Smart Sex - a review

Smart Sex by Jennifer Roback Morse has got to be one of the worst self-help books I have ever seen. The author starts with the warning "Please remove your political hat beofre reading. This book will self-destruct in the hands of politicians and policy wonks." Clearly, the author intends to be non-political, right? WRONG!

Of course, I should have been smart enough to know that a book endorsed by Chuck Colson (Founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries) would be anything but apolitical, or anything but a piece of propaganda. But I thought maybe Ms. Morse, after such an opening statement, would get beyond that. On the contrary she used the right's Calvinistic platform as her beginning arguments and tried to make them fit the complex world of sexual relationships. In the process she develops some rather strange and dangerous concepts.

For example, in a section describing the horrors of cohabitation, she describes how oxytocin is pumped into a woman's bloodstream when she is in labor, breastfeeding, or having an orgasm. She also says that oxytocin is known to decrease a person's cognitive ability and impair memory. Then she concludes that "This combination of factors may also explain why domestic violence is so much more prevalent among cohabiting couples than among married couples." What? How does a marriage license decrease oxytocin unless the age old joke about marriage decreasing the frequency of sex is correct.

Without understanding Maslow's heirarchy of human needs or ignoring it's implications, Ms. Morse pokes fun at statements by Gloria Feldt of Planned Parenthood saying reproductive self-determination is a fundamental freedom. Sexual rights and reproductive self-determination aren't even on Ms. Morse's radar screen. Ms. Morse claims that sex was meant to have consequences of pregnancy and to remove that consequence is both irrational and wrong. Clearly, the progress that we have made since the time when it was illegal just to distribute information about contraceptives should all be reversed. Ms. Morse liked things just fine when people were required to accept the consequences of unintended pregnancy. And the higher the risk, the better. The fact that women almost always bear the greater burden is lost on our sexist Ms. Morse, who thinks that must be the natural order of things.

She even re-defines date-rape so she can blame the victims who are "talked into" having sex. If it were real rape it wouldn't be called "date rape" she claims, thus eliminating in her mind any seriousness to the problem. In fact she says, "If sex were really no big deal, just another activity, then being talked into unwanted sexual activity shouldn't be any bigger deal than being talked into going to a ball game when you would have preferred a movie." If a man had compared date rape to being persuaded to attend a ball game, he would never hear the end of it. Ms. Morse should be called on this as well.

Don't bother to buy the book. Check it out of the library if you must but this sort of pseudo self-help shouldn't be encouraged.

Good-bye old office

We've been hiring like crazy at work so that available workspaces are becoming rare. In fact, we've been playing a game of dominoes with the cubicles to maximize the number of staff who can be comfortably housed. Now we're starting on the offices. It has been my good fortune to have a comfortably sized office for the past several months. But now it looks like with some creative furnishings we can house two employees in my office. And that means I'll be moving to a smaller, but very adequate office. In fact, it will be really close to my original office when I came to work at this company.

Probably the hardest thing I'll have to deal with is having my computer on a right hand return instead of a left hand return and remembering which door to come in. I think those are hardships I can live with.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

In our family cookbook we have a recipe for Double Chocolate Chip cookies (in fact we have two identical ones in my version of the cookbook) but I've always felt they were a little two "powdery" and brittle. Thanks to the Internet and Google, I found a recipe from Bed & Breakfast Inns Online that is a definite improvement. This particular recipe is credited to Huber's Ferry Bed and Breakfast. It isn't that different from our previous recipe - a little more flour, another egg, twice as many chocolate chips, a little more brown sugar and less white. I found that using a 1.5 inch ice cream/fruit scoop (the kind with the hand-squeeze activated eject mechanism) makes the perfect size cookes that are nice and uniform.

If you have recipies you'd like to share, let me know.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients List:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup brown sugar firmly packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup softened butter (2 sticks)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup broken walnuts

Recipe Preparation:
In medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda. In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar, brown sugar, softened butter and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs and beat. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in semi-sweet chocolate chips and broken walnuts. Drop mixture by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake in a 375 degree oven 10 minutes or til edges are firm. Cool one minute on cookie sheet then remove to a wire rack to cool.

