Book For The Week - 12/28/2010

The Persian Pickle Club

by


Sandra Dallas

From Publishers Weekly

"This entertaining second novel from the author of the well-received Buster Midnight's Cafe could be a sleeper. Set in Depression-era Kansas and made vivid with the narrator's humorous down-home voice, it's a story of loyalty and friendship in a women's quilting circle. Young farm wife Queenie Bean tells about the brief membership of a city girl named Rita, whose boredom with country living and aspirations to be an investigative reporter lead her to unearth secrets in the close-knit group, called the Persian Pickle Club after a coveted paisley print. Queenie's desire to win Rita's friendship ("We were chickens... and Rita was a hummingbird") clashes with her loyalty to the Pickles when Rita tries to solve the murder of a member's husband, in the process unearthing complicated relationships among the women who meet each week to quilt and read aloud to each other. The result is a simple but endearing story that depicts small-town eccentricities with affection and adds dazzle with some late-breaking surprises. Dallas hits all the right notes, combining an authentic look at the social fabric of Depression-era life with a homespun suspense story."

(A few years back I blogged about this book.  I read it on one of my train trips out to Denver to visit with my son Nick.  I enjoyed it very much and suggested to my library book group that it be our book for January 2011.  The decision was made to select it.  I just finished listening to it on audio on the way home from work.   It is as delightful as I remembered it.  As always click on the links at the title and author's name to learn more.)

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine [NCCAM] - nccam.nih.gov Home Page

http://nccam.nih.gov/

Book For The Week - 12/15/2010

The House Of

The Seven Gables

by

Nathaniel

Hawthorn

“The wrongdoing of one generation lives into the successive ones and… becomes a pure and uncontrollable mischief.” Hawthorne’s moral for “The House of the Seven Gables,” taken from the Preface, accurately presages his story. The full weight of the gloomy mansion of the title seems to sit on the fortunes of the Pyncheon family. An ancestor took advantage of the Salem witch trials to wrest away the land whereon the house would be raised… but the land’s owner, about to be executed as a wizard, cursed the Pyncheon family until such time as they should make restitution.

Now, almost two centuries later, the family is in real distress. Hepzibah, an old maid and resident of the house, is forced by advanced poverty to open a shop in a part of the house. Her brother Clifford has just been released from prison after serving a thirty-year sentence for murder, and his mind struggles to maintain any kind of hold on reality. Cousin Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon is making himself odious by threatening to have Clifford committed to an institution. And after all these years, the deed to a vast tract of land, that would settle great wealth on the family, is still missing.

One bright ray of sunshine enters the house when cousin Phoebe arrives for an extended stay to allow unhappy matters in her end of the family to sort themselves out. While she lightens the lives of Hepzibah and Clifford, she also attracts the attention of a mysterious lodger named Holgrave, who has placed himself near the Pyncheon family for reasons that only come clear at the end of the story.

The real crisis arrives when the Judge, who strongly resembles the Colonel Pyncheon who built the house so many years ago, steps up his demands on Hepzibah and Clifford and unwittingly triggers the curse. (Summary by Mark F. Smith)

(As I have mentioned before in prior blogs and as I have posted in the photo album that can be found HERE, one of the places Peggy and I visited on our trip to the Boston area this past fall was the house that is believed to be the home that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write his novel "The House Of Seven Gables".   Although as a teen I read "The Scarlet Letter"  by Nathaniel Hawthorne and remember enjoying it,  I had never read "The House of Seven Gables".  After touring the house,  I promised myself that I would.  I finished listening to it on audio today and really enjoyed the story.  The old fashioned language of Hawthorne makes it all the more special and delightful.  I was able to remember the house from my visit as I listened to the descriptions of scenes in the story.  This really made the book come to life for me.  Hawthorne's moral being that Karma follows from generation to generation is an interesting one and would be a topic that warrants discussion to see what others think.  I can totally understand why this book has been studied in many classrooms.  Please click on the title and author's name to learn more.  I highly recommend this book.)

Instruction Manual for Life

This is worth the eight minutes it takes to watch.

Instruction Manual for Life [cc]

Change in Weekend Plans

I had plans to go away this weekend and the way the morning started out I decided that it would be a disaster waiting to happen for me to be on the highway.  Therefore I decided to cancel my plans and stay home.  This evening I watched a DVD that I had purchased awhile ago and was waiting to watch while visiting my aunt this weekend.  When I talked to her and canceled the trip I told her I could not wait to watch the DVD any longer.  Here is the trailer.  A colleague at work told me about the documentary.  I enjoyed the movie and place it on the must see list for every one I care about.  I am not sure it scared me bad enough to correct my eating habits but it has a lot of good info and is motivating as far as making me want to learn more about the theories they describe in the  movie.

Book For The Week - 11/30/2010

Nature

by


Ralph Waldo Emerson

While visiting Concord Massachusetts on vacation this fall I made myself a promise that I would alternate the more popular fiction I listen to on audio with works by some of the people whose homes I have visited.  One of these people was Ralph Waldo Emerson.  I finished listening to his essay "Nature"  while walking on the treadmill after work tonight.  While I enjoyed the book it seemed that I would hear a line that would make me want to digest it and off my mind would go and when I returned to listening I had missed too much.  So I think this is the type of work a person would want to read a few lines and think about and then read a few more lines.  I do not think it lends itself to audio.   I tried starting to listen to the beginning again, thinking the second time through I would do better,  and again there is so much that is thought provoking my mind would not stay with the reader.  As always click on the author's name and title to learn more.  Also, I think I have figured out how to embed the player of the actual audio book I listened to.  Since it is over 75 years old the book is in the public domain and there is no copyright issue.

http://ia311040.us.archive.org/2/items/nature_0909_librivox/nature_4_emerson_64kb

http://ia311040.us.archive.org/2/items/nature_0909_librivox/nature_4_emerson_64kb

Which States Are More Socialist?

