Ziva-isms

Ziva is a member of the NCIS team headed by Gibbs, played by Mark Harmon.  The tv program NCIS has about 15 seasons on Netflix.  We habitually watch one episode after dinner.  We have been doing that for quite a while and know the characters well.  The original woman member of the team was shot by an assassin.  Ziva is the daughter of the head of a different country's secret service/spy agency and she is a high-level assassin and martial artist. 

Ziva is trying to learn English and American idioms and metaphors.  She is a very competent agent but she sometimes mis-hears the typical expressions people in this country use.  I find the activity of modifying typical expressions as an inexperienced but interested speaker might accidentally do to be fun.

Ziva comes out with her interesting expressions without warning so I miss them sometimes.  The one I know by heart is

"Does a bear sit in the woods?"  You may recognize there is a missing "h" in that question but Ziva's version is more polite.  I wanted to find a listing of her twisted sayings but the best I could do was the result of a search using "Ziva-isms".  It turns out that some small company makes a drinking mug covered with her sayings.  

https://www.amazon.com/Ziva-isms-David-Quotes-Coffee-Newest/dp/B07PNCGPF2

There are some good examples on the mug:

• It was a blimp on their radar

• Did she give you the cold elbow?

• I will make it worth your wow

• You need to cut the man some slacks

Ziva is played by the Chilean actress Cote de Pablo.

Free gifts

It is very common for ads to include the exciting words "Free gifts".  I guess an advertising principle used to be, and maybe still is, always find a way to offer something for free, use the word 'free'.  So, I am continually reading about 'free gifts'.  There are some occasions when I get a gift that can be considered free but usually a gift comes with strings, obligations and complications.

Naturally, I don't expect to pay money for a gift I am given.  I have read though that I should beware of people who come bearing gifts.  Once you have given me a gift, you may expect me to be grateful, to help you carry out a vendetta or rake your lawn or care for your children.  There are times when we have more of this or that than we need but if we give the excess away, we may be establishing a principle that the recipients should give us some excess they have.  

When I am offered free magazines for a couple of months, I can expect a bill for a year's subscription to arrive.  I think the publisher is hoping that I will like what I get enough that I will pay the bill.  Maybe I would even pay attention to the magazines and will quietly pay that bill along with the other bills I have. I do drop subscriptions for things I don't read or use.  I normally don't find dangling bait very attractive in any form.  

Just for something a little different, I would like to see the title "expensive gifts" but have the offer not be for an expensive watch that I can give as a gift.  Normally, "expensive gifts" means "we have on offer some items that will cost you but impress and please those you give gifts to because of the high quality and reputation of these items."  A common word to use, I guess, for a different sort of offer is "deal".  "Here is a special deal" usually means "we are now offering for sale something quite worthwhile for somewhat less than the usual price."

Do me a favor and just offer "gifts" but don't label them "free gifts." That label is redundant and misleading, too.

Tearing meat

We know what a turkey ready to be eaten looks like as it is served up.

If the bird is well-cooked, the legs are easily removed and breast meat can be sliced off both sides of the breast bone.  But a few days after Thanksgiving, it is time for the full demolition and stripping.  

I keep a scale handy and a set of small plastic lunch bags.  When doing the full job, I get meat and other parts, the skin, bones and a little meat that I can't really separate off.  We have an efficient electric knife that slices meat nicely.  Having a small paring knife at hand is useful. Often when pulling a nice chunk of meat off the body, a bit of tendon or joint is stuck to the actual meat and a small sharp knife separates off what is just good meat nicely.  

It surprises me how much of the job gets done by sensitive, strong fingers instead of by blades.  My fingers can tell right where the muscle is and tear the whole thing free.  I fill a small plastic bag with about 10 ounces of meat and sit the bag on the scale to verify the size.  Because of the virus situation, we had just the two of us at Thanksgiving dinner.  Today, the stripping gave us five lunch bags of meat from an 11 lb. bird.  We have a large zipper bag of bones, meat bits and skin that Lynn will make into soup.

