quote of the day

A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.

--Chinese proverb

what i'm reading now

This is a gem I found at a yard sale. Blackberry Winter is the autobiography of Margaret Mead. Published in 1972 it is an account of her life up to the second World War. She reveals her family life, upbringing, and influences that shaped the direction of her career. I found the narrative about her studies in Samoa, New Guinea, and Bali very interesting, but toward the end she shares her thoughts about being a grandparent and I found that intriguing.  Here are a couple of paragraphs that I thought were especially cogent:

"In the presence of grandparent and grandchild, past and future merge in the present.  Looking at a loved child, one cannot say, 'We must sacrifice this generation for the next.  Many must die now so that later others may live.'  This is the argument that generations of old men, cut off from children, have used in sending young men out to die in war. Nor can one say, 'I want this child to live well no matter how we despoil the earth for later generations.' For seeing a child as one's grandchild, one can visualize that same child as a grandparent, and with the eyes of another generation one can see other children, just as light-footed and vivid, as eager to learn and know and embrace the world, who must be taken into account--now."

and this:

[The human unit of time can be defined as] "the space between a grandfather's memory of his own childhood and a grandson's knowledge of those memories as he heard about them. We speak a great deal about a human scale; we need also a human unit in which to think about time."

in fall the light begins to fail

Looking out my back door.

cookies

Jenna came to spend a few hours with me today. Here's a picture of her with her hair colored for a Halloween party.

I made these sugar cookies last night and Jenna made short work of them while she was here, plus a couple of corn dogs, some Oreo cookies, and two glasses of strawberry milk.  This evening, after supper I was in the mood for a little dessert, so I checked to see if Jenna had left me any Oreos.

Do you see something odd about these cookies? Aren't Oreos supposed to have a white cream filling? Jenna had licked the filling off every cookie and put it back into the package. How generous to leave a little something for her grandpa.

interesting statistics

Fellow blogger Steven at Projections pointed out in a post that the U.S. has fallen to the rank of 49th in the world for life expectancy.  That got me wondering what our rank would be in other areas. Here is what I found:

Level of Education - The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development places the United States 18th among the 36 nations examined. (In South Korea 93% of high school students graduate compared to 75% in the U.S.) USA Today, Nov. 2008.

Infant Mortality - The U.S. ranks 180 among 224 (224 being the lowest mortality rate) with a rate of 6.24 infant deaths per 100 live births. CIA World Fact Book, 2010

Home Ownership - Portugal          85% home ownership
                               Canada           82%
                               Norway          77%
                               Spain              77%
                               Belgium          71%
                               United States  69%
                               Israel              69%
        
           Wikipedia

Retirement Systems -   Netherlands
                                    Australia
                                    Sweden
                                    Canada
                                    United Kingdom
                                    United States
                                    Chile
                                    Singapore
                                    Germany
                                    China
                                    Japan

                Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index - ranked countries in late 2009 based on the   adequacy, sustainability and integrity of their public and private pension systems.

Quality of Health Care  - U.S. Ranks ranks 37th while spending 82% more per person.
            Economic Productivity Report by Michael Hodges, March 2007

Americans are used to thinking better of our country than the image created by these figures.


                                                 

crazy quote of the day

American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans with animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains.

--Christine O'Donnell, Republican senate candidate for Delaware

quote of the day

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.

-- R. Buckminster Fuller

Shopping

This weekend Dorothy and I went with some friends to Branson, MO. The girls wanted to shop and we guys agreed to go because we know there would be something good to eat at some point in the day.

On the way we stopped in Eureka Springs, AR. at a railroad museum.  They actually had a working train there and offered rides complete with meals. I love steam locomotives and will stop any where to get a look at one.

Dorothy, Glen, and Laura.

This is the diesel electric locomotive that pulls the dinner train with the old trains station in the background.

While the girls shopped, Glen and I whiled away the hour at these tables sipping on diet root beer, trading military stories, and discussing politics.

We walked among the shops at Branson Landing looking for a good restaurant.

Branson Landing is located on Lake Taneycomo and offers a great atmosphere for shopping and dining.

quote of the day

Simple distortions are more politically persuasive than complicated truths.


Christopher Jencks

quote of the day

When you choose your friends, don’t be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

-- W. Somerset Maugham

sugar art

This weekend we went to the Tulsa State Fair so Dorothy could attend the Sugar Art Show. She likes to go every year to get ideas for her cake decorating



There were hundreds of cakes to look at.



Here is an example of the intricate work done on these cakes.

quote of the day

Happiness is a direction, not a place.


-- Sydney J. Harris

what I'm reading now

I recently read The Royals by Kitty Kelley.  Ms. Kelley is famous for her unauthorized biographies. The accuracy of her portraits of famous people have been often questioned, but I would rather read a well documented unauthorized biography than one written by a family friend or political sycophant. There was a negative reaction to the publishing of this book (1997) but it does show the royal family as human beings with all the faults of character and misbehavior that is true of most ordinary families. From the German roots of the Windsor family to the neurotic antics of the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of York, it is an interesting read.

quote of the day

“The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it.”


--Edward Dowling - Chicago Daily News, 28 July 1941