What Do You Do When the Ilegal is a Child?

I seldom write on political issues because I think everyone is entitled to his/her opinions.  In our politically polarized society, civil discourse is, sadly, a lost art.  The concept of the loyal and honorable opposition no long exists, and if you find yourself on the opposite side of an issue from a friend, at the end of any political discussion that friendship may be a casualty.  All of that said, I'm writing about the crisis of unaccompanied, illegal, alien children coming across the Southwestern borders of the United States.  Everyone in the world has weighed in on this mess, so since I've been thinking about it, I decided to risk offending my readership with my opinions.

First, let's talk about the facts.  The US Naturalization and Immigration Agency along with Homeland Security projects between 60,000 and 90,000 illegal, alien children will arrive at the borders this year. Those numbers more than double the children who arrived at the borders last year.    This year 57,000 of these children have already arrived illegally at the borders, mainly in Texas and Arizona.  The majority of the 57,000 are unaccompanied and from the three poorest and most violent countries in Central America:  El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

This huge influx of illegal immigrants has backed up the legal system for dealing with people caught trying to immigrate to the US illegally.  This back-up is particularly difficult since these are children languishing in packed detention centers awaiting the legal hearing they are entitled to as provided in a 2008 immigration law.  Basically, the system is overwhelmed.  The citizens of the towns and counties, which will become the instant home of any of these children granted asylum, are up in arms.  They remember much too clearly how their social services, health care systems, and schools systems were overwhelmed during the height of illegal immigration in the 1990's.  And, if that isn't enough, every Tom, Dick and Harry along with the Pope have weighed in with inflammatory, polarized, invective.  I've been reading both sides, and the one thing in common is the objectification of these children.  By objectification, I mean that both sides are writing, talking and acting as if these kids are just the great, unwashed, unwanted, problem whose primary function is to thrust the immigration issue to the forefront of the American public.

Here's what I think they are:  Individual kids whose desperate parents were willing to entrust each of them to some of the sleaziest people on this earth (coyotes), paying these sleazeballs with money they can ill afford in a last ditch effort to let their child escape a no hope, violent situation.  I was immediately struck by the parallel of the European Jews trying to find ways for their children to escape Nazi Germany in the late 1930's.  The endless, and rapid discussion of misguided thinking on the part of the Central American parents attempting to get their children to the USA by any means thinking it assures them a better life is just a blame game and a further way to turn kids into dirty, smelly objects.  On the other hand, the bleeding hearts who would instantly wave a wand and grant asylum to each and every child don't really care what happens to them as long as they don't have to look at them in detention anymore.

What we really have here are frightened kids.  They most likely can't speak English, and many won't be able to read even in Spanish.  The food being given is different and upsetting.  Nothing is familiar and they are very unsure and oh, let's say, 'acting out'.  I'm sure most of them cry quite a bit for their mothers.  They are wearing torn and tattered clothing and shoes.  And some of these kids are sick from the minor to the serious.  They don't know what is going to happen not only from day to day but also from hour to hour.  Imagine your 10 year old facing that.

I know what I think should happen legally to these kids, and I'm sure you have your opinion too.   However, one thing I'm very clear on is out rich, religious (how we describe OURSELVES) country needs to step up and alleviate a situation where kids are scared, sick, and needy.  We can sort out the legality issues later when no one is crying.

If you are a member of a Methodist Church, there are relief efforts you can support both in goods and donations.  If your not a member of a church and want to help, just call a church and they will direct you.  While the Methodists don't have an exclusive on providing help,  UMCOR, the relief arm of the Methodist Church, has a long and honorable history of providing relief during disasters.

If you are one of my readers, and a member of St. Paul UMC, the Mary Martha Classroom is just awaiting your contribution:  All you have to do is walk your new items into their classroom.  They'll do the delivery for you.  If you haven't seen the list, here it is:

Women -

Cotton Underwear sizes 5 and under

Hygiene Products (sanitary napkins, no tampons)

Pants - Women’s small sizes

Tennis Shoes - Women’s sizes 6, 6.5 & 7

Children -

Baby Toiletries (infant to toddler)

Blankets

Cotton Underwear for Children

Disposable diapers & wipes

Nido Baby Formula/Powered Milk

Tennis Shoes Children’s sizes 2-12

Other Items -

Easy open juices

Easy open snacks

Reading Glasses

Rebozos (baby sling/wraps)

Small Backpacks

Small towels

Trash Bags

Watches

Central Texas Conference churches are invited to collect these items and deliver them to Ridglea UMC on July 23 between 3:00pm - 7:00 pm.

