Enjoying the snow, long ago

Governor Christie is in trouble

It seems he went to Florida!  Florida!  and his constituents were hip-deep in snow!

Christie is drawing sharp criticism from local politicians and news outlets for vacationing at the same time as his lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, and for leaving a state senator in charge of the cleanup.

This is a cheap shot, the cheapest.  I lived in New Jersey for 18 years, and 1) we didn't have a lieutenant governor at all!  So when the incumbent was out of the state, a state senator was acting governor.  No-one noticed. 2) local government is in charge of cleaning up snow, and residents were always bitching about what an awful job they had done.

The man is allowed to take his kids to Disney World over the vacation, isn't he?  Or perhaps he should have taken the little tots to the Jersey shore?

I'm sure Christie can be criticized for many things, but this is a pretext.  He's a governor, for God's sake.

Rules for cats and dogs

According to the local throwaway paper (no link, sorry) the Delaware State Veterinarian--who knew we had one?-- has issued a warning that no out of state dogs and cats can move to Delaware unless their papers are in order.  Such papers include a certificate from their vet that the animal is disease free and has had all its shots.

Undocumented people, fine.  Undocumented pets, no.

Happy whatever it is you celebrate!

College is a waste of time

from the economic point of view.

I have two young male relatives ambitious to be gourmet cooks.  A refused to go to college; B just graduated from a prestigious private college.   A works as a cook;  B is a busboy.  In mitigation, Be has no student loans; his father paid his way through college.

Hoity-toity!

So many charities write to me lately.  It is sensible to make donations now, if you  are ever going to, because you can take it off your income tax.  It's tough to decide which worthy institutions to support.  The Salvation Army is a no-brainer.  So are the Delaware Symphony and the Delaware Art Museum.  WRTI, which I listen to all the time.  Second Harvest.  Doctors without Borders.  All of these can be sure of a check.

Then there are those which set off alarms.  Boys'Town?  I don't think they need me.  Likewise the American Red Cross.

Today I got a solicitation  which caused me no hesitation at all.  Last Summer I visited the Edna St Vincent Millay Society, which has taken over and is preserving the home of, guess who?  Not to keep you in suspense, it is Edna St Vincent Millay, she of the candle that burns at both ends and other soppy poetry.  As a general rule,  the poetry of authors who use three names is seldom first-rate.  But I digress.

We took the tour, which certainly revealed some insight into the lady.  Edna was an interesting woman, a beauty who married a rich man but did not let this stand in the way of  taking many lovers. If the husband could live with this, it didn't bother me.  She wanted things her own way, and more or less got them.  No-one could disturb  the order of the books in her study, for instance.

The most interesting thing I took away from the tour, however, was that she instructed the servants not to speak to her (or her husband) without being spoken to first.   I wonder whether they had to tug their forelocks when responding to her, or whether a dignified bow would do?

Somehow I don't quite feel like donating to the upkeep of her home.  I'll stick to the Salvation Army.

Brilliant?

I just finished reading a book by Jane Brox called "Brilliant," which I liked very much, until I got to the the last fifth of it.

Let's back up a bit now.  "Brillliant" is the story of Prometheus, essentially.  It relates how humanity ascended from darkness to  our current state of empowerment.   From cave dwellers burning animal fat, to whalers seeking sperm oil, to the use of oil in the form of kerosene and up to the present, the story she tells is one of triumph, of brilliant scientists harnessing nature and making people's lives easier, more productive, and happier.  Especially vivid is the account of how rural electrification  freed small town residents and country dwellers from the drudgery that up until then had consumed most of their waking hours.

The last few chapters, however, are full of envirosludge, pious blitherings about alternative energy and conservation, featuring our old friends, solar panels, wind farms, and recycling, and full of apologies for using irreplaceable resources.

A song sung by my high school choir

Song: Lost in the Night (Finnish Song, 1929, Tr. Olav Lee)

Lost in the night doth the heathen yet languish,
Longing for morning the darkness to vanquish,
Plaintively heaving a sigh full of anguish:
Will not day come soon? Will not day come soon?

Must he be vainly awaiting the morrow?
Shall we who have it no light let him borrow?
Giving no heed to his burden of sorrow:
Will you help us soon? Will you help us soon?

Sorrowing brother, in darkness yet dwelling,
Dawned hath the day of a radiance excelling,
Death's dreaded darkness forever dispelling:
Christ is coming soon! Christ is coming soon!

Light o'er the land of the heathen is beaming,
Rivers of life through its deserts are streaming,
Millions yet sigh for the Savior redeeming:
Come and save us soon! Come and save us soon!


