Shari Della Penna

Eeny Meeny Miney Mo!

2/18/2020

…would you rather be
a letter?
well then, which one would you be?
Would you rather be a curly one
like j or s or g
or would your rather
be a sharpie
like k or z or v?
from Would you rather be a Bullfrog?
by Dr. Seuss writing as Theo. LeSieg
illustrated by Roy McKie
Random House Children's Books, 1975

I’d like to say I’m a round, curly letter. I flow along, but I only do that sometimes. Some other times I can be pretty stubborn, prickly, a sharpie. After all, who doesn’t like to be right?
   When we were kids and needed to choose teams, or which hair ribbon to wear, or who got to sit in the front seat of the car, we chanted “eeny meeny miney mo, catch a tiger by the toe, if he hollers, let him go, eeny meeny miney mo.” Maybe you did, too. It seemed fair. The choice was random.
   Some people are good decision makers. Some let life choose for them, kinda like riding a wave at the beach. Maybe that’s what the phrase “go with the flow” really means.
   But making a good decision involves much more than choosing a pet or picking out a dress, or insisting on being right, life-changing as those can be. Important to the process is seeing the big picture. While no one can know for sure what the implications of a particular decision will be, most of us understand how the world works, how one thing usually follows another.
   Some decisions are deliberate. I asked to keep a cat when I was growing up. Of course, it was my parents' decision to say “yes,” but I started the ball rolling with the question. Even now, I’d rather share my life with a cat (or several) than a dog. I like to visit my kids and grandkids. Cats can take care of themselves if I’m only gone a day or two. And I know someone who is kind, dependable, and full of common sense that will fill in if I’m gone longer than that. (You know who you are…Thanks!)
   To me dogs are like children who never grow up. As cute and fun to be with as most of the ones I know are, I’m a little too selfish to share that much of my life. It’s a good thing to know before making a doggie-decision.
   Many years ago I took my older daughter to look for a dress to wear to her high school Homecoming Dance. It was very hard for her to make up her mind. Part of the problem … too many choices. She looked good in everything she tried on, and I only let her try on the ones in my price range. Her field was large. Her options were many, and the qualities she looked for were present in many of her choices. It was hard to make a good decision. But she finally narrowed it down to two, then one. Her decision was deliberate, but not life-changing, really.
   She came home energized, I came home exhausted.
   The deliberate decision we will make in November will be life-changing, without a doubt. Our choices are many. Most of the candidates have qualities we are looking for. Many questions are still unanswered.
   And right now is the time to be informed, or to stay informed. YouTube can catch you up on the previous debates. Is there anything NOT on Youtube?
   Tune in live to the debate tomorrow from 9-11 pm on NBC, if you can. One more will take place the following week, February 25 (CBS), and another on March 15 (CNN). The date for the last one has not been announced yet.
   And the Primaries are in full-force. When we vote in our Primary, we are choosing delegates. Voting in the Primary is important for many reasons. One is a perception thing. Someone who gets a lot of attention (and votes) is perceived to be a winner. Another is the math. Presidents are chosen by delegates to the Electoral College. More on that next week.
   Super Tuesday is March 3, 2020. About 33 percent of total pledged delegates will be chosen in contests held that day (and during early voting held in some of those states). Ohio’s Primary, is March 17, where I’ll be voting. Florida, Illinois, and Arizona also have primaries that day. By March 17, at midnight then, about 61 percent of pledged delegates will have been chosen.
   If you live somewhere other than Ohio, check the National Council of State Legislatures for the full Primary schedule: https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/2020-state-primary-election-dates.aspx# Scroll down past the introduction for an alphabetical state by state list of dates.
   I think the Electoral College is complicated, out of date, and probably unfair. But I’ll do some research this week and report back next Tuesday.
   In November, we will be exhausted, I’m sure. I hope, exhilarated, too.
   Until then,
-—stay curious! (and choose wisely)

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What's a Deficit?

2/11/2020

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“The money we earned is called our PROFIT,” explains Penny. “And that is what we will give Bunny for the plumbing repairs.”
from Pretty Penny Makes Ends Meet
written and illustrated by Devon Kinch
Random House Children’s Books, 2013

