A line is thin. A line is narrow --
curved like a worm, straight as an arrow.
        .   .   .
Yes, a line is fine, but when a line swerves,
when a line bends, watch what can happen . . .
a shape begins!
from: When a Line Bends . . . A Shape Begins
                                             By Rhonda Gowler Greene
                                          Illustrated by James Kaczman
                                       Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997

    I like to think my vote counts. After all, that’s what a representative democracy is supposed to provide for its citizens, a meaningful election. While I understand that a majority is necessary, I vote for a representatives who, in turn, will vote in my interest. But what happens when our representatives don’t voice the majority’s opinions? How can that happen anyway?
    In 1812, Elbridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts, signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area. He drew a line around neighborhoods that were not defined geographically, but included more of “his” people. Because its shape was compared to a mythological salamander, we get Gerry-mander . . . gerrymander. Here's a map of MA including a map of his gerrymandered area around Boston. 
    This re-districting technique caught on quickly. Districts in any particular state can be drawn to include or exclude areas and create politically advantageous voting blocs. The only conditions: the district must be contiguous and the district must not cross state lines. 
    In 1911, Congress ruled that the number of representatives be capped at 435.*
    Because the cap remains at 435 but the population continues to grow, the average Congressional representative now represents well over 700,000 people. Raising the cap comes with its own set of problems. Most involve providing enough room for office spaces and meeting rooms.
    The U.S. Constitution requires a census every 10 years for the express purpose of redistributing Congressional districts. States may gain or lose any number of representatives, based on their current population. But populations do not grow evenly. In the mid-1960s, the Supreme Court decided that a similar number of people should reside in each district.Sometimes an area needs to be re-drawn so a more consistent number of people can be represented. 
    The Census is a population count. Citizenship is not a requirement for inclusion. As a matter of fact, inmates, although most do not have the privilege of a vote, are generally counted in the district where they are housed, not where they lived before. 
    Each state decides who draws the lines.                
    If the district lines are seen to be gerrymandered, that is giving advantage to one group over another, especially if the targeted group is in the minority, the Courts can be called in. That is what is happening now in Ohio and several other states.
    As late as last month, Federal judges in Ohio have declared that Ohio’s map, drawn by Republicans, gives the GOP an unfair advantage. The Supreme Court is reviewing claims of gerrymandering in Maryland and North Carolina. 
    According to Politico.com https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/03/ohio-redistricting-gerrymandering-1301141 “The high court’s conservative majority signaled during oral arguments that it might be uncomfortable with judicial efforts to rein in partisan gerrymandering.” Michigan, Ohio and several other states with pending legislation concerning gerrymandering will most likely not make any decisions until the Maryland and North Carolina decisions have been handed down.
    Even if the Supreme Court is okay with gerrymandering, I am not. I understand that a direct democracy in a country of 328,868,954 people, (https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/) is impracticably cumbersome. But when I cast a vote for the candidate who I expect will represent the majority of people in my district, I also expect that he or she has a fair shot in receiving a majority of the votes cast. 
    I hope I have not presented an over-simplified summary in my search for understanding this complicated issue. I’m glad gerrymandering is finally getting some of the attention it deserves. We cannot be a true democracy if our elections suppress minority opinions. If we are not heard at the ballot boxes of this country, we need use other means to make our voices heard. Here’s a handy way to find your Representative. https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative 
    Even though my vote might not count the way I think it should, it still matters. 

*The total membership of the House of Representatives stands at 441. Non-voting members include representatives from the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. A non-voting Resident Commissioner, serving a four-year term, represents the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

                                           -—stay curious! (and be heard)

