Lift Up Your Hearts!

There's purpose and meaning in all aspects of our lives, even the seemingly random incidents. We don't often have the privilege of glimpsing the pattern as well as I did last night.

Our local Target store has a two-layered system of checkout stations, which makes finding the best line a little more complicated than usual. After checking out several in the first tier that turned out to be longer than they looked, I found an almost-empty line in the second tier and headed for it. When I was almost there, a man popped up from another direction, striding determinedly toward my goal. Not wanting to fight him for it, I swerved and settled on the nearest available station.

While I was standing in line, a fellow customer looked at my purchases and asked, "Is that clear contact paper?" It was. "Where did you find it? I've been looking all over for it." She had come up empty at Wal-Mart and found nothing at Target. I was not surprised, as the first time I tried to purchase contact paper at Target I couldn't find it and neither could the clerks I'd asked for help. But I'm a seasoned clear contact paper buyer now, and upon entering the store had headed immediately for the sign that says "Small Electronics" and picked up the last three rolls. At the checkout line I was therefore able to hand one of the three to the very grateful woman and her more grateful daughter, who I'm guessing needed it for a school project.

It was gratifying to know there was a good reason for my comical, pinball-like bouncing around at the checkout stations.

Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2000)

My nephew is going into seventh grade, and this was part of his required summer reading. He didn't have much to say about it, not surprising since it's hardly a title, nor a story, I would expect to appeal to most middle school boys. Or girls, for that matter. At that age, I would have picked up the book, assuming it was a science fiction story, then put it down in disgust when I discovered what it really was.

I'm not sure who the target audience is for this book, since the setting is high school and the themes adolescent, yet the intellectual level seems more geared towards elementary school.

Nonetheless, when I picked up the book recently to check it out, I became intrigued when I discovered that the title character was homeschooled before making her way into public high school—and definitely not fitting in. So when my nephew left for home, taking the book with him, I borrowed it from the library so I could finish reading the story. (More)

Janet is currently in Japan, preparing to teach English. Perusing an old diary today, I discovered an inclination toward that profession appearing much earlier in her life than I had supposed. The incident took place in the fall of her third grade year.

I've heard it said that the male human body has enough blood to power the brain or the sexual organs, but not both at the same time. I'm not convinced women are any smarter, but this news report about the Third International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment goes far in proving the adage for men. (More)

This cannot be a detailed review, as too many of the people who read this blog have not yet read the book. But I will say that Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince did not disappoint me. The fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I had found tedious, and I was disappointed in that I thought J. K. Rowling had set herself up for a great ending which never came.

Not so with the sixth book. It held my attention from beginning to end, not easy to do when the competition is an adorable 20-month old grandson, a flock of other wonderful family members and friends, and a lovely converted houseboat on the Connecticut shoreline. It did help that I found Harry's behavior less obnoxious this time. There were a few annoying points—I never did care to read about the tribulations of adolescent love—but they were minor.

Grace, sacrificial love, and persistent hope for the salvation even of one's enemies show more clearly here than in previous books. As always, Rowling's great contribution to children's literature is that she does not sugarcoat evil, nor minimize the cost of the battle, yet still manages to produce a book full of goodness, hope, and fun.

This afternoon, searching for a birthday gift for my nephew, I ventured into long-forgotten territory: a Toys R Us store. Just as a child's growth is more noticeable to one who has been away for a while, so did I find the cultural changes represented by the toys and games to be startling. While there were a few of what I might call generic games, most were branded with characters from television shows and movies. Even the old standby, Candyland, now comes in Dora the Explorer and Winnie the Pooh (Disney version, of course) flavors. Back when I was a more regular visitor of toy stores, there were already a few media-inspired toys, but now the genre has exploded. I did not linger, but left with the impression that I would find more of reality at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

Women who want to get pregnant are now being advised to avoid tofu and other soy products, at least around the peak times for conception. New studies have shown that even small amounts of genistein, which mimics the hormone estrogen and is found in soy products, cause sperm to lose their fertility.

Well, I guess that explains why 20% of the world's population is Chinese!

