Buy Used Books to Fund Literacy Worldwide

http://www.betterworldbooks.com/
Looks interesting. I don't buy very much in the way of new books anymore. Generally I buy used ones.

From Suz's Page

This Christmas . . . 

let's all put mistletoe in

 our back pockets so

 those people who give

 us problems can kiss

 our ass..

Fattest Countries | Obesity Epidemic | World Health Organization

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/commerce/091125/obesity-epidemic-fattest-countries?page=0,0
I cheated on my Pritikin Food Plan last night. I guess a little pizza every once in a while is good for my heart.

From My Mail Bag Tonight

A very old man lay dying in his bed. In death's doorway, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookie wafting up the stairs. 
 
    He gathered his remaining strength and lifted himself from the bed.  Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort forced himself down the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands. 
 
    With labored breath, he leaned against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen.  Were it not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven. 
 
    There, spread out on newspapers on the kitchen table were literally hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies. 
 
    Was it heaven?  Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man? 
 
    Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself toward the table.  The aged and withered hand, shaking, made its way to a cookie at the edge of the table, when he was suddenly smacked with a spatula by his wife. 
     "Stay out of those," she said. "They're for the funeral. 

From My Mail Bag Tonight

FW:

THIS Will make you SMILE

A friend's daughter-in-law, Emily Somers, created this video last month for her Medline glove division as a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. This was all her idea to help promote their new pink gloves. I don't know how she got so many employees, doctors and patients to participate, but it started to really catch on and they all had a lot of fun doing it." When the video gets 1 million hits, Medline will be making a huge contribution to the hospital, as well as offering free mammograms for the community. Please check it out. It's an easy and great way to donate to a wonderful cause, and who hasn't been touched by breast cancer?

Test Your News IQ - Pew Research Center

http://pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/quiz/index.php
I only missed one and I did better than 94%. How is your score?

Book For The Week of 11/22/09

The Mummy Case

by

Elizabeth Peters

From the Publisher

Radcliffe Emerson, the irascible husband of fellow archaeologist Amelia Peabody, has earned the nickname "Father of Curses"—and in Mazghunah he demonstrates why. Denied permission to dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor, he and Amelia are resigned to excavating mounds of rubble in the middle of nowhere. But before long Amelia, Emerson, and their precocious son, Ramses, find themselves entangled in The Mummy Case

In Cairo, before setting out to the site, Amelia visits an antiquities dealer to inquire about some papyri for her brother-in-law, Walter. At the dealer's shop she interrupts a mysterious-sounding conversation. And then, even more alarmingly, the dealer attempts to refuse to sell her a scrap of papyrus Ramses discovers in the back room. When the dealer is found dead in his shop just a day later, Amelia becomes convinced that foul play is at hand, a suspicion that is further confirmed when she catches sight of the sinister stranger from the crime scene at her own excavation site.

But it takes more than Amelia's keen instincts to convince Emerson of dastardly deeds. When Ramses's scrap of papyrus is stolen from their camp, and a neighboring tourist is relieved of an entire mummy, Emerson concedes that they may be facing something more ominous than a simple grave robber. Aided (to their dismay) by Ramses and his preternaturally intelligent cat, Bastet, Amelia and Emerson turn their detective skills to investigating the neighboring suspects, including a trio of missionaries, a widowed German baroness, and even the head of the Department of Antiquities. But when the Emersons start digging for answers in an ancient tomb, events take a darker and deadlierturn—and there may be no surviving the very modern terrors their efforts reveal.

Filled with spine-tingling suspense, precise archaeological and historical detail, and Amelia Peabody's trademark witty, wry voice, Elizabeth Peters's The Mummy Case is a classic installment in the beloved Amelia Peabody series.

(I just finished listening to this book on audio this evening on my way home from dropping Nick off at his friends house in MI.   It is another of the novels in the Amelia Peabody series, which was introduced to me by my MP friend/contact Heidi,  and has become a favorite series of mine too.  Don't forget to click on the links at both the title and the author's name to learn more.)

My Sunday 11/22/09

Today my three adult children and my son in law met with me in Kokomo IN at Red Lobster

and had our holiday meal.   After returning to my home,  Nick and I were a bit tired.   We decided to rent a couple movies and grill out, making  portebella mushroom sandwiches and brown rice.   Then we watched the following two movies:

A Re Post From Suz.

From Margaret and Helen....

Margaret, I know it has been a few years since we last made the trip across the pond, but I was wondering if  anyone is still alive in Europe?   I watched a little bit of Fox News this weekend and I’m afraid everyone in Europe might have died from lack of access to healthcare.  What a shame.  They had such delicious food and beautiful art.

 I am not sure when it happened but the base of the Republican party either got lazy or stupid or both… or maybe they always were.   It took me only a few minutes of research on the internet to learn that America spends more on healthcare than any other wealthy nation and yet we don’t live longer or have better health outcomes. So unless we just enjoy making health insurance companies rich, all those tea party morons  need to use the internet for something other than ordering their penis enhancement pills.

 Exactly how expensive does healthcare have to get before we decide to have an honest, meaningful conversation about this?   Rush is out there talking about how this will keep you from getting your next raise.  I’ve got news for you Rush.  Maybe not for you, but for the rest of the world it already has.  Sixty-two percent of all bankruptcies filed in 2007 were linked to medical expenses and almost all of those individuals had health insurance. About 1.5 million families lose their homes to foreclosure every year due to unaffordable medical costs. 