                                                  Ridglea UMC

                                                  6036 Locke Avenue

                                                  Fort Worth, TX 76116

History of the Computer - the museum

We keep going places, and I keep trying to get caught up in writing about them.  (Actually, I have a little case of writer's block.) The most interesting destination this month (so far) is the Computer History Museum.  It's located south of San Francisco smack dab in the middle of Silicon Valley close to the Google campus.  It was a surprise to me Google headquarters isn't a building, it's several buildings in a campus like setting.  We also passed the Facebook headquarters.  I laughed as we drove by since the Facebook address is:  "One Hacker Way".  Really.

Marker 'posts' 

The Computer History Museum is in a Bauhaus style modern building of curved glass.  It's the only museum I've ever been to where the exhibits are in numbered sections.  The curators did everything except paint a dotted line on the floor for the patrons to walk on.  Naturally, the museum is laid out chronologically.  "Computing" originally meant arithmetic as it related to buying and selling goods as well as building and ocean navigation.  Gradually it came to include scientific application particularly in astronomy.  The abacus was woefully inadequate in handling complex math which required intensive and extensive arithmetic and mathematics.  The following picture shows a promotional product which I thought was hilarious.  Most people don't remember that the electronic calculator is only about 40 years old, and it was the basis of Hewlett Packard.  In 1970 HP offered a $395 hand held electronic calculator based on the Texas Instruments transistor.  It could perform scientific functions. By 1980 anybody could buy a hand held calculator for $10.

  I was fascinated by this museum on lots of levels.  First, it helped me understand that the Electronic Revolution (or whatever it winds up being called in 50 years).  It has had many of the same societal impacts as the Industrial Revolution.  There's been the same rapid pace of change, the seemingly inexhaustible number of new inventions,  new products and applications as a result of research and development.  Electronics has transformed the economic base of  every society around the world with winners and losers inside each economy.  To illustrate - the first computers arose out of the universities and were used for scientific purposes of calculation.  Governmental research and development centered on national defense and missile guidance.  Business and personal usage followed behind both of these.

Early computers were powered by thousands of vacuum tubes linked with miles of wire.  The most famous of these early ones is Eniac, but the Johnniac (same era) was more fun to see.

The Johnniac

It's hard to imagine computers the size of rooms which generated so much heat they had to be placed on elevated floors so air could circulate underneath, and in sealed rooms to eliminate contamination from dust and smoke and whatever.  The 1957 "Desk Set" movie's version of a computer wasn't too far off the mark.  For those of you who have never seen a vacuum tube, this is what they look like up close.  The Eniac and the Johnniac were scientific computers with memories of 1024 words.  (One character = 8 bytes.)

vacuum tubes connected with wires

You fed information you wanted the machine to calculate via punch cards which was the program. Punch cards and punch card operators were an early job casualty of the computer business.

To develop a computer to be used for business, IBM sequestered a group of engineers in a motel for months in order to reduce distractions, so they could conceive of a computer which could be built afford-ably, installed quickly, and be used by businesses for accounting and inventory purposes.  They developed the IBM 1401.

This machine was in its own room since volunteers at the Computer Museum were restoring it to working order.   This is the first machine Drake worked with professionally.  It was operated around the clock by Computer Operators (another job casualty) whose jobs were to feed punch card programs into the machine and keep all the tubes and parts functioning.  Suddenly, corporations had Data Processing Departments with employees who spoke a totally different language and performed magic which was not understood by anyone else in the company.  Drake was one of those people.  Seeing this machine was a waltz down memory lane for Drake.

