Diane I have thought of you and many others over the years. The last name of Ludwig was somewhat common where I grew up in western PA. When I went to the regional Catholic HS, there were two girls in my class with the name of Ludwig, cousins. Also, where we have a family reunion every summer is at a man-made lake at a state park near my childhood home. The cabins were we stay are off Ludwig Rd in the Park!

June Your state & others have really been hit with high winds. BTW was it you who once posted the recipe for cleaning the green off siding (vinegar & dishwashing) soap? If so, I saved it! Now that the weather is nice I need to remember to clean one side (North, of course), but it has been a case of out of sight, out of mind.

Jim @danisjg - I could not believe how long it has been since I last posted. Time Flies!

As some may recall, my son collected Tom Swift books hence the nickname given to him by a bookman. He sold his collection to finance his diet of Raman Noodles when he was working on his first start-up which he later sold.

He was several friends in Australia who joined him in Bali on his recent trip. Kids today jet around like we used to bike around! lol

Swifty lived for about 10 years in NYC where he has a studio apt overlooking the river, but now he also has a condo in West Palm Beach. He has traveled worldwide several times, including a couple of time to South America. He is a co-founder of Firstleaf, a wine club, which is responsible for nearly 100 jobs created. Firstleaf is connencted with a group called "Wine to Water" which gets clean water to 3rd world countries. Swifty recently went to the DR where he made filtration pots.

LLB lives in Southern CA (Orange county). Prior to his job change (high tech security), he lived in San Fran for about 10 years after college.

Thanks for letting me have a proud mother moment.

A link for your DD.

How Hair's Nude Hippies Changed Broadway Forever

http://www.broadway.com/buzz/5771/how-hairs-nude-hippies-changed-broadway-forever/

She asks me why, I'm just a hairy guy
I'm hairy noon and night, hair that's a fright
I'm hairy high and low, don't ask me why, don't know
It's not for lack of bread, like the Greatful Dead, darlin'

Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen
Give me down to there, hair, shoulder length or longer
Here baby, there, momma, everywhere, daddy, daddy

Hair, flow it, show it
Long as God can grow, my hair

Let it fly in the breeze and get caught in the trees
Give a home to the fleas, in my hair
A home for fleas, a hive for the buzzing bees
A nest for birds, there ain't no words
For the beauty, splendor, the wonder of my hair

Flow it, show it
Long as God can grow, my hair

I want long, straight, curly, fuzzy, snaggy, shaggy, ratty, matty
Oily, greasy, fleecy, shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen
Knotted, polka dotted, twisted, beaded, braided
Powered, flowered and confettied
Bangled, tangled, spangled and spahettied

Oh say, can you see my eyes if you can
Then my hair's too short
Down with here, down to there
Down till there, down to where it's stuck by itself

They'll be ga-ga at the go-go, when they see me in my toga
My toga made of blond, brilliantined, biblical hair
My hair like Jesus wore it, Hallelujah I adore it
Hallelujah Mary loved her son, why don't my mother love me?

Hair, flow it, show it
Long as God can grow
My hair, flow it, show it
Long as God can grow
My hair, flow it, show it
Long as God can grow
My hair

stamphick (David) ~ My aunt wasn't home but in talking to my uncle he said that he would go get it next week or next month...of course he brought up that fact that it doesn't protect 100% and I countered with the milder case if you do get it. Then I told about the Merck plan that I got mine under and he said pharmacies charge $200 in Dallas. Finally I told him that since he is now covered by Medicare it is free. He didn't know that since until fairly recently it was not. Now that might spur him on! LOL He was so funny when he said, "I'm not afraid of shots." hahaha The man was a surgeon (including in Viet Nam). However, just because you are a surgeon doesn't always mean that you are not afraid of getting cut open yourself.

More later on my 'theory' about the genetics of getting shingles and who is more likely to get them.

The point is that as we all grow older we are more likely to have things go wrong and getting the shingles vaccine ahead of that time doesn't hurt - well my arm was sore for a couple of days! I couldn't figure out why it hurt and then I remembered, oh yeah, that is where I got the shot! duh. Both DH and I have been seriously ill and it is something that could come back. Or something else might get us.

The doctor did say that while the shingles vaccine is not 100% effective in preventing it, studies have shown that those who have had the vaccine get much milder cases. Also in my reading about shingles, there is a high rate of re-occurance and some people even get it a third time. I tried to find if my aunt getting it now would help in the future. I think she said that her doctor said that she has to wait for a certain time period to pass where she is free of all of it before she could get it.

I haven't checked in with her lately and need to call. We usually talk on a weekly basis. Since I am thinking of her now, it would be a good time. We often find that we are thinking of each other when we call each other!

Those on Medicare can get it for free. My aunt wishes he would have had it and she can't believe that after what her husband (retired doctor) has seen her go through that he still has not gone for his. I can't get DH to go either. He says that he will wait until it is either 'free' [covered under insurance] or he is covered by Medicare. I wasn't waiting that long no matter what I had to pay. Just talking to my aunt was painful. She has it for months and months. DH was funny when he was reading about it and said that I could have given him chicken pox! hahaha he still doesn't believe that he had a very mild case when both the sons came down with chicken pox! It didn't help that the doctor at the time had told him that if he had not said about the children having chicken pox he would not have thought that the couple of red bumps he had had on his chest were chicken pox. I told him that now this proves he had chicken pox since he was exposed to me and didn't get a case (I knew that if he had not had it he could get it, but I knew he did).

Although the doctor said that it is not a thing that runs in family, I have to wonder if some people are more inclined to get it based on their genetic make-up. Not only my mom and her sister but there is another close family member who had it but at a young age. Even the nurse agreed with me - both her grandfater and her dad (when he was in his 30s) got it.

Although I usually don't mention my illnesses, colds, bumps, boo-boos, as long as I am on the topic, boy did I take a tumble yesterday. I am all black and blue on my one side and it is quite painful. DH and I were trying to get two stinkbugs at the top of a blind. He was sticking in our stinkbug stick from the one end and I was to get them with a tissue as he poked them out. As I was climbing up on a cedar hope chest that had been my father's mother, I lost my balance and fell. I hit the edge of a laundry basket on the way down. And there you have my tale of my boo-boo - boo hoo. Might have bug bite tales to tell after the camping trip! LOL

Merck’s Shingles Vaccine Not Reaching Enough U.S. Adults

Too few American adults have been vaccinated for shingles, the painful sibling to chicken pox, according to research that calls for efforts to increase the U.S.-recommended inoculation.

Fewer than 2 of 10 Americans ages 60 and older have been vaccinated, while the rate is less than half that for those in their 50s, according to a study presented today at the annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Denver.

Almost one-third of Americans will get shingles in their lifetime, with about 1 million cases in the U.S. each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The vaccine Zostavax, from Merck & Co. (MRK), was cleared for sale in 2006 for people 60 and older, and for use by those in their 50s in 2011. Still, too few people take advantage of it, doctors said.

“It’s a good idea if you’re older than 50 to go to your doctor and have that discussion about when you should receive your vaccine,” Melissa Johnson, an associate professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, said today in a presentation at the conference. “This is a conversation we should all be having with our family members.”

Shingles is caused by the same virus as chicken pox; it can remain in the body after a chicken pox infection and become active again years later. It’s characterized by a painful rash that generally clears within a month and can be accompanied by fever, stomach ache and chills.

A more problematic lasting side effect is postherpetic neuralgia, a burning nerve pain that can be severe enough to disrupt sleep and affect appetite, according to the Mayo Clinic. Good treatments for the pain don’t exist, Johnson said.

Shingles costs the U.S. health system at least $1 billion each year, through a combination of doctor visits, medications and missed work, she said.

“This is a potential area where we can do cost avoidance,” Johnson said. Patients can “get Zostavax as part of routine coverage.”

Shingles becomes more prevalent with age; about half of infections occur in those 60 and older, according to the CDC. Yet just 16 percent of Americans in that age group had been vaccinated in 2011, the study of almost 30,000 people found. That compares with 4.3 percent of U.S. adults in their 50s.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine in the younger set after research showed it helped reduce the risk of shingles by 70 percent compared with placebo, according to an agency statement.

Rest of article: http://tinyurl.com/ovby669

The other night DH and I watched a program about the salvage operation that was underway of the Costa Concordia. I think it was on 60 Minutes. What a massive undertaking just to get to the point to where they would be able to start the operation of getting it upright which was completed early yesterday morning.

Both of the links below have time-lapsed footage of it being righted, the first link is longer with the crew celebrating etc. Second link is just the ship being uprighted. It was something never done on this scale before. Engineers from around the world worked together to accomplish it.

Massive salvage operation to set Costa Concordia cruise liner upright

Salvage crews completed setting the wreck of the Costa Concordia upright early Tuesday after a 19-hour-long operation off the Italian island of Giglio, where the huge cruise liner capsized 20 months ago.

Perhaps the most complex and expensive maritime salvage operation ever attempted saw the 114,500-ton ship pulled upright by a series of huge jacks and cables and set on artificial platforms drilled into the rocky sea bed.

After a salvage operation estimated to have cost more than 600 million euros ($800 million), the hulk will remain in place for months more while it is stabilized and refloated before being towed away to be broken up for scrap.

