I'm Stumped

Rocky Horror Picture Show Reboot!

2011-03-16T02:38:00.003-04:00

Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert need to be in a reboot of RHPS. Here's the Facebook page where you can give your opinion on that - and if you like the idea, where you can suggest additional cast members, plot scenarios, etc.

Hoping Richard O'Brien, who wrote the original 1975 RHPS and played Riff Raff, will like the idea and want to get involved.

GS cookies! Find some near you.

2011-03-16T02:32:00.005-04:00

Goodness, the time flies.

We're most of the way through Cookie Season '11 now. I've posted a link to this year's new Cookie Booth Locator, courtesy of Little Brownie Bakers (one of the two official GSUSA cookie bakers; the other is ABC).

This year's flavors are the same as last in our Council:
the Fab Five - Samoas, Tagalongs, Trefoils, Do-si-dos, Thin Mints;
the Timely Three - Lemon Chalet Cremes, Thank You Berry Munch, Dulce de Leches

Girl Scout Cookies & the weather

2010-02-28T15:21:00.004-05:00

It's Girl Scout Cookie time again! We had a booth last Sunday and sold over 170 boxes in four hours. Same spot this Sunday, two and a half hours, only sold about 60-70 boxes :-< I figured we probably wouldn't do AS well as last week, but thought it would go a little better. Another troop that had a booth last Saturday (different location near us) sold 240! My second kid's troop's booth is next Saturday, at the location where that other troop did well. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Last Sunday was the first weekend for cookie booths; was warm (40s-50s), sunny, pretty much the first nice weekend since all that snow and before most people's cookies had been delivered. This Sunday was windy and chillier, sunny/cloudy, and lots of people have gotten their cookies delivered to their homes already. But we've had booths a few weeks into the cookie sale other years and have sold 100+, sometimes on cold days and sometimes on nice days. Neither rhyme nor reason...

That said, we have LOTS of cookies left, of all eight flavors! Hopefully we'll get a lot of catchup orders but it looks like we'll need to do some walkabouts (go door-to-door with cookies in a wagon) or sign up for a third booth. And hopefully it'll be WARMER from here on out.

Be Thankful

2009-11-26T12:45:00.006-05:00

The world is crazy, but we all have something to be thankful for. Try to find yours.

While you're thinking, here are some causes to consider supporting - financially, in words, or both. They'd all appreciate it.

The Ice Skating Calendar: buy these fabulous, funky calendars to directly support one ice skating coach's son's autism therapy.
http://iceskatingcalendar.info/

LABMED: an organization that helps adopted/fostered Labrador Retrievers by providing funds to cover their medical needs.
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/237321/84356412?m=e56504ed
I've sewn blocks for their auction quilt several times, including the August (yellow sky/red sun) block in this year's quilt.

Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax County Libraries, and Fairfax County Park Authority.
All are on the chopping block this budget round. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors - who doles out the money - could make it so elementary school languages, band, strings, and full day KG would be eliminated; so parks would have to charge new fees and reduce staff; so libraries would have to close one day a week, cut back on services, and lose staff. There are a number of groups that have sprung up to protect these important programs and departments and to keep Fairfax County a top-notch place to live, work, and go to school, but a lot more help is needed and support is welcome from all over.

Opinion article about the school budget cuts in the Washington Post
Facebook group "Save Fairfax Band and Strings" (FACE)
Facebook group "Save the Language Immersion Programs in Our Schools!"
and FLAGS (Foreign Language Advocacy for Grade Schools)
Friends of the Reston Regional Library's recent blog post about the horrible budget situation, with a link to a petition to sign in support of the libraries

Thank you for helping when and where and as much as you can. Here's to a safe Thanksgiving that's as happy and relaxing as possible.

Wordzzle attempt #3

2009-09-20T01:23:00.005-04:00

Seems my week 80 attempt (the previous one) wasn't at the right time. Let's try this one.

Raven's Wordzzle challenge (week 81 by Raven's count):
http://ravensviews.blogspot.com/2009/09/saturday-wordzzle-challenge-week-81.html

> The words for this week's ten word challenge were: dangerous, engine, sullenly, bespoke, evergreen, bauble, medicine, freight, destined, tinsel And for the mini: carbon, feelers, outright, ballet, fizzing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You just don't wear an evergreen bespoke suit to the ballet. Not if you're trying to impress your date, not unless you check with her first. Not even if she's your girlfriend. All the baubles and flowers in the world can't help a certain sartorial stumble.

Charles Barkley or Michael Jordan, they'd look outright fine in a suit this color. Dangerously confident. I had them in mind when I chose the fabric for my own foray into custom menswear. I saw the beautiful, oily raw silk on a high shelf and was sure Sonya would love seeing me in it. Her favorite color is green and she's always saying how she wishes I'd wear something more interesting and adventurous than the plain suits I usually wear to my bank job. I had this made just for her and put it to one side of the closet for the right occasion.

Sonya was everything I'd been looking for, an all-in-one package, but we were taking things slowly. No clocks ticking yet. This was to be an anniversary outing, our six-month celebration. I put feelers out before setting up our evening - do you want to dress up to celebrate, would you rather see a ballet or an opera, are you OK with a meal afterward so we can recap the show. Aye all the way. Great - pick you up Saturday at seven. I can wear the suit! This is the big day!

Saturday, September 19th. I take my allergy medicine. Put extra care into cleaning up and getting dressed. Got my snazzy new suit on, wallet and tickets in my pocket; cell on vibrate, keys in hand; I'm ready. Off I go. Buy her a nice white corsage; rev my engine outside the florist's - gotta make my car feel like she's having a special night too - and go to pick her up. I'm happy, smiling, corsage in my outstretched hand. I'm destined for a great evening with this great woman. Knock-knock!

She opens the door with her hair all done up, sparkly jewelry, nice makeup, huge smile. She's clearly been prepping a lot herself and I can't take my eyes off of her radiant face, inches from mine. I lean in for a kiss as she glances down. Now her smile is fizzing away. She's glaring at me sullenly. What? I'm clean, I'm dressed neatly in my new suit, I smell good, I'm not late. I'm pretty sure I love her enough for that big Someday. "Might as well get us a freight load of tinsel!" she shouts and bursts into tears.

