CREATION FROM DESTRUCTION

 England WWII. If food rationing was an inconvenience in the US during WWII it was major in Britian. We're talking island here folks. There were sheep grazing in the sports fields, any land that could be used to grow food was put into production. Including a bomb crater. I have no idea how big the bomb was that made this crater. Or if it was more than one falling close together. If you look closely there ar three people in this picture. Gives you an idea how big this hole in terra firma was to start with. 

No idea what's growing in the raised boundry around the garden but it was probably something edible. And it wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a few chickens for pest control that transformed into eggs or chicks. Turning destruction into creation. 

SPECIAL EDTION OF A COOKBOOK

There is no way on earth that a cookbook titled The American Woman's Cookbook would be issued today. At least not under that title. This is the cookbook I grew up with. It wasn't just a recipe book it was a how to book. Basically a cooking course if you wanted to use it that way. I think newer reprints are still available but I haven't checked. Complete with a picture of Douglas McArthur on the inside. I think because he was the only general in the news at the time. Thank heaven by the time I was reading the cookbook the war was over and we weren't limited to those perishable organ meats. Never have learned to like liver. 

Farmers weren't limited if the meat was for their own use. If they sold part of what they raised the farmer had to collect the appropriate ration stamps. I still haven't quite figured out how it worked. You probably had to be there. 

I definitely remembere this edition. Dad brought a cookbook to the marriage from the Household searchlight. Copyright 1921. Had recipes for squirrel, rabbit, and possum. It was fun just to read it. They both had recipes for killer Devil's Food cakes. Ones that didn't call for loads of sugar and a pound of so of butter. I should check with my sister. I think she has them. 

WHEN IT WAS SINK OR SWIM

This bright (I hope) idea is going to take more than one post. The US didn't have social media during WWII. This is probably a good thing. One of the few topics I remember from my college level US history class, circa about 1970, was that the US didn't really need rationing during WWII. That it was more to bring the country together than a real necessity. I thought my instructors were full of it then and I still do. 

"Mandating that I wear a mask is a violation of my civil rights!" I still am not sure how we ended up here with this attitudte. Can you imagine Sturm and Drang if this attitude had been prevalent during WWII. Let's start with tires. Tire sales were halted on December 11, 1941. Rubber came from SE Asia. And those countries rapidly fell to advancing Japanese armies. Synthetic rubber was available but production capacity was nowhere near demand. Especially with rubber needed for war production. Once the rationing system was set up regions were allocated available tires based on vehicle registrations numbers. 

A national speed limit of 35 mph was instituted as much to conserve rubber as gasoline. You had to apply for a gas card and when you applied you had to admit how many tires you owned. You were allowed five. More than five? You turned them over to the government. The Wickipedia article didn't specify if this was outright confiscation or if you were paid for them. Heck these were the days when most folks only owned one car anyway. You received a sticker for your car. The type of sticker identified how much gasoline you were allowed per week. And you were expected to limit your driving to essentials, Sight seeing was discouraged. Then, as now, so many folks tried to get around the rules tht special courts were set up to deal with the scofflaws. 

An A sticker was the lowest priority and entitled the holder to three or four US gallons per week. B stickers were issued civilians working in industries vital to the war effort and entitled you to up to eight gallons per week. C stickers were issued to individuals considered extremely vital such as doctors. Article didn't specify how much fuel they were able to purchase. An X sticker was avaiable for clergy, fire and police departments and civil defense workers. Probably for official vehicles rather than individual vehicles. 

Can you imagine the fire works if Americans living today were told how many tires they could buy (if any), how much fuel they could buy, how far they could drive. You could hear the screams out beyond the Oort Cloud. Oh, and you could pretty much forget about buying a new car. There were approximately  a half million unsold cars when sales were haulted on January 1, 1942. When sales resumed sale was limited to doctors, clergy and I would imagine police, fire departments and civil defense units.

 Industrial capacity was ramped up for war production. Remember the US was not only preparing to arm US troops but we were preparing to supply equipment to Britain and the USSR. Thanks to the U boat wolf packs it was the middle of 1943 before the convoys delivered more cargo to our allied than was lost at sea.

