The Hue and Cry

Year in review [Bryan and Ellie]

2011-12-20T18:44:00.000-08:00

A number of exciting things have happened to 8-year-old Nora in 2011. In the spring, both her grandparents were able to come to Ohio for her baptism. The baptism was a very sweet experience, and we were so grateful to have family there to share it with us. In the summer, Nora swam in our favorite lake and took tennis lessons. In fall, she started her gifted class (“Fun--like preschool!”(?)), continued piano, and kicked her first two goals in soccer. These goals were a long time in coming, so her father can be excused for jumping up and down and screaming like a maniac. Finally, Nora moved down to the new basement in a room all her own. She is in heaven.

Andrew is eagerly awaiting his 6th birthday this month. His big news is that he started Kindergarten, which he loves. He’s also taking pre-piano music class this year. Andrew lost his first tooth in Utah at his Warnick Grandparents’ home this summer. Our Tooth Fairy still found him, so she won’t be fired, despite her sometimes flighty and forgetful ways. His drawings of semi trucks, buses, airplanes, and Jeeps decorate our fridge and the fridges of his teachers and grandparents. Andrew is the resident rule-enforcer in our home, much to his sister’s chagrin. Not much is missed by his penetrating, petty-criminal-bustin’ gaze.

Stephen, at two, shifts rapidly between unbearably cute and just unbearable. On the cute side, we have his claims of having a beard (we think he means his upper lip), his love of hugs, his somersault attempts, his obsession with writing his name, and his big brown eyes and blond curls. On the unbearable side we have the typical toddler whining and tantrums in addition to the messiest eating we have ever experienced. (He is not done until he has pulverized every cubic inch of his food, and has eaten. . .any?) Stephen provides the comic relief in our family. The past few weeks, he’s taken to answering every question, “Yes, sir!”

Ellie and Nora joined a Mother-Daughter Book Club this year, and have had a great time reading and discussing some childhood classics together. In March, Ellie tagged along with Bryan to England for a conference at Oxford. (Thanks to the Merkley grandparents for making this childless trip possible!) Going to England has been a lifelong dream for Ellie, and she loved every minute--even the one where she mistook white wine for water (low lighting!), took a big swig, and just about spit it across the table onto Bryan’s distinguished British colleagues. She’s still running, albeit a little more slowly to keep pace with her favorite pregnant running buddy (sister Anna).

Bryan was consumed early this year with finishing the basement. He put up the drywall, sanded, hung the doors, put up the wood trim, and painted. He is pleased with how it all turned out and can often be found in the basement admiring his craftsmanship. Meanwhile, he gave professional presentations in St. Louis and Oxford, organized a conference in Dayton, spearheaded a major curriculum change in his college, published two papers, and finalized a publisher for his second book. He has recently become fascinated with wood-grilling. His peaceful and quiet life was abruptly interrupted last week by a new church assignment...bishop (a lay leader of a local LDS congregation). Time will tell if he survives to see next Christmas.

It's the end of the world (as we know it) [Bryan]

2011-12-12T19:13:00.000-08:00

Most of the time, as you know, email is mundane and trivial. I received an email last week, however, that will change my life forever. Wednesday morning I returned from my morning jog to find a message with the subject line "appointment with President Welling?" My heart sank. It not only sank, it went crashing to the floor, shattering into a thousand tiny pieces. Ellie heard me exclaim, "Oh no!" We both knew exactly what it meant.

You won't fully understand this if you aren't Mormon. Some background may help: The first thing to know about my church is that major responsibility is placed on the local, lay leader of the congregation, a person that we call a bishop. The bishop is responsible for looking out for the physical and emotional well-being of the members of his congregation (hundreds of people) for five to six years. It is a major time commitment, almost a second job, a substantial lifestyle change. The second thing to know about the church is that if you, as a member, are asked to serve in a specific capacity, even a bishop, you do it. These are "callings." Accepting callings is a part of who we are.

You probably realize that the email was about me serving as bishop to our local congregation. I accepted the calling. Right now, I feel a strange mixture of happiness, sadness, and anxiety. Happiness, because it will be an honor to serve others (and God) in such a deep and meaningful way. I do want to be of real use in the world, and there is no better way than through something like this. Sadness, because I realize that some of the projects that are important to me must now be relinquished, some maybe forever, some temporarily. Blogging will slow, some books will remain unwritten. Anxiety, because of deep-seated fear of being unable to do, or do well, all that will be asked of me. Sometimes I feel like I have more questions than answers, more weaknesses than strengths, more folly than wisdom. I haven't slept well since Wednesday.

On Sunday, I was sustained by my congregation and officially "set apart" in the calling. Something happened during that meeting that was particularly meaningful to me. After I was sustained, I was asked to come and sit behind the pulpit. I slowly walked up and took a seat in front of the congregation. I looked out over the congregation, and saw many smiling and supportive faces (and a few surprised faces). I felt a bit numb. At that moment, though, I heard the organ playing what is perhaps the hymn that is most sacred to me, "As Now We Take the Sacrament." The personal significance of this hymn is a small fact about me that no one really knows, I suspect, but God. As soon as I heard that playing, I pretty much lost it, emotionally. Part of the hymn goes, "As now we praise thy name with song, / the blessings of this day / will linger in our thankful hearts,/ and silently we pray / for courage to accept thy will, / to listen and obey./ We love thee, Lord; our hearts are full. / We’ll walk thy chosen way."

Hearing that hymn, in that moment, was like God saying, "Bryan, I am here. Have courage." I can think of only a few precious moments in my life where it felt like God was specifically mindful of me and was speaking to me personally. That was one of them.

Is the world getting worse? [Bryan]

2011-12-09T12:37:00.001-08:00

I often hear that things are getting worse and that "the world" is sliding into moral decay. I don't really believe that is true. The world from 1900-1974 (the year I was born), with the mass slaughter in two world wars, genocide on an unprecedented scale, brutal apartheid racism in the United States, and so forth, seems like a place that had no where to go but up, morally speaking. I collected a bunch of graphs that try to explain why I believe that things are actually not getting worse with respect to morality. Of course, it is possible that certain things might be worse. I'm talking about the big picture here.

Let's start with violent crime rates, which seem to be consistently dropping over the past 30 years.

Below are the categories of violent crime broken down more precisely. Everything, from murder, to assault, to rape, is down since the 1980s.

Trends in domestic violence are particularly tricky, since what gets reported is always fluctuating. Below is a graph, though, indicating that domestic violence has dropped over the past decade.

Below is a chart attempting to capture the presence of armed conflict in the world. The trend seems to be down over the past 20 years meaning the world is, on the whole, a more peaceful place. This is hard for us to conceive, because we ourselves have been engaged in minor conflicts since 2002. Overall, though, the trend is down.
Abortion rates seem to have slowly declined since 1980.

Divorce seems to be declining fairly significantly since it reached its peak in 1980s. (There are many reasons for this, of course, not all good.)

And well deserved [Bryan]

2011-12-09T12:31:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly last week to allow indefinite detentions of people suspected of terrorism, even if they are found in the U.S. This means that if the government merely thinks you are a terrorists, it can lock you away forever. You get no chance to defend yourself, no trial or due process. Unbelievable. Anyway, Jon Stewart gives this vote the nervous ridicule it deserves.

A truck I built [Andrew]

2011-11-28T17:10:00.001-08:00

[Below is Andrew's (age 5) first blog post -- BW]

I made a Lego car and I also wanted you to see it. I would like you to see it on the computer. It has taillights that look realistic and also it looks like a real truck.