Number of servings: About 40-3" cookies

More power (outlets)

When we were having the dry rot damage at the rear of our house repaired, we discovered that there was an access door where the jacuzzi tub was plugged in and from where we could presumably service the jacuzzi pump motor. That was a very useful bit of information to have. However, it was also a good to know how the jacuzzi plugged in just in case we wanted to extend the power line from there to an outlet at the back of the house, an area that is woefully inadequately wired.

So, today, inspired by all the electrical work that Edward and I accomplished at their house, I opened the access door, connected into the outlet there and installed a new outlet for the outside. It was a job that took less than an hour and went exactly as planned. I even had all the necessary wire, boxes, covers, etc. except for the 49 cent outlet itself. So I did have to make one run to Home Depot. If only all such home improvement projects could go so well.

Life's little annoyances

A sore throat indicating a cold coming on, a flat tire, a broken plate, the heel of your shoe coming off. Life is just full of these little annoyances that rarely are life threatening but sometimes gang up on you and make you feel like you're being pecked to death by a gang of ducks.

We just experienced the high tech version of this annoyance level when our Internet Provider decided that our IP address (whatever that is) should be blocked, at least as far as sending out e-mail. Well, technically they didn't decide that. Some SPAM blocking service they subscribe to decided that and put us on some sort of blacklist. Thus, we could use the Internet and even receive and send email using the web tool our provider provides. But we couldn't use Outlook which we have become attached to.

No longer could easily reply to email and include the message we were responding to. No longer could we access our large database of email addresses to send messages to people who have emailed us in the past three years. No longer could we sort out outgoing messages into folders correlated with our incoming messages. Deadly? No. Frustrating and annoying? You bet.

After ONLY a week, Surewest finanlly figured out what to do about the problem we had reported. After ONLY a week and repeated assurances that we have virus protection and regularly update it, Surewest was able to get out address off the blacklist so that once again we can enjoy the benefit of using Outlook to process our email. Do you ever get the feeling that we're being "protected" right out of lives?

The Paradox of God - a review

The Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience by Clifford A. Pickover is a thought provoking book in which the author examines several well-known philosophical paradoxes and some lesser known ones. Many of them revolve around the idea or attributes of God or another omniscient or omnipotent being that is given another name to examine the paradox without attacking anybody's god. Given today's world in which cartoons can provoke bloody, murderous rampages, Pickover may have been attempting to show the way we can examine beliefs without attacking them. Maybe.

It becomes clear rather quickly that Pickover doesn't believe in the "traditional God" of the Old Testament but almost as quickly he shows that most Christians don't either, if they really understand what the Old Testament is saying. He also points out that logic prevents a god who is both omniscient and omnipotent although it does allow for partial or mutable omniscience with omnipotence.

Of course the paradoxes and logical thought trains that are presented in this book are likely to give many people headaches so they will simply close the book and say something to the effect: The Bible tells me God is true and God tells me the Bible is true so I believe it and that's the end of it. Pity, it would make such an interesting Sunday School lesson manual.

Food and fellowship

It's a well established fact that food tends to facilitate bonding and eases the social dialogue in a group. So what better excuse to get together as a group of employees to enjoy a lunch and some good conversation. One of the many wonderful benefits available where I work is a once a month extended lunch hour so that work units can go out to a nice restaurant and have a good experience with each other. Of course we each pick up our own check so we try to keep the choice of restaurants modest enough that it doesn't become a burden on an employee.

Goldie Hawn - a review

"Goldie Hawn - a lotus grows in the mud" is the kind of autobiography that I could write if only my life had been a little more exciting. For one thing, Goldie doesn't go on and on about her failed marriages or her experience with drugs. She admits she's been there, done that, but doesn't dwell on the problems. Although her father and mother had their problems, she emphasizes their strong points and what they have given her, not what they couldn't give her.

One thing you realize immediately with this book is that Goldie is definitely not your stereotypical dumb blonde. She also wasn't the class clown and didn't think of herself as funny or comic material. She comes off about as genuine as you'd like a friend to be. She wanted to be a dancer and then a serious actress. Turns out that she had talents in those areas as well as a comic, a director, a producer, and now a spokesman for serious causes such as Operation Smile, the organization which repairs facial deformities of young children who cannot afford such operations. Sixty years old this year, she is on the cover of the most recent AARP Magazine talking about her first tatoo (a tiny heart on her foot) and stumping for Hollywood to grow up and make more movies for grownups.

I especially appreciated that Goldie's story was only partially linear. She didn't stick to a strict time line in telling her story and would also intersperse the more historical sections with pictures and "postcards", little glimpses into her relationships and feelings that didn't fit neatly into her serial tale.

Toward the end she wanders off into new age spirituality and other metaphysical experiences that make me uncomfortable but again she doesn't preach that everyone should try to reach spirituality that way, simply that she has connected with a higher consciousness by doing so. The book was funny in so many places, sad and heartbreaking in others, but enjoyable throughout.

Nerd for life

I found this NerdTest and thought I'd better let you all know how I scored.



I guess I just can't shake that "pocket protector" image that I treasured for so many years. If it makes any difference, I took the test a second time trying to place myself where I would have been right out of grad school, building our Polymorphic-88 computer, and carrying IBM 80-column Hollerith cards in my shirt pocket right behind the pocket protector which had 2 pens, a pencil, an eraser, and a screwdriver in it.



So I guess I've gotten a little more back in the mainstream after all.

New homes for our orange trees

Yesterday wasn't what you'd call a spring day but at least it wasn't raining like they had predicted. So while I was helping my son Edward continue to work on his backyard electrical conduit project, Carolyn was out in our backyard transplanting our orange trees from the fake clay pots into genuine old wine cask halves. This should give them about twice the room for their roots to spread and grow. We have found that the soil in out back yard goes down about 18 inches before it hits hard pan clay. Until the roots break through the clay, they just can't get the growth and drainage they need. We're still waiting for a couple of our trees to do that. But Carolyn figured it would be easier with the citrus trees to just plant them in pots since they won't ever be that large anyway.

Golf with Alan Shepherd - a review

The play "Golf with Alan Shepherd" concerns a foursome of old duffers who are playing golf because they have nothing better to do. It is full of one-liner jokes that are worth the price of admission, at least the way the actors at the Chautauqua Playhouse delivered them last night. But there was a definitely serious side to the play as well. One of the golfers is a defrocked priest who left the church after 50 years to chase a 19-year old floozy who ended up stealing his Buick. Another is a man who has lost his wife and as "compensation" can't seem to miss a putt. A third is a grouch who bemoans the loss of his "army buddy" who died on the 16th green the previous year and whose place has been taken, reluctantly, by the buddy's brother who can't seem to figure out why he is made about being taken for granted.

So underlying all the "old man" humor is a serious discussion of life, god, women, death, dying, and friendships. At my age the humor sometimes cuts a little too close to reality and the discussions of death and the loss of loved ones is downright frightening. Even so, I highly recommend the play.

quotes from Archaeology class instructor

After winning a discussion with a student: "I'm into teaching for the power... and the free White-Out."

Talking about visiting another classroom: "If someone acted like that in my class I'd just beat him with a femur."

Describing why a study that would be used to evaluate prehistory civilizations in France was done in Alaska: "30,000 years ago France was more like Alaska is now. There was no Disneyland-France, no Eiffel Tower, no chocolate croissants. And if there's no chocolate croissants, why go on?" (gestures with back of hand on forehead)

Describing the techniques used in ethnoarchaeology: "We can use graduate students for sea lion bait. Graduate students will do anything for a letter of recommendation."

Holding up fertility goddess key chain for class to see, "Thank god plastic doesn't work."

On a career in archaeology: "Archaeology is a bitch for your back but then so is typing."

Unshelved

My good friend Barbara Rumsey shares my interest in and love for books. She volunteers for her local library and is a voracious reader. Recently she shared a website with me that I have really enjoyed. Enough so that I am going to be adding it to my link sites. The site is the repository for the comic strip Unshelved, a strip that has no sex or violence and very little political agenda. But it does have a heart and the soul of a librarian.

The web site also offers merchandise for sale such as a t-shirt with the words "What happens in the library, stays in the library". I don't know if that was produced before or after passage of the Patriot Act so I'm not sure whether it is a message of hope or defiance.

In any case, I highly recommend signing up to get a comic strip mailed to you daily. Also, buy the collections of comic strips that have been published as books. They make great coffee table books and you won't go blind going through all the archives.

That time of year again...

When we sit down to take stock of what last year was like and what we're going to do this year. No, I'm not talking about New Year's resolutions but TAX TIME. It really is amazing that Americans for the most part willingly (not happily but willingly) gather together all the information needed to establish their tax liability, either compute or assist in computing this liability, then notify the government of the results. Most of us do it with a little bit of pride in our country and a sense of duty but I suspect there's a significant portion of fear of the negative consequences were we not to be so compliant.

For that reason, I was amazed at the article in the Sacramento Bee recently saying that 600,000 Californians have yet to file their 2004 tax returns. The state estimates that as much as $6.5 billion has not been collected from 2004. Even though they're going to be offering total amnesty (no penalty or fees) for those who respond to the first notice by paying their state taxes, the state isn't expecting to get the full $6.5 billion. They say they'll be happy with $3 or $4 billion.

I am certainly grateful for programs like TurboTax which take much of the pain out of preparing the tax returns. It's also nice that with the move to Sacramento and reducing our investments there, the complexity of our tax returns has gotten dramatically less.

Unlike many people, I try to have just enough taken out of my regular paychecks so that I have to pay come tax time. I don't want to feel like I've given Uncle Sam an interest free loan. I'd rather withhold less, put the difference into the credit union, and collect interest while waiting for April to pull it out to pay our taxes. But of course that means I'm always pushing the point where we incur a penalty for under withholding. Also I'm tempted to wait until the last moment to file the return since the cost is the same on April 15 as it is on February 15.

Let there be conduit!

Although Ed and Tiffany's house has many fine features, outside electrical outlets and lighting aren't among them. When some of the family were here to help many months ago, we did manage to install a front yard lamppost and some electrical outlets along the way but the back yard has remained woefully unlit. Well, since we have had unseasonably nice weather and since Ed and I both had a day off while the rest of the family didn't (thus precluding any family outings or other "random events"), Ed and I tackled the job of getting some lighting and outlets in their back yard.

The groundwork had already been laid those many months ago with new circuit breakers and leads to the back, but since the next thing to be done was install conduit and the first piece of conduit had to go up 12 to 15 feet, it presented an initial obstacle. Once we got going, though, we were able to lay in about 60 feet of conduit including 2 gable light fixture boxes, 1 patio light fixture box, 3 outlet boxes, 3 outside corner juntion boxes, 2 inside corner curves, and several miscellaneous curves. Home Depot not having the parts we needed, slowed us down a little and finally the early onset of night (it is still February) stopped us from completing the task. Okay, my sore back contributed to stopping as well.

We figure the remaining conduit should be an easy afternoon and then we'll get to tackle the job of pulling the wires. Ed and I figure we'll get the whole thing done just in time for daylight savings time to make the backyard lighting superfluous.

Truthiness

"Truthiness" was selected as the 2005 Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society. The definition of this interesting word is well stated by Wikipedia.com:

Truthiness is the state or condition of a person purporting to know something emotionally or instinctively, without regard to evidence or to what the person might conclude from intellectual examination. The term was coined and popularized by Stephen Colbert after he used it during the first episode of his satirical television program The Colbert Report, as the subject of a segment called The Wørd. (from Wikipedia)

But to really understand the word, you need to listen to some segments of Colbert’s program:

"I will speak to you in plain, simple English. And that brings us to tonight's word: 'truthiness'. Now I'm sure some of the 'word police', the 'wordanistas' over at Webster's are gonna say, 'Hey, that's not a word'. Well, anyone who knows me knows I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books. ...

"I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart. And that's exactly what's pulling our country apart today. 'Cause face it, folks; we are a divided nation. Not between Democrats and Republicans, or conservatives and liberals, or tops and bottoms. No, we are divided between those who think with their head, and those who know with their heart.

"Consider Harriet Miers. If you 'think' about Harriet Miers, of course her nomination's absurd. But the president didn't say he 'thought' about his selection.

He said this:
(video clip of President Bush:) 'I know her heart.'

"Notice he didn't say anything about her brain? He didn't have to. He 'feels' the truth about Harriet Miers.

"And what about Iraq? If you 'think' about it, maybe there are a few missing pieces to the rationale for war. But doesn't taking Saddam out 'feel' like the right thing? ..." (Colbert report, Oct 17, 2005)

Now, isn’t that just exactly what we’re hearing more and more of? Let’s think with our hearts and feel with our heads.

Hallelujah!

The ward choir is once again meeting at our house to practice on Sunday afternoons. We were meeting at the church two and a half hours after our last meeting and it made such a hole in our Sunday afternoons. But even that time slot started conflicting with other wards meeting in our building so the decision was made to move to another location. There were three possibilities so I'm not sure exactly why they decided to move here. It is a mixed blessing. On the one hand it is certainly convenient for Carolyn and me. We don't have to worry about being someplace on time. On the other hand, if we don't feel like joining in one Sunday because we're sick or out of sorts, it is a little awkward.


But in any case, I know the house enjoys the visitors and our piano is happy to accompany the choir. And there's a much better chance now that we can get our neighbor Virginia to join with us some Sunday afternoon.

Round up time

Head 'em up, cut 'em back, rein 'em in. No I'm not talking about cattle here. We're talking about the back yard. We tried to postpone it. We even went out geocaching (with absolutely no success) trying to put it off. But we still ended up at Costco looking at their plants, potting soil, and garden tools. And on the way back home we stopped at Home Depot for more of the same. It was a bright sunny day with temperatures close to 70 and we just couldn't stay away from the yardwork.

While Carolyn trimmed the bushes and pulled out dead weeds, I took the easier task - spraying Round-Up to try to kill some of the more obnoxious grass and other pesky weeds in the flower and vegetable beds. I think I'd prefer a flame thrower so that I could see the results of my work instantly. Instead, I'll have to wait a couple of weeks and spray again where this time wasn't enough. Carolyn, on the other hand will see the results of the pruning immediately. And it's impressive.

Unseasonably warm

It’s Winter Olympics time again, we’re still in the middle of February, and the temperature in Sacramento is a record breaking 72! There are numerous trees in blossom along our street. Even the leaf buds on our own little trees are beginning to swell with possibility. It is so nice outside today that we’re going to be really tempted to work outside this weekend hoping that somehow we can skip the month of March and go right into spring.

All right, we know we can’t skip March but maybe it can be as nice as this past week has been. Being the worry wart that I am, though, I can’t help wondering if this unseasonable warmth will carry over into summer and we’ll find ourselves with 110 degree weather (but dry heat, of course).

Is it time to retire?

One of the options looming in my immediate future is possible retirement. Although I still have lots of projects at work to keep me busy, the main one I was working on has been indefinitely postponed. So I have to look into the option of retiring if only to see if financially it would be a viable option.

This week I attended a Retirement Planning Workshop at the new CalPERS building in downtown Sacramento. It is obvious they are still moving into the building as I saw more construction workers than PERS employees. The parking garage was almost empty. Most of the parking spots around the building were available at 8:30 in the morning. I'm sure that will change in the next 12 months.

The workshop was a small class - about 20 participants. We had to preregister for the class which meant they knew who was going to be there. The instructor had looked up the retirement/employment information on each of us so that he could answer our questions with specifics instead of generalities. And the small group size allowed us to ask all the questions we wanted. I thought I knew quite a bit about the benefits I could expect (since I was instrumental in contracting with the plan in the first place) but I still learned enough to make attending this workshop worthwhile.

One thing I learned is that I could indeed postpone receiving benefits for several months so that I could get a higher percentage of my final salary but that it would take 15 years or so at the higher benefit level to make up for the months I didn't receive a benefit. Sort of makes it a moot point.

Another thing I learned is that I have the opportunity to purchase additional years of service credit so that I could effectively double my retirement benefit. Unfortunately, it would cost me approximately $150,000 to do that. Not exactly the kind of spare change I have lying around. Since the additional benefit cannot cost my employer anything, it is like buying an annuity on my own. That option, of course, is available to anyone at any time and the price depends on your age, health, sex, etc. The bottom line is that if this were the only retirement fund I had, I'd need to keep working 15 or 20 more years. Fortunately, we do have other funds and kids that are mostly on their own now so retirement is definitely an option.

As a side note, I found it a very interesting exercise looking for a cartoon or photograph to illustrate this post. Most of the cartoons just didn't fit my situation and most of the photographs illustrated the stereotypical retirees fishing or walking along the beach into the sunset. I finally settled on the man reading a newspaper because that is probably the way I'd like to start each day and then do something different every day. It's hard to illustrate that in one photo.

A clockwork clock

I'm sure that most of my kids will recognize this little gem of a clock. For many years we had one very similar to it in our family room. The little silver balls would be lifted one at a time to the top channel where they would begin their descent powered only by gravity.

When the topmost channel received it's fifth ball, it would dump all five, four of the balls returning to the main channel to be recycled and the fifth moving to the next ramp down. The balls in that ramp represented 5 minute increments so 11 balls represented 55 minutes. When the 12th ball came to that channel, it would dump all twelve, eleven of which returned to the main channel while the 12th drops down to the hour channel. This one had one silver ball that never moved since in our time system we don't use 0 o'clock. Therefore with 11 moving balls, the clock indicated 12 o'clock. When the 12th ball came down from the channel above, again all 12 moving balls would be dumped, this time all of them going to the main channel to be recycled.

I loved to watch and marvel at this clock and the very mechanical way it had of marking time. But it was noisy, the balls got lost easily, and the motor eventually didn't run so well. I don't know exactly what happened to it but I haven't seen it in years.

But, thanks to eBay (and a very indulgent wife), we now have a new one just like the picture. I think they've actually improved on the model we had. The lifting mechanism isn't running constantly. In it's place is a dial with the seconds marked on it. Once a minute the lift arm is actuated and it does it's thing in about 7 seconds. And I find I'm just as fascinated as ever watching time being measured, one little silver ball at a time.

Bedtime stories

Probably one of the things I miss the most with all my kids having grown up is the tradition of bedtime stories. Fortunately, I get the chance every once in a while with our grandkids but even that is pretty rare. I hope all my grandchildren are getting read to and taking their turn reading when appropriate. Because there's just something about sharing a thrilling story, funny illustrations, or a riveting situation between an adult and a young child. The child looks to the adult for reassurance and cues for what is really funny and what is really scary and all the emotions in between. And the adult is looking at the child (or children) to watch for and wonder at the intellectual and emotional growth, checking to see if the kids are starting to memorize the stories or sound out the words on their own. And, of course, if the books are new or newly checked out of the library, the adult is probably just as eager to find out what is on the next page as the kids are.

File under: Reading Grandchildren

Rank

Everyone in the military knows that “Rank has it’s privileges”. And ranking in the New York Times bestseller list or in the Forbes 500 is something that some people strive for with all their might. I’ve even had my day when rank was important such as when I won 1st place in the Utah State High School mathematics competition or when I came in first in my class at the U. S. Army Ordnance Basic Office Training School. But in my line of work there isn’t much competition and ranking, so I’d kind of forgotten that it still is very much with us.

I was reminded of it recently when I was playing around with features to add to my blog. There are web sites which track when blogs are updated so that people who care can be automatically notified. Technorati.com is one of those sites. They also read tags that you put on your posts so that people searching for particular topics can find those posts – sort of like a mini-Google oriented specifically for blogs.

But one of the other things this Technorati does is rank blogs by the number of other blogs and websites which refer to them or routinely accept feeds much like a newspaper gets information from news syndicates. I was deeply wounded to find out that my blog ranks 1,106,952nd in all the blogs tracked by this service. Does that mean there are 1,105,951 blogs that are more important and more popular than mine? Wow, talk about getting picked last on the schoolyard baseball team. That even makes my ranking as an Amazon book reviewer (23,550th) look great.

My niece Lynece also made the point recently that ranking of students for the “No Child Left Behind” program also contains idiotic standards and abuse of statistics such that a school can only be successful if every child is above average. Isn’t it silly. I mean half of all the practicing physicians in America graduated in the bottom half of their class. Remember that the next time you’re in for a check-up.

File under: Ranking

BYU Founder?

We just got out Winter 2006 issue of BYU Magazine and I'll have to admit I'm impressed. There's a freshness to the issue which is exciting. A couple of the articles stand out as interesting and unusual. I was particularly impressed with the article by David McCullough (p44) on "The Glorious Cause of America" in which he goes to great length to describe how American history at the time of the Revolutionary War was not pre-ordained, that it could have gone the "other way" just as easily not. And he cited several examples where a simple change of wind or lack of a single person's persistence could have changed the outcome of a batter or a strategical retreat.

Another article that was equally fascinating was the one by M. Sue Bergin (p 23) entitled "Uncommon Chemistry" and describing BYU chemistry professor Julian Boerio-Goates. Besides being an unusually talented instructor, she is one of the rare females in a male-dominated field and an even more rare practicing Catholic at Mormon BYU. But we all knew you don't need the priesthood to teach chemistry.

