Brother Large

Yesterday, Brother Smith brought Brother Large with him to speak at church. Brother Large is 84 years old and 5'4". But, as he says, he could be 5'1", so he is "large". He has a large heart, anyway. And he is in good shape.

When I started playing the prelude music, he came over and stood by me, watching my hands in fascination, as if it were a miracle that I could play the organ. And I guess it really is, when you think about it: all those parts of the body and mind working together. It was no concert performance. I wasn't even using foot pedals.
or natural pipes. Still, it reminded me to be grateful for the marvelous abilities that we have as human beings.

He spoke on the theme, "Behold, what I the Lord have done". More miracles.

Brother Smith reminded us of ways we should be thinking about others as Christmas approaches, and repeated a famous quotation which I need to remember:

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. That's why they call it THE PRESENT.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

(emphasis Brother Smith's)

After our meetings were over, Brother Large gave all the women who were sitting in the room a brotherly kiss on the forehead. We all appreciated this little token of brotherly love on the Sunday before Christmas.

Christmas Eve Update: speaking of marvelous abililities . . .

Looking for Rudolph

Ready for a few bits of fun? Via Tim Blair: This dog gives us an idea what our Dotty might have been like before David brought her home, already an old lady. This dog also reminds us of the exuberance of our dear, departed Snickers. Snickers started out as an ugly adolescent, but turned into a handsome adult Queensland/Black Lab mix, a black and white negative image of a Dalmatian, with a little more fur, and a white tip on his tail. We considered sending him to Civil Engineering school, as he enthusiastically dug tunnels in the sand, with only the tip of his tail showing. When too exhausted, he would come into the garage to rest for a few minutes, then leap back out to continue digging. He had full faith that he could dig faster than any gopher or ground squirrel.

Snickers loved to romp like the dog in the video on runs through the fields, but he was surprised at the squishy ground at the bottom of an almost-empty canal. In his only encounter with snow, he took great joy at biting snowflakes. He would have loved a deep snowfall.

We have never had a cat like the happy Australian one in this video. Though our little princess-cat Darla will play with a trickle of water from the bathroom faucet. She still likes to sleep in the bathroom sink, but doesn't get much chance to do so anymore, with Maggie the Warrior Queen and Troy the Giant Dog limiting her indoor time. And to add insult to injury, the little half-starved Chihuahua adopted by our neighbors (young men with no clue how to care for a dog) has decided to take over one of the heated kitty boxes - the one on our porch. Even though I set up one for him on the neighbors' porch. Incidentally, if anyone needs a quiet little black Chihuahua with big ears, he is available. He likes other animals but is a little slow to trust new men. We are over our legal limit for dogs (we fudge by having 2 lots).

My favorite of the adored, but seriously annoyed, Japanese cats pictured at the link to this post is the froggy cat.

One commenter speculated that these cats are looking daggers because, "I think they’re actually the species that invented style."

Remember these rules (from the Japanese site) for dressing cats:

1. You need to dress a cat. And you will say to a cat together with a family. "It has changed just for a moment". [ "it being very dear" or ] You will pass pleasant one time.

2. If a family and a cat become fortunate, you will take a commemorative photo! Therefore, please photo your cat lovelily with much trouble.

3. If it finishes taking a photograph, you will make it remove clothes from a cat immediately. You will say then, without forgetting the language of gratitude to a cat. "-- be flooded -- a way -- good -- having done one's best -- ! -- "

4. And if you want your cat to look like a Beloved, Merry Rudolph, Also remember . . .

I think I'll stick to a few kitty and doggy treats to make our pets feel loved this Christmas.

Confucius: "morals and art will deteriorate"

“If language is not correct . . . . . . morals and art will deteriorate":

Many years ago I went through an art exhibition at a glitzy mall in Newport Beach. I remember two of the art exhibits. One was a model wearing one of those iconic French Maid outfits - the short black, form-fitting dress with the little white apron and cap. But the model (perhaps the artist) was a rather tall man who also wore black tights, some really ugly black and white gym shoes and a gas mask. The other memorable exhibit featured wall hangings which exploited the various textures and colors of lint removed from clothes dryers.

I think there was some sort of environmental message intended by both of these art pieces, but I'm not sure what it was.

There are at this moment in history a lot of "artists" on the Left delivering political messages through "art". Relatively few on the Right, most of them
satirists pointing out rhetorical or other excesses on the Left. Moe Lane compares Australian Green protesters (dignified by American standards) to performance art. I can imagine myself in the audience. He says
about the second photo in this post:

". . . it looks for all the world like a snapshot of a particularly boring and pretentious piece of performance art. You know the kind that I’m talking about; one featuring three or four people moving about and talking aimlessly while atonal, yet annoying, stringed instruments play in the background. You’re there because your S.O.’s friend is involved with the production, and you have been promised that the party afterward will not be dull - so you spend the time trying to decipher the program, which reads like it was translated from German to English via Academic Marxist, with a quick stopover at Martian. You suspect that it has gained in the translation; meanwhile, up on the stage someone has just waved a broomstick at a man wearing a cow suit, which apparently has something to do with the Falkland Islands War.

It is about that time that you grimly conclude that the party afterward will be dull."

Hyperbole on the part of Australian Greens has reduced the tendency of the general population to pay attention to the Global Warming Issue. Particularly since the Australian contribution to greenhouse gasses is so tiny compared to, say, China's growing emissions. But the Greens still have the attention of the news media - just like in America. This may be one reason why political "performance art" gets more and more extreme while serious, fact-based discussions of issues go unnoticed.

Confucius and Clarity of Language

Confucius said:

“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion.

Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.”

The translation above makes me wonder how the end of a sentence is indicated in Chinese. That's some first sentence. We're really not used to long sentences these days. I put in a paragraph separation just to make the quote easier to get through.

