Email fake not from me

An email titled “Remember to celebrate with me” is a fake.  Delete it!  Bill

Into the Christmas season

Local schools start tomorrow but we two are already into the Christmas spirit.  You may recall that the Christmas season includes gift-giving.  If you are a local potter, the calendar is such that you need to get cracking with ceramic gifts for the season.  You need to fashion appropriate figurines and vases and objects that would make a nice gift for Uncle Harry and Grandma.  Such art doesn’t make itself. There is working with clay, drying clay, firing the object to harden it, glazing the object, firing it again.  Every firing requires baking in the kiln at a high temperature which takes time to reach.  There is cooling involved, transporting to the gallery, adding it to your inventory, printing a label.  Better get started!

My fingernails

Growing up, I didn’t pay much attention to my fingernails.  My stepfather did make me show him my nails before I ate sometimes.  I learned to use a nail brush, the little plastic kind with a curve at each end of the handle.  Before a wrestling match in high school and college, the referee would sometimes examine my nails.

I am surprised at how often I use my nails: pick up paper and other fine, delicate, hard-to-grasp things.  I have been tempted to have an attendant in a nail salon that takes care of my toenails paint my fingernails.  There are so many gorgeous colors!  But, I think painted fingernails and toenails for that matter would send the wrong signal about who and what I am.

He says he can't think anymore

There seems to be too much thinking so when my friend says he is old and can’t think any more, it may be a good thing.  You may know that women tend to live longer than men.  Maybe that is because they dredge up wild-assed questions less.  You know, what is the purpose of life, why did my parents produce me instead of somebody else - stuff like that. 

My sister

I don’t have any brothers but I have a sister.  She was a steady companion throughout childhood.  Here are some blog posts about this marvelous person:

• Still Have the Treasure 8/26/2009

• The Little Sweetie 1/1/2010

• What Does It Mean? 8/28/2022

• My Sister and Stairs 10/27/2023

• Bring Her Home 7/102024

All of the above are posts in Fear, Fun and Filoz.

Israel Loring, 1712

Israel was a Protestant minister in New England.  He was one of the ministers who refused baptism for a baby born on a Sunday since he was one who thought a baby was born on the same day of the week as he had been conceived.  Sunday was God’s day and must not be profaned by sex on that day. Then, his own wife delivered their child on a Sunday!  The couple knew they had not engaged in sex on Sunday so this idea of a duplication of the conception and the birth on the same weekday must not be valid. You gotta live and learn!

Advanced students lifetime reading

People who have master’s or doctor’s degrees have read much.  So, when teaching teachers who already have master’s but want further credits to qualify for a raise, the subject of all that reading they have done comes up.  I taught a course that focused on a review of all that a student had read, from the Little Golden book, The Pokey Little Puppy, to that horror novel that is keeping her up nights. I think it is fun to reflect on reading that has mattered.  

Attempting to recall reading done, following up on current ideas and habits and trying to nail down memories and authors that influence one’s present state and be useful.  The only assignment for the course was to make a list of all that one has read.  I was not able to check the list but longtime students of mature years were enthusiastically looking through grandparents’ attic at old jr. high and college books for titles they thought they had read, at least a little.

All A's ???

I taught a course about giving tests and grades in school.  For many teachers, giving grades is a distasteful job.  You like the students but you have to hurt some of them with a low grade.  I came to promote and use an approach to grades that resulted in 100% of the students getting the highest grade, an “A”.  Was I lying about them?  No, I advocated a slight change in the meaning of the grade.

I had earned merit badges as a Boy Scout.  Badges that could be earned were listed in the handbook.  Each badge had ten or so requirements that had to be completed before that badge was given.  It seemed a straightforward approach and I used it in my courses.  

Many people think of a teacher’s grade as something like I suppose St. Peter or one of God’s officers gives at the entrance of Heaven.  I say take a less all-seeing approach.  Lay out what a student is supposed to show an understanding of.  If all the understandings are shown, hand over the badge, I mean, award the high grade for complete achievement.

"More like this"

Books, movies and tv shows that I read often let me see on the internet other titles and possibilities that are said to be like the book or movie or series that I just finished.  I can usually find further interesting possibilities for myself but they are usually NOT very similar to what I just finished.  I reliably want a DIFFERENT type, however much I enjoyed or benefited from what I just finished.  So far, I haven’t noticed any business or service that offers a change. 

