Work With Hope

Today I attended a funeral of a truly wonderful person. Ruth Parsons was the administrative assistant (she would have preferred secretary) for the principal of Mater Dei High School for more than 40 years. She was there when I started as a teacher and still at the same desk when I became assistant principal. I can’t count the number of times that she saved my bacon in that first year when I came to her for help when I didn’t know how to do something, or when I messed up. She was always calm, reassuring, and never told anyone that she helped me.

However, I’m not writing today primarily about how wonderful she was. Instead I wanted to talk about one of her talents, a talent that set her apart from any assistant that ever worked for me and virtually anyone working as an assistant today. Ruth was fluent in shorthand.

The administrative board of Mater Dei met every Tuesday morning to discuss all aspects of school operations. These meetings usually ran for 3-4 hours covering a wide range of topics and people. Through the entire meeting, Ruth sat in her usual place, taking notes in shorthand on a steno pad, a language that was completely incomprehensible to anyone else in the room. However, within a day or two, we received typed minutes capturing the facts and details of every conversation.

Shorthand used to be taught in every business college and every high school business course. At one time it was considered to be an essential skill of the secretary. From taking notes from meetings to taking dictation for letters, the steno pad and shorthand were the computer of their day. I remember my mom had a shorthand book on her bookshelf, and I was interested in it primarily because it was the Gregg Method of Shorthand.

It’s easy to attribute the decline of shorthand to the digital age, but it was going before the technology to replace it was invented. Other note taking methods were invented and taught and dictation was lost as an art both by dictator and recorder. I could no more dictate a coherent letter than, well take shorthand. Shorthand became a dying skill and a dying language. If one were to find Ruth’s pads from those meetings in the 90s, it is unlikely that anyone could be found to translate them (and if someone were found…please don’t translate them and show how stupid I was in those first years).

We lost Ruth a few weeks ago, but we lost shorthand well before that. The word still exists, often used in phrases like “BLANK is shorthand for…” but does anyone using this expression know that they are paying tribute to a dead language. It was an amazing skill, a skill that still can not be adequately replicated by technology.

God bless you Ruth, and God, if you need to dictate a letter….

As always I welcome your comments.

Image: “Away in a Manger” recorded in shorthand. https://www.long-live-pitmans-shorthand-reading.org.uk/gen-christmas-carols/160304-C02-AwayInAManger-long-live-pitmans-shorthand-reading.jpg

One Christmas tradition that always makes me feel close to my mom is baking Christmas cookies. Mom loved Christmas, and there were things that always had to be done to do Christmas right. One of these was baking cookies. Early on we kids were invited into the process of decorating, mixing the dough, and eventually even making our own.

As I became an adult, this cookie making stuck with me, and cond Thanksgiving weekend every year I know that it’s time to break out the mixing bowls and pans. It’s Christmas time and you make cookies, from scratch…no mixes or (shudder) Pillsbury dough sticks. You make cookies, and the number you bake is a comment on how well you did (I will never forget the year Mom made 100 dozen). You make cookies, and you give them away.

Although I have experimented with various recipes, over time two have become my staples. No matter what I may try, mince pies, m&m cookies, haystack cookies, I always make these two.

The first are called Sour Cream cookies. I found the recipe in a book of cookie recipes I had a long time ago. It’s a very basic drop cookie with sour cream mixed in to the dough to temper the sweetness and give the cookie a light chewiness. Some people call them snickerdoodles because they are topped with cinnamon sugar, but they aren’t exactly the same. People who love these cookies can’t get enough. This year my daughter is not coming home for Christmas, and the one thing she asked was the recipe for the sour cream cookies.

The other is a recipe that cane from my mom. In my family we always called them Magic Cookies, though later in life I have heard them referred to as Hello Dollies, which I love. These are bar cookies with a graham cracker crust and chocolate chips, walnuts, and coconut, all topped with condensed milk. It’s an incredibly easy recipe, especially relative to how wonderful the cookies end up tasting.

One interesting thing to me is that everyone in my family and to whom I have gifted cookies liked one more than the other. There are sour cream cookie people and magic cookie people and usually there is no way to predict who is who. The light sweetness of one or the much richer darker taste of the other, everyone has a preference.

Luckily there are lots of cookies to go around, so if you want to test, just come on by.

Thanks mom for giving me the gift of cookie making and the secret that baking cookies opens the holidays even more than eating cookies does.

Image: take your pick.

During the past week, I remodeled the digital architecture of my apartment. These two additions, while not wildly ground breaking, represent changes to the ways I interact with technology and with media in general.

Last week I received two “smart plugs,” networked plugs that can be switched on and off directly or through an app on my phone. They can also be programmed to a schedule or switched from wherever I may be. I have been fascinated by smart devices in the home for some time. Some readers will remember my discussion of the Nest thermostat a couple of years ago. I love the idea of controlling resources through my fingers on my phone, or even by my voice with my Amazon Echo.

