Fun in the Sun!

The Crandon Park Beach on Thursday and the Everglades today.

OH, Gross!

So, my children, my adorable children (see the pictures) have been dealing with pin worms. Did you know that this is one of the most common worm infections in the U.S.? Did you know that the human is the only natural host, so the worms don't usually spread to animals? Did you know that the eggs, which are microscopic, (thus explaining how you could pick them up without knowing it) can live on things for like 2 whole weeks!!!!! UGH!!!!!!

Did you also know that you have to wash the bedding every 3 to 7 days for at least 3 weeks (and every time you wash the bedding or the clothes, you must wash on hot (good-bye rich colors) and that you must wash everything 2 or 3 times on hot with soap before drying them). Sheesh!!! I already do laundry all week long. Now, laundry is ALL I do all week. Even with these precautions, it is common to get reinfected and to have to go through everything AGAIN.

yuck, Yuck, YUCK!!!!!

In case you were wondering, I am not enjoying this particular common childhood illness.

Cleverness

Entropy is the tendency of everything going to hell

Entropy isn't what it used to be.

Entropy: Not just a fad, it's the future!

Geologists rock your world.

Geology: Subduction leads to Orogeny.

Gravity isn't MY fault--I voted for velcro!

Gravity... not just a good idea: It's the law.

I like angles, but only to a degree.

If the Earth is the size of a pea in New York, then the Sun is a beachball 50m away, Pluto is 4km away, and the next nearest star is in Tokyo. Now shrink Pluto's orbit into a coffee cup, then our Milky Way Galaxy fills North America.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

In The Beginning there was nothing, which exploded.

It might look like I'm doing nothing, but at the cellular level I'm really quite busy.

Little Johnny was a scientist. Little Johnny is no more. For what he thought was H2O was H2SO4.

May the torque be about you.

Nature abhors a vacuum. So does my sister's dog.

On the sixth day, God created the platypus. And God said: let's see the evolutionists try and figure this one out.

Particle physicists are always trying to hold a meeting, but whenever they decide on a place, the time changes.

Photons have mass!? I didn't even know they were Catholic...

Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of.

More here

Jackie Bueno Sousa Has a Good Answer for Judge Sotomayor

And this wise (at least now and then, I hope) old white man appreciates that answer.

Somebody Should Have Told Him Mary was Coming

The Gators hire Dean Guzick of Rochester Med School to head the University's Health Care System.

Trifecta on the Plantation

The third banana plant arrived today at the Dove Avenue Plantation, this one by mail, carefully boxed up and in good condition, from Stokes Tropicals. This one is known as an "Ice Cream" or "Blue Java" banana, an irresistible name. It's the one on the left in the photo.

That gives us a Cavendish from Lowe's, a Goldfinger from Katie's Going Bananas, and this Ice Cream from Stokes Tropicals.

Three's a charm. Now we give them tender, loving care for about a year as they grow up. In about six months after that, we may well be awash in bananas. What joy!

Healthy Living on Decline in US

This, notwithstanding what we now know about the link between good nutrition, moderate weight, exercise, moderate drinking, and shunning cigarettes, on the one hand, and a relatively disease-free life, on the other. This example of man's inhumanity to himself is and will continue to be the key factor in rising health costs.

Yet we insist on health care for all and demand that government pay for it. Will it be any surprise, then, that government will soon regulate how and what we eat? And, of course, government will botch that effort, as it will the matter of universal health care. We will get the government we deserve. Such is the connection between individual choices, not only at the ballot box, but especially in all other aspects of our lives, and the way the nation goes.

Thinking like a Christian for a moment, the problem in Jeremiah's time was not Babylon, the problem was the choices being made by Jeremiah's people.

Elderly Man a Sensation in His Glennz Tee!

I had on my "Rock Me Amadeus" Glennz Tee at Roberts is Here yesterday. It was busy there, but it's always busy there. Anyway, I walked in and the first thing that happened was a group of young adults stopped and stared at me and my t-shirt. I wasn't sure whether it was the t-shirt or whether it was I, a sort of old guy, you know, wearing the t-shirt.

I walked on by, but later they walked by me, and one of the young women among them came up and said she liked my shirt. (You have to understand that this is not a usual thing for young women to come up to me and comment on my clothes, nor older women for that matter, nor any women, except Carol, when there's a mancha or the collar of my sports coat is turned-up.) She said she liked my shirt, and I told her that I bought it on the internet at Glennz Tees. She said, "Thanks" and left with a smile.

Made my day.

Or it would have made my day, had the banana plant we acquired earlier in the afternoon from Katie's Going Bananas not already made my day.

Flash!! Dove Avenue Banana Plantation Doubles!

On the right in the photo is the newest addition, a "Goldfinger" banana plant from Katie's Going Bananas. More on the development of the Goldfinger here. It is also known as the FHIA-01.

In the photo's background is our compost box and a pile of compost on the right. We throw all our veggie kitchen scraps in the box, along with lawn and shrub clippings, and let them all cook down.

Composting is very important to the banana plants, because it keeps the soil warm and helps kill nematodes. Nematodes attack the roots of the banana plant, making it weak, subject to disease, with an adverse affect on the banana bunches. The Goldfinger may be better able to withstand the nematodes, but we are going to take no chances.

Israelis Singing to the Pope

Somehow I missed this on ABC, CBS, and NBC:

The Western Hemisphere's Sudan

The refugee crises [in Ecuador] spawned by ongoing conflict in neighboring Colombia has left millions displaced, making the nation second only to Sudan in nations with the most internal refugees. Rural farmers and families are frequently intimidated by guerrilla and paramilitary groups, who send them fleeing amid death threats, forced recruitment, the demand of unaffordable taxes, persecution for political organizing, land seizures and intolerable violence in their villages and towns.

- from today's Miami Herald.

One sad thing about this article (in addition to the overwhelmingly sad situation in Ecuador) is that there is nothing said about the situation in Colombia that generated this migration. The article begins with a story of a family who fled Colombia when "[a]rmed men entered their home, murdered [a brother] and threatened to kill the rest of the family if they did not vacate the town within 48 hours." Given the bias of the Miami Herald, my guess is that the "armed men" would be the guerillas and not the Army. My bias as to the Herald is that if the armed men were from the Army, then that would have been specifically reported.

On the other hand, the reporter could have decided not to inject the Colombian political situation into the matter of considering the desperate situation of the immigrants. Thus, she could have been writing in good faith. However, I would consider the story so incomplete without referring to the problems in Colombia that it verges on not the whole truth and, therefore, a journalistic failure.