They fished
and they fished
all across the sea,
And down in the depths a mile.
They fished among all the fish in the sea,
For the fish with the deep sea smile.
                                  from The Fish With a Deep Sea Smile
                                      written by Margaret Wise Brown
                                              illustrated by Henry Fisher
                                    e-edition Parragon Books Ltd., 2015
                                        www.libraryvisit.org (7/12/2020) 
    Human beings have universal emotions. We all feel sad, angry, frightened, happy, grouchy, pensive. Different cultures show these emotions differently. But smiles are universal. We all smile when we are happy. Even monkeys grin to express friendliness. Here's an article about primate smiles, including human.    
    Depending on the circumstances, though, not all smiles reflect happiness or joy. Smiles convey nervousness, a need to please, submission, amusement, attraction and according to modern psychology, much more. 
    Duchenne de Boulogne (1806-1875), was a French physician and neurologist who introduced studies on electrical stimulation of muscles. He used the results of his experiments as a tool to learn about human anatomy in living people. He mapped all the human facial muscles.
    In one of Duchenne’s most famous experiments, he tested the facial muscles of a man who could not feel pain. Duchenne stimulated the man’s muscles to make him smile then photographed his many expressions. The man’s smiles never looked happy. But when Duchenne told the same man a funny joke, his mouth smiled broadly in reaction as expected, but he also involuntarily contracted the muscles around his eyes. That was the smile Duchenne was looking for, one of pure enjoyment. 
    A genuine smile, one that conveys happiness, friendliness, joy, one that is sincere, is called a Duchenne smile. https://practicalpie.com/duchenne-smile/. 
    Controversy surrounds whether or not you can fake a Duchenne smile. While our mouth muscles are pretty easy to voluntarily manipulate, it’s really difficult to work the ones that produce “crows-feet.” So, some say no. But a study from 2012 showed some participants could actually manipulate all the muscles needed to produce a Duchenne smile. Good actors can do it. You can, too. Train yourself in this skill by thinking up happy memories. The orbicularis oculi muscles, the ones at the corners of our eyes, are tied to the part of our brain where we process emotions. So, some say you can fake a Duchenne. I’m in that camp.
​    The first gummy ear-to-ear grin that lights up the precious face of a two-month old baby is a great example of a Duchenne smile. I remember my babies’ first smiles. Huge, gummy grins they were, that took up at least half their little faces. I worked hard for those grins and was immensely rewarded. Scientists believe babies are born with the ability to smile. Even blind babies smile. Actually, I’m smiling at my baby-memory right now. Not a Duchenne smile, more wistful, Mona Lisa-ish. Maybe you are, too. 
    Smiles are the spontaneous expression of joy. And smiles are contagious.
    By now we all (I hope) are covering our mouths and noses with masks. Made of cloth or synthetic polymer fibers, decorated or plain, they trap germs. They protect us when we breathe in and protect everyone else when we breathe out. They are most assuredly necessary.
    But we lose an important piece of non-verbal communication: the smile. 
    Not all smiles are Duchenne smiles, of course. A researcher at The University of California-San Francisco identified 19 different kinds of smiles and divided them into two categories, polite/social smiles, and sincere/felt smiles. The polite smiles use many fewer muscles than the sincere smiles.
    Sincere smiles affect our moods. Even if we “fake it till we make it,” our belief that a genuine smile improves our outlook, well-being, and even health, proves correct. Our bodies are more relaxed when we smile. That contributes to good health and a strong immune system. https://www.laughteronlineuniversity.com/fascinating-facts-about-smiling/ 
    About the only place I go anymore is the grocery store. The other day, I was shopping with a list as fast and carefully as I could. When it was my turn to check out, I felt myself smile. Why did I do that? Habit? The store clerk I was acknowledging couldn’t tell I was smiling, unless she noticed my crow's feet! My smile was a spontaneous reaction, the expression of joy I felt greeting another human being. Face to face. I'm sure she smiled back.
    Polite smiles don’t show up behind our masks. We need to practice Duchenne smiles. We’ll feel better and people will notice. Then they’ll smile, too. That’s the kind of contagion I can live with.
                                         -—stay curious! (and keep smiling)

     “I see in you someone who is destined for great things. You’ll find your way, if you’re true to yourself.”
         from: Brambleheart: A Story About Finding Treasure
                         and the Unexpected Magic of Friendship
                             written and illustrated by Henry Cole
                                        2016, Kathrine Tegen Books
       As I thought about this week’s post, I tried hard to think of something I consider myself to excel in or be outstanding at. Not grammar with that sentence!
      I was not very successful with my piano lessons, although I gained a great appreciation for the instrument and a real love of Chopin, especially his preludes, waltzes, and other dances, the simple ones and the complex. 
       Although I can usually spit back a phone number and I add and subtract my checkbook in my head (mostly), numbers are not my thing.
       My daughters are both good cooks. I told my older daughter she must have a tongue in her brain that helps her think of ingredients that go well together. I don’t have that, but I can follow a recipe.
       Common sense is not my forte, either. I do a lot of forehead slapping, you know, when all of a sudden some logical, elusive answer becomes crystal clear. I have lots of ideas, though. 
       I am not a champion athlete. You might remember I taught myself to roller skate with belts and pillows. And that ice-skating fiasco. 
       This week, lots of eyes will be on Rio de Janeiro. Kids, really, are participating for their chances of a lifetime to excel, to perform, to compete.  Athletes, it’s said, love speed: objective, measurable, quantifiable times and distances and weights. Thousands of practice hours culminate in one race, one jump, one lap, one journey to the end of one balance beam, one barbell lift. 
       Did you know that table tennis is an Olympic sport? Go to https://www.olympic.org/sports for the complete list.
       But what about the ones who come in fourth or fifth or merely finish? No medal. No national anthem. No lucrative contract with Nike, UnderArmour, SpecialK.       
       Gym was always my worst subject.  In seventh or eighth grade we were supposed to master lots of equipment. Lucky for me I had friends in the class. Friends who really made themselves useful by holding my hand on the balance beam, giving me a boost over the pummel horse and pushing me over the uneven parallel bars, more than once, to perform my “routine.” If you think it was a hoot, you’re right! Even I was laughing, making it more impossible. My teacher was generous. She gave a D because I showed up. I didn’t chicken out or complain. 
       Maybe I’m a little bit of a champion after all. 
       Maybe all those athletes who come in fourth, fifth or even finish are champions, too.
       Maybe we all are. 
                                               --stay curious! (and active)
2021 update:
The Summer Olympics will begin in Tokyo this Friday (7/23/21) and continue through 8/8/21. The athletes will compete with no fans in the stands. The award ceremonies will be contactless (they will hang their earned medals on their own necks.) Some athletes, coaches, and staff have tested positive for COVID-19. 

