Ohio Is Losing Its Marbles--Part II: Issue 2 & the Economy

NOTE: This entry has been posted one week early, because I will be unable to make a post on October 9th.

In Ohio...
As I pointed out in Part I, except for the occasional experimental runs of the now mostly closed JABO, Inc. in Reno, Ohio, Marble King (West Virginia, not too far from Reno, Ohio) is the only fully operational toy marble company left in the United States.  A year ago, Marble King President Beri Fox told Steven Colbert that she wants the government to level the playing field.  Colbert asked the "Marble Queen of Marble King," the following question: "If you could wave a magic wand and tell the government to do something for small business, what would it be?  Extend the tax cut to the richest 2% of Americans?"

Her answer was, "Absolutely not."  Instead, she wants the Federal Government to level the playing field (no pun intended, I suspect), to endorse small businesses to export (such as how China subsidizes its toy marble factories).  To this, Colbert replied, "Madam if I can use a metaphor from the world of marbles, it sounds like our government is not playing for keeps." They're talking about tarriffs. According to Marbles Galore:

When American inventor Martin F. Christensen created the world's first glass sphere-making machine in the early 1900s, he faced stiff competition from overseas. Germany had long dominated the world's toy marble market with their handmade glass, crockery and agate marbles.

Martin's toughest challenge was not found in making a better product. American children adored the new fantastically round and smooth "glassies" he had so ingeniously created. Rather, like so many American manufacturers before and after him, his challenge was labor cost.

The economic woes of the nation have often been mirrored in Ohio.  For example, Goodyear (of Akron, Ohio) will be marking its 25th Anniversary of a win against a hostile corporate take-over by British billionaire Sir James Goldsmith.  This fight went national, all the way to Washington, D.C. and a congressional subcommittee hearing.  According to Jim Mackinnon:

Goldsmith got an earful from the congressional committee, too.

U.S. Rep. John Seiberling of Akron, grandson of a Goodyear co-founder, noted that Goldsmith in preceding weeks at one point said he didn’t know anything about the tire business, but subsequently said he knew more about tires than the people running Goodyear.

“My question is: Who the hell are you?” Seiberling said. The room exploded with applause, including Goldsmith.  (Ohio.com, 10/2/2011)

 This is a fine example of workers and their employers in unity, fighting together to survive.  Such unity rarely exists any more in either the private sector or the public sphere.  Unions, for better or for worse, are a symptom of the discord between employee and employer.  More recently, however, organization has begun to spring up (not among the exploited employed, but) among the increasing and increasingly angry unemployeed--both in Ohio and across the nation.


In the Nation...

Protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge: 700 Arrested

Meanwhile, we watch  as filmmaker Michael Moore and actress Susan Sarandon lend media attention to the protesters in New York, and (according to Reuters' Ray Sanchez), "similar protests [were] sprouting in other cities, including Boston, Chicago and San Francisco."  It has been an angry few years, as it has become more than obvious that Wall Street is significantly more important than Main Street--but not in the way that Sara Palin bullshits, full of illogical thinking, as illustrated by the below South Park clip.

South Park: "They took our jobs!"

What is frightening, to me, is the way that freedom of speech is being controlled.  the aggressive behavior of law enforcement officials is disturbing.  For example, in the past two weeks, an organization known as Occupy Wall Street, has been camping out as close to Wall Street as possible (at Liberty Park).  People from all over the nation have come to participate, but it is yet little more than 1000 folks in total.  On Friday (9/30/2011), they attempted clarity of their complaints (something members of the Tea Party have yet to achieve) in their Declaration of the Occupation of New York City.

Occupy Wall Street Protesters Take Brooklyn Bridge 
-- 700+ Arrested HD (10/1/2011)

According to Ed Pilkington of  The Guardian, "Activists, as well as commentators following the protest against inequality and corporate excess, claim the response of the city's police force to the peaceful event was vastly out of proportion."   However, as Mark Engler writes, "OccupyWallStreet has accomplished a great deal in the past week and a half, with virtually no resources" ("Five Ways Occupy Wall Street Has Succeeded").

Still, it is worth taking into consideration, too, the fact that  JPMorgan Chase & Co. have practically bought the NYPD.  Do you think Gov. Kasich wishes a bank would buy some of Ohio's public workers?

Back to Ohio...

I wonder--given the national attention this tiny protest in Manhattan is receiving, and you know that the protests against union busting in Wisconsin made national news--why is is that so few people are aware that the "We Are Ohio Campaign"  had a rally on the Ohio Statehouse Lawn back in April (4/9/2011)? Over 10,000 people attended.  The good people of Ohio are getting ready to vote over Issue 2, a veto referendum that was supported by thousands of petition signature (915,456 verified Ohio citizen signatures) against Ohio Senate Bill 5.  The ballot will read as follows:

	Issue 2 Referendum A majority yes vote is necessary for Amended Substitute Senate Bill No. 5 to be approved. Amended Substitute Senate Bill No. 5 is a new law relative to government union contracts and other government employment contracts and policies. A “YES” vote means you approve the law. A “NO” vote means you reject the law. Shall the law be approved? ___Yes (To approve the law) ___No (To reject the law)

 Essentially, according to Ballotpedia, the provisions of OH SB-5 are as follows:

• Bargaining: Expands the topics that management can refuse to negotiate with public employees. Those topics include: employee qualifications, word assignments and staffing levels. According to reports, public employees can still bargain for wages and hours.

