A new Low from The Lone Star State

Hi Carolyn,



I seem to remember not to long ago wondering just how the pioneers endured those long blizzardy spells - I am wondering no more since we are doing that now and have been for a week to date.  The snow is endless, the wind is relentless and lately the thermometer has been bottomless.



  I have some Christmas lights draped on a big Rose of Sharon tree at the bottom of my driveway that are half buried. I've decided to leave them on so people making their way down this road that has not seen a plough in close to a week can use them as a reckoning point.









Were I a grade school boy in these parts right now I wouldn't have been near a school in over a week. Tomorrow is a professional development day for the teachers here too so it will have been 10 full days without school by the end of the coming weekend. Oh, the bliss !















Just to sweeten the deal further,  the prognostication for the next six days includes a visit from our old friend Mr. " Colorado Low "   Right on its tail will be  an even more ominous system that the weather folks are labelling  a " Texas Low ". That's a new weather term to my ears, but even up here in the great Canadian White North we know that as soon as you put the word Texas in front of anything as a modifier, it's intended to be as big and boisterous  as The Lone Star State itself.  Yee-haw... and get along little doggies!



Suffice to say - there is A LOT of snow here. It has swirled about and created some postcard calibre snowy vistas. My LSBH caught  these scenes over the last couple of days, including the really sweet sunrise shot.  She doesn't count photography among her various hobbies. I think she should take it up though. She has a definite photogenic sense, for sure.




Maybe one of these could be turned into a needlepoint or hooked rug work in the future.




















Actually, the white stuff is piling up to the extent that we may soon wish we were in one of those tree houses you included in your last entry. They are pretty amazing . I also like the sound of the co-operative approach to problem solving versus the gratuitous verbal abuse and ratcheting up the tension formula. Some of the structures sound almost fantastic.  I'm not a fan of heights, so I'd probably not be out on the porch too much, though.   There is something distinctly magical about the idea of living up in the air, isn't there.




Fingers crossed that this snow, temperature and wind orgy won't interfere with our escape to Mexico next Monday. The main highways from the Toronto area to up here have been closed for most of the last five days, including those to the airport we are using. Gulp!

The  hairy-chested  weather has also put a kink or two into our renovation plans and we are still sitting here with a kitchen that is little more than 2x4's and insulation. So  we're doing that pioneer self-sufficiency thing in a modest way. I guess they didn't have microwaves, running water and gas fireplaces though.

 I have discovered  a whole bunch of stuff out there on that new frontier, the web, including speciality internet  radio stations. There are tons of them including a number dedicated solely to all things Beatle-related.  A splendid time is guaranteed for all!





I'm hoping to get more chances to surf and snoop about and possibly discover additional treasures in a musical vein, once we get to Merida.



Okay, before resuming my intense and  not so secret affair with the snowblower let us repair to the riddle cave. It could well be full of snow too.

My last riddle which spoke of things that could be periodic, cloth-covered, or hold bargains  etc., was tables"  I am guessing that your last entry is hair brushes.

So, Carolyn,  I'm still in the dark about the riddle from your Julian Fellowes entry, though.



Finally here's this weeks:

Not good for dinner

But great for books

Some are transparent

exposing lurking dust bunnies

 

 

 

 

 

Catch ya later,

 

Don

Fig. 8 and 9 sourced from Google Images

Fig. 8 - radionotas.com
Fig. 9 - prlog.org

Tree houses, Perfume and Youth Sports and Arts

Don,

Thanks for getting the riddle answers to me. I was way off on both. Ah well, another day, another try.

I’m not into perfume. Never have been. There seems to be something about the formulas or the intensity of the smells that cause me to have an allergic reaction. I don’t even use hair sprays or whatever they call it now days on my hair. And I smell every bottle of shampoo and hand cream to make sure that I can get along with that smell all day. One thing I found most interesting with perfumes was the smell could change once the chemical formula mingled with the body chemistry. What was good smelling an hour ago often times became skunk later.

