“It’s dangerous,” warned the mayor.
“It’s scary,” said the city planner.
“Who knows what the Dark will bring with it,” said the lantern keeper.
“But the Dark isn’t scary,” Millie Fleur assured them.
“You just need to get to know her.”
                             from Millie Fleur Saves the Night
                     written and illustrated by Christy Mandin
                                          Orchard Books, 2025
                                 (accessed on YouTube 1/31/26)
    
    Millie Fleur misses her nocturnal friends, so with her mother’s help, they block out some of the city lights that are keeping the night-time critters away. The critters come back and all ends well for everyone.  
    But these days, in this time, I’m not thinking of the cozy, warm dark where we watch the stars blink on when the sun sets early in the fall and winter, and when we cuddle wakeful babies.
    These days are metaphorically dark. It’s a challenge to be hopeful, even to muster up optimism, and not run into Pollyanna territory. Crickets, spiders, bats, and katydids flew around the “sweet smell of moonflowers, snoozing sugarplums, and twilight tulips” in Millie Fleur’s moon garden. 
    The comfort I find in my own midnight garden is a quiet joy to discover, on Monday morning that I was one of over 5,000 people who called our Representative’s office.    
    House Speaker Mike Johnson expects to agree very soon on DHS and ICE policy. Some of what is being asked includes unmasking ICE personnel and requiring them to use body cameras is. A discussion about funding is also included on their agenda.
    An agreement will allow the partial government shutdown begun last Friday at midnight to end. DHS will remain funded for just two weeks. Enough time to reach an agreement? We’ll see.
    Meanwhile, citizens in Springfield, Ohio are gearing up to protect their Haitian neighbors whose TPS (Temporary Protected Status) is scheduled to run out tomorrow (2/4/26) at midnight.    
    Published on the Ohio Statehouse News Bureau's website, we learn that “Gov. Mike DeWine said Friday [1/30/26] it is unwise and a ‘mistake' for the federal government to take legal status away from hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the U.S., including Ohio.” (i.e. revoking their TPS status.)
    The shadow that looms is his statement in the same article: that as a state governor, he will acquiesce to the decision of the President. Does that mean he feels inadequate to stand up for what he knows is right? We’ll see. 
    Haitians began moving to Springfield, Ohio over ten years ago. According to The American Immigration Council “officials say there are anywhere from 12,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants living in [Springfield, Ohio], near all of whom have some form of lawful status.”
    In 2010, a devastating earthquake in Haiti left 300,000 Haitians dead and displaced hundreds of thousands more. Some came here to Ohio. They helped grow an economy picking itself up after the continued population loss that turned the area into part of the Rust Belt. As conditions in Haiti continue to deteriorate and jobs in Springfield stay plentiful due to the hard work of city planners, Haitians came to Ohio for its low cost of living and availability of good jobs. They wrote home and more came. 
    And Ohioans welcomed them.
    Now, following Minneapolis, MN, and Portland and Lewiston, ME, Springfield may be ICE’s and the president’s next target. 
    Consider this: it’s not the dark we are really afraid of. Maybe we really have a more general fear of the unknown, what we can’t see or understand. And the uncertainty that goes hand in hand with it.
    What happens when “darkness comes and pain is all around”? 
    According to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel who won a Song-of-the-Year Grammy in 1971 for “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “if you need a friend, I’m sailing right behind.” 
    We need to have each others’ backs. 
    We need to be courageous, not foolhardy. Brave, but with a drop (or a gallon) of skepticism. Practical, but willing to share our sense of wonder.
    And, carry a flashlight into the dark.

Revolving around the real story of a real thoroughbred, The Horse by Geraldine Brooks (Viking/Penguin Publishing Group, 2022) elegantly weaves three different time periods into a cohesive tapestry describing the love of a horse, the skill of the artist who painted him, and the dedication of the scientist/historian pair who studied together and tell his story against the ever-present backdrop of the Civil War. Recommended.
                                    -—Be curious! (and neighborly)​

“…And most generally there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it.”
                                                   from Pollyanna
                           written by Eleanor Hodgman Porter
                                               various illustrators
                                first published by L.C. Page, 1913
                           (read on Libby downloaded 1/24/26)

    My mom often cautioned me not to be a Pollyanna. And although I had never read any of the Pollyanna books, I knew just what Mom meant. 
    Pollyanna hardly remembered her mother. And before her minister father’s untimely passing, he taught Pollyanna “the glad game.” They played the game together when a situation was not particularly to their liking. She played it with her Ladies Aiders when they brought her donated clothing and when she was sent to live with her Aunt Polly.
    Making the best of a bad or unfortunate situation was the point of the game. Pollyanna was very good at playing it and taught the game to all the people in her world.
    It could go something like this. The largest snowfall buried most of my small city in well over a foot of snow. The single-digit temperature added a layer of challenge for anyone needing to leave their house. 
    The possibility of homeless people freezing to death or at the very least dealing with frostbite, shut-ins not able to get medicine, or a medical emergency or a fire, would have occurred to Pollyanna and her father. They chose to ignore the dire consequences though, and instead concentrated on the beauty of the fresh snow, the industry of snowplows and their drivers, and families reconnecting over board games and hot chocolate.
    Then there’s the ostrich and its very interesting maxim (false, by the way) of burying its head in the sand.
    Unlike Pollyanna and those glad souls whose default is optimism or (false?) cheer, when an ostrich finds itself in a difficult situation, if it thinks it can get away with it, an ostrich will freeze in place to blend in with its background.
    Ostriches are too heavy to fly and their wings are too weak. But ostriches can run. It’s stride reaches over 10 feet and it can run at a continuous speed of up to 43 miles per hour.
    So when an ostrich is afraid, it does not bury its head in the sand. In any case, it would not be able to breathe, and even an animal with a bird brain will not suffocate itself on purpose. 
    Ostriches build their nests on the ground, sometimes in sand, sometimes in dirt. Several times a day, they must turn their eggs to make sure they hatch. Since their heads are very small compared to their bodies, from a distance it could look like they are burying their heads when in fact, they are reaching into their large nests or possibly pecking for food.
    Some people are like Pollyanna, always finding cheer in difficulty. Some are more like an ostrich, avoiding difficulty altogether. 
    I propose that neither ignoring what is difficult like Pollyanna nor running away like an ostrich is an effective way to face our current challenges. 
    We need to practice a middle way. Aware but not consumed. Angry but not violent. Vocal but not belligerent. 
    Observe our circumstances.
    Determine a course of action.
    Act.
    Will you join me and millions of others who use 5 Calls? Find all about them here. Use your phone to download their app.
    Mom also advised me not to wear my heart on my sleeve. That’s a bit harder for me, and a subject for another day.

