2012 List Of Banished Words

Hold your tongue before you say a banned word. Uh. I mean the 12 words or phrases that appear in Lake Superior State University's 2012 List of what it says are "Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness". Lake Superior, as usual has released its (33rd) annual during the last week of the year. It selected this years "winners" from about 2,000 nominations. In practice we should never, ever use any of the words in the coming year. Here is the complete list of banned words:

Amazing
Baby Bump
Shared sacrifice
Occupy
Blowback
Man cave
The new normal
Pet parent
Win the future
Trickeration
Ginormous
Thank you in advance

I'll spare you commentary on all of them but reference a few of the more annoying words or phrases I am glad to see have been banned. The "baby bump" phrase was a cutsie reference to celebrities who are pregnant. Some claim that the entertainer Beyonce was the one first labeled as a baby bump, but it got out of hand later in the year and became as annoying as "saving the planet" or some other phrases that make sensible people climb walls.

As for "amazing", what isn't amazing anymore. Even the most mundane and routine accomplishments are labeled as amazing. Although I am extremely happy to no longer hear the word 'awesome' used incorrectly and way too often, it appears to me that amazing was a replacement for it.

What about "occupy"? The use of occupy went too far when alleged abused protesters claimed they were occupying private or public property for their own use to protest some cause, either real or ridiculous. When someone wants to have his or her way he or she now "occupies" some place in the name of others who don't really agree with the protester and don't want them to "occupy" anything for them.

Oh, I so hate hearing "The new Normal". Maybe it's because I am not now nor was I ever normal, but probably because it implies that trendy things must be accepted by everyone, even people with a brain. "New normal" is used most often to justify bad trends in society and to convince people that they are powerless to slow or to reverse those trends. I'll have you know I am not new or old normal. I'm just abnormal, and will continue to be!

"Ginormous", in case you haven't figured it out, is the combination of the real and still better words, gigantic and enormous. It seems that those two are not good enough for some people, so they combine them to make the bigness of something seem even..well.bigger. I say it just makes the user of the term "ginormous' seem like a bigger idiot.

Ok, enough. I will "thank you in advance' if you promise not to use any of these 12 and can assure you that you will "win the future" by abstaining from them.

Auld Lang Syne

I have a song for you to listen to. You know it already because it is sung practically everywhere on New Years Eve. 'It's Auld Land Syne'. This version in the Yu tube link I supply is by a Scottish singer, fitting because the tune is Scottish in origin. Listen now before reading any more of what I write....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acxnmaVTlZA

The first question you might have is "what is that song really about? Well, it is a Scottish poem from the greatest Scottish poet of all, Robert Burns, that was put to lyrics of an old Scottish folk tune. Burns claimed he collected the words in the rural Scottish countryside and modified them for his poem. Since neither you nor I understand the old Scottish dialect, and even the song that we have translated for us incorporates some of that, what is the song speaking about?

The title, if it could be translated word for word, would mean something like " for the sake of long ago times". The Scots started singing Auld Lang Syne at New Years because it romanticizes the good old days and is a way of putting them to rest and focusing of

nthe next "good times" to come. It begins by asking if we should just forget old times and suggests "no", that while we move onward in our lives we should also treasure the good things of the past years. This song spread to other parts of Britain, and when immigration to America and other parts of the world took Scots to those places, the custom of singing it on New Year's Eve at midnight became the norm in most places.

Too, in many countries today the lyrics have been altered to fit new meanings (for example, in Taiwan for funerals; in Hungary as a school graduation song; in Thailand after sporting events etc.), making it truly a ubiquitous tune.

One line that is a bit unique is the "should old acquaintances be forgot". The word 'acquaintance' says more than old family or old friends, rather it speaks about every person ever known, met or thought about. It makes our remembrances broader and admits that people who may pass through our lives even only briefly may be very significant to just and impact our lives deeply and broadly. We remember those as well as the more obvious people who influence us.

So this New Year's Eve do as the song pronounces to "take a cup of kindness", do that for for them as well. Happy New Year!

Seasonal Muslim Hate

This may be the holiday season, that time of love and peace and brotherhood, but in some Muslim circles it's just an opportunity to ratchet up the hate and violence against "infidels and non conforming Muslims. Here's a sample. Terror attacks across Nigeria by a radical Muslim sect killed at least 39 people, with the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic Church after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion.

Then there is a little matter of portraying Christmas itself as an "evil" holiday. Fanatics from a banned Islamic hate group launched a nationwide poster campaign in Britain denouncing Christmas as evil. Organizers put up thousands of placards around the UK claiming the season of goodwill is responsible for rape, teenage pregnancies, abortion, promiscuity, crime and pedophilia. They say that they hope the campaign will help 'destroy Christmas' in the UK and lead to Britons converting to Islam instead. Santa should slap them all.

In Iran, where 12th century behavior is considered mainstream by Muslims there, authorities in Iran said they are again moving ahead with plans to execute a woman sentenced to death by stoning on an adultery conviction. Now that public outcry has been so loud about another stoning of a female (they have murdered six others by stoning since 2006) they are considering whether to carry out the punishment by hanging instead. Haha Only a fanatical Muslim could view hanging as punishment for adultery as a more fair punishment than blessing.

There's plenty more crazy, hateful holiday behavior in the Muslim world or by Muslims living in the non Muslims world. One prominent cleric announced on Christmas day at a Muslim web site that " Saying Merry Christmas is worse than fornicating, drinking alcohol or killing someone." You get the idea. The sad part of this is that many Muslims are as outraged by crazy Mullahs and government officials who murder in the name of a religion. Yet, few if any condemn ti or try to stop it in any ways. So the silence of mainstream Muslims makes non Muslims feel they also approve of the insanity perpetrated by the lunatic fringe of the Islam world. Gee, it may not be so hard to understand why so many non Muslims dislike Islam and react with their on hateful behavior toward the Muslim population.

Fact is, Muslims are integrated every society in the world. Acts of Christmas hate reflects that. Whether the lunatics will win out and stir mainstream Muslims to follow their lead or whether modernity and the non Muslim societies will make Muslims turn against the crazed Muslims factions remains to be seen.

Uh, I would wish you a late "Merry Christmas" but that idiotic cleric might accuse me of being a drunk, fornicating, murderer if I did.....

Bad Holiday Food

If you think fruitcakes can become stale and old, how about a 100 year old Christmas cake? In Minnesota a petrified, two layer, 7-inch cake baked just before Christmas 1911, was discovered in a closet in 1992 before an estate sale. As you can see by the photo below, the cake frosting has mostly disintegrated and the nuts on top are mummified. But the writing on the decorative mints is still readable.

According to a newspaper report in Minnesota, the cake was packed in a florist box with the handwritten inscription, "XMAS CAKE BAKED IN DEC. 1911" on the lid. On the bottom of the box, there was more handwritten inscription: "Xmas Cake Baked in Year 1911 by my Mother's Brother Alex died Dec. 27. Was operated on Xmas Day. Thus, the illness and subsequent death of Alex is the reason it was stored away in a closet and never eaten. (Allegedly, the world's oldest cake, still preserved in a museum in Vevey, Switzerland. The cake is sealed and vacuum-packed in the grave of an ancient Egyptian named Pepionkh.)

I am not sure what one would do with that 100 year old cake other than look at it. I'm not going to eat any of it, and I won't eat a few of the Christmas and New Year foods that are traditional and made every Holiday season. As much as I love and over eat some Christmas foods, the hard Christmas candy, Stollen cake, Panetoni, Cheesecake, fruitcake, Christmas cookies, New Year's Eve pork roast etc.... There are some I don't want
(My dad used to eat black eyed peas on New Year's Eve..Yuk!) and would surely hide in my closet for at least 100 years if given any to eat. Here are five of them.

* Eggnog- adding booze to milk, cream, sugar and eggs will give any sane person an indigestion Christmas.
* Crema de Vie- This is a Cuban contribution and a form of eggnog that may be worst than eggnog itself. It is made with condensed milk, rum, sugar, cinnamon or vanilla, lemon rind, and egg yolk. Why would anyone want a variation of killer eggnog?
* Cans of cranberry sauce- You are supposed to put that sweet, gelatinous and unidentified goop on your turkey. Any turkey that needs that is probably too dry to eat anyway.
* Mincemeat pie- No wonder they claim England has terrible food. They gave us mincemeat and insist that it tastes good. Case closed! Mincemeat proves the stereotype of bad English food is true.
* Green bean casserole- Green beans, fried onions, and canned soup are mixed together and baked. RUN if you are served this.

