a little red hen

Portland's alternative planet: home of odd beliefs

Today I divert you with the latest crazed notion on minds where I live.  Discussion has started again about whether the Rose City should flouridate its water.  Debate has been in play for many years.  Prepare to find this one very, very out-there.  This doting grandmother who cannot believe that

Portland, Oregon is the largest US city NOT providing fluoridated water to its citizens! 

Dr. Don LaGrone, a concerned pediatrican reports:

During the 3 years in which I served as Medical Director for the Children’s Community Clinic in North Portland, I personally witnessed the degree to which this problem affects those populations least able to afford dental care. Cavities in children of color are as much as twice as common as in the more affluent communities, and these children have few resources for dental treatment.

Of the two men in the runoff for Mayor, Jefferson Smith may support flouridation because his wife would be angry otherwise.  Charlie Hales believes we need more study because adding flouride to the drinking water might impact negatively on the local beer industry.  This consumate foolishness is perfectly illustrated by Jack Ohman Oregonian cartoonist.  

One day in Food Front Co-op, I took photos of a few of the engaging labels along the aisles; so many of them. line-up of brews.  [Carrie Nation emanates from a Lincoln City, Oregon brewery--almost local.]  Like its dental health rating, Portland is way up there with 40 breweries within the city limits more than any other city in the world!   Synchronicity?  Too many children drink beer...beer causes cavities?  You decide.

 
Read the comments at the Oregonian link for window into local notions...scary.

Foolishly, primary voters did not support my candidate, Eileen Brady.   Over at the liberal blog, Blue Oregon, along with a long listing of driving violations by Smith,  it was noted that a write-in candidate cannot happen in a runoff.  Sigh.  Personally I find either choice leads me to the unthinkable:  skip this line on the ballot.  I'm only slightly relieved that Portland's unique form of city government gives less power to mayors than other large cities.  Though Portland seems more like a frontier town in dress-up as a city. 

Grandmotherly concerns are also inflated by the energetic opposition by parents to vaccinations for their school age children.  Worries my daughter a great deal too since she lives in a neighborhood filled with many moms and dads who hold these beliefs.  It could be described as an alternative planet all by itself.

Where's the JUICE, Democrats?

Are we, the $10, the $25 Obama supporters from 2008, just chopped liver in the election campaign of 2012?  Back in 2008 we were often heralded as the juice...saw ourselves as the base.  Yes, times have changed, not us: we continue to be hardcore Obama supporters.

Has the campaign noticed?  Has Citizens' United made such enormous change that everything in political campaigns is focused on big-buck PAC people?  Or, is it a "the new strategic reality" as some have tried to tell me.

Couple of weeks ago on a very warm  Sunday, I visited the Obama campaign office in southeast Portland.   Quiet place set up with phone banks where I was greeted by cheerful 19 year old [she told me later in our exchange]. She was very polite but I could not get a handle on how to get involved--now.

Perhaps she was intimidated by my advanced age, my 17% button, and learning that I'd worked in the 2008 campaign in New York City. Sadly, people here are usually awed by the mention of the City.  I only wanted to reassure her that I had been part of something she was now involved with.  Later I wondered why I'd missed asking if she'd worked in the last one when she was 15.

Making conversation in our kind of static exchange, I asked if there was a "Feminists for Obama" group.  Explained I'd joined online through the Feminist Majority.  "We do have a Women for Obama group getting going; I'll give your name to the person working on that."

Okay.  Filled out their form.  Left without being offered a button or bumper sticker-- would like to update the one from 2008.  [Yes, that's our NYC Roxie on a recent trip here.] I would have bought them.  It's two weeks later;  no call yet. 

At a museum opening I ran into two politically active women and told them how baffled I was by what had happened.  Didn't I understand, they asked, "Oregon is not a state in play this time. You'll get a call two weeks before the election to work a phone bank." 

For me this seems so la-di-da.  Even with Oregon a blue state, it feels risky for Democrats to act as if it is a slam-dunk, that Obama's re-election is a done deal.  Others share my unease. Joared, California elderblogger at Along the Way, left this comment on my post about Paul Ryan's affinity for Ayn Rand's worldview:

I think there's real concern the r's (deliberate small case) could be elected because of those who won't or can't vote. We shouldn't be over-confident or complacent.

All our lives we've been told that a democracy only works with its
citizens actively working to support it.  Earlier Democratic campaigns asked for participation.  The last time we gave our all because the stakes were even higher than usual.  We need the call to put that energy to work again.  

