Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City

By Kirsten Miller One of the girls in my primary class has been talking about this book a lot, lauding it all the time, trying to persuade us all to read it, and utilizing plot points in random ways through the whole lesson.

Well, I read it this week and it is a super fun book. I wish that I could have read it when I was 10 or 11. Nancy Drew wouldn't stand a chance against Kiki Strike--part detective, but more super-agent-secret-spy. She and her gang of the Irregulars (including experts in surveillance, disguise, and explosives) discover and explore the secret underworld of New York City and foil nefarious plots while their parents are left totally clueless. In a great twist, the villain is a beautiful, rich, but mean hearted princess. There are no male heroes in this story--the girls rely on their smarts and toughness to get out of sticky and dangerous situations (including their escape from thousands of creepy overgrown Manhattan rats). In addition to the great story, the narrator, Ananka, adds tips on topics like how to lie and detect liars, and "how to kick some butt". I was so drawn in that I thought, momentarily at least, that I could personally escape a kidnapping plot or trail someone without getting caught. Kiki, Ananka, and Irregulars are tough and smart. Sidney Bristow, just a few years younger. Full of awesome girl power.

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Political Rantings

I had started to get a little bored with the presidential campaigning. I watched a lot of the DNC convention during prime time. I loved Michelle Obama, I thought the Clintons did well, and I liked Obama's speech, although I wasn't riveted to it.

Then, the McCain campaign announced their choice for VP. Sarah Palin. And all of a sudden, I was once again obsessed with the campaigns.

There have been so many things swirling through my head since then, and I just want to spew them all out. Yes, I will spew. This is my own blog and I will not weigh my words as I usually so when I discuss politics with others. I am surrounded by family and friends who are mostly conservative and being adverse to contention, I rein in what I say. But, not here. Not now.

1. Did the McCain campaign really think they could pick up Hillary supporters with the Palin pick? Unless the only reason that supporters chose Hillary was because she was female. They are extremely different candidates, with such different policy objectives, but lots of women seem to love Palin. I guess it's because she's just so down-home. Haven't we had enough of that though?

2. Maybe the campaign was more interested in shoring up its support among the conservative evangelical base in picking Palin. And it seems like that is what happened. The base has been suspicious of McCain's conservative creds ever since the primaries began. Well, ever since a lot earlier than that. But Palin has everything they like. Strong resistance to abortion and gay marriage. And... Hmm. What else do they really care about?

3. The Palin pick only solidifies my perception that McCain is CRAZY! She wasn't properly vetted. He chose her at the last minute after meeting her briefly. And only after the conservatives threw a fit about him considering a more pro-choice pick like Ridge or Lieberman. So, he bowed to their demands and chose a virtual unknown without giving it a lot of thought. It could turn out to be a brilliant choice, or it could turn out to be horrible. Just that whim decision though. Kinda worrisome to me. "We just can't blink." Again, haven't we had enough of that? I want someone to weigh options, who will talk to lots of people, and think through reasoned approaches.

4. I wonder about her experience. I don't think her recent interviews show that she has a strong enough grasp of relevant policy issues to be the VP to what would be the oldest president ever elected. (You can see Russia from Alaska? What?)

5. Ok, and what about the RNC convention? I thought her convention speech (along with Giuliani and the others who spoke on Wed night of the RNC) were mocking, derisive, and full of partisan rancor and had nothing much to say about their own platforms, but were just basically trying to rip Obama apart. That really bothered me, especially their barbs about community organizing, which in a party that supports local government and grass roots movements felt hypocritical and curious.

So, yeah, I hated the bits I saw of the RNC convention. Palin had nothing substantive to say. Except for a few bits of misinformation about her record. "Thanks but no thanks"? Not so much. And the crowd? They were crazy. They get worked up and excited about Giuliani and Palin mocking Obama's experience in community organizing? They chant "zero zero" over and over to emphasize that the Dems have no executive experience with the Reps have what, 20 months as governor of Alaska? Oh, and don't forget Palin's time as mayor of a town of 5000 people. Ok, so they definitely have the upper hand on experience. And then "drill, baby, drill". The whole lackadaisical approach to energy and thinking that we can drill our way out of high gas prices? I don't like it.

And I got a kick out of Giuliani making fun of "cosmopolitan" to build up "small town". And Romney excoriating the "eastern elite." Really? CRAZY.

6. One more thing about Palin. I'm not sure about the mother thing. What I liked about her: she has come to a position of power in a non-traditional way, as did Pelosi. It's good to have female role models for various career routes. But, she has a newborn with Down's plus four other kids, which include a pregnant daughter. It seems like an awful lot for someone to take on, and I would say the exact same thing of a father in the same position. I have to ask myself: am I harder on her because she's a woman? Perhaps. I feel conflicted about this.

7. Now that he has won the primary and chosen Palin, McCain is back to being a maverick. Supposedly. I liked the McCain of 2000 a lot better than I do now. Now that he has been pandering to the far right wing of the Republican party.

8. McCain is trying to co-opt the change message. Excuse me though? You're the party of change? What? I don't know where this number comes from, so maybe I shouldn't cite it, but supposedly McCain has voted with Bush 90-95% of the time. I don't see how there is going to be much change with McCain in the White House.

9. It bothers me that the main campaigning strategy of the Republicans is to tear down Obama rather than push their own platforms. And that they are distorting Obama's strengths and turning them into weaknesses. Charisma is now celebrity. Education at Harvard is elite rather than resume strengthening. Is Palin's 5 random colleges, one of which she essentially failed out of, somehow better than Columbia and Harvard Law? Oh, yeah. She's one of us. And he probably got in with affirmative action.

10. Let's discuss this "elite" thing a bit more. Sidenote: why is eating arugula now the symbol of elitism? Ok, what I don't get is how Republicans are tarring the Dems with the label elite when Bush is a Yale grad with tons of money, when McCain comes from a string of Navy admirals and his wife is totally loaded with what, 8 houses? And those who question Palin's credentials and experiences are elites.

11. Ok, ok. So, we've all heard the pitbull with lipstick joke a few hundred times now. But, why is a pitbull so afraid of the media? That the campaign won't allow anyone to interview Palin who won't respect her and show deference for her? That her motherhood is off limits for discussion, and that we can't discuss Bristol's pregnancy--it's a family matter, and oh yeah, it makes her just like us again--but, yet she parades her family and brand new baby around the convention and makes her motherhood part of her campaign image.

