No TV

My grandchildren have never had a television in their home. They play no video games. They have no concept of consumerism driven by commercials. The concept of asking mom or dad to buy something advertised on Saturday children's programming has never entered their heads. No whining in the grocery store. Indeed, I doubt that they realize that they could ask.

They are interesting, intelligent, and creative elementary school girls. Something exciting waits around every corner when a child's imagination has never been channeled (pun intended) by Tony the Tiger. They read; art fills the walls of their home; dance and musical performances spontaneously engage their afternoons; stories and jokes fill their conversation. I have never seen them be physically aggressive. They seldom argue, preferring to negotiate a solution to their differences. I do not claim their perfection, but the girls are awfully good company, albeit a bit exhausting.

It cannot be easy for our son and his wife to maintain their stance on TV. It would be so very easy to let the television be the "babysitter" for a few hours. I applaud their determination and dedication to the integrity of their children by keeping their childhood open, creative, and free. My son and his wife are busy, but engaged, parents who take their parental responsibilities very seriously. I admire their courage. The results have been very good.

While some will view a total TV prohibition as too severe, many others might benefit from a bit of media rationing in their own homes. Yes, there are some educational programs on TV. The quality of a few programs is good. Have my granddaughters missed anything really important? Not really. (Be honest!) Give your children more credit. Trust their innate creativity; nurture their journey through self-discovery, uninfluenced by media and dubious cultural influences. Say "NO" to TV, if only occasionally.

Vocabulary Quiz

It’s word quiz time again! I will make it easier by using the words in context. I have included some foreign phrases that might be useful to know. No Fair Looking Ahead to the Answers! It might also be a good time to review the words in past quizzes. Just click on the Vocabulary Quiz label to reacquaint yourself with words presented earlier. Good Luck!

1. To which of these men could the term glabrous be used in their description? a) Sen. Robert Byrd b) Harpo Marx c) Yul Brynner
2. The guest speaker’s tendency to divagate surprised the audience. Was the speaker a) sycophantic b) divisive or, c) wandering off the subject?
3. Would you seek out the company of someone described as jejune? Yes or No?
4. The ancient Grecian hetaera are most similar to a) sibyls b) geisha or, c) the queen’s ladies in waiting?
5. The American Idol fans were perfervid in their opinions of the female singer. Were the fans a) enthusiastically for her b) mildly impressed or, c) definitely against her?
6. Jane is au fait in interior design. Is she a) new to the field b) an expert or, c) totally clueless?
7. The woman told us that she had just seen a revenant. What did she see? a) type of rodent b) a ghost or, c) a member of the clergy
8. The Duchess brought the seisin of Bordeaux as part of her dowry. What did she bring? a) the right to the title of Duke b) valuable jewels or, c) lands of her Duchy
9. The quiddity of her perfume was its rose oil. Is this the correct usage of the term? Yes or No?
10. Over lunch Jonathan traduced the work of our newest employee. Was he a) critical b) appreciative or, c) surprised?
11. The gown glimmered with interwoven golden threads. It was made of what fabric? a) samite b) toile de Jouy or, c) gossamer?
12. In the equation, 15 – 7 = 8, what is the term used for the number 15?
a) augend b) subtrahend or, c) minuend
13. The young girl has a retroussé nose. Is it a) protrudent b) turned-up or, c) narial
14. The coroner declared the cause of death to be felo de se. Was it
a) death by person or persons unknown b) accidental death or, c) suicide?
15. The debate denigrated into a war over words. Which word best describes the situation?
a) syntactical b) logomachy or, c) apologue

Answers: 1 – c: glabrous (adj) meaning smooth and lacking hairs; 2 – c: divagate (v) means to wander off the subject; 3 – No: jejune (adj) refers to someone who is uninteresting or intellectually undemanding; 4 – b: hetaera (n) were one of a special class of women who, while prostitutes, were valued as highly cultured companions; 5 – a: perfervid (adj) describes an extremely passionate or enthusiastic response; 6 – b: au fait describes an expert; 7 – b: a revenant (n) is a dead person believed to return as a ghost; 8 – c: seisin (n) refers to land that is legally possessed; 9 – Yes: quiddity (adj) means that which makes a thing what it is, its essential nature; 10 – a: traduced (v) refers to saying very critical and disparaging things about someone; 11 – a: samite (n) is very heavy silk fabric interwoven with gold or silver threads; 12 – c: the minuend is the number from which another is subtracted; 13 – b: a retroussé nose is turned-up; 14 – c: a felo de se (n) is a suicide; 15 – b: logomachy (n) is a dispute over words.

How did you do?

Compelling Musical Selections

May is the month of exhaustion. There is so much to do: spring cleaning, window washing, weeding, and planting. It is now June; the tasks are complete and this old body is much in need of restoration. It is the perfect time to kick back and relax, to listen to arresting musical pieces. It’s the perfect prescription for a weary soul.

Some of my most compelling musical selections are listed below. I recommend that you listen to the entire composition or album even though I am calling attention to particular movements, parts, or songs. When you reach the point in the recording that I have listed you will know it. These portions are so beautiful and noteworthy that your attention will be concentrated on the experience before you realize what’s happening. Hopefully you will be transported for a relaxing few minutes of total enjoyment. Some of my favorites are listed below. Hopefully there is sufficient variety to tempt you.

Classical Pieces: Ralph Vaughan William’s Lark Ascending performed by Iona Brown or Nigel Kennedy; Anton Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” II. Largo; Edward Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme, “Enigma Variations” No. 16 Var. IX (Nimrod) Adagio; Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection,” Sir Georg Solti conducting, the Conclusion; Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 Adagietto, Fourth Movement; Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied Von Der Erde conducted by Leonard Bernstein, Wiener Philharmoniker, VI “Der Abschied”; Alan Hovhaness’ “Prayer of Saint Gregory for trumpet and string orchestra in the album Celestial Gate.

Lighter Classical: Yo-Yo-Ma’s Classic Yo-Yo No. 10 “Tun Dun: The Eternal Vow” from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Aaron Copeland’s “Saturday Night Waltz” from Rodeo; Tobias Picker’s “Old and Lost Rivers” in John Williams’ The Five Sacred Trees album; Ensemble Galilei’s album Come Gentle Night selections ten, “The Asp”, eighteen, “Heart’s Ease/Gathering Peascods,” and nineteen, “No Longer Weep for Me.”

Popular: Trent Willmon’s “Louisiana Rain” from his A Little More Livin’ album; Billy Joel’s “Until the Night” from the 52nd Street album; Ahmad Jamal’s “Ahmad’s Blues” in the album, Ahmad Jamal at the Penthouse; Bob Seeger’s Against the Wind album has two attention grabbers, “No Man’s Land” and “You’ll Accompany Me;” The Kingston Trio’s ”San Miguel;” Tommy Makem’s “Four Green Fields;” John Denver with Placido Domingo singing “Perhaps Love;” Raphael’s “Serpent” from the Music to Disappear In;” and finally, all of Mychael Dana’s Skys album.

These selections are not intended to represent a comprehensive list, but they definitely compel your attention. I hope you will listen to some of them. Sit back, relax, and ENJOY.

Socrates Never Washed His Socks: A Mothers' Day Poem

In Greece of old
So we are told
Socrates never wash’d his socks.
Not nosesome chore
Nor so much more;
Shrew Xanthip’ pounds rocks; gadfly mocks.

