America? No such country.

 There is no America. There are Americans who live in North and South America but there is no country of "America". Amerigo Vespucci named the continent long ago. Only after the US Revolutionary War did the people in that part of North America, correctly  refer to their country as The United States of America. Not America. If one uses the word America to describe the country that is The United States Of America, it should be used correctly. The word American needs to be put between quotation marks if used in reference to a citizen of The United States of America. One can use the term "Americans" to name a people, but should add the country it is referring to more specifically because all people in the two large continents are Americans. Somehow it became shortened to "American" to mean casually, a citizen of the U.S.but it is actually not true and in my opinion, rather pompous to lightly use it this way. This fact is seldom challenged, but when travelling in other  countries and hearing someone calling themselves "American" rather than the correct term for their specfic country in the Americas, causes me, often, to speak out on the mistake. This bad habit of those who live in The United States  will discontinue only if we all make an effort to remind them politely of their error and perhaps to refer to ourselves also as Americans as should those in Mexico, Brazil, Canada and all the other countries of the Americas.

Book Measure

Books or the writing inside them, have dimension and I don't mean inches or centimeters (something I cannot visualize out of my history). Stories in books, therefore, fiction, can be wide or narrow, vertical or horizontal, shallow or deep and a whole list of other features to do with measurements of various kinds. I am reading a book on my device that is easy to pick up in the middle of the  night when I hear a strange bump on the sun deck and can't get back to sleep. I did get up but there was nothing on my deck but the echo of the bump in my head and the wondering of it and what it could be. I am imaginging it to be an owl that likes the few Cheerios I leave out there. I imagine it's a big barn owl who comes there nightly to rest and watch for the rats it might catch under my condo deck. Our condo council seems obsessed with rats and seagulls as enemies. Both creatures have a lot to do with cleaning up our human garbage in spite of their "nuisance" factors but that's just my thinking. Books such as the one I am reading currently have depth in language style. They way this author puts together words thus images, to describe a wagon train across the prairies and those making the journey to the north, is gaspingly unique. A woman leaves the wagon train in the midst of dangers all around, to look at the moon away from the camp fire. A fist fight ensues in one part where the rules of the duel are applied. I had never heard of such rules in hand to hand boxing. An aborigne wagoneer guide fights the cross prejudices of his tribe and the surly white men on the journey. A horse has an infection in its hoof and the cure needs to be immediate and natural - he is the "engine" of the wagon taking its owners to a new home in a harsh land. It's all they have. Narrow and broad also describe books in how far the author is willing to expand the background senses it arouses. Yes, books are more than ink. 

Supermoms = Superkids?

 A friend of mine has a daughter who is a "supermom", apparently. Just listening to the madness of the life with her three teens, is enough to make me happy to have come from a time when you just did what was required with tons of love. The result for us in "the good old days" was good kids and a happy life before and after. And please don't tell me that it's "different" now. "Now" does made it different but not too well, I submit. Our children had responsibilities in the home, chores they had to do to be part of the family. They also weren't given money other than a small allowance they had to manage to buy most of their own wants and needs. They always took on jobs that weren't aslways the nice ones such as being a "manager" in a nice fast food place. They entailed cleaning, child care, outside chores such as cutting grass, weeding gardens, delivering newspapers at all times and other not so cute jobs. My son worked in a service station including cleaning the washrooms, earned his own guitar, tee shirts, tickets to concerts and his own car eventually in the days when junkers were safe but affordable. No one drove him to games or gave him big ticket concert passes or anything more than music lessons that he had to get to himself if he wanted them. He grew up like any other teen who got into "things" and back out and he turned out fine. He became  a great husband, father and worker. As a child he wasn't given corporal punishment, but was "talked to", understood and very much loved. We trusted him to make good choices and if not, to deal with the consequences himself but with our support.  We communicated and spent a lot of time together when he wasn't out with his friends who were always welcome but expected to be respectful in our home. My friends' supermom kids  are driven everywhere to activities, they do no household chores, they are given whatever money they "need" or "want" and their many out of school activities are paid for. They don't cook or sew or do any housework. I wonder how they are going to survive when they graduate highschool and live on their own. Don't you?  

Go To Cell- No Thanks

 More and more, I am forced to bend (literally) to the commands of my cell phone that I seldom use. Out of choice. But big companies think they have found a whole new way to insist that "everyone has a cell phone unless they are over seventy". That's me and a bunch of other people.  Some of us have cells but use them only for  specific practical purposes. For me, my cell phone,  is  for calling a taxi or other emergencies. Otherwise, I can't stand the thing. First of all, I do not want to pack this piece of plastic around with me all day long. It doesnt' run  me. Second of all, I have no juvenile need to be in touch with everyone on my caller list. I have better things to do all day than "chat". Third of all, if the thing runs out of juice, I could care less because that frees me. But. Certain large companies, namely, the one that runs my cell phone, have come up with what they think is a dandy idea. The squiggle box, they think, is the answer to everything. You somehow aim your cell phone at the squiggle box and you can find the menu of the restaurant you are standing front of. You can point at the squiggle box and find out at the theatre you are waiting in line of to locate your seat. Or when your wifi at home goes down, all you have to do is use the app on your cell phone and shine it at the device that isn't working and it will be fixed. When my wifi went down, I called the company and the tech was very snarky when I told him I didn't use my cell for that. It ended up with me on my knees under the "box"at his direction, with a paper clip and a mirror to find the tiny hole in the lovely modern white box on my wall, to start up  my very modern wifi digital system. It worked and the little green light was on again. Thanks to my knees, a paper clip and a small mirror. No cell phone necessary TYVM! 

TYVM!

Every Last Drop

 This morning I learned that my squirt-stem body lotion bottle was empty. The plastic container was not a see-through.  I just bought this lotion and now it was empty? Who would know. Holding the container up to the light, I noticed that a couple of inches of the product remained.  I decided to find a way to take off the top, which I have been known to do to get at the rest of the item inside. Not easily possible. The top had no screw lid; it was sealed. Later, using a knife to yank off the top part of the plastic bottle and pull out the stem, I had access to the the inside and was able to use the creamy liquid to the last drop. It occurred to me that tons of bottles and other containers made this way, are likey to be lying unused in garbage dumps. How much product is wasted this way in a time when we are trying to be practical and conscious of responsible consumerism. It's why the devastated populations go into our garbage dumps and dumpsters to finish what we toss out not all used.  Waste that we make will one day perhaps be used by the far future humans left on a bare earth. Manufacturers who make deliberately, containers of this kind, should be revealed for their irresponsible motivations. They design products that they know will be like what is in my lotion bottle: something that will be tossed before it is all used and the unwitting customer will buy another. We need to be smarter than that. We consumers must stop buying from such makers and inform them, why. We need to be activists about what we buy that isn't what we believe in. We can do reviews that matter. When people are forced to live on the street in tents, those of us more fortunate need to be more responsible  regarding waste. Let's promise to use, from now on, every last drop and to inform manfacturers that we are aware of what they are up to. It's our job as consumers to make the marketplace what it ought to be. It's up to us.