I’m reading Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter (since the title is in the public domain, it is available from many publishers and as an ebook). A little corny, but still relevant and moves along quickly.
               -—Be curious! (and stay as involved as you can)

     “Why did you decide to live here in Greenland?” [Jack said].    
    “I wanted a new life,” Erik said. “People call us pirates. But I am a seafarer who searches for safe harbors where I can live with my family. I have found one here at the edge of the world. I named it Greenland.”
     from Magic Tree House: Narwhal on a Sunny Night (#33)
                                  written by Mary Pope Osborne
                                             illustrated by Ag Ford
                  Random House/A Stepping Stone Book, 2020

    In Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series, brother and sister, Jack and Annie, discover a magic tree house filled with books that take them on time-travel adventures while introducing young readers to people and places in world history. 
    In Narwhal on a Sunny Night, Jack and Annie are whisked off to Greenland where Leif Erikson helps them free a narwhal that had become trapped in a shallow pool as it tried to escape from an orca. During the course of the story, the kids also meet Leif’s father, Erik the Red.
    Most knowledge of him comes from various medieval and Icelandic sagas written and performed long after his lifetime. So a grain or two of salt is advised.
    Erik Thorvaldsson, known as Erik the Red for his flowing red hair and beard, was born in Norway in about 950 CE. When Erik’s father, Thorvald, was exiled for murder in about 960 (a common punishment in that time), he traveled about 900 miles from Norway, across the Norwegian Sea, to settle his family, including young Erik, in northwestern Iceland.
    All went well for the first 20 years. But in about 980, when Erik was about 30 years old,  several of his servants accidentally triggered a landslide that crushed his neighbor’s house. In revenge, the owner’s kinsmen killed Erik’s servants. 
    Erik moved his family farther north. 
    Two years later, he was involved in a “massive brawl,” and killed two of his new neighbors’ sons. Erik was banished for manslaughter.
    But Erik was finished with Iceland anyway. He knew of a large landmass about 1,000 miles due west and headed across the open ocean. The voyage was dangerous, but Erik the Red was was an expert navigator and his ship’s design was well suited to the danger.
    And Erik the Red was a Viking. He named the land Greenland.   
    Vikings were known for sailing great distances. In (now extinct) Old Norse, the word Viking translates to ‘a pirate raid.’ According to legend, the Vikings traveled from Scandinavia between 800 and 1066 to raid, plunder, and fight wars to acquire and control more land. (It was William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, who invaded England in 1066 and in a land grab, claimed the throne, changeding the course of British history.)
    Vikings fought with longbows and arrows, swords, and axes. Since metal was expensive, many weapons, even axes and spears, were made of wood. They carried round wooden shields, but did not use much armor.
    Berserkers were Viking warriors who went into battle wearing wolf or bear skins. Believing that Odin, their god of war, would protect them with superhuman powers, berserkers charged into battle fearlessly, wildly and out of control. It’s where our word berserk comes from.            
    Early Viking society was divided into three classes. Jarls were rich landowners and traders who protected and provided for their workers. In return, the workers heeded the call of their jarl when he called them to join him in raids and battles. 
    Karls made up the middle class of workers and artisans. Thralls were slaves. They did the work no one else wanted to do and said no on pain of death. Some were able to earn enough money to buy their freedom.
    After many years, some jarls became rich and powerful enough to claim Kingships. Kings and Queens took over the rule-making and decision-making that had previously been worked out in community meetings called Things (no etymological connection to the English word).
    Islandic sagas note that early Norseman had discovered Greenland long before Erik the Red. When his banishment expired in 985, he returned to Iceland to recruit people for his return to Greenland. 
    He assured them the land held great promise. Of the 25 ships that left with Erik, only 14 arrived in Greenland. The survivors established two settlements and according to biography.com,“Erik lived like a lord with his wife and four children” including Leif.
    It is thought that both colonies survived for several hundred years, making Erik the first known successful and permanent settler of Greenland. The colonies died out around the time of Columbus.
    Here’s a success story, though, from the BBC. The oldest parliament in the world was set up in 930 CE by Vikings. It is called the Althing and is currently functioning very nicely in Reykjavik, Iceland. But Iceland is mostly green, and should not be confused with Greenland.
    Greenland, the world’s largest and mostly icy island, is part of the Realm of Denmark. Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953 when it was redefined as a district of Denmark. Its economy is based on the Danish kroner, but has its own local government and sends two representatives to the Danish Parliament.
    While Greenland’s economy is still heavily dependent on fishing, climate change is reducing its sustainability. Tourism is growing,  but the government is looking to its natural resources: gold, natural gas, diamonds, lead, and zinc as sources of income through foreign investment.
    But at what price?
    Burt Bacharach and Hal David may have said it best through the voice of Dionne Warwick.
    “There are corn fields and wheat fields enough to grow
     There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine
        Oh listen Lord, if you want to know
     What the world needs now is love sweet love
     It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
       What the world needs now is love sweet love
       No not just for some but for everyone…” 