I've never read Al Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them:  A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, and frankly I doubt it will ever rise far enough up on my "must read" list to see the light of day.  For all I know, it's a great book full of interesting and useful information that would do me good to read.  But if so, why does it have a title that sounds like a pre-adolescent playground taunt?  That alone makes it hard to take the content seriously.  Someone needs a ghost title-writer.

Score one more for mothers. When you sang to your baby, rocking and bouncing him, or danced with him around the room, others may have said you were being silly. You may have thought you were just trying to keep your baby from crying. But what you were really doing was giving him his first music lessons. A Canadian study has shown that being moved to music helps babies learn rhythm. Just watching you dance is not good enough, by the way; the baby must dance, too.

This isn't high on the list of important things I have to do at the moment, but Jon challenged me and it looks like fun, so I'll see if I can come up with something reasonably quickly.

Total size of music files in my computer
About 500 songs, I have no idea how many hours, about 2.1 GB.

This is slightly misleading, as most of the music I listen to is not on my computer. What I've counted includes a number of recordings, compositions, and transcriptions of music featuring family and friends.

Last record bought
Prayer for Peace (Orlando Deanery Boychoir and Girls' Choirs), title song by Robert Kerr

Song that I am listening to now
Silence. No, not Simon & Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence, but the real thing, or what passes for it in this busy world. Sometimes silence is my favorite song, especially when I'm trying to concentrate.

Five songs that I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me
Impossible to choose! But here is a representative sample:

Camille Saint-Saëns, Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony)

I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say/Star of the County Down (The link will take you to Horatius Bonar's words, but you'll have to click on the "Kingsfold" MIDI link to hear the right tune.)

St. Patrick's Breastplate (Irish tunes "St. Patrick" and "Deirdre" with Cecil Frances Alexander's translation of an ancient Gaelic poem attributed to St. Patrick. The link doesn't have the complete music, but will give you an idea.)

Kilkelly (Green Fields of America)

Non Nobis, Domine (unpublished arrangement by Linda Clary of Patrick Doyle's version from Kenneth Branagh's production of Shakespeare's Henry V)

5 persons to whom I am passing the baton
I'm not going to name names, but hope some people will add their own information in comments.

Like many Americans, we plan to spend this Memorial Day relaxing with friends. As good and proper an activity as that is, we would be wrong not to recognize the true purpose of this holiday. Those who have given the last full measure of devotion to our country died for more substantial freedoms than a three-day weekend.

Here is some information on Memorial Day by the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

And here is a link to our Veterans' Day tribute to all who have laid their lives on the line for our country, including two family members who died in World War I.

Who wouldn't want to be smarter, think more clearly, and be able to concentrate better? New Scientist has compiled a list of brain-building suggestions for everyone from students to senior citizens.  Some were new to me, some old hat, some intriguing, and some frightening: (More)

Back in the old days, when corportate headquarters was on One Mustard Street in Rochester, New York, Porter worked for the R. T. French Company. That was when we discovered their Cattlemen's Barbecue Sauce. When we moved to Florida, this delicious condiment became difficult, and later impossible, to find. Soon we couldn't find it even on our periodic trips north for essential supplies, such as the famous Sassy Sauce from Sal's Birdland (Buffalo Wings are nothing compared to what they do with chicken in Rochester); Blenheim Old #3 Ginger Ale (an essential ingredient in a Lime Daley, this fabulous drink was once lost to the world but now can be found at the otherwise obnoxious South of the Border tourist trap), and white birch beer (good old Undina White Birch Beer from Higganum, Connecticut is no longer available, but now and then you can find source that understands the best birch beer isn't red). (More)

For those of you to whom this matters, I've added syndication links (RSS, etc.) to the right-hand panel. I'm a complete novice here, but I know that there are various programs out there that you can use with this to let you know when certain websites are updated. SharpReader was recommended to me, though I haven't tried it yet because I have to install the .Net framework first, and I just haven't bothered. For now, the Live Bookmark option in FireFox works pretty well.

Research has shown, once again, that the human body works best when used according to its original design. A study of more than 2000 nine to fifteen year olds indicates that exclusive breastfeeding significantly lowers systolic blood pressure, with the strength of the benefit directly proportional to the duration of the breastfeeding. This positive effect is comparable to that of exercise and of restricted salt diets in adults.