Yes, Virginia, Once Upon A Time, Real Men Played Football

Via Traces of Texas, on Facebook:

"Dandy" Don Meredith, quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, talks to reporters in the locker room following the famous "Ice Bowl" game against the Packers in Green Bay, Wisconsin, back in 1967. The game-time temperature at Lambeau Field was about −15 °F (−26 °C), with an average wind chill around −48 °F (−44 °C). It remains one of the most famous games in NFL history." 

Yes, that is a cigarette he is smoking. And yes, that is real hair on his chest. 

SportsDay writes:

"[Bob] Lilly, A TCU graduate out of West Texas, unfamiliar with such brutal weather, suffered frostbitten fingers on his left hand in that game. His three mates on the defensive line that anchored Tom Landry's effective but quirky "Flex Defense" all suffered frostbite as well.  ...

"They might have worn gloves but Lilly recalled that old-school defensive coordinator Ernie  Stautner admonished that such a luxury was for "sissies" and he couldn't have such coddled players on his squad. ...

"While players cautiously tried to navigate a sheet of ice underfoot, an announced assembly of 50,861 fans exhaled from behind faces covered by woolen masks, emitting enough carbon dioxide to remind of London fog.

"Please, Ryan said under his breath, let those of his cameras that refused to die in the cold, continue to work. The crew's remarkable work in those conditions provides the only known extended video from the game. "

"Once the game began, referee Norm Schachter and his officiating crew abandoned their whistles, which froze to their lips soon after kickoff. Instead, they relied on voices and hand signals to control the game. An elderly fan in the stands suffered hypothermia and died. Alicia Landry, wife of the Cowboys coach, is said to have missed the game's decisive play because her eyelashes were frozen shut. ..."

But Don Meredith had the final insight into why the Dallas Cowboys of Old played the way they played: not for the money, or their coaches, but for their fans:

"Meredith, of course, was on the plane that returned the Cowboys to Love Field in the wake of the Ice Bowl.

"I remember the pilot telling us he got word that there were a lot of people waiting for us," recalled Brandt. "We didn't know what to expect."

News reports estimated about 500 sympathetic fans were there to embrace their heroes in relatively balmly 32-degree weather.

"It was the first time Cowboys fans celebrated a loss," Meredith, who died in 2010, once told Michael. "It changed everything about the way we felt about our fans. It created a bond that would never be broken."

Go read the whole article: "Too Cold to Bleed: Why The Ice Bowl Still Resonates 50 Years Later".    

It's the stuff America ... and real football... is made of. 

Boy Scouts Love President Trump's Speech at National Jamboree, Shout "We Love Trump!" and "USA! USA! USA!"

During President Trump's speech to the Boy Scouts, that huge crowd applauded constantly, chanted " We love Trump! We love Trump! We love Trump!" and "USA! USA! USA!", and they "boo'ed" when he mentioned "his opponent".

Here's a sample quote:

PRESIDENT TRUMP:  "Your lives will have meaning and purpose and joy. You will become leaders, and you will inspire others to achieve the dreams they once thought were totally impossible, things that you said could never, ever happen are already happening for you. And if you do these things -- and if you refuse to give in to doubt or to fear -- then you will help to make America great again. You will be proud of yourself, be proud of the uniform you wear, and be proud of the country you love." (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!  

And just in case the Fake News starts getting it wrong, there were only two times the audience boo'ed. One when he mentioned Hillary:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: "We won Florida.  We won South Carolina.  We won North Carolina.  We won Pennsylvania.  (Applause.)
We won and won.  So when they said, there is no way to victory, there is no way to 270.  I went to Maine four times because it’s one vote, and we won.  But we won -- one vote.  I went there because I kept hearing we're at 269.  But then Wisconsin came in.  Many, many years -- Michigan came in.
And we worked hard there.  My opponent didn't work hard there because she was told -- 

AUDIENCE:  Booo!

THE PRESIDENT:  "She was told she was going to win Michigan....."

and then when President Trump was telling the story of William Levitt, and teased them with a cliff-hanger:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: " I won’t go any more than that because you’re Boy Scouts, so I’m not going to tell you what he did."

AUDIENCE: Booo -- 

THE PRESIDENT: "Should I tell you? Should I tell you?"

AUDIENCE: Yes!

Final real news: The audience loved the speech and the President ALL THE WAY THROUGH:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So I have to tell you what we did, in all fairness, is an unbelievable tribute to you and all of the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for Make America Great Again.  (Applause.) 

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

The President ended his speech with a blessing:

PRESIDENT TRUMP:  "And I just want to end by saying very importantly:  God bless you.  God bless the Boy Scouts.  God bless the United States of America.
Go out.  Have a great time in life.  Compete and go out and show me that there is nobody -- nobody -- like a Boy Scout."

Working Women All Through History: Blacksmiths, Silversmiths, Nail Makers

If you thought that "Kate the Blacksmith" was an anachronism in A Knight's Tale... she wasn't. (Well except for her dialect... and maybe her attitude...)  Despite the feminist mythology, women have engaged, openly and profitably, in almost every occupation in every era in the western, Christian world.

In the 14th Century Holkham Bible, this illustration shows a woman blacksmith forging a nail. Note the assumption in the caption, written by a modern author, that she is "the Blacksmith's wife".  Maybe she was and maybe she wasn't... what the factual record shows is a woman working at a forge with hammer and tongs.

In the brief article "Blacksmithing of the 18th Century", the author notes that the demand for nails was huge, and making them was a common sideline for people, including women - even those women who were not full-fledged master smiths.