• Strikes: Strikes would be banned, along with a deduction of "an amount equal to twice the employee's daily rate of pay" for each day an employee is considered to be on strike.

• Performance pay and sick/vacation leave: Currently, the minimum amount for a teacher to be paid is $17,300. This would be undone by the law, replacing this by implementing a pay by performance provision. Sick leave would be reduced from three weeks a year to two. Vacation leave would be capped to five weeks a year.

• Union fees: Public employees would not have to pay union fees if they do not want to be become a union member. This was a condition of employment before Senate Bill 5.

• Governing bodies and contract disputes: The governing body of a city, school, or township would have the final say on any contract disputes that initially become unresolved.

• Charter schools: Employees of charter schools would not be allowed to collectively bargain. The only exception, according to reports, would be conversion charter schools.  

The organization, Building a Better Ohio, wants Ohioans to vote "YES" on Issue 2.  The argument is

"When budgets get tight, struggling schools shouldn't have to lay off great teachers simply because they haven't served long enough. Voting YES on Issue 2 will fix that by putting job performance, not just seniority, first."  This is not a logical argument; it is INSANE!  The threat is that great teachers will be laid off, our children will suffer, if we do not keep SB-5 enacted.

The organization, We Are Ohio, has been arguing that the inability to negotiate will cause lower quality education, nursing, firefighting, and police protection.  This is a difficult argument to make because it is complex, and it is difficult to convey clearly because its complexity is rooted in well conceived logic. The only way that I can think of to make the argument simple to understand is with a question: What quality _____ (teacher, nurse, firefighter, police person, other public worker) will stay at a low-paying job that is filled with the stresses of being over-worked because of under-staffing?

A Sign Passing around on Facbook

 

Ohio government is trying to play for keeps 

with corporations at the exploitation of its public employees and the rest of its citizens.

Anyone see any marbles rolling around?

Ohio Is Losing Its Marbles--Part I

Mood Marbles

I currently reside in Ohio (however,  Wisconsin is my home of origin; furthermore, the Rocky Mountains, the Smokey Mountains, and Vermont are my ideal vacation spots).  Ohio is a much more interesting place than one might imagine.  For example, there are the following places that might be fun to visit: the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the Great Serpent Mound, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, the annual Labor Day Weekend Flea Market (which has been going on for over 70 years).  Ohio is home to the rubber industry (particularly the tire industry), the steel industry, the cereal industry, the lamps industry, Thomas Edison, eight U. S. Presidents, John Brown, Alcoholics Anonymous, the first all-deaf football team (the Goodyear Silents),  four dead students, a burning river, Ohio is currently home to the University of Akron College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering and the Kent State University Liquid Crystal Institute.  Did you know that Labor Day was founded in Ohio, by Ohio's first Black attorney, John Patterson Green?  Did you know that Shawshank Redemption was made here in Ohio?   Did you know that the birth of the modern American toy industry happened in Ohio?

The making of marbles did not originate in Ohio.  Marbles have been around for thousands of years, but only in the last 100 years have they been mass produced by machinery.  One might find all sorts of marbles made in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America during the 1880s.  Indeed, playing with marbles is a long-held, varied tradition of global standards.  "Marbles is an ancient game that can be played 100 different ways. Some say that marble games were spread by soldiers of the Roman Empire. Washington and Jefferson played marbles. So did Lincoln. Games such as billiards, bowling, golf and pinball are all derived from marbles, enthusiasts say, though such claims are probably impossible to verify."  (Dan Ackman, "Now No One Plays for Keeps")  In Roman times, bags of nuts and marbles were traditional Christmas presents, according to The National Marble Museum at the Museum of American Glass in West Virginia.  According to another source, "The oldest marbles found thus far by archaeologists date from 3000 BC. They are a group of rounded semi-precious stones that were buried with an Egyptian child at Nagada."

M.F. Christensen & Son marble

However, Ohio is the origin of the modern American toy marble industry.    Men like Sam Dyke, M. F. Christensen, James Harvey Leighton, helped found this industry in the late 1800s, early 1900s.  The first factory was built in Akron, Ohio.  The National Marble Tournament, held every year in Wildwood, New Jersey, was begun in 1923 by the Scripps Howard newspaper corporation, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. You can visit the American Toy Marble Museum, which is located on the grounds of the old M. F. Christensen & Son Company factory at Lock 3 (Akron, Ohio).  There were toy marble factories located all over Ohio, particularly in the Akron, Ohio area.  There were also several factories located in West Virginia.  Sadly, no fully functioning factories remain in Ohio, and only Marble King exists in West Virginia.  Actually, the vast majority of mass produced toy marbles now come from the company Vacor de Mexico.