Bard sired three
‘Fore London spree;
No crib or diapers on the stage.
Anne tired be
With babes on knee;
Second best bed for her old age.

Thinker so sour;
It’s dinner hour.
Is Schopenhauer’s shopping done?
The will’s supreme;
Demands the cream;
Keeps Frau Landlady on the run.

The patent clerk
Had time at work
To figure E is m • c • c.
Two wives to cook;
Kreplocks he took;
Relativity’s quite tasty

If fame you do
Wish to pursue;
Mothers need must philosophize.
Homemaking sways;
Kids in the ways;
Securing wife in life is wise.

Bardolatry

William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. He was most probably born in April of 1564. No matter the exact dates, the world would be a far poor place had he not existed. I am a fan of the Bard of Avon. I claim no expertise, only informed interest.

There is something special about attending a Shakespearean play, especially at the new Globe Theatre in London. The Globe does not try to “popularize” the Bard’s works by changing eras, jazzing up the costumes, or stupefying the playgoer with awe inspiring special effects. The Globe dramatizes Shakespeare much like Shakespeare dramatized Shakespeare, thank goodness!

There is something unique about reading a Shakespearean play or sonnet. Only then can one appreciate the art of Shakespeare as writer. The Bard used the best writer tricks: foreshadowing, plot development, pacing, character development, figurative language, elegant forms and metre, and so much more.

It is still considered commendatory to memorize parts of his work. Do you have a favorite quote, or does the occasion determine which phrases to utilize? It is humbling to ponder one’s mortality in light of the Sonnet 71. How can one take themselves seriously when confronted with “…a tale told by an idiot…”? Who has not smiled when thinking “For there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently”? Smarted to hear “How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes”? Discovered satisfaction in “’Tis the mind that makes the body rich”?

It pains me to realize that, nearly 400 years later, pendants continue to claim that William Shakespeare did not write the works attributed to him. It is probable that a few plays were, at least in part, not his: King Henry VI part I, King Henry VIII, and Pericles, Prince of Tyre. It is also important to understand that the first folio did not make its public appearance until after the death of Shakespeare’s widow in 1623. There was plenty of time for thespian colleagues Herminge and Condell to spruce up a scene or augment an act in the seven intervening years after Shakespeare’s death. Granting that an editor may have added value after the fact does not diminish Shakespeare’s achievements.

The principal arguments against Shakespeare’s authorship emanate from the fact that William was a middle class boy, educated in the common school, without aristocratic pedigree. For an impressionable young man who loved words, that humble education would be sufficient. There is certainly evidence that humble beginnings have not suppressed genius. Mark Twain, James Joyce, Toni Morrison, Naguib Mahfouz, and Dostoyevsky are but a few examples.

Detractors ask, “How could the son of a glover and petty official possess such genius? Demonstrate the highest mastery of the English language? Capitalized on dramatic instinct and human psychology?” With passion, courage, ambition and desire, how not?

In his Preface to the Works of Shakespeare (1725) Alexander Pope wrote, “He seems to have known the world by intuition, to have looked through human nature at one glance.” The key is instinct. Good writers can be trained. Great ones transcend. Genius is a gift, 99 per cent of which is hard work! Shakespeare not only had the native genius and ambition, but the intelligence to understand the business of writing; not only the talent, but also the opportunity. He was gifted as well as assiduous. Shakespeare was an actor before he became an author. He understood the art of engaging an audience because he was capable of awe; he had the courage to innovate; he had an extra-ordinary command of words; he hungered for success. I think he was also shrewd. Genius is not limited to the London born, the Queen’s Court, or Cambridge. Talent surprises. It is democratic.

Like the movie or rock star of today, Shakespeare had his finger on the pulse of contemporary society. Elizabethans thrived on novelty and politics. Classes mixed in the dirty streets of London, in the taverns, and where the groundlings watched the latest plays. Fame fosters symbiotic relationships. A popular actor or writer would most naturally be flattered by the attentions of aristocratic patrons and intellectuals, who might, on occasion, make a suggestion or two. It is even possible that his relationships went deeper. Some of the Sonnets suggest bisexuality. A certain duality is evident in Sonnet 144. Shakespeare, under the influence of friends, may have paid a complement, included a suggestion, improved an idea, re-shaped a poem—but Shakespeare was the master of his craft.

For centuries scholars concur. John Dryden, in his Prologue to the Tempest, (1667) wrote:

Shakespeare who (taught by none) did first impart
To Fletcher wit, to labouring Jonson art…

…Shakespeare’s magic could not copied be;
Within that circle none durst walk but he.
Most modern experts credit Shakespeare’s authenticity. David Bevington is a renowned expert on Shakespeare. I had the privilege of studying with him at the University of Chicago for a semester. And I have heard him speak on Shakespeare in lectures in other venues. He is of the conviction that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. I do not attempt to speak for him: his knowledge of the subject is great, mine is not. The breadth and depth of Dr. Bevington’s reasoning is beyond the scope of this small essay. However he did share one of his arguments for authenticity. It is derived from the theme of father/daughter relationships that appears frequently in Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare was very close to his daughters, especially to Susanna, his eldest. He was solicitous for the welfare of his second daughter Judith, twin to his dead son Hamnet. A reading of Shakespeare’s will affirm the loving care he had for daughters. Is this conclusive? Of course not, but it is suggestive of authenticity.

Building on Professor Bevington’s reasoning, I have examined another recurring theme in Shakespeare’s plays, the position of wives. Shakespearean spouses are very often missing (e.g.Thaisa), banished (Hermonie), dead (Miranda’s mother), ignored (Did Juliet not have a mother?), accused of infidelity (Desdemona), or just plain trouble (Lady Macbeth). In As You Like It Rosalind says “…maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives…” In nearly every comedy and tragedy Shakespeare dispatches the wife and/or mother.

In real life William seems not to have liked his wife who was several years older than he. It was probably a case of “marry in haste…” Certainly he left her for the bright lights of London. In his will she was left his “second best bed with the furniture.” At his death William Shakespeare was wealthy. He was generous to his daughters and relatives. He was niggardly with his wife. I often think of the poor woman sleeping in that second best bed for seven more years until her death. Her treatment is consistent with the dramatist’s treatment of wives in the plays. Of course this is not conclusive evidence, but worthy of consideration.

The Shakespearean authorship controversy will continue. Neither side will be able to convince the other. It might be best for the Bard to speak for himself. The Tempest is considered his last play, his farewell to his life’s work as a dramatic storyteller. Prospero becomes his alter ego in this last play. In Act III he declares:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like this baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
In Act IV Prospero/Shakespeare summarizes the power of his artifice as he abnegates “his potent art”:

…I have bedimm’d
The noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds,
And ‘twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire and rifted Jove’s stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck’d up
The pine and cedar: graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ‘em forth…
Which plays come to mind?

The Bard of Avon is justifiably proud of his accomplishments as he eases into his final years. His humble beginnings are reprised as he graciously begs leave to retire:

With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please: now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant;
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so, that it assaults
Mercy itself, and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon’d be
Let your indulgence set me free.
There was no one like Shakespeare but Shakespeare!
A note to readers: I have not given the sources of my Shakespearean quotations, because I want you to look for yourselves. In preparation of this piece I consulted: class notes, PBS article by Al Austin “Who Wrote Shakespeare?” (April 1989) and The Complete Dictionary of Shakespeare Quotations compiled by D.C. Browning, New Orchards edition 1986, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd c. 1961. The Pope and Dryden quotes are to be found on page 480 of this text.

