She stands for all our heroes--
Courageous, strong, and brave.
She reminds us of the freedoms
They’ve fought to win and save.
                                  from Meet Our Flag, Old Glory
                                    written by April Jones Prince
                                          illustrated by Joan Paley
                                               Little, Brown, 2004

    I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and only just became aware that Cleveland has its own flag. It’s had one since 1896.
    General Moses Cleavland chose the location for his city at the spot where the mouth of the Cuyahoga River empties into the southern shore of Lake Erie. It was to be the site for the new capital city of the Connecticut Western Reserve, a land company made of speculators from Connecticut. After making his decision, Cleaveland returned to Connecticut and never came back. 
    Local lore says that The Cleveland Advertiser dropped the first A in his name to make the name fit on its masthead. True? We will probably never know.
    In its early days, Cleveland served as a major trading hub for the Great Lakes. 
    In the War of 1812, the 100 or so inhabitants of the general’s village had no idea of their importance to the War declared on Great Britain on June 18th. Because of its location, though, it served as a base for supplies, a meeting place for military units, and the establishment of Fort Huntington and a military hospital, neither of which are still standing.
    By the time of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814, which ended the war, the residents, because of their proximity to the river and the lake, could congratulate themselves on their strategic contributions to the nation’s war effort and their use of natural resources in their defense against an invasion that could have, but did not actually, materialize.
    After the Ohio and Erie Canal was finished in 1832, the village became a key link from the Ohio River to the Great Lakes and from there to the Atlantic Ocean. 
    The population continued to grow.
    Soon, Cleveland became home to immigrants from Europe and the Middle East as well as African American migrants moving North on their quest for better working conditions.
    Before and during the Civil War, Cleveland was a major stop on the Underground Railroad. The city was full of a vocal group of abolitionists, strongly influenced by their roots in New England. 
    During the Civil War, Cleveland became an industrial giant, manufacturing everything from railroad iron to warships.
    More people came.
    The Rockefellers grew their refining centers in Cleveland, founding Standard Oil, which became Sohio before partnering with BP in the 1960s. The company used the name Sohio until 1991.
    More business meant more opportunity. More opportunity, more people.
    At the beginning of the 1900s, Cleveland was the country’s sixth largest city. Car manufacturing rivaled Detroit. 
    In the first Gilded Age, generous philanthropists helped grow Cleveland into a cultural center. The Cleveland Museum of Art advertised free admission. The Cleveland Orchestra, founded in 1918, is known as one of the five major orchestras in the US. Playhouse Square, a hub for live theater was built in the 1920s. North-moving musicians brought the jazz scene with them.
    The 1920s also saw the growth of major retailers.
    And Cleveland was a sports town. The Cleveland Guardians (playing as the Cleveland Indians) won their first World Series championship in 1920. 
    But the Great Depression brought unemployment to about half of the city’s industrial workers. 
    Recovery took time, but by the end of WWII, Cleveland was back. Population boomed to almost 1,000,000 people. Cleveland baseball, hockey, and football teams dominated their leagues. 
    And along came Alan Freed and his “rock and roll.” 
    But Cleveland grew in fits and starts.
    When I was growing up, Cleveland was nicknamed “The best location in the nation.” By the time I was in high school, it was “the mistake on the lake.” Pollution in the Cuyahoga River was in no small part to blame for the name. Racial tension, tight budgets, and lost population due to “de-industrialization” played their part. A river burning and a spoiled lake competed with the “Emerald Necklace.” 
    How do you put all that on a flag? 
    It started in 1895 when a New York journalist, Julian Ralph, visited Cleveland. He was impressed with Cleveland’s civic spirit and pride and told William Stokely, a Plain Dealer reporter, that he was surprised Cleveland did not have a flag. Ralph, Stokely, and city leaders held a contest. 
    In 1895, Cleveland City Council unanimously adopted 18-year-old Susan Hepburn's design. It was unveiled on October 21, 1895, in time for the 100th anniversary of Cleveland's birth. Ms. Hepburn, an art school graduate, incorporated a shield with the name Cleveland on it, an anvil, a hammer, and a wheel to show the city’s growing industry. An anchor and windlass represented the importance of the lake and river. All on a red, white, and blue background. The current mayor, Robert McKisson, added the words “Progress and Prosperity” the next month.
    Click here to see the original 1896 version:
    A lot can happen in 100 + years, and last year a group of volunteer Clevelanders decided it was time to update the flag. 
    They wanted the flag to be “instantly recognizable” and “intimately connected with the identity of our city.” It was to be modern and inclusive. A new contest was put in place.
    The new flag was unfurled last week. It’s designed by Shan Rodich and incorporates symbols both subtle and evocative.
    See the flag and read up on the symbolism here: 
    You can see most of the submissions here: 
    Ted Kaye is a vexillologist, someone who studies flags. In his book Good Flag, Bad Flag, along with his five elements of good flag design, he includes a tip. Draw it small. Use a one-inch by one-and-a-half-inch rectangle to design your flag. That’s what a 3x5 foot flag looks like atop a flagpole from 100 feet away.
    I wonder what a flag of Youngstown would look like?
                      Be curious! (and hold tight, especially when
                                                     the wind blows)

I’m reading The Queen’s Secret by Karen Harper (HarperCollins, 2020). At first, I was put off by the introductory pages’ long list of monarchs and their relations. I thought the story would be mired in the complexity of characters. I’m happy to report I was wrong. I’m learning about the Queen Mother, Elizabeth, who was QEII’s mother and the wife of King George VI. The book is historical fiction, and though extremely well-researched, the author admits to taking some liberties. Recommended.​