I feel indigestion coming on and fear an eggnog nightmare...so I leave you with the mess above. Hope you enjoy your food today!

Most admired 2011

Those 'most admired of the year' lists are out again. For the annual Gallup poll most admired male of 2011 Barrack Obama is in first place. But he shouldn't feel too happy about it, George Bush was number two. Someone should check the breath of the voters to make sure they were sober. It seems that in this country the president almost always wins, even when he is a dud like Bush and Obama.

Hillary Clinton was first on the lady list this year. Hillary should also not do any somersaults about her selection. A talk show TV hostess, Oprah Winphrey, finished second. I am not sure why I should admire Oprah, other than the fact that she makes a lot of money by presenting dumbed down programming for the masses. But Hillary has a tough job as Secretary of State and by all accounts has done well. She has won the award 10 years in a row. It seems a bad combo.

Why do they lump together entertainers with Secretaries of State? It's like presenting the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes on the same stage as the award for the guy who can drink the most beer through a straw in his nose. The public votes on the award for most admired without regard to category because politics, religion, money and culture get publicity that is needed for selection.

Why not have separate categories for most admire? I, uh have a few suggestions and my winner of each. How about?

* 'Most admired dysfunctional celebrity'- I couldn't pick one as the winner, given that there are literally 1000's of equally obnoxious, spoiled brat celebrities.

* 'Most admired growth pattern for short people'- The late North Korean dictator Kim Jun Il wins in a landslide due to his super sized shoe lifts and that comb up hair wave that turned him from an insane midget to an insane NBA prospect.

* 'Most admired for having the most success with the least talent'- Kim Kardashian or any Kardashian, for that matter. Every reality TV contestant ties for second place.

* 'Most admired death'- Take your pick between Mohammar Ghaddafi and that Little Kim guy. The world is still applauding the demise of both.

* 'Most admired for likely to keep tattooing'- That Kat Von D creature who's whole fame is tied to sexual excess with creepy men and her endless supply of tattoos. Oh wait, I withdraw the selection.. I think that Kat has run out room for any more toos.

Your suggestions for more categories and winners are welcome..............

Changing Toys

The kinds of toys kids play with can tell much about a society They evolve like everything else. To a great extent the more popular kid toys today are the least imaginative ones. This reflects the fact that technology has taken control of us to the extent that it entertains us more than we entertain ourselves. Kids still pretend and still sometimes (especially when they are very small before being captured by electronic gadgets) play with the old toys that will be universal for all time, the doll or sled for instance.

If one looked beneath a Christmas tree in 2011 and then flashed back to 1955, not only would there be many more toys beneath the 2011 tree, but many of them would be the passive type in which the child "turns it on" and is entertained. Imagination would be needed far less in the child of 2011. It's shocking that so many parents give Christmas gifts like iphones to their toddler. Parents too are not challenged to use their imagination as much today . We adults are asked to use our imagination less and less with each computer chip generated device to which we surrender.

In past generations kids used to spend hours running, playing and imagining outside. Now they stay inside and "connect" to an electronic device. They used to walk, wander in the neighborhood and outside. Now they more often wander in virtual worlds that present information rather than demand they create it. I think parents encourage the new toys because they keep their children "safe" in a complex and sometimes what appears to be a more dangerous world.

I wonder if the simple unstructured play part of childhood is missing too much now. When so, kids lose their childhood and deaden their imaginations in the process. Or maybe I have it wrong. Maybe all the devices that kids flock to today create a different kind of play and imagination that is positive. My instinct tells me it is not so because the toys that kids use today seem to be too much like adult activities. When the four year old plays with the same cell phone as mom and dad and not with dolls or pretending to be a cowboy.

I wonder if the childhood period today isn't as distinct as before, and that this might imply that a child who misses out on distinct childhood adventures and replaces them with activities that children share with older ages is harmed in the process.

Pre Christmas Thoughts

It almost seems like Christmas day here. Several radio stations even play all Christmas music, the stores have "Christmas sales" and are decorated. I noticed some vendors are starting to sell Christmas trees, there is specialty Christmas food in every store. Oregon is the leading state in the U.S. for growing and selling Christmas trees. They are a native tree and many farms here grow rows of them for cutting and sale. One can even go to a farm and choose and cut a Christmas tree.

Since Jane went go back to New Orleans for the Christmas holidays yesterday, we just bought a smaller fresh cut tree and put it in Jane's downstairs part of the house. I won't have one "for me" in the main part of the house. But I will put up some decorations in the house in the next few days. My mom used to decorate a great deal, as does everyone in New Orleans, so I inherited the idea to make the house look "Christmas". I don't put outdoor lights out here. People in Portland are far less interested in outdoor decorations, and it is a great deal of work to light the outside and to dismantle it after Christmas. That is in keeping with the more reticent nature of people here in Portland (compared to New Orleans and the southern United States).

One Christmas activity that is held here before Christmas, but not in New Orleans, is the sleigh ride and the Polar Express Christmas train (modeled on the 'Polar Express" film) that rides into the snow and mountains of Mount Hood. That's something to investigate one December, if not this one. The sleigh rides are offered at a number of Christmas tree farms, some of which (those in the higher elevations at the foot of Mount Hood) may have snow while one take the horse driven sleigh ride. I have neither been on a sleigh ride, nor one with snow falling as it glides about. It is said that some for the decorations at the farms that do the sleigh rides are spectacular.

I got in the mood for Christmas by re reading the Charles Dickens's classic, "A Christmas Carol', and am also reading a couple of other Dickens Christmas short stories,. less popular but extremely atmospheric. Haha if this sentimentality gets out of hand I will make more Christmas cookies or a Christmas Cheesecake. If I make a Christmas fruitcake it will be a sign of complete madness that requires institutionalization. Actually, I still have one fruitcake I made last Christmas stocked in my freezer. it should still be suitable for eating, even given the time frame it has been frozen.

Until Christmas is done, I send you a Ho Ho Ho.

Bad Christmas Food

If you think fruitcakes can become stale and old, how about a 100 year old Christmas cake? In Minnesota a petrified, two layer, 7-inch cake baked just before Christmas 1911, was discovered in a closet in 1992 before an estate sale. As you can see by the photo below, the cake frosting has mostly disintegrated and the nuts on top are mummified. But the writing on the decorative mints is still readable.

According to a newspaper report in Minnesota, the cake was packed in a florist box with the handwritten inscription, "XMAS CAKE BAKED IN DEC. 1911" on the lid. On the bottom of the box, there was more handwritten inscription: "Xmas Cake Baked in Year 1911 by my Mother's Brother Alex died Dec. 27. Was operated on Xmas Day. Thus, the illness and subsequent death of Alex is the reason it was stored away in a closet and never eaten. (Allegedly, the world's oldest cake, still preserved in a museum in Vevey, Switzerland. The cake is sealed and vacuum-packed in the grave of an ancient Egyptian named Pepionkh.)

I am not sure what one would do with that 100 year old cake other than look at it. I'm not going to eat any of it, and I won't eat a few of the traditional Christmas foods that are traditional and made every Christmas season. As much as I love and over eat some Christmas foods, the hard Christmas candy, Stollen cake, Panetoni, Cheesecake, fruitcake, Christmas cookies etc.... There are some I don't want and would surely hide in my closet for at least 100 years if given any to eat. Here are five of them.

* Eggnog- adding booze to milk, cream, sugar and eggs will give any sane person an indigestion Christmas.
* Crema de Vie- This is a Cuban contribution and a form of eggnog that may be worst than eggnog itself. It is made with condensed milk, rum, sugar, cinnamon or vanilla, lemon rind, and egg yolk. Why would anyone want a variation of killer eggnog?
* Cans of cranberry sauce- You are supposed to put that sweet, gelatinous and unidentified goop on your turkey. Any turkey that needs that is probably too dry to eat anyway.
* Mincemeat pie- No wonder they claim England has terrible food. They gave us mincemeat and insist that it tastes good. Case closed! Mincemeat proves the stereotype of bad English food is true.
* Green bean casserole- Green beans, fried onions, and canned soup are mixed together and baked. RUN if you are served this.