The piece from which this quote was taken makes some over-broad statements about government spending. But it includes some really good points about how people have been misled about government money. Click on the link at the bottom of the page for comments from readers which reveal some of the ways government involvement tends to make everything more expensive while sometimes making stuff seem "free". David could tell many similar stories. Money from government allows corrupt or astonishingly inefficient systems - public or private - to survive much longer than they would if they had to earn their own money.

Dr. Helen has some interesting advice concerning how teachers can help their students think critically and clearly understand some of the ways propaganda works:

" . . . in my opinion, it is not your job to decide the politics of the students in your class, it is your job to expose them to the critical thinking skills that will help them make informed decisions and back them up in a reasoned way. This is what is sorely lacking in our present educational system."

Did you know that there was a Propaganda Game ? Some non-PC books for kids would also help provide some balance to the liberal mindset which filters down from our higher education system.

Looking Forward to Christmas

After Sister Cox spoke about Thanksgiving on November 30, Brother Cox spoke about looking forward to Christmas. He described a simple notebook his father had made with scriptures to be read daily as Christmas approached. Something like the Catholic tradition of Advent, but designed for his own family. I think this is a fine way to transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Here's an explanation of Advent for non-Catholics by The Anchoress. Some of the ritual aspects of a Catholic Advent don't do much for me, but you don't have to be Catholic to appreciate and adopt some of the ideas behind Advent:

"A star is shining brightly.
A people are moving toward the places from whence they came.
A young woman is great with child.
Wise men are lifting their eyes to heaven, and wondering.

The place of our own origin, from whence we came, beckons
and sends a flare, and One who is All in All will come - in love,
and breathtaking humility - to show us the way back to the Creator.
We are great with expectation.
We raise our heads from the wilderness of our lives, and look about,
and wonder. And hope."

In a later post, she says, "If everyone would just sit down and watch this video of Cecilia Bartoli’s super-human vocal virtuosity…we would all be humbled and awestruck at what God has created in human beings…and there would be no war, because we would all understand that we have within us something divine - a spark. In Bartoli’s case, perhaps a Roman Candle!"

That's sort of how I think about Bach's mind when I hear this performance of Sleepers Awake, written, like most of Bach's music, "to the glory of God".

Wachet auf! ruft uns die Stimme
der Wachter sehr hoch auf der Zinne.
Wach auf, du Stadt Jerusalem.

Wake, awake, for night is flying,
The watchmen on the heights are crying.
Awake, Jerusalem, arise.

Echoes of Thanksgiving

Sometimes, it is hard for me to let go of Thanksgiving, a holiday which I think we sometimes put aside too quickly. Maybe it's O.K. to take some of the spirit of Thanksgiving into the Christmas season.

On November 30, Sister Cox talked in church about the Pilgrims and their thankful attitude for blessings small and great - from 5 kernels of corn per day per person during the first winter to greater bounty later on. Her talk reminded me of something The Anchoress (a Catholic blogger) said about Thanksgiving:

". . . it is the humble, ordinary things - the things we take for granted, that give us mobility, opportunity, self-sufficiency, expression - we rarely think to be grateful for those things.

I realized once, while at prayer, that real joy and contentment in life is not possible - cannot be possible - without real gratitude. Unless you really KNOW what you have, how can you appreciate it, and if you do not appreciate your life how can you be joyful?

I used to volunteer at a local hospital, visiting patients, seeing what they needed, praying with them if they wanted that, and I ended up working particularly with those coming back from brain injuries. One day I realized…I can dress myself, I can feed myself. I can stir my cup of coffee and raise it to my lips, all by myself. My hand does not shake; I do not need someone to raise the cup for me, or slip a straw into it. I do not need anyone to wipe my lips for me.

I do not have to wait for someone to come to me and guess my need, before my thirst is quenched.

It was a revelation to me, to consider how ungrateful I had been for those things. They are not little things. They are everything, as any of the patients I had visited would have told me.

There is much to be grateful for, in every life - even in those lives which we think of as “lacking” in quality - if one person loves us or treats us with kindness and dignity, we are blessed.

I thank my God for all good things, and even for the things and circumstances that do not always immediately seem to fall into the category of 'good.' I trust. I hope. I believe. I thank."

Thanksgiving to Christmas music:

The surprising history of the hymn, We Gather Together. More on this hymn and Dutch history and religious freedom.

Here's a simple, contemporary version of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Different from the full choir and orchestra version we've come to love.

Corn-free rice pilaf for a crowd

Again this year, Ken, bless his heart, bought a complete, prepared Thanksgiving dinner for us to serve. And, as usual, none of the dishes, even the pre-cooked turkey, were free of corn products. I did fine on the extra mashed potatoes, green beans and cranberry sauce we fixed, since we had a second turkey later in the day. But this demonstrated once again how few prepared foods are corn-free.

I made rice pilaf last night for the Branch Social. I didn't have the energy to make pozole (which I can't eat anyway) and wanted to prepared something easy. It's nice to have a box or two in the pantry for times like this. Directions here.

Music for Thanksgiving

Jammin' down on the farm: Sweet Georgia Brown and Bye Bye Blues with Tractor Accompaniment.

Old-time Fiddling with tractor accompaniment.

And Tractor Square dancing.

When your tired of thinking about farmwork, musical dreams for engineers and mechanics.

Thanksgiving recipes

One thing I always do at Thanksgiving now is to make a batch of cranberry sauce from scratch, from the Ocean Spray Cranberry package. Sort through the berries while washing (they float) and follow the recipe exactly, breaking berries which don't burst. It's so easy, and much better than canned whole-berry sauce. Wonderful if you're transporting food to someone else's house, as it doesn't need to be refrigerated and is best made ahead. For a different flavor, less assertive, add 1/4 teaspoon salt. You can also use part orange juice in place of water and a little orange zest. But I've been going the purist route in recent years, leaving the oranges for raw cranberry relish. For kids, have some mild, jellied Cranberry/Raspberry sauce on hand.

