Blame me for reading

Posted on 19. Mar, 2010 by kchristieh in books

How would you feel if you woke up in jail, unable to remember the past few days, only to discover that you’re accused of homicide? That’s the premise of by Michelle Huneven. I heard her speak at the Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse last night. She read from her book, and took questions about the book and the process of writing it. I can’t wait to read it. She says that it’s about a woman who’s made a conscious decision to live a good life, even after something so horrible that she can’t even remember. By the way, she’s a local author, and part of the book takes place in La Canada. I told her she needs to meet local mystery/crime author Dianne Emley.

After Michelle spoke, Joe Murphy, a representative from W.W. Norton Publishing, went through a stack of his books that he says would be great for book clubs to read. He made them all sound wonderful, and I wish I had more time in the day! (Hahaha – as I write this, it’s 3:33 am…not a good solution to gaining more hours in the day!)

Here are the books he recommends, with a short explanation of why I remember he liked them so much:

• by Diane Ackerman: The true story of how the zookeepers of the Warsaw Zoo managed to hide Jews from the Nazis, even as they cared for the last remaining animals. It’s a fascinating story, and amazing that this hasn’t been written about earlier.
• by Sarah Thornton: Essays about experiences ranging from a critical review class at Cal Arts to auction day at Christie’s.
• by David Small: A biographical graphic novel about an incredibly dysfunctional family.
• by Michael Lewis: The account of some of the few people who managed to foresee our current economic crisis. When I returned from the book event, the first thing my husband said to me was that he wanted to read this book, and he didn’t even know it was discussed. But, he has a Kindle, so I won’t be getting it for him from the bookstore. You can read an excerpt in this month’s Vanity Fair.
• by Dara Horn: About two undercover spies in the Civil War who fall in love…but are on opposite sides of the conflict. Joe said he thought this was perhaps the best-written of the books he recommended, and found it fascinating to learn about Jewish culture in the mid-1800’s.
• by Michael Cox: A Victorian thriller about a lawyer who discovers that he’s the rightful heir to an estate, but has to fight to gain possession. It’s very Dickensian, and even has a sequel, .
• by Brady Udall: This was the grand raffle prize of the evening, and I won it! Amazon says this book won’t be published until May 3rd, so I’m lucky to be able to read it so early. Joe was really excited about this one, and the writeup he gave us said it’s the most anticipated novel of 2010. It’s the “tragicomedy of a deeply faithful man who, crippled by grief and the demands of work and family, becomes entangled in an affair that threatens to destroy his family’s future.” He said that it’s very well-written, and has some very funny spots. He also said that despite the large number of characters (the protagonist has 29 children), the author does such a good job of going into depth only on certain ones that it never gets confusing. (Too bad Juan Rulfo didn’t write like this!)

After the event, we were given “goody bags” with book samples. I chose one with a book called by Joanna Trollope in it. It’ll be published on April 13th, and its only reviewer on Amazon.com so far gives it 5 stars and says that she stayed up past 3 am to finish it. That sounds like my kind of book! (But how can I stay up past 3 am and yet wake up at 3 am? Don’t blame me for trying!)

Many thanks to the wonderful folks at the Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse for putting on such a marvelous event. Catherine Linka was an incredible hostess, leading us in an engaging game of “Name that Literary Hunk” and giving eloquent introductions to the speaker. She and the bookstore are a treasure to our community.

Stuck on the 2010 Census race question

Posted on 17. Mar, 2010 by kchristieh in my life

Filling out the 2010 Census was as easy as promised until I got to Question 9: What is Person 1’s race? Mark one or more boxes.

Person #1, aka my husband, is Mexican-American, so Question 8: Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin? was easy. From what we know of his heritage, he’s part-Spanish, part-Italian, part-Persian and like so many Mexicans, part-Native American. In fact, when he swabbed the inside of his cheek a few years ago and sent the cells off to a company that National Geographic worked with to perform a DNA test, it came back saying that his ancestors crossed the Bering Strait and traveled to South America.

Unfortunately, the choices for Question 9 discouraged us from picking American Indian, since it asks the name of the enrolled or principal tribe. Who knows how many eons ago his ancestors were part of an American Indian tribe? They were probably Aztecs or Mayans more recently, but that wasn’t a choice.

If he’d been Chinese, it would have been much easier. Question 9 separates out Asian Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese as different races. I consider them all to be Asian, though I appreciate that they have distinct cultures. On the other hand, if they’re looking to track distinct cultures, why don’t they track Arabs? I’m not the first to notice that omission.

