Margaret Shepherd, artist, calligrapher, author

Being essentially uncivilized myself, is anyone surprised that I hadn’t heard of her before now? Writing thank you notes fills me with dread and anxiety. I can count the number of personal letters I’ve written in my life on one hand easily. Complaint letters are my forte, but I’ve stopped writing them too.

I have been on the receiving end of notes and letters that thrill me when I picked them out of the mailbox, so that makes my not returning that joy even more egregious. I’m a bit ashamed of myself right now. Blogging and short emails make up for this not one bit.

Margaret Shepherd’s Amazon Page. You can view more of her calligraphy art (bigger images) at Neatorama. I’m especially fond of what I think of as the “childbirth series” at the bottom of that page. I found this artist thanks to a civilized man who writes The Fire Ant Gazette.

Well… since then, Jim at My Bossier opened my eyes to how it could be worse. But much funnier. Literally.

What will my grandchildren hear? Chances are it will pretty close to the same thing I heard and their parents heard. Both the complaints and the music will likely have this sameness in common.

Though the video below is fairly constrained on an historical time scale, there’s bait in there for several decades. I have to admit, I’m not familiar with a lot of the artists… but doesn’t all the music sound familiar and familial?

Because a lot of people my age grew up hearing more of the old, out of tune upright pianos prominently featuring chipped ivories and a funky smell… than we did well-made, well-cared for, and thus rare, older pianos, it’s easy to understand why we preferred the new.

The story is about the Frederick Historic Piano Collection – 24 pianos made from 1790 to 1928. They are housed in a small Victorian library building in Ashburnham MA and they are featured in a yearly concert series. Hearing one of those concerts and seeing the pianos is one of the most appealing reasons I can think of to visit Massachusetts.

There are several clips in the article comparing compositions by Beethoven, Brahms, and Debussy played on a Steinway to them played on pianos the composers might have actually used. I checked YouTube for more recordings by the pianists playing the old instruments, but didn’t find any. That’s a void begging to be filled.

Fascinating… and somewhat of an indictment of standardization. Heed this, autotune.

I thought the following was seriously stupid, considering the age of the earth:

One scientist, however, says that relative to the time period from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, Earth has been more active over the past 15 years or so. 

Even if that “one scientist” is a YEC, that’s some extrapolation extraordinaire.

Even though I’m not a geologist, my BS detector pegged on that one. At least one geologist, Erik Klemetti, apparently agrees – calling this type of headline “irresponsible, reprehensible “journalism” that the worst hacks should be ashamed to print.”

And I certainly agree with Mr. Klemetti’s final point:

The point here is that the Earth is an active place – and we have very short experience with seeing events on a global scale. Reckless speculation the likes of which MSNBC (and LiveScience) partook in should be a warning of how the media still has a long way to come when it comes to reporting the facts rather than the hysteria of the natural world.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This is the first time I’ve ever watched an entire Olbermann segment. I am left disgusted and angry. Oh yes, I feel sorry for his father, but I can’t quite summon up much sympathy for someone who would use an ill family member in such a self-aggrandizing and self-serving way.

Were this not on national TV, the “it’s all about me and what I want” attitude displayed would still be disgusting.

It’s been said that Sarah Palin uses Trig gain publicity and make political points. And I agree that she may. It’s a fine line she must walk where Trig’s dignity is concerned and sometimes she stumbles. I generally disagree with using ill and disabled people as symbols when they are not capable of giving their consent to be so used.

There are some real tear-jerker medical stories in my family. I’m sure I could increase traffic here by magnitudes if I wrote about them, especially in an overtly emotional way. Most of them could easily be tied to political and policy viewpoints.

Why do I not do that? First, I consider it an invasion of privacy. One of those subjects has given me explicit permission to write about his/her case in any way I see fit. Someday I may tell the story. But I will NOT tell it in order to support a political viewpoint.

If my political viewpoints cannot stand without being propped up by personal and emotional displays of illness and misfortune, are they truly worthy of support at all?

Where legislation that affects the lives of every person in the U.S., one individual’s misfortune cannot be allowed to sway the legislation one way or another. At best, it will only result in a different misfortune befalling another individual. At its worst, it results in the range of choices being narrowed for the entire nation.

There are many aspects of health care delivery in the U.S. that need reform. But, if we are to do it in a way that does not result in additional reform next year… and the year after that, we need to first look at how we got where we are now, as well as insure the possibility of future progress.

I don’t see that happening anywhere in the “debate” or “conversation” about healthcare.

It’s just a darned good story and it pushes all my “I want to read that” buttons – lively characters, science, mystery, public policy and politics, genealogy, plus a few I’ve probably not yet identified.

When you finish a book with a feeling you know some of the characters, and wishing you could visit further with them, you know it’s been worth your time. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s just that good.

What’s up Google? Maybe I should just uninstall Chrome. I have trouble with YouTube with it sometimes too.

Father and Mother and Uncle John…: Tribalism and a Place at the Table