Pulling meat off the bones for sandwiches, turkey tetrazzini or a mixture of cubed meat, rice and a vegetable is as close as I get to the basic job of butchering and arranging cuts and pieces.  As a kid, I did get to help move some pigs onto a truck to be taken to the slaughterhouse but I didn't make the trip there.

Face and rotator cuff

I got some skin surgery for cancerous cells.  I also began to have a little pain in my upper right arm.  I have been going to physical therapy for that.  In addition to removing some cancerous cells, the dermatologist prescribed Fluorouracil.  That is a skin medicine that gets applied daily or so and slowly turns skin cells that are not healthy red.  A person can look rather blotchy and speckled and I do.  People have not been acting scared of me but close examination reveals a weirdly red-spotted man.

I am a fan of exercise bands and the physical therapist has given me some red ones and some yellow.  The color matters since it is a sign of the strength of the band.  I have some somewhere that are silver colored and some gold.  The bands are relatively inexpensive and they are quiet to use.  Of course, if you drop one on the floor it doesn't make a big bang and it doesn't damage a foot or hand if it falls on me.  

I learned quite a while ago that bands can be made that are very resistant and so strong that I can't stretch them.  A nice thing about resistance bands is that they are dynamically resistant - that is, the further one is stretched, the more force it offers against being stretched.  

I have learned that my rotator cuff is really four muscles and they allow me to point my forearm in one direction and rotate it to point in another direction.  An exercise coach told us that its condition does not affect one's body profile or make you look muscular and so it doesn't not get worked on.  I was surprised when an orthopedist told me that the little pain was produced by this mysterious complex set of muscles.  It is what is sometimes called "referred pain", a deal where it hurts here because of something happening over there.

Gestures

My phone just got an update.  It can recognize many gestures and physical actions as commands. Make 2 quick chopping motions with the phone in my hand and the bright light on the back turns on. Good luck in turning the blinding light off.  Or, twist my wrist quickly, again while holding the phone and the camera comes up and turns on.  

Baseball coaches and people in bars need to be cautious.  Some of the elaborate gestures can be misinterpreted as insults or racial or sexual comments. I am not sure if there have been any instances of yoga or physical therapy accidentally turning on apps or recordings.  More advanced moves might inadvertently purchase stock options or sell property while strengthening my thighs. 

When my college wrestling team competed at Gallaudet University for the Deaf, we got quick demonstrations of the power of gestures and sign language.  If you aren't used to reading gestures, and I wasn't, all sorts of communication can zip right over your head, without your noticing.

You may know that we are entering the iffy period of IoT, the internet of things. Your smart refrigerator may inform your car that you need to go to the grocery store.  Your house system will tell the store you need milk and your car will put up to the online shopping dock to receive the order you didn't know you made.  When you couple that with the area of communicative gestures, you get the possibilities of surprises and errors springing up.  This doesn't even face the problem of updates and changes, not to mention what happens when your adult kids give you a phone from a different manufacturer than the one you are used to.

A key to happiness: better sons-in-laws

About 40 years ago, we got a call from our daughter.  Just letting us know she is about to say Yes.  Yikes!  That means we, the two of us, could become grandparents!  You know - Grandma and Grandad.  Thanks for the warning but it was still a shock.  

About 30 years ago, the two of us needed a house.  We found a lot that seemed to satisfy our specifications.  The same son-in-law was building houses.  We asked him to build us one.  We have been living in it since and it is terrific.

About 3 hours ago, we looked out the window and the same son-in-law was shoveling our driveway.  We pay to have it shoveled but the shoveler uses the snow plow on the front of a pickup.  It is great for giant snow drifts but it leaves about a half inch of snow behind.  That half inch can be slippery and turn to ice.  It bugs the same son-in-law.  He likes us and doesn't want us to slip and break something.

If you want wonderful granddaughters, fascinating greatgrand kids and all-around good life, get yourself a great son-in-law.  Let your daughters use their best judgment and you might be able to get the same son-in-law quality we have.