Nostalgia de la luz [Bryan]

2011-11-13T20:28:00.000-08:00

I saw an amazing movie last weekend, Nostalgia for the Light, a film by Patricio Guzmán. It is a heartfelt documentary, more of a reflective essay, really, than an informational film. It deals with the seemingly different activities occurring in Chile's Atacama desert. On the one hand, you have astronomers taking advantage of the dry conditions to observe the ancient light coming from distant galaxies; on the other hand, you have mothers of the political prisoners who were killed during the reign of dictator Augusto Pinochet, looking for the thousands of bodies that were dumped in the same desert some 35 years ago. The film attempts to make the connection between these activities, namely, that they are both exploring the past in a way that situates our identities in the present.

Some of the stories the film tells are simply amazing: A woman describing the moment when she realized that a foot that had been unearthed was her brother's foot, and that he was never coming back. A young mother, my age, describing how the authorities had many years ago forced her grandparents to choose between revealing the location of her parents or losing her -- forced to choose, in effect, between the life of their child and the life of their granddaughter.

It was the images, though, the stunning visuals, that really struck me: The pictures of a simple Chilean house representing the sleepy Santiago world before the dark political turmoil of the 1970s. The fading pictures of some of the prisoners, before they were prisoners, full of hope and naive confidence that they could change the world, now dead. The footage of bodies, partially mummified by the dry desert conditions, being unearthed from their mass graves, with expressions of horror still frozen in their faces.

A sad, beautiful, haunting, and thoughtful film. Highly recommended.

Soccer stars [Bryan]

2011-11-13T18:49:00.000-08:00

My experience having kids in youth soccer has been mixed. They've always been among the younger children on their teams, and play is usually dominated by one or two older boys, leaving our kids to be more like spectators than participants. Plus, I've found it is hard to instill in my kids a competitive thirst. Away from the playing field, we usually tell them to share, to play nice, to not push, etc. Expecting them to then be hyper-aggressive in sports seems almost unjustified, no matter how much I scream "ATTACK!" maniacally from the sidelines. Thus, until this season, neither Nora nor Andrew had even come close to taking a shot on goal, let alone actually scoring a goal. They have both played multiple seasons.

This year, though, was a qualified success. First, there is Andrew. Andrew loves to play goalie. He gets so excited when he sees the ball approach that he starts to jump up and down in the goalie box. Some of the other parents called him the "dancing goalie" for this very reason. Andrew, being somewhat timid on the field, had not really shown his skills all year, even in practice. The next-to-last game of the season, Andrew was goalie and picked up the ball around the goal. The coach told him to wait for a minute and then to carefully throw the ball to a teammate off to the side. Andrew, apparently not hearing his coach, instead decided, with a wonderful, even mischievous grin on his face, to open up a can of drop-kick-from-hell on the other team. He grabbed the ball, tossed it in the air, and kicked it as hard as he could. The ball took off, well past the midfield line, like a shrieking comet, soaring and flying, over the heads of teammates and opponents alike. The coach's mouth dropped open. Then, grinning, he said, "Well, that's okay, too."

Second is a Nora story. Nora is actually a very skilled player. She controls the ball well, and can kick with determination and strength -- that is, when she is mentally in the game. It is easy for her to defer to the bigger stronger boys on the team and, over the season, she seemed to become more and more timid. But then it happened. Nora was playing forward. She happened to find herself in the middle of the field. The ball was deflected in her direction and the other team's goalie was way out of position. Nora gave the ball a little kick, redirecting it toward the goal, knocking it gently into the net. GOOOAAAAALLLLLL! I was speechless and just stood up with my hands in the air. Nora looked back at me with a look that asked, "Did I just do that?" I was so happy for her. I made a big deal of it. She was somewhat embarrassed by my excited praise, afterwords saying that she didn't want to score anymore because she didn't like all the attention. Something changed, though, from then on out. Having tasted the thrill of scoring, of excelling, of sticking it to her opponent in a fierce battle of will, she would not be stopped. Her game really blossomed after that and she scored a goal in her next game, which was her last game, as well. This was after 3 years of not even taking a shot!

So, like I said, a qualified success. Perhaps even more than that.

On the urge to occupy [Bryan]

2011-11-08T09:06:00.000-08:00

I'm not a huge fan of the "protest-left," so I have mixed feelings about the Occupy Wall Street people. I think their energies could be much better employed actually engaging in partisan politics, like the Tea Partiers did when they took over the agenda of a major political party.

However, there is no denying that the OWS folks have brought attention to a real problem. You don't have to be a militant egalitarian to acknowledge that a country is sick when it has such vast and growing income disparities as we have now. The top 1% has done really, really well over the past 30 years, much better than other income groups. This has led to an enormous amount of political power given to a small group of people (almost an oligarchy).

Meanwhile, conservatives' unrelenting goal seems to be to preserve and extend lower tax rates for these favored few -- notwithstanding our big deficits, crumbling roads and bridges, and a decimated public service sector. Mitt Romney's economic plan, to name just one example, would include a $6.6 trillion tax cut that would primarily benefit wealthy individuals and corporations (source), thus making the all of these trends even worse. Personally, I don't have anything against people who have made a lot of money, at least when it is made through their hard work and initiative rather than through social privilege and bailouts. I wouldn't mind making more money myself. Asking people who have done very, very well over the past 30 years to pay a moderately higher tax rate seems both fair and pragmatic. You don't have to "hate the rich" to see this is good policy. Conservatives who are concerned with social stability should recognize this as much as anybody.

Anyway, below I've prepared a fun array of charts (fun for me anyway) to illustrate what is happening and why.

The above chart tells the story told in terms of the growth of average income. The income of the top 1% (the red bar) has grown much more than the average family income (the blue bar) since 1979.

Above is roughly the same information broken down by income group. The income of the the top 1% (the red line) has grown by an astonishing 281%, much more than other groups.

Here is story told in dollar amounts. Again, massive growth for a few, while everyone else is flat.

The story by income share. Key point: The growth in income of the top 1% has come at the expense of other groups. A rising tide is not lifting all boats.

Here is one reason why this has happened: Tax rates for the wealthiest have plummeted lately, even as they make much more money.

Meanwhile, many corporations still pay no taxes. It is true that America on paper taxes corporation at a fairly high rate compared to other countries (perhaps too high). However, the loopholes and subsidies allow many corporations to pay a tiny fraction of their assigned tax rate.
Another reason for the stagnation of the middle class has to do with the declining influence of unions. Again, you don't have to think unions are perfect (I sure don't) to recognize that they have played an important role in making sure that everyone benefits from economic growth.

October Pictures [Bryan]

2011-11-07T18:35:00.000-08:00

Nora was a "batterina" this year.

Stephen, a dragon, practicing his roar.

Andrew, a race car driver

We went to the Corn Maize at Darby Creek to pick out our pumpkins and partake of the quaint autumn festivities.

Stephen, as ghoul.

Our Halloween party.

15 hyper kids. Good times.

Ah yes, and some good eating. I made up some roasted pumpkin salad with goat cheese, arugula and mint. Also, some pork loin with burnt brown sugar, thyme, and orange confit.

You know nothing of my work [Bryan]

2011-11-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

Someone posted my favorite scene from Woody Allen's masterpiece, Annie Hall, so I had to re-post it here. In this moment, a blowhard professor is pontificating about media theorist Marshall McLuhan and gets nailed as Allen pulls in McLuhan himself to set the record straight. Just so you know, I live in fear of just this: big shot mind scoldingly saying, "You know nothing of my work...How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing."

Bow tie guy costume [Bryan]

2011-10-31T12:23:00.000-07:00

Apparently, there is now a bow-tie guy Halloween costume. You can buy it for $40 through Party City. I am outraged. I am not a costume, I am a person.

