Sunday, January 13, 2008



These are some wind chimes at a cool store in Door County. They were from all over the world, tuned very precisely, and hung outside in a gazebo. When the wind blew softly, it made them ring in a beautiful, brain-massaging way. I would make my very own wind chime gazebo some day if I could. I think some of the chimes were $1200, though. It would be a very expensive endeavor. I'd have to own a lot of land, too, so as not to annoy any neighbors.

I hope you can get a feel for the really cool experience of standing in this gazebo up in Door County. It is located at the Blue Dolphin in Fish Creek. (I think)

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Free Rice!

It's a new game that everyone's playing! And yes, there will be free rice! Only not for you, for people who *really* need it!

For you, a lesson in one of three things:

1. How poor your vocabulary really is
2. How lucky you can guess for how long
3. How long it will take you to to realize that cheating feels better when it is feeding the hungry.

Or, perhaps all three?

Seriously, it's worth playing. :) Better than freecell!
What will it take?


Today another ranking listed the US last in preventable deaths in the 19 leading industrial nations. The authors say that doesn't mean that the US has bad health care, it's just bad for those who don't have it.

Well, right! There are too many people without health care, and more and more people without it every day. I am just not sure what it will take for people in power to understand that we simply cannot ethically allow this to be a country where the "haves" have the right to health and the "have nots" don't. We allow all people access to roads, police and fire protection, school and libraries. How can we believe that access to a doctor is any less important?

This has nothing to do with universal INSURANCE coverage. What is this health insurance anyway. I've seen these plans to mandate that everyone buy insurance. You can't squeeze blood from a turnip. The people I used to work with weren't uninsured because they were lazy, I assure you.

This must be a paradigm shift. Or perhaps it is a question of entitlement. Or fear that if EVERYONE had access to health care, perhaps there would be none left for those who can now afford to pay for it. Maybe it is just such difficulty pointing the finger at the party to blame for the state of things that no one seems to be able to accomplish anything at all. Of course, that isn't to say that we don't know who is to blame. We do know some of the offenders. But they're big players in politics, and politics doesn't like offending big players, even if they're also big offenders.

So, maybe it's a question of who we love more, the people or the players. Who do we think deserve to be happier. Are we satisfied with being last? What are we willing to do, if anything, to change that?

I bet nothing changes. But then again, I'd love to be proven wrong.