After the RNC convention, I was simmering for a while. I was so bothered by the tone, by the speeches, by the way they mocked "community organizing." (I think that is one of Obama's strengths--he has actually been on the ground dealing with poverty and all its accompanying problems. ) But watching Jon Stewart and the Daily Show's coverage of the RNC all in one night, though, it felt so good to laugh REALLY hard. They were able to turn all my issues around and make me laugh. And though I'm still bothered, I don't feel quite as enraged.
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The Universe in a Mirror

By Robert Zimmerman. This is the interesting story of the Hubble Space Telescope: the long process from conception to funding to building to launching to mistakes and fixing them and then to finally oberserving the universe from beyond the constraints of the earth's atmosphere.

There were lots of interesting pieces in the story of how we have Hubble. It's amazing that it ever worked at all. I am reminded of a quotation from a 5 year old girl I knew in NYC who was obsessed with space. "NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope in 1992 but there was a glitch." A glitch indeed.


But the best part of the book was the chapter on what we have learned with Hubble. And the accompanying photos. They are truly amazing. One of my favorites was where Hubble was trained on a supposedly blank section of the sky. This is what Hubble found. No, those aren't stars, those are GALAXIES! This picture gives me goose bumps.



Hubble has given us photographic evidence for the vastness and grandeur of the universe. Looking at a galaxy like this one--the Sombrero Galaxy--from the vantage of Hubble and Earth feels a little bit like some kind of omniscience.



Even more breathtaking to consider are the amazingly distant objects that Hubble has been able to observe, providing a look back in time. Because of the time it takes light to travel, observers on earth aren't able to see objects in the sky until their light reaches us. Hubble has been able to observe phenomena that are BILLIONS of light-years away. What that means is that astronomers are literally able to look back in time to BILLIONS of years ago to places where star formation is going on (or should I say "was going on"???) at a furious pace. Time all of sudden feels very different from the linear and simultaneous earth-perspective of time.

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Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World

by Dan Koeppel. I got the idea for this one from a NYT op-ed. While the op ed was interesting, the book wasn't so much. Based on a good idea, the writing wasn't stellar. The author jumped around in both topic and chronology. It started to lose me and then I scanned the last third. A section of the way banana companies were involved in the 1954 overthrow of a democratically elected Guatemalan president was interesting, but too brief. The story just didn't hang together well.

Just read the op ed.

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A Veritable Bounty

On Saturday, I went to the farmer's market first thing in the morning. After rereading parts of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for book group this month, I was determined to take advantage of the local bounty before cold weather sets in. I wanted not only to eat some delicious vegetables, but to preserve some for the long winter months ahead.

I walked out of the market with 33 zucchini, probably 20 peppers, a huge box of roma tomatoes, a couple of eggplants, several large bunches of basil, and some onions.

By Saturday night, I had 6 bags grated zucchini, 12 bags of sliced peppers and onions, and 14 containers of sauced tomatoes for spaghetti and pizza. And for dinner on Sunday, we had delicious pasta with fresh pesto and tomatoes and a mouth watering ratatouille. Unfortunately, I didn't get apples from the farmer's market, and ended up staring at the granny smiths from Chile at the grocery store. I bought them and made a delcious apple crisp. Does that purchase cancel out all the good from buying locally? Small steps, right?? No matter, our dinner was a delectable way to welcome in the start of fall.

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Mind Boggling

My latest obsession is Boggle. I hadn't played in years, and then when we were on vacation, I played with AJ's parents and my sis and her hubby. AJ's parents had a really cool travel set. It has a nice soft sided zipper case and electronic timer. And instead of the old school brown plastic case for the letters, there is a prettier light blue one. And when you shake the letters, the sound isn't as loud and jarring. Ha! Funny that all the asthetics impacted me so much.

Anyway, I got Boggle for us. I knew AJ would like it because he's a big fan of word games. He was dubious at first, but then warmed up to it and we've had a great time playing it. It stored under the bed, so we can play a few rounds whenever. With only three minutes to find words, you don't have to make a big time committment to play. Like last night. We played one round and then AJ had to go to bed in order to get up for seminary. More often, though, it's "just one more game."

The best rounds are when the words come popping out of the board at you. And you can keep writing almost non-stop until the buzzer rings.

I haven't gotten any seven- or eight-letter words yet. But, AJ scored the coup of all our playing with RAWHIDE and RAWHIDES. For a total of 17 points. I had no idea eight letter words were worth 11 points.


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Love Them Toes

Baby Z is 5 months in these pics. I'm a little behind...

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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I wish I knew the stories behind these photos and why they were in the box of my grandparents' pictures. Maybe with a little research, I can dig something up...

These signs say "VOTE "NO" If You Don't Want TO KILL YOUR TOWN".

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Treasure Trove of Pictures

Part of my three weeks away from Minnesota was spent in Seattle. My dad grew up there and my grandparents still live in the city there. They moved to a retirement/assisted living community probably about 10 years ago. My grandpa is now 88 and my grandma 86. My sister and I decided that to see each other, we would meet up there this summer since my grandma's health hasn't been good and because we don't know when we will be able to see them again. Then, two other sisters and my parents also joined us, making it quite the family gathering. I left MJ and T with AJ's parents and flew there for an extended weekend.

Part of what I wanted to do while I was there was talk to my grandpa about his life. That didn't turn out too well. Mostly, it was just too chaotic. Even when there were just adults in their home, two people would be off on the side gabbing. I would sit right next to my grandpa and asked him lots of questions, but it was hit and miss and we didn't record anything.

But, another objective was to look through old family photos. They have a storage closet in the basement of their building, with boxes of pictures that I don't think anyone has looked at in years, if ever. We brought a scanner and laptop and convinced my grandpa it was worth it to get them out. And boy, was it worth it. We found sooo many great photos. There were several times I gasped in pure amazement and joy at our discoveries. The above picture is my grandparents on the their wedding day in 1945.

I was particularly interested in finding any photos of my grandpa's dad, Jocko--one of the Giacomos in the family. He came to the US when he was a kid, and always lived in communities of Italians. He was Catholic, at least on paper.

This group of men on their beer and french bread picnic is one of my favorites. It was probably taken in the early 1900's because my great grandpa (sitting on the left with the white shirt and suspenders ) looks so young. I love his curly hair--part of my family's heritage.

There were several pictures that it seemed like my grandpa had never seen. We found an exquisite picture of his parents on their wedding day in 1913. He snatched that one up so fast and then make several color copies of it because he didn't want it to be lost. Unfortunately, the scan of it didn't turn out too well because of the high gloss on the photo.

We took a bunch of stuff back to our hotel to look at one night, and the next morning, he asked us if we had found the small framed picture of his mother. It was taken when she was older and was in a pretty oval frame. Yes! we exclaimed. We had it, we could bring it to him. He was excited about it and wanted to put it up in his living room.