This is how bad things are [Bryan]

2011-10-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

According to independent analyses, President Obama's job plan would create up to 1.9 [million] jobs and grow the economy by 2% (see here). It is endorsed by a broad majority of economists (see here) and many business leaders (see here). It would help rebuild our crumbling roads and other infrastructure. It is really, really important. It is also a moderate, bipartisan, centrist bill, with mostly old Republican ideas (see here). Every major provision is overwhelmingly popular, even among staunch Republican voters (see here). According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Obama's bill would increase revenue and actually cut the deficit by $3 billion over ten years (source). In sum, it cuts the deficit while at the same time giving the economy a real boost.

So, what is happening with the bill? The good news is that it has majority support in the Senate. Unfortunately, the bill was just filibustered by a unified Republican minority and their conservative allies, seemingly bent on either destroying Obama or preserving slightly lower tax rates for millionaires. They blocked it procedurally, in other words, and won't even let it come up for discussion. Unbelievable.

Democracy simply cannot survive if every bill can be stopped by 40 senators who are so intent on ensuring that a president doesn't see any success that they undercut their own ideas. Nowhere in the Constitution does it demand, or allow for, a super-majority requirement to pass legislation. But this is what things have come to. This is not good news for our country. Not good at all.

Total cuteness [Bryan]

2011-10-19T18:45:00.001-07:00

A quick note from the world of fatherhood. Nothing is cuter than a two-year-old trying to dance the Macarena. That is all.

Are Christians Christian? [Bryan]

2011-10-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

A dialogue dedicated to Rev. Jeffers.

Christian friend (CF): Hey Bryan. Quick question: Are Mormon's Christian. I don't think they are.

Me: I suppose the answer depends on what you mean by "Christian."

CF: Isn't it obvious. It is a simple question. Just answer it.

Me: No, it's not obvious. People mean different things by "Christian." Sometimes, a Christian is someone who attempts to live the teachings, and imitate the example, of the Jesus described in the New Testament. In contrast to this "moral" understanding of Christian, the term is also used to refer to a belief or set of beliefs. The answer to your question is different depending on what you mean by "Christian."

CF: Well, I think you are a decent guy. You may be a Christian in what you call the moral sense. I don't want to judge that. But that is not what I'm asking about.

Me: You are too kind. I'm not sure I'm even particularly Christian even in this moral sense. The New Testament makes some incredible demands: losing yourself completely, selling all that you have and giving it to the poor, renouncing the world, loving you enemies, turning the other cheek, and so forth. I'm not sure I've done any of this to any great extent. I live a relatively wealthy, comfortable, self-centered life, a life squarely in the world. Am I Christian in a moral sense? Probably not. The best that can be said is that, on good days, I'm trying to be.

CF: Well, whatever, I'm mostly talking about Christianity as a particular set of beliefs.

Me: But doesn't "Christian" just mean somebody who believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ? If so, then Mormons are Christians.

CF: It is not just that. "Christianity" refers to an interconnected set of beliefs about Jesus and his relationship to God. For the Christian, for example, God is completely transcendent, creator of all that is, and Jesus, his Son, is one in substance with God the Father.

Me: Why are those beliefs central to being Christian? None of that is taught clearly in the New Testament. Isn't this all just peripheral stuff?

CF: No. These beliefs are central to what it means for Jesus to be divine. Since Mormons deny the traditional Trinity, they are really saying that Jesus is not connected in the right way to the transcendent God. Jesus cannot be divine, under Mormon beliefs, because he is not really one with God. The Mormon beliefs about God are closer to, say, Zeus and Greek polytheism, than they are to the traditional God of Christianity. These beliefs about God are problematic, to say the least.

Me: That last statement about Zeus is unfair, but I suppose I can see what you mean. It is true that Mormons reject transcendence. For Mormons, God is squarely in the universe, not standing apart from it. It is also true that Mormons reject your version of creation and your version of the Trinity. We believe God and Jesus are one, but not in a metaphysical sense. They are one in a social sense of sharing the same characteristics and of being on the same team, so to speak. I suppose, then, if we use your technical definition of Christianity, then it is true the Mormons are not "Christians." But I, for one, wouldn't really want to be part of that club. For example, I really like the idea that the Trinity is social rather than metaphysical, that bonds between beings are achievements created through acts of love rather than existing as engrained features of some unchanging ontological reality. But, again, why should we accept this technical understanding of the term "Christian"? That definition seems contestable.

CF: Because, over time, this is what "Christian" has come to mean. It would be like someone who didn't believe the Mormon story of the Restoration, but who still liked the Book of Mormon, trying to be called a "true Mormon." Your Book of Mormon is interconnected to beliefs about your Restoration, which is interconnected with your labels. Beliefs are important and they are interconnected. You can't just start making up definitions for people who just believe a piece here and there.

Me: My problem, I suppose, is not what you mean when you say "Mormons aren't Christians." Rather, it is what other people hear when you say it. When Mormons hear this, they either hear it as a moral insult (Mormons are not good people), or they hear it as denying that they believe in the Jesus of the New Testament, which to them is so obviously false that they can't even comprehend why you would say such a thing. Moreover, it is misleading to outsiders since most of them are not theologians. They hear "not Christians" and they think "don't believe in Jesus." This is particularly interesting because folk-Christian belief, that is, the belief of everyday churchgoers, is actually often closer to Mormonism than it is to your technical Christianity. Large swaths of Christians, under this definition, are not really "Christian" either. They don't get the theological details right.

CF: That is a good point, I guess. If we restrict the term "Christian" to exacting technical beliefs about theology, then even many Christians are not Christians. Perhaps they themselves, though, do not have to have these right beliefs. Perhaps it is enough if they belong to institutions, their churches, that profess to have these right beliefs.

Me: Don't you see, though, how lifeless your definition of Christian then becomes? A Christian is now someone "belonging to an institutions that accepts the proper technical theological beliefs about God and Jesus."

CF: Hmmmm, that does some lifeless. Perhaps we should just give up this labeling game altogether?

Me: Perhaps. I think, however, the idea of a "Christian" might still do some work, but you have to go back to the moral sense. A Christian is not really something somebody is. The requirements are simply too demanding, too life altering. It is something somebody tries to be. Are Mormons Christians, then? Some are, perhaps, but most are not. Are Christians Christians? Some are, maybe, but most are not. Being Christians is a direction, not a status; it is a aspiration, not a label; it is a path, not a destination.

Calamity Song [Bryan]

2011-10-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

Interesting video from the Decemberists that my brother alerted me to. They use their great song, "Calamity Song," as the soundtrack for a scene from David Foster Wallace's book Infinite Jest.

This almost made me want to read Infinite Jest. Then I remembered that it was 1200 pages of tiny text, and decided against it yet again.

New Scripture [Bryan]

2011-10-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

It is not often that I can announce on this blog the discovery of new scripture. I really cannot say enough, though, about the inspired nature of Francis Mallmann's cookbook, Seven Fires. I know I've blogged about this before, but, my gosh, that guy is brilliant. This is how disciples are created. I would literally follow this guy anywhere, desperately grabbing any crumbs of culinary wisdom falling from his lips (Hark, the master speaks!). The philosophy of the book is fairly easy to understand: you take simple ingredients and then you slightly char them and burn them, usually over a wood fire or in a hot skillet. It is powerful idea.

Consider the following recipe. You take some sweet potatoes and boil them with bay leaves, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. You then take the potatoes out, smash them, and put them on a hot, buttery skillet. You sprinkle them with fresh thyme and honey, and cook them until slightly charred on both sides. The result? Absolute Transcendence. And it only uses six or so very common ingredients.