And I said, “You can stop, if you want, with the Z
“Because most people stop with the Z
“But not me.”
“In the places I go there are things that I see
“That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z.
“I’m telling you this ’cause you’re one of my friends.
“My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends.”
                                            From: On Beyond Zebra
                                written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss
                                                  Random House, 1955

      This morning, the 90th annual National Spelling Bee begins with a written preliminary competition. Hopeful students from all over the country have gathered in Washington, D. C. today, to vie for the $40,000 prize from Scripps and an engraved trophy, a $2,500 savings bond and a complete reference library from Merriam Webster, $400 worth of reference works and a 3-year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica on-line. And of course, the recognition. The student’s school also gets a plaque and prizes are awarded to the finalists. An amazingly big deal! 
       Scripps made the bee tougher after ties in 2014 and 2015. Now the last two spellers need to get through three times as many words as in years past. But, another set of co-champions was crowned in 2016. 
       Oral and written competitions go many, many rounds. Elimination is usually swift at the start.  The final round will be broadcast on ESPN. Here’s how to watch the whole match, beginning tomorrow with the oral competition:
       The ESPN app will carry all preliminary rounds live on May 31, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a break from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. 
       Live coverage of the finals will begin June 1 at 10 a.m. on ESPN2, ESPNU (Play Along Version) and the ESPN app. 
       The competition will conclude on ESPN, ESPNU and WatchESPN at 8:30 p.m.
NOTE: Because the event is in the Washington D. C. area, all times are Eastern Time.

2021 UPDATE: Last Thursday, July 8, 2021, Zalia Avant-garde made history. She is the first speller from Lousiana and the first Black American to win the National Spelling Bee.. It was the 93rd National Spelling Bee and Zalia won in 17 rounds. 
Click here to see her win. Scroll down to “watch the event” then click on Zalia's picture. 
       
       Schools participate on the local level. My grandson was chosen to compete two years in a row, but didn’t make it to Washington. My daughter, his mom, also did not go to Washington. I didn’t qualify for my elementary school’s event, but I like to sing the Jiminy Cricket song E-N-C-Y-C-L-O-P-E-D-I-A. 
       My dad was an excellent speller. He attributed his skill to his high school study of Latin. He liked to trace many English words to their Latin roots. Great dinner table conversations started this way.  We all learned how to spell antidisestablishmentarianism. We knew what it meant, too. At 28 letters, my parents told us it was the longest English word.  Then in 1964, Mary Poppins came out with supercalifragilisticexpialidocious at 34 letters. It was added to the OED in 1986.     
       Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters) though, is recognized as the longest word, according to The National Puzzlers' League at the opening session of their 103rd semi-annual meeting in 1939. So even though they may have the best intentions, parents can sometimes be wrong.  
       Lots of parents are supporting lots of kids in their enthusiastic and optimistic participation at the National Spelling Bee. Also, parents are Little League coaches, Boy and Girl Scouts leaders, and Summer Reading Library Challenge encouragers. 
       Lots of parents are just good general life lesson deliverers. So as Dr. Seuss said at the end of On Beyond Zebra (see quote above), 
      “There's no limit to how much you'll know,
      depending how far beyond zebra you go.”
                         --stay curious! (and look for new possibilities)