Mornings

My mornings can get busy.  Now that it is closer to the winter solstice, Dec. 21, the days are short.  Dark longer in the morning, dark earlier in the afternoon. We have many windows and all the shades need to be lowered in dark and raised in light.  

This morning as I was raising shades and opening curtains, what do I see but a mosquito?  It's 20° outside and we have a mosquito??   It does make sense. The poor little thing barely has the energy to stay alive with our temperatures.  I saw another hiding in the house a couple of days ago.  I made the mistake of thinking I was fast enough to smack it with my hand.  Nope!  It just glides away, ever so gracefully just at the moment I would have killed it. Today, I took no chances.  Went and got the fly swatter.  Not the heavy one but the light plastic one.  Smoosh!  Gone!

Today is our first genuine on-the-ground snow.  This past weekend was the beginning of deer hunting season here and a reasonable amount of snow helps in tracking the deer.  Between eating shrubs and gardens and jumping in front of moving vehicles while in the grip of sex hormones, we don't want too many deer around.  

The other morning, a young male deer with one immature antler broken off wandered nonchalantly along in front us on our morning walk.  The deer don't act panicked by us usually but this guy was especially relaxed and unimpressed.  

Zooming around

You can download a free version of Zoom but if you want sessions to last longer than 40 minutes, you may want to pay for a higher level program that doesn't snap off after that much time.  Quite a few friends have strong stands against online events but they can be a real lift.  When friends have downloaded the program and manage to see each other live, hearing the real voices and seeing the live person, the yells and howls of delight show that meeting online can matter, lift spirits and be virus-safe at the same time.

My friend, a longtime audio-video educator with responsibility for teaching the use and ins and outs of audio-video equipment, used to say that modern Americans only respect a person if they see that person on television.  Of course, that is an exaggeration but we are so used to seeing important and valuable sights on a television set or a monitor that a certain aura of respect and importance often rises up when we see someone live on a set.  

It can matter just what equipment a person uses.  Many people immediately go for their smartphone and it can be very helpful.  I read a Google report recently that said that it has gotten to the point that about half the traffic on the internet is conducted by phone.  It can be tiresome for me to always use the word "smartphone" but there are still cellphones and landlines that transmit voices but nothing else.  There is still a large section of all humanity that cannot read or write but more people have a native spoken language and can use it.  So, when the telephone was invented, it opened avenues of communication, contact and persuasion that were previously closed.  

Lynn just hosted another Zoom meeting of friends that allowed older people to be in contact with each other. If a person downloads the free version of Zoom from the internet and receives an email that includes a link to the online meeting, they can join that meeting.  I find that it is helpful to open the Zoom program and have the email invitation open at the same time on a computer.  At the right time, I can click on the meeting link in the invitation and the software opens the program.  

Many steps can go wrong or be misunderstood or both.  There may be a "waiting room" into which I can enter but I may have to wait for the host to let me into the meeting.  When I get in, I need to allow my computer mike and camera to transmit my voice and image.  Still, it took me five or six years to learn to read, to write, to swim so, as usual, a little patience and perseverance may be demanded of me.

J.K. Rowling

Lynn has read the Harry Potter books and she has also listened to them in audiobooks.  The other evening, she said she would like to watch a Harry Potter movie.  She watches lots of what I like so I agreed.  I knew they were beyond extremely popular.  How hard would it be? 

Wasn't hard at all.  Harry and the Sorcerer's Stone was a good movie and I definitely enjoyed watching it.  

If you look at Amazon Charts, you can see 20 titles of the most purchased fiction and non-fiction and 20 titles of the most read.  I am a good example of the difference between purchasing and reading.  I have never been an especially fast reader and I am slower than even now.  For one thing, I don't care about speed.  I do care about enjoyment, comprehension, sharing highlights on Twitter and researching background and facts about the author, the setting and whatever comes up.  Amazon can tell what page of what book I am reading and that is ok with me.  