Consider another recipe. You peel some oranges and cut them in half. You then cover the face of the orange halves with sugar and fresh rosemary. You heat up a skillet and throw some sugar in it. When the sugar starts to melt, you put in the oranges face down, cooking the oranges until slightly charred, with the juices and sugars caramelizing. You take the oranges out and serve them with yogurt or ice cream, pouring the heavenly pan remnants over the top. The complex flavors that come out of this process are remarkable.

And so it goes: charred tomatoes, charred sweet potato strips, potato dominoes, bricklayer steaks, dulce de leche crepes, and so froth, each recipe better than the last. If you read and ponder this book, you too will gain a testimony of it.

Here I am cooking some skirt steaks "a la vara," as per Mallmann's instructions. The meat is skewered on a stick and placed next to a wood fire. After that, it is nothing but the meat, salt, fire, and wood smoke. This is primal cooking at its best. (Ellie said I smelled like a sexy caveman.)

Here is an arugula salad, with burnt carrots, garlic chips, charred goat cheese, and parsley. Yummy.

Unlikely Endorsement [Bryan]

2011-09-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

Below is a fun little video of former Governor Mitt Romney endorsing most of the key provisions of President Obama's American Jobs Act: tax credits to businesses who hire those who’ve been out of work for six months, a cut in the payroll taxes for workers and small business, allowing businesses to write off the cost of capital investments, and increasing infrastructure spending. Romney, you won't be surprised, has explicitly endorsed all of this in the recent past, even though he now is strongly against the act. Improving the economy and helping people find jobs, after all, runs against his ambition to president. Economic chaos means more Republican success.

Notice that Romney also strongly endorsed the 2008 bank bailouts (see here) and both fiscal and monetary stimulus in 2008 (see here), before reversing his position when it became unpopular. Think of that next time Romney criticizes Obama on the economy. I really wonder if this guy has any core beliefs or character, beyond an all-consuming, life-long quest to be President Romney.

One more thing about BYU-Utah

2011-09-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

Not to bring up bad memories for anyone, but I had one more thought on this BYU-Utah rivalry business. Gordon Monson wrote the other day after the Utah demolished the Cougars:

For the most part, Utah goes about its business, winning games. BYU talks about its lofty goals of national championships and national exposure, comparing itself to Notre Dame, and then, more than once or twice or thrice, embarrasses itself with its stumbling and bumbling, its lack of preparation, its lack of execution, its lack of proper coaching.

The title of his piece was "Utah Football is Better than BYU and Its Not Even Close." At first, I disagreed with this because the records of BYU and Utah are nearly identical over the past decade. I came to agree, though, that Utah has felt more successful. Why is that? Part of it is that Utah's best seasons have been much better than BYU's best seasons (2004, 2009). But most of it has to do with expectations. The expectations of BYU are always so unbelievably high they inevitably come up short (this is the same reason why a 10-2 record here at Ohio State always feels like a complete failure). Before any games are played, BYU fans anoint themselves "BCS busters" and then inevitably end up playing in the Las Vegas bowl. Utah almost always seems to play under the radar, no matter how successful they've been in the past. Given this, it seems that Utah is more successful than BYU, even though both teams have roughly similar records.

By the way, I think this craving for positive exposure is, in part, formed by BYU's relationship to the LDS Church. We Mormons also seem to crave positive PR. We want people to think we are not weird. We want to be popular in sometimes unbecoming ways. The exposure-craving nature of BYU, then, is partly a product of the same impulse in the larger LDS community.

First Day of School Pics [Bryan]

2011-09-18T18:29:00.001-07:00

Another year, another child off to school. Good luck in Kindergarten Andrew!

Summer pics [Bryan]

2011-09-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from our trip to Utah last month.

The kids were able to spend a lot of time in the water. Here is Stephen "fishing," he said, with a canoe oar.

Canoeing with Grandma and Grandpa Merkley at Pineview Reservoir.

We did a bit of hiking, too, which is always important to us on our Utah trips.

Took a trip to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. I love the arid, dusty, smelly beauty of this region.

We didn't see many antelope on Antelope Island. But the whole place was covered with spiders the size of 50-cent pieces. In this picture alone, you can see five of the monsters.

Good Stephen pic.

Grandma and Grandpa Warnick took us on the Heber Scenic Railroad. It was great fun, particularly for our train-obsessed boys.

My cousins put together a party where all the Warnick cousins could get together. Here is a picture of all the 2nd cousins (children of my cousins) that were there.

We stopped by my grandparent's old farm, now mostly crumbling into memory.

We were able to spend some great time with my brother Derek and his family, along with Amber's family, and Ashlee and Kurt. And of course, Grandma and Grandpa.

More fun in the water.

Utah has been wet. While we were there, my parent's backyard flooded, which led to another opportunity to play in the water.

Calling Mr. Stivers [Bryan]

2011-09-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here is my letter to our dear Congressman Steve Stivers (and Senator Portman) about the American Jobs Act that President Obama recently sent to congress. I'm putting this here because I doubt anyone in Stiver's office will read the whole thing.

Dear Representative Stivers,

We are writing to urge you to pass President Obama's "American Jobs Act" in its entirety. The provisions calling for more infrastructure spending and more money for states to retain teachers and first responders are particularly important to us. Here are the reasons you should support the bill:

1. It will create jobs. According to Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics, “The plan would add 2 percentage points to GDP growth next year, add 1.9 million jobs, and cut the unemployment rate by a percentage point.” We need this now because Ohio’s unemployment rate is at an unacceptable 9.0%.

2. All of the provisions have been endorsed by Republicans over the years. It is truly a bipartisan bill. Rejecting any of these provisions now will look like a mere partisan stunt to score political points against President Obama.

3. All of the major provisions of the act receive substantial public support. According to a CNN poll, clear majorities of Americans support cutting the payroll tax (65% support), providing state aid to protect jobs for teachers and first responders (74%), and investing in infrastructure (64%).

4.The bill reflects a growing consensus among economic experts. Examples: The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (“If policymakers wanted to achieve both a short-term economic boost and medium- and long-term fiscal sustainability,” CBO chief Doug Elmendorf recently said, the “most effective” policy would be “changes in taxes and spending that would widen the deficit now but narrow it later in the decade”), a wide variety of economists (e.g., Bruce Bartlett, a policy advisor to Ronald Reagan: “The important thing is for policy makers to stop obsessing about debt and focus instead on raising aggregate demand.”), the financial industry (The Financial Times editorial: “In broad terms, the needed elements are plain: further short-term stimulus combined with credible longer-term fiscal restraint”), the bond markets (“You’ve got to create a demand for labor,” Mr. Gross [a Republican, and a chief investment officer at Pimco] recently said. “The private sector is not going to do it. Putting a shovel in the hands of somebody can be productive”), Republican Fed chairman Ben Bernanke (“In the absence of adequate demand from the private sector, a substantial fiscal consolidation in the shorter term could add to the headwinds facing economic growth and hiring”), the International Monetary Fund (Reuters: “IMF chief Christine Lagarde said in an interview released on Sunday that Europe and the United States should consider stimulating economic growth, if the situation permits, to offset a crisis of confidence hitting the global economy”), and many business leaders.

In sum, the bill is vitally necessary, it is popular, it is bipartisan, and it reflects the current economic consensus. Now is not the time to play partisan games (the nonsense over the budget ceiling was very troubling). Put your constituents first and pass the bill.

Drama at Soccer Practice [Ellie]

2011-09-12T18:52:00.000-07:00

Nora and Andrew are playing soccer at a new venue this year--a nearby YMCA. The 'Y' is much closer to our house than their last venue, but in a worse part of town.

Tonight at soccer practice I was sitting in my camp chair reading a book as the kids scrimmaged on the field. The sound of a distant helicopter became louder and louder until I looked up to see it seemingly circling the soccer field. This will seem odd to people who've never lived by a freeway, but I'm pretty used to circling helicopters. I went back to reading my book.

