him. And in a side note, this older brother is dressed in sweats, so he is obviously not playing today. Does he play at all? Or is he just the sideshow to this infant prodigy?

Why do I have a problem with all this? Where do I start? If this competition was for best performance by a six-year-old, I wouldn't care. Or for best pre-performance tantrum, maybe. But there were older kids who played better. And pardon my cynicism, but the judges' reference to "players who had dragons to slay" made me think that the total performance, not just the piano playing, was being rewarded here.

When her son first started yelling, the mom tried to say he had a stomach flu. Okay then, why expose a whole room full of people to his germs? His quick recovery after he played, though, makes that whole scenario unlikely. If her son really suffers from that degree of nerves, why force him (and us) to go through this? As first-prize winner, he's going to have to perform in a concert at the end of the competition. What are they going to do? How will they even get him onstage?

I know I'm being judgmental. That mom is the one who knows her son best. Maybe he's normally a very happy child. Maybe he loves performing. Once the older brother came on the scene, though, I started really wondering about that family's story. Interesting, too, that the older brother was so upset about the scene his brother made, then never noticed what a scene he was making himself.

In case you're wondering, Maya was very nervous, but played well enough. The judges didn't have much to say about her performance. One of them used the phrase "well-prepared." Isn't that the polite equivalent of "Don't call us, we'll call you?" She enjoyed herself overall, though, and is looking forward to practicing hard before she goes back on Wednesday. I just hope we've seen the last of that adorable but temperamental six-year-old and his emotionally unstable family.

Self-esteem in action

2009-02-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

My older sister recently moved here from Phoenix, leaving behind her grown children and newly-born granddaughter. It has been wrenching for her, to say the least. Her youngest came to visit her mother for her birthday, and although our schedules were not too compatible, we got to have dinner with them on Sunday.

After dinner, we adjourned to a nearby Peet's, for hot chocolate and cookies. And it was here that Maya, who had not realized it was her cousin's birthday, improvised a present. She borrowed a pencil from her aunt and got herself a hot drink lid -- the plastic kind that fits over those paper cups, and has a small hole surrounded by an indentation. The one that could kind of look like a smiley face if you stuck two holes in it with a pencil (those would be the eyes). So she did that, and then turned it over and wrote a small note on the inside, then gave it to her cousin. And I really couldn't help thinking how touching it was that she could give her cousin what amounts to personalized trash with the full confidence that her cousin would appreciate it.

To her everlasting credit, her cousin responded more than appropriately, even saving her birthday coffee lid from being thrown away when I was clearing the table without looking too closely.

More than anything else, though, I find myself admiring Maya's quick thinking.

So long, farewell

2009-02-03T05:31:00.001-08:00

auf weidersehn, adieu

In the Suzuki world, you move slowly and carefully from one book to the next. And when you get to the end of a book, you get to graduate. You make a graduation tape, and a different teacher than your own listens to it gives you comments. You play in a graduation concert. You get a diploma. You get a pin.

So today, Ziad and Maya graduated from their books. Book 4 and Book 3, respectively. And since we are leaving the school where they have been studying Suzuki guitar, it was a real graduation for them, a chance to say good-bye and thank-you to the teachers they have studied with.

Leaving the regimented world of Suzuki was in some ways disconcerting. It can be so absorbing, and so challenging, to meet all the requirements of this structured and disciplined approach, that you never have time to question whether this is something you even want to be doing. Stepping outside all that, though, is to immediately confront the question of whether guitar lessons are really the appropriate activity for two children who, while musical, are hardly prodigies. Is it worth the time? The money? The effort? I don't know the answers to those questions.

What I do know is that going to the graduation today felt really good. Saying goodbye to the Suzuki world felt REALLY good.

So which child, do you think, came to this event with a pocket full of hard plastic magic props? And what better time for them to fall to the auditorium floor than during the guest violinist's elegant solo? Let me tell you, it was really something to listen to that plastic rattling down the slanted floor and to watch people looking nervously at their feet as it rolled past. In case you're not sure who I'm talking about, I'll tell you that it was the same child who, while walking offstage after playing, did not even wait to get back to the audience before beginning to tug his tie off with one hand while holding his guitar in the other.

I'm thinking they may have been glad to see the back of us.

BTA: Day Two

2009-01-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

I think this the first party where the kids getting presents has had such a serious effect on our time over the next few days.

Ziad has been doing a jigsaw puzzle on and off since Sunday night. Maya has been engrossed in learning the ropes with her Webkinz froggy. If I'd really understood how time-consuming it would be, I'm not sure I would have been so "Well, OK," when her friends mom asked if it would be an acceptable present.

I remember when they used to make little electronic Tamagachi that kids would carry around with them. There was a big flap about kids taking them to school. Anyone else remember them? These little virtual Webkinz are in some ways much worse, being as they need feeding and exercising and that you have to earn the money to buy the food by playing online games.

Foodwise, we're still plowing through the leftovers. Macaroni and cheese, chicken and rice, blah, blah, blah .... Most of the cake is in the freezer now, just a few pieces wrapped up for desert tomorrow.

Housewise, we had another busy day (even without the Webkinz) so not much housework got done. All dishes, glasses, pots, pans, etc. are now washed and put away. When I woke up this morning I planned to get the garage car-ready, but I went downstairs to find that the garage fairy had been busy during the night. All the tables returned to their places, all the blankets folded and put away, and the floor swept to boot. I love the garage fairy.

A few more school-related items have found their way to the school table, but I am still staring at three stacks of paper and stuff that need to be sorted and returned to their proper locations. Until that happens, though, my kitchen is looking pretty good. Things could be worse.

Blogging the Aftermath: Day One

2009-01-12T16:39:00.000-08:00

Here is a series I am beginning for my own enlightenment and edification. Having turned my house upside down and maybe even inside out, in order to accommodate a large group of children and their families, I am now faced with the prospect of returning things to normal. This is not a one-day process, and in fact some stuff that got thrown into distant corners of the house will probably remain there indefinitely (a good sign, I suppose, that I could even throw it away (gasp!)with few negative repercussions (not going to happen)) and actually, some of the furniture that got moved around actually works better for me in its new location.

Anyway.

On the food front, here is our menu for the day:

Breakfast:
Ziad and Maya had macaroni and cheese. I had chicken and potatoes. When Maya asked if that was all the macaroni and cheese that was left, I had to tell her, "No, that was all the macaroni and cheese I couldn't fit in the refrigerator." They will probably be eating it for breakfast all week.

Lunch:
Ziad and Maya had leftover rice and meatballs. I had chicken and potatoes. And leftover salad. I've been wondering whether there is someway to make broth out of leftover salad. Although I'm experimental by nature, for some reason I'm not willing to actually try this.

Dinner:
Well, we haven't had dinner yet, but I know what's on the menu. Leftover beans. Yumm. Really.

This morning I finished almost all of the dishes that I was in no condition to wash last night. We have cleaned all the stuff off the floor of the dining room and vacuumed it.

We have also decided that keeping the dining room table pushed up against the French windows is a good idea for now, since the dining room table is actually the school table. It turns out that three dining room chairs fit beautifully side by side along its length, and since the table is now up against a window we can look out over the valley when we need to pause and think.

Maya cleaned up all the costumes from her playhouse downstairs. We decided to put them into a suitcase, thereby emptying up the large drawer in her room where we had been keeping them up to now. So now she will move all her clothes out of Ziad's room, where they had been sharing a chest of drawers, which will make life much easier during Ziad's fits of temper when he decides that she is absolutely positively not allowed in his room ever. That floor, still festooned with the random pink feather, remains to be vacuumed.

We had to leave at 11 to get to guitar lessons in Santa Cruz. When we got home at 3:30 all of us were starving and exhausted. Piano practice and Latin are still on the agenda for today, so I don't know how much more energy we'll have for setting things to rights.

I am staring right now at a pile of periodicals and papers that was on the kitchen table that is going to have to at least be looked at, and some of them returned, no matter how much I like having the kitchen table empty. There are also several bags of school supplies in a corner in the dining room that need to be put out again, because we actually do use them. The garage has three tables with chess sets and assorted games that are going to need to be put away before we can park there again.

More tomorrow.

Scenes from a party

2009-01-12T16:30:00.000-08:00

Neither Ziad nor Maya got a birthday party this year. There are lots of little reasons, and maybe even a big one, but those are not the point here. The point is, they never stopped thinking that was eventually going to be a birthday party, or anyway some kind of party, and even a party that they shared would be just fine. They just never gave up.

So we decided to have a Thank-you-for-inviting-me-to-your-party party. In other words, a party consisting of everyone who had invited them to a birthday party during the year. This turned out to be hard to distinguish from an actual birthday party, because everyone brought presents anyway.

They had a blast.

And for posterity, I am recording my three favorite memories of the afternoon:

Little girls literally everywhere, running hither and yon, all with colored silk scarves on their heads.

A debonair young man of eleven holding out his plate to be served, saying, "Ziad recommends the marble cake."

Ziad and his friend Emily on their stomachs under the dining room table, heads and shoulders poking out, folding origami.

It turns out that when you don't plan activities or entertainment for kids they are more than capable of filling the void on their own. Our house was a veritable beehive of activity for several hours. I realize that I am the very definition of an introvert, but I loved having all that happy energy around.

I proved my true introvert nature after the party, though, because once I sat down on the couch after most everyone had left, I couldn't get back up again.

Truth in mapping

2009-01-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

These maps have shown up on quite a few web sites this week.

SOURCE: London Times, 5 May 2006, titled, Truth in Mapping

Crying and Shooting

2009-01-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

This piece from The Guardian is worth reading.

The resort to brute military force is accompanied, as always, by the shrill rhetoric of victimhood and a farrago of self-pity overlaid with self-righteousness. In Hebrew this is known as the syndrome of bokhim ve-yorim, "crying and shooting".

About the author:

Oxford professor of international relations Avi Shlaim served in the Israeli army and has never questioned the state's legitimacy. But its merciless assault on Gaza has led him to devastating conclusions

His conclusion:

This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so.

M. LeBlanc's piece in Bitch, Ph.D. is also very interesting. Both authors present a clear view of why it is possible for both Hamas and the state of Israel to be wrong. Opposing Israel's actions is not supporting Hamas.

I never knew Jon Stewart was anti-Semitic

2009-01-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Strip Maul

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

I've seen a lot of laments on the internet lately about those know-nothing liberals who don't realize that Israel has every right to obliterate the Palestinian people while defending themselves against Hamas. So I would ask you to observe how many notable Democrats this clip shows, voicing their unconditional support for Israel's role in this bloodbath.

More intolerance toward innocent bystanders

2009-01-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

I used to work in a grocery store. I used to bag groceries. Consequently, I CARE about how groceries are bagged. When I see superior bagging techniques I applaud them, and put them into use if I ever have cause to bag my own groceries. Laying a half-gallon milk carton sideways in the bottom of a bag, for example. This, in my opinion, brilliant, even though I didn't think of it myself. Also, even though individual eggs are delicate, egg cartons do a good job of protecting them. Putting them at the top of the bag just increases the risk they will fall out and break. They're safer at the bottom, as long as you're not putting something extra heavy, like several large cans of tomatoes, on top of them.

The downside, of course, is that incompetent bagging irritates me. And here is the one that tops the charts for me, aggravation-wise. It is the bagger who should be able to clearly see that all the groceries are not going to fit into one bag, but still continues to fill up the first bag as full as they can, then opens up another full-size bag into which they delicately place a carton of eggs and a bag of frozen peas. And then I'm supposed to walk out into the night with these wildly imbalanced bags. It's hard on me figuring out how to carry them properly, and then the overloaded one is virtually guaranteed to tip over in the car.

When this happened tonight, I asked the bagger to please balance out the bags a little. Judging by the look he gave me, my voice was a little sharper than I intended it to be. I tried to make up for it by thanking him again as nicely as I could, but the damage was done.

I also don't like the people at Safeway whose idea of bagging is one item per double plastic bag (sloppy, inefficient, and lazy, or so it seems to me). Fortunately I don't shop there enough to make an issue out of it.

Drowning my sorrows in Dickens

2009-01-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

I am not happy about the state of our book club. No, I am not happy at all. So I am turning to my old standby, English literature; to be precise, The Old Curiosity Shop, by Dickens.

I chose this book because it is mentioned in Little Women, and to my surprise it is, in many ways, a hoot. The overarching plot, of a young girl whose life is ruined by her gambling grandfather, is rife with pathos, but for all that, this book is really funny. I never really thought of Dickens in this light before.

There are many interesting characters, some unremittingly vile, some more complex, and some, or course, as good as the day is long. The introduction seems to imply that the heroine, little Nell, is on the insipid side, but I am having none of that. She reminds me of Maya, actually, in the excessive sweetness of her nature and her desire to protect and serve others, as well as her vivid imagination that makes her more anxious sometimes than perhaps she needs to be.

The story itself eventually revolves around a character whose very name indicates movement: Richard Swiveller. Originally seeming to be dissolute and disreputable, by the end of the book he is shown to be a good-hearted, although clearly weak-willed, man who ultimately is the cause of much good in many lives. And he is the subject of my favorite passage in the book:

... he decided to pick a quarrel with Miss Wackles without delay, and casting about for a pretext, determined in favor of groundless jealousy. Having made up his mind on the important point, he circulated the glass (from his right hand to his left, and back again) pretty freely, to enable him to act his part with the greater discretion, and then, after making some slight improvements in his toilet, bent his steps towards the spot hallowed by the fair object of his meditations.

