Grit, X-ray glasses, and ghosts that obey your every command.

Some ads from the back of comic books I read as a kid. Top: X-ray glasses. Middle: A ghost that obeys your every command. Bottom: Pepper gum. Brother Tom ordered the ghost and to this day I think we are still haunted by it.

Ever heard of Grit? Not long ago it was a newspaper primarily sold by young boys responding to ads in the backs of comic books and dreaming of being their own bosses. Although Grit started as a regular newspaper (devoted to optimistic and gemütlich stories), by the time I was a boy, it was on the same level as X-ray glasses, ghosts that obey your every command, and pepper gum.

I did read a copy once. Dad felt sorry for a boy selling it outside Loblaws, and the bought a copy as he left work. As I recall, the feeling Grit gave me was similar to a kinder, gentler National Enquirer (which my Grandma Cairns read weekly).

Grit on Wikipedia >

[2014-11-24]

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I learned today [2014-11-24] that while playing at one of the mall playgrounds, a boy spat on Mimi. Her sister Dee Dee cleaned the spittle off her with her dress. I think Dee Dee is growing into a caring little girl, though she does have some trouble being a "first time listener," as kindergarten teachers like to say.

[2014-11-24]

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Are 20% of Americans paying almost all the taxes? (Rationalizing inequity)

I heard a guest host on Fox News' Brian Kilmeade & Friends say that 20% of American taxpayers are paying almost all the taxes.

The guest host said "the bottom 60% are net takers." Since I'm in the bottom 60%, and I pay a heckuva lot of taxes, I can't imagine me and the 59.999% rest of you are expected to believe that.

Let's assume it's true. Here's an essay question for accounting students:

Assume that 20% of Americans pay nearly all the taxes. Is this a problem? Why or why not? If yes, how do you solve it?

I think I already know the solution the top 20% will offer: Take more from the bottom 80%, some of which must decide between eating and heating, or new shoes and new tires, or Macy's and the dollar store.

And this is all beside the point, anyway. All communities, of any size, are faced with decisions on how they will help those who are unable to help themselves. Insects eat each other. Some animals do, too. Humans just rationalize inequity so the unwanted burden returns to the soil as quickly as possible.

It's at times like this that Richard Dawkins makes a lot of sense.

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Why was I listening to Fox? CNN wouldn't stream.

[2014-11-24]

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Christmas 2014 - Post 2 of 2 (Pictures)

I ran out of space on my phone and didn't get as many as I wanted. Jing got more and some better ones, but her battery died. Progress, you know.

These pictures include Christmas Eve, Christmas Morning, and a neighborhood ugly sweater Christmas party earlier in the week (Jing won).

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An unfortunate footnote: I dropped my phone while shopping and before I transferred all my photos and movies. It landed squarely on it's back. Couldn't have planned it better if I'd tried. I thought, Great! didn't break the Gorilla Glass. Nope, sure didn't, but broke something. Dead in the water.

[2014-12-25]

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Christmas 2014 - Post 1 of 2 (Movies)

Some movies from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They are are all mercifully short :-)

Dee Dee singing in Christmas Eve service at Trinity Lutheran in Ada, MI, 2014

Dee Dee singing in Christmas Eve service at Trinity Lutheran in Ada, MI, 2014 (detail)

Christmas 2014 Christmas Eve service at Trinity Lutheran in Ada, MI

Christmas 2014 Dee Dee singing in Christmas Eve service

Christmas 2014 Boots for Dee Dee

Christmas 2014 An ornament for Dee Dee

Christmas 2014 Mimi and Mommy get an ornament too

[2014-12-25]

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This is no way to treat heroes.

Police clash with protesters in Berkeley, Missouri after a white police officer shoots and kills an armed black teen during a robbery (MSNBC, 2014-12-24).

We teach soldiers to kill. We teach police officers to protect us with deadly force. We train them so well that it becomes nearly instinctual.

Then we arm them and place them in situations where they will encounter real and perceived threats, and expect them to navigate the unknowns and reason to a peaceful solution.

Humans aren't wired that way, and you can't rewire them.

That's why it only takes one shock to a lab mouse's feet for him to learn to stay off the floor, or one burn to our fingers to learn that a stove is hot.

And when we try to wire them back the way they were, they internalize the conflict, and sometime project it on others, or end their lives, or descend into self medication.

That's what we do to our heroes.