I have friends who seem to be aroma disabled. One, bless her heart, you can track throughout the school because of the lavender smell she bathes in in the morning. Our class rooms are small, and thankfully a number of students have stated they are allergy prone which means I can announce in class that everyone needs to pay attention to the olfactory smell they bring to the class and not offend anyone. I include the need to take a bath. For the most part, it has worked so far.

I should be having this part of the blog conversation with your LSBH. I enjoy a good police/forensic series. I don’t watch a lot of them, and I have my favorites. Does it cause desensitizing? I don’t know, I’ve never run into a situation where I come across a dead mutilated body. And, I prefer it that way. Thinking the problem through without having to experience the original cause is fine by me.

One show we’ve watched several times that amazes us is Treehouse Masters. A man and his team build treehouses, do it with grace, and if something doesn’t work, we the audience get to sit in on the brainstorming and the solution instead of seeing over and over again lost tempers and pointed fingers which always seems to lead to someone getting ticked off and slamming doors, throwing tools, using language that even the bleeper can’t keep up with.

And the treehouses. Oh my! I’ve always dreamed of living in a treehouse, especially since Swiss Family Robinson. Last night we watched the team build a two story, 1500 square foot treehouse that will be part of a grief center. Incredible. These are not cheap houses. In fact, one that was built last week cost more than the appraised value of our current house. We’ve lost out of our yard the two trees I’d put a treehouse in and the rest of our trees aren’t big enough yet, so I don’t think I’ll be sleeping in the hold of trees any time soon. Another life time maybe.

We drove over to the west side of the state yesterday to watch our granddaughter play basketball and to visit with our daughter and her family. One of the things that struck me was how important sports are to small towns. I realized that sports are one of the few ways to bring a community together. I’ve always been aware of that, but it wasn’t until yesterday when I was looking at the trophy cases and the pictures that I realized this is a way for kids to make their mark somewhere in the world before they get buried in the trials of being a grownup. It gives them an opportunity to shine somewhere, be important somewhere. It helps to build them as individuals and as team members.

The sad thing is that not all children play sports, and the arts, which are just as important if not more important in brain building, are being cut. With all the information that is available on the internet, why don’t we send our students to school via the internet and have school for team building, creativity and sports? Might solve some of the financial problems school districts keep insisting they are having. And who knows, it might keep more students in school!

I had one parent tell me that sports were the most important centralizing thing in education. And if you can’t play a sport, too bad. Actually, too bad for society. Not all scientists and actors and writers were sport enthusiasts. I’d much prefer the doctor who can fix me up to listening to an old football player who can’t play anymore as he tries to sell me a car. Just a thought. Dangerous, I know. I’m living in the middle of Bronco territory and they made the Super Bowl.

Renovations: I remember when we added on to our house several years ago. We started in April, were promised it would be done by the end of August; the weekend before Thanks Giving we were spray painted the walls. Good luck! Will the delays put off getting the flooring down?

There were other things I was going to yammer on about, but I seem to have forgotten them. I’m in the middle of two of the stories that Wormhole is publishing in March. Both are fantastic! Tamara returns with a thriller that twists and turns magnificently. And Jack L. isclose to finishing his Mick story about a man who has gotten in the way of an ancient curse and is slowly turning to living stone. Both authors are masters at making the unusual usual.

As for me, I finally sent my non-fiction book script about health issues for older women to the editor. Hope to have it back within the week or so, so I can publish it by the middle of February. This is not the Wired Generation research. This is a precursor so I can tell what all is involved in the research, writing, publishing process and how long everything takes. Everything takes longer than I expected. Ah well, this too shall one day be finished.

Riddles!

Round or oblong

Handle or not

Sticky Prickly close together or far apart

Children hate it

Dogs ignore it

Cats distain it

Nothing matters

As it

Wrestles with the of nests of rats left at night.

And I have no idea about yours! My thought is facet handles, but I’ve never seen any covered in cloth. Something that can be good every now and then or something that makes the budget conscious feel good… no clue. Uncle!

Have a great week everyone!