I heard on the radio the other day that it wasn’t until Medieval times that people even really cared about race. (Although I’d bet some slaves would argue with that.) It’s sad that humans are hung up on the color of one’s skin. Perhaps the more that people get to know people of different races and intermarry, they’ll not only better appreciate what’s inside a person and not what’s on the outside, but it’ll be harder and harder to determine what race someone is. (Click here to see The Onion’s take on this.) Since it’s St. Patrick’s Day, maybe it would be easier if we were all Irish. Just kidding – it would be easy for me, but others might object.

By the way, he told me to mark White on the form. I will, but it only tells part of his story. At least Question 8 tells another part.

Stressing out at the fork in the road

Posted on 16. Mar, 2010 by kchristieh in education

‘Tis the season when high school seniors across the country run to the mailbox each day hoping that a big, thick envelope from the university of their choice has arrived. Until it arrives, the internet makes it easy to track how others have fared, and stress out about what that means for you or your child.

Traditional college information sites such as Princeton Review, Students Review, etc. are most useful before a student applies or after they’re accepted at a college. When you’re awaiting a response, it’s easy to get addicted to College Confidential, which hosts discussion forums on a variety of different topics and different colleges. If you’re even moderately stressed about the application process, you should proceed with caution. Once you start scanning the forums for the schools you’re applying to, you might get hooked. And chances are, your level of stress will go up, not down.

Here are some sample postings:

From the Stanford forum:

I’m hosed and depressed
I get straight A’s, but somehow my rank is 27…my classes are challenging. I don’t understand how this could happen. My friend has the exact same schedule as me but is ranked 21. I used to be rank 3 or 4. I don’t understand. I haven’t even met anyone ranked higher than me, I don’t know who these people are that are beating me. Are they tanking extra classes? I don’t know.

My chances of going to Stanford are gone now…my rank was the only thing I had going for me. All I have left are essays. Please, someone help me.

From the UCLA forum:

Welcome in my world everyone !
EVERY SINGLE PERSON told me I had good chances to get into UCLA. And yesterday night, I checked and got rejected.. People with waaaay lower scores than me got in and not me !
Even more, it was my first answer, and almost all of my other choices are Ivy Leagues..
What should I think now ?!

From the Yale forum:

I heard that Yale accepts only 1 person per school, no matter the size or reputation, no matter what. Is this true?

A response to the Yale post read:

as everyone has said, this is untrue. the fact that there is usually only one per year at some mediocre schools is probably due to the quality of the student more than to the quality of the school. it has been true in my case, but as i said that is probably due to the quality of the applicant in my school/town, not to any quota system.

Another useful but possibly-stress-inducing site is the Scattergrams section of Naviance. I believe you can only access this through a specific high school account, but many high schools offer this to their students. It plots how students at a given high school have fared when applying to a specific college, with test scores on the x-axis and GPA on the y-axis. A green dot means a student got in, and a red x means they were rejected. Here’s an example. I removed the college name, since this reflects the students at a specific high school.

Of course, don’t forget Facebook. When letters come from a given college, many kids post whether they were accepted or not.

A friend reminded me the other day that “College is not a prize to be won, but a match to be made.” Wise words to remember. I can’t wait until April 1st, I think.

Rice Krispies Treat symbolizes a new day for beleaguered city

Posted on 14. Mar, 2010 by kchristieh in food, local news

Once upon a time, a truck crashed. Then a bigger truck crashed. Then came fires. Then mudslides. Finally, the fair and gentle citizens of La Canada Flintridge gathered together to build a big, magical Rice Krispies Treat that would make all their troubles disappear. **POOF** Nothing bad ever happened again.

The End.

Volunteers desperately needed to build Rice Krispies Treat

Posted on 13. Mar, 2010 by kchristieh in food, local news

Help!!! The people building the World’s Largest Rice Krispie Treat at the Community Center of La Canada need more people to help them complete the task tonight! Head on over to the Community Center, and they’ll put you to work bagging marshmallows (my specialty), scooping butter, mixing ingredents, and more. All ages welcome. Be a part of La Canada history!

While you’re at it, you might make it onto the new reality tv show, “Mega Bites.” Woohoo! Learn more in my previous post.

See you at the carnival tomorrow, 1 pm – 4 pm.

