SHARING OLIVIA'S SKILLS

I read Olivia’s report card from Second Grade. She’s my next-to-the-youngest granddaughter and like her younger sister Justine, goes to a private k-6 elementary school in Los Angeles. A grandma, or anyone else for that matter, couldn’t have been more pleased at what it said. However, it also made me laugh:

Fall: Second graders have been busy this semester learning desktop publishing. We have been using Microsoft Word to create a document, edit it, and insert graphics and WordArt. We use the Internet to gather information and images. We download images to the desktop. Then we input the images and information into Word, Print Shop and/or Pages to create awesome documents. Second graders use the PCs in the Computer Lab and the Mac laptops in their classrooms. Olivia is a pleasure to teach.

Spring: We continued this semester with projects combining word processing, desktop publishing and the Internet. We visited several websites corresponding to classroom themes. For the dinosaur and the biography project, students gathered information on the Internet. They input their information into a word processor. Then they searched for related images on the Internet. We created several beautiful documents that include borders, headlines (fancy lettering) and clip art using The Print Shop. These documents include poetry pages, portfolio covers and cards. Olivia enjoys computers. Nice work!

What made me laugh is that I thought I should send my husband to Second Grade at the day school. If Olivia can do it, he can too. He has his degree from MIT and you can’t be stupid to get a degree from there. So I am sure that at least one semester at Olivia’s school would help his computer skills immensely. He already knows how to open up a document, make a few changes, save it and print it out. He wouldn’t have to start from ground zero, though it might be close to it.

I’d like nothing better than getting a report card on Jerry’s progress that was as glowing as Olivia’s. Kids like Jerry a lot, and I think he’d fit right in. He can tie shoelaces, too, if one of the little kids gets stuck.

What’dya think? Is he a good candidate or what?!

THE RING AND THE SING - GOOD OR BAD?

The music community in the Los Angeles area is embroiled in a big brouhaha all because the L. A. Opera is in the middle of planning what they call the “2010 Ring Festival Los Angeles,” a city-wide arts celebration that will spotlight Richard Wagner’s 19th century, four-opera “The Ring of the Nibelung.” Seems one of the Los Angeles County Supervisors issued a statement that Wagner was well-known for his anti-Semitic views and that the festival would “be an affront to those who have suffered or have been impacted by the horrors” of the Nazis. He’s going to ask the county board to send a letter to the Opera, requesting that it shift the focus of the festival from Wagner by featuring other classical composers.

According to the LA Times, this will be the LA Opera’s first-ever staging of all four operas in the “Ring” cycle. More than 50 arts institutions will be producing exhibitions and educational programming related to Wagner and his music. Among those are LACMA, the Getty Museum and the LA Philharmonic. Symposiums will be held to discuss Wagner’s anti-Semitic writings and personal views. Leader of one of the discussions, Kenneth Reinhard, a professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA says that “Wagner was himself dramatically anti-Semitic, but his music is not and there is no reason to censor his music or fail to address his personal beliefs.”

Backers say to change the course of the LA Opera’s plans now would be a monumental financial disaster. The LA Opera has already spent or committed $32 million, much of what still needs to be raised. One of the local music critics says that forfeiting that kind of money would shut down opera in Los Angeles for a very long time.

Subsequent letters to the editor on the Time’s Op-Ed page run the gamut of opinion. Most, pros and cons alike, are rational and interesting to read. And although I don’t think any one carries more weight than another, because there are always two sides to a thing, I had to laugh at one in particular: it seems that Wagner also wrote the “Wedding March” from “Lohengrin” and the writer suggests if we ban Wagner’s music, all the people who marched down the aisle to it should be ashamed of themselves! (Not having marched down any aisle in either of my weddings, luckily I am not a candidate for embarrassment).

