Blog Archives

1,000 Points of Light

9/24/2019

Ivy rolled over onto her back and looked at the sky. “If grown-ups weren’t scared of nature, they’d probably try harder to save it from global warming.”
   “You’re probably right,” said Bean. She sat up. “What if we did our science project on teaching grown-ups to be happy in nature? Is that a global warming solution?”
from Ivy + Bean: What’s the Big Idea?
written by Annie Barrows
illustrated by Sophie Blackall
Chronicle Books, 2010

   Although I know people who have read C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, I am not one who has. I have not even read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I am okay with that. There are lots (and lots) of books I have not read.
   Narnia is part of our collective culture, though, much like Hogwarts. References to both abound and scholarly as well as frivolous commentary is easy to find.
   One thousand points of light (today’s title) is a reference to Aslan’s creation of stars in C. S. Lewis’s fantastic world, Narnia. Presidents have commented on it.
   The first George Bush, in accepting the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in 1988, compared America's clubs and volunteer organizations to “a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.”
   Later, toward the end of the speech, he assured us all that he would “keep America moving forward, always forward—for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand points of light.”
   One point of light, or one candle, can both define and defy darkness, as Anne Frank said so well. She was right. About that and so many other things, but I digress.
   One point of light is small. The light quickly dissipates into surrounding darkness. But a thousand lights, now that’s something.
   One person working to help protect our Earth can quickly get swallowed up in the darkness of ignorance, apathy, and despair. But a thousand people working together, now that’s really something.
   One thousand points of light are scattered around the world, doing good work. I’ve mentioned a lot of them in this space. Sivan Ya’ari’s work brings solar energy and consequently water and refrigeration to African nations. The fine folks at https://www.eatortoss.com help us not waste food. Boyan Slat created a barrier system designed to collect and remove trash from the Pacific Ocean without disrupting marine life. His first try failed, but he’s trying again.
   Greta Thunberg, 16 year-old Swedish climate activist who speaks truth to power, is in a class by herself. Last year she began to sit outside her Parliament building every Friday to protest for our climate. This past weekend she spoke for four and a half powerful minutes at the United Nations Climate Summit in New York.
   Her message is clear. If we continue not talking about solutions, if we continue not acting on measures to reverse the damage we have already caused, if we continue not uniting as one human race that needs to work together, the earth and all her inhabitants are doomed. It is not an easy message to hear, or deliver.
   But it is important.
   Of course it’s on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGVShq47C4o
   I hope you watch. It may change your life, or your children’s lives.
   The United Nations has an outline for the Climate Summit 2019, wrapping up as I finish this writing. Their several action-strategies converge to create a lazar-focused plan, that when implemented, may make a difference.
   From https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/un-climate-action.shtml
“We must change course by 2020, …or we risk missing the point where we can avoid the ‘disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain us.’”
   Here are the pieces of the UN plan:

Focus on women around the world as agents of change.
Find consensus on the need to strengthen the resilience to climate impacts, focusing on the poorest and most vulnerable.
Provide successful Early Warning Systems (EWS) to saves lives and jobs, land and infrastructures and support long-term sustainability.
Create 24 million new Green jobs globally by 2030, to provide sustainable practices.
Accelerate efforts by policy makers and administrators to address climate change in cities around the world to keep pace with population growth and the rapid climate change.
Assign to Parties of the Convention the responsibility to educate and make the public aware of climate change and ensure public participation in programs.

Thousands and thousands of people participated in the Global Climate Strike last Friday. Patterned after Greta’s Friday protests. YouthClimateStrike.org was instrumental in organizing events all over the world. I (and about 70 other people) participated in an event right in Youngstown, Ohio.
   Kids and adults spoke about important ideas, from exercising your right to vote to encouraging sustainable local farming.
   Thousands of people care. Thousands more are overwhelmed by the dire circumstances we find ourselves in.
   As Greta Thunberg reminds us, “Only through action will the human race be able to hope for survival.”
We all need hope.
   We all need to act.
-—stay curious! (and hopeful)

0 Comments

How Far does an Apple Really Fall?