My allowance was not pay for completing chores. Chores were what we did because we lived in a family and helped each other get along. Allowance was what my parents gave me because I was part of the family. Some of my friends got paid for doing chores. If you didn’t do the work, you didn’t get the pay. I’m not sure which was more socialist, but I continued getting allowance until I got my first job, babysitting. Even fifty cents per hour was a big improvement over my negotiated allowance. I’m sure I never got more than a couple of dollars per week.
   Don’t get me wrong, my parents were generous. If my brother and I wanted to go to the movies, they bought the tickets, we bought the treats. They bought our clothes, we could save up for accessories. But we didn’t have extra money. Mom sometimes played the bill-paying shuffle. One month she put the phone bill in the electric bill envelope. Back in those days, a person would actually call and you could straighten it out over the phone. What Mom really bought was a little time. I don’t know how often she did that. I don’t know how often other people did it. Were the utilities smart enough to know what was happening, or did they play along because the world was nicer then?
   Mom taught me how to make a budget. My meager allowance was recorded in one column on a piece of graph paper. I recorded everything I bought and subtracted the amount from a running total. That’s still a useful exercise when I start wondering where my money’s going.
Honesty and a good memory are important.
   That’s the way a budget works. You have some money. You spend some. You have some left. But what if I spent more than I had? Well, that was trouble. There was no such thing as credit in my growing-up house. We didn’t get advances, either. So what if I really wanted something? I had to save up my dimes and quarters until I had enough.
   My parents taught me the definition of their mortgage. The bank gave them enough money to buy a house. Then, they paid the bank back, little by little, plus some extra because the bank let us borrow the money in the first place. That sounded fair to my ten-year-old brain. But a 30 year mortgage was almost an unbelievably long time.
   Cities have budgets. States do, too. Even our country has a budget. And the president made his announcement yesterday. It is controversial. Of course. But the radio station I mostly listen to kindly explained that it isn’t really a budget, per se. It is a wish list. Congress gets to make the final decisions, then gives it back for approval. That will take a lot of time, a lot of arguments, a lot of letters to senators and representatives.
   So what is in that wish list? He says he wants to root out “waste and fraud.” His chopping block items include health care, student loans/debt forgiveness, affordable housing, Medicare and Medicaid, food subsidies (SNAP: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), issues affecting the environment like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, funding for National Parks, roll-backs to emissions standards for factories and vehicles.
   He also wants to keep that income tax credit in place for his wealthy friends and increase money to the military. I thought we were going to stop funding “endless wars?” And the Space Force needs military money, too. But that’s a topic for another day.
   All this for $4,800,000,000,000.00 ($4.8 trillion) which will add $3,400,000,000,000.00 ($3.4 trillion) to the national debt by 2024 (four years from now, hmmm).
   Back on September 3, 2019, I posted a blog about the national debt when it was about $22 trillion. I found out that four trillion one-dollar bills laid end to end will reach all the way from the earth to the moon. So that’s a lot of money.
   Part of the $4.8 trillion must go to pay down the national debt. It’s a law. But deficit spending continues. And the national debt continues to rise. Clearly, living within our means as a country, as a society, is not realistic.
   Investing in our future, though, that’s something we could do. Helping each other live well, teaching our children the importance of planning and implementing ideas that will benefit the most people and make the biggest positive impact, doing what we can to protect our Earth and the life she sustains, we can start there.
   Here’s the link to the Senate’s recap of the president’s proposed 2020 budget. https://www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SBC%20Trump%20Budget%20Reaction%203-20-19%20FINAL.pdf
   Use this link to find your representative in the US Congress, your state, your county, and your city. http://myreps.datamade.us Type in your address and click the search button. Decide which item is most important and write a letter to whoever needs to hear your ideas.

-—stay curious! (and sharpen your pencil)

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I Love an Award!

2/4/2020

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Surprise!
it’s a book party
Stacked with all your favorite
friends:
A picnic of
words + sounds
in leaps + bounds.
Read
from: How to Read a Book
by Kwame Alexander
art by Melissa Sweet
HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2019