One year here in our garden, we had fresh shelly beans in the garden at Thanksgiving, several varieties, and I combined them with corn, a little caramelized onion and a touch of heavy cream for a "more traditional" succotash. I got the idea from the Joy of Cooking. No cup of butter in the succotash for me. Though tomatoes in succotash are another way to go. Keira's mom used to cook dried corn and add a little cream for fall sometimes to remind everyone how things used to be.

I cooked some of the shellies (fresh seeds from over-grown, but not dried, green beans) separately for myself, since I can't eat corn. Black Valentine and Coco Rose de Prague are good varieties for variable fall weather, and make good shellies as well as green beans. Supplement with frozen lima or green beans if you are short of "shellies".

The Amazon cooking blog has a recipe for roasting a small turkey in 45 minutes. Might need to try it this year for our second shift dinner. Though if I'm going to the trouble of removing the backbone, I'm also going to separate the breast from the dark meat, so I can cook the dark meat a little longer, like they do in restaurants. The Sweet Potato Pie and the dressings for the Romaine salad sound good, too. There are general tips for whole turkey (brine the bird, chill the breast) and for making gravy.

Keira's mom used to partially roast the turkey in a big roasting pan, then remove it, pour off the pan juices for gravy and pile a lot of bread and rice dressing into the pan before placing the bird on top to finish roasting. A good way to prepare enough dressing for everybody and for leftovers, plus gravy. I still follow Grandma Smith's practice of putting the simmered giblets in the dressing. Fresh sage makes a difference, though the bread and rice dressing was good with extra celery, thyme, etc. to make up for a sage allergy.

Don't think I'll be doing deep-fried turkey or crockpot turkey breast. My rolls will be from frozen dough, not "scratch".

Butternut squash and apple cider soup and diabetic apple and pineapple pie sound good. We still have Red Fuji and Pink Lady apples on the trees. We tried several varieties of winter squash this year, but the Butternut family of squash is still best for our hot valley, unless you're exporting Kabocha squash to Japan in June. Francisco grew a Mexican variety that's shaped sort of like a pumpkin, but with some green netting in the skin. He gave a bunch of them away to friends. We grew Argonaut, a giant hybrid butternut. Ours didn't get anywhere near 100 pounds. Next year, maybe we'll go back to Tahitian. Maybe with Rainbow Butternut or Greek Red Butternut.

Hoping that everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow.

Thanksgiving Proclamations and thoughts

As we prepare to host two separate Thanksgiving dinners:

Remembering the Pilgrims.

The first national Thanksgiving day was a day of fasting and prayer.

Thanksgiving proclamations by Washington, Lincoln, Adams, Madison and other presidents (on subsequent pages). Dennis Prager usually reads one of the proclamations on his radio show on Thanksgiving, at the perfect time to listen while cooking.

I like to pick one to read before the prayer on Thanksgiving. Shortened, if necessary, when children might get restless. Unfortunately, I don't have a Spanish translation of any of them, and some of the language is quite unfamiliar to us today. Guess we'll muddle through.

An interesting historical note: a speech given on the day Lincoln issued his famous proclamation - scroll down.

Our friend Brandy reminded us not too long ago that the ancient Feast of the Tabernacles was the antecedent to our Thanksgiving celebrations. Here's a Jewish perspective on Thanksgiving: "Our gratitude to God must express itself in the actions of our daily life. Giving back the "first of our fruit," the choicest share of the crop, is the only appropriate way to thank God for giving us all our fruit."

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Happy V.I. Day

Happy Victory in Iraq day.

We won. There were good arguments for not going into Iraq, but once we were there, it was important to the world that extremists not be allowed to prevail over the US and coalition forces. And it's been astonishing to watch the world press virtually ignore the remarkable progress in Iraq. So bloggers just declared a day of victory.

There's progress in Iraqi politics. And booming investment in infrastructure.

One newspaper made the announcement three months ago. Thanks are due to our troops, coalition troops and the Iraqi security forces.

I'm going to keep praying for the Iraqis and their fledgling state, as well as for our country and other countries still trying to make progress in a complicated, dangerous world.

What might have been.

Update: George W. Bush'sgifts to President-Elect Obama.

Lessons from the Big 3 auto industry crisis

Real-time confirmation of basic principles from Barbarians to Bureaucrats - a book which helped me understand how organizations work:

1. Unions are organized because management is not paying attention to workers. Unions and corporations often become so rigid in their interactions that they become involved in death-spirals. Everyone wants security, but when everyone starts to feel too secure, things fall apart.

2. Boards of Directors who pay massive salaries and bonuses to executives are often not acting in the interests of the stockholders. This distorts the ethical system upon which the corporation should be built. When leaders of corporations are out of touch with their customers, stockholders and employees, they enter a state of aristocratic decline, much like the decline of an entire civilization. These leaders start to exhibit signs of madness. Sort of like Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

Question from the Right Coast: Is it too late to institute a French-style socialist solution? I don't see any handy, efficient "barbarians" around to reform the Big 3 without getting us into deeper trouble. Nimble Japanese car companies are doing a good job of rolling over the Big 3, another function of "barbarians".

Update: Revisiting Michael Moore's first big success. And, why couldn't GM adjust fast enough to world changes? And, why aren't our aristocratic members of Congress held responsible for their part in the disaster? Especially their failure to give assurances to the auto makers that future legislation would not destroy the value of investments the automakers were ready to make to meet the contemporaneous demands of Congress?

Cub Scout Jokes

Shaun: What do you do with a blue elephant?
Pedro: Tell me.
Shaun: Cheer it up.

Shaun: What do you call Australian boxer shorts?
Peter: I haven't a clue.
Shaun: Down-underwear

Shaun Wolf, Rockford, MI

My favorite:

If at first you don't succeed,
Skydiving is not for you.

Gabriel Laska, Marshall, Ill.

Living Life Every Day

Blogger Dean Barnett has died of Cystic Fibrosis. He was one of those people who made the most of life even in the face of tremendous challenges. He wasn't shy about taking on an intellectual argument. But he also wrote a tribute to a Lefty blogger with whom he deeply disagreed when the latter died last year, also at the age of 41. Dean Barnett looked at his challenges head-on and moved forward in a realistic way, appreciating both the big and the little things which came his way each day.