I feel indigestion coming on and fear an eggnog nightmare...so I leave you with the mess above.

Christmas Stockings

I just saw a story on line about "stocking stuffers" for Christmas. You know, those Christmas stockings kids and sensible adults hang on the fireplace mantle or somewhere near the Christmas tree in hope of receiving small treats from Santa Claus to compliment those bigger presents under the tree. Reading that story about stocking stuffers reminded me that I didn't know the history, or at least the origin, behind the Christmas stocking, at least intrigued me.

So, I found that the Christmas stocking is a about the real life version on which Santa is based, Saint Nicholas. Folklore tells the story of a nobleman whose wife had died, leaving him penniless with three daughters. Left with no money for a dowry, the nobleman was worried about the dowry for his daughters to marry. On Christmas, Saint Nicholas came to their home and saw the girls' stockings hanging to dry above the fireplace. He then filled them with gold and the nobleman's daughters were able to marry. Thus the tradition of today hanging stockings at Christmas MAY have been born from that bit of myth.

This stocking thing has caught on worldwide, even in some Muslim areas. In a number of countries, children will fill shoes( France uses shoes instead of stockings...maybe they not only don't bathe their bodies, but also don't wash their socks. Hehe It's always fun to take a shot at the French.) or stockings with hay and carrots for Santa's reindeer to enjoy. When I was a child I remember my mom not only putting up a sticking for every family member, but also knitting one for our dog Dumbo (and later a second dog "Tiger").

The dogs got doggie treats to munch on and the humans varies inexpensive items that fit in the larger than life hand made felt stockings. When Jane was small I put in items of all sorts that a little girl would like- a big candy cane, the old hand held electronic games that predated our more elaborate computer games and devices, small Christmas activity books for coloring or reading, clothes for her dolls (Barbie can make a dad a poor man because she always needs more outfits), small toys and a whole lot more I have forgotten.

The stocking contents are the dessert to the Christmas morning main course of the presents under the tree. Most people open presents and only when done with that do they head for the mantle and the Christmas stockings. I can't remember much of what was in my Christmas stocking when I was a child because I was more fixated on the "big stuff' under the tree. however, a Christmas stocking is essential if one has a Christmas tree and presents to give. The stocking "dessert" reminds us that the gift giver went the extra step to accumulate a number of smaller goodies for us. I still have a Christmas stocking for Jane, but the one she gets as a young woman is more practical...items such as gift cards predominate (though I still give here what I consider the essential Christmas Stocking stuffer, any age and any year, the over-sized peppermint candy cane).

The basic model for proper Christmas stocking includes the following;
* A large, colorful, personally monogrammed stocking is best. One per person is enough
* Cheaper items are best one never wants the stocking to take precedence over the gifts under the tree (never open stockings before presents)
* The stocking is the place for silly gifts, those "I am not sure she wants this" gifts, and for traditional favorites (a certain favored candy or hand made treat, for instance)
* The stocking is both a decoration and a vehicle for presents. Pretty hanging stockings make a warming pre Christmas home sight.
* And uh...never, ever actually put coal in a stocking at Christmas for the bad ones, as those crazy stories suggest. Even Lindsay Lohan deserves a nice Christmas stocking filled with nice gifts.

May your Christmas stocking be coal free every year...

What's Funny

One of the more subjective things in our lives is humor. What's funny to me might be serious to you. Uh, as in my comment that your new and dear hat is an abomination that only Elton John would wear. I mean it as joke, but your love of that hat just causes hurt and resentment when I point out its look. It's an extreme example, but it does illustrate that humor is hard to define.

I laughed readily when I saw the internet video sensation of the woman walking in a shopping mall, so absorbed in her cell phone, that she fell into the mall water fountain. No doubt she didn't think it was funny. Humor is the juxtaposition of the real and hard to believe, or the more simply, the tragic and the typical. To make us laugh, something has to touch some emotion we have. But we don't all react the same way emotionally.

Here are some things that I think are funny and some I think not funny. I bet you will disagree on quite a few. Funny to me would be Benny Hill. Not funny is Jim Carey. I think someone passing gas in church is hysterical, and I will laugh loudly when it happens but passing gas at a football game isn't funny to me. The old Laurel and Hardy films are a riot for me. But watching a Jerry Seinfeld monologue is a pain in the rear.

I never laugh at that guy's jokes. When ex President George Bush used to mangle the language while speaking in public I laughed at his lack of ability to use English. But I am sure his supporters didn't laugh at all. Comic Steve Martin is almost always funny to me. I think I anticipate he will be funny and start laughing before he even starts his joke. When Rosanne Barr comes on stage I already have determined not to laugh, a kind of negative predetermination I have toward her. It's because "I just don't think she is funny".

Having a funny attitude is a positive way of viewing life and one's role in the world. A good sense of humor has many benefits, from personal happiness to making one more likable to others. It also is healthy to see the lighter side of life, particularly when there is darkness all around. And that's no joke.

Losing Belief In Santa Too Early

You know what else all the high tech communication is killing these days? Santa Claus. Kids can video chat with Santa, follow him on Twitter or use the NORAD system to" track" his sleigh movements on Christmas night his every move online. Juts imagine what a young Santa believer would feel if he googled Santa and was taken to a web site that, for instance, advertised how the parent could order a phone call from Santa, Santa evidence kits and official good list certificates or that said :"make your child's fantasy in Santa real". It could instantly kill Santa for the child.

So the question is, does technology make it harder for parents to keep their children believing in Santa? I think so, because the overall influence of all the cell phones and other electronics has been to make kids "grow up faster". This is a pity, for everyone needs a childhood of innocence. Santa represents innocence about as well as anything.

A few internet Google searches of "Santa" by little Johnny and the fat man is turned from a real toy giver into a marketing myth. Jane grew up before the google syndrome and internet availability was much of an influence on kids, but if I had a child today who was under 8 or 9 years old I would drastically limit Internet usage to not make he or she "grow up" too fast.

It goes beyond the idea of keeping a world available for kids that includes such joys as the belief in Santa. The totality of separating small kids from being "connected' is that thrusting kids into the world too quickly steals their childhood and hinders their psychological health. Children need to believe in the magical and the impossible or they become more cynical than they should be in adulthood.

Now, with the technology available to even the smallest children, whether or not Santa exists is more readily available to children beyond asking their parents. It's just another way in which the modern world tell us that parenting is being taken out of the hands of parents. I refuse to say "Ho Ho Ho" to that!

North Korean Future

One of the world's worst dictators, Kim Jong Il, is dead. When this happens usually one of the thug dictator's sons takes his place and things continue to go bad for the poor souls who are under the thumb of the dictator. Kim Jong Unn is supposed to be the new guy, groomed by daddy Kim for the past few years and already on record as being as miserable a human being as dad was (as responsible for the deaths of perhaps millions of North Koreans through widespread preventable starvation, terrible prisons, forced labor camps and public executions) .

But will Unn ever take control? These days dictators are in bad fashion as the mass communication system have shown their subjects that democracy or some semblance of it, is afar far better system than being run by a "Dear One" like daddy Kim. South Korea probably just wants someone to take over before a flood of refugees from North Korea would damage its economy. And if a war breaks out between North and South Korea it would be a disaster for the whole region.

North Korea is the anomaly of the Internet age: a country with a population shut off from the world. It has no middle class just the favored few and the fearful masses. It has no churches, no democratic movement or intelligentsia and little information from the rest of the world or information about it apart from the lies of the state radio and Tv networks. And..North Korea has nuclear capability. This makes North Korea's future a different and more problematic one than what has been happening in the Mid East to its dictatorships.

Given all of that, I am grateful to both not be North Korean and to live far enough away from the mess to have some insulation from the future that awaits that region.

Researching Nonsense

This was too absurd to not pass on to you, so here it is today. There is a federal organization, The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), pay scientists to study..uh...questionable topics. That is, it pays taxpayer money for less than scientific research on matters that seem too trivial to think about given the tough economic times taxpayers face.