Carolyn

 All images imported from Google Images:

Fig 1 – Helvetica The Perfume retrieved from imjustcreative.com

Fig 2 – The Semester of the Skunk retrieved from blogdailyherald.com

Fig 3 – Cops – Dragnet retrieved from www.crimeculture.com

Fig 4 – Treehouse 1683129-slide-slide-7 treehouse master retrieved from www.factcocreate.com

Fig 5 – 4 magical treehouse designs retrieved from www.dovocorbathrooms.co.uk

Fig 6 – Youth sports banner retrieved from www.yumamwr.com

Fig 7 – Youth Arts Ambassadors retrieved from www.springfieldartcouncil.org

I Stink, Therefore I Am - ( Puteo Ergo Sum )

Hi Carolyn,





I am sorry to hear of your jarring experiences at Downton Abbey this year. I have to put this series in the same category as Dr. Who - i.e. ones I simply have never seen.  Seeing Maggie Smith in the credits is often enough to make me have a look see, but not yet.  It does sound, from what you've noted, as if the script writers have experienced a famine or it's "jump the shark" time for the show after only three seasons. I'm more inclined to buy into the cheap sensationalism argument though. It's always worked before - human  nature being what it unfortunately is.

 My LSBH has a slight penchant for the police and forensics series stuff ( " Cop Glop" I call it ) and has  it on while she does her needlework or other sewing related hobbies. It's incongruous to behold someone doing something as passive and wholesome as that while watching people shoot, dismember or otherwise visit  various kinds of emotional and/or physical violence upon each other.  If I were looking for some media diversions to have on while I works I'd want to laugh, laugh and laugh some more. I find myself more frequently simply moving to another room or such just to avoid having to be exposed it. I've even stepped on the soapbox more than once  about the desensitizing aspect, etc., Must be the media teacher in me.  Ironic, in one respect, that the same popular culture that promotes the Disney Effect also thrives on guts and gunfire at the other end of the yardstick.



BTW - I really like the Vonnegut good date image.







It's starting to look like the first stage of our renos won't be  be completed before we scuttle off to Merida. Here's where good friends, webcams and other marvels of connectivity will come in handy. We've already become  used to camping out in our own house, as it were, since we've been without a functioning kitchen for over a week. Each day the whole living and dining area beside the kitchen takes on a whitish patina as the dust, drywall and insulation powder settles, even though the doorways are covered with thick plastic sheeting.




My very sincere apologies for leaving out the  riddle answers. In fact it appears that I didn't provide answers for the last two of them. My bad, twice over - arrgghh. 





　

The riddle about the opening up a world of possibilities ( two entries ago ) was a bottle opener and the one about deceptive and receptive to one sense in particular ( last entry ) was perfume. My proof-reading stinks lately. I shall take a moment here to  excoriate my editorial staff.........there! I've been  assured by myself that it won't happen again.










 While trolling Wikipedia for a bit of background for the perfume riddle  I made an interesting discovery.  I had always thought that the whole perfume scene began in earnest during the Renaissance when  Descartes and the rest of  those enlightened and well-to-do Europeans  couldn't bathe as regularly as we do. This " I stink, therefore I am " situation, so I surmised, begat the wholesale creation of scents to mask the unsavoury bouquet of human bodies that hadn't had close encounters of the soap and water kind for awhile.

   It turns out that by the time flowers, oils and other odorous ingredients were being mixed together, distilled and used to fend off a Rancid Renaissance , the art of " perfumery" had already been in existence for three and a half millennia. Our term comes from the latin  “ perfumum “ meaning “ through smoke”.  The Mesopotamians, Egyptians and others in the cradle of civilization lands were among the first to begin catering to the human proboscis. In 2005, archeologists unearthed what are thought to be the world's oldest perfumes in Cyprus. They date back over 4000 years and were discovered in an ancient perfumery. At least 60 stills and other items used to create perfume
were found in a 43,000 square foot factory. That's not a small stinkin' operation!








In Western Europe the art of perfumery was known ever since the twelfth century. It prospered especially in Renaissance Italy and in the 16th century Catherine De Medici's personal perfumer, Renato il fiorentino ( Rene The Florentine ) , brought them to France . His laboratory was connected to her apartments by a secret passageway so that no formulae could be stolen en route. Rene's fragrance wizardry  almost single-handedly transformed France into one of the  powerhouses of perfume and cosmetics manufacture. It has been thus ever since. 


