Carpe Diem? Yeah right.

I never set out to be a lawyer. I never thought about being a lawyer. I didn’t know a single lawyer until I went to law school. How the hell did it happen then? A comedy of errors as Shakespeare would say. Yes, blame it on un-named unknown “errors” of a cosmic nature. Somebody somewhere in some region of space is undoubtedly still laughing. I however stopped laughing years ago. Actually I never started laughing, that sound you may think you hear is the echo of screams, whimpers, tears, and moaning, all jammed together in one cacophony of universal refrain that you might have mistook for laughter.

Let’s go back a bit. I recall saying that  nobody in my family went to college. NOBODY. In fact, I could easily say that of everyone I knew in my neighborhood. None of my friends parents had gone to college, at least as far as I knew. The only college graduates I knew of for certain were teachers at my school.

So, as I found myself in college, and at MSU, it was all a great new adventure, one that I had no experience with at all. To say I had fun at college would be to do great disservice to the word fun. Fun is a nice little word that is small in stature and thus small in meaning. I had a ball, a gigantic yahoo in college. I was away from home for the first time, away from parental overseeing, conservative mores, and all the rest that passes for the sleepy land of suburbia.

Stay up all night partying? No problem. Nap in the afternoon after that 8:00 class? No problem. I think I completely lost the concept of delayed gratification for those two years. Football, basketball, hockey games. Pizza seven days a week if you were so motivated, dinner at prof’s homes with a group of students, all enthralled to examine the treasures acquired in far off lands. There were horses corralled at the veterinary school across the street from my dorm. There were movies at the dorm, or at neighboring dorms. There was beer everywhere.

There was anti-war protesting, and the pretence that we were causing adults in government to change policy. Lessons in how to avoid tear gas, neckerchiefs to wear as defense. There was Jane Fonda giving speeches and spending the night at our dorm. (She is amazingly tiny if you didn’t know.) There was ice skating on the river in winter, and tramps through the woodlots on campus. There was going barefoot to class and smoking in class and asking a shoed person to put out your cig on the floor for you. There was taking your dog to class, sometimes a class might have three in it at one time. They were all good, being very obedient and sleeping through lectures.

It was freedom, freedom to make every single decision on my own, and I loved it, and felt so very responsible. I had nice roomates and I got good grades, mostly because I was loving everything, even the studying. The end of my first year at State, and now my third year of college brought a deep and abiding concern and sadness. What to do next?

That is where the issue of having no one really to discuss it with became important.  My roommates and other friends were pretty much in the same boat. Most of us were first-timers, transfer students from junior colleges, with little or no experience with college life. I guess it seems odd that I did not seek “counseling” at the university, but it never seemed a thought to me. I just knew that after another year, I had to have something to do. What do I do with a B.A. in political science? I took one education class and was so bored that I concluded I could not stomach teaching high school.

My conclusion was that I either came up with something or I would have to get a PH.D. and teach at the University level. That somehow seemed too long, too expensive, and out of the question. Dad never failed to remind me rather often of how much it was costing to go to college. In fact, this may shock the hell out of you, but in total, including law school, it cost him $9,000. Yep, school was cheap in those days, and I worked every summer.

Sometime during that last summer, I concluded that law school was the only answer. It had a finite end, three more years. I of course was caught up in politics, and naive as I was, I concluded that a career in Washington D.C. was my calling. I would secure a law degree and then get a job on one of the permanent house or senate committees dealing with the judiciary. That was naive indeed. Nobody got those jobs unless they matriculated through one of the major ivy league schools. I was unlikely to get in to one of those. U of M was my only real hope, though I was genuinely unaware of that at the time.

Dad, ironically was all for it. He played this game with me for years. He would tell me how expensive something was, how much of a burden it was for him. He would urge me to be frugal, work each summer, and when it came time to pay up my share, he would say, “Oh, I never intended that you would pay any. But I figured that if you knew that, you’d waste money.” It never occurred to him apparently that making that kind of statement to your daughter filled her with feelings of incompetence. He was still doing it when I was in my 40’s, though I never borrowed a dime from him after college.

I recall having to go to MSU sometime during that summer  to take the SAT’s. I recall being in a dorm room,  and falling victim to a vicious cold. I spent the night shivering, feverish and totally miserable. I dragged myself to the appointed building on campus the next morning and took the test. I drove back to Flint immediately. I didn’t do well at all. I laid that at the doorstep of illness, but perhaps I wouldn’t have done well anyway, I don’t know.

We were in our apartment when I began applying to law schools that fall. MSU did not at that time have a law school, I had only two choices, U of M or Wayne State in Detroit. I had no desire to go to Detroit, but I applied to both. I was turned down by Michigan, expected given my poor SAT’s. I got into Wayne fine.  I was thrilled to get in to law school of course, but so sad about leaving MSU. It was heaven to me. An intellectual paradise and somehow, I missed that this is where I belonged. I would not truly realize it until years later when I returned to school once again, this time at Marygrove College also in Detroit.

I was simply a person born to university life. I loved the intellectual give and take, the eclectic nature of the different disciplines and the international variety of people one saw each day. I revelled in lectures and exposure to things impossible to contemplate at small suburban high schools. I walked through libraries so different than those I had experienced at home. It was a microcosm of the world in a few hundred acres and I was part of it. We solved the world’s problems in hours of discussion. We looked down our intellectual noses at the teeming masses of middle-class drudges who spent their time worrying about correctly trimmed hedges and the latest fashion chic. We were the future elites of the world, or so we were led to believe. It was all mostly a crock of course, but we didn’t know that then.

So it was with deep pain and frustration that I graduated from MSU. I was thoroughly dismayed and the fact that law school loomed next was little comfort. I was leaving my precious beautiful State for the brick and cement of a inner city university wherein almost everyone commuted. I did not feel special about going to learn the trade of lawyer. I felt cheated that my haven of MSU did not possess the law school I needed it to.

It was the first of many compromises one makes. Or maybe it was the fifth or sixth I’d already made in life. Life doesn’t ask your permission, it moves along according to some cosmic rhythm, and one does the best one can to keep up. I was just trying to keep up, trying to make the best of this cosmic joke that was my life. The older I got, the more I realized that life was never going to conform to my expectations, it just was as it was. I am still not sure if that was my fault or not. I definitely was not carpe dieming very well.

Comfort in the Stratosphere

This delicate painting was done by Lan Ying in 1642 during the Ming Dynasty and is called “Autumn Clearing in the Misty Woods.” I love these so simplistic works from Asia. They contain a beauty so different from most Western art.

Unbelievable, but the shopping excursion went without incident yesterday. We registered our new Bronco and got around quickly, sneaking a Burger King for dinner! I’m back on my kitchen cleaning, having done the Microwave cart today and the dog watering area. Mostly that is just getting the stains off the floor from well water deposits. Dogs are sloppy drinkers. One day off here, and I feel like I’ve missed out on so much. My feeds were lit up, so maybe if I rework how often they update I’ll be a bit better in getting them done on their own, instead of having to hand update them, which takes me about 30 minutes every day.

The Contrarian is out doing “man work.” Yes, that is what he calls it. It’s usually about car, truck, tractor or wood things. He and the dogs seem to enjoy it, at least until I hear that famous “MOTHER F**KING…..something or other.” LOL. He takes out his aggressions on inanimate objects only, which is truly a good thing! In that he takes after his father who was also quite famous I’m told for screaming tantrums at “things.” Come to think of it, I tend to do the same thing.