A small, little-known branch of the National Institutes of Health, NCCAM was launched a dozen years ago to study alternative treatments used by the public but not accepted by mainstream medicine. Since its birth, the center has spent $1.4 billion, most of it on "research". Essentially, the center has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on studies with questionable grounding in science.

Don't believe me? Ok, here are some of the studies conducted THIS YEAR conducted and their costs.
- a $374,000 taxpayer-funded grant was given to someone to study whether inhaling lemon and lavender scents can heal a wound. Amazingly...it can't...but I could have told them that for less that the $374,000 study cost.
- Then there was the $666,000 in federal research money, scientists examined whether distant prayer could heal AIDS. Sorry, believers.... It could not.
- Scientists were paid to study whether squirting brewed coffee into someone's intestines can help treat pancreatic cancer (a $406,000 grant) and whether massage makes people with advanced cancer feel better ($1.25 million). The coffee enemas did not help. The massage did.
- Given that politicians love to spout about how much they love the environment and how scary "global warming" is, the NCCAM also has invested in a number of studies of various forms of energy healing, including one based on the ideas of a self-described "healer, clairvoyant and medicine woman" who says her children inspired her to learn to read auras. The cost for that was $104,000. If you solicit her, I think that woman may not only not heal you, but make your bank account shrink in size.

Sad thing is, with the economy so bad the spending on this junk comes at the expense of real research projects who lose their funding to this mess. Lots of good science and good scientists are going unfunded because of this. But then in this politically correct age where everything is seen to have equal value, science has been relegated to unconfirmed hypothesis and opinion (see "global warming" as an example). I don't think we need a study to confirm the truth of that.

Rise In Addictions

I just read an article in Newsweek magazine about the increasing number of sex addicts in the U.S. (and elsewhere in this inter connected world, I presume). It laid out causes, effects of the sexual addiction on lives, treatments for it, and said that there are almost 6 million sex addicts here, a big increase in the number over the past 25 years. It made me curious about the subject of overall addiction. I think the percentage of addicts now is much higher than in previous years, and it is because it is a whole lot easier to become an addict today.

Another two addictions that are epidemic today are the electronic addiction and drug addiction. Looking at those two as a paradigm of why so many are addicted today may explain the problem better. In both cases improved communications have made it easier to become addicted because access to the addiction has increased. In the case of the electronic device addiction, there are so many electronic devices that seduce users with promises of innovations, that one can become consumed by electronics. If you doubt it, just observe cell phone users anywhere, any place, any time. They are both excessive and abusive in use and oblivious to anyone around them while using their phones. They also show the classic addictive property.... denial of their addiction.

Drug addiction (Unlike drugs in general, I don't think any more people are addicted to alcohol than previously, because alcohol availability and type remains constant. There is nothing "new" to stimulate more addiction) also is enhanced and encouraged by the wide variety of new drugs, the lower costs and the fact that society is more understanding (In some situations it almost expects it!) of people who are addicted to drugs. The wide availability of legal prescription drugs that physicians have been shamelessly guilty of handing to their patients is yet another reason for more drug addiction. There is now a blur between legal and illegal drug usage, and that cause more people to abuse drugs.

Of course there are many other categories in the rise in addictive behavior. Humans today have more affluence, more time to be addicted and more invisibility when practicing their addictions. Society seems more understanding as more and more of its members practice their own big or small addictions. As our values shift to one of more acceptance of the addict, I think we will see an even greater growth in addictive behavior. I can think of quite a few people I know who are addicted to something, and whose addiction is impairing their ability to function to their maximum. Twenty five years ago I did not have that kind of anecdotal evidence of addiction. I wonder if you feel the same or disagree with me about this issue.

Using Language Badly

I can't report on other languages, but I am fairly sure the quality of English language is in decline. I blame it on the electronic devices that make informal language standard and formal language almost extinct. It's quite an irony. One would think the improved communication avenues and the speed at which they work would make for better language. It does not. We have become "language sloppy".

I saw an article the other day about the most used web site of all, Face book. The writer listed ten sloppy, erroneous and overused expressions that clutter Face book pages. Here they are. 1. At the end of the day 2. Fairly unique 3. I personally 4. At this moment in time 5. With all due respect 6. Absolutely 7. It's a nightmare 8. Shouldn't of 9.24-7 10. It's not rocket science

I would be shocked if you didn't agree you hear those way too much. And we both could make a long list of our own least favorite sloppy, incorrect or overused terms or phrases. With so many sources for discussion there is much bad usage in speech and print. Need an example, just look at blogging.

All the anonymous blogging has dumbed down discussions as well as spewed erroneous information. It might be a new law that given the proliferation of media sources, that bad language kills good language. Fact is, when we use the technology we try to get the message across as quickly as possible, and damn the usage, grammar and spelling as we do it. "Multitasking" (I hate that word) is fatal to meaningful and accurate communication.

The Internet is the source of much of the bad language usage and the promotion of it. The amateurs rule the Internet and amateurs are not good for language. They Twitter constantly about "nothing" (as in, "I'm on the toilet now"). They text abbreviations (abbreviation is the simplest form of language and should never be a standard usage) is not that require an understanding of a simplistic code. Spelling usage and content are injured by it all.

Some say that the technology doesn't ruin the language it just changes it. Well, the people who use the technology are the ones ruining the language, not the devices. Too many simply do not respect clarity in language. The technology gives people the tools to kill the language as they never had before. Given that we humans are lazy, we sometimes will seek refuge in the simplistic. When seeking the simplest language forms all we do is create a state of uncertainty in the form of unclear expressions.

Sad to say, this can't change unless people either greatly reduce using the new technology for the communication (Ha! Cast down your cell phones and rejoin civilization!) or make a conscious effort to use the new technology better. Neither is likely to happen. So we are devolving into poor communicators and probably will be until enough of us say "enough" and demand better. So until they do I, guess I could dumb down more too. As in a more modern closing.... "hey, wht r u up 2 dog".

A Santa Wish List

I think it's time to make my Santa wish list. These are things I think the world could use, but few others believe we need. Let's let Santa mediate and decide to bring or not bring them after his usual judicious examination of the facts. After all, Santa is the guy who wouldn't bring the bee gun the 10 year old wanted because "You'll shoot your eye out, if I give it to you."

Ok, Santa, here are five of the things I want the world to get for Christmas.
- Santa... to the hundreds of millions of people who now walk around with their heads down, staring blankly into their iPhones or BlackBerrys or whatever it is they're holding and chattering to endlessly, Do you have a cure for that, maybe a potion I can sprinkle on them to bring manners back to them and to make them see the real world they ignore? What a gift that would be. To see people's faces again and to see them realize there is another world besides the technological one.

- Hey, fat jolly guy in the red suit! How about gathering all those reality show contestants and dropping them into a real world situation. Let's see if they can survive in the trenches, away from the staged camera views the idiots who watch and worship those "stars" believe are real are reality.

- How about some individual gifts, Mr. Claus, to make some rather annoying or dangerous humans behave better. I suggest for the following people the follow gifts They need no explanation, Santa: Barrack Obama- truth serum, The Kardasian family- a one way ticket to the North Pole....please keep them there and out of site, Muslim haters- a Muslim vision, Christian haters- a Muslim vision, Global Warming zealots- a fan to cool off their nonsensical rhetoric, Save the planet advocates- a full color, step by step manual for them to use to save themselves first since they often are more lost than is the planet they wish to save, Lady Gaga- to balance her shooting star.... a falling star to bring some sense of reality to her image of self importance.

- Protester manuals for all the protesters throughout the world would be Santarific for us all. It might help explain why some protests are worthless (those 99% er occupy park protests in the U.S. for example) and others are noble (those who risk all, their lives included to bring down the dictators who rule them). If the protesters who protest "nothing" would read your manual, maybe they would go home and not come back until they have a reason to protest. This sure would make us appreciate real causes and real sacrifices like the real protesters give.

- Santa, if you can bottle and place under every Christmas tree the Christmas spirit that is pervasive around Christmas, the world might be a better place in which to live. Uh I'd even be willing to drink that nasty Christmas egg nog every day if you do it.