Only as she steps back to slam the door do I get it. It's an old problem, one that should have its own carbon date.

Her dress, a new and very flattering one, is made from the same green silk as my suit.

2009-09-18T11:02:00.005-04:00

Another Wordzzle!
http://restonfriends.blogspot.com/2009/09/wordzzle.html

> The words for this week's ten word challenge were:Charitable, alligator, tribute, drunk, slave, preparation, carrots, mountainside, propeller, lark For the mini challenge: chisel, worship, suicide, organic, plus

~~~~~~~~~~
Much easier than the first challenge I tried! I can get this set into just one paragraph. Not a friendly one, but here it is ;->
~~~~~~~~~~

"How charitable of you, my drunk slave, to worship me properly! For I see your preparation of a pot of alligator stew with organic carrots plus the tongue of a lark is now boiling. In appreciation for your tribute, I shall chisel your name on the mountainside. Your suicide? Why yes, that would be acceptable. I'm very hungry today. Do hop in."

Meditation farm?

2009-08-22T01:05:00.003-04:00

Getting deeper into Facebook and YoVille, etc. The link is to my entry for the YoVille "farm room" contest.

My first thought - since their current theme is Mafia vs. Police - was to do a body farm, but I haven't the play money for that. I already had the bathroom they give you set up as a meditation room since I don't care if my game character has a toilet; that plus the freebie bouquets I've saved up and some plants that were already decorating other rooms and here you have it: my Meditation Farm.

Please post - here and/or on YoVille - & LMK what you think.

Friends of the Reston Library's weekly writing challenge

2009-08-20T04:56:00.004-04:00

My first entry is below the line of tildes (~~~).

Where I heard about it:
http://restonfriends.blogspot.com/2009/08/wordzzle-saturday_15.html

The original source (Reston library page links back to this):
http://ravensviews.blogspot.com/2009/08/saturday-wordzzle-challenge-week-76.html

For the challenge: superlative, flea market, falling leaves, disinformation, who was that masked man?, keeping kids out of trouble, I'm a believer, bonnet in the attic, staff, generation

For the mini: deep in the forest, government, charming, heirlooms, flabbergasted

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm a believer in keeping kids out of trouble, so I regularly go to the flea market they have Saturdays at the old barn down the road from us and look through some other generation's heirlooms for charming toys, not-too-sharp but old-fashioned tools, and funky old clothes. Things like that. The staff is composed of volunteers from the town's historical society. They have great stories to tell about some of the items but the kids aren't all that interested in the shopping part and they prefer surprises, so they stay home with their mom. She's very tolerant of all this but just doesn't get as excited as the rest of us. Someone in this family got the calm gene. It was clearly recessive. Anyway, when I get home, usually relaxed from the fresh air on the walk, I clean up my finds and put them into these trunks we keep up in the attic. When the kids get rowdy we send them up there with a purpose and they'll hunt through the detritus to create their own, themed entertainment.

I'll say stuff like, "Josh, chill already! Go upstairs with your sister and put on a play. There's a new bonnet in the attic I think you'll both get a kick out of." The bonnet I had in mind was an old ratty velvety thing with big long ostrich feathers and bows everywhere. I found it the winter before last. You'd think some old, stuffy lady wore it to the opera - except that carefully centered on every bloody bow was a campaign button for the local dogcatcher. Some of them had pictures of the guy holding cute little dogs. Lots of them had hearts drawn on with silver ink. So maybe some old, batty lady wore it to her son's campaign to become dogcatcher. My daughter Josie loooves dogs and Josh would get a laugh out of its absurdity, so I bought it. Thirteen bucks. Worth every penny - it's been a hat, a basket, a mask, a hunchback's hump, and a disco ball. Not so old now. Jess does like that part - the performances.

One time last autumn I found a pristine Lone Ranger lunch box from the '50s and hadn't even opened it up to look inside when some greedy antique dealer snatched it OUT OF MY HAND and ran it off to the payment desk. Ugh. Hate those pushy types. I was flabbergasted but it wasn't like I had a personal stake in the matter - I don't collect lunch boxes or anything; I just thought it was a fun show - so I shrugged and let the box go. For my own amusement I stomped home (as if a thwarted villain) through the falling leaves muttering, "Who was that masked man?" I hoped it turned out to be full of dried-up snot. Or government documents marked CLASSIFIED - DIRECTOR - EYES ONLY with sections blacked out and it would freak the dealer out but would turn out - upon closer inspection and after frantic, sweaty, palpitating moments - to be a pile of mimeographed charts from some textbook interspersed with pages of amateur radio call-signs. Classic grade-school-maturity disinformation campaign. I'd feel vindicated. So at lunch that day I told Josh & Josie the classified bit as if it had really happened. Had them hook, line, and sinker for a good long while before I laughed and told them I'd made that last part up. Got hit with a few pillows, but they repeated the story to their friends. I've found some suspiciously phony papers in the attic since then.

My current favorite find, which the kids also love, is this '70s yearbook I found this spring. All hippies, every page, I swear. Peace signs and tie-dye shirts; the whole bit. Even on the teachers. We like flipping through to read the weird signatures and captions and to guess at what the heck was going through the administration's mind when they had it printed. Josh now wants to tie-dye everything he owns. We've indulged him here but his dress shirts are off-limits until AFTER he has worn them for an actual event. Never thought I'd have to say that out loud, but I did. Josie loves the long hair on the guys and uses the pictures of long-haired male teachers in the book to remind me that I could grow mine out some more. And more. And more. She wishes, but I'm nice about it. I'll pull one of my curls as straight as it will go and tell her, "OK - it's longer!" She likes that. I was a little kid in the '70s, so the whole hippie bit is pretty alien to me as well. The page of Senior Superlatives has categories like "Hairiest Chest/Legs" (yes, the legs winner was a girl), "Longest Trip" (from the photo, this wasn't exactly referring to road trips) and "Grooviest Van" (we do have a minivan with some crumpled wrappers, like the winner, but ours doesn't have shag carpet and lava lamps and beaded curtains and even the kids don't ask me to add these). One particularly memorable picture shows a group of half-naked, muddy kids doing some kind of rock worship deep in the forest. They were kneeling with their heads down in a circle around this one big rock; their hands were on each others' bare shoulders and bare backs; their butts were up in the air. Maybe they were looking for teeny-tiny 'shrooms. I hope they found some, because they don't look very comfortable in that position. The caption wasn't very helpful - "Junior class field trip to Albertson farm." Probably the yearbook editors goofed up or were goofed out when they put this page together. Could be "field trip" was code back then for 'shrooming, and Albertson was some specific drug. Or they could have been performing "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Dunno. So for this, like everything else I bring home, we make up stories.