FREEZING CRACK ADDICTS IN SEARCH OF A FIX

 We all pretty much know that the Current Occupant is an addict. he is a sorry, empty, shell that looks like a human being on the outside. How do you talk about this person. He's like a black hole sucking in adulation and reassrance. It's as if he the only time he feels alive is when he's at one of his rallies, sucking in the adulation like the gravity well of a black hole.  Which brings us to the rally at Omaha, Nebraska last night. 

The rally was held at the airport. In freezing weather. In the open. Apparently busses were provided to get the rally goers TO the rally. In the open. At the airport. The Current Occupant did his usual word salad speech. Got his fix. The masses cheered. He left. And that is when it all went to hell. Except that hell is reported to be hot. A lot hotter than the tarmac at the Omaha airport. When it came time for the folks to get back to their cars total chaos resulted. The busses didn't show up in the right places. Some rally goers walked four miles in the dark, the cold, to get back to their vehicles. 

Some rally goers brought their children. Some of those folks (what I rally want to call them will follow in a bit) were in electric wheel chairs. The EMT's were called for cases of hypothermia. To deal with blithering idots who chose to put themselves in harm's way

Heck we all know #45 is addicted to the adulation of his rallies. What about the cultists who show up at the rallies. We're in middle of an epidemic. Cases are soaring. Most of these folks don't wear masks and they sure as hell do not stand six feet apart. I did see some masks last night. And the heck with herd immunity, lets think about crowding together just to stay warm. Ever see pictures of Emperor penguins huddled together in a giant, shuffling crowd whild protecting their eggs? At least they have a reason for freezing their asses while the females are out fishing during the winter. 

The cultists remind me of crack addicts desparate for a fix. They need to be at those rallies as much #45 does. Mutual black holes. That giant sucking sound as the energy goes Poof. Only last night the energy wss dripping icicles. Any other president would have looked at the weather report and said the heck with this. And his supporters are the ones risking the virus. People this is not reality TV. This is reality. Last night reality was dark and cold and dangerous. He's let you down by any measure that matters and he's still letting you down. The splat is going to be spectacular. 

WHAT'S UP WITH THE BRUISES

 There's something strange going on with senator from Kentucky. A doctor on the web dismissed the bruising as a normal process of aging. Folks my mom made it to 94 and her skin was definitely aging. A good sixteen years or so more than McConnell and she never looked like that. That's his hand, his mouth, possibly his nose and the side of his head. I'd like to see what the pinstripes are hiding. What happened, a dizzy spell and a header down the stairs? Mini stroke and a header. Out of control blood thinners. The voters in Kentucky have a right to know if they're in danger of reelecting a man living on borrowed time. 

Heck we're all on "borrowed" time but some may be on a shorter clock than they were counting on. 

RE: MR. LOCKMAN'S QUOTE

 My brother in law is pushing sixty and a cancer survivor. He is probably the most gentle man I know. He is also six foot three, a former teamster, and has eyes of that special shade of blue that freeze a wildfire. I can just about guarantee that if Mr. Lockman or any of his brethren attempt to lay a hand on my sister, their foster daughter, or any other woman in or out of the family they just might discover they've brought a dull, three inch pocket knife to a figurative gun fight. Frankly the foster daughter runs a gym with her husband, he's about six foot five by the way. One daughter in law runs fitness classes in local schools. Her husband is about six three and played foot ball for the Oregon Ducks. The other daughter in law runs her own business and can be found hiking and skiing along with the nephew who is the shrimp in the family. He's only six foot two. 

I suspect for all his bluster if he dared to actually act on his outrageous claim his target wouldn't look like anyone who could defend herself, Or look like she's packing mace, pepper spray, or sux foot staff that can be used for hiking or self defense. And it's a sad commentary that women in this country feel that they have to carry one or all of the above.

A SHORT RANT

 I'm tired tonight. I get tense my allergies kick up, I cough, sneeze, even itch. Drives me crazy. I can usually take most of the nonsense on FB. However some of the idiocy today is really cranking up my crankly genese. 

A prominent progressive media figure who shall remain nameless believes that if Biden is successful we will need truth and recociliation to get past the last four years. Truth and reconciliation my ass. What we need is an army of cult deprogrammers. And I have no desire reconcile with individuals who have called their fellow citizens who do not agree with them every vile name in the language, threatened them with violence and or death, ignored basic public health directives in the name of some supposed "freeedom." Frankly this walker dependent, Quaker I'm working on it, senior citizen wishes she could still get around so she could kick some ass even if it lands me in court. I am that angry tonight.

