Poem Written During a Staff Meeting

Parchments and palimpsests
Hiding in dark cloisters:
Dust and knowledge gathered,
Past and present sleeping.

Who will stir these dry leaves,
Feel the faded velum?
Trace these timeless stories,
Tell these tales of ages?

Health Care, Recession, Terrorism, Unemployment - Google Trends

As 2010 begins, two issues occupy the limelight in the nation's public discourse. I did a 6-month comparison of Google search volume of the terms "health care" and "recession" in the United States.  The blue line corresponds to volume of searches for "health care"; the red line, "recession".  Here are the results:

One might conclude that Americans are thinking or worrying more about health care than they are the "recession" economy, especially in the last half of 2009. Let's throw in another term, "terrorism" just for comparison. Again, blue="health care", red="recession"; orange="terrorism".

Again, "health care" is generating more search traffic. "Terrorism" is down there with "recession". Lets see how "unemployment" (green line, below) measures up to these three:

In this comparison, "unemployment" generated the most search traffic, and was consistently high for the entire 6-month period. Roughly 10% of American workers are unemployed. Roughly 10% of Americans have no health care. These two issues are the more immediate worries to families and individuals - while "terrorism" and "recession" appear to be background issues.

St. Augustine FL

I spent 12/27 in St. Augustine with daughter Maggie and our dear friend Deborah.  We had great fun in the cold wintry weather.  One highlight was eating hot borscht with pirogies, spinach/feta pie, and a greek salad, served up at a little mom and pop place on Aviles St.


Dooryard sculpture and wrought iron.

An old doorway arched in coquina blocks.

Old window with hurricane shutters.

Stained glass window, Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine.

Castillo San Marcos

Old arcade piece

Maggie and her doting father at the old carousel in St. Augustine.  Only $1 per ride!

Maggie and Deborah on the carousel.

Yuletide - The Winter Solstice

Today is the Winter Solstice - Yuletide - the shortest day and longest night of the year. Take the bright lights of the season into your heart and together with your own inner light go out and do some good in the world.

(Payette Lake, McCall, Idaho)

Visions of Sugar-Plums

I made sugar-plums this afternoon, loosely following this recipe.  For dried fruits I used dried plums, apricots and cranberries, and added some walnuts as well.  All ingredients were chopped fine and mixed in a food processor.  Not wanting to use sugar, I dredged the formed sugar-plums in pecan meal, which has its own sweetness.  This being Florida, I used orange blossom honey to sweeten the mixture.

Banjo - Fairbanks Imperial

Photos of my A.C. Fairbanks & Co. "Imperial". Serial number suggests it was made around 1894.  I purchased it from Jim Bollman's "Music Emporium" in Lexington MA several years ago.

I love the signature prow-shaped "boat heel" at the base of Fairbanks banjo necks. The neck is mahogany; fingerboard is ebony.  The centerline of the neck also is slightly keeled like a boat, and is very comfortable to hold and finger.

Local Color - Florida

Winter hasn't quite arrived in Florida.  A cool snap during the last couple of weeks has brought out the colors of Fall.  Hickories and elms have turned yellow.  Sweet gums range from bronze to maroon to a decent orange color.  In this photo of an upland tupelo (Nyssa sulvatica) one sees a pleasing medley of hues.  This is one of my favorite Florida trees.

Bearing The Cold

A cold front plunged south into Florida and has turned everything chilly.  The low clouds drifting into the area are a sign of the rain that is expected over the weekend.  Gray skies this afternoon.  Typing by the light of my flatscreen monitor in the office today (I only use natural light from the window -- by choice -- not by necessity).  [bronze sculpture, McCall, Idaho]

Seeking a Troll

Wouldn't want to meet this guy crossing a bridge. (Riggins, Idaho)

It's Reddy Kilowatt!

Reddy Kilowatt - the logo/mascot of Idaho Power Company for at least the last 50 years.  Nostalgic for me to see this happy guy again!  Did Reddy have a nemesis? Click over to Lileks.com and see this matchbook cover featuring Willie Wirehand from Minnesota.

More Signs of the Times

Signs of the Times

There's a certain message here someone is trying to make very clear.

The Snake River looking downstream from Swan Falls Dam, southwest of Boise, Idaho.

Trip to Idaho

I spent a few wonderful days before Thanksgiving in the Salmon River country of central Idaho.  Fiddle Creek is between the whitewater and steelhead trout fishing towns of Riggins and Whitebird.  The steelhead eluded us, but we saw lots of wildlife - elk, mule deer, golden eagles, magpies, turkeys, Canada geese, and those energetic little gray dippers, the ouzels.

Payette Lake in McCall, Idaho.  Brundage Mountain Ski Resort is not far from this lovely little burg.

My father fishing on a rocky bar downstream from Riggins at the place our family calls "The Rock" - a large vertical outcrop that juts into the Salmon River at the head of a deep slow hole.  Informational signs describing the geology of the area are along the roadside here.  We cannot pass this place without "dropping a line" to see what is biting, any time of the year.

Fordham Eel Spear

One of a couple of dozen hand-forged eel spears in my collection.  This one stamped "Fordham" on the center tang.  The 1876 design was by Fordham's business partner, one Samuel Parker Hedges, of Sag Harbor, Long Island, where the Fordham shop was located.  See p. 381 of this book on L.I. genealogy.

Surfers' Ashram - Surfing With an Om

Attention surfers.  An ashram for surfers has been established in the Indian state of Karnataka.  Go figure!

Swine Flu

Swine flu seems to be everywhere these days, even in the remotest places in Amazonia.  It is suspected of killing a pregnant Yanomami Indian woman and three children in the rainforest on the Venezuela/Brazil border.

The Sky, As I See It

Guy Fawkes Day, Iranian Style

Israel unveiled a cache of hundreds of tons of rockets, mortars, missiles and anti-tank weapons on a ship seized at sea near Cyprus.  The weapons were shipped from Iran; Israeli officials aver they were bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon.  Read the Voice of America article.

I've lamented before: "Some people just like to blow up other people."  That's no world I want to live in.  Sue for peace.  Live peacefully and encourage others to as well.  Peace begins inside each individual, and with the family and community.

Currently Reading

The Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin.
I recently picked up a printing of the 1988 Picador trade paperback and have begun reading it.

I'm not a newcomer to Bruce Chatwin or his work.  Being sorely afflicted with the antique collectors' disease (corkscrews, Ainu bear carvings, eel spears, to name but 3 categories) I have read his last work Utz.  I've digested The Viceroy of Ouidah, On the Black Hill, and his In Patagonia.  I own and have read a galley proof review copy of Nicholas Shakespeare's biography Bruce Chatwin.

I've a copy of Chatwin's What Am I Doing Here? that I will read next.

The Bond Minicar

The Bond Minicar - a historic bit of Lancashire technology.  The survivors of the 26,000+ produced are now the stuff of automobile collectors.  An advert in my Autumn 1957 issue of The Countryman claims this little car got 85 mpg.  The cars were produced at a former rope factory, Sharp's Ribbleton Lane premises in Preston, Lancs.