Oh, and a quick apology to all. I’ve been a tad busy and this blog has taken a long time to get up each day, so I’m way behind on my comments on your blogs. I have been reading them each day, but run out of time to go back and bring up the sites to leave comments. I’ll hopefully catch up this weekend! Sorry.

On to the news:

What bothers me about all this hoopla about “immigration” is that I feel its veiled bigotry. None of this was an issue before “security” became such an issue. But if that were truly the motive, then the same hue and cry would be raised about our border with Canada, which is almost entirely open. So I think it’s just a lot of white working class folks who blame their employment misfortunes on Latinos, something they don’t do when times are good. The toll being taken on the 80% of Latinos who are legal is a serious problem. Read more at Alternet.

American Presidents Blog has a nice look at Theodore Roosevelt and his Bull Moose Party run in 1912 that enabled Woodrow Wilson to capture the White House. This campaign split the Republicans. Was it all Roosevelt’s fault? Read more to find out.

Anyone who saw Dubya’s disgusting display before the Knesset yesterday should read this next post. The fact that Republicans would do such a thing is, well what you would expect. But it is considered a no-no to engage in “politics” when one is overseas. The thing that is deplorable is that McCain joined in, married himself once again to Bush, and as usual, is on record singing quite a different tune. Once again the elder is having an Alzheimer’s moment. Such things are going to bury him in the fall, much to everyone’s delight.

Britannica Blog has a sad little story about the disappearance of songbirds across America.Such is not the case here in the meadow, as we are treated to the songs of orioles and indigo buntings, doves, chickadees, finches, and the like. I wake to the sound of red wing blackbirds and a whole host of cardinals greeting the day. Such alas is not the case in many other areas, as birds are systematically losing habitat. Scientists believe it is a combination of climate change, mercury poisoning and habitat removal.

Wow, I saw this appetizer dip at Coconut & Limeand just immediately decided that you would want to see it. It is just yummy looking. Oh I hate using the word yummy, that’s a word fit for something like rice krispie bars or something, not this elegant creation. Be sure to look at it, and get a copy and try it soon. Chipotle Spinach Artichoke Dip.

I love bonsai. I am totally captivated by the exquisite beauty of tiny trees. I have even seen fake bonsai made of paper and other items, and been so distressed that I could find no “instructions” on the internet to learn this very technical craft. The reason i want to learn fake bonsai, is that I have had no luck in keeping any bonsai of my own alive. Perhaps Sally’s Gardening Tips will help me.

Essential Estrogen puts a human face on the Postville roundup. Real people with real stories. I can find no anger in my heart at the lives of these people who come to America out of desperation and hope. I have no desire to see them sent back to their home countries. For most, even a life of relative poverty in the US is far better than what they endured at home. I think we are big enough to open our arms and make room.

Ready for some Louisiana Bayou food? I bet you are. Epicurious brings us a great little recipe for New Orleans Shrimp, Okra, and Tomato Sauce. Sure to please everyone.

I for one was rather disappointed some years ago when Tom Daschle lost his Senate seat to some nobody who slid in on Bush’s 2004 coattails. But Mr. Daschle has a new book out on Health Care, and is firmly in the Obama camp. It seems a bright light on the horizon for those of us who are passionate about this issue and have been fearful that only Clinton could get it done. Read Ezra Stein’s good post and interview with Daschle.

On the freebie circuit, Hey it’s Free has  Viva toweling and Teddy Grahams for you. 

Here’s a post that left me scratching my head. I would understand this if it were Guam or Puerto Rico or some other island nation that we are a protectorate over, but there are some in Hawaii who want independence from the US. Now I thought that issue was settled by the Civil War. Apparently it’s not, and History News Network has the story. Most strange, indeed. This simply doesn’t strike me as a case of colonization.

One of the unsavory aspects to American History has to be the trampling of individual rights by colonials in their desire to preserve a pure religion in their realm. In fact, as I’ve noted before, most of the colonies were church/state organizations which allowed no “foreign” interference by other religious groups. Catholics, Jews, Quakers and others were systematically banished, murdered, jailed, and were not allowed to own property, vote, or hold office. History of American Womenhas a fine piece on a Native American charged with witchcraft back in early Massachusetts. Read the story of Tituba and her tragic life.

Representative Steven King (R. IA) continues to be on the wrong side of most issues these days. He was against the new GI bill of course, that is predictable, since Republicans don’t care about veterans once they finish fighting their wars it seems. He was also THE ONLY IOWAN who voted against the bill to direct Bush to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserves and give some relief to consumers. He of course wants more drilling, even though such resources are small, soon depleted and worse a serious ecological threat. Looks like another one ripe for defeat come November to me.

Mad Kane hits the nail again, as she explains how Congressional GOP’ers are running desperately away from Dubyasince everything Republicany is losing these days. Oh as I said, nothing more need by said, just show over and over again, that image of man love of Dubya and Mac embracing so touchingly. That is all the Democrats have to do. Show the picture, again and again and again.

Mamiedale has some tutorials for you. Three, of which a couple looked somewhat interesting. Hand-bound journals are fine gift givers, and the shoulder bag from an old sweater might tempt you to take a look.

As you might expect the right wing wingnuts are in a dither today. That thing in California and gay marriage you know. Nobody gets as dithery about these things than the National Review. Of course civilization as we know it is about to collapse. Go there and laugh at the hand wringing that is going on. Oh, marriage needs our protection, against something or other. The sky is falling, judicial overstepping activism. You can find every code phrase you are looking for. I’m just chuckling. As always when reading anything from the NRO,always check to see where the author is from. LOL Seriously, if you would like an unbiased look at the decision, read Glenn Greenwald’s piece at the Salon. It’s at least objective in its reporting.

Niki’s Ventures has a link to a cute little set of coasters to sew up for the summer months when drinks sweat so much. I thought they were cute as heck and the complete instructions are included at the site.

Unbelievable as it may seem, and its believable given this administration, Blackwater’s contract in Iraq has been renewed. The Bushites continue to rely on mercenaries to do its job for them, and they are not subject to anybody’s jurisdiction. So of course, they can kill with impunity and not be charged with a thing. Oh George, I do hope you live long enough to see the judgment of history on your pathetic administration. Generations to come will wonder why oh why you were not impeached and a dozen or more of you guys jailed.

Oh I am in heaven. I love Roman history as I’ve said before, and a new biography of Julius Caesar is just out. It’s by Philip Freedman and I’ll be attempting to secure a copy for review!

Scandalous Women has the mistress of Napoleon, Marie Walewska,  featured today. As usual, these are such intriguing little pieces that they make you want to learn more. Don’t miss another one, and don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance at a free book.

More news on the evolution topic. For some years now, a lot of work has been done on the mitochondrial “Eve” mother to us all. She was an African of course. About 60,000 years ago, humans started moving out of Africa and around the globe. But before that, they were not it seems a single group, but one highly divided on the continent. It appears now that due to climate issues, the split may have been for literally tens of thousands of years. It’s fascinating and you can read more at Science Digest. Remember to look at the right side, wherein there are links to other similar articles.

It seems we have another “international” recipe. This one from Simply Recipes and it features Moroccan Spiced Grill Chicken Breasts. As the grilling season starts up, this is one to try.

