How I Met This Teacher

If you've been reading me for awhile, you all know what a big supporter I am of Donor's Choose.  This is a site which allows you to help teachers with projects. The projects are all vetted, and all your donation goes to what teachers need, not 'overhead'.  Well, school's about to start, and here's a teacher who needs a project funded.  We don't need too many $$ for this one:  only $202.  And, even better, if you use the term LIFTOFF when asked if you have a promo code, IT'S MATCHED!!!!

I know this teacher up close and personal.  I met Bailee in Logan, Utah at Utah State University when I took the creative writing class.  Gradually, over the summer session, she became my friend.  When I met her and heard her first personal essay, I realized this really cute little 22 year old blond already had a commitment to developmentally challenged kiddos that just floored me.

Then, she made the decision to go into public education.  As a brand new teacher, she was hired to teach a young challenged population which would have had me running out of the school building, screaming, and waving my hands in the air at the end of the first day.  Now, her upcoming class is pre-k in a high poverty area of her school district, and is the first special education class for this group in her school.  If that's not enough, she's currently training a dog to be a therapy animal in her classroom.  She's in an amazing position to make a huge impact on these 40 kids.

Naturally, I want everyone who reads to donate.  Remember:  ANY AMOUNT YOU DONATE in the next few days, WILL BE DOUBLED.  IT'S MATCHED!  Here's the link.  I'd really, really, really like to raise this $202, and I don't care if your donated amount is the cost of one Starbucks cup of coffee.  This is such an easy way to send a blessing to someone.

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/lego-love/2136695/?challengeid=20815918&givingCartId=4822623    

Denver Musings

I realized the other day I haven't written a true travelogue, so if you want to know about Denver read on.  We have been to Denver before, but it was basically just passing through over a day in order to see an art exhibit.  I was very impressed with the city then, and even more impressed this time around.  This is a relatively small city by Texas standards; it has about 650,000 people and is growing.

First, it's redesigning itself into an urban living environment which is favored by the millennials.  Rejecting suburban sprawl and eliminating the need for a car to commute back and forth to work is one of the ways this generation is trying to solve the problem of dwindling resources on the planet.

"Close to downtown Denver" neighborhoods are filled with new construction of both rentals and condos.  Everywhere we looked there were people building something.  If I'd poked around a bit closer, I would have found the urban grocery stores, gas stations and dry cleaners.  They are aggressivly developing a light rail system.

The reason we came to Denver for a long weekend was we were meeting our daughter and son-in-law who live in New York in downtown Brooklyn.  Their high rise is only a few short blocks from a fabulous grocery store, Macy's, a drugstore, the neighborhood restaurant (which will do your baking for you over the holidays with just a phone call), a Target, an Old Navy, etc., etc., etc.  Oh, and their home is surrounded with different subway lines.  This describes exactly what Denver is trying to achieve.

We rented a house in one of these 'close in' neighborhoods for our long weekend The house had a great flat screen TV and all the Olympic channels.  Last weekend, I had to consciously remember how vacation from work needs downtime. We enjoyed lazy mornings of Olympics, coffee, and breakfast.  Not rushing round every minute certainly made our family time more enjoyable.

 We sort of mutually decided each one of us could pick one thing to do.  Drake came to the weekend with baseball tickets, so he was set.  Naturally, I wanted to do a fine arts exhibit, Roots of Rhythm.  Our daughter had the brilliant idea of the Denver Botanical Garden, and we all realized visiting the local flora was something we all liked to do.  Jay took us to a fabulous brewery and restaurant since he and Sarah came with tickets to an 'immersive theater' performance.  Jay introduced me to Breckingridge beer, and I'm a believer.  I brought home Nitro Vanilla Porter, and is it yum.

Coors Field (what else would it be called?) is the home of the Rockies.  It's pretty representative of modern outdoor baseball stadiums, and I was reminded of the Ballpark at Arlington.  Coors Field does have this purple stripe painted on seats in a line all around the stadium.  They are 5,280 feet above seat level; they are the 'mile high' seats.   Now, our daughter likes baseball and I like baseball, and as we all know Drake is way, way beyond like.  He loves baseball, and he's so knowledgeable.    It's as if the best color commentator is giving you a one on one analysis of who and what you're watching.  Jay insisted he wanted that commentary, so he got it.  It was mainly a pitcher's duel (boring to me), but we saw a thrilling come from behind victory in the 9th inning.  I know how mesmerizing Drake can be when he's talking about baseball, so I think Drake might be making Jay into a real baseball fan.

