Reading to the Ladies ? Motherhood Is An Art

motherhoodisanart ? September 2, 2012 ? 21 Comments

The summer is coming to an end and school will start on Tuesday. Along with this will come an end to the daily ?reading to the ladies.?

In our neighborhood there are two elderly ladies who have houses side by side. One of them is 89 and the other is 96. They are sisters. The 96 year old has lived here for 70 years. She was widowed in her 40?s and has lived alone since then. The 89 year old has never been married and spent her adult life living in Chicago until 20 years ago when her sister with whom she always lived with died and she came back to the area to be near family.

When we moved here 8 years ago both of the ladies were in fine shape. They mowed their own lawns, tended to their gardens and canned large amounts of vegetables. Through the years their health has deteriorated and we have had to wait patiently for them to return home several times from extended hospital stays. Today they both still live at home but have caretakers who live with them and tend to their care and the housework.

These are two of the sweetest ladies I know. They have watched our family grow and have become a part of our family. We visit with each other and help each other out. My kids think of them as extra grandmas.

This past March, when visiting with the 96 year old, she told me how lonely she had been. All she can do at this point is really just sit and watch television.

That?s when I got an idea. My 7 year old daughter, Iris, loves to read. Being in 1^st grade at the time, she didn?t have any homework after school. My kids loved visiting the neighbors but didn?t go every day so I established ?reading to the ladies.? Once the 89 year old got wind of the kids reading to her sister she wanted in on it too!

Iris and my 5 year old son, Bency would go to the ladies? houses every day after school and read to them a few short stories, visit with them and then come home. This has continued throughout the summer almost every day. Iris enjoys doing this because she LOVES reading to people and the ladies enjoy the company of the kids. The caretaker for the 89 year old is a Polish immigrant, speaks broken English, loves to cook and loves my kids too. She is always making up homemade cookies for the kids and fresh popped popcorn on the stove to send home with them after they are done reading!

Once school starts, I?m sure there will be homework so they will only be able to go on the weekends. I?m going to try to keep this going as long as I can because the summer of ?reading to the ladies? will always be a wonderful memory!

The Polish caretaker, the 89 year old, the 96 year old, and my husband Alex at one of my kid?s birthday parties

• Posted in: Family ? Kids ? motherhood ? Parenting ? Uncategorized
• Tagged: aging, caretaker, children, elderly, family, kids, memory, motherhood, neighbors, parenting, reading, senior citizens, summer

Source: http://motherhoodisanart.com/2012/09/02/reading-to-the-ladies/

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Scandal-hit Penn State starts new football season

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Penn State began a new football season on Saturday as it tries to come to grips with a child sex abuse scandal centered on former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky and the death and fall from grace of head coach Joe Paterno.

The game opened with a "moment of reflection" for victims of sexual abuse. With Bill O'Brien replacing Paterno on the sidelines as the team's first new head coach in 47 years, Penn State lost 24-14 to Ohio University.

Many of the 97,186 fans at Beaver Stadium wore Paterno T-shirts, but there were no signs or other expressions of support for the man who had been part of the Nittany Lions coaching staff since 1949 and head coach for nearly five decades.

Paterno was fired late last year after the scandal broke, and died of lung cancer in January at age 85. Sandusky was convicted in June of abusing 10 boys over 15 years and is in jail awaiting sentencing.

In July, the National Collegiate Athletic Association slapped unprecedented penalties on Penn State's storied football program, including a four-season ban from bowl games, for turning a blind eye to Sandusky's crimes.

"It really isn't a new beginning yet," Anthony Lubrano, a recent addition to the Penn State board of trustees, told Reuters on Friday. "It won't be a new beginning until we come to grips with what ails this community and we address that.

"It's not in a new marketing campaign that says let's move forward and forget about that past. It's not in the removal of Joe Paterno's name from places around campus. They took the statue down but they can't take the memories away."

The university removed Paterno's statue outside Beaver Stadium in July, but a cardboard likeness of the coach was erected on Friday at the same place with a sign that read: "JoePa made Penn State a Better Place."

There was soon a steady stream of passersby stopping to have their pictures taken with it, including a Penn State employee who worried aloud, "Are we all going to be fired tomorrow for this?"

