In the Headlights

Sudoku Sedation

Shawn Lea is in Key West, enjoying herself  (I think so, anyway...it's not hurricane season yet), while I'm stuck here working.  There is no justice, is there?

To placate me, she sent me this link for a beautiful sudoku pencil from Flax art and design. 

The sturdy pencil boasts an extra-large eraser, and holds 0.9 mm lead.  Perfect for many hours of happy puzzling.

I do use a pencil for my sudoku and crosswords.  I don't erase much, but like to have the option.  I'd bet this pencil would work equally well for crosswords or the Jumble.

Since I discovered that my friend Monica does her sudokus without writing more than one number in a box, I've taken up the challenge and only write in the box when I know what the number is.  Interestingly, it's worked out quite well, even with four and five-star puzzles.

I was speaking with a friend recently and remarked that I frequently do sudoku as I am going to sleep at night.  He thought that would be stimulating and keep me awake.  That does not seem to be the case.  I often read the "Lifestyle" section of the paper, read the comics, then do the Jumble and Sudoku puzzles, sometimes the crossword as I drift off to sleep.  When my eyes get heavy, I put the puzzle aside to finish the next day.  I think that rather than stimulating my mind, it takes my mind off the stressors of the day, and allows me to slip into sleep.

I find dancing does much the same (blogging, too).  I focus on whatever it is I am doing at the time, and let the rest go.  I theorize that this might have the same therapeutic value as meditating...letting go of the stress...

Someone should do a study on that.

Betty White, Human Dynamo

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Betty White.  The diminutive Ms. White is a well-known animal activist, and flew from L.A. (and boy, were her arms tired) to join the group at White Oak.

Ms. White, at 85 years of age, took the red-eye flight from L.A. arriving in Florida Saturday morning, spent the day and evening at White Oak, and the following morning flew back to L.A. because of a television commitment.  Whew.  I'd hate to have to keep up with her.

White has been a television standard for a long time, most notably, in my mind at least, as Sue Ann Nivens in the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and as Rose Nylund on Golden Girls.  In addition, she has been on numerous game and quiz shows, and currently has a recurring role in Boston Legal.  She has won five Emmy Awards, three American Comedy Awards, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, beside that of her late husband, Allen Ludden.

She has a few movie credits to her name as well, not the least of which is the (ahem) animal lover in Lake Placid.

Betty White has been a board member of Morris Animal Foundation for forty years, and served as president for three.  Morris Animal Foundation is a national research foundation dedicated to improving the health and well being of companion animals and wildlife.  She has also served on the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association Board of Trustees. 

She had a radio show called "Betty White on Animals", produced a TV series "The Pet Set", wrote a book called "Betty White's Pet Love", and is the official spokesperson for 1-800-PETMEDS.

At White Oak, she has championed the gerenuk research program.  On her visit, she socialized with visitors, gave a brief talk on the importance of taking care the animals, and then visited and signed autographs for a long time.

I want to be Betty White in my next life.

The Best Therapy

Last weekend, I went to White Oak Conservation Center. (Last night, I dreamed I went to Manderly again.) It was a great weekend.  I met some wonderful people, we went boating on the St. Mary's river on a gorgeous day, and saw lot of birds, but no reptiles.  I got sunburned--the type that's called a biker tan or T-shirt tan...my arms are burned up to my deltoids, the shoulders milky-white.  It's a great look.

Both evenings, we heard a wonderful  chamber music. The first night was a trio:  piano, violin and cello.  The second, they were joined by a second cellist. The musicians are at Amelia Island for the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. 

I am pretty ecclectic in my musical taste, but I had feared this would be a snoozer.  My fears were totally unfounded.  The first night, they played Tchaikovski, the second, Handel, Menotti and Schoenfield.  It was totally mesmerizing.  Such wonderful music, such fantastic musicianship, in such a beautiful setting.

The artists were Wendy Chen on the piano, Andres Diaz and Christopher Rex on cello, and Chee-Yun on violin.  To give you an idea of the caliber of these musicians, Chee-Yun played on a Stradivarius that was provided for her by the Samsung Corporation.  Mr. Diaz's cello dated from the 1600's. 

I found myself wondering if the instruments themselves contributed to the beauty of the moment.  I concluded that that was all in my head, and these musicians could make beautiful music given a washtub and a piece of string.  Ms. Chen, who debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Andre Previn at age 15, was playing on a modern Baldwin grand piano, and took a back seat to no one. 

The first photo was taken with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ2, the second with my Cingular 8525. Sadly, Ms. Chen's head is behind the music stand.  Turning pages is Margo, a factotum at White Oak.

News Map

Are you looking for the latest on Robert Mugabe? 