It seems the theme of the McCain campaign is going to be “I’m more American than he is.” That such an argument is illogical and untenable is obvious. That it smacks of a party that has lost all claim to morality is also obvious. That it will not work is also obvious. Read Harold Meyerson’s article in the American Prospect. And if you still have doubts about the disaster that is the Republican Party, read this little ditty from The Nation, “Is the Party Over?” This is one of the must read articles. It’s simply excellent.

Baking Beauties brings us a lovely Italian bread recipe that fits in with any Italian meal and well, most any meal at all. Italian Bread Wedges will certainly fit the bill, and are easy as snap to make as well. I’m making it pronto!

Anti-war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are finally getting a chance to speak. In unofficial Congressional hearings on the Hill, veterans remark on under reporting and misreporting on civilian casualties, racism by commanders regarding Iraqi citizens, and severe over-reaction in terms of fire power. The Washington Independent has this under-reported story.

Vox Nova steps in with a post about John McCain’s chief political advisor. Remember he just lost another one for being a lobbyist in the pay of the Myanmar Regime. Now it seems that another lobbyist and chief political adviser, Charlie Black, is being seen for the slime he is. He’s a money lobbyist for an array of thugs and other dictators around the world. Is senility in full control of the Mac’s brain? This kinda thing makes your skin crawl.

And to finish off the serious news, take a gander at this site, brought to us by the World History Blog, called Reportret,and true to it’s name it attempts to make an unbiased assessment of what figures from history might have looked like. These are of people for which there are no known portraits or pictures of any kind. They give a long explanation of their technique as well. I think you will enjoy the trip. Jesus, Mohammad, Christopher Columbus are among those featured. Really nice sources at the end of each “portrait.” These are not clay recreations, but an attempt to locate the person in terms of his status, ethnicity, and any other factors that might impact looks.

Now on to the other stuff.Urantian Sojourn has a piece by Terry Hart that is wonderfully funny and witty too boot. It’s just a collection of great tag lines he’s picked up along the way. I have a list too. It reminds me that I should resume my monthly tag for this blog. I’m envious of some he has, especially the one entitled, “Now, go spread some peace, love and understanding. Use force if necessary.” I can still only lead you to the main site. The feed won’t direct link to an individual post, only the main site. It’s the 3rd one down, but heck the other two are well worth reading as well.

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“It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.” William G. McAdoo

“Some things have to be believed to be seen.” Ralph Hodgsen

“A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.” Samuel Goldwyn

“The reason there is so little crime in Germany is that it’s against the law.” Alex Levin

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More of the type of questions I get in my house from guess who?

Why do we say we’re head over heels when we’re happy? Isn’t that the way we normally are?

Why do sleeping pills have warning labels that state :’Caution: May Cause Drowsiness?

Do nudists have pin-ups of people with clothes on?

When the French swear do they say pardon my English?

How is chess considered a sport?

How’s come people tell you to stay a kid for as long as you can. Yet the moment you do anything childish or immature they tell you to grow up.

If marbles are not made of marble, why are they called marbles

Why are elderly people often called “old people” but children are never called “new people”?

How does Freddy Kruger wipe his butt?

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Huge political fireworks today after President Bush went to Israel and he talked about American politicians who might want to talk with Hamas or other leaders. Politicians who would sit down and appease terrorists. He said he would not do it. He would not put up with it. He would never talk to terrorists. And then he flew to Saudi Arabia to spend a couple of days with the Saudi royal family. Jay Leno

Ford is recalling 655,000 trucks to fix a brake hose. Industry analysts estimate the program will take about 2 years to complete. And then they’ll move on to the second vehicle. – Alan Ray, Stockton, Calif.

The Steelworkers union has given its endorsement to Barack Obama for president. This was a blow to John McCain who is the only candidate in the race who actually participated in the Iron Age. Paul Seaburn.

John McCain, of course, no one is really paying attention to him right now, but he’s everywhere trying to get attention. Yesterday on “Live with Regis and Kelly,” John McCain showed one of his baby pictures. That was nice. Yeah, the picture was on loan from the Museum of Natural History. Conan O’Brien

If I Knew the Answer, I’d Sell it.

This photo is of Francis Benjamin Johnston and his family, 1890-1910 and is from the Library of Congress.

The sky is clearing and the sun is starting to come out nicely. We missed the rain yesterday, so we are looking forward to a few days of dry weather. I got behind the fridge today and then did my “baking” pantry, this tiny little closet that is next to the fridge. I hate it, since its too narrow to use well, and its deep, but I have it now reorganized into a better system I believe. I’d say about 1/3 of the kitchen is now done. Tomorrow we are heading to town for shopping, so whatever blogging I do tomorrow will be short and later in the day.

On to the news:

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(Mis)Adventures of a Crafty Wifey did a nice plaque for Mother’s Day and presents a tutorial to help you learn how to do them yourself. I’d say hers turned out very nice indeed. She gives you all the particulars so you can dive right in for that next special occasion.

In case you missed it amid all the hoopla about Clinton’s landslide victory in West Virginia, Democrats scored another victory in a special election in Mississippi, making it now three seats they have thus far picked up in special elections and making them also 3-0. Republicans are hand wringing and sobbing, but this is exactly what polls predict as well as all other standard indicators based on past elections. It’s gonna be a straight win across the board for the Democrats this year according to the experts. 

Britannica Blog posts a question that has been on my mind since the cyclone hit Myanmar. Do we, as a global community have a duty to protect the innocents against rogue goverments that allow what amounts to genocide in their countries? I’m not sure what the answer is, but I come down at the moment on the side of a UN led force designed essentially to take them out and allow aid workers in to help in the crisis. Of course, I have no plan as to what to do then, and perhaps that’s the crux of the problem. China and Russia will obviously disapprove given their problems with “provinces” in rebellion. What do you think?

Civil War Women has a biography today of Mary Morris Husband, civil war nurse. These posts are always so delightful, and one gets such a sense of how brave and heroic these women were. Women were generally not thought to be in the forefront during the Civil War, and well, women were generally not in the forefront in any sense in those days. These are the trailblazers that made way for us today. Oh and Maggie has another blog. I’m not sure if it’s new, but I just found it: History of American Women. I’m sure I’ll be featuring it soon on a regular basis.

As most in Iowa know at least, a major raid was conducted in Postville a few days ago, and a bunch of “illegals” were rounded up. The media and all went to great lengths to keep telling us how humane it all was. Several were released if they could show that they had minor children with no other supervision. It’s disheartening to see this. There are estimates of at least 10 million illegal immigrants in the US. Catching a few dozen here and there does virtually nothing but cost us money. It is just something that the government can point to and say, “see, we are doing something.’ Sigh, I think there are better solutions than this. Read more at Essential Estrogen.

Ezra Klein has a nice link to Josh Marshall from TPM about Obama and the Appalachia problem. You see, that’s how Josh sees it. Obama is not having trouble with working whites per se, but only those portions of states that reside within Appalachia, and West Virginia is all Appalachia. See what you think of the analysis.

Garrison Keillor has a post, and that always makes me smile big. Today his topic is individualism, and as usual, its the usual mix of homegrown advice, commentary and flights of free thought. Enjoy.

While our mislead government continues to rattle the sabre at Iran, and McCain promises to continue in that vein, History News Networkhas some advice. Michael Axworthy has just written a book on the subject of Iran so he might have something worthwhile to say. Read his advice to the next president.