  The IBM 1401 was introduced by a self-produced movie to the business world.  Unfortunately, there was only one working 1401 at the time.  IBM engineers were afraid to move it to make the movie because they weren't sure it would work if it was relocated.   The IBMer's solved the problem by making the machine in the movie a mock-up with IBM engineers standing behind the giant magnetic tape decks twirling them by hand to simulate the 'computer' running.  This monstrosity weighed 9000 pounds, had 5 miles of wire in it, contained 10,600 transistors, and was the size of a one car garage.  It went on the market in mid 1960 and had an amazing amount of memory: 16,000 bytes.  To give some perspective, I have a 32 gigabyte iphone.  ONE gigabyte is one billion bytes and my iphone has 32 times that much.  See what I mean by rapid change?  The IBM 1401 was a wild success.  It accounted for approximately one-half of all the computers in the world - all 50,000 of them in 1965.  Because Drake could relate personally to this machine, it brought home to me the tremendous impact of computers on our society in only 50 short years.

There are twenty 'sign posts' in the Computer History Museum.  We saw everything in detailed minutiae.  One of the highlights were the early desk tops, and I discovered WHY the first personal computers were designed with a keyboard, computer screen that looked like a small TV, on top of a processing 'tower'.  The very first personal computers were individually built at home by a few engineers and scientists.  This one was built by a Xerox engineer, (with wooden cases) for his personal use at home.  His vision of what a home computer should look like is what eventually became the standard for the desk top computer.  

One of the twenty 'stations' in the museum was Gaming.  There was even a 'pong' machine that was interactive - and yes, I'm still horrible at pong.  Those silver knobs were the controls.  The gaming screen consisted of just what you see - a line and two 'pongs'.

 I could go on and on.  We were here for about 3 hours, and I took over 300 pictures (of course).  If you want to see more, click on the link:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115478608971584948192/albums/6036459133644053793?authkey=CNndgpWltNjEGw

 

Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

Front entrance, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco could be thought of as the museum built by Avery Brundage.  Brundage is best remembered today as a devotee of 'amatuerism' which he promoted as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from the time of his admittance until his death in 1975. However, when coming through London in 1936 after the controversial Olympic Games hosted by Nazi Germany, he saw his first exhibition of Chinese art, and, according to him, he came away so enamored that "I've been broke ever since".  Over the next thirty years, he collected over 17,000 pieces of Asian art from all over the continent.  He was quick to offer for pieces being sold in distress before and after the second world war in both China and Japan.  He took advantage of the collapse of both the Chinese and Japanese economies to swell his collection.  He engaged a French scholar who was a visiting professor at the University of California as his curator and had a long standing agreement with him no piece was purchased unless they both agreed.  By 1960, he was keeping priceless pieces of Asian Art in shoe boxes under his beds.

The City of San Francisco was ultimately the big winner.  Brundage left his Asian Art collection to the City and it is currently housed (along with a few other pieces) in what is now entitled the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.  The current building housing the museum was built in 1917 as the library in the Civic Center Plaza.  It was designed after the great earthquake of 1906.  It still retains the 'grand staircase' so prevalent in art nouveau architecture.

The Grand Staircase - made entirely of marble including the carvings on the ceiling

In addition to a world class presentation of Asian Art, we got to see several seminal pieces owned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  The SFMOMA is currently closed for renovation, and they have loaned out pieces all around the United States as well as to all the other art museums scattered throughout San Francisco.  The exhibit currently at the Asian Art Museum is called "Gorgeous" and consists of 70 diverse works of art.  This exhibit blew me away with the depth and breadth of the art pieces.  There are pictures, of course, of my favorite pieces not only of the Gorgeous exhibition, but of the rest of the museum as well.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115478608971584948192/albums/6030130396465498785?authkey=COvWqvKT7bi6Wg

Off to the Wine Country

One of the side trips we've both been anticipating is a jaunt into wine country.  The last time we did this (uh, 25 years ago), we enjoyed Sonoma County more than Napa Valley, so we headed out for four days of exploration around Healdsburg, California.  Drake volunteered to do the research for this trip.  There are more than one hundred wineries you can visit within 15 miles of Healdsburg.  If you rushed in, gulped a 'taste' and moved on, all you'd really have for your trouble is a bad wine hangover.  We set some criteria for our visit:  Affordable wines that have at least SOME distribution.  We started with a Food and Wine article in which they cataloged which wineries they thought were the best in the area.  We also knew going in that we wouldn't be joining any of the wineries 'wine clubs'.  When you have as many addresses as we have in a year, joining a 'wine club' is silly.   We also knew there were going to be some purchases made simply because we loved the wine and not everything we liked was going to be distributed.  Additionally, each wine region has what Drake refers to as 'sweet spots' for certain types of wines.  Don't go looking for sauvignon blanc in pinot noir country.  We did manage to wind up with a broad spectrum of wines with some of bottles falling into a 'special class' which we normally wouldn't be purchasing if we were shopping at Spec's or Safeway.  [That means they cost more than we normally would even think about paying.]  Funny story:  We asked at one winery if they distributed, and they said they did.  We asked,  "Who distributes for you in Texas?", and yep, the answer was "Specs". 