Then, a dad beside me exclaimed, "Two police officers just got out of that car!"

I think we all put the scene together in that instant: on the other side of the fence from the soccer field were two men running. The helicopter, bottle-blue and clearly marked "POLICE" was buzzing above them like an overgrown housefly. The officers were running toward them. More officers appeared opposite them and the suspects were surrounded.

The coaches ushered all the children to one side of the soccer field to watch what happened next from a safe distance.

What happened next?

Not much. The two suspects were the sorriest looking lot I've seen--both overweight and wearing sweats. They gave up running pretty much instantly and stayed pliantly still, waiting for the officers to reach them. There was a lot of quiet discussion, a brief cheer (we suspect from the officers. . .?) and off they all went in the police cars. The good guys win again.

I leaned over to ask the dad beside me, "We're new in this league. Does this happen at every practice?"

No, no, he assured me. Usually the helicopters are farther away.

Comforting.

Poem for 9/11 Sunday [Bryan]

2011-09-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

"Try to Praise the Mutilated World" by Adam Zagajewsk:

You’ve seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the gray feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.

Source.

BYU-Utah already? [Bryan]

2011-09-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

So next Saturday is the big game. Yes, already. It has been moved from its traditional time during rivalry week at the end of November. I'm not at all pleased about this. Rivals play at the end of the season for a reason. Through the season you have time to build up a narrative. You come to know the players and what they are capable of. You see some players grow up, some choke, and some go down with injuries and then come back. You know, or think you know, what a team is made of. With these narratives come expectations.

The brilliance of an end of the year rivalry game, though, is how it overturns all these narratives. Things happen in rivalry games -- crazy, unexpected, out-of-character things -- that signal how important and meaningful a game it is. The specialness of the game becomes apparent as the emotions bring out different layers, different aspects of a team's psychological make-up that had previously been hidden. The BYU-Utah game, for example, almost always brought out a delightful nasty edge in both teams, which are usually so civilized and well-behaved. This early in the season I can't say I have many expectations, and therefore I will have no unexpected surprises that mark the game as meaningful.

And what is up with trying to make Colorado the new rival to Utah? You can't just invent rivalries like that, or resurrect ones that have died. BYU-Utah was one of the nation's great rivalries because of how the differences between the schools reflected larger cultural gaps: Public versus private, religious versus secular, liberal versus conservative, straight-laced Provo versus laid back Salt Lake City, and so forth. These gaps just don't exist between Utah and Colorado. Boulder, Colorado, for example, is famously liberal. Hippie versus hippie action is not so fun.

Whatever the case, go Utes.

Big moment in every boy's life [Bryan]

2011-09-11T11:45:00.001-07:00

There was a great article in the paper the other day called, "The Case Against Summer." Key quote from a summer reminiscence:

Eating Whoppers and fries for breakfast together was a bonding experience. Every boy treasures that moment when his father first says to him, "I don't think Mom needs to know about this."

If you don't believe this is how things are around our house, too, let me disabuse you of that notion. Exhibit A is Ellie's semi-serious comment to me the other day, which went something like this: "Your relationship with our children is built almost entirely on junk food." Exaggerated? Yes, quite a bit. Slightly hurtful? Indeed. Entirely false and inaccurate? No, I can't say that it is.

Round One Goes to the Toddler [Ellie]

2011-08-31T17:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we started potty training Stephen. It went really well!

. . .For the first hour-and-a-half. And then it fell to pieces.

We were all set. Stephen and I shopped for undies and gummy bears--both his selection. We got home and tried on all 15 pairs: Thomas, Lightning McQueen, Monster Trucks. He loved them! He went potty 3 times in 90 minutes!

After nap, we headed back to the potty. He dutifully sat for several minutes while we sang songs. Nothing doing. I let him off; he ran directly to the corner and peed on the floor.

Eighteen hours, eight accidents, and but two successes later things were looking grim. Stephen still wanted the Big Boy Underpants, but no longer wanted to have anything to do with the potty. I've talked with four different adults now who all had the same message for me: quit now. Try again in a month.

That is exactly what I plan to do.

This was supposed to go so much better.

The potty train has been derailed.

Thoughts on current events [Bryan]

2011-08-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

Various tidbits from the political scene, both good and bad:

1. Many of my conservative friends are now excited about Texas Governor Rick Perry, and want him to be our next president. For now, I'll simply point out that, at least on one issue, he seems like something of a moral monster: "He vetoed a bill that would have spared the mentally retarded, and sharply criticized a Supreme Court ruling that juveniles were not eligible for the death penalty." (source)

2. President Obama's health reform initiative had two big goals: increase access to health insurance for those who don't have it and, less well known, decrease federal health care costs. Early evidence suggests already some success on the second front: "Over the year ending May 2011, Medicare claims costs rose at an annual rate of 2.64%, as measured by the Healthcare Economic Medicare Index. That number is down 4.36 percentage points since May 2010, and down 5.53 percentage points since its November 2009 high. This represents the lowest annual growth rate in the six years S&P has been tracking the health care information." (source)

3. NATO involvement in the Libyan civil war appears to at least have avoided the worst case scenario of a long-term stalemate. Still, President Obama's handling of this issue with respect to the War Powers Act, in which he circumvented congressional approval because, the administration said, tactical bombing is not the "right kind" of hostilities imagined by the Act, remains one of the dumbest arguments I've ever heard in politics. (source)

4. The damage done to the economy by the Republican's no-compromise hostage-taking over the debt limit is now becoming evident. Everyone from the rating agencies, like S&P, to Ben Bernake, the Republican Fed Chairman, point to this wild Tea-Party brinkmanship as one important cause of recent economic turmoil (see here and here).

5. Obama's much criticized auto-bailout quietly appears to be one of things keeping the economy from becoming much worse: "Taxpayers bailed out much of the U.S. auto industry. Now the carmakers might be what saves the nation's economy from falling back into recession. After a massive restructuring and several high-profile bankruptcies, a leaner, more aggressive auto industry is making a comeback, hiring workers and ramping up manufacturing plants. From a trough two years ago, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Chrysler Group and other auto companies have added almost 90,000 manufacturing jobs, a 14% increase, according to federal employment data." (source)

6. When people blame Obama for his "out-of-control government spending," I always like to ask them to name the new legislation that has been enacted under the Democrats that increases government outlays. Beyond the 2008 stimulus, which was a one-shot deal and therefore not a driver of future deficits, they can't. The reason: significant new legislation that increases spending does not exist. Current deficits are caused almost entirely by the recession and Bush-era tax cuts.

7. New, peer-reviewed research on global warming is not encouraging: "At last year’s annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, UC Santa Barbara’s William Freudenberg gave a presentation in which he revealed that “new scientific findings are found to be more than twenty times as likely to indicate that global climate disruption is ‘worse than previously expected,’ rather than ‘not as bad as previously expected.’” Yikes. (source)

8. Politifact verifies the reality: "The top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States made 23.5 percent of all income -- more than the entire bottom 50 percent. The percentage of income going to the top 1 percent has nearly tripled since the 1970s. In the mid-1970s, the top 1 percent earned about 8 percent of all income. In the 1980s, that figure jumped to 14 percent. In the late 1990s, that 1 percent earned about 19 percent." Meanwhile, preserving slightly lower marginal tax rates for these wealthy folks seems to be the only major policy goal of the Republican party. (source)

Movie recommendation [Bryan]

2011-08-26T09:01:00.001-07:00

I've been meaning to blog about this for some time, but I wanted to recommend the movie, Another Year, directed by Mike Leigh (I was previously unfamiliar with Leigh's films, but apparently he is a big deal among the movie intelligentsia). Warning: The movie is conversation driven, amounting to about 2 hours of talking, so I guess it isn't for everybody. It depicts a marriage, where a husband and wife appear to genuinely delight in their long-term relationship. The movie captures the day-to-day reality of a stable, happy marriage in a completely convincing way. Indeed, what is great is how this movie captures the communicative nuance of everyday life. Every facial expression, every eye movement, every verbal tick, every raised eyebrow is pitch perfect. The movie contrasts the marriage of the main characters, Gerri and Tom, with the storms of loneliness experienced by the people who surround it. It makes you think about the ideas of loneliness and love, where they can be found, what causes them, and how people who experience both love and loneliness affect each other. Highly recommended.

