GRANDMA'S COFFEE, BAR SOAP, TOO MANY THINGS

Grandma:s Coffee, Octagon Soap and Too Many things?


My grandma, Kalin raised five boys, and a girl, kept a big house in old Brooklyn and lived into her nineties. She was only five feet tall but as strong willed and tough as her husband,  my granddad. He was a strong, sinewy, black-pipe plumber, who could carry a cast iron bath tub inverted on his back up five flights of stairs.

Grandma made her own bread each day as well as cooking three meals a day for a big crowd. She had to be efficient, she had no maid servant or other help.  Her only daughter, was the last child to come along much later in her life. The boys all had chores, some in the kitchen too. Clean up 

As a young boy in the 1940s, I recall being in her big kitchen as she prepared breakfast for "the boys"...my uncles. Everything was much simpler in those days...no big machines for brewing coffee, coffee pods, not even a percolator did she have. Coffee was made in a big white glazed ceramic server. It must have held at least eight cups. Grandma boiled tap water in a big,  gray-glazed metal coffee pot--the kind you see used today over camp fires in western movies. Her’s boiled on the gas stove. She used no measuring cups or spoons...counting out eight handfuls of coffee, dumped each into the server sitting in the center of the table on the patterned oil cloth tablecloth, then poured in the hot water almost to the top. That was it. Coffee made. She came by a short time later with her wooden spoon (more on that later) to give the pot a little swirl. Then went about her other chores.

She used no measuring cups or specials spoons for measures. Her hand with fingers tight together and curled upward was a "half-cup" measure, while her palm served as a both a "tea spoon" and "table spoon measure" depending on how she tightly she curled her palm.

In a matter of a few minutes the coffee grains had settled and the big white pot with the chipped glaze on the bottom and a faint brown-stained crack along the side was ready to pour out the rich, dark, steaming brew. A "cream cow" along side of the coffee pitcher filled with heavy cream made the drink a special treat.

I often think of those days in grandma's kitchen when I examine our over abundance of gadgets and machinery all designed to produce a simple cup of coffee...Everything is so complex today and yet it could be so simple.

Perhaps, in these days when no one stays home to keep the hearth well tended and the home fires going...we might be well served with a lot simpler ways of doing things.

Oh yes the wood spoon. Unlike modern moms and dads. Grandma was not afraid to administer corporal punishment to her grandchildren, and even her full gown sons, and her long handled wood spoon was her weapon of first choice. Grandpa's shaving strap in the bathroom was her next choice if someone needed further encouragement.

Now regarding all those bottles of bath soaps, shampoos, conditioners, skin smoothers and emoluments that clutter up the shower stall in the bath room, we had none of that. The washroom had a toilet, a sink, and a white enameled cast-iron bathtub which was raised above the black and white tile floor on short legs. The shower head above the tap end was enclosed by a shower curtain. There were no bathroom shelves. No need for them.  There were no jumble of bottles, jars, plastic dispenser that we have today. The only cleanser was a bar of Octagon soap which came in a paper wrapper. The brownish soap bar, was self recycling. It was used up slowly and the bubbles and dirt went right down the drain. Grandma had no plastics or glass to recycle.  Much simpler in those days.

With all the folks in a family working out of the house these days, and little time for clean up...perhaps a simpler life with fewer things might be in order.



Another complaint I have

RED TAILED HAWK KILLS GULL IN SUBURBAN PARKING LOT

On a cold and windy December the 15th, 2010, I received an excited telephone call from Mrs. K. Nash, a fellow wild-life observer who informed me that a hawk had killed a big gull in the Walmart Shopping Plaza in Setauket, New York. Mrs. Nash described the bird to me as "some kind of hawk" and "smaller than the gull". A short time later, she e-mailed me a photograph taken with her iPhone. The photograph revealed the bird was clearly a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). The photograph above (by Mrs K Nash) depicts the bird sitting on the carcass of a Ring Billed Gull in the Walmart Shopping Center. Mrs Nash added that as she approached the hawk, it seemed unafraid, but annoyed at the intrusion and dragged its big prey further away along the asphalt surface. Undeterred, she retreated to her automobile, and drove it to a point where she was able to get close enough to make a fine photograph.

Later that day, I visited the site and sought out the carcass. It appeared to have lain undisturbed since the kill. It was located near the southern end of the parking lot adjacent to Route 347. The prey was indeed a mature Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis). The gull looked to be in good condition and seemed of average size for the species. According to Wikipedia, Ring bill adults "are 49 cm (19 in) length and with a 124 cm (49 in) wingspan". While according to the same source, the male Red-tailed Hawk "may measure 45–56 cm (18 to 22 in), while a female can measure 48 to 65 cm (19 to 26 in) long; wingspan is about 114 to 133 cm (45 to 52 in)." Thus if the photographed bird was a male, it was either very close in size (or probably smaller as the observer indicated) and with less of a wing span than its prey.