"The rotation happened the way we thought it would happen and the way we hoped it would happen," said Franco Porcellacchia, leader of Costa Cruise's technical team, according to Reuters. "It was a perfect operation, I would say."

The daring attempt to pull the shipwrecked ocean liner upright began early Monday.

Full article with longer video: http://tinyurl.com/mb4wfaq

Shorter Version:

Time-lapse footage shows the wreckage of the Costa Concordia cruise ship being pulled completely upright during a complicated, 19-hour operation.

http://www.usatoday.com/media/cinematic/video/2824783/

.

Harvest Moon 2013: What You Need to Know

Get ready for the Harvest Moon. Depending on where you live on the planet, it’s either Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

“In traditional skylore, the Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox,” EarthSky reports, “and depending on the year, [it] can come anywhere from two weeks before to two weeks after the autumnal equinox.” For 2013, that changing of the seasons happens on September 22 — just a few days from now. [sometimes the autumnal equinox is on my birthday, the 23rd. So this year the first full day of autumn is my birthday, other years it is the changing of the guard.]

Unlike the Blue Moon we covered back in August, the Harvest Moon behaves differently than a typical full moon. “Throughout the year, the moon rises, on average, about 50 minutes later each day,” according to NASA Science News. “But near the autumnal equinox … the day-to-day difference in the local time of moonrise is only 30 minutes.” Why does that matter? Simply put, agriculture.

“In the days before electric lights, farmers depended on bright moonlight to extend the workday beyond sunset,” wrote NASA’s Dr. Tony Phillips. “It was the only way they could gather their ripening crops in time for market. The full moon closest to the autumnal equinox became the Harvest Moon, and it was always a welcome sight.”

Back in 2010, there was a Super Harvest Moon — the first one in two decades and the last until 2029 — when the seasonal lunar event happened on the night of the autumnal equinox, offering what Phillips describes as “maximum illumination.”

So, when should you try to catch a glimpse of the Harvest moon? “Although the moon will appear full all night long — from dusk till dawn — astronomers define full moon as that instant when the moon lies most directly opposite the sun for the month,” according to EarthSky. That moment will occur at 7:13 a.m. on Thursday ET (that’s 11:13 Universal Time). But isn’t that morning, you ask? Yep, the moon will be full after sunrise for the eastern United States, but other time zones should have more luck.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/lyyw53p

Musician Neil Young has a slightly more romantic take on this moon, about dancing in its glowing light:

Harvest Moon
Neil Young

Come a little bit closer
Hear what I have to say
Just like children sleepin'
We could dream this night away

But there's a full moon risin'
Let's go dancin' in the light
We know where the music's playin'
Let's go out and feel the night

Because I'm still in love with you
I wanna see you dance again
Because I'm still in love with you
On this harvest moon

When we were strangers
I watched you from afar
Then when we were lovers
I loved you with all my heart

But now it's gettin' late
And the moon is climbin' high
I want to celebrate
See it shinin' in your eye

Because I'm still in love with you
I wanna see you dance again
Because I'm still in love with you
On this harvest moon

Because I'm still in love with you
I wanna see you dance again
Because I'm still in love with you
On this harvest moon

.

And another musician who sees the light of the moon as a time to dance and keep things light...

Dancing In The Moonlight
Van Morrison

We get it almost every night
And when that moon gets big and bright
It's supernatural delight
Everybody was dancing in the moonlight

Everybody here is out of sight
They don't bark and they don't bite
They keep things loose, they keep things light
Everybody was dancing in the moonlight

Dancing in the moonlight
Everybody's feelin' warm and bright
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight

We like our fun and we never fight
You can't dance and stay uptight
It's supernatural delight
Everybody was dancing in the moonlight

Dancing in the moonlight
Everybody's feelin' warm and bright
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight

Everybody here is out of sight
They don't bark and they don't bite
They keep things loose, they keep things light
Everybody was dancing in the moonlight

Everybody's dancing in the moonlight
Everybody's feelin' warm and bright
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight

.

Finally got the food and camping stuff list done and sent to my two brothers and cousin. We are going camping (cabins by a lake) "back home" and will be having a picnic one of the afternoons with a number of our uncles, aunts and a couple of cousins joining us. Hope it warms up a little. Nights have been really cool recently. The cabins are heated but rain or very cold would really put a damper on things, especially cooking on an open fire! It will be so nice to see some of the relatives. Last August was the last time that almost everyone of the 80+ were together but that was for a funeral of my oldest uncle. It is going to be so hard losing more (Mom was oldest of 10). So this mini-reunion will be fun to talk about old times and to create new memories.

jude51 & Jim(dainisjg) We also watch the TV shows on On Demand. Nice to be able to fast forward.

jude51 Both DH and I LOL while watching Big Bang and we all know that laughter is the best medicine. For us, there is something special when we both laugh at the same time.

Jim(dainisjg) DH watches Breaking Bad. He suggested it to me but I didn't think that I would like it. Maybe I'll have to see if the first ones are still on and see if it is something that I would like to watch more of. You must have caught a 'bad' episode of The Big Bang Theory when you first watched it as you discovered when you watched more. Most of the ones that I have seen, and I have watched many of them, were not as you described in the initial one that you saw, but it has been on for 6 seasons so either it was different writers that week or the writers were having a bad week! September 26 starts the 7th season so they must be doing something right. I've been amazed that the quality has stayed as good imo as it has over so many seasons. Hard to believe they keep coming up with new story lines.

Bob Newhart will be appearing in more episodes this season. Nice to hear that he received an Emmy for it. I agree about being a bit disappointed in his performance, but it was still great to see him back on the screen. The ending to his show when he was the Innkeeper in Vermont ranks right up there with Carol Burnett coming down the stairs with the drapery rod still attached to the drapes!

I forgot to mention yesterday that two of the actors in "Newsroom" are Jane Fonda, who owns the network (shades of Ted Turner) and the Sam Waterstone, who played the head Asst DA on Law & Order, and he is the head honco of the Newsroom. Excellent actors all around in the series.

Oh and one of the BBC shows that I have been wanting to mention for awhile in addition to the ones that I listed yesterday is "Monarch of the Glen" We have watched quite a few seasons of it but recently slacked off. The later seasons are not as good as the first ones. A lot of the original characters are gone and it doesn't have the zip it once did, but we plan on watching more when nothing else is one. It is a light comedy and is another one that DH and I would LOL together so it is a good one to watch esp from the beginning if you like to be amused and entertained. All the episodes are available on DVD.

From Wikipedia:

" Monarch of the Glen is a British drama television series produced by Ecosse Films for BBC Scotland and broadcast on BBC One for seven series between 2000 and 2005.

The Monarch of the Glen television series is loosely based on Sir Compton Mackenzie's Highland Novels, which are set in the same location but in the 1930s and 1940s. The first book in that series is called The Monarch of the Glen which was a reference to the famous painting by Landseer. The first five series of Monarch of the Glen told the story of young restaurateur, Archie MacDonald, trying to restore his childhood home in the Scottish Highlands, starring Alastair Mackenzie, Richard Briers, Susan Hampshire, and Dawn Steele, whilst the final two series of the show focused on new Laird Paul Bowman trying to modernise the estate, primarily starring Lloyd Owen, Tom Baker, Alexander Morton, and Susan Hampshire."

It is interesting that they don't list Julian Fellowes in that list of actors. He not only played a great part but he is the creator of Downton Abby Interesting that the Wiki page gave about the same review as I did with the first 5 seasons bringing in high ratings but then dropping as actors left (better offers or lousy contract?). It does appear that it will be worth watching it to the end however as they bring some of the originals back. DH and I thought they were trying to let the show die a slow death as they kept getting rid of some of the best. We have noticed that on some other BBC shows. The best actors leave either killed off or moving while the American shows keep running until everyone is sick to death of watching them! LOL

In looking up Monarch of the Glen, I found out that the Highland estate made famous in the TV series goes on the market for the first time in 200 years for £7 million. It is not the one where the Monarch of the Glen lived but rather the one where the character that Julian Fellows lived. These estates are huge, the one that is for sale has 7,000 acres and the one where the Monarch lived was said to have 20,000 at least in the story it did.

Below is the article with pixs of both homes/castles as well as the owners of the one for sale and the characters in front of the one on the program.

Considering what people pay in Beverly Hills and other parts of the US, this seems to be a great deal!

http://tinyurl.com/k3t429l

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2390235/Highland-estate-famous-Monarch-Glen-goes-market-7m.html

Jude That was a very scary thing to happen. Glad that it was nothing more. Yeah, they better rewind that film for what you paid! LOL BTW did you notice that on your MyEbay page the Free listings showed up even before the email was received. At least that is what happened to us. I looked at MyEbay page and saw that the block for all these free listings but didn't get an email until much, much later. When I followed the link to make sure that we really did have free listings, it said that you will be noticed by Myebay and email. I like that the Myebay showed up so early.

My brother and his wife went to Antiques Roadshow with a vase that had been my mother's. The guy evaluating it keep trying to get the attention of the cameramen. My brother is funny in telling the story of how the expert keep saying the same thing over and over and louder and louder trying to capture the attention of the camera crew. They didn't get on TV but did learn a lot about the vase and that it was worth a couple of hundred.