The Cavendish is [not] a GMO

Like all edible bananas, [the Cavendish (AAA group)] members have been long cultivated and are hybrids of Musa acuminata and M. balbisiana. The “AAA” is a genetic designation, which specifies the members of this group as triploids (having an extra set of chromosomes) rather than diploids, the natural genetic state of most plant cells. In contrast, tetraploids would be noted as “AAAA” and diploids as “AA.” The letters in “AAA” also distinguish its relative genetic content from Musa acuminata (A) and M. balbisiana (B). Because Cavendish bananas are triploid, having an extra chromosome copy, they are more vigorous than average bananas and produce larger fruits in greater quantity.

-from the Learn2Grow website.

UPDATE: This afternoon we went down to the Homestead area with Van and Juliet to a nursery called "Katie's Going Bananas". Among other things, Don (Katie's husband I think) told us that bananas are NOT GMOs. He definitely had a few not nice things to say about GMOs and said that the soy and corn here in the US were pretty much GMOs, but that Europe has done a much better job. We learned a lot about growing bananas and bought another plant, this one a different variety. That will be the subject of a separate post, but I needed to inform the world that bananas in the US are still non-GMOs. Whew! (We stopped off at Robert is Here.)

Banana Oat Meal Cookies (vegan)

Mary made these while she was here. I calculated two WW points per cookie. They were super good!

Dove Avenue Banana Plantation

It was inevitable.

UPDATE: Well, of course!

I purchased the banana plant pictured from Lowe's. The plant had a Lowe's tag, and it said that the banana variety is "Cavendish," also known, according to the tag, as Musa acuminata 'Cavandish'. The tag had other helpful information, and it gave a web address for "care instructions." There is more on the webpage for this plant than care instructions. For example,

The Cavendish (AAA Group) includes the following edible banana cultivars and cultivar subgroups:

* ‘Double’
* ‘Dwarf Cavendish’
* ‘Extra Dwarf Cavendish’
* ‘Giant Cavendish’ (and its cultivars)
* ‘Grand Naine’
* ‘Pisang Misak Hijau’ (the green ripe bananas)

The tag didn't say to which subgroup the banana plant we brought home belongs. My guess is that it is a "Grand Naine," which I understand to be the kind we buy at Publix that are grown by Chiquita. But we'll see.

U of Chicago T Shirts

This subject is featured in an article in The Core: the College Magazine of the University of Chicago, which came with the May-June 2009 issue of the University of Chicago Magazine this time. The subject of T-Shirts generally is important to the Austin economy and, indirectly, to the Miami Springs economy, so this is a worthy subject to consider as it applies to my alma mater.

The article lists some "favorites," chief among them is Where fun comes to die, which is not fair. It may be true, but it's not fair.

More:

Chicago dating - the odds are good, but the goods are odd

University of Chicago. When you sleep, we study

Where the squirrels are cuter than the girls.

Where the squirrels are more aggressive than the guys

The level of hell that Dante forget

It it were easy, it'd be your mom

U of C: Not UIC since 1892

If I wanted an A, I would have gone to Harvard.

Hell Does Freeze Over (You got that one right!)

Cresat Tutula, Universitys Ditetur (which is supposed to translate "By Increasing Tuition, Let the University Become Enriched")

Let the Sonnenschein in (which was created in 1993 to celebrate the inauguration that year of a new president, Hugo Sonnenschein)

The article reports:

"Mike Moebs, MBA '75, has two [UC T-Shirts]. One lists Chicago's Nobel laureates in economics. The other has a photo of Milton Friedman and George Stigler waking down a Hyde Park street. 'Either U of C T-shirt always, always gets someone to come up to me and start a conversation,' he writes. Sadly, his interlocutors 'are almost always older, distinguished men. Seldom do young, good-looking, intelligent, rich women approach me, which just reinforces that economics is the dismal science.'

Uh, Mike, if you got your MBA in '75, then you are just a year or two younger than I. Believe me, as to the women you profile, it ain't the T-Shirt.

Another one, this for the Model United Nations event: World peace in four days or your money back. The producers of that T-Shirt said "We were careful to ensure that the last line said - in Chinese - 'Just kidding!'"

Here's somebody else's favorite, obviously a Classics major:

Universitas Chicaginiensis/Universitatis Chicaginiensis/Universitate Chicaginiensi. I wish I had declined the University of Chicago sooner.

There is an event each year on campus called "Kuviasungnerk and Kangeiko." According to Wikipedia, this is a "festival celebrating Chicago in the winter. Often referred to as Kuvia, it entails a variety of events, including ice sculpting, hot chocolate get-togethers, musical performances, faculty fireside discussions, and a rigorous program of early morning exercise (kangeiko, a Japanese tradition of winter training) that culminates in a yoga-influenced "salute to the sun", performed outdoors in freezing temperatures just before the sun rises." The T-Shirt from 2008: Because the University of Chicago just isn't intense enough.

Tom Barnett on the President's Nuke Policy

And he's not happy. (H/T Instapundit)

Satellite Flybys

What's going by overhead? Find out here.

Approximate Justice

[R]ead Augustine. We really do live between the City of God and the City of Man. We live at the intersection of the ages. . . Because of reading Augustine, I have a chastened view of politics, which is that we live in two kingdoms. We are to bring approximate justice to basically insoluble problems. That's Reinhold Niebuhr, having read Augustine: Because the world is fallen, because it is decayed and we live in a sinful world, we will never bring in any kind of utopia. That's a warning for people on the right and the left.

-Michael Cromartie, interviewed by Marvin Olasky in World Magazine, May 9, 2009, issue.

Pro-Abortion = Anti-Black

And though blacks make up only 12 percent of the U.S. population, they account for one-third of all abortions performed in the United States. More than three in 10 black women abort their unborn children. According to the 2006 census, deaths now exceed live births among African-Americans.

"We no longer replace ourselves, " [pro-life pastor Walter] Hoye said. "So we're not using terms like holocaust and genocide just to elicit a response. It's the truth."

-World Magazine, May 9, 2009, p. 53.

Jane Goodall on Giving up Meat

"People . . . ask how I coped when I first gave up meat. Psychologically, I felt really good about it, especially during the first few months, when the smell of bacon still made my mouth water, and I could be proud of my strength of will! But soon I began to feel so much better physically, too. Lighter, somehow. Other people who have given up meat have said the same. Nor is it surprising, for when we eat meat we waste a lot of energy getting rid of the toxins in the flesh that the animal was also trying to get rid of before it died. Perhaps that was why I started to feel so much more energetic. Since 1986 I have been traveling three hundred days a year, lecturing, going to meetings, lobbying, teaching, and so on. Never in one place for more than three weeks consecutively, and usually only a few days. I honestly don't think I could have maintained this pace when I was thirty years old - and I believe that giving up meat is the reason why I can today. [She was born in 1934; the book published in 2005.]