I've met two other people recently who strike me in the same way. David and I talked recently with a local pastor who had a near-death experience in a diving accident which made him a paraplegic and an instant Christian. He is currently running for City Council, with considerable help from his brother, other relatives and friends.

I also met one of the Hoggard's neighbors, a woman who has severe arthritis of a rare form which is fusing her spine and deforming her body. Her hips were both replaced when she was relatively young. She and her husband adopted a little girl from overseas a few years ago. The girl, now 8, is the focus of a lot of love. Her mom also keeps busy volunteering for the Catholic church. She speaks with great enthusiasm about her life, even expressing gratitude for her disability.

A former neighbor of ours, Mrs. Rambo the "garden lady", similarly made me feel good just being around her. She also had debilitating pain in her spine. She and her husband had lost their only daughter when she was just a girl. I lost track of her when she went into a nursing home near an "adopted" - unrelated - niece in Tulare. She fought the move as long as she could. Her little house is just not the same without all the exuberant flowers she tended there. She made a difference in my life. She radiated both gratitude and a kind of determination to live a fulfilling life. She "thrilled" at the sound of a rooster crowing, as it reminded her of ranch life. She took joy in every flower in her garden and every person she knew.

Dennis Prager interviewed his mother for the first time on his Happiness Hour last Friday. It was her birthday. She and her husband look forward to each day, ignoring the aches and pains of age. She provided some fascinating insights into life in the past as an Orthodox Jew in New York City. Things have really changed. She thinks she was "born happy", though she has had several challenges - a deaf mother and the murder of a grandfather, for example.

Dennis' old friend Father Gregory called to speak with her. His call reminded me of the old days when Dennis moderated the "Religion on the Line" radio program in Los Angeles. The clergy got along with each other remarkably well, laughed together and supported each other despite their theological differences. There was a core set of values which they shared and which they helped each other express to listeners. They also seemed to be a notably grateful group of people.

Wretchard put a note of gratitude and comfort into his post on Dean Barnett's death. It could apply to many other people we cherish and are grateful for, and probably even to to my difficulty in throwing away old things which have meaning to me:

"Sometimes relatives put off cleaning out the room or packing up the effects of the deceased because it almost seems as if they’ll come back. Just you wait.

The time to clean up comes when we realize that even memory is not necessary for love. Nothing is futile. Just you wait."

Remembering Tony Hillerman

There will never be another Tony Hillerman novel. My friend Keira introduced me to his books when she lived in Arizona, and I bought my first one in the Phoenix airport, which is decorated with Native American iconography. I just re-read "A Thief of Time" not too long ago. I really liked the insights Hillerman gave into the Southwest Native American cultures and the struggles between those cultures and the modern world.

I understood Navahos, in particular, a lot better because of his novels. I understood better why all the Navajos I knew growing up seemed so shy. And why missionaries on the Navajo reservation were called on so often to dress bodies for burial. The traditional Navajo ideas about the afterlife are very dark, and Navajos concentrate on the beauty of this life.

I also appreciate the way Hillerman made his characters into real people. Especially the Navajo Police officers whose lives we followed through several novels. New readers might want to start with the earliest books and move forward to the more complex later novels.

Several years ago, Mom, Marianne, Little David and I went on vacation through some of the territory in which Hillerman set his novels. We saw Indian ruins and canyons which were familiar when I read the books. Navajo names we read on the rodeo schedules were the same as those in his books. We battled little blackflies at Four Corners. I remember Mexican Hat and the trading post there. The motel owner told us the story of the artesian well under the river which was accidentally drilled while speculators were looking for something else (and which gave us water pressure in the little trailer-motel where we stayed).

I could relate to Officer Chee's surprise in one novel that his underwear didn't dry overnight in Los Angeles. Our clothes dried in minutes in Mexican Hat when we draped them over the caesalpinia bushes, one of the plants which sustains hummingbirds in the hottest, most arid parts of the Southwest. As an aside, once when I was visiting Keira and Wally in Phoenix, we revived a fledgling hummingbird which had ventured out on an extremely hot day and had fainted on the asphalt. Apple juice brought it back to life.

I once read in a Land's End catalog a Hillerman short story about a "skinwalker" (murderous Najavo witch) in the form of a wolf chasing a trucker on the highway to Mexican Hat, and haven't felt quite the same about that road since. His novels bring back memories of that trip and others - including the family campout at Capitol Reef.

A Disheartening Election Season

It's been a strange, depressing political season. Glenn Reynolds describes the campaign at this point in a nutshell, with a little help from Jeff Goldstein - the stay-at-home dad leftist academics love to hate. I'll be voting for McCain's rolodex this year - or maybe against Obama's rolodex - leftist academics, liberal jurists, Hollywood, competing activist groups, etc.

I know it's not ideal to vote in terms of avoiding negatives. At least McCain has a record of opposing corruption - as does Palin. And as Jennifer Rubin points out, Obama's one constant (in political terms) is that he has never actively opposed political corruption, despite getting his political start in one of the areas of the country most famous for political corruption.

One problem is that McCain is running on Obama's turf when it comes to the economy, which is the hot-button issue right now. America may be about to elect its most left-wing national government ever. Including strengthening the Pelosi-Reid congress. Ironic that a recent poll showed that 56% of voters would throw out the entire congress if they could.

George Will reminds us that among the first orders of business of an Obama-Pelosi-Reid government would be solidifying their power by revoking the secret ballot in union elections (giving union activists great power to intimidate) and re-instating the Fairness Doctrine. This would drive Talk Radio off the public airwaves because it would not be economically feasible for stations to try to "balance" the views presented there. On the other hand, Rush Limbaugh might be broadcast on Pacifica Radio and NPR, which would be a culture shock to the Left. And we might see a requirement that "The View" be balanced by a show featuring a bunch of conservative men with a token liberal. An amusing thought.