Long and graceful, the queen glides across the combs.
Two thousand times a day—the queen stops to drop
a single egg into a single cell.
  Pearly white.
    Half the size of a grain of rice.
      Each will grow into a bee.
                  from Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera
                                           written by Candace Fleming
                                           illustrated by Eric Rohmann
                                                    Holiday House, 2020
    Several summers ago, I was stung by a bee. It was my fault. My thyme was draping itself beyond its square foot of my square-foot garden, flowing into the parsley and tarragon. I like the wild-ish look of a slightly overgrown garden. The plants are showing me they are healthy and strong. 
    But even I have limits. I got my pruners and began snipping away, parting the leaves and tiny flowers as I went. My bees must love thyme flowers, because they were in there buzzing around, doing the work they do. I was an intruder.
    I felt something tickle my neck below my right ear. Silly me for not connecting the tickle with the bees I disturbed. The first bee sting of my life was sharp and fast. The severity of it lasted only a second. I felt a dull pain for the rest of the afternoon. 
    But I was not deterred.
    Last summer, I put up a bee house. I had heard how useful they are for attracting backyard bees. After searching several stores, I found one at my local garden shop. I hung it, well, my husband did that, in a sunny spot on the east side of my house and bees came.
    The bees that come to my bee house are not social. Each only needs space for herself. Social bees, like honeybees build hives. Bumblebees make nests.
    Honeybee hives are home to 20,000 to 100,000 individuals. Each honeybee has a specific task. The queen lays eggs, 1,000 to 2,000 every day. Worker bees are female. They do all the work outside the hive; gathering pollen and nectar and communicating to their sisters where to find the best sources for nectar, and inside; building the hive, cleaning the hive, making the honey, storing the pollen, grooming the queen, caring for the baby bees, watching over and feeding the drones.
    Drones stay in the hive, waiting around for a turn to mate with the queen. That’s it.
    As a honeybee (or other pollinator including butterflies and moths, birds and bats, beetles, and other kinds of bees) travels from flower to flower in her search for nectar, she inadvertently collects pollen. Pollen is is the fine, powdery, yellowish grains necessary for a plant to reproduce. When the bee visits the next flower, she collects more nectar, and inadvertently leaves pollen from the last flower. In this way, plants depend on insects (and birds and bats…) to create their next and next and next generations. 
    Nectar, the sweet liquid secreted by plants to attract bees and other pollinators, is collected by the honeybee and delivered to an indoor worker bee. It is passed mouth-to-mouth from bee to bee until its moisture content is reduced from about 70% to 20%. This changes the nectar into honey. 
    Each bee makes several one to one-and-a-half hour trips per day and visits about 1,000 flowers each trip. Bees visit over 4,000 flowers to make one tablespoon of honey.     
    But bees need pollen, too. They transport the pollen that does not get knocked off when they flit from flower to flower, back to their hives to nourish themselves and their youngsters. Pollen is essential to the bees. It is the principle source of protein, fat, and minerals. Nectar provides necessary energy.
    Pollen is mixed with nectar and is fed to the larvae.
    When it’s not needed right away, worker bees pack pollen tightly into the cells of the hive, add honey, and seal the cells with wax. It is stored in readiness for the arrival of newborn baby bees. Baby bees need protein-rich pollen too, for the bee community to flourish.
    When the summer gathering frenzy is behind them, the hive can rest. The bees who worked so hard during the spring, summer, and fall, have died off. The males have all died off, too. The winter bees are plumper to hold more heat and have much longer lifespans, several months, instead of several weeks. The the whole hive-full of winter worker bees clusters tightly together, holding the queen in their center, the warmest spot. To sustain themselves and their heat, the cluster moves about the hive as one, to reach the stored honey reserves. 
    For a variety of the regular reasons, (climate change, habitat loss, pesticides) bees, especially honeybees, are in decline.
    A newly-created Global Map showing where the more than 20,000 species of bees exist now, will serve as a baseline for populations of bees as they continue to decline around the world. Michael Orr, postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Zoology at Chinese Academy of Sciences says, “This is an important first step for [conservation], and in the future we can begin working more on threats to bees such as habitat destruction and climate change, and to better incorporate pollination services into ecosystem service analyses.”
    Our own USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) reminds us “One out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators.” 
    Protecting the pollinators will help secure our own future, too.
https://honeybee.org.au/education/wonderful-world-of-honey/how-bees-make-honey/
https://www.mdbka.com/bee-information/ 
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/plantsanimals/pollinate/ 
                  -—stay curious! (and look for sweetness in your life)

    “The first American flag was raised in 1777,” I say. “During the siege of Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk River Valley, in New York.”
    “Ah,” says Grandpa Tad. “Fort Stanwix.”
    “The soldiers cut up their white shirts to make the stripes, and the red petticoats of their wives. They got the blue from a captain’s coat.”
    “Whoa, now. I thought the first flag was made by Miss Betsy Ross.”
    “There’s no historical evidence for that,” I say. “That is a made-up story. Like George Washington and his cherry tree. Also not true.”
    “You don’t say. How’d you get to know all this?”
    “I read a lot. And Mrs. Dooley at the library, she helps me figure things out.”
                      from: The True History of Lyndie B. Hawkins
                                                        by Gail Shepherd
                 Kathy Dawson Books/Penguin Random House, 2019
   