One item in the magazine was troubling, however. On page 63 is Hiedi Harris's award-winning essay celebrating the educational legacy of Joseph Smith, Jr. She says in her article (referring to Joseph Smith) "So why do we honor this man as a founder of our university?" And later, "That fact alone would qualify Joseph as an honored founder [of BYU]." There is no doubt that Smith has had a great influence on the church and that it will continue to do so for as long as the church exists but to credit him as a founder of a University that was truly the creation of Karl G. Maeser under the direction of Brigham Young, is stretching the meaning of "founder" completely beyond recognition. I don't know whether to blame the judges of the Brimhall Essay Contest or the editors of BYU Magazine but this is just silly.

File under: BYU

Give me a kit

and I'll cook for the world. To paraphrase Archimedes who was ready to move the world given a long enough lever and a suitable fulcrum, I can cook up anything - as long as it comees in a kit with understandable instructions.

For years, I stuck with the tried and true - Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Like a chemistry set, it listed the three simple ingredients - milk, margarine, and the box of Kraft Mac. It could be a meal in itself although I often boil up a couple of hot dogs to supplement the meal.

After many years I ventured out with Rice-a-Roni side dishes which call for frying the pasta/rice combination before boiling it giving it a unique toasty flavor. But these were strictly side dishes so I never felt completely satisfied.

Then we happened onto some great buys at the dollar stores and at Big Lots for Hamburger and Chicken Helper. These were not quite complete kits, requiring as they did the addition of fried hamburger or chicken. But since the instructions gave precise amounts and cooking instructions, I caught on pretty fast.

And now, I'm onto Pastaroni which can be a side dish although the instructions on the box actually encourage "add-ins" such as fried chicken, hamburger or even canned tuna, salmson, or chicken although with no hint as to how one prepares these "add-ins". With enough encouragement, I beginning to think "outside the box".


File under: Cooking

The Girl Who Gave Birth to Rabbits - book review

"The Girl Who Gave Birth to Rabbits" by Clifford A. Pickover reminds one of a tabloid newspaper headline and the story, in fact, has a lot of similarities to today's sensationalism. In late 1726 it was still common for people to believe that what a pregnant woman saw or did during her pregnancy would affect the appearance and/or health of the expected child. We still, with some reason, believe that in relationship to drugs and alcohol. But most of us don't think that spiderlike birthmarks are the result of a pregnant woman being frightened by a spider. I don't even attribute my lightning-like wit to the fact that my mother received a very serious shock while I was in the womb.

In the case described in this book, Pickover explains how a poor farm woman, (at 25 I wouldn't call her a girl anymore) had a miscarriage and how that attracted some slight attention. Giving "birth" to monstrosities such as a cat with an eel's backbone or various cut-up and skinned rabbits drew even more attention. Aided by her husband and mother-in-law she pulled the wool over the eyes of neighbors and doctors in the area who were convinced by seeing what came out without any thought of how it got there. As the magician quoted by Pickover said when asked how he pulled a rabbit out of a hat, "That's the easy part. The trick is getting the rabbit in there in the first place."

Pickover keeps us on edge thorugh several chapters before revealing the plot but he does so by giving lots of good background information on the life and times of 18th century English medical beliefs and comparing them to our superstitions of today. We may not have advanced as much as we think.

File under: Book Review

Penis gourds

Got your attention, didn't I? Well, my new Archaeology professor at City College certainly had my attention and that of the rest of our class of 25 or so students who are taking Beginning Archaeology and Pre-history when she discussed some of the artifacts and ecofacts that she has picked up in her many adventures related to anthropology. One of those is the penis gourd, used by the highland men of West Papua, which she invited us to see in her office. During the first session of our class I became convinced that Professor Kristina Casper-Denman would make the perfect person to play the part of my sister Revabeth if they ever made a movie about her life.

The first thing I noticed about Kristina was her frequent use of the phrase "Holy crap", a near swear word that sounds like it would be acceptable in central Utah. The second was her announcement that she, too, reads RateMyProfessors.com and fully agrees with the assessment of 52 students who have said she is "bitchy" and "sarcastic". (I'm sure Revabeth would cop to those charges as well.) What Kristina didn't say but which became evident as the night wore on, was that she was lively, engaging, witty, and downright fun to listen to.