9/17/2019

2 Comments

I love apple names. In our markets, first come Ida Red and Paula Red, Twenty Ounce and MacIntosh, Ginger Gold and Jonagold.
   Later there’s Macoun, Baldwin, Northern Spy, and King David, and after that come Winesap and Black Twig and Mutsu and Mutsu’s Mother. And there are lots of others.
from Applesauce Season
written by Eden Ross Lipson
illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein
Roaring Brook Press, 2009

My girls didn’t eat from those little (recyclable) glass jars of baby food. At the time, I thought the companies put stuff in there that my girls didn’t need and probably shouldn’t have: sugar, salt, xanthan gum (a thickener), or guar gum (another thickener). I was probably right. It was not a big deal to cook some carrot circles and mash them with a fork. Or thaw out a few peas. Even though I’ve never been known to eat a banana, I mashed them up and gave them to my babies.
   One of the first foods I gave my girls, even before they grew teeth, I called apple-mash. I peeled and cored an apple, cooked it in a little water, and used my potato smasher to smooth out the lumps. The girls loved apple-mash.
   When they got bigger, I’d slice an apple and replace the core in each half with peanut butter. Another winner.
   We all liked apple cider. Still do! But sweet cider, of course, not the hard kind.
   Hard cider is sweet cider that has been allowed to ferment for a few weeks. It’s about half as strong as wine. If the fermented cider is frozen, and then the ice removed, the resulting applejack can measure as much as 66 proof.
   Most apples were used to make cider back in the in the Colonial days. If left to their own devises, apples are unique in all the world. Each apple, like each person, would be its own distinct variety with its own distinct gene pool. If you saved the seeds from an apple that you really liked, then planted them, you’d get a different kind of tree from each seed that grew. Those seeds, if you planted them, would all be different, too. The scientific term is heterozygosity, “having dissimilar pairs of genes for any hereditary characteristic.” dictionary.com
   The only way to assure that a particular type of apple grows is to graft a slip of wood from a desirable tree and notch it into the trunk of another. If the graft “takes,” the fruit produced on the new wood growing from that juncture will share the characteristics of the more desirable parent (def. adapted from The Botany of Desire. Michael Pollan. Random House, 2001).
   Apples were plentiful thanks in large measure to John Chapman, better know to us all as Johnny Appleseed. He was a real person, born in Leominster, Massachusetts, on September 26, 1774. He died sometime between March 18, 1845, and summer of the same year (depending on the source you are consulting) in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
   Johnny Appleseed collected seeds from apple mills in the fall as he made his way from Massachusetts to Indiana, and back again. He’d plant the seeds to raise seedlings and sold them in the spring, usually for 3-5 cents each. The resulting fruit were mostly spitters, only good for making cider.
   But a land grant in the Northwest Territory (Ohio, in those days before statehood) required a settler to set out at least fifty apple or pear trees as a condition of the deed. The earliest immigrants to America brought grafted Old World apple trees with them, but they generally failed to thrive in their new environment.
   Johnny had the uncanny ability to sense where the next wave of Pioneers would settle. He’d arrive 2-3 years ahead, plant his saplings and wait. Invariably, the settlers showed up and bought his little trees. Johnny moved on, bought another tract of land, and everyone was happy.
   According to Michael Pollan, apple trees originated in Kazakhstan. Wild apple trees are still found there. Travelers on the silk route may have chosen a tasty apple or two to take with them, depositing the seeds along their way. Wildlings sprouted, and the rest is the apple’s genetic history.
   Here are a baker’s dozen of interesting apple facts (mostly) from https://web.extension.illinois.edu/apples/facts.cfm

Apples are a member of the rose family.
The crabapple is the only apple native to North America.
There are 7,500 varieties of apples in the world.
2,500 varieties of apples are grown in all 50 states, but only 100 varieties are grown commercially in 36.
The science of apple growing is called pomology.
Apple trees take four to five years to produce their first fruit.
It takes the energy from 50 leaves to produce one apple.
One apple has five grams of fiber.
Americans ate about 17.7 pounds of fresh apples per capita in 2018. (An average apple is about 1/3 of a pound, so we'll each eat about 6 apples per year.)
Apple blossom is the state flower of Michigan.
One of George Washington's hobbies was pruning his apple trees.
Archeologists have found evidence that humans have been enjoying apples since at least 6500 B.C.E.
Honeycrisp, one of my favorites, was developed in Minnesota and introduced to the market in 1990.