Since the 'kids' live in New York, they usually get first crack at performance theater.  [Why do we persist in this  'kids' designation?  They are in their 30's.  I need to get off the 'mom' train] Anyway, they saw a theater company which does immersive theater.   When they saw this company was doing another performance in Denver, they got us tickets.  Immersive theater is amazing.  Imagine yourself

Sarah in one of the 'sets'

invisible.  Next, put yourself standing right next to the actors during various scenes and acts.  Free yourself of the idea of a fixed 'stage'.  Instead, visualize a large warehouse divided into small completely furnished rooms and areas.  The audience moves through the play through these furnished rooms and places in small groups of about six people.  Each of the small groups see the various scenes in different orders.  It's an experience - especially if you can do it with friends.  On the downside, a warehouse is not air conditioned, so they passed out fans like the one in the pictures to use.  Naturally, I brought my own.  My bonus was I got to 'tour' the play with Sarah.

The art exhibit was located in the renovated Denver cultural heart.  They have an amazing first class fine arts musuem in a beautiful building.  We all commented on how interesting the building seemed.  My exhibit was all about dance in art from 1830 to 1960.  It's called Roots of Rhythm and consists of paintings representing both dance and famous dancers during that period.   Additionally, they were

exhibiting Pavlova's 'Dying Swan' ballet costume.  Pavlova was the first performer who really got Americans interested in ballet.  She peformed the dying swan ballet solo over 4000 times.  The 'wings' over the tutu are actual wings made out of bird feathers.  Unfortunately, that's not a safire in the center of the gown, but it looks like it to an audience.  Playing next to the tutu is the only existing film of the actual Dying Swan dance - at least part of it.  Naturally, I took oodles of pictures of the other art too.

Notice how the high rises are visually incorporated in the
appearance of the lotus pond

We spent one afternoon at the Denver Botanical Garden.  Now, when you go to a garden at altitude in August, you are seeing it at its peak.  There were flowers everywhere.  It was a charming combination of cultivated and wild.  There were very precise gardens as well as natural gardens.  The Japanese, the English influences were everywhere in the precision gardens.  An example of the natural garden was 'the Plains Garden' which looked like Johnson grass and weeds to me.  I suppose you appreciate least what is ordinary to you.  There were outstanding flowers and the biggest lotus pond I've ever seen.

  This is an ordinary flower, but I was so proud of the picture I wanted to include it.  There were plenty of blooms I couldn't name.  You know, these gardens should have volunteers to follow people around and name the plants and flowers.  The nametags at the Denver Botanical were substandard.
What gave me the idea is I ran into a 20 something guy with either his mother or grandmother, and she was happily telling him the names of all the flowers.  I sighed when I rejoined our group instead of lurking around her.  The whole place was really at peak, though, and we all loved it.

Now, I knew in sort of an abstract way Denver and environs were becoming the center of microbrewing, at least in the West.  Since I've been here, I've drunk beers from about four distinct, easily obtainable breweries, and these are mature brands with excellent products.  Jay really knows a lot about beer, and he has a very sophisticated pallate.  He can instantly evaluate a brewery or be presented with a variety of beers and he always picks exactly what I will love.  He's certainly taught me that knowing beer is very complicated, filled with a bunch of facts, and it's a whole bunch harder to make a really good beer than you first think.  It's really more like making wine.  Yeah, my Uncle Jack could make wine, but it wouldn't be recognized as great wine.  It's the same with beer.  You can buy a 'how to make beer' kit, but that's miles away from the beers I'm drinking here.   Unfortunately, I won't be able to get most of them whenever I leave this region.

Our time was short, but we lucked out whenever we were able to drop S/J at Union Station which now has a train running to and from the airport.  They were able to catch up with a friend, and we headed to a real afternoon ballgame.  It was HOT.  Yes, it was 93 the day we went to see the Ranger game, but we quickly found the shade, and it wasn't too bad.  Not anything like Arlington.  Our experience was a cool day for fans in the Texas ballpark.  Once again, the Rockies jumped out to a significant lead, but we managed to make a five run comeback in the late innings.