The Iowa Independent has a very good post on the “New GI Bill” introduced by Senator Webb and cosponsored by Senator Hegel. McCain is gonna get creamed on this issue for sure. Wesley Clark had some very unkind but true remarks to make of McCain’s counter bill and the reasons why he opposes the Webb bill. Harkin is on board, Grassley is still wavering, so a e-mail to him is most appropriate.

Since we all need more women’s history, bop on over to Live Science and read a article on The Most Powerful Modern Women Leaders. Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir are just three of the top ten.

Niki’s Ventures gives us another couple of freebie patterns. One for a Kleenex box cover and the other for a quilt square. I just made a Kleenex box cover from 3-ply thread that was yellow, green, pink and grey. It was my own pattern and it turned out quite well, though it’s far from being “professional” looking. This pattern is for scraps of material and is definitely better looking than mine. Quite delightful indeed and perfect as a seasonal change. Applique would be the operative word on this one. The quilt blog is patriotic, cute if you like that sort of thing.

When you use the word evangelical, most people know what side of the equation they stand on. And to some degree that is correct, but in some ways it is not. There is a broad group of evangelicals who do indeed feel their cause hijacked by the ultra reactionary right and they are trying as best they can to set the record straight and return the good name to evangelism. On Faith weighs in on “what is an evangelical”and its usual list of panelists respond, and of course people comment like crazy. Always a fun place to stop.

It truly shocks and delights me that there is so much stuff still out there to be found. Huh? Oh, I mean artifacts of old civilizations. The oldest to date bust of Julius Caesar has been found at the bottom of the Rhone. It has been tentatively dated at 46 B.C.E. Thanks to Rogueclassicism for the post.

Did you know that sloths in captivity sleep more than those in the wild? I guess it stands to reason, predators and all? Do sloths have predators? I assume they do. I assume as well that zoos can be mighty boring places. If you’ve ever been to one, you find a lot of sleep going on. As you might expect, scientists think that there is something more important to be learned.

 

 

Talk to Action has a good post on McCain and his love affair with hate mongerers John Hagee, and Ron Parsley.Hagee has made a public apology to Catholics, now claiming he’s “learned” about Catholicism and presumably it’s not the Great Whore of Revelation any more. Uhuh, sure. This is just making nice between fellow wingnuts of the ultra right fundamentalist persuasion, folks, and nothing more. Why McCain aligns himself with such riff raff is well telling I guess. Anything to win, it seems, morals, and ethics be damned.

Speaking of which, it’s Wednesday, and Susan Posner is back with another installment of Fundamenalist at American Prospect. As usual, its good.  

The Artful Crafter has something that may be wonderful, I’m just not sure and don’t have the time to look at it much right now. It claims to be software for making your own cookbook easily and quickly. I would be very interested myself, given that I have a stack of pages getting very very high, all of recipes I’m determined to make. LOL. Right. Anyway, take a look if you’re interested. I guess you can do other things, like calendars and family trees with it also.

Remember Phylis Schlafly?The woman who made a career and no doubt tons of dough saying women should stay home where they belong? She’s backkkkkkk. And if you can believe it, she’s being offered an honorary degree at Washington University in St. Louis. Two hundred forty faculty and 14 law school profs have objected. Schlafly’s response: “They are a bunch of bitter women.” Oh how thoroughly disgusting. Unreal, transporting to another universe once again.

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“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”  Douglas Adams

“The higher the buildings, the lower the morals.” Noel Coward

“History is the short trudge from Adam to atom.” Leonard Lewis Levinson

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The kind of things the Contrarian thinks of: (trouble is, he whines, “why don’t you look it up on the internet. You’re so much better at that than me.”

Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the car-pool lane?

Can you cry under water?

If a man alone in the woods said something would a woman still say he was wrong?

How old are you before it can be said you died of old age?

If someone owns a piece of land, do they own it all the way to the center of the earth?

Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

Why is it said that an alarm clock is going off when really its coming on?

Why did Sally sell seashells on the seashore when you can just pick them up anyway?

If you fart and burp at the same time, would it make a vacuum in your tummy?

If an African elephant comes to America, is it an African-American elephant?

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Of course, big primary tonight in West Virginia, that’s the story. Barack Obama, slugging it out. And I guess — I don’t know if Barack Obama’s getting tired or what, but in a recent speech, he said he had visited all 57 states. Yeah, after hearing this, President Bush said, “Ha-ha, he forgot Alaska and Hawaii.” Conan O’Brien

Travis Childers, the Democrat who won Mississippi’s special Congressional election, is both pro-gun rights and anti-abortion. I guess that is what’s known as a Cheney Democrat.

John McCain is refocusing his message to seniors. Not simply saying what they want to hear, but also saying it much louder. – Will Durst

 

Mind Flipping Incongruities

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This lovely painting is by Pierre Auguste Renoir and is called “Near the Lake.” It was done in 1879/80 and is from the Art Institute of Chicago.

It’s a rather gloomy Tuesday, with the sun long gone it seems. It did peek out a bit earlier this morning, but that it appears is all we are likely to get today. Rain is again in the offing for later. Like we have room for any more. I cleaned the fridge today. That started out as a much easier job than it finished out being. I did a lot of cleaning around the seals in the door which had gotten a bit gunky, if you get my drift. Anyway, it’s done now. I haven’t cleaned behind yet. The Contrarian didn’t sleep well last night so he went back to bed when I got up. So that is my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.

On with the news:

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I think I featured a crab cake recipe recently, but I found this one with a fabulous sauce that I just couldn’t resist. So take a look and see if you like Crab Cakes with Green Mango Salsa. A Mingling of Tastes brings you this lovely one.

Another Bushite in trouble. Scott Bloch, self described “devout” Catholic and hater of all things gay, is in some deep trouble with the FBI which has raided his office and home looking for evidence that he has obstructed the investigation of his own misconduct at head of the Office of Special Counsel. Bloch as far back as 1971 has opposed the anti-war movement and women’s rights as well, making him an all-purpose hater of various minorities, and a lover of war. That of course made him just right for the neo-cons of the Bush Administration. The investigation has to do with his alleged treatment of employees.

As many of you may know, John McCain recently gave a speech on the environment in an attempt to establish his creds with voters. According to Alternet, and reporter John Nichols, McCain is full of hot air. It seems much of what he touts as new environmental policy is old science, much of which is now outdated by newer stuff. Experts say his new policy is arranged more to get votes than it is to make any real difference on the planet. See what you think.

I admit that there are a huge number of vice presidents that I don’t know anything at all about. This suggests of course, that most VP’s are not particularly noteworthy. American Presidents Blog has some nice trivia about a few of them and a link to more information.

We all have faced the problem of plants that start out wonderful, then suddenly start wilting and just going ugly. Disease strikes quickly and seemingly without warning. Sally’s Gardening Tips has some great ideas for you to help avoid losing your precious flowers and vegetables to disease.

Gardening Tips ‘n Ideas has found the most interesting little site. It’s about landscaping on a miniature scale, someone like bonsai. The site is called Little Landscapes and it has plenty of pictures and instructions. This looks like so much fun and would be a wonderful project to push away those winter doldrums. (They sell a lot of the “accessories” but I do think you could be creative at any craft store.) They are so cute you just have to want one for yourself.

Seal tries sex with a penguin. Yep. You read that correctly. You do not need glasses. Go to Live Scienceand read all about this phenomenon that was actually caught on film. The picture is not very good, lol, but my goodness, what is the world coming to?