"If I was not on the road all the time I'd probably be a vegan. But it is not easy when you spend 300 days per year on the road and stay with people in all parts of the world to maintain a balance diet without any animal products. It's fine if you can cook yourself, or go to a good vegan restaurant. But home-cooked vegan food and vegan restaurants are not options on much of my travels. So I still eat eggs and cheese, and I know that milk is present in many sauces and desserts. Whenever possible I get organic, free-range animal products, but it's often not possible.

"Many people believe that meat is necessary for good health. The opposite is usually true. First, humans do not have the right kind of anatomy for frequent heavy meat eating. There is a difference in the length of the intestines of carnivores and herbivores. Carnivores have short intestines (about the length of their bodies) and are able to pass the nondigestible portion of their food quickly through the body before it starts to putrefy. Herbivores need more time to get the nutrients from the vegetable matter they eat and so have long intestines (about four times their body length). Humans have long intestines, too, so that flesh may sometimes stay for much too long in our guts. In other words, the human species does not have the physical attributes of the carnivore - and that includes ripping, slashing teeth and claws. And, finally, unless they only eat organic products, they are constantly contaminating their own bodes with the hormones and antibiotics fed to factory-farmed animals."

-Jane Goodall in Harvest for Hope - a Guide to Mindful Eating

This Weekend I'm [Fightin'] Irish

and a pro-life Romanist.

iPhone and Kindle

News here.

On that Notorious DHS Memo

"Abortion is the white supremacist’s best friend,” said Dr. King. “It eliminates black babies at much higher rates than white babies. Disproportionately more abortions among African American women mean they suffer physical and emotional trauma in greater percentages than others. To say, as the Department of Homeland Security does, that white supremacists have exercised a ‘longstanding exploitation of social issues such as abortion’ tells me that either the government, the supremacists, or both are clueless about abortion’s grave impact on the black community.”

“The DHS memo is just plain wrong and incredibly offensive on many levels,” added Dr. King, “none more so than in its attempt to link pro-lifers with hate groups. Janet Napolitano has apologized to veterans for her memo’s characterizations of them, now she needs to do the same for her smears against those of us who want all Americans, including the unborn, protected.”

-Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as quoted here.

Springs Backyard Critter vs. Swarthy TX Critter

(Walt, my critter would make a meal out of your critter!)

UPDATE: And then there are Mary's critters.

Peanut Butter and Banana

Uganda is famous for bananas - of which there are so many varieties - served with a delicious peanut sauce.

-Jane Goodall in Harvest for Hope - A Guide to Mindful Eating.

Did Aunt Frances know about this, Ken?

A Happy Mother's Day Story

Via the Herald.

Colossians Study

The minister commenced a sermon series on Colossians this morning. He covered the first half of the first chapter, 1:1-14. Of particular note to me was the section that begins with verse 9:

9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption,[e] the forgiveness of sins.[My italics]

What has my particular attention is the prospect of "bearing fruit in every good work." That seems to be an important outcome of being filled with "the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding."

Although our church is all about "spiritual wisdom and understanding" at an important level, it has lost its way to some extent in the matter of "bearing fruit in every good work." What are these works that we are to bear, in addition to obedience in the realm of morals and ethics? Are we to be simply "good people" as many of our non-Christian neighbors appear to be? Is there something more, beyond presenting the Gospel where ever we can? What would "something more" be for FPC Miami Springs?

GMOs Everywhere!

Am I wrong, or is the malaria parasite a GMO on account of pesticides and on account of simply moving through the bodies of various victims?

Fettuccine with Spinach Pesto

Saturday evening supper! This is a "one-pot pasta and grain entree" Carol made from Lorna Sass' Short-Cut Vegetarian. It included with the fettucine and spinach pesto, tomatoes and capers. Carol added side servings of broccoli, sweet potato, garden salad, and some slices of "wheat Italian 5-grain bread" from Publix. We had a smoothie for dessert. (This vegan thing is really tough.)

What's a GMO?

I really like the Smart Balance Whipped Buttery Spread. It tastes as close to butter as I can remember anything tastes that is not butter. We were using it before I lost my mind.

As I was reading the label (which I am doing a lot these days), I read "100% Vegan - Non-Dairy - Non GMO . . . " There's that GMO thing again. I read that on the Amy's frozen dinner box the other night. Quick, ask the internet.

Genetically Modified Organism. That's a GMO. This is a no-no in Veganland. Go here for the scoop. But I made some money on my Monsanto stock that I sold early enough last year. Oh, well. I guess I won't buy back into Monsanto, although it's at a bargain price these days. This is hard.

Sabbath

Macon, over on his Unrelated blog, raises the question of the Sabbath.

I have been thinking about what we are to do with Sabbath for most of my grown up life. (I posted on it once before.) I think the day is to be set apart and honored in some way that makes us more like the person that God intended us to be before creation, "back there" when he first thought us up and pictured how we would be, absent a Fall or, now, fully redeemed and restored. Jesus said that the day is made for "man," and, like an American, I would first read that to mean that is is made for "me." But it must also have a huge corporate component, as the commandment itself indicates when it warns us that the people and animals over whom we have control are also to enjoy its special rest.

When I grew up a Southern Baptist, we observed the Sabbath carefully: no movies, no beach going, no games, being quiet, taking a nap. On the other hand, being a Baptist growing up meant a Sunday that got to be very, very busy with church activities, and the inconsistency of that approach struck me as a teenager. Sunday got to be exhausting with the "early [worship] service" that began at 8:30AM, where the Youth Choir sang. This required us us to get to church even earlier so that the choir could assemble, dress in the robes, and do a quick run-over of the anthem.

Following that was Sunday School, which went to about 10:30. Then our family returned home for lunch and a nap. Then back to church for ensemble practice at 3:30PM or even earlier, Youth Choir practice proper at 4:00PM, then a light supper in the church dining room, then "Training Union," followed by the evening service at 7:30PM. After the worship service, which ended about 8:30, we youth went to some one's house for "Afterglow." That meant I got home about 10PM on a school night. Some Sabbath!

That experience has made me jealous of the Sabbath, especially when it comes to church activities. Often our church leadership calls for meetings before or after church, because everyone is there, or later in the afternoon, because the leadership figures that people would not have commitments on that time. And, after all, this is for God, right? Wrong. I just don't go to those things. I will go to worship service, and a Sunday school class, but I really don't want to be involved in church activities otherwise. The Sabbath was not made for Church.

But that begs Macon's question of what should be done with Sabbath. All the delicious time! What's the Plan??!! What would David Allen do? Or should we care? What do you think?