It’s a Bigger and Better weekend in La Cañada

Posted on 12. Mar, 2010 by kchristieh in my life

Tonight several dozen junior high students descended upon La Canada for a “Bigger or Better” scavenger hunt. Each of four groups started out at La Canada Presbyterian Church with a paper clip and instructions to ask residents of different streets if they’d trade what the kids had for something “bigger or better.” Our group consisted of about a dozen confident, polite 7th and 8th grade girls who enthusiastically explained to complete strangers what they were doing. It was a pleasure to see how their infectious enthusiasm inspired people to dig into their closets and garages for increasingly more impressive items. Along the way we obtained a pack of gum, a teapot, two basketballs, a garbage can and two boxes. We wound up with a very big box. Other groups beat us out, however, with their working Sony television, uncharged ATV and vintage bicycle.

All items collected will be donated to an upcoming Girl Scout garage sale which is raising money for Haitian earthquake victims.

We all had a great time. What a win-win-win activity!

Here are the final items each group brought back:

Speaking of Bigger and Better…stay tuned for more about the giant Rice Krispie treat being constructed in La Canada this weekend. Yummy!!

Memorize this, in case it stops a runaway Prius

Posted on 10. Mar, 2010 by kchristieh in travel

After years of driving big cars, I was thrilled to get my 2008 Toyota Prius two years ago. It’s easy to maneuver and I love not wasting gas. When I received a recall notice last Fall asking me to take the car in because the accelerator might get stuck under the floor mat, I examined the floor mat and decided that was highly unlikely. I’ll have the dealer take care of it when I go in for my regular service.

I was hoping that the sticky accelerator problems that have been documented on 2009-10 models wouldn’t apply to mine, but the New York Times tells how two separate runaway Prius incidents don’t appear to have anything to do with floor mats:

But a man whose 2008 Prius raced along 30 miles of Interstate in California at up to 94 miles an hour before the police helped him stop it has insisted that the floor mat was not interfering.

Also, the police who responded to a crash Tuesday morning of a 2005 Prius into a stone wall in Harrison, N.Y., said the floor mat had been tied to the seat frame, presumably by a dealer.

“We can rule out the mats,” Harrison’s acting police chief, Anthony Marraccini, said.

It sounds like Toyota doesn’t know what to do about the sticking accelerator issue. Until they do, I still need my car, and will hope and pray that my car doesn’t experience any problems.

The Los Angeles Times details how the driver of the 2008 Prius got his car to stop:

Sikes said his “nerve-racking” experience ended when a CHP officer, responding to his 911 call, instructed him through a loudspeaker to apply his emergency brake in tandem with the brake pedal. Sikes pressed down, hard. “My bottom wasn’t even on the seat,” he said.

When the Prius, which had reached 90 mph, dropped to about 50 mph, Sikes turned off the engine and coasted to a stop. There was nothing else he could have done to stop the car, Sikes said.

One of the comments on the GreenCarReports.com article about the recall had a tip on how to stop a Prius if it suddenly accelerates:

I own a 2010 Prius and took it for a spin today to see if I could stop the car with my foot jammed down on the accelerator. Twice I put it in neutral with the engine roaring and each time it shifted to neutral and put the engine in idle where I could easily stop the car. Here is the trick… Just shifting to neutral didn’t do it. You have to hold the stick in the neutral position for a couple of seconds before it cuts in. Try it. It’s pretty easy and the test put my mind at ease. I’m confident that I can stop my car if this acceleration issue happens to me (whatever the cause).

The driver in yesterday’s incident didn’t want to try that:

When the accelerator stuck, he said he weighed all his options. He feared turning the car off in the middle of traffic, expecting the steering wheel to lock. If he shifted into neutral, he worried that it would slip into reverse.

Hopefully this won’t be necessary. Thank goodness I’m not trying to sell my car right now. And thank goodness I can teach my son to drive on a different car.

Summary:

Two things to try:

1. Apply the emergency brakes at the same time as you press on the gas pedal. When your speed drops, turn off the engine. OR
2. Hold the stick in the neutral position for a few seconds in order to get it to go to neutral.

Video of Kara Powell speaking on “Graduating from Faith” (Part 1)

Posted on 08. Mar, 2010 by kchristieh in religion

Who do teens say provide the most support to them? Parents or friends? What percentage of kids leave their faith behind when they leave high school? What characterizes kids who don’t leave their faith behind?

Find the answers to these and more by viewing Kara Powell’s great presentation from yesterday’s Growing Families talk at La Canada Presbyterian Church. I even purchased a Vimeo account so that I could post a 38-minute video. Mark your calendar for her next talk at 9:30 am on March 28th.

from on .