The Bodleian Library blog has an interesting article about "Lizzie Bennett, Blacksmith":

" An account of blacksmithing work done in December 1708 by Eliz[abeth] Bennett at Blenheim ‘Castle’, her job included making 32 dozen holdfasts for the joiners (at 2 shillings a dozen), making new handles for three saws, mending a pump in the meadows, and making wedges and clouts (patches or plates) used in the stairs. But in addition to making items for a fixed price, she also charged for work by the pound weight. Twenty five pounds of iron works for a grindstone at 4 pence a pound earned her 8s 4d (100 pence total) and 31 pounds of wedges and clouts, also at 4 pence a pound, made her 10s 4d.The total for what would have been several days or weeks of highly skilled work? 4 pounds, 17 shillings, 2 pence. Not bad at all if you compare it to a female servant’s income at about that time – maidservant Sarah Sherin made £4 a year in 1717, while in the farming world, a female labourer called Goody Currell was paid 4 pence a day at an Oxfordshire farm in 1759, fifty years later."

An article from the Colonial Williamsburg journal:

"The Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths in London lists sixty-five "brethren" and two "sistren" in its 1434 charter."

"A 1770 publication called The Tradesman's True Guide or a Universal Directory for the Towns of Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsal, Dudley and the manufacturing village in the neighborhood of Birmingham carries exhaustive lists of tradesmen and -women alphabetically by name and by trade. There are women listed in every trade from butcher to wire drawer."

"Only recently did a Colonial Williamsburg interpreter look closely at a nineteenth-century print that had been hanging on the wall at the Geddy House for years: a portion of Ben Franklin's Poor Richard Illustrated features a country blacksmith shop where four men are working, and in the right-hand corner, a woman hammers at an anvil rather inconspicuously. A 1505 Polish print is centered on a lovely woman at a spindle, but a careful inspection of the background shows a woman making a shoe on her knee."

The article notes the big error in modern & postmodern Feminist History: the idea that women "weren't allowed to work" doesn't hold up to scrutiny:

"What is more compelling is the lack of documentation that women were not allowed to work. Although religious practices and social norms might have restricted certain activities in some parts of the world, there were no laws prohibiting women from working a trade.

"Yet sometimes scholars and guests have a hard time accepting the notion that women did just that. Schumann says that "the greatest obstacle for the visitor is in accepting Rind as an eighteenth-century woman, and not a 'born-before-her-time' women's libber."

As I point out when demonstrating Letterpress Printing, an ordinary occupation of women since Gutenberg's time, women have always worked for pay - they had to make a living, then as now. This author agrees:
".... no matter what century it is, women have always done what is necessary to provide for themselves and their families."

President Trump and The Deplorables: "Hope, and a Future"

President Donald John Trump is doing the Lord's work in bringing "Hope, and a Future" to ordinary Americans, and he laid out that vision last night in his first speech to the joint Houses of Congress.

President Trump laid out a concrete vision and showed us how to reach for it. By tagging America's 250th birthday - and by not calling it the "Semi-quincentennial - President Trump just gave a future to the descendants of our nation's founding people.

For a decade or more, struggling Americans have recited Jeremiah 29:11 and made it our by-word. We have written it on the walls of Food Banks, have spoken it over children's ministries, have memorized it and repeated it while trying to pay the bills:

 "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

And our Father God heard the prayers of the ordinary people across the great, vast expanse of our nation, and sent us a new Cyrus to point the way back home. All the Deplorables whose life expectancy has been dropping, have reasons to live again.

President Trump told us we can speak again about our hopes for our children, and for ourselves, and our families, and communities - and assured us he will clear the path so that we can work with our own hands to bring our own dreams to life. Here are excerpts from his speech:

"Each American generation passes the torch of truth, liberty and justice –- in an unbroken chain all the way down to the present. ...

"The rebellion started as a quiet protest, spoken by families of all colors and creeds -– families who just wanted a fair shot for their children, and a fair hearing for their concerns.....

".. I am not going to let America and its great companies and workers, be taken advantage of anymore. ..

"The time has come for a new program of national rebuilding. ..  ... This effort will be guided by two core principles:  Buy American, and Hire American. ...

"Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed.  Every problem can be solved.  And every hurting family can find healing, and hope.

"Our citizens deserve this, and so much more –- so why not join forces to finally get it done?  

"Every American child should be able to grow up in a safe community, to attend a great school, and to have access to a high-paying job.

"My job is not to represent the world.  My job is to represent the United States of America.

"We want peace, wherever peace can be found.  America is friends today with former enemies.  Some of our closest allies, decades ago, fought on the opposite side of these World Wars.  This history should give us all faith in the possibilities for a better world.

"Hopefully, the 250th year for America will see a world that is more peaceful, more just and more free.

"On our 100th anniversary, in 1876, citizens from across our Nation came to Philadelphia to celebrate America’s centennial.  At that celebration, the country’s builders and artists and inventors showed off their creations. Alexander Graham Bell displayed his telephone for the first time. Remington unveiled the first typewriter.  An early attempt was made at electric light. Thomas Edison showed an automatic telegraph and an electric pen. 

"Imagine the wonders our country could know in America’s 250th year.

"Think of the marvels we can achieve if we simply set free the dreams of our people. Cures to illnesses that have always plagued us are not too much to hope. American footprints on distant worlds are not too big a dream. Millions lifted from welfare to work is not too much to expect. And streets where mothers are safe from fear — schools where children learn in peace — and jobs where Americans prosper and grow — are not too much to ask. ....

"We are one people, with one destiny.

"We all bleed the same blood.

"We all salute the same flag.

"And we are all made by the same God.

"And when we fulfill this vision; when we celebrate our 250 years of glorious freedom, we will look back on tonight as when this new chapter of American Greatness began.

"The time for small thinking is over.  The time for trivial fights is behind us.

"We just need the courage to share the dreams that fill our hearts.

"The bravery to express the hopes that stir our souls.

"And the confidence to turn those hopes and dreams to action. ....

"Believe in yourselves.

"Believe in your future.

"And believe, once more, in America.

"Thank you, God bless you, and God Bless these United States."

 ~   ~     ~  

Thank you Father God for sending President Trump to lead us, and to give us a new vision. Americans, we have a new and blessed chance!  Isaiah 51:1  :

 "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
    and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
    and to the quarry from which you were hewn;" 

A Factoid About Donald Trump and Infrastructure Building Projects

From an article about Donald Trump in the Oct 4, 1989 Issue of People Magazine:

"When the city of New York floundered for six years and spent $12 million trying to get the Wollman Skating Rink rebuilt in Central Park, Trump stepped in and did it in four months for $2.1 million,"

Sounds pretty effective to me!