Mystery Writers

When I come across a book review or even a reference to a book that whets my appetite, I often jot the title down on a piece of paper or note card or tear out the article from the magazine or newspaper, and throw these bits of someday into my desk drawer or on the current "opportunity" pile on the desktop. Then, every month or so, I go through the drawer and the piles and attempt to straighten up, with the emphasis on "attempt."

This morning I did that and came across a Dear Book Lover column, clipped from the WSJ's Weekend section sometime last year, and there was a letter to its editor Cynthia Crossen looking for a "good mystery, action, and intrigue novel." Well, me too. I'll tell you about the answers Crossen gives in a minute, but the clipping brings to mind two mysteries that I read recently and which I would recommend, though only as mind candy.

One is Rain Fall by Barry Eisler. Eisler's hero is a contract assassin who lives in Tokyo, a Viet-Nam vet of mixed Japanese/American parentage, who, with a little plastic surgery, manages to pass for a native Japanese. Eisler appears to know modern Japanese culture well, and that makes up for whatever credibility problems one might have with the lead character. It reads fast. It's fun. It's a guy book, I think. I also think its a dead-end series, because the next one in Eisler's line, Hard Rain, didn't sing for me.

Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn is about another assassin, although this one works for the CIA. This also moves fast and is even more gripping than the Eisler book. More mind candy here. And, like Eisler's Rain Fall, the next one in Flynn's series, The Third Option, is not nearly as good. So I think I'm through with both Eisler and Flynn, but thanks guys.

The book lover whose letter of inquiry made Cynthia Crossen's column lists his own favorite authors, Lee Childs, Harlan Coben, Gayle Lynds, David Baldacci, Vince Flynn and Bernard Cornwell. I've read David Baldacci and, as I already indicated, Vince Flynn. But I don't know the others.

Crossen, in response, mentions Helen MacInnes, and says she has read of all of hers, as did I years ago. Crossen refers to Helen MacInnes as "maybe the Gayle Lynds of her time." If that's true, then hand me one of Gayle's.

She also mentions "Michael Connelly [read a bunch of his], Robert Crais [nope], the Kellermans (John and Faye)[heard of them, but don't remember reading either], George Pelecanos [nope], to name just a few." She goes on:

Responding to an earlier question about thrillers that didn't feature serial-killers of women, readers suggested Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder mysteries and Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti series (start with "Death at La Fenice"). My mystery-mad friend Jean likes Laurie King.

* * *

I prefer mystery, action or intrigue books to be well written, and fortunately, that's not a problem. I like Dennis Lehane, Martin Cruz Smith, John Burdett and Ian Rankin - polished storytellers who don't always make the airport racks. I also enjoy Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley series. Ms. George should put all her books on diets, but her characters make excellent company. Also, look for the just published "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Steig Larsson. That will keep you awake, and it's the first volume of a trilogy.

Rethink Church? The Very Idea!

Anyway, the UMC says it's doing so, and has a very attractive website.

FatFreeVegan

Mary gave me a link to FatFreeVegan. But do they include being free from veggie fat? I think veggie fat is OK. This site has some marvelous photos!

Yum

Tonight I played hooky from our "Wednesday Night Live" evening at church. I haven't been going to the suppers for a number of weeks because they are "traditional American" fare, loaded with animal-based protein and refined carbs. But I have been arriving in time for the Chronological Bible Study. But tonight I stayed home entirely, because I am still catching up from the busy weekend.

That meant I went foraging in the fridge/freezer for supper. I found an edition of Amy's Bowls in the freezer, this one "made with organic black-eyed peas, vegetables and [brown] rice." The veggies included broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, onions, extra virgin olie oil, tamari (wheat free), cilantro, ginger, sea salt, garlic, spices, all "organic" except for the salt. The plastic bowl full of this stuff is covered by some sort of transparent wrap. One is to cut a one-inch slit in the wrap and put it in the microwave on "high" for five minutes. I must say it did not look that exciting, but I proceeded nevertheless.

It was really good! I made some whole wheat toast to go with it and had a banana and an apple for dessert. I recommend Amy's Bowls, if this is an example of what all of the various types are.

Cookbook of the Year?

The James Beard Foundation's "Cookbook of the Year 2009" award goes to:


Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes.

Mathewes-Green on "Wolverine"

Macon pointed out this review of the new X-Person movie. Frederica Mathewes-Green wrote the review. Sounds like fun - both the movie and Mrs. Mathewes-Green.

Mr. Wizard in Austin

On a RadioShack visit recently I discovered a display of ScienceWiz kits. I bought two to bring to Austin on our trip this weekend, one for Aidan called "Electricity" and the other for Felicity call "Inventions." We had such a packed weekend that, to my dismay, I did not have a chance to do the Inventions kit with Felicity, but Aidan and I did get a chance to work through the Electricity kit. It was a big success, and I would heartily recommend these little project kits. I am hoping that Walter will be able to work with Felicity on the other kit and give us a report.

These are really good kits! The author is Penny Norman, PhD., and the book that accompanies the parts of the kit is very well done - not only well illustrated but structured in a way to lead the student through a step-by-step illumination process. For example, in electricity, we begin with the concept of a "loop," and the kit piece is a red loop from a pot holder. Dr. Norman has the student form it into various shapes (circle, oval, square, triangle), making the point that it is always a "loop" regardless of the shape. Then she moves to the idea of an electrical loop, and the next project is a battery, some wires with alligator clips and a light bulb. We consider how, when we make a loop with these materials, we have a lighted bulb - later in the narratives she will call this a "loop circuit."

This morning Aidan demonstrated to his mother how something is "on" and "off." For "on," he put his arms in a circle, with one hand holding the other, He said, "Mom, this is 'on'." Then he let go his hands, but keeping his arms otherwise in a circle as before, he said, "Mom, this is 'off'." Four years old. Awesome!

If God gives me another life, then I think I am going to ask him to be a middle-school science teacher.

Hello from Austin!

Healthy Journey Day Nine

Instead of the plain yogurt yesterday morning with my oatmeal, I had half a 6 oz. cup of another flavored, soy yogurt, this one the All Natural So Delicious Dairy Free Cream Cultured Soy Vanilla. For flavor, it has "organic evaporated cane juice, chicory root extract (inulin), pectin, dextrose, natural flavors . . . citric acid" I'm no sure what all of that means, and I need to find out. I will go to the plain, soy yogurt when we finish off the flavored cups we bought Saturday. With the oatmeal and yogurt I had a half cup of frozen Publix Blueberries "Healthy, Fun & Firm."

For lunch, I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich (hearkening back to my cousin Ken's favorite lunch when we were kids) on whole wheat; a serving of Progresso Vegetable Classics 99% Fat Free Lentil Soup; baby raw carrots; and an apple. The peanut butter was Jiffy Crunchy, and I know people get exercised about commercial peanut butter. It's something I will find out about.

