All about Trash, with a capital 'T'

Some people 'Dance[ing] with Stars', while I Walk with Maniacs. Walking with Maniacs describes my exercise regime with my two canine walking partners. The magnitude of the unbridled enthusiasm that they bring to the activity can almost be too much for me to handle, thus the designation of 'Maniacs'. 

While we are out walking, we (I) endeavor to pick up the trash that is ever-present on whatever walk route we choose. Today, having set out on a walk, I began to pick up the ubiquitous trash, while noticing that the trash I picked up two days ago, had been replaced with a new supply. It is my practice to not stray into anyone's yard (personal space), or the blackberry bushes that line much of the walk routes we frequent, which prevents me doing a thorough and comprehensive clean up. Today, I was unable to avoid feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of accumulated garbage. Why is it that we have so little regard for our surroundings that we cannot take the most minimal time and effort needed to appropriately dispose of wrappers, cans/bottles, papers, etc. while waiting for the bus, walking to the mail box, or even in our own yards? 

Another major source of ecological fouling is the accumulation of old vehicles, such as cars, boats, campers, and trucks. This practice of abandonment not only represents eye sores, but also facilitates the leaching of heavy metals into the surrounding soil and ground water over time, amongst other toxicity opportunities. I know of one yard in particular (we all know, or may be, an offender) where a car was parked in the driveway very nearly 30 years ago, and has not been moved since. Old and disintegrating vehicles are everywhere, despite the pleas from charities to facilitate their removal. How hard can it be? It just takes a phone call, or maybe not even that if you are ever logged onto the Internet. 

What to do? Everyone, pick up the trash in your own yard/domestic space, and take the initiative to pick up trash that presents itself on your way to the car, to the garbage can, to the bus stop, to name a few mitigating opportunities. Recycle what you pick up, so that it can be processed to be used again. Build awareness in your social circle to help others become trash collectors too. 

To me, it is very disheartening to allow the awareness of garbage accumulation everywhere, various yards, sidewalks, ditches, storm drains, and blackberry bushes to name a representative sample, to seep into my consciousness. This is where humor or at least silliness can take the edge off the overwhelming nature of the sheer quantity of trash needing to be picked up and disposed of appropriately. My choice of silliness for this situation is to recall "The Cat In The Hat" (Dr. Suess) wherein: "this mess is so big, and so deep, and so tall, we can not pick it up, there is no way at all.", and when the Cat came back in with his clean-up machine saying "I always pick up all my playthings, and so, I will show you another good trick that I know!". The Cat's machinery featured four hands set about the pick up. 

The take-home message is that many hands make short work of a big job. Let's clean it up! 

The Tough Cooks to Cope

In the last year or so, I have found myself cooking when feeling vulnerable emotionally, and communicated my cooking choices here. Today, I am not cooking to cope perse, but because I love to love my family and friends through wonderful food. I have had my eye on an apricot scone recipe for some time now, and decided that today was the day to make them.

Also, in need of cleaning out my refrigerator without throwing food away I will be making a turkey chowder recipe that will help to feed my family without waste. In particular, I am planning to use the few slices of bacon, mushrooms, celery, carrots, and turkey, along with wild rice and leftover gravy, before they begin to spoil.

There is such comfort for me (aka The Tough) in cooking delicious and wholesome food for my family/friends that I like to indulge regularly in this pursuit. Cooking to cope has provided me with an outlet for distress as well as the calming that comes from focusing on a recipe such that it will produce wonderful food. I highly recommend 'Cooking to Cope' for anyone who loves to cook real food. 

There is a distinction to be made here when it comes to 'real food'. Have you ever looked at the weekly grocery store ads and noticed how much food there is being sold that does not really qualify as something to eat that will nourish and provide energy for a body? The unbelievable prevalence of processed food in every area of a grocery store is, in my opinion as well as throughout the medical community, responsible for many maladies such as obesity and some autoimmune conditions, and a general state of malnourishment. If one or more of the ingredients on a food label is as long as your arm, it is probably not food and your body may not know how to break it down. Artificial flavors and colors are at the top of the list of food-products to avoid for me when I am shopping. Food for thought! 