This spot was at Chelsea, for there Miss Sophia Wackles resided with her widowed mother and two sisters, where she maintained a very small day-school for young ladies or proportionate dimension ...

To this Ladies' Seminary, then, Richard Swiveller hied, with designs obnoxious to the peace of the fair Sophia ...

(Glass in this case means mirror, a hand-held mirror to be precise, just in case it's not obvious from the context.)

Designs obnoxious to the peace of the fair Sophia. Yes, I love it.

I also like the passage where the villain intimidates his wife and mother-in-law by the way he eats breakfast:

..he ate hard eggs, shell and all, devoured gigantic prawns with the heads and tails on, chewed tobacco and water-cresses at the same time and with extraordinary greediness, drank boiling tea without winking, bit his fork and spoon till they bent again, and in short performed so many horrifying and uncommon acts that the women were nearly frightened out of their wits and began to doubt if he were really a human creature.

I love this book, and I didn't expect to at all, since as far as I know it's not regarded as one of Dickens' major works.

Next I will be reading the Palliser Novels, by Anthony Trollope, and sometime soon re-reading Pride and Prejudice.

It's a lonely undertaking, but what's a reader to do?

The Lark Ascending

2009-01-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a link where you can listen to The Lark Ascending, if you have a spare 15 minutes or so. I love this piece. I don't remember any more how old I was when I first heard it -- I bought the album because I liked the cover art, and when I went home and played this track, I just listened to it over and over. I never even listened to the rest of the music.

Now my older sister, who is a violinist, will be performing this piece in the spring. I am so happy for her. She has a piano accompaniment, which I am trying to learn, but it is so difficult. Right now I can stumble through the first few measures in pathetic slow motion. If I had unlimited quantities of time I could probably eventually play it decently, but what mom has that kind of time? Still I'm really happy to have the chance to experience the music from the inside. It's playing now, and I hear it in a completely different way, imagining the notes I have on paper and comparing them to what the different instruments are playing.

And now the words every parent knows their child will say one day: I'm so glad my parents gave me piano lessons when I was young. Even though I rarely make use of the musical education I received, it's an enormous gift that has enriched my life immeasurably. I'm truly grateful.

A new guitar teacher

2009-01-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Mesut Ozgen

Photo by Paul Schraub

They start lessons on Monday. I'm looking forward to this.

Maya's Christmas

2009-01-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

This year Maya got a china teacup in a box that said Royal Albert.

She got a penguin from the Aquarium.

She got an owl that I knit from a pattern in Charmed Knits. (thanks, Vivian)

She named the penguin Albert. She named the owl Owlbert. They go everywhere together with the bunny I made for her last year. His name is Harry, because he's a magic bunny.

I don't know what Ziad's bunny and owl are named.

Eartha Kitt

2009-01-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

Eartha Kitt died on Christmas day, 2008. As a child, I had a single of hers, Lazy Afternoon, that I used to play over and over again. It was all the only song of hers I knew, and I loved it.

Looking over her presence on the internet, songs like that get short shrift. Everyone seems very taken with her material girl sex kitten persona, and there's certainly no shortage of material to justify that.

In many of the clips on You Tube, her personality almost overwhelms the material.

That's one reason I like this clip, which is quieter and more reflective.

And this one, which shows again what a wonderful vocalist she was.

And because there are no clips that I can find, here are the lyrics to Lazy Afternoon.

It's a lazy afternoon
And the beetle bugs are zooming
And the tulip trees are blooming
And there's not another human in view,
But us two

It's a lazy afternoon
And the farmer leaves his reaping
And the meadow cows are sleeping
And the speckled trouts stop leaping up stream
As we dream

A far pink cloud hangs over the hill
Unfolding like a rose
If you hold my hand and sit real still,
You can hear the grass as it grows

It's a hazy afternoon
And I know a place that's quiet, 'cept for daisies running riot
And there's no one passing by it to see
Come spend this lazy afternoon with me

Two menus and three jigsaw puzzles

2009-01-01T14:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve:
Homemade clam chowder
Crab Louis
French Bread
Acacia Chardonnay

New Year's Eve:
Penne with parmesan cheese
Ribeye steak
Sauteed spinach with tomato and feta cheese
Roast vegetables
French Bread
Mondavi Cabernet
Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs

And in between -- puzzle week!

Puzzle One

This puzzle is so much fun to put together.

Puzzle Two

This puzzle was very easy.

Puzzle Three

This puzzle is so hard! We've done it every year for maybe five years now, and there are still pieces that trick us or are fiendishly hard to identify. When it's all put together, though, we love it.

I think she's figured out where the presents really come from

2008-12-04T09:07:00.000-08:00

Herewith Maya's letter to Santa Claus (I realize her spelling does not speak well for her education in English up to now. Apparently she has little use for the traditional spelling of words normally thought to end with the letter e.)

Dear Santa,

Pleas come again this year. I'm going to be a vet when I grow up and then I'll care for your rendeer when they'r sick. I hope I've been good.

Love,

Maya

You probably forgot all about this by now

2008-11-29T20:26:00.000-08:00

but I won't let that stop me.

1. What is your occupation right now? Right now? Right this minute? Typing.

2. What color are your socks right now? Barefoot right now. But the socks I just took off were grey.

3. What are you listening to right now? Piano music.

4. What was the last thing that you ate? Leftover turkey, what else?

5. Can you drive a stick shift? You betcha.

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My SIL.

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Well, I like the person who suggested I steal it. Also the person I stole it from, and the person who started it all.

8. How old are you today? 53.

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Tennis.

10. What is your favorite drink? Gin and tonic.

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Oh, please!

12. Favorite food? Fresh-baked bread.

13. What is the last movie you watched? Cleopatra. With Elizabeth Taylor. We could only make it through half of it, though.

14. Favorite day of the year? Maybe Easter.

15. How do you vent anger? I'm a yeller.

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? Probably my rag doll.

17. What is your favorite season? Spring.

18. Cherries or Blueberries? Cherries, definitely.

19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? Yes, I do.

20. Who is the most likely to respond? To what?

21. Who is least likely to respond? Still baffled.

22. Living arrangements? Coherence?

23. When was the last time you cried? Too sad to say.

24. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes and laundry.

28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? No, thanks.

29. Favorite dog breed? Golden retriever.

30. Favorite day of the week? Sunday, probably.

31. How many states have you lived in? Five.

32. Diamonds or pearls? Neither, sadly.

33. What is your favorite flower? Lilac.

I swear to God, the Fail blog never lets me down

2008-11-24T17:22:00.000-08:00

Newsflash

2008-11-19T20:38:00.000-08:00

LETTER GRADES MOTIVATE CHILDREN!!!

Homeschooling Mom Flummoxed!

Ziad and Maya have a tendency to be sloppy with their schoolwork. I've tried talking to them about it. I reminded them about the solar-powered space probe that failed when its solar panels unfolded facing AWAY from the sun, all because of a small programming error. I've pointed out that if architects took this casual attitude towards arithmetic, their buildings would never be able to stand up. All to no avail.

So finally, I took Ziad's math homework and calculated the percentage he got correct.

"Oh, look!" I said, "That's a C. You're really not a C student, Ziad."

Then I explained how the grades work -- 100 to 90 percent is an A, 80 to 89 is a B, and so on. No grading on a curve here. (Although, of course, the problem of how you would generate a curve with a class of 1 is an interesting exercise. Kind of a koan.) To my surprise, he displayed an unexpected enthusiasm for this concept. And now, guess what? It's all As, all the time. Goodbye, silly copying errors. So long, writing 2 times 3 equals 5 when you know perfectly well it's 6. And now Maya wants letter grades, too.

What an eye-opener.

91

2008-11-15T08:34:00.000-08:00

Ziad is experimenting with joke writing. It's been a while since his debut effort, the fairly predictable

Q: What does a wizard say when he falls of a cliff?
A: Abracadabraaaaaaaaaaa!

He kept with it, though, and a recent electronics class inspired

Q: What is a volmeter for?
A: You use it when you're parking your volts.

I think that one's my personal favorite -- it still makes me laugh.

I guess he's been reading more Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys than I realized, because recently he tried out

Q: What do you call a short mystery?
A: A briefcase.

Leading up to a recent breakfast table conversation.

Ziad: What's black and red all over?

Maya: A zebra with a sunburn.

Ziad: No, that's black and WHITE and red all over.

Maya: Well, the sunburn covered the white part.

Ziad: Well, anyway, that's not right.

Maya: OK, what?

Ziad: A burned newspaper.

Maya: But you can't READ a burned newspaper.

Ziad: Well, they read it before it was burned.

Maya: Then what they read is not what you asked.

Score one for Maya, I think.

But Ziad never gives up. Just the other day, when his guitar teacher mentioned something about a general rule in music, Ziad asked him, "Well, then what's a soldier rule?" Sometimes it's hard to get anything done with a boy who views any spoken utterance as setup for a pun. I think he gets it from his grandfather.

92

2008-11-13T06:13:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the failblog?

Celebration

2008-11-05T19:38:00.000-08:00

Lei

2008-10-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

Mt. Haleakala'a

2008-10-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

Pippin Seales

2008-10-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

1997 - 2008

Renfaire

2008-10-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

I know you're just dying to hear about our day at the Renaissance Faire -- er, Renaissance Institute. It was on Friday, when the Faire is not in session, but it was on the grounds of the Faire, so we had some time to stroll past all the booths and stages with no crowds at all.

Even though the Faire wasn't going on, we did get to meet some participants. Our first event was a stop at the jousting list. Two knights, one gold, one black, explained some of the history and culture of jousting, and handed around some equipment for people to handle and examine. Ziad even got to hold a lance! It was taller than he was, and extremely heavy, but he managed to keep it parallel to the ground. Doughty lad!

Next our group split up for activities more or less based on age. Ziad and Maya did some leatherworking -- mostly stamping out designs on to leather strips to make bookmarks. The leatherworker also gave out free wristbands -- very cool. Ziad chose a blue one stamped with the sun and moon, while Maya took a purple one with flowers and insects.

Next we were off to "climb the castle wall" -- that is, listen to a talk about siege offenses and defenses, have a chance to build little castles out of sugar-cube-sized blocks of cement, and climb up a rock climbing wall. This was a first for Ziad and Maya.

Maya spent a lot of time climbing, a little higher every time, and getting used to rapelling down.

Ziad spent most of the time building, but took a break to climb straight up to the top in at record speed, climb back down again, then return to his castle. He also fashioned a small catapult out of the clay provided to use as mortar in the castle construction.

Then lunch. Then a visit to the soldier's encampment, which is the part that I did not think I was going to be able to endure. It's not that it wasn't fantastic. It's just that it was the heat of a very hot day, we were in the sun, I was thirsty and tired and it was still Ramadan. Whining aside, the two soldiers gave a very good talk on the mercenary armies of the Renaissance period, their weaponry and the various class distinctions among the soldiers, and again, had lots of cool things to hand around for children. Including an extremely interesting handbook on military drills for the musketeer that appeared to be a reproduction of a period manual.

Next we did wheat weaving, making braids of wheat that we fashioned into a small heart. Although this was fun and relaxing, in the end there's not much more to tell than that.

Last we saw a performance by the actor portraying Sir Frances Drake. He was very good. He got lots of kids up on stage to try on various costumes, illustrating whatever social custom he was talking about at the time, all the while projecting an extremely swashbuckling attitude.

And, best of all, Ziad and Maya got passes to go back to the Faire. We're heading back tomorrow for an all-morning book-binding workshop, after which we intend to check out the jousting and then ramble around the Faire to our heart's content. Maya wants to see Queen Elizabeth. She also wants to go in costume, but given the iffy weather I am discouraging this.

Here is a link to some pictures taken by another parent. Ziad and Maya are in some of them, but bonus points to those of you who can identify the person's children.

Information on Pesticides

2008-10-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you are someone who leans toward buying organic. It could also be that you are also trying to spend less money. I know that I certainly would fall into both those categories. So I am glad to have this pocket guide to help me figure out the most efficient use of my food dollars. This is a .pdf file which takes a while to download, so I'm going to summarize. Each list tells you the fruits or vegetables with the highest risk of residual pesticide.

Domestic fruit:
cranberries
nectarines
peaches
strawberries
pears
apples
cherries
cantaloupe

Imported fruit:
Same as above, except switch cranberries to grapes

Domestic vegetables:
green beans
bell peppers
celery
cucumber
tomatoes
peas
lettuce

Imported vegetables:
add broccoli and carrots

This is extremely inconvenient for me personally, because my family eats a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers. Rats.

At this website, you can see a ranking of vegetables in terms of their likelihood of containing pesticide residue.

Islam in America

2008-10-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

Be honest. Does that phrase just sound wrong to you? Does it make you feel that something is eating away at the heart of your country? I'm pretty sure there are some people out there who feel that way.

There is a very worthwhile post by M. LeBlanc at Bitch, Ph.D., who "was raised Mormon by my Catholic father in Cairo, Egypt." She is writing about perceptions of Islam in the United States. I can see where not everyone would agree with everything she has to say. I, however, agree strongly with the excerpts that follow:

On Friday, September 26, someone sprayed a chemical irritant through the window of the nursery at a mosque in Dayton, the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton.

... when people are attacked at their place of worship, for no apparent reason other than to instill fear, that's terrorism. Yes, terrorism can be perpetrated against Muslims, in the United States.