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/scandal-hit-penn-state-starts-football-season-232823829--nfl.html

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Chuck Todd: Why Does The GOP Have More Latino And Female Governors Than The Dems?

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thehopeforamericapodcast/~3/GAZ15XwZ5S8/play.php

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Syria clashes rage as safe havens plea fails

Fierce fighting rocked northern Syria on Friday as Ankara pressed its call for safe havens to be set up in the country to stem the refugee exodus and protesters demanded the fall of the regime.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon told Syria's premier at a summit in Tehran that Damascus must stop using heavy weapons in the conflict, and the International Committee of the Red Cross warned of a fast deteriorating humanitarian situation.

Clashes erupted in the battleground city of Aleppo, less than 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Turkish border, and rebels attacked Abu Zohur air base in Idlib province on the border where they said they shot down a MiG warplane on Thursday, a rights group said.

In some of the heaviest fighting, rebels clashed with army troops in Albu Kamal, a town in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The rebels have seized several army posts, including a base in the Hamdan military airport," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu expressed frustration at the reluctance of Ankara's Western allies to heed its calls for protected camps inside Syria to cope with the rapidly swelling numbers of fleeing civilians.

The United Nations estimates that in Aleppo alone at least 200,000 of the city's 2.7 million population have fled since it became a major battleground on July 20.

Rebels attacked a security service building in west Aleppo before dawn, and clashes erupted in the districts of Saif al-Dawla and Salaheddin in the southwest and Hanano in the northeast, the Observatory said.

In Idlib province, rebels seized part of the Abu Zohur base in heavy clashes, the Britain-based watchdog said.

The rebels say that aircraft from Abu Zohur have been used by President Bashar al-Assad's regime to launch devastating strikes on rebel-held areas.

The Observatory reported at least 70 people killed on Friday, with the overall death toll since the uprising against Assad's rule erupted in March last year now topping 26,000.

It warned that hundreds of families remain trapped in the central city of Homs as an army siege of rebel-held districts entered its 90th day on Friday.

"The injured and the elderly need medicine, the children need milk. But nobody in the world cares any more, no one at all," activist Abu Bilal told AFP in Beirut via Skype. "Here in Homs, we are all dying a slow death."

Protesters demonstrated in Damascus, Daraa, Hama and also in Aleppo, chanting anti-regime slogans.

"We will not surrender, despite your tanks and guns!" they shouted in Assali, a Damascus district, while chants like "Treacherous soldier, shame on you!" echoed in Daraa as protesters accused regime troops of killing civilians.

-- 'Stop using heavy arms' --

-----------------------------

The UN's Ban told Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem that the fighting must stop, "with the primary responsibility resting on the government to halt its use of heavy weapons."

He said at a news conference in Tehran: "What is important at this time is that all the parties must stop the violence. All those actors who may be providing arms to both sides... must stop."

The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that the situation across large swathes of Syria was "edging towards irreversible deterioration."

A Turkish diplomat told AFP Ankara would maintain its campaign for a safe haven inside Syria for the tens of thousands of civilians fleeing the violence after Davutoglu's appeal to the UN Security Council fell on deaf ears.

"We will continue to appeal to the international community to act," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Davutoglu on Thursday told the Security Council to act "without delay" to set up safe havens, warning that 80,000 Syrians are already in camps in Turkey, with 4,000 crossing the border each day.

"How long are we going to sit and watch while an entire generation is being wiped out by random bombardment and deliberate mass targeting?" Davutoglu asked, slamming the Security Council's failure to act.

But world powers failed to reach agreement on his proposal which would imply authorising a highly controversial protective military operation.

Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad told Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam television: "Turkey nowadays trains and allows in terrorists, allows in Al-Qaeda. Most of the terrorists in Syria come from Turkey."

Syria ally Russia on Friday again called for an immediate end to the violence.

"The violence in Syria has to be ended immediately," and work begun on a "political settlement to end the suffering of the civilian population," a foreign ministry statement said.

In other developments, Canada expanded sanctions against Damascus, adding 50 names to a list of people and organisations linked to Assad's regime in Ottawa's 10th tightening of sanctions against Syria in the past year.