I think forcing Talk Radio out of business could make the Right nuttier, given their existing exasperation at the brazen bias of the Mainstream media - pointed out here by former leftist radical Roger L. Simon. The loss of Talk Radio could drive the Right onto the internet, where angry groups tend to reinforce each other's feelings. This would be unfortunate. Talk Radio is out in the open where it can be monitored and challenged easily. And conservative talk shows take challenging callers (even if they are not treated fairly in every instance). I like Dennis Prager for his emphasis on reason over emotion in politics. Many other talk show hosts are also heavily into thought and fact over feelings.

The Angry Right is gearing up to act like the Angry Left has for the last 8 years: Not a good thing. Well, maybe not quite like the Angry Left.

Anger and conspiracy theories from the right would be a big mistake. The right is judged by a different standard than the left. I think an emphasis on reason, working to promote better candidates and working to limit government expansion are more useful, if less immediate, ways to limit the potential damage which could be done by a "therapeutic president" who seems to be such a nice guy and who is, by all accounts, a wonderful father.

As one of the Instapundit correspondents (in the Angry Right link above) said, "I plan to take a different tack. . . , should Obama win the election. I think conserv/atarians should "perceive the Obama Administration as damage, and route around it."

That is, fight against Government power, without focusing on who is weilding it, and rebuild our non-Governmental institutions to get done the things that need to get done."

Doggie news

Dogs all have their own personalities. Our friend Brandy visited us recently, and our little dog Lucky played coy with her, shy about giving her a kiss. Troy the Giant Dog is a kissing fiend, so maybe he can give Lucky some lessons. Lucky might be able to give Troy some lessons on looking cute. Troy tries, but he's so big that the puppy act just doesn't seem quite right. Neither Troy nor Lucky understand "fetch" as well as Maggie does. Lucky chases a tossed toy, but then hangs onto it. Troy chases a tossed toy, but usually doesn't even try to pick it up. It's sort of like he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by being possessive. I don't completely understand dog behavior, but there seem to be some breed characteristics in propensities to retrieve, herd, etc. At present, we don't have a dog who scolds us like little Sula did.

David finished the new doghouse for our geriatric dogs, Sparky and Dottie, before the rain. It's by the garage door. The little fluffy puppy next door seems to feel threatened by their proximity. He was left alone this weekend, in the neighbor's garage, with the side door open. He's been barking constantly. I tried "group dog biscuit" therapy to increase his comfort level - feeding him biscuits at the same time the other dogs got theirs. Seemed to help.

Troy the Giant Dog and Maggie the Warrior Queen have been chewing on the wooden gate south of the house in an apparent slow escape attempt. Troy's nose is frequently seen under the gate from the other side, checking out the action in the front yard. Time for reinforcement.

A couple of days ago little Lucky found a bottle of cooking oil which I had left on the kitchen floor in a grocery bag (temporarily, I thought). He dragged it under the dining table, chewed off the cap, punctured the seal and began licking the oil. It didn't show in the carpet, but it was there, spreading deep through the fibers. He then dragged the bottle into the bedroom and started licking again. The bottle was missing about three cups of oil, and we weren't sure how much went into Lucky. So we watched him carefully and took him outside often overnight. He's O.K.

Resolved: don't put grocery bags on the floor even for a few minutes when there's a dog around.

In celebrity dog news: I'm shocked at this fraud. She's not a pitbull, and she's not even wearing lipstick. Thank goodness.

Aunt Shirley Was There

Thanks to Carolyn Bennion for producing this photo album in memory of Aunt Shirley. It's fun to remember.

Should we train future presidential candidates?

It's going to be a tiresome campaign season, so something a little off-the-wall may be in order. Frank J. has an interesting idea for training future presidents.

The Day After the Anniversary

It was good to see Senator Obama and Senator McCain together, taking time out from politics on the anniversary of that day. We all remember where we were when we heard the first confusing news. Let's not start mis-remembering 9/11.

Jim Geraghty talks about the little comment that made him choke up. Here are remembrances by Michelle Catalano and Jazz Shaw .

Richard Fernandez, an Australian, remembers 9/11 in a somewhat cryptic post. He's one of the first generation of philosophical/political bloggers, many of whom took pen names or, more accurately, "blog names". It took some doing to find out who these bloggers were. The idea was to focus on the topcs under discussion rather than on the people presenting their thoughts. Some of these bloggers took famous names from antiquity - Cicero, Marcus Fabius, etc. Others took mysterious names like XLRQ. Richard's blog name was "Wretchard the Cat", later shortened to "Wretchard". His background is Filipino, and he sometimes blogs about the slums of Manila (unbelievably poor, compared to our slums), sometimes about Australia or other countries but often about the USA. When he moved Belmont Club to Pajamas Media (a confederation of bloggers), he started blogging under his own name.

This post elicits thoughtful or touching comments by some of the interesting people who regularly conversed with each other in Wretchard's "comments" section at the old Belmont Club, plus the usual couple of cranks.

Limerick about Limericks

From Jay Nordlinger, National Review:

There once was a poet named Todd
Whose meter was seriously flawed.
His limericks would tend
To come to an end
Suddenly.

Cautionary quotes

From The Anchoress, in reference to socialized medicine, but much more widely applicable:

"American presidents may peacefully surrender their power, but bureaucrats never do."



Related quote from the comments, attribution fuzzy:

"If you think health care is expensive now, just wait til it's free."


Especially if you consider both health costs and fiscal costs. Socialized medicine in many countries is now degrading due to the accumulated weight of years of bureaucracy, among other things. Some countries, such as the UK and Canada, seem to do especially poorly now with chronic medical conditions. There is a lottery in one Canadian town for appointments to see the General Practitioner.

Good comments on the linked posts.