We ate at a variety of places.  We walked to two of the meals.  One of them good; the other one great.  (Federal Bar and Grill and the other Sassafras).  Drake and Sarah walked to Safeway, and then she made a delicious breakfast.  We ate at a Mexican restaurant that truly was some of the best Mexican food I've ever eaten.  (La Loma).  Our brewery/pub visit also offerred some good food and excellent beer.  (Farmhouse at Breckingridge Brewer)  Drake and I also had a wonderful meal before the ballgame at some steak restaurant next to the ballpark.  There is a lot of competition for the food dollar.  It reminds me of Austin in that regard.  The chains still hold sway on the outer edges of Denver, but the growing center is home to many individually owned restaurants.

This turned into one of those vacations where when you get the pictures, all the memories they trigger are all about fun.   The attractions we didn't do could fill a small notebook, but that's why Drake and I live the vagabond life.  There are so many places which have so many enjoyable things below the 'must dos' you hit on a short vacation.  As always, I took pictures.  One set is the art museum and the other set is the Botanical Garden.

https://goo.gl/photos/sPeoYWkKdAWNRciR9

https://goo.gl/photos/QcW697WzkT2yiCwh8

Are You Ready?

Are you ready?  Well, you'd better be if you live in a "swing state". It turns out most of the country is, once again, going to be shut out of the political process due to our electoral college system of deciding the Presidential election.  For those of you, which, let's face it, is most of us, who've forgotten exactly how that electoral college thing works, here's a quick tutorial:

First, it's a process not a place.  Thus, there are no school colors, no mascot, no teams.  The Electoral College is a system which goes into effect every four years to elect the President and Vice President and is actually a provision of the Constitution.  It was a compromise hammered out by the FF's (founding fathers) so neither the popular vote nor the votes of Congress would elect the top two Federal offices.  (In my opinion, it's one of those 18th century ideas that needs to change.)

Second, 'electors' (these are actual people who cast each state's votes) are chosen in various ways, and state law binds how the state's electors vote.  The most common is: 'winner takes all electors' based on which candidate wins the popular vote.  There are still a couple of states that have proportional electors. (Maine and Nebraska)

So, how many electors does each state (plus the District of Columbia) get?  It's one for each member of a state's congressional delegation plus 2 (for their Senators).  Thus, there are 435 members in the House of Representatives, plus 100 Senators, plus the District of Columbia has 3 electors = 538 electors.  Divide 538 by 2 = 269.  Add '1' for a majority and thus, you arrive at that 270 number the media talks about the Presidential/VicePresidental candidates need to be elected.

What's evolved in the 21st century is certain states depending if they vote 'red' or 'blue', will determine the election due to the electoral college.  It's why the Presidential/VP candidates can get less than 50% of the popular vote, and yet, are still elected because they accrue 270 electoral college votes.

Thus, if you live in a 'swing state', expect to see the candidates, hear the candidates, and have all forms of media bombarded with advertisements not only by the candidates, but by their political party, as well as PAC's (political action committees which can consist of lone individuals with $$$$ as well as corporations/unions/non-profits, etc).  This is going to go on from August 1 until November 7.

If you have not figured this out yet, candidates actually fudge the truth and outright lie.  Political party ads and PAC ads are even less truthful than the candidates.  Even if you have made up your mind about who you're voting for, may I suggest you look at the following two websites and use them this election season.  Politifact is a Pulitzer Prize winning site which tells you what political statements are true or false.  Pew Research is a non-profit site which uses statistical analysis to break down what all types of citizens are actually thinking about various issues.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/ 

http://www.pewresearch.org/

Finally, what are the 'swing states'?  Both parties agree on:  Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado.  These four states, and it's 'winner take all electors' in these, will determine  who wins this election.  There are others which are 'in play' (meaning, they may switch from red to blue or vice versa) - such as North Carolina, Arizona, and a couple of others.

All I can say is, boy, am I glad I'm going to be out of Colorado on September 23rd.
           