CBS: Watch the Casey Anthony Case on your iPhone? I think not!

What do I see when I log in to my home page this morning? The above-referenced headline from CBS: Watch the Casey Anthony Case on your iPhone. It might be that I am in the midst of the post-sinus-surgery-crankies, but..... somehow I doubt it. If anyone has time to spend watching a trial on an iPhone, keeping in mind the size of the iPhone screen, they have far too much time on their hands. I am somewhat familiar with the case, as everyone in the western hemisphere with any electronic device must be, and me from logging into my home page, it is yet another desperate and unbalanced woman, in desperate trouble, for the whole world to see. What would possess anyone not connected to the case to voyeuristically log in and watch? What is it about American society that we cannot help but consume time watching misery for others when it pales in comparison to those fighting for their lives across the world, from the 'safety' of our iPhones? Those in straitened circumstances need our attention and compassion much more than anyone from the outside of the Anthony Case can command. And, with many of our troops around the world in peril, they need our immediate and constant attention and compassion as well as energy and intelligence applied to get them home. The only excuse I can imagine from CBS, is that it sells advertising, This is hardly an excuse, but it is a reason. What it says about our societal values is far more disturbing than the headline suggests. 

Introducing Dot!

Introducing Dot! Dot is an outlier data point, and with that comes a different perspective on anything, and potentially everything. Dictionary .com defines an outlier as: "[a] data point on a graph or in a set of results that is very much bigger or smaller than the next nearest data point."

During my brief sojourn as an experimental scientist, I was regularly confronted by Dot, and had to explain Dot if possible. Dot as an entity is, almost by definition, an irritant and something that must be explained empirically whether as an anomaly, or true data point that is part of a societal trend, or any other kind of data set. Over time I have begun to see Dot differently, and suggest that the view from that standpoint could be both valuable and instructive. I look forward to considering questions, data sets, and current events from Dot's perspective, and hope you will too.  

Eminent Persons and their sex lives

Is anyone else absolutely sick to death about learning of other peoples' sex lives and indiscretions? I feel confident that I am not alone in my irritation at having my sphere of life and activity besmirched by the sordid details of the sex lives of others. There is a solution to my irritation over these events of course, which is to dial down every media source that would befoul their sites and/or airways with such topics. I used to be a news-maniac, continuously seeking out news about current affairs (not the sordid variety) both local and not, and could never have anticipated that I would run away from news in general. As someone who works primarily from home, and who relies on radio and online news sources, I have sequestered myself from the commercial news media to a great extent. I now feel that I need to further withdraw from sources that will, and also those that might, report on such stories as those featuring Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Edwards, and the like (not leaving out the semi-distant escapades of Bill Clinton, that have relegated him to a quiet corner of world affairs that his brain-power could have so easily served from a much more significant platform. I wonder if he feels marginalized by his inability to control his behavior?). It may be that I will organize my online news array into the following categories: 

Will report on something smutty (100% chance of seeing something distasteful): DO NOT click on anything!

May report on something smutty: Proceed with caution

Might report on something smutty: Still a risk, but not a significant one

No news at all: I have a bag over my head while working on the computer to avoid seeing anything distasteful 

I am also an avid listener of my local NPR station, mostly for company, but also for headline news. Even NPR has and does report on breaking smutty news stories such as the one wherein a congressman of some variety (House or Senate) photographed his private part(s) and uploaded said pictures onto YouTube. I ask you! How many of us want to hear about that? Why is it that the wealthy and/or powerful (I suspect that they go together) have to misbehave to such an extent, such that we are all bombarded with their private, but not any more!, behavior. 