If you look at the most read fiction, it is dominated by Harry Potter stories.  You can't outread little kids intent on devouring those books who have very little competition for their time and energy.

A couple of years back, we watched "Magic Beyond Words", the story of Joanne Rowling, a single mother who wrote out an unbelievably successful set of stories and became probably the best known living writer in English and maybe any language.  It is a truly incredible story, one that most fiction writers of any genre and maturity want to be their story. The movie is available on Amazon Prime and on YouTube.  There are many biographies of the woman but the movie is well done and memorable.  It is based on the biography of her by Sean Smith, who specializes in British celebrity biography.

There are seven Harry Potter books and each is also a movie.  Last night, we watched #2, with me an enthusiastic viewer.  The movie H.P. and the Chamber of Secrets seemed long so afterward I checked on the length.  It is so long it takes up an evening but fun and worth watching.  Next up: #3.

Not too much and just enough

You may have read Mary Trump's book "Too Much and Never Enough".  She is a PhD in psychology and I read that she wrote her dissertation about family structure.  I have seen references to family systems theory and family structure theory and the names Bowen and Minuchin.  

It seems likely that we tend to get our ideas of what people, other families and other cultures are like, at least in part, from our experiences in our early basic family life.  I do think that we tend to have a basic personality but family habits, rules, convictions and such tend to interact with our personality while forming our early experiences.  If we keep an open mind and if we read and meet various sorts of people, we may modify the foundations somewhat.  

One of the oldest and most widespread principles of life is moderation.  The principle is often cited in connection with the ancient Greeks and stated as "Moderation in all things".  That is usually taken to mean don't overdo anything.  Exercise but not too much.  Read but not too much.  Sleep but not too much.  Modern thinkers, since Gödel's work in 1932, tend to immediately try applying a principle to itself in a recursive way.  So, should we apply moderation to moderation?  The Green Parrot bar in Key West has the motto "Excess in moderation" on some of its t-shirts. 

In matters of family affection, admiration and love, it can be painful if one doesn't receive at least a basic supply of support and positive approval.  We are reading "Chance Are" by Richard Russo.  Much of the beginning is a review of life by three 65 year old men who have been friends since college days.  We have watched two episodes of "The Queen's Gambit" on Netflix and it is another reminder of the effect of family support and affection, for both males and females.

A graduate student told me about driving 65 miles away to view tv sets and finding so many that the couple drove home without buying, having been overwhelmed by the range of choices.  Just too much on offer, too much to make a decision.  When I first began to use a Kindle ereader, I had to govern myself since I was steadily aware that whatever book I was reading, I had dozens of other books at hand that I could switch over to at any time.  Sometimes people get stuck changing channels and changing more channels, somewhat bogged down by too many choices.

Men, women and teaching

Two women professors published an article about caring in academia.  I think that is a very interesting subject.  US education is often thought of as elementary, secondary and higher.  "Academia" is often a word to refer to post-high school education.  One way to think about US education after high school is two-year school, four year school and graduate/professional school like medical or law school.  

I advised the authors to take a look at "Fighting for LIfe" by Walter Ong (1912-2003).  

Walter Jackson Ong SJ was an American Jesuit priest, professor of English literature, cultural and religious historian, and philosopher. His major interest was in exploring how the transition from orality to literacy influenced culture and changed human consciousness. Wikipedia

I had no plans to become a 5th grade teacher but one thing led to another and I did.  I have been a male all my life but you can't become an American elementary school teacher without being aware of gender in that profession and in life.  I got an emphasis in maleness in my public all-boys high school and a reverse emphasis in college.  Teachers were in demand so the price of teachers college was right so I didn't notice at first that 80% of the students were women.  Experiencing fathers and coaches and natural masculinity, and contrasting that with a put-down for being male by my first public school teaching in the 3rd grade, I am aware of basic differences between many males' view of life, education and discipline and what I have met with women.  