   Each January, The American Library Association announces its Book and Media Awards. Most important of those are the Newbery and Caldecott. For a complete list of the current winners, look here: http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia Scroll down on the left side to click on the different awards.
   The Caldecott and Newbery Awards, are each chosen by dedicated groups of fifteen knowledgeable and practiced librarians. The Newbery Committee also includes a consultant, and a staff liaison. The decisions of these committee members come with a heavy dose of responsibility, and no monetary reward. Members apply and are chosen by distinguished panels. Committee members agree to volunteer their service for a two year term.
   Volunteers’ libraries need to agree, too, since the obligation involves hours and hours of reading boxes and boxes of books. I’ve heard former members of the committees describe their experiences as daunting, exhausting, and exhilarating.
   The Caldecott Medal, named for Randolph Caldecott, a 19th century artist whose humor appealed to children, has been awarded since 1938. The award is given yearly to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.
   This year’s Caldecott Award Committee selected The Undefeated, illustrated by Kadir Nelson and written by Kwame Alexander. Although Kadir Nelson has won two Caldecott Honor Medals, this is his first Caldecott win. Look here for examples of his remarkable work. https://www.kadirnelson.com
   The Undefeated speaks the unspeakable. Published by Versify, a new imprint of HoughtonMifflin: "[The book] highlights the unspeakable trauma of slavery, the faith and fire of the civil rights movement, and the grit, passion, and perseverance of some of the world's greatest heroes. … [T]his poem is a love letter to black life in the United States."
   Julie Roach, this year’s Chair of the Caldecott Committee said, “Through color and composition, Kadir Nelson’s daring visuals erupt off the page. They challenge our emotional capacity in this layered journey of heroes.”
   The Newbery Award is named for John Newbery, (1713 -1767) the Father of Children’s Literature. When he noticed a lack of appropriate literature for children, he decided to do something about it. He published and wrote over 200 books. Two are still notable, A Pretty Pocket-Book (1744), called the first children's book and The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765), a Cinderella variant. He was a bookseller, too. He marketed his books with toys and bright colors. He was not only the first writer of children’s books, he was the first to make the endeavor profitable. And both titles are still in print.
   This year for the first time, a graphic novel took the Newbery Medal. Jerry Craft’s New Kid, according to Krishna Grady, Chair of the Newbery Medal Committee, “[is a] distinct, timely, and honest story [that] respects children and gives its readers a glimpse into what it means to be other.” The committee chose this book as the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children in the 2019 publishing year.
   Jerry’s comic strip, “Mama’s Boyz,” was distributed by King Features Syndicate from 1995 to 2013. He’s been working on picture books, middle-grade novels and graphic novels ever since. In his own words, “… I set out to create something that I would have fun doing, and I had an absolute blast!” In his new, award-winning book, he describes how a new black kid feels in a mostly white middle school. And he does it with humor.
   Truth is, I’ve never read a graphic novel. I’ve read my share of comic books, Archie and Veronica was my favorite. I’ve read the first four or five books in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinny and a few Captain Underpants titles by Dav Pilkey. Those aren’t really graphic novels, though. I just finished Kate Hannigan’s first book in her new series Cape, an action-packed story about three girls who discover their super powers. In this one, they help foil a Nazi plot. Like Diary and the Captain, it is also told partly in graphic novel style. So I’ve cut my teeth on those. I’m ready for New Kid.
   In this day and age of uncertainty underlined with fear and hatred, I’m proud that the American Library Association chose two books that feature African American subjects for their most prestigious awards. The Newbery is written and illustrated by an African American and the Caldecott, illustrated (and written) by two African Americans.
   Well done! and Congratulations to all!
-—stay curious! (and well-read)

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Tick-Tock Doomsday Clock

1/28/2020

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Hickory dickory dix,
The clock on the barn said six
A hen joined the group
When they charged through the coop
And frightened her new little chicks.
from The Clock Struck One: A Time-telling Tale
written by Trudy Harris
illustrated by Carrie Hartman
Millbrook Press, 2009
I know time only moves in one direction…forward, but it’s hard for me to understand how the same event can happen simultaneously at different times in different places. But no matter.
   The Doomsday Clock just moved ahead. It’s a clock that can move in more than one direction. Backward is much, much better.
   But, last Thursday, January 23, 2020, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock forward. It is now set at 100 seconds before midnight.
   The Doomsday Clock was devised in 1947 by scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project, the people who developed the science and technology to create an atomic bomb. The Board of Sponsors, which includes 13 Nobel laureates from all over the world, consults with each other and announces each January whether to move the clock, or keep it in place. They chose a minute hand as their graphic description to show how much danger the world is in, how close we are to annihilation, self-inflicted or otherwise. And now they’re marking the second-hand, too.
   But the clock is a metaphor, not a predictor.
   When it began in 1947, the clock was set at 7 minutes to midnight, taking nuclear technology into account along with the end of WWII and the gradual warming of the Cold War.
After a relatively long spate of stability, nuclear disarmament, and an unawareness of the general warming leading to the current Climate Crisis, 1991 saw the clock set at 19 minutes to midnight, the safest we’ve been. The clock has been ticking forward ever since.
   In 2007, when the climate was factored in by the Bulletin’s Board of Sponsors, they moved the Clock to 5 minutes before midnight. They considered global failures to solve the problems posed by nuclear weapons and the climate crisis in that January 17th announcement.
   Now we are counting in seconds, not minutes. The amount of instability in the world, the numbers of countries capable of creating nuclear arms, and the deteriorating status of our climate have given cause to the clock-markers to move the time ahead 20 seconds to its current position, less than a minute and a half before midnight.
   “In so doing, board members are explicitly warning leaders and citizens around the world that the international security situation is now more dangerous than it has ever been, even at the height of the Cold War.” https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/
   According to a USA Today article, it is the twin existential dangers, nuclear war and climate change, combined with “a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond.” (January 24, 2020. Pg 14A)
   The prevention of a nuclear war is far beyond my control. I don’t even understand enough about cyber-enabled information warfare to comment. So all I have left is whatever positive impact I can make on the climate.
   We are not living in a world where “stress-free” is an option. But to minimize the harmful effects on my little life here on my speck in the universe, I’ll live as cleanly and simply as I can. Minimize my use of consumables, reuse, refuse plastic whenever possible, you know the routine.
   Plant a tree, or a dozen.
   Every little bit helps, even if it only helps my own sanity so I am able to help others.
-—stay curious! (and positive)