Wow, this recipe caught my eye. Corn Cakes! What a delightful idea for a brunch addition. It’s easy and I think would just be lovely to fix on a late spring Sunday morning for eating on the patio. Midwest Neurotica offers us this fine fare.

David Brooks who has to some extent lost his ultra conservative credentials among the ultra conservatives at least, has a thought provoking essay on religion, brain research and spirituality. I think his ideas are correct actually. I think he correctly zeroes in that the next major argument is not going to be God versus science, but true spirituality versus religious institutions. Read his post and see what you think.

Pauline Bonaparte is the subject of Scandalous Women’s latest foray in the wonderful world of women and history. Be sure not to miss it, and don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance at a free book.

Maybe you don’t think finding a single carbon monoxide molecule from a galaxy 11 billion light years away is important, but scientists seem to think it’s pretty darn exciting. The trick is that this  allows them to learn the temperature of the galaxy when the Universe was only 20% of its present age, and that’s a might long time ago. The universe is estimated to be about 14-15 billion years old. So do the math. In fact, predictions of the temperature were 9.3K. Actual results from the test turned out to be 9.1K with a wiggle room of 0.7, so the predictions were very accurate.

As we have previously reported, McCain has jumped on the conservative bandwagon with both feet, determined to resurrect himself among those he derided in 2000 as divisive elements in political discourse. He is now touting that judicial activism must be opposed. Of course, there is no such thing, it simply is code for GOP/religious right rhetoric that we don’t like the decisions coming from the courts and want to them rule as we prefer. Paul Waldman has an excellent post at American Prospect that you really should read. It turns out that if anybody can be called activist, its conservative judges, not the so-called liberal ones.

If you are not sure where exactly Barack Obama stands on the issue of Israel and Palestine, then two posts should help you, both are first hand interviews with Obama and not their personal conclusions about what they have read. Read Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of The New Republictake on OBama and Israel, as well as Jeffrey Goldberg’s interview from The Atlantic. And you can also drop by Urantian Sojourn and get Saitia’s take on the issue as well. (It’s a main site link again. Sorry, but I’m still having trouble with their website)

As a long time resident of Michigan for the better/worse parts of my life, I am very familiar with this story. Dow Chemical has been a major Michigan polluter for, well, nearly as long as I have been alive. It has continuously tried to avoid responsibility for its dirty practices. Today, a member of the EPA claims she was forced to resign by the Bushites because she was leaning hard on Dow to, as usual, clean up its act. Read a long and thorough account of Dow historically in Michigan and up to today’s news. Remember, when you see companies who have no consumer business, doing ads on TV about how environmentally good they are, you can be sure they are getting leaned on for being dirty.

Since the Pentagon was forced to release all that information on its attempts to seed the media with pentagon friendly “analysts,” the dirt just continues to build up. I mean the documents are so damning that some somebodies are going to pay a huge price. I assume congressional hearings will be in the offing quite soon. I mean you just have to read this stuff to be amazed at how our Constitution has been ripped to shreds by Bush/Cheney. Thanks to Think Progress for the excerpts.

I’d never heard of St. Sunniva, patron saint of Norway. Melisende has a lovely little bio of her at Women of History. Stop by and learn who she was.

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“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and Jill a rich widow.” Evan Esar

“Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.” Paul Gauguin

“He’s simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.” Saki

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Best pickup lines? or the worst?

If you were a booger I’d pick you first.

Baby did you fart, ’cause you blow me away!

Is there an airport nearby or is that my heart taking off?

Are my undies showing? Answer: “No.” You: “Would you like them to?

Aren’t you the tiger on the Frosted Flakes box? Cuz you look “Grrrreat!”

Baby, you’re the next contestant in the game of love.

Can I get a picture of you so I can show Santa what I want for Christmas?

Don’t walk into that building — the sprinklers might go off!

Excuse me, do I need to buy a ticket for your fantastic voyage?

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But if you look at this historically, it’s not that difficult to believe that Hillary would still be campaigning. Listen to this. Once a year, in his basement, Al Gore gives a State of the Union address. David Letterman

From The Onion:

Number Of Acceptable Things
Candidates Can Say Now Down To Four

NEW YORK—After Sen. Barack Obama’s comments last week about what he typically eats for dinner were criticized by Sen. Hillary Clinton as being offensive to both herself and the American voters, the number of acceptable phrases presidential candidates can now say are officially down to four. “At the beginning of 2007 there were 38 things candidates could mention in public that wouldn’t be considered damaging to their campaigns, but now they are mostly limited to ‘Thank you all for coming,’ and ‘God bless America,’” ABC News chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos said on Sunday’s episode of This Week. “There would still be five phrases available to the candidates if the Obama camp hadn’t accused Clinton of saying ‘Glad to be here’ with a little tinge of sarcasm during a stump speech in North Carolina.” As of press time, the two additional phrases still considered appropriate for candidates are the often-quoted “These pancakes are great,” and “Death to the infidels.”

Is Gravity Still in Iowa?

A photograph of Yosemite Falls taken by Carleton E. Watkins 1865-66. It is from the Library of Congress collection.

Hope everyone had a nice Mother’s Day and weekend. We suffered through another bout of rain, a good two inches I’d say. It’s just sitting now, no where to go. We can still get in and out with the Bronco, but the lane is suffering from saturation. I really wonder what farmers are going to do. Given the temperatures and the wet ground, no planting can be done for some time, and it seems we cannot have more than three days without rain each week. It’s quite depressing.

I’m moving along with the kitchen and have done two good days worth of work. Of course, that means I have done something like an hour and half total. I’m really fighting off the blues about it at this point. I have little to no interest and am forcing myself, mostly by shortening the daily work. Sometimes as I get close to finishing what I have assigned myself, I feel a bit better and so do a little more than i had planned. It will take a good two weeks at this rate.

We’ll probably go shopping sometime this week. The best bets are for mid week since we may, and I say that very provisionally, we may not get any rain  for Thursday and Friday. But things are quite fluid. Oh that was a bad choice of words I guess.

Let’s get on with the news today:

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Sandi’s Crochet Blog has three new crochet offerings for you. A square for an afghan, a filet crochet, and some edgings. All are patterns developed by her and free to you.

You can go along for years and think things are pretty much okay. And then a conflation of different things come together and you find yourself angry and definitely thinking that things are so not okay that you wonder how this could be happening in this day and age. I’m referring to the anti-feminist backlash that I’m observing it seems everywhere these days. Alternet carries this important article from The Nation. I can only say that I’m angry. I’ve just finished arguing this subject with conservative Catholics and had the fine displeasure of arguing with self-reporting “women” who think women are not equal to men but are “different” and get this, the CAUSE of the fall of Adam. Eve the vicious bitch duped him, in their brain dead opinion. Oh and look down at the comments to the post. They are heartbreaking.

American Revolution Blog has a nice piece on Washington and whether he prayed at Valley Forge. Not the most exciting topic, still it has gained in importance as left and right argue about whether we were meant to be a “Christian” nation. (No, but  l’ll be doing a book review this week and will expound in greater depth.) It’s an interesting and well researched post and you might enjoy it.

Sad to say, the Religious Right is going around the country trying to convince ministers to violate the law. The Alliance Defense Fund is trying to convince ministers to violate the ban on electioneering from the pulpit for churches which are tax-exempt. They are looking for a prosecution, hoping that a fight in the courts will lead to an overturn by SCOTUS. These folks are pure theocracy advocates, and this type of thing is very dangerous. Thanks to Americans United for the heads up.