For those of you who wish to pursue the controversy, the most commonly named Shakespearean ghost writers are: Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere, William Stanley, Christopher Marlowe, and Roger Manners.

April's Allure

There is something about Spring that impels me to write more bad poetry. OK, you've been warned. Incidentally, the November daffodils are in bloom although they may be covered with snow by morning.

April’s Allure


Eliot’s “cruellest month”
So careless of our hopes;
Suasive siren, trait’rous tease.

Sunny sev’ntys today
The morrow’s icy winds;
Unscrupled, tiresome minx.

Abundance coaxes blooms
Pettish frost withers buds;

Surrender to April's charms at peril to your soul.

Tantalizing witchery.

A Flame UnKindled

I received a Kindle ® electronic book reader for my birthday. I broke the North American record for authorization to return it complete with packing label and tracking number. Believe me, I appreciated the thought but the Kindle ® is not for me, although it may be just ticket for those who read bestsellers, travel for extended periods, or need access to technical manuals or textbooks.

Since retirement I have become a woman of leisure. Sampling the simple delights of life has become my full time job. Those delights include books. For one thing I simply don’t like reading electronic text. I have a very short attention span for photons smashing themselves onto a computer screen. If what I read is true so do most people. It seems that the ideal way to write for the Internet is in an “F” shape. Only the first few lines are read to the end, thereafter the eye starts cutting off the right side text.

I want to enjoy what I am reading and have the time to do just that. That enjoyment extends to the book as artifact. The tactile experience, the dimensions of a physical entity, the type, illustrations, binding, paper, cover and convenience of the book is important to the total experience of reading. And I never have to recharge a book!

If I am doing research I will have several books open at the same time to compare, augment, check, or refute. Flipping screens cannot match the cluttered desk approach. Furthermore, I seem to have a quirky memory. While I do not have a photographic memory, I can easily recall the approximate location and page placement of something I have read in a book. Whether reading non-fiction or novels, it is not uncommon for me to check back on what I had read. Again, the paper book is superior for these functions.

When I read non-fiction, I write in my books. This admission would make my fellow librarian colleagues cringe, but it’s my book. I use the end papers for personal indexing, noting important concepts as they unfold throughout the book. The process is not a duplication of the good book’s index. It is more personal. Years after I’ve read a book I can consult the back pages to review something from the book and will know just where to find it in the text. Sometimes I highlight text as I read; often I write comments on the page as I read. It’s only vandalism when it doesn’t belong to you.

Does the physical book have disadvantages? Well, it isn’t “green” although some paper has been recycled. Many of my better books are printed on archival paper. They will last. Whether this is good for the earth or not, it is good for those books that are keepers. A second disadvantage comes from the fact the books take up space. In my home, a lot of space! We recently reached a point of desperation. My husband often says, “We don’t have enough book shelves.” I tell him we never will.

To that end I have been weeding my collections. Weeding is the term librarians use to remove books from the library’s collection. Weeding has always been the part of my job that I hated. It is no different at home. It is difficult to make choices that will result in the permanent loss of a good friend. This time drastic measures were necessary. There is just one more room of books to weed. It contains my science, math, psychology, thesis research material, and writers’ resource books. It will be very painful indeed to cull this carefully collected group.

What criteria have I used in my recent weeding? If the book was on a topic I’ve lost interest in, it was removed. If I never read, and would probably never read it, the book is gone. If a title was part of one of my special collections, but a weak entry, I removed it. I have amassed very choice collections in Celtic History and Culture, Medieval History, Fairy tales and myths, Native American legends and arts, History of Science and Math, History of Philosophy, Nobel Science biography, certain mystery writers and a few fiction writers.

If the weeded titles were on a Kindle® they could be deleted. The mental of image of deleting my friends is painful. However, most of my books would not be available to “download” anyway. What will I do with my old friends? Mostly I will try to find them a new home; new readers. Some I will donate to the library. These might end up in their collection—they’re good enough—or in the next book sale. We may take some to a second hand book store and sell them for a pittance. Maybe these will find their way into good homes. A very, very few will end up in the trash.

I do not regret the return of my birthday present. Whatever the fate of books and reading, the physical book will remain important to me. Even the pain of weeding old friends cannot dissuade me. Books are part of my life, part of me. If that makes me less au courant, “uncool”, or old fashioned, so be it.

Who Said That?

Time for another quiz; the following quotes represent some of my favorites. The meanings inherent in these statements provide me with a source of ideas, questions, self-reflection and balance. Hopefully you too will find one or two special enough to ponder and make your own. Match the quotation with the person who wrote or spoke it.

1. “Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.”
2. “There are some things that are so serious that you can only joke about them.”
3. “Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.”
4. “Education allows us to acquire contexts and perspectives so that we know what we need to look for and how we might go about looking.”
5. “A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small parcel.”
6. “Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.”
7. “There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.”
8. “The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.”
9. “Good lives are made so by discipline.”
10. “Everything great comes from neurotics.”
11. “Self interest is the greatest monarch on earth.”
12. “One has to be grown up enough to realize that life is not fair. You just have to do the best you can in the situation you are in.”
13. “Life is short and virtue rare. It is better to love than to hate, to live fully if imperfectly.”
14. “The love of knowledge is a kind of madness.”
15. “Speech was given to man so that he might hide his thoughts.”


A) Marcel Proust B) Stephen Hawkings C) Albert Einstein D) George Santayana E) Stendhal F) Francis Bacon G) H. L. Mencken H) Montesquieu I) John Ruskin J) C. S. Lewis K) Carl Van Doren L) Sophocles M) Sven Birketts N) Niels Bohr O) Benjamin Franklin


Answers: 1-F, 2-N, 3-C, 4-M, 5-I, 6-O, 7-D, 8-G, 9-L, 10-A, 11-H, 12-B, 13-K, 14-J, 15-E.

La Dolce Vita

Eyeballs really can pop out of one’s head. But I’m getting ahead of my story.

We have just returned from a six week vacation from winter. Southern California was warm and sunny for 5 of those weeks and we sopped it up. My Puritan DNA was put on hold and, as Agnes Gooch in the movie Auntie Mame declared, “We lived!”

My husband and I decided to rent a furnished apartment from one of the many Irvine Company complexes. We chose the place where hubby suffered a sun burnt tongue. Actually the tongue had a couple of years to heal because we first looked at the model apartments a while ago. How did his tongue get burned you wonder?

The address of the Rental Office was a bit vague. We turned into the Villas, parked, and headed for what we thought was the main office. Quickly we realized our mistake. This was one of the apartment complexes and we needed to go across the street. I got back into the car, expecting to see hubby follow. He wasn’t there. It seems that he was struck dumb, mouth open and tongue hanging, watching the ladies at the pool. “Just wondering where all the men were” was his lame excuse.

Eventually we made it to the correct office and gathered brochures and information. This winter those brochures became reality. We returned to the scene of the sunburn to take possession of our two bedroom fully furnished apartment.

