Monthly Archives: June 2012

How To Use Hazard Lights – Self Help

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Emergency lights (or hazard lights) are for EMERGENCIES.  Emergencies are not defined as:  unable to find a legal parking spot, just running in real quick to get something, or picking up/dropping off people.  Emergency lights do not trump laws just because you have activated them.  Have some grace.

Many automobiles use their front and rear signal lights to create hazard lights in a distinctive lighting pattern which can be used to alert other drivers to a problem. Typically, hazard lights run on the same circuit as regular lights, although they are controlled with a separate switch. Knowing how and when to use hazard lights can be useful in an emergency situation, although you should also be equipped with highway flares.

Hazard lights are actuated with a small switch located near the steering column. Usually it is in a separate area, so that the lights cannot be turned on accidentally by an unwitting hand. In many cars, the switch has a small triangular icon on it, and it is often red or orange, to make it more visible in emergencies. The two most common types of hazard light switches are tabs which need to be pulled, and buttons which are pressed.

When the switch is activated, all of the turn signals on the vehicle will simultaneously illuminate and start flashing in a rhythmic pattern. This pattern is highly visible and very unique, so that drivers will not confuse it with turn signals or approaching headlights. As a general rule, if you see a vehicle with hazard lights on up ahead, you should slow down until you know what the problem it.

Most commonly, hazard lights are used on a disabled car which has been pulled to the side of the road. Especially at night, they increase the visibility of the car so that it will not be hit. It also alerts drivers to the fact that there is a problem of some kind, and some drivers use hazard lights to ask for help, usually in combination with leaving the hood up. Responders to an accident scene may also use their hazard lights to warn drivers about unusual conditions up ahead, and to help clear a lane for the accident.  Hazard lights should not be used as a free pass to park wherever the driver wants, illegal parking is illegal parking, hazard lights or not.

Driving should never be done with the hazard lights alone, as this can be highly dangerous. Hazard lights should also not be used to warn oncoming traffic about approaching hazards. A much better choice is flashing your headlights or lightly tapping your horn. Using hazard lights may distract or confuse the oncoming driver, while flashing your lights is generally interpreted as a sign to slow down and be cautious. Hazard lights can also be used to check whether or not your signals are using when your car is in a parked and safe position, such as your driveway. Turn the key to the “accessory” stage and turn the hazard lights on so that you can walk all the way around your car and make sure that no bulbs need to be replaced.

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What I Won’t And Will Miss – Nora Ephron

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The great Nora Ephron passed away this week, aged 71, following a battle with leukemia that began in 2006. She had many strings to her bow, but most notably wrote the screenplays to some of the best loved films ever to grace the big screen, many of which she also directed and produced. She wrote the following lists — of things she won’t and will miss — in 2010 and used them to close her book, I Remember Nothing.

(Source: “I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections” by Nora Ephron)

What I Won’t Miss

Dry skin

Bad dinners like the one we went to last night

E-mail

Technology in general

My closet

Washing my hair

Bras

Funerals

Illness everywhere

Polls that show that 32 percent of the American people believe in creationism

Polls

Fox TV

The collapse of the dollar

Bar mitzvahs

Mammograms

Dead flowers

The sound of the vacuum cleaner

Bills

E-mail. I know I already said it, but I want to emphasize it.

Small print

Panels on Women in Film

Taking off makeup every night

What I Will Miss

My kids

Nick

Spring

Fall

Waffles

The concept of waffles

Bacon

A walk in the park

The idea of a walk in the park

The park

Shakespeare in the Park

The bed

Reading in bed

Fireworks

Laughs

The view out the window

Twinkle lights

Butter

Dinner at home just the two of us

Dinner with friends

Dinner with friends in cities where none of us lives

Paris

Next year in Istanbul

Pride and Prejudice

The Christmas tree

Thanksgiving dinner

One for the table

The dogwood

Taking a bath

Coming over the bridge to Manhattan

Pie

via Lists of Note.