One nice thing about living in Berkeley is you don't have to slog through San Francisco to get to Sonoma.  We were within two hours drive of Healdsburg, so we lingered along the way.  The first little surprise was Petaluma.  It was a nice little town which is home to the Petaluma Creamery.  Shades of Blue Belle and Brennan!
 We stopped both to buy Spring Hill Cheese (a local dairy/cheese maker), and to EAT ICE CREAM!  I must say the peach ice cream  gives Blue Bell Peach a run for its money.  They also have their own cow statue, but Bell Bell edges Petaluma on the cow mascot front.

Healdsburg, California turns out to the the Eureka Springs of wine country.  It's built around a plaza in the center of town.  It was incorporated in 1867 when the 'plaza' was originally the downtown. Now, it's completely given  over to upscale shops, restaurants, inns, tasting rooms, clothing boutiques, book stores, concerts and galleries.  Everyone in town caters to the tourist/wine trade. Ten miles down the road is Windsor - let's just say Windsor is the home of Walmart, Home Depot, Target, and a real grocery store.  Curiously, every nice restaurant in Healdsburg was selling identical menus.  I suppose it had to do with the buzz phrase:  'farm to table' since not only is this a wine valley, but it's a farm valley too.   

   One of the biggest surprises of the visit was the marked contrast between the nascent Oregon wine industry and the mature California industry.  When we were in Oregon, the roads to get to the vineyards were gravel or dirt, and you had to follow tiny blue signs tacked to posts along the roadways.  By contrast, Sonoma county vineyards are all listed on a very nice road map and every road is paved.  The signage is highly visible with arrows!  The Oregon tasting rooms were usually wooden bars you stood at.  In California, there are

gorgeous gardens at every winery, terraces, lawns, outdoor tasting areas, indoor tasting areas, and you can make a reservations for 'food and wine pairings'.

We actually did three of these pairings:  One in Healdsburg at "Partake", which was a restaurant either serving a seven course dinner or a series of 'small plates' and offering wine pairing with each course or plate.  We had a wonderful time here.  We also did a luncheon at the J Vineyards.  We arrived expecting a real lunch with courses and wines.  Instead we got bites and lots and lots of wine.  We had to actually sit in the parking lot for over an hour, so Drake could safely drive!  I didn't enjoy this one much - too little food and too much wine.  I was miserably drunk/hung over for the rest of the evening, slept poorly because of it, and disgruntled at losing an evening.

The third tasting was an appetizer plate plus wine which we both enjoyed.  Drake was really looking forward to this winery because they make Pinot Noir.  As we drove up to the Copain Winery, we couldn't help but notice, there were no vines near the tasting room.  The hills around Berkeley look like this - long grass about two feet in length, all this blond color.  The Copain tasting room was sitting in the middle of these Sonoma  hills which are about 100 feet in elevation.  No wonder fires spread like mad here.  Anyway, it turns out that Copain grows all their grapes in the Alexander Valley up north and over 1000 feet higher in elevation than Sonoma county.  That's why they are making Pinot Noir which according to them needs the slightly cooler weather of higher elevation.  Fortunately, I smartened up and only drank a swallow of a much shallower pour than we got at the J Vineyards.  Copain was our last winery, and on our way back to Berkeley, we stopped at two other attractions  I really wanted to see.


