Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia goes fishing

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was in Portland the other day for a speaking engagement. I wonder if anyone attended? I hope not. While he was here, he went fishing on the Clackamas River. There was a picture of him in the Metro section of “The Oregonian” holding a big salmon he allegedly caught, even though the state advises against pulling wild salmon out of the water. He had hooked a wild Chinook which is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. It’s ok to catch wild salmon as long as you release them. And to take a picture, you would have to hold the fish right next to the water for only a few seconds and then release it which obviously was not done in this case. How dare Scalia come out here and flaunt our game laws, or any laws for that matter. He’s one of the men who just passed the new abortion bill with no problem at all, and now he comes out here and thumbs his nose at our laws.

Looking at his picture and seeing the stupid grin on his face, I think there’s something that could have made an even better picture. He could have brought his friend Dick Cheney along on the trip and maybe Dick could have shot someone while they were in the boat . . . possibly another fisherman. Then Dick could have cradled him in his arms alongside Scalia for a sort of group photo. And then, hopefully, someone would have made a citizen’s arrest.

Roe v. Wade

I was watching a “Seinfeld” re-run the other night like I occasionally do . . . to be perfectly honest, I should say like I always do . . . every night. Anyway, this was the episode where a new girlfriend of Jerry’s was trying to explain to the group how she got gonorrhea one time. Of course, they were all very interested, especially Jerry. So she says her boyfriend told her she got it from riding on a tractor in her bathing suit! Jerry and his friends were dumfounded as was I. I was thinking how appallingly stupid one person can be, and it was then that I thought of Justice Clarence Thomas. I don’t know why he came to mind – Jerry’s girlfriend was small and blond and Clarence is big and black. Whatever, I thought of him. It’s probably because I think of him as appallingly stupid and mean and could never figure out how someone like him could get on the Supreme Court.

When the Supreme Court passed the bill on abortion recently, it was just one more step in the fight to do away with Roe v. Wade. I have never understood why the government thinks it can legislate what a woman does with her body. This should be up to the woman and no one else. Where do these five men get the right to tell women what to do with their bodies? How can this have happened?

I found an article in “The Long Island Catholic” newspaper, which was slanted the Catholic way, of course, but there were a couple of sentences that spelled out the plan for the future. It mentions there was a concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas, which Justice Antonin Scalia also signed, questioning the constitutional basis for Roe v. Wade. There was more in this article, and Jerry Higgins, chairman of the Long Island Coalition for Life, says even with this new ruling, there is still a lot to be done. Higgins states: “There has to be another justice appointed who opposes Roe. That is why we have to keep working politically to get pro-lifers elected.” Now that is one scary thought! But that’s what I get for reading a Catholic newspaper article.

My one hope is that none of the justices leave before Bush leaves. That would be disastrous!

“Experiments Suggest Birds May Be Capable Of Planning Ahead” was a recent headline in “The Wall Street Journal” which I found quite intriguing. I am all for planning ahead – when I go out of town for several days, I begin packing at least a week ahead. I pack clothes that I especially like but can’t wear until I’m at my destination which means I go around looking like crap for about a week before I leave. But the experiments were done on scrub jays and I doubt that they ever packed anything for a vacation. They probably don’t even take vacations. I’m not even sure what a scrub jay is, but in one experiment they seemed to be able to plan ahead in ways indicating forethought.

Some scientists think the experiments show that some animals may have higher mental abilities like logic and the ability to plan ahead for the future. Also they believe that birds make tools better than primates do. In one study, a crow formed a wire into a hook which let him grab his food. To quote Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus, University of Colorado, this is “the first time any animal has been found to make a new tool for a specific task.” There are a lot of crows where I live, and sometimes they make screeching noises when something is going on . . . I don’t know exactly what, but something. Maybe they don’t like my walking by, or maybe they’re busy making implements with which they can get their food more easily. If crows are so smart, why are they always in the street, picking at nasty old things to eat? And I’ve never seen one with a tool.