After we had gone through everything, scanned many photos, and were preparing to take it all back, my mom was looking for the framed photo of Mabel, his mother. She had set it out special knowing how he was looking forward to it. She couldn't find it. It wasn't where she left it. We all started searching. We search through the entire hotel suite we were all staying in. My mom called the front desk to ask about a lost and found. Was there any way she could have taken it to breakfast? We looked inside the sofa bed. We pulled the drapes back. We tried to get my sister's three year old daughter to cough out its location. Tempers flared and we snapped at each other. I was on the verge of tears because I was so upset about it and because I wasn't getting enough sleep. Finally, my sister found it tucked upside down in the corner of one of the drawers in her bathroom. It turns out that the box my mom set it on was just the perfect height for a curious 16 month old. He must have picked it up and found a special place to put it. I was just so grateful we found it and we all vowed not to ever tell my grandpa that it was lost for a while.

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Recent Reads

I'm not going to do justice to these books, but I am behind.

Supercapitalism by Robert Reich. Book group for August. Unfortunately, the meeting was postponed by a week, and I was already on vacation when it happened. Reich decomposes the logic of capitalism to explain the continuing globalization of world markets. Capitalism has expanded at the expense of democracy and the good of the citizenry. Everything, and he mean EVERYTHING, that a company does is centered on the bottom line and profits. He doesn't believe that corporate responsibility should be expected--it isn't built into the logic of capitalism--or that we should expect companies to behave honorably for the common good. Instead, he argues that we need government intervention to support the environment, fair labor and wages, and to reduce inequality. A pretty good read. The first part of the book was slow, I thought, but it picked up. It was long on the description of the problem, and short, though, on any kind of public policy or individual response. He does have some strong words about corporate lobbyists and the enormous influence they wield, and his soundest suggestions revolve around reducing corporate cash in the political system.

So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger. Wow, did I love this one. When I first heard about it, I wasn't too excited--the setting is the declining Wild West and two main characters are figures from an earlier time: the train robber, long on the run from the law, and the detective who has spent years of his life tracking him. But, I really liked Peace Like a River and so I decided to read this too. Enger is a master at characterization; the figures in the book were so real and believable. The writing is gorgeous. So many great scenes. I want to read it through again to cherish his turns of phrase and the way he makes his story sing. I liked this review on Amazon:

Monte Becket should have been happy, with a doting wife, adventuresome little boy, and a place by the river. Not to mention a bestselling novel to his credit. But something's missing and he can't seem to write a second. Then Glendon Hale shows up--courtly, charming, talented, and a self-confessed rascal--a man who walked out on his wife, the love of his life, many years before. Now he envisions a quixotic journey of redemption--to find his lost wife and apologize--and he asks Monte to go with him. So begins the road trip to end all road trips. Monte gets in deeper than he ever expected, and soon runs afoul of Charles Siringo, the detective/bounty hunter who has been pursuing Glendon for many years. Will they ever find the long lost Mrs. Hale? Will Glendon receive forgiveness? Wlll Monte ever make it home again? Or will both men end up in jail? Or worse? Of course, I won't tell you what happens, only that this trip becomes longer, darker, and more costly than Monte could ever have dreamed. And that both men suffer and lose a lot, and that they end up touched by an odd kind of grace.

Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. This was also a book with beautiful writing, but in the end, unlike Enger's So Brave, there is no grace, no redemption. If you read this, you must bookend it with cheerful books, because I was left feeling hopeless and depressed by the end. This is a book about inequality and the dividing and tearing consequences of globalization. Inequality as manifest within a country--both in the US and in India--and between countries. The NYTimes review of this is entitled Wounded by the West, and every character who experiences the west, both in Europe and the US is cut off from their Indianess and culture. Here's an example, from the Times review.

As a student, isolated in racist England, the future judge feels "barely human at all" and leaps "when touched on the arm as if from an unbearable intimacy." Yet on his return to India, he finds himself despising his apparently backward Indian wife.

Desai's descriptions of poverty and its attendants are gruesome and haunting. Her characters are disempowered and unable to shape their lives into something that satisfies them--they are unhappy, unmoored, and humiliated.

Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers. This is a Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane mystery, written in 1936. I have heard good things about Sayers, but I didn't love this book. The characters were a bit wooden (save for the elderly spinster and her gang of single and efficient secretaries who do undercover detective work for Wimsey). The story seemed old fashioned and a little quaint. Wimsey's determination to marry Harriet so early in the story seemed strange. Eh, it was ok. I think I will still read Gaudy Night at some later point, but it didn't suit for a good vacation book. Oh, well. I had the cheaply made small paper back edition that fared well in spite of a diet coke spill in my bag and provided a diversion while I was standing with baby Z in the back of the plane.

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Back from Hiatus

Between being on vacation, the Olympics, and the DNC convention last week, my time has been sucked away. We are happy to be home, excited for the start of school on Tuesday for MJ and next week for T's preschool, and are generally doing well.

While I did not maintain the same level of Olympics obsession as my family, I did watch most of NBC's primetime coverage and I did manage to exhaust myself in the process, staying up far too late many nights. While there were many great moments, I especially loved the successes of Dara Torres, the 41 year old silver medal swimmer, in the 100-meter sprint freestyle, and Oksana Chusovitina, the 33 year old Russian woman who competed for Germany's gymnastics team after moving there for medical treatment for her cancer stricken son. She won a silver medal in the vault. Both, truly amazing.

In one of her post-swim interviews, Torres said, "You're never too old to live your dreams." Maybe a little cheesy, but in the mind set where I'm at right now, trying to define myself to some extent and lay out some plans for the next few years, it resonated. I got to cycle a bit on my brother-in-law's road bike. I'm still dreaming those plans for biker spandex.

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Tender at the Bone

AJ's mom suggested this one for the second annual F Women's Book Group. It's a fun little memoir about a woman growing up with food and eventually becoming a food critic. Her mother's cooking was plain scary (it sounds like the family had iron stomachs, but the story of food poisoning an entire dinner party was hilarious in its recounting). All the recipes she included seemed too gourmet and complicated for my taste. Interesting and fun read, but it didn't stay with me much past the last page. Other books with food descriptions that I have liked more are Under the Tuscan Sun and Little Heathens.

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A Severe Mercy

We read this one for book group a while back. Here's some excerpts from a review:

A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken, is a heart-rending love story described by its author as "the spiritual autobiography of a love." Vanauken chronicles the birth of a powerful pagan love borne out of the relationship he shares with hiswife, Davy, and describes the growth of their relationship and the dreams that they share. As a symbol of their love, they name their dream schooner the Grey Goose, "for the grey goose, if its mate is killed flies on alone and never takes another."

While studying at Oxford, Sheldon and Davy develop a friendship with C.S. Lewis, under whose influence and with much intellectual scrutiny they accept the Christian doctrine. As their devotion to God intensifies, Sheldon realizes that he is no longer Davy's primary love--God is. Within this discovery begins a brewing jealousy.

