iBeth

Christmas 2004

[Update: some photos added.]   This holiday season underscored how unutterably blessed we are. 

We spent one pre-Christmas evening with Nonna Twila and Nonno Joe, Prof. Kate and Mr. Walter (and I really need to ask Kate if she would rather be Professor Kate or Ms. Kate to the children).  We adults exchanged gifts, and we had a yummy dinner and interesting conversation (these are about the most interesting people I know), but the girls REALLY had a great time.  Their favorite presents were some toy brooms from Nonna Twila and Nonno Joe.  They swept everything that could be swept, I think.  Then they came home and swept everything that could be swept at home, too.  Their daddy was a little dismayed to discover them sweeping his bed pillow.

Another highlight of that visit was watching Nonno Joe's fantastic electric train set that travels between two rooms.  Emma was enthralled; Amelia was so captivated that she grabbed trains off the track and flipped whatever switches she could reach (causing at least one newsworthy AmTrak derailment).  We eventually took our little handful downstairs.  Naturally, she climbed right up the stairs again.  I stopped her enroute and said, "Amelia, come downstairs now.  The trains are going night night."

"No!" she protested.  "No night night!  Wake up!  TRAINS, WAKE UP!"  Sadly, the trains did not listen. 

What Do Doggies Say?

At Amelia's request, I used a special magnet to draw some dog shapes on the magnadoodle.

"Those are doggies, Amelia!" I told her.  "What do doggies say?"

She replied, "Woofs!"

My girl knows her plurals!

Time to Read

One of my holiday rituals: gathering books that I hope I'll have time to read.  I *love* reading, but despite the fact that I'm an English professor, I don't have nearly enough time to do it!  Here's what's on my nightstand right now that I have read:

The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay / Michael Chabon.  Wow!  The official "product description" on the Amazon website doesn't do it justice.  This book mixes the fun-read appeal of a genre novel and the lives-with-you qualities of literary novels.  I had trouble putting it down.  Had to interrupt my read for a family dinner, and the entire time I was really back in 1940s NYC, wondering what was going to happen next with the two protagonists, comic book artists Sam Clay and Joe Kavalier.  Then, when I was falling asleep, I found myself pondering the significance of the golem, who has crumbled to dust during its final, timely, mysterious appearance. 

America eats : forms of edible folk art / William Woys Weaver.    This book explains how American recipes are actually a form of folk art, it describes about cooking tools used to make heirloom recipes that are also folk art in themselves, and it provides heirloom recipes and pictures too!  I was amazed at all that I didn't know about American cooking (and I'm an inveterate cookbook reader).  For example, I'd never heard of a biscuit "break," nor the labor the tool was designed to make easier (one recipe actually instructs cooks to "beat the dough for about 30 minutes with an axe").  This book was especially interesting because I've learned more about how flour and other ingredients operate in recipes from great cookbooks such as Shirley O. Corriher's CookWise and tv chefs such as Alton Brown, but it would be fascinating for anyone interested in cooking or Americana.

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time / Mark Haddon.    An unforgettable autistic first-person narrator  and a truly amusing, moving book.  I ordinarily resent books that make me cry, but this book was so good that I didn't mind at all.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter : a novel / by Jeffry Lindsay.      I love the originality of this mystery--the serial killer is the good guy!  But I was a little disappointed in the ending.  It had one of those endings where the author cuts away just as things are about to happen and returns when everything is squared away, so the complications don't entirely get resolved.  Also, the end seemed to be a blatant setup for the sequel.  Of course, I am sure I will read the sequel! 

Murder plays house / Ayelet Waldman.  Very well plotted, compelling subplot, terrifically engaging characters, though I liked some of the earlier books in the series a little better.  I tend to get tired of a series right about book #5 or #6 (maybe the author does, too?) but this series is faring better than many. Waldman has even figured out how a regular mom can stumble across so many dead bodies, a big logical problem in so many mysteries with an "amateur" sleuth.  (However, I wasn't entirely convinced by the "I promised the guy I'd solve this murder so he would hire me to deal with PR problems" rationale proffered at one point in this book.)
      