Identity/Credit Card Thefts

Ever have your identity stolen by a thief who used your bank account, credit cards or some other financial account. It happened to me once when I drove from New Orleans and paid for a hotel room in Wyoming. My plan was to pay cash for every motel where I stopped to sleep, and I did at all except the Wyoming hotel. It seems they wouldn't let me pay with cash for...get this...security reasons. They wanted security that i would pay of I damaged the room and yet one of their employees stole card numbers (including mine) that day.

I didn't find out someone tried to use my credit card until more than a week later when Jane and I went shopping for furniture for her part of the house. When I tried to pay with my credit card I was told the account had been closed because of expected fraud. That kind of stolen credit card used at a business has been the most common way people have been victims of identity theft. But now, I have read that "experts' in identity theft say that travelers are especially vulnerable because they increasingly rely on electronic devices that easily can be lost or hacked.

It's good news for me, since I do not use those electronic devices, and bad news for most others who do. Credant Technologies, a data-protection company, found that travelers have lost 11,000 mobile devices at the busiest U.S. airports this year, 37.5% of them laptops and 37.2% tablets or smart phones. So carelessness (stupidity) in using those electronic devices makes it even easier for thieves to use them for their own wants.

As in my credit card theft experience, the hotel is the most common theft site. Supposedly, 38% occurred at hotels or resorts. It is claimed that today, you are 15 times more likely to have your identity stolen than to have your car broken into. The two devices that give the thieves their most common theft avenues are unsecured wireless networks at hotels, airports and other public places and the those (dumb) smart phones. Never ever use a Wi Fi at an airport. There are plenty of identity theft thieves waiting for you to so just that. The problem of course, is that most people are so addicted to their technology they are incapable of thinking rationally when using it.

But the reality is that if you take the appropriate precautions, you reduce your risk dramatically because the criminals will move to someone who is more careless than you. Wanna bet against me that I think most people are too addicted to do that?

Merry Christmas....Criminals

Christmas time is supposed to be the time for peace, brotherhood, love...all those sappy states of nirvana humans try for but never seem to achieve. So given that Christmas is also a time when criminals and bad brotherhood also continue to rear their heads, I think we should look at some of the not so sweet and syrupy Christmas moments that have happened this year. Instead of "ho ho ho" times you might call them all them "oh no, oh no. oh no" moments.

- South Carolina woman, Patty White, confessed to killing her friend Michele O' Dowd the other day and then burying her body under a pile of Christmas presents in the victim's home. The motive? Patty wanted to use O'Dowd's debit card. I wonder if Santa will bypass Patty's jail cell this Christmas or maybe just drop in with some Christmas coal.

- If you are ever in the state of Georgia and looking for that Christmas mistletoe to put over your doorway beware of a mistletoe hunter named William E. Robinson. Mistletoe Bill was out looking for some of that smooch plant that he saw outside a shopping mall. "Every year I go somewhere to get some mistletoe to decorate the house ... I get some for my friends that can't get mistletoe. The best way to get it is with a shotgun." Yep! He tried to shoot it down from the tree right there next to the mall. Too bad. When in prison this Christmas Bill will probably be kissed by more of the inmates than he would liked to be.

- Most people think Christmas ornaments are pretty representations of the beauty of the holidays. But not one Christmas shopping attendee named Ruth Wagner. Ruth believes in receiving, not giving....as in stealing ornaments at Christmas fare sales she attends. After being chased and caught by one vendor who watched Ruth steal an ornament from his display, Ruth decided to use the ornament as a weapon and stabbed the pursuing vendor. Now Ruth will have to spend Christmas decorating the jail house tree.

- Terry Trent of Ohio was eager to get a jump on the Christmas season and, I suppose, wanted to show he could fly higher than Santa himself. The 44-year-old, allegedly got very high and out of his mind smelling bath salts, and was arrested for breaking into a Dayton home and putting up Christmas decorations. He was discovered watching television on the couch by the 11-year-old boy who lives there and no doubt thought Terry's imitation of Santa in the sky was quite convincing. Police are unconvinced.

- Even guys dressed like Frosty the Snowman can overdo their Christmas spirit with bad behavior. One guy dressed as Frosty at a Maryland Christmas parade made a threatening "kicking motion" at one of the police department's K-9 dogs. Kevin Walsh (aka Frosty) then pushed and cursed out an officer while still in his costume and was arrested before he could melt and dissolve into dew.

Board Games For Christmas

Forget those electronic toys you were going to give that nephew or niece on your Christmas gift list. What's old sometimes becomes new again, and what is becoming a popular Christmas gift today might surprise you. There's been a steady resurgence in vintage board game popularity for the last several years. The children of the generations like mine who played board games so obsessively in their youth now have children of their own, and they want them to feel the same joy and excitement they originally felt when playing these games. So, next to the ipod under the Christmas tree at many homes this year might be is a vintage board game like Aggravation, Monopoly, or Careers.

I used to love playing board games as a kid, but strangely, I abhor the computer games of today. There is something different about seeing a board on the floor and manipulating the parts that go with it. Electronics are too sterile for me to embrace, and that includes board games that have been translated into electronic forms. Give me the board format or don't give me the game. I think Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue, even classic Checkers....would endure if parents more often offered them to their kids. And who can forget family board game events and how much they help to tie family members together? There is a magic in playing a game that one can see and feel. That magic doesn't often exist in electronic versions.

Here in Portland I see quite a few board game clubs available that consist of adult who remember, love and still try to play (if they can find anyone willing) board games. Most members claim the board games allow them to relax, get away from electronics and relive memories of youth, when board games ruled in a non electronic society. The fact that the best board games are simple to play is also probably an appeal to them.
One of the joys of playing board games is they are communal events.

When playing a board game one does it with others, not alone with a keyboard and the alienated glare electronic devices emit, the "I love my technology above all" look that electronic addicts give us. Too, whether one wins or loses the board game matters very little. It's a low pressure "fun" activity that encourages conversation and interactions among the participants.

Jane took some of the board games with us when we moved to Oregon, and many teens still love the classic "Twister" game. But without a big push advocating them, parents would have little success interesting kids today in playing them. Kids need to rediscover what they are missing. Hmmmm I wonder if there is a board game that encourages kids to play board games.

Old Recipes

It's holiday time and that always means (for me at least) pulling out traditional recipes for holiday food dishes. I think I still cook some of those things the way my mom and her mom used to cook, not so much because their recipes are better (but they often are), but rather because it is a tie to my ancestors. My mom and her mom are long gone, but they live on in their recipes that I have kept after their passing. It is good.

My mother left behind most of hers and her mom, the Irish connection in my genes, was as all Irish women seem to be, more of a baker than general cook. From her I have some recipes for sweets (I remember often making her Irish ice box cookies with her when I was a child). I have no idea what happened to her general cooking recipes because my mother didn't have them either. And the best cook in the family, my dad's mother, left no recipes behind. It is a pity that is so, but I think she was one of those master cooks who never wrote anything down, given everything she cooked was the best thing one had ever eaten.

I'll leave my recipes to Jane, but I think she is too disinterested to even keep them, much less cook them. Kids today are so a wired (addicted) to electronic technology, many have no time or inclination to cook. It is sad because cooking is about the cheapest therapeutic regimen one can use to reduce stress or melancholy.

Doesn't it seem we all have at least one signature food recipe from our relatives that we ourselves reproduce at holiday times? From my mom's mom it is her lemon pie and from my mother her cheesecake, the simple one everyone clamors for once tasted. Sometimes I want to hide at Christmas because those who have eaten my cheesecake (but maybe I am just an agent for my late mother since it is her recipe I use and I should say it is "her" cheesecake) want me to make it. Well, I am "in culinary hiding" in Portland now where they don't know about such things. Sometimes separation from one's familiar venue is an advantage.

I don't feel it is Christmas until I make that cheesecake. And too, having made so many holiday cookies with Jane during her lifetime I am hoping she may inherit that lone cooking tradition from me and make cookies with her own kids some day. Some of those recipes from my grandmother are faded and some even too hard to read. But my mom's are newer and mostly in tact. A few of my favorites from her seem to be missing.
When my mother died and I took her recipes, both orderly in files and scattered on paper all about, I found a personal letter from my mother and a friend of hers in her recipe files.

That was a nice, unexpected find, the sugar on top of the recipe file because it reminds me of her even more than do the recipes. I guess I'll soon make that cheesecake and the memories of those recipes will make it taste even better than it will be.