Shortly after, Davy acquires a fatal illness. After her death Sheldon embarks on an intense experience of grief, "to find the meaning of it, taste the whole of it ... to learn from sorrow whatever it had to teach." Through painstaking reveries, he comes to discover the meaning of "a mercy as severe as death, a severity as merciful as love." He learns that her death "had these results: It brought me as nothing else could do to know and end my jealously of God. It saved her faith from assault. ...And it saved our love from perishing."

This is a pretty good summary of the book. There is a lot of interesting material to think and
talk about. The thing that I have kept returning to is the story of their love. They were married for 15 to 18 years, and were able to keep their love alive and fresh and vibrant all that time. They dreamed big, and then went out and made a way for their dreams to come alive. They studied together, read together, and talked and talked about everything. It was inspiring to read about.

I was really taken by their devotion to each other and their ability to work hard and maintain the freshness of their love. The women in my book group seemed to pooh-pooh this though. They said that their love needed to mature, and that all loves have to move past their springtime. Some of them thought that their relationship seemed suffocating: they were so often together and shared so much that it seemed that they had no separate lives. There must be a balance though and I think that life gets so busy and you have kids and they demand a lot and sometimes it seems hard to remember what it was like in the springtime of a relationship, so distant does it seem from where you are now.

I was particularly frustrated one night when I was trying to talk to AJ about something. Just a small thing I had heard or read, I don't even remember what it was now. MJ came demanding attention, the conversation was lost, and I felt resentful. I got angry. And then when AJ said, "Ok, what did you want to say?" I couldn't remember. It feels like that happens often. And when we do have quiet time, sometimes it's hard to find something to talk about besides the kids and the schedule.

Anyway, the book was great. The story of their relationship with CS Lewis and their conversion to Christianity was remarkable, and Davy's illness and death and Sheldon's mourning were heartbreaking. Highly recommended.

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Funny Words from T

Could you ever imagine that a boy could carry in 4 bags of groceries at once?

If I sing my song now, will I interrupt them?

To AJ: Here's your good morning hug and kiss! Here's your good morning head butt! And here's your good morning kick butt! (We're trying to get him to use bum instead of butt, but it's probably confusing to him why he can say "head butt" but not "kick butt")

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Cyber Stalking

This week, I picked up a book at the library. It's just been published and is in high demand right now, so the copies are circulating quickly between all the branches. Inside my copy, I found a bunch of receipts from whom I am assuming was the previous person to have it checked out. I quickly glanced at them inside the library, and was immediately intrigued. This could give me a little glance into the places this book had recently gone. While a book that I purchase new at Barnes and Noble has a fairly boring life, going from the bookstore to live on my shelf for probably a long time, a library book has a much more adventursome time of it, jaunting about from here to there, going on vacation or to the doctor's waiting room with someone. Especially a book that lots of people want to read. I thought of People of the Book and wanted to construct a story around this book.

But, then I got home and started googling and got totally freaked out about what I could find out about this person and his family in a matter of a few short minutes.

Mark left 5 or so receipts in this book. One was from the airport and then there were a few in Spanish. It turns out this man had been on a trip to Mexico. At first I thought that he had gone on vacation with his family, but examination of the dates showed that it was a short trip, taking only a couple of days. The receipts were mostly standard: there's one from Applebee's in Morelio (seriously, you're going to eat at Applebee's when you're in Mexico?!?) with the card number information mostly x-ed out and no real identifying information about the person. But, the kicker was a receipt from an unknown company. Maybe Mark was buying some pottery or something else to take home. The dealer took a print of his credit card, complete with his number and his name. A local phone number was also scrawled on the receipt.

And from there, I started my search. I typed in Mark's name, and immediately got quite a few hits. I found his job information on a professional networking site, and found out that in his job at Big Company, he is a Director of Sales and Latin America Marketing. Aha! It was a business trip. I got his results from a 5k run he did last year. This also told me his age (44) and his residential location (Edina). I'd already made the assumption that he lived in Edina, since the due date slip, also left inside, was from the Edina branch. And, along with his race results? I got the results for his wife and two daughters. He and his 11-year old daughter Grace ran and completed the race together, and his wife (42 years old) and 13 year old daughter Madeline, faster runners, completed the race together.

From there, I googled his family members. His wife is a competitive racer. I found her results for many races, including a marathon.

I assume they have a grayhound, because I found her name in a special hound newsletter.

I found the name of the private school that the girls attend, as well as some of Madeline's extracurricular activities. I saw a photo of Madeline snowboarding.

I also saw a photo of Mark at a black tie charity event.

So, now I have a picture of the person who previously had this book checked out. And I have a remarkable amount of information about him and his family. I'm sure that if I wanted to, I could find his address.

One key to my ability to gather all this information about him is that Mark has an unusual last night and I could zoom in to his personal information easily, without having to sift through extraneous web pages. Still, it really creeped me out. I felt like a cyber-stalker. And if someone was doing something similar to me and I knew about it, I would really be freaked out. I immediately typed in my daughter's name, but didn't get any hits. She's only 6. Then I typed in my name to see what popped up. It was just a bunch of academic stuff from papers and conferences--nothing too personal.

I thought about calling him to see if he needed his receipts back, but that is kind of creepy too. Instead, I think I will just throw them out.


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Vacation Books

We are going to Denver next week. I will be there for three weeks with the kids. Of course, this brings up a very important question: what will I take to read? I need to bring enough to keep me busy. But, I also need to bring some different kinds of books so that depending on my mood, I have appropriate reading material. There's nothing worse than standing in the airport bookstore, browsing through the best sellers of the moment, and then spending 11.95 for a crappy book. (I get frustrated when AJ does not plan ahead for his trip reading material and then comes home with an 11.95 crappy book that I do not want put on the shelves with our other books.) Or standing at your in-laws book shelves and not seeing anything that grabs your fancy.

This is what I'm thinking about.

Dorothy Sayers: Strong Poison and Gaudy Night. I picked up these two book in small paperback format at a used book store a couple of weeks ago.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich: Ever since reading Well Behaved Women, I have been wanting to read her Midwife's Tale and her journey in Mormonism recorded in All Gods' Critters Have a Place in the Choir.

Kiran Desai: Inheiritance of Loss. Strongly recommended by B.

Thomas Friedman: The World is Flat.

Maybe I also need to think about some fluffier stuff...

And before I go, I will complete the 5 book reviews that are lingering in the drafts section!