I taught a class at the UM Law School from 5 to 7:45 last night and took a hummus sandwich to eat at the break. It was also on whole wheat bread and had lettuce and tomato with it. When I got home, I microwaved a bag of Act II 94% Fat Free Butter popcorn and had a frozen banana. Yes, the popcorn had some "dairy." I'm not counting it right now.

Healthy Journey Sunday Evening Supper

Here's Carol just now preparing "quick cooking mushroom-barley soup" from Lorna Sass' Short-Cut Vegetarian; "roasted asparagus with a balsmic butter sauce" (I concede that the butter is "dairy", but she is cooking up the butter that's left) from Cooking Lite; and "early morning oven roasted new potatoes," mainly, she says, because "we need to eat these potatoes," I guess because they aren't as "new" as they were when she bought them. (Yes, it's not "early morning." Carol's the cook. Are you kidding me?) She got that recipe on line.




[Insert oath], I'm a lucky husband!!!

A Healthy Journey

The bout with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma that Carol and I had in 1994 (I had the chemo, she had the sick husband), marked the beginning of our inquiry into how to live more healthy lives. Among the changes we adopted progressively since then were changes in our diet. Carol was already a marvelous cook, and she began to change her approach to meal preparation. We started to move away from a meat centered, refined carbohydrate diet, and each year has seen us make some make progress on that healthy journey. During the course of that journey, Weight Watchers has been a great help, especially for me. For Carol the journey has included the joy she finds in the kitchen learning new ways to feed her family.

I have been reading a book called The China Study, as I have posted before. This book has captured my attention as nothing I have read in the area of nutrition. Its thesis is that a diet based on plant-protein and complex carbohydrates is the one that is most likely to result in one's living his life to its end in a way that is not compromised with an extended, final period of disability. At this point 15 years after Carol and I started our healthy journey, this thesis makes complete sense to me.

Today is the ninth day of my living a dietary life based on that thesis. I feel good, and not particularly deprived. We were very close to this life already, except for the dairy based food that we ate. The proportion of meat products was already relatively small. Giving up frozen yogurt, ice-cream, scrambled eggs and cheese (how we love cheese!) - that's more difficult for sure. But, still, we are getting along fine, even after just a week or so.

The weekend is when Carol goes grocery shopping, so we did the first grocery shopping under this new regime yesterday. On Saturday afternoon Carol brought home from Publix some "vegan" products, and then we went shopping together at Whole Foods and picked up some more.

This morning Carol pulled out of our pantry some relatively healthy canned foods that are not vegan. We took them to church this morning to put in the basket that goes to a church in Hialeah that distributes food to needy families. So now we are ready for week two of this journey.

As we go along, I thought I would let you know how we are doing and what we are eating.

Let me start with breakfast this morning. My usual breakfast has been oatmeal, plain yogurt and a banana or frozen berries. I have been having the oatmeal all week without the yogurt. At Whole Foods yesterday, however, we bought some yogurt substitutes of different kinds and brands. I used a half of a 6 oz. cup of WholeSoy & Co.'s strawberry "soy yogurt," and could not tell much difference when mixed with the oatmeal. I ate the rest of the cup as a snack later in the day, and it was good. It didn't taste exactly like dairy yogurt, but it was tasty and satisfying.

The entire cup has 160 calories, 25 from fat. It was quite sweet, and a cup has 21g of sugar, which is a lot. I am used to plain yogurt with my oatmeal, but I was worried that this product would taste awful. So I hedged by getting the flavored version. The sugars are "organic cornstarch, organic rice starch, strawberries, and natural flavors." I would be glad to skip the corn and rice starch. So tomorrow I am going to try Silk Live! Soy Yogurt in its "Plain" version on my oatmeal. (WholeSoy has a "plain" version too.)

These soy yogurts have "live and active cultures to help your body's natural defenses," according to the Silk container.

Lunch on Sundays has always been problematical, because we have it at church. Often what is served is full of a lot of fat and refined carbohydrates. There are always cookies and cakes, and I find that sort of thing hard to resist, especially when I have eaten sparingly of the "main" courses. But today I took with me an Amy's Black Bean Tamale Verde, put it in the church's kitchen freezer just after we first arrived for Sunday School and then pulled it out and microwaved it after the worship service, when everyone was lined up in Fellowship Hall for the usual spread. (This dish, according to the box is "Gluten free . . . non-dairy . . . no cholesterol . . . no trans fat . . . no added msg . . . no preservatives . . . no GMOs (whatever they are) . . . No Bioengineered ingredients." Whew!).

After I heated up the dish, I put it on one of the paper plates and got at the end of the line and got some tossed salad and some tomato slices, because the dish did not look like it would be enough. I sat down at a table and thoroughly enjoyed the food and the fellowship, and no one seemed to know the difference. The Black Bean Tamale Verde was excellent.

Carol and Mary have been talking on the phone this weekend about vegetarian recipes, and so I am looking forward to more good things from Carol's kitchen.

Carol and I have talked a good bit about the social issues involved with this development. We are not going to be crusading about this, and when social situations with others involve non-vegan dishes, we will certainly join in. The question is more about one's default approach to nutrition and also about developing one's own strategies to make this approach not a burden on others.

World Malaria Day - April 25

Yesterday was World Malaria Day. According to a paper that Mary is writing for her bio class, an estimated 500 million people suffer from malaria each year, resulting in over one million deaths, mostly of children and mostly affecting poor populatons in tropical and subtropical areas.

Experts say one child dies of malaria every 30 seconds. Around the world, malaria kills 3,000 children under 5 every day, a higher mortality rate than AIDS. - New York Times 10-31-1998.

Law Firms and Starbucks

Carol sent this to me. I think the difference is that there is no guild controllong the delivery of coffee but there is one controlling the delivery of legal servies. This doesn't necessarily mean that the lawyers' guild should be broken open, but it certainly suggests an inquiry into that matter.

Recalibrating

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

-James 1:27

Fat Intake and Breast Cancer

Concerning the evidence in Chart 4.7 [reflecting a well-designed and implemented, country to country study made by the late Kenneth K. Carroll, professor at the U of West Ontario, of the positive correlation between total fat intake and breast cancer], the solution seems obvious: if we eat less fat, then we'll lower our breast cancer risk. Most scientists made this conclusion and some surmised that dietary fat caused breast cancer. But that interpretation was too simple. Other charts (Charts 4.8 and 4.9) prepared by Professor Carroll were largely, almost totally, ignored (Charts 4.8 and 4.9). They show that breast cancer was associated with animal fat intake but not with plant fat.

-from The China Study at pages 84 and 85.

Security Guards in lieu of Police Officers

The WSJ today carried an article about municipalities that are hiring security guards to do police work.