Location: La Canada Presbyterian Church (LCPC)

Date: March 7, 2010

Guest speaker: Kara E. Powell, Ph.D. Executive Director, Fuller Youth Institute, Fuller Theological Seminary

Description:

“As leaders, parents, and grandparents, we do all we can to help kids develop a faith that lasts. Yet according to research conducted by the Fuller Youth Institute, somewhere between one-third and one-half of graduating seniors pick up their diplomas and ditch their faith. Why is that? And equally important, what can we do NOW when kids are in preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, and college to help them develop sticky faith? Regardless of how old or young the kids you care about are, come and learn all sorts of practical tips that you can apply immediately to help kids develop a faith that sticks for the long haul.”

Dr. Kara E. Powell serves as an Assistant Professor in Youth and Family Ministry and the Executive Director of the Center for Youth and Family Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary. Prior to that, Kara was an Assistant Professor of Youth Ministry and Practical Theology at Azusa Pacific University.

In addition to her roles at Fuller Seminary, Kara currently volunteers in student ministries at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena. She was also college pastor at Lake Avenue Church from 1995-1998 and was the Associate Youth Minister at San Diego First Assembly of God from 1991-1995. During college, Kara gained an ongoing commitment to church/parachurch partnerships during her time on Young Life Student Staff in the Stanford area.

Kara is the co-author of Deep Justice in a Broken World, Deep Ministry in a Shallow World, as well as many other books on youth and women’s ministries.

Kara is also a regular speaker at Youth Specialties National Youth Workers Conventions, Forest Home Christian Conference Center, as well as retreats and conferences across the country.

Elderly couple playing piano

Posted on 04. Mar, 2010 by kchristieh in inspirational people, music, videos

When I’m 90, I want to be able to do this. I guess I better start learning piano soon! Here’s a video of Marlow and Frances Cowan playing piano at the Mayo Clinic:

According to the WishTV8 website, this is no hoax: the Cowans were at the Mayo Clinic for five days, and enjoyed playing the piano there between appointments.

“I saw that piano and it said ‘if you’d like to play it’ and I touched the key and I thought, WOW, now THAT’s a piano,” said Marlow.

They’ve played the piano in nursing homes, prisons and hospitals for years, but have never had the audience they’ve achieved on YouTube. They don’t have a computer at home, so they’re surprised by all the attention.

Maybe when I’m 90 I’ll shock people with my up-to-date technical skills instead of playing piano.  :)

The whole Alice in Wonderland story in one print

Posted on 03. Mar, 2010 by kchristieh in art

No picture has ever drawn me in like “Alice in Wonderland” by Ayres Houghtelling (b. 1912). Alice is pictured at least 24 times in this 19″ x 25.5″ print as she makes her way through all the major events of the book. My mother inherited the print from her stepmother, and I admired it so much that I purchased one on eBay many years ago. This print was created in 1947, and was the centerfold in Colliers magazine. I love how Alice in Wonderland has inspired such a range of artists and performers, and can’t wait to see the new Alice in Wonderland movie. (Click on the picture below to see a larger version.)

Houghtelling is a man of principle. This from the Ottawa Citizen tells how he snubbed the Italian government by smearing blood on a mural he’d just painted that included a hand “crushing a mass of nude humanity, and a key figure – a helmeted nude of little or no beauty – executing one of those extended arm salutes.” The Italian government threatened to remove the art exhibit if he didn’t “remove Mussolini” from the mural. Houghtelling responded, “I cannot change this mural, which I consider a masterpiece dedicated to an American free press.”

I also found another print by Houghtelling on eBay that depicts the Life of Christ. I’ll blog about that on Easter, so stay tuned.

In case you’re looking for your own copy of these, the words at the bottom say “Art-Told Tales” and “Beck Gravure.”

Pasadena Star News supports 9-1-1 immunity bill

Posted on 03. Mar, 2010 by kchristieh in politics

The Pasadena Star News supports AB 1999, the 9-1-1 Immunity bill introduced by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino.

To encourage getting help, we support the granting of immunity from criminal prosecution to underage drinkers who call for help for a friend and then stay until medical help arrives.

Under current law, underage drinkers who call 9-1-1 for someone else can be prosecuted themselves. Under a bill by Pasadena Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, the threat of prosecution – a barrier to getting medical attention for a friend – is removed.

They sum it up especially well at the end:

It shouldn’t be a crime to get help for a friend.

At our recent meeting, the La Canada High School PTSA also voted to endorse this bill. Hopefully others will join in, and it will pass in time to save some lives.

Links:

• Read my original blog post about AB 1999.
• See the Pasadena Star News story about AB 1999.