"Distance education"

The University of Wisconsin did not do the very first education by mail, but it played a massive and pioneering role in the movement—even coining the term “distance education” in 1892. [1, 2, 3]

The earliest recorded education by mail dates back to 1728 when Caleb Phillips advertised weekly mailed shorthand lessons in the Boston Gazette, and Sir Isaac Pitman famously taught shorthand via postal mail in England in the 1840s. In the U.S., Boston's Society to Encourage Studies at Home began correspondence education in 1873, and the University of Chicago established a major correspondence teaching department in the 1890s. [1, 2, 3]

However, the University of Wisconsin–Madison achieved several key milestones in distance learning:

1892: Professor Richard Ely directed the university's first formal correspondence study program.
1892: The university used the term "distance education" for the first time in a published U.S. pamphlet.
1906: The formal creation of the University of Wisconsin-Extension cemented the school as a premier national leader in bringing adult and non-traditional education directly to people's homes via the mail and later via public radio. [1, 2, 3, 4]

• 

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  A History of Correspondence Course Programs | Resources for Independent Learning Instructors

  Jul 25, 2019 — The history of correspondence courses includes: * **1728** Caleb Phillips placed an advertisement in the *Boston Gazette* for stud...
• 

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  Historical Timeline - University of Wisconsin–Madison

  1884 – John Stearns is appointed the first full-time education faculty member. 1885 – Marching Band is founded to accompany the Un...
• 

  Division of Continuing Studies| UW-Madison

  Innovation + access: The evolution of technology in continuing ...

  Apr 7, 2025 — It started in 1885 with a modest 6-week summer language program for just 14 students. By 1892, the idea of correspondence courses,

  
  

Googlegangers

Years ago, I read that “Kirby” is the 511th most common name in the US.  I mean last names, family names, not counting cartoon characters named Kirby.  I learned in the movie “*6888” that the US Army was swamped with letters to and from servicemen in the beginning of World War II.  Something like SEVEN warehouses of letters were filled with letters not delivered to the intended recipients.  The movie “6888” tells the story of the terrific backlog which was entrusted to the 6888 battalion of Black female soldiers who finally straightened out the mess, which included mail to 7500 men who were all named “John Smith”.

In German folklore, there is a type of character called a doppelganger who is your exact double and whose activities are not always kind and supportive. Somebody invented the term “Googleganger” to mean people with the same name.  That situation can be quite a bother for both people in this day of digital communication, with frequent invitations to “create an account”.

We can't allow ourselves to eat out

It isn’t money, it is refrigerator space.  The restaurants continue to serve more food with an order that we can eat at a meal.  So, we have leftovers.  We might try refusing the boxes and bags but so far, we haven’t.  We have leftovers from several meals and they take up room in our fridge.  I personally don’t mind leftovers.  They are often good but we need to go slow in accumulating them and right now we are out of space.

Where is that note I made?

I am reasonably good at making notes, at having pen and paper handy, and at jotting down important bits of information.  That is to the good and will credit me at the Pearly Gates.  But it does me very little good if I cannot find the durned piece of paper or cowhide or whatever when I need it.  I read that Mark Twain said,” Put all your eggs in one basket and WATCH that basket!”  That is like what I do.  For this blog, I use one notebook.  I let myself jot down up to five notes I might use as a subject for the day’s post.  Sometimes, more than five good ideas come to me and I mark the extras differently.  I only write on one side of each notebook page so I have the back of all used pages for extra notes.  I do WATCH that notebook and I can recognize it from across the room.  Makes it easy to find and use.

"The Week" by David Henkin

I am reading “The Week” by David Henkin.  It is about the week, a unit of time that seems to influence my life more than any other unit of time.  As the author points out, a week is an unnatural rhythm, not based on the sun or stars or clocks.  My watch and one clock we have do say what day of the week it is.  We do have calendars around to check the date for its day of the week.

Henkin says among other interesting comments that Puritans frowned on women who gave birth on Sundays since they thought it was a sign that the couple had conceived the child on a Sunday, “improper” behavior for “the Lord’s day”.