I used the plugs first to assist my Christmas illuminations. I set one plug to run the outdoor lights. These I put on a schedule similar to what I did with bulky timers in the past. The other plug runs the lights in the tree and the lighted garland around my living room. This plug I control through my voice, asking Alexa to turn on and off the lights. I even programmed a routine that when I say “Alexa Christmas” the lights come on and “The Christmas Song plays on the living room speaker. I have noticed that this voice control has made me more likely to turn on (and enjoy) the tree nightly. I wonder what I could have done with smart plugs and the large displays I used to set up at the house!

The other change is one on which I am actually a bit behind the curve. I have gradually been paring back my cable TV channels until I have had only the most basic stations. The only reason I have kept live TV at all is for sports. Recently I have discovered YouTube TV, a digital service providing all of the channels I needed for a fraction of the cost of the cable channels. Soon what little TV I watched was coming completely from this service and cable TV was no longer needed. My remaining tie to the cable company was for WiFi service. Cable companies, seeing a growing number of customers such as I, have been steadily raising the costs of WiFi bandwidth and limiting this service.

Into this realm came a new competitor. My apartment complex has been wired for Google Fiber, high speed, unlimited WiFi for a significantly lower cost. While I am no blind supporter of Google products, I am a supporter of competition. Until the Google option was available, the cable company had a stranglehold on my apartment complex.

I have the same media available to me as always, but I’m paying less, and I can pick and choose how I put the parts together.

As much as any practical purpose, I love to play with these devices to see what I can and can’t do. Different ways to interact with devices and with media are going to be significant in the lives of generations to come. It’s exciting to get a glimpse of it now.

Alexa, turn off Christmas lights!

Image: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcTUqUJH9tSulYvJ9jU4grq5jrgFkiQZ7bHepBFdsahIMvgwP7i9

Today I want to examine another change to Christmas traditions that arrived this year. Amazon announced that customers could order live (well, technically dying, but whatever) Christmas trees delivered to their homes directly. Apparently Amazon contracts with local nurseries to arrange to have fresh cut trees delivered to your home…Amazon Prime members don’t have to pay for shipping.

Of course you have been able to have an artificial tree delivered by Amazon for many years. I have purchased ornaments, Christmas cards, and countless gifts from Amazon, so the concept of Amazon as a Christmas source is nothing new. It also isn’t completely new to purchase a fresh cut tree unseen. I remember seeing fund raisers where you would pick your tree by type and size weeks before and pick it up near the holiday. However, like many changes in the digital world, this struck me, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

I’m definitely of two minds about this. On one hand, I am nervous about any further invasion of American life by Amazon. I also immediately grew nostalgic for the “Christmas Story” trips to the tree lot, sizing up the tree with the whole family and making a collective decision on which the success of the whole holiday seemed to rest. I also wondered about the lots run by churches and other charities, and I grew resentful of the latter day George Baileys being muscled out by Potters all over again.

On the other hand, perhaps I am blinded by nostalgia colored lenses.  My experience of buying a Christmas tree for the past few years has been much less holly and jolly.  I run across the street to the Home Depot (the Potters whose lower prices knocked out the Baileys in my world a long time ago) and select a tree as quickly as I can.  I wait in line for a fresh cut of the trunk, and then I rush it home.  Though I have had some trees that were nicer shaped than others, once lights and ornaments are on, I can’t really tell the difference.  What part of this experience would I lose having a tree delivered?

My friend David feels much more strongly that the selection of a tree is an essential part of Christmas, and I suppose that what you attach importance to becomes important.  I suspect there will be enough “choosers” to keep the Christmas tree lots in business for the rest of my lifetime.  But next year I might consider a “tree in a box.”

How about you?

Image: My Christmas tree 2018

This morning I spent a couple of hours creating an Excel spreadsheet of the names and addresses of Superintendents from the nearly 200 Catholic dioceses and archdioceses across the country. It was a tedious job, especially since I am a terrible typist, and copying from the list was challenging. But the chief difficulty was copying the email protocol for each individual diocese.

For the name I had to figure out whether it was first initial, last name; last name, first initial; first name.last name; first name-last name; or what other possible combinations they could find. Priests and Sisters make it even more complicated, as some addresses use just the name while others use the title.

But the name part of the address is nothing compared to the address itself. Here is an abbreviated list of methods used:

• @ADOM.org (Archdiocese of Miami)
• @ArchDen.org (Archdiocese of Denver)
• @rrchawaii.org (Diocese of Honolulu
• @archchicago.org
• @diobrooklyn.org
• @dioceseoftrenton.org

There are many more variations, but you get the point. There are even a couple of dioceses with .net or .com address! If I were to write an email to any diocese in the country, there is no way I could address it without a directory.