Our Dolce Vita was about to begin. After settling in, we headed for the beach. Driving down PCH (that’s Pacific Coast Highway 1 to you), we dodged three yellow Lamborghinis*. Yellow’s such a flashy color! Actually the laid back hues on the several Jaguars* and Mercedes* were more to my taste. Our modest rental car boasted Oregon plates so those Lamborghinis could just suck it up.

We quickly began to acclimate to the California Lifestyle. Nearly everyday we walked the “Mountains to the Sea” bike/hike trail that runs along the San Diego Creek part of the way to its destinations. How we envied those spandex* clad bikers with their speed bikes and classy helmets. We could only hope to emulate the hikers, joggers, and dog walkers.

Hubby walks a bit slower than I do but usually manages to keep within 50 feet of my lead. He enjoyed our walks but knew he had made it to Nirvana on our last walk. As we neared the end of our daily route we saw a hand-holding couple on roller blades coming towards us. The grey haired, 60+ gentleman looked fit in his head to toe black spandex and helmet. His lovely companion, cum “trophy wife,” was a blond goddess in her equally tight black outfit and Lamborghini stylish head gear. Hand and hand they skated past me and then past hubby.

When a decent interval had passed, I signaled two thumbs up. I dared not turn back; no man wants his wife to see him drooling all over his Nike's*. Unfortunately hubby missed the signal. His eyeballs had popped right out of his head and they were rolling into the Creek bed. Or maybe he was a lot closer than 50 feet… La Dolce Vita indeed.

*Note: Lamborghini, Jaguar, Mercedes, spandex (aka Lycra), and Nike are all registered trademarks of the following companies--in order--Automobili Lamborghini SpA, Jaguar Land Rover North America LLC, Mercedes-Benz USA LLC, INVISTA, and Nike, Inc.

The Internet Can Still Be Fun

There remain a number of pleasant surprises on the Internet. It’s not all email, Twitter, Facebook, and GOOGLE. Amazing sites are there for the viewing. Here are some of my favorites.

Starting with ArchNet, the Virtual Library of Archeology http://archnet.asu.edu/ , one can select general information for the lay person interested in historical artifacts and places at http://archnet.asu.edu/resources/Selected_Resources/General%20Information.php . A fun place to begin is the History of Plumbing, http://www.theplumber.com/index.html#history , where you can learn about the plumbing arrangements of the ancients as well as current topics in toilets. Don’t miss the “Historic Explosions” link and the “Attack of the Japanese Toilets”!

Stay with the general audience Archeological sites a bit longer and visit by continent, country, or region. A plethora of interesting links lure you into worlds you have only dreamt about, like The Ancient China site, http://www.crystalinks.com/china.html , The Shrines and Temples of Japan with Buddhist sculpture, http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/japan/japan.html , and The Prehistoric Art of the Pyrenees, http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/app/eng/artprepy.htm .


Literary websites abound. If you have a craving for all things Bard, try the Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet site, http://shakespeare.palomar.edu Here you will find study guides, criticism, timelines, festivals, and fascinating minutiae about Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

Something quite different is to be found at the New York University Medical School’s Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database, http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Main?action=new . Their mission statement explains: “This site, established in 1994 at New York University School of Medicine, is dedicated to providing a resource for scholars, educators, students, patients, and others who are interested in the work of medical humanities. We define the term "medical humanities" broadly to include an interdisciplinary field of humanities (literature, philosophy, ethics, history and religion), social science (anthropology, cultural studies, psychology, sociology), and the arts (literature, theater, film, and visual arts) and their application to medical education and practice. The humanities and arts provide insight into the human condition, suffering, personhood, our responsibility to each other, and offer a historical perspective on medical practice.” This site offers medical student’s annotations on art, film and literature. To date the site features 142 Art 223 Film , and 2470 Literature Annotations for 1534 Authors and 89 artists. At present annotations utilize 138 keywords.

If you’re a mystery fan like me, don’t miss The Cornerstones section of the world’s-best-detective-crime-and-murder-mystery-books.com website, http://www.worlds-best-detective-crime-and-murder-mystery-books.com/cornerstones.html The best of classical mystery writing has been selected. The Cornerstones section covers writers from Poe to the “moderns” who wrote in the 1930s. Access to the Haycraft-Queen Definitive Library of Detective, Crime, and Mystery Fiction: A Reader’s List of Detective Story Cornerstones is available. This site is nirvana for classic mystery fans.

For all you history buffs, you must see Fordham University’s Sourcebooks. My favorites are the Medieval, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/Sbook.html and Ancient History, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook.html links, but the “world’s your onion” as far as subjects go. There is a Modern History link http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html as well for those of you who wish to repeat the mistakes of the past.

One of the sites I frequent is Arts and Letters Daily, http://www.aldaily.com/ . The site is owned and operated by The Chronicle of Higher Education and provides book reviews, commentaries, and articles of current interest. The arts, biography, and education are featured. It’s a rare day not to find something to capture your imagination. Links to daily and Sunday newspapers, popular magazines and ezines, and music stations are provided along the left hand column. It’s a must for your Favorites Files!

There are many other websites I visit for fun. If a bit of learning rubs off in the process, that’s all the better. Happy Surfing.

Happy New Year from the San Andreas Fault

New Year greetings from the San Andreas Fault in southern California. Some scientific evidence seems to point to a higher incidence of earthquakes when the moon is full and the ground is saturated with water deeply underground. December 31 provided a Full Moon and December 30 provided the rain. It also brought a quake just over the Mexican border, so maybe the geologists have come up with a tectonic rule of thumb.

If you like rules of thumb, there is a fun website that specializes in them. So, start the New Year out with really useful information...I don't know if the full moon/deep water rule is valid, but enjoy the following from Rules of Thumb from http://www.rulesofthumb.org/ accessed 12/30 and 12/31/2009.

1. To succeed against all possible odds, count on at least 1 in 4 things going wrong. In other words, you need a 33 percent margin of safety. If you have to have 30 of something, plan to make 40. Stanley J. Goodman, How to Manage a Turnaround

2. Three out of five people hang up on answering machines. Betty Merritt, Florist, R.R. Springville, Iowa, USA

3. Genuine emotion is always expressed with the entire body. When uncertain of a person's sincerity, watch their shoulders. You should doubt anyone who is speaking with strong emotion and relaxed shoulders. D. Klein, painter, Brooklyn, New York

4. Liars touch and scratch their nose, lean forward, and use words like would not or could not rather than contractions like wouldn't or couldn't. Scott Parker

5. One elephant will provide as much meat as 100 antelopes. Pygmy hunters in the Ituri forest of Zaire, from NOVA

6. When placed in a bowl of water, a fresh egg will sink and lie on its side. An egg that's not fresh but still edible will sink and stand partially erect on its tapered end. A rotten egg will float. David Hechler, writer, Rockport, Texas

7. If you need to locate a stud in a stick-framed wall, remember that most electricians are right handed. Find an outlet, and tap the wall directly to its left. The odds are in your favor that the stud will be there, and you can measure away from it in 16-inch increments to find other studs. Art McAfee, in Fine Homebuilding, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

8. An igloo should be built in an area where the snow is packed just loose enough to make a footprint, but not so loose that a footprint blows away in a high wind. Dennis Eskow, science editor, Popular Mechanics