    When I was little, my gram made a nightgown pattern from newspaper for me. I laid on the floor and she traced around me on the sheets she had taped together. My nightgown had  little flowers all over it and a ruffle at the wrists and around the bottom. It was soft. I loved that nightgown. 
    In 9th grade all us girls studied Home Economics, cooking and sewing. I really enjoyed sewing, even though I wasn’t too good at it. My dad took me to buy fabric at JoAnn’s, but his favorite color was brown. We compromised. We bought brown fabric with little flowers all over it. I only got a B on my apron.
    Not to be discouraged, I saved up my babysitting money and bought a sewing machine from Sears. I bought some McCall’s patterns, printed on newsprint, and sewed some of my own clothes. I made an orange caftan (combination of gingham and terrycloth, can you imagine?!) when those were popular in the 1970s. I sewed some clothes for my girls when they were young. They wouldn’t wear anything I made after about age 3 or 4, though.
    My favorite projects were the quilts I sewed for my grandkids on that same sewing machine. All the quilts were ready (but the last one) for each child’s arrival. I adapted published patterns, and only needed math help on the one I sorta designed myself. I learned to hand appliqué, a technique I’m glad I did, but don’t have a strong desire to do lots more of. I appliquéd lots of little sheep on that last quilt. Each sheep had two tiny ears and four even tinier legs, and a wee, tiny tail.
    If Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag, which she did or did not, depending who you read, she hand appliquéd all 13 stars on a field of blue. Some claim she told George Washington it would take less material if the stars were 5-pointed instead of 6. For proof, she folded up a piece of paper and one snip later, she unfolded a little star. You can try it here. I did and it works!
    Reeves Weatherill, the descendant of one of Betsy Ross’s friends, Samuel Weatherill, presented the little paper star at a luncheon of the Philadelphia Flag Day Association in 1963. It was signed by Clarissa Claypoole Wilson, Betsy Ross’s daughter. Clarissa, so the story goes, had given the little paper pattern to Reeves’s own ancestor, Samuel Weatherill. Now after all those years, this important scrap is part of our history.
    The earliest American flags had no particular guidelines about the arrangement of the stars and stripes. Each state in the new Union was represented by a five-pointed star and each stripe represented one of the original thirteen colonies.
    On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act: “Resolved: That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.” https://www.si.edu/spotlight/flag-day/flag-facts We still celebrate Flag Day each year on June 14.
    An Executive Order of June 24, 1912, established the rows of stars on the background of blue. When Alaska was admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959, a 49-star flag went into production the following July 4. President Eisenhower proclaimed the stars to be in seven rows of seven. Dozens of 49-star flags are still available, even though they were only made for one year.
    In preparation for the admittance of Hawaii, a high school teacher in Lancaster, Ohio, gave his students an assignment: design an American flag to accommodate 50 states. It was a math problem for Bob Heft. He successfully arranged the 50 stars in nine horizontal rows alternating six and five stars in each row. He kept the 13 stripes. Bob earned a B- due to “lack of originality.” He wrote to his congressman who convinced the government to adopt his design from over 1,000 that were submitted. His teacher changed his grade to A.
    Hawaii achieved statehood on August, 21, 1959, and the 50-star flag went into production on July 4, 1960.
    At the time of his death in 2009, Bob is thought to have designed a 51-star flag, too. Let’s hear it for Puerto Rico! and Guam!
                        --stay curious (and stand up for your ideals!)

    “And in the end,” said Jack, “I still had the succulent strawberry, but. . .” The boy sighed. “You’re allergic to strawberries.”
He waited for her to yawn.
“So the guard ate it,” he concluded.    
The princes laughed and clapped her hands in delight.
“A story!” she exclaimed. “And an adventure story at that! What a fine gift.”
                                   from: Clever Jack Takes the Cake
                                   by: Candace Fleming
                                   illustrated by: G. Brian Karas
                                   Schwartz & Wade Books, 2010
    Today would have been my father’s 99th birthday. Here are some things he loved, in no particular order:

• His family (family always came first)
• His home
• Chocolate anything, especially
  • chocolate covered raisins
  • Hostess cupcakes
• Coffee, strong with one spoon of sugar and just a very, very, tiny bit of milk
  • Once I used an eyedropper to get it right.
• Well-done hamburgers
• Collecting stamps
  • and pennies
• A good joke or even a not-so-good one, even when it was on him
  • Once, on his birthday, our good neighbor and good friend “Uncle” Frank brought over a birthday cake, complete with candles. Daddy blew out the candles and began to saw into the cake (chocolate, he presumed). Even the sharp replacement knife didn’t work on the Styrofoam cake that “Aunt” Daisy decorated so beautifully. Daddy laughed about that cake for years. It would have been decades if he had lived that long.
• John Kennedy
• Portulaca 
• A green lawn with no weeds, neatly edged at the driveway and sidewalk
• Brown
• Red Skelton
• Ed Sullivan
• Fedoras (until President Kennedy whooshed them out of fashion)
• Good manners
• Bing Crosby
• Spam
• The Smothers Brothers
• Camel cigarettes, no filters
• Predictability

    Daddy valued honesty and an honest day’s work. He wore a shirt and tie with his suit coat. His shirts were always short-sleeved, though. He didn’t like to be hot.    
He came home right after work the same time every day. 
    My dad was great at spelling and great at math. I remember my brother racing him with columns of addition. Dad won. When my mother told me to look up a difficult word in the dictionary, I just asked my dad how to spell it. He was always right.
    He taught all three of us kids how to play chess and tap out Morse Code. 
    Daddy could recite anyone’s phone number by heart. My sister and brother and I all shared that talent until cell phones and caller ID made it irrelevant.
    He had a great sense of humor and a great temper. He was fun-loving and disciplined. He was meticulous in his work and neat in his habits.
    He expected us kids to be polite, well-groomed and hard-workers. I think we three did just fine making him proud.
    Daddy may not have been the best, but he tried his best. He may not have been able to give us everything he wanted to, but we never lacked for any material thing. I’m sure he loved us all, even when we disappointed him. 
My dad loved to laugh. I hope he was happy.
    Happy Birthday, Daddy. 
    *Happy Father’s Day, Dady!*
            --stay curious! (and take good care of your memories)

 . .Why can’t we unwind the cocoons after the moths come out?
                                       . . .
    The moth gets out by making a hole in the cocoon, right? To make a hole . . .it spits out this chemical that dissolves the silk and makes a hole. And the hole goes through all the layers of silk, see? So instead of one nice long thread, you’d end up with a million tiny short pieces that you couldn’t sew with. Silk farmers never let the moths come out—that would ruin everything. Get it?
                                          from The Mulberry Project
                                                      by Linda Sue Park
                                                    Clarion Books, 2005
    In ancient days, from around 200 BCE until the sixteenth century CE, travelers and merchants carried goods and ideas (and even some good ideas!) from Shanghai across northern China to the Middle East and eastern Europe. They brought luxury items, most notably silk, and spices and took home wool, gold and silver. They traveled in caravans, rarely going the whole distance, but finding trading partners along the way. 
    In 2013, President Xi Jinping announced that the Silk Road would be reborn as the Belt and Road Initiative. In what some see as a massive move to gain world trade dominance in goods ranging from cotton to petroleum products, China is planning to invest something in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars. So far, sixty-eight countries have signed on. Since 2013, China has loaned about forty billion dollars a year to developing countries. *According to an article in Reuters (6/13/21), the number of countries signed on to the initiative is now over 100.*
    “The deals are construction contracts, typically for large-scale infrastructure projects, such as air and sea ports, road networks, energy and petrochemical development, power plants, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and real estate, and even a digital silk road with fiber optic cables and telecommunication facilities, and satellite links.” https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/trumps-principled-realism-versus-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative#gs.QcfnwPc 
    But Pakistan, Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Sri Lanka, and Tajikistan all owe vast amounts of money to China to repay their loans. If a debtor country cannot make timely payment of principal and interest, China will take over ownership of the project.. 
    Whether a new railroad project through Vietnam, a nuclear power plant in Egypt, or pipe-line projects in Malaysia, country after country is building up debt to China. https://thediplomat.com/2018/07/why-the-civil-nuclear-trap-is-part-and-parcel-of-the-belt-and-road-strategy/ 
    So, how does all of this affect us? China and the United States have a long history of trade partnership. “Made in China” is stamped or sewn onto everything from dog food to dishes to doll clothes. 
    The Trans Pacific Partnership was a regional trade agreement involving the U.S. and 11 other Asian-Pacific countries. Together they comprised 40 percent of the world's economic output. The TPP’s purpose was to update and expand rules for trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific. Our previous administration (Obama/Biden) made sure the US would be at the center of regional rules development. It would have supported the economic development of our allies and reaffirmed our commitment to the area. Now the TPP continues without the United States.
    According to the Brookings Institution, the decision by the current administration (Trump/Pence) to recognize the Belt and Road Initiative in the new US-China trade agreement compounds uncertainty in Asia and raises further questions about US economic and strategic goals for the region. https://www.brookings.edu/research/chinas-one-belt-one-road-initiative-a-view-from-the-united-states/ 
    And now we’re in a trade war with China. Our administration has imposed tariff after tariff on goods received from China. Solar panels and airplane parts are more expensive for manufacturers. The price of washing machines and flat-panel TVs have gone up for the rest of us.
    Like it or not, our world is made of sovereign nations, each looking out for themselves. We owe it to our grandchildren to be good neighbors, looking out for each other, too. 
    Please vote your conscience on November 6. 
                                         —-stay curious! (and informed)    