It seems that John McCain is unable to cut his ties to lobbyists. Another of his boys just resigned when it was found out that his lobbying firm had worked FOR the ruling Junta in Myanmar. Given the media attention being given to that murderous regime, Doug Goodyear had to go. The Mac is seemingly unable to find good people to help his campaign and again and again sinks to choosing people with unsavory backgrounds and political stances. Oh I just can’t wait for this election cycle to really gear up. It’s gonna be like shooting ducks in a bucket. We thank Blue Girl, Red State for the information.

 Epicurious has an interesting cheese bread that looks good. I know that many find bread making daunting, but I promise you, it’s quite easy. I spend about 10 minutes time making a loaf of bread. I use the fast rise yeast and never have a problem. Essentially bread dough is quite forgiving. You just add flour until you can work it. I use my KitchenAid to do the kneading. See what you think of Georgian Cheese Bread.

I would dearly love to have raised beds in my vegetable garden. It’s just so neat and I think you can get bigger yields, and it makes weeding a lot easier, and there are fewer weeds to begin with. It’s just a huge project to set up, with lots of backbreaking work. So I don’t have raised beds. If you are interested in starting some raised beds, Mr. Greenfingers has some help for you.  

If you are planning a family trip or just like maps, DHL is offering a free atlas. This one comes from Hey it’s Free. The link is direct. It was an easy sign up.

If you are still enthralled with the Kennedys you might like this post on Joseph P. Kennedy, ambassador to Britain during the Roosevelt Administration. He held the post between 1938-40 and many have considered it to have been one of the worst appointments in Roosevelt’s presidency. Today, History News Network suggests that that assessment may have been unfair. A nice post explains.

Some are claiming that ethanol production cuts into food production and is a major contributor to the food crisis facing this planet. Others argue that it is a minor event at best. Tom Harkin, Senator from Iowa, suggests it is the latter. Read his comments and decide what you think.

I would not say that I am a pepper connoisseur or anything. I do like it freshly ground but I probably couldn’t taste the difference, just notice the texture difference. But I realize its a valuable culinary tool and I use it a lot. Once upon a time pepper was a very very valuable commodity. Read all about it at Live Science. Remember, it was claimed that Columbus “discovered” America while in search of a better route to the East and it’s spices.

Bet you have heard of gladiators? Yep, sure you have. Have you heard of gladiatrixes? I bet you haven’t, but they were real and they were women! Slip over to rogueclassicism and read all about it in his partly humorous blog today. Real they were, but I don’t think they wore Prada.

A must read today from Glenn Greenwald. We’ve reported on the pentagon program to drop in “retired” personnel as experts into the mainstream media, all to tout in the end the Pentagon line. Greenwald writes of where that alleged illegality is moving. It seems clear that the media was being controlled by the Pentagon’s stooges, feeding them the Administration line as “expert analysis.” I think this might be a bigger kettle of fish than anyone is letting on, especially the media itself which has so far kept it quiet, hoping no doubt it will go away.

Scandalous Women has declared it “Napoleon Week” and has posts about his sister and mistress coming up. Those who leave a comment on either post will be in the mix to possibly win a copy of the book: Cupid and the King, by Princess Michael of Kent.

Many might suggest that reliable history cannot come from societies focused on oral tradition. No so, at least in one case. Druze villages in Israel are perfectly correct in their allegations that their lineages were diverse and stretched back thousands of years. Genetic testing has confirmed this and apparently the group has remained tight knit and it remains today one of the worlds most diverse mitochondrial populations. They say this has important repercussions for the study of disease, since there is a control for environmental issues, and they can study disease progression solely within different DNA groups. Mighty interesting stuff.

Jello molds? Okay, that is soooo 50’s isn’t it. Some orange jello, some carrots, and you have something I wouldn’t feed to my dogs. Or the other one, your favorite flavor and a can of fruit cocktail. Yech again. Okay, so you want to be a bit retro but also elegant and you are also, just by chance, wondering what you can do with that excess rhubarb? I have the answer. Try Molded Rhubarb Rosemary Cucumber Salad and be so cool that people will stop in the street just to admire your panache!

I missed this if indeed it was reported on. But fully 1/4 of all Republican voters in both N. Carolina and Indiana, voted for someone other than McCain. This simply cannot be good news to the Mac Attack Team. It makes me snicker, since try as he does to be everyone’s favorite uncle, it does not appear to be working. They keep voting for folks who are no longer even running, in an apparent “statement” of their disapproval of Mr. McCain and his flippy floppy ways.

The right wing wacko machine is up and running. Following the disaster in Myanmar, the right wing Business and Media Institute, doctored a interview with Al Gore on NPR to make it seem as if Gore blamed the cyclone on global warming. That was not at all the case, and  the splicing was detected. Of course the Drudge Report and FOX Newsless were running it full bore. Do these people never quit lying? Thanks to Think Progress and again, don’t forget the comments!

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“We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.” Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.” Robert Copeland

“I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.” Seneca

“The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums.” G.K. Chesterton

“Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof.” Ashley Montague

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Answering Machines:

Hi, we aren’t in at the moment, if you are trying to sell us something please start speaking now and hang up at the beep, everyone else start speaking at the beep and hang up when you’ve finished.”

“Hi, you have reached the Borg collective. Please leave your name and star system and we’ll assimilate you as soon as we can.”

“Hey guess who this is? You guessed it. Guess what you have to do now? you
guessed it. Guess what’s next? You guessed it…”

You are dazed, bewildered, trapped in a world with no time, where color collides with sound, and shadows explode. You see a sign up ahead. This is no ordinary answering device; this is “The Twilight Phone”

Please leave a message. However, you have the right to remain silent. Everything you say will be recorded and will be used by us.

A bubble in the space-time continuum has connected your line to a channeler in the 23rd Century. Any message you leave will be broadcast into the future….

Hello, I’m not here right now. In fact, I’m out getting a new parakeet. If you leave a message after the beep, I’ll be sure to get back to you. Oh, and by the way, a word of advice; never try to clean a parakeet cage with a vacuum cleaner.

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Big Brown is favored to win the Preakness on Saturday. He’s kind of like an NBA star. He’s often found with grass in his possession.

John McCain is on the campaign trail. He likes to tout his two favorite domestic programs. “Matlock” and “Murder She Wrote.” – Alan Ray, Stockton, Calif.

I saw something in the paper today which shows how fat we’re getting in this country. A company has now come out with a bathroom scale that goes to 1,000 pounds. This is probably the worst Mother’s Day gift in history. Jay Leno

U.P.S. just signed a big marketing agreement with the owners of Big Brown, the impressive winner of the Kentucky Derby. Is this really that great an idea before the Preakness and the Belmont? After all, U.P.S. generally doesn’t deliver on Saturdays. – Janice Hough, Palo Alto, Calif.

Unhappy but Still Right!

I ran into an old poll by Pew yesterday. It was about the issue of happiness. It was done in 2006, but they tell me that these indicators have existed long before and presumably still apply. The headline is that Republicans are happier than Democrats, or more precisely, conservatives are happier than liberals.

I was puzzled, as you might guess, and well, it got me to thinking. Of course a whole lot of things were measured in that poll, and you can’t read too much into the results as they make perfectly clear. It turns out that health is by far the best indicator of happiness, followed by wealth and then we get to marriage and Republicanism. You see the pattern? Wealth means better health care and thus better health. Republicans are more wealthy than liberals. Marriage seems benign here. Oh and another indicator is church attendance; those that adhere more rigidly to faithful church going, are happier. That fits as well, conservative religious do attend more church.