Nowhere to Be and All Day to Get There

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Today is my mother’s last day of work, ever.  She retires at probably 3:30pm.  This is a letter I sent her last night so she would get it first thing when she got to work:

Today is your last day!

It must be a relief.

I remember you working as a Teacher’s Aid and going to school without any support from our father.  I remember eating a lot of spaghetti.  I remember you graduating and getting your first new Computer Programmer job and how much better you felt about yourself.  I remember you getting your current job and people relying more and more on you there.  I remember the difference in you once you got a job using your brain in a way that you enjoyed and for which you knew you were uniquely adept.

You need to know that I appreciate everything you did for us:  all the sacrifices you made and hard work you put in to make our family successful.

Now is your time to relax and focus on purely selfish persuits.  Find things that you never had enough time to do, things you always wanted to try, foolish things.  Waste entire days.  Although, I am guessing that gradually, what once seemed like a “wasted” day will become a productive movie marathon or sunbathing and book reading day.  At least I hope.

I hope you have decades of wasted days.  You have earned them tenfold.

Jay Inslee – Washington State’s Next Governor

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Visit http://www.jayinslee.com/home

Voting History Compiled by On The Issues: http://ontheissues.org/House/Jay_Inslee.htm

Jay Inslee on Abortion
Voted NO on banning federal health coverage that includes abortion. (May 2011)
Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Jan 2007)
Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)

Jay Inslee on Budget & Economy
Voted YES on regulating the subprime mortgage industry. (Nov 2007)

Jay Inslee on Civil Rights
Voted YES on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation. (Nov 2007)
Voted NO on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman. (Jul 2006)
Voted NO on making the PATRIOT Act permanent. (Dec 2005)
Rated 100% by the HRC, indicating a pro-gay-rights stance. (Dec 2006

Jay Inslee on Corporations
Voted YES on more funding for nanotechnology R&D and commercialization. (Jul 2009)
Voted YES on allowing stockholder voting on executive compensation. (Apr 2007)

Jay Inslee on Crime
Voted YES on enforcing against anti-gay hate crimes. (Apr 2009)

Jay Inslee on Drugs
Voted NO on prohibiting needle exchange & medical marijuana in DC. (Oct 1999)

Jay Inslee on Education
Voted YES on $40B for green public schools. (May 2009)
Voted YES on additional $10.2B for federal education & HHS projects. (Nov 2007)
Rated 100% by the NEA, indicating pro-public education votes. (Dec 2003)

Jay Inslee on Energy & Oil
Voted NO on barring EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. (Apr 2011)
Voted YES on tax incentives for renewable energy. (Feb 2008)
Rated 100% by the CAF, indicating support for energy independence. (Dec 2006)

Jay Inslee on Environment
Rated 100% by the LCV, indicating pro-environment votes. (Dec 2003)

Jay Inslee on Families & Children
Voted YES on four weeks of paid parental leave for federal employees. (Jun 2009)
Rated 15% by the Christian Coalition: an anti-Family-Value voting record. (Dec 2003)

Jay Inslee on Foreign Policy
Voted YES on $156M to IMF for 3rd-world debt reduction. (Jul 2000)

Jay Inslee on Free Trade
Voted YES on assisting workers who lose jobs due to globalization. (Oct 2007)

Jay Inslee on Government Reform
Voted YES on protecting whistleblowers from employer recrimination. (Mar 2007)

Jay Inslee on Gun Control
Voted NO on prohibiting product misuse lawsuits on gun manufacturers. (Oct 2005)
Voted NO on prohibiting suing gunmakers & sellers for gun misuse. (Apr 2003)
Voted NO on decreasing gun waiting period from 3 days to 1. (Jun 1999)
Rated F by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun control voting record. (Dec 2003)

Jay Inslee on Health Care
Voted YES on expanding the Children’s Health Insurance Program. (Jan 2009)
Voted NO on banning physician-assisted suicide. (Oct 1999)
Rated 100% by APHA, indicating a pro-public health record. (Dec 2003)

Jay Inslee on Homeland Security
Rated 89% by SANE, indicating a pro-peace voting record. (Dec 2003)
Repeal Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell, and reinstate discharged gays. (Mar 2010)