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Ten Year Nap

By Meg Wolitzer. Yawn. Nothing really happens in this book. And while I don't need a wild plot to be happy, the mothers in this story aren't really interesting and there aren't any interesting ideas. I thought I'd like it--a book about mothers who choose to stay at home with their kids and the lives they lead and they regrets or non-regrets they feel. I have always wondered what mothers who don't work but whose kids are in school do during the day. All the main characters are these kinds of mothers, but yet, I still don't have an answer to that question. One review said that Wolitzer is a master of the minature. Maybe, but I didn't really pick up on the wit that supposedly makes this book better than I thought it was.

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4th of July

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I love my library!

My county has a fabulous library system. There are branches all over the area, including one that is a couple of miles from my house. These are things that I love about it:

1. I have an online account that allows me to see what I have checked out, to renew items, and to search the catalog.

2. As an addendum to #1, I can order any piece of material that the library has anywhere in its system, and have it delivered to my branch. And I can do it all online. I have taken such advantage of this. And since MJ has been reading like crazy too this summer, so has she. I wish we got an end of the year statement so I could see what we have checked out and how many things got delivered for us. (I would also love to get a back stage view of the way materials move from one branch to another. When I put an order in, how is it decided where the material will come from? Is it based on proximity to my branch? Do vehicles transport materials to a central location and then send then to the requesting branches, or do vehicles go between branches? How many materials are shifted around between branches over the course of a month or year?) I just sent in my renewal for my "friends of the library" membership because I am so grateful, so often, for the ease that we can get so many books with just a few clicks of the mouse.

3. Great programs. We love storytime at our branch. I take the kids on a regular basis when they are going. Right now, their summer programs are going on. This summer, we have been to different branches for Spanish storytime and a Jr Girls Book Group, which MJ absolutely loved.







Our library has this cool huge planter like box with the words to an Emily Dickenson poem inscribed around it.

TO make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,—
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

I wish I would have gotten a picture when the bright yellow lillies were all in bloom, but I kept forgetting my camera.


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I Used to be a Daredevil

Tonight, when I was out biking around a lake near my house, with the wind whistling across my face, I was daydreaming about becoming a cyclist. You know--the kind that ride a road bike in spandex and pedal 50 miles or more on a Saturday morning. I've been riding my hybrid bike around leisurely this summer, but would like to go tougher--more confidently, quickly, and aggressively. (I've also been obsessed about converting my bike to electric and then biking around town to do all my errands.)

The kids and I watched the end of the biking portion of a sprint triathlon--AJ competed in his first ever!--and those bikers were coming in so fast. I have my doubts about whether I really could ever develop cycling into a real pursuit. I feel a little nervous about crashes at such high speeds and hills are so intimidating for me.

I was remembering, though, how I used to pedal up to the top of a very steep hill on my orange banana seat bike in my neighborhood in Boise and then just cruise all the way to the bottom, full speed ahead. And I thought back to those Friday nights when my and my mom, dad, and sister would go up to Bogus Basin and ski. I loved the Sunshine trail where I could just ski straight down. N and I would race, and I always won. At least, that's what I remember. I would take every jump and didn't mind the crashes.

Not that I was always jumping off the roof and crashing through the woods. I did a lot of reading and was always pretty nerdy. But, I did do some risky things.

And then I was wondering when I started becoming more cautious. We moved the summer before I started 6th grade. It was such an awkward and self-consious time for me. I felt so uncomfortable in my skin and didn't want to stand out at all. I wanted to wear Rocky Mountain Jeans (not Smacks) and not go to gifted classes. I desparately wanted to wear a bra--like every other girl. Instead, I never took off my powder jacket. There weren't a lot of Mormons and that felt weird. But the time I made it through 9th grade, I finally started settling in and feeling better about myself. But, by that time, I didn't really do any risky things anymore. That was probably the start of it. And I never really did much aggressively on my own to embrace anything risky. Does this follow the Reviving Ophelia thesis?

Anyway, maybe it's time to reclaim some of that.



PS--Thinking about powder jackets really put me on memore lane. I wonder if my parents have any pictures of me in mine. I couldn't find any good online photos of them, except here's a pattern for one. My mom made mine. It was just like the men's shown here, with gray in the middle and maroon on the sleeves with black cuffs and zipper.

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Baby Intoxication

A couple of months ago, we discussed A Severe Mercy for book group (haven't written about it here yet, but will soon). It is mostly the memoir of an amazing marriage. As we were talking about the feelings of young love, it struck me that having an infant is a lot like being newly in love. The gazes, the cooing and talking for his-ears-only, and the focus of devotion and adoration--from both mother to baby and vice versa too. It really is intoxicating. It's happened with all three of my kids.

When Z was very little, my visiting teachers came over. I fed him and then sat with him in my arms, chatting with them. Then, I glanced down at him and his gaze was fixed on my face. It took me by surprise a little bit, and I was transfixed. His look was so steady and pure. He seemed to be looking at me in pure adoration. I cooed at him and was a little overcome with emotion. I felt like I was the center of his (admittedly very small) world. I felt like I was everything to him. While I clash wills with my other two, when they say "Go away mommy" and "NO! I won't!", here he was, just so content to gaze up at his mother. And when I am feeling fat and ugly and unsocial, there is no judgement in his eyes. He still adores me all the same.

Another similar experience happened before he was a month old when I was up with him the in the middle of the night. I had fed him and he wasn't going back to sleep, so I sat down at the computer with him in my arms. When I looked down, he was smiling up at me, eyes shining. It was one of his first smiles and it melted my heart.

Today, when we were out running errands, a woman started cooing and smiling at Baby Z and he immediately gave her one of his wide mouthed, gummy smiles. She commented, "Oh, so beautiful! He smiles with his eyes too." And it's true--his eyes really do light up when he smiles. I love when he catches my gaze across the room and smiles at me.

I think it's love!
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The End of Food

Going along with all my other food inspired reading, I picked this one up after hearing Paul Roberts speaking on NPR. This is like Michael Pollan somewhat, except on a global scale. So, instead of talking about Joel Salatin in Virginia and the intricate system that he utilizes to strategically use grass and cow and chicken manure, and pigs, chickens, and cows' natural behaviors to produce an amazing amount of eggs and meat on a relatively small parcel of land, Roberts describes a Japanese farmer who uses ducks in rice paddies. He looks at the global food market and the way the agribusiness and food companies have tried to convert food into any other commodity. Unfortunately, Roberts doesn't have any kind of narrative hook like Pollan (tracing four meals from the field to the dinner table) and the book bogged down quite a bit for me.

But, it reinforced some of the other things I've been reading and thinking about. Especially with regards to meat. It turns out that raising beef is particularly resource intensive--7 pounds of corn to get 1 pound of beef. Chicken is more efficient, requiring more like 2.5 pounds of corn to get 1 pound. But, as developing countries increase their meat consumption to approach per-capita Western consumption, more and more corn will be required; if everybody consumed at Western levels, it is nearly impossible to produce the amount of corn that would be needed.