Just
smile
at me
one
time
on your way past my desk.
                                          from: “Dear Ms. Back Row:”
                                                        in Love Letters
                                              written by Arnold Adoff
                                             illustrated by Lisa Desimini
                                                         Scholastic, 1997
                                                         accessed online: 
                No Water River spotlight on Arnold Adoff (6/8/21)

It was the
best soup ever…
and we can 
grow it again
next year
                                      from: Growing Vegetable Soup
                               written and illustrated by Lois Ehlert
                                   Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987

“Do you want to be my friend?”
“Yes!” said a mouse 
with a small gray 
tail. “I will be your friend.”
And the two ran off to a big tree,
and just in time.
                                      from: Will You Be My Friend?
                               written and illustrated by Eric Carle
                                                           Crowell, 1971

    I don’t remember the time before I could read. I don’t remember learning how to read, either. I have other memories from when I was very young: the time a fly slipped down my throat when I was riding my tricycle; the times my sister and I dressed up our baby brother and took him for walks in our toy baby buggy; the times my gram sat me on her lap on the bouncy, green metal porch chair and sang to me. She did not have a good singing voice, but it didn’t matter. She might have only known one English song, “When It’s Springtime in the Rockies.” I didn’t know what the Rockies were, but that didn’t matter either.
    I grew up in a house with lots of books. Magazines, too. The newspaper came every afternoon. But I don’t remember being read to. I must have figured out how to do it along the way to Kindergarten. What I mean is I don’t think I lost that memory of learning to read. The process must have been more organic than methodic.
    My parents had a small library that included Cheaper by the Dozen, Around the World in Eighty Days, Gulliver’s Travels and lots of volumes of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. 
    Mom took me to our public library. Most of the time, I checked out books from the Children’s Fiction section. I read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Magic, Charlotte’s Web, Curious George Rides a Bike. Lots of what would become classics.
    But I don’t remember a favorite author. I didn’t go out of my way to find another book by someone whose work I liked. I don’t know why I didn’t pay attention to the authors’ names until I was much older. 
    I have favorite authors now. My girls have favorites, and so do my grandkids. 
    As a children’s librarian I studied picture book authors and illustrators and those who are talented enough to create the words and the art. Some authors and illustrators stand out for their style or their prolific body of work or their wisdom, humor, and ability to speak to young children where they are. The best combine many of those elements.
    The world of children’s literature lost four giants last month (May, 2021). They were all geniuses in their field.
    Arnold Adoff (7/16/35 - 5/7/21) crossed the color line when he taught seventh grade social studies in a classroom full of kids with diverse backgrounds. He realized their textbooks reflected racist views and they didn’t have access to books and magazines that accurately described their environment. In an article for Something About the Author Adoff explained, “I began writing for kids because I wanted to effect a change in American society.” He continued, “I write for children because the child in me is still very much alive.” He is best known for his picture book Black is Brown is Tan and an anthology he edited, I Am the Darker Brother: An Anthology of Modern Poems by Negro Americans, published by Macmillan in 1968. In 1988 he received the National Council of Teachers of English Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, in recognition of his body of work. Since 2016, Kent State University has awarded The Arnold Adoff Poetry Award “to highlight the power of poetry, encourage publishers to publish works of poetry from a variety of perspectives, commend poets for various student populations, and encourage the reading of poetry.” KSU Arnold Adoff Poetry Award  
    Lois Ehlert (11/9/34 - 5/25/21) is known for the bright colors she used in her paper collages. She created the art for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Here’s a list of Lois Ehlert's books. She wrote and illustrated Color Zoo which won her a Caldecott Honor and my favorite, Feathers for Lunch. The kids loved Growing a Rainbow and Growing Vegetable Soup when I used them in Storytime.
    Eric Carle (6/25/29 - 5/23/21) published The Very Hungry Caterpillar in 1969. It’s been translated into 66 languages and has sold over 50 million copies. He illustrated over 70 books. Most have become best selling classics. He wrote most of them, but only illustrated Brown Bear, Brown BearWhat Do You See? That came from a collaboration with Bill Martin, Jr. On his website Eric Carle says, “I believe that children are naturally creative and eager to learn. I want to show them that learning is really both fascinating and fun.”
    Carole Calladine (? - 5/9/21) passed away this past Mother’s Day. She was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. I learned everything I know that is useful about the craft of writing from Carole. She was my friend, mentor, and source of inspiration. She left behind many fiction and nonfiction picture book manuscripts and manuscripts of two young adult novels. She will always be my role model.
    A couple of months ago, I decided to give myself a blog vacation. As this is my sixth blog-aversary, I thought it an auspicious time. I will continue my blog each Tuesday morning with re-posts of my favorite pieces. I’ll pop back live if something piques my curiosity and interest enough that it jumps off my perpetual list and on to these pages.
                                         -—stay curious! (and stay tuned!)

