Riffraff

Merriam Webster Dictionary defines the term riffraff as a disreputable person. When used as an adjective, it means rubbish or refuse. The Free Dictionary enlarges the definition to include "people regarded as worthless." Ouch! Yes, that word is lodged in my craw and I find it extremely offensive. What pained me was hearing this word flow from the mouth of one of my near and dear who knows better. I was disappointed and upset. Words and the terms that we choose to use are reflective of our mental set and how we perceive others and the world. Hearing that word being used suggested an internal mental shift, and not in a positive direction. When this term is used by those who have not been educated and who do not know better, the use is still offensive, but more understandable. When coming from the lips of one who been educated in places where there has been an emphasis and a high regard placed to develop a sensitivity to avoid such slurs, it is perplexing. Did I make a big deal out of it when it happened? Yes. I think off-the-cuff disparaging remarks should be addressed. Silence is often misinterpreted as agreement. Did the speaker regret the comment after it was objected to? Yes. It still bothers me today because those types of statements are often reflective of a worldview I don't admire. It was an elitist remark unworthy of its speaker. I'll get past this. I just hope I don't hear it again and have to make a purchase.

Crazy Kitties

Nothing Cheers me up more than some kitty humor on a dreary day. These kitties must be in 4th or 5th grade.

Oliver Foster, print this out and hang in the downstairs bathroom. More traffic there.

Piepan....

The Spatula

I loved this so much I had to blog it.

Friday, 28 Aug 2009, 7:24 AM EDT
Griswold (AP) - Two Connecticut men are facing assault charges after allegedly battling with a belt buckle and a spatula in Hopeville Pond State Park in Griswold.
Police say 29-year-old Cedric Eaton of New London and 31-year-old Nathaniel Ward were charged with assault Wednesday. Court documents show that Eaton told police he hit Ward with his belt and Ward struck him with the spatula. It's not known what triggered the fight.
Eaton treated for a head wound at the William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich. Both men were arraigned Thursday in court.
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Information from: Norwich Bulletin, http://www.norwichbulletin.com

Today's Discoveries

Today I discovered Frangela and friended them on Facebook. They are the first self-identified Afro-Saxons that I have met, although I suspect I have been friends with other Afro-Saxons that were in the closet. I tried to friend Oprah and Gayle King, but I don't think they are on Facebook. I wish Mo'Nique was on Facebook, because she would be a lot of fun to friend. Also Tyler Perry.

On a separate but not entirely unrelated subject (things that make you feel good), I just came upon a recipe for bacon flavored vodka. The deal is you cook the bacon until crisp, soak the bacon in the vodka for 48 hours, strain and drink. I am not sure that I would like it, although I would agree that bacon makes almost anything better.

I have been craving a whiskey sour for days now. I

kinda want to save that for a special drink in the autumn. I have a middle and out ear infection and it is 5:15. Cocktail time. Join me.

Ted Kennedy

So it is all over the news. Ted Kennedy died last night of brain cancer. He was a remarkable man. During his 9 terms in the Senate he authored over 2,500 bills and several hundred have become laws that have improved the quality of life for many Americans. These include the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the National Cancer Act of 1971, the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974, the COBRA Act of 1985, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Ryan White AIDS Care Act in 1990, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, the Mental Health Parity Act in 1996 and 2008, the State Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997, the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, and the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act in 2009. Still on his plate were efforts to improve the laws of immigration reform and his major legislative goal, the enactment of universal health care. What was brilliant about Ted Kennedy was his "vigor," a word that was used with all the Kennedy brothers. He jumped into life with both hands and feet and was like a bulldog when he grabbed onto an issue; he wouldn't let go. That was what America needed in the past, as our Founding Fathers demonstrated, and what we have continued to need. We need leaders to act as advocates for those without means, because they are the most powerless. We share with the powerless, the poor, and the uneducated the human condition which demands dignity for all. And the reality too often is that those that have, get more. Often the legislation Kennedy wrote did not only improve life for one group in our society, but all. The Kennedy family oft quoted motto, "To whom much is give, much is expected," was the fabric of Teddy's life. I will miss the "Lion of the Senate." I am consoled by words he spoke too soon before his death, "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die."

Perspective

Identify this object. Is it a birdhouse, a tissue dispenser, or a lighted house? Depends on your perspective and perspective is sometimes everything.