But I do have a little confession to make: When we were getting ready to book our flight to Istanbul for our move there, the company Jerry was contracting with had a secretary who handled all the flight arrangements. I told Jerry to let her know that under no circumstances did I want to land in Germany. I would change planes anywhere but there. Yes, Germany is different now than during the war, but I still cannot get out of my deepest soul the first picture I saw in 1945 at the end of the war when I was a 10-year old. I saw for the first time Nazi’s inhumanity toward Jews and others. I saw the pictures of the survivors at Buchenwald, not the dead but the living. To my ten-year old eyes, it was far and away the most horror I had ever seen. Inside my adult self is still that child and that picture. Not ever wanting to be in Germany for any reason is irrational, I know. But I can’t blame those who feel “honoring” Wagner’s music, wonderful as it may be, is akin to honoring the man and his sickness.

I am glad I don’t have to vote on whether or not to celebrate Wagner’s “Ring.”

TURNING GREEN INTO BROWN

Because of ongoing drought conditions here in Southern California, it appears we are “going brown” instead of going “green.” Well, actually I think that is really all of one process.

As you know from past blogs, we live in a senior (55 and up) complex, which we chose because of its setting – lots of lawn, trees, shrubs, and a management policy that we could plant whatever kinds of plants we wanted around the outside walls of our particular apartment as long as the power mowers could maneuver around them. So we did. That was in April of 2005. The plants are looking good.

However, due to California's water shortage, a new management put in place about 2 years ago has decided to cap all water faucets on the outside of the building so no flower beds can be watered by the residents. Their rationale is that if residents don’t help them cut back on water usage, fines will be levied against the apartment complex, rates will increase and the costs will be passed on to the residents as hefty rent increases.

Management intends to keep the par 3 golf course watered, as well as the areas in the entrance to our complex. It is true that they will continue watering the lawns, but on a reduced schedule. Beyond that, it’s every man for himself. For us, it has meant in order for our plants - 2 white rose bushes, 1 camellia bush, 1 night blooming jasmine, 1 yellow hibiscus, 1 Barbara Karsten bougainvillea and two Cape Royale plumbagos – to survive, we must cart bucket after bucket of water, drawn from our bathtub faucet, through the living room, out the front door and then into the flower beds. When day temperatures hover close to 100 degrees through the summer and fall months, it will be almost impossible to get enough water to those plants to keep them alive. Jerry and I each have been trying to carry four buckets of water out early in the morning and another four buckets in the evening. This is not an easy thing for us to do, and I don’t know that we can keep up the pace. We do this because we sunk a lot of money into “landscaping” around our little tiny apartment and it is hard to stand by and watch our dollars die on the vine, so to speak.

I do understand that Southern California has a water problem. And I don’t want my rent to go up either, so there is not much we can do.

Just today I was looking online at cactus plants. I have never been particularly fond of cacti. I have seen them used to real good advantage when a professional landscaper has had his hand in the choice of plants and their arrangement. It is not something I can do myself. But when my plants die, I am sure not going to put new plants in that can’t sustain themselves in 100+ degree heat without water.

It is hard for me to get excited about a couple of saguaro cacti in place of my two plumbago plants. But I must admit that if I can find a few little cacti that will give me the kind of flowers I see on some of the online cactus sites, I might consider that as a start.

Poor California. We all knew we were desert originally and we all knew that we just might turn back to desert one of these days, but we always thought “Not in our lifetime!” Well, from the looks of my front lawn and my flower beds, we’re on the way! To be very honest with you, if I had to live in a desert, I think I’d just as soon try New Mexico!

THE BIG GUYS & THE LITTLE GUYS

There is little that irks me as much as knowing the IRS is not going after money owed the government by some very rich taxpayers while the rank and file are trying their best to stay afloat in today’s economy.

Actually, when you get right down to it there isn’t much excuse in not going after everybody who owes money. But let’s face it, going after someone who owes $100 is not quite in the same category as going after someone who owes more than $1,000,000.

Why am I getting riled up about this now? A headline in the newspaper a few days ago reads “IRS IS SLOW TO PURSUE BIG DEBTS”

The article itself says that according to a Treasury Department audit, the IRS has failed to collect taxes from 18% of those who owe more than $1 million.

Whoever it was on the newspaper who asked “Why?” was told that it was the computer’s fault! It seems because of computer glitches that apparently go back to 2007, 448 of the 2,451 individual taxpayers who owed $1 million or more as of December 2007 were either waiting to be processed or had been assigned a lower priority than the other cases. Makes one wonder who programmed the computer and who determines priority?