Scrub jays are into storing food – as do Mormons. Do the birds have enough for several years stored someplace? I think the Mormons store quite a bit – jays probably couldn’t find a place to store very much. And what do they eat anyway . . . the birds, I mean. This shows that jays are able to plan for the future which is something that has never before been seen in nonhuman behavior. I find all this fascinating, and I’m sure there are many more examples of birds outdoing us in many respects. But have they learned how to operate a TV remote control and program a cell phone? I think not!

When Cindy and Teri were little, we’d spend vacations at Oceanlake at the coast. My parents had a home there and we’d either stay with them or in a motel on the beach. The girls loved the ocean, and my dad would go out with us and spend time looking for shells, glass balls or whatever there might be . . . usually beer cans and cigarette butts. But it was all fun. Cindy and her dad appear to be having a great time except for the fact that his back is to the ocean . . . a very bad thing. I’m sure someone reprimanded him for that oversight. That picture is so sweet of both of them and it brings back many memories. My dad loved walking on the beach with the girls. There was a crazy thing he would do . . . he’d run down the beach, stop, jump up in the air and then whirl around in a complete circle! None of us could do it, even though we tried. I don’t know how he did it. I tried it once at home when my dad had just hung a beautiful painting of Mt. Hood above our fireplace mantle. I was so excited I tried whirling around on the fireplace hearth which, of course, was made out of stone or bricks, and I fell and cracked my head! I had to lie down on the couch for a long time with everyone peering at me to see if I were still alive. I think this went on for hours, and I made it through all that but never tried the whirling again. I’ve hung many paintings in my numerous residences throughout the years and have never whirled around for any of them!

When I was young, my dad and his brothers owned a house at the coast in Nelscott which was between Oceanlake and Taft. The first thing we’d do when we arrived for a few days was go to the place that sold crabs. My folks and my brother loved crabs, but I hate them! I can’t stand the smell, the look, the taste . . . everything about them. After we got the crabs for dinner, my brother and I would have to pick out the meat for my mother to make a salad or whatever it is you do with crab meat. My dad, fortunately, had skin trouble and couldn’t help out, so I was forced into it. It actually wasn’t fortunate he had skin trouble, because once he almost died when doctors couldn’t find out how to treat it. But it did get him out of the crab thing. So that night for dinner, the rest of the family would eat some kind of crab dish, and I’d have a steak or hamburger. It wasn’t until I was married that I found out the way most people eat crab – they slap it on the table, open a beer, crack the crab open and suck it out of the shell! I don’t know why my family didn’t do it that way when I was young.

The girls and their dad and I spent many happy times on the beach at Oceanlake when my parents lived there. Now all I have are the photos of time we spent there together. When I look at these photos, I become very nostalgic . . . my parents and the girls’ dad are no longer alive, but we were all so young and happy then. Nothing ever stays the same, and what we have left are pictures and memories to last the girls and me a lifetime.

BlackBerry breakdown and other interesting newspaper articles 4/19/07

Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell moved to the Philippines two years ago. Her family and friends were waiting to hear from her after she disappeared on a trip to a mountainside in a remote part of Hugao province. But Wednesday, soldiers found her body buried in a shallow grave in the northern Philippines, and they think foul play might have been involved. Whatever would make them come to that conclusion? Maybe because she probably didn’t dig her own grave?

Another interesting news item says that ice-breakers smashed through some ice off Newfoundland’s northeast coast Wednesday to free some 100 seal-hunt ships. There was a possibility that some of the ships would be pierced by the ice and possibly cracked. Newfoundland is the third and the largest part of Canada’s seal hunt. The total for all three is 270,000 seals. The seal pelts go to the fashion industry in Norway, Russia and China. I think it would have been great if the ice-breakers had become stuck and possibly pierced by the ice and cracked just like the seal-hunt ships. At least it would have given the seals a chance at a longer life.