[2014-12-07]

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When integrity and decorum no longer contain civil discourse

CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

I heard a visiting pundit on MSNBC observe that we now get our news when we want, from whom we want, saying what we want. (Surprisingly candid given MSNBC is among those outlets that specialize in editorializing.)

If you're my age, you'll recall there once was a time when you made time for the news, and most broadcasts went to great lengths to distance themselves from op-ed formats that sounded a lot like news but were not.

News divisions ran at a loss at many networks (especially CBS), and were philosophically independent from network and station ownership.

A long time ago, a news anchor named Walter Cronkite questioned our role in Vietnam. Newscaster opinions were so rare that historians now regard that as a turning point in the war. It wasn't protests and music that turned the tide (though certainly that was some of it), but the power of a trusted establishment voice devoid of hyperbole and full of sense.

Walter Cronkite says it's time to reconsider the Vietnam War  (<1min)

When integrity and decorum no longer contain civil discourse, and we can't impose it, it's only a matter of time before the line between truth and whimsy is so blurred that we find ourselves twisted into knots over trivial matters while the real problems become insurmountable and we start our descent into a historical footnote.

In other words, let's put on our big girl pants, be aware of what's going on around us, and use our heads for something besides a hat rack.

[2014-12-11]

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Our House (and Merry Christmas)

Nativity, by Carl Bloch

My family was probably very normal for a post-war/pre-war generation. I was a Baby Boom caboose (if cataloging eras is helpful), and grew up watching soldiers die in battle and return home in coffins draped with American flags, the first war fought in living rooms, as they then said.

I'm sure some will look back at the 60's as idealistic nonsense, but it was what it was, and will never be otherwise.

Some truths about my generation:

• Mom and Dad paid their taxes without grumbling. I remember them each year collecting their receipts and forms on the kitchen table and preparing their return.
• Dad went to work if he was breathing.
• We dressed up and went to church each Sunday, morning and night, and often Wednesdays for prayer meeting.
• We prayed before dinner. In fact, we prayed before every meal, no matter how small.
• We respected police officers, teachers, ministers, and other leaders.
• We went to bed early.
• We never heard a cross word directed at others based on their religion, color, wealth or anything else.
• We kept our small middle class house neat.
• We said please and thank and you're welcome.
• We welcomed Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy.
• We got it worse at home if we got in trouble at school.

There are lots of "back in my day" reflections around. Every holiday is fixed in them. Adding one more isn't rehashing the familiar and trite so much as contributing to a sacred canon.

I've long since learned that what I thought was normal behavior is not practiced by everyone. Too bad, because for good or ill, it instilled values and manners that can be learned no other way.

Our house, in the middle of the street...

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Chinese nativity

And Merry Christmas.

FWIW, I think it began winding down around Dec 10, when stores started clearing and condensing shelves, and morning news shows turned to 2014-in-review stories.

I guess by Dec 10 we've already had enough of Christmas and are ready to look back at the trail of crap behind us.

That's what happens when you remove the matrix that holds the tinsel and holly together.

I don't blame the world for getting tired of it. It's like eating all the icing off a birthday cake. Even once a year will make you sick.

[2014-12-15]

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Look like moms are a lot more popular than dads this time of year.

Click on an image to enlarge.

Look who isn't getting an ornament for Christmas. Look who isn't getting a personalized ornament. Sorry, dads.

Elf on the John Elf on the John: I have no idea what to make of this. It was on the floor at the office between the Men's and Ladies' rooms. But it would make a great Christmas story.

Dee Dee in  front of Rush Limbaugh's Brave Pilgrims. So Rush Limbaugh is a children's writer. I wrote this after taking the picture: "I suppose a guy who can talk to himself in monosyllables for three hours a day can manage a book for children." Then I went to Amazon. 4,590 customer reviews and 5 stars? Doesn't matter who you are, that's impressive. But it doesn't take great writing to sell a book. As one reviewer wrote: "This is some of the most poorly-written tripe I've laid eyes on. Racist. Revisionist. … this is reprehensible and foul, and looks like a copy editor never got within 100 yards of it." --Ryan E.W. "Choy Li Fut Apprentice", May 16, 2014 I might check it out. As I like to think, good writing is good writing, regardless of the source, and that goes for personalities I like and those I don't. Maybe Mr Limbaugh will surprise me. I'd like to think so.