Hiring private guards is less expensive than hiring new officers. Oakland - facing a record $80 million budget shortfall - spends about 65% of its budget for police and fire services, including about $250,000 annually, including benefits and salary on each police officer. In contrast, for about $200,000 a year the city can contract to hire four private guards to patrol the troubled East Oakland district where four on-duty police officers were killed in March. And the company, not the city, is reponsible for insurance for the guards.

UPDATE: The WSJ reports today that the Oakland contract was cancelled because of a fraud investigation of the owners of the security firm. So much for outsourcing.

"Long Term Consequences are Grave"

I receive periodic letters and reports on the economic and investment climate from many sources. Many of them I have learned simply to discard, but others I read carefully. One of the latter is from an investment manager at Northern Trust. His letter of April 10 includes this passage:

We believe [the US] governments' (sic) aggressive monetary and fiscal stimulus programs will restore positive economic growth at some point during the second half of this year. We also acknowledge that the longer-term consequences of these programs are grave, and to the extent these programs are not unwound in a timely and successful manner, they may become the source of future economic distress. Nonetheless, these massive governmental interventions were and remain necessary given the past 20 months' precipitous collapse in global commerce and credit.

"He who does not know food, how can he understand the diseases of man?"

-Hipporactes, the father of medicine (400-357 B.C.), as quoted in The China Study.

eBooks Cheap

Here's link to a list of 10 sites where one can down load eBooks without charge. Of the Kindle books I listed on the next previous post, items 7, 8, 10, and 11 were free or cost around a dollar.

Books I'm Reading Update

1. The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health, T. Colin Campbell.
2. Daniel, Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy, Beth Moore
3. Truman, David McCullough (Kindle)
4. Celebration of Discipline, Foster
5. Chronological Study Bible
6. The Third Option, Flynn (Fiction: Kindle)
7. The Journal of John Wesley (Kindle)
8. Table Talk, Luther (Kindle)
9. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin, (Ford Lewis Battle translation)
10. The Imitation of Christ, a Kempis (Kindle)
11. Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (Kindle)

Let's [Tea] Party, Miami Springs and America!

On the Circle and at the Gazebo, where we signed petitions and threw our tea [bags] into the brine.

Are We Surprised?

Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security Director who lately distinguished herself with a report warning that people with "right-wing" views should be surveilled for terrorist leanings, turns out to be a surveillance advocate all 'round. The WSJ today reports that the Arizona legislature is

considering bills to dismantle the [freeway speed camera system] created by [then] Gov. Janet Napolitano when she faced a gaping budget deficit.

This is the system built on "short yellows," meaning the yellow light on the traffic signal that lights up as the signal is turning red. The "short yellows" are attached to a robotic camera that takes a photo of an offender's license plate as he drives through the intersection and then sends the offender a ticket.

Don't Mess With Texas

No, really. Don't.

Gov. Perry Backs Resolution Affirming Texas’ Sovereignty Under 10th Amendment

A number of recent federal proposals are not within the scope of the federal government’s constitutionally designated powers and impede the states’ right to govern themselves. HCR 50 affirms that Texas claims sovereignty under the 10th Amendment over all powers not otherwise granted to the federal government.

It also designates that all compulsory federal legislation that requires states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties, or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding, be prohibited or repealed.

Off The Wall

The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in "rightwing extremist activity," saying the economic recession, the election of America's first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.

A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines "rightwing extremism in the United States" as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.

"It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration," the warning says.

-The Washington Times today.

[Catchy Title Goes Here]

Excess Men

Think about the implications of this.

To Whom Shall We "Blue Dogs" Flee?

Glenn comments.

What about Walt?

Obama and the Pirates

This is a pop quiz, not an exam, not a mid-term, and certainly not a final. One hopes he passes with flying colors.

UPDATE: Flying colors it is!

FURTHER UPDATE: Maybe not quite so flying. The WSJ reported today (4/13) that when Capt. Phillips jumped out of the lifeboat a couple of days ago and managed to swim away, the Navy did not yet have authorization to use force. The pirates shot at the captain and recaptured him. The Navy should already have had the authorization. There may have been an opportunity missed, then, to intervene at that point and save the captain. It turned out well, but the credit due the President seems compromised.

See, also, this from Glenn Reynolds.

Backyard Orchids and a Puppy

Two of our orchids are blooming, and the Jeraulds, who live across the street with their three little boys, have a puppy, a Golden Lab.

Tips on Using Google Search

6 of them. Pretty good.

Happy Birthday, Christians!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1: 3 - 5

Doctors' Diaries

This is a great series from NOVA about the experiences of a group of med students at Harvard. I find it especially intense and moving to watch, as I think about Mary and her future.

Thinking about the Second Day

Where was Jesus the day after Good Friday? Some controversy here.
Gleason L. Archer, Jr., approaches the question in Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties by noting that Jesus told the repentant thief that "today you will be with Me in paradise." But, Archer asks, was it not only after Jesus arose that He ascended to heaven? Archer goes on as follows:

The answer lies in the location of 'paradise'.

Apparently paradise was not exalted to heaven until Easter Day. Jesus apparently refers to it in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus as "Abraham's Bosom," to which the godly beggar Lazarus was carried by the angels after his decease (Luke 16:19-31). Thus "Abraham's Bosom" referred to the place where the souls of the redeemed waited till the day of Christ's resurrection. Presumably this was the same place as paradise. It was not yet lifted up to heaven but it may well have been a section of hades [reference to the Hebrew word for Hades omitted], reserved for believers who died in the faith but who would not be admitted into the glorious presence of God in heaven until the price of redemption had been actually paid on Calvary.

Doubtless is was to the infernal paradise that the souls of Jesus and the repentant thief repaired after they each died on Friday afternoon. But then on Easter Sunday, after the risen Christ had first appeared to Mary Magdalene (John 20:17) and her two companions (Matt. 28:9), presumably he took up with Him to glory all the inhabitants of infernal paradise (including Abraham, Lazarus, and the repentant thief). We read in Ephesians 4:8 concerning Christ: "Ascending on high, He led captivity captive: He gave gifts unto men." Verse 9 continues: "But what does 'He ascended' mean but that He also descended to the lowers parts of the earth?"-i.e., to hades. Verse 10 adds: "He who descended is the same as He who ascended above all the heavens." Presumably He led the whole band of liberated captives from hades (i.e., the whole population of preresurrection paradise) up to the glory of the highest heaven, the abode of the Triune God.

Archer has allies in the Eastern Church. The following is from the The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church (Moscow, 1839, as quoted in Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, V. II):

"213. What should we think of the state in which Jesus Christ was after his death, and before his resurrection?

"This is described in the following hymn of the Church: In the grave as to the flesh, in hades with thy soul, as God, in paradise with the thief, and on the throne were thou, O Christ, together with the Father and the Spirit, filling all things, thyself uncircumscribed.