…pretty soon he was hundreds of miles from home and was singing loudly about everything he loved, and many other fish and mammals were listening to him…
                                      from Soren’s Seventh Song
                                           written by Dave Eggers
                                    illustrated by Mark Hoffmann
                                      Cameron Kids/Abrams, 2024

    Humpback whales are making a comeback. Well, four of the 14 identified family units are still protected as endangered and one is threatened, but the other ten are indeed, repopulating themselves. 
    Putting Captain Ahab’s ocean treks in his pursuit of Moby Dick and other adventurous types aside, owners, captains, and crew of whaling ships in the late 1800s and early 1900s were interested in only one thing, the money to be made by hunting, capturing, and processing whales. 
    Then, whales were hunted relentlessly, almost to extinction. Before their populations were decimated, they provided oil for lamps and machines. Spermaceti, a highly prized oil found in the head of a sperm whale, was a great prize. New Bedford, Massachusetts, was such a busy port dealing mostly in lamp oil, that it was nicknamed “The City That Lit the World.” 
    Other whales provided vast amounts of blubber, which, when separated from its skin and cut into chunks, was rendered into its own lesser grade of whale oil. The oil was processed into soap, paint, varnish, rope, and textiles.
    The bony plates in the upper jaw of some whales (including Humpbacks) strain food from the gallons of seawater whales suck in during feeding. Before plastic was invented, baleen harvested from hunted whales was made into stays in women’s corsets and hoops for their skirts. It was also made into umbrella ribs, riding crops, buggy whips, and hat brims.
    As you might imagine, whaling was a dangerous occupation. Before all the rendering of blubber into oil and baleen into corsets took place, a whale must be caught. A harpoon (a long shaft with a barb at the end) was the primary weapon, but whales are heavy. Their weight and the fury with which they fought made them hard to catch and quick to escape.
    That is, until Lewis Temple (c1800-1854), an African American abolitionist from New Bedford, Massachusetts, invented a pivoting iron head and attached that to the tip of a harpoon. Now, when the harpoon sunk into the flesh of the whale, the hinge at the tip pivoted, embedding the hook and ensuring the whale did not get away. 
    This simple invention revolutionized the whaling industry. Remaining in use until the 1950s, Temple’s toggle was so efficient that according to Dr. Wally Franklin of the Oceania Project, “between 1900 and 1978, over two million whales were killed.”
    Humpbacks became a protected species in the early 1960s, and in 1986, the International Whaling Commission placed a moratorium on commercial whaling, ending the practice (except in Japan.) Citing the possible need for use as a food source, Japan withdrew from the IWC in 1986. Since then, limits have been placed on the amount of whales Japanese whalers can take. 
    Whaling is also limited to “subsistence whaling” for the Inupiat and Siberian Yupik people living on (and off) the coast of Northwestern Alaska and monitored since 1979. Most of the whales harvested for food are not Humpbacks, though.
    Humpbacks live in every ocean in the world, but those 14 family groups cluster at the east and west coasts of South America, southern Africa, and Australia. 
    The water surrounding Australia is a dedicated whale sanctuary that has protected humpbacks, especially, since 1989. The water temperature is mild, the way they like it, and food is plentiful. According to Wally Franklin of the Oceania Project, 40,000 humpbacks live in Australian waters. 
    Dr. Franklin acknowledges that the severe depletion of sperm whales and near extinction of blue whales has provided little competition for humpbacks searching for food and mates. Which brings us to whalesong.
    According to the IFLAscience newsletter, all whales vocalize, but only a few species actually sing, and the best and most famous singers are humpbacks. Males and females use calls. They include clicks, whistles, and pulses. They are used for navigation, coordinating hunting strategies, and maintaining social bonds within a pod.
    But only males sing. Their songs are long, sometimes up to 20 minutes and include repeating phrases, rhythms, and structured patterns. Researchers think the primary reason for the song is to attract a mate. Maybe something like Elvis’s “Love Me Tender”? 
    So all the feeding, singing, and mating seems to be working, for now.
    I’ve never seen a live whale. They are so huge that even if I saw one in an aquarium, even if I was very young, I think I would remember. So I’ve only seen them on a screen, from a physical and electronic distance. Not the best way, I agree, but that’s all I have. 
    Because of the recent (1/22/25) executive order to disallow the Endangered Species Act to be an obstacle to energy development (read “drill, baby, drill”), I may never will.

I’m reading The Secret Letters by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Quill Tree, 2022). Recommended by my youngest grandson, it’s a combination of historical fiction and mystery with a friendship story that works to show readers the difference between junk and clutter. When two friends unravel two separate mysteries, they discover that true friendships can stand the test of time.

                                      Be curious! (and keep singing)

At first, [Farmer Brown] couldn’t believe his ears. 
Cows that type?
Impossible!
Click, clack MOO!
Click, clack, MOO!
Clickety, clack MOO!
                        from Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
                                          written by Doreen Cronin
                                          illustrated by Betsy Lewin
                                               Simon Spotlight, 2000

