Ellie's new found, um, freedom?

Ellie learned how to crawl a few weeks ago... backwards. She would spot something that she wanted a few feet away and then, to her dismay, get farther and farther away. Needless to say this didn't bring the much anticipated sense of accomplishment that would normally accompany just acquired mobility.

Within the last few days she has figured out how to crawl, ever so cautiously and carefully, forward.
Now I find her in the dangdest places. I'm almost always within a few feet of her, but I'll turn my back for the slightest moment, and suddenly hear a disgusted protest.

"Aah!" Ellie is under the futon.

"Aah!" Ellie's legs are under the silverware cabinet.

"Aah!" How did you even get there?

Devil Nut

We had a peanut incident yesterday.

Top o' the Morning to Ya!

Today, on one of my favorite days of the year, I'd like to share some Irish lore.

First of all, a toast to St. Patrick's Day*:
May God bring good health to your enemy's enemies.
*This toast shall use sparkling apple juice, seeing as St. Patrick's Day was once a religious holiday in which observers were to obstain from alcohol. Ironic, eh?

A saying:
A man that can't laugh at himself should be given a mirror.

(Some) Irish curses make me laugh:
May you be afflicted with the itch and have no nails to scratch with!

Here's a great curse from Nell Flaherty's drake:

May his spade never dig, may his sow never pig,
May each hair in his wig be well thrashed with a flail;
May his turkey not hatch, may the rats eat his meal.
May every old fairy from Cork to Dunleary
Dip him smug and airy in river or lake,
That the eel and the trout, they may dine on the snout
Of the monster that murdered Nell Flaherty's drake.

And how about some wise Irish Proverbs:

It is better to be a coward for a minute than dead the rest of your life.

He who has water and peat on his own farm has the world his own way.

And finally, a word on St. Patrick** himself.
**I learned the following from Carmel McCaffry and Leo Eaton's book, In Search of Ancient Ireland.

St. Patrick was born around 400 A.D. At this time, it was a common practice for Irish raiders to go across the sea and kidnap Brittains to sell into slavery. This was the fate of 16 year old Patrick who was snatched away to work on a sheep farm near the Wood of Fochlock overlooking the Killala bay (modern day Co. Mayo).

Although Patrick was the son of a deacon and the grandson of a Christian priest, he himself had strayed from his faith. In the dire circumstances of slavery, surrounded by an unfamiliar world of druids and paganism, Patrick prayed for comfort.

Patrick toiled for 6 years, and then one dark night comfort came as he was praying. In his Confession (one of only 2 surviving documents attributed to him) he says a voice came to him, "It is good that you pray and fast and soon you will go back to your homeland." Later he heard a voice telling him a ship was waiting for him to take him home. After traveling 200 difficult miles, he talked his way on board the ship which took him home.

"That's it?" you say? NO! His family was overjoyed to see him, and he studied dilligently and became a priest. Then the spirit of the Lord called him back to Ireland to convert the people to Christianity. He was a humble man, and rather than telling the Irish that their pagan beliefs were false, he bound common beliefs and meshed Christianity with their own practices. (The Irish at this time held many beliefs which were centered around the changing of the seasons).

So what about banishing the snakes from Ireland while on a hilltop? This is a myth (see what the history channel has to say). Apparently, there never were snakes in Ireland. (A place after me own heart).

It seems that different churches were trying to attract pilgrims to their parishes long after St. Patrick died. This was a way of gaining income. So, many myths about Patrick were made up in order to attract parishoners. I'm sure myths about him were made up for all kinds of reasons. I guess he makes for a good story!

And so, I'll leave you with one last bit of Irish lore:

Wisdom is the comb given to a man after he has lost his hair.
- Irish Saying

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here are some great St. Patrick's Day sites:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~julieann/st__patrick's_day.htm (this is a great site).

Irish Culture and Customs

St. Patrick: The Man and the Myth

An interview with Susan Marks

After a surprise comment on my post, “The Home Legion!” by Susan Marks, author of Finding Betty Crocker, I decided that this gal not only wrote upstanding books, but was pretty personable as well. She graciously agreed to an interview, vie e-mail.

As for a bio, I thought an auto-bio would be most tasteful. In her own words:

When Susan Marks was a child she won a huge, pink Betty Crocker cake in a cakewalk, and she never fully recovered. Susan parleyed her love for cake, pop culture and women’s history into the book, Finding Betty Crocker and documentary film, The Betty Mystique.
Susan is also a writer/producer/director with her own production company, Lazy Susan Productions. She is currently writing a screenplay about a bridal shower that turns into a “freak show with punch and presents.” And Susan is dabbling in the dark side with her a new documentary film about dollhouse murders (currently in production). In 2007, Susan made Mpls./St. Paul magazine’s short list of “Five Local Filmmakers to Watch.” (She was the only female filmmaker to make the list.)

What was it about Betty Crocker that interested you for the subject of your book?

I used to be a tour guide for the Historic Milling district in Minneapolis (Minnesota Historical Society). I talked about Betty Crocker on my tours and everyone seemed to get excited when I mentioned that she was "born" in the milling district. At first, I really didn't get it. I kept thinking, "people are sure buying into this advertising - she isn't even a real person!" But then I realized there was a rich story that goes way beyond advertising. Betty had history.

As I read your book, it seemed to me that the voice behind Betty Crocker truly was concerned about her fellowman.

Do you mean "fellowwoman"? ;)
Hey, mass consumerism includes men too, right? :-)

It’s hard to forget that her primary reason for existence was to peddle flour. At one time she even had her own radio show in which she gave advice that seemingly conflicted at times. What is your opinion on corporate 'advice columns'? (For lack of a better term).