I learned about Luther Burbank in the 4th grade.  What I remember is he fooled around with plants, and he was an agricultural hero.  It turns out my recollection just about sums him up.  Santa Rosa, California was his home and plant laboratory for 40 years.  California celebrates Arbor Day on his birthday.   Luther's goal was to increase the food supply for the world.  Just consider the potato he perfected:  We call it the "Russett", but it's actually the Burbank Russett potato.  It's the most widely eaten potato in the world.  That's just one of his food contributions.  He also loved beautiful flowers, and he worked on garden flowers.  His most famous flower is the Shasta Daisy.  This chart shows his 'big' successes.  His home and the gardens that surround it were his residence for most of the time he lived in Santa Rosa.  Naturally, it's a museum today.

The other famous Santa Rosa resident is Charles Schulz, the cartoonist and creator of "Peanuts", one of the longest running and most widely read comic strips in the world.  He lived and worked in Santa Rosa for more than 30 years, and wrote all his comic strips here.  Upon his death, a museum showcasing his work was built, and that's what we visited.

The museum was beautiful, well thought out, and combined both his written cartoon strips and his animated films.  We even got to see a visiting cartoonist working.  

As always, there are pictures -  Burbank's garden, the Peanuts Museum and the wine country around Sonoma.  

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/115478608971584948192/albums/6027469567058225457?authkey=CJOXh9HU6tzKNA

Finally, here's the list of wines we bought on our little junket:

Zinfandels

Balletto Winery – 2010 – Russian River Valley

Mauritson Winery – 2013 – Rockpile Ridge – Dry Creek

Dry Creek Winery – 2012 – “Old Vine” – Dry Creek Valley

Pinot Noir

Copain Winery – 2011 – “Les Voisins” – Anderson Valley

Lazy Creek Winery (Ferrani-Carano) – 2012 Lazy Day – Anderson Valley

Grenache

Quivira Winery – 2010 – Dry Creek Valley

Quivira Winery – 2011 – Dry Creek Valley

Sauvignon Blanc

Stonestreet Winery – 2011 – Terrace Ridge

Quivira Winery – 2012 – “Fig Tree” – Dry Creek Valley

  

Fume Blanc

Ferrari-Carano Winery – 2012 – Dry Creek Valley**

Chardonnay

Rued Winery – 2013 – Russian River Valley

Kendall Jackson Winery – (Jackson Estate) – 2011 – Seco Highlands

Copain Winery – 2012 – “Tous Ensemble” – Anderson Valley

Chenin Blanc

Dry Creek Winery – 2013 - Clarksburg

Rose

Lazy Creek Winery (Ferrani-Carano) – 2012 – Rose’ of Pinot Noir –

                                                                       Anderson Valley

Mauritson Winery – 2013 – “Rockpile” Rose – Rockpile Ridge – Dry Creek

** - We didn't actually buy this one on the trip - found it downstairs at Trader Joe's - knew we were going to visit this winery & bought it ahead of time.

Origins of the Moving Picture Industry

Our first California adventure was just a bit odd.  As most people know, California is the center of the motion picture industry not only in the USA, but also for most of the rest of the world.  We experienced the beginnings of the billion dollar industry Saturday night in Niles, California.   As the moving pictures captured more and more interest, the phenomena swept the country in the early 20th century, and first thousands and then millions of ordinary people spent their leisure time going to see what quickly became called 'the movies'.  The demand for product was intense since  initially each 'picture' was usually only a few minutes long could only be shown for a few days in the new movie houses before audiences would begin clamoring for different movies.

Chaplin is the second from the left on the first row.

The first moving picture camera was developed by Edison, and he zealously guarded his camera and patents to the point of sending thugs out to beat up and terrorize filmmakers to kick back a sum for just using cameras they had purchased.  Early films were made in New Jersey, New York and Chicago.  Even the very best cameras only worked with consistent quality in strong sunlight.  To escape Edison's thugs, and the winter weather of New York, New Jersey and Chicago, filmmakers began coming to sunny California.  Niles, California was the new home of Essanay Films out of Chicago.    (Essanay, the film company, which set up to make movies in Niles, was owned by a man named Shor and Broncho Billy Anderson - the first initials of their last names are how they named their film company.) Their first year in California, one of their feature players was a young Englishman straight from vaudeville called Charlie Chaplin.  They paid him $125 a week; a pretty good salary in 1914.  By 1915 he was so popular, he could command $500 a week.   The Tramp, one of his most famous films, was made his first year in Niles.  Five years after this beginning, Chaplin was able to write, direct, and star in his own films, and he made more than $500,000 pre-income tax dollars each year.  He was truly the movies first superstar.

