Halloween

We had some truly scary trick-or-treaters.
But after seeing that we had the best candy on the block -- and consuming most of it -- Rush saw the error of his ways and converted to being one of us.
Fern, Wilbur, and Charlotte stopped by on their way to Zuckerman's barn. That's SOME PIG!
And then there were these, two of the most life-like costumes I've ever seen.
Weird Cat 1 (a.k.a. "Daisy" or "Doodle"):

Weird Cat 2 (a.k.a. "Feather", "Foodle","The Foo", or "She's your cat" ):And a gruesome facsimile of a dead dog.
Happy Halloween!

Good news!

That's an aerial view of Camp Woodbrooke, the truly wonderful summer camp that my daughters have attended, and whose board of directors I am on. Over the last two years we have been raising the money to buy this gorgeous piece of property in the driftless region of Wisconsin, after the founders of the camp retired. Today we closed on the purchase. Woo hoo!

We are not out of the woods yet (pun very much intended) what with needing to recruit campers and raise money for looming building projects, along with a few other things (understatement.)

Wish us luck. Send campers our way. Include us in your will.

Hi, Poppy!

The weather this weekend was stunning. The mister and I took a late afternoon walk in the university arboretum. We had walked only a short way into the woods, when he heard the hoot of a great horned owl, and then an answering call. One sounded as if it was right overhead, which it indeed was. We found it with the binoculars, and it was a little unsettling and a lot cool to discover that as we looked at it, it was looking right at us!

When our eldest daughter was a toddler, one of her favorite books was Jane Yolen's Owl Moon. It is a gorgeous picture book about a little girl who goes owling with her dad one snowy moonlit night. There was one page in the middle of the book that showed the great horned owl lighting on a branch, and Cinderbelle would invariably say, "Hi, Poppy!" when we got to that page. We bought her a stuffed toy owl that year for Christmas.

Sparkly Sea Cow, on the other hand, was inexplicably terrified of owls at that age. Anytime we were outside after dark, she would ask, "Are there owls here?" On a few occasions just after we'd lied and said no, there would be the unmistakable "hoo, hoo" in the night.

Personally, I love owls, and it was a thrill to hear and see one today. I was also reminded that our arboretum is an amazing gem in the heart of the city. I always have some kind of close encounter with an animal there: migrating warblers, wild turkey, deer, a snake ... I must make a point of getting there on a regular basis. It was one of my playgrounds when I was a kid, and it is still every bit as cool.

(I didn't take the photo, by the way. Found it doing an image search. )

The Book Thief

"It's just a small story really, about, among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery ...."

I just finished reading this book, so recently, in fact, that the tears haven't yet dried on my eyelashes as I write this. Ostensibly written for young adult readers, this is a book that defies classification. Narrated by Death and set in Nazi Germany, it is about the power of love and imagination to transcend the horrors of war and genocide.

I usually steer clear of books that take place during the time of the Holocaust. For me, it is too difficult and painful to reconcile the horror of the Nazi death camps with Israel's systematic and continuing persecution of the Palestinian people (while too many of our politicians finance their campaigns with blood money from the so-called "Jewish Lobby".) As a Jew, whose great grandparents and grandparents emigrated from Russia to escape the pogroms, I believe there is no excuse for the cruelty and arrogance shown by the state of Israel toward Palestine over the years. But I digress ...

The Book Thief is an astounding, transformative, and beautiful novel. I hope that you will also read it and find it so.

Meet my new teaching assistant ...

The problem is, he keeps ducking out to the boys' room to smoke cigs. Find artwork like this for a breathtaking range of occupations here. Sorry, though. If you're a musician who plays something other than French horn, guitar, or organ, you're out of luck. Apparently, Jesus is not with you always.

After you view the artwork, if you're getting that gicky feeling in your mouth from too much saccharine, go here, here, or here for relief. Ahhhhhh. Jesus, it's spawned a cottage industry! I had no idea ...

And by the way ... I'm not mocking the artwork.

What does it take to turn on a nerdy neo-schoolmarm?

Well, read this and find out:

Pediatric resident Dipesh Navsaria has a novel way of measuring his young patients' development during checkups: He puts a book in their hands and watches their reaction.

Navsaria, a resident at American Family Children's Hospital, says the child's response speaks volumes. If the patient shows interest and curiosity, he can tell if books are a natural part of their life. At a certain age, if the child holds the book right-side up, opens it and turns the pages, the doctor gets a quick read on motor skills.