Aunt Shirley

On September 3, my Aunt Shirley, one of my father's little sisters, passed away. I remember her as a doting mother who was also interested in her children's cousins. She was very sociable - like both of her parents. She was a little on the fussy side - sort of like her mother and my father. She probably could have used a little more self-confidence - sort of like me.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Shirley were always taking Bill Jr., Gary and Janet on camping trips to places which were further away from home than the day-trips to the mountains which our family often took. Shirley never seemed quite like the "camping type" to me. Maybe I was projecting some of Dad's characteristics onto her. She seemed enthusiastic when talking about their trips.

Shirley loved to go to meetings of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers with Aunt Beverly. Sometimes they got my Mom involved, too. Shirley was on the Cookbook Committee. When David and I got married, she gave us one of my favorite presents, a copy of the cookbook she had helped to produce, with a personal note. I remember Aunt Beverly's enthusiastic endorsement of the cookbook.

It's one of those volunteer group efforts filled with wonderful surprises. Many of the recipes are pricelessly delicious. Others sound a little scary - like "Chocolate Goo-Goos" - containing both sourdough starter and marshmallows. I saw one recipe for doughnuts in which the contributor seems to have left out the flour. There are pioneer poems and stories, like "When Grandma Was Ready for Winter". And there are many historically interesting recipes. Older historical recipes include those from real pioneers. Some would be difficult to replicate now. Some you would not want to replicate. Others are worth keeping in mind for times we may lack modern conveniences. More recent recipes of historical interest to me are a few from the middle decades of the 20th century (when food manufacturers were promoting new ways to use processed foods) which could have been featured in James Lileks' "The Gallery of Regrettable Foods".

There are useful and humorous entries - like "Recipe for a Happy Day" and "How to Cook a Husband". The latter is in "Main Dishes". In part, it advises wives, "If he sputters, do not be anxious, for some husbands do this until they are quite done. Add a little sugar in the form of what confectioners call kisses, but use no pepper or vinegar on any account. Season to taste with spices, good humor and gaiety. Avoid sharpness when testing him for tenderness."

Looking through the cookbook today, I saw five recipes from Aunt Shirley, three from Aunt Beverly and one from Mom, for Cherry Bars, which I don't remember her ever making. It was sweet for the family to list Mom, Shirley's sister-in-law, as a survivor in the obituary.

We're going to miss Aunt Shirley, like we miss her bolder sister, Beverly. Our hearts are with Aunt Shirley's remaining siblings, her children and her grandchildren today.

Below are two recipes from Aunt Shirley's book. One is for her own Date Nut Bread, which I remember fondly from Christmases past and which Mom especially looked forward to each year. The other one is for Aunt Beverly's Banana Bread. I added a few details to both for the sometimes inexperienced bakers of a new generation.

DATE NUT BREAD - Shirley Lyells

1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup boiling water
1 cup pitted dates, cut up
3/4 cup raisins
2 Tbsp. soft butter or margarine
1 cup sugar (or less)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Pour soda and boiling water over dates and raisins. Cream butter and sugar, then add vanilla and egg. Beat well, add flour and mix lightly. Pour in fruit mixture, water and nuts; mix. Grease the bottom of a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan or grease and line the bottom with waxed paper. Scrape dough into the pan, smooth the top and bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck deep into the center comes out clean. If dividing dough into smaller pans, shorten baking time.

Cool for 5 minutes, run a knife around the sides of the loaf, shake and remove from pan to cool bread on a wire rack. Cover tightly after completely cool.


BANANA BREAD - Beverly Bennion

Mash 3 bananas and add 1 teaspoon soda and 1 teaspoon baking powder. Set aside.

Cream together:
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar

Beat in two beaten eggs. Stir in just until blended:

2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup water
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup nuts
Banana mixture

Grease the bottom of a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan or grease and line the bottom with waxed paper. Scrape dough into the pan, smooth the top and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour, or until the crack in the top of the loaf looks dry and a toothpick stuck deep into the center comes out clean. If dividing dough into smaller pans, shorten baking time.

Cool for 5 minutes, run a knife around the sides of the loaf, shake and remove from pan to cool bread on a wire rack. Cover tightly when completely cool.

Aunt Betty

Last week we learned that David's Aunt Betty had passed away. I didn't know her very well, but David remembers her as a wonderfully kind woman who made a real difference in his life.

He remembers in particular an incident which was very important to him as a young boy. Aunt Betty and Uncle Travis had a farm, and they moved her parents into a little house on their property. David had asked to stay with his grandparents after having had an extraordinarily hard time in first and second grade at home. Partly this was due to his dyslexia, but another part of the problem was teachers who left most of the children in their classes to their own devices while lavishing attention on one precocious little girl. David had not even been taught about the alphabet at an age when most kids are reading.

David had trouble in third grade at the school in Earlimart, too. He was an outsider in a mostly Hispanic classroom. But when Aunt Betty brought cupcakes to school for her own son's birthday, she also brought a big box for David's class, for no special reason. The teacher announced that the cupcakes were from David's aunt. The kids treated him much better after that.

David's Mom and his Aunt Helen dearly miss their sister. We will miss her, too.

Emergency vehicles on our little corner - again

Last night I was leaving to feed Katie Cat while her family was gone. There was a fire truck by our house. Again.

Living on the edge of a small town (in an area once left to black families) is not like living in the city, or even in the middle of town. Not that I didn't ever have any "emergency" situations in Southern California. Once I saw what I thought was a dead man on the landlord's lawn. But he was a dead-drunk teenager. And I had a police helicopter visit once when a guy the police was chasing left his sandals in my flowerpot and said I had invited him into my backyard. The police woke me up to get a statement.

But we still seem to get an unusual number of emegency vehicles out here. There was the brush fire (caused by a transformer explosion and drooping wires) before the houses next door were built. Firetrucks were at our house half the night. And there have been fires plus a smoldering roof a little further away, and several attempts at burning down a tiny abandoned church down the road. The last attempt was successful. Emergency vehicles stage at our house when investigating situations up or down the cross street, or near our fire hydrant in case of a big fire.