    According to typing.com's free typing test, I can type 61 words per minute with 99% accuracy. (I knew I mistyped a lowercase M when it should have been uppercase and didn’t go back to fix it.) I’m satisfied with that. I type a little (or a lot) slower, though, when I have to think before I type or remember how to spell a word instead of copying an already formulated text. I would probably type slower, too, if the words were nonsense words.
    But go ahead and click the link. Check yours, too, if you are curious.
    I learned to type on a manual machine, but my parents bought me an electric typewriter when I went to college. I don’t remember the brand, but it had an extra ribbon that magically erased my mistakes. I still had to listen for the ding at the end of each line and pay attention to the mark I made to show the bottom of the page, though. Lots of paper still ended up in the “scratch bin” for grocery lists, to-do lists, and checkbook balancing.
    Even though typewriters and typewriting are experiencing a small resurgence, NPR reported on a story last January that the last typewriter repair shop in Boston is closing. The owner, who is ready to retire, can’t find a buyer.
    Tom Furrier, who has been fixing typewriters for 45 years in Boston, will close his store at the end of this month (March, 2025). When he started working, “you could find 40 busy typewriter shops across Metro Boston,” Tom told an NPR interviewer last January. 
    After working there for many years, he bought the shop in 1990. Personal computers were gaining popularity, but a decade later, vintage was in, and Tom’s shop had people waiting in line for him to open. 
    In recent years, some big cities have become home to more shops, including Milwaukee, which claims to be the birth of the typewriter. 
    Henry Mill (1683?-1771), an English engineer, is credited with the invention of the first European typewriter in 1714. Queen Anne said of his machine, “[it] made counterfeiting more difficult and reading and writing easier.” 
    So, how easy is it to use a typewriter? Why are the keys arranged in a seemingly random order? Who came up with it? And is it really the best order?
    The long progression from Johannes Gutenberg to Bill Gates was an evolution in technology, mass production, and the spread of the written word.
    Today’s typewriter is based on the first commercial typewriter, designed by Christopher Latham Sholes and Carlos Glidden in 1866. Two years later, they contracted with the E. Remington Company to manufacture it.
    The letters were originally arranged in alphabetical order in two rows. Like later machines, each letter on the keyboard was attached to a rod that jumped to strike a paper when the key was struck, then snapped back into position. 
    Sholes, it’s said, discovered that the faster someone typed, the less time the rods had to snap back. They often collided and jammed. He decided to move the commonest letters to the most difficult places on the keyboard to slow down the typing and give the rods a little longer to fall back into place. He had designed the QWERTY keyboard.
    A different QWERTY story credits Densmore, a partner of Sholes. His layout considered common two-letter combinations. He placed each letter on the opposite side of the keyboard to provide efficiency in a two-handed movement while preventing collisions, clashes, and jams.
    QWERTY has been analyzed, studied, and experimented with since the first keyboard to use it. Well? Is QWERTY best? Only maybe. It’s surprisingly controversial. Loads of papers, studies, and experiments have been done. For now, at least, the keyboard isn’t changing. It’s the way it’s (almost) always been done. At least in English. 
    All Latin Alphabets use upper and lower case. It took five more years and the Industrial Revolution for Remington to add the “shift” key, allowing the typist to toggle between them.
    In Gutenberg’s time, letters used to set type were stored in cases. The capital letters or larger ones (the majuscule) were kept in the upper case, and the minuscule (smaller) ones went in the lower case. The names stuck. A discussion of majuscule and minuscule scripts would require a blog post of its own, so let’s leave it there for now.
    Very literal.
    The Cyrillic, Chinese, Thai, and Hebrew alphabets are some examples that mostly do not distinguish between upper and lower case. You can find more here. You can see layouts of their keyboards and type in any language you’d like here. It’s very cumbersome, though.    
    Centuries before modern, ok, vintage, typewriters became widely available, Johannes Gutenberg (c1395 - c1468 invented movable type. He was already familiar with printing and had created an alloy that could be quickly melted, cooled, and reformed. The small, metal pieces, each a single letter, could be arranged in infinite ways. He had also perfected an oil-based, fast-drying ink that was thick enough to coat the letters and still adhere to paper. The screw press, designed for rapid operation, also was in use before Gutenberg adapted it to its use in printing.
    But the essential element was Gutenberg’s adjustable mold. By using a frame, whole lines of text, upper case and lower, could be printed at once. 
    Paper had already been invented by the ancient Egyptians and Chinese, and movable type had already been invented in China. Inks and alloys were already in use, too, throughout the world. Perfecting the pieces and synthesizing them to create something so useful was Gutenberg’s genius.     
    The importance of his printing press can’t be overstated. Like the wheel, antibiotics, and electricity, it has changed our world forever.    

I just started reading When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill (Knopf Doubleday/Vintage, 2022). It’s gotten mixed reviews, but I loved her Girl Who Drank the Moon (Algonquin Books for Young Readers, 2016. Newbery winner), so I decided to give this one a try. I’ll let you know next time.
                       Be curious! (and literal, when necessary)   

Lupe was ready to rock!
Lupe was ready to roll!
    .   .   .
The beat had a sound.
That sound came from letters.
Reading is like music! I just need to see the beat!”
                            from Lupe Lopez: Rock Star Rules!
        created by e. E. Charlton-Trujillo and Pat Zietlow Miller
                                          illustrated by Joe Cepeda
                                         Candlewick Press, [2002]