Have to finish up today's shopping quickly. It's hot as all get-out today and is only going to get worse. More importantly, I have to hurry home because today is my wife's birthday and the kids are making lunch for all of us. Jess doesn't know it yet - I think - but I've been buying antiquey things for her too. I have a special trunk in the back corner of my workroom. Those old ladies may have been batty but they did a mean trade in silk and lace underwhatevers, and there are a few I can't wait to see on my Jessie. Not right away, of course. I have a nice pair of 14K earrings (also from my favorite shopping site) to give her at lunchtime, in front of the kids. But hopefully tonight Jess and I will make up our own stories with what's in her trunk, and maybe she'll get excited enough to make a few trips to the flea market herself - for my birthday.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

Mentally controlled bionic arms: great for amputees; how about for those with birth defects?

2006-09-14T21:26:00.000-04:00

9/14/2006 article:
This man had used his arms for years before he lost them in an accident and got prosthetic arms - one "regular"; one thought-controlled.
Man's bionic arm provides hope for GIs

9/17/2006 article:
This woman lost an arm in a motorcycle accident and is learning to use her new thought-controlled bionic arm.
Bionic arm puts life in reach

Read about it!

The Mistress' question:
Will this technology work for people, such as thalidomide babies, who never had arms or legs to begin with? One would assume it would, if those people have the shoulder nerves (or, alternately, hip nerves) mentioned in the article.

But can we learn their language?

2006-09-14T21:21:00.000-04:00

Kosik the Korean elephant has learned to mimic some of his trainer's words. He seems to be trying to communicate; next step is to test whether he really does understand "sit", "lie down", "no", "yes", and a few other words in Korean. If he does, will he teach us those words in his language?
S.Korean park features talking pachyderm

Beautiful underwater SF: who knew?

2006-08-29T15:44:00.000-04:00

Just west of the Golden Gate Bridge is where the outflow of San Francisco Bay is deposited. Using high-tech equipment and procedures, scientists have been able to show that this underwater area is dominated by... sand dunes! Huge ones, some of the biggest in the world. The computer-generated representations of the dunes are breathtaking.

The original article is here:
CITY'S BEAUTIFUL BUT HIDDEN SAND DUNES

UCSF study: too much fructose, not enough fiber the keys in childhood obesity

2006-08-17T18:38:00.000-04:00

We've seen it for a long time. UCSF sees it. When will manufacturers stop adding sweeteners to kids' food and start using more whole grains?
Science Daily: "Childhood Obesity Caused By 'Toxic Environment' Of Western Diets, Study Says"

Don't feel dumpy enough? Try getting carried around like a sack o' potatoes...

2006-07-12T23:19:00.000-04:00

Another sport new to the Mistress, even more off the wall than underwater golf:

Wife-schlepping, a *championship* fought over by Estonians and Finns (and others)... Yay, Vikings!!!

Estonians reign at wife-carrying championships

Why has this not been in a Monty Python skit or movie?

Zamboni lovers, unite!

2006-07-12T23:13:00.000-04:00

Another recent oddity, but a useful one:
Vermont inventor has made himself a very clever snowblower/Zamboni for use in backyard skating rinks.

If you have $30K to spare, you can order one now! The Mistress wishes she could :->
Bambini Revolution

The gentleman also offers temporary (seasonal) skating rinks for backyard or commercial use. These start at about $500 for a 10'x20' liner system for home use and go up to $500K or thereabouts for a large, refrigerated, commercial-grade one.

Cucumber x Cantaloupe: who knew?

2006-07-12T23:09:00.000-04:00

One of many odd stories of late:
Cucumbers and cantaloupes can cross-pollinate to produce tasty, edible, hugely elongated, bumpy-skinned fruit...

Houma couple’s garden surprises them with a 'cuculoupe’

The Doll Lady of Sylacauga

2006-05-12T11:17:00.000-04:00

This is the sort of person our children should aspire to be. Not financiers, not day traders, not people who try to win at everything.

For two decades, she has used her skills to make a library even friendlier for the children and staff who use it. How? By making dolls and artwork for the library.

What a doll! Sylacauga woman spends countless hours making dolls for B.B. Comer Library

Not everyone has as much time and skill as Christine Keay, but most of us have a little something we can do close to home. What have you done this year?

Haiku of the day: rain (ame)

2006-05-12T00:38:00.000-04:00

The Mistress has been doing lots of Japan-related things of late, so please enjoy a haiku she made up this afternoon for a munchkin's amusement.

Rain on the windows
'Spring showers bring May flowers'
Too bad I can't breathe

What do dolphins call each other?

2006-05-12T00:34:00.000-04:00

Scientists monitoring dolphins have determined that dolphins have names for one another and use them even when that dolphin is not present.
Just call me Dolph

What would be more interesting to know is this: what sorts of names? Bignose? Can't-Swim? Brownspot? Fast One? Four-Leg-Friend?

Six Degrees of Kevin Everyman

2006-05-12T00:12:00.000-04:00

Invading foreign countries and then rebuilding them because that money couldn't possibly be better used improving our own schools, helping our own poor, stopping genocide, or feeding the hungry around the world: not enough.

No Child Left Behind: enough to "use" valuable classroom time and trained teachers in teaching to the test without financing this; otherwise, not enough.