Over the last few years, health insurance costs for small businesses have increased by over 100%. But let’s not get lost in the numbers.  What we are talking about here is access to healthcare.  We are talking about mothers and fathers losing their homes and their life savings trying to save their children.  We are talking about families helping a loved one to fight cancer.  We are talking about  people suffering with diabetes, asthma and AIDS.   We are not talking about death panels and for God’s sakes we are not talking about Nazi Germany.  We are talking about tending to the sick and the poor… does that sound familiar to anyone?

 You Value Voters out there claim to read the Bible.  Maybe you should crack the cover on that one again.  You are so damn worried about who is marrying who and what immigrant is getting the best shift at the Taco Bell, but God forbid someone’s suffering doesn’t come with a price tag…

Honestly,  if I could , I would put the entire Republic party over my knee and give them a good spanking.  What does it say about our country if the biggest debate of the decade is no longer about the two wars we are fighting but rather about preventing children and families from having access to affordable healthcare?  I’ll tell you what it says to me.  It says the Christian Right never really was and Value Voters aren’t very valuable.

 Let me spell it out for you: Sarah Palin is worried about death squads.  I think  she should spend a little more time worrying about getting at least one child into college.


 Rush Limbaugh is worried about Socialism.  That’s a big word for a college drop out, but isn’t it  nice when such a wealthy person shows so much concern for poor little us.  I wonder if he’ll spend a little of his $400 million contract and write you ditto heads  a check when you can’t afford your hospital bills.

 Dick Cheney has had four heat attacks.  He underwent four-vessel coronary artery bypass grafting in 1988, coronary artery stenting in November 1994, and urgent coronary balloon angioplasty in December 1994.  He has been treated for popliteal artery aneurysms, deep-vein thrombosis, atrial fibrillation, and most recently back problems.  I wonder what his out-of-pocket expenses were.  I wonder if he even cares? Universal Healthcare in the wealthiest country on earth should have been a no brainer. 

And speaking of a no brainer… Michele Bachman thinks healthcare reform is unconstitutional.   I think Michelle Bachmann is as nutty as a fruit cake.  Or as we say down here in Texas – Michele is one taco short of a combo plate.  She is a few fries short of a happy meal.  Her elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor.   Her cord is too short to reach the outlet.  The wheel might be spinning but the hamster is dead.  That woman just isn’t right in the head.   I mean it. Really.

Domestic Violence

Although I did not know this family,  people that I work with did,  and it is just too darn close to my home not to upset me.   Why do women go back to men who have abused them??

news story

How Healthy Is Your State

From     http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/16/unhealthy-healthy-states-lifestyle-health-states-top_chart.html?partner=yahoohealth

New England states top this new set of rankings, while the South still lags.

See: America's Healthiest And Unhealthiest States

This annual ranking, published by the United Health Foundation, looks at 22 indicators of health, including everything from how many children receive recommended vaccinations, to obesity and smoking rates, to cancer deaths. (Insurer UnitedHealth Group funds the foundation.) Scores for each state are determined by gathering data from a variety of government and nongovernmental databases and then calculating how much each state is better or worse than the national average for each measure. Click here to see the report. The below chart lists the final results in addition to rank changes in specific categories over the past 20 years.

2009 STATE RANKINGS
1Vermont
2Utah
3Massachusetts
4Hawaii
5New Hampshire
6Minnesota
7Connecticut
8Colorado
9Maine
10Rhode Island
11Washington
12Wisconsin
13Oregon
14Idaho
15Iowa
16Nebraska
17North Dakota
18New Jersey
19Wyoming
20South Dakota
21Maryland
22Virginia
23California
24Kansas
25New York
26Montana
27Arizona
28Pennsylvania
29Illinois
30Michigan
31New Mexico
32Delaware
33Ohio
34Alaska
35Indiana
36Florida
37North Carolina
38Missouri
39Texas
40Arkansas
41Kentucky
42West Virginia
43Georgia
44Tennessee
45Nevada
46South Carolina
47Louisiana
48Alabama
49Oklahoma
50Mississippi

Food Choices

Since last April I have been eating in a way called The Pritikin Food Plan.  I still eat some meat but a great deal less than I did seven months ago.   In the process I have learned quite a bit about Vegen alternatives.  It is interesting and also tastes good!

A Visit From A MP Friend

Tim was up this way to go to a home coming football game with his son and decided it might be fun to detour through Fort Wayne on the way home. We spent a couple hours at the Military Museum north of town. Here are some shots of us as we wandered through the museum. I didn't take any of him while I was driving to show how paled he was. But we won't talk about the issues I had driving him about the Fort Wayne area. Sigh.

Girls Day Out

http://www.jeffersonshopping.com/index.cfm
My friend Linda came to visit me today. She lives about two hours away. We started out day with lunch at Panera Bread and then wandered around an upscale mall in South West Fort Wayne. We ate at the Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant and then grocery shopped at the small Indian food mart next to it. On the way home we stopped at a few other stores. I spent too much money! But the weather was beautiful and it was a relaxing and enjoyable day.

Giggles

Have been meaning to post this for a few months.

Genealogy Wise - The Genealogy & Family History Social Network

http://www.genealogywise.com/
I keep thinking I am going to explore this site but never have really taken the time yet. Any one else know anything about it?

Date Night

Mark took me out for a nice dinner tonight and afterwards we stopped and rented a movie.