The Sunday philosophy club / Alexander McCall Smith.  Really didn't like this one as much as the author's #1 Ladies' Detective Agency books.   It just moved too slowly . . .  I had a tough time getting through it.  Also, I just couldn't identify with the protagonist's long-ago heartbreak and its long-reaching effects.  She seemed too accomplished a woman to let such a thing haunt her so.

I'm in the midst of reading:

Born to buy : the commercialized child and the new consumer culture / Juliet B. Schor.  So far, I'm fascinated and sickened by what I'm learning from this book.  After my reading various factoids to my husband (e.g., the average American obtains 48 new pieces of apparel every year . . . wha???  I don't think I come close, not even if you count individual socks), he picked it up, stumbled across Schor's mistaken claim that Rupert Murdoch's FOX network was responsible for Fear Factor*, and threw it down in disgust.  (This error doesn't affect Schor's main point in that section, that media consolidation has resulted in a homogeneous product that is not particularly good for children). This book is briefly discussed in comments at 11D and probably other places too.  If I have time when I finish it, I'll write more about it.

I hope I'll also get a chance to read:

• The cultural creatives : how 50 million people are changing the world / Paul H. Ray, Sherry Ruth Anderson. 
• Daughter's keeper / Ayelet Waldman.      
• Emergence : the connected lives of ants, brains, cities, and software / Steven Johnson.      
• Home from nowhere : remaking our everyday world for the twenty-first Century / James Howard Kunstler.
• The know-it-all : one man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world / A.J. Jacobs.      
• Learning to drive : a novel / Mary Hays.     
• Maisie Dobbs : a novel / Jacqueline Winspear.
  
• The naked consumer : how our private lives become public commodities / Erik Larson.      
• The social life of information / John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid.      
• Summerland / Michael Chabon.   
• The time traveler's wife : a novel / by Audrey Niffenegger.
• Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century / by Robert E. Horn      

It's probably hopeless, given that I still need to update my spring web courses (hours and hours and hours of work!!) but I still like to think I'll get through that towering pile of books.

BTW, Amazon is collecting for the Red Cross right now. 

* My husband is right; Fear Factor is an NBC production that directly competed with Murdoch's/Fox's Joe Millionaire.  However, now Fox O&O [owned & operated] stations will air FF in syndication (subscription required for the last link).

Echo

David was telling me news of the day, and I was saying how awful and heartbreaking the news was when suddenly I realized Amelia was following me around, exclaiming in her tiny voice, "How awful!" and "Heartbreaking!"

So I said, "Echo!"

And she said, "Echo!"

We repeated that exchange a few more times.  Then we giggled.

Symbolic Statements

As I was driving home from work, I heard a graphic radio description of mass graves in Sri Lanka.   Did we even have such mass graves during the 1918 flu epidemic?  I honestly cannot conceive of so many dead.  Even when the number was back in the low 40,000, I couldn't wrap my mind around it.  I would think, "Every single student at my university," but I cannot wrap my mind around all the STUDENTS we have, much less nearly twice that many dead, and that's even before the cholera, etc. set in.  Horrifying. 

And yet our president cannot bestir himself from his bicycling to express condolences?  He represents us to the world.  Why does he give us so many reasons to be ashamed?  And then his aids used his laziness (or ineptness) to aim a cheap shot at President Bill Clinton:

Earlier yesterday, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said the president was confident he could monitor events effectively without returning to Washington or making public statements in Crawford, where he spent part of the day clearing brush and bicycling. Explaining the about-face, a White House official said: "The president wanted to be fully briefed on our efforts. He didn't want to make a symbolic statement about 'We feel your pain.' "

Many Bush aides believe Clinton was too quick to head for the cameras to hold forth on tragedies with his trademark empathy. "Actions speak louder than words," a top Bush aide said, describing the president's view of his appropriate role.

Uh huh.  Actions DO speak louder than words.  Bush's action of continuing to enjoy his vacation speaks pretty loudly.  And Bush's response to criticism--to increase U.S. financial assistance--also speaks.  It confirms suspicions that our initial promise of aid was not what it could have been. 

Do Kids Need Their Own TVs?