The first project we were given in graduate school was to write a computer program that our instructor could use to find how many days happened between any two dates.  We learned that Pope Gregory XIII was told by his astronomers that Easter had slid too far from its appropriate time.  They arranged for the day following Thursday, October 4, 1582 to be Friday, October October 15, 1582.  We learned there were riots in Paris from the Pope “stealing days from their lives!”

content borrowing

I write a blog post most days.  It has nearly 7,000 posts.  Some are well-written, some are just brief notes, on subjects such my personal fatigue or the fine dinner we had at Harry’s. Google provides statistics on each post, including page views and the country of origin of the viewing.  Ever since I met a woman at the local exercise class and then I started getting page views from the country she came from, I have been more interested in ‘content borrowing’.   I looked her up and found she was an “influencer”, a person on YouTube or other broadly-cast medium that has interesting things to say.

People who start an online blog often write on scattered days only and they might want to copy statements of interest on days they can’t find a worthwhile topic.  I have information from every continent except Antarctica that my blog gets page views.

Stacks and stacks

We tend to live longer than people did awhile back.  We accumulate precious and important things: documents, books, recordings, etc.  But it becomes clear that we can make arrangements that will not hold up “forever”.  Grandad wrote some good stuff.  His grandfather wrote some good stuff, too and those pictures he painted!  We meet boundaries: nobody wants it, it is in the way, it costs to warehouse.

CNN Photos of the week

I don’t post many pictures but I know pictures, especially photos, can be interesting and informative.  I recommend CNN Photos of the week: 

https://www.cnn.com/world/photos

Understanding men and women

There are two books that influenced my view of men and of women.  Both are written by the psychologist Robert A. Johnson.  One is “He: Understanding Male Psychology”(1974) and the other is “She: Understanding Female Psychology” (1977).  Johnson was a Jungian and they specialize in using old myths and stories to understand long-time ideas.  The Male book says that it works well to picture the life of a young man as a quest, a search such as a young man looking for adventure, a chance to “prove” himself and be a hero.  The Female book says it helps to picture the life of a young woman who met and charmed a man that she desires to partner with.  They start courting but (there is often a “but”) the man’s mother is not eager to let the questionable girl steal her beloved son.  That determined, honorable and intelligent girl must accomplish some challenging tasks his mother wants done.  In the long run, the fable says the girl impresses his mother and all is good.

She's off!

A high level athlete, a musician, thirsty for knowledge with great grades - the college is lucky to get her.  You know what the purpose of college is?  To find a mate!  He will be lucky to meet her.

I can read!!

I am interested in the spread of reading.  I bet you can read.  I hope so since reading opens many doors, especially on topics that don’t interest tons of people.  

I read about Charlemange learning to read.  A medieval scholar, Alcuin, taught the king, who thought it might help if he slept with a book under his pillow.  Maybe it did!

It wasn’t many centuries back that only specialists, maybe like translators today, could read.

I have had classes in Latin, French and a little German but I am only comfortable in English.

Forest fires and air quality

When I was a kid growing up in Maryland, I had not heard of “air quality”.  I have read that parts of England have had poor air quality because of coal plants and industrial processes.  This summer, we have had several occasions to think about air quality and air pollution from forest fire smoke.  This is a dry summer despite having the Great Lake “Superior” across the top of the state and another of five Great Lakes, “Michigan”, running down the east side.  We live in a region of sandy soil that does not retain moisture well.  We have dry fields.

This summer I have used www.airnow.gov which calls for my ZIP postal code and gives me a government-sponsored air quality reading.  Right now, I get a “58” on a scale from 0 to 400, labeled as mildly cautionary.

"When Memory Fades" by Nathaniel Chin, MD

We are reading “When Memory Fades” by Nathaniel Chin, MD, a specialist in dementia and Alzheimer's. Lynn heard about the book on Wisconsin Public Radio.  It includes very gentle language and is told in a personal experience way. The author’s father developed the problem. The internet says the Alzheimer’s Association reports ⅔ of people over 85 never get the brain problem.  

We had a close relative with dementia.  He lived with it about 2 years and his sister took care of him.   It was not too scary and he never seemed to think his thinking or his first choices were too bad even when they were.