I know several people here like watching Pickers for similar reasons. Learning something new, esp. if you are an ebay seller. I watched it in the beginning but now flip the channel usually.

Sandy (bookbase) ~ ah, another Walton repeat fan! LOL I recently saw an episode that I had missed. I had wondered how they did the transition from "old John boy" to the actor who took his place. I thought it was very well done by using the news article about him being found after being MIA in WW 2 and as the family is reading the article the camera goes to the newspaper they are holdand and there is a pix of the new actor! Very smooth.

I remember there were several Survivor fans on board and the topic would come up often. I think of mainelady often - Survivor ads, football games, ice skating on TV all bring her to mind. I still miss her and am so glad I had the opportunity to met her when we went to Maine. She was such a kind and sensible lady.

Speaking of 60 Minutes, it is amazing how long lasting that show has been and all the copy cats. It started in
1968 and in 2002 it was ranked #6 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. "The Newsroom" show that I mentioned in an earlier post reminds me of a cross between it and CNN. What is unique about "The Newsroom" is that all the news events that are portrayed really did happen. Sometimes the time sequence is out of step of when it did happen but they use "real news events". The creator and principal writer, Aaron Sorkin, insists that it be that way. Sorkin was the creator and writer of The West Wing, which I thought was a great show.

I got really curious as to who the buyer was so went to the seller's FB and what do I find but DH had bought it under his ID! LOL I had forgotten that he had told me about it when he placed it on the bookcase next to my computer. The LEC sold within days for twice the amount and is headed back to the state of Washington!

DH and I are already done with watching the 'current season' of Foyle’s War. We are usually one step ahead with the BBC shows.

I think that we only get the cream of crop of British TV and that is the cream of BBC. If we had only British TV to watch I am sure that there would be people who would say that it 'stinks.'

Much of American TV is geared to certain demographics and usually people our age are not part of that demographic. We are not the "spenders" that younger viewers are. I never watched Friends or Seinfield except for a couple of times. Not only wasn't it my cup of tea but I was smart enough to know that the I wasn't part of the demographics they were aiming for.

It is interesting that the BBC now has a Law & Order but set in London.

I recently read that the demographic for the Big Bang Theory was up to 65, yet one of the actors said that he met an 80 year old who just loved the show. The man had been a rocket scientist and could identify with the characters who reminded him of not only himself but friends and people he had worked with.

Couple of American shows that I enjoy watching are The Newsroom (HBO). The finale of the second season was just on but we haven't watched it. We usually watch the little TV we watch by "on demand." I also like The Good Wife and Mad Men.

I remember how much mainelady enjoyed The Survivor, but it wasn't something I ever watched beyond a few minutes. I would never tell her that I thought all American TV stinks, just like I would have never told her that watching the sports that she so loved was "crap." It may not be something that I like but to denigrate all American TV because I don't watch much of it or because I fit the demographics it not worth saying. I still watch 60 Minutes and some of the other news shows like Dateline - depends on the subject matter if I stick with the entire show.

I also enjoy Criminal Minds and while I did at one time I have grown a bit tired of Law and Order and NCIS (the original), but I'll still watch them if I happen to tune in at the right time.

That said we have been enjoying the new season of Cooper (BBC America) and The White Queen [British television drama series in ten parts, based on Philippa Gregory's bestselling historical novel series The Cousins' War, (The White Queen, The Red Queen and The Kingmaker's Daughter). The first episode was broadcast on BBC One on 16 June 2013. It was broadcast in the United States on Starz on 9 August 2013.]

Another one that we have been enjoying is Broadchurch (BBC). Of all the British shows the dialect is the hardest to understand. Another BBC one that we had watched and are waiting for the next season is Top of the Lake which is set in New Zealand. Interestingly the female lead character who plays a detective is "Peggy" from Mad Men!

When you read some lousy books you usually don't use a broad tar brush and say that every book "stinks" or if you end up reading books aimed at a younger audience, you are smart enough to figure out that the books are not aimed at your age group. Some people like romance novels, some like mystery novels, some like this or that. Via la difference!

And boy that Betty White is still a hoot even at her age. She was funny when she was young and still remains that way. That is growing old gracefully in my book.

Trading stamps were a very large part of our family, with 4 kids and my dad owning his own business money was tight, esp when farmers had bad years. He extended credit and got burnt when some farmers just couldn't pay him. You could tell what kind of year it had been at Christmas time. Not that my parents were ever the type to buy us tons of toys and putting toys on lay-away just wasn't done, but some years besides the PJs, underwear, and maybe a sweater, there would only be one or two things that I could consider "not a neccesity." One year it was a pair for ice skates - one for my oldest brother and one for me. That was it except for the clothes. Of course, by that time we were getting older too and toys were for the younger two but even then since they had an older brother who handed down toys, they didn't get a lot of new stuff either! Sorta like my poor younger son! LOL No wonder he is such a fashion plate now. He got tired of all those worn out T-shirts and jeans! Christmas here is pretty much in the tradition of our families. Maybe a few more toys and games then when we were growing up, but not a huge pile like I've seen at some homes.

As far as trading stamps, we had both the S&H green stamps and the plaid. The plaid were given out by A&P where my grandmother liked to shop. When my mother took her shopping then she would also buy stuff and come home with the plaid, but it was the S&H that filled the books quickly in our household. My mother and grandmother were so funny. My mother liked the one grocery store better than the one that her mother liked. My mother used Tide and my grandmother like Cheer. Mom bought Hellman's and grandmother bought Miracle Whip. LOL My grandmother had 10 kids with the oldest being my mom and the youngest an uncle who is only a year or two older than I am so money was always tight in their household. But that is the way it was for many people. I didn't even realize that we were not "middle class" until I was much older. We were not poor and not low-income enough to get any help or needs-based money for college but not the middle class that I saw when we went to Michagan to visit family friends and relatives. Swimming pools and more! LOL

I remember two items that my mother got with S&H green stamps. One was a set of luggage for going away to college. I think it was only 1 large green suitcase and a "train case" - remember train cases and hat boxes? Later I did have a medium size green suitcase but I don't think it was part of the set, just matched sort of. Anyway what was so funny about my going to college suitcase is that my best friend from HS who was going to the same college ended up with the same set! Her mother also had traded in the stamps for college luggage. I wonder how many kids went away to college in the late '60s and early '70s with luggage from the S&H green stamp store! LOL I had that luggage until fairly recently. We did buy new luggage in the mid-1990s when we went to Ireland but it took a long time even after that for me to let go of them. I'm going to have to ask my oldest brother what luggage he took to college! Wonder if his came from the green stamp store too.

The other item I remember my mother getting me for Christmas when I was in HS was a guitar. Never learned to play it very well beyond a few chords. I took it to college and a friend borrowed it. She left it against the radiator in her dorm room...well it warped of course. How dumb do you have to be to put something like that against heat?! I was very upset. Not so much because I didn't have a guitar to play anymore but the thought that this gift that my parents had been able to give me only because of those stamps was now ruined.

While my mother did paste in the green stamps, I mostly remember my father doing it for her in the evenings. Too many stamps and too little time with 4 kids to sit and paste in stamps! Later I took over doing it in the household but liked doing the Plaid the best. Also pasted in the stamps for my grandmother.

Until about the late 1970s or early 1980s, there was a green stamp store here (back home you had to drive an hour to one). DH and I went there right before it closed with the books that we had. Didn't have many since most stores no longer gave them. Can't even remember what we got, but I remember so well what was given to me by my parents due to those stamps.

Instead of stamps, I guess grocery stores now give the "bonus buys" where if you sign up with them you get the item for less. Between the bonus buys and coupons, you can reduce your bill by a nice amount but I doubt if anyone goes home and takes the money "saved" and "saves" it for buying Christmas or Birthday gifts.

David LOL about what happens with your Christmas club money! But OTOH, you have a nice chunk ready to pay that insurance and taxes.

I have a funny story to tell on myself about writing a book description but that can wait for now.

Irene @lovetohike and Curt @admin ~ Are you safe and dry? Is it flooding where you are? BTW Curt, the fix worked again for me yesterday but no such luck today. However, I realize with all the rain you are getting you may have much more important things on your mind right now.

Penny @oceanabooks ~ Have you heard from Kathy/rockymthigh? I didn't find her listed as a member of this board but she might be under another ID which I don't remember off the top of my head. You can email me privately if you prefer.

mysteryhorse After I posted I remembered about lay-away and that might be what the ads were for. I even forgot about layaway until one year emilabooks had posted she was doing some for Christmas gifts for the children.

June Kamm (dupo) I remember Christmas Clubs too. My dad had my brothers and I do them. An important first step for a child in learning to save and delayed gratification. I don't recall how much it was per month, but I know it wasn't even a dollar as the total amount after 11 months or whatever would have been A LOT. I am thinking that maybe we saved at a rate of .50 a month or who knows it could have been a quarter! I just remember the satisfaction of having my own money that I had saved to buy gifts from my parents and brothers.