Ong's book "Fighting for Life" is the best I have run into on the basic male struggle, which can be reasonably summarized as "win or die".  That idea does not always apply and it doesn't specify whether the victory has to be in boxing or poetry so the summary is a little vague and incomplete.  The picture we got in a Yellowstone meadow of a bison bull, one enormous animal, sulking and brooding, captures the idea of "expendable".  The other bull is quite capable of running a herd and nobody needed him, ever.  

You can see that a male teacher might get lonely and depressed, all alone up there and all alone later with those papers to grade.

Fwd: *Privacy Not Included is bigger and better than ever this year

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Mozilla <Mozilla@e.mozilla.org>
Date: Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 7:33 AM
Subject: *Privacy Not Included is bigger and better than ever this year

As we head into the holiday season, you can shop safe with our buyer's guide.

Kick off the holiday shopping season with our *Privacy Not Included Buyer's Guide   See the Guide   Hello, Our fourth annual *Privacy Not Included buyer's guide — where we review popular connected products on their privacy and security — is officially out in the world, and it's getting attention! "You don't need to be tech-savvy to understand which gadgets protect user data. Mozilla has the perfect shopping guide, *Privacy Not Included, to help you shop for safe and secure internet-connected products. And it goes deep."1 In case you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, I want to share some highlights from this year's bigger, better, more user-friendly guide. Highlights from 2020's *Privacy Not Included buyer's guide This year we've added a Best Of category to help you find products we think really get it right when it comes to privacy and security. We've also added a *Privacy Not Included warning label to help you know which products we find pretty creepy. The Creep-O-Meter is back again this year so you can rate how creepy or not creepy you find a product and see how others rated the products too. In our research, we continue to see many of the big tech companies doing pretty well at securing their products. But don't let that fool you. Even when devices are secure, they can still collect a lot of data. This year we saw an expansion of smart home ecosystems from big tech companies like Amazon and Google reaching deeper into our lives. Smaller companies often do not have the resources to prioritize the privacy and security of their products. Many of the products in the pet and home office category, for example, seem weak on privacy and security. Which products made our naughty and nice lists? Products we really like Arlo Security Cameras iRobot Roomba Withings Smart Thermometer Jabra Elite 85t Earbuds And more... Products we worry come with *Privacy NOT Included Facebook Portal Amazon Halo Roku Moleskine Smart Writing Set And more...   Read the Guide    As we head into the holiday shopping season, please go check out our reviews on the 136 products in the guide before you shop. Because no one wants to get something creepy for the holidays! Thank you, Jen Caltrider Mozilla   References Stephen Moore, "Gift Your Family Gadgets That Don't Spy on Them," Debugger, Nov 17, 2020         Connect with us Thanks for reading! You're receiving this email because we think you're neat, AND you subscribed to hear from us. If our emails aren't sparking joy, we'll understand if you unsubscribe. You can also update your email preferences at any time. Donate to Mozilla   |   Download Firefox 331 E. Evelyn Avenue Mountain View CA 94041 Legal • Privacy

Let's do it again

A friend and I exchanged a few comments on the subject of re-reading.  For some people, it is a nothing subject but for some others, it can be interesting.  I like to include the re-watching of movies and tv shows.  C.S. Lewis mentions a reader standing in a library pondering a book, trying to remember it is one he has read.  Does he know the story?  Will he approach the climax of the book and suddenly remember who done it?  Lewis was a professor of literature and likes to take the position that high quality will entice a reader to re-read, even multiple times.  

I haven't re-read very many books.  Often, I have other unread ones that I want to get to.  I have re-watched the movies "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" and "In the Spirit" many times.  I think the structure of the story of Russians and the quality of expression in Spirit are wonderful.  

C.S. Lewis wrote "An Experiment in Criticism", available free in PDF format and several other formats here:

https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20140725

Poetry does not seem to have the central place in today's lives it had in earlier times. Today, I remembered a poem by Edgar A. Guest called "I didn't think and I forgot", a poem my stepfather required that I memorize and recite whenever I used either phrase in explaining my behavior.  If you mention the name of Edgar Guest to a younger teacher of English and poetry, that person may never have heard of the man.  I admit that Ogden Nash is my sort of poet and one whose work tickles me.  I have never read Ulysses and very little Shakespeare.  