Cicadas

We got back from vacation this afternoon and it is good that is over, because I am tired and I need a rest. We rented a condo at South Beach in Chatham, Cape Cod, MA. The picture, I had in my mind before vacation started was of an idyllic, peaceful, restful time at the shore.

So why, I ask myself, am I so tired? I reflect back to laying on the queen bed in our white walled bedroom, with the long cornflower blue drapes billowing in the breeze. My eyelids became heavy and, just as I was about to drop off to sleep, a buzz began. Slowly at first, then the sound escalated, until I realized it was just too loud for me to go to sleep. The crazy cicadas were at it double time. Now I had heard the sound of these creatures during many summer nights and they were, to me, the white noise of August, but this was more like a reciprocating saw outside the window. A blurb on the radio reported that cicadas get louder when the temperature climbs, so their shrill love call may be correlated with the current high temperatures. Then again, their name is a direct translation of the Latin cicada, which means buzzer. Cicadas can produce sounds as loud as 120 dB. So I looked up what that really means in terms of familiar noises. Ready? Near total silence - 0 dB, a whisper - 15 dB, normal conversation - 60 dB, a lawnmower - 90 dB, a car horn - 110 dB, and a rock concert or a jet engine - 120 dB. As I searched for more information, I came upon this, which seemed to explain more than scientific facts.

The Night Visitor

Every night this week when we were eating dinner out on our deck, we have had a visitor. This little cutie is young and very light through the hips, which makes me worry that he is a stray. Last night we were concerned that we would not have enough fish scraps to feed him from dinner, so we picked up a can of crab meat at The Christmas Tree Store. This store sells everything from crackers to crab, rulers to rugs, and all at a deep discount. My husband opened the can, put the crab on the plate and brought it out to the deck. We did not expect the reaction we received. Kitty smelled it multiple times, but would take even the tiniest bite. At about the same time another friend showed up. When it was apparent that kitty would not be eating the crab, we offered it to the seagull. It was an interesting tableau, as the kitty was on the deck and a few feet away was the seagull, eating the crab. The kitty could not have cared less about the seagull, and was much more interested in getting petted and scratched. It took a scavenger to eat the crab, which is a warning for future purchases.

A Great White Shark

Yesterday a great white shark was sited off North Beach, Chatham, Cape Cod. There are colonies of grey seals that make Chatham their home and it is likely that temptation was too difficult to resist. Two kayakers heard a yelp, and witnessed a splash, followed by the disappearance of a seal under the water. Blood pooled to the surface in the aftermath. That event will certainly be changing the plans of vacationers who planned on taking their boats out into the bay, where a dip off the bow cools one down. Swimmers need to remember that when they enter the water, they are in a non-native environment. We barge into the shark's living room, or dining room, and get upset when the shark misreads our entree. We have been laying a bum rap on sharks in that respect. The movie Jaws promulgated the image of great white sharks as man eating machines when, in fact, humans are not typically targeted by sharks. Out of curiosity sharks may "test-bite" objects to find out more about them, similar to the way a baby mouths objects. Sharks have been known to test-bite buoys and flotsam, and unfortunately for us, sometimes surfboards and humans. At other times sharks have attacked humans because the silhouette it sees it confuses with a seal. Pound for pound, human beings do not have the taste appeal to sharks as seals, who are fatty and delicious. Sharks should be given some props for their products which have changed the way we live, such as shark teeth to shave with and shark skin as sandpaper. And sharks actually could accuse us of being shark-eating machines. Shark fin soup is considered a delicacy in some parts and has escalated the price of shark fins to greater than $200/lb. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (C.I.T.E.S.) has put the great white shark on its 'Appendix II' list of endangered species, as it is targeted by fishermen for its jaws, teeth, and fins, and as a game fish.