To Many Ears Listening

I saw a TV commercial the other day that actually got my attention. In fact, TV itself usually doesn't get my attention. I think the low level of commercials reflects the low level of TV, but that's a subject for another day. This commercial advertisement is for the Sonic Earz line that sells for under $20 and claims to make sounds and voices clear to the ear by using hearing amplification and "a new hearing aid technology". The Sonic Earz hearing aid is said to be better than most average listening devices. It is designed to help you clearly hear up to 30 yards away. (Oh, my. It reads here as if I am advertising that.)

It also has a volume control switch to select the sound level desired and can be worn in the ear much as a hearing ad is. But this product is clearly not for people with hearing problems. It is not usable as hearing aid and the commercial shows some rather intrusive uses. In one segment, a man is chatting with another and tells him, " I'm going to ask Karen to marry me". Of course, sneaky Karen is conversing with another person way across the room, but hears her boyfriend declare his proposal intention ahead of the actual proposal moment. She smiles radiantly because she has effectively spied on his conversation. Good luck to that man in his marriage to Karen. I think she will keep a very close tab on all he does.

But wait! I looked online and found there are manyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy listening devices just like that one. It seems the technological boom includes finding more ways to betray the trust of others by using technology to spy on others. I wish I could find a privacy device that would block the spies. Yet, no one is offering that kind of block.
I think as our privacy becomes more rare and more dear, that a device that blocks the spies and other technology could be the next product sensation. It should be my right to have my stupidity not broadcast to anyone else, without my approval. people should be able to tell my many defects just by observing me face to face.

Gifting

What's going on with gift giving in this materialistic age of ours? Christmas now seems more like looting and pillaging than giving and receiving. Getting gifts at holiday time is no longer about the special delightful something from one to another. Rather, it's more that people have gotten mercenary about the whole idea of the Christmas gift. Those who receive the gifts are now are an increasingly difficult crowd to please, as they are picky and demanding in what they "get" They are treating even loved ones like catalogs or department stores, shoving lengthy wish lists in the face of the givers, demanding gift cards or saying "give me cash".

I am guilty of giving those gift cards. They are an easy gift and never seem to disappoint. But it sure would be nicer if people today would appreciate less material objects and cash, and instead something "given from the heart". I suppose I am an anachronism, from a time when a small box of hand made, home decorated, Christmas cookies was the best gift one could get because it took time and effort by the giver to make it. Make something for me, anything personal, and I will treasure that gift above all the more material ones. The cost of the object given should be irrelevant. But this was the custom of the era in which I was raised. Christmas was not about accumulating loot, but rather being nice to each other and saying or showing that "I appreciate or love you".

In a recent Harvard Business School, published in March in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, five experiments demonstrated that people accrued more pleasure and were more appreciative of a gift if it was something they themselves had requested. (The "I want, me, me" mentality of a toddler) What's more, the study's subjects rated givers as more thoughtful if they gave from a wish list. So, if the receiver asks for something and you give them something else, you are a loser for doing it. Sigh.

The study also showed that the givers wrongly imagined that their gifts would be equally appreciative of gifts that hadn't been asked for. They were also mistaken in believing a gift of cash would be less welcome. It looks like we now have have greedy receivers and clue less givers. Ho Ho Ho. This view of entitlement (I am entitled to get whatever gift I want) is a microcosm of the age of entitlement in which we live. You know, the one where the individual wants and expects the government or someone else to take care of all his or her needs.

The material objects, personified by the "I must have latest gadget of the month to be trendy" mentality, have become more and more important because there is just so much more choice than previously. It's greed. People today are more greedy because they have sold out to technology and material showiness. It's why Christmas has become a materialistic orgy unlike any other time before. The traditional practice of gift giving is supposed to be about noticing a person's interests and thinking about what they might like to buy, something that you believe will please them. 'It's the thought that counts' is no longer valid with many people? Now that thought is considered to be only for suckers. Now it's, "Let me tell you what I want," or better yet, "Give me the money and I'll get it myself."

Besides the greed for particular expensive gifts, gift lists have also expanded greatly. It used to be that in ancient times, that people gifted up to the person with a higher social status. Now you have to gift down to everyone, the garbage man who picks up your trash, the hair dresser, the postman... everyone you deal with. It's all because today the mantra today is "Show me the gift, the gift I want".
Uh, no gift is required after reading this...

Christmas Tree Or Holiday Tree

The annual, "is it Christmas or "the Holidays" war is raging here in the U.S. again. The latest volley was fired by Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee who has decided to call the blue spruce erected in the Rhode Island Statehouse a "holiday tree" instead of a "Christmas tree". It seems that Chafee is more devoted to not offending voters than to the reality that the tree is up because it represents Christmas, not a generic holiday.

Hmmm I am not sure anyone who isn't Christian or believes in Christmas really cares that there is a Christmas tree promoting that holiday. Evidently, Chafee thinks that calling Christmas "Christmas" will offend those who don't celebrate it. People who come to see the tree in the State House obviously believe in celebrating Christmas or they would not show an interest in the Christmas tree. Those who want to avoid it can look the other way. Christians have rights too. Must I stop eating ham for Christmas so as not to offend the people whose religion forbids the eating of pork? Should be change the name of 'Ramadan' to 'Muslim Festival'?

This country has no official religion, and that includes Christianity. But Christmas trees and the Christmas holiday isn't year round. Like Muslim holidays, Jewish holidays and other religious holidays it is acknowledged by the state and when Christmas day comes and goes the trees, decorations and Christmas celebrations are put away. I wonder what Chafee would call the Hanukkah Menorah or the Islamic crescent? It is sad that such a secular spirit of political correctness has swept over this country. The Governor's decision ignores long held American traditions and is an affront to the faith of many citizens. If I were Islamic I would be nervous at a governor who so brazenly denies or alters Christmas, as in "first they killed Christmas and then they killed Ramadan".

Trying to be "inclusive" by changing a holiday to nullify what it actually is (in this case Christmas) merely kills the holiday for everyone. Declaring everyone the winner of a race, for example, doesn't really make them all winners. Maybe we should all celebrate what holidays we want to celebrate, and not change them all to generic mush that mean nothing more than political correctness. It's the only way genuine respect can be gained for all people, regardless of religion or belief.

Top Baby Names

BabyCenter.com has released it's annual list of most common American baby names. More than 300,000 new parents registered new baby names in 2011. The site's 12th annual top-100 survey finds Sophia for girls and Aiden for boys as most popular names in 2011. Some parents want to steer clear of the most common names (my 'James' used to be one of those, before television and mass communication made other celeb names more appealing), so they seek out lists like the one at BabyCenter.com and of course now love to name their child after some mythical character in a TV show or perhaps after a celebrity they know nothing about. Then other parents make up a name that has no real meaning( which can scar the kid for life when the name is laughable or unpronounceable).

For example, one baby name near the top ten names this year is the one soccer star David Beckham and wife Victoria choose for their daughter, the formerly rarely used name of "Harper" I guess Aunt Hazel won't see her name used for her niece's first born. Today it's about fancy and trendy, when naming newborns. A largest obstacle children face today are stupid parents who worry about how a name will look on a resume' or are influenced by a celebrity's choice of their baby's name. Stupid parents begat stupid kids, and looking at the names given to a baby can sometimes reveal that.

The top ten for boys this year is: 1. Aiden 2. Jackson 3. Mason 4. Liam 5. Jacob 6. Jayden 7. Ethan 8. Noah 9. Lucas 10. Logan
For baby girls the top ten is: 1. Sophia 2. Emma 3. Isabella 4. Olivia 5. Ava 6. Lily 7. Chloe 8. Madison 9. Emily 10. Abigai

That's not too off the beaten path, but then there are some names that defy explanation. Yes, I am going to give you a few of the more bizarre ones too. These came from various sources on the web.

