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.