A Pat On The Back For Everyone Who Works For A Living

Here's to people whose job won't get done if they aren't there to do it. No one with a professional job works 40 hour weeks. Most work 60 to 80 hours a week, 50 or more weeks a year. Every salary includes long long hours, nights, weekends, going in early and staying late.  It includes being "on call" 24/7/365. It includes coming back early from vacation to take care of a problem - or spending hours on conference calls and email and preparing documents in the hotel while "on vacation". It includes losing PTO every year because there is not time to take off two weeks in a row, not in the summer, not at Christmas, not at Easter. It includes earning a commission or a bonus that never materializes. It includes performance reviews that set impossibly higher targets every quarter just to keep earning the salary they have.

And here's to people whose job makes it possible for us to shop or eat or solve problems or take care of our own business. Most are stuck with weird schedules that change from week to week so they never know what days or hours they will have to be there. Weekends, nights, holidays, going in early and coming back in late on the same day but still "part time". It includes being called in for overtime only to be sent home again when they change their minds. Working "relief" or "temporary" means doing the same job with the same pressure and responsibilities as someone else, often for months or years, but for 60% less pay, no insurance, no paid time off. It often means juggling 2 or 3 or 4 "little" jobs that add up to working 60 or 80 hours a week with no overtime and a big tax bill at end of year because while no one else noticed they needed more witholding, the IRS sure did.

The truth is, everyone who works for a living does some essential job or they would not get paid for it. And no one gets the recognition or appreciation or pay they deserve.

So to everyone out there who is working hard for long long hours, going above and beyond every day for the people who count on you, here's a pat on the back. Even though you didn't ask for it - especially because you didn't ask for it. No one deserves it more than you.

Hand Finishing Fine Silver Jewelry: Pre-Firing Phase

In my Etsy store (link over to the left), I sell handmade jewelry.  This video shows a portion of the finishing process that happens on each piece. I also talk about the time involved in making these items, and why an artisan-crafted item may have a selling price that is far above the value of the materials used to make it. Craftspeople always face the challenge of understanding who their market is, and in this video I talk a little about that.

Something to Remember If You Work In The Oil Fields.....

I lived in West Texas before, during, and after the boom this comment talks about.   Do not believe anyone who tries to tell you that "This time is different", "This time we won't have a bust", "This time this town is big enough to generate money without oil".   In a comment on Belmont Club,  a user by the name of "Charles42" sums up WHY this time is no different than it ever was:

"In 1980 oil was equivalent to about 106@ barrel in current dollars. Reagan took off price controls and eliminated the excise profits tax in 1981. That knocked the price of oil down to $60@barrel in today's dollars. In 1985 he talked the Saudis into increasing their production. That knocked the price of oil in today's dollars down to roughly $30@ barrel in 1989. That falling oil price bankrupted the soviet union and gave the USA a strong eonomy during the 1980's and 90's. The price of oil bottomed in 1999 in today's dollars at 19 dollars a barrel.
The same thing is going to happen 10-15 years from now as fracking increases supply of oil and rising sales of natural gas trains trucks and buses and electric cars curb the demand for oil....."

(Click through the link to read the rest)

Those who are wise will save their money and avoid debt, will live as frugally as is possible in a boom town, and will be very careful about buying real estate at the boom-economy's grossly inflated prices. The oil business is a good business, and there is room for hard workers in it, but work smart, and look out for yourself - and remember that oil is always a boom and bust gamble in the end.

First Amendment Quote of the Day - February 15, 2014

"But [the Obama] administration’s actions have too often contradicted Obama’s stated intentions. “Instead,” New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan wrote earlier this year, “it’s turning out to be the administration of unprecedented secrecy and unprecedented attacks on a free press.”

"The [Obama] administration’s war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I’ve seen since the Nixon administration, when I was one of the editors involved in The Washington Post’s investigation of Watergate. The 30 experienced Washington journalists at a variety of news organizations whom I interviewed for this report could not remember any precedent. "

          "The Obama Administration and the Press" A CPJ [Committee to Protect Journalists] special report by Leonard Downie Jr. with reporting by Sara Rafsky.  October 10, 2013

Where Unchosen Postage Stamp Designs Go To Play

This is the coolest page I have seen today: Sheaff : ephemera : Stamp Design.   These are postage stamp designs that never made it through the final approval process. Like hiring, sometimes there are just too many good ones and only one job, or in this case, one stamp. So these got left behind. But they are wonderful to see.

 I am a Rockwell Kent freak - the 37c woodcut angel is one of my faves. The various 42c Edgar Rice Burroughs/Tazan are ALL, I think, better than the one they ended up with - it was truly a homely stamp. The technique used to generate Cochise's portrait is fascinating. And dig them cool cats playing Latin Jazz, down toward the last of the list. 

Save this page to end the daily browsing with & sleep on a lighter note. :-)

Come and See! The Project I Have Been Working On Since January!

In January, my future with my employer went away. In February, I started working on designing silver jewelry, and now am ready to launch.  I've had an Etsy shop for a while to test a few things, but my main marketing  method will be in person at shows and events. The show I will be exhibiting at is a 3-day event that draws about 25,000 people. It should be a good starting point. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. :-)


Here's a somewhat edited version of the press release I sent out to media yesterday:
  
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  

Local Artist's Handmade Silver Jewelry Celebrates Texas Wildlowers and Our Christian Heritage             

Announcing Pecan Corner, featuring fine Artisan and Christian jewelry by Tina Howard. Original designs in Fine Silver, handmade by the artist, one at a time, in Texas, USA.    

Artisan Tina Howard introduces a new line of Fine Silver jewelry celebrating the beauty of Texas and our Christian heritage, all handmade in Texas, USA.  Howard is exhibiting in Booth #56 at the Brownwood Reunion this weekend, Sept. 20-22.

