Did My Kids Write This?

This morning's "Ask Amy" column is titled: "Mom refuses to cook. Why?"

It seems this person's 68 year old mother has given up cooking. She and dad go out to eat once or twice a day..."usually to a fast food joint."

OK, I'm thinkin' Amy is really going to set this person straight.

But no.

Amy's assessment: "I agree this is alarming and unhealthy."

Amy examines the possible reasons for this "behavior." Mom could be going blind and can't see the stove. Appliances don't work. Are there falling hazards? (68 year old are notoriously clumsy.) Mom could be suffering from dementia.

And then Amy offers some helpful suggestions: Call the Office on Aging, call Meals on Wheels, hire a housekeeper.

Yesterday, after Dave played 18 holes of golf, we went to Burger John's, sat outside and ate burgers, fixin's and coleslaw. Yum, yum.

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Our Tourist Day

Since Dave and I live in opposite ends of the country we sometimes have a "tourist day."

Yesterday we had a fun tourist day in St Paul. Here's what we did and what I would recommend you do if you ever find yourself with just few hours in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Summit Avenue - First, we drove down this grand old street with grand old mansions.

St Paul Cathedral - This house of worship rivals any cathedral in Europe in terms of beauty and opulence, not to mention size. We've been there before but it's always moving to walk around inside and sit in the pews for a while.

State Capitol - We drove downtown, parked the car and walked a mile or so to the state capital. It's set on several acres of lovely grounds. While we were inside poking around a woman in a bright yellow jacket stopped me. We engaged in conversation. I was excited! It was Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Speaker of the House and the Democratic endorsed candidate for Governor of Minnesota. (She lost last week by a hair to former senator Mark Dayton.)

Mickey's Diner - On the walk back downtown we came upon this famous diner so we stopped in. Dave had a root beer float. We discussed famous people who've eaten there including all the stars of the movie "A Prairie Home Companion" (we know this because we saw them eating at Mickey's at the end of the movie) plus other stars like former governor Jesse Ventura, John Stewart and The Beach Boys.

All in all, another fun day.

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Get Low

As you know, I've been doing some interesting reading and researching this summer about what heaven's like. What have I learned? Almost nothing.

And I plan to share this knowledge with my fantastic, smart Sunday school class when I get back to my Florida home.

One of the reasons we're thinking more about ultimate things is that so many of us are baby boomers or older and it's dawned on us that time is getting away from us.

On Friday afternoon Dave and I saw the movie "Get Low" with Robert Duvall playing a crotchety old hermit who's finally ready to face his past after closing himself off for 40 years.

This is a small, quiet (no car chases) independent movie. At 4:00 PM the theater it was 2/3 full. The vast majority of the audience was over 60 years old. That tells us something.

I loved this movie. So did Dave. I read somewhere that Duvall was too young to play this part but he'll be 80 this year. He was just right. All of the main actors, Bill Murray, Lucas Black, Sissy Spacek and the great Bill Cobbs were excellent.

If you want to see a visually beautiful, funny/sad movie about a man approaching death who's full of love, loss and sadness but riddled with guilt and seeking forgiveness...

See this one.


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But Are You Good Looking Enough?

There's a big brouhaha going on right now about a video put out by some Minnesota Republicans depicting GOP women as beautiful and Democratic women as - not so much. Apparently it shows photos of gorgeous Republican female politicians with Tom Jones singing "She's a Lady" and terrible photos of female Dems with the music "Who Let the Dogs Out?"


While some people on both sides think it's funny it's mostly caused an uproar. The guy who made the video was quoted as saying "...it was unfortunate to relearn that the other side is severely lacking a sense of humor."


I think it's demeaning to all concerned. Especially Republican women who want to be taken seriously as political leaders.


We all enjoy looking at beautiful people. Those of us who remember John and Jacqueline Kennedy during the days of Camelot can attest to that.


But if we look at all of our presidents, past and present, it's pretty clear that we Americans didn't let looks influence our choices.


Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson come to mind.


If we want to get sexist and superficial we could concentrate on guys like John Edwards. I don't think that will happen. Mitt Romney might get the Republican nomination but I'm absolutely certain it won't be because he's a gorgeous man. We Americans are too smart to think that way.



If either men or women, whatever party, have to use looks and sex appeal to get elected, what does that say about all of us?

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The Apostles

The Apostle Islands are located on Lake Superior, off the Bayfield peninsula in northern Wisconsin.

Why are they called "Apostles?" I don't know. There are 22 of them.

Dave and I were in Bayfield for a few days last week. I love going places I've never been before. Dave's been going for many years. We visited with (his) old friends and walked all over the little fishing village.

We took the boat to Madeline Island, the biggest of the Apostles. Why is it called "Madeline." Why isn't it called "John" or "Peter?"

I don't know.


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Post Cards

A couple of postings ago I listed the "reality" for 18 year olds. One of the things I didn't mention was - they don't e-mail. Too slow.

Reading that reminded me of when I was a very little girl spending summers on a farm in southern Indiana. Before they had telephones in that remote area people used post cards for their "instant" communication.

If you wanted the neighbors to come for supper or the threshers to meet at a certain time you sent a post card. Most times the mailman didn't even go through the system, he just delivered it from one neighbor to another. (I realize that must have been breaking a federal law.)

Today, those old post cards can be found from time to time in antique stores around the country. Very nostalgic.

I'm not suggesting we need to go back to snail mail. But for now, e-mail is as fast as I want to go.


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How Many Ears of Corn on Each Stock?

It's corn on the cob eating season. Minnesota has great corn. Who knew? I thought it all came from Zellwood.