Yes Betty was a bundle of contradictions just like all of us. Her #1 purpose was to sell GMI products and that was no secret to consumers, but there was a human side that appealed to many because of the genuine advice given by real woman who worked at the Betty Crocker Kitchens. After World War Two, that personal touch faded due to the consumer products boom that swallowed the nation.


You work with various forms of media, including documentaries. What are the most fascinating aspects of this form of communication?

I really love working in documentaries because it is a challenge to fuse together a compelling story, music, and visuals. I love seeing it all come together.

What is your worst cooking disaster ever?

I made a chiffon cake (Betty Crocker recipe) and it turned out vile. Still not sure what I did wrong.

Are you a good cook? Any advice for the culinary inept?

I'm not a great cook. I have a 55 year stove/oven and that really holds me back.

You must have had to study areas other than General Mills in order to write your book. What do you think life was like for women going through WWII and all the baggage that came with it (such as rationing)?

Yes, I studied a lot of American Women's History as an undergrad and grad student. I devoted a whole chapter to WWII because it was such a rough time for women. The rationing points system wasn't as straightforward as one might think. Nothing was easy, some foods were discontinued in addition to rationing, child care was a huge issue, much was up in the air and unknown, families were torn apart and uprooted. I heard a woman who was a new bride in the war era say, "We never got used to it."

Betty Crocker's staff tried to help women who were depressed due to the stresses of the wartime era, but I won't spoil it, it's in the book!


I think that Julia Child would be a fascinating subject for a film. (Check out a brief bio at http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9246767 Did you know she was a spy living in China for the secret service? COOL!)

I didn't know this!

How do you choose your subjects?

I pick projects based on the fact that I can't get them out of my head.

You are working on a book about Band-Aid bandages. How interesting! Can you share any fascinating facts?

The band-aid book didn't turn out to be all the fascinating, mostly because Johnson and Johnson doesn't have an archive. They didn't save anything. I feel really lucky that General Mills did! Without their archive I wouldn't have such a rich story to tell in both my film and book.
But I can share that my current project, a documentary film on dollhouse crime scenes is pretty fascinating. Frances Glessner Lee, "the patron saint of forensics", created dollhouse murder scenes to help train detectives to interpret crime scenes in the 1930s and 1940s. The dollhouses are so well done that they are still used today in training homicide detectives and FBI agents.

So, there you go! Isn't Susan a fantastic person?

Thank you, Susan.

Hey, I didn't even know the guy

I have been doing some geneological research and have learned some fascinating things.

I found out that I have an ancestor who was a Lady in Waiting to the Queen of England. She fell out of favor, however, when she backed out of an arranged royal marriage and ran off with a dashing young sailor. (Isn't that romantic? What a gal!) They later joined the LDS church and set sail for America.

I also have an ancestor who was a town crier in Glamorganshire, Wales. Some of his young sons were Colliers (coal miners). His wife passed away, and so did 5 or 6 of his children. He eventually emmigrated to America as well because of his new found faith.

Many of my ancestors helped to settle America in the 1600s. I wonder what life was like for them. (To find out more about your ancestors, go to www.familysearch.org. Be aware that you will be unable to find information about any living relatives).

I'm also related to John D. Lee, the only man executed for his connection with the Mountain Meadows massacre. He was my Great, Great, Great Grandfather. I won't go into that horrible tragedy, but will say that there is a hidden blessing in being related to an infamous figure- much of his family history is done. This brings me to an interesting thought. My Step-Grandmother's ancestor witnessed against John D. Lee in his trial. They didn't realize they would share common posterity generations away.

So here's the interesting thought:

Call yourself the 1st generation. Each generation you go back to doubles:

Generation Person Number in that group

1st . . . . .You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2nd . . . . Your Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3rd . . . . Your Grandparents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4th . . . . Your Great Grandparents . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5th . . . . Your Gr. Gr. Grandparents . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6th . . . . Your Gr. Gr. Gr. Grandparents . . . . . . . . 32
7th . . . . Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Grandparents . . . . . . . . .64
8th . . . . Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Grandparents . . . . . . 128
9th . . . . Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Grandparents . . . . 256
10th . . . Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Grandparents . 512

So, that's (not counting you) a total of 1,022 people that you are directly descended from. It took over a thousand people over 9 generations to make you! And now, a sobering thought. 10 generations ago, there were 512 people walking around that you are now related to. Chances are, they all didn't know each other, nor had any idea that they would all one day share a common descendent generations later.

This made me want to even nicer to everyone around me. Because hey, there are 512 of us walking around today that will share a common Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. Gr. grandchild, and I don't want any of them to write something crummy about me in their memoirs for our posterity to read!

Just a thought.

I have been tagged

So, I got tagged. Usually this would mean a call to the grafiti removal people from the city (which I've had to do recently, and already need to do again). This time the tag was more pleasant. It was from Ron and Jessica. So, here we go!

Six Things Everyone Should Accomplish Before They Turn 18*

*Not being the authority on the subject, this is purely opinion and does not constitute all inclusive wisdom. The following is presented in no particular order.

1. Clean up your filthy room. There will come a point when you realize that resistance to Mom's wisdom is futile.
2. Stop doing things to make everybody else happy. Do things because they are the right things to do.
3. You know that kid who sits alone at lunch every day? Go sit by them.
4. Firgure out where you stand, and promise yourself (and God) that you won't diverge from your principles. Making decisions ahead of time about what you will and won't do makes doing the right thing easier when the time comes.
5. Realize that you are a precious, precious person and that God loves you.
6. Take your little brother or sister along. Years from now you'll be grateful for the friendship of your family.

Cheesy? Maybe.

Alright Karen, The Merrills, Alyssa, the Bylunds, and Heidi- TAG! You're it!