Lobsters

Tonight my husband and I stopped at the fish market to pick up a couple of lobsters for dinner. I wanted 1 1/2 lb. lobsters, but they were all gone, so we opted for a 3+lb fella. We got them to throw it in their pot and was told to return 20 minutes later, to pick up the cooked lobster. We arrived a bit earlier and I began to purvey their tank of lobsters. There were some actually gigantic ones and I asked the fish monger how much these bigger ones would weigh. He regaled us with selling 19 and 22 lb lobsters the week before and pulled a live one from the tank. 14lbs! Those were some really big claws, or, to quote the fish monger, "Gonna need a lot of butter." When asked to estimate the age of a large lobster he said the rule of thumb was 5 years to 1 pound. So the lobster we ate tonight was 15 years old. I feel kind bad, eating a teenage lobster, but she was delicious. The coral was consumed by a kitty who has taken to dropping by at dinner time. Everyone was purring by the end of the meal. Lobster is apparently very good for you. 3 1/2 oz. of lobster meat, without butter, is only 90 calories, compared to 163 for chicken and 280 for sirloin steak. It also has omega-3 fatty acids, the "good " cholesterol that seems to reduce hardening of the arteries and decrease the risk of heart attacks. Lobster is very low in Saturated Fat, a good source of Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc, and a very good source of Protein, Vitamin B12, Copper and Selenium. With some fresh corn on the cob, this meal was a delight of summer.

Right to Bear Arms

This morning there was an alarming news bulletin which showed a man with an assault weapon slung over his shoulder. The caption read, "Man carries assault rifle to Obama protest--and it is legal." Apparently this display is not an isolated incidence. What is of concern is not that there are some who disagree with President Obama on other issues and want to show it, or that there are those who feel individuals should have the right to own firearms. I may not agree with that position, because I know human beings are flawed, have imperfect judgement, and some people who have guns perhaps are playing with less than a full deck. And things happen....

To my knowledge there has been no movement to change the Second Amendment. I wonder why these folks, who are trotting out their arms, feel threatened. Carrying assault weapons in public feels to me like a bullying tactic. And that action makes me wonder about the mental stability and clarity of the weapons owners. CNN carried this quote from one of the protesters; "I come from another state where 'open carry' is legal, but no one does it, so the police don't really know about it and they harass people, arrest people falsely. I think that people need to get out and do it more so that they get kind of conditioned to it." I am not sure why this man thinks we need to get conditioned to it or why he feels that needs to carry a weapon in the open.

The right to keep and bear arms emanates from English common law of 1181, where Henry II required knights and freemen to keep arms and to bear them in service of the king. The English Bill of Rights in 1689 changed the law so that Englishmen needed to have "arms suitable for their own defense, regardless of their social and economic station", which left the defense of the nation to subjects and not to the monarch. Our Bill of Rights was written at a time when it was necessary for all to be able to own and carry weapons. Now a days it seems to me more of a liability than a necessity. I think it comes down to this question. Is an individual's right more important than a group's right? The answer is personal, but affects many.

Mermaids

A few years past I viewed The Secret of Roan Irish, a movie shot near Donegal, Ireland that tells the tale of a Celtic legend of marriage to a Selkie, one who could transform from seal to human. I thought of that film this morning as my husband and I sat on the beach and watched a colony of grey seals bobbing in the Atlantic. Irish mythology tells of selkies swimming in the water all day, but as evening comes, they remove their seal skins and hide them, becoming human. Selkies, who have dark hair and eyes with white skin, bewitch humans, who fall deeply in love. To keep a selkie from returning to the sea one must find the selkie's skin and hide it. However, selkies always yearn to return to the sea, and in keeping the selkie land bound, there is always the possibility of loss, because in doing so you keep the person you love from their true self. The seals we watched seemed to be watching us as well. They seemed human and it was easy to anthropomorphize their actions. Many beachcombers stopped and observed these pinnipeds perform daily tasks, like surfing over sand bars and catchings fish. The wind, being a constant on the Atlantic coast, keeps one cool, so one can sit for hours, watching their machinations. The wind plays on the sand, drawing hypnotizing designs in the sand. Pockets are filled with treasures, which are later sorted and arranged.

