This week I have unveiled a new blog, Abbreviated Verbosity. Although I'm still tinkering with the premise and the format, I expect it will eventually be a repository for some of the random little bits and pieces I encounter over the course of my day.
It will differ from this blog as each new post will be highlighted by a bullet, there will be no titles, and new entries will be archived together by date.
I hope you'll check it out, and, as always, I look forward to hearing your feedback.
A feast for the eye and a solace for the soul, I hope you find time to watch each episode, 8PM on PBS, September 27- October 2. Each episode will also be available to watch in its entirety, online, for a limited time, until October 9.
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."
For the past several years, we basically stood by watching as the warning signs were all around us. Jobs in Michigan were disappearing at an alarming rate. Small mom 'n pop manufacturers, bottom of the food chain in a very large and seemingly-invincible automotive industry, were closing their doors. Bids for goods and services were increasingly won by foreign companies whose labor cost were considerably lower than those in the United States. We couldn't begin to compete in industries dependent on low-skilled workers.
An MSNBC article, The Great Recession Transforms the Workplace, describes the collapse and the fallout we still see raining down all around us. As employers continue to re-invent themselves, desperately seeking a niche in a new global economy, so, too, must the American worker. Wage and benefit packages for unskilled trades have plummeted and, IMHO, will likely continue to do so until we achieve equilibrium.
After the near-catastrophic collapse of the world's financial markets and banking industries, like a long line of dominoes colliding one into another into another, we have witnessed in real-time how connected our economies have become. The Pandora's Box is open and protectionism is no longer a viable, sustainable option.
However, I believe the Pandora's Box may hold yet another surprise that will eventually be a key factor in slowing our slide down the slippery slope of lost jobs and wages: The Internet.
Our global connectedness now goes beyond the marketplace. People from all walks of life, from around the world, are increasingly connected on a very personal level by way of the Internet. As vast populations in developing countries are inevitably exposed to Western culture and expectations, the seed of unrest will take root, and they'll begin to yearn for the better life they now know could be—should be—theirs as well.
Although this transformation won't happen overnight, workers around the world will eventually demand that better life—and the wages and benefits to support it.
We will begin to achieve equilibrium.
The American dream is not dead. It's on the verge of becoming a global phenomenon.
This morning my alarm went off at 4:30 AM—right on schedule. Predictably, I rolled over, slapped the snooze button and dozed for another 9 minutes until it went off a second time. I did NOT want to get up. So then I did something totally out of character: I turned the alarm OFF and rolled over to go back to sleep. I didn't care if I had time to read the news, or time to write, or even time for coffee before I had to go to work. Heck, at that moment, I didn't even care if I was on time for work! I needed SLEEP.
Then a funny thing happened: I couldn't go back to sleep! I just laid there feeling guilty as hell for sandbaggin' when I should be up reading the news, writing a few lines to you, enjoying the heavenly smell of the fresh Sumatran coffee I knew would be brewed and waiting for me downstairs.
So, hello, here I am, though I still wish I was back in bed sawin' logs. I didn't know it was possible for a body to lay a guilt trip on itself, but there you have it. Shame on me for doggin' it!
Speaking of dogs, Maisy just hopped down from her usual perch on my chair, looked back at me as if to say, "Lady, you're on you own," and turned to head back upstairs to bed. Must be the change in the weather. Or could be the long week I've had at work. I've just one more day to get through then I've tomorrow off. Even the dog is sick and tired of that 4:30 alarm.
Oh, woah! What's this?
Maisy just came draggin' back downstairs, walked in a daze across the living room, picked up her Elmo doll and then threw it at me. Isn't that cute—looks like she's trying to work up the ambition to play. Amazing! I didn't know dogs could be on a guilt trip.
Well, at least my lil' sidekick is along for the ride. I never did care for traveling alone. :/
Earlier this week I wrote about a catering we have booked for 1400 boy scouts this weekend. Well, since then, the number has grown to 1550 boy scouts from the Gerald Ford Boy Scout Council, Grand Rapids, Michigan area.
Today I baked the cookies... well, I actually baked over 1800 cookies because I also needed 140 for a box lunch catering the same day (plus extra to allow for breakage, etc.)
I snapped this photo just in case you ever wondered what 1700 homemade chocolate-chocolate chip cookies looks like. :)
All those cookies, and I didn't even have time to taste one—incredible.
Anyway, here's the bottom line:
180# of dry ingredients 36# of butter 180 eggs Approximately 19,000 chocolate chips!
As my mixer will only make cookie dough for 150 cookies at a time, I really could have used a cement mixer!
Like most days, I came home from work yesterday and still needed to figure out what to cook for dinner. This usually involves poking my head into the refrigerator and freezer, hoping to find inspiration staring me in the face, I suppose.