Democrats, please, remember the women--and the men--who are democracy's juice-- us, not the PACs.  We all lose unless you tap into the enthusiasm, the blue state energy and idealism that worked so well the last time.   

Pearl Bakery after hours, an imaginary movie

Another wannabe movie like an earlier one here at pizza shop.  Perhaps before my 80th birthday which gives me a year.

Time:  Early June evening

Place: Pearl Bakery, Couch Street near Ninth, Portland, Oregon

Music:  Your choice...

Voiceover:  Pearl was one of the first places that felt comfortable to linger over coffee.   Visiting Portland in the late 1990s, perhaps a year or two after they opened, we'd come for breakfast or lunch, wish we could find as delicious breads and seductive pastries near our apartment in New York.  A few unfussy sandwich selections; you know it's Portland when one is PB&J.

Living here now we most often buy their multi-grain batard; favorite treat is not-too-sweet gibassier. Their quality stays high, I think, because their goals are modest.  At the PSU Farmers' Market, the baker's wife is easy to talk to, interested in learning that artisan bakers in Vancouver, B.C., speak well of their product.

"HE is John Gault!"

A Moment ago left a comment at "Ryan/Romney - The Upside Down Presidential Ticket," today's excellent post by Ronni Bennett at TGB.  Please note the order of names which reveals, if any had missed it, whom this election is truly about.

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

To make her point about the devious nature of Paul Ryan, she includes a clip from 10 years ago that appeared Sunday on Chris Hayes' UP! program on MSNBC.  

When we watched on Sunday, spouse and I were stunned.  Remarkable that we can still be amazed by these wretches.  But when I described Ronni's post to him, Ron shouted, "He is John Gault!  Only instead of going up the mountain into isolation, he ascends to the White House."  And changes America's democracy as we have known it.

Never having read Atlas Shrugged myself, thought I'd insert a link to the book here since Paul Ryan in one of his personality changes (see my comment at TGB) held up the book as the major influence on his politics.  Discovered there is a movie (!) I'd never heard of based on the book.  Comments there rather chilling in their celebration of narcissism.

Also available as iPad app "a timeless book for our times" plus results of an essay contest for high school seniors, college students as proclaimed by John Stossel, the conservative Fox commentator.

Are we ready?  An antidote to the above and this week's extreme anti-feminism by those men in black suits, an upbeat YouTube sent me yesterday by a young woman friend.  I know you support her hopefulness.   

Travel mind-expanding in unexpected ways

Staying in motels on the road always means a window into life outside my bubble--encounters in elevators, free breakfast at Hampton Inn.  Sure, we try to do things in Portland that keep us in touch with the known universe but it is a challenge for old people. In our retirement community no one is poor.  Is anyone worried about paying next month's fees?  I would not know.  Because we have an active foundation trust fund to provide financial support to those who have exhausted their funds.  

When we attend Portland State for classes/lectures, we see a homeless person or two. Going further downtown, there are more since there's a shortage of housing for the homeless. Even in New York where there are more robust public programs for homeless families and childrens, needs now outstrip the supply.  

But then we leave home to travel and want to keep up with news; lately  we do not find the Times.   Lucky us, U.S.A. Today is everywhere we stay. Theirs is a different point of view from what we're used to, brings us in contact with a more conservative view of the world.

July 31, headline: "The underlying duel of 2012:  Seniors vs. Millennials."  Along with the narrative which we have heard and will hear over and over again, I am startled by the photos chosen.  Older white guy and young woman of color.  This selection, not an accident in the news room, delivers a double-whammy.  It's not devisive enough to point out how old folks "more engaged than in 2008,"  are in an ideological war with the young who favor Obama.  The paper would have readers think that only black people will be voting for the President.

The kicker:  the two in photo are grandpa and his granddaughter--so you can't say it's about racism.  I can.  In an effort at fairness, the paper's website features a sensible response from a reader in California:

"The future generation is being short-changed by cuts in education spending and the increasing cost of higher education. We are witnessing the dumbing-down of America."

In Yakima, Washington, my education is further expanded.  On a sidewalk, a couple of people are campaigning for a local candidate.  To get attention to what he stands for, they have used a photo-shopped image promoting impeach Obama that I had only seen on news programs.  An even bigger one is attached to the side of the table.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
                                                                                –Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad 

“Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation.”                                                    -- Elizabeth Drew, N.Y Review of Books

 

"Super Gonorrhea" calls for Condom Amulets, this Grandma sez

Only one antibiotic left to treat gonorrhea we heard yesterday on local NPR station.  Scary news.  Another 20th century problem--like birth control, women's right to choose, equal pay--that we thought were secured.