The Wikipedia entry is substantial and leaves the reader far more conversant in the olfactive arts once read fully. For example, I realize now that those various terms that begin with "Eau" - Eau de Cologne, Eau de Parfum , Eau de Toilette, actually designate the concentrations of perfume extract or strength. The full palette  ranges from Esprit de Parfum through seven other levels to the lowly Eau de Splash or aftershave.




I kinda wish I'd known about that when I was first using them. At 15 I found myself, for awhile, taking a two bus journey on Friday and Saturday nights to visit the love of my life at the time. The transfer point was right at the centre of town and the schedule allowed my enough time to zip into the Sears department store and hit the perfume counter ( or the " Smellies Counter" as I still call it ) and douse myself with something from the men's cologne testers that were out. Usually I went for aftershave ( even though I didn't shave at all! ) Obviously, on a few occasions I picked a stronger mix because sometimes I got on the bus and swaggered down the aisle to the stares and wrinkled noses of my fellow riders.  People would conspicuously sidle away from me when I sat beside them. I thought nothing of it at the time, submerged as I was in furtive teenage love thoughts - wondering what base I'd get to or even if I'd get up to bat at my amours' house out in the posh suburbs.


"Ah," as the French would say, "L'Amour" .



To the cave now...



Last week's answer is already in the air here, of course. I think your most recent one was one of those nifty little USB storage drives that can be used to keep all of your vital info thereupon. I return herewith with:

Comes with multiplied numbers or water or covered in cloth

Turning  them can lead to reversal of fortunes

Can be periodic or contain treasures for

the budget conscious

 

 

 

Hopefully nothing will stink in your world this week.

 

 

 

Don

All Images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - pbs.org
Fig. 2 - diyexplore.com
Fig. 3 - thespacebetweenblog.net
Fig. 4 - craveonline.com
Fig. 5 - history-world.org
Fig. 6 - estotericonline.net
Fig. 7 - frenchrenaissancecostume.com
Fig. 8 - articles.latimes.com

Julian Fellowes is a LOUSY date!

Good to hear from you, Don. For a couple of days there I was afraid the weather had taken you “off planet.”

Sorry to hear about the dishwasher and the plumbing. Interestingly enough, our dishwasher shorted out in the “on” position this week and filled the house with the smell of burning plastic, insulation, and wiring. I now know what a house fire would smell like. Happily my husband was able to disable the run away before it flooded the kitchen. We were really lucky that it happened at night before we went to bed. Sorry yours leaked into the basement.

You didn’t give me the answer to your last riddle… yes, Tea is my answer.

Okay, onto the title of today’s blog. This is not a “spoiler”, Fellowes already did that.

We (my husband and I and friends) “were” ardent watchers of Downton Abby. And we’ve patiently waited for season 4 to start. We thrilled that Mary finally came to her senses and that Mary and Tom joined forces and were going to move Downton forward into the 1920s and 1930s. Second episode of the season, The Rape. It was not only the Rape of Anna, a much loved by many character, but it was also the rape of Tom by the new house maid and the rape of the audience by the writer and director.

Kurt Vonnegut laid out the responsibility of the writer: be a good date, take the reader someplace interesting, maybe unexpected, but treat the reader with respect. We have endured much with this show – good villains that you love to hate, the death of two popular characters, the jailing of Bates, Edith left at the alter now involved with a married man, World War I…  The second episode of the 4^th season did not treat the audience with respect.

The brutal attack of Anna smacked of sensationalism, a move toward “shock drama”. Fellowes and the director were able to put into application one of Hitchcock’s finest methods of suspense – show as much as is necessary and then let the audience’s imagination take over and fill in the missing pieces. The imagination will produce something that is far scarier than anything that can be shown on film.

At first I wondered if it was because I’m American and have a culturally built in aversion to anything that doesn’t have a somewhat happy ending (the Disney effect).   It appears, through other blogs and comments by audience members worldwide, that we cared more for the characters than Fellowes does.