Yesterday, it actually did!
I still had some things left in the fridge from when we had a house full of company earlier this month that really needed to be used up before they spoiled. I rummaged through the eclectic mix of items on the shelves and in the crisper, et voilà, I suddenly realized I had everything I needed to make Quiche Lorraine!
So while I sautéed some chopped bacon, I made a pie crust and heated water to wilt a large handful of fresh spinach. I pressed the cooked spinach into a colander to drain and minced a bunch of green onions. After I drained most of the grease from the crispy bacon bits, I tossed the greens onions into the sauté pan with the bacon to continue cooking for just another minute or two then drained away any remaining grease from these in the colander as well. I layered the bacon, onions and spinach in the bottom of my pie shell then topped those with a heaping cup of finely julienned Swiss cheese slices.
I whipped five fat, brown farm eggs with 1 cup of heavy cream (leftover from a Bananas Foster recipe I'd made) and 1/2 cup of skim milk, added salt and a healthy dash of Cayenne pepper and poured the mixture over the ingredients in my pie crust. After sliding the quiche into the oven to bake @ 325 for about an hour, I had plenty of time to set the cafe table in the screen room for dinner.
Finally, I pulled the cork on a chilled bottle of Chardonnay just as Dan walked in the door asking, "What's for supper?" How's that for timing, eh?
Later, as we lingered over the last of the wine, it occurred to me that we must look pretty odd—still wearing our work clothes while dining in style, al fresco, enjoying an absolutely gorgeous early autumn evening.
You know, I don't think "leftovers" have ever tasted so good!
I was determined to steer clear of political controversy on this blog for a few days because, frankly, *I* needed the break. Between the time I spend reading the news in the paper, covering more news via links and Tweets on Twitter, watching even more news on TV and then writing about some of my impressions here, it's all a bit much—too damn depressing.
But then last night I stumbled across a link on CNBC that took me to MoveOn.Org where this video was brought to my attention, and I just knew I had to share this terrible tragedy with you. It's heartbreaking, truly heartbreaking, but I encourage you to watch this video because, ultimately, only WE can prevent such a calamity.
What is it about a great conspiracy theory that grabs our imagination, I wondered for the umpteenth time as I flipped another page in Dan Brown's latest novel, The Lost Symbol.
My hot-off-the-press copy of the book arrived from Amazon on its release date, September 15. Seems like I've been waiting years for this book to hit the store shelves. Oh, wait—I have been waiting years for this book to hit the store shelves!
Well, actually, I've been waiting years for a book called "The Solomon Key." I'm not sure what prompted Dan Brown to change the title of his latest effort, but it had originally been slated for release in 2005. I have my own theory as to why the substantial delays kept us on the edge of our seats in anticipation, though I figure there was hardly a conspiracy at hand beyond hyping that anticipation.
The movie, "National Treasure," hit the theaters in November, 2004. I suspect the movie plot, focusing on the Freemasons, was just similar enough that Dan Brown had to reconstruct major elements of his story to prevent fresh accusations of plagiarism. By 2006, he was deeply embroiled in litigation over the plot in The Da Vinci Code, as authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1982, non-fiction) claimed he'd stolen the premise for his runaway bestseller from their book.
At the time, I thought the whole lawsuit was a farce. IMHO, that would be like Physicist Stephen Hawking suing someone for writing a sci-fi thriller where the lead character is sucked into a super-massive black hole and reemerges in a parallel universe. People write plausible fiction based on non-fiction research all the time. That's a large part of what gives an interesting story credibility.
Anyhoooo...I've been enjoying the new book, although I've not had a lot of free time for reading. That's okay. It encourages me to savor the experience like fine wine—sip by sip.
I poo-poo critics who blast Dan Brown's writing style as "sophomoric." I don't believe extraordinary technical precision is requisite to wonderful storytelling. (And I do believe I smell sour grapes, don't you?) Dan Brown has obviously invested a lot of time and effort thoroughly researching his subject, and Harvard Symbologist, Robert Langdon, is still a very appealing character.
Now, I only hope we don't have to wait five years for the movie.
About a week ago, I happened to catch the end of a show on UCTV— "Media Humor: Was it good for the Presidential Campaign?" While the primary topic was humor in politics, ironically, the single thing I found most interesting had nothing to do with the jokes.
Someone brought up the point that people who are genuinely interested in getting all the facts—who truly want to hear both sides of a political argument in order to make a decision based on all the information at hand—those folks are a rare breed. While you'd think that would be an ideal to which we should all aspire, in his opinion that isn't the case.
He pointed out that when a centrist examines any hotly contested issue—health care, for instance—they will listen to the pros and cons on both sides. The part that grabbed my attention is the fact that, ultimately, once they have the information and are called upon to make a politically-unbiased choice, most people are left utterly paralyzed by indecision. Nothing gets done, and the entire process grinds to a halt.