In reading the Wikipedia entry (not the article below) I learned that the first known Christmas club started in 1909, when Merkel Landis, treasurer of the Carlisle (Pennsylvania) Trust Company, introduced the first Christmas savings fund. Carlisle is about 20 miles from where I live.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_club

Christmas Clubs still exist. Credit unions seem to have them more than banks, but some banks still do have them.

Are Christmas club accounts still a good idea?

Your mother probably had a Christmas club account at a local bank or credit union. You might remember her faithfully depositing $5 or $10 a week all year long to save up money for the holidays.

But is this simple method of saving for the holidays -- which reached their height of popularity in the 1970s -- still relevant today?

A Christmas club account -- which is not really a "club" at all -- is simply a special short-term savings account set up by a financial institution to encourage nest-egg building for the holidays. Most can be opened with a nominal deposit.

But there are few financial perks to be gained from Christmas clubs: The return on these accounts is negligible, and you usually cannot take the money out until the start of the holiday season, usually around Nov. 1.

The point, of course, is not to make a killing on compound interest, but to safeguard your money -- from yourself -- so you have enough funds to spend for gifts or even travel during the holidays. And it helps prevent a pile of credit card debt in January.

While some banks still offer Christmas club accounts, credit unions, by far, are still the champions of this type of savings vehicle. According to the Credit Union National Association, or CUNA, nearly 72 percent of credit unions run Christmas clubs, and consumer interest in these clubs is holding steady.

"These kinds of accounts, small as they may be, are important because they encourage saving; this small step could lead to better saving habits," says Patrick Keefe, spokesman for CUNA.

At TruStone Financial Federal Credit Union in Plymouth, Minn., there's been a slight uptick in its "Holiday Helper" account this year, says Katie Grindeland, marketing manager for the credit union.

"Now, I must confess, this number is up by less than 1 percent (over last year-BUT THE ARTICLE IS NOT DATED!!) but an increase nonetheless," she says. Balances are slightly down over last year.

Grindeland notes that while the original intent of Christmas clubs was to target savers, the appeal of other financial products such as money market accounts, rewards programs for credit and debit cards, and certificates of deposit have taken the shine off Christmas club accounts. But that may be changing because of the belt-tightening that has taken hold among American consumers: "The allure to budget and save is back," she says. "A revival and/or a customization of (the Christmas club account) may be what is needed."

Rest of article:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/christmas-club-accounts-1.aspx

bookbase/Sandy I've been meaning to mention that I was glad to read that you enjoyed The Butler. DH offered to take me but it was one of those days that I didn't feel like it - hair a mess, old clothes on, etc. Now that I have some new clothes I'll have to get dolled up and go out to the movies! Of course, if I want to wear them I will have to wait for much cooler weather! LOL

Originally the Garden was dedicated to only the British victims of 9/11. But Canada and other commonwealth countries protested and wanted to be included so it was renamed in a rededication ceremony a couple of years later. And it was to also the unity between GB and USA.

Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Inscribed with names of Counties of England

The Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden is located in Hanover Square in downtown Manhattan. It commemorates the 67 British victims of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on July 6, 2010.[1]

Originally planned as The British Memorial Garden, it was officially named The British Garden at Hanover Square by Prince Harry of Wales on May 29, 2009.[2] On May 2, 2012, it was renamed as 'Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden' at a rededication ceremony led by the Dean of Westminster Abbey. This was to include victims of other Commonwealth countries who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks.[3] [4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_II_September_11th_Garden

History of British Memorial Garden at Hanover Square, NY (New York)- 9/11 Living Memorial

Purpose: . . .

Reason site was selected: After September 11th, Hellman visited sites all over New York City in search of an appropriate location for a garden. Although Battery Park was suggested, Hellman felt that this area was already quite full of memorials to various events and groups. She discovered Hanover Square in Wall Street and found the space to be enclosed and appropriate, only later learning of the rich British and American Heritage that this site held. It was named Hanover Square during British colonial times, as inspired by London's Hanover Square. It became a residential, publishing, and retail center of Manhattan in the 18th century.

http://voicesofseptember11.org/dev/memorials.php?mem_id=4

Images for british memorial garden nyc

http://tinyurl.com/nnvbyjc

What I found interesting is that the East River has never flooded past the point of where the Garden is located. Swifty did some research and in all the years of record-keeping it never gets beyond there. Even in the horrible hurricane Sandy, the river reached up to the edge of the garden and didn't go beyond that point. All the land in front of it is fill. Swifty's building is on the first solid ground there is and ground that has been there reaching back in time. Very interesting looking at maps that are hundreds and hundreds of years old. Reminds me of learning that the Back Bay of Boston was built on fill.

Hi David, Are you nit picking about the apostrophe and S? LOL As well as the change in date? You must be really bored or having nothing better to do or the whole change of date from under President Bush to what it is under this President now must have "got your goat." 😉 It is not like it was a long-established tradition and it made more sense to me to remember 9/11 in the same manner that the battle cry of "Remember Pearl Harbor" (Dec. 7) I didn't check that date so that might be another nit you can pick! LOL

Yes, I know about Patriots' Day in Massachusetts and Wisconsin and Patriot's Day in Maine. [note the apostrophe before the S in that case!] My BIL has lived in Boston since the late 1970s so I've long been aware of their state holiday.

The Boston Marathon is always held on Patriots' Day, which is the the third Monday of April. Nothing wrong with adding that it is a Day of Remembrance in my book. Helps to clarify what Patriots were are talking about. Of course, I am old enough to remember when Nov. 11 was Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day or Armistice Day)and then it turned into Veterans Day. Names may change but the intent to honor remains in all cases and in fact had now become even more inclusive.

In Boston this year the annual rite to commemorate the 206 Massachusetts victims of 9/11 will also include the four dead and more than 260 injured in the Boston Marathon. A moment of silence for those victims will be included by the State house and there also will be tributes to the first responders.

Boston Marathon Bombing Victims Share In September 11 Observances

The families of 9/11 victims came together with survivors of the Boston Marathon bombings Wednesday in a special ceremony at the State House.

The annual Madeline Amy Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery was presented to Carlos Arredondo, who rushed in after the April 15 bombings to rescue Jeff Bauman, who lost both legs in the blast.

Sweeney was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, the first of two jetliners that were hijacked from Logan Airport and flown into World Trade Center’s twin towers.

Bauman was in the audience for Wednesday’s presentation, along with the family of MIT police officer Sean Collier, who was shot and killed during the manhunt for the two suspects back in April.

“I smile when I see Jeff Bauman and other survivors. They are getting healthy and they are very beautiful,” said Arredondo, who embraced Bauman as he accepted the award.

Sweeney was just doing her job 12 years ago, Arredondo said, and “I was just doing my duty as a human being,” after the bombings.

“I knew (by) the size of the explosion that it really hurt a lot of people. That’s why I rushed into action and helped out,” he told reporters after the ceremony.

Bill Richard, the father of the youngest marathon bombing victim Martin Richard, also delivered a brief message.

Observances of the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks began Wednesday in Boston with a wreath-laying ceremony at the 9/11 memorial in the Public Garden.

It was followed by a reading at the State House of the names of the more than 200 people with direct ties to Massachusetts who died in the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Rest of article: http://tinyurl.com/q9ljdvy

I will have to remember to ask Swifty what it was like in his neighborhood today. He not only lives in the Financial District but right in front of his building is the British Garden which commemorates the citizens of Great Britain and of the commonwealth nations who died or where injured in the 9/11 attack. He doesn't live that far from the WTC. We pass by it each time we leave the city. Someday we will visit.

Yes, I think Day of Remembrance is very appropriate to cover both 9/11 and the Boston Marathon.

For those who forgot and for those who remembered that today is "Patriot's Day" - named to honor of those who died or were injured on 9/11 - a poem repeat. It sums it it so well, rather like The Wall in DC. In a proclamation today, our governor referenced Penn's Woods role in the attack.

"Whereas the first battle in our War on Terror took place in the skies over Somerset County Pennsylvania, where 40 brave passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 rose up against their captors and prevented a strike on the nation’s capital, at the sacrifice of their own lives;"

The Names
by Billy Collins

Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night.
A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze,
And when I saw the silver glaze on the windows,
I started with A, with Ackerman, as it happened,
Then Baxter and Calabro,
Davis and Eberling, names falling into place
As droplets fell through the dark.
Names printed on the ceiling of the night.
Names slipping around a watery bend.
Twenty-six willows on the banks of a stream.
In the morning, I walked out barefoot
Among thousands of flowers
Heavy with dew like the eyes of tears,
And each had a name --
Fiori inscribed on a yellow petal
Then Gonzalez and Han, Ishikawa and Jenkins.
Names written in the air
And stitched into the cloth of the day.
A name under a photograph taped to a mailbox.
Monogram on a torn shirt,
I see you spelled out on storefront windows
And on the bright unfurled awnings of this city.
I say the syllables as I turn a corner --
Kelly and Lee,
Medina, Nardella, and O'Connor.
When I peer into the woods,
I see a thick tangle where letters are hidden
As in a puzzle concocted for children.
Parker and Quigley in the twigs of an ash,
Rizzo, Schubert, Torres, and Upton,
Secrets in the boughs of an ancient maple.
Names written in the pale sky.
Names rising in the updraft amid buildings.
Names silent in stone
Or cried out behind a door.
Names blown over the earth and out to sea.
In the evening -- weakening light, the last swallows.
A boy on a lake lifts his oars.
A woman by a window puts a match to a candle,
And the names are outlined on the rose clouds --
Vanacore and Wallace,
(let X stand, if it can, for the ones unfound)
Then Young and Ziminsky, the final jolt of Z.
Names etched on the head of a pin.
One name spanning a bridge, another undergoing a tunnel.
A blue name needled into the skin.
Names of citizens, workers, mothers and fathers,
The bright-eyed daughter, the quick son.
Alphabet of names in a green field.
Names in the small tracks of birds.
Names lifted from a hat
Or balanced on the tip of the tongue.
Names wheeled into the dim warehouse of memory.
So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart.