"214. What is hades or hell?

"Hades is a Greek word, and means a place "void of light." In divinity, by this name is understood a spiritual prison, that is, the state of those spirits which are separated by sin from the sight of God's countenance, and from the light and blessedness which it confers.

"215. Wherefore did Jesus Christ descend into hell?

"To the end that he might there also preach his victory over death, and deliver the souls which with faith awaited his coming.

"216. Does holy Scripture speak of this?

"It is referred to in the following passage: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he may bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quikened in the spirit; in which also he want and preached uto the spirits in prison." 1 Pet. iii 18, 19."

But what of the Reformers? John Calvin, at least, would disagree with Archer, the Eastern Church, and others. In his Institutes, the following in Book 2, Chapter 16:

"8. Here we must not omit the descent to hell, which was of no little importance to the accomplishment of redemption. For although it is apparent from the writings of the ancient Fathers, that the clause which now stands in the Creed was not formerly so much used in the churches, still, in giving a summary of doctrine, a place must be assigned to it, as containing a matter of great importance which ought not by any means to be disregarded. Indeed, some of the ancient Fathers do not omit it, and hence we may conjecture, that having been inserted in the Creed after a considerable lapse of time, it came into use in the Church not immediately but by degrees. This much is uncontroverted, that it was in accordance with the general sentiment of all believers, since there is none of the Fathers who does not mention Christ's descent into hell, though they have various modes of explaining it. But it is of little consequence by whom and at what time it was introduced. The chief thing to be attended to in the Creed is, that it furnishes us with a full and every way complete summary of faith, containing nothing but what has been derived from the infallible word of God. But should any still scruple to give it admission into the Creed, it will shortly be made plain, that the place which it holds in a summary of our redemption is so important, that the omission of it greatly detracts from the benefit of Christ's death. There are some again who think that the article contains nothing new, but is merely a repetition in different words of what was previously said respecting burial, the word Hell (Infernis) being often used in Scripture for sepulchre. I admit the truth of what they allege with regard to the not infrequent use of the term infernos for sepulchre; but I cannot adopt their opinion, for two obvious reasons. First, What folly would it have been, after explaining a matter attended with no difficulty in clear and unambiguous terms, afterwards to involve rather than illustrate it by clothing it in obscure phraseology? When two expressions having the same meaning are placed together, the latter ought to be explanatory of the former. But what kind of explanation would it be to say, the expression, "Christ was buried", means, that "he descended into hell"? My second reason is the improbability that a superfluous tautology of this description should have crept into this compendium, in which the principal articles of faith are set down summarily in the fewest possible number of words. I have no doubt that all who weigh the matter with some degree of care will here agree with me.

"9. Others interpret differently, viz., That Christ descended to the souls of the Patriarchs who died under the law, to announce his accomplished redemption, and bring them out of the prison in which they were confined. To this effect they wrest the passage in the Psalms "He has broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder." (Ps. 107: 16;) and also the passage in Zechariah, "I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water," (Zech. 9: 11.) But since the psalm foretells the deliverance of those who were held captive in distant lands, and Zechariah comparing the Babylonish disaster into which the people had been plunged to a deep dry well or abyss, at the same time declares, that the salvation of the whole Church was an escape from a profound pit, I know not how it comes to pass, that posterity imagined it to be a subterraneous cavern, to which they gave the name of Limbus. Though this fable has the countenance of great authors, and is now also seriously defended by many as truth, it is nothing but a fable. To conclude from it that the souls of the dead are in prison is childish. And what occasion was there that the soul of Christ should go down thither to set them at liberty? I readily admit that Christ illumined them by the power of his Spirit, enabling them to perceive that the grace of which they had only had a foretaste was then manifested to the world. And to this not improbably the passage of Peter may be applied, wherein he says, that Christ "went and preached to the spirits that were in prison," (or rather "a watch-tower,") (I Pet. 3: 19.) The purport of the context is, that believers who had died before that time were partakers of the same grace with ourselves: for he celebrates the power of Christ's death, in that he penetrated even to the dead, pious souls obtaining an immediate view of that visitation for which they had anxiously waited; while, on the other hand, the reprobate were more clearly convinced that they were completely excluded from salvation. Although the passage in Peter is not perfectly definite, we must not interpret as if he made no distinction between the righteous and the wicked: he only means to intimate, that the death of Christ was made known to both.

"10. But, apart from the Creed, we must seek for a surer exposition of Christ's descent to hell: and the word of God furnishes us with one not only pious and holy, but replete with excellent consolation. Nothing had been done if Christ had only endured corporeal death. In order to interpose between us and God's anger, and satisfy his righteous judgement, it was necessary that he should feel the weight of divine vengeance. Whence also it was necessary that he should engage, as it were, at close quarters with the powers of hell and the horrors of eternal death. We lately quoted from the Prophet, that the "chastisement of our peace was laid upon him" that he "was bruised for our iniquities" that he "bore our infirmities;" expressions which intimate, that, like a sponsor and surety for the guilty, and, as it were, subjected to condemnation, he undertook and paid all the penalties which must have been exacted from them, the only exception being, that the pains of death could not hold him. Hence there is nothing strange in its being said that he descended to hell, seeing he endured the death which is inflicted on the wicked by an angry God. It is frivolous and ridiculous to object that in this way the order is perverted, it being absurd that an event which preceded burial should be placed after it. But after explaining what Christ endured in the sight of man, the Creed appropriately adds the invisible and incomprehensible judgement which he endured before God, to teach us that not only was the body of Christ given up as the price of redemption, but that there was a greater and more excellent price - that he bore in his soul the tortures of condemned and ruined man." [Boldface added]

My opinion, for whatever little it is worth, is that Calvin has the better argument, much the better argument.

Best Title for a Book about Getting into Medical School

So, You Want to be a Doctor, Eh? A Guidebook to Canadian Medical School (Paperback)

Eh?

Eh?

Income Tax Withholding Matters

Take a look at this article in the Miami Herald that came out Tuesday about income tax withholding

The article states that one of the “Stimulus” bills that Congress passed will result in a new withholding schedule effective April 1. It may result in less being withheld from your paycheck. The article warns, however, that you may be among those who will, as a result, “under-withhold” and that you should be concerned about that.

The article refers to an on-line withholding calculator, but the website address the article gives is incorrect. Here is where you should start on the IRS website.

Thanks to Carol for bringing this to my attention.

Watch Out for the Socks

Speaking of Military History.

Top Books on Military History

Tom Ricks' list, at least. (But is Catch 22 "military history?"). Thanks, Glenn Reynolds.