Yes, our high school choir sang it; we possibly even sang it in a church, because we sang in churches more than once.  I'm talking public high school here.


How times have changed.  Our choir director would be hung from the lampposts today if he taught a bunch of high school students to sing this song.  I liked the song, without quite understanding what it was about. The meaning just went over my head.   You probably think that my head was rather thick.  Remember that I was only 15 and completely ignorant of theology.  I  thought the song was rather pleasingly mournful, as songs from northern countries tend to be.  Something about the long winters, I believe.  Or the short winter days.
I still remember the melody and most of the words.

I like hymns, anyway.

Another contender for most useless Christmas present

Vendors have outdone themselves in providing kitchy, ugly gifts, which no-one in their right mind would give anyone at any other season. This one can sit pridefully on your dresser, helping burglars to find your most expensive and valuable jewelry conveniently. Yours for $29 from Pottery Barn.

An aside on putting your good jewelry on top of your dresser. Don't do it. I speak from experience. Don't hide it in the freezer, either. Criminals know about that one. Where to put it? That's a tough one. Perhaps in a locked box under your bed?--no, that might make them mad, and you don't want angry burglars approaching your bed, especially if you're in it.

Anyway, you can have these replicas of the Taj Mahal or the Eiffel Tower by Christmas if you order before 10 am December 23.

Moral idiots

I never thought I would see the day.

Do these people want to abolish the social compact entirely?  Some activities are morally repugnant to every group that pretends to be civilized.

Shall we revert to a state of nature, when the lives of men are brutish, nasty, solitary and short?

Must drivers  going through a traffic light at 3 a.m., even though there is no-one in sight and nobody is harmed,  be held accountable for breaking a law, while a man who has sex with his daughter should be left to get on with it because she's over 18?

Still another sort of family values

in Alaska,  this time.

A different slant on family values

from Columbia University.

It's nice to go to college

but it's not going to get you anywhere.

In 1992 119,000 waiters and waitresses were college degree holders. By 2008, this number had more than doubled to 318,000. While the total number of waiters and waitresses grew by about 1 million during this period, 20% of all new jobs in this occupation were filled by college graduates.

So if you want to go to college, do so in a disinterested pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.

Or consider it a four (0r five) year adventure in drinking beer and having fun.

Garden scene with statue

New painting

I took this at night with my iPhone. The colors are not accurate.  Actual colors are much more subtle. It's still a work in progress.

By the way, I'm thinking of rolling out a new website just for my paintings after the first of the year.  Maybe someone will buy some of them?

The last day of Chanukah

Christmas letter, sort of

To everyone who deserves a personal note: You're not going to get one. We are another year older and that's about it. No, Mr Charm is not better. No, it's not likely he ever will be. Yes, we are coping. We have some laughs. And two lovely daughters. And two adorable grandchildren. And as much wine as we need, from our daughter and son-in-law's winery.

I feel pretty good most of the time. I don't know whether this is the result of exercise, good genes, or beta blocker, or if I am just to dumb to know better.

To Eleanor: I got a letter from Patti and answered it, but the answer came back Address Unknown. So either I got it wrong or someone at the Post Office is an idiot. So please tell her to write me again.

To Jacquie: I hope you are okay and that your family is doing well. I'd love to hear from you.

To Natalie: How is Florida working out?

To Joan K: How is retirement working out?

To Pat: I hope you are feeling better.

To Kay: I hope you are feeling better.

To all my friends in New Jersey and elsewhere: I miss you guys.

I am taking an art class at the Delaware Art Museum—also scanning photographs into my computer. Taking pictures with my iPhone, which takes surprisingly good pictures. And I usually manage to bring it with me, which I can't say about either one of my Olympus digital cameras.

I am volunteering at the Delaware Symphony, stuffing envelopes from time to time. I love it. The orchestra is unusually good. Not just for a small town orchestra, but compared to any other orchestra.

The above is a picture of our last year's Christmas decorations. All of them. It is in place again this year.

So I did write a Christmas letter, after all. And this is it.

Reviewing my purchase for Macy's

Macy's sent me an e-mail asking if I wanted to review my recent on-line purchase.  Do I?  In the words of Sarah Palin, you betcha!  But before I could review  said recent purchase, I had to log in.  I have a passionate desire not to log in to anyone's site.  I don't want to remember 1,000 passwords, some of which contain letters as well as numbers, other of which are case-sensitive, and so on.  I don't want to marry Macy's, I don't even want a relationship other than this:  you sell me stuff, I pay for it.  Even that is too much.