... A Google News Search-culled sample of some of the news outlets that have covered the story: BeliefNet, Huffington Post, Israeli News, Wisconsin Progressive.org, MidEastYouth.org, DemocracyNow, and a handful of local Ohio outlets. Notice anything? Not a single major outlet. Not the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, or even the Trib.

... I'd wager a week's pay with you that if someone sprayed an irritant gas into a church or a synagogue or a goddamn Girl Scouts meeting, where children were hurt, it would be a "story" for at least one day.

She includes a second-hand account that I cannot verify beyond its original appearance in The Daily Kos. Here is the story as it was reported in the Dayton Daily News.

If you google this story now, you'll find a lot of different views. Some people say the story has been overblown, some that it is being played down. Some even say the whole story is a fraud. There's argument over the video "Obsession" which had been distributed free in newspapers throughout Ohio a few days prior to the attack. This video, originally released in 2006, purports to be a wake-up call against Islamic extrmism, but in the extreme fear it generates, that subtlety tends to be lost. It ends up feeling pretty anti Islam to me. Also anti Arab, because you don't see any of the Indonesian Muslims preaching anti-American propaganda, although I know they're out there. Let alone the Pakistani and Afghani Muslims.

Now, who is behind the video? Zionists who claim that just because they're Jewish it doesn't mean their film is biased. The Committee for American Islamic relations is suing the DVD's producers, but CAIR itself has been accused of being a front for terrorists. By (no surprise really) well-known pro-Israeli hawks. How is one person supposed to figure out what is true? As is so often the case with the internet, I am beginning to feel lost in a maze of mirrors, time is slipping away and I see no end in sight.

I once had a friend, a perfectly nice woman, express her fear of "them" (meaning Arabs, or maybe Muslims, but probably nothing as specific as Arab Muslims) as if the attacks of 9/11 made that perfectly understandable, completely OK. Yes, she reasoned, she was scared, so it made sense to pull Arabs out of lines at airports and subject them to extra searches. Maybe we shouldn't let them on airplanes at all. Her ideas didn't actually make me angry, because it was more ignorance than anything else. (Although, if you think about it, it was odd that she said those things to my face, because she had actually met my husband.) She didn't know that "they" are actually part of "us." Who knows, if I didn't have an Arab Muslim husband, maybe I wouldn't understand it, either. Now I wonder -- as time goes on, do more people understand that or less?

Skitter the Budgie

2008-09-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

When a friend of ours became ill, we took her birds for her. The doctor said she couldn't have them any more. There was Mirage the cockatiel, and the two budgies, Skitter and Sherbert.

We loved them, and they got along well with our cockatiel Pearl. Unfortunately, Mirage was an elderly, unhealthy bird who died after we had only had her about six months.

Well, Skitter was also elderly, although we only learned about that when he fell ill recently. I told his former owner, and that was the first thing she said. He's old. He's had a good life. Please don't feel bad about not taking him to the vet (my decision) because there's almost no chance it would make a difference. (Did you know vets will now do MRIs on birds? I couldn't go through that without a stronger chance of a good outcome making the emotional and financial cost worthwhile.) Thank you for giving him a loving home.

Skitter died early Saturday morning. I held him for a long time on Saturday; it was clear he wasn't going to make it but he hung on for a long time. Maya and Ziad decided not to eat meat on Saturday as a gesture of respect and remembrance.

He was such a sweet little bird. Friendly and happy in that adorable budgie way. We'll miss him.

The Debate

2008-09-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

I ended up watching the debate last night. It turned out way better than I expected. I pretty much agree with this assesment of McCain from Bitch, Ph.D.

Standing up on that stage, he seemed like a reasonable candidate for the Republicans to have chosen, unlike the rest of the time where his flurry of surrogates, and his attempts to be a Republican, a maverick, and appeal to the Christian conservative base all at the same time make him seem utterly incoherent. Tonight, at least when he was talking, he seemed okay.

McCain did some things that left me puzzled, though. In his first two-minute speech, he came out strongly against corporate greed. He actually used those exact words. Previous conversations with other conservatives had given me the impression that mentioning corporate greed instantly brands you as a liberal. So what gives? He also came out strongly against excessive spending by the Department of Defense. I could not agree with him more on that point, but then later, when he talked about a spending freeze, he specifically excluded the defense spending. So I was surprised twice, first to hear a Republican criticize defense spending, and then to hear him apparently contradict himself about it later on.

To be honest, if he had a remotely credible candidate for Vice President, I would have felt very reassured by this debate. But again, I had to wonder. McCain really obsessed about earmarks. I thought he made a very good point about the corruption that seems to follow the Federal budget money. The thing is, Sarah Palin has been very aggressive in pursuing earmark money for Alaska, and very unapologetic about it, too. Alaska first, is how she put it, I believe. Isn't it a little odd for him to choose her for VP, and then make every effort to depict her as an anti-earmark maverick like himself?*

Which brings me to my last, non debate-related point. These animal comparisons are getting to me. A maverick is a cow that goes against the herd. Since the herd instinct is there to protect its members, a maverick is by definition a cow that acts in a way not in its own self-interest, or to put it another way, a cow that doesn't know what's good for it. A stupid cow. A cow that doesn't listen. I've had enough of presidents that don't listen. And the hockey mom/pitbull with lipstick thing? I don't like pit bulls. Why would I like someone who feels that comparing herself to one is a good thing? Yeah, tenacity can be a good quality, but carried to pit-bull extremes it becomes a negative. Again, our current administration has manifested this quality in spades, and I don't think it's worked out particularly well.

Getting back to the debate, it's kind of ironic (there's that word again) that the candidate who is promoting himself as the strong-minded, go his own way maverick would chide Obama about being stubborn. Rings kind of hollow in my opinion.

*If he wants to say that she has seen the light since deciding to accept the VP nomination, that pretty much knocks down his argument about Obama only seeing reason about earmark spending since he decided to run. Apparently it's OK to have your own political candidacy open your eyes to new viewpoints.

Snapshot

2008-09-26T17:36:00.000-07:00

Early morning conversation:

Me: Oh, by the way, we're leaving early on Friday. I'm taking the kids down to Casa de Fruta.

Husband: Why?

Me: They have some kind of history workshop. Something to do with the Renaissance Faire.

Husband: That's not very good.

Me: What?

Husband: Taking the kids around to all those places. That's not very green.

Me: That's true. (pause) What's your point?

Husband: You're not very green.

Me: Hell, honey, I know that.

Here's how not green I am lately:

Tuesday: guitar class, library, and mall in Santa Clara; Whole Foods and park in Campbell

Wednesday: piano lessons in Almaden, chorus and errands in Willow Glen

Thursday: guitar class in Santa Clara, electronics class in Palo Alto

Friday: history workshop at Renaissance Faire in Gilroy

Saturday: guitar class in Santa Clara

Sunday: Scharffen Berger plant in Berkeley (to see my dad)

Monday: STAY HOME!!!! ALL DAY!!!! To hell with grocery shopping, even.

P.S. Thank you guys. It turns out that one phone call and one e-mail are all I need to get my energy back. It's amazing.

Contrariwise

2008-09-25T18:31:00.001-07:00

I'm tired, I'm hungry, my house is out of control. I'm overscheduled and uninspired, discontented and dispirited. Life sucks.

Boo!

2008-09-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin time is almost here.

I see the hay being strewn on vacant lots all over time -- pumpkin patches are on their way. Fall birthdays are coming, holidays are around the corner.

The weather is perfect. Life is good.

It's only flip-flopping if you're a Democrat

2008-09-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

John McCain: Against regulations before he was for them

Sarah Palin: For the bridge to nowhere before she was for it

Hey, I don't have a problem with this. I think it's good to be able to change your mind. Especially if you were wrong to start with. Actually admitting you were wrong to start with? That takes real character. I'm not holding my breath.

Just to spell things out, I'm not all "Ooh, bridge to nowhere -- bad!" No, I'm more "Ooh, Sarah Palin -- not quite the maverick she wants you to think she is."

And for those of you who like irony, how about the sight of a couple of politicians posing as mavericks (independent thinkers, not going along with the herd, blah blah blah) in order to make themselves more popular? When you think about it, it's really pretty funny.

Untitled

2008-09-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

From that liberal rag, The Economist,

Mr McCain has also been caught telling some straightforward fibs, for example that Mrs Palin, as governor, had “never” sought federal earmark money for her state—her request per head for Alaska was the biggest in the country. He and Mrs Palin continue to insist that she killed an infamous “bridge to nowhere” project in Alaska, even though every journalist in America now knows she did so only after supporting it, and only after it became a political albatross. Mr McCain has good reason to worry about his reputation for straight-talk, the strongest part of his political brand.

Also, an interesting article in Newsweek, placing the blame for the current economic problems largely on Alan Greenspan. I, however, also blame John McCain, who co-sponsored legislation in late 1999 that deregulated financial markets, and on Bill Clinton, who signed that legislation. Which helps me remember why I never really liked Bill Clinton, and also makes me wonder why Republicans hate him. God knows he cooperated with them often enough. Which brings me to my last point, which is that this current crisis is not a failure of one party or another. It is a failure of the whole laissez-faire, free-market will sort it out, let the people do their thing philosophy. Regardless of whether this is espoused by Republicans or Democrats.

Are homeschoolers disadvantaged?

2008-09-18T12:25:00.000-07:00

Interesting debate over at www.opposingviews.com/.

Courtesy of Nabil

2008-09-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

See you Wednesday!

Blatantly untrue:

2008-09-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

This ad

What I am not interested in: whether this means John McCain is a liar, or just a politican, or whether there is in fact any difference between these two things.

What I am interested in: people who believe this ad are being misled.

Where's Robin Hood when you really need him?

2008-09-10T06:18:00.000-07:00

This report is from the Tax Policy Center, and is well worth reading. Never heard of them? Neither had I. Here's what they say on their website:

Who We Are

The Tax Policy Center is a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution. The Center is made up of nationally recognized experts in tax, budget, and social policy who have served at the highest levels of government.

What We Do

TPC provides timely, accessible analysis and facts about tax policy to policymakers, journalists, citizens, and researchers. Its major products are

* Model estimates: The TPC Microsimulation Model produces revenue and distribution estimates for the latest tax proposals and bills. More information about the tax model is available in the overview and FAQ.

* Library: Research by TPC staff is disseminated in a variety of publications, including two TPC series - Issues and Options briefs and Discussion papers. The TPC also has regular columns in Tax Notes magazine.

* Tax Facts: The Tax Facts database compiles facts and figures from government agencies and other sources.

If the whole report seems too boring, there is a chart at the bottom of page 3 that provides a nice picture of their results. The Washington Post also has a nice graphic.

CNN's summary:

McCain: The average taxpayer in every income group would see a lower tax bill, but high-income taxpayers would benefit more than everyone else.

Obama: High-income taxpayers would pay more in taxes, while everyone else's tax bill would be reduced. Those who benefit the most - in terms of reducing their taxes as a percentage of after-tax income - are in the lowest income groups.

My observation:

For people whose incomes are in the middle, the plans are roughly equivalent, although Obama's has a slight edge. It's only when you get into the upper income levels that McCain's plans provide a noticeable benefit.

Yes, I really think it's time Donald Trump got those tax breaks he deserves so richly.

A Modern Mephistopheles

2008-08-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

by Louisa May Alcott

I came across this book while looking in the adult stacks for a copy of Rose in Bloom. What I found, alongside multiple copies of Jo's Boys and Eight Cousins, were several books by and about the "other" Louisa May Alcott, who published many books pseudonymously, or anonymously, even after she had become a successful writer of children's literature. This particular book was published in 1877, anonymously, and was apparently considered pretty strong stuff. The blurb on the inside cover promises drugs, hypnotism, fraud, and deals with the devil -- in my opinion, the book doesn't really deliver. There is one scene where the innocent heroine is given hashhish by manipulative mephistopheles character, but it's not like anything particular unseemly ensues.

So if you read this book with an eye to illicit thrills, you're going to be disappointed. The scandals of the 1800s don't pack much of a wallop these days. And what really fascinated me is the way that whole passages could really have been lifted straight out of Little Women, if not that the literary allusions were to such dark works as Faust, rather than, say Pilgrim's Progress. The tone, however, was so clearly recognizable. I guess it's hard to describe, but if you've read a lot of her books, you'll know what I mean:

As she stood there, looking down the green vista, two figures crossed it. A smile curved the sad mouth and she said aloud, "Faust and Margaret, playing the old, old game."
"And Mephistopheles and Martha looking on," added a melodious voice, behind her, as Helwyze swept back the half-transparent curtain from the long window where he sat.

or:

Sunset came, filling the room with its soft splendor, and he watched the red rays linger longest in Gladys's corner. Her little basket stood as she left it, her books lay orderly, her desk was shut, a dead flower drooped from the slender vase, and across the couch trailed a soft white shawl she had been wont to wear. Helwyze did not approach the spot, but stood afar off looking at these small familiar things with the melancholy fortitude of one inured to loss and pain.

For a book about the seduction of innocence, there really is a heaping dose of wholesomeness in this book. Which, now that I think of it, is probably its best quality. Because the story of innocence degraded, regrets that come too late, all that kind of thing, has really become cliched. The story of innocence that holds its own, barely, while engaging with the seducer on an ongoing basis, has a little more complexity.