Columbus Reborn [Bryan]

2011-07-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

For a long time, I had the sense that Columbus really lacked an identity, or even a sense of place. The city has been disconnected from its past and has been lacking a vision for the future. I can't tell you how many grand landmarks have been torn down, how many businesses have fled downtown, how much the waterfront (the key to a great city) was lacking in character and imagination, and so forth. Columbus, I felt, was a "convenient" city, but that was about all that could be said for it.

In the past few weeks, I've really changed my mind. I've strolled around the newly hip and vibrant Short North District, hung out again at Schiller park in German Village taking in a free play, and marveled at the connection Columbus somehow has with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which produced an amazing kid-friendly (!) production of Hamlet last month. However, the key to the resurrection of Columbus, in my mind, is the new parks downtown. They have really gotten serious about reshaping their public places in the city and it is really paying off. There is now a string of parks along the Scioto River, the "Scioto Mile," all interconnected by bike paths. There is now the biggest splash park I have ever seen, which will draw families back to downtown. There is a new central park in place of the old City Center Mall, Columbus Commons, which comes complete with a carousel, an outdoor library, beautiful gardens, and European-style outdoor cafe. There are pedestrian-friendly bridges linking the east and west banks of the Scioto, meaning that people can easily walk from COSI to downtown (the new Main Street Bridge is the first inclined arch bridge in North America). The central park is linked to the waterfront parks by cobblestone streets and urban gardens. Very cool. Behold a city reborn!

The mind reels [Bryan]

2011-07-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

Watching the national debate has been immensely discouraging lately. I will leave Kevin Drum to sum up my feelings:

Republicans got the tax cuts they wanted. They got the financial deregulation they wanted. They got the wars they wanted. They got the unfunded spending increases they wanted. And the results were completely, unrelentingly disastrous. A decade of sluggish growth and near-zero wage increases. A massive housing bubble. Trillions of dollars in war spending and thousands of American lives lost. A financial collapse. A soaring long-term deficit. Sky-high unemployment. All on their watch and all due to policies they eagerly supported. And worse: ever since the predictable results of their recklessness came crashing down, they've rabidly and nearly unanimously opposed every single attempt to dig ourselves out of the hole they created for us. But despite the fact that this is all recent history, it's treated like some kind of dreamscape. No one talks about it. Republicans pretend it never happened. Fox News insists that what we need is an even bigger dose of the medicine we got in the aughts, and this is, inexplicably, treated seriously by the rest of the press corps instead of being laughed at.

Behold, the Pit Master

2011-06-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

The ribs turned out well, if you were wondering. They were juicy, flavorful, and nicely smoked. They were fairly tender, but next time I'm going to give them 15 more minutes. Great Father's Day!

West Virginia, Land of Mystery

2011-06-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

Last week, we trekked down to Southern Ohio and West Virginia to do some exploring. The main destination was Blackwater Canyon, just outside of Davis, West Virginia. We found West Virginia to be a misty, mysterious place. We traveled mostly along the back country roads, winding their way around hills and over streams, up and down, through the forested mountains and ramshackle villages. Usually, you can only see the road and a few feet off the shoulder into the dense forest. Even at the top of the mountains, when a rare clearing opens up, you see only forested mountains in all directions. In short, one can only see a fraction of the people and creatures that surround you. The landscape is obscured, covered by hills of green blankets, hiding everything below tree line. This is very different from where I have lived. Utah had the mountains but lacked the dense, shrouding vegetation. Illinois and Ohio had the vegetation, but lacked the mountains. These twin disguises, mountains and dense forests, were both present in West Virginia.

The first day we headed off to Southern Ohio, stopping first in Marietta, Ohio, where we decided to take a ride up the Ohio River on the Valley Gem Sternwheeler. The early summer weather was beautiful. The kids loved watching the paddles go round and round. The highlight was when the first-mate let Andrew drive the boat, which he did successfully, without crashes or fatalities. We then headed up OH 26, the "Covered Bridges Scenic Byway" in Wayne National Forrest. The bridges were evocative and cute, surrounded by a landscape of verdant rolling hills. Even more impressive, though, was the drive to New Martinsville, West Virginia, via OH 536. This was rural Ohio at its most beautiful and charming. The gentle hills were partly cultivated, partly forested, dotted with old barns, grazing cattle, and small churches. The road stays pretty high, so we were constantly looking out from ridges over sprawling rural vistas.

After spending the night in New Martinsville (and spending plenty of time in the hotel pool) we headed to Blackwater Canyon. This is where we met the mysterious mountains and lonely back roads of West Virginia for the first time. Blackwater Canyon, we discovered, is a really fun area, with plenty of hiking (much of it suitable for kids), sightseeing, and exploring. The kids enjoyed climbing the various boulders. Stephen became obsessed with waterfalls and cried whenever we would have to leave one. Blackwater Canyon is one of the great gems of the Eastern U.S. landscape, we've decided. Also fun is the nearby town of Davis, West Virginia, which we've heard described as "hip-billy," a fitting description. Davis was a great mix of idiosyncratic eateries (like the Hellbender Burrito place we enjoyed), art galleries, and customary West Virginia ramshackle.

Pictures below:

Captain Andrew

On the Valley Gem, touring the Ohio River

Along the Covered Bridges Byway

Blackwater Lodge

Blackwater Falls (60 feet tall)

Blackwater Canyon (from Pendleton Point)

Elakala Falls

Armed and dangerous

Blackwater Canyon, South End (from Lindy Point)

Rock Climbing, kid style

Agenda for Father's Day [Bryan]

2011-06-18T11:50:00.001-07:00

Ellie asked me the other day what I wanted for Father's Day and I basically said that I wanted to have a serious day of grilling. This required (a) buying a new grill and associated implements, and (b) researching the recipes I wanted to master. As you probably know, there is a great debate in the grilling world between gas and charcoal. I went with the charcoal grill. It is true that gas is easier and more convenient. For me, however, grilling is not about convenience or doing something quickly. No, not at all. Rather, it is about taking things slow, making an afternoon of it, and getting the smoke and heat just right. If I want convenience, I figure I can always pull out the George Foreman.

As far as the recipes go, here is what is on the menu for tomorrow (note that our semi-vegetarianism is out the window on Father's Day, as it is, frankly, on most weekends). I've never really grilled ribs before, so that is the main item featured.

1. Gaucho Beef Ribs
2. Steven Raichlen's "First Timer's Ribs"
3. Smoky Grilled Corn with Parmesan Butter
3. Rolls with Raspberry Butter
4. Bacon, Strawberry, and bleu cheese salad
5. Nanaimo bars for desert

About Andrew [Ellie]

2011-05-19T05:39:00.000-07:00

One of my first blog posts about 4 years ago was all about Nora. I waxed poetic about what a sweet girl she was, described magical moments with her, pondered her future with excitement and trepidation. As soon as I posted it I knew I needed to post about Andrew. So, in the back of my mind for the past four years, ideas for an Andrew post have been rattling around.