What a coincidence!  Here I am, reading in Juliet B. Schor's Born to Buy that many parents are buying tvs, dvds, microwaves (to make popcorn to eat while watching the dvds), etc. to put in their children's bedrooms. I could hardly believe it. 

Then, I discover that I know parents who are buying these things for their 3 and 4 year olds!  Yes, you read that right; children who are only THREE and FOUR years old are being given their own bedroom theater setups.  And all of these parents have ALREADY ALSO given their children expensive videogame systems.  What the . . . . ? 

Shorter Days Now

68,000 . . . unbearable.  I was too heartbroken to read this entire story, and much too upset by the tsunamis to comment on the overwhelming human tragedies, but David told me about this interesting part:

The tremor, the biggest in 40 years, may have caused the Earth to wobble on its axis, permanently accelerating its rotation and shortening days by a fraction of a second, U.S. scientists said.

As if the day weren't short enough. [But does this also mean we will all live longer?]

Also, I always wondered how scientists could measure such quakes with such precision.  Turns out they really can't; they're still figuring it out. 

Roast Chick Peas

I cooked some roast chick peas today:

Roasted Ceci Nuts

2 cups cooked or canned chick-peas, rinsed and drained (see note)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Coarse salt

In a medium bowl, toss the chick-peas wit the oil to coat. Spread the chick-peas on a baking sheet and roast at 375-degrees for 40 minutes, or until brown and crisp. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with salt to taste. Cool before turning into a bowl.

Actually, I used the recipe from Vegan Planet (xmas gift) that was used 2 T of oil and suggested cooking for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.  I actually cooked them for 25 minutes at 400 degrees, but now I think that wasn't enough because they were not crunchy (though they were yummy)!  Next time I'll try using home-cooked chick peas rather than canned.  Maybe I can make enough during the semester to reduce those runs to the vending machine for salty snacks?  I hope? 

Sadly, when I ate the salty chick peas, I couldn't resist drinking a diet cola with them.  But it was my only can today, honest!  I wanted more but settled for a cold seltzer water instead of a second can.  I really am cutting way back, but it's soooo hard.  That's still my goal, though--to be diet cola free by the time classes start again (at which point it will be a huge struggle not to rebound back to my 72 oz/day consumption level, but even if I drink more diet cola at work, my kids won't be around to witness it.)

In other news, I wrote this post about two hours ago, and it vanished!  I must have forgotten to save it.  Am I the only one who does this?  It isn't the first time for me, either (though the other times it was pieces of a post that vanished rather than the whole thing).  If the original post mysteriously reappears somehow, that's why I'll have two on the subject, not because roast chick peas are so fascinating.

I Need a Flickr Account

Don't know yet why Flickr would work better for me than Ofoto, really; it just seems like the cool thing to have.  But I'll learn more soon.

I *loved* this picture.  Ayelet Waldman made me feel much better by sharing it.  Whenever I clean up toys in my house, I'm secretly convinced that I'm the only mom whose house ever gets this bad.  Apparently I am not.

No One in the Address Book

I cannot bear to watch local news, with its tales of horrors happening to children the age of my own children (even when they have a redemptive ending).  So you can imagine how carefully I am avoiding news of the tsunamis.  But still I cannot help but hear. . . 42,000+ people!  My heart breaks. 

And what is this excuse the USGS gives for not warning of the danger: "We don't have anyone in our address book from those countries"?  Given an hour and a half, *I* could have managed to reach *someone* in every one of those countries, and I have no contacts or credentials whatsoever.  I hope that this part of the story is investigated.  I hope that I can learn about this part of the story without having to endure the individual tragedies. 

I am arriving way late to the "why are there no female bloggers" debate and cannot add anything of substance to the terrific answers already given.  But for the record.  This particular female blogger is sad enough over the event without reading/writing about the details, much less details flogged for their sensationalism.  This particular female blogger gave her all for the Kerry campaign and cannot yet watch Bush or his minions on tv without shouts and mutters (the US will provide "all appropriate assistance" to the stricken countries?  What the HECK does that mean???)   This particular female blogger attends to national and global events, but will focus her writing on her own tiny corner of the planet for awhile, not because the rest matters little, but because it matters all too much.