Created from her original designs and cast in .999 Fine Silver, pieces in the collection range from a large statement "Matthew 6:28 Cross" with Bluebonnets and Sunflowers, and a figural Oilfield Pump Jack, to a series of small charms with individual roadside flowers: Bluebonnet, Wild Geranium, Primrose, Thistle, and Shepherd's Purse. New designs are being added as Howard creates them.

The artist makes each jewel herself, one at a time. She begins by sculpting a prototype by hand, from which a single basic mold is created as the starting point for each successive piece. The nuances of individually molding, firing, and finishing each piece with a significant amount of handwork assures that no piece will ever be identical to any other.

Howard points out that "My pieces look handmade because they are handmade", and notes that you might find her fingerprint permanently cast into a piece once in a while. Even earrings, because each half of the pair is made separately, will vary ever so slightly from its mate. Howard explains that these artistic details are marks of human craftsmanship which machines cannot produce, and anticipates that you, too, will find beauty in the variety.

Howard is proud to offer jewelry that is completely made by hand right here in Texas. In addition, she purchases all of her raw materials from domestic companies and looks for "Made in USA" on her supplies whenever available.

 Howard's designs can be purchased on Etsy.com in her shop named "pecancorner".

Tina Howard is a native of Oklahoma, who has lived in Texas her entire adult life, raising her family in the Big Spring/Midland area, and spending a few years in Port Lavaca before she and her husband Paul moved to their current town  in 2007, where they live in a tiny cottage shaded by pecan trees.

~~~~~~~

Linocuts and Letterpress: Printing Seed Packets and Cottage Food Labels

I've been having fun this year in the print shop, turning out seed packets for saving seeds in.  The Pecan Corner Press is a hobby, and this kind of ephemera is what I usually produce. I use handset type and some fun old cuts.  I've been taking these to the local Farmer's Market since the grasshoppers and deer have eaten all my gardening efforts this year.  The empty ones are great for saving seed and tucking into a get well card or garden club seed exchanges. Some people even said they were going to use them in their little miniature display cabinets.

My Swiss Chard went to seed this year (it is a biennial, and can be harvested as long as it lives - it is never tough or bitter), so I made the linoleum cut and filled these to see how the seed would sell. This is the old variety, Fordhook, and they can be planted in Texas all the way though the fall.

I didn't take a press but I have taken a locked-up chase and it has drawn a lot of interest.  I have a ways to go before I sell enough to pay for my market fees, but this is a good way to support our little market and help it grow.

 
 When September rolls around, I'll be able to offer more items - we all will. Texas passed a Cottage Food Law a couple of years ago that made it possible to open one's home to sell baked goods and jams. It is a common-sense approach that recognizes that if we know the person doing the cooking, we can decide for ourselves whether we want to eat what they have cooked.  The newest version, which takes effect Sept 1st 2013, is pretty exciting, because it expands common sense to foods that are pretty much going to be safe to eat and allows us to take our products to Farmers' Markets and locally sponsored Fairs, as well as sell from home.

 Here's another place where we - Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Tea Party, Occupy... pretty much everybody but the Socialists and Communists - can come together, I think. We all want personal sovereignty over our food!!!!

 So, in anticipation of HB 970 (still awaiting the final rules to define exactly what items we can sell), I have been carving linoleum blocks to use on labels for my homemade jams, jellies, relishes, sauerkraut, syrups and baked goods. The linocuts, combined with Art Deco era typefaces, give the labels a fun old fashioned look. These are the first proofs of a few of them, printed on dry-gummed paper. I will tweek the colors and ink coverage a bit for the final labels.

Endorsements For Rick Perry

One of my favorite bloggers, Pat Austin of "And So it Goes in Shreveport" (or "SIGIS" for short), has endorsed my presidential candidate: Rick Perry. She also has a round up post, "Rick Perry For President: A SIGIS Endorsement" of other blogs that have endorsed the staunchly pro-life, pro-jobs, conservative (both social and fiscal) Texan's candidacy. Go see her whole post to access links to the others.

I've posted before about Perry (even long before he was considering entering this race). A primary reason that I feel so strongly about him at this stage in our national life is that he provides consistent governance - not the foolish hobgoblin type, but the kind of consistency that happens when ones' convictions run so deep they are simply a part of life. The kind of consistency that drives heroes to choose the right instincts to follow. The kind of consistency that understands the difference between "innocent" and "not guilty". The kind of consistency that leads him to promote each state's right to determination even in those issues where he might have personal feelings. The kind of consistency that leads him to accept the will of the people.

Within that consistency is his comprehension that liberty means we should have the right to make our own decisions about things like a jar of Plum Jelly or a loaf of bread. It also means Perry agrees that we ought to have a right to make our own jobs if we want, instead of sitting back and waiting for the unemployment dole.

Among the legislation Rick Perry signed this past session was a small bill that hasn't gotten much attention, but it is the kind of thing that is a good example of how Texas, and Rick Perry, promote individual liberty and individual initiative: The Texas Cottage Food Law.

This bill, sponsored by a Democrat and championed by both parties in both the House and the Senate, allows people to sell baked goods and jellies directly from their home. This means I can have a home bakery business with no need for a commercial kitchen, no inspections or licenses required.


The Cottage Food Law means I can start a bread business just like Mrs Baird did in the 1900s, just like so many of our historic companies got their start.  Or I could make wedding cakes, or sell my famous pear preserves or peach marmalade or fresh tortillas.


And the government won't come arrest me for selling my baked goods. (of course we choose not to live where a homeowner's association can have power over us, but those who do have voluntarily surrendered their liberty - that's a post for another day).

This is the kind of common sense lawmaking and proper bi-partisan effort that we have come to expect from Rick Perry to free us all from government overreach, and Americans can expect him to bring this same kind of wisdom to Washington.


.

No Taxes Required: Ramp Building and Fundraising the Old Fashioned, Genuine Grassroots Way

I wrote most of this post a couple of months ago, and fiddled around and never posted it. But Dr. Mabuse has a post up on Kraalspace that needs to be seen, about helping our neighbors ourselves, instead of relying on the government. It's a chilling reminder of how learned helplessness can become the order of the day, one tiny relinquishment at a time. Of how well-meaning committees inevitably engineer inescapable tyranny in reality. Of the good intentions that pave the road to hell.