And if children begin talking about what they see in the book, Navsaria can see if they are building social skills.

"This is part of the tools we use to assess children's health," he said. "We want children to grow up and set habits and methods of learning that will carry them forward their entire lives. Read more ...

Early language and literacy is one of my [many] soapboxes. It's been pretty widely talked about how reading to a child for 20 minutes a day makes a world of difference in their literacy learning, but another huge disparity that I've come across is between kids who are talked to and those who aren't. It shouldn't be any surprise that the kids who are talked to/with have a larger vocabulary, a larger bank of conceptual knowledge, better social skills, etc. etc. By the time I get my students, they are already 5 years old and some of them have a lot of language catch-up to do.

Who sees kids -- and more importantly, their parents -- from very early on? Pediatricians and family practice doctors. So it only makes sense that they actively promote reading and language development.

This is soooooo exciting!

(One aside: If you read the entire article, you will see that this guy not only is not only a doctor, but he took a break from med school to get a masters in library science, plus he holds a master's degree in public health. Oh yeah, and he's married with a couple of kids. Can you say overachiever? It exhausts me, just thinking about it. But I love him anyway.)

Pink: Dear Mr. President

Thanks to Sminthia for sending this amazing song to me. As she pointed out, there was an almost identical version (minus the images) with a "parental discretion for explicit language" tag. There IS no explicit language in the song. I guess it must mean it's dangerous to question the so-called "commander in chief."

A Beautiful Sunday

I spent it picking apples and making cider, an annual event at my Friends' Meeting. Poodle Doc will probably have some photos posted soon, because he's digital. Me, I'm still in the film age. I'm sure I have some good pictures rolled up in a little metal canister, but you probably won't be seeing them for awhile!

Anyway, cider making is another form of modern alchemy of which I am so fond (which is a funny way to think about it, since it's a process as old as time. Like making cheese, like knitting, like making soap, like all of those things.)

Anyway, it was a perfect fall day spent in good company doing something that feels real. We took the scenic route back to town, past llamas and Lamas (Deer Park Tibetan Buddhist Monastery is just outside of town.)

A balm for my soul.

Leave it to Dennis

This is keen! Watch it. Disseminate it.

Take Action, via the People's Email Network

If you are so inclined, this is a message I received with a link from which you can email your critters in Congress, as well as send a letter to your local newspaper, in support of Rep. Pete Stark. Nancy Pelosi, good Republicrat that she is, took him to task for his comment about the Iraq war and SCHIP. (Pardon the funky formatting. I just don't feel like messing with it.)

If They Want A Condemnation We'll Give Them One

Once in a rare while a member of Congress will speak the plain truth
without equivocation.

Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/condemnation.php

And when Pete Stark stood up to accuse the president of the United
States of having no conscience about the deaths of the thousands of
valiant troops he sent on a criminal war mission (for his "amusement"
Stark said), while at the same time stealing the medicines out of the
mouths of babes, not a word was voiced in protest by the Republicans
present in the moment. There was only a mild generalized statement
from the chair about avoiding personal references to the president.

And the reason there was not a peep of actual outrage when Stark
spoke those indicting words (that they are so howling about now), is
that they knew in what was left of their hearts, that it was all
shamefully true.

How unlike the instant and unanimous reaction of the Democrats, when
mean Jean Schmidt called John Murtha a coward for wanting to bring
our troops home from the senseless slaughter, shouting at the chair
to take her words down. And did Schmidt sincerely apologize for
anything? Of course not. No Republican ever apologizes unless forced
to. They just blame the media for accurately reporting their words,
and blame our ears for hearing what they said and meant.

So let us be clear. What Pete Stark said was not over the line.

It was not over the top, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with
Stark's choice of words.

We are talking about a president who, when he was not being
obstinately surly, has snickered his way through every press
conference since he lied us into invading Iraq. We are talking about
a president who was making funny faces into the camera in the seconds
before he went live on the air to announce the assault. And who, with
the raucous approval of the entire media press corps, thought those
lies were just a laugh riot in hindsight.

But in an attempt to again shut up any courageous voice of dissent,
the right wing noise machine is trying after the fact to drum up
messages of condemnation. So they want a condemnation do they? Well
we'll give them one. This action page will send your personal message
on the subject, "We condemn the entire Republican leadership."

Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/condemnation.php

We condemn the Republican leadership for mercilessly obstructing
every congressional action of merit, even where that action was
supported by the overwhelming majority of the American people, as in
their engineering of the failure to override the veto of SCHIP
(latest poll 81% supporting).