How It's Made: Marbles

What is left in Ohio are a few places of interest.  Two of them are The American Toy Marble Museum and the no longer officially operating JABO, Inc. in Reno, Ohio.  Each is an elusive place.  The American Toy Marble Museum, located at Lock 3 in Akron, Ohio, is run by Michael Cohill and Brian Graham.  Cohill, who has established himself as a local mibologist, is difficult to contact and operates the museum irregularly.  I used to know Cohill, but have not been in touch with him, sadly, for several years.  Graham, who is Director of the museum, can be found running his own Canal Fulton Glassworks gallery, also a rather cool place to visit.  The folks at JABO, Inc. no longer mass-produce marbles; rather they have ventured into making experimental runs that have produced (since 2008) some increasingly beautiful marbles. 

JABO, Inc. "Hillybilly Magic Sistersville Run"
marble, made on September 19, 2011

OTHER LINKS:

• JABO TRIBUTE RUN: a video about how they make their marbles.
• International Association of Marble Collectors
•  For more information about identifying marbles, visit Joe Street's excellent web pages: Joemarlbes.com. 
• Land of Marbles
• How to Play Marbles

SOME COOL MARBLES

Miniature Marbles by J. R. Hooper (North Carolina)	Moon Marble Company (Kansas)
Davis Marbles (Pennsylvania)	Winlock Marbles (Washington)
Marble King (West Virginia)	Land of Marbles (Internet/Colorado)

We Need a New Party--a Sea Party!

The Tea Party was formed in response to voter disappointment with the Republican Party, and George Bush. The name, I gather, is a spin-off of the Boston Tea Party, the New England Colonialists' rebellion against the British Tea Tax: dumping a lot of tea into the sea.

Wonderful as that was, in the 21st Century, the concept of dumping tea into the sea is rather environmentally irresponsible--imagine the poor creatures of the sea choking upon the bombardment of a cloudy mass of dried leaves rich in caffeine and other toxins!

As someone who is disappointed in the Democratic Party, and especially annoyed by the President's false promises of hope and change, I propose that somebody (not me; I'm not a politician) start a Sea Party.

My Tentative Vision of a Sea Party

CAMPAIGN APPROACH:

•  No corporate sponsors!  In fact, the less money used, the better!
  
• All campaigning must be done by grassroots methods (such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and the news networks)!
• No participation in debates, unless they are seriously conducted!
  
• Candidates would keep a running blog of logically and clearly written statements of their positions on various issues.

GENERAL PLATFORM:

• No pandering to major corporations.
• Quality public education for everyone, up through a four year college education.  We need to revise our education system, drastically, to address all sorts of issues with regard to lowering literacy rates and raising education requirements for the current job market as well as for (and more importantly) the character of our current civilization.  
• Universal healthcare that turns profit for no one but that allows for the building up of grant funds for medicinal, pharmaceutical, and similar research.
• Universal accessibility: funded by the government and large corporations.  No one should have to fight to have an interpreter (be it in signed or spoken languages), and wheel chairs should be able to go anywhere.
• Green, green, green!  Again, profit should not determine quality of life.  We need to drastically revise our transportation, industrialization, and other forms basic-lifestyle to become progressively environmentally supportive (not friendly, but nurturing).
• No religion: the president's job is to be a leader of the nation, not a priest.  It should not matter what his/her personal belief system is since he will do all he can to uphold the support of all belief institutions, within the parameters of federal law.
• Revised marriage codes: this should be done on a national level, allowing for same-sex as well as other forms of marriage.  The law should be based upon legal property and (scientifically supported) health issues, not upon moral codes.
•  And lots of other sane, rational, caring, good things!  So, I'll conclude my impossible wish list with this: a free, solar-powered computer for every household.

Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. margarine, butter, or oil
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup non-fat plain yogurt
3 cups uncooked rolled oats
2 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/3 cup peanut butter (optional)
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Beat the eggs until they are bubbly.
Add margarine (or butter or oil) and both sugars.
Mix well.
Gradually mix in the yogurt.
Add the oats, baking powder, and cinnamon.
Mix well.
Stir in the raisins, walnuts, and/or peanut butter (optional).
Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan.
Bake: 350 F for 30 minutes.
Serve warm.

9/11/2001: No Words

Remembering a Friend

Nancy working a pre-show table for For Every Man, Woman and Child.

Today is Nancy M. [Johnson] Resh's birthday.

She died suddenly over the weekend of November 15, 2010.  She was young, in her 50s.  As soon as her family had been notified, I set-up a memorial page on Facebook.  Now, I am quite confident she would never, ever have opened a Facebook account for herself (and I know this because I tried to talk her into it several times--but if she did have one, it was very private), but I did it for her students, family, and friends--Deaf and hearing alike.  I was amazed by the sudden outpouring of grief expressed on that page; even today, I look at it and whisper to myself: "Wow!"  Nancy affected a lot people in a lot of ways.  I can only legitimately write about how she affected me.

Nancy was a good friend: she accepted me for who and what I am.  While she considered herself to be a Southern Baptist, she had no qualms at my declaring myself to be a secular humanist, an atheist.  I'll never forget when, on a very, very rare moment of weakness, I shared with a student that I'm an atheist: the student began to cry.  Why did that student cry?  Out of disappointment, fear for my supposed soul, something else?  It angered me; it hurt me; I felt unaccepted for who/what I am.  I turned to my good friend, Nancy, who helped me laugh it off.