This is a cut and paste from CNBC - I was going to link only but the text was too small.  HERE is the link if you wish to go to it. 

"The Most Socialist States in America

The Street | November 26, 2010 | 01:47 PM EST

When the Democratic Party took over the presidency and both houses of Congress in 2008, conservatives were quick to warn their supporters of a coming era of socialism led by President Barack Obama.
Indeed, that message was a constant in the debate over the health care reform bill as well as the Congressional midterm elections, when Tea Party conservatives made taxation a rallying cry for frustrated Americans.
As the narrative of the country’s purported move toward socialism persists, MainStreet decided to evaluate which states were the most and least socialist, to get a picture of how diverse the country is in how states manage their finances.
What is 'Socialist,' Anyway?
To evaluate the degree to which different states manifest socialist principles, we started from the core definition of socialism as a form of government in which the state owns the means of production and allocates resources to its citizens at its discretion.
In other words, a purely socialist state is one in which the state is responsible for 100% of economic output and spends all of it on social programs.
Since no part of the U.S. can be considered purely socialist, we measured total expenditures as a proportion of total economic output to compare the size of the public sector in each state. Using recently released 2009 state gross domestic product figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and total state expenditures for fiscal year 2009 from the most recent report of the National Association of State Budget Officers, we have come up with the 10 most socialist states in America.
Read on; the results may surprise you. (Or jump to — Alaska?!)
10. Rhode Island
Gross Domestic Product (2009): $47,837,000,000
Total State Expenditures (FY 2009): $7,587,000,000
Expenditures as Proportion of GDP: 15.9%
On the list of most socialist states, tiny Rhode Island takes the 10th spot. Progressive on many social questions (the state was the second to abolish the death penalty, and was the third to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes), its residents have voted for Democrats in eight of the last nine presidential elections.
Economically, Rhode Island continually ranks among the states with the highest tax rates. Its property taxes, sales tax and income taxes are all above the respective national averages, not surprising for the 10th most socialist state on our list.
9. Hawaii
Gross Domestic Product (2009): $66,431,000,000
Total State Expenditures (FY 2009): $11,822,000,000
Expenditures as Proportion of GDP: 17.8%
8. Arkansas
Gross Domestic Product (2009): $101,818,000,000
Total State Expenditures (FY 2009): $18,403,000,000
Expenditures as Proportion of GDP: 18.1%
7. Wyoming
Gross Domestic Product (2009): $37,544,000,000
Total State Expenditures (FY 2009): $7,123,000,000
Expenditures as Proportion of GDP: 19.0%
6. Mississippi
Gross Domestic Product (2009): $95,905,000,000
Total State Expenditures (FY 2009): $19,380,000,000
Expenditures as Proportion of GDP: 20.2%
5. New Mexico
Gross Domestic Product (2009): $74,801,000,000
Total State Expenditures (FY 2009): $15,455,000,000
Expenditures as Proportion of GDP: 20.7%
4. Vermont
Gross Domestic Product (2009): $25,438,000,000
Total State Expenditures (FY 2009): $5,341,000,000
Expenditures as Proportion of GDP: 21.0%
3. Alabama
Gross Domestic Product (2009): $169,856,000,000
Total State Expenditures (FY 2009): $46,558,000,000
Expenditures as Proportion of GDP: 27.4%
2. Alaska
Gross Domestic Product (2009): $45,709,000,000
Total State Expenditures (FY 2009): $14,315,000,000
Expenditures as Proportion of GDP: 31.3%
1. West Virginia
Gross Domestic Product (2009): $63,344,000,000
Total State Expenditures (FY 2009): $20,362,000,000
Expenditures as Proportion of GDP: 32.1%
Despite the fact that Republicans won two out of three House seats in the 2010 midterm elections, West Virginia has been a Democratic state for most of its existence.
In fact, Congress’s longest-serving member ever was Robert Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat who, at the time of his death last year, had represented the state for 57 years.
On the state level, four of the past five governors have come from the Democratic Party, which could explain how the state’s expenditures have come to account for 32.1% of total output.
- Greg Bocquet is a writer for MainStreet, part of TheStreet Network."

Book For The Week - 11/25/2010

Oryx and Crake

by

Margaret Atwood

Library Journal:

"The doyenne of Canadian literature (she's won both a Booker and a Giller Prize), the versatile Atwood has an uncanny ability to write in a number of literary genres. Like The Handmaid's Tale, her latest work is set in a near future that is all too realistic and almost too terrifying to contemplate. Having once led a life of comfort and self-indulgence, Jimmy, now known as Snowman, has survived an ecological disaster that has destroyed the world as we know it. As he struggles to function without everything he once knew, including time, Snowman reflects on the past, on his relationships with two characters named Oryx and Crake, and on the role of each individual in the destruction of the natural world. From its opening scene, in which the children of Crake scavenge through debris, to its horrifying conclusion, this novel challenges the reader, cleverly pairing familiar aspects of the world with parts that have been irrevocably changed. A powerful and perturbing glimpse into a dark future, this is Atwood's impassioned plea for responsible management of our human, scientific, and natural resources and a novel that will cast long and lingering shadows in the reader's mind, well after the book is closed. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/03.]-Caroline Hallsworth, City of Greater Sudbury, Ont. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information."