* Urhines Kendall Icy Eight Special K- Yes, that's right: a baby named after the illicit drug ketamine. Oh, and that's pronounced "Your Highness," by the way.
* GoldenPalace.com Silverman- Mr. and Mrs. Silverman should be ashamed they picked this one. In 2005, the Internet casino GoldenPalace.com paid $15,000 to name a baby after itself. Surely, normal people condemned this sort of outrageous publicity stunt, but those with no brains or no taste will do anything for cash. Shame on the Silvermnan's for doing it.
* Batman Bin Superman- This baby is from Singapore and is named after not just one, but two super heroes: Batman and Superman.
* Dick Assman- Haha He has both ends covered. Dick is a gas station owner in Saskatchewan, Canada, who no doubt has a suitable rest room for customers to use. Dick says his German last name of "Assman" is pronounced as "uzman," in Germany. Those Canadians must have dirty minds...
* Tu Morrow- TV star Rob Morrow and actress Debbon Ayre, might think it's cute to combine first and last names in this way, but chances are, their kids won't think it's so adorable when they grow up and have to explain why their idiotic parents branded them this way.
* Facebook- I don't know the last name of that unfortunate child. Frankly, I am afraid to find out. The dad was quoted as saying he named his son 'Facebook' because he wanted "to honor the social networking site for its role in raising awareness about escalating discontent in the country, and for distributing logistical information about pro democracy, anti-government demonstrations in the lead-up to Mubarak's resignation." No I don't know if Facebook has a sister named 'Twitter'.

Oh well, names stick to people and the most absurd ones stick far more firmly.

Post Office Decline

I know I hate new technology too much but much of it is mindless, anti intellectual and destructive. Well, the latest assault, indirect though it may be, on the good old, by the awful new, is the threat to the time honored national Post Office. Electronic communication is killing the Post Office as more people shift to the informal method of electronic communication or the faster business communication e mail, offers. The U.S Post Office continues to lose billions of dollars because of bloated labor contracts that it must pay for it's huge work staff for and the continual decrease in people paying for traditional post office services.

I still use the post office for most communication, but finding one to go to now is getting harder as more and more are closed by the Post Office in an attempt to operate more efficiently. And now the Post Office has announced that it is going to move quickly to close 252 of the 461 current mail processing centers, and that it will slow first-class delivery next spring. The Post Office cites steadily declining mail volume (volume of first class mail in 2020 is expected to be only one half of what it was in 2000). This means there will be less timely delivery of mail and, hence, more people likely to stop using what has become a "slow" service when compared to the electronic counterparts. Average delivery time for delivery of a letter within the country will increase by one or two days after the processing centers are closed.

The cuts are part of $3 billion in reductions aimed at helping the Post Office avert bankruptcy next year. It would virtually eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day, a change in first-class delivery standards that people won't like. Everyday users of first-class mail will see delays of one or two days, including those who pay bills by check, send birthday cards, write letters, or receive prescription drugs or Netflix DVDs by mail. Speed of delivery is very important in this impatient age of humanity. No doubt it will make many turn to electronic mail instead.

A nation can't survive without a postal system, so if this one fails private companies like Fed Ex would pick up some of the services (those from which it can make money). Yet, I wonder if the long lost art of letter writing and sending by post would disappear forever. It makes me shudder to think that intelligent, thoughtful letters would disappear in favor of the LOL mentality of texting or the grammar and usage from Hell that we experience in many E mails we receive. I think the world will be a much less pleasant place without the option of a postal delivery system.

Too, there is a unique social value of post offices in the sheer diversity and range of services provided that distinguishes them from other (private) retailers. The Post Office is also highly valued and trusted compared to other retailers in disadvantaged communities (rural areas cut off from modernity). I wrote "trusted" here, as in would you trust the post office more or less than FED Ex? I see the post office like the old barber shop, the corner bakery, the Town center and other time worn institutions that make life a little simpler and more pleasant. Budgets and operating efficiency are important today, but the Post Office is like our baby. It needs our attention and love at all costs.

Christmas Trees

There is no shortage of Christmas trees here in Oregon. I see them everywhere, live ones growing all year round, including right outside my window in the room where my desktop computer sits. And since it's December, Christmas trees are popping up all over... in malls, big-box stores, nurseries and previously empty lots. They are inexpensive too, since they are so common here. Oregon is the nation's leader in Christmas tree production (the popular fir variety), harvesting and sales. We bought our Christmas tree this year that was cut a couple of days before we purchased it at an Christmas tree farm near my house.

I like Christmas trees, and evidently so do many others because the Christmas tree has been displayed in homes or town squares since sometime in the 15th century. There is something about a Christmas tree that is endearing and that jogs the memory to pleasant times. Every adult has Christmas tree memories from childhood that bring comfort at thought of them. I have quite a few of those, from my own childhood and from when Jane was small and I relieved Christmas a a child though her.

One benefit of having a Christmas tree is that kids look forward to picking out the tree. There's an excitement about going out to get a suitable tree for the house each year and it's not always a predictable a task. I remember one year when I was small that my mom decided to get one of those old style aluminum artificial trees that came in awful looking bright colors of red, blue, purple etc... This was a "second tree" because w always had to have a fresh cut tree in the living room, decorated in traditional style. The aluminum tree we got became a laughing stock for us and anyone who ventured into the den to see it. It was much like the ugly painting o vase a favored aunt gave to the homeowner, required to be on display but ridiculous in presence.

Thankfully, the aluminum colored assembled tree fad didn't last more than a few years as the current style of artificial trees replaced those and we never had another one of those. Though that tree did give us many chuckles and fond memories for me.

Another good thing about having a Christmas trees is getting it in the stand and decorating it in the house. Decorating with family and friends is a great way to get in the Christmas spirit, and once displayed a pretty Christmas tree can be a relaxing presence for a home. What I have always liked looking at on a Christmas tree are special ornaments. I still have some of my mom's childhood wood made and hand painted ornaments. They create a holiday link to my mother with every glance of them, exploding with stories or her, my dad and brother and I in those long ago lost Christmas moments. I tried to recreate a similar Christmas ornament link for my daughter Jane.

For many years when she was small I bought and had engraved a yearly Christmas ornament that would tell a story of each Christmas of her youth. I think she has no appreciation of this now, but when a parent herself will one day re discover the ornaments and put them on her own tree for her own family.

The Christmas tree is the unifying symbol of Christmas. Those who hate Christmas never have a tree and those who think they are "too old for Christmas" often don't put up one either. But it seems that the most enthusiastic of Christmas celebrators not only have trees up and decorated, but also put in place the earliest. They show their love for Christmas by their care for and enjoyment of their tree. And when Christmas is over and the tree must be disassembled, there is a tint of sadness that it must be removed from the house and carted to disposal. For to remove the tree is to also remove the joy and happiness which it provided at Christmas time

Wife Selling Husband

Things are getting bad out there for husbands. I think women are finally fed up with our inferior male habits because they are taking action toward relieving stresses we men cause. At times like this I am glad I am not a husband. For example, just last week a Pakistani woman was arrested after admitting to cutting up her husband into small pieces, cooking him and serving his body parts in a stew. She claimed that she did it because she feared her husband was interested in molesting their daughter. Now that is acting on anticipation!

Another example of the wife's revolt against a useless husband occurred in Florida. So upset with her husband's addictive video game playing (something called "Modern Warfare 3" was the game of choice for the husband) that after one stretch of 48 consecutive hours of gaming, Alyse Baddley's placed this ad on Craigslist to sell her husband Kyle:

"I am selling my 22 year old husband. He enjoys eating and playing video games all all day. Easy to maintain, just feed and water every 3-5 hours. You must have Internet and space for gaming. Got tired of waiting so free to good home. If acceptable replacement is offered will trade.

Ok, the ad was more of a joke than an actually offer for sale. Husband Kyle's own mom suggested and helped write the ad for Alysee. But behind every joke is some reality, and the reality is that the husband ignored his wife and did nothing but play video games each day (Hmmm maybe we could also sell all the cell phone addicts to each other and restore sanity to the world as a result).

Maybe the husband thought Alysee less appealing than a good video game. But quite a few of the hundreds of responses took the ad seriously. One woman offered to retrain him (is it possible to train men?). Another guy said he was willing to trade spots with Kyle, noting that he was both house trained and preferred books to games. Some advised Alyse to get out and have fun while he played his video games. The most intriguing, if non serious response to the ad was the offer of trade, a blue bag of Skittles in exchange for Kyle.

Kyle days he knows he plays video games too much, needs to curtail it, and that his wife was only joking about selling him. Hmmmmm I wonder, if those two do actually divorce... would she be his "ex-box"?