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Billy Collins was the U.S. poet laureate at the time of the 9/11 attacks. A year later, he wrote "The Names" in honor of the victims.

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I always sent cards to my grandparents on Mother’s and Father’s Day. Yeah, I know that technically they are not my parents but that was when grandparents were recognized in the ’old days’ before some made-up holiday came along. I remember standing in the store buying cards for my 2 parents and 3 grandparents and DH's 2 parents and one grandmother and totaling up the cost (money was tight at the time) and then I hit myself on the head and said to myself, "The day will come where you will wish that you were able to buy these cards." And yep, within 7 years I had lost all parents and grandparents and now we are down to just DH's mom.

Wonder if the phone, card and flower industry sees an increase in sales for Grandparents Day. I know Mother’s Day is at the top or near the top of the number of he phone calls made over all other holidays.

Maybe if stores started having sales for Grandparents’ Day, more people would be aware of it! Then you would have some people complaining about how retail took over and turned the sacred holiday into a day of nothing more than being about money, money, money!

How many people called or sent a card or flowers to their children and grandchildren this year? It is a much, much older ’holiday’ than Grandparents Day. In the United States it is on the Second Sunday of June. This year it was June 9, 2013 and next year it will be June 8, 2014 – so don’t forget this forgotten holiday!

”Children’s Day is recognized on various days in many places around the world, to honor children globally. It was first proclaimed by the World Conference for the Well-being of Children in 1925 and then established universally in 1954 to protect an ”appropriate” day.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children’s_Day

”Americans recognize Mother’s Day, Father’s Day… so why not a national Children’s Day? A day that revives, celebrates, and commits to our children and their future. Commitments cards; along with local, state, and national recognition are all part of this day… a day that has deep historical roots in America.”

Children’s Day . . . by giving faith, hope, love, and commitment to our children.

http://www.nationalchildrensday.us/

Jim and David I laughed at both of your grandchildren comments.

David A child’s birthday is very important and it was kind of her to remind you that her’s was coming up! She knew you would feel terrible if you forgot! LOL

Jim I am going to have to remember to check with my oldest brother if he has done his duty on that matter with his 3 young grandchildren-it will be perfect for him with 2 grandsons and 1 granddaughter.

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Looking for new books to read?

Fall Books Preview: 22 Notable New Releases
Pack your reading list with big names and new voices in both fiction and non-fiction alike.

As we move into the back-to-school months of autumn, the always-appealing smell of new books is about to reach peak irresistibility. This fall has already brought a handful of talked-about reads in fiction (Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam ), in nonfiction (David Epstein's The Sports Gene ), and even in nonfiction about fiction writers (David Shields and Shane Salerno's Salinger ), and the remaining months of 2013 offer more promising picks. Whether they're big releases from best-selling authors or works by lesser-known writers poised to delight or enlighten, here are 22 books we're looking forward to.

Click below to see the list and a description of each book.

http://tinyurl.com/kezs2jj

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June Kamm (dupo) I was getting the same message each time I tried to sign back in. On the second try it would work.

If you don't log out (sign out), then you don't get the message because you are already logged in/signed in and able to post. So the solution if it happens again is to never sign out! LOL

Now to see if clearing the cache as Curt suggested enables me to sign back in on the first try.

Nope didn't work on the first try. But as usual, I was permitted to log back in on the second try.

June Kamm (dupo) What Nyad did is an incredible feat for anyone let alone someone 64 years old. I have a lot of respect for her - the same as I do for someone who makes it to the Olympics. They don't even have to win a medal, just getting there is a lot of hard work, skill and talent. Someone once asked me if I would ever want to climb Mt. Everest and I said no. It was a dream of his but it wasn't something up my alley but for him climbing Mt. Everest was something he wanted to do because it was there.

I think Nyad summed up her swim quite well in this, both as to what it meant to her and as an inspiration to others. Might not be something I would want to do but I am no about to knock what she accomplished. She made her dream come true and not all of us can say we did that. I like the message she has in doing it . . .

"It's been a thrilling journey,'' Nyad said, urging fellow Baby Boomers that it's never too late to pursue personal goals and dreams. "The truth is, we're just coming into our own. I wanted this swim not to just be about an athletic record, but a lesson to live life fully engaged, to be alert and alive every day."

In October she is going to swim for 48 hours in a specially built Italian lap pool in New York City's Times Square to raise money for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

carol (bookdelle) hahaha! Don't worry there are still young people who know what Labor Day is about as well as what unions gave us in terms of 8 hour work days and 40 hour weeks. If Swifty didn't learn about strikebreakers and the horrors in school, I know he would have in reading the many, many biographies and history books of captains of industry.

Like many others here when I went to school we started school after Labor Day but by the time I had reached HS, school started that Thursday or Friday before Labor Day. The main reason for starting a couple of days before Labor Day seemed to be in order to give out free tickets to the County Fair.

Schools here begin with week before Labor Day and the teachers start the week prior to that. However, the city school district changed their calendar last year and now start mid-August. This year they started Aug 12. and the change was made in order to allow more time to prepare for the state standardized testing in the spring. The earlier start allows for the schools to be closed for more time during the winter which is supposed to save money during the heating season. In PA, the older schools do not have AC.

Like many others here I remember the days of when everything had to ironed because perma-press was not a common feature in clothes. My mother had a Mangle Iron Machine which was great for sheets, table cloths, napkins etc.

I found out how great perma-press was in the mid-1960s when I wore a school uniform to HS and was responsible by that age for taking care of it. When the entrance exam was administered was when you also ordered the uniform and it was suggested that you get at least 2 navy serge uniforms and 5 white blouses. The only choice you had was all cotton blouses or perma-press. I ordered 3 of one and 2 of the other or maybe it was vice versa. Anyway those perma-press blouses came out of the dryer ready to wear but the cotton ones needed touch-up ironing, but since the uniform covered almost all of the blouse except for the collar, short sleeves, and a narrow strip down the front. Those wide lapels hide so much that all you had to do with the cotton ones was iron the collar, sleeves, and the strip down the front! LOL

The person to thank for wash-and-wear clothing is Ruth R. Benerito. In 1953, Brooks Brothers manufactured wash-and-wear shirts using a blend of Dacron, polyester, and cotton that was invented by Ruth R. Benerito, which they called "Brooksweave".

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ruth Mary Rogan Benerito (born January 12, 1916) is an American scientist and inventor known for her work related to the textile industry, including the development of wash-and-wear cotton. She holds 55 patents.

Personal life

Ruth Rogan was born and raised in New Orleans. In an age when girls did not usually go on to higher education, her father made sure his daughters received the same education available to boys. She completed high school at age 14 and entered Sophie Newcomb College, Tulane University, at age 15, to study chemistry. She graduated during the Great Depression and hoped to do research, but jobs were not enough and for a time had to teach at local schools in Jefferson Parish, west of New Orleans, before making her name as a research chemist.

Her further studies took her to Bryn Mawr, and back to Newcomb where she taught chemistry while researching advanced quantitative analysis and physical chemistry, organic chemistry, kinetics, and thermodynamics. While working as a teacher, Benerito took night classes to earn her master's degree from Tulane University. During World War II she taught college classes, and she earned her doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Chicago after the war. She married Frank Benerito in 1950 and went to work at the USDA Southern Regional Research Center of the US Department of Agriculture in New Orleans, where she spent most of her career.

In later years, while she was researching cotton fibers, Benerito taught classes part-time at Tulane University and at the University of New Orleans. She retired from the USDA in 1986 but continued to teach part-time at Tulane and the University of New Orleans.

Invention of wrinkle-free fiber

Ruth Benerito is most famous for her work relating to the use of mono-basic acid chlorides in the production of cotton, with which she has 55 patents, which allows for more wrinkle-free and durable clothing. She invented these wash-and-wear cotton fabrics while working at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) laboratories in New Orleans in the 1950s.[1] Before this innovation, a family needed considerable time to iron clothes. Benerito found a way to chemically treat the surface of cotton that led not only to wrinkle-resistant fabric but also to stain- and flame-resistant fabrics. The invention was said to have "saved the cotton industry."[2]

The secret of the invention is the use of a process called crosslinking. Cotton is composed of a material called cellulose. Like synthetic nylon and polyester fibers, cellulose is a polymer; that is, its molecules are shaped like long chains containing many thousands of atoms. The long, chainlike shape of the molecules is what makes cellulose, like nylon and polyester, a good fiber. She discovered a way to treat cotton fibers so that the chainlike cellulose molecules were joined together chemically. This procedure is known as crosslinking, and it makes cotton resistant to wrinkling.