Welcoming lobbyists and profiteers to the White House and government chambers: common enough, but not enough.

Claiming to love our country, but trying to pass laws against natural human diversity: not enough.

Getting rich off of gas prices: not enough. This is just the on-ramp!

The latest?
Six Degrees of Kevin Everyman's phone calls:
NSA has database of domestic US phone calls: report

Do you really think this will be enough?

Pentagoing, going, gone...

2006-05-10T01:50:00.000-04:00

Pentagon photos were on the news tonight, and mention of the name "Pentagon" inspired these non-9/11-related jokes, some lamer than others:

They've renovated the Pentagon again. New name: the Hexagon.

You've probably heard some version of that one before (it was original for those who giggled over it), but maybe not these follow-ons:

They'll move it to Texas and call it the Texagon (to Mexico, the Mexagon).

They'll cover it with mirrors and call it the Reflectagon.

Install washers and dryers and call it the Socks-are-Gone. (or Pants-are-Gone)

Tip the Washington Monument over to ring the Pentagong.

Dang, can't remember the rest. The Mistress is sure that you're relieved by this.

...5/12/06 addendum: got 'em!

Mmm, Chexagon.

Stomp, stomp, stomp - here comes the T-Rexagon!

Split CA? TX? VA? Fix the flag first!

2006-04-22T23:44:00.000-04:00

See the Dvorak Uncensored blog re: splitting California up into 2-3, or even more, smaller states.

I suggested that the U.S. flag be redesigned first, to *allow* for state boundary changes more easily. If we separate the flag issue from the addition or removal of states from our Union, things could proceed much more easily.

Celebrity babies: TomKat vs. Brooke Shields & hubby

2006-04-20T12:23:00.000-04:00

Like many a female, the Mistress thought Tom Cruise was really something back in the day. Now he's pretty wacky and seems desperate for attention. Katie Holmes seemed snottily appropriate in Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm" (1987). Now she elicits pity.

So what did they name their (supposed) new baby, who just happened to be born along with Brooke Shields' second daughter Grier (which sounds awfully preppy but at least many people have heard of actress Greer Garson)?

Suri.

They claim it's Hebrew for "princess" and Persian for "red rose"; commentators give some less-appealing translations from other languages: "pointy nose" in a South Indian language; "pickpocket" in Japanese.

If you type "Suri" into the Google search engine, you get many listings for alpacas such as this one as well as links to various pages about people with the surname "Suri".

Sky News gets into this discussion as well, with readers sending in additional meanings.

At least it sounds pretty in English. L'chaim, baby Suri! May you not out-weird your parents.

Read the original articles about this particular oddly-named celebrity baby:
One Down: World Awaits Pitt, Jolie's Baby
Cruise-Holmes Baby: Day Two

4/24/06 addendum:
Get outta here! Cruise baby name puzzles Israelis

A Poem A Day The Fibonacci Way

2006-04-20T11:42:00.000-04:00

More-regular blogger Gregory K. has given himself the exercise of writing Fibonacci sequence-based poems to stretch his mind: "a six line, 20 syllable poem with a syllable count by line of 1/1/2/3/5/8." Readers of his blog are invited to post their own.

Why
should
I write
one? Because
I might as well try
to learn this sequence right away.

Why
should
you write
one? Because
it's not all that hard,
so suck it up and start typing.

Super 'Shrooms!

2006-04-18T23:39:00.000-04:00

Mushrooms Are Unlikely Source of Vitamin D

Nah, not *those* mushrooms. Just your plain ol' bland ones from the food store.

Mug me! (no, not the crime way)

2006-04-17T17:07:00.000-04:00

This Sunday's Washington Post's shopping section pointed out a new Global Warming Mug. Watch the continents vanish under water! It's available online at Wacky Planet.

The company (with which the Mistress is not affiliated other than as a potential customer) has some other fab items for sale, including a Vanishing Civil Liberties Mug. See which parts of the Bill of Rights the Patriot Act does *not* excise!

Out with the old, in with the new (if you have room in your cabinets or on your trophy-mug shelf)!

A Taxing Nation

2006-04-17T16:58:00.000-04:00

In honor of Tax Day, I refer you to two online articles and have movie suggestions for when your taxes are done.

The first is about politicians who are so confused by their own tax laws that they hire accountants to do their filing for them:
Tax Law Authors Have Pros Do Their Returns

The second begs for a flat tax. The author?
Dick Armey.

For your viewing pleasure, the Mistress strongly recommends that you rent the highly intelligent and amusing 1987 Japanese movie
A Taxing Woman (Marusa no onna) and its 1988 sequel, A Taxing Woman Returns (Marusa no onna II). Make yourself some popcorn, turn down the lights, and celebrate the end of Tax Day... This year's, anyway.

Huzzah!

Corn syrup once more: Mott's' tricky packaging

2006-04-04T09:13:00.000-04:00

We're still seeing tons of sweetened applesauce, both at Baja Fresh and at the food store. The packaging on some is so confusing that extremely careful label-reading and comparison is required. My husband went to the store this week for more of the kids' favorite single-serving applesauce, Mott's Healthy Harvest Strawberry (which has no sugar added), among other things (regular shopping trip here - not a run for just one product). No, I don't get any money from Mott's. I just want to make sure there's no brand confusion here. I wrote "flavored applesauce (small)" or something to that effect on the shopping list. I didn't specify Healthy Harvest because he doesn't buy things with corn syrup if he knows it's there, and I figured he'd seen the packaging - and had bought it - often enough.

He came home with an almost identical-looking package - and it was strawberry, and it was Mott's. But it wasn't the unsweetened Healthy Harvest, and it had high fructose corn syrup (and Red 40 for good measure and an odd pinkish-red color).

I went to the Mott's web site to look up their single-serving applesauce options and wrote them a note. Go to the full post to see the text of my message to them...