Or maybe Rafael Nadal missing the Davis Cup because of an injury?

Sports, news, people?  Or just a generic news junkie?

Get it all at News Map.  Just click on a country and find out all the news at this time.

The site features Google maps and Yahoo news.

It's great fun, as well as being informative and fascinating.

Try it!

[Image via Geology.com]

Thanks for the link, Stryder!

Change in Format

I've been doing one post a day for a few days as I went out of town.  Looking at my schedule for the next couple of months, well, I might as well be out of town, because my head will be.

Actually, I'm going to be very busy, work, play, a trip in a month.  Some studying to do, and I am looking into starting golf lessons.  I played a bit this weekend--that is, a friend handed me a club and gave me some tips, and I swung at the ball.  We had a great time.

So I'm going to stick to this schedule for a while.  That is, I will promise one post a day, at 1 PM.  If I get inspired, I may do more, we'll see. 

This will give me time to do some things I want to do, without getting stressed about blogging, which, after all, is supposed to be relaxing.  Isn't it?  I've had the occasional "publish or perish" angst lately, as I've found myself facing the eternal dilemma:  blog or sleep, at a time when sleep was sorely lacking.

Good night, Gracie.

Bianca Ryan, Dream Girl

A second attempt to download a YouTube video file. 

Someone sent me this clip of a young lady named Bianca Ryan singing on a show called America's Got Talent.  She sings " And I'm telling you I'm Not Going" by Jennifer Holliday, from Dreamgirls.  Holy Cow!

She's 12 years old.

The note accompanying the email with the clip said she had been on American Idol.

I shared it with some friends who were skeptical about it being her real voice.

I Googled her, and found that since June, 2006 when she competed (and, apparently, won $1 million), she has put out a few CDs (Go to Amazon, and listen to some samples.  I liked Bette Midler's version of "The Rose" better; I think this one is overorchestrated.  I'd link to it, but can't seem to get onto Amazon without my real name bannered across the top.)

The sixth grader now has her own record label; she's been on Ellen and Oprah,  she sang at the White House over Christmas, and apparently is known to everyone but myself...and everyone to whom I had forwarded the original clip.

So much so soon.  She smiles a bit like a young Shirley Temple.  Hope she can handle the over-the-top adulation the sane (or same...it was a typo, but wtf, it fits) way.

[Image from Wikipedia]

The Crane Wife, 1 & 2

More beautiful music from The Decembrists:  The Crane Wife 1 and The Crane Wife 2

The Crane Wife 1

It was a cold night and the snow lay 'round
I pulled my coat tight against the falling down
And the sun was all
The sun was all down

I am a poor man, I haven't wealth or fame
I have my two hands and a house to my name
And the winter's so
The winter's so long

But all the starts were crashing 'round
As I laid eyes on what I found

It was a white crane, it was a helpless thing
On a red stain with an arrow in its wing
And it called and cried
It called and cried so

Chorus

And how I helped her and how I dressed her wounds
And how I held her beneath the rising moon
'Til she stood to fly
She stood to fly away
My crane wife, my crane wife

The Crane Wife 2

My Crane wife
Arrived at my door in the moonlight
All star-bright and tongue-tied
I took her in

We were married
And bells rang sweet for our wedding
And our bedding was ready
When we fell in

Sound the keening bell
And see it's painted red
Soft as a fontanel
The feathers in the thread
When all I ever meant to do was to keep you
My crane wife

We were poorly
Our fortunes fading hourly
And how she vowed me
She could bring it back

But I was greedy
I was vain and I forced her to weaving
On cold loom in closed room
With down wove

Chorus

There's a bend in the wind and it rakes at my heart
There is blood in the thread and it rakes at my heart
Rakes at my heart

*   *   *   *

The songs are based on a Japanese folk tale in which a man finds a wounded crane and nurses it back to health.  After he releases the crane, a woman appears at his door, with whom he falls in love.  They are poor, but she offers to weave clothes that they can sell at the market, as long as he agrees never to watch her weave.  (Aha--typical folk fodder.)  They do well, but one day, the man looks in at his wife (she is nowhere to be seen and he is worried).  He sees a crane at the loom, almost bare of feathers, which she has woven into the cloth.  When she realizes she has been seen, the crane flies away.

[Image and story from Tsuru no Ongaeshi]

Tuxedo Brownie Cups

Darlene brought some of these to work the other day.  Boy are they good. They are from Pampered Chef.

1 package fudge brownie mix (19-21 oz.  Use the instructions for cake-like brownies)
2 squares (1-ounce each) white chocolate, for baking
2 tablespoons milk
1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup whipped topping
1 pint small strawberries

Optional:  melted semi-sweet chocolate for decoration

Spray a mini-muffin-pan with nonstick spray.  Prepare brownie mix according to directions for cake-like brownies.  Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.  Bake 14 minutes, or until edges are set.  Do not overbake. 