In Dr Mabuse's post "Government Goliath, Local Davids", a man who went to hospital, had a leg amputated, and couldn't come home because his house didn't have a ramp, and the government agency tasked with paying for building ramps kept turning him down. So like Charlie on the MTA, he had to live at the hospital while waiting for Uncle Sugar to build his ramp. Until some good citizens got word of his plight, and in one weekend, built a ramp for his house.

A similar, but different thing happened two years ago in my little town.
A family man (with a child still in high school) lost his leg to complications of diabetes. Here's where his story differs from the one Doc shares: as soon as the surgery was scheduled, the Baptist Church sent out a flyer that the men of our town would meet at his house the next Saturday morning to build him a ramp.

And you know who built that ramp? The OLD MEN. Our young men are busy - they serve as our Volunteer firemen, coach little league, sit on the school board, and a host of other things. But our 70 and 80 year olds don't let any grass grow under their feet either. By the end of the day, the ramp was completed, and a good time was had by all. Just because it needed to be done.

It's just sad that the man Dr Mabuse writes about didn't have neighbors or a church to jump in and help him sooner, but ultimately it was people in his local community who took care of meeting his need. And that is how it should be.

From the post I started earlier, here are some more examples of how people take care of each other, and meet local needs, without government involvement or permission.

We went to a lot of fun local events this fall. Some were fairs where we were able to support local crafters, some were organizations doing fundraising, and  a couple were pure benefits for local individuals.

The town birthday celebration in October was a hoot. It started with a pancake breakfast to pay for new pew cushions in the Methodist church (they raised enough to "cover" the cost and then some).

The tractor show hinted at a distinct preference for "poppin' johnnies" all in their original John Deere green. I guess Farmall must not have been big around here.

We bought several pounds of stone-ground corn meal from this vendor with his old timey mill. The power source was simple and ingenous: a series of car batteries along the front side of the wagon.

We bought things from vendors who had booths set up: crafts, food, pretties.
We visited with neighbors, stuck money in the Volunteer Fire Department's "boot" (again), introduced our bunch and met new people.

The next weekend, we went to our church's Fall Festival & Car Show.   We ate barbeque, bought an amazing wall cross from a local man who makes things out of discarded tools, and picked out our favorite vintage jitneys.

Here, a home-made Carnival benefits a Christian K-12 school (and a winning 6-man football team).

This "Rattlesnake Roundup" game is perfect for Texas.

First the girl would toss the rubber snakes into the bag, then use the special snake-catching tool to grab them & take them out of the sack! It would be a more difficult game (and more realistic) if you had to use the "snake tongs" to throw them in, too.

Speaking of snakes, we saw this non-poisonous one playing dead and looking all dehydrated on Main Street outside the Lions Club BBQ Dinner & Auction. He stayed very still until he thought we weren't looking any more, then he took a deep breath and slithered away.

The dinner was great - it raised money toward the scholarships this group gives to local students each year, toward eye exams & new glasses and for Christmas food boxes for people whose hard work doesn't stretch far enough.
The auction raised a similar amount to directly help a local family that's in need right now.

We wrapped up a week or two later with a fish fry to benefit a hardworking young family in our midst. The father has cancer, and he's unable to work right now. This will help tide them over. They are good people and their neighbors love them - even the ones who don't know them.

Who benefited from all these things? Everyone. Everyone's kids or grandkids are eligible for those scholarships. Our VFD is here and prepared when we need them. Everyone will gather in the church on Christmas Eve. Everyone knows we could count on this community if we needed them: nobody who's done their part when they were able would be forgotten.

All in all, lives will be better for this community's generous heart.

And it was all done in fun and love. With no mandates, and no taxes, and no demands, and no protests. And no fraud, and no graft, and no entitlements.

Because that's how life works in a stable, healthy, Christian, traditional, American community.

De-Occupy Wall Street

Speaking of toil, there's a new Facebook group, and even though I have withdrawn from most FB activity, I like it!   

"De-Occupy Wall Street"

My favorite comment so far, from the administrator: 

"Create a job if none are available... that's what we do in the land of the free. There is no crying in freedom...only an open market."


Thanks to my FB pal for sharing it. :-)

"...but the blessing of earth is toil."

"Born within a lowly stable, where the cattle 'round Me stood,
Trained a carpenter in Nazareth, I have toiled, and found it good.

"They who tread the path of labor follow where My feet have trod;
They who work without complaining do the holy will of God.

"Where the many toil together, there am I among My own;
Where the tired workman sleepeth, there am I with him alone."



More from Henry Van Dyke's "The Friendly Year". These verses are a small excerpt from "The Toiling of Felix, and Other Poems",  first published in 1900, a lyrical meditation on the spiritual value of work and labor in a happy life.

...and another Henry Ossawa Tanner painting: the oft-marketed "Young Sabot Maker", in which Tanner, in Paris, depicted a young apprentice learning to make wooden shoes, using the same kinds of woodworking tools that carpenters have used for thousands of years. Compare with the one above, which Georges DelaTour painted in the mid 17th century, of St Joseph in his cabinet shop, with the young Jesus at hand. As Tanner moved deeper and deeper into his calling to paint the biblical reality, it is easy to imagine his meditation on Jesus' childhood in a carpenter's home.

Tanner said of his work "My effort has been to not only put the Biblical incident in the original setting ... but at the same time give the human touch "which makes the whole world kin" and which ever remains the same. "

In the poet's words:
"This is the gospel of labour, ring it, ye bells of the kirk!
The Lord of Love came down from above, to live with the men who work.
This is the rose that He planted, here in the thorn-curst soil:
Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but the blessing of Earth is toil."

Global Warming Vanities; or Jobs, Electricity, and Fuel? Rick Perry Has His Priorities in Order

In New Hampshire, a woman came to an event to see Governor Perry and told her son to ask the Governor his views on the theory of evolution and if he knew how old the earth is.

An article on a website I had not posted to before (not one I link to) suggested that Governor Perry should give political answers to science questions, so as to avoid having the wrong opinion. I thought I posted a response but it hasn't shown up (I probably mis-submitted or something) so I will use it here instead as a base for a longer post.

