a little red hen

Our New Baby Supports Our Favorite Candidate

It was only a month ago that Eliana entered our family's lives. 

We received  two emails  yesterday.  First, a recent one  from her father titled "Obama Baby," showing how well she fills the onesie we sent.  She now weighs ten pounds--up two since birth.

The other email contained earlier  photos taken by our  daughter-in-law in August when Eliana was a few days old.  Zach, her six-year-old brother is very positive and gentle with  babies--something learned when his sister Zoe was born three years ago.

Eliana has a strong resemblence to how Zach looked as an infant--the dark hair, very round body.  Zoe too looked  much like him in the beginning. Everyone thought she'd continue that way but she is  more petite and  very blond now, like her Dad  as a child. 

SARAH CALLS FORTH OUR CREATIVITY & IRE

Leslie a/k/a Tikkun Knits was first revealed to me via Ravelry, the over-the-top knitting/crochet/fiber arts beta site (soomething like Elderexercise) that requires membership to participate.  At last count there were 100,000 members.  It's free, you just wait till your number is called, then join.  Though I have a few reservations about it, these were quickly overcome when three friends from  the KnitaCondomAmulet project told me it would be a good place for expanding interest in safe sex.

Lisa Daehlin tirelessly helped me navigate the mysteries last Fall.  So how do you find like-minded knitters among that gigantic group?  An email arrived from a woman who'd seen this blog and had an idea to start a Condom Amulet  interest group on Ravelry.  She did a fine job.  Then she disappeared.  Lisa and I have soldiered on minding the store.  There are now 85 members who have brought enthusiasm and many new ideas for amulet styles and ways to get them into the public space.

Tikkun Knits joined us, presented  finely-made Condom Amulets.  We are but one of her world-saving interests for which she knits or crochets remarkable things.  What you see here is her latest, PIGS IN LIPSTICK-- in its amulet permutation.  Of course you want to crochet it yourself.  Leslie did this as a fund-raiser for Knitters for Obama, another Ravelry group--with 400+ members.

Then there's Holly Cara Price, a blogger I met at the voter registration storefront for  Three Parks Dems on the upper west side.  She too has applied humor to this scary woman at her newly redesigned site, Snoop du Jour, with the very  appropriate title, "Baked Alaska."

Of course, these elegantly fun-poking ideas do not mask our fears.  You need to read CLOTHES LINE  where two Minnesota women blog.  First there's  information not seen elsewhere about a successful "Minnesota Women Reject Palin" rally followed by an on-the-scene report of the huge turnout in Anchorage for this week's "Alaska Women Reject Palin" rally.  Is it happening where you live?

Finally, Maureen Dowd, not often my favorite New York Times columnist, in "Barbies for War!" poked around Alaska,  found Sarah Palin's high school principal, R.D. Levno, who said:

She's a child, inexperienced and simplistic...It's taking us back to junior high school.  She's one of the popular girls, but one of the mean girls.  She is seductive, but she is invented.

Voter Registration Alert...Barackolate Cookies + Buttons ...Saturday, September 20...UWS

Get your cookie that encompasses ALL Americans:  Democrats, Republicans, Independents --light ones, dark ones, beige, and of course, nuts.  A modest campaign donation gets you a delicious treat, a little more, a proud OBAMA button.  Sign-up for bus trips to canvass in Pennsylvania.

Upper West Side, Broadway and 105th Street (in front of Liberty House), 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Holly, Ron Bloom, and I will be there. and work in the campaign?

"Polar Bears for Obama" is the title of this second-grader's picture. Met her and her parents at Three Parks Dems' Campaign storefront earlier this week.  She added her  creative touch as  Mom and Dad registered new voters, helped with changes of address--English and Spanish.

Getting out the vote needs you-- turn that ire into creativity!  

 

 

IF WISHES WERE FISHES...OR CONDOMS

Were I to drink more than my one-beer limit at a German beer hall, I'd find this on opening the door to the Ladies' Room.  Thanks, Kay Gardiner...tell me if you find anything similar on your upcoming knitting book tour.

Or I might be watching the TV in South Africa and all of a sudden--what's this?--an advert for the ladies.  And another one (is it just as snappy?)  especially for the thoughtful gentlemen who want to be safe.  Last year an award went to a the designer of of this pretty red condom applicator...an estimated 5.5 million people live with HIV and AIDS in South Africa.

If I lived in India, my cellphone would ring like this as it rested in my purse, next to my chair at Knitty City.  Hat tip to  Mike D., my neighbor who found this on Yahoo.   We were co-chairs on an Emergency Preparedness Committee in our building; different issue, similar challenge to get people's interest.  Ringtone might have helped.   A grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made this happen.

Comrade Lei Feng Condom is promoted in China as  "stronger than [the late Revolutionary] hero's socks.  Read the backstory for more detail and other Asian ideas for glamourous men and women featured on packages. 

But I live in the great U. S. of A., a curious place.   Our politicians treat the issue as if unsure whether it's worth spending the money on programs to decrease the number of HIV/AIDS cases.  Or other STDs (sexually transmitted diseases).  Or prevent unwanted pregnancies through sex education programs in schools.

We are, however, very big on tourism right here at home. Cleveland, Ohio, may become a vacation destination when more people learn about wonders of the new Museum of Contraception,

"...world's most comprehensive collection of historical contraceptive devices, numbering over 650 artifacts." [Italics mine.]

Don't you wonder if the exhibit includes Ohio's current HIV/AIDS statistics.  I do.