We condemn the Republican leadership for resorting to filibusters at
a historic record pace, since they lost the majorities in Congress
which majorities they had done nothing with but abuse.

We condemn the Republican leadership for doing nothing to hold the
White House accountable for their lies and shredding of the
Constitution, through illegal wiretaps, torture and all, because of
their greed for political power, not allowing even investigations in
these matters.

We condemn the Republican leadership for using our troops as
political props, while exploiting their suffering and death for the
profit of their war profiteer contributors.

We condemn the Republican leadership for their cynical and sinful
hypocrisy in being the most corrupt and scandalous pack of thieves
who have ever held national office, now resigning at an unprecedented
clip (or reneging on the promise to do so), all the while posturing
to their gullible diehard supporters as the most righteous.

And we condemn the Republican leadership for seeking to hold others
to a standard of decorum that they themselves grossly and repeatedly
violate with the most hateful and false negative attack ads that have
ever besmirched the American political discourse.

We tried ourselves to call our members of Congress on Friday by phone
to offer messages of support for Stark. Randi Rhodes was giving out
the toll free Congressional phone numbers on the air for this
purpose, bless her heart. But the answering machines were all full,
we presume mostly with those words of encouragement.

Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/condemnation.php

Well we need to do more. But the only way you are going to be able to
get through to Washington this weekend is by email, which is what the
action page above will send to all your members of Congress at once.
We need every living, breathing activist we've got to submit that
action page and tell them we've had it. Enough. You will not back us
down with trumped up attacks on our heros. You're going to pass SCHIP
again just the way it is, and make the override go the other way if
necessary.

The action page sends nothing but the stated subject line. Add your
own choice words about whatever issues you are most upset about,
whether it's the occupation, SCHIP, no immunity for law breaking
telecoms, no attack on Iran, or anything else.

We want their email inboxes stuffed by Monday morning. We want their
latest fake outrage to backfire on them in the biggest way. We need
to flood them with emails this weekend like this is the biggest issue
that ever was. Because it is. And the issue is this . . .

We Will Not Back Down

Not an inch. Never again. We win this issue, we win them all. We the
people are running the show from now on. Let's show them how we
respond to their calls for condemnation of Stark. We condemn THEM,
not Stark. In numbers like they've never seen. And then we can start
passing some meaningful legislation around here, over the president's
smirking objection if necessary.

If you want to do more, email all your friends from the same action
page and encourage them to speak out too.

We almost got the first override the first time. With 81% of the
American people on our side now, is the time to pour it on, the cable
news talking fluff heads be damned.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed
to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

Personally, I condemn the Democrats too, for putting power and profit ahead of people, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law. I condemn the Democrats for doing too little, too late. I condemn the Democrats for total disregard of their constituency, for war mongering with the best of them, for pandering to fear, for trifling with the future of our children. I am feeling very disheartened these days.

10,000+

Hey, check my site meter! And thanks for putting up with all my hot air, and humoring me with your comments. What good eggs you are.

"We won this round."

That's what Dana Perino said of the House failure to overturn he who shall not be mentioned's veto of SCHIP. I said a few choice and rather unQuakerly things when I read this article. This is what I said:

‡#&*+ƒ∂˙ƒ√∫≈ˆ¨ÁÁˇ‰ÎÏıÒÂı˝Î˛ÍÅ„´@!@#$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you can see, I know how to swear in Icelandic.

I do, however, plan to email and commend Rep. Pete Stark for this comment:

"You don't have money to fund the war or children," he told Republicans. "But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."

The whiny playground bully Republicans immediately demanded a retraction and apology:

"Congressman Stark should retract his statement and apologize to the House, our commander in chief, and the families of our soldiers and commanders fighting terror overseas," said Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader.

I hope to God he doesn't do it. (They remind me of Coal Oyl, Olive's dad in Altman's Popeye movie, who walks around muttering, "You owe me an apology!")

I don't know how any of the 156 who voted against it sleep at night.

Sanctimonious bastards.

March of the Librarians

Every day this week I am marching off to be a student teacher in a middle school library. It's interesting and I love the librarian who is mentoring me. The pace is so different from my classroom, and I'm finding it exhausting. I miss my students a ton. They are in capable hands, but stuff still happens. One of my sweeties got sick and was hospitalized yesterday! And I'm not there ...

Middle schoolers are pretty sweet though, too. A lot of the kids were at my school for elementary school and they know my daughter too, so I'm getting lots of nice, "Hi Ms. G"s. Two more days and things will be back to normal.