Jay Inslee on Immigration
Voted NO on building a fence along the Mexican border. (Sep 2006)
Rated 0% by FAIR, indicating a voting record loosening immigration. (Dec 2003)
Rated 0% by USBC, indicating an open-border stance. (Dec 2006)

Jay Inslee on Jobs
Voted YES on end offshore tax havens and promote small business. (Oct 2004)
Rated 87% by the AFL-CIO, indicating a pro-union voting record. (Dec 2003)

Jay Inslee on Principles & Values
Rated 100% by the AU, indicating support of church-state separation. (Dec 2006)
Member of Democratic Leadership Council. (Nov 2007)

Jay Inslee on Social Security
Rated 100% by the ARA, indicating a pro-senior voting record. (Dec 2003)

Jay Inslee on Tax Reform
Voted NO on making the Bush tax cuts permanent. (Apr 2002)
Rated 100% by the CTJ, indicating support of progressive taxation. (Dec 2006)

Jay Inslee on Technology
Voted NO on terminating funding for National Public Radio. (Mar 2011)

Jay Inslee on War & Peace
Voted YES on investigating Bush impeachment for lying about Iraq. (Jun 2008)

Jay Inslee on Welfare & Poverty
Voted YES on providing $70 million for Section 8 Housing vouchers. (Jun 2006)

Jay Inslee For Governor

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I am quite sad that you are ill

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Today I bring you a vibrantly illustrated ‘Get Well Soon’ note – presumably coloured in such a way so as to cheer up its recipient – sent to renowned French poet Jean Cocteau in 1916 during a short period of bad health. The letter was sent to him by his friend, Pablo Picasso; a man who needs no introduction.

Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A translated transcript follows.

My dear Cocteau

I am quite sad that you are ill. I hope that you will be well soon and that I will see you. At Montparnasse next Wednesday’s festivities in honor of the musician I hope to see you. I have good ideas for our theater story – we shall talk about it.

Best wishes

Picasso

via Letters of Note: I am quite sad that you are ill.

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Pearl S. Buck – Style Icon

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NAME: Pearl S. Buck
OCCUPATION: Civil Rights Activist, Women’s Rights Activist, Author
BIRTH DATE: June 28, 1892
DEATH DATE: March 06, 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH: Hillsboro, West Virginia
PLACE OF DEATH: Danby, Vermont
AKA: Sai Zhenzhu
ORIGINALLY: Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker

BEST KNOWN FOR: Pearl S. Buck was the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her novel The Good Earth won the Pulitzer in 1932.

Today is the birthday of novelist Pearl S. Buck, born in Hillsboro, West Virginia (1892). Her parents were Christian missionaries in China who returned to America for Pearl’s birth. But when she was three months old, they headed back to China. Buck’s father, Absalom, was a fundamentalist Presbyterian preacher — and a distant father. In many of the villages where he traveled, he was the first white person the villagers had ever seen, and they were put off by him. They were unimpressed by his fire-and-brimstone sermons, and he estimated that he converted about 10 people over the course of 10 years. Still, he kept trying. Pearl’s mother, Caroline, resented being so far from her home in West Virginia. She tried her best to keep the mud walls and floors of their hut clean, and she planted American flowers everywhere. Finally, when Pearl was four, she told her husband that they were moving to a city or she was going home. So they moved to the city of Zhenjiang, but all they could afford there were three crowded rooms in an apartment in one of the poorest sections of the city, a district full of prostitutes and drug addicts. Absalom and Caroline receive a small stipend for their work as missionaries, but Absalom squandered much of the family’s budget on his pet project: translating the New Testament into Chinese. He spent 30 years working on it. Buck wrote: “He printed edition after edition, revising each to make it more perfect, and all her life [my mother] went poorer because of the New Testament. It robbed her of the tiny margin between bitter poverty and small comfort.“

Chinese was Buck’s first language, and her nurse told her bedtime stories about dragons and tree spirits. As a young girl in the village, she wandered through the countryside. In the city, she and her brother explored the streets and markets, watching puppet shows and sampling food. She was embarrassed by her blue eyes and blond hair, but she didn’t let it hold her back. She enthusiastically joined in local celebrations, big funerals and parties.