(I chose to listen to the book  "Oryx and Crake" after reading a review here on MP of another novel by this author called "The Year of the Flood".  It seemed like "The Year of the Flood" was a sequel to "Oryx and Crake" so I decided to purchase "Oryx and Crake"  first.  I finished listening to this book on audio on my way home from work tonight.   It has been a story that I will not forget.  During parts of the book I felt I did not like it because it seemed like the author could have alluded to some of the perversity without the complete details.   But by the end of the book I had forgiven the parts of the book that I would have edited out and was totally pulled into the story.   I am not a big fan of science fiction as historical novels are my favorite.    Never the less,  I will choose to listen to books by Margaret Atwood in the future and I would recommend "Oryx and Crake"  to a friend.  As always click on the author's name and the title of the book above to follow the links to more information. )

Strangers On Your Flight

http://www.capsteps.com/sounds/tsa-strangersonyourflight.mp3
From Capitol Steps

Dinner and A Matinee

My daughter Nicole visited today. I made dinner for the noon meal, we went for a walk in the park and came back and enjoyed a movie. I enjoyed the day very much.

Stolen From Kitty

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.
Instructions: Copy this. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.  

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (no because my daughter still doesn't have the 1st so am not starting)

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible 

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare -

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
 27: Crime and Punishment by Dosteovsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma-Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwa

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dicken

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno – Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Fair Oaks Dairy Farm

These are the towers where they take the cow poop and turn it into both fertilizer for their fields and electricity for their buildings.

Today a friend and I visited Fair Oaks Dairy Farm. http://fofarms.com/

From The Email Bag Tonight

 .
 THE BASIC RULES FOR CLOTHESLINES:

1. You had to wash the clothes line before hanging any clothes- walk the entire lengths of each line with a damp cloth around the lines..
 2. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order, and always hang "whites" with "whites," and hang them first.
 3. You never hung a shirt by the shoulders - always by the tail! What would the neighbors think?
4. Wash day on a Monday! . . . Never hang clothes on the weekend, or Sunday, for Heaven's sake!
 5. Hang the sheets and towels on the outside lines so you could hide your "unmentionables" in the middle (perverts & busybodies, y' know!)
 6. It didn't matter if it was sub zero weather . . . Clothes would "freeze-dry."
 7. Always gather the clothespins when taking down dry clothes!  Pins left on the lines were "tacky!"
 8. If you were efficient, you would line the clothes up so that each item did not need two clothespins, but shared one of the clothespins with the next washed item.
 9. Clothes off of the line before dinnertime, neatly folded in the clothes-basket, and ready to be ironed.
10. IRONED?! Well, that's a whole other subject!

 A POEM

A clothesline was a news forecast
 To neighbors passing by.
 There were no secrets you could keep
 When clothes were hung to dry.
It also was a friendly link
 For neighbors always knew
 If company had stopped on by
 To spend a night or two.
 For then you'd see the "fancy sheets"
 And towels upon the line;
You'd see the "company table cloths"
 With intricate designs.
 The line announced a baby's birth
 From folks who lived inside -
 As brand new infant clothes were hung,
 So carefully with pride!
 The ages of the children could
So readily be known
 By watching how the sizes changed,
 You'd know how much they'd grown!
 It also told when illness struck,
 As extra sheets were hung;
 Then nightclothes, and a bathrobe, too,
Haphazardly were strung.
 It also said, "Gone on vacation now"
 When lines hung limp and bare.
 It told, "We're back!" when full line sagged
 With not an inch to spare!

 New folks in town were scorned upon
 If wash was dingy and gray,
 As neighbors carefully raised their brows,
 And looked the other way .. . ...
 But clotheslines now are of the past,
For dryers make work much less.
 Now what goes on inside a home
 Is anybody ' s guess!

I really miss that way of life.
It was a friendly sign
When neighbors knew each other best
 By what hung on the line

Book For This Week - 11-10- 2010

Shutter Island

by


Dennis Lehane

From the Publisher's Website:

"The basis for the blockbuster motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Shutter Island by New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane is a gripping and atmospheric psychological thriller where nothing is quite what it seems. The New York Times calls Shutter Island, “Startlingly original.” The Washington Post raves, “Brilliantly conceived and executed.” A masterwork of suspense and surprise from the author of Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone, Shutter Island carries the reader into a nightmare world of madness, mind control, and CIA Cold War paranoia and is unlike anything you’ve ever read before.  The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new ­partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple-murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades—with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is remotely what it seems. "

(Having just finished listening to this on audio tonight,  I can emphatically say that I would never have finished it had it not been the selection of the month for December at my book group at the library.   I can't say that the story didn't suck me into it,  but never the less it was a frightening experience to listen to and I have to say having finished it now -  I do not get it.  I have no interest in seeing the movie either.  The trailer will follow.   Again I do not recommend this book.  As always, click on the author's name and the book title to learn more)

Book For This Week - 11-8- 2010

The Deeds Of The Disturber


by


Elizabeth Peters

From the author's website:

"Can fear kill? There are those who believe so -- but Amelia Peabody is skeptical. A respected Egyptologist and amateur sleuth, Amelia has foiled felonious schemes from Victoria's England to the Middle East. And she doubts that it was a Nineteenth-Dynasty mummy's curse that caused the death of a night watchman in the British Museum. The corpse was found sprawled in the mummy's shadow, a look of terror frozen on the guard's face. What -- or who -- killed the unfortunate man is a mystery that seems too intriguingly delicious for Amelia to pass up, especially now that she, her dashing archaeologist husband, Emerson, and their precocious son, Ramses, are back on Britain's shores. But a contemporary curse can be as lethal as one centuries old -- and the foggy London thoroughfares can be as treacherous as the narrow, twisting alleyways of Cairo after dark -- when a perpetrator of evil deeds sets his murderous sights on his relentless pursuer . . . Amelia Peabody! "

(I finished listening to this book on audio a couple weeks ago and promptly hit the WeRead button at that other site I am on,  but neglected to get over here to Multiply and do a post on the book.  This book on CD was a gift from one friend here on Multiply and the fact that I even know this series of books exists is due to another friend here on Multiply who shared them with me.   Every time I listen to one of the Amelia Peabody books I think that the current one is my favorite of the series.  I find them all just delightful.  No doubt,  any time I need a fluff book,  or a little trip to somewhere away from stress and day to day hassles,  I know that Elizabeth Peter's will supply that reprieve in her characters antics in these books.  I highly recommend these books.  And as always,  click on the author's name and the title of the book to follow the links and learn more.)

How Much Does Each State Get Back From The Federal Government VS What They Pay In Taxes?

The following is stolen from HERE   but I have to say that I could not have said it better myself.  I kept thinking as I watched Rand Paul's acceptance speech   that those folks in KY have to get more federal money back than they pay in.  I went searching.  Seems like they do.   See the following for which states come out how on that scale.   Funny how the states that are most progressive are carrying the ones that are more conservative. 



"
How much does your state get from the federal government?

---

I hear sometimes that a big outrage is that money is sent to Washington and "we" don't get it back. One can value what government provides as one wants, but a simple way of looking at is to take the actual amounts sent by each state's taxpayers to Washington and then what Washington sends back in actual amounts to that state. This information is compiled by the somewhat non-partisan but essentially conservative Tax Foundation - taxfoundation.org. They tend to protect that data but they now have the 2005 numbers available for free. Here is a link.

So what does this show?

Here is the list, ranked by dollars back to dollar sent:

New Mexico $2.03
Mississippi $2.02
Alaska $1.84
Louisiana $1.78
West Va $1.76
N. Dakota $1.68
Alabama $1.53
S. Dakota $1.53
Kentucky $1.51
Virginia $1.51
Montana $1.47
Hawaii $1.44
Maine $1.41
Arkansas $1.41
Oklahoma $1.36
S. Carolina $1.35
Missouri $1.32
Maryland $1.30
Tennessee $1.27
Idaho $1.21
Arizona $1.19
Kansas $1.12
Wyoming $1.11
Iowa $1.10
Nebraska $1.10
Vermont $1.08
N. Carolina $1.08
Pennsylvania $1.07
Utah $1.07
Indiana $1.05
Ohio $1.05
Georgia $1.01
Rhode Island $1.00
Florida $.97
Texas $.94
Oregon $.93
Michigan $.92
Washington $.88
Wisconsin $.86
MA $.82
Colorado $.81
Delaware $.77
Illinois $.75
Minnesota $.72
NH $.71
CT $.69
Nevada $.65
New Jersey $.61

Sorry for any formatting issues, but I have no patience for that.

The list shows:

1. Income matters. The states with higher personal income send more to Washington DC than states which are poorer. Texas, for example, has become richer and thus it has dropped relatively recently below $1 back for every $1 sent.
2. There is a general transfer of wealth in this country. BUT, it runs from the richer states to the poorer states and runs almost exclusively from Democratic states to Republican states.

I point this out again: one major wealth transfer in this country runs from Democratic run states to Republican run states. It's not even close. Look at the list. Break even is RI and that is #33. Look at Illinois; they get back 3/4 of every $1 they send.

What this also means is that when S.Carolina (#16 at $1.35) uses incentives to draw business from Washington state, they're in part being subsidized by Washington (#38 at $.88). Competition between the states may be a great idea but it's certainly not being done on an even playing field.

I've heard offered the idea that states should get back what they send. I'm all for it: the GOP run states would be crushed and would have to change their policies to generate higher income, perhaps by investing more in human capital and not trying to keep wages and benefits as low as possible. My state could really use the extra 18 cents per dollar we send to the federal government.

An irony, of course, is that we hear this kind of rhetoric almost exclusively from GOP run states. The governor of Texas has complained notably about this and yet Texas is barely below $1 back - and only crossed that line in recent years - and every single state below them on the list is Democratic , with the possible exception of Nevada (and sometimes Colorado). And yet Republican run states are clearly the ones who benefit from the current system.

So again, let's equalize funding so each state gets what it sends in. I'm all for it.

"

The Reason Why She Was Stomped on?

Remember the woman who got stomped on down in KY outside of the debate?  See an interview with her on what she was attempting to do HERE.
and an example of one of the attempts in another state that was successful as the  move on organizations goal was accomplished. Hardly seems a reason to stomp on a person.

Vote November 2, 2010

I Remember

Thank you Stephen for this great find.

