A massive storm system that originated off the Pacific Northwest coast several days ago finally made its way to Texas late Monday afternoon. Heavy rains fell all night Monday into Tuesday morning; strong winds caused extensive damage in some locations. Some people are terrified of such weather, but I find it fascinating. It just puts humanity into its place. Here are some photos taken in the Dallas / Fort Worth metropolitan area of the storm and its aftermath.
Filed under News
“Trampling the rights of women in an effort to grandstand against the federal government is simply wrong and I cannot be a part of it.”
– Allison Catalano, in her resignation letter to state Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton.
Catalano, 26, started working as an unpaid intern for Crownover in August 2011, shortly after graduating from the University of North Texas; she then became a paid staffer. Her letter has caused a stir in Texas politics, but Crownover (pictured below) describes Catalano as a “fine employee.”
So, I guess if you’re faithless and footless, you’re not just out of luck, you have nowhere to go either way! Well, hell!
Filed under Curiosities
Survivalist Tip: As I’ve stated previously, your home most likely will lose power when the apocalypse hits, so it would be good to have a generator on hand. But, a generator may not function well; regardless, you’ll need to have some way to wash your clothes until things settle down. It’s obvious you should have a stockpile of clean clothes as December 21st approaches. But, if you just have to wash some clothes during the immediate aftermath, grab a metal wash tub and a washboard. This may have hillbilly written all over it, but you should have noticed by now that hillbillies never complain about a lack of clean clothes! It’s also not quantum physics – fill up the metal tub with water, stick the washboard in it and grab some soap. You can hang up the clothes on a clothesline in your back yard, or balcony if you live in an apartment or condominium. Of course, since it’ll be winter in the Northern Hemisphere when Baktun 12 starts, it’ll take a while for clothes to dry out; hence the additional clean clothes you should already have. Remember, the ancient Mayans weren’t just highly intelligent and industrious; they also kept their deer-skin clothing very clean.
Filed under Mayan Calendar Countdown
Whenever I’ve completed an online job application in recent years, I’ve tended to leave the “race / ethnicity” category blank, or select “Choose not to disclose.” This modern American society isn’t supposed to care about such matters anymore, as long as the applicant has the right qualifications and – most importantly – can end up doing the job. So, I’m just sort of helping to see that utopian vision come to fruition. As I state on my “About” page, I’m of Spanish, Mexican Indian and German descent – and tell people exactly that. It often throws more than a few folks for a loop, especially when they want so badly to put me in a little ethnic box. I love pissing people off like that! Then, they get upset and start calling me names, but I still don’t care about their feelings. I am what I am.
Increasingly, it seems, many of my fellow Americans are following suit. The 2010 census produced some curious results in the race category. More than 21.7 million people described themselves outside of the standard labels; using such terms as “Arab,” “Haitian,” “Mexican” and – my personal favorite – “multiracial.”
The government has 4 racial categories:
Here’s where it gets confusing – and sometimes ugly. If you’re ‘White,’ that means Caucasian, which generally means you trace your ancestry to Europe. If you’re ‘Black,’ that means Negro, which generally means you trace your ancestry to Africa. If you’re ‘Asian / Pacific Islander,’ that means you’re Asian Mongoloid, which means you trace your ancestry to Asia, the Orient and / or one or more of the thousands of Pacific islands. If you’re ‘American Indian / Alaska Native,’ that means you’re American mongoloid and your people didn’t come over here on the Mayflower; they met the damn boat.
In recent years, some “Blacks” have referred to themselves as “African-American,” meaning they trace their ancestry to the African continent – which, according to the Human Genome Project, we all do anyway – but they’re also Americans. Since I’m mostly “White” (Spanish and German), I guess I could classify myself as European-American – hopefully without sounding like a David Duke protégé. But, if I do that, then I’d be neglecting the Mexican Indian part of me. Since Mexican Indians are indigenous to what is now México and south Texas, that would also make them “American Indian,” so I guess I’m still very much an American – and not just by birth. So, the “European-American” label would, in a sense, be all-encompassing, but still not clear enough.
Lately, though, I’ve seen these 2 categories: “White (non-Hispanic)” and “Hispanic (non-White).” Damn! If I select the “White (non-Hispanic)” group, that would indicate I have no Spanish or Indian blood, which simply isn’t true. My Spanish and Indian ancestors would rise from their graves and haunt me until I repent and correct the form. But, if I choose “Hispanic (non-White),” then that implies I’m strictly of Spanish and Mexican Indian extraction – which also isn’t true. My Teutonic relatives up in Michigan (and the Bavarian heartland) would disown me, if they knew me that well. I normally don’t care how others feel about me, but this is too important.
I don’t know when the U.S. government decided people from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) aren’t considered “White,” or why, but it upsets the natural balance of Caucasianism. From what I understand, Portuguese folks don’t like to be called “Hispanic” because that puts them in the same category as Mexicans, Cubans and Puerto Ricans; and Spaniards don’t like to be grouped with people from Latin America because the latter often have too much Indian and Negro in them. But apparently, that Indian and Negro blood is what generated the “Hispanic (non-White)” box in the first place! And, that’s another thing – what if you have Negro blood in you, like a lot of people from the Caribbean islands and many parts of Brazil? In that case, you’ll check every damn box on that application and really throw the computers out of whack!
Back in 2000, the subject of race came up at my work, as everyone discussed the ongoing census. One woman said to me, “But, you’re Mexican!” My manager (a Negro) laughed at the way she just blurted that out, as if she was trying to put me in my place; that properly-designated box. But, I wasn’t smiling. “Do you even know what that means?” I asked her. She looked at me – this little woman who was part “White” and part “Cherokee” – and couldn’t answer. The 2000 census allowed Americans to classify themselves as “multiracial” for the first time. I’d like to hope the 2020 census will be the last time the race category is listed at all, but I guess I’m still trying to achieve that elusive utopia. I stared hard at that one little mixed-race woman and said, “I’m not Mexican. I’m American.”