When Buck was a teenager, her parents sent her to an English-language school for foreign girls like her. She did not fit in and was lonely, but fascinated by Shanghai. As a pupil, she was required to teach a knitting class at the Door of Hope, a shelter for girls and women who had been forced into prostitution and sex slavery. Usually, the white students from Miss Jewell’s did not speak Chinese, but since Buck did, the women there told her all their stories of rape, abuse, and violence.

After a year there, Buck went to Randolph-Macon Women’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. She arrived as a total misfit. A woman named Emma Edmunds, a rural girl who became one of Buck’s best friends at college, said about that first day: “I saw this one girl and she looked even more countrified than me. Her dress was made of Chinese grass linen and nobody else had anything like that. It had a high neck and long sleeves, and her hair was in a braid turned under at the back.” But she cut her hair and bought some American clothes, and she managed to fit in well enough.

After college, Buck went back to China, where she met an American agricultural economist and missionary named John Lossing Buck. They were married, and in 1921 she gave birth to a daughter, Carol. But things began to fall apart. Her mother died not long after Carol was born, and her father moved in with the young couple. Her father and husband disliked each other, and increasingly, she didn’t like either of them very much. Her daughter, Carol, had a rare developmental disability. On top of everything, the political situation in China was so tense that at one point the Bucks had to hide in the basement of a peasant family’s home to escape Nationalist soldiers, and they ended up fleeing to Japan as refugees.

In 1929, Buck took nine-year-old Carol to an institution in New Jersey, where she hoped she would receive better care than Buck could provide — she called it “the hardest thing I ever did.” She didn’t have enough money to pay for the expensive tuition, so she borrowed money from a member of the Mission Board. Her marriage fell apart, and she was even more desperate for money, so she started writing. Her first novel was called East Wind, West Wind (1930), and she hoped it would cover the school fees, but it didn’t sell well. The following year she published The Good Earth (1931), chronicling the dramatic life of a Chinese peasant farmer named Wang Lung from his wedding day through his old age. The Good Earth was a huge best-seller, and Buck won the Pulitzer Prize and, a few years later, the Nobel Prize in literature.

In her Nobel acceptance speech, she said: ” My earliest knowledge of story, of how to tell and write stories, came to me in China. [...] Story belongs to the people. They are sounder judges of it than anyone else, for their senses are unspoiled and their emotions are free.”

Lonesome George, famed Galapagos tortoise, dies

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I met Lonesome George about ten years ago when I was on the Galapagos Islands.  He was inside the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz Island.  It is sad to think that he was the last of his kind and now he is gone.

QUITO, Ecuador— The giant tortoise Lonesome George, whose failed efforts to produce offspring made him a symbol of disappearing species, was found dead on Sunday, officials at the Galapagos National Park announced.

Lonesome George was believed to be the last living member of the Pinta island subspecies and had become an ambassador of sorts for the islands off Ecuador‘s coast whose unique flora and fauna helped inspire Charles Darwin’s ideas on evolution.

The tortoise’s age was not known but scientists believed he was about 100, not especially old for giant tortoises, who can live well over a century. Scientists had expected him to live another few decades at least.

Various mates had been provided for Lonesome George after he was found in 1972 in what proved unsuccessful attempts to keep his subspecies alive.

He lived at a tortoise breeding center on the archipelago’s island of Santa Cruz. He was found Sunday morning in his pen by his longtime keeper, Fausto Llerena, the park said in a statement.

The park said the cause of his death would be investigated.

The Galapagos’ giant tortoise population was decimated after the arrival of humans but a recovery program run by the park and the Charles Darwin Foundation has increased the overall population from 3,000 in 1974 to 20,000 today.

via Lonesome George, famed Galapagos tortoise, dies – latimes.com.

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Suzi Quatro – Style Icon

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Leather Tuscadero!  I do not need to say anything more.