He went on to say that "fortunately" most people don't really want to hear the entire litany drone on and on; they don't want to try and absorb the opposition's POV. They basically pick and choose the points of an argument that best represent their party line; they hug those near and dear to their heart and run home. They don't go out of their way to listen to commentary from people that they predict will fly in the face of their pre-determined party line.
I can relate to that observation. I confess, I rarely watch FOX news, and Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter absolutely make my blood boil. I know from past experience that I really don't want to listen to their POV because I just KNOW it's going to seriously tick me off. I know that if I do, I'm going to spend the rest of the day working on an ulcer and spittin' nails.
Ditto for "discussing" any remotely political issue with my brother. That could lead to fratricide, cuz someone is gonna die! Hmm... come to think of it, Kelly and I have been pulverizing each other to smithereens since we were kids—never could get along. Arguing over politics is probably just the adult manifestation of our systemic dysfunction.
So, anyway, in order to avoid all that unpleasantness ourselves, we elect men and women to go to Washington to fight our battles for us. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it—right?
Not so fast. Now, we're angry because we don't see the people the majority elected doing what we want, and we're spittin' mad. We expected them to be able to find common ground, to make that tough decision without yielding any more than necessary in the process. Instead, we've become, "America on a Collision Course."
Seems like we're about to pulverize each other to smithereens, and I can't bear to look!
I had planned to try out a new feature yesterday called "Flashback Friday." I thought I would microblog about some of the stuff going on last week too minor to warrant a post of its own. Thing is, I never found a chance to sit down to write. I worked in our office until it was time to rush out the door for my "real" job, didn't get back home until 4 PM, and then Dan dragged me up to St. Ignace for a burger at Clyde's Drive-In and over to the casino where they're hosting the antique tractor show.
Highlight: Here's a photo of a 1956, 60 Series, John Deere tractor that is pretty much a dead-ringer for the tractor Mom sold last year to a man from downstate. He planned to restore it for tractor shows like this one. So, although it's not likely, it could be Dad's tractor. I wish we'd thought to write down its serial number before she sold it as there was no one there to ask about it.
Just seeing "Poppin' John" again brought back vivid memories of the whole "back-to-nature" mode my folks went through when Dad retired from the Air Force in 1972. On the family farm, we grew just about everything we consumed. Looking back on it, it's funny how they kinda got over it just as soon as there weren't any kids left at home to tend to all the animals and weed the gardens. Heh.
It was astonishing just how many people were in town yesterday to watch over 900 antique tractors parade across the bridge from Mackinaw City to St. Ignace. If there's a recession, I've seen little evidence of it in recent weeks. I'm pretty sure lower gas prices are a big part of the reason this summer wasn't a complete bust for local businesses. The outstanding weather we've been having these past several weeks (no rain and temps in the low-to-mid-70s every day) hasn't hurt our cause, either. The town is just about filled to capacity this weekend.
Yesterday, I sat down with Nick to discuss a catering for fourteen hundred boy scouts we have booked for next weekend. On my end of the list will be their dinner rolls and a large chocolate-chocolate chip cookie.
Do you have any idea just how much cookie dough I'm going to need? Yeah, me either. So I did the math and figure I'll need 120 pounds of dry ingredients, 24 pounds of butter, 120 eggs and 10,643 chocolate chips. No problem... if you have a cement truck to mix the dough. :/
Bottom line: I will have to somehow put aside one entire day just to cover their baking—when I don't have a shift to spare.
Hmm...looks like that first edition of Flashback Friday may have to wait until a week from Monday. [sigh]
What is it about your blatant incivility that captures our attention? It can make us laugh, feel vindicated or leave us utterly stunned and outraged.
When Iraqi journalist, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, threw first one shoe and then the other at President Bush last December, I confess, I had to chuckle because the president managed to duck both efforts so adeptly. Okay, if I'm completely honest, I may have also been feeling just a smidgen of empathy for the shoe-thrower's anger and frustration. However, if he'd actually managed to hit the president, it wouldn't have been so amusing.
In just the past week we have seen several such instances of your outrageous incivility plastered all over the headlines--Kanye West, Serena Williams and Representative Joe Wilson. In the case of Joe Wilson, frankly, I am more outraged by the money people have donated to his campaign since the incident than the offense itself.
Yeah, let's reward his bad behavior—that's the way to get our point across!
But for every one of you applauding his audacity, there are ten-fold more of us who are simply disgusted. He is not a hero. He is not amusing. He's not getting a donation from me.
Our government is a Democracy. There is a process, a system of checks and balances, and there is protocol. However, if I thought making a donation to his opponent, Rob Miller, would actually influence how the people in South Carolina will eventually vote, I might consider it... and apparently many people have—to the tune of over $1M! Anyway, my guess is Joe took his cue from the outrageous behavior we've seen making headlines at local townhall meetings.