They continue to support a man who lies as easily as he breathes. Do his cultists really believe that if we quit testing for the covid virus it will just go away? Or be diagnosed as something else? That the border wall is really completed even though most of it doesn't exist? That he's still a billionaire even though the evidence shows he's flat broke and in hock up to his ridiculous comb over. I suspect that most of those business bankruptcies were cover for money laundering. Is his ego really so out of this world gigantic that he truly believed someone would buy a steak becuase it had his name on it? Or fly a plane because his name was painted on the fusilage. 

I could go on. I'm probably preaching to the choir anyway. Get ready to crash. Maybe play a couple ganes of solitaire. Go visit brother Cadfael. Have to appreciate English understatement. Who else would call a twenty year civil war "the anarchy?" Or perhaps that's what the historians call it after the fact. The folks living through it probably were a lot more colorful. 

Thanks for putting up with me. Good night. And BTW mailed in my ballot last Tuesday. 

WHAT GIFT FROM GOD?

 Yeah, I've been kind of falling behind here. I get caught up in the family tree and sometimes I goof up and have to fix it. Skipped a whole generation early on in one branch, sent me into totally different, I thought, direction. You're playing in the part of Europe that became France and Germany you will run into the same cast of characters if you go back far enough. Maybe more on that later. Saint and sinners, we kind of hope that as time goes by we get more saints than sinners. Doesn't seem to work out that way or perhaps the sinners get more press than the saints. 

Anyway read the following and weep. I remember when all these quotes hit the press. And the reported quote from that last, sorry, POS hit the fan I double and triple checked to make sure it was true. It was. He said he was sorry, sort of. Sorry he got caught most likely.

The Williams quote, said off the cuff back in1990, helped derail his campaign for governor. It's probably a prime example of something an individual who doesn't have to worry about being raped. 

The quotes from Akin, Santorum, and Mourdock hail from the 2012 election cycle. Republican candidates were essentially digging themselves into the ground parsing what was "legitimate rape" and what the victim should be allowed to do if she discovered she was pregnant, Akin claimed that "legititmate rape" was a term used by law enforcement. So far no one in law enforcement has agreed with him. 

As for the other two. Santorum pops up periodically. A former candidate who can't accept that most of us don't care what he thinks about anything. 

Laubenberg. You know I really don't want to run down Texas. I have perfectly sane familiy members living in the Houston area. But damn, this woman served on the health committee of the Texas legislature and the use of rape kits has been in the news for decades. Apparently that quote didn't really hit the news cycle. But the imagees of "getting cleaned out?" And frankly a woman should know better IMHO.

And last, and probably the worst, Lawrence Lockman. I believe I had a blog entry back when he got caught with his pants, word wise, down. He did apologize, sort of. Probably more that he got caught on record. 

Really read what he ssaid. That forcing a woman to have sex, hopefully not getting killed while being raped, is OK as long as abortion is legal. Forcing a woman to have sex that, in most cases does not result in her death, is OK because most of the time nobody dies. This is an individual who either doesn't really think through what he's saying or should only be allowed near women as long as the women have pepper spray and tasers. 

A lot of possible titles went through my mind. Rape Culture. Entitled to Rape. Settle on What Gift From God? And that was a hard one. Just putting a line of question marks in the title line didn't work for my either. 

But every quote but Laubenberg is from a man. Men don't have to wonder about how they dress, where they go, make sure the pepper spray on the bike handle can be reached if needed, damn I went to the rest room without finishing my drink should I dump it and order another? And that last one. The idea that men have the right to force a woman to have sex because they are stronger. Frankly I believe he would believe that even if abortion never came up. Wonder how many men in this country believe this, just don't say it.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH NORMAN ROCKWELL.

 

One of the four illustrations Norman Rockwell produced for the War Bonds campaign during WWII. This is Freedom of Speech. I'm assuming this could be  New England town meeting. He's got a  copy of the budget in his pocket. Looks like he's done his homework and folks are listening to him. And she's behind the guy in the black suit but there's a woman in the audience too. Hat and all. This is what we are fighting for this time around. 

ARE WE IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE?