We accepted each other because, and this was a strong tie between us in our friendship, acceptance of differences was important to both of us.  We both got angry at a lot of the same things: violation of people's basic human rights, mistreatment of the Deaf, lazy and/or manipulative people,  bad (ex- or mostly ex-) husbands, uncooperative computers, intolerance, self-centeredness, badly made coffee, and so on.  We both laughed at a lot of the same things--we joked about almost everything.  Our friendship mostly centered at and around our jobs, but since our jobs were the center of our lives  (at least they seemed to be), our friendship grew rapidly.  We did a lot of projects together and we supported each other in individually lead projects, too.  While my projects were more scholarly-focused, Nancy's were more people focused--we balanced each other out that way: I kept encouraging her to work on scholastic projects; she kept pushing me to become more involved with people (instead of books and DVDs).  I considered her to be one of my best friends.

The things I have learned (or re-learned) from (or with) Nancy: not to take my job so seriously, to stop and have fun once-in-awhile, to take better care of myself,  and to ignore all the bullshit we (all of us) encounter day-in and day-out.

I have noticed that several people have wished Nancy "Happy Birthday!" on the memorial Facebook page.  I have to say it: I don't believe that Nancy "is looking down on us" or that she exists in some form of afterlife (in heaven or elsewhere).  I do believe, however, that it would have made Nancy cry to learn just how loved she was and still is.  I do believe that Nancy would have been shocked by all the affection sent in her direction.  I do believe that all this affection and attention is a source of comfort for both her friends and her family.  I do believe that the words, "Happy Birthday Nancy!" have special meaning--rather like "Happy Hanukkah!" or "Happy Halloween!"  They are words of love, and as such are powerful.

Drawing by Giles Johnson.

Sabbatical

I took a hiatus for the summer, but now I'm re-fueled, ready to restart the writing engine.

So, let's begin with a small discussion about sabbatical.  The central concept of a sabbatical is "rest" which might also include training and/or research, reflection.  Many universities and colleges have changed the label for this so-called "time off" to such terms as "Faculty Professional Improvement Leave" or some other productive-work type directive.  Indeed, my own university seems is quite clear about what is expected of faculty on sabbatical:

The university permits a tenured faculty member who has completed at least seven years of full-time service to the university and has the rank of assistant professor or higher to be freed of instructional or official responsibilities and granted a faculty professional improvement leave for the purposes of:  upgrading professional skills; acquiring new skills; or intellectual and professional development that will be of benefit to the individual and to the university.

I look at my small neighborhood of ten houses (a dead-end street near the downtown of a tiny city), and reflect upon the work that the sixteen adults do.  One of us is on Welfare; another is on Disability; five of us are retired (on pensions and/or Social Security).  Nine of us hold full-time jobs.  Of the working adults, only two of us have a college education of any kind--the two professors.  The one on Welfare has a B.A. and is looking for a job.

I know how my small neighborhood sees me: working hard for nine months with three months off for summer vacations, unless I choose to teach extra classes then.  Even my own mother seems to see it that way.  I cannot speak for teachers, or for professors at other universities and colleges, but I can tell you that during our summers "off" the tenured and tenure-track faculty at my university (on all campuses) are expected to complete research and work toward completing publications.  Regardless, no one--teachers or professors--is paid during those three months, regardless of what they do or do not do: it is a nine month salary, not twelve.

So, please excuse me if I feel a bit defensive about being on sabbatical this semester: I've published a lot in the past several years; I've taught a lot in the past several years; anyone will tell you I've done a lot of service (committee work, involvement with students outside the classroom,...).  I need a rest!  That's a moot point, however, because I have promised to dramatically improve my ASL fluency and to complete three chapters and an introduction to a book during my "rest"--at minimum.

Good night!

Gender Identity, Sexuality, and +5 to Sexterity

Look at this picture--what do you see?

I see a kid and his mother having some fun.  Dr. Keith Ablow sees something much, much more sinister."This is a dramatic example," he wrote, "of the way that our culture is being encouraged to abandon all trappings of gender identity--homogenizing males and females when the outcome of such 'psychological sterilization' ([his] word choice) is not known."  Dr. Keith Ablow argues in his Fox News Opinion Article:

Well, how about the fact that encouraging the choosing of gender identity, rather than suggesting our children become comfortable with the ones that they got at birth, can throw our species into real psychological turmoil—not to mention crowding operating rooms with procedures to grotesquely amputate body parts? Why not make race the next frontier? What would be so wrong with people deciding to tattoo themselves dark brown and claim African-American heritage? Why not bleach the skin of others so they can playact as Caucasians?

The "fallout" of such breaches of traditional gender identity, according to Dr. Ablow, is "already being seen."  Ablow points to girls showing "none of the reticence they once did to engage in early sexual relationships with boys [..., which] could be a bad thing since there is no longer the same typically 'feminine' brake on such behavior."  He then points to "girls beating up other girls on YouTube"  and the observation that "[y]oungmen primp and preen until their abdomens are washboards and their hair is perfect."   Sorry to be blunt: this guy is so full of crap that it makes me nauseous.