Who Knew

Next year's garden will be highlighting Asparagus. We love and eat both on a regular basis and in the garden they look pretty cool. Who knew asparagus grew like a tree? Interesting. Some folks don't fancy them, but many consider asparagus tips a delicacy. When my son was small he would get very upset when they were served and cry. "Don't make me eat the necks!" He would then shiver and his nostrils would flare. He grew up to be an attorney, so mothers take heart. But I digress. I have just learned that between 40-50% of the population produces a digestive enzyme that results in odoriferous urine about 30 minutes after ingestion. This must have been a much bigger social problem when toilets or toileting had a more communal nature. Additionally, there is only a segment of the population who can smell the results of that chemical breakdown. The chemical in question is methyl mercaptan and the smell, in my opinion, is reminiscent of overcooked asparagus. Methyl mercaptan is that which gives a skunk its defensive smell. Setting that side effect aside, asparagus are really good for you. Researchers at researchers at the University of California-Davis have identified an enzyme in asparagus that appears to detoxify malathion, a commonly used pesticide. While malathion itself is of low toxicity, ingestion readily results in its metabolism to malaoxon, which is substantially more toxic. When researchers compared rates of malathion degradation among extracts of carrot, kale, spinach, broccoli and asparagus under the same conditions, they found that asparagus came out on top, reducing the malathion concentration to undetectable levels. (Eat your asparagus.) Asparagus has long been considered an aphrodisiac, possibly due to its phallic shape, but also because according to traditional Indian medicine, it increases circulation in the genito-urinary system. Research on asparagus, much of which has been done at Rutgers University, has uncovered two phytochemicals, protodioscin and rutin, that show promise in inhibiting a number of cancers cells (colon cancer and leukemia), and lowering cholesterol. It is of interest to note that they have also identified that protodioscin, which is present in asparagus, has been linked to improvement of sexual performance! (Oh, you'll have seconds?")I love it when modern medicine confirms traditional medicine. Yeah bro, we knew that all along, it is the dawning of the age of asparagus.

Flattery

The National Institute of Health recently returned information on a study reported in the August 14th journal Science. The researchers, Annika Paukner and Stephen J. Suomi of the NICHD, Elisabetta Visalberghi of the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the National Research Council in Rome, and Pier F. Ferrari of the University of Parma, found that cappuchin monkeys preferred the company of researchers who imitated them to those who did not. The monkeys not only spent more time with their imitators, but also preferred to engage in a simple task with them even when offered the option of performing the same task with a non-imitator. Now, anybody who has hung out with teenagers for any amount of time could have predicted these findings, but that is not the point. This is the first time that any scientific data has been collected on cappuchin monkeys, suggesting that monkeys differentiate by initiating interaction between those where a bond has been established. The study suggested that "how imitation promotes bonding in primates may lead to insights in disorders in which imitation and bonding is impaired, such as certain forms of autism." What do they mean? I think where research will go with this is in the biological, specifically chemical range. They can do a lot of things with monkeys that regulations prohibit with humans. While that is sad, and I do feel bad for the monkeys (one kissed me on the lips in my youth, but that is another story), this is the way science drills down to find out causes of conditions. As far autism is concerned, there is a ton of research going on right on, because the rate of increase is astronomical. While there are many moms who avoid immunization because of their fear that an element in the vaccine causes autism, and I certainly understand their fear, the research doesn't point the finger in that direction. Meanwhile, people are messing with monkeys and this can lead to things.

Nostaglia

When I was young my family went to Chatham in the summer, to visit a friend and former neighbor . I can remember leaning on her split rail fence and watching meteor showers, or shooting stars as we called them back then. The sky was full of stars and it was not unusual to see two meteor bursts at the same time. It was one of the most magical moments of my life. Our hostess Yvonne had a thick French accent and wore her silver hair swept up in a twist. She always appeared with sparkling drop earrings, red lipstick and high heels, even when wearing slacks, which was unusual at that time. I slept in a downstairs bedroom on a silk covered feather bed. In her bathroom was a large jar of potpourri, redolent with spices and roses from her yard. We went to Cockle Cove beach, which was just down the street across from her home. She had a sister named Gem, and a cat for whom she would go to the Chatham pier daily to get fresh fish. She worked at the Chatham Bars Inn and had made friends with coworkers who had somewhat unusual pets: descented skunks named Arpege and Chanel.