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What's so hard to understand?

How is it that we sometimes see cell phone video of turbulence, rude flight attendants, or passengers behaving badly on airplanes? Aren't phones supposed to be turned off?

Maybe I'm just hyper-sensitive, but I'd be afraid of getting yelled at for using my phone even if we were nose-diving into the ocean.

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I don't fly much, but I have seen a few passengers turn on their devices after being repeatedly told not to. It doesn't really matter whether or not we think our devices interfere with flight controls, it's about following the rules we agree to when we buy a ticket and board the plane. What's so hard to understand?

[2014-12-18]

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Kim Jong-Un, 'The Interview', and a relatively painless lesson.

Top: The real Kim Jong-Un. Bottom: Randall Park in 'The Interview'

I'm not a big Seth Rogen fan, but have a thought on The Interview: Nearly everyone is crying foul over attempts to stop the release of the movie and shaking their heads at Sony's decision to pull a Christmas Day release.

But what if it wasn't Kim Jong-Un at the center of the joke? What if was President Obama?

Would that be funny? No. It would be legal and protected, but it would be in very poor taste and universally panned.

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If there's a silver lining in any of this, it's that we now know some of what's possible when a government flexes it's cyber muscles.

There's a very good lesson here, and a relatively painless one.

And a lot of publicity for Rogen, who probably wasn't a household name before this all started. Come to think of it, I'll bet neither was Kim Jong-Un.

Trailer for The Interview

[2014-12-17]

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Dee Dee sings at Trinity Lutheran in Ada, MI

Last Sunday, the 3rd Sunday in Advent, we attended Trinity Lutheran to watch Dee Dee sing a couple Christmas songs. She and Mom also attend Trinity's Wednesday soup dinner and choir activities.

Trinity is ELCA. If you're not up on Lutheran varieties, ELCA is regarded as more liberal. I am LCMS. (Some links at bottom of this post.)

Though I am happily LCMS, I was especially pleased to hear these words from the pulpit at the beginning of the service: "All are welcome at the Lord's Table."  I gladly joined them.

(You may recall I wrote about communion recently here >)

And the children sing… first service...

I thought I'd recorded the 2nd service, too, but alas, all I have is pictures. Apple needs to add an indicator on the back of the iPhone that tells you what's happening on the other side. Can't tell you how many times I thought I was taking a movie but wasn't.

Dee Dee singing in children's choir, Trinity Lutheran, Christmas 2014

There she is, in the red box. Blow-up of Dee Dee singing in children's choir, Trinity Lutheran, Christmas 2014.

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As Pastor Linstrom says at the end of each service, "Go in peace and remember the poor."

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Learn more about LCMS Lutheranism : Wikipedia | LCMS Home

Learn more about ELCA Lutheranism: Wikipedia | ELCA Home

[2014-12-14]

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Xiaohong,  Dee Dee & Mimi with Santa, 2014

We tried a new place to visit Santa this year, Cabela's in Rivertown Plaza, Grand Rapids, MI. They took a very nice free picture and also let us take our own. 

(If you're not in the US, or are reading this a long time from now, you may not know that shopping malls charge money to have your picture taken with Santa and many prohibit cameras.)

Well, this Santa was a little late and folks behind us in line were complaining. One said she arrived earlier but Santa had to leave to feed his reindeer and she'd been waiting for 2 hours. Another wondered what in the world he could be doing; he was by that time 10 minutes late.

Turns out Santa was a very old man, and walked with a cane and the assistance of an elf.

A slideshow of our visit...

If you listen closely, you can hear Mimi munching on the candy cane. Little mouths have such a soft, gentle sound when eating.

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Fred Astaire voices the postman in Santa Claus is Comin' to Town.

I can only imagine what being as old as Santa will be like, maybe ailing, maybe on social security, and suffering through hundreds of shy, whining, antsy children while impatient parents try to coax smiles out of them.

I remember as a child watching Fred Astaire wonder at holiday scrooges and suggest Santa was a harmless diversion.

I didn't quite understand then, because no one in my small world thought Christmas a humbug.

I understand now.

Fred Astaire - Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town

Lots of unhappiness? Maybe so, but doesn't Santa take a little bit of that unhappiness away?

[2014-12-14]

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[2012-12-19: Not sure how I did it, but I published Saturday a day early, and Blogger won't let me undo it. So, welcome to Saturday's post.]

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