Watch Governor Perry (whose degree is in Animal Science) over time, and I think you will find that he gave political answers to these questions - and smart, nuanced answers at that. He reached his intended audience with his intended message while displaying gentle respect to a little boy whose mother was using her child for her own political agenda.

Asked "How old do you think the earth is?" Governor Perry moved down to eye level with the boy and said "You know what, I don't have any idea - I know it's pretty old, so it goes back a long, long ways. I'm not sure anybody actually knows completely and absolutely how old the earth is."

The mother then instructed her son to "Ask him why he doesn't believe in science."

"I hear your mom was asking about evolution," Perry told the boy. "That's a theory that is out there - and it's got some gaps in it."

He told a child that science requires the study of facts, and that the answers are to be found within the gaps in our knowledge. Surely no scientist would disagree.

He added: "In Texas we teach both Creationism and Evolution in our public schools -- because I figure you're smart enough to figure out which one is right."

He told a young boy he's not afraid to give children all the info we have and let them think for themselves (and the parents listening all heard the tacit inference that this man won't try to indoctrinate their children).

While creationism and Intelligent Design are not a part of the approved curriculum in Texas schools, they would be allowed as part of the study, evaluation and critique of scientific theories in biology class, and can be discussed if students ask. Creationism could also be discussed in the high school elective Biblical History.

According to MSNBC, the Supreme Court ruling in 1987 about teaching Creationism held that ""teaching a variety of scientific theories about the origins of humankind might be validly done with the clear secular intent of enhancing the effectiveness of science instruction."

Texas schools are, in fact, better than average, as proven by test scores and objective standard measurement criteria of the US Department of Education. According to Texas Education Agency Commissioner Robert Scott, Texas students are excelling in the sciences: "The 2009 NAEP Science results were impressive, as well. Texas’ African American eighth-grade students earned the highest score in the nation and our Hispanic eighth-grade students were eighth. Only eighth-grade students attending the Department of Defense schools scored higher than Texas’ white students who were tied with white students in Massachusetts. On the fourth-grade test, Texas’ African American students out-performed their peers in every state accept Virginia and those students attending Department of Defense Schools. Texas’ fourth-grade white students were ranked third behind only Virginia and Massachusetts."

The stage mother in this exchange (and perhaps US Education Secretary Arne Duncan) needs to spend some time watching RFD TV or read up on agricultural science to educate herself: there is no physical or biological or genetic science more cutting-edge than that being developed and used in practice by farmers or ranchers who graduated from Texas A&M. While Governor Perry has not practiced in a scientific field in a long time, and he may not have gotten an honorary doctorate, that doesn't change the fact that his mind is trained in the hard sciences.

And as another Christian long ago, Galileo, showed us, science is not made true or nullified by "consensus". Only proofs and objective facts can determine the validity of a scientific theory.

Asked what Texas schools teach about the theory of anthropomorphic global warming, Perry told a New Hampshire teacher ""We teach the straight-out facts in Texas in our schools. You'll have to pick those up in our classbooks."

The LA Times reported that Perry has said "...scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change. Yes, our climate's changed — [it's] been changing ever since the Earth was formed."

Perry said it is not wise to spend billions of dollars on untried programs for an unproven theory: "I don't think, from my perspective, that I want America to be engaged in spending that much money on what is still a scientific theory that hasn't been proven, and from my perspective is more and more being put into question."

While organizations such as the United Nations support global warming schemes for developed nations, adding carbon taxes and carbon restrictions to create a "carbon trading market" that would work the same way today's stock market works, many thousands of traditional climate scientists working in the field, including meteorologists, geophysicists and chemists, have stated unequivocally that "there is no convincing scientific evidence" that human activity is causing or will cause climate change. They state further that "there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects on the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth."

Perry has actively supported alternative energy development: Texas has developed the largest wind-power capacity in the entire United States, and more than most countries. He has worked continually to develop Texas' clean water resources and other essential environmental needs.

Perry said as long ago as 2007 that anthropomorphic global warming has been so politicized as to inhibit rational scientific inquiry: "Virtually every day another scientist leaves the global warming bandwagon. ... But you won't read about that in the press because they have already invested in one side of the story. I'm not saying we shouldn't be good stewards of our environment. We should. I am just saying when politics hijack science, it quells true scientific debate and can have dire consequences for our future."

Perry is willing to maintain a healthy skepticism until all the facts are in.

More importantly, Perry is one of the few candidates who is not willing to "go along with the crowd" in the meantime.

Most importantly of all, Rick Perry is the candidate who will refuse to subject Americans to immediate hardship in the here and now over hypothetical future possibilities.

The age of pretend-calamity is over, because the real calamity is upon us right now.

People need jobs right now, and the predictable governance that will let them build a new future for their families. They are smart enough to figure out for themselves who has a real plan with the right tactics, and who is going to be able to execute that plan to get the job done, and get America working again.

God Bless The Weekend: Saving our Endangered Days Off Together

Those who wish to pretend that Christianity is not the root of all that is best in Western culture, or that America was not founded and formed as a Christian nation forget, or have not understood, that the Holy Sabbath mandated in the 10 Commandments is the only reason workers in the Western world have a day off every week - and workers in countries that never adopted Christianity as a majority faith still cannot expect to be given one day off to have for their own.

For thousands of years in Jewish and Christian societies, everyone - even the poorest, even indentured servants and slaves (before the Christian world - and no other - freed all slaves and set the precedent the rest of the world has not yet caught up with) - even in those times, everyone was entitled to a day off every week.

For centuries, American States had "Blue Laws" that prohibited the sale of certain non-essential merchandise on Sundays. These laws protected businesses from the need to compete for Sunday business, and were thus welcomed by merchants as well as their employees.