" I got to thinking yesterday--if someone came up to you and said you could save a life by doing something that cost virtually nothing and took no great physical effort, wouldn't you do it? I mean, it's just a god-damned scrap of cloth across your face when you go out around other people. It may be a little uncomfortable, but it's not impossible, and it's not dangerous to one's own health. Probably beneficial, in fact. So what the FUCK is up with Americans that we had to politicize this and make mask-wearing the mark of "snowflake" libs??!?! We NEED to get rid of Trump. But if, by some combination of voter suppression, Russian interference and skillful manipulation of the electoral college, we end up with Trump for 4 more years, then the Universe is telling us we're getting exactly we deserve."

Comment on an earlier entry from a friend. Damned if I know what's going on. The exploitation of an extreme version of liberty that reads "My rights are the most important rights in the country. You must respect my rights. I'll respect yours when or if I feel like it." The anarchistic, so called militia groups that want to bring down the government, stir up trouble becuase they feel like it, foreign interference, something else, some or all of the above. 

I've been spending a lot of time in the family tree and frankly we are out wierding just about everybody. I don't care how far back you go. Maybe multiple greats grandpa Charles was crazier than a junk yard dog but he didn't have a world wide audience for his crazyness. I mean if somone really pushed it you might get thirty miles in a day, with multiple changes in horses. Ten on foot if you were lucky. not spanning a continent in hours. Trade routes could take you from Eastern China to Scandinavia. In three or four years if you took the land routes. those mountain passes tended to freeze up in the winters. So did the Russian rivers. 

There was Clovis I. Convinced a young man to hurry his inheritance by killing his father. Then had him killed. Good ol' Clovis. A prime example of "I've got religion now the rest of you join up. Or else." Ah, well, you can choose your friends. You are stuck with your ancestors. 

So far. #45 is whining as much or more than usual. The folks who traded their souls for a job with the administration have been sending out "just in case" resumes and coming up snake eyes. For some reason almost no one is cool with the idea of hiring them. I guess they could remove that info from their data and claim they've been meditating in Tibet for the last two or three years. 

And has anyone noticed that the women in his administration including his lawyer have a Stepford Wives look in their eyes? Cue the Rod Serling intro. 

VIRUSES

The biological kind, not the computer kind. And to be honest most of our fellow citizens are more familiar with the second. After all there are ads all over the media selling you "protection" for your devices from the computer viruses. Before Covid it seems like the only time a virus got mentioned was when the flu virus came to town. 

 1965 I was a sophomore in high school. A few years later I took Biology 101 etc at the U of O. I'd say about 1971 or so. Unfortunately my bio textbook didn't survive the move from Springfield so I really don't remember how viruses were covered at the time. It was only 1962 when a group of scientists developed a way to classify virus following the system of Linneaus. The man who first looked at critters through an early microscope. However an onliine AP Biology text I have access to doesn't get to viruses until chapter 21. From what I can see there is a lot more information out there than I had access to. 

Viruses carry genetic material, reproduce, and evolve through natural selection. One of the reasons most of us get flu shots at least every other year. The little beggers insist on mutating regularly and it's a crap shoot that any new ones will end up in this year's vaccine. 

Viruses lack other characteristics of living cells like a complex cell structure. One of the reasons that many scientists aren't sure whether a virus is truly "alive" or not. A virus is a hijacker extraordinaire. A gate crasher. The microscopic version of a home invader. Only in this case the invader procedes to increase and multiply. Takes over your cells and reprograms them. Instead of making more of your cells it becomes a factory assembly line producing new viruses. When the cell fills up, it bursts releasing copies of the original virus.

THE VIRUS DOESN'T GIVE A DAMN

Be strong. That's the message the current occupant came out of his brief stay at Walter Reed where he received treatments most of the rest of us can only dream about much less afford. That virus doesn't give a damn about your religion, political party, sex or anything else. If a virus could care the only thing it cares about is a good supply of YOUR cells to hijack to make copies of itself. 

 I watch anti mask, anti social distancing and finally end up thinking "this country did too good a job at controlling infectious diseases." I grew up in rural Oregon so we weren't hit with the anuual summer "the pool is closed because of a polio outbreak." But I did see the pictures of wards full of iron lungs. My late BIL's BIL had polio as a kid. it left him with a paralyzed left arn, Didn't slow him down much.