Lately, I have read the poem that begins the daily Writer's Almanac and been impressed by some.

One advantage of having seen many movies and tv shows and read many books is that I have forgotten them over the years.  We watched the entire series of the tv show Foyle's War and then, a few years later, watched them all again.  We found that we rarely remembered the episodes in detail and that re-watching was quite like never having seen them before.  

Sometimes, re-reading and re-watching is re-experiencing anew.  I have listened to the 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony probably 20 times while driving and the effect and appreciation and enjoyment seems to increase.  One of these days, I may try that with Thoreau's Walden or T.H.White's The Once and Future King.

Gradations and components

I was given three exercises for my upper arm pain.  The doctor told me that the pain came from my rotator cuff, even though it felt like it came from a place near the end of my upper arm bone. The three exercises are to be performed four times a day.  That is enough repetition that I develop some feelings about subtle parts and differences in what can seem like the same thing over and over.  

The process reminds me of trying to concentrate on my breath.  If my eyes are tired and I try conscious deliberate breathing with my eyes closed, it seems like there is nothing to sense, to attend to, in the breath.  Then, factors and variables begin to emerge.  Speed, depth, amount of pause between inhale and exhale, between this breath and the next. Relations of inhale to exhale: pause between, same speed for each, rapid for one and slow for the other.  

Counting can be a big help.  A friend said he took deliberate, conscious breaths while meditating and he can keep his attention directly on the breaths up to a count of 13.  Somewhere after that, he often finds he is performing the sort of breaths he wants but his attention has slipped off to La-La land or sports or whatever.

With the breath, a pause can be introduced between breaths and/or between inhale and exhale.  I don't think I have mentioned Chade-Meng Tan lately but his books Search Inside Yourself and Joy on Demand are inexpensive, pleasant guides to self-knowledge and acceptance.  He asks "How long should a person meditate ?" and answers "One conscious deliberate breath". One breath!  With consciousness and attention, a breath can have its own personality and not be just another dull experience.

The present moment

My friend was writing a paper and I kept sending related sources and articles.  She said she has finished with that topic and is now just concentrating on the present moment.  Concentrating on the present moment is one of the best ways to live.  It is very powerful.  I often write about the value of meditation.  I don't discuss vipassana, the practice of viewing the contents of the mind as they pass by.  Doing that can be fun and even funny since associations can lead from Aunt Tilly to memories of Mom's mood to wondering about Grandma to gardening to grocery shopping to what's for dinner.  When I observe my passing thoughts, associations and images, I often get into the story of what I did, what I meant to do and what the matter is with me, anyhow.  

However, focusing on a single point increases my mindfulness, my awareness of where I am, what I am doing, how I feel.  I get more in touch with myself.  Prof. Willoughby Britton of Brown University and her colleagues and Dr. Elizabeth A. Stanley of Georgetown University both delve into sufferers of trauma, especially childhood and battle trauma.  They and Prof. Bessel van der Volk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, work to find ways that traumatized people can get past terror and panic, and allow re-connection with themselves. 

I mentioned several books related to concentrating on the present moment.  Eckhart Tolle is famous for his work on The Power of Now and related works.  Dr. Dan Siegel recently published "Aware".  Our brains and our minds are constructed to keep us alive and alert, so it is only natural to stop concentrating on cooking the bacon when you hear a deep, unexpected growl behind you. It turns out that we can't even be fully aware of everything currently in our range of vision so there are strong limits to continued concentration on any target, any idea, any focus.  

https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2019/06/direct-meeting-with-yourself.html

https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2020/04/quarantine-ology.html

Elbows

I use a computer every day.  The way I use it has me sitting at a table with my hands on a keyboard and my elbows bent.  Recent physical therapy for upper arm pain has me thinking about elbows.  