It was first thought that crosslinking was making the cotton fabric wrinkle resistant by strengthening its fibers, but the amount of crosslinking used in her treatment is small and does not add much strength. She developed a new theory on how crosslinking works. It is known that cellulose molecules can stick to each other by means of the weak hydrogen bonds between molecules. She proposed that one side effect of her crosslinking process was the strengthening of the hydrogen bonds, which made the material resistant to wrinkling.

Method feeding seriously wounded soldiers

Besides her contribution to textile industry, during the Korean War, she developed a way to give fat intravenously to patients who were too sick to eat—a method used to feed seriously wounded soldiers, helping thousands of people.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_R._Benerito#Contributions
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Few Americans know what Labor Day is about: Labor Pains
by Mat Catastrophe, Charleston City Paper, South Carolina, August 28, 2013

Monday is Labor Day, and, like most American holidays, it comes with the usual prepackaged ad campaigns designed to get you out of the house and shopping on this long weekend. In this respect, the day that Americans set aside to celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of the working class is no different from many of our secular holidays. What's different, though, is what's missing from our national celebration of Labor Day, and that is any real notion of what it means to be a 21st-century American worker.

Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Presidents' Day, Independence Day, and even Martin Luther King Jr. Day are now all used to sell us cars and shoes, mattresses and appliances, hot dogs and beer. While these holidays rely heavily on the iconography of their origins, on Labor Day there is precious little mention of the men and women who built this nation during times of war and peace. It is a holiday that exists without any mention of its reason for existing.

While some people today continue to insist that organized labor is a socialist threat, it is important to note that organized labor in America took steps early in the 20th century to distance itself from the more radical, and properly socialist, movements for workers' rights elsewhere in the world. So successful was this distancing that we are left with a holiday without any real context and, more importantly, a working class with no real connection to themselves or each other.

We are constantly reminded in schools, in advertisements, and on bumper stickers to remember those who gave their lives in defense of our nation, but we are not taught about those who died fighting for better wages or better treatment in the workplace. We don't even talk about those who were maimed or killed while going about their daily work. Scholastic Publishing, for instance, has "teaching themes" available for Constitution Day, President's Day, and World War II, among other topics, but the topic of working people is nowhere mentioned. So even though we have a day set aside to celebrate "labor," we still are not taught very much about it.

We are not taught about the deaths of women and children in Ludlow, Colo. in 1913. We are not taught about striking miners shot in the back by strikebreakers. We are not taught about the harassment, torture, and murder of labor activists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and we are certainly not taught about how much of this violence was state-sanctioned, either implicitly through nonexistent investigations and show trials or explicitly through the use of law enforcement and the National Guard.

Sadly, today we remain blind to our labor history in America. Just as millions of Americans will use the long Labor Day weekend to go shopping — those cashiers are not getting the day off — thousands of fast food workers across America are continuing to organize strikes against their perpetual low-wage and non-full time status. If you can say that you think it is OK for the CEO of a fast food company to make twice as much in a day as the average fast food worker does in a year, then you should reconsider what Labor Day means for you.

The net effect of this blindness both to history and to the modern struggle of workers is that it insulates most working people from feeling any sense of class consciousness. We take for granted the idea of the 8-hour workday and the 5-day work week — so much so that both of those ideas are more or less meaningless in an era when so many of us work multiple part-time jobs or we're tied to our full-time jobs by our laptops and smart phones even when we are at home.

Increasingly, it seems, young people leave high school or college happy they won't be stuck at a single job for their whole lives like their grandparents, but they ignore the fact that this so-called freedom means that there is no steady paycheck, no benefits, no paid time off, and no retirement fund outside of whatever money gets funneled away into a 401(k) plan used to prop up Wall Street's continued economic insanities. We take so much for granted, in fact, that Newt Gingrich was not only allowed to insinuate that children should be put to work again, but he was actually applauded for saying it.

Labor Day, more than almost any other American holiday, is the one in which the largest number of Americans should feel deeply invested. However, until we decide to educate ourselves, and more importantly our children, about the history behind the holiday and the sad state of workers' rights in our country today, it will just be another long shopping holiday designed to sell us not only useless consumer goods but a useless mythology.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/m42xpcn
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This past month in book sales has been great! It was the third highest month of the year. Just a surprise in the dog days of summer when our book sales are usually at the lowest. August topped June and July. July had topped Jan and Feb.

This month we did really well in selling Swifty's Tom Swift books. It seems that collector's must have finally found us. We also sold a good number of Easton Press books for nice amounts. Heritage Press was ok - those sales ranged from $12-18.

For those who go to book sales, here is a hint about not turning your nose up at International Collectors Library Editions (reprints, similar to Easton and Franklin but much earlier and cheaper in many ways). These are the bonded leather with paper that turns brown and brittle. Usually they don't sell or if they do, not for much so stay away from them which I suspect many of the booksellers here already know. HOWEVER, over these many years I have found one that I have sold more times than I can count and that is the GONE WITH THE WIND. Those GWTW collector's are willing to buy them. There are two kinds, one has the top edge gilt and the other not. I consistently get $24.99 for the former and $19.99 for the latter. I am down to my last one, no teg, but it has 'problems' so may have to lower the price from the inital $17.99 after the next batch of 10% sales ends on the literature category. DH did pick up a Canterbury Tales illustrated by Rockwell Kent and that only sold for $10.00.

Top 5 Book Sales

Joan MIRO ENGRAVER Original Woodcuts Ltd Ed Vol I Etchings Catalogue 1928-1960 - $134.99

WADDESDON MANOR England Architecture & Panelling Catalogue James de Rothschild - $53.99

TOM SWIFT AND HIS PLANET STONE First Edition G&D 1935 Sr #38 1st Ed Nat Falk - $49.99

VOLVO 122S P1800 1962-1968 Service Repair Handbook Clymer Manual Automobile Car - $39.99

GILDED METALS Gold Silver Bronze Technology Care Conservation Techniques History - $39.99

Top 8 Cookbook Sales, with one a duplicate With such an ethnic diversity of the top selling cookbooks, I decided to list the top 8 (one is a duplicate with one signed and the other is not signed)

PA DUTCH Cookbook SIGNED Florence Shunk Sweet Things Pennsylvania German Ethnic - $29.99 (plus another copy unsigned for $24.99)

JEWISH COOKBOOK Soviet Union Immigrants of New York City Russian Ethnic Recipes - $24.99

BETTY CROCKER'S New Cookbook 3-RING BINDER HC Sealed - $22.49

LITHUANIAN Cookbook Knights of Anthracite Council 144 Pennsylvania Ethnic Recipe - $22.49

JEWISH COMMUNITY Cookbook Temple Oheb Sholom Sisterhood Reading PA Ethnic VTG - $19.99

Italian Cookbook SONS OF ITALY Recipes Lodge #528 York Pennsylvania Ethnic Food - $19.99

RUSSIAN Cookbook Ethnic Recipes From SITKA ALASKA Russia Cookery Cuisine Vintage - $17.99

And DH no longer laughs at my cookbooks - he now looks for them when I am not along!

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The passing of a literary legend . . .

Seamus Heaney, Acclaimed Irish Poet, Dies at 74
New York Times, August 30

Seamus Heaney, a widely celebrated Irish poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, died at a hospital in Dublin on Friday after a short illness, according to a statement issued on behalf of his family. He was 74.

Mr. Heaney, who was born in Northern Ireland but moved to Dublin in his later years, is recognized as one of the major poets of the 20th century. His fellow poet Robert Lowell described Mr. Heaney as the “most important Irish poet since Yeats.”

In a statement, Faber & Faber, which published his work for nearly 50 years, called him “one of the world’s greatest writers. His impact on literary culture is immeasurable.”

Born April 13, 1939, on a farm near Toomebridge in Co. Derry, Mr. Heaney gained prominence in the 1960s after his debut with the “Death of a Naturalist.” His volumes of poetry include “The Spirit Level,” “District and Circle” and “Bog Poems.”

Under constant pressure to write favorably about the goals of his fellow Catholics, many of whom wanted a Northern Ireland free of British control, his work often dwelt on the sectarian violence in the British province of Ulster.

But he saw both sides of the conflict and never wrote polemics to support the violent campaign of the Irish Republican Army. He resented and attacked British oppression, but admired much in British culture and English literature. He was rare among modern poets in that not only the vast majority of critics and academics praised him, but millions of readers also bought him. By some estimates he was the best-read living poet in the world at in recent decades.

The accessibility of his work helped. It had references to Greek and Celtic legend, but was usually clear, often dazzling with images of nature, epiphanies of the soul. He wrote about bogs and rocks and streams and transformed them into the settings for the moral problems in a way that seemed to reach not only agnostic intellectuals, but also believing Catholics.

In “Digging,” the first poem in his first collection, “The Death of a Naturalist,” he exposed his method:

“The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.”

The Irish Times said in an editorial after he won the Nobel Prize: “Book sales may not mean much in the areas of fiction or biography, but for a poet to sell in the thousands is remarkable proof to his ability to speak in his poems to what are inadequately called ‘ordinary people.’ Yet the popularity of his work should not be allowed to obscure the fact that this deep, at times profound poetry, forged through hard thinking and an attentive, always tender openness to the world, especially the natural world.”