That pretty much ended that particular conversation – and more than a decade into the 21st century, others are still having it.
When a former supervisor of mine and his wife adopted a baby boy from Guatemala, I bought them a gift certificate to Babies-R-Us and a huge book of nursery rhymes. The latter, from my perspective, was especially important. I began reading at the age of 2, mainly because my parents knew early on that education is paramount. In fact, I still have many of those childhood books, which are slightly tattered and probably collector’s items. But, my folks didn’t have many of the same educational opportunities I did; they grew up in an environment where few people attended college. My father recalls being steered from a drafting class in high school into a trade course where he learned the art of operating a printing press. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it’s the line the old woman who signed him up attached to it: “Most Spanish boys go into trade school.” Naïve as he was, he didn’t know any better, but the implications are obvious now; only White people need apply.
As a writer, I’m naturally an avid reader. I have about 5 different types of books on my reading agenda right now. I just alternate between them. But, I think even the average person understands the importance of literacy. A literate population is less likely, for example, to engage in conflict and instead, to seek compromise or more peaceful resolutions. Women who are literate are less likely to have children and more likely to become active members of their communities; that is, they suddenly realize they can do more with their lives than be wives and mothers. That may be one reason why governments and religious institutions in the past would rather keep the masses illiterate and ignorant; an educated populace can be dangerous in the eyes of some. Look at what happened in Afghanistan when the Taliban took over in the 1990’s. The male-dominated hierarchy shoved women and girls out of schools and enforced a strict Islamic doctrine as the only necessary education. The rest is tragic history.
Writer and educator Walter Dean Myers knows a few things about literacy. He’s the author of more than 80 books, ranging from picture books to realistic young adult fiction, and the recipient of numerous literary awards: 2 Newbury Honors, a Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement and the 1994 American Library Association’s Margaret A. Edward Award. Most people, at 74, would prefer to slow down after a similar lifetime of hard work and accolades. But, to Myers, children’s literacy is too important an issue for him to rest on his own laurels. Besides, he has a new title – National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. And, the matter of teaching kids to read and write is much more complicated than just getting them to sit still. As Myers reveals
in this interview, it all begins with adults willing to take the time to read to those same kids. After all, our nation’s future and viability in a constantly-changing global market depend on it.
Filed under News
If it’s yours, too, Happy Birthday!
Writer – director – actor Carl Reiner (The Man with Two Brains; The Dick Van Dyke Show; Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid; It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) is 90.
Trombonist Sonny Russo (Sonny Russo Jazz Ensemble) is 83.
Actor Hal Linden (Barney Miller, How to Break up a Happy Divorce) is 81.
Producer – director Paul Junger Witt (The Partridge Family, The Golden Girls) is 69.
Basketball coach Pat Riley (Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks: coach with the highest winning percentage in basketball history – .719) is 67.
Actor William Hurt (Broadcast News, The Accidental Tourist, Altered States) is 62.
Drummer Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Asia) is 62.
Director – screenwriter Spike Lee (She’s Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues) is 55.
Actress Theresa Russell (The Spy Within, Straight Time, Black Widow) is 55.
Actress Holly Hunter (Broadcast News, The Firm, Raising Arizona) is 54.
Actor John Clark Gable (Bad Jim, A Burning Passion: The Margaret Mitchell Story, Clark Gable: Tall, Dark and Handsome; son of actor Clark Gable) is 51.
Drummer Jim McDonell (Slim Jim Phantom; The Stray Cats) is 51.
Filed under Birthdays
1413 – England’s King Henry IV, the first monarch of the Lancastrian dynasty died, and his son, Henry V, ascended to the throne.
1828 – Playwright Henrik Ibsen (A Doll’s House, An Enemy of the People) was born in Skien, Norway.
1854 – Former members of the Whig Party met in Ripon, WI to establish the Republican Party and oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories.
1865 – A plan by John Wilkes Booth to abduct President Abraham Lincoln was foiled when Lincoln changed plans and failed to appear at the Soldier’s Home near Washington, D.C. Booth would later assassinate the President while Lincoln was attending a performance at Ford’s Theatre in the nation’s capital.
1891 – The first computing scale company, Dayton Scales, was incorporated in Dayton, OH.
1915 – Russia and Great Britain signed a secret agreement to divide the Ottoman Empire – now known as Turkey.
1948 – The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra was featured in the first televised symphonic concert on CBS station WCAU-TV 10.
1953 – Nikita Khrushchev began his rise to power, when the Soviet government announced he had been selected to the Secretariat of the Communist Party.
1965 – President Lyndon Johnson informed Alabama Governor George Wallace that he will use federal authority to call up the Alabama National Guard to supervise a planned civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.
1995 – The Aum Shinrikyo cult unleashed several packages of deadly sarin gas on the Tokyo subway system, killing 12 people and injuring over 5,000.
Filed under History
Pinpricks of light dot the shores of Vaadhoo Island in the Maldives. The biological light, or bioluminescence, in the waves is the product of tiny marine life-forms called phytoplankton – and now scientists think they know how some of these sea beasts create their brilliant blue glow. Various species of phytoplankton are known to bioluminesce, and their lights can be seen in oceans all around the world, said marine biologist and bioluminescence expert Woodland Hastings of Harvard University. Photo by Doug Perrine, National Geographic.
Filed under News