Remove pan to cooling rack.  Immediately press the brownies with a mini tart-shaper or other round-ended tool to make an indentation in the muffins.  Allow to cool for 15 minutes.  Loosen the edges and carefully remove the brownies from the pan.  Allow to cool completely.  Respray the pan, and make more brownies until all the batter is gone.

Microwave white chocolate and milk about 1 minute, uncovered, and stir until smooth.  Cool slightly.

Mix cream cheese and powdered sugar well.  Gradually add the melted white chocolate mix until smooth.  Fold in the whipped topping.

Fill a cake decorator bag with this mixture, and fit it with a closed star tip.  If you don't have this, you can spoon the filling into the brownie cups.  Slice strawberries and arrange on brownie cups.  Drizzle with melted semi-sweet chocolate if desired.

Place in airtight container, and cool for three hours before serving.

Makes 4 dozen brownie cups.

 

[Image of what these sort of look like, via http://www.hiddenbarn.com/candles.php]

The Emperor

has no clothes.

The business with the fired prosecutors.It looks like once again, Karl Rove is the spider in the center of the web.  That cronyism and loyalty to the Emperor trumps all.  That another loyal supporter will be sacrificed for an act of spite that gains nothing.  (Harriet, so sorry.)

It may be that any sitting President can fire prosecutors at will, and that it is often done at the change at the helm, in order to put political appointees in those positions.  But to me, the idea of removing your own people because they are not supporting your political agenda by prosecuting cases (or not prosecuting them) for political reasons seems particularly egregious.

After all, the appearance of impropriety is as serious as impropriety itself.  (I couldn't find the source of this quote, or indeed the actual quote, and would appreciate it if anyone out there knows its origin.)

The secrecy, self-interest and tone-deafness of this administration continues to astonish me.  It is studded with things like this.  Unnecessary, mean-spirited, spiteful, but always political.  Often with the appearance of impropriety.

I was amazed to hear Bush say that the Democrats were pursuing this issue for purely political reasons, when everything Bush and his administration does is for purely political reasons.

Don't get me wrong, I know politics is a dirty, Machiavellian business.  On both sides.  Through Lee Atwater, the Republicans became masters of this dirty game, neutralizing Clinton when he should have been at the top of his game.

But Atwater was a visionary of this dirty game.  Now the game is being played by pols of middling intelligence, who have spite and revenge on their minds.  You need to be objective to play in this mud puddle, and the Republicans have lost their objectivity.

I don't blog about politics much.  This has been festering for a while, though. 

[I found the image at Lulablog, which totally pulled me in for an extended read.]

I'm Outa Here!

I'll be invoking the one-blog-a-day for the next few days.  I'm going out of town and not taking my computer.

I'd been agonizing about how I was going to get a full day's work in today and preblog two posts a day through Monday if I'm leaving tomorrow morning.  So I'm going to one post a day, at 1 PM, for the next few days.

I'm going to White Oak Animal Conservation Center.  When I've been there in the past, I've seen the little cottages on the grounds and wondered what it would be like to go there for a retreat, or just a weekend and stay at one of the cottages.  This weekend, I'm going for a charity event to benefit White Oak and Gilman Internation Conservation, and staying at one of the cottages.  Since  I don't know what they're like, aside from having had lunch in one, I didn't know what to say when they asked where I wanted to stay.  I asked them to pick for me.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Here's what the weekend will be like:  Tomorrow, I'll drive up and get settled in my cottage.  At 2 PM, I'll tour the conservation center, "featuring many up-close encounters with some of the center's rarest species." (Not the Komodo Dragon, please.)

In the evening, "well-known actress and animal advocate, Betty White will be our special guest for an intimate dinner in the Great Hall, featuring a performance of chamber music by musicians from this year's Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. 

On Sunday morning, following breakfast, a variety of activities will be offered, including:  golf, kayaking, sporting clays, horseback riding and other activities, followed by gourmet lunch.  That evening, cocktails and dinner, more chamber music.

It took me a while to decide to go.  I don't get many weekends off these days, and giving up one of them for anything is a big deal.  But I believe in White Oak, and couldn't get it out of my mind.

I think I'll try the sporting clays on Sunday morning.  So next time I see my friend Susan I can make her proud.  (She competes in sporting clay tournaments, and is usually among the winners.  The one time we went out together, I missed.  A lot.  And wound up with a big bruise on my shoulder.  So she's bound to be favorably impressed.  No where to go but up.)

I'll take pictures.