I love these guys!

Plan that dinner date ...

... because you never know when your friends are going to up and move to New Zealand. You think it's hard to get together when they're a mile away? Try a different hemisphere! Happy trails, Susanne, Dean, Ryan and Skye. We're going to miss you.

Scary Stuff, Yet ...

... I have to ask the question, "Why is Naomi Wolf pandering to the fear?" She says,

Before I go into the security lines, I find myself editing my possessions. In New York’s LaGuardia, I reluctantly found myself putting a hardcover copy of Tara McKelvey’s excellent Monstering, an expose of CIA interrogation practices, in a garbage can before I get in the security line; it is based on classified information. This morning at my hotel, before going to the airport, I threw away a very nice black T-shirt that said `We Will Not be Silenced’ — with an Arabic translation — that someone had given me, along with a copy of poems written by detainees at Guantanamo.

If, as she says,

The time for weeping has to stop; the time for confronting must begin.

then it must start with each one of us transcending our fear and saying, "No." We still have our constitution, even in a weakened and vulnerable state. We weaken it further when we meekly throw our rightful possessions into the garbage, in fear. We don't need book burnings when we are so willing to censor ourselves!

There are judges courageous enough to stand up to this administration, even if it means getting put on "a list." There are many citizens willing to put themselves out there.

Finally, we must increase our demand for this two-bit Congress to IMPEACH, NOW.

Al Gore -- Nobel Laureate

What a nice piece of news to come home to today.

What's In Your Drawers?

Kindergarten is many things, but it is never boring.

Yesterday I went into our little housekeeping corner, not realizing I was walking into the scene of a birth! One child was on the floor while another child extracted a baby doll (feet first -- ouch) from underneath her fancy ball gown. Two other children stood by to assist. I felt strangely embarrassed, like I was witnessing something terribly intimate that was not intended for my eyes. I actually excused myself and turned away.

Every day when I drop my students off in the lunchroom -- after I've opened the milk cartons and lunch packs, and made sure everyone has a spork -- amid many last minute hugs, waves and blown kisses (after all we'll be separated for the next 30 minutes) I wish them "Bon Appetit" and beat a hasty retreat to the sanctuary of the teachers' lounge. One day as I was leaving a child called out, "You have a bon appetit too!"

And today a child confided to me, "I have dookie in my drawers."

I'll end this post with a blessing: May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, and may your drawers stay dookie-free all weekend.

How Jon Krakauer Killed My Book Club -- A Cautionary Tale

This weekend is the Wisconsin Book Festival, with myriad events a bookish person like myself could attend, except I probably won't. My time on weekends is achingly precious, and Monday morning comes all too soon. Sunday's booked with a summer camp board meeting and a going away party for friends who are moving to New Zealand, which leaves Saturday for the bare necessities of housework, family, and maybe a little self-care.

You're probably wondering what any of this has to do with Jon Krakauer.

Well, a number of years ago I organized a book club. I invited all of the cool women I knew with whom I wanted to spend time, but never seemed to make time for. It was a great group of women. We met regularly every month, read interesting books which we loved or hated, and enjoyed each other's company.

It was all going swimmingly, until we read Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, a gripping account of the most deadly climbing season ever on Mount Everest, in 1996. Oh, we loved the book! All of us did. We couldn't put it down. One friend, a second grade teacher, assigned her students an extra long independent reading period so she could finish it. Our next meeting was animated. At the end we selected a new book to read for the following month.

When we met next, we tried, we really tried, to discuss the new book. (I think it might have been The Poisonwood Bible, which I've enjoyed reading twice now.) We gave it a good 10 minutes. Then someone said, "Did anyone hear the program on NPR where they interviewed that doctor who lost his nose to frostbite on that Everest expedition?" (We all knew which Everest expedition ...) and we were off! An hour and a half of discussing Into Thin Air, again.

Somewhat sheepishly, we selected another new book. Damn, if the same thing didn't happen the next month, and the next! We tried to make light of it: "We're the Into Thin Air book club, ha ha." But in the end we couldn't sustain it, and we made our fond farewells.

I'm still friends with each of those women, and periodically, when I see one or another of them the subject of our book club will come up, and we have a good laugh.

I've never belonged to another book club with any success. Thanks, Jon.

Addendum ...

... to yesterday's meme. HOW could I have forgotten the most significant random fact about myself? I must be slipping.

My grandfather invented one of the early processes used in putting whipped cream into a can!

How cool is that?