Another item was about the big BlackBerry fiasco. It seems that they stopped working about 5pm on the west coast Tuesday and didn’t resume until sometime Wednesday morning. Research in Motion, the Canadian company that makes the BlackBerry, didn’t say much at all and didn’t return calls or e-mails. They did issue a statement in the morning saying that users in North America were affected but nothing about how long, why or how many were affected. San Jose Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio tried during the night on Tuesday, and when he couldn’t get anything, he thought maybe he had dropped his BlackBerry or done something wrong. “BlackBerry users tend to be neurotic,” Councilman Oliverio said. I think we all knew that already! For example: when I visit Teri her BlackBerry is always in use. Even if she has a day off, she’s on that damn thing, clicking away at text messages or whatever they are. When she comes up here to visit, the BlackBerry is in use all the time . . . in the car, on the street, in the house, out to lunch and on and on. I didn’t hear from her yesterday and think she may have been in a state of shock from being without the BlackBerry for a few hours. I trust she’s recovered and is back to normal . . . texting her little heart out!

Hide your dogs!

Should we be keeping a watchful eye over our dogs these days? Kasie Hunt of the Associated Press writes that faux fur has been showing up on clothes from Tommy Hilfiger’s Web site, Nordstrom’s web site and one from Andrew Marc’s MARC New York line sold on his web site. The faux fur turned out to be from domesticated dogs! There were more with fur from raccoon dogs which is a species native to Asia. Most of this fur came from China. This whole idea of dog fur is very repugnant to me. I wonder if other dogs would recognize the smell of one of their relatives when someone walked by wearing the faux fur which was really dog fur. That could be very uncomfortable for all concerned.

The Humane Society began an investigation after a tip from a woman who bought a coat labeled as faux fur, but she thought it felt real. So when the Humane Society began testing, they found 24 out of 25 coats tested were mislabeled or misadvertised. After this came out, Tommy Hilfiger stopped selling the fur trimmed garment, Nordstrom called customers who purchased the fur-trimmed garments and told them they could send them back. But the chief executive of Andrew Marc didn’t agree with the Humane Society and said fur on his coats labeled as raccoon contains “only farm-bred raccoon fur from Finland.”

That statement shocked me. Finland is my other homeland. Well, sort of . . . I am half Finnish and my dad was all Finnish. He was born here but his parents came from Finland. So doesn’t that make me something? I think very highly of Finland and to think they are breeding darling little raccoons for people to wear on their shoulders is very disturbing. How could they do something like that and where do they find the time what with their production of vodka – and time spent drinking it – and the manufacture of cell phones – and time spent talking back and forth on them to make sure Nokia is perfect? And after doing all that, they spend many hours in their saunas, sweating away and seemingly enjoying it, and then jumping up and leaping into a cold river or snowbank. I think they have enough on their plate and should give up the fur business. That’s not good news coming out of my half homeland.

And about the saunas . . . my grandfather had one on his farm and my dad and all his brothers would gather one night a week and sweat in it! I thought the entire idea was quite strange and still do – I don’t like to sweat. They had a ladies night, but I never attended. Maybe I wasn’t lady enough.

Off to Disneyland!

This is the time when parents take their kids on vacations during spring break, so when Teri was three and a half years old and before Cindy was born, my husband, Darrell, and I made plans to take a vacation along the coast to southern California. Only we went in the summer during Darrell’s break – Teri had a break every day at that age. Our destination was Darrell’s cousin and his family who lived in Palos Verdes. Darrell didn’t let his relatives know we were coming which was a very bad idea, but I left it up to him. I was young and stupid in those days. We drove down the coast from Portland and enjoyed the beautiful scenery in Oregon and northern California. It was gorgeous around Big Sur, and the California coastline was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. We stopped in Carmel where this picture was taken of Teri and her dad.