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All For One and One For All

1/21/2020

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One world, one home
One world home for everyone.
One dream, one song
One song heard by everyone.
from: One Light, One Sun
written by Raffi
illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes
Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1988

Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the third Monday in January, a day set aside to honor a great visionary, activist, and unifier. The United States has been celebrating this national holiday since 1986. A campaign to create it, though, began just four days after Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
   Not everyone held Martin Luther King, Jr., in high esteem. Actually, he was quite controversial in his own time. In a note written by J. Edgar Hoover in 1965, Hoover suggested Dr. King perform suicide to avoid the embarrassment of being exposed as a Communist.
   Can you imagine!?
   Of course, the accusation was false. It was a common tactic in those days of the 1950s and 1960s to accuse people of being Communists to keep them from speaking truth to power.
   Coretta Scott King believed in her husband’s message of peace, though. She and Stevie Wonder worked together tirelessly to convince Congress that we, as a nation, needed to honor the memory of our “icon of democracy.”
   Thirteen years into the struggle to make the national holiday dream come true, Stevie Wonder released a rendition of “Happy Birthday” to a posthumous King. Here’s the link to the YouTube recording. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inS9gAgSENE Two years later, in 1983, a congressional bill passed the House 338 to 90. When the bill reached the Senate, a spate of racism took over.
   But, with President Reagan’s defense of Dr. King, the bill passed out of the Senate (78 to 22) and finally, three years after that, in 1986, Reagan signed it into law. In the president’s own words, “[Martin Luther King] challenged us to make real the promise of America as a land of freedom, equality, opportunity, and brotherhood.”
   Some of us are still working toward those goals. Some others of us are not.
   As I write this, the sun is shining, the air is warm, and the sidewalks are full of spectators. I had the grand plan to find a spot toward the beginning of the parade and salute each flag as it marched past, applaud each high school band, and wave to lucky kids who got to ride in the cars of city councilors and police officers.
   I am on vacation in a city I’ve visited many times, but I don’t really feel like I “belong” here. I was comfortable in my side-lined spot when, imagine this! not one, but two friends from home called to me and my husband and encouraged us to march with them.
   And, even though I was a comfortable spectator, we decided to join the people making a difference. We stepped up to march proudly with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Naples.
   At first, marching in the MLK parade in Naples, Florida, seemed like the epitome of irony. Naples boasts one of the wealthiest economies in the United States and is consistently ranked as one of the best places to retire. The crowd is anything but diverse. People consider shopping a hobby. Maseratis, Jaguars, and Bentleys slide past each other in lanes of traffic next to Rolls Royces, Ferraris, and lots of sporty cars I can’t even name. Designer clothes and shoes and bags are as common here as McDonald’s and Wal-Mart are at home.
   Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man of the people. He believed the words of the Constitution that proclaim all [people] are equal. He worked for liberty and justice for all. He continually preached a message of encouragement to downtrodden, overwhelmed, poor people who had given up on the American Dream.
   In words from his collection of sermons published in 1963, Strength to Love, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others.”
   “All for one and one for all” rings as true today as it did in when Alexander Dumas had his three musketeers speak it in 1844. It is only when all the members of a group support each of the individual members, and the individual members pledge to support the group, that mighty progress will happen. When we work together toward common goals, encouraging compassion and building a productive society, democracy will flourish.
   In the end, whether you drive a Bentley, a Ford pick-up or a Prius, whether you love to shop or love to support social action (or both), whether you are charitable or need to receive charity, know that we are more alike than different.
   And the similarities are much more important. Really.
-—stay curious! (and be a unifier)

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Copy That…or Don’t!