Combine this idea with the CAFOs that Pollan describes, and I'm thinking that we should eat less meat overall. I don't think we need to become vegetarian, but maybe trending toward flexitarian.

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Food Obsessions

When I was a kid in elementary school, my mom often packed me a sack lunch. She said that there was time when I would ask for a PB&J every day, every day, without fail. I'll have to ask her how long that phase lasted. It was probably at least one school year, knowing me. And then, from one day to the next, I didn't want PB&J, and didn't want it again for a very long time.

Very typical. I still see this compulsion in myself--in what I choose to eat, but in other things too. I find something I like and then, avoiding any novel kind of behavior, I satiate myself with it until I can't stand to even look at it.

When we lived in Pittsburgh, I mixed up cottage cheese with oregano and tomato and cheese, put it in a pita, and baked it for 15 minutes. I did this every day. I kept going after tomatoes were out of season, and finally switched to canned tomatoes. And then I got really nauseous even thinking about eating this.

Now, my new favorite food obsession is arugula and goat cheese. I like them together on sandwiches or pizza. I like goat cheese quesadillas. And goat cheese on salads. Maybe I will try to avoid going past the point of no return. But, it's doubtful I will be successful...

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My messy house

We found out this week that we have to replace our AC. It's been such a mild summer, we've only turned it on a few times, but every time it hasn't really worked. We finally called someone to come take a look. And it's as old as this house and needs to be replaced.

So, I scheduled a bunch of sales people from various heating and cooling companies to come out and give me an estimate. Three today, three tomorrow.

The most annoying and manipulative of the salesmen (yes, they were all male) wanted to do an extra good job bothering me and supposedly coming up with the perfect size ac unit for our house. So, he took my home's measurements. From the laundry room with the shoes scattered all over the floor to my bedroom with the unmade bed, he saw it all. Ugh. Having him walk through a lot of the house made me see the clutter with new eyes. And I am not happy.

In my defense, it has been a crazy day and I have hardly been home. And when I was home, I was talking to ac salesmen or feeding baby Z. And I don't know how to get my kids to pick up their messes, which they are constantly making.

I'm so tired of the clutter. I need clutter busters...

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visiting teaching messages

I don't like the way that visiting teaching messages are just an assortment of quotes somewhat related to each other, always placed at the back of the Ensign. It used to be that the visiting teaching message was the very last article before the Latter Day Voices, Random Sampler, and News of the Church. But not anymore. They have moved it up for some unknown reason, but it's still towards the end. There is never any unifying text, but it is just a collection of quotes based on some theme. I wonder why they don't have the General RS Presidency write a more meaty message.

And of course, I can't help but say: the home teaching message is always the first article of the Ensign every month. What does the relative placement of these say?

I glanced at the message this morning for the month before I went visiting teaching. I decided I didn't really like it and turned to the mini-bio of Elder Eyring. Lucky for me, my partner had some good things to say about the message. And I got to talk about Elder Eyring.

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Never Let Me Go

By Kazuo Ishiguro. Huh. I read this a while ago and thought I had already posted this. It was nice to read a novel with a great and compelling story, good writing, and interesting characters. What genre is this book? Kind of science fiction, kind of futuristic, but seems to be about real people: like a reviewer said, the point of the novel is about the people, not about the science fictiony plot element. The narrator recounts her life, starting with the elite boarding school that she attended from the time she was an infant until she was 16. The story of unravels bit by bit. I like this description:

[Never Let Me Go] is a masterpiece of indirection. Like the students of Hailsham, readers are "told but not told" what is going on and should be allowed to discover the secrets of Hailsham and the truth about these children on their own.

These students are special and have a societal mission for which they are destined. However, their role in society is morally repugnant. The interesting thing is that it is all so normal for them. They don't try to escape, but just follow through on what they are supposed to do.

I'd like to talk with someone who read it. I'm not sure what I thought of the ending. There was no grand reveal, no final wrapping up. It just kind of drifted off.

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Pittsburgh

The NY Times has a travel article about Pittsburgh up right now. I love the opening paragraph.

Pittsburgh has undergone a striking renaissance from a down-and-out smokestack to a gleaming cultural oasis. But old stereotypes die hard, and Pittsburgh probably doesn’t make many people’s short list for a cosmopolitan getaway. Too bad, because this city of 89 distinct neighborhoods is a cool and — dare I say, hip—city. There are great restaurants, excellent shopping, breakthrough galleries and prestigious museums. The convergence of three rivers and surrounding green hills also make it a surprisingly pretty urban setting.

We moved to Pittsburgh because we didn't move to Boston. Boston and MIT were our top choice for relocation for business school. CMU was an ok second choice. When AJ got the scholarship, though, the financial considerations were compelling enough to drop all other options and make a committment to CMU. We drove over in February to visit. Not the best month to see Pittsburgh. It was gray and cold the whole time we were there and the streets were pockmarked with potholes. We didn't venture very far from campus and our hotel because of our schedule and because I get lost easily. After we left to go back to NYC, we were still not so excited about moving there. I still had a picture of an industrial wasteland in my head.

We left NYC at the end of July with all our belongings in a U-Haul and drove across Pennsylvania to our new home that we had never before seen. A good friend had recommended the house and we saw pictures. We drove into town about 4 pm. The area was absolutely beautful. Everything was green and we drove up and down hills. Flowers were out. We drove through interesting neighborhoods to our wonderful and charming new neighborhood. And our house felt enormous after living in a NYC apartment. It was all so perfect. Auntie M took MJ around the corner to the blue slide park where they played until the truck was unloaded. It turns out we were on the edge of one of the city's best parks, with lots of trails and playgrounds and woods to explore. That night, we got pizza from a delicious pizzeria just up the street from our new house. I was giddy for about a week after that. We had simply fallen into a great city, an amazing neighborhood, and a wonderful house. And we later saw that we were in a simply incredible ward.

We would have stayed in Pittsburgh if we could have. I miss living in a city and in a neighborhood where I can walk to the grocery store and library and get interesting ethnic food easily. My new home is just fine, but I think it's ugly (we are slowly trying to change those things that I find most odious, but I don't think we'll ever get rid of the popcorn celings). It's not in an interesting neighborhood, just another generic suburb. And another generic cul de sac. We drive everywhere (except for the park). I like where we live, we have great neighbors, and we absolutely love MJ's school. But, I hope to live in a very different kind of place the next time we move. Maybe even back to Pittsburgh.

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Shackleton

For book group this month, we read a YA book--Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World-- about Sir Ernest Shackleton's amazing Antarctic expedition. I also read another account by Caroline Alexander--Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition-- which beautifully reproduced some 170 of Frank Hurley's original photographs of their adventure.