Boy Scouts tend to put their hand on an old woman's arm just above her elbow to help her across the street.  We were coached to help old ladies across the street regardless of their desire to be on the other side.  Just help her - that was our watchword. In scholastic wrestling, there are three periods: standing and facing your opponent, kneeling beside your opponent, and reversing that position.

You can see the upper man has his hand on his opponent's elbow. If he can keep his hand on that elbow, he can pretty well control his opponent's use of that arm.  We have lots of attention to human hands but if you try going through a day of more or less normal activity without bending either arm at the elbow, you can quickly develop deep respect for that joint.  It is quite difficult, for instance, to bring food to your mouth without bending your elbow.  Yes, four legged animals manage and we can, too, but not with our usual table manners.

Much desk work requires bent elbows and they can be handy for putting a hand below the jaw and leaning on an elbow propped on a table or bar.  Too much leaning and a person can develop a sore elbow.  

We speak of elbowing through a crowd.  The upper arm bone, powered by chest and back muscles can be a powerful weapon.  When I seize you from the back, you may give me a strong blow with your elbow in the sternum , the bony joint between my rib cages, knocking the breath out of me.  A good wrestler on my high school team developed a cracked sternum, which he said was painful and bothersome until it healed.  

We used to hear more about elbow grease, a term for rubbing or wiping with a rag vigorously.  Older people have respect for the knee joint, which is sensitive and fundamental in walking and moving around but don't underestimate the value of a good elbow.

Taking another look

My book group wanted a novel.  They like to alternate between fiction and non-fiction and we had just discussed "The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World" by Andrea Wulf.  So, it was time for fiction.  The first such book that came to my mind was "Skinwalkers" by Tony Hillerman. I had read it aloud to Lynn sometime in the last 50 years.  I remembered the title referred to Navaho evil witches and that I had liked the book.  Other men liked the suggestion.  Since it had been so long since I read it, we are reading it again.

When older people return to a book they read and enjoyed long ago, all sorts of memories get involved.  You remember the story, the atmosphere, the setting.  You may remember what didn't like or have since developed a distaste for.  Re-reading and re-watching can be quite eye-opening.  

Experiences of re-reading can be launched with the help of a list of books that you remember.  It doesn't have to be complete.  The books listed don't need to have been read completely.  It can be fine if "The Family of Man" (almost totally photographs) or a Calvin and Hobbes book of cartoons is included.  When experienced adults make a list of books, I think it works well to start using just one's memory.  If you can list 3 books, or 3000, it doesn't mean that you are good or bad depending on the number of books.  If you can remember only "The Story of O" and "Fifty Shades of Grey", it doesn't mean you are a sex maniac or a bad person.  

After listing some books, whenever you feel like it, you can take a moment to think back to see what you remember about the book, about yourself at the time you read it.  If you can find a copy or download one, you may want to look through it to get an idea of your current reaction to the text and to the earlier experience of reading the book.

Here is a link to a list of 300 books that have mattered to me.  

https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/2008/04/kirby-1983-reading-list-of-good-books-i.html  You can see that it is rather old.

After making or finding a list of some books you found good or moving or helpful, this list may remind you of additions you could make.  My friends discussed "Skinwalkers" the other day and many fond memories came to their minds.  One professor who is a fan of the state of New Mexico, made a map of the locations of main Skinwalkers events.  We have been having fun remembering other impressive books, like The Once and Future King by T.H. White and negative impressions from The Wings of the Dove and Moby Dick.

Similar memories may come with reviewing movies that mattered.

Yesterday's talk

Yesterday was the first time in a long while that I didn't write in this blog.  I usually skip writing when I am traveling but yesterday, I wasn't.  I was quite busy.  