9. Spraying is fast but is the least durable, rolling on paint is better but, if you want the job to last, the best is the good old paint brush. Dick Gehring, Consultant, NY

10. Water weighs roughly 8 lbs per gallon, as does milk and other similarly watery substances. Craig, University professor



11a. When taking a test: 1.Think long--think wrong. 2. Nine out of ten times, your first answer was the correct answer. 3. When in doubt, pick answer "C." Robert Hastings, Master Chief Petty Officer, United States Coast Guard


11b. When taking a test #2: Don't change your first guess on a multiple choice question when checking over your answers. The first guess is always the best. William H. Smith, Cincinnati, Ohio

Rules about Rules-of-Thumb: Rules-of-thumb help you estimate something quickly. On average, there'll be about two good rules-of-thumb out of the eleven or so proposed on a page. They're the ones which contain or refer to numbers. The rest are tips and sayings that, like fingers, are useful but not for the same reason. Charlie Kufs, Statistician, Willow Grove, Pa, US

Survival Guide to the Holidays with your Long, Lost Relatives

“Peace on earth, good-will to men (and women).” That may have been all well and good for H. W. Longfellow but H.W. didn’t have to survive a 4-day holiday weekend with your relatives. You know, all those folks you see once a year who reinforce your suspicions that you must have been adopted. My advice, suck it up whilst wafting a healthy portion of Wassail. Make it fun. Inject fun foreign phrases into a fatuous colloquy with the likes of Uncle Bob and Cousin Feather. The following is just a sample of the fun you can have.

“Another Christmas at Grandpa Gorp’s. Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch’entrate.”

To your bum of a brother-in-law: “Entre nous, celebrations tout ensemble are a trial. The contretemps between Spiro and my sister-in-law Flo was a mauvais quart d’heure. Spiro’s such a flâneur! I always say timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. From the look of the presents they give I believe his wife shops mont-de-piétés.”

To your brother Oscar: “As for sister Sue’s offspring sauve qui peut! Children do not feature in my Weltanschauung. In nuce I say oderint dum metuant. Jane tried to foist that dooly diaper-full on me at lunch. Noli me tangere.”

To your cousin Geoffrey: “Did you get a load of Winston’s latest fiancé? The décolletage! That femme fatale is really embonpoint. As for how long his romance will last, les jeux sont faits. Winston’s such a soi-disant bon vivant. Of course, it’s not for us to judge. Chacun à son gout.”

To your Mom: “That salon de refuses Marcia brought home for the Saturnalia festivities are hic et ubique. I think the tall, dour one is nothing less than a anguis in herba. It is 'infra dig' pour passer le temps with such a canaille. As the years pass Marcia goes de pis en pis. She treats Grandpa Gorp’s home like a maison de santé for her friends.”

To all: “Ah well, it’s always charmant to toast a votre santé. Vive la bagatelle! As for myself, dum spiro, spero. Joyeux Noël. Phagomen kai piomen, aurion gar thanoumetha.”

Sprinkle those bon mots early and often and I guarantee you'll find H. W.'s 'Peace'. Good will is not all it's cracked up to be anyway.

Happy looking it all up…

Planting Daffodils in November

Finally the yard chores are finished. The windows have been washed and the lawn furniture put away. I just planted 27 daffodil bulbs. Experience has taught me to forget any landscape plan that includes tulips, however beautiful. The squirrels have sated themselves on our acorns. I’m certainly not going to feed them tulip bulbs!

Despite my hopes for spring flowers, November is the time to contemplate death and dying. Plants have withered; leaves have turned and fallen, their brittle sound follows wind and footstep; the lovelier birds migrated towards sunnier climes weeks ago. The year is dying with the hours of sunlight.

The Catholic Church acknowledges our need to recall our dead with its celebration of All Saints and All Souls Days on November first and second. My daffodil planting brought to mind my dead daughter. It has been twelve and a half years since her death. I don’t like terms like “passed” or “lost her.” Passed what? We were not careless enough to let loose her hand in a crowd. She died. It’s not healthy to deny the word. But what brought her death to mind today was the small manure turtle thriving in my back yard garden. How she would laugh to think that her last Mother’s Day gift to me was a brick of s---! How ironic.

A week ago we attended a Celtic New Year celebration of Irish books, music and art at the Irish-American Heritage Center in Chicago. One of the authors who spoke was Anna McPartlin, a young Irishwoman with a tragic childhood and a smiling disposition. Ms. McPartlin read a chapter from one of her books. In the question and answer session that followed she discussed her first book, Pack Up The Moon. One of her comments was thought-provoking. The story in the first book deals with coming to terms with death and grieving. The young and charming Ms. McPartlin said that the characters in her book learn to acknowledge and surrender the parts of them that died with their loved ones. The role one had played for the departed needs to be buried with them. The special words and intimate interactions are forever lost, accept in memory. Resolution of the grieving process occurs when the survivor can mourn the loss of a portion of themselves as well as the loss of the loved one.

I’m no longer the mother of a young, intelligent woman with whom I argue psychological theory and philosophy. There are no head and back rubs to give while watching Murder She Wrote. There will be no co-written mystery series with a librarian detective. I no longer need to show interest in antique shops that feature familiar looking furniture.

But I plant daffodils and wait for spring. And I share a laugh with someone long dead whenever I see that turtle.

The Haunted Flat

Halloween will be upon us soon. How many realize that the current holiday is based on the Celtic year's end, Samhain? (pronounced sow' in) The Celtic year ends; the festival of Samhain celebrates the dissolution of the boundaries between the world of the living and of the dead. On the last evening of the year, the dead walk the earth.

Visitations of the dead are not limited to Samhain. We lived in a haunted apartment once. The apartment was part of a two flat that was attached to its mirror image. The buildings were constructed in the mid-1920s when riches flowed freely. Our flat was on the second floor.

There were no bumps in the night, no eerie sounds, no apparitions hovering above the old gas light fixture in the hallway. The only intimation of the haunting was a feeling of presence. But there was more going on that I was unaware of.

I never mentioned the ghost to anyone while we lived there. It was represented by a feeling that an old man was watching over our infant son while his crib was in the front of the house. Until he was sleeping through the night we kept his crib in the dining room near our bedroom, and a bit later the crib was moved to the alcove over the front stairway. Only later did he join his big sister in the back bedroom. After the move to the back of the flat the "old gentleman" disappeared.

Our ghost was a benevolent spirit who was protecting our infant son. During those months the spirit visited late in the evening. I felt that our "visitor" was the ghost of the man who build the apartments. The man was successful enough to have made a world tour. Many of his mementos were still lodged in the basement. He had wanted a male heir, but never had a son.

Other strange things happened while we lived in the apartment. A gallon of apricot paint seemingly tipped itself all over the bathtub when we were painting. There were several women on the block and many of them pregnant at one time or another. Accidents happened to my visiting neighbors who were soon to deliver baby boys. Three women fell down the stairs--back stairs, outside front stairs, and the stairs linking the first and second floors. One woman very narrowly escaped death when she barely missed an old metal sled lodged at the bottom of the inside stairs. Throughout the five years we lived in the apartment, accidents happened to boy children in the back parts of the building.