And the news agency MAP said Morocco will host the next "Friends of Syria" meeting in October, not September as originally scheduled.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-revolt-against-oppressive-regime-morsi-iran-084827214.html

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A Real Game Changer: OUYA's First Open Source Gaming Console

Historically, the games console market has been a simple one to understand. While leading products such as the X-Box and Playstation have been sold in their millions across the globe, so too independent developers have created unique games and sold these as being compatible with one or multiple gaming platforms.
There is a change on the horizon, however, and one which is set to revolutionize the gaming industry beyond all recognition. This is the development of the first open source gaming platform, which is essentially being designed as an in-built television console that will afford users access to a number of independently created games and titles.A Logical but Game Changing Step: The Evolution of the Gaming MarketThe concept is the brain-child of gaming start up organization OUYA, who managed to raise more than US$ 8 million through the online investment resource Kickstarter. More than 63,000 individual investors backed the concept with a financial commitment, which has not only raised significant capital but also proved the level of interest that exists in the idea of open source gaming. This also suggests that gamers and developers have been waiting for this development for some time, which distinguishes it as a logical and market altering innovation.This open source console is being built on the Android Platform, and is set to retail for just US$99 (?57). This is less than half the cost of the market leading X-Box console, and OUYA hope that the diverse range of games available will offer a broad choice to users and consumers. When you consider that individual games for traditional consoles can cost more than US$50 each, the potential savings of purchasing an OUYA console will serve to both reward existing gamers and encourage new custom from around the world.The Bottom Line: Where the Money LiesFor those of you who are wondering where the money lies, then you need look no further than the business model that supports mobile applications. Like these, the games promoted through OUYA?s own online store will be available for free, so that developers will accrue their revenue through paid up-grades and in game purchases that are made by users as they play. So consumers who are put off by the extortionate fees that retailers charge for existing games can rest assured that they will be able to save money both in the short and longer term with an OUYA console.The only immediate concern surrounds the risk of piracy, which is prominent because of the ease with which software can be uploaded, shared and swapped. Combining the ease of use with security is one that the designers at OUYA are focusing heavily on, as without a satisfactory compromise gamers may well be discouraged by the risk of privacy and online fraud. This risk is something that leading online providers such as Facebook and Apple have managed to negate successfully, however, so there appears to be no reason why OUYA?s game changing innovation can have the desired effect within the market place.Written by Lewis Humphries, technology blogger, UKHost4u.com

Source: http://www.digitalsensus.com/2012/08/open-source-gaming-console.html

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Czech hops harvest to be down by 26 pct

In this picture taken Aug. 30, 2012 a worker teps on hops, during a harvest, near a village of Rocov, Czech Republic. Beer drinkers will have plenty to worry about this year after Czech authorities warned that bad weather has led to the country's hop harvest plummeting by around a quarter. As well as being home to more beer drinkers per capita than anywhere else in the world, Czechoslovakia is also one of the top producers of hops ? the dried seed cones that give beer its bitter taste and aroma. Their hops are highly sought after and exported to about 80 countries. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

In this picture taken Aug. 30, 2012 a worker teps on hops, during a harvest, near a village of Rocov, Czech Republic. Beer drinkers will have plenty to worry about this year after Czech authorities warned that bad weather has led to the country's hop harvest plummeting by around a quarter. As well as being home to more beer drinkers per capita than anywhere else in the world, Czechoslovakia is also one of the top producers of hops ? the dried seed cones that give beer its bitter taste and aroma. Their hops are highly sought after and exported to about 80 countries. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

In this picture taken Aug. 30, 2012 a worker harvest hops, during a harvest, near a village of Rocov, Czech Republic. Beer drinkers will have plenty to worry about this year after Czech authorities warned that bad weather has led to the country's hop harvest plummeting by around a quarter. As well as being home to more beer drinkers per capita than anywhere else in the world, Czechoslovakia is also one of the top producers of hops ? the dried seed cones that give beer its bitter taste and aroma. Their hops are highly sought after and exported to about 80 countries. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

PRAGUE (AP) ? Fear not, beer lovers! The Czech hops harvest is expected to plummet by around a quarter this year due to bad weather ? but there's plenty of stock to quench the huge thirst both at home and abroad.

As well as being home to more beer drinkers per capita than anywhere else in the world, the Czech Republic is also one of the top producers of hops ? the dried seed cones that give beer its bitter taste and aroma. Their hops are highly sought after and exported to about 80 countries, including Japan, China, Germany and Russia.