    The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its list of 14 nominees for the class of 2025 on February 12. Out of the 14, I know (or recognize) only six. Here’s the list from its website:   
*Bad Company
The Black Crowes
*Mariah Carey
*Chubby Checker
*Joe Cocker
*Billy Idol
Joy Division/New Order
*Cyndi Lauper
Maná
Oasis
Outkast
*Phish
Soundgarden
The White Stripes
* the ones I recognize. How did you do?
    Directly from their site (again), “Artists or bands become eligible for nomination 25 years after releasing their first commercial recording. Among this year’s 14 Nominees, eight are appearing on the ballot for the first time: Bad Company, The Black Crowes, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Billy Idol, Maná, Outkast, and Phish.” 
    They have each created their own “style and attitude,” influenced generations after them, and “continued the growth of rock & roll.”
    The voting panel is comprised of over 1,200 artists, historians, and music industry professionals. The judges consider three factors:
1.  an artist’s impact on music culture
2.  their influence on other musicians who have followed them
3.  the scope and longevity of their career and body of work
    Fan Voting is open through April 21, 2025. Use this link if you want to participate.
    The inductees will be announced in late April. This year, the Induction Ceremony will take place in Los Angeles, exact date TBA.
    Rock & Roll began as a particularly American phenomenon in the Deep South and grew to encompass the whole world, changing music forever. It defines a musical genre through connection, innovation, and rebellion. The sounds include “blue notes,” commonly found in a blend of spirituals, blues, and jazz.
    Without getting too deep into the weeds, the subgenres of Rock & Roll depend on “blue notes,” those sounds that come about a half-step above or below what we expect to hear. They create tension on the way to a resolution, usually in a familiar chord. 
    The best examples are subtle, emotionally resonant, and include improvisation, making them unique. Examples include John Coltrane’s saxophone solos, Stevie Wonder’s harmonies, and Aretha Franklin’s glissandos. They add an emotional dimension to the sounds.
    YouTube doesn’t like to share its links with a copy/paste. If you want to hear examples of blue notes, Google something like <examples of blues notes in music> to find several short clips.
    And who knew Rock & Roll has so many sub-genres? A quick search netted over 50! Blue notes are more common in some than in others.
    Here’s a list of 16 common subgenres from GrooveNexus, including their descriptions. From the birth of Rock & Roll in the 1950s in the sounds of Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly through Do-Wop, Disco, and Hip-Hop, sound experiments in rhythms, harmonies, and lyrics kept and keep evolving. My mom called it all “rotten roll.” I think she was not the only one who did. 
    My sister was more into Ricky Nelson. I liked Simon and Garfunkel, The Mamas and Papas, and Roberta Flack (2/10/37 – 2/24/25 RIP). I was, and still am, drawn more to the lyric than the rhythms and melodies. 
    In 1986, Cleveland, Ohio, was chosen to be the home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The building opened in 1995. By then, Rock & Roll was a worldwide phenomenon. People are still asking, “why Cleveland?”.
    Here’s the local legend. In the late 1940s, Alan Freed, the pioneer DJ for Rock & Roll, became friends with Leo Mintz, owner of Record Rendezvous in downtown Cleveland. Mintz knew what kids were buying, and Freed had the platform to showcase it. Mintz sponsored the show and donated the records. 
    By March 21, 1952, 14,000 tickets had been sold for the 11,000-capacity Cleveland Arena, the chosen venue to hold the Moondog Coronation Ball. It was the world’s first rock concert. Two days later, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported “[p]olice ended the ball at 10:45 p.m., observing the place was so filled that nobody could dance or hear the music.”
    Cleveland had become Rock & Roll’s debut city and made Alan Freed a rock star in his own right. 
    Rock & Roll continued to evolve. While not the first Rock & Roll song to be recorded, “Hang On Sloopy” was released by Atlantic Records in 1964. It became a standard and was recorded by the Yardbirds and later the McCoys and others. 
    Legend has it that the song’s inspiration was Dorothy Sloop, a jazz singer from Steubenville, Ohio. She was a student at The Ohio State University which adopted it as its "fight song."                                  
    “Hang On Sloopy” became the official rock song of the State of Ohio on November 20, 1985, by House Concurrent Resolution 16.
    
    All 50 states have a State Song except Maryland, “Maryland, My Maryland” (to the tune of “O Tannenbaum”) was repealed on 7/1/2021. 
    “Hang On Sloopy” is the only state song classified as Rock & Roll. 

I’m reading My Mother in Havannah by Rebe Huntman. A memoir, a reflection on motherhood, and an example of using “place” as a central theme, Rebe brings her readers with her on an emotional journey as she searches for spiritual connections in the land of her mother’s birth.
                                     -—Be curious! (and Rock on!)  

A cube has 8 faces that are all squares.
It can be a dice or a box filled with bears.
from All About 3D Shapes
written and read by Jarrett Corder
accessed on YouTube 2/24/25