I don't understand why you feel the need to sweeten applesauce with high fructose corn syrup (or color it with Red 40, for that matter). Applesauce is naturally sweet, especially strawberry flavored. There are enough kids with weight and/or dental problems without going to a restaurant and asking for "healthy" applesauce instead of chips or fries, only to be given your applesauce with corn syrup for your kids! Baja Fresh is one place that serves kids your sweetened applesauce.

Also, for truth in advertising purposes, you shouldn't put "Hand-Picked Goodness" on products that contain high fructose corn syrup. Since when was high fructose corn syrup hand-picked?

Finally - and very important - you need to make your packaging much clearer in order to allow consumers to easily delineate between your types of applesauce. More than once (including this week) either my husband or I have gone to buy small packages of applesauce, only to have to carefully scrutinize the label to be sure we're getting the unsweetened kind.

For everyone's health, why don't you just offer all of your great flavors only in the unsweetened variety and, whenever possible, as an organic? This would probably save you enough money on packaging and shelf space to balance out the added cost of going healthier.

If families really need sweeter applesauce to get their kids to eat it, they can easily add their own sugar or corn syrup, whether at home or at a restaurant.

Thank you!

A very concerned mom,

[signed my name and location]

So, if you're also concerned about calories and/or cavities, please get involved! Contact restaurants that serve sweetened applesauce and companies that make applesauce sweetened with anything other than fruit or fruit juice and ask them to CUT IT OUT already. The few of us (myself not included) who really need the extra calories can surely find their own sugar packets.

Thanks!!!

Presidential Zork!

2006-01-19T01:17:00.000-05:00

Shrub plays Zork

So true, it's sad...

Additional links:
Infocom, the originators of Zork
play Java/Flash versions of Infocom games online!

Daily Show's Jon Stewart look-alike FOUND in Hebron!

2006-01-03T13:25:00.000-05:00

From this Yahoo article on Jewish squatters in Hebron, here's
a photo of an open-mouthed Israeli who could be Jon Stewart's long-lost twin...

Egypt joins Iran in Holocaust denial

2005-12-24T11:40:00.000-05:00

A bad wave on the horizon...

Muslim Brotherhood chief (opposition party leader, it must be noted) Mohammed Mahdi Akef publicly claims the Holocaust to be a myth:

Egypt Opposition Leader Denies Holocaust

A lot of the current wave of anti-Semitism seems to stem from hatred of America or the West in general. Funny thing, that - our President sure as heck isn't Jewish, let alone Zionist.

Man or Mouse? There's a reason we have three branches of government, Mr. President.

2005-12-19T22:46:00.000-05:00

"One more last" for today... (my, aren't we verbose!)

As you've most likely been shocked to hear (or not), our Dear Leader, El Presidente Bush II (aka. SuperShrub), has admitted to ordering Americans to spy electronically on Americans in America without the bother of a court order. He protests less that this is being opposed than disclosed.

As with past leaders in our country and others, he chafes within his channel of Chief Executive and lends a blind ear (sounds right for him, no?) to countless cautious critics who decry a selective spy empire built upon a shadow government.

One of many^3 recent articles commenting on the situation: Bush vows to pursue controversial spy program.

To paraphrase Lord Acton: "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely." The full quote is here. Whether bad or not, President Bush is not "great".

This man should NOT be allowed power beyond that granted to the Executive branch. Nor should any other man - or woman - who holds our Seat of Power. If our own President won't follow our laws and treat our citizens to the rights accorded us in our very own Constitution (and Bill of Rights, natch), then what sort of leader is he?

Foie gras, veal, astrakhan, and other extreme ways to hurt animals for your dining or fashion pleasure

2005-12-19T21:16:00.000-05:00

Animals can be tasty, and their skins can be useful, but we don't have to be cruel and/or inhumane if and when we do take their lives and their bodies for our use.

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Foie gras:
Liver of fatted goose.
Generally created by force-feeding geese.

See this recent Christian Science Monitor article on a foie gras ban proposed in Chicago.

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Veal:
Meat of extremely young calves - ~16 weeks or younger.
Often produced by taking the calves away from their mothers when they are just a day or two old, feeding them a milk-like formula instead of their mothers' milk and then solid food, and confining them to tiny areas in which they can't move around. This is called "white veal" or "milk-fed veal". Nope, you were wrong! "Milk-fed" is *not* when the calf drinks its mother's milk!

See the HSUS' veal fact sheet for details.

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Astrakhan, aka. Karakul:
Skin of newborn or even fetal "Persian lamb".
Soft and curly fur; used for coats and other garments. Warm; soft; drapes well. The Mistress' mother had Persian lamb coats twenty-some years ago, and the Mistress always loved the way the coats felt. She only found out what these were really made of this year, 2005.

See the HSUS' article 'Astrakhan: Hot "New" Fashion is the Same Old Cruelty'
The earlier, the curlier. Yuck! The veal of furs.

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No, the Mistress is not a vegetarian. She likes steak a bit much to make that leap.

See the HSUS' article on humane slaughter.

Foie gras: geese are pretty stupid, but it still sounds nasty to force-feed animals so we can kill them to better enjoy eating specific organs.

Veal: the calves should have their mommies, and they should be allowed exercise. Period. If you must eat veal but are trying to be humane about it, ask for "pink veal". Reject "white" or "milk-fed" or "formula-fed". Cows may not be very smart, but they know enough to get upset when they are forcibly separated from their moms/calves.

Astrakhan, aka. Karakul: double ditto veal. Their origin is such a shame. Let's have some faux Persian lamb coats! Appreciate the look and feel without killing the lambs!

Suckling pig: not mentioned at top, but the Mistress avoids this and other fetal/newborn dishes like the Plague. The Mistress gets creeped out of late when rinsing (supermarket-purchased) chickens or small turkeys for roasting. Maybe now you will too.

Why?

Extrapolate. People crated from birth and force-fed liquid diets (or high-fat foods) would be awfully tasty to someone... or our skins would be extra-soft and appealing... This is *gross* - to us. Imagine if there were some animal on Earth that likes to eat people, or that likes to use our skins to decorate themselves - that's not as far out. This may seem absurd since we don't have alien overlords or billions of baby-eating, farming-minded lions on the prowl, but just do the gedanken. Stew on it for sixty seconds.