Happy Birthday, Johnny Appleseed. And thanks!
-—stay curious! (and eat well)

2 Comments

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

9/10/2019

0 Comments

GUYS
JUST CHECKING IN TO MAKE SURE
EVERYONE HAS THE LATEST INFO
INCOMING FRESHMAN TED YOUNGBLOOD IS IN THE
HOSPITAL FROM THAT HIT HE TOOK AT CAMP TODAY.
IT’S PRETTY BAD, NOT SURE HOW BAD YET
BUT I HEARD HE’S STILL UNCONSCIOUS.
from Game Changer
  written by Tommy Greenwald
Abrams/Amulet, 2018

The closest I’ve ever been to a football was my job at the Wilson football factory in Ada, Ohio. I laced rubber footballs and sewed leather ones back in the mid 1970s. I finished my days there working on soccer balls. I also don’t follow soccer, which *is* football everywhere else in the world.
   My mom played clarinet in her high school marching band during football games. So did my girls. That must be a trait that skips a generation.
   Both of my sons-in-law like football, and the girls know quite a lot more than I ever did. I never got interested in the game. Boys (or 300-pound grown men) running at each other trying to throw, catch, or prevent someone else from throwing and/or catching a crazy-shaped “ball” is just dangerous. Does a ball even have to be round to be called a ball? I guess not!
   And the complicated rules!
   Football, American football, is dangerous. When a person’s brain slams into the inside of the skull, it is a concussion. The harder the hit, the more severe the concussion. But brain injury occurs over time, too. There is a cumulative effect on the brain when it is concussed over and over again. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is the term used to describe this serious brain condition.
   Have you seen the movie Concussion (Will Smith, 2015)? It’s the true story of a Nigerian doctor who discovered the alarming connection between head injuries sustained in playing football and brain damage (CTE) in older, retired players.
   Even though leather helmets have been available since 1893, according to NFL.com, football helmets were not even required until 1943. Energy absorbing helmets were introduced in the 1970s. Full face masks were, too. In 2011, an impact indicator on the helmet’s chin strap was devised. It’s used to identify head injuries. But, really, isn’t it too late if the injury has already occurred?
   Football, American football, is violent. It is a violent sport. It attracts and condones violence on the football field, and elevates winning to a crowning achievement. It is whether you win or lose, not how you play the game. Not all refs stop aggression. There’s the problem of proving intent. Did a player really ram into another one on purpose. Well, yes. To get the ball, to complete the play, to score.
   Part of the attraction for the players is probably money. Professional football players are paid millions of dollars each season. In 2018, the minimum NFL salary for a rookie was $480,000, not quite half a million. Fame is an incentive for some, no doubt. And the ability to sway public sentiment to a cause worked (in a way) for Colin Kaepernick. He was noticed. He still is being talked about. He is not playing football. He recently did an ad for Nike, whose CEO reinforced standing up (or taking a knee) for what you believe in. So Colin is working.
   But the young kids. Why should a dangerous sport still be allowed, even encouraged? Since Concussion came out in 2015, more and more parents are thinking twice about letting their kids play.
   In fall of 2015/16, 1,083,308 boys played high school football. For the 2018/19 school year, 1,006,013 boys are signed up. Girls play, too: 1,565 in 2014/15 and 2,404 in 2018/19. A much smaller number than the boys, but why are more girls choosing to play?
   Aggression must be learned. It is a goal in developing young football players according to https://youthfootballonline.com/developing-aggression-youth-football-players/ Although they are encouraged to keep safety as a first priority, the first bullet-point in a list for coaches states:
“Each act should be with aggression as soon as child hits the practice field. If he puts his helmet on, have him do it aggressively. When he drinks a cup of water, have him do it with aggression. No meek actions.” (emphasis included on webpage.)
   Their premise is that aggressive actions on the field will lead to a confident attitude off the field. “It’s the attitude of if you want something bad enough, you have to go out and get it.”
   In other words, take what you want from whoever has it. No asking nicely, no compromising, no patiently waiting. No wonder so many people love the game!
   Not all team names are angry and aggressive sounding, but a lot are. I don’t think cheese factory workers in Green Bay are dangerous, but their team is the Packers. Besides the birds, lots of teams chose animal names.
   Among the non-violent names, the Dolphins come to mind.
   Bluejays are an aggressive bird, but they play baseball. We have Cardinals, Falcons and Eagles, and Seahawks in the bird category. And Ravens.
   Of course the other side of the argument is the character-building, teammate-building, responsibility-building aspect of any group sport.
   I still choose to quote Edgar Allen Poe’s Raven (from Baltimore, just like him).
   “Nevermore.”
-—stay curious! (and safe)

0 Comments

Which is More a Bazillion or a Gazillion?