But the problem remains that when all factors are held even, Republicans still are happier than liberals. Overall Republicans are 46% happy and liberals only 28%. So what gives?

Well it seems to me, that when other factors are eliminated, then the only rational place to look is at world views, those beliefs that make one either conservative or liberal in the first place. Now conservatives no doubt are jumping for glee, saying, “you see, I knew it, Republican values lead to happiness!” And in a sense I suspect they are right, but only in a sense. (You surely don’t think I’m giving in to a Republican notion do you?)

And I want to say right off, that what follows is not purely the result of my own thoughts. I read a number of comments off a posting about this and something struck me in one response as “right” on. It is part of conservative culture that success is mostly a result of self-sufficiency, the guts to gut it out, go it alone, work hard, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and other such claptrap. It’s social Darwinism at its best. The fittest survive in life. And the fittest are those willing to work hard, harder than anybody else. It’s a prideful stance to be sure.

Conservatives thus don’t have a lot of “feeling” for most people beneath them. They see them as people who got as far as they were “willing” to go. They assume they are satisfied, or should be, since if they were not they have only to sacrifice sufficiently to get further along.

Since they feel this way, they concentrate of making  their “own opportunities” and protecting and securing the well being of their own families. This is what it means to be human they think. They are suspicious of government which they see as a restraint of their ability to secure their own welfare. Government steals their money and gives it over to people who are unwilling to do as they have done. Happiness derives from a personal “job well done.”

Liberals on the other hand see a world that is wildly unequal. While some millions live in near luxury, others through no fault of their own, live in utter squalor and face literal starvation. Liberals see government as an establishment of the people to provide for all the people an adequate life. Problems of inequality in any area are too large to be addressed individually. They are not natural and have been imposed for millennia by haves. How is one to be happy, no matter one’s place in the economic boat, when others so clearly are dying from lack?

Now you may find this all a bit too trite, and undoubtedly it is. But I think it does contain a kernel of truth. I spend some time each week arguing with ultra conservatives of a religious take. I have been soundly shocked again  and again at how coldly they respond to many issues of social justice. The self-proclaimed “serious” Catholics (one’s who follow the Church dogma down to the last tiddle AS THEY INTERPRET IT), are mighty quick to condemn the homeless, immigrants, welfare moms, and a whole host of less fortunate as essentially lazy folks. They find that charity alone is more than sufficient to take care of the relatively small numbers of people who actually need assistance. It’s all in the way you define things it seems.

They ignore the statistics and first hand accounts of doctors and emergency care workers that most of the people they see who are unable to pay for health care are not people who have no health care, but instead are those who are working poor. They have it, but it covers so little that they are essentially uninsured. They ignore the numbers that suggest that a valid percentage of executions occur in this country against people later found out to be not guilty. 

What it suggests to me is that a number of things are reinforcing this cold rejection of objective truth. First of all, a rigid religious world view means that whatever the real world looks like, the Church has been doing the right things, so if it looks wrong, it can’t be the Church’s fault. A tidy little theology is required for a tidy little mind. Nothing can upset the cart, because that would be well, untidy, and we can’t have that.

If i feel then that I have worked really hard and have amassed some small wealth, a nice retirement, full health care, dental, and all the rest, then I become suspicious when they ask me for some of what I worked so hard for. After all, I tell myself, i worked hard, I’m nobody special, anybody else could do the same. They don’t want to, Don’t take my STUFF!!!!!!

You see, it seems to me, that there is nothing magical in either Church attendance or Republican doctrine that makes you happy. You, I suggest, have a propensity to viewing the world a certain way. You found a religion that falls in with that world view, AS YOU INTERPRET IT, and you find a political party that does the same, again, AS YOU INTERPRET IT.

Democrats/liberals do no differently. We bring the world view to the town square and find a better match in Democratic notions of fair play, even playing field, basic human rights, and a government meant to serve the people and not the manifestations of the people, namely corporations.

Speaking for myself, I realize that some folks are not emotionally or psychologically able to compete in the big bad world. Others do so but at great price. That does not mean they are lazy or unfit for living good lives. I don’t begrudge them a share of my largess in order to live with respect.

I’m not sure what happiness is. I’m a master at delayed gratification I know that. And I know that in being that way, to an extreme, I’ve undoubtedly sacrificed a lot of happiness. If you put off enough things until the right moment, you can ultimately miss a lot in life. I have done so. I try not to do it so much any more. I tend to see that the now is very important. Now is the only guarantee I have. But I still can’t sit down and read a book when there is a house that needs cleaning. And I probably never will.

As a card carrying member of liberality–yeah way out there for the most part–I don’t know if I’m happy or not. After another two inches of rain, probably not so much today. But I resonate with a lot of new thought teaching which encourages me to seize the moment. Buddhism says that happiness is the absence of suffering. And in part at least suffering is our constant whining about what might have been or what should be. It is not being able to be comfortable in the moment. It’s not accepting the isness of now. It’s always depending on delayed gratification and missing the small wonders of this very moment and all that that entails.

So I hate that conservatives “don’t care” but I think they may be closer to living in their moment than I in mine. I’m always stuck in the “as soon as this problem is solved or over, then, I can get on with my life.” Trouble is another one just pops up to replace the old one anyhow. So perhaps I don’t spend enough time on the wonder of today, and the blessings I actually have. And then again, that gets me to thinking. . . .

Just a Paycheck Please

Like most  working class college students, I have held a variety of jobs over my life. But I never had that resume that I craved, filled with oddball jobs, diverse and calling for the double take. I was never a alligator feeder at the zoo or a orderly at the morgue. You know, real cocktail party stoppers.

Now changing jobs was definitely not in my background. No, in my time, people held jobs most all their lives and retired with 30, 35, 40 years of “service” and with the “gold” watch. This was true of simply all my relatives. My father worked at GM for 30 years, my uncle for AC Spark Plug, same as my mother. All the neighbors for the most part worked in the auto industry and retired after many years of service, required if one were to receive that all important retirement package.

So, one did not frivolously change jobs just because you didn’t “care” for the work, or didn’t like a boss. You endured, because as they say, “who said it was supposed to be fun?” It was however permissible to have jobs as a kid that lasted for short periods of time, usually over summer vacations. While I had no requirement to work during high school, I was certainly expected to work after starting college to help defray costs. I figured that this devotion to the work ethic had a lot to do with a couple of things.

First, although perhaps not actually aware of it, most people, especially working and lower middle class, bought into the theory that those who worked hard got ahead. This survival of the fittest mentality was developed by sociologists from Darwin’s theory of evolution and taken up by the titans of industry as a good way to ensure laizze faire economic policies, and also to keep the little guy in line. Just keep him thinking he can be Carnegie if he only applies himself. It worked beautifully and today we still are trapped in that phony idea.

The second reason was undoubtedly because my parents and relatives grew up during the depression. They knew the “value of a nickle,” and they remembered a time when any work was welcome, no matter how menial or tedious. So it was anathema to quit a job just because it was “boring,” or the boss was a “dickhead” or the hours “sucked,” etc. It was, as I said, perfectly okay to quit to return to school. After all, next to work, education was the way up, or so we were taught.