We're lucky to be at the top of the food chain. Very lucky.

Danger! Will Rob-Iran-soon?

2005-12-19T17:51:00.000-05:00

Ah, the news from the Middle East just gets better and better. Not only does Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hate America and Westernisms, but he is trying to convince people that the Holocaust was made up (!!!) and has called for Israel to pick up and move somewhere else. Actually, he wants Israel to be "wiped off the map". Yikes!

Iran's President Bans All Western Music

He was elected in August 2005. We (ie. the USA) didn't help to put him in power too, did we?

This guy is *DANGEROUS*.

Santa's big helper in El Cajon, CA

2005-12-19T09:13:00.000-05:00

[with an introduction in silly verse]

If you think the world has gone to pot
And Santa Claus is coming not;
If Congress' excesses make you quiver
And wars abroad cause you to shiver;

If you despair when hoping
To find someone who's coping
Without selling out sometimes,

If bird flu worries
And holiday hurries
Are heavy on your mind,

Then read this article. Don't fear -
The Toy Maker is here!

The SignOnSanDiego.com article:
El Cajon craftsman gives Santa's elves competition

Three huge cheers for craftsman and Santa's helper Don Riley! Approximating the wonderful words of Bob Graham in his kiddie book "Max", Riley is "a small hero doing quiet deeds. The world needs more of these."

We do indeed.

Corn syrup redux: high-fructose diet BAD

2005-12-19T09:01:00.000-05:00

This past Thursday, HealthDay summarized two articles published in medical journals about the effects of fructose on the human appetite. The research underlines and extends what I said earlier about corn syrup being awful for you. Alas, truth is worse than hypothesis: fructose seems to cause insulin problems and may make you feel HUNGRIER! So much for fruit-based diets?

Read the HealthDay article here:
Fruit Sugars Might Speed Obesity

Baltimore quint family needs help for the holidays and beyond!

2005-12-04T13:02:00.001-05:00

Single babies are plenty of work. Parents of twins tell me they're hard to juggle. A family friend's daughter had triplets (after an older child) and somehow kept her sanity, but only with a *lot* of help. I couldn't imagine having that many or more at once. Yet it happens, and more than once in a blue moon.

A Baltimore family had *quintuplets* on September 21st and is still stumbling along, mostly on their own, because they've gotten more ridicule than assistance from the media. They're happy to be parents, but they weren't even trying to have kids - the now-mom was taking fertility drugs to fix a hormone problem, not because she was trying to get pregnant...

These parents deserve more than they're getting. Compare where they are with the magazine-cover quints of other years.

See Courtland Milloy's November 13th article in the Washington Post: "Few Answering Quintuplets' Needy Cries". Mr. Milloy's followup on November 27th: She's Taking It One Diaper At a Time gives contact info for the mom and for a fund to help support the quints. Thankfully, some help materialized in the interim but the hard-working parents could still use a minivan (to hold all five car seats!) and nanny service - not to mention financial and other support for their brood in the years to come.

If you or your company is looking for some end-of-year charitable contributions or has a hand to lend in the Baltimore area, I bet this family would appreciate your assistance.

Keep that holiday spirit alive!

The Big Turkey: Bush disses local, county-run, historic Frying Pan Park/Kidwell Farm in favor of advertising for Disneyland

2005-11-19T12:43:00.000-05:00

Traditionally, the Presidentially-pardoned Thanksgiving gobblers retire to Frying Pan Park, which is just down the road from us (a half-hour's drive from the White House). This year, the turkeys are being flown, first-class, to Disneyland in California instead!

A reasonably thorough version of the story is here:

Baltimore Sun: National turkey will fly, by plane, to Disneyland (PETA criticized Va. educational farm, usual fate of White House bird)

This move from a local retirement to an "all-expenses-paid" first-class flight to Disneyland in CA is supposedly is happening because of a PETA write-in campaign maligning FPP as being inadequate to care for the turkeys. PETA claims these "special" turkeys (which were raised in Minnesota and were almost dinner, please remind yourselves!) tend to die within six months at FPP and deserve the Disney treatment and the California climate. Disney jumped at the chance and begged to have the birds, to lead their Thanksgiving parade and then hang out with Santa.

The "farm" being complained about by PETA and the President is Frying Pan Park. It's a historical property run by the Fairfax County Park Authority, with the working farm portion being Kidwell Farm (see the FPP website in previous link for a virtual tour). The site is run mostly by Park Authority personnel and by 4H and other volunteers. We have been there dozens of times, and the visiting kids (and sometimes the visiting adults) love checking out the animals - Presidential turkeys and others.

Sounds like some moolah and/or favors at work. FPP has nothing to bargain with compared to the huge Disney corporation. It just happens to be Disneyland's 50th anniversary - just a coincidence, of course. And what a waste of money, to fly two turkeys from DC to California first class!

Is PETA so sure that Disneyland is more deserving of these turkeys than Frying Pan Park/Kidwell Farm? Last I checked, Disney served a lot of meat in their cafe meals. They aren't exactly a vegan company. Frying Pan Park needs the publicity of the presidential turkeys a heck of a lot more than Disney does. Again: no money, no contest.

A source close to the Mistress of this Blog suggests another motive for the change of venue: yanking the "Presidential turkey goes to Virginia" bragging rights away from Jerry Kilgore, who just lost the election to become Virginia's next governor. Far-fetched? Let's wait and see.

In any case, to those who made this decision: Jerks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope the turkeys don't make it any longer at Disneyland than they tend to at FPP, just to prove PETA (and anyone else who helped to make this stupid decision) wrong.

Teflon too?

2005-11-16T23:34:00.000-05:00

Teflon. Slippery chemical of ex-Presidents. What was supposed to "make cleanup a snap" is in need of cleaning up itself.

DuPont, maker of Teflon, has claimed that Teflon is safe for lining food wrappers. Teflon is used to make milkshakes more viscous. But it seems that Teflon leaches into the food and then stays in our bodies, and it also seems that DuPont knew this but has tried to keep the information under wraps, as it were.