Not having read Faust, I'm probably missing a lot, but even so I enjoyed reading Alcott's version. I'll be moving on to other books now, although a second reading would probably be rewarding (easy, too; this isn't a long book). You know what, though? If you like Little Women, I have a feeling you would like this book, too.

In and out of Vogue

2008-08-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

by Grace Mirabella

I had spent almost my entire life working for Vogue. I wanted to have something more behind me there than a history of raised and lowered hemlines. I wanted to be committed to something -- whether it was fighting smoking or striving for real-life clothes or fighting Alex and Si to improve the status of women both in pages and in the offices of our magazine.

(p. 212)

That, in a nutshell, captures the difference I see between Grace Mirabella and women like Diana Vreeland and Anna Wintour. Barbara Walters has an interesting interview with Anna Wintour where she asks about TDWP. "But, Barbara," Anna replies, "If it's good for fashion, I think it's great!"

I want to be clear that I don't necessarily think that either of these quotes tell us what the real woman behind them actually feels. But these are the images they have chosen for public consumption: one wanting to be taken seriously for taking on real issues, one feeling an absolute devotion to fashion that never questions whether it should be taken seriously or not.

This memoir by Grace Mirabella is more interesting than I would have expected. She spends a lot of time explaining herself, which can get a little tiresome. She still seems to have a chip on her shoulder about her humble New Jersey roots. Her father was a bootlegger, though, so her childhood had a dashing romantic quality to it -- she spent plenty of time at ritzy clubs in New York, where her father was always welcomed. She went to good schools and soon made friends in society, so she's really been one of the upper crust for most of her life, whether or not she actually felt like it.

The part of this book I like best, though, comes briefly at the end, where she discusses the difference between couture (now dead) and fashion, and the evolution of runway shows from the more intimate salon showing. She cites a sea change in the eighties, when all of a sudden money became important, and ostentatious displays of wealth that would have been considered in bad taste a decade before, suddenly became all the rage. Having lived through that, my perceptions square with hers. I remember wondering at the time why it was OK all of a sudden to be so blatantly selfish about things, and not to care about other people any more.

Oh well, that's all in the past now. Ironically, I wouldn't have read this book if I wasn't interested in Anna Wintour. God knows, I'm not really all that interested in Vogue. Having read it, I feel that Grace Mirabella would have been even more successful had she been able to make a career in the business side of operations -- she clearly has a very good head for it. Anna Wintour, on the other hand, seems to have been destined for the editorship of Vogue, by which I mean the job seems to suit her to a T. So apart from the suffering of untold underpaid minions who suffer under Wintour's dictatorial employ, things seem to have worked out for the best. What remains an open, and interesting, question to me is whether Wintour will outlast Si Newhouse, who can't live forever, or whether she too will ultimately fall victim to his unpleasant habit of abruptly firing his editors. Time will tell.

First day of school!

2008-08-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes when you have a bad Monday, your whole week is just shot to hell? Why is that, anyway? Fortunately for us, today was great. We're trying to get on a schedule that includes some outdoor time in the morning -- that's supposed to motivate the kids to get moving and not dawdle over their morning chores or their breakfast. We're still not making the morning park time, but at least music practice/school work began on time.

So now we are formally alternating lessons with practice, which means one will study while the other practices, and I'll kind of keep an eye on both while also doing various and sundry chores. It seems like this might actually be workable, and if we can get this to be a routine, that's-just-what-you-do kind of thing, then we will be getting schoolwork done AND making it to morning music lessons (right now we have them three mornings out of our week) all without breaking a sweat. Knock on wood.

We celebrated by going out and buying school supplies. Highlighters! Ball point pens with lots of different colors! Post-its! And when we got home a friend had called wanting to come over and swim, so that's how we spent the afternoon.

It's been a lovely day.

D.V.

2008-08-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

by Diana Vreeland
Edited by George Plimpton and Christopher Hemphill

The editor of Vogue who preceded Grace Mirabella, Diana Vreeland has to have been one of the first crazy-making, dictatorial editors; not unlike Ann Wintour herself. They definitely have a lot in common. Both upper class from the get-go, raised among Europe's elite. Both supremely self-confident in their vision for Vogue. Both devoted to fashion from an early age. If I was going to compare them, though, I think the first difference I see is that Vreeland was larger-than-life, flamboyant, and warm. Anna Wintour, by contrast, is often described as icy, aloof, even calculating.

When Mirabella was fired and Wintour named her replacement, many people noted the similarity to Mirabella's own ascent to the editorship of Vogue. Mirabella even admits that it was so awkward that she could never face Vreeland again afterwards. Yet, unlike Mirabella, who spends a fair amount of space in her own memoir rehashing the circumstances of her release from Vogue, Vreeland expresses little self-pity over her firing. It's significant, though, that Mirabella's name doesn't come up so much as once in this entire book, even though Mirabella makes much of their close working and personal relationship in hers. From reading D.V., you can gather that Vreeland was fired from Vogue in a graceless way, but that's about it.

So what I'm driving at is that, no matter what her private feelings were, Vreeland always puts a good face on things and maintains her air of fabulous pizzazz. This book is almost willfully scatter-brained, and definitely a little heavy on the name-dropping, but still presents an extremely interesting view of life in the twenties and thirties that is now long-gone. Her intense feeling for color is also a strong presence throughout -- is there anyone who hasn't heard her pronouncement "Pink is the navy blue of India?"

If you've seen the movie Funny Face, with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn, then you probably know that the fashion editor in that movie was said to have been based on Vreeland. Reading her book, I couldn't get that character out of my mind, and it seemed to fit. Although this book is not really all that informative, it's definitely interesting, and I did enjoy reading it.

front row Anna Wintour: The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor in Chief

2008-08-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

by Jerry Oppenheimer

I say this book was written to cash in on the popularity of The Devil Wears Prada, and Jerry Oppenheimer himself couldn't convince me otherwise. Here are some things I have learned about Anna Wintour:

1) High school dropout. Really. This actually makes me respect her even more.
2) She has sure made her share of enemies. She also has friends, and even fans.
3) Despite her tough image, plenty of people have seen her cry in public.
4) She has enormous self-discipline.
5) She is inordinately fond of high heels.

This book is clearly written with an eye to the image of Miranda Priestly in TDWP. A sample sentence:

Just when Mirabella thought she was finally safe from that skinny shark draped in Chanel, she started hearing the Jaws theme song ringing in her ears again.

Did I mention the writing is generally clunky and annoying? I doubt there's a page in the book that doesn't have some phrase like "that skinny shark draped in Chanel" or Miyake or whoever. There are also excessive mentions of her clacking (sound like clackers to anyone else?) around in stilettos. Plus why must Oppenheimer continually refer to her as an editrix? Aren't gender-distinguishing profession names passe? When's the last time anyone used the word actress? Is it possible that this continual use of "editrix" is meant to not-so-subtly evoke the similar-sounding dominatrix? Grow up, Jerry Oppenheimer, please.

When I started this book, I was already feeling a little Wintour-weary, yet somehow I am finding her story compelling. I can't help being impressed by her iron will, by the innumerable pictures of her looking wonderful (although I saw those on the internet, not in this book), by her ability overcome setbacks and keep moving on with her life. She certainly hasn't done a good job of controlling public perception of herself as a bitch on wheels, but she has done an amazing job of controlling the facade that the public sees. It's astonishing how good she looks, and how consistent, regardless of the variety of clothes she wears. She looks great in almost anything. Although being independently wealthy certainly must help in this regard.

This book seems to be the only biography written about her to date, which is too bad, because I think in more skillful hands this material would have been truly fascinating.

The amuse-bouches of an electronic wastrel

2008-08-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

I think I've posted this before, but it deserves a second viewing. Make your own Jackson Pollock here. Just drag the cursor across the screen to make a line, and click to change the color.

Speaking of changing color, here is a game where you click on a ball to change its color. It gets easier if you hang in there a while. Good luck.

This game is supposedly training for astronauts, although I can't really imagine why.

This tic-tac-toe game is badly programmed, I think, because the computer doesn't always seem to play to win. So enjoy! Show that computer who's boss.

And here is my favorite, a vocabulary game. I can even make it to level 50, although I don't usually stay there long. The words tend to repeat, so you can definitely improve your performance if you play for a while.

Or you could actually get something done.

Triangle Histories: The Civil War -- Frederick Douglass

2008-08-12T08:00:00.002-07:00

by Helaine Baker

Although I always think of slavery as an institution of the Deep South, it originated in 1619 in Maryland and Virginia, states surrounding the Chesapeake Bay, which was for many years the primary slave-trading port in this country. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, two of the most famous blacks to escape slavery and become powerful voices for its abolition, both endured horrific conditions as slaves in the state of Maryland. Unlike Tubman, Douglass learned to read and write, and was also a skilled craftsman. He used forged papers to escape, taking a train to Pennsylvania. Once there, he made his was to New Bedford where he was able to earn a living caulking ships. His eloquence was such that many people refused to believe he had been born a slave.

This book provides a compelling and informative look at the life of a great man.

Ziad says:

Frederick Douglass was born as a slave, but he wasn't born with the name Douglass.

His master sent him to a married couple in Baltimore. The wife did not know to treat slaves and began teaching him to read and write, which was illegal at the time. Her husband found out about that. He told her the law and how they should be treated. After that lessons stopped. Frederick saved bits food and traded them to other people in return for teaching him to read.

After a few years, he could copy any script, printed or cursive. He became rebellious. His master sent him to work for someone who was really bad to slaves. For a while working for that person drained away his energy, but then he was returned to the son of the woman who had taught him to read. The son kept on promising that he would free Douglass when Douglass was twenty-five, but Douglass didn't trust him. He escaped on a train and changed his name to Douglass so that he wouldn't be recognized and brought back to his master. He began giving anti-slavery lectures in New York. He also went to Europe and gave more lectures. He came back to America and wrote an autobiography of his life as a slave. Some friends bought him his freedom.

Around this time, John Brown attempted to capture the Federal Armory at Harper's Ferry in Virginia, and use the guns to start a slave rebellion, but was captured and hanged. The Civil War started shortly afterwards.

Frederick Douglass lived to be eighty years old. In his lifetime he worked to end slavery, and toward equal right for black people, including the right to vote. People still remember the eloquent voice he used to fight for freedom and equality for blacks.

Maya says:

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery. He lived on a plantation in Maryland in a slave cabin which was hardly fit for humans to live in. After years of hard work he was sent to live with a slave master named Thomas. He was not sad to leave the farm where he had lived before. He had no happy memories from there.

Thomas was nice to Frederick. His wife hadn't been born into a slaveholding family, so she didn't know how people would usually treat a slave. She began teaching Frederick reading and writing. Once her husband discovered what she was doing and told her that slaves weren't supposed to read and write. Frederick gave bread to people on the streets and they would teach him to read.

Later, Frederick escaped to Pennsylvania by train. He wasn't that happy in Pennsylvania because he didn't know who he could trust. He didn't know whether people would try to capture him. He ended up going to New Bedford. He was safer there because it was farther North. He gave speeches about his life as a slave and he made people laugh and cry.

During the Civil War, Frederick Douglass urged Lincoln to end slavery and allow blacks into the army so they could fight for their own freedom, too.

After the Civil War, he kept on giving speeches. He worked so black people could vote.

When he died, black women took their children to take a last look at the person who had worked so hard for them have their civil rights.

I really admire Frederick Douglass, and I think he did as much to end slavery as President Lincoln did.

Good news for my homeschoolers

2008-08-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

I got the STAR test results for my children today. Interestingly, they are both advanced in verbal skills, and proficient in math. Both read three levels beyond their grade.

It's not as if their numbers are off the charts or anything. Probably lots of kids we know scored higher. And I know that the main skill these tests measure is the skill of test-taking itself. I'm under no illusions that I'm nurturing a pair of geniuses-to-be. I'm happy all the same, though, because we accomplished these scores with a lot of good intentions, but maybe not all that much actual effort.

It's probably not true that if we tried harder they would score better. As I said, we certainly intended to do more than we did, and I think the law of diminishing returns would start to kick in sooner rather than later.

Ziad's writing test is probably a good example. The test was administered in a community room at the Santa Clara City library, and proctored by a teacher who he has known for a few years now. Despite the fact that he was sitting next to a boy who is practically his best friend, he was out of there in about fifteen minutes, a period during which many kids (including his friend) were still reading the instructions. The fact that he scored a 50% on that test is actually kind of impressive, under the circumstances. And the fact that he stilled scored in the advanced level for verbal skills, with that 50% pulling his average down is even more impressive. I don't think he would have scored over 75% under any circumstances, though, no matter how long he sat at that desk. He just isn't motivated to write well unless he really cares about what he has to say.

Some people homeschool with the idea that their children will be stretching themselves intellectually and working beyond the level they would in school. I certainly like this idea, but am also OK with its converse. My children stay at their grade level with an amount of work perhaps comparable to what a typical schoolchild brings home as homework, and have lots of freedom to follow their interests. Or just hang around.

I've seen a wide variety of feelings about standardized testing among homeschoolers. Some people hate it vehemently, and even there I see a variety of reasons. Some reject the entire concept of testing. Some feel their children won't do well and their self-esteem will suffer as a result. (I have to admit, this last seems silly to me -- isn't that giving the whole concept of testing way too much weight? Especially since there's no rule that you have to show your kid the results.) Some people just feel it's a waste of time. "Why should I lose two perfectly good days when I could actually be teaching them something?" is the question these parents raise.