Then the professor got down to business, presenting us with the class syllabus and then reading and explaining every little detail in case some of us didn't get the message. Over half the class have taken a previous class from Casper-Denman which says either that the pickin's are slim or that she has generated a loyal following. I think it's definitely the latter. Before the class was over, she had made it clear that class participation was not optional but had done so in a way that made everyone feel welcome, even eager to participate. She loves her field and wants others to appreciate it as well. And the way she teaches it, Holy crap, who wouldn't?

File under: Teaching

The Lucifer Principle - book review

"The Lucifer Principle" by Howard Bloom is a hard book to categorize. The subtitle is "A scientific expedition into the forces of history" but the book is hardly science. It is more like a collection of anecdotes that support and reinforce the author's premise. The anecdotes are, for the most part, believable although certainly not always uncontroversial. I think Bloom enjoys being politically incorrect or even down provocative as when he describes some societies as simply more barbaric and blood-thirsty and then places all Islamic nations within that collection. He idolized imperial England and regrets their downfall due, in large part, to their losing their will to fight. Of course the implication is that America is the next to go unless we start fighting and fighting bloody. Bloom emphasizes the pecking order of nations and claims that there's nothing we can do about their being a pecking order. All we can do is try to stay on top of it where we have a little more ability to control events.

Although most of the book is focused on superorganisms such as nations he doesn't leave out the individual. Here again, he sees the pecking order as "natural" and the best strategy as being on top, however ruthless you have to be to get and stay there.

This book will make pacifists cringe and those who think humanity is improving dispair. The title of the book comes from Bloom's assertion that all this blood, gore, and struggle are necessary for the human race to grown and thrive but, since we don't want to blame God for this necessity, we invent Lucifer and blame him instead. The book is easy to read, if not to stomach. I found myself wanting to argue with the author on almost every point while conceding that he's not alone in believing the ideas he puts forth.

I think this book sounds so convincing because Bloom paints everything in black and white (and bloody red all over) whereas I believe the world really is more gray. Imperialism may have advanced many third world nations faster than any other action might have but it did so with consequences which for the past 100 years have reverberated throughout the world spreading death and misery. Maybe another method of bringing civilization to the third world would have been just as effective without creating this legacy. If all we learned from the past 4,000 years is what Bloom tells us in The Lucifer Principle, then we are poor learners indeed.

Background check

I recall having had a background check at least a couple of times in my life, primarily when I was in the Army and when I was working with my graduate professor on simulating radar sea clutter. But I don't recall being involved with someone else's background investigation. If I have been, it's been so long ago that I don't remember anymore.

Anyway, I got this call from a really friendly guy who claims he's a contractor for the Federal Investigative Services wanting to talk to my wife about our neighbor. When he learns that she'll be out for the next couple of days, he opts for the expediency of interviewing me instead. We make an appointment for the next evening. He assures me that it will only take 10 minutes or so.

I'm curious but Carolyn has talked with the neighbor and Wayne assures her he was expecting this sort of thing. According to the web site of the Federal Investigative Services, people needing such a background check have to submit a list of people they feel would be good to interview about them.

When the investigator shows up, I ask for his identification and he flips out a little folder with a badge on the outside and the appropriate identification inside. He looks like his picture all right. We sit down at a table so that he can write all my answers down. Somehow I expected a laptop by this time. He asks how long I've known Wayne, how we met, how often we talk or do things together. The investigator wants to know if Wayne gets visitors, how many, and are they noisy or not. I'm asked if Wayne drinks or does drugs or has some secrets that he's hiding or which would potentially compromise his actions. I find myself wishing I could say something exciting, something more than "not that I know" or "I've never seen anything unusual". But this is serious stuff and I certainly wouldn't want to be guilty of messing up Wayne's job opportunities. I'm not under oath but I still act like I am.

After close to 20 minutes, the investigator decides he's had enough or that Wayne really has me fooled. He thanks me for my time and leaves graciously. I go to the computer to see what more I can find out about this Federal Investigative Services. Apparently, they do most of the background checking for civilian federal government employment, leaving the FBI to do people like presidential appointees. Their job is to see that government employees are "reliable, trustworthy, of good conduct and character, and of complete and unswerving loyalty to the United States" whatever that means. It has a sort of 50's McCarthy ring to it. I also liked the answer to the question about having to give information about one's past: "Providing the information is voluntary, but if you choose not to provide the required information, you will not meet the requirements of the job and will therefore not be considered further." Gives a whole new meaning to the term "voluntary".