This and That From The Paper Bag

Occasionally that "got to blog feeling" comes along and even though I ought  not to take the time, the urge has overcome  good sense.  Part of my problem is that I have put it off long enough that there are several topics I want to cover.  Having  seen blogs where people write ten random thoughts down and leave it at that,  I want to go into  more depth on my concerns,  but yet rather than do a few separate entire posts I will combine a few paragraphs on items that I want to address in one single post.

1) Time to wine.  I have injured myself.  On Tuesday after work I threw away my terribly slow coffee pot and got the new one out of the box, getting it washed up for Wednesday morning.  Then I  decided I wanted to save the glass pot part,  which was then in the bottom of the garbage can in the garage.   I am 5'7" so I felt I could reach it.  While leaning over into the can, my fingers were barely touching it and I leaned just a bit more into it.  Something gave.  I am not sure if it was something in me or the edge of the plastic can but i quickly sunk about an inch and had a rather sharp pain in my side that knocked the wind out of me.   I caught my breath and was fine but am rather sore.  No bruising is present and it only really is painful when I reach down to pick something up.   One never realizes how often one does that till it hurts to do it.  Things  do seem to be getting worse every day so I suppose I messed up my intercostals and expect to be uncomfortable for a good long while.  The worst part is I am afraid to do my yoga as I am afraid I will make it worse.  Not doing my yoga makes the rest of me hurt.  The daily stretching always gets the tension out of my muscles and makes that age 53 stiffness go away.   Enough wining on to more positive things. 

2) Time to pat myself on the back.  Today I volunteered for three hours at a clinic for the un-insured that is located about a half hour from where I live.   It was not too busy this afternoon so that gave me a chance to get acclimated without too much stress.  The other volunteers seem nice and it was a positive experience.  I had wanted to volunteer in such a capacity for a long time.  As a nurse I went in to the medical  field to serve others and often get discouraged with  the business side of health care.  But I was unsure how to go about getting an opportunity to volunteer in such a capacity.   Late last winter when I went to a meeting at the Allen County Democratic building to help get the health care bill passed I met a person who was there because she was working on Tom Hayhurst's campaign.   She also schedules for the clinic for the uninsured (which Dr Hayhurst is one of the docs that is a part of that).  Since she had the schedule completed way ahead to free her up for working on the campaign it was not till November that I was free on an open time.  But today they had a cancellation and I was asked to fill in so I was glad to do so.    Often times working full time at my age is just about all I can do and today my house work went undone between the pain in my side and the fact that I was at the clinic during the time I would have normally been cleaning on my every other Thursday off.   Never the less,  it was a positive experience that I hope to do more of in the future.

3) My baby will be 27 soon.   When he was just under a year old,  in fact it was about this time of year,  he caught what started out as a cold.   I was recently divorced from his dad who was active duty  military and we had the kids on what was then called Champus.  I had driven to the nearest base to get him assessed and medicine for the cold but he continued to get worse and was getting dusky looking so I took him to the emergency room at the hospital where I lived.  I was told that unless I had the money in my pocket to hand over to the doctor that no one would see him.  I was frantic as a young mother holding my child who was struggling for his breath.   I asked the receptionist to page one doctor I knew of by name and he came and he did look at my son  and admitted Scott with pneumonia.  Scott was placed in an oxygen tent and spent a week at that hospital.  I know that today we have emergency room doctors and people don't have that sort of experience but never the less the event scarred me.   I know how it feels to have your child's life in danger and help in front of you but being denied to your little one.  That is why I am glad we passed health insurance reform in this country and why I think it was important that we did.  I wrote to Congressman Ellsworth and asked him to vote for the Health Insurance   Reform Act and promised if he did I would support him in his race for the Senate this fall.   I am glad he voted to pass Health Care Reform and just want to say that it makes me angry when his opponent's political ads put him down for that vote.  These ads even say that we can't afford to have values in this country.   How can people be attracted to vote for a man who says we can't afford to have values that provide health care to our citizens?  That we can't afford to have values that provide education for our children?   I have values whether I can afford to or not I guess.  I can't imagine voting for someone who over and over pounds into heads with constant television ads that we can't afford values.

4) Which brings me to my final point of this post.   This coming Tuesday is the day we all need to go vote.  Even though I live in an county that not too many people think like me and I will likely be in a minority I will still walk in there with my head held high and vote.   Over the years many people sacrificed and gave their lives so we could vote.  As a woman I especially appreciate those women who fought so hard to earn that privilege for me.   It has not been that many years ago that women could not vote.   I want to end this post with the plea to every one to exercise their right to vote this year.   It is an important election. 

Trailer for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

You may recall that I mentioned two weeks ago that Mark and I wanted to see the sequel to the 1987 Wall Street - "Money Never Sleeps". We did so this evening. The movie portrays the stock market crash we experienced a couple of years ago only using fictitious company names. The greed of people continues to be the theme in this movie as it was the first one. At least in the movie people were in trouble for their actions at the end. That made it better than what happened in real life where no one got in trouble but instead got lots of tax payer money. Sigh. I sure hope the government does not give our social security to wall street like the republicans want to.

God In America: Watch the Full Program Online | PBS

http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/view/
Six hour long segments. I haven't watched it yet but posting it will allow me to find it again easily.

Obama in Command: The Rolling Stone Interview | Rolling Stone Politics

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/209395?RS_show_page=0
This came out while I was on vacation but this evening I finally got it read. I wanted to post it in case anyone else missed it.