County Fair Time, Colorado Style

Colorado Springs in 1950 was a town of 45,000 in El Paso County, Colorado, nestled right up against the front range of the Rocky Mountains.  The town's main claim to fame was having the most famous of the 14'ers (Pike's Peak) in its back yard. Then came the United States Air Force Academy with the first Academy class graduated and commissioned in 1959.  By 1965 the town had almost tripled in size. By 2015, Colorado Springs was ten times bigger than it was in 1950, and had morphed into a major city of more than one-half million with an urban area population of 675,000.

Above Colorado Springs

However, the rest of El Paso County remained what it was and has always been: cattle country.  You only have to drive 30 miles east of the center of Colorado Springs for the landscape to completely change its features.  Eastern El Paso Country is rolling, grass covered hills dotted with a series of ranches.  The most legitimate contain more than 1000 acres and are being worked by the same families for the past four generations.  The least legitimate are the 40 acre (or less) ranchettes which are too small to actually sustain meaningful livestock production, but have proximity to 'the city' for weekend want-a-be's.  These ranchettes seem to be the 'big chunks' left over from the urban housing division sprawl which is creeping eastward out of Colorado Springs and laying concrete and houses over prime cattle ranching land..        

Ranch 30 miles east of Colorado Springs

Thus, the El Paso County Fair should have been entitled the One-Half of El Paso County Fair.  

We all know I'm a total sucker for county fairs.  I've been to half a dozen in all parts of the United States.  Perhaps my love of these rural celebrations has its root in the Tulsa County Fair of my childhood which was one of the very, very few times in which sugar was on my mother's menu.  I looked forward to the pink froth of cotton candy for weeks leading up to our family's day at the fair.  And, Tulsa was the Colorado Springs of Oklahoma at the time, voraciously growing and paving over the rich, black farming land which surrounded it.  One thing I've learned in my adult county fair attendance:  The agriculture in the county of the fair stamps it.

The El Paso County Fair was a celebration of rural accomplishments centered around the next generation as embodied by the 4H organization.   These types of county fairs are quite rare these days.  As the USA has urbanized in the 20th and 21st centuries, agriculture now comprises only a 4.8% share of the gross domestic product (GDP) down from 20% in 1950. State Fairs are generally located in big cities and, while still having their roots in agriculture, are really now more about big entertainment than rural achievements. There wasn't much 'big entertainment' at the El Paso County Fair unless you counted the Aussie Kingdom which contained a smattering of birds and animals from 'down under'.  Or, you might be thinking of the 'duck races'.

Then, there was the daily 'headliner' from "America's Got Talent", Loop Rawlins, the One Man Wild West Show doing gun tricks, rope tricks and bull whip cracking.  Evenings presented rodeo performances together with a headliner musical act.

Mr. Rawlins has been twirling, throwing, and catching his 6 shooters, winding up by catching and balancing one gun atop the other 

The real star attractions of the El Paso County Fair were the 4H kids.  These were ranch kids from ages 5 to 18 who raise animals and learn about both the animals themselves and how to care for them.  We attended one presentation entitled Grain Fed vs. Grass Fed Beef.  It was startling to discover our presenter was a 14 year old rookie cattle rancher.  We knew all about horses, cows, pigs, llamas, goats, and rabbits from previous fairs, but what caught our eye at this fair was the first El Paso County 4H Cat Showmanship event.  The all female 4Her's, in three age categories, brought their cats to the fair and had their ability to show their cats to a judge and answer questions about cats evaluated. This wasn't exactly a show with high end production values, but I admired the choice of Mark Twain and his quote about cats as one of the two decorations. 

We didn't see a 'pure breed' cat among the contestants unless you count Barn Cat as a registered cat breed.  We did see some beautiful cats paired with some young girls getting rewarded with attention and ribbons for learning about the care and raising of an animal.  My favorite cat was only a little over 4 months old.  The youngest owner was only about seven years old.  The blond haired, tattooed judge was imported from the Cat Fanciers Association of Denver.  This was seriously fun stuff.  

In the same area, just about 20 feet from 'Cat Showmanship' was 'Cavy Showmanship'.  (If you don't know what a cavy is, the picture will make it clear.)

Every country fair needs its Creative Arts exhibits.  