I recall receiving an allowance as a kid, but I doubt it ever exceeded much more than a buck a week. Maybe it went to $5 by the time I was a senior, but it never seemed nearly enough. When I turned 16, I determined to get a job. Not just a summer job, but a job after school an on weekends. There were not many alternatives to choose from for a 16 year old. I ended up at the pharmacy about a couple of blocks from home. So I could walk to work. I was paid a whopping 75 cents an hour. That was in 1966.

It was a horrid job in most ways. I worked at the front counter alone. All the rest of the workers worked back in the liquor and prescriptions area. I could not sit down. There were not very many customers. I played games to pass the time, such as not looking at the clock until I had waited on 10 customers. That might peel off 45 minutes if I was lucky. Excitement was when the candy came in, and for an hour or so, I got to open and refill the candy counter in front. It took up time. There are only so many times one can remove and realign 329 little boxes of nail polish. Until you go mad.

I think I worked there about 9 months and then just could not take it a minute longer. I quit. I recall my father being somewhat judgmental at this. I was in some sense violating the “any job” rule. Quitting because I could not stand the boredom was not okay. I was returning to a free ride of an allowance as he saw it. The fact that some weeks I made less than $10 take home was a major factor.

That was my first foray into the working world, designed in some part to develop a resume. I had now been an employed person. The second job was errr even less successful. I don’t know what motivated it, but Patty, Barb and i all went to this family steak house a mile or so away and got employed as waitresses.

I don’t recall how long I lasted, but it was not long. I was headed off to college, and I was told the “head” waitress did not like college students. She resented that we were only temporary waitresses and not making it our career choice like her. She had it in for me. So I claimed. Fact is, I was fairly lousy at it. I resented being bothered, didn’t like customers who were difficult to please, and even received a tip of 2 cents one time. I was fired as you might suspect after a couple of months.

My next job was at the “Fair” a small department store, kinda on the level of KMart today. Kmart then, was more like a poor people’s store. We went there for staples, but wouldn’t dream of buying clothes or nice household goods there. Anyway, the Fair had two floors, and I was hired into accounts receivable and payable. I worked in a large room with other gals, all doing mostly the same thing. We compared invoices with bills and when they were in agreement, the bill was passed along as ready to be paid. I learned to use some large hulking business machine of a bookkeeping genre as I recall.

I also got to ring out registers at the end of the evening, when the store closed. That was a matter of collecting the “tape” of all transactions, removing excess money from the till beyond the standard amount to start, and hustling it upstairs to the drop for the accountants or bookkeepers to count and bank the following day. I also got to relieve the switchboard operator during the day. All in all, it was a great little summer job, filled with enough diversion and interest to keep me happy.

The next one I recall was working at a tool company. This was a tool supply company to be exact. I recall there were things like bits and washers, and nuts, and well stuff like that. I did mostly accounts receivable and payables again, worked on another big bookkeeping machine, and also acted as the official receptionist. There was only one other female employee and she was my supervisor. It was boring in terms of topic, but a nice environment. We did these inventories of the back room filled with 6 billion boxes of widgets of one sort or another, each to be hand counted and entered onto miles long sheets of inventory.

Now you may think that this job would have to be the most boring on the planet. No, not so. There was in fact a lively business, and plenty of people were coming and going into our little shop. You have to understand about the automobile industry to understand why.  You see, a car manufacturer does not make everything on a car from scratch. Much of it is made at small tool shops or tool and die shops. They win contracts with the auto industry, and then supply the filters, carburetors, spark plugs, etc.

A whole  set of sub industries exist to supports the big industry as it were. And these people relied on us to supply all the little gizmos that they used to create the bigger pieces that they then sent on  to the actual assembly lines for incorporation into a finished vehicle.

Which takes me to my next job. That of all-around do whatever is needed person at the unemployment office. I admit that I got help getting the job for the summer. I had a uncle who was the manager of one and he hired me. Since I was a good worker, I’m sure he was happy about the situation.

Now you really must understand the auto industry to understand why people were hired on in the summer at the unemployment office. This is because during the summer, tens of thousands of people would be signing up for benefits. You ask why, and i answer, because of the auto industry. Still confused?

Flint was a company town. A huge proportion of all citizens worked for or in support of the auto industry. It was Buick Town. It also had Chevy plants galore as well. Now, once a year, the car companies have to make plans to start making the next year’s models. This requires the concept of “change over” when the line is changed over  from one model to the next. This required the line to shut down, and it took about two weeks to accomplish the transition.

Workers from the line and most supporting categories were “laid” off, albeit for two weeks. The car companies had no interest in paying people for two weeks, they were already paying them for vacation for goodness sake. So, employees who were laid off, played this legal fiction with the government. They applied for unemployment benefits because they were out of work “through no fault of their own.”

These dates were staggered among the plants. But when a plant closed down, all its workers flooded the unemployment office. They signed up for benefits, declaring they were out of work. They had to state where they had applied for work during the last week. This was the lie that everyone ignored. People “applied” to other car companies. Of course, they did no such thing, and no one checked. It was part of the game.

I was part of the game, playing my part of filling out new applications, filing, and authorizing checks. On Friday, we would pack up and  drive off to a far off union hall and set up a satellite office for the day to accommodate the huge numbers. It was not required of course that you sign up or report to a particular office. My parents often signed up in West Branch up north and collected a couple of checks there while we vacationed at the lake.

It was perhaps the most fun I had in my summer work career. I often subbed on the switchboard, since I had acquired that talent originally in high school “working” in the school office, and brushed up on newer systems from my stint at the department store. The variety of people who hired in for the summer was eclectic. There were all ranges of age, sex, race and creed no doubt, and we had a great time all in all.

My last summer job was really a prelude to my career. After my first year of law school I went to work for the Prosecuting attorney of Genesee County, Flint, Michigan. (He later went to prison for accepting bribes I believe from unions.) I was assigned to the consumer fraud section and we spent most of our time investigating claims of fraud by consumers against companies. The guy who headed the unit was a neat, just out of law school dude, and he was both fun and not at all hard to work for.

We seldom saw the “big man.” I recall an older guy who worked in the unit. He must have been a general failure I assume to have ended up there. I did not know that at the time. He went off for vacation and gave me the sole key to his office,  suggesting that I was the only one he trusted not to screw up his “filing” system. I don’t to this day know if that was a compliment or just his intuitive understanding that I was not a neatnik. I had a very enjoyable time working that summer. I was feeling my “superiority” as a law student most definitely by then.

Those were the summer jobs I held. Not very impressive to be sure. I enjoyed some of them, and hated a couple. Not bad I guess. In looking back, I struggle to define what if any thing I learned during those experiences. None were major stretches of my intellect or coping skills for the most part. Being the summer employee doesn’t really put you in the mix of office politics. You don’t really learn a lot about adapting and circumventing that which annoys or interfere with your work. I never remember anybody who truly drove me batty other than at the restaurant.

All in all, most of my summer jobs delivered what was required, a paycheck. Most of the money was dutifully entered into a bank account for use as spending money over the next school year. I did skip a lot of fun things over those summers. Mostly because there was always the stern look of a father who made me feel guilty should I want to buy some frivolous but really “in” thing of one sort or another.

I remember no one at most of those places. At some I remember a personality, but I can attach no face to anyone of them any more. I am sure the same would be said by them if you asked them. We were just passing one another and stopping to collect a paycheck after all. Still, I wish I had a tall tale or two of shrimping in Louisiana or working a carny in Hoboken.