Writing in a collection of his lectures in 1995, “The Redress of Poetry, Mr. Heaney said: “It is in the space between the farmhouse and the playhouse that one discovers what I’ve called ‘the frontier of writing,’ the line that divides the actual conditions of our daily lives from the imaginative representations of those conditions in literature.”

In the 1984 collection, “Station Island,” he wrote: “The main thing is to write for the joy of it. Cultivate a work-lust that imagines its haven like your hands at night, dreaming the sun in the sunspot of a breast. You are fasted now, light-headed, dangerous. Take off from here. And don’t be so earnest.”

Source: http://tinyurl.com/o48lpmw

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Lately DH has not bothered to keep a bit extra since we have had a number of repeat buyers for muliple Tom Swift books. He would rather keep them coming back then get the nickles and dimes so he just uses the .50 for them.

TreasureMomz (Sam) Please don't be offended but when I told DH about calling he did the math and said now how long will you be on hold to get .29 or .39! Too bad you can't just call in once a quarter and say, Hey, I had these 20 sales that I need to have the FVF refunded.

Seriously I do appreciate the very helpful information and may just give it a try the next time it happens.

Learn something new everyday...

I had a heck of time with the buyer of the five books. Not him peronally, but it took a lot of emails as well as a phone call for him to finally be able to buy all the books. He said that the shopping cart would not work. I know there is a button that allows you to proceed shopping without paying right away. He was an experienced ebay but said he said that he couldn't get beyond the Paypal page for payment in order to buy the other books. He said it wouldn't even allow him to close the window which I do find hard to believe. Finally after talking to him on the phone, we decided the best course of action would be for me to end all the listings except for one. On that one I then changed the title to Lot of 5 books and changed the price to total the five books with the shipping and use free shipping. It was easier to include the shipping in the book lot price than to pull them all and weigh them and then change the shipping weight, if that was even possible.

I am hoping that he either just ran into a glitch over several hours of trying or just didn't see the button that allows you to continue to shop. I have a couple of unpaid books right now but they are all single buys so this better not be what happens with buyers who purchase more than one. However, just the week before I had sold 4 books to another buyer and that went off without a hitch. But he is a frequent repeat buyer from a Canadian musuem who always waits for us to send the combined invoice. We now 'scout' for him! Always keeping our eyes out for a book that would fit into what he buys.

We refund buyers who pay for each book also, but from what my first buyer said he has had to pay money on refunds. I didn't think the buyer would. I know we lost over $100 last year because of Paypal refund fees when we refunded for multiple purchases that were paid for one at a time. I suspect that is why I am seeing more and more in other people's listings the request that if the buyer is buying more than one item to wait until the seller sends the combined invoice.

It just didn't work for us not to know what the total shipping would be, esp in cases like I recently had where a person buy 5 books. I suspect the buyer would end up paying way more than the .50 per book that we charge. I suppose we could put the discount in as $3.50 or something like that. That way might work but ebay's method with the discount on calculated shipping just didn't seem to be the best way of doing it to us.

DH and his college roommate did a bicycle trip in Europe the summer after graduation. I think they started in Amsterdam then onto Germany, Austria, and France. My cousin did a bicycle trip around Ireland and one of Swifty's friends from high school did a bicycle trip across the USA, from the East Coast to the West. I think his trip was some type of fundraiser for medical research.

Austria, Australia, Amsterdam, America, and the list goes on with A countries. Much ado about nothing if one was following the conversation.

Diane Opps. Had Australia on the brain given that the conversation of people from other countries had been kicked off by my comment on the Aussies my son talked to.

It is ironic that Diane was nice enough to let them camp on her land and then he keeps telling her what she can do with the fallow land! lol Of course, it may have just been his way of making conversation .

Helen ~ ah yes, the vastness of the place . How many European countries would fit into the US? LOL Americans are always knocked for not being fluent in a second language but there are plenty of Euoperans who are fluent in only one and they have the advantage of being able to visit countries near-by and immerse themselves in another language and culture. For them driving to the next country is often on-par with us driving to the next state.

June Kamm (dupo) ~ That is a great story! It also illustrates that while many Americans are often knocked for not knowing much geography of other countries, the same is true with the flip of a coin. I have to admit that I have been trying to figure out if they could do the 3 sites in 3 days - only way is stay in the airplane and look out the window!

Diane I am surprised about the comments by that couple who were from Australia, which is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. I would have told him that it is a good farming practice to let land lay fallow. I know Australia, like the US, has a lot of land that is not arable but I didn't realize how little arable land they had. According to a World Bank report, arable land (% of land area) in Australia was 6.14 in 2009. Arable land includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow. Permanent cropland (% of land area) in Australia is only .1 and arable land (hectares per person) in Australia is 2.1 (5 acres) Your 17 acres (6 hectors) of arable land wasn't far off the mark of what was for one person in his country.

bookbase/Sandy Oh these last weeks of summer are such a delightful time to be oceanside. DH and I were thinking of taking a trip to Ocean City Md next month but the best week to do it would be next week already! After that it is a week with book sales and then a down week but that following week will be going in the opposite direction for a camp-out with my two brothers and a couple of cousins. Instead of tent camping this year, we rented several cute new cabins with porches overlooking the lake. Some of my aunts and uncles who live in the area will then be coming over for a mini-reunion cookout.

Beth Wow, what a great price your son pays for medical coverage and bookbase/Sandy , the $200 isn't bad compared to what Swifty pays for his Cobra. When he was doing his budget prior to leaving his job, he used a Cobra calculator that gave an estimate of $293 which he didn't think was too bad, but when he got the first bill is was for $363! Yes, it may have only been an estimate but one would think it would be been a bit closer. The other co-founder gets his coverage as a cohabitant under his girlfriend's plan and it is also several hundred dollars. I am blown away by what he would have to pay if not for the cobra and when that runs out even the reduced rates that are to take effect are still high.

Health insurance in New York is more expensive than in much of the rest of the country and there are 2.7 million uninsured people in New York. IMO not only is more affordable health care a good thing but with the new law care (aka Obamacare) pre-existing conditions are covered. And I don't care if my tax dollars have to be used to support the plan - in the end we always pay one way or another for the health care for those who can not afford it. Be it higher hospital and doctor bills to cover those who can't pay and in turn pass those higher costs on to the insurers who then raise our premiums and co-pays. Or those who can't afford to go to the doctor end up getting sicker and sicker until they are in the hospital needing more expensive treatment. Other examples too such as work force productively.

I looked up the Howard Dean re: Ted Cruz 'Doesn't Know Anything About Health Care'. One of the comments left was that Dean was being nice to limit that comment to the health care!

There are 2.7 million uninsured people in New York.

Obamacare To Cut Cost Of Health Coverage By Half For Many New Yorkers

. . .

The average premium of the most comprehensive health insurance plans in New York, known as "platinum" and "gold" plans, will fall 53 percent, the date released by Cuomo showed. The figure is based on rates approved for plans from 17 insurers, including the nation's largest, like UnitedHealth Group Inc. and WellPoint Inc.

When compared with the other less-expensive plans, such as the "silver" and "bronze" plans expected to make up most of the exchange market nationwide, the average decline in price from current rates in the individual market is even higher.

New York's future pricing is largely influenced by its current market for individual plans, with health insurance more expensive than in much of the rest of the country. Only about 17,000 people buy insurance in New York's direct-pay market, a New York Department of Financial Services spokesman said.

That number is expected to grow by 615,000 over the next few years and more than half are expected to receive government subsidies, according to Donna Frescatore, executive director of the New York Health Benefit Exchange. Another 450,000 people are expected to sign up for insurance on the exchange through small businesses, she said.

There are 2.7 million uninsured people in New York.

Starting in 2014, average premium prices for a mid-tier "silver" plan will range from $359 per month to $691 per month in New York City, according to information on the governor's website. Currently, premiums for individual health insurance in the city run from about $1,000 to $1,500 a month, according to the state insurance website.

. . .

Source and rest of article:

http://tinyurl.com/n7rmbwm

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Helen Thank you for the kind words. It was a fast visit home, but I'll take what I can get. He is back on the road again over hill and dale to see his grandmother and then it is off to the train station for the final leg of his journey home. He said that he slept a lot better in his own bed last night than he had for awhile, with the exception of the hotel bed in New Orleans! LOL He also found it strange to hear the "sounds of home" again with crickets and train whistles while he was falling asleep. His dad told him that we could make him a tape and he could listen to the "Sounds of Nighttime at Home" as he falls asleep in NYC.

A few more tales from Swifty't trip he related this morning:

When they are in Vegas waiting to cross the street a couple of Aussies said to them, "We were apprehensive about coming to the United States because of the things that we had read, but we are finding the people to be very nice." Swifty said most likely the only places they had been so far were California and Vegas!

On another note, he said that the rest stops in the South much nicer than the ones along our interstates. However, he said that it did come as a bit of a surprise to see signs at the entrance to the building which said, "No guns allowed beyond this point."