I never made the connection until we had moved out to the suburbs. My brother and his wife came to visit. They had taken the apartment after we moved. As the evening conversation continued my sister-in-law asked why we had never told them about the ghost. Chills ran down my spine. I had never mentioned it to anyone. Apparently one of their friends came to visit and immediately sensed a ghost in the back portion of the house. She called the ghost Millie. Millie's favorite color was blue and she did not like little boys. She was not a pleasant spirit.

Was my "old gentleman" protecting our son from Millie? Were those falls just the clumsiness of pregnant women, or was it Millie? Ladies expecting girl babies never had a problem. Who tipped the apricot paint can? Did Millie cause the accidents little boys suffered in the back parts of the apartments, or was it just a coincidence? It's a true story. Believe what you will.

Happy Halloween. Happy New Year.

National Parks on PBS

With regard to the Ken Burns' National Parks documentary on PBS--I should like to see more park and hear less polemic.

The University Brochure

I received a flyer in the mail today from the local university. The school advertises a new master degree program tailored for those over 65. Old students may enroll in the Pre-Senility Master of Old Age graduate program for credit towards their degree, or they may audit individual classes until it becomes necessary to make yearly minimum withdrawals on their 401k. If prospective students are institutionalized they may enroll in the distance learning program. This is an amazing opportunity, as the course listings will readily demonstrate, so forward this posting to your favorite senior citizen now!

Degree Requirements: Successful fulfillment of eight courses, a three-month practicum, and a thesis.

Required Courses:

• Physical Fitness (Pass/Fail) – Students will explore aerobic and anaerobic fitness. Proficiency in the following activities is required “Prescription Pill Container Physics”, “Dancing with Sore Bunions,” “The Peppermint Twist and Shout Back-out-of-Whack Tournament” “Bloodless Toe-nail Clipping” and “Facial Hair Removal without a Magnifying Mirror.” Independent study options depend on Medicare coverage plan.
  
• Tweeting and Texting – Students will tweet and text inane messages to other students until the entire class agree that face-to-face communication, letters, and phone calls are “a thing of the past.” Facebook and MySpace privacy issues will be addressed, then dismissed. Enlarging the number of cyber-friends and family is the goal. Annoying emoticon creation required.
  
• Buster’s Memory Boosters – A favorite course taught by award winning faculty member Beta Amyloid Buster. Strategies for keeping the old noggin sharp include Suduko, Crosswords, Solitaire, and Logic Puzzles. Professor Buster offers priority registration to students who confuse grandchildren’s names and/or who forget their anniversary. The location of the classroom changes for each session so that students with perfect attendance receive an automatic “A.” Pre-requisite: Remembering what you came into the classroom for.

Electives (Choose Five):

• Spending All Your Money – Students will devise a plan to spend all of their children’s inheritance before probate. Those who demonstrate they can do it on the very day of their death receive extra credit.
• De-Clutter Now! – Local psychiatric social workers team up to teach this class. Rules of Disengagement for your valuable collectibles, tattered letters, odd sized screws, photographs with heads cut off, clothes that will never fit, and refrigerated leftovers will be explored. Really, really important pieces of paper will be shredded for the final examination.
  
• Buster’s Memory Boosters – A favorite course taught by award winning faculty member Beta Amyloid Buster. Strategies for keeping the old noggin sharp include Suduko, Crosswords, Solitaire, and Logic Puzzles. Professor Buster offers priority registration to students who confuse grandchildren’s names and/or who forget their anniversary. The location of the classroom changes for each session so that students with perfect attendance receive an automatic “A.” Pre-requisite: Remembering what you came into the classroom for.
  
• Medication Slice and Dice – The high cost of keeping healthy just got cheaper when students learn to cut pills, skip doses, and avoid the donut hole. Extra credit for those students who can correctly sort all medications into their weekly dosage containers before dinner.
  
• Buster’s Memory Boosters – A favorite course taught by award winning faculty member Beta Amyloid Buster. Strategies for keeping the old noggin sharp include Suduko, Crosswords, Solitaire, and Logic Puzzles. Professor Buster offers priority registration to students who confuse grandchildren’s names and/or who forget their anniversary. The location of the classroom changes for each session so that students with perfect attendance receive an automatic “A. Pre-requisite: Remembering what you came into the classroom for.
  
• Buster’s Memory Boosters – A favorite course taught by award winning faculty member Beta Amyloid Buster. Strategies for keeping the old noggin sharp include Suduko, Crosswords, Solitaire, and Logic Puzzles. Professor Buster offers priority registration to students who confuse grandchildren’s names and/or who forget their anniversary. The location of the classroom changes for each session so that students with perfect attendance receive an automatic “A.” Pre-requisite: Remembering what you came into the classroom for.
  
• Conversation Ice-Breakers- How many illnesses, medications and conditions can the student introduce into conversations with friends, family and complete strangers? Specific strategies for dining, bridge, golf, grocery check-out lines, chance meetings, and other social gatherings will be designed to suit every situation. Students should come with a complete list of their “pre-existing conditions” on the first day of class.
  
• Practicum – Advisor permission required, in writing. Explore the “Good Old Days” in a meaningful manner. Students will spend three months in the local high school interacting with teens and teachers. Documentation of student’s reminiscence, lamentations, complaints, and helpful suggestions will be required. Multi-media preferred. The university will not be held responsible for fines, imprisonment, hospitalization fees, or damage to property.

Thesis (Required):
Each student is required to write, present, and defend a thesis. The topic has been determined by the university and is the same for all students. The thesis topic is Learning to Love Irrelevancy. This topic is non-negotiable. Creative and meaningful responses to the Irrelevancy of Old Age will explore topics like:

• “I paid the mortgage on our modest home on time and in full. Why do I have to bail out unqualified debtors in foreclosure?”
  
• “We purchased our fuel efficient automobile ten years ago so where’s my ‘cash for clunkers’—or is the car not the ‘clunker’?”
  
• “Medicare and Medicaid are not equivalent—did you know that?”
  
• “Where is that Money Tree my grown-up children think we have?”
  
• “My deadbeat brother-in-law owes me a bundle I’ll never see. Am I eligible for TARP benefits?”
  
• “If I were an AIG executive, how would I spend my Christmas bonus?”
  
• “My cemetery plot is ‘shovel ready.’ When can I expect the government’s stimulus money?”
  
• "Explore the movitations behind writing a blog no one ever reads."
• “Blackberry is not a fruit. Should the President IM anyone over 30? Do I care?”

Students should send thesis proposals to their advisors before the completion of their final course. You advisor will get back to you eventually.

Evaluation of irrelevancy will be determined by the Death Panel, whose decision will be final.

The Future for Networked Libraries

Many Illinois libraries—public, academic, school and corporate—are fortunate to be linked to one of a number of library systems. In other parts of the country individual libraries are part of a county or regional system. In these lean times all libraries are hard pressed to find ways to function with less money, higher operating expenses, and greater demand. It is crucial to the country that libraries survive and thrive in both these tough economic times and in future when the economy rebounds.

This is not the first time in recent years that the viability of libraries has been challenged. Information itself has become “capital.” The information society demands instant and universal access to that commodity. In the 1990s libraries re-invented themselves to meet the demands of the Information Age. In addition Web2.0 required libraries to collaborate, communicate and connect in new ways. Successful libraries re-defined their missions to include interactive services while preserving high standards for traditional resources and values. On the whole, libraries met the challenges of the nineties, and continue to evolve.