The concept of taking Saturday and Sunday together in the weekend as we know it arose in America in various locations where Christians and Jews united to respect both Sabbath and Shabbat. As Jewish immigration increased and the Industrial Revolution led to greater demand for constant labor, America's devout Jewish population needed the same protection for their religious observance. In the tumultuous early days of the 20th century, Jewish leaders joined with labor unions to promote the five-day work week - and the standard weekend - as a uniform practice across industry.

Consistent two-day weekends enabled people of all major American faiths (and those of other religions, and non-believers) to share this time off: Jews as well as Christians, Seventh Day Adventists as well as Baptists, Catholics as well as Mormons. All Americans could perchance meet each other through shared leisure time, and common endeavors for their free hours.

By assuring that the day off was the same for everyone and every class of people, a common culture promoted community, neighborliness, family life and time to rest, relax and enjoy life together.

The American Weekend is endangered: another unnoticed consequence of the persistent drive to de-Christianize the USA.
33 out of every 100 Americans has to work on Saturday or Sunday or both (according to a 2004 study on the detrimental effects of non-traditional work schedules). Those people, and their families, may "not mind" the schedule, but they lose out on the shared family and community leisure time and activities that are much of the joy in life.

If you have ever worked different shifts from that your spouse or friends work, or had to have different days off than the rest of the world, you know how much you miss out on. Not having Saturdays and Sundays off, or at least one of the weekend days, isolates us from everyone we care about.

In today's "not an employee" employment climate, where 40 hour work weeks and paid holidays or paid vacation are more rare than ever before, fewer and fewer can afford to take a day off without pay to make a short trip with their family, camp out overnight, or go to a wedding, or spend the day in the park playing volleyball.

So if you love your weekends, if you are "working for the weekend", and want to keep having Saturday and Sunday to spend with the people you love best, thank the Christian way of life, and thank your company for continuing to adhere to the traditional weekend.

You don't have to be a believer to save the weekend by supporting those businesses who close on Sundays, like McCoy's Building Supply Centers, Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby, and those local businesses in your own town.

If you know of businesses that close on Sundays, feel free to post in the comments.

Part Two: 18th Century Business Women in Publishing: Limited Only By 20th Century Interpretation

We like to recognize "firsts", but so often that's the least interesting part of the story. Mary Katherine Goddard's career is most fascinating to me because it was neither unusual nor controversial in its time. In fact she reflects the ordinariness of a successful business woman in the 18th century, when women published 16 newspapers in the colonies - nearly a quarter of the 78 papers put out each week.

And that is only the women who owned the presses: how many more were employed in all these various shops, as unheralded as the also forgotten men who worked beside them?

Printing was actually a rather common occupation for a woman in the 17th and 18th (and 19th) Centuries. So common that it was little remarked. In 1638, Elizabeth Glover (who later married Harvard's first president) founded the first press in Massachusetts. Her Cambridge Press published the famous "Bay Psalm Book", the first book printed in the colonies.

A publishing dynasty began in 1738 when Elizabeth Timothy took over publication of the South Carolina Gazette as Benjamin Franklin's partner, then left the press to her son who operated it until his death, when he was succeeded by his wife Ann. Cornelia Bradford succeeded her husband as publisher of Philadelphia's American Weekly Mercury in 1742.

Anne Catherine Hoff Green continued the family publishing business in Anapolis after she was widowed in 1767, and became the official printer for the Maryland General Assembly in her own name. Her business was later renamed "Anne Catherine Green & Son, Printers", but she retained control of the reins and they worked for her. Two of her sons and her granson followed her in earning their livelihood as printers.

Following her husband's death in 1773, Clementina Rind ran the Williamsburg Virginia Gazette and was named official printer of Virginia.

Again and again we hear feminists say these women "don't count" because they were only in business by default through their husbands or fathers. They are excluded from lists of Firsts and from lists of accomplished women.

These stories do not show what they are assumed to by people who fail to understand the substance of legal marriage in a predominently Christian or Jewish society as a full joining of male and female into a single social and economic entity as well as a spiritual and physical one. In older days, widows were frequently elected to political positions, including Governor, in
their own right, by a citizenry that fundamentally credited women as full partners in all the achievements of the marriage, recognizing either party's success as stemming from a united purpose.

Is that an old fashioned way of looking at things?

Strangely, even this common occurance in our earlier history of electing women as Governors is poo-poo'ed. Texas tied with Wyoming, both electing women as governors on 1924 - the same year than New Mexico's Hispanic Woman Secretary of State served as interim governor of New Mexico.

These stories are ignored, discounted, and actively hidden by agenda-driven feminists and progressive writers & academics, playing with semantics. One wonders why they refuse to admit to those early accomplishments, and even more why they dually ignore similar husband/wife mutual interests today.

Why? It does not lessen any person's own accomplishment to admit that others have also achieved a position. It does not make the one greater to ignore history and accuracy in reporting.

Did anyone blink when Kimora Lee Simmons took over as CEO of Phat after her ex-husband & company founder Russell Simmons stepped aside? Do people say her achievements "don't count" because her husband started the business or because they ran it as partners? No? Of course not - it would be outrageous to apply that logic. It is just as outrageous to discount the talent and earned prominence of other wives in earlier eras.

Consider how the legacy of Mrs. Coretta Scott King was her own yet inextricably joined with that of her husband, Dr Martin Luther King.

Or the appointment of Missouri First Lady Jean Caranhan, widow of Governor Mel Carnahan, to the US Senate in 2001 in the place of her husband who had passed away during the campaign for Senator and been elected postumously. Had Hilary Clinton been more focused on winning the nomination and less intent on proving she was not running as Bill's wife, she'd be our President today.

Margaret Chase Smith still holds the record as the longest serving, most successful female US senator - and she was originally elected as the widow of the Congressman upon his death.

Does anyone discount the achievements (or controversies) of Indira Gandhi because she succeeded her father Jarawalal Nehru as Prime Minister of India? Or claim that Benazir Bhutto was twice elected Prime Minister of Pakistan only because her father had held the office before her?