Day Three - Boston Massachusetts - Part Four

We concluded our walk of The Freedom Trail at the USS Constitution. http://www.ussconstitution.com/ We did not walk up to the Bunker Hill Monument after leaving the ship because it was the end of the day, the monument was closed, and we were very tired. Instead we hailed a cab back to the North Station and caught the metro back to Salem. We ate dinner at http://lobstershantysalem.com/ since it was our last evening and we felt we needed to have some seafood while on the coast. Although my sinuses had started feeling a little itchy on Tuesday afternoon late and my nose dripped a tad on Wednesday, it was not till during dinner Wednesday evening that my nose really filled up. So I was lucky enough to be able to enjoy the entire vacation before I got sick. The Amtrak ride home was pretty miserable but most of the trip I felt well. This is the last album of the trip to the Greater Boston Area that I went on the end of September 2010. While Peggy planned this years vacation, I planned last years trip when we went to Springfield Illinois and I will plan next years trip. I am not sure where we will go yet. But I am thinking more of a long weekend somewhere close by. Unfortunately I can't afford a trip like this one every year. We had a really nice time and I am very glad we took this vacation.

Day Three - Boston Massachusetts - Part Three

This album is more photos I shot while walking Boston's Freedom Trail.
http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/visitor/visitor.html
It includes Paul Revere's house, The Old North Church, and Copp's Hill Burying Ground. Cotton Mather is buried here as is Edmund Hart. It is one of Boston's highest points and the British used the grave stones in this cemetery for target practice.

Day Three - Boston Massachusetts - Part Two

As we continued to walk The Freedom Trail - http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/visitor/visitor.html we passed by Kings Chapel and the burial ground next to it, where the first female off the Mayflower is buried. Also is the woman who inspired Nathaniel Hawthorn to write The Scarlet Letter. After Kings Chapel, we passed the Old South Meeting House where the Patriots planned The Boston Tea Party. Soon we passed The Old State House and the area where stones in the ground commemorate the place where the Boston Massacre took place. This album ends with a picture of the doorway to Faneuil Hall. This was a market place that was built in 1742. During the years between 1763 and 1774 many important meetings of the patriots took place in the assembly room on the second floor. And on the morning after the Boston Massacre the victims were taken to this place where their funerals were held two days later.

There will be two more albums of pictures I took walking The Freedom Trail.

Day Three - Boston Massachusetts - Part One

On Wednesday we rode the metro into Boston and walked The Freedom Trail. Rather than label and provide links to each photo I will provide a link to The Freedom Trail and the photos I am posting are in the order of how they were taken on the walk. It will take a few albums to get all the photos posted.

http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/visitor/visitor.html

This album starts at the Boston Commons and includes pictures from The Statehouse, Park Street Church and The Granary Burying Ground. There is a stone in this cemetery for Samuel Adams and for Ben Franklin's parents. Some of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence are buried here. As are the victims of the Boston Massacre.

America's School Spirit Challenge sponsored by Care2 and GreatSchools.org

http://www.care2.com/schoolcontest/
Looks interesting.

Dinner and a Movie Oct 2010

Nicole and I cheated on our Dinner and a Movie night this month. We grabbed a quick bite a Fazoli's instead of cooking. But the movie was the real deal. I am not a big love story fan but really did like this one. When that Italian rode up on that horse even my heart skipped a beat. Great chick flick!!

Day Two - Concord Massachusetts - Part Three

The family history buff came out in me as we visited Sleepy Hollow Cemetery as indicated by the amount of pictures I took. This is not the one in New York that the legend story is written about but it has a special feeling to it when you are on author's ridge and seeing the graves of Louisa Mae Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathanial Hawthorn. We were there at dusk and it was raining. Am I right to assume the little white dots are the flash in the rain drops and not visitors? Of course it was raining harder at the Old North Bridge and no such dots are in those pictures. Hmmm. Perhaps no one sees them except me?

http://www.concordma.gov/Pages/ConcordMA_Cemetery/sleepy

Hopefully I have the graves labeled correctly. After we left Sleepy Hollow we drove to Waldon Pond. The parking area was closed and it was getting quite dark so we did not stop. We drove back to Salem, walked from the bed and breakfast to the business area and had a great meal at Passage to India.

http://ptisalem.foodler.com/MA/Salem/Vegetarian/Passage-to-India/Menu/1023.html


This concludes our second day in the Greater Boston Area. The next post will begin day three, which was spent in Boston.

Day Two - Concord Massachusetts - Part Two

After we left the Alcott's home we toured The Old Manse

http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/greater-boston/old-manse.html

and from there walked over to the Old North Bridge

http://www.newenglandtravelplanner.com/go/ma/boston_west/concord/sights/northbridge.html


It was just a quiet moment to think we were standing where the first shots of the Revolution were fired.


There will be one more post of day two and of photos from Concord. TBC.

My End Of The Couch

Although I have the congested sinuses from hell Mark was still good enough to take me out to dinner at our favorite local haunt and I had rented a movie for later.   I kept my germs to myself but we still enjoyed both the prime rib and the food for thought provided by the movie.  We wanted to watch "Wallstreet"  from 1987 because we want to catch the sequel that is out now in the near future.   Below is a video commercial of where we like to eat best here in town and the trailer for the movie.  The third video is one of the controversial scenes from the movie.   To me it says a great deal about what is wrong in this country.   Not that there are not things that are right too.   Watching this movie is quite the spring board for discussion.