I'm probably a member of the last generation to be vaccinated for small pox. We have letters from my great great grandmother in Kansas. "The weather has been really hot, not much rain, and there's rumors about small pox in the neighborhood." That was around the turn of the last centrury. Don't hear much about that any more. The only supplies of small pox virus are in tightly controlled places like the CDC. 

When the polio vaccines came out we got both of them. Everybody in town lined up in the local gym three times to get our sugar cubes. And guess what? Thanks to vaccines polio has almost been eradicated. 

I had, in order, the hard measles, chicken pox, and the mumps. Only lost a week of school with the mumps. Of course I swelled up like a freakin' balloon. Looked like a full moon. Kept having the urge to open up my mout all the way. Of course I couldn't. Kid sister had the chicken pox and measles. I believe the littlest sister managed take a pass on all three of those glorious dieseases. We have vaccines for those now. And we get vaccinated to protect ourselves and EVERYBODY ELSE WE MIGHT COME IN CONTACT WITH! 

Antibiotics can control most of the secondary infections. Well the ones that we haven't built up resistance to because of overuse. Most of us don't die from blood poisoning anymore. ICU's and nursing homes have put death behind closed doors. More people have probably watched death on film than have actually seen someone die for real Except for the military. And those men and women have seen far too much. 

I know this is rambling but it got me to thinking. Funny, or not so funny, I haven't seen any armed mobs demanding the right to drive while totally plastered. After all those drunk driving laws are almost as big party killers as social distancing. OK I'm sort of joking but still. Most of us don't drive drunk because we one, don't want to get ourselves killed, and two (possibly) we don't want to kill anyone else. 

That's what it boils down to. We don't want to get ourselves killed or permanently damaged. And we don't want to do this to anyone else. 

I'M ON THE PAPER ON THE TABLE

That means I am not "on" the table. Or proof that if cats had thumbs they would might be card sharps. That does involve some skill. I would hope they are too honest to be street corner preachers or right wing talk show hosts. Fox talking heads or politicians. Although. They can sit on the paper and claim they are 'not" on the table. 

An old edition of World Book had an entry ranking the intelligence of animals. It ranked dogs above cats because dogs were more "cooperative" obeying what humans wanted them to do. Personally I see it in reverse. When a cat discovers that an action doesn't lead to a useful outcome it's likely to go off and groom it's face. Midge will play with the red dot. And sometimes I think she's doing it to humor me. 

Now both dogs and cats seem to forget they have tails and act surprised when they spot that wiggly thing behind them that moves when they do and they can't quite catch. 

And then, of course there's this. Our cats never tried pushing thngs off the counters or the table. But their answer to "you are not supposed to be on the table." Was to lay on the magazine or the newspaper that was on the table, "I'm not on the table I am on the paper that is on the table. Silly human."

"I HAD OTHER THINGS TO DO"

 Made the mistake of trying to deal with a "troll" on FB today. One of my FB friends made a comment about the military record, or lack of a record, of the curerent occupant, And of course some of the rest of us had take the bit in our teeth and attempt to answer him. I suspect some of you are familiar with the type. They take the part of your comment you consider to be the least important and answer that. Of ten as insultingly as possible while ignoring the part of the comment YOU thought was the important part. What it seemed to boil down to was this. If you haven't served in the military you do not have the right to comment on the lack of the current occupant's record. 

Well heck. The Twitter champion in the White House has despareged serving troops and vets often enough. Losers. Suckers. John McCain wasn't a hero because he was a POW. The current occupant had four student deferments and one for "bone spurs." Let's look at the possibilities for service. As a college graduate he probably would have been eligible for OCS. As a graduate he probably could have qualified to apply to one of the voluntary services, navy, air force. Coast Guard. I'm not even going the mention the marines in the same sentence as this individual. 

Even if he had been drafted into the army the chances of the son of a powerful, wealthy, businessman from NYC slogging through the swamps of Viet Nam much less even ending up in SE Asia would have been next to zero. 

Even though the person who shall remain nameless has university degrees he has gone to great lengths to keep his transcripts, all his transcripts, secret. including threatening to sue any school who releases them. Even draftees had to take aptitude tests. Did his family realize that he would probably flunk. If he passsed the tests would he even be able to complete basic training for any branch of the service? Bone spurs probably looked like a quick and easy out at the time. A record that probably would never see the light of day. Well it did. 