The 448 delinquent accounts totaled $1.2 billion, and almost half had been uncollected for more than a year.

Is this the best the IRS can do? Who is watching the IRS? Who is watching the people who are running the computers? Who is trying to fix the glitch? Who is watching to see that it gets done? Who in our government can set this right? Who are these people who owe more than $1 million? Is there a reason they aren’t paying their taxes? Is the IRS going after them with the same vengeance as they are doing for the little hourly people who live from paycheck to paycheck and get behind on their taxes? Are the computers still broken? Have they been fixed? How hard is the Treasury Department working to rectify what their own audit showed them? To whom are they accountable? Where does the buck stop on this one?

In the scheme of things, when we are daily hearing about trillions of dollars, $1.2 billion may seem like small potatoes to the government, but I’m afraid we, the people, don’t think it is small potatoes and we’d like something done about it immediately.

FLYING FUR

Sometimes I wonder what the world is coming to. Imagine, an airline just for pets. My, My, My.

I know there lots of people who travel all over the world to dog and cat shows to show their animals, and these animals mostly ride in the cargo hold. I know there are some people whose little pet is small enough to ride under the seat in a regular airplane. And I also know some horror stories of dogs and cats riding in cargo and something going awry. But I guess I am just surprised that there is enough interest in flying pets around the country in the cabin of an airplane to be able to start up and sustain an airline with only pets as “pawsengers.”

If you look at this company’s website - http://petairways.com - you will find everything you ever wanted to know about how a traveling pooch or puss will get from here to there. At moment, there are flights going in and out of only five major cities: New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. The company actually operates out of smaller regional airports in the five launch cities, which will mean an extra trip for most owners dropping off their pets if they too are flying. And since a plane leaving LA with a “pawsenger” headed to New York makes a stop in Chicago, where the pets will have a bathroom break, play time, dinner and a good nights sleep, and I suppose pick up new “pawsengers” going to New York from Chicago, the flight will turn into close to a 24 hour trip. So the owners have to weigh some issues before they make a choice of how to get their little friend from point A to point B. If keeping them out of the cargo hold is one’s priority, then 24 hours en route is not going to be a deal breaker.

In reading carefully what is written on the company’s internet website, the plan really sounds like a wonderful step up from a cargo hold. It’s definitely first class service. And when you get down to it, the costs aren’t all that bad either.

When we came home from Istanbul bringing our two adoptees – Tigger and Cipsi – they travelled from Istanbul to Amsterdam in the cargo hold on a Turkish Airlines plane. And then two months later they traveled from Amsterdam to Los Angeles the same way on KLM Dutch Airlines. This was before I heard of all the calamities that can befall animals in the cargo hold. But even so, if my option had been to leave them behind or put them in the cargo hold, I was willing to take my chances. They arrived in LA happy as clams, none the worse for wear, and no psychological damage that we could see!

I will probably never have a choice whether to fly our little Squeaky the same way. I do believe that since she simply squeaks instead of meows, and because she is so little (a 10 pounder), she might do well under a seat on a regular plane, though I would probably worry myself sick about whether or not she is going to make a pest of herself with her squeaking. But that would be my method of choice if I were going on a trip where I needed to take her with me.

I wish this new airline well. I think there are many more people than I am aware of who would utilize this service, and the owners have seemed to think of everything. I’m going to keep my eyes open to follow the progress of this most interesting endeavor – a Pet Airlines, of all things!

I'VE BEEN CHEATED!