Dr. Ablow's arguments are full of logical fallacies, such as slippery slopes,  post hocs, and (ultimately) begs the question as to "feminine identity" and what it means to be a "boy" or a "girl."  However, his arguments illustrate an important concern.   How we respond to gender and sexual identity--regardless of the type--seems to have become more divisive today: an increasingly extreme split between the demand for sexual and gender identity (regardless of what it is) to the increasing disregard for any sort of sexual or gender identity.  

Those who argue for the ambiguous have grown more overt in their blatant ambiguity.  The recently published article, "Parents Keep Child's Gender Under Wraps" (Zachary Roth, The Lookout, 24 May 2011), is about a Toronto couple that has chosen not to reveal the gender identity of their baby, Storm, to anyone.  The father, David Stocker, justifies this choice: "If you really want to get to know someone, you don't ask what's between their legs." 

Those who clearly desire blatant bluntness might be best  illustrated by the below cut from a Blizzcon 2009 question-and-answer session.

ALTERNATE LINK

The questioner was referring to the below video, I think, if not the entire online web-series, The Guild, which parodies a lot of societal gaffs and goofs, particularly of the online gaming community.

 Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?

ALTERNATE LINK

So far,  The Guild has failed to do little more than recognize the broad spectrum of gender and sexual identities. While it is true that some of the "bad guys," members of the Axis of Anarchy, clearly have LGBT characteristics, but these characters are minor, underdeveloped.  In 2003, Justine Cassell wrote, "If the example of video games for girls has taught us anything, it is that there is no such thing as 'gender-free' software.  Because this is the case, we can only integrate the dynamic nature of gender construction--of self-construction--into the software itself."1   Janne Bromseth and Jenny Sudén observe:

A culture of profiling is one of point-and-click menus and ready-made identity options, of a coming together of mediated identities across scales, scores, and ratings.  It distinguishes itself from previous perhaps more subtle modes of self-making by spelling it all out in high-resolution graphics and sound.  In this shift from text-based interfaces to those based on images, it is possible to, anew, trace a desire for the authentic and the sincere.  If the inhabitants of MUDs and MOOs of the 1990s asked for a simple logic which linked specific gendered performances to sexually specific bodies ("Are you male or female?"), in certain cultures of profiling, there is a similar and possibly even more distinct demand for realism and authenticity now.  (274)2  

Clearly, the choices for sexual and gender identity are extremely limited in most video games, including the seemingly freeing MMORPGs.  However, games such as Rift, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and Dungeons and Dragons Online offer the gamer avatar choices that range widely in body shape, color, and size, the gamer the choices are still limited to male or female, even though androgynous-looking avatars exist within those two categories. These games, ironically, also rewrite medieval myths and legends into more contemporary fantasies, offering a great deal of potential in knowingly, purposefully (if not humorously) rewriting the medieval European Christian, Judaic, and Muslim doctrines of gender identity and sexuality--a form of neomedievalism.


I wonder, therefore, what Dr. Ablow would say then, to a "male" avatar in full armor wearing pink armor?  While Dr. Keith Ablow had an MD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in psychiatry; his specialty is forensic psychiatry.  However, his article suggests a clear (unscientific) agenda in that he seems to be drawing more from his Morman faith than from the doctrines of clinical medicine.  So, actually, nevermind: I don't really care what he thinks.  He's just a blow-hard. 




1 Cassell, Justin.  "Genderizing Human-Computer Interaction."  Julie A. Jacko and Andrew Sears, eds. The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook; Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies and Emerging Applications.  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 2003: 401-412.

2 Bromseth, Janne and Jenny Sudén. "Queering Internet Studies: Intersections of Gender and Sexuality." The Handbook of Internet Studies. Mia Consalvo, Robert Burnett, and Charles Ess, eds. Handbooks in Communication and Media Series.  Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, Ltd., 2010.

A Tofu Dish

NOTE: I'm open to suggestions for what to call this one.

1 14oz. package of extra-firm tofu

1/2 cup of dry white wine

2 Tbsp. extra light olive oil

2 Tbsp. paprika

2 Tbsp. basil

1 Tbsp. garlic powder

1 Tbsp. extra light olive oil

1 cup finely chopped onion

2 cups thinly sliced red potatoes 

1 cup water

fresh baby spinach

fresh chopped tomato

Chop the tofu into pea-sized bits.  
Mix the tofu with the wine, 2 Tbsp. olive oil, paprika, basil and garlic powder.  
Let this mixture marinate for at least an hour.
Put 1 Tbsp. olive oil into a large skillet and heat at medium heat.
Add the onion and potatoes and cook until tender, stirring constantly.
Add the tofu.
Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the water; bring to a boil.
Reduce to low heat and simmer for approximately 20 minutes.
Note: you should stir occasionally, and you might have to add more water to prevent burning.
Arrange the fresh spinach in bowls.
Pour the tofu mixture on top of the spinach.
Add the cut tomatoes to the top.
Add some parmesan cheese on top of that (optional).