The initial attack on the gull appeared to have been made at the neck, which the Nash photograph seems to attest to as well. The carcass was found lying on its back, with its wings partly folded. The hawk apparently tore open the neck and consumed the gizzard (it was missing). However, the grainy contents of this organ were scattered in small clumps near the body. The contents appeared to be composed of small yellow seeds mixed with red-colored fruit-fragments (possibly a pomaceous fruit of some sort, or perhaps the berries of the Japanese Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus). The hawk appears to have then proceeded to consume the gull's breast. At the time I observed it, the skin was neatly laid back and the full breastbone exposed. The high-arched bone was completely and neatly cleaned of all flesh. Furthermore, the soft cartilage at the tip of the breastbone and parts of the thin flat bone near the edge were torn away and were apparently also consumed. Also missing and presumably eaten was the liver and part of the intestines. In addition, the neck and back of the head were skinned and partly defleshed. Other than the gull's carcass, the scattered contents of the gizzard and one small puddle of blood there were few evidences of an attack. Few gull feathers were found(though it was windy), and recall that the original observer noted that the prey had been moved some distance.

The unusual attack on a gull by a Red-tail Hawk (waterfowl, and particularly gulls, are well down the list of preferred prey for this species), the large size of the prey, and the location of the kill in a well-used and active suburban parking lot were all unique enough to suggest that this event may be of interest to those who study and admire our native birds and their habits. As a consequence, believing it worthy of reporting to the general public I enter it here as one of Bob's Sermons in Stone.

Thanks to Mrs Nash for her quick action and fine photograph.

FRENCH WORRY ABOUT DEFLATION

DEFLATION IN FRANCE?

"The worrisome specter of deflation has raised its head in France." In: a piece published today, April 10, 2009, entitled, "France very close to deflation" the Paris cyber-magazine, Liberation.fr, (http://www.liberation.fr/economie/0101561332-la-france-tres-proche-de-la-deflation) reports that inflation has continued to fall. "In February it was four-tenths of one percent and in March, it reached only two-tenths of one percent (0.2%), while annually, inflation is now estimated at just three-tenths of one percent (0.3%).

"These figures, (are) the weakest annual since June 1999. The chief (government) analysts of inflation predict the possibility of deflation in the near future. Paradoxically this phenomenon (deflation i.e. falling rather than rising prices) is a new threat to the economy because it significantly lowers demand (the consumption of goods) and strongly impacts economic activity. In effect, in the case described, the consumer anticipates the fall of demand (anticipates that prices will continue to fall—i.e. deflation) and thus defers consumption and investment and encourages savings. " Thus the fall of demand (all consumption of goods) has a strong impact on economic activity," states the Liberation.fr author. The author adds, "This phenomenon is presented in the economic manuals as a precursor of generalized depression. Thus it is the last stage of economic catastrophe."

In a personal example, this author knows a couple well, who were contemplating the purchase a new home in a small Florida community near where they owned a condominium. The advantages of the pleasantly developed small community, shops near by, their own garage and a back garden were attractive inducements. Within this community they found a nice three bedroom they liked, but a little research revealed that prices were falling consistently and there were many houses available. The falling prices caused them to reconsider. "Why should we buy now at $250,000, when we could wait a few months or more and pick this same property up for less than $200,000?" asked the husband. The wife added: "And how would you feel, if you did purchase now, moved in there and discovered that your neighbors bought a very similar house next door for half the price that you paid?" "I’d feel like a real dummy!" he responded. They decided to wait and kept their funds in the bank.

"Energy and Fresh Products: Prices Fall."

The very light rise of inflation in March, ‘resulted principally from the rise of the price of clothes, shoes (+6.0%) and of other manufactured products (+0.5%) resulting from winter sales’ reveled the Institute of National Statistics. The same with the prices of rents, of water and of services of removal of household wastes (+0.3%).

"These increases were ‘in part compensated for by the fall of price of energy (-2.0%), services of transport and communication (-0.8%) and of fresh products (-1.1%). The prices of other food products and other services were stable’ noted the National Institute of Statistics."

(Translation by RJK)

Thus the fall of prices in France were confined to lower energy, transport, communications and fresh products, while other services were stable, clothes, shoes and These were partly compenstated for by rises in prices in wearing apparel..manufactured products and rents were close to even However, these elements all have an important impact on the over-all economy. One wonders will this

CHINA'S DOLLAR TRAP- A REVIEW AND INTERPRETATION

Paul Krugman

China's Dollar Trap
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/opinion/03krugman.html?em


Krugman (Paul Krugman, NY Times April 2, 2009) states that trade with China, often ridiculed as a "one –way-street" finally turned out to be a "fair exchange" after all. They sold us melamine-laced milk products, sulfurous gypsum boards that stunk up our new houses, lead painted children’s toys, and we got back at them by off-loading toxic securities on their markets.