We spent the nights in motels on the way down and would leave early in the mornings with Teri asleep in the back seat of our car. There were no seat belts in those days or little car seats for little people, so she rattled around all over the place. She had an Etch A Sketch which was popular at that time, and she played with that a lot. I even liked it so we sort of fought over it, but I let her use it part of the time. It was easy to use and fun. My kind of game! I remember we stopped at a tiny café along the Big Sur highway, and inside they had two big tarantulas in a cage. I’m scared to death of spiders but they fascinated me, and I just stood there as if in a trance. Darrell finally dragged me out of there, and we were on our way to visit the unsuspecting cousins.

When we arrived at their home, they were surprised which is a BIG understatement! But they recovered and we spent a few enjoyable days with them. We went to Disneyland while we were there, and I remember absolutely nothing about it. I don’t like wild rides and all the crowds who like the rides. I guess I don’t like anything about it at all. I asked Teri if she remembered Disneyland and she said “Maybe . . . sort of a little” But she had no definite memories. I find it funny that she was too young to remember anything about it and I am possibly too old to remember! Guess that means we won’t ever spend time reminiscing about our fun time at Disneyland when we were both young.

So that was our big California vacation. I don’t remember much of the ride back – I was probably too busy playing with the Etch A Sketch. But I’ll always remember the beautiful northern California coastline and the tarantulas. What a perfect vacation!

Annual coyote hunt derby

I just read about a coyote hunt derby that took place in Molalla right outside Portland. I was surprised when I found out who organized this event. It turns out it’s sponsored by a Christian outreach organization. To whom are they reaching out? Twelve hunters paid for the privilege of participating, and three coyotes were killed during the March derby. To quote from “The Oregonian,” “Green and Lyle Edwards organized the derby to benefit Wildlife Ministries, a small organization based at the Molalla Church of the Nazarene that uses hunting, fishing and outdoor adventures in its ministry.” Does coyote killing fall under hunting or outdoor adventures? Whatever happened to the old-fashioned methods of fund raising such as car washes with high school girls in tiny bikinis doing the washing? Or what about bake sales where all the women who could no longer fit into a tiny bikini baked whatever they could. I’ve never heard of a church sponsoring such an event and I think the whole idea is deplorable.

These derbies are common in Eastern Oregon but rare in the western part of the state. It seems there are people here who object to that sort of entertainment. I knew there was a reason I never wanted to spend time in rural Eastern Oregon. I know there are very wealthy men in this country who have ranches stocked with exotic animals where their friends visit and have a wild time drinking and shooting the animals. Sometimes they may even shoot a friend as Dick Cheney did. But that’s not at all surprising considering who the shooter was. Does this shooting and killing make them feel like real men or does it expose them for the assholes they really are? I think the latter. But for a little Nazarene church to put on such an event is very surprising. Do the men sit around smoking cigars and drinking beer after the shoot? Are Nazarenians even allowed to drink and smoke? Probably not. And is this something of which all Christians approve?

Jack Green says they will hold the derby again – maybe in December. We should all avoid that area at that time and keep our dogs in the house.

Easter Bunny

I was looking through old photos and found this one of Teri and Cindy with the Easter bunny taken at my parent’s home. My parents had that bunny when my brother and I were kids, and every Easter we’d find the bunny out on the lawn with colored eggs all over the grass and hidden behind tall weeds. It was so exciting for us – I think I probably thought the bunny actually brought them . . . or maybe laid them? I just remember it as a wonderful, fun time for all of us with the Easter bunny. I don’t know when we stopped doing that, but it did come to an end. When I married and had children, we would go to Hood River and visit my folks and the Easter bunny. Teri and Cindy would look out on the lawn and see the bunny among all the eggs. They loved it and so did we as we raced outside to see who could find the most eggs.

