Planning for a Perilous Future

What a wonderful concept – creating a seed bank to store samples of all the crops that nourish us on earth. I love it when human beings go beyond their own immediate needs and think of future generations. Beyond their children, their grandchildren, or great-great-great-grandchildren; thinking of the generations of humankind a thousand or more years in the future, and doing something today to provide for a potentially perilous future.

It’s a terrible prospect, that there might come a day when “…plant epidemics, nuclear war, natural disasters or climate change….” will have killed most crops on earth. What would it be like to be sent back to the early days of agriculture when we first learned to grow food? All the knowledge we’ve gained over centuries – and all our advanced technology – will be worthless without the seeds to start again.

Thanks to Norway and other Scandinavian countries, humans will have a second chance to get it right. Life will wait patiently until then in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

An Occasional Rant

OK, I admit it; I’ve become a news junkie over the past few years. I check CNN online several times a day. I say it’s to give my eyes and mind a break from work, or even to find new ideas. But sometimes it can lead to a blog entry…like this.

Will someone please tell me why a story about the poptart Britney Spears stays on the “Latest News” list all day? Is there nothing that can bump her from prominence? I should care that she is a self-proclaimed “emotional wreck?”

Let me get this straight: she’s spent approximately her entire pre-pubescent and now pseudo-adult life seeking the spotlight, making sure her picture and name were on every tabloid. Now the poor little thing is upset because the paparazzi she has courted so assiduously won’t leave her alone?

The mind boggles. Every day great books are published, good people do good deeds, science makes strides, and even the government occasionally does something good.

I like CNN, really – but oh, please, put her where she belongs. Somewhere between the news of groundbreaking for a new porn shop, and the cleanup of a toxic waste dump.

Rant ended.

An Excellent Act of Congress

Now, don't get excited. Although the U.S. Congress does occasionally pass some excellent legislation, the one I'm talking about goes back a few years. 87 to be exact. On this day in 1919, the 66th Congress passed a Joint Resolution consisting of only 39 words. And when three-fourths of the states ratified it by August 18, 1920, women could finally vote in the United States.

You probably can't read them on the image to the right, so here are those historic words:

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

It took years of marches, hunger strikes, civil disobedience, women locked in jails, and perhap a few non-conjugal nights, but the men of the U.S. Congress and the states finally did the right thing. Women first voted in national elections in November 1920. There were and continue to be attempts to intimidate, dismiss, and discourage the "women's vote." It didn't work then, and it certainly doesn't work now.

When my grandmother was married, she could not vote. I doubt she ever marched for women's suffrage, but I'm absolutely sure she voted as soon as she could. She recognized how valuable a right it was when the world was just recovering from the "War to End All Wars." How much more important is it that women vote today, when the world clearly hasn't learned that wars end nothing but young lives?

Live!

I've seen web sites go live before, but never enjoyed it quite so much. That's because this time it's mine!


The new combined WordLens and I Blog For You site went live this afternoon, and now I'm asking everyone to go there, take a look, and let me know what you think. Sure, I'd be delighted to hear that you love it, but even happier to know if there's something you think could be improved.

Cyber-champagne all around!

It’s True…Something We Already Knew

Chocolate is a food group. Chocolate is a vegetable (thank you, Barbara D’Amato.) Chocolate is right up there with oxygen, water, and sleep, as one of life’s necessities. And now we know that the good feeling you get really is good for your brain.

A bit of chocolate, and memory and reaction time improve. We’ve heard cautious optimism about dark chocolate before, but this time they found good news about milk chocolate improving cognitive performance. Read the CNN story here.

Milk or dark, chocolate is good for you. But you already knew that.

Another Lovely Word

Here I go again talking about a delightful word. This one caught my eye because…well…it’s my name.

Margaritaceous. At first I thought it described the tipsiness of someone who has had a few too many tropical drinks rimmed with salt. Or perhaps the drink itself, having been left on the bar too long, solidified into something with the consistency of granola.

It’s neither. Margaritaceous describes some people’s teeth, a gleaming jewel, and irridescent hummingbirds.

Margaret. Margarita. Margarethe. However they’ve spelled it, most languages seem to agree that the name is of Greek origin and means “pearl.” A few baby name web sites also list it as a Persian name meaning “child of light,” a lovely alternative.

Margaritaceous appeared in my mailbox this morning courtesy of A.Word.A.Day. If you are a linguaphile, sign up for their free daily email; one day the word might be your name too.