Birth name: Susan Kay Quatro
Born: 3 June 1950 Detroit, Michigan, United States

Susan Kay “Suzi” Quatro (born 3 June 1950) is British-based American singer-songwriter, bass guitar player, and actor. She is the first female bass player to become a major rock star — this success in the 1970s “empowered women”.

In the 1970s Quatro scored a string of hit singles that initially found greater success in Europe and Australia than in her homeland. But, following a recurring role as a female bass player on the popular American sitcom Happy Days, her duet “Stumblin’ In” with Chris Norman reached number 4 in the USA.

Between 1973 and 1980 Quatro was awarded six Bravo Ottos. In 2010 she was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends online Hall of Fame.

She is known in the United States for her role as female bass player Leather Tuscadero on the TV show Happy Days. Show producer Garry Marshall offered the role without an audition after seeing her on his daughter’s bedroom wall. Leather was the younger sister of Fonzie’s girlfriend, hot-rod driver Pinky Tuscadero. Leather fronted a rock band joined by principal character Joanie Cunningham. The character returned in other cameo roles, including once for a date to a fraternity formal with Ralph Malph. Marshall offered Quatro a Leather Tuscadero spin-off, but she refused, saying she did not want to be typecast.

Rock/hard rock singer Pat Benatar started her musical career in the 1970s and won four consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance from 1981 to 1984. According to Greg Prato and Stephen Thomas Erlew of AllMusic, Benatar was influenced by Quatro.

Tina Weymouth is a founding member and bassist of the New Wave group Talking Heads (formed in 1975 in New York City, USA) and its side project Tom Tom Club. Talking Heads was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. When Chris Frantz was unable to find a bass player interested in joining the group, he encouraged Weymouth to learn to play bass by listening to Quatro albums.

Quatro had a direct influence on The Runaways and Joan Jett. She also inspired Chrissie Hynde, the singer for rock band The Pretenders, and The White Stripes.

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Interlochen Center for the Arts – Not So Secret Obsession

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Camp starts today.  The last time I was at Interlochen, I walked to the dance building and looked out on the lake.  Even though no one was there, I took off my shoes and left them at the front door.  I remembered the scared, lost, dumb kid that first stepped onto the sandy ground.  I thought about the friends I made each year I was there and how they grew in numbers and strength.  I remembered Erik.  Like so many people before and after me, Interlochen changed my life and saved my life.

My advice to everyone there right now is to jump in with both feet, let the air rush beneath them, trust.  It will change your life if you are open to it.  And you will have friends for life if you want.

Interlochen Center for the Arts is a privately owned, 1,200 acre (5 km²) arts education institution in Interlochen, Michigan, roughly 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Traverse City. Interlochen draws young people from around the world to participate in intensive academics with additional study of music, theater, dance, visual art, creative writing, motion picture arts, and a brand new program of comparative arts. Interlochen Center for the Arts is the umbrella organization for Interlochen Arts Camp (formerly the National Music Camp, founded 1928), Interlochen Arts Academy high school (founded 1962), Interlochen Public Radio (founded 1963), Interlochen College of Creative Arts (founded 2004), and the “Interlochen Presents” performing arts series.

Interlochen Arts Camp (formerly the National Music Camp) is an annual summer camp for approximately 2,500 students ages 8 to 18. It was founded in 1928 by the late Dr. Joseph E. Maddy as the National High School Orchestra Camp. Today, students participate in music, theatre, dance, visual arts, creative writing, or motion picture arts. Camp admission is competitive, and auditions are required in most cases. Programs range in length from one to six weeks, and participants are divided into three divisions: Junior (grades 3-6), Intermediate (grades 6-9), and High School (grades 9-12). As another alternative, students may apply to one-week advanced institute programs that take place the week prior to the typical summer camp season; within the past few years, there have been institutes for oboe, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, and percussion. The Interlochen All-State program, which formerly consisted of two-week band, orchestra, and choir programs for Michigan high school students, was dropped in 2009.