I posted a related idea when I posted in an earlier blog that the economic crisis has been a two way street with China. They helped to feed our "affluenza" while their controlled Yuan (kept at parity with the dollar) encouraged a trade situation that fed our exuberant buying spree. Without China's collusion we would not have been able to get ourselves (as easily) into this mess.

But Krugman carries the review of our China relationship further. In the depths of the economic crisis the "fair exchange" deal we joined-in with them has finally broken down. China’s cheap products are not as attractive to a nation with little or no bank savings, financial institutions virtually shut down, home values collapsing, our premier GM motor company on the skids, credit cards tapped-out and nearly one in ten out of work. And on the other side of the world, as they watch us stumble into stagnation and negative GDP, those securities they bought from us are beginning to generate concern.

Krugman considers that the big news last week was that the Chinese floated a call to drop the dollar as a reserve currency. their plan would establish a new 'reserve world currency' in the form of a "basket of national currencies" (perhaps the average value of a group of currencies such as the Yen, Yuan, British Pound, German Mark, Swiss Frank, etc.) and use that "value" as a reserve. According to Mr. Krugman, "paranoid Republicans" viewed this as a sinister plot to attack the dollar’s preeminence in the world market, and as an attack on our economy. That was not the case, states Mr. Krugman in this piece. In fact, he concludes that the monetary suggestion of the Chinese was rather a revelation that the Chinese have got them selves in a "dollar trap" that they got into and now do not know how to get our of unscathed! It was a plea for help. He sees no one jumping to their aid.

Early in this decade, China, a nation which prides itself on its hard working, simple-living people devoted to Confucius who encouraged a culture of saving and an aversion to extravagance (See http://www.international-relations.com/cm4-1/Zhang.htm Economic Lessons from Confucius for the New Century, Youmin and Tianchen, 2000. In 1988, 74 Nobel Prize winners made the assertion in Paris that if human beings want to live in peace and prosperity in the 21st century, they must look back 2,500 years and seek the wisdom of Confucius.) found itself in the enviable position of selling more goods abroad than those it imported (i.e. running a trade surplus) and at the same time it attracted large sums of foreign "inflows of capital" for investment. These factors would naturally cause its currency (yuan) to rise in value. Were that to happen, the higher value would tend to decrease its export volume. The big attraction of Chinese products were always their low cost. They did not want exports to decrease, so rather than let their currency fluctuate they chose to keep the value of the Yuan "more or less fixed"(1 Yuan = @ 0.15 cents). That of course, made it difficult for us to sell China our (more expensive goods). Their policy also protected their native industries from import competition. The US complained, but in general, I suspect the vast number of importers and consumers were happy and the government kept silent since it helped to sustain our economic bubble..

To prevent the yuan from rising in value, the Chinese had to "buy up dollars as they came flooding in. As the years went by, these trade surpluses just kept growing—and so did China’s hoard of foreign assets."

See Telegraph.UK article on "China prepares to buy up foreign oil companies" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/4781037/China-prepares-to-buy-up-foreign-oil-companies.html

Krugman notes that the "fair exchange" story above, though amusing, was not really accurate. The Chinese did not buy many "toxic" securities. They mainly accumulated US Treasury Bills. These "T" bills are safe, but they have a very low rate of return (right now about zero). China eventually accumulated over $2 trillion dollars of these low-yielding T bills—turning it into the "T bill People's Republic". According to Krugman they did it not out of any sinister intention but "in a fit of absence of mind", and only now realize they have a problem.

These US securiites were purchased in "dollar value" so any fall in the value of the dollar in the future would mean a "big capital loss for China". So if China were to desert the dollar and diversify its currency holdings it will have to sell its dollars and drive the value of its holdings down. That would be a no no.

According to Mr. Krugman's analysis they seem to simply want it to keep the status quo. That is, to continue to produce products for the US and other world market and permit their workers to save more and invest abroad what they can not use at home. "In other words go on as we were. The world has changed "and that is …not going to happen," concludes Krugman.

China has not yet faced up to the "wrenching changes that will be needed to deal with this global crisis," and neither have we." states Krugman.

But we can not go back to the paradigms of the past.

See: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/business/yourmoney/13wealth.html.

In the recent decades investors were fixated on wealth-generation. They concentrated on stock positions, derivatives, hedge funds, and any esoteric securities that might maximize profits. These greed-based motivations led to our present disaster. Now the emphasis has turned to simple wealth preservation.

For the individual "the era of the house as a constantly appreciating asset is over." Monetary advisors ask now: What is your risk level? Are you living above your means? Are you saving enough?

These are questions individual must ask to prevent disaster. But our national government should be looking in the same mirror. Are we as a nation living above our means? Are we saving enough? Are we afflicted with the "affluenza"?.