    Ernö Rubik not only invented the world’s most popular puzzle, a couple of years ago he published a book about it. In Cubed: the Puzzle of Us All (Flatiron Books, 2020), Rubik shares the journey he took to invent his famous cube, his thoughts about solving problems, and how astonishing it is to have invented something so successful.
    He’s a sculptor, an architect, and a designer. He defines sculpture as a combination of art and technology. He loves to work with the design of objects and explains the art of all types of design to his students.
    His cube demonstrates the relationship between space and geometry. It is his way to explain simply and visually with material, how it feels to live in a three-dimensional world.
    It is simple and complex at the same time. “[T]his contradiction is the content of the cube,” explains Rubik.
    He likes to replace the word problem and all its bad connotations with challenge, a word that encourages using creative thinking to reach a goal. He believes that play is an important part of problem-solving.
    While math proves there are more than forty-three quintillion (mathematically 43,252,003,274,489,856,000) ways to solve Rubik’s cube, Jim Hogan learned if a solver masters only seven algorithms, the puzzle can be solved quickly no matter how it is scrambled. 
    Jim’s autistic. He’s an engineer at Google, and he says that solving the Rubik’s Cube changed his life. When he learned to solve the cube, he discovered ways to solve physical problems that he could not solve before. He needs to fidget. Playing with his Rubik’s cube, even in public, is socially acceptable. 
    At least in the Google environment.
    In our regular world, kids (mostly) practice and compete to get faster and faster at solving the puzzle. The World Cube Association lists over 48 upcoming competitions before the end of next week (3/10/25). They take place everywhere from Nairobi, Kenya to Kathmandu, Nepal, and from Bangladesh to New Zealand, and include many right here in the USA.
    The competitions emphasize speed. It takes practice and learning algorithms, the series of steps a cuber uses to move the 2-dimensional faces of each facet of the cube, to reach the goal: nine same-colored squares on each of the cube’s six sides.
    Rubiksplace.com is a website devoted to listing the qualities to look for in a cube. Speed, smoothness, corners (round or square), quality of the magnets used, customizability, and spring tension, are all both subjective and objective. A list of brands comes next followed by a list of which cubes the record-holding cubers use.
    An advanced speed cuber can solve a 3x3 cube (one that has nine squares on each face) in under 15 seconds. 
    My grandson’s record is a little over 30 seconds! He’s on his way!
    Some cubers memorize the algorithms (found on various sites and YouTube). Some practice finger dexterity. Some learn combinations of algorithms arranged as techniques. 
    Here’s  an easy and thorough example:
    In a YouTube interview, Ernö Rubik says he wants the legacy of his cube to show that people can solve problems, even difficult ones, if they are not afraid to fail on their first or millionth step. And they don’t need a teacher. Only their own combination of intuition, experience, and creativity. Each person’s solving process will be different.
    And, he adds, the more difficult the problem, the sweeter success feels when it is solved. 
    People discover a lot of things when they start to work through solving a Rubik’s cube, whether it’s an algorithm, how to get unstuck, or how to solve multiple things at the same time. It’s a discovery process where the solvers discover new things about themselves.
    Rubik admits there are many reasons to solve problems. You can meet your target by getting faster, but you can also become more capable of asking questions. And asking them, for Rubik, is more important than answering them. He notes that oftentimes, the answer is embedded in the question.
    His cube has been used to explain everything from mathematics to psychology, and physics to human intelligence. Rubik says he is not interested in how quickly his cube can be solved. He is more interested in how many different ways he can discover to reach the goal of the solve. 
    It’s the difference between taking a walk in the park to notice and enjoy the wildlife and running across a busy street to avoid being hit by a car. Both are important for very different reasons.


Because I enjoyed Liz Moore’s Long Bright River, I started her new book, The God of the Woods (Riverhead Books, 2024). When a camper is discovered missing from her bunk one morning, the search for her involves the property owners (who are the parents of the missing girl), the camp personnel, and the rookie detective assigned to the case. Family history, relationships, and intrigue come together to make this one riveting read. Recommended.
Be curious! (and look for solutions)


FB: I visited our local planetarium on Youngstown State University’s campus last weekend. It helps a little, thinking of our planet as a tiny part of a huge universe. And being with my grandsons helps my perspective in more ways than I can count.

In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions, and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.
                                   from: The Diary of a Young Girl
                                              written by Anne Frank
                                     Doubleday/Bantam Books, 1967
                                                first published in 1947
                                                 first US edition, 1952

    Yesterday (Monday), when I usually finish my thoughts, complete  editing my typos, and re-read for clarity, I decided to do none of those things.
    I had planned to post the nominations for the 2025 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I even had some of the research ready. 
    But, like I felt a few years ago when I decided to take a break from the news and re-post pieces that still seemed relevant to me, my blog felt inconsequential, unimportant, and even ephemeral in light of the firehose quantity and quality of the current news. 
    In October 2018, when I originally posted this piece, the first Trump regime was finding its footing. Children were being torn from their families in his “zero-tolerance” policy to stem immigration. He called Robert Muller’s investigations a “witch hunt,” which fueled the Me Too movement. He nominated Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. And mid-term elections were one week away.
    In 2021, when I reposted it, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were in office. The world was still in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Biden signed a $1.9 trillion relief package into law, which worked its way to the people who needed it most. 
    The Capitol Riot/Insurrection was in our rear-view mirror working its way through the Judicial System. Key portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were working their way through Congress. Biden brought the United States back into the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization.
    The relative calm lasted for four short years.
    Now this post feels important enough to re-post yet again:

    One of the most famous Holocaust poems of all time, "First They Came for the Jews," was written by a Lutheran pastor and theologian, Martin Niemöller (1892–1984).
    After recanting his support for Hitler and Nazism, Niemöller was arrested and confined to the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1938 to 1945. He narrowly avoided execution and was liberated by the Allies. He stayed in Germany and worked as a clergyman, pacifist, and anti-war activist. In his 1946 book, Niemöller talked publicly of Germany’s guilt for what Germany had done to the Jews. He was one of the first Germans to do so.
    Niemöller’s poem is especially relevant now.
                     First, They Came For The Jews
                             by Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.
    I found the text of the poem and information about Niemöller on this page at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum site. Accessed on October 29, 2018. (verified October 19, 2021, and February 18, 2025)

Here is a modern adaptation:
When they came for the Jews and the blacks, I turned away
When they came for the writers and the thinkers and the radicals and the protestors, I turned away
When they came for the gays, and the minorities, and the utopians, and the dancers, I turned away
And when they came for me, I turned around and around, and there was nobody left...
(published in Hue and Cry, 1991)

You can find some other adaptations here:
http://webweaversworld.blogspot.com/2006/10/first-they-came-for-jews-variations-on.html
    Shooting and killing praying people in a synagogue . . . because they were Jewish. I never thought that could *really* happen. But, in 2018, three days before my original post, it did. In the city next door to mine. 
    In 2025, I’m struggling with how to turn my anger, fear, pessimism, and grief into action.
    Here’s my version of Neimöller’s poem:

When he fired FAA executives, I was unaware. 
    Then 67 people were killed in an airline crash. And three more in a
    helicopter.
When he cancelled DEI, I was unaffected.
    I looked away from my horror and disgust.
When he shuttered USAID and fired most of the personnel, 
    I called my Senators and Representative.
When he gave Department of Treasury access to the Musk-ovite, 
    I spoke out to my friends.
When he threatened to de-fund the Department of Education, 
    I cried.
When Amy Walter echoed Simon Rosenberg’s plea to write and call government officials, 
    I did.
When I do all these things, maybe nothing will change.
    But maybe something will.
    Please join me!

