3 Ring Binder

Who else, but Harry Potter (and Ms. Rowling) could inspire such enthusiasm in the young (staying up past midnight and in line for hours) and old (allowing aforementioned young to do such things) alike? Thanks to Mariposario and Rational Jenn for the reminders.

There are five children in my daughter's swim class. On the first day, when there were only three children, the instructor really impressed me with his thoughtful, individual attention and judicious, appropriate use of each of the children's names. On the second day a new boy, Lewis, joined the group and I began to hear his name and the other boy's name, but the two girls had suddenly become "the girls". On the third day, a third boy, Kevin, joined the class. This not only solidified the girls' collective appellation of "the girls", but I began to hear "Kevin", "the boys", and "the girls". Does this instructor's ability to differentiate names stop at the number 3? Is 4 his " crow busting " number? Shoud I be concerned that he is in charge of the safety and well-being of my quiet, nascent swimmer? The instructor's name? I think it's...The Professor.

Our dog, Izzy, the stogie-smokin'-man-faced Pug, is hanging on to "dog" status by a thread. As she walks around the house desperately searching for the very best place to bury her partially digested chewy thing (I suppose it used to be bone shaped), her behavior may reflect her wolf ancestry of old. However, it is not long before she finds a place, an open violin case, deposits her treasure and with a swipe of the paw places it perfectly, then sits back, tilts her head, and seems to wonder why the case won't close over said booty when her "bred for human companionship" gene pool reveals itself.

Thanks to a post on the History At Our House yahoo group, I just found out that David Harriman is creating an entire science program through Falling Apple Science Institute . From the website: There is a necessary logical order to the history of scientific discoveries. Nobody would claim that it is possible to understand calculus before grasping the principles of geometry and algebra. Similarly, one cannot develop modern genetics or immunology without chemistry, or understand modern chemistry without the atomic theory of matter, or prove the atomic theory without first grasping the basic principles of physics and scientific method. Each discovery was made possible by the previous discoveries. The history of science reveals the order in which the principles had to be learned, and therefore the order in which they should be taught. It seems the products will not be available for a while, but we've got time. How cool is that?

As someone with wacky vision (myopic in one eye/hyperopic in the other), I have often theorized that some artists, such as vanGogh perhaps, use their passing visual misinterpretations of reality as inspiration for their creativity. Without my glasses on, I often see odd shapes and colors and have to work to understand what things might really be or how they might really appear, because what I see doesn't reconcile with what I know. It’s rather amusing sometimes. I wish I could remember some examples right now, but in the meantime, please enjoy today’s poetry selection which touches upon this idea. A Passing Glimpse by Robert Frost To Ridgely Torrence On Last Looking into His 'Hesperides' I often see flowers from a passing car That are gone before I can tell what they are. I want to get out of the train and go back To see what they were beside the track. I name all the flowers I am sure they weren't; Not fireweed loving where woods have burnt-- Not bluebells gracing a ...

I love Louis Prima's addition to this classic Disney movie.

When a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and, when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support, so that its Professors are oblig'd to call for the help of the Civil Power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one. - Ben Franklin in a letter to Richard Price 9 Oct 1780 But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. -Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782 Inasmuch as God was an inextricable part of colonial life, our founding fathers appreciated the importance of keeping religious beliefs outside of the realm of government force. Despite our ever advancing prosperity and scientific knowledge and access to a greater range of historical facts, why has our country seemingly turned its back on their wisdom? Where are our bold statesmen who will speak out against the slippery slope of using government to force a religious agenda? As students of political ...

I have been pointed to this video (below in three parts) enough times that I thought I'd post it here. The fellas follow an all too familiar case in which some God-fearing townsfolk demand creationism be taught along side of evolution. Warning: there are some cuss words, but remarkably few given the outrageous drive to kill science and fertilize religion in the minds of the young government school students . What I find the most curious is that under the guise of teaching science, where evolution is just a "theory", the creationists claim that both evolution and creationism be taught and then let the children decide which is a better fit in their lives. What a good idea! Why didn't those pedagogues think of that earlier: Johnny, here is a book. There are many words in here that must be learned through a consistent systematic approach starting with the letters of the alphabet, the sounds those letters make, alone and when blended with other letters before those word...

Has anyone out there found a way to make house cleaning less of a soul-sucking activity? All suggestions are welcomed.

A Man's Requirements by Elizabeth Barrett Browning I Love me Sweet, with all thou art, Feeling, thinking, seeing; Love me in the lightest part, Love me in full being. II Love me with thine open youth In its frank surrender; With the vowing of thy mouth, With its silence tender. III Love me with thine azure eyes, Made for earnest grantings; Taking colour from the skies, Can Heaven's truth be wanting? IV Love me with their lids, that fall Snow-like at first meeting; Love me with thine heart, that all Neighbours then see beating. V Love me with thine hand stretched out Freely -- open-minded: Love me with thy loitering foot, -- Hearing one behind it. VI Love me with thy voice, that turns Sudden faint above me; Love me with thy blush that burns When I murmur 'Love me!' VII Love me with thy thinking soul, Break it to love-sighing; Love me with thy thoughts that roll On through living -- dying. VIII Love me in thy gorgeous airs, When the world has crowned thee; Love me, kneeli...