NEWS FLASH:  While I was awaiting new computer, TRACT HOUSE, with its retrofitted "Knit a Condom Amulet" manifesto, wheeled into New York City from Baltimore's Contemporary Museum.  Sadly, I missed meeting visionary creator Lisa Anne Auerbach, at the opening last week, but will visit soon.   Printed Matter, 195 Tenth Avenue (at 22nd), Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Ending a Long Relationship...with an inanimate object

It's been a long time--me and PC.  Yes, I took a picture but already out the camera  cord.  A little thoughtless of me not to be more respectful for the good years we had together.   

Goodbye to all that...I'm moving on to iMAC.  Hope I'll be back pretty soon.  They say it takes a couple of days for the transition, one hard drive to another.

Sad by had to happen.

Roxie, Toes, Chinese Food

  What a beautiful day on Friday, September 5, 2008.  Rainbow over KewGardens train station,  watching Roxie and her fascination with buttons on electronics.  Then off to the Chinatown in Flushing as we followed a lead from a New York Times article back in July.  Hold onto this printable list of restaurants if you're coming here soon.  We picked out Yapin and arrived at a storefront with 4 tables, a hot table showing several dishes, small kitchen behind that and a color TV with video of a Chinese soap opera.  With help from other customers we communicated with the very busy cook, also the waitress.  Ron went downstairs to the men's room (very clean) and found two more women busy making noodles pictured just before we finished.  We agreed with the Times, "paradigm-changing hand-rolled noodles...ground sesame seeds and shredded cucumber."

We also had dumplings far lighter than we're used to and there were wontons in the soup pictured above plus much cilantro.  Quite a treat, enough to bring home for another meal, $17.00.  Almost as if we were again in Beijing.  We figured out the video was about competition between a male and female basketball team--and their male and female coahes.

About those old  toes of mine: enjoyed the best pedicure ever.  Happened while Ron was at the train station with Roxie.  Another bargain, Ascend Spa was right around the corner, quiet low music.  I'm still admiring my rejuvenated feet!

NEWSFLASH-- Sunday, September 7, 2008...Republicans Try Again to Steal Election in Ohio

Harlem Afternoon: We Begin Voter Registration

With modest equipment-- registration forms and your basic grocery cart converted into an all-in-one message carrier and desk top, plus a few ballpoint pens--anyone can do this.

Ron and I were the anyones in this case.  It was cooler on Thursday afternoon than predicted.  We stationed ourselves in front of the grocery, Met Market, on Amsterdam Avenue around the corner from our apartment.

In one hour, from 5 to 6 p.m., we registered ten people, gave out information to several more.  Unlike the planners of the Republican Convention in St. Paul, we were able to find many people of color who have a strong interest in the2008 election.

Today was our test run.  We have an offer of help for the next time from a friend who lives across the street in Grant Houses, the public housing complex.        

People really want to buy buttons and stickers.  We're hoping to get them when we return to the campaign office for more forms.

*************Things To Know about Life in Alaska:  Vuee, an Elderblogger in Alaska, has posted very useful and specific information about the political positions of Sarah Palin on providing for the elderly and others.   

Hot Harlem Morning...Women Walking

The radio said it was going to be a very warm day Thursday, September 4, in New York.  In my head that was not about the early morning.  A little breezy at 9 a.m. as I walked out of my building to meet the new weekly walking group.   About six of us try various routes each week. Might not be doing this if I had not started carrying a pedometer.  And that happened when I joined the online support group, Elderexercise.

This was the third week with my neighbors.   We returned to Riverside Park and a slightly different path.  Some serious steps, down then back up.  Movies in the park!  End-of-summer flowers losing their earlier strong  color.

Worms on the path remind me of the time a few years ago with red wigglers composting in my  kitchen.

Something that always surprises me: special events for New Yorkers and their cosseted dogs.  Cats, preferred by many apartment dwellers, never get their public due here.

We'd started around 120th and Broadway, planned to reach 96th in the Park.  But we turned back at 103rd Street as the heat got to us.    Past Grant's Tomb, Sakura Park, a pleasant, hardly noticed block-square green space.  Ron and I came to sit here on September 11, 2001.

A smile for the camera in honor of the local storefront, Praise the Lord Dental.  We logged three miles.

ELDERS IN PUBLIC: Voter Registration New York City

NEWS FLASH: Read this first...About to write this post, a comment from Hattie's Web sent me there.  Learned about arrests yesterday of media people in St. Paul.  Underreported on last night's TV news in New York City, very little in today'sNew York Times. 

When did you learn about the arrests?   More HERE  and Amy Goodman's site, Democracy Now after her release.  Holding on by fingernails for"democracy tomorrow."

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We were impressed with a local Democratic Club, Three Parks Independents, when on Saturday on our visit to their just-open "Victory 2008 Campaign" office at 105th Street & Broadway.  Inspiring mix of volunteers--working tables on the outside while others painting inside.  Someone said to me that the $20,000 rent for two months was "pretty reasonable" for Manhattan!  Heard that 500 people registered the first day. 

Yesterday we returned to pick up our own Voter Registration forms to set up near us.  Walking south on Broadway, we met Molly and Priya, teacher and grad student, doing it in front of Columbia at 116th, another group at a table--with those great buttons-- at 107th.

Picked up forms, a sign, ate a Chinese dinner-- Amsterdam and 111th Street, Columbia Cottage.  Read the first review; I think those were the people across the room from us.  Great food.  Vintage fortune cookie message saved from 1997, has application to today...hope you're another elder (or other) working in the campaign:

"The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms."