Religions of America

USA Today recently posted this great graphic displaying the self-professed religion of Americans.

Two interesting factoids:

In three states there is a majority (>50%) professing one religion. The religions are Mormon, Baptist, Catholic. Which are the three states?

In six states, more than 1/5 the population professes no religion at all. Which states are these? (Hint: 5 of the 6 are in the West)

Our son the kangaroo

Philip recently informed us that he is the proud owner of a new pair of Powerisers. If that means as much to you as it did to me you'll want to check out this film clip. Powerisers are leg/foot attachments that allow a person to jump 6 feet in the air and "walk" down the street taking 9 foot steps at a time. You're wouldn't want to challenge a Poweriser user to a foot race. But it does look like fun.


This isn't Philip in the film clip but I thoroughly expect him to work up to this level of expertise. It looks just like the kind of thing that he would do.

Taco Town time

Every once in a while Carolyn and I like to grab a bite to eat at Taco Bell. That's probably because we've never been to Taco Town:


Then, again, I'm not sure my arteries are quite ready for this.

Kudos to HP

After I read the book "Gone Tomorrow" about the ever increasing amount of garbage our world is having to deal with, I began noticing more what companies and individuals are doing to help or worsen the situation.

Thus, I was pleased to see a small note in an HP advertisement that referred to Hewlett-Packard's recycling program which is further explained at www.hp.com/recycle. For years HP has been at the forefront of recycling laserjet toner cartridges. Every new HP toner cartridge comes with a return address label which provides free pick-up and shipping of the used cartridge back to HP. Since there is no charge for the service, I always assumed that the savings in raw material more than made up for the costs to HP of recovering the used cartridges.

But they're into much more than recycling toner cartridges. For a small fee, you can have PC's, laptops, PDA's, monitors, batteries, power supplies, scanners, printers, plotters, and other miscellaneous electronic computer-related equipment (no DVD, TV, of VCR equipment please) picked up and returned to HP's recycling center. There, according to HP,

"All returned products go through a state-of-the-art, environmentally responsible, multi-phase recycling process. They're sent to a recycling facility and are reduced to raw materials that can be used to make new metal and plastic products."

I'd like to suggest a round of applause for one company which seems to have found a way to be a responsible citizen of the planet as part of their business plan.

Gone Tomorrow – a book review

In my archaeology class we learned about the importance of the village midden, or garbage pile, in determining the culture and practices of the people inhabiting that village. On that basis, future archaeologists are going to have a heyday trying to figure out our current civilization.

Gone Tomorrow, the Hidden Life of Garbage by Heather Rogers is fascinating and depressing at the same time. There are fascinating tidbits such as the idea that garbage is a relatively recent invention, that less than 300 years ago it would have been unthinkable to consign so much of our production to the trash heap so soon after it is produced. Before mass production and mass marketing, items were produced to be repaired and reused again and again and slogans such as “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” were common. There wasn’t anything to throw away as even scraps of cloth became part of a quilt or rug.

There are horrifying descriptions of garbage dumps such as Rikers Island:

The rats became so numerous and so large that the department imported dogs in an effort to eliminate the rats… there were more than one hundred dogs on the island, dogs which were never fed by authorities but lived solely on these rats.

Gases… were constantly exploding, erupting through the soil covering and busting into flames. … When a hot spell would come along in the summer, the ground resembled a sea of small volcanoes, all breathing smoke and flames.

Another disturbing idea brought out by Rogers is that the trucks that pick up your garbage and your recyclables may be dumping them into the same landfill because recycling often just isn’t economically sustainable. But it’s politically impossible to cut back the appearance of recycling.

There are also some distractions in the book as when the author claims the “Keep America Beautiful” campaign was modeled after a later series of clean-up efforts by Ladybird Johnson. I’m not sure how you model something after something that comes later.

The book definitely has a pro-environment, anti-business, distrust of government bias to it. In spite of that, it is an interesting and enlightening book.

Scrap Happy

So Carolyn spends a week at home (more or less) recovering from her thyroidectomy. But no way is she going to spend the whole time lying in bed eating bon-bons and watching "As the World Turns". She'd be outside in a second plucking rose blooms past their prime and weeds that are daring to show themselves in her garden -- but it is 105 to 114 outside and that just doesn't compute. By the time we do go to bed each evening it is still over 85 so outside work is just not thinkable. What to do to while away the hours?

Carolyn goes into our garage storage room, takes one look and comes back out with a sigh. Steeling herself, she goes back in and emerges this time with two boxes of scrap cloth that she has been saving for just such an occasion. There are brightly colored scraps of old dresses, playsuits, blankets, and what not. Patterns which are vaguely reminiscent of our kids' childhood days. She has blues, reds, yellows, flowers, polka dots, stars. And not enough of anything to make more than a quilt block or two.

But with such a challenge facing her and a Book on CD to be her intellectual companion for the next week, Carolyn forges ahead.

The result, as you can see is a fun, bright, lively... HAPPY quilt top. I call it her Scrap Happy pattern. And I'm impressed.

Oh, Rats!

I went outside yesterday evening to put out the trash for the regular pickup this morning. To my surprise, someone had left a little present for us. It wasn't there this morning. It was still fresh enough to be interesting to a bunch of flies who weren't happy with me paying so much attention. I put the empy pea can there to give ssome perspective of the rat's size, not to imply that it ate the peas. It's a mystery how the rat ended up there. It could have been poisoned at a neighbor's yard or house or it could have been a neighborhood cat that likes to claim our yard. I'm very willing to let him patrol if this is the result.

Rumor Has It...- a movie review

Okay, it's a bit of a stretch to base a movie on a possible sequel to a possible real life connection to a hit movie of a previous generation, but I happen to think that is the charm of Rumor Has It.

Suffering from the belief that she isn't her father's daughter (and how many of us have secretly harbored the thought that we are really adopted because no one in our family really understands us?) Jennifer Aniston's character easily falls for the idea that her family may have been the inspiration for the movie "The Graduate". "The Graduate" was such a classic in breaking all sorts of Hollywood taboos that even people who haven't seen it, know that it's all about a man being seduced by his girlfriend's mother, making him one confused kid. Well, if Aniston's character's mother is that girlfriend and her grandmother that mother, then she has a right to be one confused kid as well. It doesn't help when she finds the perfect candidate for who could be her real father.

Certainly a chick flick with lots of relationship explorations, heartbreaks, and disappointments, Rumor Has It is still fun for keeping some suspense while allowing (almost) everyone to finally redeem themselves.

Pioneer Day

July 24th is celebrated as Pioneer Day in Utah and in Mormon communities throughout the world although some parts of the world have difficulty relating to the concept of "pioneer". It seems to me that a fitting post for this day is the following quiz. See if you can tell which quotations are attributed to Brigham Young, second President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and which ones are attributed to Warren Jeffs, the current Prophet, of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and, since May 2006, a member of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. Both men had/have over 20 wives and 100 children. (Quiz presented with thanks to enochville).

I think it's interesting what a different perspective we can get in 150 years.

(scroll down for answers and references).

Quotes:
1) "And the lesson is, if anyone mingles their seed, their bloodline, with the seed of Cain, the Negro, they also would lose all rights and priesthood blessings."

2) "You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind....Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin."

3) "So I give you this lesson on the black race that you can understand its full effects as far as we are able to comprehend. And that we must beware - if we are for the prophet, the priesthood - we will come out of the world and leave off their dress, their music, their styles, their fashions; the way they think, what they do, because you can trace back and see a connection with immoral, filthy people."

4) "The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy."

5) "Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so."

6) "It was necessary that the Devil should have a representation upon the earth as well as God. So Ham's wife that was preserved on the Ark was a Negro of the seed of Cain and there was a priestly purpose in it, that the Devil would have a representation as well as God."

7) "You say, "That man ought to die for transgressing the law of God." Let me suppose a case. Suppose you found your brother in bed with your wife, an put a javelin through both of them, you would be justified, and they would atone for their sins, and be received into the kingdom of God. I would at once do so in such a case; and under such circumstances, I have no wife whom I love so well that I would not put a javelin through her heart, and I would do it with clean hands."

8) "So the Negro race has continued, and today is the day of the Negro as far as the world is concerned. They have influenced the generations of time; they have mixed their blood with many peoples, until there are many peoples not able to hold the priesthood. ...

9) "Many young men, when they receive their first wife, are just so untrained. The woman, if she's not careful, will be overbearing and always ask permission for what she wants. And ladies, build up your husband by being submissive. That's how you will give your children success; you will want your children to be obedient, to be submissive to righteous living."

10) "Any young man who is unmarried at the age of twenty one is a menace to the community."

11) "There is not a man or woman, who violates the covenants made with their God, that will not be required to pay the debt. The blood of Christ will never wipe that out, your own blood must atone for it . . . "

12) "Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned."
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Answers:
1)WJ http://tinyurl.com/rx734
2)BY (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, page 290; Often credited to WJ, but BY said it 1st)
3)WJ http://tinyurl.com/rx734
4)BY (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 11, page 269).
5)BY (Journal of Discourses, Volume 10, page 110.)
6)WJ http://tinyurl.com/rx734
7)BY (Journal of Discourses 3:247)
8)WJ http://tinyurl.com/rx734
9)WJ http://tinyurl.com/rx734
10)BY
11)BY (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 3, page 247; see also, Vol. 4, pp. 53-54, 219-220.)
12)BY (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 3, p. 266).

The God Factor - a book review

In The God Factor author Cathleen Falsani has brought together the thoughts and life directions of some 32 famous, or at least publicly known, people from all walks of life and many different religions. Ms. Falsani interviewed these people, usually in their own homes or places of business, attempting to get beyond labels with often surprising results. Each short interview is headed with information about the religion the person was raised in and which they currently espouse.

Examples of the philosophies include (with the current religion and occupation):

Tom Robbins, (cosmic lounge lizard) writer: We're all agnostics...even the prophets of old.

John Mahoney, (Catholic) rector: Religion means being charitable.

Annie Lemay, (no religion) singer/songwriter: I ask myself "Am I being kind?"

Jeffrey Sachs, (secular Jew) economist: We should end poverty and hunger now, because we can. Americans are unique in the world in having the opinion the the poor have only themselves to blame for their poverty.

This book is a veritable cookbook of relgious and spiritual options. Not recommended for those who are positive they already have a lock on the truth.

What next, old friend?

There are times when I really miss having a teenager in the house. I really do. Like when we need someone to climb up on the roof to check out a loose shake. Or shinny into the attick to find the leak in the roof. Or bribe with $5 to mow the front lawn when it's 95 degrees in the shade at 9:00 in the morning on Saturday and I'm afraid the neighbors are going to start picketing our yard.

Today I miss having a teen around the house because I'm having real separation anxiety from my old friend the 1996 Mercury Sable. We've been together for almost 11 years and 107,000 miles. It's taken Carolyn and me on several vacations and served as a connecting link between us when I first moved to Sacramento and had to commute to Long Beach every couple of weeks. I need a teen to adopt the Sable, drive it, and give it the care and love it deserves. I need a teen who will accept its faults and enjoy its virtues and just be glad he or she has some wheels.

The Sable has been parked in our front driveway since being repaired a couple of weeks ago. I drove it home from the dealer repair shop where they had given it a clean bill of health, passed the smog check, and said everything looked good. Of course, the "check engine" light had come on again just as I pulled into our cul-de-sac but that's been off and on for the past several weeks. The repair guys said it almost always relates to a emission control problem. The Sable has been sitting in our driveway because we bought a new Toyota Highlander Hybrid during the week it was in the shop.

This morning I drove the Sable around the block to renew old memories. As I remembered (and a main reason for getting an SUV) I had a difficult time getting into the Sable. I dropped the last few inches into the driver's seat. I had just as much trouble climbing out. The car started well and ran smoothly. The gas gauge showed full in spite of the half-empty tank. The ride was a little rougher than I remembered and the steering stiffer - both reflections on the smooth ride and easy steering of the Highlander. The sound system and air conditioning both worked great and, as you can see, the car's appearance really hasn't suffered for its 11 years on the road.

But, yes, my children are too old and my grandchildren too young. So the Sable sits in the driveway until I finally get the will to call our local NPR station about donating a wonderful friend and long-time companion.

Transitions...

Right on schedule, I submitted my application for a retirement benefit from CalPERS today. Carolyn went with me. The forms required either that our signatures either be notarized or witnessed by an authorized employee of CalPERS so we figured we might as well take care of the signatures and submission of the application at the same time.

I had been told that you could just drop in and take care of it. It turned out they
were shorthanded so we had to wait almost an hour to take care of our business. The customer service representative was very nice and apologetic as well as very efficient once we got to see her.

Sort of in celebration of Carolyn's recuperation and her getting back to work next week, we then dropped in for a tour of the Stanford Mansion which has recently been completely refurbished to it's 19th century glory. It is gorgeous inside but they wouldn't let us take any pictures. Besides being available for public tours, it is also the official "protocol location" for the governor and legislature to host official receptions for visiting dignitaries. I think that actually makes it look more real than a regular museum might.

Lunch at Paragary's Bar & Oven completed our exhausting field trip to downtown Sacramento.

Kudos for customer service

You may recall a couple of weeks ago when I was frustrated with Home Depot for not facilitating the repair of one of our blinds after the draw cord had broken. Turns out they actually did us a favor even if it wasn't handled with finesse.

They referred us to the website of Hunter-Douglas, the makers of the blind, where a link to customer service allowed us to state our problem. H-D got back to us the next day with a couple of questions and a toll-free number which we could use if we didn't want to wait for email dialogue. After a quick call a FREE repair kit was on its way to our house.

An hour of relatively easy work on my part and the cords are as good as new on this blind. Cost $0. Previous repair cost $41. Thanks, Hunter-Douglas.

Too hot outside

What do you do when it is just too darn hot to work in the yard, heading your roses, or weeding the flower bed? Well, if you're Carolyn, you start exploring in the closet to see what projects you've started and haven't finished or have just never gotten around to starting.

Today, she found the makings for some quilt tops - brightly colored fabric in nicely matching or complementary hues that seemed to be just crying out to be pieced together.

So, with sewing machine at hand and a Book on CD in her player, she went at it. I don't think anything got finished but some things certainly came a little closer. And who knows? Tomorrow may just be too hot again.

Why We Fight - a movie review

“Why We Fight” should probably be subtitled “Anti-War Lite”. Although there is a lot of good information presented, it is presented in such a way that most Americans will walk away with a big “Ho-hum, what else is new.”

To begin with, “Why We Fight” shows an excerpt from President Eisenhower’s farewell speech when he left the presidency in 1961. In this speech he warned the country of the “military-industrial complex” (which he had originally written as military-industrial-congressional complex). The show would have us believe this is a dangerous thing since one of our beloved presidents (we do remember who Eisenhower was, don’t we?) has warned us about it and as numerous clips in the film reinforce. But as an American tradition that is at least 50 years old – as old as the traditional use of the Pledge of Allegiance and the use of In God We Trust on our money – how can we possibly think it is a bad thing?

Then the movie shows how reluctant Americans were to enter World War II – 95% of the nation felt we should stay out – until Pearl Harbor. War inciting propaganda has been used to convince Americans to participate in every war we’ve fought, which certainly is enough justification for our current administration to use this powerful tool. Americans just don’t know what’s best of them, including who they should bomb and kill, until they’re told by the powers that be.

I found the “What can we do?” section especially amusing as it hinted that the power to rein in the military-industrial complex rested with congress. Congress can set different priorities. Right. Like that is ever going to happen as long as they’re lining their own pockets with contributions and ensuring their continued employment in Washington.

Why do we fight? The movie asks several modern Americans on the street and the answers range from the predictable “freedom”, “peace”, “liberty” to the more often “I dunno”. No one connects the dots that they have been manipulated into supporting this war and no one cares. And that’s why we fight!

The Crocker

In my ongoing quest to keep Carolyn was going crazy cooped up inside the house and with a couple of complimentary passes from our friends, the Navarros, we took a field trip to the Crocker Art Museum in downtown Sacramento.

According to their website:

The longest continuously operating art museum in the West, the Crocker Art Museum was founded in 1885 and remains the leading art institution for the California Capital Region and Central Valley. The Museum offers a diverse spectrum of special exhibitions, events and programs to augment its collections of California, European and Asian artworks, and International Ceramics. The mission of the Museum is to promote an awareness of and enthusiasm for human experience through art. The Museum fulfills its mission by offering a variety of education programs for Youth & Family, Schools & Teachers and the Public.

We especially enjoyed the special exhibit currently on display featuring works of M. C. Esher. Fortunately, we went to that exhibit first as we found that there is more at the museum than we could possibly see in one visit. This is definitely one to add to our list of attractions to bring friends and family to when they come to Sacramento to visit.

Late breaking news!

Carolyn's doctor called today to let her know that the pathology report came back for her thyroid which he removed last Wednesday. All indications are NEGATIVE. There were no cancer cells observed. Because of previous negative biopsy results that was what we were expecting but it's still good to hear the actual report.

The Number – a book review

The Number, a completely different way to think about the Rest of Your Life, by Lee Eisenberg is an excellent book that covers a topic we all need to think about. I can’t remember how I heard about it but, without thinking, felt it was probably about how mathematics influences our lives. Being a sometime mathematician, it sounded like a book I might enjoy. I found that the Sacramento Public Library had it in their catalog so I placed a request for it. (I love the way I can order any book in the whole Sacramento County library system as easily or more easily than finding it in my local library.)

Well, it turns out that The Number refers to the amount of money that each of us feels we need to be “set” for life, to not have to worry about where our next meal is coming from or whether we’ll be homeless come the first of the month. Of course, for most of us, for most of our lives, The Number is a theoretical figure, far beyond what we currently have in the bank. But according to Eisenberg, we think about the number if only in a “take this job and shove it” sort of way. The Number is the reason that millions play the state lotteries, hoping to hit The Number the “easy” way.