See the Yahoo posting about DuPont hiding the risks of Teflon

Artificial Sweeteners: Sucralose (and Aspartame and Acesulfame-K) not so great either

2005-11-16T21:27:00.000-05:00

Several artificial sweeteners are on the market, all of which claim to be totally safe, at least when used moderately. But are they really safe? Online searches turn up many sites which claim so, yet there is much anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Where are the scientific studies to put us at ease?

Short answer: there aren't many.

Personal anecdote: circa summer 2004, there were a whole bunch of "Sparkling Ice" flavored spring water drinks from Canada that became very popular around here (Northern Virginia). The package described them thus: "Sparkling Spring Water with Juice and Vitamins C&E. No sodium or caffeine. Lightly carbonated." Sounded healthy, and I was trying to lose weight. I bought several and brought them home.

Thought they were pretty tasty but had an odd aftertaste - but I liked them enough to keep drinking them. My husband (who can't have aspartame since a childhood ulcer and can ID most spices in cooked dishes) and our older child (who is a very picky eater and something of a canary when it comes to odd ingredients) immediately hated their aftertaste and would not drink them.

Curious, I re-read the labels. They contained sucralose, a word with which we were not familiar. We did some research but found little hard research. What we did find was disturbing enough that we immediately stopped buying and drinking "Sparkling Ice" and we now read labels very carefully to avoid further sucralose (we were already avoiding aspartame and saccharin)...

What little scientific study had been done on sucralose before its FDA approval as a food additive/sweetener was primarily short-term. Under a year. Sometimes just a few months. It takes much longer than that to see long-term retention and/or damage. And yes, these products and/or their by-products do stay in your body after ingestion.

Aspartame (aka. Nutrasweet(R) or Equal(R)), Acesulfame-K (aka. Ace K or Acesulfame potassium - the "K" is for potassium), and Sucralose (aka. Splenda(r)) are household words nowadays - or should be. They're in all sorts of products, from sodas to yogurts to medicines to toothpaste! It's nearly impossible to avoid them. But you should try. First thing to look for is "light" or "fat free" or "sugar-free" or "reduced sugar" on the label. Could be that the company really just used less sugar than previously, which would be fantastic, but that is often not the case. Only *very* careful label-reading will tell you what's really in there.

The next time you're in the medicine aisle at your grocery or drug store, check out the cough syrup labels. The kids' medicines. The kids' toothpastes. Try the dairy aisle in your grocery store. Nearly all "0% fat" yogurts contain an artificial sweetener. Try the cereal aisle. These sweeteners are now in many breakfast cereals, including those marketed primarily to kids - so the companies can claim they have "less sugar" than before.

Why not just cut the sugar, let kids and the rest of us taste the actual ingredients, and cut down on everyone's cavities and worries in the process? Unless you are diabetic and must do so for dietary reasons, do you really want to be ingesting these sweet but untested products? Do you really want your kids to be the companies' test subjects?

For information on artificial sweeteners, try these links for starters. Please note that there are many, many others out there.

The Aspartame Info Center
Nutrasweet's safety page
Saccharin: How Sweet It Is
Splenda(R)'s own FAQ
International Food Information Council's "Everything You Need to Know About Sucralose"

Anti-sweetener:
Wikipedia entry on Sucralose
Wikipedia entry on Acesulfame potassium (aka. Acesulfame-K, Ace K)
Wikipedia entry on Aspartame - check out the Rumsfeld connection!
DietStudies.com: "Sucralose/Splenda" - a list of study summaries
study abstract">National Library of Medicine: sucralose study (Splenda(R)'s parent company, McNeil, sponsored this - but note that the rats lost weight on high-sucralose diets because they refused to EAT it)
ADA mention of bloating/cramps that may be caused by artificial sweeteners
iVillage's diet board: "Lite Lies"
Dr. Ben Kim - chiropractor - overview of his worries
HolisticMed.com: "Healthier Sweeteners"
HolisticMed.com: "Sucralose Toxicity"

Neutral:
Kashrut.com discusses the artificial sweeteners in a scientific manner, including discussions of how each is made, to determine whether/how they are Kosher
ADA on artificial sweeteners as part of a diabetic diet
Canadian Diabetes Association's page discussing artificial sweeteners
About.com's Artifical Sweeteners page

The FDA's own info
(note that they have Q&As, so some results may be Qs asked by non-FDA folks):
sucralose

Corn syrup: too much of it, especially in kids' food!

2005-11-11T01:20:00.000-05:00

Corn syrup. An inexpensive sweetener. But start checking those labels! It's in regular products marketed as healthy for kids, even applesauce! And it isn't helping anyone lose weight.

Applesauce is plenty sweet on its own. Apples are naturally loaded with sugar - the kind our bodies ought to be able to handle. There is *no* reason to add corn syrup to applesauce in those single-packs for kids, and there shouldn't be corn syrup in jars of baby food.

"Natural" applesauce - apples, maybe some water, probably some ascorbic acid (vitamin C) - should be the norm. Add cinnamon, sure. Make applesauce flavored with other fruits, why not. But add sugar to it? Makes no sense.

Check those labels before you buy! The next time you go to a takeout place and they offer applesauce for the kids, take a close look! The innocuously "regular" applesauce most likely has corn syrup in it - or some other sweetener. If you find this at a restaurant you frequent, contact the management or fill out a comment card saying the sweetener is unnecessary!

Market pressures should get manufacturers to return to naturally-sweet applesauce and leave the corn syrup as a dessert additive. If not, then let's make those manufacturers tell the whole truth and require them to put "with corn syrup!" or "with sucralose!" on the label rather than "unsweetened!" or "natural!"

Time for Dvorak? (Industry-standard keyboards should be more intuitive!)

2005-11-10T16:15:00.000-05:00

Enough already with the 100-year-old keyboard layout. It was designed to keep the first manual typewriters from jamming as fast touch-typists drilled away. Yes, all of us who've learned touch-typing have memorized it. Yes, computers are all programmed to use it. But the layout is non-sensical these days.