So I decided to call Teri because I thought I had seen the bunny at her house one time years ago, and I thought we could reminisce about the fun times we had with it in our own home at Easter when the girls were little. But Teri was in meetings every time I called, so I finally told her assistant I needed to talk to Teri about the Easter bunny. He asked if I were speaking metaphorically, and I said, “No, you idiot – I’m talking about the Easter bunny and Teri will know what I mean.” I actually don’t think I called him an idiot – I hope not, because he’s really nice. But Teri didn’t get back to me that day, so I asked Cindy when she came into town and spent the night. She got a glazed look in her eyes, and said, “What Easter bunny?” Teri finally called back and knew nothing about any good times we had had at our house with the Easter bunny. In fact, she didn’t even remember the Easter bunny! I was counting on my girls to come up with a touching story I could write about since I have a hard time even remembering what I had to eat yesterday, let alone years ago, but they came up with nothing!

My last hope was my brother who remembers nearly everything. He remembered the bunny and how we used to hunt for the eggs on Easter. But he said he thinks the bunny didn’t make it; in other words, the bunny fell apart after serving our family for many years. That made me sad as I was sure someone still had it.

So I have no happy story about the bunny at our house when the girls were little, but at least I have the picture of them at my folk’s house. And it looks like they’re enjoying themselves, even if they no longer remember it. I just wish we still had the Easter bunny.

I was reading “The Sunday Oregonian” recently and came across two small articles on the same page that caught my interest. The first was concerning the office in charge of protecting American technical secrets about nuclear weapons from foreign spies. It turns out 20 desktop computers are missing and 14 of them have been used for classified information. This was reported by the Energy Department inspector general. This is the 13th time in four years that this department has lost control over computers used in working on bombs. What the hell is happening in Washington? Is everyone asleep and are the inmates running the asylum? But then they have been for the past few years. Spokesman Craig Stevens says Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman “recognizes that we need to manage this place better.” How’s that for an understatement?

Another article was about a man who wanted to see his brother playing football at the University of South Carolina – his brother is a lineman for the Gamecocks. Is that an actual name? What are the cheers like for a team with that name? Hard to imagine! Anyway, this man really wanted to get to the game and apparently had no car, so he stole a car after he shot its owner at a convenience store. The car then broke down, so he went to some woman’s home, shot and killed her and then stole her car. He was finally arrested outside the stadium where the team was playing a scrimmage game. All that for a scrimmage game?

Since I haven’t checked with Tiffany and Amber in quite a while, I asked them what they thought of the football story and this is what they said:

Tiffany: How could anyone come up with a cheer for the Gamecocks?

Amber: How about “Our Cocks are the biggest – Our Cocks are the best. We’ll knock you down and run over the rest! Yay team!!”

Tiffany: No, Amber – it’s GAMECOCKS, not Cocks!

Amber: You never like my ideas. I’m going to the mall and maybe like find someone who thinks I’m cool.

I don’t know why I ever even check with them.

Cindy’s having a birthday!

Today is my baby’s birthday – she’s not a baby anymore, but she is the younger of my two daughters, so she will remain my baby as far as I’m concerned. I know I tend to offer too much advice sometimes. She’s gone through some tough times as did I at her age, and I guess I just want to protect her and keep her from making the same mistakes I did. But when I get carried away on the phone, she’ll say, “OK, that’s enough of that.” And then we both hang up. I know she’ll make things good for herself as she always seems to come out on top . . . and without my help! And I realize it’s her life and she’ll have to find her way through it which I’m sure she’ll do very well.

Cindy and Teri got me started on my Blog, and also my attempt at making my own line of cards. Cindy came up with the name: “I’m A Patsy – Gotta Problem With That?” She is so sharp and quick and just plain funny. I’ve had so many good times with her and usually end up in hysterics when we’re talking. I always feel better after our conversations even if she does shut me up! She’s brought a lot of joy into my life – both of my daughters have. I consider myself very lucky.

A good example of what our conversations are like and why I end up laughing happened a few minutes ago when I called her. I asked what she was doing, and she said “I’m going poop No. 2 for the second time!” So then I said, “I just went poop No. 2 again – just like you!” Now if only we had had Teri hooked up with us on a conference call, we could have had the entire family reporting in.

The above picture is Cindy’s first grade picture. She doesn’t look quite like that anymore, but I still remember her that way.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CINDY!!