This is a ten-minute reprise of his Last Lecture . I recommend it and his full lecture .

People seem to crave human imagery in explaining things that we have not yet been able to explain through science. That’s why I think Gaia substitutes so nicely in the lives of people who do not have God. However, as one who looks to neither God nor Gaia for reason, I have, on occasion, reviewed the science presented by Al Gore and his acolytes, with the help of many other scientists who also have reviewed the information and have nothing to gain (but much to lose) by respectfully disagreeing with his claim of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (CAGW). I wish merely to point out that perhaps we shouldn’t swallow the idea of man-made global warming whole. As someone who devoted her professional life to writing, enforcing, and working with environmental regulations and policies and her academic life to environmental sciences (focusing on geology and water resources), I consider myself just knowledgeable enough to doubt that we have the data to support AGW or to understand what ...

Here is an excellent free access article in the Summer 2008 edition of The Objective Standard . Through a look at the history of the electric grid, it elucidates the importance of private property rights even for something which seems so strongly to belong to the community as electricity transmission. It also does a great job explaining the seduction of regulations which promise, but do not deliver, the ability of private enterprises to move forward by permitting use of the commons rather than through private property agreements.

I got this in an email from my brother today - apparently, it's going around. I thought some of these pieces made out of driftwood were really amazing. You can see more here .

I spent all of yesterday either watching The Sound of Music (first performance), or watching the children who bring the characters of The Sound of Music to life (kid wrangler for second performance – and me without a lasso). Really, with only four weeks and a widely varied group of child actors and singers, the well-rehearsed and tightly-stitched show they were able to produce was quite impressive! Maria and the Captain were 16 and 15 year-olds, respectively, and they couldn’t have been better. The von Trapp children were aged 9 to 16 and they not only hit their lines, marks, and notes, they did it with clarity and sass. The singing nuns who made up the bulk of the cast (7-16) sang in beautiful four-part harmony, in Latin! I had my doubts with what these directors had to work with, but they managed to not only pull off an entertaining, fully staged musical production of a beloved classic in four weeks but they did so while using every child in the cast well. Being unfamiliar with the...

I thought it was funny.

If you love ABBA - it's just a rollicking good time - see it with friends - stay through the credits. Good Things: The scenery is gorgeous (Santorini, perhaps?). I have a new respect for Pierce Brosnan who tried really, really hard and looked really, really good (especially compared to his compatriots). The big musical numbers are hilarious and infectious (in a good way). Julie Walters was great (Meryl Streep and Christine Baranski were good, too)! ABBA (nuff said). Fair Warnings: If you don't love ABBA, or don't know ABBA, the story may cause confusion (if you do love ABBA, you won't care!). Much to my chagrin, Colin Firth (that's right - the love god) looked a little like he had just been beached after too many days floating in the ocean. Except for the above clip (into which two goofy guitar riffs were added) their take on the songs didn't bother me much. In fact, I could understand some words I had always just mumbled! If you're not over 40, some scenes ...

How cool is this BigDog robot from Boston Dynamics ? Thanks to a poster on HBL .

Blogging is a fun activity because it gives me the opportunity to learn new skills and practice old ones. HTML coding, albeit limited to only the simplest of codes, is one of those skills which I am learning s l o w l y. For reasons which I still do not quite comprehend, but most probably have to do with my impatience and (unexplainable in this particular situation) lack of attention to detail, I continue to post responses on other people’s blogs in which I misspell, misspeak, or just generally miss. I honestly think that when I decide, last minute, to add a word, a bracket, or a punctuation mark, my cursor, in direct correlation to the exigency of my fingers, jumps position to some other line. Because the addition is minor relative to the rest of the words, I never really notice the misplacement until after I hit “submit”. If you, like me, need to improve the mechanics of your response skills, I have one word for you – tinyURL (yes, thanks to the wikiworld, it is one word). I know it’...

It even says so on the tote bag my husband bought me for Christmas. Read an interesting interview with him in yesterday's Washington Post celebrity blog. If you don’t know Mike Rowe , or his Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs , check them out. He’s funny, smart, respectful, and incredibly charismatic – and, oh – he can sing!

Have a good night!

"She looked like she needed a friend more than I." This is not how I speak, but it is what my youngest daughter said to me today. She often speaks this way - and I love it so. Do you think she's been reading Grammar Girl and is a firm conjunctivist? Did you know that "out of the mouths of babes" is a biblical verse ? Me neither - on both counts.