Interlochen Theme

The Interlochen Theme, an excerpt from Howard Hanson’s Symphony No. 2, is played at the conclusion of every Interlochen Arts Camp concert. It is conducted by the concertmaster for orchestra performances and by the first chair oboe player for band concerts. In recent years it has been accepted for any member of the band to conduct the theme during the summer camp. At the end of the Interlochen Theme, audience members are requested not to applaud and to depart in quiet reflection.

The Interlochen Arts Academy was founded in 1962 as an independent boarding school dedicated to the arts. As of 2007, it has 300 faculty and staff, and roughly 475 students. While more than half the students major in music performance, IAA also offers majors in comparative arts, creative writing, dance, theatre (performance; design and production), motion picture arts, and visual arts. Beginning with the 2005 school year, IAA (along with Interlochen Arts Camp) established a major in motion picture arts, and beginning in 2011 began offering comparative arts. The vast majority of students at Interlochen Arts Academy are boarding students, including many international students; some day students who live in the vicinity also attend. Interlochen Arts Academy has also been noted for its academic rigor, as IAA expects students to excel in the classroom as well as artistically. Upon graduation, most IAA graduates continue to universities or conservatories for further study in the arts or academics. Conservatories that often admit Interlochen students include Juilliard, Eastman, Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Curtis, New England Conservatory, Oberlin, Manhattan School of Music, Boston Conservatory, Peabody, and CalArts.

Interlochen Presents

Interlochen Presents has a summer festival running from June through August (schedule announced in April) and a performing arts series from September through May coinciding with the Academy school year (schedule announced in August). It features concerts, plays, art exhibits, readings, film screenings and dance productions presented by students, faculty, and staff, as well as both well-known and obscure guest artists. Interlochen Presents events are held in numerous venues around campus. The list of recent guest artists includes Steely Dan, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Joshua Bell, Jason Mraz, Bonnie Raitt, Olga Kern, Sara Bareilles, Dierks Bentley, Norah Jones, Martha Graham Dance Company, Ra Ra Riot, Bob Dylan, Jewel, Carol Jantsch, Josh Groban, Tiempo Libre, Paula Poundstone, Nathan Gunn, Chris Thile, and Bela Fleck. Interlochen Presents and Interlochen Public Radio serve as the primary channels by which Interlochen Center for the Arts connects with the northern Michigan region.

See current concerts and events at http://presents.interlochen.org

Alumni

There are nearly 70,000 alumni of Interlochen Arts Camp and Interlochen Arts Academy living all over the world. Many of them have achieved fame for their artistic abilities or because of other achievements; some of their names are listed below.

Rachel Carns
Chip Davis
Josh Groban
Christie Hefner
Felicity Huffman
Tom Hulce
Linda Hunt
Norah Jones
Jewel Kilcher
Dermot Mulroney
Jessye Norman
Rain Pryor
Mike Wallace
Rufus Wainwright
Rumer Willis
Peter Yarrow
Sean Young

See more at http://www.interlochen.org/alumni/highperforming_alumni

Here are some of the photos that I have found on my computer from Interlochen:

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Create

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I do enjoy getting the photo challenge and then looking through my “stock photos” on my phone and/or computer to see if any of them match what is required.  Luckily, I had three that I thought matched “create.”

20120622-121049.jpg

This photo is well known to my family, it is a handprint in wet cement created by a very young Reed Anderson some 50 or so years ago.  It is below the hand rail on the steps leading down to the Minnesota “Minnie” Building on the waterfront at Interlochen Center For The Arts.  This photo was taken last summer when we were all gathered for Reed’s father’s (my Grand Uncle’s) memorial service.  The Anderson family has a strong connection with Interlochen, three generations deep.  I love it.  I miss it.  It changed my life and possibly saved my life.

 These two photos are macramé wall hangings done by my grandparent’s friend and neighbor, Mrs. Richmond.  They must have been created in the 1970′s some time, at the height of the craft-craze.  The Richmonds passed away quite a few years ago and the house has been sold, but to their credit, the new owners have kept Mrs. Richmond’s handy work hanging, even after painting the house.  I love these guys, in a way they remind me of my grandparents.

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