Weekend in Philadelphia

Friday morning Carol and I flew up to Philadelphia to visit Mary. After we landed, we took a train north from the airport into the city and the 30th Street Station. We transferred to a train that went west out of the city to Rosemont, and then walked through a driving rain to Mary's apartment building about two suburban blocks south of the station. (We had our umbrellas, so no real problem). We were there, snug in her apartment, when she came home from school about 2 PM.


About the time we arrived at Mary's apartment building, the weather cleared and the sun came out. So after she came home, Mary drove us the two miles over to Bryn Mawr College, and gave us a tour of the science building, her real home-away-from home, and the rest of the lovely campus.

Spring was just at the threshold of bursting forth there, and several trees had already bloomed. The first photo is of Mary and Carol in front of one of these harbinger trees after we came out of the science building. The second photo is of Taylor Hall, one of the main buildings of the college.

The lawns, well watered from the rain and a deep green, the flower beds freshly mulched with the leaves of tulip and other bulbs popping up and soon to flower, and the old stone, neo-gothic buildings of the campus rising up from all this promise made a very pleasant sight. We walked by student guides and their charges, young women, apparently high school seniors, who seemed to be giving the place one last look before deciding whether to come next fall. The season favors a positive decision.

From there we drove a mile or less to Ardmore, another of the little towns that seem to overlap one another along the "Main Line," where there is some serious shopping available. As Carol and Mary enjoyed themselves (buying after all very little), I sat in a plaza surrounded by J. Crew, Talbot's, a vest pocket Macy's, and the like, watching a Robin for about 15 minutes look around another freshly mulched flower bed for a worm with no success.

The shoppers rejoined me, and we walked about a block to "Trader Joe's," a sort of toned down Whole Foods and a favorite grocery store of Mary. From there, we went around the corner to "the Farmer's Market," where we ended up buying supper on a take-out basis. This was an interesting place - the vendors inside the Farmer's Market manned 21st Century "stalls" or "stands" (which words do not come near to describing how classy these points of sale are). There was a Mennonite bakery, although we successfully resisted the temptation to load up, a wine vendor, an Asian food stand, where we bought some talapia and a tofu dish, an Italian stand, where we bought some potatoes (we were eating eclectic that night), and several other places that made us hungrier and hungrier. So with our haul we quickly went back to Mary's apartment, which was already redolent with some bread she had baked for our visit, and had supper. We topped it all off with a trip back across the street to a McDonald's for their 1$ caramel sundaes - a dessert tradition that we first adopted on our trips to Spain.

The next morning we were up fairly promptly, and Mary made her very strong, Kenya edition of cafe con leche for herself and me. She had thoughtfully bought Muesli for Carol's breakfast, and there was oatmeal and yogurt, all with bananas and blueberries and, of course, the homemade bread. Yum.

Then, as we had planned, we took off for the Valley Forge National Historic Park, which is part of the National Park Service. This, of course, is the site of the "encampment" of Washington's Continental Army which began in December 1777 and continued until the spring of 1778. It is a sprawling park, but has a good visitors center, and an exhibit where several very small log cabins have been built, replicating over 1000 of such shelters that the soldiers built for the winter. We learned that the winter, while cold - was moderate for Pennsylvania, and that the army, while tested during the winter, emerged transformed by the training they received from Von Stueben, fresh arms from France, and the encouraging news that France had come into the war on the side of the Colonials.

Two of the three park rangers who gave talks were very good, and one of them gave some interesting detail about how the cannon and muskets were used to devastating effect. I asked this gentleman for some recommendations on further reading about the Continental Army, and he suggested two books, Joseph Plumb Martin's A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier, and Charles Roster's, A Revolutionary People at War.

The third photo is of Mary and me in front of the visitor's center, and the fourth is of the National Memorial Arch that was dedicated in 1917, commemorating the "patience and fidelity" of the soldiers who wintered there in 1777-1778.



On the way back from Valley Forge, we made a quick stop at King of Prussia Mall (by then, we understood why there would be a place named "King of Prussia" in that locale, for he had been a friend to the Colonials), and then home to Mary's apartment to rest and to put the finishing touches on the plans for the evening. Those touches mainly involved Mary and Carol studying the guide books for a good place for dinner in the city, not too far from the Kimmel Center, where we had tickets that night to attend a concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

They came up with an Indian restaurant, Lovash, and it proved to have delicious food and was moderately priced. There were all sorts of off-beat shops and other restaurants in the Lovash neighborhood, and there were lots of people, from the plainly tourist to 1980s grunge types - it reminded me a bit of Ybor City in Tampa.

After that it was off to Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts where the Philadelphia Orchestra performed under the direction that night of Andre Previn. Mary had asked me what we should expect to hear from the PO in relation to our friend the New World Symphony. I told her that we should be able to hear quite a difference, even though we enjoy the New World. Although we expected to hear something better, we were simply stunned at the quality of the orchestra, especially on the Mozart piano concerto. (Piano Concerto No. 24, K. 491 - click "System One," then scroll down to Piano Concertos)

Andre Previn, who turns 80 this year, seemed quite feeble as he approached the piano (for the Mozart) and then, after intermission, the podium for Strauss's Symphonia Domestica, but he carried it all off with strength and aplomb. We sat in the orchestra section, not that far from the stage, and you could see on the faces of the musicians how much they were enjoying Previn and how they connected with him. We all enjoyed it!

The next morning, we attended City Line Church, and heard a fine sermon on 2 Corin. 12:1-10, from the pastor, Steve Kim, and met some of Mary's friends who also attend there. For lunch, we went to a burrito fast food place and then back to the apartment to relax. At about 4 Mary walked us to the train station, and we back-tracked to the airport and then home by about 9:30PM Sunday night.

Dad Just Has to Brag

Poor Mary. She's been slogging through Chemistry these many months. She finds Biology fascinating and Physics, well Physics, is "just math," at least to Mary. And we know how Mary handles math.

But Chemistry, ugh.

I hated Chemistry at Duke, and the two Freshman Chem courses at Duke were the only courses in which I got a C. So I have been sympathising with Mary these past several months, as she complained about the Chem courses in her program. I sympathized as only a loving and completely understanding father can. Until she just now sent me this update:

Well, apparently I had a very good Chemistry week last week, as I got a 95 on my 2-day test extravaganza (the class average was a 74--guess I didn't help that curve), and a 99 on my last lab report.

Did I mention Carol got two A+s in Freshmen Chemistry at Duke?

Aunt Ann a G.L.O.W. Honoree

Our Aunt Ann is among 18 Georgia women honored by the Georgia Legislature as "outstanding". We've known that for many, many years, but it's good to know that this has become generally known. Among her many gifts is running the Dodge Hill Inn in Eastman, GA, where we have had simply wonderful visits.