Chocolate is NOT the Same as Potato Chips

I’m a great believer in scientific investigation and in the publication of peer-reviewed discovery. But this time I have to disagree with a recently published study that claims chocolate’s effect is fleeting, and that eating potato chips can give you the same kind of lift.

To quote Nero Wolfe, “Phooey!”

Most women know that chocolate is a friend in time of need, whether physical or emotional. Good chocolate wraps you in warmth and comfort; its silky sweetness fills your mouth and calms your soul. Dark chocolate has been found to actually be good for you and your heart. Of course I know that doesn’t mean I can eat a dozen bars of Cadbury dark chocolate or a bag full of Dove Dark Chocolate Promises. Well, I can, but I’d better not.

This food of the gods has been recognized for centuries for its calmative and restorative powers. Chocolate can ease the pain of a broken hand or a broken heart – just try doing that with potato chips!

Now please excuse me…the Baker’s Catalog order just arrived, and I need to make sure that bar of Merckens bittersweet is up to standard. Purely for medicinal purposes, of course.

On Overlooking Things

Fortune Magazine and CNN have recently spent ink and electrons pondering the challenges that knowledge workers face, deluged as we are by interminable electronic input. Who has not experienced the two-way cutting of the technology sword? It makes our lives easier in many ways, but it also claims parts of our lives that used to be off-limits. We are busier than ever, seemingly connected constantly to everyone in the world. So why is it that we seem to get less done?

I’m not immune; the sight of an un-read message in my email in box is like a bell to Pavlov’s dogs – I must read it! Now! The conditioning is so effective that I will check my email every few minutes unless I slap my own hand as it reaches for the mouse.

So I have set myself a task – a difficult task for one so digitaddictive. No email, not even a peek, for the next full hour. During that hour I will focus on only one project from my endless to-do list, and give it my full attention. When it’s done, I get 10 minutes – no more – of email before the next task. After that, it’s an hour and a half before email.

I can do this. Yes, I can. In a few days I’ll be up to three or four hours between emails and I’m sure my task list will be a lot shorter.

The Fortune article included a timely thought: "‘The art of being wise,’ philosopher William James wrote more than a century ago, ‘is the art of knowing what to overlook.’”

May we all be so wise.

Malicious Fun This Weekend

Around this time every year, some 700 perfectly lovely people gather in Crystal City, Virginia to contemplate murder most familiar. They will celebrate all the usual methods that you’ll see on Law & Order, plus exotic and just plain weird ways to kill another human being. This weekend I’ll be there, taking notes.

I have no current need for homicidal techniques, but I have in the past and will at some not-too-distant time in the future. After all, there is one manuscript that I will get back to rewriting later this year, plus another in first draft. That second one has a particularly smarmy character who desperately wants killing…but that could be said of many elected officials, couldn’t it?

This will be the 18th annual Malice Domestic conference, and you’ll find the big names and soon-to-be names there, plus editors, agents, and hundreds of fans of the traditional mystery. The attendees will vote, and a lucky and talented few will take home the coveted black teapot “Agatha” award for their writing.

So if you’re in Northern Virginia this weekend and overhear earnest conversations about the advantages of strychnine over arsenic, or whether a .22 would fit in an evening bag, look for a blood-red name tag. If it reads “Malice Domestic XVIII”, you will have fallen in with a highly creative group of plotters.

Now, how about a nice cup of tea…with a little something extra?

Thank You, Mr. Butts

Word lovers everywhere should lift a toast to Alfred M. Butts. Born this day in 1899, he invented the game that guarantees to spark our brains’ synapses. According to the official Scrabble site, Mr. Butts was an out-of-work architect when he turned his talents to designing a word game. In 2002, NPR featured Scrabble in its Present at the Creation series that follows the game from its birth in the depths of the Depression. It took several years and a vacationing Macy’s executive to catapult Scrabble to the top of the word-game heap, but once there it has held the top of that mountain as one of the most popular games in history.

I Had Fun...Really!

Last Monday I stood before a room full of business owners and talked about my love of words and writing and blogging...and had fun! A few years ago the prospect alone would have sent me huddling in a dark corner with my insides churning. I can still recall the quiver in my knees and quaver in my voice those days when it was my turn to perform in high school Speech Class. So how could I possibly enjoy it now?

The difference is passion. When I care about a subject or a person or a cause, you can't shut me up. Get me talking about flying or cats or certain special people, and you had better find a comfortable chair. Let me start on words, writing, and blogging and you'll want a drink and some snacks while you're at it. Fortunately, the folks on Monday had dinner and dessert to sustain them.