Day Two - Concord Massachusetts - Part One

While I enjoyed every thing we saw and did on our vacation to the Boston area, I have to admit that my favorite day was the day we spent in Concord. We rented a car and drove from Salem to Concord on Tuesday morning. Well . . .late morning. We had made great plans to get an early start and be in Concord as things opened and then mid afternoon head south of Boston to Plymouth and finish with a later evening in the Plymouth area. As we all know - Enterprise picks you up. No where does it say on time. They ended up going to the wrong town to pick us up. So by the time they arrived to where we really were and carted us to the office to sign the car out I had already told Peg I now had two letters to write. While filling out the paper work I clearly explained to the Enterprise representative that now because of them I would never see Plymouth Rock in my life time. By the time we left, the $49 24 hour rental cost us $18.50 and we were under no obligation to refill the gas tank. As we drove to Concord I told Peg I was back to only one letter to write. The directions were not so clear but some how we found the Concord Museum by accident and it was delightful.

http://www.concordmuseum.org/

The Ralph Waldo Emerson home was not open but we visited the outside of it.


http://www.rwe.org/emersonhouse/

After a casual lunch down town at the Main Street Cafe we toured the home where Louisa Mae Alcott grew up.

http://www.louisamayalcott.org/

I want to take some time with rest of the day in Concord so I decided to divide it into three parts. TBC.

The Two National Park Areas in Salem Massachusetts

Located on Liberty Street.

The first thing we planned to do on Monday morning in Salem was to attend a historical walking tour put on by a Jim McAllister. We were 15 minutes late and missed that. I will provide the link so you can see how good it would have been had we made it. But undaunted we reminded ourselves that we were having a laid back day on Monday in Salem and could just as easily relax doing something else.
http://www.derbysquaretours.com/aboutjim.htm
After wandering around for awhile in the shops we had an early lunch at Reds.
http://redssandwichshop.com/
and then we headed down to the wharf to the other national park area.
http://www.nps.gov/sama/planyourvisit/visitorcenters.htm#CP_JUMP_80056
We had missed the morning tours there but there was one afternoon one that they would be doing so we shopped and then returned at the designated time to take that tour. It was full. I was a little miffed at the park ranger as he should have told us to secure a spot we needed to get a ticked when we were there the first time. As we left I told Peg I would have to write a letter when we got home to the National Park Service because they usually do a much better job than that. Never the less that was when we wandered over to the House of Seven Gables that I posted the pictures of already and it made up for any prior disappointments. We did some window shopping and it was after five already. By this time we were tired. We had walked all over Salem a couple of times and it had been a damp and misty day. So we headed back to our B&B and had food delivered for supper from:
http://www.thaiplace.net/
And spent some time planning our second days excursions.

The Bed and Breakfast We Stayed at in Salem Massachusetts - 9/26 - 9/30/ 2010

I took these at the last minute and of course I wish I would have taken them when we first got there and things looked nicer. For example, without the contents of my suitcase spread all over. I did not post the one of the bath tub. It was such a neat old fashioned claw foot tub but we had all our towels thrown in it and so I did not choose to post it. To learn more about the Henry Derby House follow the link.

http://www.henryderby.com/index.html

There were two houses affiliated with this B&B and we stayed at the house next door to the Henry Derby house.

The House Of Seven Gables - Salem Massachusetts.

Peg and I arrived in Salem late on Sunday evening (9/26/10) after an Amtrak ride that lasted almost 24 hours. We settled in our two bedroom suite at the bed and breakfast, showered and ordered a pizza. On Monday we wanted to take it easy since we were tired from the train ride so we did things locally in Salem. Neither of us are tourist trap types so we avoided things like "The Witch Museum" and "The Museum of the Forty Whacks". One of the things we did do was visit the house that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write "The House of Seven Gables". This tour was my favorite thing we did in Salem. Dated back to the 1600s it is the oldest home I have ever been in. Browse the pictures and follow the links provided to learn more about the house.

http://www.7gables.org/

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/arts/design/28anti.html?_r=1


http://www.salemwomenshistory.com/Caroline_Emmerton.html

Book For This Week - 9/25/10

To Die For
by
Linda Howard

From Publishers Weekly:

"Howard brings her usual high level of intelligence and flair to her latest tale of romantic suspense (after Kiss Me While I Sleep). Successful health club owner Blair Mallory is the only witness when a troublemaking member gets shot behind her North Carolina gym. Since the killer may not realize that Blair hasn't seen his face, she needs police protection—but her difficulties only escalate when Lt. Wyatt Bloodworth, with whom she had a short but intense relationship several years earlier, is assigned to the case. Still smarting from Wyatt's unexplained rejection, Blair resists his macho self-confidence; Wyatt in turn is irritated by her refusal to follow orders, even as he succumbs to her feisty charm and potent sexuality. Their investigations promptly reveal a major suspect, but the attacks on Blair continue even after the alleged killer is apprehended. As they consider a new array of possible murderers, the pair (aided and abetted by their colorful families) conduct a spirited battle of the sexes. Blair's chirpy asides on everything from underwear to men will wear on readers by the middle of the book, when the plot's momentum stalls. Still, Blair's surface fluffiness and underlying savvy make her an engaging narrator, and the book's witty Southern "take" on womanhood will amuse readers in the region and beyond."

(This book is not my cup of tea although some might enjoy it . There is actually a sequel,  which I will not bother with.  Once I purchased what is termed a "lot"  on ebay of audio books and this was in that group.  While that purchase exposed me to some authors I will  seek out in the future,  this is not one of those.  Click on the author's name and title to learn more details.  If you like trashy romances you will want to grab this one.)