I’m reading The Birds of Opulence by Crystal Wilkinson (University Press of Kentucky, 2016). A saga told through several generations of Kentucky women living in a small, rural town, it’s a story that explores the many faces of mother-daughter relationships, a young girl's growing sense of her own sexuality, guilt, shame, mental illness, and oh yes, redemption. A little graphic, though, so choose knowingly.
    -—Be curious! (and call your senators and representatives)
                                                           senate.gov
                                                            house.gov
                    download the 5 calls app or click 5calls.org

They kept paying money. They kept running through
Until neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew
Whether this one was that one . . . or that one was this one
Or which one was what one . . . or what one was who.
                        from The Sneetches and Other Stories
                             written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss
                                               Random House, 1989

    When they were growing up, one of my younger daughter’s favorite stories was “The Sneetches” by Dr. Seuss. She loved it so much that I renewed it until I was embarrassed. I ordered a copy from our local bookstore and told my daughter that we’d need to take the library’s copy back so another child could read the story and love it as much as she did.
    When her own copy of the book arrived, we continued reading it over and over.  
    The story, whether it was Dr. Seuss’s intent or not, is about fairness, control, and the sanctity of a space. Both types of Sneetch wanted to be the best on the beach. Their disagreement failed to escalate, though, when both groups decided the best way to live well is to live well together. Neither type of Sneetch was best. Each group had something to offer the other, and each individual, too, while maintaining their own identity. Most learned they are all happier when everyone decides to work for the betterment of the group. 
    No, Seuss did not say that. I did. And I’m not sure that’s exactly what he had in mind when he wrote his story about made-up animals one-upping each other on a fictional piece of land. But it helps me get to the next point.
    By 1820, the War of 1812 had ended in a military draw and both sides claimed some victories, proving to the rest of the world that the United States was truly a country that could defend itself by standing up to European powers.
    The United States was coming out of a widespread depression. James Madison was finishing up his last moments as our fourth president.
    In 1820, our fifth president was elected without the need of a two-party system. Imagine most Americans agreeing on something as crucial as that!
    Maine and Missouri entered the Union with a Compromise that “kicked the slavery can” down the road about 30 years, and the beginning of James Monroe’s presidency was nicknamed “The Era of Good Feelings.” 
    Our fifth president believed firmly in the American Experiment. His strength, though, was on the international stage. In South and Latin America between 1821 and 1822, ten Spanish colonies declared their independence. With the counsel of his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, Monroe prepared a talk to Congress to clarify his position regarding the American relationships he envisioned. 
     Although purporting to dissuade colonialism, Monroe’s well-thought-out doctrine announced to Europe that the Western Hemisphere was closed to any further colonization. He promised the United States would not interfere in European affairs or with existing colonies in the Americas. He declared that if any European nation tried to interfere with the United States, it would be viewed as a hostile act. 
    In essence, if the United States were to gain any more territory, that territory would become part of the United States.
    Monroe did not say what would happen if Europe decided to see how serious the declaration was. (Probably nothing much could happen to retaliate and probably, most of Europe knew that.) Through this foreign policy statement, though, Monroe sent diplomats to the new South American and Latin American countries to form alliances with them. 
    Eventually, both the European nations and the United States did interfere with the new countries. But in the 1820’s, the United States, by enforcing the Monroe Doctrine, was able to play the upper hand in the Western Hemisphere.
    During the Banana Wars, (reports ResponsibleStatecraft.org in a Jan. 9, 2026 article), “from 1890 through the early 1930’s, the US interfered in seven Latin American countries. Several presidents used military force to protect American agricultural interests.” The article continues that by the mid-1920s, a diverse group of Americans “from religious pacifists on one end, to xenophobic populists on the other,” saw these actions as blatant imperialism. They called the military action “wasteful, pointless, and morally abhorrent.”
    In the 1930s, during FDR’s Good Neighbor policy, the US turned toward mutual respect and economic engagement, encouraging neighborliness.
    The Monroe Doctrine has never been without controversy. It’s been interpreted and reinterpreted. Through the years it’s been called outdated and irrelevant, but now it’s been claimed vital by the current president. 
    Just looking at the words and the intent of the original, I extrapolate. I see the Monroe Doctrine as a document that seeks to inhibit colonization and dominance of one country over another while maintaining an attitude of co-operation, if not benevolence, and still putting the interests of the United States in the forefront.
    To use it for any other purpose, like blowing up fishing boats and killing their captains and crew, kidnapping a head of state of another country and appropriating their oil and the money it brings, and claiming to be “Acting President,” of Venezuela (Time.com 1/13/26) seems to me, a gross overstep and just plain wrong.
    