1/14/2020

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“It won’t be the exact same,” Amelia argues. “We’re not going to plagiarize her. Filmmakers create stories based on true events all the time. It’s a common thing.”
from I Can Make this Promise
by Christine Day
HarperCollins, 2019
  When I found out I needed one more Humanities Class to fulfill my graduation requirements, I thought World Literature was a good choice. It was a Freshmen level course. I was a senior English Major in my last quarter, in those days before the Semester Conversion, and older than all the students. But not older than the professor.
   Toward the end of the quarter, my professor asked to see me after class. That’s not usually a good thing, and this wasn’t an exception. I had turned in a reflection piece on a reading assignment and she asked why I hadn’t cited my sources. Well, I explained that I didn’t have sources, since the ideas I expressed were my own.
   My professor actually apologized and said she’s so used to reading work from incoming Freshmen that my paper stood out. All ended well.
   When we use other people’s work, we need to acknowledge it. After all, it’s only fair, and it’s the law. And it’s complicated. Countries have their own laws. Some international agreements have been made. Copyright and the internet is a topic for a scholar greater than me, and I won’t even mention YouTube, even though I just did!
   Currently an artistic creation is protected for the creator’s life plus 70 years, the length of its copyright. The length of time a work can be copyrighted has been extended many times since the introduction of copyright in 1790.
   Bill Clinton signed the last copyright extension into law in 1998. Called the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, it extended the previous law by 20 years. From 1978 to 1998, a work’s copyright was valid for the life of the author, artist, or composer plus 50 years. Beginning in 1998, a copyright became valid for life plus 70 years. Because of the 20 year extension, no new works entered the public domain between 1998 and 2018. Here’s an explanation from the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2013/10/25/15-years-ago-congress-kept-mickey-mouse-out-of-the-public-domain-will-they-do-it-again/ that discusses what happened to works published before 1978, which is where the base year 1923 came from.
   When copyrights expire, they become part of the public domain, and are up for grabs to anyone who wants to use the material. They enter the public domain 70 years after the author, composer, or artist has passed away.
   According to https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/public-domain/welcome/ “The public owns [this body of work], not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it.” Copyright rules were applied when Arthur Laurents published West Side Story, a modern retelling of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim wrote the unforgettable music and lyrics.
Shakespeare’s work is in the public domain. West Side Story (text, music, and lyrics) is protected by copyright and will be until 70 years after the last collaborator’s death. Since Stephen Sondheim is still very much alive at age 89, well, let’s just wish him good health for many, many more years.
   Welcome 2020! On January 1, for the second year in a row, previously published works entered the public domain, all published in 1924. Some favorites are in this new class.
   Music
       Al Jolson’s “California, Here I Come”
       George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
   Literature
       E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India
       A. A. Milne’s When We Were Very Young
       Gertrude Chandler Warner’s The Box-Car Children (first book
in the series)
   Artwork
       Edward Hopper’s “New York Pavements”
       Diego Rivera’s fresco Day of the Dead
   A few years ago I wanted to set a manuscript I wrote to a song I knew. A writer friend asked me if the tune was in the public domain. I didn’t know so I put my Librarian’s skills to work and checked folksongindex.com and https://www.pdinfo.com/pd-song-list/search-pd-songs.php. I discovered the song was written in the 1830s.
   Although the title didn’t appear on the Public Domain Information Project’s page, the Olive A. Wadsworth version of the song I wanted to use dates from 1870. It’s referred to as a “traditional” folksong, so I was safe, again.
   The internet is a wonderful resource. We share information with people all over the world. Much of what people post falls under “fair use,” and laws regulate fair use. While gray areas of interpretation abound, it’s often simple and always right to seek permission from the poster, before re-posting.
   Here’s your blanket permission to re-post anything from this post you like. I’d appreciate acknowledgement, though!
-—stay curious! (and courteous)

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Clarity, 2020 Style

1/7/2020

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They say hindsight is 20/20. I know what that means now. When you look back at things, you can see their meaning more clearly, like you have perfect 20/20 vision.
from The Season of Styx Malone
by Kekla Magoon
Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, 2019