Myself, I feel that standardized testing is one of the hoops society expects people to jump through, so you might as well get used to it. It may be that things are changing in this regard. I know that many colleges no longer require the SAT, but I think most grad schools still want to see GRE scores. Law schools have the LSAT. So it will probably be a while before test-taking of this sort is a thing of the past.

I'm glad that these test results reinforce my kids' impression that the testing is fun. The test days are happy times for them, when they get to see a lot of kids they don't see all that often. A reunion of sorts. The actual test, for them, is more of a formality that intervenes between playing during breaks and lunch.

In the end, I'm happy because our results tell us we can beat the State of California at its own game. We can measure ourselves with its yardstick and hold our heads up high.

Take that, NEA.

Good news for California Homeschoolers

2008-08-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

On Friday, August 8, the California courts affirmed the right of parents to homeschool their children.

Jack Connell, State Superintendant of Public Educuation, released this statement.

The ruling itself is here. It's actually more interesting to read than you might expect, especially the part that relates the history of the particular case that started all this uproar.

As usual, Debbie Schwarzer has valuable commentary:

The attorneys working on this and the leaders of all the state groups were so pessimistic after the June hearing. It seemed clear that the judges just really didn't like homeschooling, and that they might ignore all the compelling arguments we had in our briefs and stretch somehow to knock us down.

But they did the right thing. They did their job. They carefully read everything (they don't cite the HSC/CHN/CHEA brief, but believe me, much of what they write is based on our arguments), and reached the legally correct conclusions.

In addition to putting to rest the question of whether private home-based schools are legal, the court also made clear what the boundaries of state authority over homeschools are (i.e., the state can do very little). They don't hide the fact that they think that, if the state thinks that education of children is such a compelling interest, they do a bad job of making sure it happens in the case of homeschooled kids. But they didn't try to create powers that don't exist. They didn't try to interpret "capable of teaching". They didn't try to make some argument that the state could pull a family into juvenile court because the quality of the homeschooling isn't good -- to the contrary, they made it clear that only those families that are already in the juvenile court system on other factors could have the adequacy of their homeschooling put on trial.

I was asked by a reporter this afternoon whether I thought the court had bowed to pressure, and I replied, "Absolutely not. They did exactly what they were supposed to do, which is analyze the arguments and try to reach the legally correct decision."

The various group leaders and attorneys today had a conference call, and we all wondered whether the children's attorneys would appeal the ruling. I have since seen a quote from someone in LA County saying they welcomed the ruling. Of course the family won't like the conclusion that the trial court could still determine whether these kids needed to be sent to school for their safety, but we don't think the parents will appeal the part of the ruling relating to homeschooling (and I don't know where they'd find a lawyer to support them if they did).

This decision will be binding on all courts in the state. I assume the Student Attendance Review Board will also be reading it and counseling attendance officers accordingly (the decision makes it really, really clear that no one has the power to go beyond confirming whether the affidavit has been filed), and that we shouldn't see too many instances of local people demanding to see anything other than affidavits.

But this underlines something. DO NOT try to homeschool without either being in a public school program or a legal private school, whether your own or by enrolling in one. If you use curriculum from a private school but they don't file an affidavit, you must do so. DO NOT go "naked". This opinion makes it clearer than ever that it would be very, very difficult to make a winning constitutional argument that you can avoid compulsory education requirements entirely (and I don't think any of the lawyers who worked on this case would support you on that claim).

This really is good news for California homeschoolers.

curioser and curioser

2008-08-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Do you see the spelling mistake in the following sentence (taken verbatim from the Tuesday, August 5, Mercury News)?

Jones said she was concerned about the 10 dogs still running lose on Brunette's property, and worried that he would continue to harm them if allowed to return home.

It's kind of the opposite of the one in this sentence

My daughter is very absent minded and I'm afraid she's going to loose her lunch money.

This second mistake I've seen more and more frequently, but the first one? A first for me. This loose/lose confusion, frankly, confuses me. I can't think of any words ending in -oose that are pronounced with the /z/ sound of lose -- goose, moose, papoose, loose -- /s/ all the way. And I can't think of any -ose words that sound like them, either. Most have an /s/ sound instead of a /z/ one -- hose, suppose, impose, rose -- now that I think of it, lose is kind of an oddball word in terms of the vowel sound, but still. If you want to go for phonetic spelling, go all the way and write looze. Or even looz.

You know what, though? I've never seen anyone write looser when they really meant loser. As in, only a pathetic loser would spend this much time on a teeny tiny little spelling mistake.

My bad

2008-08-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

The slogan "a little dab'll do ya" is definitely Brylcreem. Here are the full lyrics:

Bryl-creem, a little dab'll do ya, Use more, only if you dare, But watch out, The gals will all pursue ya,-- They'll love to put their fingers through your hair.

I got them from Wikipedia, where I also learned that this slogan was the basis for the famous Flintstone "Yabba-dabba-doo"

You can even watch an earlier version on You Tube.

Good times.

Totally stealing my blog content from HSC e-mails

2008-08-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

OK, you guys that are all hot on mid-century stuff -- this quiz should be a prerequisite for watching Mad Men. (Need I say I got 20 out of 20 on this?)

1. What builds strong bodies 12 ways?
A. Flintstones vitamins
B. The buttmaster
C. Spaghetti
D. Wonder Bread
E. Orange Juice
F. Milk
G. Cod Liver Oil

2. Before he was Muhammed Ali, he was...
A. Sugar Ray Robinson
B. Roy Orbison
C. Gene Autry
D. Rudolph Valentino
E. Fabian
F. Mickey Mantle
G. Cassius Clay

3. Pogo, the comic strip character said, 'We have met the enemy and...
A. It's you
B. He is us
C. It's the Grinch
D. He wasn't home
E. He's really mean
F. We quit
G. He surrendered

4. Good night, David.
A. Good night, Chet
B. Sleep well
C. Good Night, Irene
D. Good Night, Gracie
E. See you later, alligator
F. Until tomorrow
G. Good night, Steve

5. You'll wonder where the yellow went,
A. When you use Tide
B. When you lose your crayons
C. When you clean your tub
D. If you paint the room blue
E. If you buy a soft water tank
F. When you use Lady Clairol
G. When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent

6. Before he was the Skipper's Little Buddy, Bob Denver was Dobie's friend,
A. Stuart Whitman
B. Randolph Scott
C. Steve Reeves
D. Maynard G. Krebbs
E. Corky B. Dork
F. Dave the Whale
G. Zippy Zoo

7. Liar, liar...
A. You're a liar
B. Your nose is growing
C. Pants on fire
D. Join the choir
E. Jump up higher
F. On the wire
G. I'm telling Mom

8. Meanwhile, back in Metropolis, Superman fights a never ending battle for
truth, justice
and...
A. Wheaties
B. Lois Lane
C. TV ratings
D. World peace
E. Red tights
F. The American way
G. News headlines

9 . Hey, kids, what time is it?
A. It's time for Yogi Bear
B. It's time to do your homework
C. It's Howdy Doody Time
D. It's Time for Romper Room
E. It's bedtime
F. The Mighty Mouse Hour
G. Scoopy Doo Time

10. Lions and tigers and bears...
A. Yikes
B. Oh no
C. Gee whiz
D. I'm scared
E. Oh My
F. Help Help
H. Let's run

11. Bob Dylan advised us never to trust anyone
A. Over 40
B. Wearing a uniform
C. Carrying a briefcase
D. Over 30
E. You don't know
F. Who says, 'Trust me'
G. Who eats tofu

12. NFL quarterback who appeared in a television commercial wearing women's
stockings.
A. Troy Aikman
B. Kenny Stabler
C. Joe Namath
D. Roger Stauback
E. Joe Montana
F. Steve Young
G. John Elway

13. Brylcream...
A. Smear it on
B. You'll smell great
C. Tame that cowlick
D. Greaseball heaven
E. It's a dream
F. We're your team
G. A little dab'll do ya

14. I found my thrill...
A. In Blueberry muffins
B. With my man, Bill
C. Down at the mill
D. Over the windowsill
E. With thyme and dill
F. Too late to enjoy
G. On Blueberry Hill

15. Before Robin Williams, Peter Pan was played by
A. Clark Gable
B. Mary Martin
C. Doris Day
D. Errol Flynn
E. Sally Fields
F. Jim Carey
G. Jay Leno

16. Name the Beatles
A. John, Steve, George , Ringo
B. John, Paul, George , Roscoe
C. John, Paul, Stacey, Ringo
D. Jay, Paul, George , Ringo
E. Lewis, Peter, George , Ringo
F. Jason, Betty, Skipper, Hazel
G. John, Paul, George , Ringo

17. I wonder, wonder, who
A. Who ate the leftovers?
B. Who did the laundry?
C. Was it you?
D. Who wrote the book of love?
E. Who I am?
F. Passed the test?
G. Knocked on the door?

18. I'm strong to the finish
A. Cause I eats my broccoli
B. Cause I eats me spinach
C. Cause I lift weights
D. Cause I'm the hero
E. And don't you forget it
f. Cause Olive Oyl loves me
g. To outlast Bruto

19. When it's least expected, you're elected, you're the star today...
a. Smile, you're on Candid Camera
b. Smile, you're on Star Search
c. Smile, you won the lottery
d. Smile, we're watching you
e. Smile, the world sees you
f. Smile, you're a hit
g. Smile, you're on TV

20. What do M & M's do?
a. Make your tummy happy
b. Melt in your mouth, not in your pocket
c. Make you fat
d. Melt your heart
e. Make you popular
f. Melt in your mouth, not in your hand
g. Come in colors

Okay , now scroll down for the answers!

Here are the right answers:
1 d - Wonder Bread
2 g - Cassius Clay
3 b - He Is Us
4 a - Good night, Chet
5 g - When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent
6 d - Maynard G. Krebbs
7 c - Pants On Fire
8 f - The American Way
9 c - It's Howdy Doody Time
10 e - Oh My
11 d - Over 30
12 c - Joe Namath
13 g - A little dab'll do ya
14 g - On Blueberry Hill
15 b - Mary Martin
16 g - John, Paul, George , Ringo
17 d - Who wrote the book of Love
18 b - Cause I eats me spinach
19 a - Smile, you're on Candid Camera
20 f - Melt In Your Mouth Not In Your Hand

Thanks to Cindy Ferry on the HSC e-mail list.

Continuing information about Homeschooling in California

2008-08-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Right now, CA law on homeschooling is exactly the same as it was in January of this year before any of us had ever heard of the Long family and this case. When the appellate court issued its opinion in February, it did say that the only legal exemption from public school attendance for some (that's SOME) families was the tutoring exemption under Section 48224 of the Ed Code. But lots of us either form our own private schools or enroll in private schools formed by others in reliance on the exemption under Section 48222 of the Ed Code. The court really didn't like the school (Sunland Christian) that the children in this family were enrolled in, and they said a lot about brick and mortar schools and made a big deal of children being IN a school (since Sunland was virtual and didn't have a building, no children were IN its school). But the reason I said SOME above was that we think that even under that original opinion, families who formed their own private schools and taught their children IN them were probably OK. It was the families enrolled in other people's private schools who were most directly affected by the decision.

But then the court agreed at the end of March to rehear the case. What that means is that they were basically going to have a "do-over" of the whole thing. By court rules, their February opinion was vacated, meaning that it was as if it had never existed. Lots and lots of groups filed friend-of-the-court briefs (amicus briefs) in May, including a joint brief filed by the three large CA-based groups (HSC, CHN and CHEA), and the court had the new hearing on June 23. They have not yet issued a new opinion, but will probably do so before the end of September. So, in light of the vacation of the original opinion, the prior understanding of the law hasn't changed.

So what if the court issues an opinion tomorrow and it seems to somehow say that parents need to be credentialed to teach their own, as their February opinion did, or has some other restriction on homeschooling? Well, we have been told by people who have reason to know that for certain that decision will be appealed by the family in this case. And the CA groups would petition the appellate court and, if they don't act, the CA Supreme Court to "stay" enforcement of the decision pending the appeal. What that means is we would tell them not to start enforcing the new interpretation of the law until the entire appeal process had run its course. Given the huge burden on parents to try to get credentialed, we think there's a good chance one of those two courts would agree. If they grant a stay, then the law goes back to being interpreted the way it is being interpreted now until the whole appeals process is done, which could take months or even years.

What if both courts refuse to grant a stay? The effect would depend on whether the Supreme Court either agrees to hear the appeal OR agrees to "depublish" the opinion (we were all set to ask them to depublish the February opinion, which means that the opinion would still be binding on the family involved in the case but would not be binding on anyone else in the state who wasn't a party to that case. In addition, in any future litigation, no one would be entitled to quote (or "cite") that case as authority.

If the Supreme Court agrees to hear the appeal but won't stay the decision, then believe me, the three big CA groups and HSLDA (we work together closely on all matters involving these issues to make sure we give consistent advice) would be thinking about what to tell people. But that's probably some months from now, so see a little further below for the advice we'll probably be giving people for this school year.