The maddening thing is that all of these emails are sent to dioceses in one church. There is no uniformity of protocol, as each diocese developed its own domain independently, and probably at different times. The USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) meets regularly and makes decisions about issues facing the national church, but there was never discussion or decision about how dioceses would identify themselves in the digital age.

Now, among the problems faced by the Church, I’m sure most would feel that this is relatively minor. Likewise given the age and background of most Bishops, it is somewhat surprising that they use email at all.

However, picture if every church building had a street address in a different form from all the others. The chaos this would cause would be obvious. And this chaos would point to a fundamental disorganization of the institution. In the digital age, the domain name is the storefront of every institution.

I understand that schools have to vary their domain names because there are so many schools with the same name. However, with the exception of the Dioceses of Portland ME and OR, and a couple of other specific cases, every diocese in the country has a unique name, and a unique protocol could have been developed.

There really is nothing that can be done at this point. A domain is so intertwined within the web that a change would be more difficulty than its worth. I’m also sure that other companies had similar problems. However, this illustrates the difficulty for large institutions to anticipate a change as it is occurring.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pinterest.com/amp/pin/350225308496495414/

I’m planning on sending my Christmas cards this weekend. I haven’t bought them yet, but I’m certain they will be generally charming with a side of inspiration.

The Victorians had a slightly different approach to holiday greetings, and I always like to look at some of their cards for a different type of inspiration.

This year’s entry might be called “Captured by the Spirit if Christmas.” This merry tableau captures the reason for the season with a jolly gentleman spending his Yuletide all snug in his stocks.

The Christmas theme is clear, however. The stocks has “Happy Christmas” roughly carved below the celebrant’s gaze. Perhaps he can read it upside down as he sings carols.

To complete the joyful scene, a jester, probably representing the spirit of Christmas, places a plum pudding before his guest so that he can fully enjoy the sight of Christmas magic.

God bless us, every one.

When I was telling my friend and fellow blogger Andrea about my yearly Advent Blogging journey, she suggested that we try writing and publishing on the same topics once a week. We determined that we would agree on a title and nothing else, and neither of us would read the other’s posting until after we were done and posted.

Andrea’s post can be found at http://adkopp76.blogspot.com/2018/11/people-watching.html

Topic 1: People Watching

EOTS Journal, Day 1:

Its invariable, she always puts me on the bedroom shelf on the first day. It’s almost as if she read the box and felt this was the extent of direction for the entire operation. I slide behind the (empty) bank and book (apparently the caterpillar is still hungry) and begin my holiday surveillance.

Subject 1 and Subject 2 enter the room, significant growth from previous years. The elder one is probably near 10 by now and there and a knowing look in her eyes. I know she sees me with her side-eyed glances…how can she not, since I’ve been “hidden” in the same place on this date for the last 4 years?…but she’s cagey. She knows that to despoil the mystery is to close a door for her sister, and even one she is not completely comfortable with herself. “Hmmm I wonder where he is? I hope he can see how nice we are being to each other, dear sister!” Oh Brother!

The first day is usually consumed with noting differences. The bedroom decor has changed, probably reflecting the growth of the elder subject. The goldfish bowl is no longer on the desk and I suspect that Pearly has gone to her sewerly reward. Same bedspread and teddy bear on the younger’s bed. More toys. Lord! Is that a dog? I hope she doesn’t put me in any reachable perches or I may end up in a shallow grave. Music playing in the other room, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”??? Don’t they read blogs?

In a lifetime of watching people from the periphery, one is not overwhelmed by the excitement or the drama of life observed. Rather, I am struck by the banality of it all. I observe and record petty arguments, and tiny gestures of generosity; frowns and smiles; white lies and painful truths. The kids are all right; the tally seldom totals much in either column. I watch, my tiny pencil poised to capture major infractions, identity theft, hard core drug use, insurance fraud, but I’m instead confronted with not putting toys away and hurt feelings. Like a homicide cop handing out parking tickets, my skills are not being well used.

When I’m put away for the night, or during my long wait from January to December, I think about the very pointlessness of my existence. Observing children aged 4-10 (at least that’s what it says on the box) is never going to bring hardened criminals to justice, never going to make a more peaceful society. In my darker moments I even wonder if this whole this is a made-up tradition designed primarily to sell merchandise.

It’s like Schopenhauer said….CRAP, the younger one saw me! That’s it for the day

One down, twenty three to go.

Folks, we were lied to.

The mainstream media has promoted a narrow-minded idea, and like sheep we have followed, never questioning whether there might be other equally valid or even better options. As a result for generations we have lived a grayscale existence, blinded by groupthink from the vibrant pallet that has been within our grasp.

I am talking, of course, about apples.