I don’t have 20/20 vision. My eye exam between high school graduation and leaving for college was routine, but included a surprise ending. I got my first pair of glasses that summer, and my up-close vision took a remarkable turn for the better.
   My mom had worn glasses since she was young. My sister wore glasses, too, but outgrew them. She began wearing them again as an adult, but just for reading. My brother wears glasses. My dad got glasses when he was 40-ish. If I remember correctly, it was a pretty big deal for him.
   Both of my girls wear glasses and two grandchildren do, too. Thanks to competent optometrists, opticians, and ophthalmologists, our vision has been and continues to be corrected.
   So my reference to 20/20 has not gone by unnoticed, so to speak. But even though the literal act of seeing in this perfect vision year of 2020 was tempting to investigate, my mind skewed away from the physical mechanics of our eyes.
   Last year I chose “focus” for my word of the year. I freely admit, “focus” was not as successful as I wished it had been. I probably should have done a repeat on that one. Part of my loss of focus stemmed from allowing myself to give in to the many distractions competing for my attention.
   To gain clarity, I learned, is to pay close attention to what is happening in the moment. Moment by moment. Like they say, “it’s a practice.”
   And to achieve clarity we need to acknowledge that hindsight is 20/20 only if we apply what we learn from looking back. Hindsight and foresight may not be opposites, but learning from the past is what gives hindsight its clarity. And foresight is not really fortune-telling. It is applying those lessons we learn from the past to decisions we make now and project into the future.
   The words clairvoyant and clairvoyance come from the 13th century French, clair (clear) and voyant the present participle of voir, (seeing). https://www.etymonline.com/word/clairvoyant It wasn’t until 1834 that the words were used in their psychic sense, commonly associated today with telling the future.
   People we call visionaries may just be goal-setters, list-makers, and those who learn from the past. Not fortune-tellers, just people who are in tuneful harmony with the world around them.
   A few years ago, my husband and I found ourselves in St. Louis. We took a one-minute tram ride in a cramped little pod to arrive at the top of the Gateway Arch, 630 feet high. We entered the observation deck, which is much larger than it looked from the ground, and attended by a Park Ranger. The day was sunny and the air was clear. My jaw dropped at the incredible view.
   I asked the Ranger how far he thought I could see.
   He answered, “About 35 miles on a day like this.”
   That’s halfway from Youngstown to Cleveland!
   Height and distance allow for that kind of clarity on a beautiful, summer day. Kinda of the opposite of not being able to see the forest for the trees. Or being lost in the weeds. Or being fooled by the optics of the news story of the moment.
   My world is full of distractions. Lots of trees in the forest and fields full of weeds can get in my way of clear-thinking, clear-decision-making, and clarity in general.
   I do try not to be fooled by optics, though.
   Getting above it all to filter out what is important, relevant, and useful from the general clutter is what I will concentrate on this year. Setting priorities, making lists, and yes, continuing to work on “focus” will be important.
   While I believe no one can really predict the future, I expect those of us who are good at “seeing the big picture” will have fewer surprises.

-—stay curious! (and in the moment)

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G7, Gee Whiz

12/31/2019

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6 Fish
Follow the leader
to the lagoon.
Puff like a blowfish,
round as the moon.
from: Swallow the Leader: A Counting Book
written by Danna Smith
illustrated by Kevin Sherry
Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016

   The other day I read that the revolving leadership of the G7 (Group of Seven) lands in the US this year, providing Donald Trump with a one-year turn at being the leader. I knew the G7 had something (well, probably everything) to do with the world economy, but I wanted to know more. Here’s what I found out.
   The organization began in the 1970s when George Schultz, then United States Treasury Secretary, suggested it would be a good idea for the wealthiest nations to work together. As an informal gathering of the finance ministers from the United States, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, the leaders discussed topics such as international security, world-wide implications of stable currencies, and environmental issues, including oil cartels.
   This all took place during the critical days of the energy crisis and everything that involved, economically and politically. Soon after that first meeting, Japan, Italy, and Canada were brought into the group, making 7 the number of participating countries.
   In 1998, Russia was invited to join, although mostly in a political sense since the country continued to lag behind the other participants economically.
   Today, the G7 are acknowledged as the seven wealthiest and most advanced nations in the world. The seven are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
   China is not included because even though it holds the second largest net worth in the world, it has a low net net worth per individual and an economy that is not fully modernized.
   Russia was tossed from the mix for invading Crimea in 2014, and optimism among the remaining members grew. They hoped a more like-minded group would be better able to accomplish their far-reaching and common goals.
   Those hopes were dashed last year, at the 2018 summit, when President Trump called for Russia to be reinstated to the group. That did not happen. He’s undermined the cohesiveness of the group since then with his policies on trade that targeted members of the group. You might remember his comments to Angela Merkel when he criticized Germany’s trade surplus and he threatened to block US imports of German cars.
   He did not endorse the alliance’s mutual-defense provisions because, he claimed, the members did not pay their fair share to NATO.
He rankled them further with his stance on Climate Change, or is non-stance a better way to express that?
   In 2017, he hinted at withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord. Here’s an excerpt from his June 1 speech on the White House lawn.
       “Thus, as of today, the United States will cease all implementation
of the non-binding Paris Accord and the draconian financial and
      economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country. This
      includes ending the implementation of the nationally determined
   contribution and, very importantly, the Green Climate Fund which
   is costing the United States a vast fortune.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-trump-paris-climate-accord/ By the way, in my own humble opinion, the speech sounds more like a campaign rally than a statement of US policy.
   According to Climate Change News, there are 197 signatories to the Paris Agreement, but on November 4, 2019, the US joined the 10 nations which have yet to ratify the agreement: Angola, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, South Sudan, Turkey, and Yemen. https://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/07/12/countries-yet-ratify-paris-agreement/
And from https://www.state.gov/on-the-u-s-withdrawal-from-the-paris-agreement/
   “Today [November 4, 2019] the United States began the
      process to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Per the terms
      of the Agreement, the United States submitted formal
   notification of its withdrawal to the United Nations. The
      withdrawal will take effect one year from delivery of the
      notification.”
   (For a deeper discussion of member reactions to Trump’s general comments you can click here: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/g7-and-future-multilateralism, an article by the Council on Foreign Relations. From their website, “Founded in 1921, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. Our goal is to start a conversation in this country about the need for Americans to better understand the world.”)
   The original scope of the G7 has expanded to cover a large number of international issues, including security, gender equality, climate change, trade, and poverty.
   While still informal, the group announces its meetings and provides a general agenda. The summit rotates country by country annually. It is a controversial organization, at best, but real work happens. Foreign policy experts and cabinet-level officials conduct genuine negotiations and make significant decisions.
   Since 2000, though, demonstrations and crowd control tactics have sometimes become more newsworthy than the content being discussed by these powerful leaders.
   After suggesting one of his most opulent locations for the event, and receiving a swift, bi-partisan rejection, Trump has decided Camp David will be the venue for the summit. The 46th G7 summit will be held June 10 through June 12, 2020.
   Lots can happen between now and then. Stay tuned!
-—stay curious! (and involved)