Justine, my youngest grandchild, just finished up kindergarten at a private elementary school in Los Angeles. Her mom sent me a copy of her report card and I’d like to share with you what the art teacher said:

“The Kindergarteners began the term with a drawing project intended to help me assess their developmental level. After that, we did a series of template drawings, a potent way to expand fine motor skills as well as begin thinking about elements of design. At first, the young artists worked with standard colored pencils on white paper, but then repeated the template project using metallic colored pencils on black paper. These variations demonstrated the connection between media used and product produced. We then did a bit of watercolor painting, an introductory project primarily designed to teach how to properly use watercolor sets and appropriate care for brushes. The next few weeks were spent on the Multicultural Day assignment, creating a project reminiscent of Uzbekistani textiles. Other goals of this project included an understanding of the concept of putting a drawing “in repeat,” an essential element in textile design. After that, we did a cartoon unit, using a series of simple characters, Otto O’Toole and friends. Cartooning, in addition to being fun, is a potent introduction to representational drawing. Finally, the children did an abstract design project, using various colors of plastic electrical tape. One of the goals of this task was to demonstrate how art can be created from materials not usually thought of in that context.”

Can you imagine a kindergartner having this kind of exposure to art? Yes, it is a private school and the classes are much smaller than classes in public school and surely it must be easier to find time (and teachers) to make this happen. But when I read this, my first reaction was to feel sorry for myself.

Little Justine is having the kind of art education I wish I had had! I have such a love of art and so little understanding of it. Fifteen years of schooling and no one ever told me about elements of design and the connection between media used and product produced. Nor about the essential elements of textile design and about representational drawing. I could go on, but it probably was that way with you too, if you went to public school in California.

I do remember taking Art 1 in 7th grade for the first semester and I think Music 1 replaced Art during the second semester. But at that time it was more “exposure” than “experiencing,” giving us just a wee acquaintance with the subject. From that point on, both art and music classes were electives. Unless we chose them to the exclusion of other academic classes, our art and music learning was finished!

If little kindergarteners are being exposed to these kinds of things when they are five years old and are having hands-on experience producing while they are learning, and if that exposure continues each year (which it does at Justine’s school), how enriching it is going to make Justine’s life as she grows up and has all of Los Angeles’ creative community at her fingertips.

I read her report card and thought to myself that I’ve been cheated!

WHEN WHITE IS GREEN

Now I can’t say as I understand all this, so you’ll have to bear with me if what I say is worded awkwardly or isn’t quite 100% accurate, but it’s about when a white onion turns green, which is a good thing for everybody.

Seems there is an onion farmer up in Oxnard, California who sends his onions to many places and in many forms. I’m talking about round, white onions, not long green onions. His onions are skinned, diced, sliced or packaged whole. However, he, (he being Steven Gill) says that machines slice off about 40% of each onion before it is packed. With the volume of onions handled in a workday, that produces about 150 tons of waste each day.

Up until recently he used these leavings as fertilizer for his fields or sold them to cattle farmers as feed for their stock. But Steve and his brother David came up with an idea. They put the leftovers into machines that extract about 30,000 gallons of onion juice, which is then sent to a huge holding tank that keeps it at 95 degrees F. Into that juice they add bacteria purchased from Anheuser-Busch beer brewery. Methane gas is produced by the bacteria feasting on the carbohydrates in the fermenting juice.

According to an article in the LA Times, the gas is purified, dehumidified and compressed, then burned in the fuel cells at temperatures that exceed 1,000 degrees. The 600-kilowatt system produces enough power to operate the plant’s refrigeration units and lighting.

This is called a closed-loop system. The brothers said there were massive up-front costs to get this system going, but he feels it was a long term investment for the company. He has sliced $700,000 annually off the electric bill at the 14 acre plant in Oxnard. He also saves $400,000 a year on disposal costs. It says it was a $9.5 million system that will pay for itself in less than six years. But best of all, it eliminates up to 30,000 tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions a year. Steven is proud that it is a great “sustainability” story, but he said it was first a business decision to solve a waste problem.

I was quite delighted to read this somewhat technical article. It is not easy to be “green.” It’s easy to leave the problem for someone else to worry about. It’s easy to think one’s own little contribution isn’t worth all the effort and change to even mess around with it. I am not much in touch with farming and businesses and electricity and so on, and I have to admit I don’t read much about sustainability and carbon footprints and even how to be “green.” But I was very impressed with what these fellows have done. I do think they are being good stewards of the earth, and felt I wanted to give them a thumbs up in my little corner of the internet!