Just so, these women in Colonial times were not mere tokens thrown by chance tragedy into business, struggling ineffectually against an adversarial society. Far from it. The original sources show they were accepted without question and with full confidence in their capacity to run a profitable business and meet the exacting needs of their clients.




Photo: From an 1865 issue of Harper's Weekly "The Magazine of Civilization", image of workers (both women and men) in a large commercial printing operation.

Other articles in the theme:

Read Part 1 - 18th Century Equal Opportunity & Success: Some Women Printers in Colonial America

Read - Working Women in Earlier America: Not so Uncommon After All

18th Century Equal Opportunity & Success: Some Women Printers in Colonial America

In honor of Benjamin Franklin's birthday (coming up on the 17th), here's a bit of history about some of the people who moved in his circles during those Colonial times leading up to the American Revolution.

Letterpress Printers think of Ben Franklin first as a printer - Poor Richard's Almanac set out proverbs that are still quoted today, and Franklin himself described his occupation foremost as "Printer". Postal employees think of Ben as First Postmaster General of the US. In the process of talking or writing about the great man, it's easy to overlook that other people in those days combined the Printer/Postmaster occupations with distinction, including several members of the Goddard family of New London, Connecticut.

Here again, printers like to talk about Sarah Updike Goddard, her daughter Mary Katherine Goddard, and her son William Goddard, as printers in the young Republic, while the USPS recognizes William Goddard and his sister Mary Katherine as significant figures in US Postal History. It is interesting to read the different slants that appear from the different perspectives.

Thus, it is Mary Katherine Goddard (1738-1816) Postmaster of Baltimore, who is first held up by printers as a heroine, whose early edition of the Declaration of Independence was commissioned by the Continental Congress as a definitive version of the document. At the time it was common for Printers/Publishers to take up the role of Postmaster to expand their circulation while reducing their costs and preventing competitors from gaining advantage.

Mary Katherine was following in her father's - and her mother's - and her brother's - footsteps. Giles Goddard was Postmaster of New London Connecticut until his early death, and his wife Sarah Updike Goddard probably took over in his place as one of the early Postmasters during the Colonial period (when everyone was "one of the early" from a historical standpoint) under Crown rule. Together with Sarah's son - Mary's brother - constitutional activist William Goddard, the family operated a publishing, printing and distribution business that figured prominently in early American History.

It was a family business that perfectly utilized the talents of the partners: Sarah as financier and Publisher, William as the charismatic promoter and advance man, Mary as printer and eventually as General Manager.

Sarah Updike Goddard's main work was in Providence, Rhode Island, where she published the Providence Gazette. The family had multiple connections to Ben Franklin, and we see the first here, when Sarah took on Ben's former apprentice John Carter as a partner. She operated the print shop until 1768, when she sold it to John Carter and moved to Philadelphia. There she joined William and Mary Katherine in building up another printing business. Sarah Updike Goddard died in 1770, at the age of 70.

William was a patriot, committed to the cause of liberty, who established a series of pro-independence media concerns: newspapers in Philadelphia and Baltimore, print shops, and, significantly, founded the "Constitutional Post", a mail collection and distribution network to give the colonies safe and private means of communication outside the official channel of the Royal
Post. When independence was declared, Goddard's Constitutional Post became the framework for the United States Post Office. Unfortunately, it was summarily co-opted by the fledgling government without compensation.

Mary Katherine Goddard was the first woman officially appointed Postmaster by Congress after independence was declared. Often labeled "First woman Postmaster in the country", she was not, nor was she the first or only woman serving as official printer to government. She became Postmaster in Baltimore in 1775 and was the only woman Postmaster we know of holding office at the time the colonies transitioned into the United States. She served until 1789.

(I say "that we know of", for early Postal records do not list the gender of the employee, so information prior to the mid 19th century cannot be conclusive. As with printing, Postmaster was also a job so frequently held by women at this early time as to be unremarkable (and thus not mentioned as an oddity in any accounts). Further, however precise record keeping may have been at the time, much is likely to have been lost. For instance, the town I live in got its first Postmaster in 1875. The official list of Postmasters for the town is fairly complete for early years but has question marks for names from 1973 through 1981, and even has gaps within the past 10 years. )

In 1784 when the siblings each published a competing Almanac, Mary Katherine had a falling out with William, after which they parted ways, with him taking over the publishing business while she retained the book business.

She filed no less than five lawsuits against him.

When replaced as Postmaster in 1789 due to a reorgnization of the department that required a traveling Postmaster for the Baltimore region, she complained all the way up to President Washington and the Senate.

Despite petitions from a couple hundred local customers, the needs of the rapidly expanding city for an more robust postal organization were more compelling. Mary Katherine remained in Maryland and continued her book business, although now she had to pay postage when she mailed them.

Goddard was successful in her enterprises, amassing assets of cash, property, books, printing equipment. She also invested in slaves, owning as many as four men and women during one census, and at least one woman at the time of her death in 1816 whom she freed in her will. Unmarried and without her own children as heirs, Goddard disinherited her relations and left the woman, whose name was Belinda Starling, her entire estate as well as release from
bondage.

One wonders why these people didn't free their slaves and bondservants while they were still living. We can only surmise that they approached this as a kind of "estate planning" much like some today who create elaborate wills and oppose estate taxes on the wealth they leave behind, rather than dividing with their heirs during their lifetime. It is a chilling thought, and one worth pondering.

Mary Katherine Goddard died in 1816, at the age of 78. William died the following year, aged 77.

(Have you ever noticed just how many of the people we read about from hundreds of years ago lived as long as we do, despite not having blood pressure meds and Ensure? While life expectancy has risen over the years, not a single millisecond of time has been added to human life span. That's a topic for another time.)

Click here to go to Part Two of this article: 18th Century Business Women: Limited Only By 20th Century Interpretation


(Photo: Illustration in "A Concise History of Printing" published in 1770, that pictures a press similar to that which these printers would have used. This is one of the oldest books in my library. The quality of the paper is such that it remains strong and flexible today. )