I'm signed up to receive a classic poem of the day through About.com . I really enjoy reading a poem each day, most of which are new to me. In the past, I have often loved the beauty and passion of Emily Dickinson. But lately, she's just been bringing me down. Here is the sample of her work I received today: A door just opened on a street-- I, lost, was passing by-- An instant's width of warmth disclosed And wealth, and company. The door as sudden shut, and I, I, lost, was passing by,-- Lost doubly, but by contrast most, Enlightening misery. (953) It's still beautiful, but sad and depressing. It's a far cry from: Wild Nights – Wild Nights! Were I with thee Wild Nights should be Our luxury! Futile – the winds – To a heart in port – Done with the compass – Done with the chart! Rowing in Eden – Ah, the sea! Might I but moor – Tonight – In thee! (249) Passionate longing - in no way depressing. And: A Man may make a Remark— In itself—a quiet thing That may furnish the Fu...

Maybe it's because I'm old, or maybe it's just my disdain for unofficial abbreviations (UA), but in the event that you too missed the fashion evolution of emo , I'm here to help. Emo is a term originally and still applied to a type of music , but has since become synonymous with a fashion and personality type characterized by young emotional angst. It takes the form of whiny self-affliction, black rings around the eyes, tight pants, black glasses, lots of hair across the face, and emotional affectations. Here is a good description and here are some pictures and a tutorial on how to dress emo. Looks like goth meets soft punk to me.

This has been around for a while, and on my sidebar since I had a side bar, but really, if you haven't seen it, it's worth a look. If you have, it's worth a second look. This is just cool.

My fascination with fringe and white go-go boots is starting to make sense to me now.

Or rather, jabbed. I was at the vet this morning with my totally spastic Pug for her annual physical. In the commotion of having three people attempting to settle the little spaz-mo onto the steel table so the doctor could do her thing, said doctor plunged the needle, not into the furry beast, but me! I didn't know it was a clean needle, rather than one filled with some dog vaccine until the doctor started talking to the dog, in baby talk no less, that "luckily it was a clean needle" and "I don't think mommy liked that". My dog is okay. She's kind of cute in a I've-stolen-Winston-Churchill's- face kind of way. And she actually seems rather smart, for a designer dog who snorts constantly and looks earnestly and quizzically at you when you say "NO - Get down from the Noguchi Table, you beast!" However, under no circumstances do I wish to be referred to as her "mommy". As if the stabbing weren't insulting enough. For a mere $...

Sometimes, a girl gets to wondering.... what other paths could I have chosen?

Well, it's something. Today the EPA answered the Supreme Court's request that it determine whether or not global warming creates public health risks. The 1000 page report came to no conclusions but that the EPA was not the agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Such an activity was better suited for the congress said the EPA chief Johnson. Blame the current President and his administration, but what bureaucracy doesn't want to expand its base? What type of scientific evidence is so overwhelming that the Environmental Protection Agency thinks that the main legislative body of the country would do a better job in controlling and reversing the effects of that evidence. Instituting a regulatory and economic nightmare is bad business - particularly when the causal relationship between global warming and greenhouse gases has not been proven - not to mention the anthropogenic portion of those gases not clearly apportioned between sources or differentiated from natural sou...

Still substantively on page 8 of the 52 pages of Chapter 169 of the Acts of 2008 of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, also known as the Green Communities Act, I did skim ahead and found that there are 124 Sections of the Act, at least 53 of which are just inserting sections or words into the existing laws, 25 of which are effective date related, and one actually repeals something! SECTION 59. Subsection (f) of section 1A of chapter 164 of the Generals Laws is hereby repealed. Well, that’s exciting. Let’s find out what has been repealed, shall we? A quick glance (and careful number, letter, parenthesis, period, and italics following) yields that that there is no subsection (f) of Chapter 164 section 1A ! The one ray of light in the entire document refers to the repeal of a non-existent subsection! It’s really hard reading through the laws not only due to the convoluted, sub-sectioned, and awkwardly referential language, but mostly because it is a naked attempt to centralize electrical...

Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is to provide forthwith for renewable and alternative energy and energy efficiency in the commonwealth, therefore it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience. So begins An Act Relative To Green Communities signed into law on July 2nd by Governor Deval Patrick. In his press release , Governor Patrick displays Senator Obama-like enthusiasm for impacting the whole world with his green policies. The Act will invest (can the government invest taxpayer's money?), stabilize the markets , relieve homeowners by allowing them to sell back to energy to utilities at a very good rate , That sounds like a whole lotta government interference to me. While I am only on page 3 of the 52 page Act (slogging through referenced Acts, Policies, and General Laws is quite confusing and tiring), I am most interested in the auctioning of carbon dioxide i...