9/3/2019

0 Comments

After Joey leaves, Mary Ann and I go back to pushing coins into my piggy bank. When we’re done, I pick it up and shake it. It’s so full, it barely makes a noise. It’s heavy too.
   I hand it to Mary Anne so she can feel it. “I can’t believe how much you have,” she says.
from: In Business with Mallory
written by Laurie Friedman
illustrated by Barbara Pollak
Carolrhoda Books, 2006

In high school I worked as a sales clerk for The May Company, a national department store chain with a local outlet. The store was close to home and I usually walked there and back. I had my driver’s license, but I didn’t have a car. Not too many of my friends (and none of the girls) had one, and that was okay.
When I started working, most people paid with cash. Some used a Charge-a-Plate to buy on credit. I think their bank issued it. I approached my mom with the idea for my own credit card, but she didn’t think much of it. I’m not sure what I did to prove to her I would only buy something if I already had enough money in the bank to pay for it. That seemed counter-intuitive to me, but I played by Mom’s rules. I opened up a checking account so I could pay off my new Charge-a-Plate as soon as I received my bill.
   The card was a small silver-colored rectangle, embossed with my name and a number. It was about half the size of the Visa Card and the Discover Card I have in my wallet today. I wish I could remember what my first purchase was.
   People spoke about a cashless society and I wondered what that would look like. Well, it looks like now. I know people who buy their morning coffee on credit, and charge restaurant meals and groceries, too.
   Here’s the thing about buying groceries on credit. Before they’re paid for, I’d have cooked, eaten, and eliminated (or more likely, stored as fat!!) most of what I bought. That feels strange to me.
   I understand the necessity for credit. Not everyone can save up for a car, or a home remodel, or even a washer or dryer or new fridge. I expect to pay interest to the bank for the convenience of having what I want (or need) immediately. Sometimes, it’s an emergency.
   When I asked them my parents explained the National Debt in familiar terms. People pay taxes to the government, then the government pays the senators, congressmen, and judges. They buy electricity to keep the buildings open. The government pays to run the national parks and federal agents to solve crimes and the CIA to keep us safe. And the government funds Social Security and Medicare. Aid goes to people who don’t make enough money or who don’t make any money for whatever reasons, some good, some bad.
   When the government spends more money than it has and needs to borrow, it is called deficit spending. It’s what my mom cautioned me not to do.
   If the bills are not paid in full each month, the bank or other lending institution applies interest that is added to the total, increasing the National Debt without getting any more goods.
   Besides getting money from the tax-paying population, the government can issue bonds. Private citizens and corporations can buy them. The government can borrow money from other programs (or really our kids) by tapping into Social Security and Medicare. And they can borrow on the world market. Our government borrows from other countries, too.
   About 66% of the National Debt is money the government owes the public, businesses, and foreign governments that bought investments in the US. The rest is what the Federal government owes itself for loans it took from Social Security and Medicare and other trusts.
   The US debt is over 22 trillion dollars. That’s a 22 with 12 zeros (22,000,000,000,000). A billion only has 9 zeros. One trillion one dollar bills laid end to end will reach one quarter of the way from the earth to the moon.
   As of May, 2019, the United States government owes China $1.11 trillion (One trillion, eleven billion dollars). That’s 27% of the debt held by foreign countries.
   Why does all this even matter? If the US keeps borrowing and increasing the amount of the debt, world markets could lose confidence in our government. Obligating ourselves to other countries is a risky business.
   Raising taxes and reducing spending is one way to borrow less. That’s pretty uncomfortable, too.
   I don’t know the answer to this very complicated problem, but I’ll keep reading and listening. Stay tuned.
   I’ll also look for a class in Chinese.
-—stay curious! (and informed)

0 Comments

"Small acts of kindness can change and humanise our world."
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks 1948-2020
Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, 1991-2020
Author, Advocate, Advisor

1,000 Points of Light

How Far does an Apple Really Fall?

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

Which is More a Bazillion or a Gazillion?

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

Archives

"Small acts of kindness can change and humanise our world." Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks 1948-2020 ​Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, 1991-2020 Author, Advocate, Advisor

1,000 Points of Light

How Far does an Apple Really Fall?

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

Which is More a Bazillion or a Gazillion?

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

Archives

"Small acts of kindness can change and humanise our world."
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks 1948-2020
Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, 1991-2020
Author, Advocate, Advisor