When did our democracy devolve into a shouting match? Do you think "your side" has the only valid opinion? Do you think you NEED TO SHOUT to be heard? Well, guess what? Those congressmen and senators are also hearing from ME in the usual way. I'm calling their offices and writing letters, voicing my POV without raising my voice. Here's another *NEWS FLASH* for you: there are a LOT of us who have opted to work the system in the usual way, without making headlines.
We see countless examples of our society's increasing propensity for incivility in our everyday lives. We see it on our morning commute, at the supermarket, at work and, sadly, even in your children's behavior (because they learn by example, after all).
When we're confronted by other people's efforts to shock or offend our sensibilities, we often react. How we choose to react can be very direct or more subtle given the circumstances. I generally prefer to act without a lot of fanfare. Two wrongs don't make a right. If an attempt at humor can't defuse an ugly situation, I'll walk away and allow my silence to speak louder than words.
I don't have time in my life for deliberately offensive words or actions or the people who instigate or condone them. It doesn't make you a hero for having the brass to speak your mind with a complete disregard for common courtesy.
civ⋅i⋅lized –adjective 1. having an advanced or humane culture, society, etc. 2. polite; well-bred; refined. 3. of or pertaining to civilized people. 4. well organized or ordered.
bar⋅bar⋅ic –adjective 1. without civilizing influences; uncivilized; primitive: barbaric invaders. 2. of, like, or befitting barbarians: a barbaric empire; barbaric practices. 3. crude; rude.
So... I just discovered Bill Maher a few weeks ago when he was interviewed on CNN. I know. I know. I must have spent the past 15 years living under a rock—but you know what they say, "better late than never!" I know who he is now.
I do believe Carl Sagan would have loved this guy.
If I allowed myself a moment to wallow in self-pity, I know I would cry. The tears are right there...threatening to spill over whenever I dwell on it. So I try not to think. What's done is done. Just move on.
But for just a sec I'd like to wonder why it always seems like I'm the freak. Why do all the big events in our family life seem to come along over the busiest weekends of the summer? Why couldn't I have a NORMAL job...you know, one like Dan's where I have weekends off, and Memorial Day, the 4th of July and Labor Day are holidays that you actually look forward to?
I loved having Jamie and her family home but hate feeling absolutely exhausted by all the crap going on at work while she was here. I feel terrible that I was so tired at the family reunion that Saturday night that I know I must have looked like a zombie, the walking dead just going through the motions. I hate that I could hardly hold up my end of a conversation with friends that came to see them while they were in town, that I must have seemed rude, or worse—upset they stopped by.
I thank God for my sister, my nieces and Jamie who stepped up to help with a bazillion little chores right before the company arrived. I owe them in a way I know I can never repay because I can't even find the words express how much their helping hand meant to me, to thank them for throwing me a lifeline just when I was heading under for the third time.
My sister—she's amazing, my hero. She's also the one person in my family who's been in the business and has some clue what kind of hell is going on at work the week before Labor Day. I guess you could say that, although it's been a while, she's walked a mile in my shoes and some things you never forget.
I know, this entry is rambling, kinda like me at the moment—still reeling from the punches like a drunk man. But I'll find my footing on solid ground before you know it, and the world will slowly settle back into its proper perspective.
It's been a very hectic few weeks since my last entry. Now that I have a little free time to call my own, I've been busy renovating my blog, and you may notice some changes around here. I hope you like the new layout.
You may also notice that I'm now master of my own domain—www.grandioseverbosity.com! My old .blogspot.com should automatically redirect you to my new site, although it may take Blogger a couple days to make it official, so be patient.
Today is Mom's birthday, so Dan and I are taking her to Stafford's Bay View Inn. Their Sunday brunch is INCREDIBLE! She'll definitely feel like queen-for-a-day in such a lovely setting.
I look forward to writing to you again, so stop back to visit soon!
Robin lives with her husband, Dan, two little dogs and three aggravating cats in a very small town near the "tip of the mitt" in Northern Michigan.
She's hopelessly addicted to science and history TV documentaries and can usually be found listening to university podcast lectures when she should be working. Her hobbies include cooking for friends and family, camping, writing, reading, good coffee and Guinness!
Because feedback from readers is a large part of what makes blogging such a rewarding pastime, she invites you to leave a comment while you're in the neighborhood.
What's in a name?
I'm far from "grandiose," nor am I particularly verbose but chose the title because I couldn't resist the way the words hung together--they sorta just roll off your tongue and tempt you to repeat yourself.
And, now, if I do happen to climb up on my soap box and ramble on a bit from time to time... well, I've the perfect excuse!