Now is not the time for libraries to become complacent. While most have learned to weather the rapid transformations of the past decade, change—a dynamic and continuous process—remains the persistent paradigm. In order to remain both relevant and accountable libraries must not only respond to change, but seek opportunities for innovation.

The suggestions that follow can facilitate innovation in library communities. Although these suggestions apply most readily to the public library, adaptation is possible for academic and corporate library networks.

1) Nodal libraries should be established within a system to:
· Consolidate resources,
· Focus reference and technological expertise,
· Eliminate duplication,
· Enhance service, and
· Be cost effective.

The principal function of the nodal library, in addition to their own local responsibilities, would be to answer complex reference and research questions. Expensive databases and subject emphasis could be distributed throughout the nodes. Smaller, local libraries would outsource non-ready-reference inquiries, saving their limited resources to focus on local services: children and teen needs, community resource nexus, recreational reading, literacy and technology education, program and entertainment resources. Smaller libraries would pay the nodal libraries a smaller amount than they would expend on reference databases and expensive research materials. Staff from smaller libraries could rotate their reference librarians into the nodal system for “reference credits” if desired. A seamless interface could be designed to facilitate communication between client and nodal information specialists that would reflect positively on the local library. Small, local libraries cannot be all things to all peoples. Adoption of a nodal library system would free limited funds for materials and local services while providing expertise and currency that an individual library may find too costly to sustain.

2) Using the best practices of Web3.0 (the Semantic Web) local libraries can
“push” information and agents to their service population. The local library would become a public resource “Cloud” pulling together in-house resources, local government and education entities, community organizations, and local business. For example, a patron/client asks for help preparing a resume because s/he has been laid-off. The library would act as “Resource Agent” providing books on resumes, DVDs for the job interview, local job advertisements, word processing and productivity software, links to counseling and networking groups in the area, a calendar of job related programming sponsored by the library and its partners, links to government unemployment resources, RSS updates on job openings, resume editing services, links to community college resources to upgrade skills with access to college catalogs and registration…You get the idea. The local library would become a linked-in First Resort in the minds of local users and the community.

Adoption of these suggestions would increase the value a library provides to its service community. Cooperation, communication, and collaboration are keys to the future. Libraries can lead the way forward. ©ettsme.blogspot.com September 2009.

It's "OK" because...

(a) Everyone does/says it;
(b) It’s unenforceable;
(c) It makes money;
(d) It’s ubiquitous;
(e) All my friends say so;
(f) I read it on Wikipedia;
(g) I saw it on the Internet/TV;
(h) I want to;
(i) He/she does it;
(j) I’m such a bad role model, I am a role model;
(k) It’s so cool;
(l) It's quick/easy;
(m) Nobody can make me do anything;
(n) “So and so” does it;
(o) No one will catch me;
(p) No one will know;
(q) It’s not wrong;
(r) Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion;
(s) What’s your excuse?
(t) None of the above.

Sorry, objective standards exist. Information is not knowledge. Consensus is not verity. Choosing the right and the good shouldn't be easy. One must dig deep and search broadly. The results can be elusive but they are always worth the effort. The correct answer is "t" which stands for truth, no matter how you feel about it.

Innocent Summers

How did a pre-boomer child growing up in post-World War II spend the summer?

Carefree, sunny days and long noisy warm nights filled my pre-adolescent years. We lived on the near West Side of Chicago, in an Italian-American neighborhood. Our flat was down the street from a Catholic church, the center of any Italian-American neighborhood of that era. The mid-to-late ‘40s were a reliable source of almond candies, pennies, and uncooked rice. Nearly every summer Saturday hosted a wedding or two. Neighborhood kids would join the wedding celebrants as the new couple emerged from the church, hoping to glean the windfall of bridal tribute. We left the rice for the birds.

During the week, we conducted our own weddings. I can’t even guess how many times I married my cousin Joey Boy, but it was a lot. One of my favorite photographs of that time was of Joey “driving” his tricycle with the veiled bride on the trike’s back step holding on tight. I was such a lovely bride.

Wedding was not the only game we played. Marbles caromed within circles drawn in dirt parkways. We watched as older kids tossed jackknives onto a target scratched in the mud. Statue Maker, Kick the Can, Mother May I?, and Four Corners filled the afternoons and evenings. Mother, May I? is more complex than you might imagine. For those of you too young to know the game—probably 90 per cent of you—the rules are simple.

“Mother” determines who will advance toward her and who will not. The players line up horizontally on the sidewalk or street. Each in turn says “Mother, may I take (any number of giant, baby, or medium steps forward)? “Mother would say yes or no, or, she might change the orders. For example she might say, “No, you must take 2 giant steps backwards.” After every player had a turn, “mother” would briefly turn her back to the players. This was their chance to sneak up a bit so that she might not notice and send you back. A more daring player might chance a run ahead to tag “mother.” If a player was caught moving they were out. Timing and strategy were all. If you succeeded and got close enough to tag “mother,” you took her place.

We played our games just for the fun of playing and being together. If the game required a winner each of us wanted to be that player in turn. Cheating was not tolerated; play ended when you were called home.

Other summer activities included roller skating, trips to the family cottage, and, very rarely, a real vacation. I was no athlete. I “couldn’t skate.” I cried when I skinned my knee and wanted to come inside. My mother had no pity, and she yelled a lot. She sent me back out, declaring that I could not come home until I learned to skate. I learned to skate.

In the early ‘50s we had a real vacation. My brother was only 2 or 3 years old, so he was left at the family cottage. I puked my way through the flat, flat lands of Nebraska. And through the hairpin turns of Rocky Mountain roads. It was a great trip though. We saw Mount Rushmore, Old Faithful, the upper Colorado River canyons, and Pikes Peak. It snowed on the Fourth of July as the car climbed to the Peak. Once at the Peak we had blueberry pie—a first taste of a lifelong passion. There were bears in Yellowstone Park. My father, a camera nut, had to get out of the car to “get those two cute cubs on film.” Mother bear was not amused and dad had to dash back to the car where mother and I were screaming in terror.

When we reached the high desert of Wyoming I decided to empty the sand out of my shoe by opening the window and dumping it out as my father drove 70 miles an hour. Of course the shoe flew out of my hand. When my father finally stopped the car, the shoe was at least a mile or two away. He parked the car on the side of the road and walked back to find the shoe. He found it and I was in trouble for days. It made a change from motion sickness.

Summer nights were warm in the city—no fans or central air conditioning. There were no spacious lawns to cool the evening. We were very lucky to have a front yard of about two dozen square feet. This was the inner city and the ghetto started a half block east. But it was an Italian-American block and everyone was related to everyone else. Families would visit into the wee hours. Kids played in dark corners. If we were flush, a slushy Italian ice from across the street might cool a parched summer throat. As the day neared midnight calls to come home resounded on the block. In exhaustion we slept, hoping for a lake breeze and dreaming of tomorrow’s adventures.

In June of 1952 we moved to the suburbs. The first night in our new home was spent sweltering on mattresses strewn on the floor. It was so quiet. As the summer progressed we discovered fireflies and unfriendly neighbors. It took months to make a friend. Our second summer brought me my first (an only) bicycle, a 26 inch Sears boy’s bike. The bicycle was meant to last through my brother’s youth too, but I couldn’t think how I would ride it wearing my Catholic school jumper. Actually I couldn’t ride it at all. Mother said “Learn! Or walk eleven blocks to school everyday.”