So my dear readers are going to have to read my review of my recent purchase, because I am brimming with the desire to tell all. Here goes:

I should mention here that I am one of Macy's favorite customers.  They tell me so repeatedly. So special am I that they keep sending me special offers only for their  favorite customers.!!!

I bought three pieces of jewelry from aforementioned Macy's website.  They were tiny, but came in a huge padded envelope.  One was a gold necklace which had looked okay on the website, but resembled dental floss in person.  I decided to return it to my local Macy's store.  I took the necklace, with tag attached, and enclosed in a little tiny baggie, and put it in my purse.  The envelope wouldn't fit in my purse, so I left it home.

The clerk at the jewelry counter claimed to be unable to take the necklace because I didn't have the packaging.  Even though I had charged it to my Macy's card.  She claimed to be unable to look it up in my account.  I figured she really didn't want to go to the trouble, but I was too polite or stupid to say so.   So I tucked the little tiny thing back into my purse.  I knew in my heart that I would lose the thing before I could manage to return with the bulky envelope.  In the words of P G Wodehouse, it had the stark inevitability of a Greek tragedy.  And so it proved to be.

Went home.  Got envelope.  Returned to Macy's jewelry counter.  No little tiny baggie.

So now I'm mad as hell at Macy's, but even madder at myself for being so stupid and gormless.  It's a lose-lose proposition.

Tendentious

This article, linked by instapundit, is tendentious.    Definition of tendentious:

having or showing an intentional tendency or bias, esp a controversial one.

Is all of America turning into Detroit? Hell, no.  Not even close.  The author cites a number of distressing problems in an  attempt to prove that we are going down the tubes.  In his zeal to make his point, he is mixing apples and oranges and throwing in a grapefruit or two and maybe a papaya.

The second most dangerous city in the United States - Camden, N.J. - is about to lay off about half its police.

I hardly know where to start taking this one to pieces:  1)  Camden has been a hellhole for ages; 2)  Some of those policemen are unemployables who are assigned to sit around the courthouse all day and never have any effect on crime; 3)This is an old game--those in charge want to make the citizenry feel their pain so that someone, somewhere, will give them more money; 4) Police in New Jersey are overpaid and have benefits the average working stiff would die for.

I could go on, but I'll let someone else have a go.  Read the article.

Late-breaking:  Linked by instapundit! 

A day that will live in infamy

December 7, 1941.

Good jobs for writers

Another shameful story from higher education, the Potemkin Village du jour.

Ugliest gift of 2010--so far

For only $49.95 it can be yours. From Nordstrom.

Flower cloes-ups by genius grandson

Taken with an iPhone.

My grandson's airplanes

Sorting silver

I spent part of today sorting and putting away the silver we used Thanksgiving. We were expecting 11 people, so we had to use silver from several different sets. In the event, we only had 8, so I could have made do with my grandmother's beautiful Tuileries sterling. It's 106 years old, the pattern having been brought out in 1904.

Yesterday everyone went home, and I felt rather blah. Decided to eat a cup of tomato soup and the rest of the pumpkin pie for supper. I knew it wasn't a good idea, but there was no stopping me. The ensuing tummy trouble was my reward.

Today I put together some leftover mushrooms, parsley, chicken broth and heavy cream which made a nice soup for Mr Charm and me. Stomach still grumbling.

The oh so politically correct carrying on about McDonald's reminded me of the days before Mickey D existed. People still had to eat; they just never knew where to eat in strange towns without encountering appallingly bad food. When we went on trips, especially driving to Florida, we were taking a risk with our lives and those of our children; the food was that awful. Breakfasts were the worst. Eggs cooked in rancid bacon grease, sausages made of God knows what and dishwater coffee. We were glad when McDonald's came along and we could buy a breakfast sandwich and a decent cup of coffee and know we were not risking food poisoning.

Coffee was usually bad everywhere in the old days. People have gotten used to getting decent coffee almost everywhere and don't remember the overcooked or weak brew we encountered in almost every restaurant except the really posh ones.

Longwood Gardens Conservatory. Photos taken by my 9-year-old grandson with an iPhone.

Two of our Thanksgiving desserts

Thanksgiving message

Gratitude is good for you.

Green bottles

Roses in November

Global warming--what's not to like?

Osama bin Laden appoints new second in command

He appears to be a man of mystery:

.Little is known about the shadowy al-Adel, who is also known by the names Muhammad al-Makkawi and Ibrahim al-Madani. Born in Egypt, al-Adel is said to have served as a colonel in its Special Forces.

