Friday's Odds and Ends

The first bit of good news is that it has warmed up just a bit and some of the places hit the hardest with winter storms this week are getting a reprieve. It's a balmy forty degrees here, and I am so glad I did not have to haul buckets of hot water to melt ice in the horse trough this morning. 

Today I'm sharing blueberry scones with all my visitors. Grab one and enjoy.

 In last Sunday's Parade Magazine, novelist Brad Meltzer wrote an interesting article titled Do Kids Still Want to be President. He did some research and discovered that, unlike when some of us were young and aspired to grow up to be President of the United States, today's young people don't have the same aspirations. In a poll of kids between ages of 10 and 16 that was conducted by the publisher Penguin Young readers only 27% of the kids said that they would like to grow up to be president. Among the 15 to 16-year-olds there were only 13% that said they would like to be president.

Meltzer thinks that one of the problems is the fact that we are so vocal with our dissatisfaction of the president. All the young kids see is the frustration that we have with politicians and government and all the negative press about the president. So why would they want a job that is so thankless?

Another news item that caught my attention this week was a column by Steve Blow with the Dallas Morning News. He wrote a piece about the difficulty he has hearing some of the dialogue on television shows, and he actually went to get his hearing checked because he thought that was the problem. What he discovered was that his hearing is just fine.

Photo Courtesy of ActiveRain.com

 One of the reasons many people have trouble catching all the dialogue in some TV programs is that the actors mumble more in today's shows than they did in shows 20 or 30 years ago. He wrote that he caught some reruns of shows that aired in the 60s and 70s and noticed that the actors spoke clearly and distinctly. So part of the problem with hearing dialogue in current shows is the way the audio is taped with actors talking fast, actors talking over each other, and a lot of sound in the background.

In the column, Steve also pointed out that the newer flat screen HD televisions have the speakers pointing to the back. He joked that he could hear the dialogue much better if he stuck his head behind the TV, although that did create a problem with the image. With the kind of technology we have to make what we see on screen so clear and defined, it would be wonderful if television manufacturers came up with a way to make audio match the same high standards.

Now for some fun from the comic strips. This is from Dilbert:

Pointy-Haired Boss is asking Dogbert, "What's the newest management jargon I need to pretend to understand?"

Dogbert responds, "Experts say you should engage employees and follow from the front."

Pointy-Haired Boss asks, "Does that mean anything?"

Dogbert answers, "No one knows. Just to be safe you should tell people you're doing it."

Pointy-Haired Boss asks, "Should I act as if I'm passionate, or is this more of a fake caring situation?"

Dogbert says, "Beats me try combining the two."

So, Pointy-Haired Boss walks away thinking,  "Fake passion plus fake caring." He comes up to an employee who says, "My uncle died."

Pointy-Haired Boss says, "Woot!! What was his name?!"

In closing, I just want to share a bit of a new review for my mystery, Boxes For Beds. The reader really, really enjoyed the story, and I am so grateful that she took the time to write a review. Here's what she had to say:

"Boxes For Beds" pulls on two of the most powerful strings in the human catalog of fears--the fear of losing your child, and the fear of being falsely accused. The author does a masterful job of setting up the story in the early 60's in Arkansas."

Monday Morning Musings

When I was taking a walk this morning, I started thinking about songs that celebrate Mondays. The tune, "Monday Monday" by The Mamas and The Papas started playing in my head and I couldn't shake it. So I came into my office and found it on YouTube.



Then I looked for some recordings of "Monday Morning Live" by Fleetwood Mac, and found this one that has some great images.



Both of the songs have great lyrics and terrific beats that make you want to get up and dance.

Looking ahead to Thursday and Halloween, I thought I would share a bit from an article in yesterday's Parade Magazine: An Ode to Sugar by Steve Almond. Steve loves Halloween and shares that love, "I came by my love of Halloween honestly. It’s the only holiday I really remember from childhood, and I remember everything about it: my trick-or-treating route, the aroma that arose from the pillowcase I filled with goodies, how glorious it felt to unload my take and categorize it using a strict hierarchy (bars first, then lollipops, then fruit chews, etc.) before swapping treats with my brothers."

When I read that, it took me back to my childhood, when Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. I remember walking those dark streets looking for houses that had porch lights lit to let us know people were there, ready to hand out treats. Today there is a commercial for a cell phone that has kids and families texting information about the best houses to go to, or warning about which houses not to go to "the dentist who is giving out floss."

We didn't have cell phones when I was a kid, but we had ways of spreading the word by meeting up on street corners to share about where we hit a mother lode. We also spread the word about which houses had the best ghosts and goblins and scary things along the front walk. It was a badge of honor to make it past some of those things to the front door, and not everyone earned that badge.

What are your Halloween memories? Does the holiday mean as much today? Do you know the origins of the Halloween traditions?