These hit my sweet spot since they are personally created items by both children and adults.  They encompass cooking, sewing, quilting, painting, photography, and sometimes other creative categories.  In Skagit County I saw flower arrangement.  In New Hampshire, there were maple syrup based products.  In El Paso County, I loved the impromptu category of 'Potato Dressing'

Of course, the serious needlework crafters whose entries sometimes take years to complete always have me in awe.  This is ONE of those types of entries from the above pictured volunteer.  Rightly, her knitted sweater won 'Best in Show'.

The El Paso County Fair was obviously a labor of love and commitment from the eastern half of the country.  It squatted on the local fairgrounds in Calhan, Colorado, and covered perhaps three football fields.  Every presentation and every contest was all about showcasing 4H achievements.  This county fair was a 'throw-back' in the best possible way.

As always, if you want to see more cats, quilts, and other fair pictures, click on the link:

https://goo.gl/photos/LmRhG7fQLErdVBSx5

 

        

Numismatic News

See, you opened this up to find out what numismatic means.  Let's just say, Colorado Springs is the headquarters of a whole bunch of weirdo outfits such as:  Bristol Brewing Company (the Beehive is very tasty), the 5th Best Zoo in the USA, Wild Fire Tees, the Broadmoor Resort (founded 1918), Borealis Bikes, and TA DA! The American Numismatic Society - (Coin Collectors!)

I discovered a Texas link...  Harry Bass, yes, of the Texas Basses', who turns out to be a world famous (literally) coin collector.  His family has graciously loaned out his amazing coin collection as an exhibit in the Numismatic Museum.   I learned there's a 'rarity' scale based on how many of a type of coin are still available to collectors.  

If you want to see some cool coins (even some Olympic Medals), as well as how the rarity scale is calculated, then click on the following pictorial tour of the Money Museum:

https://goo.gl/photos/HFahibS1EEyQvhGn8

Pueblo, Colorado

The first thing I heard about Pueblo was, "It's a blue collar town; they made steel there for a long time.  The first thing I knew about the town was it had four Medal of Honor recipients.  It is hotter and flatter than Colorado Springs even though the towns are only 45 miles apart.  I was vaguely interested in the town, but what really focused my interest was an Ansel Adams exhibit at their fine arts museum.  Ansel Adams is the iconic American photographer of the 20th century. We headed out thinking we were going to be seeing a rather run-down town with little to offer beyond this art exhibit.

It was a real surprise to find this extremely friendly, vibrant small town with so much to see and do.  While the Ansel Adams photos were everything I expected, what really fascinated me was a photographer, John Suhay, who has been documenting Pueblo over seventy-five years.  He also did side by side photos showing old and new Pueblo.  Pueblo has been a crossroads for thousands of years.  Where there's a river, people will come.  In the dry, hot high plains, Pueblo is located on the banks of the Arkansas River

Pueblo considers itself the town of Medal of Honor Recipients.  The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration of the United States and is always awarded by the President to the recipient.  They began to be awarded in 1861, and of the 3514 medals slightly less than half of them were given between 1861 and 1864.  Slowly, the Medal began to be all about heroism above and beyond the call of duty during wartime, and awarding it began to be very, very selective.  To have four recipients call a tiny town like Pueblo home is, as Drake would say, "a statistical anomaly".

 
While all Medal recipients show extraordinary valor under horrendous conditions, I think this one Pueblo recipient touched something in me

 
Then, we trooped down the street to the Organization for American Values.  Oh, Drake was so skeptical.  To him it sounded like every ultra right wing, we are the only patriots in the entire country group.  Instead, we discovered this amazingly moving picture gallery of the living Medal of Honor recipients.  Most were photographed over a six year period beginning in 1999.  Under each picture was a quote chosen by the recipient to accompany his picture.  Amazing, and so moving.

 
Our final stop was the Pueblo Historical Museum which told the history of the town of Pueblo from the three cultural perspectives which make up the town.  Finally, I turned as we left the museum, and took this picture of the last steel mill in town.

If you want to see more of Pueblo, and specifically to see my favorite Medal of Honor pictures and quotes, well, you know, click on the link.

https://goo.gl/photos/dAVA8EjUi5wzUfsj8

Is it a Fact or an Opinion?

It is so hard to be reliably informed these days.  When I think about 'news', I actually visualize myself standing in a meteor shower.    I'm starting to try and find NEWS sources which deal in facts rather than opinions as the real election season is kicking off.