Almost everyday I get to learn something new (or, seems new to me if I’ve forgotten – effectively, the same) particularly when one of my children asks me a question. Last night at the library, my daughter, apparently confounded by her inability to find a favorite Barbie fashion book in the non-fiction section, asked me “What do these mean?” She was referring to the posters at the end of each aisle which contained the list of numbers and subjects in accordance with the Dewey Decimal Classification system. With the ease of using the internet for research, and the lack of a physical card catalogue system to show her (a shocking discovery I made a few years back), I was more than happy to explain the DDC to her – in as much as I understood it. Much to my surprise, I didn’t even know this Dewey character’s first name was Melvil (as reported on the poster). In looking a little further into the system, and Melvil Dewey ’s background, I found some interesting information. The DDC rivals t...

At least that's how the Actor, Environmentalist greets me in his letter personally addressed to me and paid for by the Natural Resources Defense Council "The Earth's Best Defense". In this beseeching letter, Mr. DiCaprio, who is not really my friend, urges me to protect the polar bears. And I quote, "I'm proud to be counted as one of the nearly one million Americans who have already told the Bush Administration that polar bears desperately need -- and deserve -- full protection now." In the accompanying letter by the NRDC, I am reminded of "... The muffled cries of newborn polar bear cubs as they are buried alive when their snowy den collapses from unseasonable rains." (bold, theirs) It ends urging me to sign the Citizen Petition and tell the Interior Secretary the I object "to putting polluter profits before polar bear survival". Not to be crass or callous, but WTF? I do belong to some historic preservation trusts (private land tr...

Have you ever noticed how those who would attempt to denigrate our exploitations of the earth by characterizing them as the "hubris of man" would never think to describe efforts to stop planetary cycles as such?

Like the painters Bouguereau, and Sargent, singer Andrea Bocelli has been criticized as lacking talent in his chosen field. I challenge anyone who doesn’t speak Italian to listen to his version of Canto Della Terra . Does this man’s voice make anyone else cry? (If you do speak Italian, all bets are off – I have no idea what he’s saying! It could be completely objectionable, but man, his voice is beautiful.)

Enjoy! And this fun bit of non-PC pursuit of happiness! This one is truly my favorite, but it is about the Preamble to the Constitution rather than the Declaration of Independence, so I'll leave it for you to follow on your own should you choose. Thanks to Rational Jenn for reminding me of these gems.

In light of the recent conjoining of the wrong-headed ideology of both political candidates for POTUS, may I suggest the following course of action.

I spent the bulk of today with a few homeschool mother friends – jammin’ . Nope, not to Bob Marley, but with actual strawberries , rhubarb , sterilized jars , boiling with 1/8” of head space in the jar (really, my friend measured it), etc . It was really, really fun despite the incredible heat in the kitchen and our initial batch of strawberry rhubarb jam for which we forget to pre-cook the rhubarb but that mistake yielded a nonetheless delicious concoction we now lovingly refer to as Crunchy Strawberry Rhubarb Jam. From Whole Foods Market website , I found this funny tidbit about rhubarb: Garden rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) is an extremely hardy perennial herb closely related to garden sorrel. It is sometimes called "pie-plant" by Americans in deference to its eminence as a pastry filling. As an herb, rhubarb is botanically a vegetable but was officially ruled to be a fruit by the US Customs Court in 1947 because of its customary use in that capacity, an example, perhaps, of...

Thanks to Kim , I submitted my blog for a "readability test". That's an interesting idea, but I have to wonder, what words, or phrase combinations could I possibly have used to generate that "level of education required" to understand my blog?

In researching whether or not shoddy safety practices in a germ warfare lab on an island off the northeast coast of the US unleashed a huge Lyme disease outbreak on us or not, I discovered this very interesting chat session between Tom Wolfe and Michael Gazzaniga regarding free will and the long path of neuroscience and the philosophy of the human condition. Being neither a philosopher nor a neuroscientist, but a rational human being, I found the discussion quite interesting. Here they are chatting on video. Just thought other “informavores” might want to check it out.

This afternoon as I was picking up our youngest daughter from theatre arts camp, I was accidently privy to an interesting conversation among the director of the play and three of the interns. As they are putting on a full musical production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Sound of Music , they were discussing the use of the swastika. It seems that the management of the music school, out of which the play will be performed, is concerned that by using the symbol, they would be somehow promoting Nazism and offending Jewish people. The other side of the discussion supported the idea that by leaving out the swastika, they were, in effect, glossing over the Holocaust, which of course, was the entire conflict of the Sound of Music (sure – there’s the dead wife, the wild children, the forbidden love, and bad nunning, but you get the point). I understood both sides of the discussion, but I had to agree that to leaving the swastika out of the production would be a mistake on many levels. First, it w...