Wrong.  Graphically described by the Atlantic's James Hamblin, an M.D.

Did you know gonorrhea can kill you? It can, and it's also tragically effective at making women infertile. According to her journals, my great aunt Mabel was "barren," and my grandmother always told me it was probably from gonorrhea. The only reason we don't hear about these awful complications more often -- and we instead think of it as a little oops of an infection ("Can I still drink on these antibiotics?" "Yes." "Cool.") -- is because we've been able to kill it early with relative ease.

Back into my public health mode, here's a copy of a page from my other blog, Knit a Condom Amulet, originally posted in 2007, when I still lived in New York City.  Its purpose was and is to share pattern ideas with knitters for a way to begin conversations about safe sex.  Original focus was on HIV awareness for women over 50--a problem we learned about in 2005--its applicability is unlimited.  

Condom designs may be different now (NYC iconic package has changed but FREE availability still holds).  56,000 page views since Knit a Condom Amulet began.  Many more through its group at Ravelry. 

In 2012, will we talk to our grown children about talking to their children, our grandchildren?  

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CONDOM SIZES FOR KNIT AMULETS

Because there are a variety of sizes and shapes to condoms, this is a general guide.  Sometimes this will determine how you knit an amulet.  There are so many knit designs yet to be explored--by you.

These are variations on the most familiar size, 2-1/4" x 2-1/4" squares.

Another square one--lights up in the dark--packaged in a 3" x 3" box.

From a dispensing machine (North Carolina, unisex rest room), the "Black Jack" measures 2" x 1-1/4".  Just 50 cents but not latex. 

Round condom, 2-1/4" circumference.

 

Lengthwise, smaller container,1/2" x 1" suited to this double-knitted amulet with beads to be worn around the neck.  Or, it could have a pin back.

And the largest package contains the female condom,   measuring 3-1/4" x 4-3/4".  The condom itself is smaller, so the package can be folded up at bottom. It will then fit into an amulet like this one.  Funky yarn here is a excellent re-use for yarn mistakenly purchased for a garment.  Many possibilites for many gifts of Condom Amulets for friends, family. neighbors--room for several condoms too.

Its bright colors and loop make it easy to locate in a purse.  Or, hang it on your bathroom wall--tuck the female condom behind a Post-It pad if discretion is a concern. Kay Gardiner, designer of the Ballband Key Chain Amulet, suggested this alternative use.

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79th birthday on a dark & light Sunday

Toward the end of our trip north, my move toward 80 occurred.  An August birthday often has seemed less notable than those happening in non-summer months.  The month is know primarily for its connection to Hiroshima, our country's leap into the darkest side of "American exceptionalism."  Does that sound like an only-child sigh?  Yes.  What did my 12 year old self think as children at summer camp puzzled over the news.  We could not have understood more than that "the war was over."

From the window of our Tacoma, Washington motel on August 5, this dancing green figure sent a welcome, could pass for a birthday wish.

The heat that our son had reported from New York, our daughter from Chicago, had reached the northwest.  We searched for a spot to get a good view of majestic, mysterious Mount Ranier.

Found a local free paper, learned there was a used bookstore in the south part of town-- good views of the mountain and the industry on Puget Sound. We had a fine time among the shelves at King's Books.  I bought two bread books never seen before; talked with the young man at the counter.  He loved New York, was very involved in local theatre.  Oh, he must go to the Brooklyn Museum on his next trip--since he has friends in the now-youth-filled Williamsburg.  

Because the front window of the store was filled with feminist books, I mentioned that Judy Chicago's Dinner Party was there. "What is that?"  Always time for educational input of the feminist sort.  He immediately looked it up on the computer, "Looks fabulous!"  Yes.

What's the best thing for lunch at Doyle's Bar next door, we asked.  "Definitely, the Cubano sandwich."  He was so very right.

Driving back to Portland, we heard of the awful murders in a Wisconsin Sikh temple.  How often, people, will we allow the rationalizing to continue: that gun control is not the problem...accept that our presidential candidates slip and slid around this monumental issue?  Have you signed a petition, written your congressperson?  

Read, please, this from The Washington Post, a blog by Anya Cordell, "Sikhs bearing pizza," filled with many insights from her work against appearance-based judgments.  In 2010, she received the Spirit of Anne Frank award, is author of Race: An Open & Shut Case, a book I intend to read and share.

 

FEMINISTS FOR OBAMA: ACA begins August 1

 

Today I joined FEMINISTS FOR OBAMA to celebrate the BEGINNING of the Affordable Care Act.