I’ll have a book review next time!
                          -—Be curious! (and respect each other)

“It’s fun to have fun 
But you have to know how.
I can hold up the cup
And the milk and the cake!
I can hold up these books!
And the fish on a rake!
    .  .  .
I can fan with the fan
As I hop on the ball!
But that is not all.
Oh, no.
That is not all. …”
                                           from The Cat in the Hat
                               written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss
                                            Random House, Inc., 1957

    News is spewing non-stop like a fire-hose at full blast with no one holding on. It’s flopping every which way, and I kinda am, too. You probably are, too. And it’s only the first week of the new year. And today is the fifth anniversary (is that even the right word?) of the frenzied mob who stormed our Capitol to prevent the 246-year-precedent known to all as the peaceful transition of power.
    The transition was anything but peaceful. You remember. Since then, “DOGE,” undoing USAID, federal employee firings, cancelling the Department of Education, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and childhood immunizations. Ripping off the East Wing of the White House.
    Here's what happened to the 2026 quarters that were agreed on by a congressional committee. In short, Frederick Douglass, Ruby Bridges, and Suffragists were replaced by pilgrims, the Revolutionary War and the Gettysburg Address. The first quarter is being released today.
    Trump wants his face on a new $1 coin. Whoo, boy!
    Pardons, tariffs, ICE, National Guard in our cities. Threats, rants, and dozing off in important meetings. Swooping up immigrants and hustling them into detention without due process, CECOT. 
    So much more. 
    Targeting, bombing, and killing people in fishing boats in the Caribbean, military build up off the coast of Argentina and kidnapping the ruler (whether legitimate or not) and his wife and bringing them to New York to face trial for drug trafficking. When I first read that piece of news I thought it was a sick joke. Really. 
    Who’s in charge of Venezuela? What’s next? 
    Are the wheels that turn our Earth still greased with extracted and processed oil?
    
    The only way to stay somewhat centered and somewhat able to concentrate on going to work, doing the laundry, and cooking dinner is to stay as informed as we are able (this will look different for each one of us) and take as much action as we can (this will also look different for each one of us).
    It’s been a minute since I fired up my 5 Calls app. I’ve spent less time reading Substack and listening to the news and I do feel calmer. Actually I’m calm and angry. It’s time to make some calls.
    It’s easy to download the 5 Calls app. Then type in your zip code and your Representative and Senators will be listed for you. Choose your issue(s) and read the script(s).
    You can also find your Representative and Senators by typing in your address here: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member. Their name, address, and phone number will appear. You can send your message with a click or phone call. Or, use the Postal Service.
    A little hope for the future is always a good thing, so here’s my version of an old Jewish folktale I remember hearing when I was young, and telling when I was much older.
    Once a kind, old man, who dripped wisdom from the tips of his neatly trimmed beard, finished his chores and went on his morning walk. He stooped to pick up a fig lying in his path. He took it home and prepared the seeds for planting. 
    When the seeds were ready, the man walked out to a warm sunny patch of land on the outskirts of his town. He scratched the earth with a small rake and scattered the seeds over the damp ground. A small sprinkle of water finished the job.
    Every day, sometimes more than once if was a hot day, the man watered his fig seeds. He expected at least one would grow into a large fruit-bearing tree.
    He pulled weeds that competed for the soil’s nutrients. He chased away insects that hovered around causing distractions. More than once he shooed away a raccoon or a stray chicken.
    Years later on a particularly warm Tuesday, a small boy approached an old man tending a young sapling.
    “What are you doing?” he asked.
    “I’m tending my fig tree.”
    The boy laughed so hard he held his sides and fell on the ground, still rolling with raucous laughter.
    “Why do you laugh?” asked the wise, old man.
    “You are so silly," said the boy. "You are old. It takes years and years for fig trees to grow big enough to bear fruit. You may not live to eat them.”
    “But, I am not planting them for myself,” answered the wise man. “I am planting them for your children.”

    To answer the question of why I care so much about what I, as only one person, can not control and hope only to minimally influence, I answer, I do what I do for our children and grandchildren. 

I’m still finishing A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Penguin Books, 2016). I’m still liking it. I’m still recommending it. (See last week’s blog for my “review.”)
                                 -—Be curious! (and stay positive)
FB: It’s January 6th again. Remember. Reflect. Act (in whatever way you can, large or small, or something in between). 
    

    “Put those down and listen,” said Judy. “I’m going to read the instructions:
                                                         from Jumanji
                     written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg 
             Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 1981
                                       Caldecott Medal winner, 1982
                                     (accessed on Libby 12/28/25)