Our big old dog Sparky hates emergency vehicles after living with a violent man who had frequent police visits. But he is protective, and used to stand by the fence and bark sternly during services at the little church across the street, in an apparent determination to protect the congregation from their loudly amplified, excited pastor. A few years ago Sparky was sent running from the spot where he protected the congregation. Fire trucks scared brave Sparky into cowering silence as they responded during a Wednesday night service that got a little too spirited. Normally, the dogs all howl at emergency vehicles on nearby roads, headed out of town for the surprisingly frequent incidents which happen in the country: explosions, fires, people acting crazy out by a canal, downed power lines or car crashes (often solo) involving people who get reckless because they feel less restrained than they would in town.

And we seem to get peripherally involved in a lot of police and social services matters. A woman came running to the house one night from way down the street, through the goathead stickers (toritos), in bare feet, to call the police because her son had been beaten up. A mother descending into psychosis wanted to leave her little daughter with us because she thought ghosts were after her. We see kids who look like they are at risk wandering in or near the fields, and sometimes a kid will show up to use the phone. The police once mistakenly believed that I was the woman who threatened a neighbor because she thought there was an affair going on between the neighbor and her husband (after all, the neighbor had picked up the accuser's son for football practice while driving her own nephew and other boys to the practice - proof positive of an affair with the accuser's husband). An absentee landlady came here for help after her property was broken into.

Francisco once brought us a gun he had found in a woodpile, which turned out to have been used in a shooting. We got two detectives casing out the house before four officers responded to my report - they had been looking for that gun. It looked like one of those old pirate guns, but was a sawed-off shotgun with the butt altered to resemble a pistol grip.

Last night, it was just a bad case of dehydration. A woman was taken to the hospital. She's part of the black family next door, and I'm ashamed to say I don't even know how many people live there. I have talked to the woman before, but she seems reserved with me. The husband and wife both talk to David sometimes.

They seem more oriented to socializing with other blacks, though. The black guy up the street who always wears a cowboy hat stopped his truck and went to investigate when he saw the fire truck and ambulance. The older man who tools around in a motorized wheelchair stopped by. too. He told me that "Janice's daughter" had been taken to the hospital, like he expected me to know who "Janice" was. The man in the wheelchair knows us. David helped get the ball rolling on the city's bargain with him to provide him with a livable home in exchange for the title to the property when he's gone (at least, I think that's the deal they made).

But our next-door neighbors haven't introduced themselves to another black woman, our friend Emma, who lives directly across the street from them. Their loss. Seems like "city" behavior to me. Sometimes it helps out here to know who your neighbors are.

Last night was a refreshingly routine emergency. Slowly our neighboorhood is becoming more "citified" and routine-ized. We also don't have a flock of chickens show up on our porch every morning any more. And it's been a long time since there's been a big hog loose in the neighborhood.

Maybe soon, some of those emergency calls for unusual events will be a little further out of town, as new building fills in the wild, semi-natural spots in our neighborhood. Some of the wildness we will miss. And I prefer the type of civil disorder we now get to the type in inner cities that we read about.

A quote which caught my fancy

Back when his personal blog Pejmanesque was active, Pejman Yousefzadeh (an Iranian Jewish name) used to post a "quote of the day". His personal blog got to be too much, and he replaced it with a group blog , where he sometimes posts "quotes that catch my fancy". Here's one from Thomas Sowell which caught my fancy today:

The recent death of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn should make us recall what he said when he was awarded the Nobel Prize: "The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of barefaced barbarity, other than concessions and smiles."

Dog Blogging - Creatures of Habit

Yesterday, I took all 5 dogs out for walks. It was striking how engrained their habits are even after recent walking schedule disruptions due to hot weather. Sparky and Dottie took Lucky to all their favorite spots.

We visited our neighbor Emma, a remarkable black woman in her 80s who raised her siblings with her father from the time her mother died (she was very young - six, I think). She used to come to visit Sparky after her late husband's dog, Missy, died. She is still very fond of Sparky, whom she calls "Bear". But she likes the other dogs, too. She recently said that she would like to adopt Maggie (whose name is the same as Emma's recently deceased sister). Maggie looks a lot like Missy did (except for color - Missy was almost white). But Maggie, or Warrior Queen Omega, would be way too spirited for Emma to handle.

The dog next door to Emma, littl PeeWee the Chihuahua, is still in love with Maggie from when she was in heat, even though Maggie has been spayed for more than a year. PeeWee is historically hostile to other dogs, but approaches Maggie with a longing look. She is much, much bigger than he is. Maggie is also usually hostile to strange dogs (especially females), but she still likes PeeWee. They once were hard to move apart when we took Maggie for a walk (though a fence divided them). Lucky scared PeeWee off yesterday after a short nose-sniff between the star-crossed lovers.

Sparky, who is a giant compared to PeeWee, accomnodates PeeWee's Napoleon complex by allowing PeeWee to chase him away from his territory, after Sparky leaves a liquid greeting.

PeeWee is making friends with Troy the Giant Dog, who walked without the other dogs yesterday. Both our little dog Lucky and Troy the Giant Dog were on the street before we adopted them. But Troy (maybe because of his sized) played with other dogs (though he was leery of people). Lucky may have had to defend himself from other dogs in his vagabond days. Troy is also forming a friendship with the Rat Terrier who lives by the canal. The Rat Terrier enjoys exchanging displays of aggression with Lucky, though I don't think they would actually fight if the fence between them were removed.

I am grateful that (on Sister Berrett's recommendation) I tried a Gentle Leader head harness for Troy and Maggie. Walking a dog with this harness helps clarify for dogs who is the Pack Leader. It comes with DVD instructions. Troy and Maggie pulled me into the (dry) canal last summer when they were on leashes attached to choke chains. It is now easy to walk Troy and Maggie, and Troy has become a Mama's Boy at home, too. He follows me or David everywhere, lies on his back trying to look like a cute little dog (doesn't work, though he's kind of cute in a big dog sort of way), wants love all the time and he has been better with the cats (except when he's with Lucky). Lucky gets along with the cats except when showing off for the other dogs. We need to get him a head harness, too. He can probably learn to show off for me and David instead of for the other dogs.