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The Internet of Things

12/24/2019

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“But you leave it turned off in your locker, right?” Frank pointed to his own computer. “I turn mine off when I store it.”
   Dorso shook his head. “But with light and solar power they never really turn off. So, it’s just the display and working circuitry that shut down. The internal workings, all the memory chips stay on all the time, so it can retain its programs."
   Frank whistled. “That’s it—it makes sense..."
from: The Time Hackers
by Gary Paulsen
Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, 2005

I first heard of The Internet of Things, IoT, a few years ago. Back then, I learned of a refrigerator that keeps track of how much milk you drink and sends a message to your smart phone or other devise when it is time to buy more. Or a devise on your dog's collar that dings on your phone to say it’s time for a walk. Or a timer or radio that lets you turn your lights on and off when you’re on vacation in another city.
   But IoT has become more complex.. Nowadays, you can tell a Voice Controller your grocery list. The devise (Alexa or Google-dot) will connect through your phone to order your list at the Piggly Wiggly down the street. When the order is received, it’s filled at the store and delivered to you at the time you requested.
   The end of last school year found me at my older daughter’s house, getting the kids off to school while she and my son-in-law attended a conference. There was still a little nip in the air, so I suggested to my granddaughters we check the outside temperature. I was on my way to the door to poke my head out when I heard my younger granddaughter say, “Alexa, what is the temperature?”
   Alexa said something like “53 degrees and sunny.” The girls put on their jackets and we were on our way.
   Well, that was different.
   I started thinking about Alexa. She really knows a lot of stuff. You can ask her questions like how far away Pluto is from Mars, or what time will the Cleveland Browns play and where, or who won the Best Picture Oscar in 1977? She will play your music requests by different artists. And of course, things like telling time and temperature are simple tasks.
   Is she always on? Does she hear stuff even when you don’t preface your comments with her name?
   An IoT devise is a smart devise that connects to the Internet and to other devises. It communicates with them to grant remote access to the end user. That’s you. (Not me!)
   I just looked at a longish list of IoT devises. https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/iot-devices/ I’m sure it’s just me, but why would anyone need these? With the built-in increase risk of privacy issues, I don’t get it. But maybe I just can’t think of enough cool things for them to do.
   Artificial Intelligence is getting more sophisticated, too. I remember the old days when a movie was made in, say France or Italy. American voices were dubbed in to make it look like the actors were speaking English. What about Forrest Gump? Remember the scenes where he was interviewed and photographed with President Kennedy and President Johnson? They did that with a blue screen, reference markers, and historic footage; auditory and visual. It looked pretty real, but, well, lots of things are possible in Hollywood.
   Now we have “alternative facts.” When Sean Spicer, Trump’s old press secretary, was questioned about his claim that the inauguration attracted record numbers of spectators, instead of calling Spicer’s comment a lie, or even, heck, a mistake, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s spokesperson, called it “alternative facts.”
   Really, who cares how many people were there? But “alternative facts” caught on.
   Move forward, a few years. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, (AI) we are becoming less and less able to discriminate between true facts and “alternative facts.”
   A recent RadioLab discussion called “Breaking News” addressed this very issue. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/breaking-news Technologists have invented ways to record a person’s voice and add it to person’s face after a computer has learned how to replicate his or her particular facial expressions. They call it facial reenactment. It’s not animation. It looks real.
   The ability of technology to manipulate and alter reality through video and audio editing is growing at a breakneck speed. And the ability to disseminate that information is phenomenal.
   Technology engineers can discover whether or not a photo or video has been distorted. But that’s not easy. And it will always be easier to create a fake than detect a fake.
   I’m not sure there is a benign use for this technology. In the movie industry, actors may be put out of work by their own images.
   And the geo-political implications are truly frightening.
   For now, I’ll trust written journalism, listen carefully to established radio and TV personalities, and keep thinking for myself.
   If something seems too good, or crazy, to be true, it probably is (too good or crazy to be true).
-—stay curious! (and wary)