(10/19/21 update) On October 8, 2021, the director of curriculum and instruction for the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, told a fourth-grade teacher to “make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing … perspective.” Find the article here.

(2/18/25 update): The paragraph above is right from the Education section of Project 2025.

I just finished reading an historical fiction for young readers, Freedom’s Game by Rosanne Tolin (Reycraft Books, 2024). The story takes place after the German occupation of France and tells of some children who were moved to a chateau a couple of years before the end of WWII and the Resistance workers who ran it. Well-developed characters and tight writing make a tension-filled read, even though we all know how the War ends. It feels very timely. Recommended.
                                         -—Be curious! (and involved)

    “Kid, your project is a hazard to the whole science fair,” [the custodian] said. 
    “They’re just a couple of plants,” said Michael[.] …
    “They’re not normal,” said the custodian. “Mark my words. Something else is going to go wrong.”
                            from The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks
                                                 by Nancy McArthur
                                                  Avon/Camelot, 1988

     Daffodils are my favorite flower for a variety of reasons, mostly their cheerful color and the way they nod to me in a gentle breeze. 
     I love tulips’ soft colors, but I stopped planting them because of my huge chipmunk population. Sometimes they eat the bulbs. Sometimes they just move them around underground. Spring is full of surprises, some better than others.
     I’ve tried many different kinds of perennials and annuals, too, with an uneven success rate. 
     The hyacinth, according to Rockets Garden, “is a genus of bulbous flowering plants in the asparagus family.” 
     They are a later harbinger of Spring, and I have planted some pinks and purples throughout the years. I refuse to plant yellow ones. That color I dedicate to my daffodils. 
     While they are a non-native species (from the eastern Mediterranean region), hyacinths are easily controlled and pose no threat to our gardens.    
     And they keep coming back, right where I planted them.
     But I won’t plant water hyacinths. They are a totally different species.
     “Unlike [garden] hyacinths, which grow in the ground, water hyacinths have a unique structure that enables them to float. Water hyacinths have rounded, glossy leaves and produce [beautiful] spike-like clusters of lavender-blue flowers. Native to the Amazon basin, these are free-floating aquatic plants that can cover entire surfaces of water bodies” (again from the Rockets Garden site).
     Water hyacinths are considered invasive in many parts of the world. Due to their rapid growth, they choke out native aquatic plants, which threatens the environment.
     According to the National Wildlife Federation, an invasive species “can be any kind of living organism—an amphibian [like cane toads], plant [like water hyacinths and kudzu], insect, [like spotted lanternflies], fish, fungus, bacteria—that is not native to an ecosystem and causes harm. They can harm the environment, the economy, or even human health.” 
     They grow and reproduce quickly and spread aggressively. 
     Water hyacinths were brought to the US for the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in 1884-85. Its beautiful bloom made it a fast favorite among the attendees. 
     Although invasive, they are appropriate for an indoor aquarium or outdoors in a water garden. They proliferate quickly, and if unchecked, they will speedily exhaust the water’s oxygen and nutrients. Any life in the container, fish, frogs, or other water plants, will be harmed or destroyed.
     Along with lots of other invasives, water hyacinths were brought to the United States on purpose as ornamentals and simply got out of hand. 
     They are among others like English ivy, purple loosestrife, and even kudzu, also known as “the plant that ate the South,” that can still be purchased at garden stores. 
     According to a study done by the University of Massachusetts in 2021, 61% of 1,285 plant species identified as invasive in the U.S. remain available … including 50% of state-regulated species and 20% of federal noxious weeds[.] Since there are few ways to enforce rules prohibiting or limiting their purchase, we’re on our own.
     My suggestion? Go native. So many native species are available. They attract native pollinators, they provide food for native wildlife. And they thrive right where you and I live.
     And, finally, some surprising, good news. A study reported in ScienceDirect.com published online 1/3/25, describes how water hyacinths can help our environment. “It can absorb pollutants and heavy metals from contaminated waters, … and produce biogas [used for fuel].” 
     Both of these endeavors are in their infancy. They are labor intensive and require lots more study and funding, but even baby steps in the right direction help move us in the right direction.