    I grew up playing board games. They all came with their own foldable game boards, unique playing pieces, and rules that ranged from clear and simple to many varieties of complex.
    Our family’s favorite game was Parcheesi. The complicated rules involved rolling doubles, skipping turns, and remembering what we did the last time we played. Besides, we could decide to whether or not to send our opponents back to “start,” sometimes resulting in foot-stomping and hurt feelings. “It’s only a game, for Pete’s sake!” someone would say, leading the game to a quick end.
    We also played BINGO! A caller pulls a letter-number combo at random. Players check their cards and mark their spots. The first to complete a row or column yells “BINGO!” and wins.
    Simple. Lots of ways to win means lots of winners! And no hurt feelings!
    Besides the fun of winning BINGO!, playing can teach any subject from arithmetic to zoology! To teach addition, make an answer key with all the facts you want your kids to learn. Then make a unique card for each child. Call random facts from your answer key and have the kids mark their cards with each correct answer. When someone calls BINGO!, check their answers, and Bingo! you can start over or keep playing until everyone wins.
    This works for language arts skills, science facts, and geography. Just read off a definition and have the students mark the right answers. 
    Even easier than that, use Google. MyFreeBingoCards.com is a source that will help you generate a set of unique cards.
    It seems like BINGO! has always been around as a fund-raiser to benefit churches, synagogues, cultural events, local communities and governments. And as party entertainment.
    And that’s almost true.
    According to History.com, in the 6th century BCE (Before the Common Era), Athens, to prevent corruption in the government, chose its leaders not by elections, but by using “a system of random allotment…” Candidates’ names were placed in a device called a kleroterion. Small slots were carved in a stone slab into which identifying tokens for each candidate had been placed. Then, “black or white pebbles were funneled into a tube on the side of the slab. Candidates were either selected or dismissed depending on where the pebbles landed." Using the Kleroterion assured the drawing was truly random. You can see the ancient device here. 
    According LocalBingoHalls.com, modern Bingo had its start in Italy around 1530 CE (Common Era). The anticipation of winning is engaging, captivating, thrilling. Lotto’s social aspect plus its entertainment value to provided the government with a voluntary tax.
    When the Italian government legalized and created a structure for the game, its popularity was assured and its official state lottery status guaranteed standard winnings. 
    “Merchants, diplomats, and travelers played a crucial role” in spreading Il Gioco del Lotto d’Italia, Italy’s Lotto to France and Germany in the 1700s and Britain by the 1800s. Soon, lottery games as well as gambling were common pastimes throughout Europe.
    Lotto is a game of chance. The words Lotto and lottery stem from the Old English “hlot,” which referred to an object like a stone or a wood chip or dice, that when tossed was used to determine a person’s share, or allotment of something. It’s where the word lot, meaning a parcel of land, came from. Also think of a lot and lots of similar items, even personality traits. 
    In the 1930s Milton Bradley started selling an educational Lotto game. Its Sesame Street version, designed in the 1970s, is still in production. 
    Lotto and BINGO! are both games of chance. Prizes are awarded based on number/letter combinations chosen at random. In Lotto, individuals choose their own numbers and win if their selected numbers are chosen in a random drawing. 
    In BINGO! though, players are given a grid made of letter/number combinations. When a caller randomly announces a letter/number combination, players mark their cards when they have a match. The first player to complete the correct pattern wins.
    An article from the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph (November 22, 1935) credits Hugh J. Ward, a Pittsburgh inventor, for creating the game after seeing a version being played in Toronto in 1916. Edwin Lowe, a toy seller, popularized it when he saw Ward’s game being played at a  carnival in Atlanta.
    In 1929, as the story goes, Lowe changed Beano, (named for the beans players used to cover the called numbers) when a player won and shouted out the word BINGO! by mistake. 
    Learning through play is still accomplished when teachers play BINGO! in their classrooms. Community organizations and religious institutions still raise funds by offering BINGO! games as entertainment. Governments still raise funds through lotteries.
    December is designated as Bingo’s Birthday Month. I cannot verify when December was chosen, but, coincidentally, on December 2, 2025, a single Mega Millions ticket-holder won a $90 million jackpot and the latest Powerball winner walked away with almost $2 billion dollars a few days ago, on Christmas Eve. 
        
I’m about halfway through A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Penguin Books, 2016). It’s a character study of Count Alexander Rostov, an aristocrat who finds himself on the wrong side of  the Russian government. As it turns toward the Bolsheviks’ definition of communism, Rostov is sentenced to live out his days in a formerly-luxurious hotel. From the publisher, “…this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the Count’s endeavor to become a man of purpose” with humor, insight, and beautiful turns of phrase. Recommended.
                  --Be curious! (and if you play, play responsibly)

    Because the nation’s capital was in Philadelphia at the time of George Washington’s administration, he was the only president who did not live in Washington, D.C. during his presidency.
                                              from Washington, D.C.
                                           written by Elina Furman
 with consultants Melissa N. Matusevich and Margaret E. Flynn
                            Children’s Press/Scholastic, Inc., 2002