If the Supreme Court neither stays enforcement nor takes review of the case (and historically, the state Supreme Court, just like the U.S. Supreme Court, only agrees to review a tiny percentage of cases), then the groups will work like mad to figure out if we can live with the situation OR if we need to seek a legislative solution. We have all been doing a lot of work with the legislature since February trying to convince them that we don't need legislation until all other avenues have failed AND the situation is intolerable, so hopefully they'll continue to hold off until we tell them that we have no other choice. For example, if the court were basically to reissue its February decision, we might think that families who were in private schools would be OK if they were in their own private school, just not someone else's, and also try to get the law clarified that homeschooling through a parent's own school or through a school formed by others where capable parents did the teaching was fine. But this wouldn't happen for a while, since the current legislative session adjourns at the end of August, and they're not supposed to act on any bills other than ones that were introduced by early summer. There were no bills involving homeschooling pending, so probably none would be introduced until early next year when the new session starts after the elections.

There has been one other interesting development in the case, but it really doesn't affect us as much as we wish it would. The children in this family were "under the jurisdiction" of the juvenile court. That meant that the court had found that the parents weren't doing a good job, and that the court had the power to make some types of decisions that usually only parents can make (such as where to educate a child). In these cases, the juvenile court is supposed to look at the facts every six months to make sure that the children still needed to be under its jurisdiction. Obviously, with help, some parents get better and no longer need the court looking over their shoulders. Here, it had been two years since the juvenile court had reviewed this jurisdiction issue. Finally, after the rehearing took place, it did, and it found that things had changed enough that the children didn't need to be under its jurisdiction. We thought that was great, and that maybe the appellate court would drop the whole issue since it couldn't make any orders that would affect these children, but it turns out the attorneys who were appointed to represent the children are appealing the termination of jurisdiction. So while we think the appellate court really shouldn't issue any opinion about homeschooling in this case, it still might. There are two other appeals pending in the same matter, so it's obviously been a very complicated set of proceedings.

As you can see, there are a number of different ways this can all play out, and it's premature to make too many plans until we know what happens. But I believe that all of the major CA groups and HSLDA will, for the start of this school year, be telling people to do what they have always done (in other words, if they have filed their own affidavit before, do that, if they used someone else's private school, do that, if they were in a public school ISP or charter, do that, but don't change what you're doing out of any fear of what the legal issues are). We DON'T think that families need to not homeschool, or enroll in a charter if they otherwise wouldn't have, because of this case.

The best advice you can give new homeschoolers is to join one of the major California-based groups. People from each of these groups are working hard on this matter and staying in close touch with people who know what's happening in the case, and these groups will be giving out new information as necessary. There is no better way to stay informed than to join a group and either check its home page frequently or join its e-list (all the groups have them) for announcements. Of course, we'd prefer if everyone would join the HomeSchool Association of California. We do not think it is necessary for people to join HSLDA unless that's consistent with their personal values and philosophy (HSLDA is a conservative Christian organization, and while they accept memberships from all homeschoolers, their goals and desires may not be the same as any given family's). We think it a little unlikely that truancy officers will start fanning out across the state to hassle homeschoolers until it's absolutely clear that the court and the legislature refuse to help us.

The Attorney General, the Governor and the Superintendent of Public Instruction all believe that homeschooling privately, not through a public ISP or charter, is legal. They did not agree with the appellate court's interpretation. Homeschoolers are not without friends in high places, and families who wish to teach their own children should do so with confidence. They should take steps to stay informed, but they shouldn't be fearful.

I hope that explains the situation for you. Please let me know if there's anything you don't understand.

Debbie Schwarzer
HSC Legal Team co-chair

Totally lame

2008-08-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

This newsflash I saw on TV at the pizza parlor last night:

Brett Favre: Leaning toward remaining retired

Be still my heart.

Furthermore:

Anna Wintour wears the same dress three times!! Not only that, but

What adds to the sense of shock(and, in some quarters, outrage), is that she wore the dress in exactly the same way each time ... this was Wintour simply putting the same dress on, with the same accessories, three times in the same week.

Call the fashion police! Wait, she is the fashion police. As they say in this article:

It is unthinkable that she would make a fashion faux pas. So when Vogue editor Anna Wintour made her third appearance wearing the same dress in the space of a fortnight, observers could only conclude she was making a style statement.

Yes, I can really see that this merits coverage in the international press.

Not.

Triangle Histories: The Civil War -- Abraham Lincoln

2008-08-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

by Deborah Kops

This book about Abraham Lincoln is very informative. I was particularly interested to read about the birth of the Republican party in this country -- "Free speech, free homes, free territory, protection to American Industry" as it says on an early campaign poster. Lincoln is known as the President who waged the Civil War, but it was news to me that it was actually his election to the presidency that prompted South Carolina's secession in 1861. His victory was due, in part, to division among the Northern and Southern Democrats, since both factions ran separate tickets. There was even a third party, the pro-slavery Constitutional Unionists. Although it doesn't say so in this book, I believe that Lincoln won the most votes without having won a majority. In any event, the Southern states had clearly declared their intention never to accept him as their leader.

I think this book strikes a very good balance between historical detail and personal history. It includes many fine illustrations, and seems to be a very good source of information about this period.

Maya says:

Lincoln met his wife, Mary, in 1840, and married her two years later. Their son, William Lincoln, died of typhoid fever when he was only eleven years old. He took his last breath at 5:00 with his parents at his bedside. Another son was called Tad, because when he was a baby his head was big like a tadpole's. Lincoln used to pull his sons around in a wagon. He would pull the wagon with one hand, and the other hand had book. Once he got so absorbed in his book that he didn't notice a child had fallen out of the wagon.

Long before he became President, Lincoln studied law. He had one partner who left and so they dissolved their partnership. Lincoln and his next partner got an apprentice named Billy. Later, when Lincoln dissolved his second partnership, he took Billy as a partner and he never dissolved that partnership.

Abraham Lincoln ended slavery in the United States. He was President during the Civil War. One time a battle was fought very close to Washington. He watched it from a balcony of the White House and didn't pay attention to the bullets whizzing past his head.

He was assassinated while watching a play. His assassin was less than two feet away from Lincoln when he shot him. The policeman who was supposed to be guarding Lincoln had gone somewhere else. Later, the assassin was found hiding in a barn and was shot to death by soldiers. Abraham Lincoln was buried on a hill.

Abraham Lincoln didn't deserve to be killed. He was a great man to end slavery in this country.

Ziad says:

Abraham Lincoln was a president who grew up in a state where slavery was outlawed. His father was against slavery. Lincoln lived on a farm. When he grew old enough, he left. He worked in a shipping business, helping sail some cargo down the Mississippi River. One time, the ship began to sink and Lincoln moved the cargo from the back to the front so the ship tilted and the water poured out.

Before he became President, he attended a ball where he met Mary Todd. He married her two years later. They had three children. Their first-born was the only one who lived to adulthood.

During the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth and a group of men were trying to kidnap Lincoln and hold him hostage. Lincoln didn't know that he was constantly eluding them by last-minute changes to his schedule.

At the beginning of the war, the Union seemed to be losing. The Union general McClellan overestimated the Confederate forces and didn't attack when he should have. The Union might have lost if it wasn't for Sherman's victory over Atlanta and his march to the sea, destroying anything in his way that could help the Confederates. In December, Sherman wrote to Lincoln, "As a Christmas present, I present to you the city of Savannah."

When the Confederate capitol, Richmond was captured, General Lee surrendered.

After the war, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at Ford Theater. Lincoln died the next day.

Many people say Abraham Lincoln was the best President of the United States. He fought for human rights and accepted blacks as equals at a time when many others didn't.

Revisiting the Tudors

2008-08-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

and other English monarchs.

In the course of trying to figure out some English history, I came across this beautiful website. Although it has many more pages than I am personally interested in, the page of Tudors is just so beautifully laid out I think it's well worth looking at. OK, so it's just a geneology, such as one would find in almost any book, even trashy semi-fictional historical accounts. I still think it's especially cleanly and elegantly presented.

Fans of Robin Hood (and Shakespeare; also Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn) should check out the Norman and Plantagenet page.

Also of interest to me is the way that James I of Scotland is both the last of the Tudors, and the first of the Stuarts. Elsewhere, Queen Victoria is both the last of the house of Hanover and the first of the house of Saxe-Coburg-Windsor.

Why am I so interested in the kings and queens of England? I don't know, really, but I love these pages, which go all the way back to Egbert (802-839) and Ethelwulf (830-857).

Interesting insights from the New York Times

2008-08-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

I found this 2005 article from the New York Times about TDWP author Lauren Weisberger intriguing. In addition to some biographical detail (always good to know) there are some comments on her appeal, as well as her target audience:

For Ms. Weisberger, it's a fairy tale that depends in some part on her never quite getting the gold ring, or if she does, never being able to actually wear it. It's important to her to keep her outsider's vantage despite the fact that she is more and more of an insider. The heroines of her novels are outsiders who are beautiful and witty enough to gain entry into exclusive and seemingly glamorous cliques - and sane enough to leave them. If there is an art here (and she is the first to admit she is not trying to write "War and Peace"), it is the ability to write knowingly about a shallow yet glamorous world while appealing to a slightly provincial point of view.

Ms. Weisberger isn't writing primarily for the chic Manhattan young women who populate, as she once did, the editing ranks of fashion and celebrity magazines. The people who have made her books best sellers are outsiders who long for access, people for whom New York City is sexy but vaguely sinister.

I have seen similar comments made about David Sedaris, a writer even more spectacularly successful, but equally committed to the voice of the outsider. They both have new books out, too, and come September they will both have been honored by inclusion on our book club list. Hmmmm ...

TDWP

2008-07-31T06:28:00.000-07:00

Done! And Jerry Oppenheimer's book (I'm not sure it deserves to be called a bio) is waiting for me at the Santa Clara City Library. The newspapers are piling up, unread, but I'm still feeling pretty cocky. I'm glad that I'm going to have lots of time to track down the October book, because it looks longish.

Is it ironic, or just stupid, that my copy of the Oppenheimer book is on interlibrary loan from the San Jose system? SJCL thinks I need to pay them for a book that we actually returned, so I'm currently putting my borrowing their on hold. (It's hard on them, I know.) I guess I should actually check my account and see if they've taken the charge off, but I like the Santa Clara Library so much better that I haven't bothered yet. I haven't been to the MLK library downtown, but I had certainly been to the main branch of the City system, and the SJSU library that was the MLK predecessor. And I have to say, the Santa Clara library is far and away the nicest library I've been to in California.

It's nice, for example, that there's a big park behind it, as well as the International Swim Center. (Remember, we read about the Swim Center right before the last summer olympics?) The library itself is pretty inside, with lots of nice art, and somehow is the bookiest library I've been in in a while. It has the nasty fluorescent lights that I hate so much in every library there is, but they aren't so obvious for some reason. The children's section is huge, the adult section even huger, and the non-fiction collection has its own second floor. Lots of books and videos in lots of languages, beautiful folk literature collection -- I really love this library. And to top it all off, you get a grace period of 24 hours on overdue books. That's right! They don't start charging you until the second day after the book is due! Not that I plan to abuse this knowledge or anything.

Anyone can get a card there for free, so if you have any reason (like Park Day) to be in or near Santa Clara Central Park on even a semi-regular basis, I highly recommend it.

Letter from Debbie Schwarzer

2008-07-30T08:00:00.001-07:00

I have been talking to the other statewide groups about the upcoming election. Those who have been around the electoral and legislative block a bunch of times tell me that now is the time to reach out to the people who are running for statewide office and tell them how important it is to you and your family that you be able to continue to teach your children at home without government interference.

It is pretty easy to find out who the candidates for Assembly and Senate seats in your district are. Go to http://votesmart.org/ and enter your zip code. You'll be able to see who currently holds those seats and who the candidates in the upcoming election are. Your Senate and Assembly district numbers are probably different, so keep track of which is which.

It is usually a fairly safe bet that Republicans will support homeschooling given the importance of the religious vote to that party. Democrats, however, may not understand that they have current or potential constituents who expect their right to homeschool to be protected. We would suggest that you contact any Democratic candidates (you'll usually see a link on the right of the page you go to if you click on them to their home page, and there will be contact information for their election office). If you happen to be a Democrat yourself, it is doubly important that you tell your candidate that you need homeschooling to be supported.

When you call, ask to speak to the candidate yourself. If he or she isn't available, and you can't schedule a short meeting, ask to talk to the staff member who handles K-12 education. If you are free to visit the office, that's always best, and ask for a meeting slot, but a call is still good. Tell them briefly why you homeschool and why you need it protected. If you happen to be a Democrat who would probably vote for this candidate, make sure you mention that. If they start asking questions about the current legal case in Southern California, you can tell them that it is still in the appellate process and that homeschooling in California is still legal. And tell me if they seem to want to know more than you're comfortable telling them so that I can get in touch with them.

I would be interested in hearing what you hear when you call. If you write to me, please tell me the number of the Assembly or Senate district you're writing about, the name of the candidate and his/her party affiliation, and what you learned.

If you do get a meeting scheduled and want some materials to take with you, I have some in pdf format that you can print out and take. Just ask.

Thanks.

Debbie Schwarzer
HSC Legislative chair

My husband, nice guy

2008-07-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Since I am more than ready to complain to all and sundry when my husband gets me upset, it seems only fair to give his good qualities equal time.

The computer is not the only electronic item in the house that gives us grief. Our DVD player is part of an elaborately jury-rigged system that needs to be run through a VCR, but unfortunately the VCR I had had since Jenny was a teenager broke. Which meant a new one. Which meant I didn't really know all the ins and outs of recording and timers and whatnot, so that in order to simplify my own life I asked my husband to please tape Mad Men for me.