Reportedly last evening there were shooting stars aplenty in the sky, but it was too cloudy here to see them. The meteor shower currently gracing our skies is called The Perseids because, when viewing it, the meteors appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus, which is also known as Perseides. The Perseids occur each summer when Earth moves through debris that was scattered when the Swift-Tuttle comet passed by Earth's orbit in 1992. Obviously the showers I saw as a child were from a different source, but it is comforting to know that some events continue to occur like clockwork. Then...now. When I visit Cockle Cove next I will close my eyes for a moment and revisit the sweetness of summers past.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

I watch a lot of travel TV. I love to sit in my Queen Anne wingback chair, sip Pellegrino, and be transported hither and yon all over the world. On occasion one hears of what is referred to as a World Heritage site. Recently I watched the movie In Bruges and a few weeks later I discovered that this medieval historic settlement is on "The List" due to its beautiful architecture. My antenna for World Heritage History sites was primed. I then discovered that the banks of the Seine in Paris were "List" as was the Cathedral of Notre Dame Paris, two places I had already been. Mentally I began to form a goal: to visit all the sites that were "List." That was prior to finding out that the List includes 890 properties: 689 cultural, 176 natural, and 25 mixed. Yikes! So I did the math. My projected life expectancy minus my actual age divided into total number of sites equals about a site a week, if I give myself time off for holidays, birthdays, and a couple of years at the end to deteriorate. I would be way too busy. This would become a job. I already have one of those. So I think I have to weed out sites that are not really necessary to visit. I also have to subtract the sites that I have already been to. That doesn't add up to much. Maybe I should just reframe the goal to include a World Heritage site that is in the U.S. that is also local. Taadaa...the Statue of Liberty. No, I know it is shocking, but I have never been. And this year they reopened her crown, so I checked out the availability. As of this evening there are but spotty times and dates in November, so all the good warm autumn days are gone already. Then the holidays are upon us. I think I will stock up on some more Pellegrino and pencil in something in the spring. Thoreau said that, in the long run, we only hit what we aim at. My aim is to hit the Statue of Liberty ( in a good way) in the next 6 months. Photos to follow.

Mad Men

The countdown has begun. Pulses are quickening and anticipation is rising as the week marches on toward Sunday evening, when Mad Men returns. What will happen with Don and Betty Draper? How will Betty deal with her pregnancy? Will Duck take over Sterling Cooper and what will that mean for Don and the crew? Will Peggy Olson's son with Peter Campbell affect Peter's marriage and will their be an inheritance issue? I want to know more about Don's shadowy past. An image that lurks in my mind is where Don is shown visiting Peggy in the ward of a mental hospital.
This show beguiles me. It is full of that which I abhor, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, antisemitism, and adultery. It is packed with smoking, and yes, I do want to have a cigarette when I watch. The excessive drinking is reminiscent of the 60's. The sound of holiday cocktail parties was the tinkling of ice cubes in highball glasses, rather than jingle bells, and the smell of the season was Canadian Club, rather than balsam. There is a sexual current that drives the show and that was probably very real in the 60's also, but I was too young to know about it. It is a more powerful lure that has me addicted and that is the feeling of a time that will never be again. The writers of this show have nailed it:
Nostalgia. It’s delicate, but potent…Teddy told me that in Greek, nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. It’s a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone. This device… isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the Wheel. It’s called the Carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels. Around and around and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved. "Mad Men" Season 1, Episode 13, "The Wheel"

Facebook

So it is true, I joined Facebook. There has been a lot of discussion of this in the family for some time. My daughter was the instigator (supporter?) of this idea and she assured me that not only she would help me, and she has, but she listed two handfuls of people who would friend me, and they did. Her brother, on the other hand, has been vehemently against it. Not just against me joining Facebook, but on the concept, the entity of Facebook. No one, not even his wife, can figure exactly why he feels this way. My husband has made little snarky noises about how this new facet of my life will just take more time away from him. That's right, let's make this about him. He also warned me that Facebook is forever, so I should monitor whatever I post, i.e. no pictures of me riding Lady Godiva style, etc. Not to worry, I am the soul of decorum and discretion. As for me, embracing this technology has been like a quick trip to the fountain of youth. I feel connected and fully participating in life. This morning I feel vital, although I did have a great night's sleep and perhaps that is more the cause. Regardless, I think jumping into life with both hands and both feet forces one to experience life in a different way. Henry Miller said, "The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." Right on. Who needs to sit and dribble in their cups when there is much fun to be had? And let's reflect on how this new learning is changing my brain. In fact, this is just the remedy for keeping one's brain young, adding new synopses and neurons. So in fact, it is not like, but truly is a trip to the fountain of youth. Facebook. It is what's good for your brain.