It's nearly impossible to find the letters you need in any/all of these cases:
* you haven't taken a touch-typing class
* you aren't a native English speaker (especially if you were used to a keyboard that utilized another language
* you're a kid who barely even knows the alphabet
* you can barely spell in English, especially if you're a kid and can't spell in another language either (go ahead - try to poke-type words like "cat", "dog", "and", "hello", and "name")

If we can learn touch-typing once, we can do it again! This needs to be *standardized* across the industry, so the keyboard is basically a transparent interface to all English-speaking users.

No, I don't have a Dvorak keyboard. No, I haven't gone and reprogrammed my keys and changed my key-caps around s.t. they're ABCDEFG across the top or ABC DEF GHI in columns... Am sticking with the basic no-frills industry standard model for the time being. Reason? Compatibility.

But I'd love to see an alphabetic key layout! Watching kids try to type their names is frustrating - a new generation stuck on the obsolete past :-< Make it standard, make it the only choice, and we'll manage.

Linking here to a page about the alternative Dvorak keyboard, which makes more sense than the current industry default - vowels and common consonants are across the middle row - although it still isn't alphabetic.

Suburban streetlights - and suggested (though not necessarily implementable) alternatives

2005-11-10T15:35:00.000-05:00

Overview:
Our neighborhood may or may not be getting streetlights. It has become a divisive issue, like the get-a-tot-lot attempt that preceded it.

Several years ago, a petition went around the neighborhood asking people to support the idea of streetlights. Apparently more than half of the homeowners signed (though we declined, for the reasons outlined later in this post). Nothing happened. Suddenly this summer, a notice went up on our neighborhood web site announcing that our County had decided to install the lights in our neighborhood soon. Aerial photos were posted which had dots added in the locations of the proposed lights.

Our neighborhood, I must point out, is in an area where little has happened worse than some broken bottles left on the bike path and the occasional slashed tire (usually by a teen's jealous boyfriend/girlfriend/other acquaintance), dented mailbox, or a stolen car radio or item taken from a garage left open.

One small street in our neighborhood opted out of the lights almost immediately, by signing a petition. Another opt-out petition went around our street very civilly, followed shortly thereafter by two anonymous mailbox flyers opposing the opt-out petition but with a be-scared slant. I pointed out that it was fine to come down on either side of the lights, but not anonymously, and they were considerate enough of the neighborhood to put out a third no-opt-out petition on which they all signed their names. I don't know what the other streets are doing - whether or not they're sending opt-out petitions around. That's where we stand as of now.

Pros and cons:
Most of the neighbors want the lights for "safety" (meaning to keep crime down/away). Our neighborhood has been *very* safe for the several years we've lived there and for as long back as we've heard about it, so we aren't too swayed by that argument. A more persuasive reason (paraphrased) is so night joggers won't trip over their own feet in the dark. Now that there are opt-out petitions, some of our neighbors don't want to end up being a dark street among lit streets, for fear of attracting crime.

The rest of this post is more or less quoted from messages I sent to another neighbor recently...

We don't feel that there have been any safety issues to date, we like the dark skies at night (there's too much light pollution already!), we don't want lights shining into our windows, and we feel that streetlights create pools of darkness around them which give MORE places for unsavory types to hide (should there be any such folks around) - if you're walking around at night under streetlights, your eyes are NOT dark-adjusted and reaction time would be down, should anyone or any animal jump out from the shadows. And all that extra lighting, unless they find some way to use solar-powered lights, is a lot of extra energy being used.

...we really like our stars at night and being able to see front yards and not just illuminated sidewalks. Every year, the skies get hazier :-< [A third neighbor] had an interesting idea - try to get gaslight-style posts in each front yard, by each path, instead of huge street lights. [Our family hasn't] talked that over, and it would still be a lot of extra energy and light pollution although not as much as the big lights (I don't think), and at least it would be something we could partially control. If we wanted lights everywhere, we'd live in the city.

My suggested alternatives to always-on streetlights:

Some solutions that aren't possible (or at least aren't cost-effective) now but which would be much preferable to always-on lights:

* low-level solar-powered curb lighting, aimed at the street; similar edge lighting along sidewalks that JUST illuminated the sidewalks (ie. directional - a special fluorescing cement or gel-edge along the sidewalks & curbs) - minimal light pollution; would outline the sidewalks; in heavy snow, would not be visible (but would glow very prettily through light snow coverage)

* down-ONLY streetlights with a wide enough hood and/or polarized lighting that would somehow illuminate the sidewalks w/o bleeding up to upper stories/the sky - something that could be absorbed after time by the pavement/grass???

* motion-detecting streetlights for streets & similar, but SEPARATE, ones aimed at sidewalks (much lower to the ground) - wires embedded along/under the pavement/sidewalks would detect motion; would illuminate lights just ahead of the direction of the motion; would turn themselves off as the motion passed. How far ahead would depend on the speed - maybe one light per 10mph or fraction thereof. Examples: current & next light on for walkers; joggers/runners might get current + 2 more lights; cars would get at least 2-3 lights, more if speeding, so it would be easy to see drag-racers in our neighborhood! ;-> The intermittent on-off would be distracting for those of us looking up, but would catch people's attention & should help with both the not-tripping sort of safety and the bad-guy/dangerous-animal/too-fast car sort of safety; hopefully the safety issues would outweigh any vision problems. Kind of like [nearby town name] turning its traffic lights red if you're over a certain speed coming up to the light.

As long as it's not those horrible cobra lights...

Where do you fall on this issue? Have you heard of locales which have implemented (successfully or not) the above or other streetlight alternatives? How did it work out?

First post...

2005-11-10T14:44:00.000-05:00

Introducing... "I'm Stumped: the blog!"

I've been online since - yes, really - fall of 1988. Did some blog-type online entries on my own site a few years back, but this is my first real blog.

Purpose: political discussions (mostly progressive), practical ideas for everyday life, inefficiencies that just shouldn't be (and ideas for fixing them - see previous topic), animal advocacy, rants, random thoughs. The usual.

Nope, no more - just an overview.