What followed next was a somewhat amicable disagreement about our content provider (Dish Network), which I think is more or less on Eastern Standard Time, and in any event is not set up so that we get programs at their regularly scheduled time. I was expecting Mad Men at 7. Just to confuse the issue, we found out at 8:30 that it had started at 8, so taping it was temporarily out of the question. I just gave up and went to bed.

It was a nice surprise Monday morning when my husband woke up briefly to tell me that the recorder was set to tape it this morning at 8. He suggested just watching it, but I prefer not to have it on while kids are passing to and fro. I really appreciate his taking the trouble to figure out the scheduling and set the VCR, though, and when I checked the tape Monday afternoon everything seemed in order. So now I've got an interesting evening of television to look forward to.

Thanks, honey.

The sequel:

I woke up thirsty night before last, right around when my husband was getting in bed. Since he was still up, he got me some water. This morning I woke up to find him putting a fresh glass on the bedside table. Sometimes little things like this are all it takes to remind me that I'm glad we're together.

In Their Own Words: Harriet Tubman

2008-07-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

by George Sullivan

This book is part of a series for children that uses primary sources when possible. Although Harriet Tubman didn't leave writing of her own behind, two biographies published during her lifetime contain many quotations. They are:

Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1869) and
Harriet: The Moses of her People (1886)

by Sarah Bradford, a schoolteacher who was Harriet's close friend.

Going back over this book with Ziad and Maya, I realize that I didn't retain all that much of what I read. As I glance through it the second time, though, I remember how I was struck by a few things: Harriet's early life, not in the deep south, but Maryland, considered to be a less hellish place for slaves than the Deep South, is nonetheless terrible to read about. After her first escape, the Fugitive Slave laws required her to conduct all other escaping slaves all the way to Canada, where they could not be apprehended and sent back into slavery. Harriet was also connected with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, just as the abolitionist movement became intertwined with the struggle for women's suffrage.

I've heard that children's books are a good way to become informed about subjects, since they tend to be concise in their presentation of information. This book certainly fills the bill in that regard, while being interesting and well-written to boot. I think I'll read it again and see if I can remember more this time.

Maya says:

I thought that all slaves had to be in slavery, but I learned that the slave master's will could free them and some slaves could be freed. I learned that because John Tubman, who Harriet married, was a freed slave. Harriet went to a lawyer who read the will of her mother's first owner. Harriet's mother should have been freed she turned 45, but instead she had been traded to another master. Now it was too late, and no one would listen to Harriet's claim, even though Harriet felt that legally she should be free.

Harriet told her husband that she wanted to escape, but he told her that he would tell on her if she tried. Then Harriet tried to escape with her brothers, but they got scared and turned back. Finally she escaped by herself. She became part of the Underground Railroad and helped other slaves escape. Her master offered a reward for her return.

One time she was waiting for a train and some people thought they recognized her. When she heard them talking, she opened a book and stared at it like she was read, and the people said she couldn't have been who they thought she was because slave couldn't read. I thought that was clever of her, because the really couldn't read, even after she was free.

During the Civil War, she worked in a hospital and also served as a spy. I really admire her and think that she was a great person.

Ziad says:

Harriet Tubman was slave who ran away and became a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She conducted more people to freedom than anybody else. She knew John Brown, the white man who attacked a warehouse full of weapons and tried to free slaves, but failed. She had a dream about him being killed before he was hanged. Harriet was impressed because John Brown died for slaves when he could have done nothing about it.

She worked as a spy and nurse during the Civil War. AFter the Union won, when she tried to take a train, the conductor put her in the box car with the animals. She felt that the Union hadn't really won, if people still treated black people so badly.

Harriet Tubman was very brave.

Bookclub miscellany

2008-07-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

August

I just finished reading Howard's End. WHAT an interesting book. I'm really glad Zelda chose it, and really sorry we won't be discussing it sooner. Maybe I'll use the time to try to learn more about the author, or read some criticism or something. Hopefully I'll also be able to look through it before we meet again. In the meantime, though, I also have my eye on

September

for which we are reading The Devil Wears Prada. Since I was within an inch of choosing this myself, I am again grateful to Vivian for having beat me to it. I've been looking around for supplementary reading, but all I've found so far is Jerry Oppenheimer's Front Row: Anna Wintour, The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor in Chief, and In and Out of Vogue by Wintour's predecessor (or, as some might say, the woman whose job she stole). There are also a few books that Wintour herself has contributed to, and you can watch some interviews with her on the Charlie Rose web site. However, in the spirit of making everything flow smoothly, I am also looking at

October

which is my pick, and that pick is Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. It is funny (hoorah!), not a memoir (all right!), relatively modern (always thinking of you, Lesley), and has been adapted for TV several times, so there should be a version we can watch on DVD if we're so inclined. Although I think it's a good idea to have read it first, because some of the characters speak in such heavy accents that it's nice to have the general idea of what they're saying ahead of time. This book is clearly a satire of a certain genre of British literature where farmers and rural inhabitants lead lives of squalid desperation, and it might have been nice to read a few of those books so as to appreciate the humor more, but who has time, really? It's actually very funny just on its own.

The ball's in your court now, Lesley.

Mea culpa

2008-07-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

Am I anti-human? Maybe. Although when I think of what I've got against people in general, I tend to think more about genocide, torture, human trafficking, and child pornography. In terms of people's effect on the planet we all inhabit, I don't think that it's anti-human to be concerned about environmental degradation. I personally want the earth my children grow up in to be as healthy and welcoming a place to live in for them as it has been for me. The fact that I don't see that happening is something I view as cause for concern. It doesn't mean that I think people should vanish from the face of the earth.

Do I want to get back to nature? Not so much. There are plenty of natural phenomenon that scare me silly. I want no part of mountain lions, bears (either black or grizzly), landslides, avalanches, or wildfires. I KNOW that I would never want to live way out in the country because I prefer my hospitals within easy driving distance, and I wouldn't like to live so far out that a fire engine would have trouble getting to me. I know, furthermore, that advances in modern medicine have saved not only my life, but the lives of many people I care about. Good old days? Not hardly. Even something as simple as Kleenex, something I take for granted most days, has recently seemed like a minor miracle to me. Going through box after box with this summer cold, I think to myself every day, "How gross would it be if this was a cloth handkerchief that someone had to clean? There wouldn't be enough rags in the house to handle all this. What if I just had to spit into a bucket? What if I couldn't do any of those and just had to choke? THANK GOD FOR KLEENEX!"

I know I'm just a big nervous Nellie when it comes to chemicals. I do want to reduce the amount of chemicals in my life. But you know what? It's not necessarily all that expensive. Concerned that "natural" cleansers are more expensive? Plain old lemon juice, baking soda, and salt are surprisingly effective. You can also cut down on chemicals if you just clean less. Admittedly, this option is ridiculously easy for a lax and slothful housekeeper like myself. However, in a day where organic foods are sold at Walmart and soy-based detergents are available from Costco, the price argument starts to lose some of its force.

And you know what? I think that one reason organic foods and plant-based cleaning products are becoming cheaper and more widely available is that more and more people have been willing to buy them even when they were more expensive. The increased profitability that comes with mass-marketing would not have been an option if there hadn't been a growing market. It's hard for me to see how someone would claim that the increasing availability of items people have demonstrated a desire for would be a bad thing.

It may well be that people are now engaging in meaningless shows of politically correct environmental awareness. That doesn't make the environmental movement bad. It just means that there are always people ready to jump on the latest bandwagon. Those people are obnoxious regardless. It doesn't really matter what way they use to demonstrate their superiority. Greener-than-thou may be the new mommy wars, but it won't be the last. There will always be mommy wars. I've gotten sucked into a few myself. On balance, though, I think I prefer "My car gets better mileage than yours" or "We only eat organic food from the farmer's market" to "How sad for you that your child is so woefully inferior."

Do I think humanity is wasteful and careless and selfish? Yes, I believe I probably do. Hell, I think I'm all those things. And if my own personal self-assessment isn't enough, human history is full of examples of societies dying out because they degraded their environment past its ability to support them. Closer to home, how can it happen that my son can walk around a nearby lake and pick up over 100 bottle caps, and then find as many again the next week? Why do people go to a nearby hilltop with a stunning view over the valley, then smash bottles so that there's broken glass all over the ground? Pardon my white elitist ass, but I think that's flat-out disgusting. (Let me hasten to add that I'm not saying the people who do that aren't white too. Maybe they're even elitist. In any event, they suck.)

However, I also think humans are ingenious and selfless and kind. It's possible for humanity to be good and bad at the same time. Even though I am frequently misanthropic, I generally like most of the people I meet. So it's possible to like and dislike humanity at the same time. It makes no sense to insist that humanity be all one thing or another. As to which qualities predominate, I couldn't pretend to know.

It's seems odd, though obvious, to point out that the albatross will never pick up the plastic that is killing him. No, he'll just eat it and die. It seems even odder, though, to call him stupid for that. To me, it just means that his mechanism for recognizing food has lagged woefully behind the explosion of plastic in his environment. According to the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Reserve website:

Laysans are surface feeders. Therefore feed on anything that floats on the surface of the water; squid, fish, crustaceans and flying fish eggs.

It's only in the last 50 years or so that that list has included enough floating plastic to starve a bird to death. Oh well, evolve or die, isn't that right?

And according to the LA Times article linked below,

Albatross are by no means the only victims. An estimated 1 million seabirds choke or get tangled in plastic nets or other debris every year. About 100,000 seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins, other marine mammals and sea turtles suffer the same fate.

Which actually brings me to my main point. It wasn't that long ago that I had no information about this garbage floating in the sea. It was only a chance remark of a science teacher who was teaching a totally unrelated program that brought it to my attention. It's information I'm glad to have, though. It's relevant even to those of us who don't live by the ocean, because

About four-fifths of marine trash comes from land, swept by wind or washed by rain off highways and city streets, down streams and rivers, and out to sea.

*

And though people may not care about the albatross (fine and dandy by me), this plastic is getting into the food chain, and I care about my children who will probably one day be eating it.

The chemical components of plastics and common additives can harm animals and humans. Studies have linked the hormone-mimicking phthalates, used to soften plastic, to reduced testosterone and fertility in laboratory animals, and to subtle changes in the genitals of baby boys. Another additive, bisphenol A, used to make lightweight, heat-resistant baby bottles and microwave cookware, has been linked to prostate cancer.

*

Which is why if someone wants to drink from a bisphenol-containing plastic bottle, I'm fine. Knock yourself out, I say. But if someone wants to throw that bottle out the window of their car, I have a problem. Because even if that's just someone doing their thing in nature, it can come back to bite me in the ass.

Eco-bullying or self-expression? Eco-scaremongering or just spreading the word? People have to judge for themselves. I do know this, though. There hasn't been, and there won't be, progress toward a healthier planet without a lot of popular support. I suppose it's not possible to word the message so that nobody gets ticked off, but that's too bad, because the message itself is worthwhile. And the message is not that humanity is bad, but that it's time for a good look around. We shouldn't be kicking ourselves for liking what we have, but asking what we can do to keep it so that our children can have it too. And their children. And maybe even people in third world countries. Because face it, this level of extraction and consumption cannot possibly last, not with petroleum, not with natural resources, not with nutrients. That shouldn't really be a downer. Solutions are possible; in the works, even. They won't implement themselves, though, which is where the benefit of letting people know that change would be a good thing comes in.

Harumph. I guess the shoe fits.

*LA Times (below)

I bet I'm not the only one who didn't catch this first time around

2008-07-23T17:17:00.000-07:00

The Albatross

Often, to amuse themselves, the men of the crew
Catch those great birds of the seas, the albatrosses,
lazy companions of the voyage, who follow
The ship that slips through bitter gulfs.

Hardly have they put them on the deck,
Than these kings of the skies, awkward and ashamed,
Piteously let their great white wings
Draggle like oars beside them.

This winged traveler, how weak he becomes and slack!
He who of late was so beautiful, how comical and ugly!
Someone teases his beak with a branding iron,
Another mimics, limping, the crippled flyer!

The Poet is like the prince of the clouds,
Haunting the tempest and laughing at the archer;
Exiled on earth amongst the shouting people,
His giant's wings hinder him from walking.

— Translated by Geoffrey Wagner

The original:

L'Albatros

Souvent, pour s'amuser, les hommes d'équipage
Prennent des albatros, vastes oiseaux des mers,
Qui suivent, indolents compagnons de voyage,
Le navire glissant sur les gouffres amers.

À peine les ont-ils déposés sur les planches,
Que ces rois de l'azur, maladroits et honteux,
Laissent piteusement leurs grandes ailes blanches
Comme des avirons traîner à côté d'eux.

Ce voyageur ailé, comme il est gauche et veule!
Lui, naguère si beau, qu'il est comique et laid!
L'un agace son bec avec un brûle-gueule,
L'autre mime, en boitant, l'infirme qui volait!

Le Poète est semblable au prince des nuées
Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l'archer;
Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées,
Ses ailes de géant l'empêchent de marcher.

— by Charles Baudelaire

It is an ancient mariner, and he stoppeth one of three

2008-07-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

From the LA Times:

MIDWAY ATOLL -- The albatross chick jumped to its feet, eyes alert and focused. At 5 months, it stood 18 inches tall and was fully feathered except for the fuzz that fringed its head.

All attitude, the chick straightened up and clacked its beak at a visitor, then rocked back and dangled webbed feet in the air to cool them in the afternoon breeze.