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My Favorite Neighborhood

12/17/2019

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Love the bees.
Love the trees.
Love your ears.
Love your tears.
Love your hair.
Love your flair.
Love being kind.
Love using your mind.
Love making art.
Love sharing your heart.
Love yourself.
Love the world!
from Love the World
written and illustrated by Todd Parr
Megan Tingley Books/Little, Brown and Company, 2017

   When my girls were young, I watched Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood pretty much every day. Don’t get me wrong, the girls liked it too, but I put it on for me. As I re-learned everything I had forgotten about my childhood, I wondered how many other moms were doing the same thing.
   I learned a new perspective, too. For example, when my beautiful baby girl squished the peas I cooked for her and smooshed them around on her highchair tray, I only saw the mess she was making…that I needed to clean up. Her father told me she was learning about the tactile sensations of her world. @#&!
   Of course she was, but it took Mr. Rogers to drive it home to me.
   Last week, my husband and I and a few friends saw Tom Hanks bring Mr. Rogers to life. For a couple of hours it felt like he was speaking directly to me, helping me re-connect with my child self again.
   On February 7, 2017, (see my blog from that date, if you want) I finally succumbed to the overwhelming state of our world since the inauguration, and listed everything troubling me the most, in alphabetical order.
   But, after spending those hours in a dark movie theater with Tom Hanks/Fred Rogers, I knew I needed different list.
   Even in the chaos, fear, and sadness I find myself in these days, Mr. Rogers reminded me about the very good people doing very good things, still. Here’s what I like most about Mr. Rogers and why he will, on my very best days, always be part of my world, in alphabetical order.
Appreciative
Attentive
Balanced
Calm
Curious
Deliberate
Even-tempered
Friendly
Generous
Gentle
Heroic
Honest
Imaginative
Just
Kind
Loving
Mature
Nurturing
Optimistic
Patient
Perceptive
Playful
Quiet
Relevant
Responsible
Sincere
Talented
Thoughtful
Tolerant, mostly
Truthful
Unique
Unselfish
Valiant
Visionary
Wise
Xenodochial (friendly to strangers) https://adjectivesstarting.com/with-x/ and scroll down a little.
Young-at-heart
Zen
   The movie came from an article published in Esquire Magazine in 1998, “Can You Say Hero?” Tom Junod, the real journalist who worked for Esquire penned the article about Fred Rogers. Along the way, he learned a lot about himself, but discovered no difference between the man Fred Rogers and his television personality.
   Tom Junod works for The Atlantic, now, and recently tweeted the link to an article he wrote last month (November, 2019) about his friendship with Mr. Rogers that developed over more than two decades. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/what-would-mister-rogers-do/600772/
   I always welcome comments. Any additions to my list? Alphabetical or otherwise!
-—stay curious! (and kind)

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"Live life as the work of art you are."
Abraham Joshua Heschl (1907-1972)
Rabbi, Humanitarian, Peace Activist

Eeny Meeny Miney Mo!

What's a Deficit?

I Love an Award!

Tick-Tock Doomsday Clock

All For One and One For All

Copy That…or Don’t!

Clarity, 2020 Style

G7, Gee Whiz

The Internet of Things

My Favorite Neighborhood

I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .

Archives

"Live life as the work of art you are."Abraham Joshua Heschl (1907-1972)Rabbi, Humanitarian, Peace Activist​

I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .

Archives

"Live life as the work of art you are."
Abraham Joshua Heschl (1907-1972)
Rabbi, Humanitarian, Peace Activist