The Hop Growers Union of the Czech Republic said Friday preliminary figures show a yield of about 0.95 - 1.00 metric tons per hectare compared with the average of 1.11 metric tons per hectare. They cited freezing temperatures in February and a drought in spring.

The country's overall production is expected to fall by 26 percent to 4,500 metric tons from 6,088 metric tons in 2011.

Authorities say there are enough supplies following the exceptionally high harvests of the previous two years ? and that prices are unlikely to rise.

"This year's harvest won't have any significant impact on the price of hops," said Bohumil Pazler, the chairman of the union.

Hops, soaring seven 7 meters (23 feet) into the air and supported by wire, have been cultivated on Czech territory for over 1,000 years. The heartland near the western towns of Zatec and Rakovnik provides an ideal climate for the local dominant brand known as Saaz, a fine aroma hop with a low concentration of alpha acids which give beer its bitter flavor.

Almost 80 percent of hops production is exported ? and more than two thirds of that is Saaz, which the Czechs call the "Roll Royce" among hops.

"The Czech Saaz is the best in the world," Jiri Vesely, the Czech Beer and Malt Association executive director said.

In 2007, Saaz was granted the EU's Protected Designation of Origin label as the top hops brand. It is used by brewers for premium products.

Exports to the United States crashed to virtually zero in the 1990s after the beer giant Anheuser Busch stopped using Czech hops as a response to the ongoing trademark dispute with the Czech state-run brewer Budejovicky Budvar and a refusal of the Czech government to sell Budvar to its U.S. rival.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-08-31-Czech-Hops%20Harvest/id-435ee3b0c7a44749987da52850430724

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Non-Automotive Materials the in Z. Taylor Vinson Collection ...

Cover of a company overview published by Bl?riot, an early French airplane manufacturer, 1911

From reading this blog, one could be forgiven for thinking that the contents of the Z. Taylor Vinson Collection consist solely of automotive materials. However I am happy to report that this is definitely not the case. Mr. Vinson had a strong interest in many different forms of transportation. In addition to collecting automotive materials, he also actively collected materials pertaining to various modes of non-automotive transport. This week, I decided to highlight one of the series of non-automotive materials in the Z. Taylor Vinson Collection: Airplane Makes.

The Airplane Makes series represents a very small portion of the collection, consisting of only 2.5 boxes of materials. However the depth and significance of its contents more than make up for its small size. The materials found in this series cover most of the era of manned powered flight, dating from 1911 to 2009. Seventy-five airplane manufacturers are represented in this series, including present-day firms such as Airbus and Boeing, and defunct companies such as Bl?riot and Ryan. The firms represented are from a number of different countries, including, but not limited to, the United States, France, Germany, and Russia. Numerous civilian and military airplanes are documented in this series.

Most of the material formats found in the Airplane Makes series are similar to those in the automotive portions of the collection. The series consists mainly of materials published by the airplane manufacturers, including trade catalogs, company overviews, company magazines, and media information. Also found in this series are numerous magazine and newspaper advertisements through which the manufacturers touted their latest creations to the public. The series also contains a significant amount of materials not published by the manufacturers, including, but not limited to, newspaper articles, magazine articles, miscellaneous magazines, and government documents.

Advertisement for the Ford Trimotor which appeared in the October 22, 1927 issue of The Literary Digest

The Airplane Makes series holds more than its share of fascinating items. One such item is a 1911 company overview from the French manufacturer Bl?riot, published a mere eight years after the Wright Brothers? historic flight at Kitty Hawk. Also of interest in this series are the magazine advertisements for the Ford Trimotor, a transport plane manufactured by Ford Motor Company during the 1920s and 1930s.

Sources
L. Bl?riot Recherches A?ronautiques, Airplane Makes ? Bl?riot: General Publication, 1911, Z. Taylor Vinson Collection, Hagley Museum and Library.

?Look to the Skies for Dawn, Ford Motor Company,? Airplane Makes ? Ford: Clippings, 1927-2009, Z. Taylor Vinson Collection, Hagley Museum and Library.

Kenton Jaehnig is the Project Archivist for the Z. Taylor Vinson Collection at Hagley Museum and Library.

Source: http://vinson.hagleyblogs.org/2012/08/31/non-automotive-materials-the-in-z-taylor-vinson-collection-airplane-makes-series/

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