The next afternoon, the chick ignored passersby. The bird was flopped on its belly, its legs splayed awkwardly. Its wings drooped in the hot sun. A few hours later, the chick was dead.

John Klavitter, a wildlife biologist, turned the bird over and cut it open with a knife. Probing its innards with a gloved hand, he pulled out a yellowish sac — its stomach.

Out tumbled a collection of red, blue and orange bottle caps, a black spray nozzle, part of a green comb, a white golf tee and a clump of tiny dark squid beaks ensnared in a tangle of fishing line.

"This is pretty typical," said Klavitter, who is stationed at the atoll for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We often find cigarette lighters, bucket handles, toothbrushes, syringes, toy soldiers — anything made out of plastic."

It's all part of a tide of plastic debris that has spread throughout the world's oceans, posing a lethal hazard to wildlife, even here, more than 1,000 miles from the nearest city.

Midway, an atoll halfway between North America and Japan, has no industrial centers, no fast-food joints with overflowing trash cans, and only a few dozen people.

Its isolation would seem to make it an ideal rookery for seabirds, especially Laysan albatross, which lay their eggs and hatch their young here each winter. For their first six months of life, the chicks depend entirely on their parents for nourishment. The adults forage at sea and bring back high-calorie takeout: a slurry of partly digested squid and flying-fish eggs.

As they scour the ocean surface for this sustenance, albatross encounter vast expanses of floating junk. They pick up all manner of plastic debris, mistaking it for food.

As a result, the regurgitated payload flowing down their chicks' gullets now includes Lego blocks, clothespins, fishing lures and other pieces of plastic that can perforate the stomach or block the gizzard or esophagus. The sheer volume of plastic inside a chick can leave little room for food and liquid.

Of the 500,000 albatross chicks born here each year, about 200,000 die, mostly from dehydration or starvation. A two-year study funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that chicks that died from those causes had twice as much plastic in their stomachs as those that died for other reasons.

The atoll is littered with decomposing remains, grisly wreaths of feathers and bone surrounding colorful piles of bottle caps, plastic dinosaurs, checkers, highlighter pens, perfume bottles, fishing line and small Styrofoam balls. Klavitter has calculated that albatross feed their chicks about 5 tons of plastic a year at Midway.

Albatross fly hundreds of miles in their search for food for their young. Their flight paths from Midway often take them over what is perhaps the world's largest dump: a slowly rotating mass of trash-laden water about twice the size of Texas.

This is known as the Eastern Garbage Patch, part of a system of currents called the North Pacific subtropical gyre. Located halfway between San Francisco and Hawaii, the garbage patch is an area of slack winds and sluggish currents where flotsam collects from around the Pacific, much like foam piling up in the calm center of a hot tub.

Curtis Ebbesmeyer has been studying the clockwise swirl of plastic debris so long, he talks about it as if he were tracking a beast.

"It moves around like a big animal without a leash," said Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer in Seattle and leading expert on currents and marine debris. "When it gets close to an island, the garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic."

Some oceanic trash washes ashore at Midway — laundry baskets, television tubes, beach sandals, soccer balls and other discards.

Nearly 90% of floating marine litter is plastic — supple, durable materials such as polyethylene and polypropylene, Styrofoam, nylon and saran.

Want to read more? It's here.

The poem? Here.

For those with short attention spans, I'll cut to the conclusion:

Farewell, farewell ! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest !
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small ;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

The Mariner, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone : and now the Wedding-Guest
Turned from the bridegroom's door.

He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn :
A sadder and a wiser man,
He rose the morrow morn.

more from Debbie Schwarzer

2008-07-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

I think many of you, in the coming months, may field questions from family, friends, even reporters about what you will do if the appellate court comes out (again) with a ruling that tries to limit the right to teach children at home. Some of those people, particularly from the media, will be hoping to get a frightened answer from you. They like the image of the cowering mom oppressed by the government, about stories of frantic scrambling to get kids enrolled in school or even move out of state.

I hope I can give you the confidence to deny them the pleasure.

If people ask me what I think will happen if the court rules against homeschooling, I will say what I've been saying for months. Nothing will change immediately. Our attorneys will attempt to stay the ruling until the appellate process runs out. I think the likelihood that the number of Californians who homeschool will be drastically reduced due to some court action is very, very small.

The court could rule similarly to how it did before, in which case we will try to enjoin enforcement while we go to the Supreme Court. There, we will continue to press our message that this interpretation violates the Constitution, which makes it unenforceable against us (and not, as some of the amicus briefs suggested, our problem to take to the legislature to fix -- if it's not constitutional, that is THEIR problem, not ours). It could rule that our interpretation is acceptable, in which case we start breathing again and wait for some crackpot to introduce legislation against us. It could rule that it can't interpret the law and needs the legislature to do something, in which case we take our tents
and trailers to Sacramento and kill ourselves working to make sure that we don't end up with a law like North Dakota's. If the legislature wants to see fury as it hasn't seen it before, try to take this right away from us or burden it with micromanaging regulations!

But I am willing to bet very large sums of money that in one, three, five years' time, people will still be homeschooling in California in relative freedom. There may be some additional restrictions in the law that either prevent some
people from doing it easily or make it unattractive, we might still have the statutory structure we have now and worry that it will all happen again, I don't know. But no one is stuffing this genie back in the bottle.

I would recommend that we not give doomsday scenarios to the media. I think we need to portray strength and confidence. I am bothered, and I fear for the continued impact of this on my personal life, but I am not afraid. Homeschooling isn't going away, and I have utterly no problem with our giving a confident message to the world. We WILL win in the end, because we are doing the right thing.

Please feel free to forward this to anyone you know who needs some reassurance that it might turn out OK.

Vacation Blogging

2008-07-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

Well, we're back! 17 days of hectic and educational sightseeing behind us, jet-lagged and fatigued, glad to be out of the humidity but unhappy about the sore throats from the smoky air, here we are in California again. As usual, I can think of many blog posts that could spring from the vacation that is behind us, but will probably follow through with only a small fraction, my innate inner sluggard being only enabled by the continuing technical problems that attend our pitiful efforts to get consistent access to the internet. Nothing more frustrating than losing your connection right as you attempt to save a particularly brilliant (ahem) blog post.

In the interests of completeness, while I wait for pictures to be downloaded by someone other than myself, I will start with an overview of our itinerary:

1) Fly into Atlanta, spend the night.
2) Drive to Tennessee, about a five-hour trip, so we can go to Dollywood.
3) Go to Dollywood. Drive back to Georgia through the Great Smoky Mountains. Stop briefly at a place where the Appalachian Trail crosses the roadway, which is actually in North Carolina. It turns out there are places where North Carolina is in fact west of South Carolina. Spend the night at a state park in Georgia.
4) Because Ziad is getting obsessive about it, go to Dahlonega and pan for gold. Then drive through the mountains to a spot where you can hike into the Appalachian Trail, and hike on it. Continue on to Atlanta.

While Nabil is at his business conference in Atlanta, take the kids on three days of intensive sightseeing.

5) Day one: American Girl Place, History Atlanta. This may not sound like a lot, but take my word for it, it is.
6) Day two: Georgia aquarium, World of Coca Cola, Cyclorama, Atlanta Zoo.
7) Day three: Mississippian mound culture, Cherokee city, house of wealthy Cherokee leader, all in Northern Georgia (we practically wound up in Tennessee again) requiring hours of driving, but very very worthwhile.

8) Drive from Atlanta to Charleston, SC. Stop briefly in Augusta to stretch our legs on the Riverwalk, which is pretty but not necessarily worth the detour. Spend the evening doing laundry on the hotel's single washing machine while someone from a semi-professional soccer team is breathing down my neck because she wants to wash their uniforms.

9) In the morning, visit Fort Sumter. In the afternoon, during lunch, get caught in the first of many intense thunderstorms featuring rain that causes impressive flooding of the city after only 1 1/2 hours. Spend lots of time trying to avoid driving through water up to our hubcaps (it is a rental car, after all) and no time at all seeing beautiful historic homes. Alas.

10) Visit Charles Town Landing, a state historic park and archeological dig on the site of the original settlement. Highly recommended. Then take off for Hilton Head in South Carolina. Huge thunderstorm drives everyone off the beach and out of the pool in the early evening. Right after we got there.

11) Spend the day at the beach, where Nabil and I get horrific sunburns. Maya's face gets a little red, and Ziad, who uses no sunscreen ever, seems to get a light burn on the back of his ears. Drive on to Savannah. Impressive huge thunderstorm in the clouds over Savannah as we arrive.

12) Visit the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low in the morning. Then stop by the Maritime Museum of Ships of the Sea. In the afternoon, walk down by the river, a commercial touristy strip that reminds me of Pier 39 in San Francisco.

13) Drive to Orlando, stopping briefly in the non-historic part of St. Augustine, and a Florida state park I remember from my last visit to Florida, Washington Oaks. It is every bit as magical as I remembered. While we are at the park, guess what weather we encounter?

14) Disneyland (thunderstorms).

15) Disneyland. Drive to Mt. Dora, another place I remember fondly. Also still wonderful. Thunderstorm en route.

16) Spend the day at Mt. Dora recuperating from two exhausting days at Disneyland. Thunderstorm in the afternoon.

17) Drive back to Orlando and visit with Nabil's cousin who has four kids, some of whom are about the same age as Ziad and Maya. It is a nice visit, unfortunately all too brief. Get lost in Orlando attempting to find the rental car return, then spend frustrating hours trying to take shuttles to the hotel airport.

Then up at 4 the next morning to get everything organized for an early morning flight. Return home after several hours spent in some odd non-sleeping, non-waking, headache-inducing fatigue zone and feel completely disoriented. Notice that Lesley has very kindly gone way above and beyond merely watering the plants and has left my yard prettier, neater and way more organized than she found it. Thank you so much, Lesley.

Yesterday was spent indulging in fogginess, and today we're back to reality. Guitar lessons and dentist appointments loom on the horizon. Ziad and Maya are really happy to be back, and I am too, I guess, but part of me wishes we could spend more of our time in unknown places, learning about their many wonderful secrets. It really was a great trip.

Just when you thought it was safe

2008-06-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

to open this page without fear of puns, I bring you (ta-da!) H-L

Wow, I really liked the Hs:

"I only have diamonds, clubs and spades," said Tom heartlessly.

"Dinna wave that axe aboot, Jimmy!" said Tom heedlessly.

"My extreme emotional instability arises from a psychoneurosis," hissed Eric.

"Have a ride in my new ambulance," said Tom hospitably.

"That's an ugly hippopotamus!" said Tom hypocritically.

The Is perhaps a little less:

"May I become a chorister?" Tom inquired.

"I've borrowed my sister's camping gear," said Tom insistently.

Only two Js, but I like them both. Interesting that they take the related words judgment and judicial in such different directions.

"His Honor is crazy," Tom stated judgementally.

"I'd like chicken soup with matzo balls and gefilte fish," ordered Tom judiciously.

Forget about K. The Ls feature specialized vocabulary --

Math: "No ellipses, parabolas or hyperbolas," said Tom laconically. (Conic sections!! Get it?? And you thought math was boring.)

Music: "I never play any music by Hungarian composers," said Tom listlessly. (You've heard of Lizst, right? Just checking.)

And that's all for now.

Like water for empty air

2008-06-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

We were up at Train Town in Sonoma one time. It was my dad and our family, getting ready to board the miniature train that runs through the miniature town on their little plot of land.

Maya chose a seat toward the back of the train. Nabil wanted her to sit up front with the rest of us.

"Maya, if you come and sit here with us I'll give you some chocolate," he offered.

My dad managed not to say anything, but I could see he was horrified. The whole concept of bribing a child into compliance goes way against the grain for him.

Maya was fine with it, though. She came and sat with her family. Then Nabil stretched out his empty hand and gave her some imaginary chocolate. Which she took and pretended to eat. My dad was blown away. I was pretty impressed myself.

Maya's not the only one in our family who looks at things from a different angle.

The Italian chef

2008-06-25T21:49:00.000-07:00

My younger sister is known in our family for her creativity. She's artistic, and stylish, but also deeply different. Her mind makes leaps that leave me goggling. She's also pretty funny, and fast with a quip. One of my favorite remarks of hers goes back to when we were both in high school.

Our family had this little paperback Italian cookbook. She used to cook dinners with it, I remember; she was really a good cook. One day she decided to make the recipe for veal parmigiana. Naturally, she threw herself into it wholeheartedly. She made the sauce from scratch, bought the best veal she could, the works. Since she tends to be on the exuberant side in her actions, there was a lot of tomato sauce all over the place when she was finally ready to put the veal into the oven to bake. She looked around at the messy kitchen. "Ah!" she exclaimed, "Kitchen cacciatore!"

After all these years, I still think it's funny.

Can't get enough

2008-06-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

of those Tom Swifties. Here are some more; first from D-G

"I want this statue to look like the Venus de Milo," said Tom disarmingly.

"That certainly took the wind out of my sails!" said Tom disgustedly.

"I'm on social security," said Tom dolefully.

"I've changed my name to Al," said Hal, exasperated.

"My wife is dead" said Prince Rainier gracelessly.

"Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess," Tom began grimly.

"It's just gold leaf," said Tom guiltily.

And now a sub-genre: Tom Swifties about ants!

"Watch this insect sail through the air," said Tom flippantly.

"That young insect is female," said Tom gallantly.

"I used to command a battalion of German ants," said Tom exuberantly.

"Those ants will never get in here," Tom said defiantly.