Oh, there were still those moments when I felt that I’d completely lost my train of thought and words would not come, but no one threw anything, so the lapses couldn’t have been very noticeable. I ran on too long and didn’t get to say everything I feel is important about blogging. But, I think I did succeed in getting people to think about this new way of communicating. From the conversations I had afterward, I know some folks who came in asking “What the heck is a blog?” went home thinking “Yeah, that could work for my business.”

And all without a single knee quiver.

Good Night, and Good Luck

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another." - Edward R. Murrow

The other night we finally saw Good Night, and Good Luck, the Oscar-nominated film directed by George Clooney. For me, a good movie is one that I am still thinking about the next day or the next week, one that I keep "seeing" snippets of in my head. Good Night, and Good Luck is one of those.

We Americans have a bad habit of forgetting the lessons of history. And so, we are required to relive some nasty episodes. One lesson from half a century ago is that a demagogue with a microphone and a national platform can wreak havoc on society and quickly turn us into creatures cowering in the back of our cave, fearful of each other.

In the 1950's, Senator Joseph McCarthy destroyed blameless lives, drove men to suicide, and rode his brief power to the depths of one of the darkest periods of American history. That he was able to create his own little reign of terror in the middle of the 20th century is a lesson we must not forget.

Hollywood turns out a lot of garbage, but occasionally a gem emerges from the sludge. Good Night, and Good Luck is one of those few films that should be required viewing - and discussion - for every high school and college student. Power-hungry McCarthy wannabes are never far from a microphone. We can't stop them from spewing their poison - free speech is one of our precious rights - but we can arm people with knowledge against this insidious form of divisiveness. McCarthyism has appeared under other names, and will undoubtedly bubble to the surface again some day. Each generation needs to remind the next of the danger; this film is one very good way of doing just that.

A First...Almost 100 Years Ago

An important date in aviation history passed without notice a few days ago. It was on March 8, 1910, that the first woman to be granted a pilot's license, received her "brevet" from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. Raymonde de Laroche was one of an enthusiastic group of women pilots who took to the skies almost as soon as there were fixed-wing aircraft to fly. And just a little over a year later, Harriet Quimby became the first American woman to be granted a flying license.

About 50 years after Madame de Laroche's feat, I fell in love with a Caribbean-blue amphibian. I never owned that little beauty, but I did get to fly small planes. And though my only flying these days is by way of Southwest Airlines, the fascination and desire remain, and I cannot resist searching the sky when I hear a small plane overhead.

Those Were the Days

Much has been written – and undoubtedly there is more to come – about the Baby Boom generation and how it has changed American society. I’ll bet there are many people in their 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s who already clap their hands over their eyes and ears and yell, “Enough already with the Boomers!”

But to those who lived through the duck-and-cover drills, the bra-burning and anti-war protests, and who still remember how Elvis and the Beatles raised parental hackles, here’s a link for you. The January 2006 issue of Smithsonian Magazine has an article that looks at the life of one of the first of the generation, born in the early seconds of January 1, 1946. She can’t be called typical – I don’t believe there is such a thing – but her life experiences so far will resonate with many in this unruly group. If there is one characteristic that you can say is found in many Boomers, it’s the refusal to “age gracefully” and to live up (or is it down?) to society’s expectations of what a “senior citizen” should be.

Which, now that I think of it, explains this manifesto that’s been popping into email inboxes for some time: "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body. I intend to skid in sideways, dark chocolate in one hand, rum punch in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "WOO HOO what a ride!"

Make your ride worth a good "Woo Hoo!"

And Now the Latest Scientific Discovery…

We depend on scientific research for new medicines, healthier lives, and a cleaner environment. I was glad to read yesterday that there is new research on the environmental front that may lead to a creative use of waste materials. CNN reported that researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia have had success using a repellant made from tiger poo in warding off wild goats.

While you are chuckling, consider that the goats along with other “pest” animals, like kangaroos and feral pigs, cause hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to Australian agriculture. Talk about a ready market! The scientists believe their new poo repellant might work to ward off deer, too. That would be good news to a woman I know who collects her grandson’s used diapers and places them at the edge of her garden; she swears the dirty diapers deter the deer. I know you can buy deer repellants that contain the scent of other predators – coyote and fox, for example – but somehow I prefer the image of a majestic tiger protecting my plants.

And She Doesn't Mince Words

If you are a writer there are two things you must do every day: writing is one and reading is the other. For the latter, my morning starts with Mount Washington, Tai Shan, and Miss Snark. Those weather geeks on top of the mountain think 100 mph winds and whacking ice with a sledge hammer are great fun. The panda cub is just plain cute. I can get rolling without either of them if I have to, but Miss Snark is a must.