Writers in the past have grown to hate the characters that feed them: Nevada Barr and her character Ann Pigeon for example. Pigeon, in the last couple of books, ended up so beaten up, mauled, that we could no longer read the series. Agatha Christy admitted to disliking Hercule Poirot and in the later stories, Poirot was sent off on travels that he absolutely hated. But Christy at least continued to give Poirot the ability to stand up for himself and solve the crime. Fellowes denied Anna that.

Has Fellowes grown so tired of the popular couple (Bates and Anna) that he feels compelled to not only test them to the extreme, but he also has to test the audience’s love for them? Or was Fellowes making an assumption that because we hear about stuff like this on the news and we watch horror films we could take it? Is it just a comment that says that sort of thing happened a lot back then – and still does?

There is an issue with “group think” – where one strong personality in the group can get everyone else in the group to go along with what they have intended. We see it a lot with experienced skiers in the back country crossing avalanche runs or in the board room of companies embarking on a new campaign. There might be someone in the group who disagrees, but the leaders of the group are strong enough that pressure is applied and all group members comply – whether or not the action is right or wrong, good or bad. Is this what happened with the producers of Downton? Didn’t anyone object to this turn into base soap opera for the sake of drama?

So while we as an audience get to question the length and breadth of Bate’s love for Anna, I trust that Fellowes is now questioning whether the audience’s love for Downton will be enough to put up with trash. I pre-ordered the UK dvd version and am now seeking to find a way to cancel it. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

So the new chant I’m opting for [instead of “Free Bates”] should be “Jail the writer and the producers!” Fellowes is a lousy date!

The riddle cave!

Multiple uses

Pictures, stories, taxes

Letters to be remembered

Music to be played

Fits on a keychain

Is small enough for a pocket

Large enough to

Save your life

Plug it in

Sigh with relief

It is all still there

Just a reminder! Wormhole Electric Transport 27 is available! Check out Ariel’s newest, and I think her best, story about the airlands; Jack and Lisa are putting the final screws to their characters!

Have a great week, everyone. And Don, good luck with the plumbing!

Images imported from Google Images

Fig 1 – Crazy Dishwasher retrieved from meanderingsooziii.blogspot.com

Fig 2 – Kathryn Rathe: Kurt Vonnegut retrieved from www.theispot.com

Fig 3 – Hitchcock quotes retrieved from www.famousquotes.com/alfred-hitchcock.html

Fig 4 – Nevada Barr retrieved from www.goodreads.com

Fig 5 – Downton Abby Season 4 episode 2 retrieved from blog.zap2it.com

T27 cover by Larry Varvel 

Hot Times, wet ordeals and Cold Comfort

Hi Carolyn,




When my LSBH and I found ourselves, incarcerated at home early last week courtesy of Ma Nature, I spent some inquisitive time online. One item that caught my eye was on The Weather Network ( the Canuck equivalent of The Weather Channel ) from their “ Digital Reporter “ Daniel Martins.  He  observed that while we carp and harp about the take no prisoners winter we’re getting, we should consider that its “WAY” worse on various moons and planets right here in our home system.





He looked at seven locations in all. The one I found most surprising was Mercury. I always had this image of Mercury as a planet that was only a half step short of being burned to a crisp. Such is not the case, it seems. Even though its three times closer to the sun than we are , on the nightside temperatures get down to -180 C ( -292 F ) . Add to this the fact that Mercury is a slowly rotating planet and one day here translates into 58 days there and you have a most frigid situation.



Even Mars can produce overnight lows that have broken the sensors of some of the many probes that have been sent there from earth. It typically registers nighttime lows of -110C ( - 166F ). The red planet also has frosts that can last for 100 straight days. In the summer months it can hit about 35C ( 95F )   Now, that's more like it!

There were a number of other fascinating, but frigid, factoids about planets and moons that inhabit our local heavenly neighbourhood.  They include ice volcanoes and 100 metre snowdrifts - Brrr.  The whole article can be found on the Weather Network website.




A small side bar here whilst we are in a Martian mood. A local gentleman was disappointed recently to discover that while he had been accepted for initial consideration by the folks at the Mars One Project, alas, he did not make the short list. Wow, I simply cannot get my head around the idea of seriously wanting to do that. Somehow the thought of blasting off from earth NEVER TO RETURN just completely escapes me.