To Feed Or Not To Feed

We all seem to be getting fatter, but the problem for children who are obese is an even greater. They depend on responsible parents to feed them properly and to monitor their physical condition.. Well, to best explain that idea, take the case of the eight year old boy who lives in Cleveland, Ohio and apparently can't stop moving his knife and fork to his mouth. At age eight he now already weighs about 95 kilos and, as a result, has been taken from his family and placed into foster care after county social workers said his mother wasn't doing enough to control his weight. This is the first case in the U.S. in which state officials put a child in foster care strictly for a weight-related issues.

Doctors have stated to local authorities that the big boy is so obese that he is already at risk for such diseases as diabetes and hypertension. Of course the irresponsible mom has engaged a lawyer to have her son placed back into her negligent care. The lawyer for the mother says that the county overreached when they removed her son from her custody. The lawyer also claims that the medical problems he is at risk for do not yet pose an imminent danger.

So is this a case of the government over-reaching it's authority and denying a parent the right to have custody of her own child. Or is this a case where intervention may be necessary in saving the life of the child. Surely, if the parent wasn't feeding him at all and putting his health at risk that way, she would be charged with neglect. So the same should hold true if she is overfeeding him?

One thing is sure, that single mom is a parent putting her child at risk because she apparently is clue less about the basic method for parenting her child. And it is good to see that the social service department in Ohio is acting when it sees cases in which children are not being parented properly. More times than not, a government agency that is set up to protect the lives and safety of kids is guilty of not over action, but rather, not acting often enough to protect kids from neglectful parents.

So what is the answer to this case? Did the government do the right thing in an attempt to protect that child, or did it interfere in the right of a parent to have custody of her child. Too, might an alternative to removing the child from her care be that the parent retain custody with the stipulation that she attend regular parenting classes and visitations from child welfare personnel to ensure the child is not becoming even fatter?

Memory Lane

I found an interesting web site called 'Memory Lane' and wanted to pass it on to you. It's a nostalgia site from the 1940's through the decade of the 90's, but one does not have to have lived any of the years it chronicles to appreciate the fascinating contents that is either a reminder of the past or an education of it. Here is a link to it. http://www.classmates.com/feature/lifestyle?miscj=MLHeader&tpcCategory=Lifestyle&startYear=1960&endYear=1969

You'll notice it is more of a lifestyle record of the times (which is why the link I gave to you is set on the 'lifestyle tab" of it). Click on any year of interest and check the music, news, videos, TV etc. and I bet it makes you wonder if life has been degraded over the years, even despite the technological and scientific advancements.

One think that is easily recognizable is that there were norms of behavior and ethics them, that right from wrong was more easily ascertained, and that though life was simpler it seemed to be far less chaotic and much less of a struggle. For example, click on any video clip of sporting event in the 40's, 50's or early 60's and you'll be hard pressed to see any fan not dressed well. The men are dressed in suits and tied and women in almost formal dresses, and this is even when the weather outside was blistering hot. There is no evidence of the fat guy in the T shirt, shorts and thongs. It was considered rude, unthinkable in fact, to not dress well when at any event.

On the other hand, the link of the 'Psychedelic Stones on the Lifestyle tab from the mid 60's shows how fashion was starting to become much less informal and illustrates how rock changed even fashion in the 60's. It has been said and I believe with some truth, that life changed forever when President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. http://www.classmates.com/feature/movie?actionableType=tpc&actionableId=286673&startYear=1960&endYear=1969&tpcCategory=News&startingId=10

That anyone would shoot a resident was considered highly unlikely before that event happened. But afterward, society seemed to break into sub cultures, each with it's own "thing" (as the slang of the time said to "do your own thing").

If any magazine better showed in pictures what life was like in those earlier decades it was the Saturday Evening Post. I randomly selected top look at one old issue because it has a typically beautifully painted cover showing what was still a cultural norm then- the family dressed for and eating dinner together. Click on the magazine link below and look at the ads, the letters, articles etc. I find it far more interesting than glitzy magazines today. I remember my parents subscribed to The Post and many other magazines just so my brother and I would read them. I have many memories of many issues from my early childhood days.
http://www.classmates.com/feature/detail?actionableType=tpc&tpcCategory=Magazine&actionableId=288672&context=tpc/288672&startYear=1950&endYear=1959

Ok, enough of my commentary. I hope you look at the site to see what is old to you or new. It's quite an education in the transformation of society from the slow-paced, low-tech era of civility to today's mess...whatever it is we endure in this age.

Humans Fall Short

I have been thinking too much today.... so....just an observation or two as a result. Humans are fascinating creatures. Our ability to think abstractly makes us both better and worse than other animals that roam the earth. We are better because the intellect we have allows us to create new things, to interpret our environment better and to pick and choose our behaviors. the rest of the animal may be largely driven by instinct but humans are not. And that is the worst part of us well. Other animals can't do that. In fact they struggle each day to stay alive, to achieve everything possible in their lives in order to do that.

Human beings are the only creatures who knowingly choose to be less than they can be, to underachieve in life, to even select to die earlier than they could. Other animals don't do that. instead, the struggle every moment of every day to survive, to live as long as possible. That's why dog and other creatures don't smoke cigarettes or soak their brains in alcohol or bad foods and engage in unhealthy or dangerous lifestyles like humans do.

We don't see fat deer or trees that just stop growing because they decide not to grow any more. We do see more humans than not who are underachieving even wallowing contentedly through life as unfulfilled beings. Only humans commit suicide. Animals never quit trying to maximize their lives. I wonder if our "wasting our lives" is a way of coping with life itself. Maybe the pressures and stresses of trying to constantly compete with each other makes us less willing to try to be the best we can be, a natural defense mechanism for us, Perhaps we dumb down in life because it is our way of surrendering to the competitive games that stress us so.

So we eventually chose to be less than we can be. We stop learning and instead engage in idiotic behaviors like watching stupid reality TV shows or chattering about "nothing" on cell phones all day. We stop working, stop developing, stop contributing to society because we want to do so. Animals can do that. Our more highly developed brains give us the option to destroy our own potentials even our own lives.

The few humans that don't do so are seen as freaks, as people who push themselves too much, and the norm for us is instead is underachieving. It's the torture we inflict on ourselves that seems inescapable and our great curse in life. Yep, humans have the greatest of all struggle in life, the struggle with themselves.

Sexy Eyes Must Be Covered

Those crazy Muslim fundamentalists are at it again, this time in Saudi Arabia. It seems there is too much sex with the eyes in that dreary Islamic paradise, because the Saudi government says it is seriously considering ordering all those sexy eyed Saudi women to cover their eyes. The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Isn't it always true that the longer and more official sounding a organization's name is, the more ridiculous is its function?) says that a lady's eyes are too seductive for the Saudi male to see.

This delusional policy emanates from the Ha'eal district in Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Motlab al-Nabet (those Sheikhs need a physical job to keep their minds occupied and off thoughts of sexy eyes), said in a newspaper account that his religion has the right to order women whose eyes seem "tempting" to shield them immediately. The mad sheikh is guy in charge of seeing that those Medieval Islamic laws are not broken in public...you know, like stoning the person who commits sex outside of marriage, or flogging anyone who disagrees with his local sheik.

According to current Saudi law, the one that slaves everyone there but more women than men, can force women to wear a loose black dress and to cover their hair and, occasionally, their face. Punishment for violators can range from fines to public lashings. So if Mad Motlab says the ladies have to cover their seductive eyes, they must. Apparently, only female eyes are sexy in Saudi Arabia because the same policy does not apply to the men there.

They are serious about their idiocy too. In 2002, fro instance, the committee refused to allow female students out of a burning school in Mecca because they were not wearing correct head cover. Fifteen of the women died as a result. Religious fervor of that sort is to rational people...well... inhuman, if not Saudi religious. But keeping women in Islamic countries as pets,. toys, slaves. objects. anything but as equals, is the real intent of the sheikh mentality that consumes life there.

This type of extremism has absolutely nothing to do with God. Rather, it is proof that religion and believing in God are two different things. But that Saudi culture is the same one that values goats over women. Maybe the problem is not women having sexy ideas with their eyes, but that the men like the sheikh and his followers just have dirty minds. Uh, I better not ask if they make the sexy goats cover their eyes too.