Her Snarkness is a literary agent in New York who answers questions about writing, editing, and publishing with refreshing honesty. She does not suffer fools or nitwits, and yet is patient with newcomer questions, and often laugh-out-loud funny. But be warned - Miss Snark is habit-forming.

She Was Not Well Behaved

One of the most hated and revered women of the late 20th century died yesterday – Betty Friedan. She had the revolutionary idea that getting married, having children, and keeping a nice, clean home, were not enough. Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, took the position that women should have identities of their own as individuals and not just as Mrs. So-and-So or Bobby’s Mom.

It was the start of a revolution that has benefited all women. Today’s 20- and 30-somethings cannot even wrap their minds around the idea that women might not be allowed to do or be anything they want. In less than 50 years we have finally started to tap the vast reservoir of talent in women.

In the 1960’s there were three jobs for a woman: nurse, teacher, secretary. And, of course, those were only until she snagged a man, got married, and had babies. Today’s women are astronauts, engineers, scientists, university presidents, doctors, lawyers, politicians, and yes, wives and mothers. The difference is choices, and we are so much richer for them.

I have a sign on my bulletin board: “Well behaved women rarely make history.” - Laurel Thatcher Urich. Women of every generation can be grateful that Betty Friedan was not well behaved.

Don't You Love Words?

I admit it - I’m addicted to words. I collect them like seashells, picking them up and stashing them in my electronic pocket for safekeeping. One day I’ll have time to bring them all out, spread them on my desk, and listen to the lovely cacophony. Some day.

For now, I enjoy them as they appear on my laptop’s screen. Yesterday it was “blurb.” Writers and those in publishing use it all the time. Eavesdrop on author conversations and you’ll hear things like, “You got Laura Lippman to blurb your book? Wow!” Translation: The very talented and elegant author of award-winning mysteries, Laura Lippman, has written a laudatory description for the cover of that lucky author’s book. Blurbs help sell books, and snagging a top name is a coup.

I always assumed blurb was a shortened version of some other word, much as “blog” is short of “web log.” But yesterday I learned it was made up by author Gelett Burgess. He defined it as “self-praise; to make a noise like a publisher.” Burgess wrote many fiction and non-fiction books, but was best known – to his dismay – for the “Purple Cow” poem.

If you’re a word lover you may have heard or read The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor. I was delighted to learn you can get it delivered every day to your desktop, complete with gems like “blurb.”

And then there’s “susurration”….

They Mean Business

Picture a meeting room holding about 50 entrepreneurs. The noise level is a low roar as conversations overlap onto greetings and handshake introductions, “elevator” speeches and business card exchanges. The businesses represented are as varied as Web design, commercial cleaning, engineering, and mortgage banking. These small business owners graze the hors d’oeuvres, patronize the bar, and network like crazy. They are all ages, nationalities, and races. Oh yes, and they are all women.

You’ve just entered a NAWBO meeting. The National Association of Women Business Owners was formed more than 30 years ago, and today it is the voice of America’s 10.6 million women-owned businesses. That means that nearly half of all privately-held companies are at least 50% owned by a woman or women. They account for almost $2.5 trillion in sales and employ one out of every seven workers in the U.S. I have trouble wrapping my brain around numbers like that, but you get a sense of the power in the room when you see the leading corporations, banks, publishers, and educational institutions that support the local chapters.

But the best thing about NAWBO meetings is the people. The energy is contagious and empowering – I leave each event feeling I can handle anything. I’ve always been grateful for the welcome extended to me years ago when I stepped tentatively into my first NAWBO wine-and-cheese event. The faces have changed, the chapter has evolved, but the acceptance and encouragement are still there every time.

And Now I Blog For You

A few minutes ago a new site joined the Web: I Blog For You. At the nudging, pushing and downright insistence of my friend Margaret, I’m expanding my writing services to include blogging for others.

I can see the wrinkled brows from here. You’re thinking, “Isn’t the point of a blog to be intensely personal? How can someone write a blog for another person?” The answer is that it takes some time and communication at first, but it can be done, and done well.

Margaret is one of those people whose life resembles a hurricane. She’s calm in the eye of the storm as chaos roils around her. It’s a classic scenario for her Type E personality (more about Type E’s another time) and it includes zero patience for details. She has an idea, she can see it in finished form, and she wants to simply have it appear. And Margaret wanted a blog.

Now my friend would never actually stop long enough to write a blog. But she would – and did – talk through what she wants the blog to be and do for her real estate business. I Blog For You does the rest, and she concentrates on what she does best. What could be better than a win-win?