 
 
 
 







And just to close the book for a bit on the weather chronicles  it seems
"polar vortex"  is the new term du jour in weather media land. Sometimes I do think that the idea folks in the back rooms at the various weather networks regularly brainstorm ( now theres a weather image in itself, eh ) just to come up with these  terms that pack a jolt. In October of 2010 it was a " weather bomb"  that caught us all off guard and that was the buzzword for awhile.









As you asked about the flooring stuff  I shall elucidate a bit.  I'm a sucker for oak anything. As a Canadian you'd think I'd make maple my wood of choice, but oak has, for me at least, much more visual character. The flooring we're using is pre-finished and extremely sturdy. We did part of our living/dining area with it 18 years ago and then finished off the bedroom, hallway and dining area with the same stuff about 8 years ago. It wears like steel plate and the little grooves and such that appear over the years can only be described as character marks just like the wrinkles in all of our faces.









Well, the wet stuff has been making its presence felt inside here most recently. Like any major reno undertaking theres always gonna be some domino effects. This time it was plumbing stuff. A hot water pipe in the kitchen that wouldn't turn off even though the valve was as closed as we could get it, necessitated turning off the water until repairs could be made. Shortly thereafter the underfloor fitting for the dishwasher got us in hot water again as it sprung a leak in the basement which didn't become apparent until it soaked through the finished ceiling and created an icky drywall mess. So we've spent a couple of days sans hot water and I have a small taste of what the folks who got cut off from basic utilities in the blizzard went thru.

Your observations on singing and how it promotes mutual awareness and group integrity of a variety of sorts was most interesting. When I was in high school I was in the orchestra. That too made one very attentive to what those around are singing or playing - the ultimate in co-operative activity. 

 I can certainly appreciate that it is diametrically opposite to the kind of conditioning that you referred to in your theorizing on young people who get into technology incessantly and fuel their everyday activities with high sugar and similar processed foodstuffs. It's some sort of witches brew, to be sure.




Once more to  the riddle cave we go. I am guessing that your last offering was tea.


I was very tempted to come with a riddle for water this time around, as it's been in mind constantly but I shant. Instead I offer this fella:

deceptive effects  of this substance

 hopefully create receptive response

 in one sense especially

 

 

 

See y'all later and stay dry.  




Don



All Images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - 40belowproject.ca
Fig. 2 - eso.org
Fig. 3 - sciencefiction.com
Fig. 4 - canajunfinances.com
Fig. 5 - adamcowherdconstruction.com
Fig. 6 - commons.wikimedia.org

 

Polar vortex, singing, Video gaming and Diet

‘Mornin’, Don.

WOW! The power of the word to deliver the weather! Your pictures were very telling!

Actually, the snow is your fault – there is something called a “polar vortex” (a very cold cyclone) located at the north pole around Baffin Island and Siberia. These low pressure areas are really strong in the winter. When the low pressure system breaks down, all that cold air spills south.  According to NOAH, this happens when the stratosphere suddenly warms up.

I was thrilled to hear that you were able to ride out the blizzard warmly. Several friends in Minnesota weren’t so lucky and one of our Wormhole writers in New York got a bit cold because the electricity went out. Everyone reports being warm again. Colorado was on the western edge – it just got cold, dropped only 4 inches of snow. The wind has been the problem here – bitingly cold and gusts up to 50 miles an hour.

We occasionally experience blizzards here – about every 4 or 5 years. The kind that break trees. The last one kept us house bound for about 4 days. The blizzard itself was gone within 40 hours, it was the 3 feet of snow on the roads that kept us home. Lately we’ve been in a bad drought so we could always use more snow.

One to other exciting topics! Like singing! I noticed that you mentioned that the human voice was the ultimate instrument. I know we’ve discussed that listening to music is one of the whole brain activities that keeps our minds nimble and flexible. Now there is evidence that  participating in music keeps us young.

I’ve read several articles about older people and choirs. It appears that singing in groups increases longevity and life quality. It also, believe it or not, decreases the risk of falls. Because the choir members are all breathing at the same time and rate, their heart rates synchronize and produces a sense of calm. Pretty amazing if you ask me!