    Even though I don’t much like an airplane ride and I’ve never climbed a mountain, I do enjoy the view from up high. I’ve been to the top of the Terminal Tower in Cleveland (when it was one of the world’s tallest buildings) and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. I looked out the windows in the Statue of Liberty’s crown, and gazed over the rim of the Grand Canyon. I’ve climbed spiral staircases to tops of many lighthouses and viewed oceans, lakes, and the Gulf of Mexico.
    But until two weekends ago, I had not reached the top of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. It was not for lack of trying. Everything from an earthquake to high winds,  huge crowds, and poor timing thwarted my efforts.
    Then, after waiting in a long line that ran about an hour behind schedule, my daughter and I showed our IDs, passed through the X-ray monitor, and rode the elevator to the 500th level. 
    Because of a variety of safety concerns, the 897 steps that make up the interior stairway are no longer open to the public. Too bad, too. The stairway is lined with 193 commemorative stones designed by “[individual] U.S. states, foreign countries, fraternal organizations, Sunday school classes, American Indian tribes, cities, counties and individuals,” as noted in an article aired by the WAMU radio station on September 23, 2019. 
    I saw photos of them in the monument’s exhibit space on the 490th level. I also snapped pics with my camera when the elevator paused on it’s way back down. You can also see them on line. 
    At its interior, the monument’s base is an 80-foot square step-pyramid substructure. Beginning at level 452, the substructure ends and the hollow walls are solid marble. Approximately 36,000 blocks of marble and granite were used to overlay the substructure and complete the obelisk. 
    The Egyptian obelisk was chosen for the monument's design. The shape's simplicity symbolizes stability, national unity, and timelessness. The first rows of marble were donated by a quarry in Baltimore, but financial and political differences combined with the Civil War put construction on hold. After 40 years, when Congress allocated enough funds to complete it, the Baltimore quarry was unable to supply the rest of the stone. It was imported from several other states. 
    The standard dimension of an obelisk is 1:10, where the height is ten times the base’s width.  
    The Washington Monument is 555 feet and 5-1/8 inches high. A 55 foot pyramidion, a large marble capstone, sits at the 500 foot level, itself topped with a small(ish) aluminum pyramid, with inscriptions on each side.
    According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, (ASCE), [t]he weight of the completed obelisk was so well distributed that it can withstand winds up to 145 miles per hour. A 30-mph wind causes a sway of just 0.125 inch at its peak. 
    Even so, out of an abundance of caution, no visitors are allowed inside during high winds and other severe weather conditions.   
    Washington, the man, was a leader as unique as his monument. Just as he said he would not be a king, he rejected the idea of a monument to himself. 
    At the time of his death in 1799, political squabbling, lack of appropriations, and his family’s reluctance to move his body from its resting place in Mount Vernon to a tomb in the new capital, postponed breaking ground. 
    Finally begun in 1848, construction came to a halt just six years later. Money and politics, again, but also notably the Civil War left Washington’s monument unfinished until the end of 1884. It opened to the public in 1888.
    At the time of its completion, the Washington Monument was the tallest structure in the world, only surpassed in 1889 by the Eiffel Tower at 984 feet. 
    To ensure that the monument will remain the tallest structure in Washington, D.C. a city law was passed in 1910. It is still the world’s tallest free-standing stone structure.
    In each direction, the views from the top offer a contemplative view. To the south, the Jefferson Memorial and the Tidal Basin (I had to imagine the cherry trees in bloom), and to the east, the US Capitol. Except for its demolished East wing, the White House is out the north window. The Lincoln Memorial sits out the west. 
    Monumental, each view and each structure. 
    Just as our national physical structures need maintenance, repair, and at times, re-dedication to the symbols they stand for, we all need to take care of ourselves and each other and re-dedicate ourselves to our own principles, priorities, and plans for the future. 
    More than 800,000 people visit Washington’s Monument each year. I’m proud to have been one of them.
I just started A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Penguin Books, 2016). More on this next time.
                                       -—Be curious! (and patriotic)

But never tease a weasel,
This is very good advice.
A weasel will not like--
    And teasing
        isn’t
           nice!
                                      from Never Tease a Weasel
                                     written by Jean Conder Soule
                                      illustrations by George Booth
                                MacMillan Publishing Company, 1964

    When I was young, Captain & Tennille sang about Susie and Sam in “Muskrat Love.” When my younger daughter was growing up, her best friend had two pet ferrets. My grandmother had a mink stole, but that was a long time ago.
    Count in chinchillas, otters, and fishers, too. Until the day before yesterday, I had never heard of a fisher. All these mammals are branches on the weasel family tree, so to speak. All are cute. And all but fishers are common.
    But something is changing. For the good. And the Ohio Division of Wildlife (ODW) is excited. Cleveland Metroparks announced the recent sighting (12/6/25) of a fisher. It is the first recorded sighting in Cuyahoga County since the 1800s when the animals were deemed extirpated (extinct in a local area).
    They are naturally shy to the point of being reclusive, so it would be hard to see one even if they were as common as chipmunks.
    A wildlife camera caught an elusive fisher one evening in the park. It was identified by Andy Burmesch, Wildlife Management Coordinator for the Cleveland Metroparks, and verified by the ODW.
    The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) lists fishers as a “Species of Special Interest.” It does not carry the federal endangered or threatened status and human intervention would probably not increase their population (ODNR.gov.)
    You might be curious. I was. What even is a fisher? 
    Fishers are one of the largest mammals in the weasel family. They can grow from four to six feet long. That counts their furry tails which are about half as long as their bodies. Fishers are slender like weasels with short legs and pointy faces, large roundish ears, and retractable claws. 
    Fishers are omnivores, but prefer small rodents, squirrels, rabbits, birds, and eggs. They are solitary and like their place in the forest. 
    They don’t hibernate and are crepuscular, awake at dusk and dawn.
    It was of course, unregulated trapping (to collect their lush pelts) and “widespread habitat destruction” that are blamed for the fishers’ disappearance. But wildlife experts were surprised to discover that as the fisher population plummeted, the porcupine population exploded. And an even bigger surprise, the porcupine population explosion was the direct result of the decimation of fishers. In the 1950s state wildlife agencies stepped in to re-introduce fishers, and balance between fishers and porcupines began to normalize. 
    But how can a fisher eat a porcupine, you might ask skeptically. According to NorthernWoodlands.org, “[a]utopsies of fisher-killed porcupines often show broken necks and smashed teeth, sure evidence of a fall.” Who performed the autopsies? Smashed teeth? It sounds a little fishy, but I’m not an expert and fishers are good climbers. They could probably knock a porcupine out of a tree and break its skull or neck. 
    The author of the article does call attacking porcupines “a risky business and occasional fishers are found dead from quill injuries.” While a porcupine’s natural predators include red foxes, wolves, bears even great horned owls, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests says, “the porcupine’s only real predator is the fisher.”
    And they really are making a comeback. Besides the one in Cuyahoga county, Farm and Dairy reported in September of 2023 that 30 fishers have been sighted in Ohio since 2013. Most experts believe the Ohio fishers wandered over from West Virginia and Pennsylvania where they were reintroduced in 1969 and the 1990s respectively. 
    Fishers are not the only wildlife to make a comeback in Ohio. It’s hard to imagine the population of white-tailed deer, with their estimated numbers reaching over 800,000, has ever been threatened. Deer have been part of Ohio for well over 11,000 years, and have provided food for wolves, large cats and indigenous people.
    After the Revolutionary War, new Ohioans quickly took down ancient forests to make room for their homes and families. By 1909, white-tailed deer experienced their own extirpation. Even if you could find one, deer hunting was outlawed in all 88 counties. It took Federal money made available to the states by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to reestablish forest lands, and regulations by the Division of Wildlife to encourage deer to return. Now the controversy revolves around deer with no active predators in our city parks and deer competing with farmers who are trying to keep them out of their crops.
    Due to the same forces at work, wild turkeys also experienced extirpation in 1904. Not until the 1950s, when wild turkeys were reintroduced to Ohio, did their population start to recover. Spring turkey hunting season opened again in 1966, and by 1999 wild turkeys were found in all 88 counties.
    Despite my mention of hunting, and even though I understand on some level the need to keep deer (especially) populations manageable, and even though I would not shoot a deer or even a squirrel (but maybe a chipmunk), I don’t like to see guns and people in the same sentence.
    BTW: It’s illegal to hunt or trap fishers in Ohio. 
I’m getting very close to the end of The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman (Scribner, 2023). In a magical blending of two lifetimes, Mia, the main character, discovers love when she slips into the lifetime of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ms. Hoffman leaves her readers to answer the question: Can a kiss last a lifetime? and ponder the connection between literature and experience. 
                               Be curious! (and feed the wildlife,
                                            from a safe distance)        