Over the last decades the USA, has evolvied into a culture deeply afflicted a disease, which encourages its citizens to measure their worth only by the narrow meter of financial success and material possessions. One might only scan our media outlets, newspapers, magazine shelves and repeated adverts day after day bombarding us in the electronic media to demonstrate how pervasive these ideas have become(After Wikipedia definition of "affluenza").

Krugman states we must face up to "wrenching changes" but what are they? What can we do trapped as we are in an economy of blatant consumerism and militarism? How can we save ourselves and our Nation from these twin plagues? Some seem only to suggest we go back to drink from the same polluted trough.

We need a new paradigm. But who can guide us? President Barak Obama increasingly seems to eschew that role--of savior and guide into new territory. So far he seems to be simply guiding us back into the same beat-up vehicle which lays a hulk, just crashed at a crowded intersection. He pats us on our heads and tells us to be more careful next time. Then sends us back to cruise the same dangerous roadways.

RAINY DAY THOUGHTS

Marianna’s Rainy Day

“You know, Pop Pop…..”

Said five-year-old Marianna,

Walking, head-down, by my side,

On our rainy-day.

“I like the rain.”

Milo trotted wet-footed along side.

“It tickles my face, when I look up.”

The “tickling” rain made Milo shake his head.

His leash jingled.

“It makes pretty circles in puddles too.”

We walked on, silently,

Each with our own thoughts.

Her backpack dripped soft rain.

“It makes the flowers grow, too.”

Milo shook his leash.

“I don’t think Milo likes it, though.”

She thought some more.

“And later, when it goes away,

I like to splash the puddles it leaves.”

“Then make my footprints on our walk.”

She looked up at me, soft rain tickling her smiling face.

“I like the rain, Pop Pop.”

WHAT HAPPENS TO TORTURERS!

(BUSH CHENEY TAKE NOTE)

Torturer Pleads For Mercy and Apologizes to his Victims
(See photo at: http://info.france2.fr/monde/52972080-fr.php)

France2.com reports, March 31, 2009 in "Douch Demande Pardon" that thirty-four years after the initiation a program of horrrible acts of torture, former infamous head of information of the Khymer Rouge Regime, in Cambodia, and director of the prison at Tuol Sleng, Mssr. Guek Eav, aged 66 years, known to his victims as “Douch” stood before a tribunal in late March 2009 to beg for mercy after admitting his part in the atrocities committed against Cambodians in the years 1975-1979.

This story underscores the fact that the wheels of justice do indeed move with glacial speed, (four decades is a long time) but thankfully they grind exceedingly fine! Douch is expected to be confined to prison for the rest of his life.

For our own home grown variety of torturers and advocates for the procedure, prospects for justice-enacted are less sanguine. If we here in the USA proceed at the rate of speed the Cambodian justice system, given their present age, Cheney and Bush will have long faced the disgust and punishment of their maker before their crimes could be judged by their peers.

But the younger Bush-Cheney co-conspirators such as John Yoo, Condoleeza Rice, Douglas Feith, Alberto Gonzales and others who advocated for torture and facilitated the Bush torture program ---beware! This piece gives us all hope that their days secure from prosectution are numbered.

Read the entire article at: http://info.france2.fr/monde/52972080-fr.php

IRAQ SECURITY PACT WITH US

“A government that is more dangerous to our liberty than the enemies it claims to protect us from.
Keith Olberman October 17, 2006 in response to Bush signing military commissions act October 17, 2006.

Iraq security pact poses detainee problem for U.S. AP November 24, 2008

“Iraq security pact poses detainee problem”, (Newsday, Nov 24, 2008). The authors reval that the American military in Iraq is rushing to prepare criminal cases against some 5,000 detainees held in Camp Cropper Bagdhad, as well as other camps in Iraq, because the proposed security pact with Iraq would end it the American military’s right to hold prisoners without charge as they have since 2003. Some “high value” prisoners have been incarcerated for five years without knowing what they are charged with. Some were juveniles when arrested in “sweeps” and are now adults. Beginning on January 1, “all detentions would have to be based on evidence (i.e. habeas corpus would be in effect in Iraq) and the US will have to prosecute detainees in Iraqi courts or failing that…release them.” The report reveals that the US has evidence on “only a few hundred” out of the nearly 17,000 detainees held in American-run Iraqi jails. The rest are held on hearsay evidence, or were caught up during sweeps of areas where jihadists might have been.

There was something that deeply bothered me about this story. Perhaps it was the irony that a fractured, ethnically divided, recently-conquered Middle Eastern nation, just breaking away from a long history of tyranny and disastrous occupation and with the experience of democratic process one can count on one hand, has forced the USA- kicking and screaming in opposition—to apply the laws of habeus corpus which we as a nation (rightly) brag of as our own.