What is the reaction when NPR tweets the “Declaration of Independence”?

You will have to read “NPR’s tweets expose a thin grasp of American history?”  See “NewsCut: MPR News Reflections and observations on the news”: http://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2017/07/self-evident-truths-our-thin-grasp-of-history/2017-07-01.

It does make me proud to be an MPR member.

Merry Christmas and other seasonal thoughts

Originally published in Reader Weekly, December 22, 2005

For yet another year, Christmas is controversial.  If there isn’t a ruckus about the commercialization of Christmas, there is a ruckus about Christmas not being “inclusive”.  Some big box stores have told their “associates” to not wish “guests” “Merry Christmas”; instead the associates are to wish “Happy Holidays”.  Some think that this is great because we are a “diverse” nation, others think it is terrible because we are a “Christian” nation, and yet others, possibly the majority, don’t care.

As a freethinker and sentimentalist, I think both sides are expecting too much of other people.  I personally don’t believe the Christian overlay to the winter solstice.  On the other hand, I love the traditions that have derived from that Christian overlay.  It doesn’t bother me to sing “Joy the world, the Lord has come” and other carols because the music is great and it brings back memories of many Christmas celebrations over the years.

Those who want “inclusivity” seem to think that a dominant culture is a dominating culture.   Because a larger portion of a society believes one way and acts on it in any fashion, then that portion is dominating all those who don’t believe that way.  That is, by saying “Merry Christmas” to everyone, you are making them believe in Christmas.

Some of those who don’t want others to practice such “inclusivity” seem to think that a dominant culture has a right to be a dominating culture.  That is, you will say “Merry Christmas” whether you believe it or not.

I think both sides could take a lesson from Irving Berlin, the son of a cantor who fled the anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia.  Irving Berlin wrote both “White Christmas” and “Easter Parade”.  He didn’t believe in either holiday, but he helped those who did celebrate them with joy.

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, you can please all of the people some of the time, and you can please some of the people all of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

Rigidity in viewpoint came up recently in another context.  A letter writer to the Star Tribune called Garrison Keillor anti-Christian as well as all of MPR or NPR.  That was a surprise to me.  Garrison Keillor may pillory hypocrites or gently chide those who have feet of clay, but all the evidence I’ve seen indicates he has the deepest respect for those who are sincere in their beliefs.  For as long as I can remember, he has often included hymns and religious singers in his shows.  Many MPR programs include religious music, including the annual “Festival of nine lessons and carols” from King’s College in Oxford.

Rigidity is found all across the political spectrum.  Many think that Kevin Thompson is hard-nosed and uncharitable.  So what do they do; they write hard-nosed and uncharitable letters about Kevin.  Hey, he stopped writing for the Reader Weekly; be charitable and let him be.

Speaking of Garrison Keillor, he recently gave an interesting view of Herod’s slaughter of the innocents – it was anti-terrorism.  In Herod’s viewpoint, Jesus was a threat to his power; therefore he had to take steps to reduce that threat.  Keillor went on to say the message of Christmas is that the weak shall prevail over the powerful.

Holiday spirits of another kind abound at this time of the year both in and out of the news.  Before I left for an employee party I decided I would have two beers while there.  When I left for the party it was snowing heavily; I decided I would have only one beer.  As I drove up Thompson Hill I saw either an accident or a disabled truck on the downhill side that had brought traffic to a crawl in one lane; I decided I would have no beers.  When I drove down the hill two hours later, the road was in somewhat better shape, but I was glad I held myself to my promise.

Holiday spirits are not the only thing to be wary of at this time of the year.  I often approach curves in the winter with the thought, “Somebody coming the other way could skid over the center line.”  As expected, my thoughts are usually not realized.  Except for twice in recent memory.  The second was this past week at Miller Hill Mall.  I approached a sharp turn to my left by Northstar Ford.  There was a huge pile of snow on the inside of the corner.  Would somebody be crossing the center line?  Sure enough, a car coming too fast for the conditions started coming into my lane.   I was going rather slowly and stopped without a problem.  The other driver managed to recover from her error, but she drove by me like I wasn’t even there.  I wonder if she even knew how close she came to spoiling both of our evenings, and holidays.

Disorganized organizations

There are too many bloviators who claim that government stands in the way of corporations, corporations who can nothing wrong.

There are too many alarmists who think that corporations are taking over the world and the 99% will be the worse for it.

As with all human endeavors, the truth lies in the squishy middle.  Or is that the muddled middle?
My dozen regular readers are probably tired of these rants, but then there are all the drop-ins who stumble on this blog because I managed to put in keywords that gives an entry a high search ranking.  Try "duluth minnesota billionaire".

This blog entry is a result of some frustrations that I've had recently.