Dave and I sometimes buy two ears of corn from the vegetable stand, bring it home, boil it up and eat it. For a snack. Yum, yum.

Dave has a really smart close friend of forty some years, who is, fortunately, now my friend as well.

How smart is he? There's a legend about him that he can play bridge and do the New York Times crossword at the same time!

A while back, on the golf course, this smart friend told Dave that a corn stock produces only one ear of corn.

What? Really? When little kids draw a corn stock they usually add about five ears. But that's not real proof so I felt it was my duty to do some actual research. Turns out it's not easy info to come by. However, I did find the answer so when I saw this friend at a delightful dinner party last night I felt obligated to share my findings.

He took it well.

From Wiki Answers:

Most sweet corn varieties will produce 2 - 4 ears per stalk, and one variety called a "six-shooter" produces 6 ears per stock.

However,

Genetically uniform field corn usually has only a single ear per stock.

So there you go.

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Generation Gap

My wise friend Art uses this quote sometimes: "When an old person dies it's like a library has burned down."

It's that time of year when we get the list of what reality is like for the current crop of kids going off to college. It's always sobering for us older folks to see how different their perception of our world is from ours. Here is a small sampling:

Maps - can't read one (and why would you?)

Watches - don't wear them

Clint Eastwood - an old, sensitive movie director

Green Giant - Shrek

Tattoos - have always been popular and main stream

Babies - have always had Social Security numbers

McDonald's - has always been in China

Flat Screen TV - has always been around

Telephones with cords - never seen one

Library card catalogues - never used one

Women - have always outnumbered men in college

Cursive writing - Why?

What's In A Name?

Were you named after somebody? Was somebody named after you? Either way, it can be daunting. Either way, we want to live up to it.


Like George Washington Carver. He lived up to it.


Or the thousands of Methodists named John Wesley. (Let's just forget about John Wesley Hardin, that mass murderer in Texas.)


How about being named after a pop star or a TV character?


I just read that the new popular names for babies are from the "Twilight" series. Bella (of course) but also Cullen, Jasper, Alice and Emmett.


But we have a history of naming our babies after beautiful supernatural young women. Years ago Samantha from "Bewitched" was a big baby name. Then, when Samantha had a good witch baby, the name Tabitha was popular.


But pop culture characters come and go. For instance, the only Emmett I know was that "fix it" guy from Mayberry. He seemed OK but I wouldn't name my baby after him.








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Value Systems

Outside the arena of sports and celebrity, some of the things that make a guy a real catch are good looking, great body, makes a ton of money, enjoys partying and is super confident. He (Alex Rodriguez) has all those attributes. (Alex Bhattacharji, Details Magazine- Explaining how Rodriguez' attracts so many movie star girl friends - or, as he calls them, "A-list Hotties.")

Seriously? This is what turns these women on?

Here's a example of what turns me on:

A couple of weekends ago some guys came to work on the outside of the house. I didn't even think about making lunch plans because I knew Dave would want to prepare lunch for the guys. Yes, Dave prepares lunch for workmen he's never seen before. He even made an extra trip to the store for BBQ chips because he didn't think they'd like my girly baked potato chips.

When I tell him he has a Servant's heart, he says, "This is just what people do."

I'll bet A-Rod doesn't.


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Exclusive Club

Forty plus years ago, when we were in seminary and living in a farm community in Northeast Georgia, I was impressed by two things:

1. I thought I knew what it meant to be poor but I had never seen generational, widespread poverty like we experienced there.

2. I was constantly blown away by the generosity of these impoverished people.

Later on, we would see this over and over again on mission trips. The saying "You can't out give the poor" is true.

But this week it was exciting to read some more about "The 50 Percent Club." Started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the requirements are that you have to be really rich and you have to give away half your money.

So far, 40 billionaires have signed on. Most of them are Californians but the only name I recognized there is George Lucus. (What's up with all those braggy movie stars not signing on.)

This concept (giving away half your wealth) isn't new. I'm happy to say I know people who've done it for years -some of them I love very much.

We all know that giving does great things for the giver so I'm sure these billionaires will reap intangible rewards. They have my respect and gratitude so that must make them feel good.

But I still believe "You can't out give the poor."


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Inception

When I want you in my arms,
When I want you and all your charms,
Whenever I want you, all I have to do is dream,
Dream, dream, dream...

We all know that the movie "Inception" is about dreams. But not about the kind the Everly Brothers used to sing.

It's more like the dream you had the night you bought a pizza with pepperoni and anchovies and nobody else would eat it so you ate it all by yourself along with a glass of red wine and a couple of diet cokes and then after laying awake and moaning until 4:A.M. you took half an Ambien.

Not that I've ever done that!

"Inception" is a complicated movie about infiltrating people's deepest dreams thereby controlling their behavior.

It's not my kind of movie but I'm way in the minority. All of the critics love it and it's been #1 at the box office every weekend since it's release.

But if you're like me and you get bored with 20 minute sequences of no dialogue but just weird, manic (but sometimes beautiful) things blowing up, here are some alternative things to think about:

• Tom Berenger has all at once become heavy and middle-aged but he still has those dreamy blue eyes.
• Michael Cain was middle aged when he made "Alfie" in the 60s and now, 50 years later, he's still making a couple of movies a year - and he looks about the same.
• Ellen Page still looks like Juno.
• It's fun to see that kid from "Third Rock from the Sun," (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) transition into a fine and interesting looking adult actor.
• What's up with Leonardo DiCaprio constantly loosing his wife and kids in his movies?

Don't worry about not understanding "Inception." The basic plot is pretty easy. But I wish there had been a diagram of a helix on the side of the screen with a blinking light for every time they switched dream layers.

Just a suggestion.

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