Greetings from the middle of the night in Penn’s Woods,

Did the usual of early to bed and early to rise!

Swifty is home, safe and sound. He arrived just in time for supper! I had called him earlier in the day to find out what time he was arriving. DH had asked me if I had heard from him and since I had not, I put in a call. Had to leave a message and DH burst out laughing as he listened to me. ”Hi Swifty, your dad wants to know where you are. You know how he makes me make the phone calls.” hahaha! Yep, mom didn’t care, it was your dad forcing me to call! He called back and said he was in Salem and I asked what state. He replied, ”Massachusetts, we got lost.” ahahaha!

When he arrived home the first thing that I noticed was that he had lost weight. He has always been tall and thin but after years of living the high life in NYC where he ate out often he had gained a few. But now that he is a co-founder of a fledging start-up, money is tight and he has had to tighten his belt. He said that supper now is a question of ”Should I have rice or should I have ramen noodles?” and that instead of taking the subway to work, he now walks the 3 miles. He also said that he weighed even less before his trip and that after a diet of meals at Denny’s and Waffle House for the last 2 weeks, he and his friend were so hungry for a salad! Didn’t have a salad with dinner but we did have fresh sweet corn which he enjoyed.

Speaking of corn, LLB mentioned the other week that the corn we have in PA is so much better than what he can get in California. We were surprised about that, or maybe it is just that he is not near where it is grown and freshly picked. On Tuesday we are going to get corn that is picked while you wait. A friend of ours lives near some Amish or maybe they are Mennonites who have a road-side stand. Now not only do they sell corn and other fresh picked veggies, they have a sign which says if you are willing to wait they will go out to the corn field and pick it right then! Shades of growing up when we just went to our garden and picked corn for supper.

In New Orleans, Swifty and his friend stayed a very nice hotel for a great price (W for $90). In New Orleans, his friend was impressed that when he called the front desk to check-out, the front desk answered with, ”What may we do for you Mr. so-and-so.” And this kid comes from a well-off family so it is not like it is his first time around the block in staying in nice hotels. Oh and that reminds me, Swifty said that the friend of his friend who they helped move in LA must come from a very sheltered background (i.e. very monied) and that an example of it was that the friend just couldn’t understand why it was better for the server to receive a cash tip instead of placing it on a credit card. Guess it was his day for learning something new.

One of the funniest parts of the trip had to be after they left New Orleans and planned on staying overnight in Bristol, Tennessee. When they arrived they found it was NASCAR week and they cheapest place they could find was a Motel 6 for $200!! They decided to keep driving and driving and driving and finally found a motel for $80. Nothing like the place they had stayed the night before! This place had as my son said, ”Some good ole boys sitting outside at 3 AM with a case of beer.” When they pulled in, one of them asked to drive my son’s friend car which is a Mini. The guy said, ”I’m not drunk, promise.” They said no to the request. He also said that based on the sign at this motel, ”Internet Free” must mean ”Free of the Internet” not as they thought that you could get the internet for free since they couldn't get it!

The trip in the Mini was quite a trip from the very start. They had to make several trips to UPS just to take the boxes that were to be shipped back. It was packed to the gills and they couldn’t put the roof down because there was so much stuff in it and something might go flying out.

Swifty and his friend decided that if either of them ever does a cross-country trip again they would schedule more time so that they could take more scenic routes instead of interstates. He said the only time they knew they were in another state is when they would get off the interstate for gas or a meal and hear the accents and all the ya'lls. LOL LOL

So now Swifty has been to all the states in the continental US except for one; or in other words there are three states he has not been to: Alaska, Hawaii, and Arkansas. He said that he has no plans of ever going to Arkansas and that state can forever remain the odd man out.

Today he will visit his grandmother and then take the early train home where he has a lot of work waiting for him. He is still doing consulting work for his former employer as well as picking up new consulting work. Helps to buys food, pay the electric, bills and other things such as the Cobra while still being able to work on the start-up.

One of the best pieces of advice he ever received was from Win from Chicago and who used to post on the old ebay book board in the very early days. Swifty was 16 and had just gotten his first job at a bank doing networking and Win told him to start a Vanguard account or similar for his retirement. It is advice that the younger son took also. Although we would have advised both the sons about starting retirement funds, firs job at 16 would have been earlier than what we most likely would have done. We most likely would have waited for the first offical job after college but the early start got them into a good habit. hmmm wonder if Win would like to invest in the start-up – right up his alley! LOL

Things are so different for younger people now. The days of having a job with full medical benefits and fully funded employer retirement are long gone. Now medical coverage is often lousy and/or employees have to pay a large part and the same with retirement. ”It’s not your father’s Oldmobile” any longer. Even teachers and state workers no longer have the benefits and perks they once had when DH and I started out. I recently read that UPS is eliminating medical coverage for spouses who are insured under another job. Sounds ok on the surface unless that coverage is lousy. I once took at job and gave up medical coverage in favor of more money, but DH’s medical coverage was much better than what I would have been getting with the new job. I know at one time if you had to use it, your plan would kick in first and what wasn’t covered by the first plan, then the spouse’s plan would kick in. hmmmm I wonder how it will work with UPS and children…would they expect the children to be covered up the spouse’s plan or will they still provide that? And then the question would be which plan is best to cover the children?

I know when Swifty first graduated from college and before he went to NYC, his job had such crappy medical coverage that we paid out of pocket to keep him on our plan. At the time it as a lot more than what we later paid for the younger one. Something had changed but I forget what that resulted in the bill for the second son being less than the first.

stamphick/David Swifty said that New Orleans was rocking with music and places were open. He said the humidity wasn’t bad especially when compared with sitting in the Vegas traffic jam for 3 hours in 117 degree heat. He and his friend thought it was cool how you could just walk around with a drink in hand. They did wonder if that was permitted just on Bourbon St or if that was permitted in other parts of the city.

SCROLL ALERT: Long post about Swifty’s Trip so some may just want to scroll on by.

Expecting Swifty home tonight. Wonder if I will still be awake when he arrives!

diane (furtima) ~ Thanks for your review. Glad you liked it. I really need to put it on my "must do" list.

I read several reviews including one that did a side-by-side comparsion of what was factual and what was fiction. For example the one son who joined the Black Panthers was fiction - that second son didn't even exist. When I see movies like this I don't expect every detail to be true; otherwise it would be billed as a documentary. Similar to reading historical novels where some of the characters existed but others did not. I see those type of books and movies as something that might spur someone's interest into reading non-fiction about the era. That is what I would hope this movie would do for younger generations who were not alive at the time. While it is good that much of that era no longer happens, it still does for some and in a number of ways. The Civil Rights era is something people need to know about in order to better understand the past and not repeat it.

"Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it"
from Reason in Common Sense by George Santayana (1863, Madrid–1952, Rome), who was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States, wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters.

I read that the VFW is calling for a boycott of the movie because Jane Fonda is playing Nancy Reagan. While there are many vets (at least they say they are vets) who are supporting the boycott and say some very nasty things about her in comment sections, there are other vets (at least they say they are Viet Nam vets) who praise her and say she at least gave a darn about getting them home.

One said: "I'm a Life Member of the VFW and an infantry combat veteran of the Vietnam War. I will gladly go see this movie.

I applaud Jane Fonda for her activities in the very necessary anti-war movement. The war was wrong and 58,000+ Americans were wasted for a totally BS reason."

The The funniest comment was,

"I actually met Jane Fonda in about 1971 in Okinawa. (I was in the USAF.) They were doing a USO-type show called "FTA" (Free the Army).

Not one of us gave a hoot about the politics of the thing - we all just wanted to see Barbarella in person."

hahaha!

VFW to Jane Fonda Foes: Don't See 'Butler'

Article: http://tinyurl.com/mtpbjuw

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diane (furtima) I am looking forward to hearing what you thought about "The Butler." We rarely go to the movies (last time was "The Help") but "The Butler" is one that I would like to see in theater. I think it would be worth the price of the ticket unlike so many others.

I was shocked when the book and movie came out and all of a sudden Fried Green Tomatoes were being hailed as a "Southern Dish!" I grew up eating them in the 1950s! My mother and I loved them. Not sure if her mother made them or not. In any case, we did not make ours with cornmeal which I know that is the way they are made in the South. I have ordered the batter on-line and while it is good, cheaper to just keep making them with flour, egg, and breadcrumbs. I'm not sure but my mother may have just floured them and fried. I remember coyotegal once said she never liked them until she made some without the cornmeal and then thought they were great.

This is a very interesting article for those interested in the myth behind the "Southern" Fried Green Tomatoes. . . I tend more to belive what the author of article found in his research then those who try to debunk him with their opinions in the comment section-Southerns who don't like this being taken away from them! LOL

Everyone may have an opinion but I give more weight to those who have done their homework and researched the subject vs those who are talking out of their hat. Not every opinion should be given equal weight is my opinion! LOL

The Fried Green Tomato Swindle
by Robert F. Moss, who is a food writer and culinary historian from Charleston, South Carolina. He reviews restaurants for the Charleston City Paper and is the author of Barbecue: The History of an American Institution and Going Lardcore: Adventures in New Southern Dining.

http://www.robertfmoss.com/2007/08/fried-green-tomato-swindle.html