To Be or Not to Be; To Go to College or Not to Go to College

Father Guido Sarducci's "Five Minute University"

(Alternative Link)

What is the purpose of higher education?  As economics professors Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson observe, "Sometimes, in some subjects, the mastery of specific subject matter is precisely what is at stake" ("Guido Sarducci and the Purpose of Higher Education." Chronicle of Higher Education. 14 Mar 2011).  However, most of the time, this has not been the intention of higher education.  To acquire a particular set of skills in order to master a certain trade has been more the goal of what have become known as "for profit" schools, such as DeVry or ITT, and the intention of true higher education has been, as Baum and McPherson correctly write, "to induce people to think hard about complex problems, to learn to sustain attention to challenging material, to learn how a disciplined body of thought can come to make sense, and so on."  However, the costs of living (to be) and the costs of higher education pose a powerful question for many would-be students today: what good will it do to raise so much debt if the resulting career raises comparatively so little income?

Here's some data to consider:  the cost of raising a single child in the United States today is roughly 22% higher than it was in the 1960s.  The cost was roughly $12,500.00 in the 1960s; the cost now is over $200,000.00.  (You can

"The Cost of Raising Children: 2009 vs. 1960" (The Problem Solver, Chicago Tribune)

calculate the costs of raising a family with theUSDA Calculater.)  Costs of tuition for higher education (both public and private colleges and universities) is an additional burden that most families cannot afford, even though the demand for post-secondary level degrees is higher than ever.  

"College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S." (Tamar Lewin)

But before you jump to the conclusion that the tuition increases are going directly to the so-called "fat cats" running universities and college, understand this: costs for running higher education institutions--particularly public institutions--have also risen dramatically.  According to the 2008 biennial report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, most tuition hikes for public universities have been a direct result of declining support from state funds.   Public education at any level costs more because of already dramatic budget cuts made prior to those being made this year.  As Stanley Fish observes of both the U.K. and the U.S.:

Higher education is no longer conceived of as a public good — as a good the effects of which permeate society — but is rather a private benefit, and as such it should be supported by those who enjoy the benefit. “It is reasonable to ask those who gain private benefits from higher education to help fund it rather than rely . . . on public funds collected through taxation from people who have not participated in higher education themselves.” No one who has not been to a university has any stake in the health or survival of the system.   ("The Value of Higher Education Made Literal" New York Times, 13 Dec 2010)

This observation is further supported by a Princeton University study, funded by the Mellen Foundation which "shows that expensive college degrees are not necessarily worth the lofty price tags in the long run when you take into account one's natural ability" ("Forget Harvard and a 4-Year Degree, You Can Make More as a Plumber in the Run, Says Prof. Kotlikoff").  Boston University economics professor, Laurence Kotlikoff, argues that the cost of higher education is not necessarily a guarantee to a rise in income: doctors, for example, may have larger salaries but they also have larger debt (due to the cost of education) that can take years to eliminate, reducing the livelihood of a (fiscally responsible) doctor to that of a plumber.  (Visit Kotlikoff's Economic Security Planning, Inc. website to try his software that helps with financial decisions ranging from purchasing a house to making a career change.)

Gary Larson

When I was in graduate school, back in the '80s, I had a thing for buttons--lots and lots of buttons on my jean jacket: "Pay no attention to the invisible midget" read one; another read "Lobotomies for Republicans; It's the law!"  Another button I had was from the 1930s, from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's campaign to fight polio.   One button was one of many parodies of the "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner":

               Data, data, everywhere,
          And not a thought to think.

This is is akin to the cry I often receive from my students, particularly those in my College Writing II classes, in which they must work to develop argumentative skills--claims of fact, judgement or policy that are supported by logic and research.  They often seem bewildered by all the available data to sort: which is truthful; which is not; how do I know if the writer is an authority?   But, most of all, they seem overwhelmed by the fact that there is so much data available to them.  I sometimes pity them (shhh, don't tell them)!  When I was an undergraduate, my studies were extremely limited by the physical boundaries of what was contained within the walls of my campus library.  I would have been in a kind of utopia if the internet had been available for me back then.  This causes me to wonder if the cart has been put too far in front of the horse: learning to use the internet before learning to appreciate what qualities of information might be provide. 

The explosion of information that has occurred since the early '90s, since the World Wide Web has gone public, often makes me think of that button.  So much data, so much meaning that it becomes meaningless?   College is not for everyone--no question there.  Indeed, not all "smart" people complete or even go to college, either.   I usually tell my students that I am trying to teach them to teach themselves (and to do so well), a level of thinking for one's self that allows for a continued process, hopefully for the rest of one's life.

It's the big picture--the picture of life, not just of one's career in life--that matters.

Happy Mother's Day--Things to do with Spinach Fettuccine

A Meat-lover's Meal

• Put 1 pound of 95% lean beef into a 12 quart pot
• Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally
• Drain off any excess fat (if possible)
• Add: 2 tablespoons extra light olive oil, 2 large sweet onions (chopped) 2 medium zucchini (chopped)
• Cook until tender
• Add: 2 heaping tablespoons minced garlic
• Cook for about 10 minutes on med-low heat
• Add: 5 medium Roma tomatoes (chopped) and approximately 2 cups chopped fresh mushrooms
• Add 1 6oz. can tomato paste and 1 large can of tomato sauce
• Bring to low boil, stirring occasionally
• Lower heat to simmer
• Simmer for about 20 minutes
• While this is simmering, cook the fettuccine
• Serve with a smile

A Vegetarian Meal

(This is quick and easy to make!)