The valuable = sign

Drive.Google.com leads to Google “Drive” which offers free blank pages for typing, and free spreadsheets for money and basic calculation, what we called “arithmetic” in elementary school.  The four basic arithmetic operations are:

Addition  2+2=4         +

Subtraction 6-2=4      -

Multiplication 3*3=9    *

Division 8/2 = 4          /

But in spreadsheets, indicate arithmetic by putting the equal sign first

Addition =2+2

Subtraction =6-2

Multiplication =3*3

Division =8/2

I once heard a college official say that everyone can benefit from using spreadsheets.

That's too much!

My intelligent partner accuses me of playing Daddy Big Bucks in tipping.  I just looked up the median US income in 1950 and now.  I am trying to get my picture and hers updated to the present.

“The average family income in 1950 was about $3,300 per year, while the modern national median household income is approximately $83,730.”

We just conferred and as usual, we did not come to a new agreed-on picture of prices, tipping or appropriate use of funds.

Outage again

We took a short one-night trip.  It was clear that my life and my elderly brain are used to specific activities and locations of tools, as they are at home.  Ah, Home!  We came home and it is nice, indeed.  Then, I glanced at the clock.  The clock face was totally blank.  No juice!  No electricity! No power.  

It just came back, more than an hour earlier than estimated.  Lovely, indeed!

Trip for trip's sake

We took a trip by car north.  We do live in a vacation land of forests, lakes and good scenes.  We just planned on one night and we took that.  

There are so many things that we have at home that are not available easily and handy like we are used to there.  It is a good reminder that we are used to our ways and it is heavy work to suffer modifications.

Blog semi-pause

Modified procedure from usual: I am writing much earlier in the day.  May or may not, be able to write tomorrow.  As always, take unexpected time to consider an online blog or a paper hand-written record of ideas and events from your head and life.  Been fun and valuable in mine and I think it gets more so as one ages.

Voice

You may know Alexa and Siri.  They are mechanical devices, not people. When a potter is deep into clay, it is handy to be able to speak to a “smart” device and have it stay quiet a while or switch stations.  There are other situations where it is preferable to be able to speak rather than take some hand action.  Receptive devices are getting more widespread and their list of abilities is lengthening. Voice depends on transmission and reception.

As a person with poor hearing, I may want my smart speaker to be louder than you do.  I only speak English so I don’t want to have to speak one of the many other languages that exist.  I don’t have wonderful handwriting and I make mistakes every few strokes typing so speaking can be an advantage.  I haven’t tried using a smart speaker in a noisy environment but I suppose it might not work too well.

Look!

I read that male-only gyms are gaining popularity.  I can understand why.  Now, in my mid-80’s, it still happens to me that scantily or tightly dressed female bodies are a distraction.  When I am lifting a heavy weight, I don’t need a gorgeous woman to walk by.  Sure, I have been harnessing my impulses for years and years but it can be nice to get a break.  In a fraction of a second, I can think I am married, she shows no attraction to me, I am much, much too old.

Five dimensions of a person

I taught a course about grading students and testing them.  What about students are we trying to assess?  School is famous for parroting: I say Columbus launched an age of exploration of North and South American continents.  I ask: What did Columbus do?  You write that he launched exploration of the North and South American continents.  You get a high grade!

Every time, throughout your life, that you need to state what Columbus did, you will thank your time with me and my teaching.  But how many times will that happen?  What about the five dimensions of you?  You know: 

Physical

Cognitive

Social

Emotional

Moral

Teachers and parents understand that all five dimensions will matter over your lifetime and that you are going to be your own version of you.  We may lecture, implore, beg, punish, reward but our own dimensions are not perfectly developed.  Further, we don’t understand ourselves or you fully.  As we live, we ourselves change as do you.  Still, it is worthwhile to spend a day on each dimension, thinking how we are doing in that area and gauging you to see if we can say or do anything of value in your development.

Outage

We were talking together in our living room when our lights quietly turned off.  An electrical outage.  No ignition for flame on our gas stove. No internet.  Our cellphones have power and a signal.  Looked up a number and called it.  

Turned out a little group of four houses were affected.    Linemen were here quickly and fixed us up.   Some wire needed to be replaced but it runs underground.  A temporary fix is installed but sometime later it will get more permanent treatment.

It's August

August is the month when my grandmother told me to go outside and look into the family car, which had just brought my parents home.  I did and saw that my mother was holding my new baby sister.  We have been connected ever since.

August is the month that was inserted into the calendar in the name of Augustus.

It is the last month before school reopens.