I’m reading Long Bright River by Liz Moore (Riverhead Books, 2020). It’s the story of two sisters, one a cop and the other a drug addict. Although clocking in at almost 500 pages, the writing is tight, and the action is packed. Besides being an engrossing thriller, it is also a character study of each of the sisters and their relationship to each other. I learned about police departments in general as well as the underside of the Philadelphia street scene.
                                          Be curious! (and go native)

Ma and Pa kissed baby, 
Then they tucked him into bed
With dreams of polka parties 
Still a-dancing in his head.
                                     from Baby Danced the Polka
                                       written by Karen Beaumont
                                       pictures by Jennifer Plecas
                            Dial Books for Young Readers, 2004
                                     accessed on YouTube 1/26/25

    Last week, my husband and I went to our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch and, not for the first time, I commented on how much Mariachi music (playing in the background) reminds me of the polkas that my parents loved so much.
    Maybe it was just the accordion and the upbeat tempo, but I kept wondering if I was the only one who noticed the similarities. And I found out that, no, lots of people have wondered and have written about it, too.
     Somewhat tangentially, my older daughter’s favorite color is polka dot. She loves them. All colors and all sizes. I wondered why, but really, what makes a color or a number or a shape anyone’s favorite anything? That will have to be a whole different rabbit hole, I mean blog topic.
    And here’s another surprise (for me anyway). Polka dots are connected to the music.
    Toward the middle of the 1800s, so the story goes, a music teacher, Josef Neruda, noticed a young Bohemian woman, Anna Slezáková, dancing to a local folk song. Her dance was so lively and spry that Neruda wrote down the steps and taught others how to do it. 
    At the same time, in the same place (Bohemia is now a part of the Czech Republic), a new fashion trend came onto the scene. It was a revival of a much-maligned pattern of the Middle Ages. Then, dots were hand-drawn on fabric and necessarily unevenly spaced. Because they reminded people of the pox rashes that were so deadly, the pattern fell out of favor quickly.
    But, thanks to the Industrial Revolution (~1760 to ~1840), machines could weave polka dots into fabric evenly spaced, and so, they gained back their popularity.
    Historians tell us the word polka, whether the dots or the dance, comes from the steps of the dance itself. It’s a quicker version of the ever-popular waltz and refers to the half-step taken between the two longer steps when performing the dance.
    Coincidentally, the dance craze was coming into its own at the same time. So the dots were labeled “polka dots,” presumably to take advantage of the marketing potential. Yes, even then.
    The craze caught on quickly, spread in part by the Romantic Period, which elevated common folk and emphasized the peasant culture as an ideal. The polka was danced in the ballrooms of Prague, Vienna, and Paris. Soon it was all the rage in London, too, and swam across the pond to our own receptive shores.
    But lest we be Americo-centric, lots of immigrants landed on Mexico’s shores, too. And they brought their music with them. 
    Before the 1820s, only about 50 Germans had found their way to Mexico, but by 1939, the German population in Mexico had grown to 3,000 people. One of the first, Karl Sartorius, was a political refugee from Prussia. When he was able to buy a tract of land, he started what became a very successful sugar cane and coffee plantation. (Slavery, while flourishing in the United States, was barely known in Mexico.)
    The increasing demand for coffee brought other immigrants to Mexico, too.
    Many Germans fled poverty and Hitler’s persecution. Mexicans called them “trade conquistadors.” They wanted to get rich quick. Textiles, hats, and furniture were some of the German items now manufactured in Mexican factories.  
    Here’s what else I found out from an interview that Renee Montagne of NPR conducted with Felix Contreras, host of NPR’s podcast Alt.Latino.    
    Most of the Germans who came to Mexico settled in northern Mexico and southern Texas (still part of Mexico at that time). They brought beer, of course, but they also brought their accordions. 
    And their music.
    But even though the music mashed-up, the people, by their own choice, stayed apart. Mexican folk musician Narciso Martinez (1911-1992), is considered the “father of conjunto music,” a lively, Mexican style of accordion playing. He says when he was young, he and his friend would sneak into the German quarter to listen to the bands. When they got home, his buddy would whistle them to Martinez. Then, Martinez picked the notes out on his accordion, plucking out the bottom tuba notes and the higher sounds of trumpets. 
    He quickened the tempo from the 3/4 time of a waltz to a common 2/4, and the polka was born.
    Voilá! (Oops, that’s French.)
I'm finishing up Steve Inskeep's Differ We Must (Penguin Press, 2023). It's an interesting study of how the people in Lincoln's life helped him shape his politics and Presidency. It's an interesting read. Recommended 
                                             Be curious! (and dance)

​Alison Luterman
PRAISE THE BROKEN PROMISE OF AMERICA
Praise deep mineral veins under rich dirt,
and fossilized remains of dinosaurs turning themselves into gas
for our benefit. Praise the exhausted earth,
miles and miles of subsidized corn 
and cattle lowing from their hell-holes
in automated milking barns. 
Praise farmworkers rising before dawn, 
their sore backs and aching knees. Praise the myths
that drew them here, stories eagerly consumed 
when there is nothing to eat but faith.
Praise the courage of the reverend to look 
the dragon in the eye and preach mercy; 
praise whatever hidden waterways are still pristine.
Praise music that refused to play at the funeral of democracy.
and the killing cold that swept through Washington 
when the fake Pope took power.
Praise drag queens and lipstick lesbians, boys who are girls
and girls who are lions, butch women wearing tool belts,
and all the music theater nerds 
who are even now building new passageways 
mapping the next underground railroad 
and suiting up to be conductors—oh, everybody,
get on board! This train will chug quietly 
across the great plains and over rocky Sierras, 
into the desert where people still leave bottles of water 
and packets of food for the desperate 
who have always been the lifeblood 
of this nation. It will stop in obscure hamlets 
to pick up fugitives with tears tattooed on their cheeks 
and fraying backpacks overspilling with contraband books. 
Praise the weirdos because if anyone can save us
it will be us. And praise all the glittering illusions
we gawked at, ignoring our own neighbors
in favor of a 24-hour peep show on the internet. 
Praise the convict fire fighters on the front lines in L.A.,
battling the insurmountable for ten dollars a day. We gambled 
our future for a hot air balloon with a hole in it. Praise
our reckless hubris, and the infinite distractions
of the hall of mirrors we find ourselves in now, and bless
our overwhelmed brains, scurrying like mice for shelter.
Bless our collective rage, and protect
the officers who stood up on January 6th and now see their attackers
roaming the streets like rabid dogs, ah, bless the animals
we have always been, in our coats and shoes
and clumsy language, bless our willful ignorance,
so enormous, so world-altering, that, like the great wall of China, 
it can be seen from outer space, 
where the gods are shaking their heads even now, 
in pity and in awe.
  --from Poets Respond
Published in Rattle.com 1/27/25
https://www.rattle.com/praise-the-broken-promise-of-america-by-alison-luterman/ 
__________
Alison Luterman: “The poem says it all. This past week has been heart-shredding. I’m not saying poetry can change anything right now, but it comforted me to write this, and I hope it offers comfort to anyone who reads it.” (web)