I don't suppose we will get any more information about him, unless one of the fatheads on Sixty Minutes scores an on-air interview with him.  I don't look forward to this event.  I can certainly picture Mike Wallace trying to explore his human side, asking him about his hobby--collecting  fountain pens, perhaps, or bowling--his preference in beverages (decaf mint tea?) and how he is so busy running JihadsRUs that he doesn't get to spend as much time as he would like with the wife and kids.

I'm thinking of retiring from blogging

See, I've just won a lot of money and won't need the Adsense income:

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Contact Person. Shawn Zulu (For your Payment Process)

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And they didn't even ask for my bank account number--it must be authentic, right?

I especially like the name, Shawn Zulu.

I hope not...

but I fear this is true.

We have government without limits, unelected rulers, law enforcement without law, citizens without rights, courts without justice, and a vast pretense of "necessity" and "the consent of the governed" to cover all. Interest groups exist to promote each of these things, and in the usual case are opposed only by a vague and incoherent sense that "things have gotten out of hand." Every two years, we troop to the polls to elect new executives, legislators, and judges...yet no matter whom our ballots elevate, things remain "out of hand," if indeed they don't grow even more so. 

Celebrating Remembrance Day

British Muslims ruin sacred day.

Why don't they celebrate their rejection of British culture by returning their welfare checks?

Decorating from the Good Will

Thanks, Tony

Don't buy into the Muslim narrative.

Vase

This is a vase I got at Good Will. I think it is called "end of day." Does anyone know?

My root canal--the most fun I've had in a month

That's an exaggeration--but at least while my mouth was open and my dentist's hand in it no-one could call and ask me to take a phone survey on behalf of the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, various individuals who were running for office, etc, ad nauseam.

The last month has been full of frustration.  First there was the long (25 days) struggle to see the cardiologist about Mr Charm's pacemaker.  Fortunately neither of us was bleeding heavily, so we lived through it, saw the cardio (nothing wrong with the pacemaker, see the neurologist) and received a profuse apology from the practice manager.

Yesterday, it was apparent that everything was going to go wrong, including a nervous breakdown on the part of the GPS.   I sensed that things were going to continue to go wrong.  The gods of petty annoyance were picking on us, and would continue to do so until they were tired of us and went to pick on somebody else.

We were late for the neurologist appointment, but signed the patient attendance sheet and were assured he would see us, as soon as possible.  We sat there watching other patients go in and out.  I managed to read a whole issue of the New Yorker, a relatively recent one .  More patients come and go.  Some come while we are sitting there and go while we are still sitting there.  I ask the female at the desk what is happening.  She informs me that he is trying to fit us in, but she can't ask him because he is With a Patient.   Short of calling her a liar, there was nothing I could do, although I was pretty sure her story would not hold up in a court of law.  She then deserted her post.  No-one took her place.

At last the office is deserted except for us and Deborah from Billing, sitting at another window and doing something, possibly to do with billing.  I finally collared her, and told her we had been waiting.  I was afraid the neurologist would decamp from another exit, which he was actually about to do.  But she caught him and Mr Charm had his exam.  The doctor told us he did not know we were there, and I believed him.  I actually knew this from the start, but it took three hours for it to be apparent to everyone else.

Toy trains at Longwood Gardens

November roses

I picked these this morning--not bad for November 2.

Saguaro cactus Christmas tree?

Seen at the Good Will store. It has little hooks all over it, my guess is that it is a saguaro cactus Christmas tree. Or not.

Halloween

We just turned off the outside light and declared trick or treat closed, due to depletion of treats.  We had a lot of children, many of whom I recognized from the neighborhood, including one or two who haven't really perfected their lines and just stand and gawk at you until you give them candy.  I was pleased to see so many little guys, but noticed that they were all accompanied by adults.

Due to the (unfounded) rumors of poisoned Halloween candy, people are reluctant to let their children out at night these days.  When my kids were little they used to roam freely on Halloween and bring home enough treats to make a family of ten sick for a week, but nowadays kids are not free range; they have playdates.

Instead of being a children's holiday it has been adopted by adults, who  make a fuss about dressing up in costumes and going to parties.  To my mind, they are faintly ridiculous.

When I was a kid children were encouraged, if not hounded, to go out of doors in all weathers.  There was a rumor that fresh air was good for them, but the real reason was so that parents could read the paper, do housework, smoke cigarettes and  have a little peace and quiet.  How do parents stand having them underfoot all the time?