When I was growing up and though much of my adult life, the word apple meant one thing, Red Delicious. Red Delicious apples made up the bulk of apple sales in this country, and the bulk of apples eaten. The name says it all.

However, the reality was that these apples were seldom truly delicious. Most of the time they were mealy and tasteless. Once in a great while, you would bite into a Red Delicious that was crisp with a refreshing balance of sweet and tart, but most of the time, you bit into a mouthful of meh.

There were other apples. The second leading apple was the Granny Smith. These “little green apples” were usually crisp, but the tart usually overwhelmed any sweetness. Other varieties were displayed in the store, but with nowhere near the prominence of Big Red Delicious.

My daily school lunch from kindergarten to the time when mom decided were we’re old enough to make our own was a baloney sandwich (peanut butter on Fridays) and a Red Delicious apple, so I have eaten literally hundreds of these apples.

Then in the last few years, some of the backup apples have been called from the bench and entered the game. Exotic names like Fuji, Jazz, Gala, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp all sprang to the front of the produce section. And as we broke a lifetime routine of bagging up half a dozen RDs, we discovered something.

These apples taste amazing! They didn’t just taste sweet and tart, they have distinct flavors all their own. They weren’t just a mundane exercise for the teeth, they were explosions on the tastebuds!

2018 is the first year that Red Delicious is not the top selling apple, ceding the top spot to Gala Apples, but many of these “boutique” apples also showed increases. The Red Delicious displays in stores are being reduced as the Red Delicious monolith has been toppled by the power of choice.

Eve ate of the fruit, and she gave some to Adam who also ate. And when the Lord discovered that both had eaten of the apple, he said, “Because you have eaten of the fruit of this tree, you shall be cursed with Red Delicious Apples.”

As always. I invite your comments.

Image: http://maximumedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/apple-bite.png/general-content/general/have-you-done-your-studies/attachment/apple-bite/

I have traveled as part of my work for several years, but it wasn’t until 2018 that I travelled for a living. My work has taken me away from home for trips of varying length at an average of three times a month and about 70 nights of the year. As I waited for my flight today to bring me home for the rest of the calendar year, I jotted down some of the things I have learned from this nomadic lifestyle.

Here are a couple of my thoughts in no particular order:

• No matter how organized I am, having a place for every bit of clothing and equipment, something will be forgotten and I will have to improvise (or drive to a Target in the middle of downtown Baltimore late at night to purchase ties). Also, despite highly systematized organization, something will be left behind. I have lost a pair of glasses, a mouse, a car mobile phone holder, and countless charging cords and plugs. It helps to learn detachment from material things.
• Not all rental cars are made equally, and an uncomfortable ride can make for a miserable trip. Also it has been an ongoing challenge to figure out how to sync my phone with the car’s sound system, and I once had to take the vehicle manual from the glove compartment to find out where the release for the gas cap was. A heated seat and heated steering wheel is a luxury beyond all price (of course my feeling about that may have been influenced by 6° temperature in Gallup this morning).
• You can get a ticket if you go 95 down Interstate 40 (to be honest, I think I was going 100). Luckily I was on Native American Territory, so my fine went to the tribe and no report went to my insurance company.
• TSA Precheck is worth EVERY penny. Same is true for the United Club. Little conveniences and comforts along the way go a long way to preserving sanity. Plus there are always free plugs in the United Club, and maintaining power in devices while crossing the country is an art and a science.
• After a while all hotel rooms feel the same. When I traveled infrequently, I would wake up wondering where I was. Now I more or less expect to wake up in a hotel. The free breakfasts at Fairfields etc, are consistently bad, but I always eat them. A waffle is always worth the time. In Holiday Inn Express, they have a magic pancake machine where you push a button and freshly cooked pancakes come out the other side…worth the price of admission.
• There are almost always people who are willing to help if asked (this might be my white male privilege speaking).
• No matter what challenge is thrown my way (from being stuck in a logjam of delays to having my rental car stuck in mud on the Zuni reservation), if I take a breath and roll with the punches, I can get through anything

I am going to savor these next few weeks of being at home and then Come January 7 (brrrr). I will be on the road again. It is harder than I thought it would be, but I’m tougher and more resilient than I thought I would be.

I welcome your comments.

Image: This is my current status on Marriott (less the night I just spent yesterday). What does this status get me? Two bottles of water when I arrive!!!  I was impressed with myself, but my boss has lifetime platinum status thanks to over 600 nights total!  That’s 2 years in a Marriott, folks.  

I’ve been in New Mexico for the past few days. It is always breathtakingly beautiful here, but these days have been wonderful. It’s very cold (0° at night) and I’m nervous driving some of the roads. Luckily the snow has held off while I’m here. The earth is an amazingly beautiful place; I’m going to miss it when I’m gone.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Images all taken by me