Here's the thing: maybe because of her gender, maybe because she has a generally happier disposition, it has always been easier for me to get along with Nora. Not counting a few months when she was 3, she has not resisted my imprint on her. With just Nora as evidence, I considered myself a good mother.

Andrew, on the other hand, almost immediately challenged my image of myself as a mother. He stopped sleeping through the night around 6 months old when he started to be plagued by ear infections. He cried a lot and was easily frustrated. He hit, pinched, bit, threw toys, and didn't share regardless of the number of time outs I imposed. Where Nora had required almost no parenting to manage her behavior, Andrew didn't even seem to respond when I pulled out every trick I could imagine. I dug into parenting books for more ideas, and for a while even those seemed ineffectual.

These struggles filled my mind as I tried to think of what to write about Andrew. How could I write a post about our challenging relationship? Didn't a post about Andrew need to be every bit as glowing as one about Nora?

Enter four simple ideas, from three different parenting books:
1. Stop comparing your children. They are distinct individuals. (Siblings without Rivalry, Faber and Mazlish)
2. Think about how your personality matches with your child's. (Raising Your Spirited Child, Kurcinka)
3. Use the positive terms for your child's personality traits--your child is persistent rather than stubborn. (Kurcincka)
4. Listen to your children and try to understand how they're feeling. Don't tell them not to feel it. (How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk, Faber and Mazlish)

As intuitive as these ideas sound, they had a great impact on me. I realized that Andrew had to struggle with aspects of his personality that Nora didn't have to struggle with. Comparing their behaviors wasn't fair. I realized how similar Andrew and I are. We both feel emotions deeply and have to deal with those strong emotions. I recognized Andrew's positive traits--his strong emotions make him a very loving and enthusiastic child, too. My eyes were opened to how often I told Andrew (and Nora) not to feel what they were feeling. As I tried to listen first, they both started to confide in me as they hadn't before.

A breakthrough moment for me in my relationship with Andrew came--unexpectedly--last month as we were watching A Series of Unfortunate Events. The narrator was saying something dry and insightful about how adults never listen to children. Andrew looked up at me and said, "But you listen to me, Mom!" I felt like crying with relief. Yes, sweetheart. I'm trying really hard to listen to you.

Andrew and I still have our ups and downs. Just last night we had a bad down. But I am learning to see and admire the many great things about Andrew.

*I love how eager he is to learn. I remember realizing when he was two that he knew most of the letters of the alphabet, just by hearing me practice them with Nora. He has surprised his teachers by using words like "orbit" and "narrator."

*I love how affectionate he is. He really wants to be held and cuddled. He tells me he loves me.

*He gets really excited about things. A father on his soccer team calls him the Dancing Goalie because when the ball comes toward him, he starts jumping with the thrill that he will get to save the ball.

*He's a whiz at building things. Since he got his Lego set for Christmas, he's figured out to build almost every sort of vehicle there is.

*He has a real desire to be good. He understands rules and why to follow them. He behaves well in preschool and Primary. He is very willing to help me whenever I ask.

Our relationship is not easy, but in learning to understand him, I have come to understand more about myself. Parenting Andrew has made me learn and grow. As he learns to control how he reacts to his strong emotions, I feel so close to him. One more story shows how.

It was the witching hour. I was cooking dinner and all three kids were grumpy and so was I. Everyone was whining. I was stirring dinner with unnecessary roughness. The last straw came when Andrew stepped on one of his toy cars and started howling.

"That's what you happens when you leave toys out on the floor!" I snapped unsympathetically.

Andrew flopped on the couch and cried.

A few minutes later I sensed him next to me and braced myself for his anger.

"I decided to calm myself down, Mom," he said. He gave me a hug and went back to living room to play.

I felt all the tension pour out of me. Somehow the whole evening looked different now.

Andrew is becoming an example to me.

Glad he's gone [Bryan]

2011-05-05T04:45:00.000-07:00

I didn't feel any sense of elation at the death of Bin Laden, but I'm glad he is gone. I'm glad he's gone because he was one of history's greatest monsters, that much is obvious. Images of 9/11 are still burned into my memory. I still remember watching the pain in the face of a teenage girl, holding up a picture of her mother who was in World Trade Center, pleading for help.

But I'm also glad that we, as Americans, don't have Bin Laden as an excuse to do stupid things anymore. Here is hoping that, with his death, we return to some semblance of sanity. Too much has happened since 9/11, too much hysteria and darkness on our part, to be elelated. Hopefully the way Bin Laden changed us, the way he turned us into a fearful and cowering nation, ready to sweep under the carpet many of our most important principles, can be reversed over time. Here's hoping.

Saved by forgiveness [Bryan]

2011-05-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

Words of wisdom from Reinhold Niebuhr:

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.

Nora's baptism picture [Bryan]

2011-04-29T09:04:00.001-07:00

Nora was baptized on April 9th. We all had a wonderful day celebrating Nora and her decision to be baptized. She really is an amazing little person. She is kind and mellow, eager to show love and affection. She has a keen sense of fairness and does not like to leave anyone out. She will often say something like, "You're the best, Mom" and then, when she notices I'm listening too, beams and says, "And you're the best too, Dad." In other words, she goes beyond the call of duty to make sure my feelings aren't hurt and that I'm included in her compliment. Nora is also becoming a somewhat accomplished artist, particularly at portraiture. Her soccer skills are developing nicely. She is great at math and she spells better than I do. We love her so much and are amazed at how well she is turning out, considering she has novice and incompetent parents.

Helping kids ride bicycles [Bryan]

2011-04-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

Andrew has been learning to ride a bicycle this week. After going through this process twice now, there are a few things I would recommend.

1. Use a very small bicycle, one that lets the child easily touch the ground. This makes it a much less scary process and gives the child more confidence.

2. Tell the child to wiggle the handlebars around, rather than hold them straight. Sometimes I think kids believe that they have to hold the handlebars perfectly straight, which is not how you balance yourself.

3. Start them off going down a small hill. That way, they can focus on balancing at first rather than pumping the pedals.

4. We tried riding on the grass, but this just made it difficult to balance, steer, and pedal. Just start on the sidewalk or road, that's what I say.

Anyway, I hope this helps somebody, somewhere.

Austerity, shmusterity [Bryan]

2011-04-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

There have been many calls lately to immediately cut government spending. Wouldn't our economy do better if the government wasn't spending so much money? Actually, no. There are five countries who have implemented severe "austerity measures" in response to the economic crisis: Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Greece, and Britain. We now have yet more data showing what happens when you cut spending during times of economic fragility: the economy contracts, people are laid off, they stop buying, then more people are laid off, then everyone defaults on their loans, tax revenues plummet, interest rates soar, and the deficit ends up increasing! Long term spending on our aging population is the real problem, not big deficits now during a period of high unemployment.

Business Insider yesterday: "So now we know: Not only does austerity not help the economy, it doesn't even help governments get out of debt, as Greece's and Spain's latest horrific numbers confirm. The governments have been cutting spending, and deficits have gotten worse. So, what's the point of austerity again?"

Wall Street Journal yesterday: "Greece's budget deficit in 2010 was 10.5% of gross domestic product, significantly larger than the Greek government and European Union's forecasts, EU statistics agency Eurostat said Tuesday. Lower-than-expected government revenue was the main culprit behind the larger deficit number."

New York Times a few weeks ago: "In the United States, the debate over how to cut the long-term budget deficit is just getting under way. But in one year into its own controversial austerity program to plug a gaping fiscal hole, the future is now. And for the moment, the early returns are less than promising. Retail sales plunged 3.5 percent in March, the sharpest monthly downturn in Britain in 15 years."

Looks like Keynes was right.