The media changes in this country in the past 60 years have been like covered wagons to rockets.  In the olden days of my childhood if you lived in a 'city', television consisted of one independent channel to go along with the three network channels.  TV ended at midnight when they played the national anthem and went off the air.  (FYI - my ass was supposed to be inside my house by the time the last note of the anthem ended or it was grass, and not in a good way.)  

Almost everyone I knew had the same news day. You woke up to the radio to listen to tunes and find out the weather and latest sports scores.  Then, you read the morning newspaper to find out the local news (mainly) either over breakfast or on the way to work.  In the evening, if you hadn't read a paper yet, you read the evening paper. Around dinnertime you tuned into the news:  30 minutes of national news and 30 minutes of local news.  Done.  Finished.  For the true news junkies who thought the rest of the world was important, they subscribed to Time or Newsweek magazine which was delivered to their mailboxes once a week.  Sounds unreal, doesn't it?

It was a completely reasonable expectation every journalist who produced ANY of the above news presented facts unless the story was on the editorial page, then it was editorial opinion.  Period.  The only up front analysis of the news (OPINION) took place on Sunday morning.  Meet the Press started on radio, began on TV in 1947, and was pretty quickly copied by the other networks.

What upset this neat little package?  Ted Turner started the Cable News Network as a way to bulk up cable programming.  Of course, there were a zillion other factors that caused the upset, but here's my point:  There's not enough news Americans are interested in to fill 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  By news I mean FACT REPORTING. So, how is all that airtime being filled?  With analysis (OPINION) and filler about subjects which are called news but aren't. And we were off to races.

The whole definition of what is news has changed.  Not only is opinion presented as fact, but there's wholesale dumping of factoids, gossip, and outright lies surrounding the cult of the entertainment figure all of which is being presented to us as news.  Cult worship not news.  I was really floored when I realized there's a significant number of people who get their 'news' playing around on Facebook or Twitter parroting what they see posted there and passing it on as fact.   

We also have bloggers whose sole desire is to make a living by typing an article once a day and acquiring enough readers, so they can sell advertising and pay themselves a salary.  Many of them will write anything.  An alarming number do NOT uphold the rigorous journalistic standards taught in journalism schools (because they've never been) and, thus, are accountable only to themselves.  There's no journalistic community overlord upholding standards anymore not only for their own integrity, but also so the public can trust what they say or write.

Does anyone who is presenting what is labelled as news today ever say as a disclaimer, "Notice:  The fact is the first sentence and everything after that is opinion."  No, of course not.  Then the whole problem of who to believe and what are the actual facts (I refuse to use the word 'truth') is additionally compounded by is it 'red news' or 'blue  news'.

I guess what's confounding me this election season is where can I find unbiased news.  I'm looking for the actual facts not drowned by hyperbole, vitriol, screaming talking heads interrupting one another, or modified by an agenda.  If you flip through the news channels at the top of the hour, it's fascinating to see the lead story isn't usually the same on each channel.  Actual falsehoods do not even have to be uttered; instead, it's just a matter of parsing the sound bites and time allocation.

This is a call for you to think for yourself and question the sales techniques manipulating you.  Question who's reporting, how much time is given to an issue, and how quickly are you hearing talking heads.  Are you only seeing a fact wrapped in an opinion on a crawler at the bottom of the screen?  Take all bloggers who are 'sharing the facts' with a large, large grain of salt.  And, for Pete's sake, anything on Facebook or Twitter is not news.  Use more than one reputable source of news. Always watch Fox News?  Switch to CNN, or even NPR for a few days.

I have a few trusted news sources, and I ignore everything else.  I immediately tune out the talking heads.  After I've heard the facts, I will make up my own mind, thank you.  I neither need nor want the 'spin' or the 'slant' or the opinionated expert.  All those tactics to shape news just leave me seething.  

 I'll leave you with this one thought - Do a check:  Ask yourself,  Is this a 'fact' or an 'opinion' as you read or listen to news.  Sometimes you actually have to listen carefully to each sentence uttered or written.  You'll be amazed at the result.  (For those of you who have forgotten:  a fact is something that can be proven by empirical evidence, experimentation, and/or consensus observation.)  I could give a little quiz at this point, but I have faith in you.  

[Was that last sentence a fact or an opinion?]  See what I mean......