Book For This Week - 9/22/10

The Summons





by







John Grisham

From the author's website:

"Ray Atlee is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He’s forty-three, newly single, and still enduring the aftershocks of a surprise divorce. He has a younger brother, Forrest, who redefines the notion of a family’s black sheep.

And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atlee, a beloved and powerful official who has towered over local law and politics for forty years. No longer on the bench, the Judge has withdrawn to the Atlee mansion and become a recluse.

With the end in sight, Judge Atlee issues a summons for both sons to return home to Clanton, to discuss the details of his estate. It is typed by the Judge himself, on his handsome old stationery, and gives the date and time for Ray and Forrest to appear in his study.

Ray reluctantly heads south, to his hometown, to the place where he grew up, which he prefers now to avoid. But the family meeting does not take place. The Judge dies too soon, and in doing so leaves behind a shocking secret known only to Ray.

And perhaps someone else."

(As I have mentioned in the past I really like John Grisham's books and  while my favorite will always be "The Last Juror"  I must admit that "The Summons"  just knocked "The Testament"  out of second place.  While the canoe trip down the Amazon River in "The Testament"  was very exciting  it can't beat Ray Atlee's situaion for sitting on the edge of one's seat.  As always,  click on the the author's name and title of the book to the right of the  picture of the book to follow the links and learn more.)

Essenhaus Amish Style Inn

http://www.essenhaus.com/
Mark and I have talked about going to Essenhaus for dinner since the holidays last year but decided to wait on good weather. When good weather came we got busy and forgot about it. But when he asked me to pick a special place to eat tonight as we were celebrating my passing my microbiology test last month tonight (had to celebrate my birthday and had to have my week to cook in between there) I remembered Essenhaus. So we drove the hour north tonight and went to Essenhaus. Boy oh boy oh - did we ever leave full!!! The food was wonderful too!!

Now That Some Time Has Passed Since Health Insurance Reform Became The Law . . .

Every one has had time to get over being either furious or happy over the passage of Health Insurance Reform but of course we all still want more details of how it will effect our lives.  I just found this little video that I think explains the changes and when they can be expected to happen in a simple manner.

Book For This Week - 9/11/10

Looking For

Alaska

by


John Green

From School Library Journal

"Grade 9 Up - Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter's adolescence has been one long nonevent - no challenge, no girls, no mischief, and no real friends. Seeking what Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps," he leaves Florida for a boarding school in Birmingham, AL. His roommate, Chip, is a dirt-poor genius scholarship student with a Napoleon complex who lives to one-up the school's rich preppies. Chip's best friend is Alaska Young, with whom Miles and every other male in her orbit falls instantly in love. She is literate, articulate, and beautiful, and she exhibits a reckless combination of adventurous and self-destructive behavior. She and Chip teach Miles to drink, smoke, and plot elaborate pranks. Alaska's story unfolds in all-night bull sessions, and the depth of her unhappiness becomes obvious. Green's dialogue is crisp, especially between Miles and Chip. His descriptions and Miles's inner monologues can be philosophically dense, but are well within the comprehension of sensitive teen readers.   The language and sexual situations are aptly and realistically drawn, but sophisticated in nature. Miles's narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious struggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believability."


(I finished listening to this on audio as I peeled and cored pears for canning this morning.  This is the first young adult book I have listened to this year and it is one that I will highly recommend to any young adult 18 or above.  I would not be comfortable with my ninth grader reading it. (if I had one)due to sexual content.   Although very funny in parts and very sad in parts,  a profoundness resonates throughout the book.  As always,  click on the author's name and title to follow the links to more information.  This is one that I would like to have a hard copy of in my personal library to lift quotes from.  It deals with the suffering we all feel in life in a very comforting way.)

Death and Disease from Power Plants

http://www.catf.us/coal/problems/power_plants/existing/
Click on your state on the interactive map at this site and see the stats.

Iron Jawed Angels Part 1/12

Birthday Gift

As you may know,  I turned 53 the end of last month.   Mark took me out for fillet mignon at Logan's the week before.   Yesterday,  he put landscaping timbers around my back flower bed off of my deck!  This is something I have wanted done since I purchased my condo seven years ago!!

Keep It In Drive

I work second shift so always am watching things a couple days after they happen.  If any one else missed this speech - here it is.  BTW I am posting because I liked it.

Book For This Week - 9/07/10

Midnight

by

Dean Koontz

From Library Journal

Four people are the last hope of Moonlight Cove, because one by one the rest of the citizens are changing into boogymen, werewolves, mythical creatures, or something entirely new. They are the New People, willing victims of a seductive experiment in chemically induced evolution. They can transform their bodies at will and eliminate unproductive emotions, like grief and compassion. In fact, the only instinct left to the New People is self-preservation, and their only emotion is fear. And they want the rest of humanity to join them. Popular author Koontz ( Watchers , Lighting ) has again delivered a gripping horror thriller with well-drawn characters and plenty of suspense.

(I just finished listening to this audio book on my way home from work tonight.  This was a gift from a MP friend and as always,  Dean Koontz kept me awake on my commute.  I was a little afraid to walk out to the mail box a couple of nights when I got home after second shift though after listening to this book on the way home.  Don't forget to click on the author's name and the title of the book to follow the links and learn more.)