This book is no lightweight commentary, though. Eisenberg talks seriously about how we compute and how we should compute this number, how it tends to increase if we should actually reach it, and what happens during our mature years when we find ourselves un- or under-employed without having reached The Number. I won’t divulge all Eisenberg’s secrets (except for a small fee when I’m an independent consultant). It is interesting to read about his journey of discovery about them.

In spite of the title, the book is not all about numbers either. Eisenberg recognizes that life is so much more fulfilling if we can retire TO something and not just FROM something. He spills a lot of ink describing how to develop whole life plans not just health and wealth plans. In fact, given our longer, healthier aging years, that may turn out to be the more important aspect once we’ve dealt with The Number. As part of this analysis, Eisenberg quotes George Kinder who recommends that each of us ask ourselves three questions:

1. Assume you have all the money you need for the rest of your life. What would do? How would you live? Let your imagination go.

2. You've been diagnosed with a rare disease. You will live perfectly healthy until sometime between 5 and 10 years from now. You will then die suddenly and painlessly. How would you live? What would you do with the next 5 years?

3. The doctor tells you you have 24 hours to live. What did you miss doing? What did you not get to do or be?

The answers to these three questions will tell you how important The Number is for you and what you'll do for The Rest of Your Life once you have accumulated your Number.

Day 4 - Operation recovery

Carolyn certainly doesn't feel as good as she did before the operation and she doesn't have the same energy she used to have. However, that doesn't stop her from having a good time and using Steve and Lisa's visit this weekend to buoy her spirit up even at the expense of her body. Fortunately, she has the coming week to take it a little easier and recover from the visiting as well as the operation.

We took Steve and Lisa to Black Chasm Cave, one of our favorite spots to take friends and family. While waiting for the next cave tour we watched the two of them "sluice" for semi-precious gems which had been cleverly hidden in a bag of sand. Several of our grandchildren had the same experience earlier in the year.

On the way back we stopped at the Davis Ranch in Sloughhouse where we picked up a couple dozen ears of freshly picked sweet corn. While I was debating how I was going to eat that much, Carolyn was arranging a picnic for Steve, Lisa, Ed, Tiffany, and the boys. Again, a bit strenuous for Carolyn but she'll do anything for a "Grandchild fix". Timothy has discovered jigsaw puzzles and he especially wanted to work on this one with Aunt Lisa since he knows how much she loves rabbits.

Wedding vows

A couple of weeks ago, four to be exact, Steven and Lisa were married in the Holliston Methodist Church in Pasadena. I remarked at the time that their vows were unique and really quite fun. There were several people who asked for a copy. I prevailed upon the newlyweds to provide me with the vows so I could post them here and let everyone enjoy them again.

The Bridesmaid Kristi gave the couple her advice in the words of Ogden Nash:

To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup:
Whenever you're wrong, admit it.
Whenever you're right, shut up.


Steven recited the following original poem composed by Lisa:

I have to so much to offer you,
I can barely count.
I'm handsome, clever, and charming
And I have DVD's in absurd amount.

I offer the finest in home entertainment
A theater to rival Mann's Chinese,
One of each brand of video game system
And games in any topic you please.

I'm also an excellent listener
And will make for you breakfast in bed.
I'm quite skilled with eggs, bacon, and pancakes
And you're sure not to be underfed.

I'll be your loyal and faithful companion
Even when my eyes are on the TV.
No matter what awaits in our future
Your constant will always be me.


And Lisa presented the following adaptation of a poem by Pam Ayres:

Yes, I’ll marry you, my dear, and here’s reason why
So I can push you out of bed when the baby starts to cry
And if we hear a knocking and it’s creepy and it’s late
I’ll hand to you the flashlight and you can investigate.

Yes, I’ll marry you my dear, you may not apprehend it
But when the tumble-drier goes it’s you that has to mend it
You have to face the neighbor, should our labrador attack him
And if a drunkard fondles me, it’s you that has to whack him.

Yes I’ll marry you my dear, you’re virile and you’re lean
My house is full of rabbits, you can help to keep it clean
You know that sexy dinner which you served by candlelight?
Since I just do mac and cheese, you can cook it every night!

It’s you who has to work the drill and put up curtain track
And when I’ve got the PMS it’s you who gets the flak
I do see great advantages, but none of them for you
And so before you see the light, I do, I do, I do.