   They are the members of the Philharmonic Orchestra, and their work is to play. Beautifully.

                                      from The Philharmonic Gets Dressed
                                                        written byKarla Kuskin 
                                                     illustrated byMarc Simont  
                                                              HarperCollins, 1982

    Popular Culture is not my forté. Really. I’m not a Swifty. I don’t recognize most modern film stars, even though I enjoy live theater and movies, too. Popular music is mostly background noise for one or another of the books I’m reading for an upcoming book club meeting.
    So when I heard the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced its 2025 honorees, I decided to pay attention.
    Country musician George Strait, the rock band KISS, stage and screen star Michael Crawford, disco pioneer Gloria Gaynor, and Hollywood icon Sylvester Stallone are the recipients who will be honored for their lifetime artistic achievements at this year's Kennedy Center Honors Gala. 
    For 48 years, the annual event has been one of the most anticipated in our nation’s capital. Superstars come to perform and pay tribute for the new Honorees at the Sunday night gala. And, as in the past, this year’s event will be televised on CBS (on December 23 at 8 pm ET) as a broadcast special.
    But a few differences are in store due to months of upheaval caused by Trump’s February ousting of the Kennedy Center president, Deborah Rutter, and board chair David Rubenstein. Several staff have also recently resigned. 
    Trump is now the chair of the Kennedy Center, elected by the people he appointed to replace those who have left. He said the vote was unanimous.
    Trump boasted that he and his appointees have “ended the woke programming.”  
    NPR announced on its Weekend Edition this past Sunday, that several changes have been made at the Kennedy Center. First, the months-long, bipartisan selection process undertaken by executive board members and senior staff members, with input from the general public and in “consultation [with] past recipients such as Julie Andrews, Lionel Richie, and John Williams” has not occurred. Instead, Trump said he was “about 98%” involved with the selection process. 
    So has he chosen his favorites, for whatever reason, from among our brightest stars?
    Instead of announcing the recipients at the Sunday night gala, he used a press conference at the Kennedy Center last August to make the announcement.
    And rather than the likes of past hosts such as Walter Cronkite, Caroline Kennedy, or Gloria Estefan, Trump said he was asked to host, (but did not say by whom). And even though he and Melania did not attend any of the events in his first term, in his acceptance he said, “I used to host The Apprentice finales…” as if that gives him credibility to host this awesome event.
    Also, the medal has been redesigned by Tiffany & Co. It now sports a dark blue ribbon instead of the rainbow striped one. The rainbow stripes are embedded into the medal itself. The recipient’s name is still engraved on the back. (If you click on the link to see the medal, remember the glowing explanatory copy was written by the Kennedy Center’s current administration.) 
    Most great European capitals boast a Cultural Arts Center. One hundred and eighty-five years after the Revolutionary War, President Eisenhower decided it was finally time to honor our own culture. In 1961 he signed the National Cultural Center Act confirming “the inherent value of the arts to all Americans.” 
    Then, a year after President Kennedy’s assassination, President Johnson signed a bill renaming the National Cultural Center. It has become “a living memorial to the slain President.”           
    Gracing the shores of the Potomac river, the Kennedy Center was inaugurated on September 8, 1971 with the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers.” It was a huge and energetic performance. 
    Although the New York Philharmonic Orchestra has not received a Kennedy Honor, Leonard Bernstein has. And he’s in good company. 
    Kennedy Honors are compared to knighthood in the UK. The first Honors were awarded in 1978 and recognized Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers and Arthur Rubinstein. Closing out the 20th century, legends including Ella Fitzgerald, Arthur Miller, Yehudi Menuhin, Ray Charles, Pete Seeger, Edward Albee, Stephen Sondheim, and Johnny Cash were honored.
    Since then, honorees have shown off our country’s most prestigious talents representing all facets of the performing arts: dance, music, theater, opera, motion pictures, and television. 
    The Kennedy Center has been a beacon for the brightest stars for almost half a century. Its website states that today the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is “a true artistic mecca, and one of the world’s most respected organizations.”  
    The broadcast on December 23 at 8pm Eastern on CBS promises to be a wonderful extravaganza, if you can stomach the host.
    I’m not sure if I’ll tune in, but it’s on my calendar.

