“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)