My appeal to the news media: I know that scandals, and especially those related to sex, sell ads on which your income is based. Aren't you sick to death of it too? Can't you dial it down a bit? Those of us who are very interested in keeping up with local, regional, national, and global news, would be very grateful to be able to avoid learning about someone who has exposed himself on the world stage for international critique. I am appealing to all of your best instincts that do not include anything sordid. Please! 

Global Warming?

With the events unfolding in the mid-west and Gulf states, tornadoes in particular, it seems to me that these tragedies leaving hundreds of people dead and significant damage in the wake, are an excellent example of the how global warming is progressing worldwide. Because heat is energy and vice versa, these atmospheric events, like tornadoes, are natures' response to the build up of heat in the atmosphere. While tornadoes are familiar to those living in the middle of the country, the increased frequency and magnitude of these atmospheric storms is what is news. Many expect that global warming, and its cousin climate change will be felt almost exclusively at the poles. And it is a correct assumption that we are seeing the first and most dramatic response at the poles at least initially, it is not the only dynamic at work here. When we mess with the feedback loops that are the planet's weather patterns, we can expect those patterns to be disrupted. The imperative for the global human population is that we cannot predict with any real accuracy what the response will be on global weather, and atmospheric and oceanic systems; there is simply no precedent for changes that are proceeding at the rapid pace we are seeing, such as the melting of the polar ice sheets, and/or the thawing of permafrost at the poles.

As has been the case for a couple of decades now, the question is not whether global warming and the resultant global climate change are occurring, but how we will respond with behavior changes to help mitigate the changes that will play out not for us ourselves alone but for future generations, and the generations of all of the Earth's inhabitants. I had a student several quarters ago who expressed his opinion about whether global warming was actually occurring by stating that he lives in Ohio, and it is very cold there (during the winter). His response meant to me that he was either too lazy or too stupid to read and educate himself about the issue regardless of the fact that our course material covered the issues very well. We no longer have the luxury to choose either of those perspectives (stupid or lazy), but must act to help mitigate some of the detrimental effects on global ecosystems. It no longer really matters how global warming began, except for education, data collection and modeling purposes, but what our response will be to our credit or discredit. 

When the going gets tough....

The old saying that begins with the "When the going gets tough..." has been swirling around my brain for the last few days. Not that the 'going' is getting tough, or at least not very tough, but when I am feeling challenged I like to cook. This has become my therapy in recent years. While I used to view cooking therapy in terms of butter, sugar, and chocolate (not always chocolate, it could be pumpkin, apples, strawberry-rhubarb, etc.), I have now added soup to my therapy list. Soup, as a category of food, has an aura of comfort around it. Who can think about soup without reminiscing about the best bowl or cup you have had. Within the last few months, I have made the following soups for my sweetheart, family, and friends: 

Lentil (curried and traditional)

Split Pea

Turkey and Pasta

Turkey Chowder

Cheesy Potato Soup

Salmon Chowder

After a hiatus from Lentil and Pea soups for a number of years, they have come flooding back into my menu planning thoughts. And, well deserved too. I have also been thinking about a recipe for white bean/pasta/ham soup that dear friend gave to me many years ago. When I make her soup recipe, I think about her in the warmest way. Isn't it amazing how food translates to love? We have a large-ish extended family, and many friends in the area and I have felt absolutely compelled, and maybe even mandated to cook for everyone. The time for such endeavors has been hard to come by, but when the rewards of cooking wonderful food for family and friends are so magnificent, the time has been made even if it is in-and-around grading papers, developing the next unit of coursework. Even when I am terribly busy I find that a simmering pot of soup on the stove fills the air with good smells and warm feelings. 

So, for those of you who may feel bombarded with soup and/or cookies (cookies; another post!), please allow me to love you through food! There is only so much love and warm feelings that a wife/mother/grandmother/daughter/friend (among other status categories) can contain without bursting. Please and thank you!