I’m impressed with the oak flooring. Are you going to stain it? Leave it a natural light color? The smell of the sealant will take several weeks to get out of the house. Hopefully your weather will be nice enough that your son can let the cool clean air in. What are your new cabinets made out of? Will they also expend into the laundry room?

I’ve been working on the Wired Generation. Learned some interesting things: they don’t use the frontal lobe for thinking; they use the temporal lobe instead. This means these good folks don’t have as many ways to work out an issue or a problem. This ties directly to the reptilian brain and keeps the body in the fight or flight mode.

So I’ve been collecting information, bits and pieces here and there and I have a theory I’d like to float out. We’ve had a number of shooting lately, people not able to work through their anger or frustration without killing others. So I’m going to propose a  little different idea here.

Concept one: We now have evidence that violent video games can lead to violent behavior – but the final tie in between video games and violence will probably never really be made. We do know that people who participate in violent video games are 70% less likely to help their neighbor out.

Concept two: We now have evidence that sugar-sweetened drinks affects a teenager’s behavior. For younger children, this shows up as aggression, ADHD, destructive tendencies, fighting and attacking others.

Concept three: Children and teenagers who use a lot of technology have been found to not think with the frontal lobe which allows for critical thinking, empathy, and prediction. Instead they think with the temporal lobe which creates a sense of fight or flight.

Theory: Is it possible that a combination of diet, technology and participation in violent video games has created young people who are unable to stop themselves from doing harm to others?

Just a thought.

On to the cave!

I have begun the process of collecting the riddles. I have to admit that there are several that don’t have answers. And, I think we can divide them into easy, moderate and brain numbers. I’m excited about this! I also have the cover in mind already!

Okay – Pots and pans! I missed it! I should have thought of that given your talking about cleaning out your cabinets. Ah well.

I think my last one was a repeat from one I did last year. I haven’t found the original yet. Mine was “photograph”.

My new one:

Green or black

Crop or weed

Medicinal or energy creating

Wrapped in a flow through package

Imbue saturate or soak

Add sugar, milk or cream

Feet up, sip

Have a great week folks!

Carolyn 

All images retrieved from Google Images
Polar Vortex – 2013 retrieved from www.digitalafro.com

Healing Harmonies Retrieved from www.ucsf.edu

Soft Drinks by Lauren Malley Retrieved from www.fotopedia.com

Human Anatomy Retrieved from www.aokainc.com

More Violence in Kids with deployed parents Retrieved from militaryfamilies.com 

Her Word Is An Anvil

Hi Carolyn,




Well let me just say that if there is ever a situation where someone comes  to me and says “ What do you know about this Carolyn Varvel person?” or let’s say the folks at Alfred A. Knopf, or Penguin Books or Random House were doing background checks for potential new editors or entry level publishing managers and they came to me for a character reference. The situation could unfold as follows:

　

They ask me how it is to work with or deal with Ms Varvel. I respond  that her word is an anvil. I continue by noting that when she says something will be delivered then you can depend upon it being delivered, and in a thoroughly effective fashion. They would then probably ask for some anecdotal example to corroborate this semi-hyperbolic statement.. I would counter by noting that on January 5th, in Conversations at Wormhole Electric she said that snow would be delivered to myself and the rest of us here in Southern and Central Ontario. She didn’t use any puffery or ostensible terms - she simply stated that " we're sending you more of the cold white stuff”




I would then proceed to point out that she delivered  on her undertaking, and delivered in gold-plated spades, no , in titanium plated spades.

We are in the process of digging out from a blizzard that can only be described, as the guys in the old school barber shop I visited recently would say,  as an absolute “ corker “ We had the experience of being, for all intents and purposes, pinned in our domiciles for 48 hours straight simply because it was a maelstrom outside. There was no point in clearing any walkways or driveways because they’d be filled back in and more within the hour. Our home looks like some gargantuan pastry chef picked it up and plunked it into a bowl of white fluffy icing , mixed it around thoroughly and put it back. The outside windows, facing all four points of the compass, are snow encased.





There were no power outages, which is good because we were really cooped up in here for two full days. It must have been something to be on the prairies as a pioneer and pinned down for weeks on end by a fierce winter. We’re stir-crazy here after only three days!


Okay, I’ve had my little weather-induced therapeutic behavior episode here. On to other stuff.







Boy, I was sad to hear that Phil Everly passed away earlier this week. The air and web waves have been full of accolades, and rightly so. I won’t attempt to add to them because the sheer volume speaks for itself. I did, upon hearing the news go back and listen to all of my Everly Brothers stuff and then to the later icons who claimed them as a seminal influence. I especially listened to early Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and Beach Boys stuff and other groups whose harmonies were part of what put them on the top shelf. When I listened to them I could pick out the individual voices but when I listen to Phil and Don it was like one man possessed of two sets of vocal chords  - wow!

It’s still the ultimate instrument - the human voice. I am so tempted to go on here but it would simply end up being a slobbery blubbery wake-like couple of paragraphs.


About your vacation......

Hawaii no less. That is a no small potatoes ( or should that be pineapples?) vacation, especially in the winter months. I’m glad it met the anticipatory expectations it must have had if it was something you’d been saving up for and contemplating for a number of years. Your descriptions and pics of the islands were great. If I were there I think I’d be hanging around the volcanoes as much as I possibly could. They must be like the Rockies in that they really put we humans in our place as just one small and fairly insignificant  piece in the big puzzle. And I agree that natures ability to heal after such a violent wound is another reason to regard her with unlimited awe.









You didn’t happen to see a hunky, woolly-chested, tall P.I. in a red Ferrari scooting about, did you ?






Glad you got a wee kick out of the twelve minutes of Christmas thing. I actually did have a bit of a dream on Christmas eve and it did have good ole’ Sanny Clause in it and some time travelling stuff. That could have been in part because traditionally we watch the  Alistair Sim version of A Christmas Carol just before we hit the hay each Christmas eve. Been’ doin ’that one since we were kids ourselves.


BTW, if you had only 12 minutes worth of time travel how would you spend it?



Speaking of spending time I should correct a slight misconception. We are only going to be in Mexico for about five weeks and a bit. We tried to make it more but this kitchen thing got in the way. We will be here when the tear out part happens and when the installation of the new kitchen happens. During our away time our son, who spent a number of years in the renovation business will be putting in the oak flooring that will be underneath all of this kitchen stuff and out into our mudroom and laundry room as well.




We are able to make this extended stay happen because we have some friends who, when their nest emptied, cashed in the property they had here and bought a cottage  on Lake Huron and then went to Merida and bought an old home right in the centre of Merida and had it restored and also stuck a small guest house on the other end of the property.  That's where we are staying. It all sounds extravagant, I suppose,  but with the difference in materials and building costs its actually far less expensive than one might think.





We actually just transfer our everyday lifestyle from cold here to hot there for a number of weeks. In February, to be hanging the wash out in a breeze that one would normally face in a hot July is most mentally beneficial, let me  tell ya. Groundhog Day becomes Gecko Day.




Okay, to the 2014 Riddle Cave we go. My last offering was " pots and pans " - I think I'm on a utensil kick because we're sorting through the junkyard of them we've accumulated in our old kitchen. The Salvation Army Thrift Store is the next stop for wackloads of " stuff " from here lately, including utensils galore.

I can't quite get a definitive handle on your riddle, Carolyn and times up so I am gonna guess that its - fossils, like those found in solidified lava.

Here's the second one for this year:

A better alternative to

teeth, table edges or pliers

Gives you the leverage to

Open up a world of possibilities

 

 

 

See you next time Carolyn and I hope your research is zinging along like a zipper on steroids too.

 

Don

 

 

 



 

All Images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - rcmp.grc.gc.ca
Fig. 2 - allposters.com
Fig. 3 - guardianlv.com
Fig. 4 - daysofthecrazy-wild.com
Fig. 5 - tomselleck.tv- website.com
Fig. 6 - travelyucatan.com
Fig. 7 - thefamilywithoutborders.com
Fig. 8 - magnum-mania.com