The photographs are truly incredible. They give a real sense of the ice wasteland and the conditions these men faced. They showed the stark beauty (at least, as seen from my balmy Minnesota summer) of the Antarctic. And they captured the men and both their daily routines and special occasions. There were quite a few of the Endurance, the ship that took them south and was ultimately destroyed by the ice. It was a wonderful way to get a glimpse into the mission.




Both authors also draw heavily from the first hand accounts of the men, as recorded in their journals during their travels. These provide the life of the book in their details, chronology, and character sketches. (Alexander does a much better job of bringing the characters and their daily routines to life, while Armstrong focuses more on the chronology of events.) The photographs and the journals preserved an amazing story.





There were a few things that struck me.

1. So many times, they were on the brink of total disaster--these occurred both in the mundane day to day survival in such a harsh climate, as well as in the greatly perilous events such as crossing the open ocean in small boats or trekking across the uncharted mountains and glaciers of South Georgia. But, yet, not one man died during the trip. Simply amazing.

2. Shackleton's amazing leadership: he could diffuse tension, spread his optimism through the group in the face of terrible odds, and maintain unity in a group of diverse men. I loved that the morning after they reached Elephant Island, after a bone chilling, devastatingly awful, open sea voyage, that Shackleton was taking around hot drinks to the men in their tents. He was the one who gave up the sleeping bag for the wool blanket. He was utterly determined that not one man would die, and he was successful. I love the vision of the scene at the end: three filthy men stumble from the mountains into the whaling port on S Georgia island. Shackleton asked to see the Norwegian man in charge, whom he knows. Upon their meeting, Sorlle, the Norwegian captain says, "Well?" Shackelton responds, "Don't you know me?...My name is Shackleton."

3. I would never ever want to be an explorer in any polar region, no matter how amazing the landscape, no matter how many times I could see the Aurora Australis and the multiple species of penguins. I don't think I would even want to read an account of their expedition in the winter.

A question came up. How do we feel about Shackleton the man once we know that he has a mistress? I have mixed feelings about it. He was a remarkable leader and accomplished an amazing feat in this expedition, and I don't think he infidelity to his wife should take away from any of that. He unfailing loyalty to his men stands in contrast to his relationship with his wife. I know nothing about his wife or his mistress, so I am really not in a position to judge the situation. And the fact is, no matter who the hero is, he/she is ultimately mortal and has weaknesses. No hero is without blemish.

I felt a little sad that we spent probably only 45 minutes with the book and the rest of the time socializing. I don't mind the socializing, but I wanted to dig in a bit more.

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Where is my mind?

This morning, I had to take baby Z to the pediatrician for his 4 month well baby check. I dropped the other two off at playground camp and raced over there since we were running a little behind. I got baby Z out of the car, walked towards the entrance, and then paused. "Hmm," I thought. "Why does this feel weird?" Then I was trying to remember what floor of this big medical building the pediatrician's office was on. "My ob is on the 6th floor, the dentist on the 5th...Crap!" The pediatrician was in a completely separate location. That's why it felt weird. And we've been going to this ped for well over a year now. How can I do such things? My mind seems to have completely evaporated. My memory feels shot. I'm not even that old. I wonder what will happen to me in my old age.

By the way, Z has gone from the 30th percentile in weight to the 10th. And he is up to the 60th percentile in height. He is such a skinny scrawny little thing. But pretty darn cute!

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China Road

Rob Gifford is a NPR correspondent. He used to be based in Beijing. I would often hear him on Market Place and All Things Considered reporting on anything to do with China. He has a very distinctive voice--a lovely British accented baritone. I could hear his voice reading China Road all the way through.

This was an ok book. Before Gifford leaves China to take on a new NPR assignment, he travels across China 3000 miles from east to west on Route 312. He talks to all sorts of people, stops in many places, and then turns his experience on this trip and as a Chinese based journalist into this book.

My main problem with the book: there was lots of information and as someone who doesn't know a lot about China, I had a hard time keeping the names and places straight. He doesn't go into a lot of detail about any one thing, making it harder to absorb everything. And, it wasn't really engaging as a memoir kind of book. So, all in all, it was mostly an introduction to me. I think I would have preferred to learn about one small piece in more depth than so much in less detail.

I saw Ted Koeppel on The Daily Show this week. He has a 4 hour piece on China coming out in July. I think I should watch it. Maybe some more will sink in for me.

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Bedtimes at the Summer Soltice

Hmm. Not a good night with the kids. AJ left to go to a conference. On a Friday afternoon. Not good. He won't be home until late Wednesday. We've already had meltdowns. (The sun'll come out, tomorrow? Let's hope.) It's so hard to get the kids to go to bed when it's light out. They were in bed at 8:30, but it seemed like 6:30. Of course they don't want to go to sleep. They goof around. They yell at each other and step on each other. They cut up paper in the hallway. They play with water in the bathroom. And T runs around in the hallway after I've given him his last warning. Then I have to shut his door and he freaks out. I reach a breaking point and yell and hustle MJ back into her room. And then I regret it. This hasn't been a very good week with them...
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The Rule of Four

This was a fun read. I heard about it when I was in Princeton. One of the authors was a Princeton undergrad, and the bulk of the novel takes place on Princeton's campus. Lots of familiar places were included: the hospital where MJ was born, many campus buildings and locations, Prospect Street where my first office was located (in a former eating club), Hoagie Haven, and even the street where my advisor lives. Part of the plot includes a thesis advisor gone wacko. (shudder)

Anyway, at the center of the story are four roommates and a mysterious Renaissance text with secret messages encoded within its pages. Throw some Florentine history in there. (I was happy that I figured out the Savonarola tie in before it happened.) It was pretty good. Better writing than Da Vinci Code. I thought the story of the Hypnerotomachia overshadowed the deeper story of friends and relationships. The characters didn't seem well enough developed for me to invest much in this other piece. It was interesting, though, to consider how much the two main protaganists gave up--especially in their relationships--to devote to the Hypnerotomachia.

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Better

I like this background and these colors better. I still need to get the "read more" back up and working and the margins are funky. The colors are not entirely how I want it. But, it's fun to play around with it.
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Under Construction

I've been playing with my blog. After spending time on it, I'm not quite sure what I think of it. Does it seem too busy? I'm going to try a few more things out.
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Rereadings

Edited by Anne Fadiman. I scanned through a lot of this one. These were originally published in The American Scholar. Each essay is written by a famous author and recounts a rereading of a book that was highly influential earlier in life. To show how much I know, none of the "famous writers" were familiar to me; neither were most of their influential books.