Because I've been doing so much snow shoveling and snow blowing, my Christmas planning keeps getting pushed back.

I keep getting emails from the Pretty Good Goods catalog because I contribute to Minnesota Public Radio.  OK, our family's tradition has been to give T-shirts or books.  What interesting T-shirts can I find for some on my list?

But when I try using the Pretty Good Goods catalog, I'm told I don't have an account.  What, my MPR ID and password aren't the same.  So, I create an account and place an order.  I received most of the items rather quickly, but one item has been "drop sent" whatever that means.  My credit card has already been charged for that item.  Pretty Good Goods has not responded to my query about this, but then I should give them slack because they are overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, I keep getting emails from Pretty Good Goods at the email address I want to drop.  If I try to use the unsubscribe, I'm told that I don't have an account.  How can I not have an account when I just ordered stuff?  Please excuse me if I'm inaccurate on the details.  Lots of this is becoming a blur.

Geek Squad, owned by Best Buy, sent me a notice that the warranty was running out on my wife's iPad.  The notice offered an extension.  Given all the hazards that were covered, I thought it was a good deal.  I went to the Geek Squad page and requested the extension.

While I was at it, I changed my email address to that which we plan to use over an older one.  That went through without problem.

And then I received one of the many-times-per-week emails from Best Buy at the old email address.  I went to the site and tried to login and change my email address.  I don't have an account at Best Buy!  What?  What about the Geek Squad account?  What about the rewards program account?

After searching some old messages, I found that I had to go, not to bestbuy.com but to my.bestbuy.com!?!?  The email address and password I had in my head worked.  Hey, folks, you work for the same company, and customers use all of your websites.  According to some, corporations are efficient, more efficient than government.  Sorry, I have had government communications that have gone far better than this.

My iPhone was getting low on power and I tried to sync it on my Mac.  "Sync could not complete" or some such.  What the heck!  This has never happened before.  Well, not to me, but certainly many others.  I found an answer in the Apple Community rather quickly.  The first answers were rather complicated and didn't seem to fit my OS level.  But then I found one about shutting off the iPhone, quitting iTunes, and then restarting both.  Voila!  It worked.

I have over fifty years of computer problem solving and can often find the right keywords to get a solution proposed by somebody else (or as in "Helpless help desks revisited" doing it myself).

And of course there are the dozens and dozens of problems that I just give up on.

It's sort of like my last straw of the day.  Some bolts on my snow blower gave way on the speed setting mechanism.  Rather than go to the equipment store to get the exact bolts, I went to a hardware store and got off-the-shelf bolts for 44 cents (and $20 for a ceramic knife for someone on my Christmas list).  When I returned home, I tried replacing the bolts.  Let's just say the positioning is awkward.  Using my bare hands and wrenches (not a good idea when it's well before freezing), I was able to get two bolts in and secured.  But the third was in a very awkward position such as I could not easily get the lock nut started on the bolt.

There is a time that discretion is the better part of valor.  I gave up and went back to the house with a bent back after being bent over so long.  Finishing the fix will have to wait until another day.  I just hope I can get it done before the next snow dump!

Wrong person, wrong street, but right broadcast

After I posted "Remember where you were when you heard…" I started thinking about the Wikipedia entry on Lillian Hellman.  The broadcast about the famous person's death mentioned her sister, but the Wikipedia entry on Lillian Hellman didn't mention a sister.  Then I realized I was thinking about Lillian Gish.  Then I started to rethink my location when I heard the broadcast.  The Crystal Post Office was not on 42nd Street but Bass Lake Road east of Broadway.

But my short-term memory is failing me more and more.  This morning I could think of the first names of a couple we sat with at a church dinner last night but I couldn't remember their last name.  And we've known them for years.  I won't go into the details, but a mundane set of unrelated observations set up the link in my head to their last names.

Remember Tom Lehrer?

He's still around and has a web site http://www.tomlehrer.org.  I'm not sure how much is his doing and how much is a tribute to him.  I do know it includes a clip of Daniel Radcliffe singing the elements song.  Puff!  Puff!

For more on Tom Lehrer see Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lehrer.

Garrison Keillor and the Prairie Home Companion are keeping some of his songs going.  This past Saturday the Digiallonardo Sisters did Tom Lehrer's "Hanukkah in Santa Monica".

Rossini, the Lone Ranger, and dating oneself

I was listening to Public Radio when a familiar theme came on - "out of yesteryear", "thundering hooves", and "from WXYZ, Detroit".  It was the "William Tell Overture" performed last week as part of the Minnesota Symphony's Sommerfest.  I didn't hear any shouts of "Hi Ho, Silver" at the end, but the announcer, Allison Young, remarked some in the audience had shouted that.  She also mentioned the familiar TV show.  Wait a minute, young lady, it was a radio show!