• Cook the spinach fettuccine as directed on the package
• Into a large frying pan, put 2 tablespoons extra-light olive oil and 3 tablespoons minced garlic 
• Cook on med-low heat for about five minutes
• Add: 2 cups chopped mushrooms and 4 cups baby spinach
• Cook for about 5 minutes, until all is tender and hot
• Serve with a grin

A Flying Fettuccine Monster 

(Cousin to the Flying Spaghetti Monster)

(NOT TO BE EATEN!) 

Delicious Iconography: The Flying Spaghetti Monster

• Cook a bag of spinach fettuccine 
• Let cool
• Dip noodles, one at a time, into a mixture of 1/2 water and 1/2 white (Elmer's) glue
• On wax paper, shape the dipped noodles into the shape of your monster.
• Let dry completely
• Make another batch of 1/2 glue 1/2 water and paint the entire monster
• Let dry
• Flip monster over and paint the back
• Let dry
• Flip monster over and paint the front again
• Let dry
• Flip monster over and paint the back again
• Let dry
• Flip monster over and paint the front for the third and final time
• Let dry
• Flip monster over and paint the back for the third and final time
• Let dry and harden completely (as much as it will--it will be rather rubbery)
• With 100% glue, add other items (such as plastic eyes, pipe cleaners,...) to add characteristics to your monster.

Mysteries, Miracles, Myths, Mania

World of Warcraft Character

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances without own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.  
— Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth)

"Those who don’t believe in God are widely considered to be immoral, wicked and angry," wrote Gregory Paul and Phil Zuckerman in an opinion column for The Washington Post: ("Why Do Americans Still Dislike Atheists?").  Anecdote only goes so far, but I can tell you that my own personal experiences agree with this observation.  I'll never forget, about twenty years ago, someone said to me, "Gee, you're just too nice to be an atheist!"  Was that intended as a compliment?  I decided to take it that way, until that person further added that he felt that I must "believe in the spirit," that I simply didn't know it.  I don't know what I believe?  He knows better what I believe than I do?  What a farce!  That was twenty years ago.   Write Paul and Zuckerman, "More than 2,000 years ago, whoever wrote Psalm 14 claimed that atheists were foolish and corrupt, incapable of doing any good. These put-downs have had sticking power. Negative stereotypes of atheists are alive and well. Yet like all stereotypes, they aren’t true — and perhaps they tell us more about those who harbor them than those who are maligned by them. " About a year ago, I came out of the closet as an atheist to another individual--a very nice, intelligent person who was also a church-going Christian--and, stunned, she started crying!  How am I supposed to respond to something like that?  I was baffled.  I think she meant well, that she was crying over the loss of my soul (from her point of view, not mine), but couldn't she see that, from my point of view, her crying was like my crying because she is no longer a virgin or because she is fat or because she is anorexic or because she is black or because she is white or because she is straight or because she is gay or because of anything that is decidedly who and what she is?  No, I'm not immoral, no I'm not wicked, but--hell yeah--I'm angry!

"A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be," report Paul and Zuckerman. I'd like to believe that I am a part of the "good guys" on this planet, especially when I know of so many "bad guys" who are deeply religious (Chrisitan, Muslim, Jewish--whatever).  I have absolutely no qualm about someone being a religious person.  Religion has its place--many people need it.  Many people need structured lives, and certain religious institutions provide that in constructive, positive ways.  Why, oh why, cannot someone accept me as not requiring religion in my life?  (For the record, I also don't require many other things--such as alcohol, entertainment drugs, back surgery, breast implants,....) 


This doesn't mean that I don't revel in the mysteries of life.   I LOVE this video--it speaks volumes for me (and I've posted it before, so I apologize for re-posting it):




We do not have an adequate word in the English language for the acceptance of incomprehension.  Mysteries, in our world, must be solved--and if they can't be solved, they are call miracles, until they are solved, and then those miracles are re-labeled as myths.  Why can't we be comfortable with saying to ourselves, "I don't know. I don't have an answer, but I'll keep working at finding the answer, enjoying it as I would a fantasy video game, a game that I may never conclude."  Life as a never-ending fantasy game: now there's a thought.  But it is just a thought, not a conclusion.  Rather than focusing upon getting to the end, we should focus upon the journey (the "getting to").  Otherwise, it's shear mania.

Wabbit Tracks & Easter Bunnies

While I do remember going to church on Easter Sunday as a little girl, that family ritual had stopped by the time I was in my early teens.  I remember liking church on Easter Sunday: my mother would dress my little sister and I up in pretty, frilly dresses, and I was allowed to wear my one-pearl necklace (for special occasions only).  Sometimes my sister (who is 3-1/2 years younger) and I would be dressed like twins--that was not so much fun.  I have one memory--it's from when my sister was around 3 years old (and I was around 6 years old), sitting in church on a sunny Easter Sunday: red, blue, purple, and yellow colors pouring onto my dress from the lighted stained glass windows.

In my adult secular memory, however, are more important rituals than church--more important because they involved happy family bonding, imaginative play, and fun.

One involved egg decorating.  This tradition came down via my German grandmother.  We called them "forest eggs," but my cousins called them "dinosaur eggs"--either way, they were difficult to make, but very cool.  (I'm sorry that I don't have a picture of them.)  In their natural state, they were various shades of green and yellow, with some orange and brown and white: shadowy images of plant outlines.  But they were often further colored with dyes: purple, blue, red, more orange, more yellow, more green,.... Here is how they are made:

They looked like the non-flowery eggs (left side).

 You will need:

• uncooked eggs
• lots of onion skins (the dryer, the better)
• thread
• various shapeley leaves (parsley, celery, clover,...); edible flowers (such as violets) are a nice addition of color and shape, too
• vinegar 
• food coloring (optional)

Directions:  

• Place the leaves loosely around the egg (do not clump too many together).
• Wrap onion skin on top of the leaves, to hold them in place.
• Tightly wrap thread around, and around the eggs, to hold everything in place.  Be sure that the thread is as tight as possible--I usually start off with a loose wrapping, tightening after the first 10-20 wrap-arounds.  Be careful to not wrap so tightly that you crack open the eggs!
• Carefully place the eggs into a pot of water.
• Add a little vinegar.
• Bring the water to a rapid boil.
• Turn the water off and cover the pot.
• Let sit for 20 minutes.
• Cool and unwrap your eggs. 
• OR dip your wrapped eggs into the food coloring/vinegar/water mixture (as you would in coloring other eggs).

Another ritual seemed to have been started by my grandfather (who was married to the above mentioned grandmother).  We would collect food for the Easter bunny (such as the above mentioned leaves, as well as flowers--if available) and leave it in a bowl for him on Easter Eve.  The next morning, all or most of the food would be gone; in its place would be a few unwrapped chocolate eggs (the Easter Bunny's poop).  We kids never ate those, but it was amusing--and gross when my grandfather would pop one into his own mouth.  Sometimes, too, we would wake up to find a bit of food coloring on our faces, arms, or hands--and my grandfather would tell us that the Easter Bunny had been looking over us, while he had been working on his eggs for us.

As you can see, for me, Easter has nothing to do with the Christian faith.  Then again, the Easter Bunny is not a part of the Christian faith.  According to Lawrence Cunningham (a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame and Christianity editor for the HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion),   there isn't "...any intrinsic value to the rabbit to the resurrection of Jesus Christ;"  symbols such as eggs and bunnies, "to some extent return to their pre-Christian roots as symbols of spring fertility" ("Spring Bunny vs. Easter Rabbit").    According to Barbara G. Walker:

The Easter Bunny began with the pagan festival of the springtime Goddess Eostre, when it was said that the Goddess's totem, the Moon-hare, would lay eggs for good children to eat1. . . .  Eostre's hare was the shape that Celts imaged on the surface of the full moon, derived from old Indo-European sources.  In Sanskrit, the moon was cacin, "that which is marked with the Hare." 2   Queen Boadiccea's banners displayed the Moon-hare as a sacred sign.  Both hares and cats were designated the familiars of witches in Scotland, where the word malkinmawkin was applied to both.3  (The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols & Sacred Objects, 377) or

Easter Bunny legends apparently began in Germany, in the 1500s, and by the 1880s the Germans had begun promoting the ritual of chocolate bunnies (Kevin Shortsleeve), so it is no surprise to me that my German grandmother would have encouraged her family egg-making traditions.  (My grandfather's so-called "traditions," however, seem to have been only inspired by his wife's traditions; a bit of a parody of them--I believe.)  

While I mostly grew up with a secular Easter--religion had nothing to do with it--it was a lovely game of magic and fun.  This does not at all demean the importance of my family's rituals.  Imaginary games are important.  Karl Sven Rosengren and Carl N. Johnson observe, "More generally, children's capacity to pretend has been linked to a wide range of social and cognitive skills, including language development (Ervin-Tripp, 1991), social competence (Singer & Singer, 1990), memory development (Newman, 1990), exploration and mastery of emotional themes (Bretherton, 1989), and logical reasoning (Dias & Harris, 1990) (Imagining the Impossible: Magical, Scientific, and Religious Thinking in Children, 247).  

So, I say, in the important spirit of imagination: 

Happy Easter everyone!

TRANSCRIPT

ELMER: Rabbit tracks! [pointing spear at tracks]

ELMER: [jabbing spear into rabbit hole, singing] Kill the wabitt; kill the wabbit!

BUGGS: Kill the rabbit?!

----------------------------
1 de Lys, Claudia.  The Giant Book of Superstitions.  Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1979: 117.
2 Baring-Gould, Sabine.  Curious Myths of the Middle Ages.  New York: University Books, 1967: 204.
3 Potter, Stephen, and Laurens Sargent. Pedigree.  New York: Taplinger, 1974: 71.