A patient and kind classmate took pity on me. She taught me how to balance while riding on the back of her bicycle, holding on for dear life. I progressed to being helped to ride with her hand helping balance me. In a year I was good enough to take on Devil’s Dip in the nearby forest preserves.

Summers in the suburbs were never the same as those in the city though. Time passed. My childhood melted into adolescence as summer surprisingly becomes autumn.

Sixty-plus years have passed since Statue Maker was my delight. I took a half hour walk today. It was beautiful, warm and sunny, with a nice breeze. During my walk I encountered only two children, rollerblading while walking their dogs. It’s a rare day to see any kids playing outside. Only occasionally do the boys down the block play basketball or street hockey. Where are the girls?

It’s summer, every child’s delight, but the block is quiet. Today’s children are in day care and day camp; or inside their houses while parents work. Summer’s children are texting each other instead of talking; playing video games in an air conditioned buildings instead of working up an honest sweat playing outdoors in the fresh air.

Innocent summers are a pearl beyond price, not to be cheaply tossed aside. How sad to waste summer. Well, I’m not going to waste mine. I’m heading for the freezer to have a rock hard artificial Italian ice—after I check the sugar, sodium and calories. Mother, may I?

Deciphering "Doc-talk": Prefixes and Suffixes

It has taken a while to get this together for a number of reasons. Principally I have been procrastinating, but I have also had to complete a major project, have had a marvelous vacation in Oregon and southern California, a nasty bout of sinusitis, and have been trying to find a way to make this comprehensible.

Many of our medical terms have their origin in the Greek and Latin languages. This reflects the history of the art of medicine in European culture as well as the continuity of scientific knowledge. In the hope of making this easier GREEK roots will be in capitals and those with Latin roots will be italicized. English meanings are in quotation marks. This listing is, in no way, intended to be complete. Only more common roots are included.

Aside from the medical terms, there are a number of basic prefixes that transcend subject areas. These are useful beyond the topic.

• A or AN mean “not.” However in Latin it is il, which along with im, in also means against, into, or on.
  
• Post means “after” while pre means “before;”
  
• HYPER means “above”, HYPO means “under” and ultra means “beyond.”
  
• ENTO, ECTO, and ENDO mean “inside or interior” in Greek while in Latin it’s intra, intro.
  
• “Outside” is EX, EXO, extra. PERI means “around”, trans means “through on the far side of”.
  
• “Under” can be expressed in several ways in Latin: sub, suc, suf, sum, sup. Super, supra mean “above.”
  
• Ob, oc is Latin for “against.”
  
• Finally the prefix meaning “with” is expressed as SY(M), SYL, SYN and cum. Medical persons will usually abbreviate “with” by writing a letter c with a line over it.

Let’s begin the medical terms at the beginning with basic and more widely distributed physical entities.

• “Cell” is CYTO; PLAST when used as a suffix.
  
• “Tissue” is HISTO, HYMENO is “membrane.”
  
• “Body” is SOMATO as prefix and SOMA; STOMOUS when used as a suffix.
  
• OO and ovi refer to “egg.” SPERMATO is “seed”, ZYGO means “double, yolk.” GAMO denotes “united, copulation”; GONO is “sexual reproduction.”
  
• “Blood” comes from HAEMA or sangui; as suffix EMIA; THROMBO means “blood clot”
  
• ADENO means “gland;” DERM refers to “skin.”
  
• OSTEO and ossi refer to bone. NOTO references the “back of the body” while PLEURO is used for the “side of the body.” ARTHRO means “joint”, CHONDRO refers to “cartilage”, MYO refers to “muscle” and BRACHI means “arm.”
  

Moving on to the head, face, and neck we find the following:

• CEPHALO means “head” while the suffixes would be CEPHALIC, CEPHALOUS;
  
• “Brain” is CEREBRO, ENCEPHALO or PHRENO; “skull” is CRANIO, but PSYCH refers to “mind, spirit, or soul.”
  
• NEURO means “nerve”, MYELO, “spinal cord” and RACHI, RACHIO is the “spine.” Poliomyelitis is an infectious viral disease that attacks the spinal cord and “grey matter” brain stem.
  
• TRICHIO/IA refers to hair.
  
• BLEPHARO means “eyelid”; OPTHALMO and oculo mean “eye;” as a suffix OPIA refers to “sight.”
  
• OTO refers to the “ear.” Naso and RHINO mean the “nose.”
  
• ORO and STOMATO both refer to “mouth” but the latter word usually means a general opening into something like an intestine, labio is “lip”, GLOSSO, “tongue”, BRONCHO, “throat”, GNATHO is “jaw” and CERVICO refers to the “neck.”
  
• “Tooth” can be denti or ODONTO. Combined with ORTHO which means “straight’ or ENDO meaning “within” you can see where the words orthodontist and endodontist come from. If you note, you will have to pay a lot more for the ODONTO word than denti.
  

Organs and systems in the rest of the body have their own Greek and Latin origins.

• The “lung” references are PNEUMO and pulmo; spiro refers to “breath.”
  
• CARDIO means “heart”, PHLEBO refers to “vein”, SPHYGMO means “pulse.” Arteries were a late discovery. The name of the machine that takes your blood pressures is sphygmomanometer. A myocardial infarction means the death of a portion of the heart muscle due to a blood clot in the coronary artery that interrupts blood flow to the heart.
  
• “Stomach” originates from COELA, GASTRO; SPLANCHNO and ENTERO refer to “guts.” SCATO and sterco describe “excrement.”
  
• HEPATO means “liver,” CHOLE, CHOLO means “bile.” Cholesterol is actually a steroid alcohol manufactured by the liver that is a bile precursor. It is not “body fat” which comes from LIPO.
  
• Reni and NEPHRO refer to the “kidney,” which is charged with filtering out TOXIO, or poisons, to be excreted through the “bladder” CYSTO. Do not confuse this root with CYST which is a “fluid filled sac,” possibly containing PYO or “pus.”
  
• HYSTERO means “womb” and INGUINO refers to the “groin.” At the very bottom of the body we find PES, PEDIS better known as the “feet.”

Miscellaneous medical prefixes and suffixes conclude this somewhat dizzying listing.

• IATRO, IATRICS, IATRY mean “medicine,” while IASIS refers to “disease.” PATHO and PATHY also mean “suffering or disease.” SEPSIS refers to infection or contamination while ITIS means “inflammation.” ALGIA and ODYNIA refer to “pain.”
  
• LEUKO means “white,” POLIO is grey, and MELANO refers to “black.”
  
• SCHISTO, SCHIZO means “split” and ANKYLO means “curved, bent.” SCELERO means “hard” and STENO refers to “narrow or short.”
  
• HYPNO means “sleep” as does somni. ONEIRO refers to “dream.”
  
• OMA and CELE when used as a suffix refer to “tumor.” PLASIA, PLASIS means “growth.”
• Other suffixes: PHOBIA means “fear”, MANIA means “craving,” PLEGIA means “paralysis”, RRHEA, RRHAGIA refers to “flow” but RRHAPY means “surgical stitching.” TOMY means “cutting.”
  
• Finally, TACHY is “rapid”, TRACHY is “rough” and ZER, ZERO means “dryness.”