I did really love reading about a woman's connection to her wildflower identification book. She traipes about the hills, looking at flowers, as a 19 year old, with her Peterson's in hand and later goes on to become a biologist. I love this line: "Why I persisted in carrying it around and consulting its crowded pages at every opportunity, I have no idea. The book was stubborn; well, I was stubborn too; that was part of it. And I had no choice, really, not if I wanted to get in. A landscape may be handsome in the aggregate, but this book led to the particulars, and that's what I wanted." I have recently felt again the desire to become more connected to my locality. And, coincidentally, one thing I've been wanting to get is a Trees of Minnesota book.

This essay, in the middle of the book, was the first one I read and persuaded me to look at some of the other chapters.

I liked this too:

I read the book slowly, in part because it was dense and in part because I wanted to be seen reading it. I wore the book as much as I read it, "absentmindedly" holding it in one hand on the street even when I was carrying a satchel of books in the other, "casually" parking it atop my notebook next to my coffee cup wherever I sat.

I love sneeking peeks at what other people are reading. A couple of years ago, AJ and I went on a cruise and I smugly compared my vacation reading material with all the Danielle Steeles and John Grishoms that were out there.

So even though the authors and the material they discussed were unknown, the subtext of the way particular books shape us was cozy and familiar.

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The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

A while ago, there was a fascinating article on paleoclimatology in the New Yorker. It was all about how researchers have been able to use methods like tree ring analysis and ice cores to figure out how the weather--temperature and precipitation--have varied over the last few thousand years.

So, when I heard Brian Fagan talking about his recent book on historical trends in climate change on The Daily Show, I thought it sounds interesting. But, I gave it 50 pages, and couldn't get into it. The material was good, but the writing not so much. It just didn't captivate me.

Even now, though, I think I should go back and try to read through some more of it...
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Cities and Knights

I love you!

We had the happy chance to play twice this weekend with auntie M and uncle R. Fun, fun, fun! I was blue in this game. Notice the two metropolises !(or is it metropoli?)

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No more newborn

Baby Z has made the transition to full blown baby. He doesn't curl up like a hedgehog when he sleeps on AJ's chest, he always wears real clothes during the day--no more pj's 24/7--he has grown out of his car seat headrest, and he is more alert and interacting with us--smiling, laughing, and cooing.

We were just wondering when we will be able to see his personality more clearly and how he will compare with MJ and T. I think he may be more emotionally reserved than either of them. But, we shall see.

This is a trademark baby Z half smile. I love it.

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Last Newborn Pleasure

Too bad I never got a photo of this one. As a new baby, Z would doze when he was nursing. And, as a typical newborn, it took him a long to eat. Every so often when baby Z would finally finish, I'd pull him back from my breast and his face would be all flushed, his hair disheveled, and his eyes would flutter open. Best of all, there would be a trickle of milk dribbling out of the side of his mouth.

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Omnivore's Dilemma

Very interesting. He traces four meals from the soil to the dinner table. A little dense since lots of information was presented--it took me a while to get through. Also an important book to read, I think. It (along with Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: this was a nice flowing narrative, more of a personal memoir) made me think of food and food consumption and the ethics of food in such a different manner. I loved the description of Joel Salatin's farm in Virginia, with his grass fed cattle and his elaborate rotation system. His description of the industrial food chain was also fascinating, as well as the impact of the US goverment's food policies on crops and food prices. And I loved his description of the final meal: eating foods only collected or grown by himself. So, he gets a hunting license, learns to fire a gun, and hunts for wild boar in northern California. And he forages for mushrooms and grows a garden.

I started thinking hard about my family's egg farm business and wanted a section of the book devoted to this. Or at least a New Yorker article. He does include a few paragraphs to egg production to say that journalists have a hard time getting into egg farms and that from all accounts, "egg operations are the worst...The American laying hen spends her brief span of days piled together with a half dozen other hends in a wire cage the floor of which four pages of this book could carpet wall to wall. Every natural instinct of this hen is thwarted, leading to a range of behavioral "vices" that can include cannibalizing her cage mates and rubbing her breast agasint the wire mesh until it is completely bald and bleeding." Hmm. I would love to talk to my uncles about these kinds of ideas, but it might not be received well. I wonder if they have had protests, letters, etc about the way the chickens are treated. The problems of egg production are about scalability. It would be impossible to produce the eggs they do with free range chickens. And it would make eggs a lot more expensive. But, Pollan claims they would be more nutritious.

All very interesting. I am going to look into some locally produced meats, just to get a sense of price difference, and maybe we can make a few strategic moves in this direction. I really love the idea of buying a lot of beef, say, a half cow, all from one single cow that has lived a good cow-life, freezing it, and then being extra-grateful for this one cow and the food that she has given us.

And I am recommitted to visiting the farmer's market once a week during the summer. We'll go this Thursday.

I've been thinking about the committment I would need to make to go all the way with some of these food consumption ideas. With eating locally, with not eating meat that has been produced in CAFO's (confined animal feeding operations), or with going organic. I have decided that there is no way we can do everything, but that we can do something. I need to think more about strategic priorities. What do I feel strongest about? And then we can do a few things here and there. Hopefully, the changes we make in where we spend our food dollars will combine with other tiny drops in the bucket to influence the larger food production process.

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The Year of Living Bibically

Oh, I am way behind in my book notes. Things have been busy here, in a good way. But, I want to catch up this week. This was a very fun read. Another one of the Do-Something-For-A-Year-And Write-A-Book-About-It memoirs that seem to be so popular write now. Jacobs decides to try to follow ever rule/commandment in the Bible over the course of one year. These include both the famous 10 Commandments and less well known admonitions: avoid wearing mixed fibers, stoning adultorers, and playing a 10 stringed harp. Matching his inner committment, he grows a beard and dresses in white. The general tone of the book is witty and entertaining, but he does share profound reflections that have come to him during the process. I especially liked his thoughts on prayer: prayers of gratitude (and very specific ones: "thank you for the farmer who grew the chick peas for my hummus) and prayers for other people.

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Parenting, Inc

by Pamela Paul. This felt like a big jumble of information that has been written about better in other places. Of course selling to parents and kids is huge business. And parents are overbuying. It didn't seem new. She kept repeating herself, a lot of the topical chapters didn't stick that close to topic, and at points, it seemed like she was advocating for specific products which seemed to go against her general thesis, like her raving about the sleep consultant. Is this stuff good or bad? The line was fuzzy for me. And there weren't any really good pieces of practical advice. I guess just being aware of this stuff is helpful? Like I said, it didn't feel new to me. The data factoid that I found stunning: the average American kid gets 70 new toys per year. Ugh. I have felt revulsion against the consuming kids culture quite a bit. I never want to have a "everyone bring a gift, big birthday party" again. Maybe with the third kid, where most everything is a hand me down, and I am longing to purge the toyroom, the idea of consuming more baby goods just feels so unnecessary.
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