Monday Morning Musings

Two stories in Parade Magazine this past weekend were a study in contrasts. The first one was about Flash Mobs that have gone from gatherings to do something silly and fun, to looting and violence parties. These gatherings started in about 2003 when young folks - and some older ones - used social media to suggest getting together to do something outrageous. One of the first was people riding the subway in New York in just their underwear. Silly, but harmless.

But more recently the flash mobs have gone beyond harmless. The riots in London this summer were started by a flash mob, and the city of Philadelphia has a curfew now following the vandalism and looting at a Macy's store this summer.

According to the article in Parade, police departments are now monitoring social sites in the hopes of discovering plans for outbreaks so they can intervene.

How sad that what started out as just fun had to take such a downturn.

In contrast, there was a story about former U.S. Army Sgt. Adam Burke who found a unique way to recover from the physical and emotional damage caused when he was shot in Iraq. Burke suffered from a severe brain injury, PTSD, and a ruptured ear drum that left him unable to maintain his balance without a cane.

Two years after he came home from the hospital, he and his wife moved to his family farm in Florida, where they were given a few acres. He spent his days preparing the land, planting blueberry bushes and caring for them. After about a year he noticed that his balance had returned. So had some small measure of peace. That's when he decided he would offer the same opportunity to other veterans as they came home. He invited men and women to come on weekends and help with the care and harvesting.

By 2010, the enterprise was so successful, Burke decided to expand. He acquired funds from Work Vessels for Veterans, a non-profit that helps former military personnel start a new business, and bought eight more acres.

The farm has really been a godsend for returning veterans who need the healing power of working in the sun and connecting with living, growing things. Not to mention the support they find as they can share their stories with men and women who truly do know what they have been through.

Kudos to Sgt. Burke.

Monday Morning Musings

Who says young people today are shiftless and self-absorbed and nothing but trouble? That's what some folks think of teens, but the majority of young people do not fall into that classification. The teens that I know, and have worked with, are bright, helpful, respectful, and eager to make a difference in the world.That is one reason I was so pleased to see an article in Parade Magazine this weekend that celebrates young people who are participating in service activities.

The article starts by featuring Miranda Cosgrove, the star of Nickelodeon’s iCarly, for her work with  St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis where she visits patients and assists in fund-raising. “They tell you to give back because it helps other people, but you also get a lot out of it.”

Fifteen teens from across the country were picked for Parade's All-American Service Team, and they were selected because they have done something significant in their communities, or even across the world. Rujul Zaparde from New Jersey was cited because he started a non-profit that helps build wells in India, and Charlotte Bilski from New York was cited for organizing an effort to gather donated medical supplies and send them to Haiti following the devastating earthquake there.

Charles Orgbon III from Georgia, is CEO of Greening Forward, a nonprofit that has helped 6,000 students recycle 10 tons of waste and pick up enough litter to fill 25 homes. Charles is only 15 year old. Imagine what he will do at 25.

Conner Danzler of Maryland founded Health Through Humor, an organization that has distributed 11,000 joke books to hospitals in 19 states. Laughter really is the best medicine, and he is doing a wonderful service.

Right here in my community I know a number of teens, and younger children, who take part in the annual Winnsboro Service Day, cleaning up property and painting homes for senior citizens and the disabled. Teens from my church do the same type of service projects,  and many of them collect food for the food pantry.

What about you? Do you know some young people who are deserving of some special recognition for what they are doing to serve their communities?

Friday's Odds and Ends

In an interview with Walter Scott for Parade Magazine, Jane Fonda was asked if she was surprised to fall in love again, with record producer Richard Perry. "Totally. But it doesn't start with love, right? It starts with sex and grows into love."

I guess as long as we continue to consider sex recreation, we will continue to have high rates of abortion, single mothers, and widespread STDs. Call me old-fashioned, but I think the most intimate connection we can have with another person ought to be with someone we have grown to love first.

During a recent Commissioner's Court meeting in Dallas, Commissioner John Wiley Price responded to provocative comments during the public comment portion of the meeting with an angry outburst. He said, "All of you are white. Go to hell." Price has a long history of placing the race card, so some of his responses are to be expected. But as several columnists and editorial writers for The Dallas Morning News have said, he could do so with a lot more decorum.

Seven teenagers in Pennsylvania attacked a 13-year old boy. They beat him, tossed him into a tree, and hung him from a metal fence post. The attack went on for 30 minutes in a public place, the boy crying for help the entire time. The perpetrators videotaped the whole thing and posted the video on YouTube.

Over and above the atrocity, what is really sad about this story is the fact that it has become another form of recreation. Kids fighting each other or some hapless stranger and making a slasher video of it has become an Internet rage.

Anne Rasmussen of Dallas took her first college class when she was 72, and went on to get a bachelor's and a master's degree. Now, at age 80 she is about to become the oldest person to enter SMU's law school. In an interview in The Dallas Morning News with columnist Steve Blow, she said, "I can't just sit and stare at the walls."

Kudos to Anne and all the people like her who believe in living life to the fullest and following whatever dream they have and not letting age stand in the way.