His attitude towward serving. He has basically said "it wasn't his bag." Or words to that effect. And that avoiding STD"s were his personal Viet Nam. Anyone want to give odds on his chances for survival if he had joined the army, gone to OCS, been commissioned as a second lieutenant and been assigned to an actual foot slogging command. His own men just might have fragged him before the week was out. 

The bone spurs appear to have magially healed as soon as the Sword of Damocles of the draft ceased to hang over his head. 

don't know if you can actually read this. Back during WWII all men from 18 to 65 had to register including the work they were doing. This is might great uncle Walter Heaton's registration card. He was sixty four and a farmer living in the NW corner of Oregon. Of course he was never going to be drafted into the armed forces but I suspect the folks trying to build a war economy wanted to know how many steel workers, electriacians, loggers and yes, farmers there were in the country. 

My dad was called up. The doctor took one look at his bow legs and basically said "I don't know why the sent you in and classified him 4-F. His legs weren's good enough for the infantry but they were good enough to scramble around the coast range getting out the cut for the wood needed for the war effort. 

fF

IF i HAD A TIME MACHINE

If you had a time machine where would you go? Granted I haven't run across a lot of responses but most folks say they want to go back and watch a famous battle or meet a famous general or something like that. I guess I'm weird because that isn't what I'd want to do. 

I'd love to discover spinning. What bored shepherd was playing with fleece that got caught in some bushes and discovered thread? And who, or multiple whos, discovered you make loops back and forth and make cloth. Or cotton. cotton is a shrub that grows in both the new and the old world. Like the fluff of a dandelion, the fluffy strands of the cotton plant help to disperse the seeds. And somebody in Peru got busy and made cloth of some kind. Cloth that dates back to 6,000 BCE. The Indus Valley a thousand years later.

I think it was when I was in junior high. Read a book set in period of the beginning of cities and the end of the great mammals. Don't remember the title. Don't remember the names of any of the characters. One thing I do remember. The hunters were used to having the pelts of the large animals to use for blankets, cloaks the like. One of the women in the clan hit on taking the pelts from smaller animals, cutting them into strips, sewing the strips together and then weaving them into blankets, cloaks. I guess someone looked at those fur items, looked at those threads of wool or cotton, had an "aha" moment and starting trying to do the same thing.

Dying? The berry juice turns my fingers blue or purple I wonder if? Berrys I can understand but those sea snails that produce Tyrian Purple. Who figuared that out. And made a eventually made a mint. The dye used to be hideously expensive. And royalty made darn sure that only they could buy it. Hence another name. Imperial Purple. 

And heck, after fire was tamed who realized that they didn't have to eat their mear raw anymore. First tamed fire caused by lightning and what? Acciedentally dropped a haunch of antelope onto the coals, didn't want to waste the meat, disovered it tasted pretty good. Or some poor critter was hit by lightning, parts of it "cooked" and someone made the connection between lightning and fire and decided "hey we can get this good stuff whenever we want to!"

The nomads that had a circuit, hit the same camps every year, their women noticed the same grain growing in the kitchen midden that they had to go out and gather on the plains. After some experimenting they figured out how to make it grow where they wanted it.

For starters that's where I would go. If I had a time machine. Sorry this entry is a little disjointed. 

STELLAR NURSERY

I've been beavering away on the family tree. Not much to report yet except some folks that I've found are great examples of you can choose your friends but you are stuck with family. Haven't found any out and out horse thieves but those who rebelled and those who were targets of rebellion are popping up pretty regularly. If you've noticed when all else fails I head for NASA'a astronomy page. 

Image credit to Cesar Blanco Gonalez. This is the Orion Nebula.  The clouds of gas are stellar nurseries. The nubla is studded with hot blue white stars and the shot has been enhanced to bring out the colors of hydrogen, oxygen and sulpher . Three of the most comoon elements in the cosmos.

Blue white stars burn hot and fast. Their lives can be measured in millions of years, not billions and when they nova they seed the universe with all the building blocks needed to buiild a planet it the conditions are right. The middle ages churches told stories in paint and colored glass. Telescopes like Hubble record stories in burning stars and clouds of dust.