In the background of the above picture is the building which today is the  Niles Silent Movie Theater,. This is a non-profit enterprise which shows two hours of silent films every Saturday night.  For $5.00 a ticket plus $1.00 snacks, you can sit on original hard wooden theater chairs, listen to a live piano

player, and watch cutting edge entertainment circa 1914.  This evening was interesting on several levels.  First, I've only seen a very limited number of silent movies on the 'big screen'.  Second, this was the kick-off to 'Chaplin Week' by this struggling non-profit which is valiantly trying to put their organization, their theater, and their projects into the 'big time' of film restoration and reclamation.  Third, this was film presentation interspersed with commentary by a silent film historian.  As Sarah quipped, it was just like TCM come to life with a Robert Osborne clone.  The film commentator was excellent, and we really enjoyed both him and the piano player who improvised her play as the films were running.  

However, it quickly became obvious the people running the organization are their own worst enemy.  The current project is to raise $30,000 to restore Chaplin's 1915 film, The Champ, made by Essanay Studios in Niles.  There were probably 200 people in attendance Saturday night, and the woman who is obviously the 'wheel' in the non-profit announced they had been given Broncho Billy Anderson's honorary Oscar.   As a fund raiser for the Chaplin film restoration, the 'wheel' carrying her TWO chihuahuas , announced, "During tonight's intermission for a $10 donation, you can have your picture taken with the Oscar.  Sarah and I looked at each other, and we both immediately thought, "Oh boy, I want to do THAT!"

Intermission comes, and we wander all over the place looking for where the pictures are being taken.  No soap.  Can't find anyone taking pictures.  I finally corralled one of the people who long-windedly insisted on giving us the history of the theater and the turn of the century film industry in Niles, prior to the start of the films, and asked,  "Where are you taking the Oscar pictures?"
"Oh, well, let's find Mike and see." (Mike was their photographer - a guy with a camera slung around his neck in a faded t-shirt and cargo shorts.)
"Mike, here's some people that want their picture taken with the Oscar."
"Bob, nobody told me in advance we were going to do this.  Let's just move some of these cameras out
of the way, and then we can get started.  I have to find a place to take the pictures."

Ten minutes later, after rearranging one of the 'rooms' of the museum, they were finally ready to take the pictures.  Turns out that I was the only person willing to ask about the pictures, and when they FINALLY started snapping the pictures, several other people formed a line and paid their $10.  That's Broncho Billy Anderson in the background behind Sarah - who was one of the first cowboy stars of the silent era.  I had no idea he actually was the owner of a film company.  That's a real Oscar.  According to Sarah, it was heavy coming in at about five or six pounds.  I guess if I had just shrugged off the picture, they wouldn't have raised a dime for their restoration from one of their biggest audiences.

It was a fun evening, but I must admit we left right after this picture was taken.  What had been billed as a two hour evening was already pushing three hours at the end of the intermission thanks to the lack of preparation of their opening remarks and their intermission fund raiser.  Plus, even with the pillows we brought, our bottoms were numb from those hard wooden chairs.

1967 Lives Again!

It all started with a blue leather recliner; actually, a two toned blue leather recliner.  Furnishing a house with cast off furniture is a challenge I take up with every new location.  It's one of my favorite things to do as we move around.  It is a treasure hunt.  This time, Drake really threw me a curve ball when he fell in love with the very first piece of furniture he saw:  a cobalt blue "Franklin" recliner.  Actually, half of it is four shades lighter.  We finally realized the reason the chair felt so wonderful to Drake was it had been re-stuffed and re-upholstered.  Little problem - the new blue leather doesn't exactly match the old blue vinyl, but....IT'S SO COMFORTABLE.  In fairness, I'm the one who spotted this $25 chair in the myriad of craiglistings, and the owner was one of the people willing to see me the first afternoon we arrived in town.