    “See? The soapy water travels in pipes underground, and then it pours into our stream. The soap foam from your car wash is polluting the water. The things that live in the stream aren’t used to the soap chemicals. It’s killing them.”
                                    from Merhorses and Bubbles
                                              written by Asia Citro
                                      illustrated by Marion Lindsay
                                         The Innovation Press, 2017

    “Away is someone else’s here.” I read that line in a newsletter I received from our recycling center some years back, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Even though I try to be thoughtful and intentional about it, I throw a lot of stuff away. Some lands in my composter, some goes to the recycling center, but I know more than I want to ends up in the landfill. 
    I wrote a whole blog post about the landfill after I toured it a few years ago. It was really interesting and informative, but Sunday afternoon, I heard a(nother) talk. It was about what’s happening in our oceans. 
    It was just like the kids in the story I quoted from found out, and more. Lots (and lots) of stuff ends up in the ocean. Whatever slips down a storm drain travels miles to a stream, which flows into a river, which wends its way, eventually, to the ocean.
    According to oceanconservancy.org, 11 million metric tons of plastic waste ends up in the ocean every year. “That’s equivalent to more than a garbage truck’s worth of plastics entering the ocean each minute.” Or 100,000 (not a typo) blue whales.
    That’s just the plastic. Other stuff in the ocean includes leftover shipwrecks, automobiles, and all matter of trash like the boot you caught instead of a fish.
    But seriously, all kinds of chemicals from fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides run, leak, and slip into the water and encourage algae blooms that kill fish and harm humans, too.
    Chemicals from household cleaners and skin-care products including sunscreen, lead to coral-bleaching.
    Pollution from oil spills, especially the thin layer of oil that hugs the surface of the water, prevents oxygen from reaching marine plants, preventing them from photosynthesizing. The oil that sticks to the bodies and wings of seabirds prevents them from being able to fly. 
    Toxic industrial waste can be solid, liquid, or semi-liquid. Some are carcinogenic. They contribute to the growth of the ocean’s dead zones.
    Watercraft as large as ocean liners and as small as a jetski create noise pollution, disrupting communication between seals, dolphins, and whales that depend on echolocation. 
    Light pollution especially affects sea turtles. The newly hatched babies are flummoxed by artificial light that blocks the moonlight they need to find their way to the ocean. 
    Wind carries dust pollution and toxic air from factory emissions and drops it into the subtropical oceans, destroying coral reefs.
    Mining the ocean floor for cobalt and other metals needed for cell phone batteries and solar panels destroys deepsea sponges and coral ecosystems.
    But the ocean is trying hard to clean up all the junk we throw in. Mangroves in estuaries (coastal areas of brackish water that connect rivers and streams to the open ocean), just like trees in a forest or our backyards, suck up carbon dioxide and keep it contained in what scientists call a “carbon sink.” Estuaries, sea grasses, and mangroves take up much less space than Earth’s forests, but collect carbon much faster and store it below ground. 
    According to RepairTheSea.org, mangroves “sequester five times more carbon than rainforests and up to 10 times more carbon than any terrestrial forest.” They also trap pollutants before they get to the ocean. They protect shorelines, homes, bridges, and dams from storm damage and erosion.       
    Coastal ecosystems are vital to the people who live near them, too. They provide food and livelihood in local fishing industries.
    When these ecosystems are damaged, though, huge amounts of carbon are released into the atmosphere, contributing to our climate crisis.
    To date, half of our world’s mangrove coverage has been lost. 
    Organizations are working to repair the coastal areas that are so vital to our welfare and the health of our planet. Here are some of them:
https://www.repairthesea.org 

https://oceanconservancy.org 
     and their International Coastal Cleanup: https://oceanconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Annual-     Report_FINAL_Digital.pdf 

https://oceansharmony.org/save-our-oceans/?msclkid=c0ad74742a7b13e473e313fadc5c9e75  

https://thirdact.org/our-work/ 
    Locally, look for
https://friendsofthemahoningriver.org/ 

https://www.cuyahogariver.net/ 
    
    I decided to forgo most of the news coming out of Washington, DC, at least for now. What is true and relevant will be recapped in my newsfeeds. (Look especially for Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce White Vance. I also subscribe to the free version of The Contrarian.
    I’m better off, and the world is too, if I stay involved and active in causes that I know lead to positive change. 
    Follow one or two of the links above to get involved, too.

I just started reading Differ We Must by Steve Inskeep (Penguin Press, 2023). He describes Abraham Lincoln through his encounters with several important (and not-so-important) people. More on this one next week. 
                      Be curious! (and stay engaged in the world)