I’m about to begin The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, 2023). The blurb suggests the importance of a reader’s ability to identify with book characters. More about this one next time.
                                                 Be curious! (and turn up
              the music, dance in the rain, and sing till you’re hoarse)

    [Willow] found a perfect spot by the window where she could see the Washington Monument…[She] watched carefully. Everyone seemed to have somewhere important to go. 
    But where? Willow decided it was time to do some more exploring.

                                 from Willow the White House Cat
                   written by Jill Biden with Alyssa Satin Capucilli
                                          illustrated by Kate Berube
            Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024

    Our house is old, built at the very beginning of the last century. The kitchen sits in the center of our house, a cozy place and a metaphor for the center of our family life.
    I used to affectionately call it my “cave kitchen.” Not even one window. Not over the sink, not overlooking the backyard, no room for a table. I could not work in there without turning on the light first, even in the middle of a sunny, summer day. 
    Several years ago, my husband and I decided to remodel.
    Our fix involved removing a supporting beam in the ceiling and the load-bearing wall between the kitchen and the sun porch. We replaced the beam and incorporated the porch, with its three beautiful walls of windows, into the new kitchen. 
    Now it’s bright, roomy (enough), and well-designed with input from Nancy Drew (yes, that’s really her name), a talented interior designer. 
    Remodeling a house is not a small deal. It’s disruptive, messy, and can be expensive. That’s why when I heard that a ballroom would be added to the White House, I was surprised. When I heard it would not disrupt the original structure, I was skeptical. When I saw the devastated structure, I was sad and angry. I still am.
    Construction of the White House began in October, 1792. President George Washington chose the site and oversaw the work, but the building wasn’t complete enough to live in until John Adams swore his own oath of Presidency to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. He and his wife Abigail were the first First Family to live there. 
    Since 1800 when they moved in, changes have been made to suit the tastes and requirements of our various presidents.
    After the War of 1812 when British forces burnt the exterior, and fire caused severe damage to the interior, James Hoban, the original architect was called back to lead the reconstruction and bring the building back to its original design.
    In 1824, Hoban designed the portico to “enhance the building’s aesthetic and provide a grand entrance facing the Potomac River.” (https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/the-white-house/)
    Theodore Roosevelt replaced the 19th century greenhouses with the West Wing and added a colonial garden and terrace that became part of the East Wing. And in 1913, First Lady Ellen Wilson oversaw the transformation further to complete the formal and elegant Rose Garden (which now is a paved-over patio to eliminate the “problem” of wet grass). 
    FDR expanded the West Wing and added a swimming pool. In 1942, he constructed the East Wing “for additional staff and wartime security, which included a bomb shelter.”
    A total interior re-do by Harry Truman (1948 - 1952) provided the first family the Truman Balcony, its own private outdoor space and “enhanced the building’s aesthetic” again.
    In 1970, Nixon turned the swimming pool into the presidential briefing room and had enough space to include a bowling alley.
    Following Nixon’s, tenure, the official site (www.WhiteHouse.gov/about) is a deplorable and disgusting screed of revisionist history. I had to look away.
    Contrary to the official statement on the White House website, the ballroom will NOT stand apart from the main structure. The East Wing has already been demolished without proper permitting. Any improvements or changes to the “peoples’ house” must be submitted to the NCPC (National Capital Planning Commission). An official from the Commission added that it “does not require permits for demolition, only for vertical construction.” And that plans will be submitted at “the appropriate time.” No plans have been submitted as of this writing.
    According to AP (Associated Press), Will Scharf, Trump’s appointed chair of the Commission, “the ballroom project did not require the panel’s approval for construction to begin.”
    Included in the former East Wing were the first lady’s office and the social secretary’s office, and the visitors office. These offices were relocated. The main visitor’s entrance was also part of the former East Wing. The demolition and the Government shutdown closed all visitation for three months.
    No visitors were allowed into the White House until today. (12/2/25)
    According to NPR, Melania selected decorations to “honor the heart of America.” But “wreaths with red bows, … Christmas trees, …garland,…strands of light, over 25,000 feet of ribbon and 2,800 gold stars” sound like a lot of the hearts of many Americans were left out.
    The tour route is much smaller than in years past, too. 
    From the same NPR article, “[a] large golden curtain covers what Trump has described as a ‘knock out wall,’ that will lead to the massive ballroom he plans to build where the East Wing once stood.”
    Lest anyone think the $200,000-350,000 ballroom is the only project Trump is doing to our public domain besides paving the Rose Garden, “the Oval Office is now gilded from floor to ceiling. And the Lincoln bathroom in the residence also got a major makeover featuring a whole lot of marble.”
    Who is paying for all this, you might ask. Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Google, Coinbase, Comcast and Meta are some donors. Scroll down to find the whole alphabetical list published by CNN on October 23, 2025.
    Most of the public does not approve or even like these changes. But blowing up Venezuelan boats and serving a “Putin-approved plan” to Ukrainians and finding out what Trump wants to keep hidden in the Epstein files also require our attention.
    Meanwhile, our kitchen is still in the center of our small house and our lives, but now it includes the North Wing. Today the lawn outside our kitchen windows is covered in fresh snow. We have no plans to pave it. Ever.
I’m listening to The Widow by John Grisham (Doubleday, 2025). I haven’t read any of his work lately but this one is typical Grisham: full of engrossing and flawed characters. Plenty of twists are keeping me questioning everyone’s motives.
                                          Be curious! (and creative)