Now, I'm stuck with a cobalt blue/sky blue recliner.  Yes, sort of like those powder blue tuxes of the 1980's; such a train wreck, and you can't stop staring trying to decide if you like it or not.  When I found the blue plaid sofa, it seemed like kismet, or destiny, or let's face it, just one up-man-ship to show Drake I can rise to any occasion.  The sofa first attracted me because the Craigslist ad was written as if the sofa was talking.  A very unusual approach to be taken by a seller, and a bold one.  It enchanted me enough I kept coming back to it.  My original idea was to downplay the blue recliner by looking for a boring neutral microfiber or leather couch.   In an instance of insane reasoning, I thought I could melt the blue chair into the background by surrounding it with neutral pieces.  Yeah, in a 15 x 15 living area, that would be happening.

As I realized I needed to make the blue monster a 'feature', the more intrigued I became with the idea of creating the authentic post mid century modern look.  Now I have a living room not "from 1957 but from 1967.  It is not 'cool'; it is not 'hip', but it is comfortable and, by gum, it matches!  If you remember, matching was a hallmark of 1967 right down to the wallpaper.  Or, as Drake put it, "coordinated".  The rest of the furniture is pretty humdrum, but my California living room is a beacon of kitsch in a land of hipdom.  

Which Words are the Red Herrings?

I was hooked on smart phones after playing with Sarah's for 15 minutes.  She got the very first version as a gift from her then boyfriend's parents.  It didn't even take five minutes for me to understand what a powerful tool I was holding in my hand.  I had to wait until we hit the road before I got to have my very own.  Ironically, my new 'phone'  has a faster processor than the computer I'm currently typing on - oh, excuse me, keyboarding.  I still type and I also still listen to albums.

In addition to banking, searching, reserving, addressing, phoning, mapping, noting, tabulating, reading, listening and watching, I also play games.  I like Words with Friends (of course, I'm a retired English teacher), and I've played Word Solitaire for years - found the holiday version last Christmas.  I long ago completed through level 250.  Currently, I'm working my way up to some unknown level.  I just finished Level 319, and you have to understand after I finished 250 levels, they started counting again at "One".  I play Word Warp which is a word scramble game.  I'd like it better if the music wasn't so annoying.  Each game is timed, and there's a countdown musical theme if you haven't found the 'big' word.  You only move to the next level if you find the 'big word'.  The music makes you feel like there's a gun to your head.  Plus, I have the 16 game Solitaire Arcade, but I only play the Pyramid version.

I've found two new games which I really like.  They're both by the same company.  Seven Little Words which is fun, and a lot like answering crossword puzzle clues.  In each game there are seven clues and seven words that answer the clues.  I'm often asking Drake questions such as, "Nine letters, means severely annoyed," when I'm playing this game.  When I was in Texas, Jim and I watched the Rangers play as well as channel flipping to the NFL Draft between innings while Patsy and I simultaneously played Seven Little Words.  So, when the company offered their new game Red Herring for free, I was disposed to try it.

Well, let me tell you, it's even more fun than Seven Little Words.  Basically, you're shown 20 words and asked to make 3 categories of five words each.  The five words of the 20 words which DON'T belong in any of the three categories are the Red Herrings.  In the latest game - the categories were Colors of the Rainbow.  Mollusks, and -paint {warpaint, wetpaint, etc.}  Sounds easy EXCEPT they don't give you the names of the categories and there are lots of words with multiple meanings (Example:  "blind" - loss of sight, window covering, camouflaged hunting?).  For each game, you can choose your difficulty level: Easy, Normal, or Hard.  Hmmm.  Wonder how many psychologists it took to come up with those designations.  I'm hooked.

What I like about this game is it uses brain cells rather than finger motion.  Games which involve joy sticks, button punching, sliding, highlighting or any type of manual dexterity, and I'm an automatic loser. For pete's sake, I have trouble with left and right in the non-electronic world.  I can remember being humiliated by eight year old Ben Tuttle at the dawn of video games.  Even earlier, "Pong" gave me trouble.  Forget Pac Man, Donkey Kong or Mario Brothers.  If you had to jump it or click on it, I could never get past Level One.  I still can't.

Ah, but Red Herring is a thinking game.  It's just difficult enough at the "Hard" level to be challenging without making me give up in frustration.  If you have AirPlay, you can project it onto your TV, and it can be a group game.  No pens, pencils, dice, cards or special seats needed.  If you're a smart phoniac, check it out.  I will be playing during the upcoming 750 mile drive.  Next stop:  VEGAS and another game - Blackjack!