Dog habits, like people habits, are hard to change. But there are simple ways to help dogs change. People - not so simple.

California Politics - Changes possible in the future?

For years, California politics has been almost totally dominated by Democrats. This domination leads to "arrogance of office" and other unfortunate signs of decay. On August 19, I happened to be listening to the Ray Appleton program (which I usually don't catch) when our State Assembly Representative, Nicole Parra, a Democrat, started decribing how she had been kicked out of her office and across the street by the Democratic leadership for supporting water allocations to valley farmers. Of course, she had also irritated them earlier by supporting her previous Republican opponent, Danny Gilmore, as her replacement.

Later in the day, another Democratic lawmaker caused a kerfuffle by endorsing a Republican for the (non-partisan) mayoral election in Fresno.

Update: The Democratic leadership also cancelled consideration of all legislation sponsored by Parra which was beneficial to the Central Valley. How responsible, compassionate and unemotional of them. They reportedly also tried to force the Republicans to accept their budget by refusing to consider budget cuts by program. This allowed them to portray the Republicans as evil for forcing cuts in popular budget items like public safety. As Lawrence Miller said in "Barbarians to Bureaucrats", across-the-board budget cuts (he was talking primarily about corporations) are a sign of laziness and cowardice among leaders.

Oh, and a prominent Democratic California lawmaker also screamed at her entire staff one Friday not to return to work the following Monday. Let someone in private business try that and see what happens.

Growing up in the Age of MTV

Yesterday, I heard part of this discussion between Dennis Prager and a physician/author worried about the psychological and other effects of casual sex on young people. She believes that it adversely affects their ability to form a lasting commitment to a partner and a family due to changes in brain chemistry. Thankfully, the young people she described were quite different from the ones we watched at the Stake dance Saturday.

One of the points Dennis made was how quickly the educational system was destroying Judeo-Christian values in America. It takes a strong counter-balance to the popular culture and the educational system for young people to hang onto those values. He described his favorite moral question to students: whether they would save a drowning human or their drowning beloved pet. A 16 year-old caller described a class discussion in which her classmates casually accepted Nazi-like ideas concerning killing the infirm (expressed by another student) as just another point of view. Tolerance of various points of view has become a higher good in many people's minds than basic agreement on principles such as as not murdering imperfect people.

Worthwhile listening, even if you don't agree with everything you hear.

Related: Feminine modesty: Between Bare and Burqa. Many young women have no idea of the effect that skimpy clothing has on male observers. On the other hand, completely obscuring your femininity with clothing can be dehumanizing.

Update: Dennis' latest written argument in favor of Judeo-Christian values. I usually find Dennis more interesting on the radio that on a page, as I think he often outlines only the barest skeleton of his principles when he writes. When he discusses the same principles on the radio, it's easier to see how they apply in people's lives. I would be interested in other's reactions to this piece.

Introduction to Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager, the talk-show host and lecturer, is an original. He has helped me clarify my thinking a lot over the years.

When he was young, some in his family thought he was retarded because he would sit for hours twirling the tail of the family's pet dog while staring at a lake. He decided in high school that, in his case, youth would not be "wasted on the young". He skipped high school classes, getting into a lot of trouble. Instead of going to class, he visited all the interesting adult in New York City whom he could manage to visit. He also taught himself to conduct symphony orchestras, learned foreign languages and read serious political journals. He almost flunked out of high school, but got good grades in Community College. He took a graduate degree in the Soviet system of government at Columbia, where he says that his faith in God was confirmed by observing the irrationality of some of the positions of the non-religious professors there.

He has visited more countries than any 20 people I know. He is Jewish, and after the first airline highjackings (before highjackers started steering planes into buildings) he started an outreach called the "Center for Ethical Monotheism", promoting an ethical basis of understanding between Christians, Jews and Muslims (I might not have the name quite right).

I listened to him when I lived in Southern California. In addition to his regular broadcast, he did a show on Sunday night called "Religion on the Line" where clergy from different faiths discussed theological and other issues. It was fascinating, sometimes emotional, and the clergy got along with each other very well. There has been nothing like it since.

When I first started listening to Dennis, he called himself a "passionate moderate" - someone interested in balancing important principles which were inherently in conflict. As our political system moved further to the left, he started to identify himself as a "conservative" or as a "classical liberal" - terms he thought of as practically synonymous at that point in history. He continues to identify with conservatives and classical liberals today. He made a difficult (for him) change in party affiliation from Democratic to Republican several ago.

Dennis decided a few years ago that he needed to take his show national, and KABC in Los Angeles cut him lose. He still talks about a wide range of issues, both personal ("micro") and cultural or political ("macro"). If I'm not interested by a particular topic, I just wait for the next one.

Today, in his first hour he presented persuasive encouragement for people to balance trivial entertainment time with time spent in "elevating" pursuits - reading good books, listening to elevating music, studying scripture or other wisdom literature, etc. He reminded us that this used to be something that people regularly thought about. Times have changed. Now most of us are totally oriented toward entertainment in our free time.

Dennis is more tolerant of "expressing our lower natures" in harmless ways than are some religious people. But he still talked about feeling the need to take a bath after watching a particular MTV program.

His second hour was an interview with the (mostly) conservative columnists George Will , who defined the difference between liberals and conservatives in a simple way. Will related a memory about Daniel Patrick Moynihan. They don't make Democratic senators like him anymore. Prager and Will discussed audio books, the great advantages for Democrats in this year's election, and two very important reasons why conservatives should vote for McCain even if they don't like him much.

Audio of his programs is available here or (commercial free) at Pragertopia here. In the Central Valley, we can listen to him on KTIP 1450 AM from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. - his third hour is not broadcast.