I had a talk online for the Wausau learning in retirement part of the UW campus.  We only had three people and me in the Zoom session but I myself enjoyed it very much.  The talk was about the book "Incognito" by David Eagleman but the questions and comments ranged over neuroscience and human brains, theology, politics, and the subject of other sources of related information.  Here is a link to the page of topics and books I mentioned:

https://sites.google.com/site/kirbyvariety/incognito-links-and-comments-1

I did also mention the book "The Brain that Changes Itself"by N. Doidge. Dr. Doidge has a follow-up book called "The Brain's Way of Healing." There are many other books that can be a source and a help, such as Eagleman's follow-up "Livewired".  The title relates to the subject of what is often called 'brain plasticity', the changes and re-wiring that occur throughout life.  A related book is "Soft-Wired" by Michael Merzenich, an expert and pioneer in the area of brain studies.

Yesterday, a sharp and witty friend reported that he had a buddy who tried meditation.  Meditation is a handy, inexpensive and easy tool for knowing oneself as much as possible, for developing ease and comfort being the miraculous creature you are.  But, the buddy had trouble.  As with many people, the buddy concluded that he just didn't have the mind for meditation and quit.  My friend reads this blog and learned that I meditate and find it valuable and quick.  This "friend" stated that it was clear to him that "if Bill Kirby can meditate, anyone can".  He took up the practice of meditating, keeping his attention on counted breaths and "lassoing" his mind back whenever he found it had wandered off.

Quiet processes

I find that I am aging.  Seems as though, it is a quiet, even somewhat sneaky process.  Doesn't ask permission.  Doesn't let me know it is going on.  I got to thinking what else is sneaky and unannounced?

Quiet processes

1. Aging - always on but results can be a sudden surprise

2. Gain or losing social support, politics - he used to like me but now?

3. Gain or losing interest in a given topic or subject - I was hot on photography but now less so

4. Becoming more familiar with a subject or process - didn't realize how much I have learned about that

5. important deadlines passing - oops, I am now overdue

6. Unaware of increasing importance as a figurehead or symbol - I was a beginner but now I am a pillar

7. Quiet planning and preparation - didn't realize they had planned an ambush

8. Deliberate and non-deliberate quiet processes - some only happen because someone cares or desires while others, like aging, just slide along regardless 

9. Funds, sums, accounts growing or shrinking - this Covid has stopped our spending - now look at the account balance

10. Knowledge, expertise growing or shrinking - I used to teach the subject but now I don't remember it

11. I said that ages ago and now, you are acting like it's hot news - I was excited about roping.  I tried to get you to lasso but no.  Now, you come along 'splaining the fun of roping!

Goody Two Shoes

The more I look at the Writer's Almanac, the more I like it.  It is somewhat focused on poetry and often the poem of the day is quite good.  But the notes on historical events that happened on that day of the year are rich and stimulating.

Today, there was a note on Oliver Goldsmith, an Irish writer of the 1700's.  Some people think he is the author of "The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes", one of the first books written specifically for children.  I had heard reference to Goody Two-Shoes over the years but I didn't realize it was a children's book or one that old.  Peoples' references seemed to use the name as a marker for a young girl who was more or less overly sweet and virtuous and neat and clean and every other possible (cloying, annoying ) good property and trait.  

Once I find things are pointing to a book, time to check Libby and Hoopla, which are library apps.  Check Amazon but also simply put the title into Google Search.  What do you know?  Goody Two-Shoes in part of Project Gutenberg, an online repository of free books considered important cultural and historical works.  It appears that most of the 60,000 works in Project Gutenberg are available in several forms, including PDF and Kindle-readable.  

I haven't absorbed the whole book yet but I have read enough to find that there are an excessive number of urges to the young to be good.  Got me wondering if kids a couple hundred years ago were more poorly behaved than today.  I thought strict obedience accompanied by smacks and blows were the norm.

I can imagine trepidation and caution about having a smart little kid learn to read.  One saving factor might be having few books around.  But, still, what is the kid getting into?  What is getting into his little head?  Many adults are not comfortable readers and even more were without a couple of centuries of public schools and hard working young teachers working on their decoding and comprehension.