…We circle the fresh dirt mounds, with sweet-smelling petals of rose, lilac, and jasmine swirling to the ground. Thousands of hands sprinkle thousands of spring blossoms. The graves become a bed of petals and tears.
                                          from: A Day for Remerberin’
                                             written by Leah Henderson
                                             illustrated by Floyd Cooper
                             Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2021
    This past weekend marked the 100th anniversary of my town’s first Memorial Day Celebration. We were not the first town to mark the occasion. Besides Charleston, South Carolina, over 20 different cities claim that distinction.
    I always thought (was this part of my formal education!?) that Memorial Day commemorates the soldiers who died in Flanders Field amongst the poppies. The field is in the medieval County of Flanders spanning southern Belgium and north-west France and served as a major battlefield on the Western Front during WWI. Memorial Day gradually expanded to include the dead of all American wars, I always thought.
    In my own town, veterans distribute red, silk poppies as a remembrance to those who gave their lives to protect our freedom during that war. Click the link and scroll down to see a couple of beautiful photos of Belgian poppies. 
    But long before the end of WWI on November 11, 1918, the club house of a racecourse in Charleston, SC was converted into a prison for captured Union soldiers during the Civil War. Less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865, twenty-eight newly freed men living in Charleston, were joined by regiments from Massachusetts and a few white Charlestonians. They spent ten days digging fresh graves and reburying the “Martyrs of the Race Course” who died during their captivity. To give them a respectful resting place, each fallen Union soldier was placed in an individual plot and marked with a headstone. (info from Leah Henderson’s book, quoted above)
    When the burying was finished, the people sang hymns, delivered and listened to speeches, and decorated the new graves with flowers.
    In May, 1868, General John A. Logan issued a decree that May 30 should become a day set aside to commemorate the over 650,000 lives lost in the Civil War. He chose May 30 because “it was a rare day that didn’t fall on the anniversary of a Civil War battle.” Also, flowers across the country would be in bloom. https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-memorial-day 
    It was two years earlier, though, on May 5, 1866, tiny Waterloo, New York closed every store, shop, and place of business and held a ceremony for those who had fought in the Civil War. Year after year the people in Waterloo remembered their heroes. One hundred years later, President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, NY to be the Birthplace of Memorial Day. 
    The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 moved most National holidays to Mondays, and in 1971, Decoration Day’s name was changed to Memorial Day, and it also was moved to a Monday, the last Monday in May.
    The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, when General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate troops to the Union's Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. Although we had skirmishes with Mexico and other Latin American countries after the Civil War ended, the United States did not engage in major warfare until 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. 
    During the second year of WWI, soldiers started noticing the blazing red fields of poppies and began writing home about them. 
    The day after his friend was killed in battle, a Canadian doctor, John McCrae, wrote his famous poem “In Flanders Fields” to describe the field of makeshift graves blooming with wild poppies.
    Here’s the first stanza of Flanders Fields
             In Flanders fields the poppies blow
            Between the crosses, row on row,
                    That mark our place; and in the sky
                    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
            Scarce heard amid the guns below.
    Sadly, the United States has fought many wars since the War to End All Wars. Under President Joe Biden’s direction, we are slowly untangling ourselves from our longest war. Many young adults today can’t even remember when we were not at war. 
    On a field trip to Washington DC in May, 1996, a group of school children was asked why they think there is a holiday on Memorial Day. “It’s the day the pools open!” they responded. That same month a Gallup poll discovered that only 28% of Americans knew the meaning of Memorial Day.
    Clearly, this was a problem. 
    The idea for a National Moment of Remembrance was born of the concern and sorrow of many people coming together. On December 28, 2000, Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act. It is an informal, voluntary, annual event held each Memorial Day at precisely 3:00 pm local time. Its purpose is to allow everyone 60 seconds of silence to remember, honor, and celebrate those brave men and women who died to protect our freedoms. 
                              -—stay curious! (and hug your memories)