Seems about right [Bryan]

2011-04-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Who is President Obama? Ezra Klein has the answer:

Perhaps this is just the logical endpoint of two years spent arguing over what Barack Obama is — or isn’t. Muslim. Socialist. Marxist. Anti-colonialist. Racial healer. We’ve obsessed over every answer except the right one: President Obama, if you look closely at his positions, is a moderate Republican from the early 1990s. And the Republican Party he’s facing has abandoned many of its best ideas in its effort to oppose him.
If you put aside the emergency measures required by the financial crisis, three major policy ideas have dominated American politics in recent years: a health-care plan that uses an individual mandate and tax subsidies to achieve near-universal coverage; a cap-and-trade plan that attempts to raise the prices of environmental pollutants to better account for their costs; and bringing tax rates up from their Bush-era lows as part of a bid to reduce the deficit. In each case, the position that Obama and the Democrats have staked out is the very position that moderate Republicans staked out in the early ’90s — and often, well into the 2000s.

This seems right to me, and you could point to many other examples, like immigration policy, foreign policy, and educational policy, where Obama leans right of center. This is why the spasm of hatred and vehemence that Obama has brought out on the right has always baffled me. It underscores the point that your politics has little to do with your policy preferences. It is more like a football game, more to do, that is, with whether "your side" is winning or losing.

Creepy Easter Bunny [Bryan]

2011-04-25T06:51:00.001-07:00

Via the Daily Dish.

Pictures from London/Oxford [Bryan]

2011-04-12T13:27:00.000-07:00

Below are some pictures of our England trip. We had a wonderful time. My highlights:

Staying at New College, Oxford, and presenting a paper in that evocative intellectual environment (New College, ironically, was founded way back in 1379).
Seeing all the old churches and cathedrals. Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's were awesome, obviously. The Henry VII chapel at Westminster was particularly beautiful. But even the little church at New College had a charming cloister and a painting of St. James by El Greco.
Experiencing "Speakers Corner" at Hyde Park. I always wanted to see this famous place. When we went on a Sunday evening, there were about 150 people, broken up into groups of 2 to 10, arguing fiercely with each other about every topic under the sun.
Falling in love with some new, old paintings at the National Gallery. Some new favorites include Raphael's "Portrait of Pope Juilius II," Bellini's "Doge Leonardo Loredan" and Holbein's "The Ambassadors." I also loved Jackson Pollock's "Naked Man with Knife" at the Tate Modern.
Taking an evening walk around "The City," which includes the financial district and some of the most famous streets in the world -- Cheapside, The Strand, and Fleet Street.
Contemplating the graffiti in the prison at the Tower of London.
Tasting the best roast beef I've ever tasted at Simpson's on the Strand. Even the boiled cabbage wasn't bad (although Ellie suggested the rest of the world should stage and intervention and gently suggest to the English that nobody really likes boiled cabbage).
Staring at Big Ben -- a monument that is more impressive in person than in pictures.

Tower bridge

Off to see the crown jewels, housed in this building at the Tower of London.

View from atop St. Paul's, looking down Ludgate Hill.

Millennial Bridge, from the Tate Modern, looking toward St. Paul's

Ellie dressed up for our night at Simpson's.

Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery

Westminster Abby

Some statuary "borrowed" from the Parthenon in Athens at the British Museum

London at night after our ride on The Eye of London.

Ellie is the world's best traveling companion!

Speaker's corner. The man on the right is on his "high horse," dressed in the blue robe and goat horns. Not sure what his message was.

The Gardens at Kensington Palace

The Renaissance statuary at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Buckingham Palace

The Radcliff Camera, at Oxford

The trees associated with Alice and Lewis Carroll at Christ's Church, Oxford.

The Bridge of Sighs, Oxford

The Cloister at New College, Oxford

New College, Oxford

The old city wall and gardens, New College, Oxford

Unholy silence [Bryan]

2011-04-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

Ellie and I recently returned from a trip we took by ourselves to England. We saw many great and important things, timeless monuments to human persistence, endurance, and creativity. We saw majestic cathedrals, ancient libraries, sculpted gardens, and brilliant artistic achievements. Nothing was as sweet, though, as returning to embrace an armful of children. To see their little smiles again, their eyes full of trust and delight, their snotty noses, to feel their little arms give me the tightest squeezes they could muster, to listen to their voices rise with excited questions and bubbling curiosity -- I don't know if could ever stand to be apart from them for too long.

And so it was that I read this remarkable essay, by theologian Christopher Pramuk, about losing children when they are young, particularly losing them through miscarriage. I recall that, when Ellie discovered she was pregnant with each of our three children, we often didn't tell people for several months. After all, what if "something happened" and Ellie miscarried? Thankfully, we were spared this ordeal. But it is sad, tragic really, how there is this culture of silence around miscarriage, and heartbreaking how couples are often forced to carry this burden alone.

The essay begins:

Several years ago my younger sister gave birth to a three-pound baby boy stricken with severe genetic anomalies. With sophisticated prenatal testing, she and her husband were about as well prepared for the birth as possible. Their single hope and prayer was that the infant, Jerry, might live long enough—a few seconds, a few minutes—to say hello, as it were, and say goodbye. They wanted to hold him and look into his eyes, however briefly, so that the child might feel and know their love for him. God willing, they would have long enough to introduce him to his two sisters, ages 2 and 4. God willing—the phrase still catches in my throat.

The day came, and we gathered in the delivery room to welcome the baby. With his limbs badly deformed, his breathing labored, Jerry gazed into my sister’s beaming face as she held him against her, crying and smiling. He was beautiful, and for more than eight hours he fought to stay alive. Everyone around the hospital bed held him in turn: parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and his two big sisters, beaming with delight. At last, lying on his mother’s breast, with his father’s hand resting gently on his head, Jerry gave his last labored breath and lay motionless. God, it seemed, had been willing, and a family’s humble prayer had been answered.

Four days later, we prayed at the graveside where Jerry’s body, in a tiny coffin, would be laid in the earth next to his older brother, Jack. Delivered at full-term nine years earlier, Jack was stillborn, the victim of an umbilical cord accident.
Jerry’s death awakened painful memories. My wife and I have suffered two miscarriages. For years I have struggled to reflect prayerfully on these and on my sister’s losses, experiences that have struck me to the core; largely, I have failed. What disarms me still is not just the pain of those losses but the revelation of how many others have been through this. After both our miscarriages it seemed that whenever we shared our news with a close friend or family member, a kind of hidden door opened behind their eyes and words would tumble forth, “I’m so, so sorry.” Long pause. “You know, we had a miscarriage two years ago. It was awful."
Another long pause, “No, we didn’t know.”
And the unspoken question arises, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

In Christian and Catholic circles, a strange kind of silence, an existential and theological loneliness, surrounds these more hidden deaths. Some silences are good, healthy and holy, pregnant with hope and expectation. Something new, something beautiful waits to be born here. The silence following our miscarriages, however, was nothing like this. It felt like loneliness, death, crucifixion. It seemed to mock my wife and me and our desire for life, our trust in its elemental goodness.

Withdrawal [Bryan]

2011-03-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

I think I am suffering from Home Depot withdrawal. It seemed like I was living at Home Depot over the last few months as I finished the basement, and now I can't seem to find an excuse to go. I really miss my semi-helpful friends in their orange aprons. Anyone want to give me an excuse to go buy a tool or something?

Happy Birthday ACA! [Bryan]

2011-03-23T13:15:00.001-07:00

The Affordable Care Act (aka, "Obamacare") passed last year today -- one of the most memorable days of my political life. Some people may wonder why I cared so much about the health care debate. Here is why:

A year ago, the parents of a little girl in Ohio were worrying that they would soon exceed the lifetime limit on their health insurance. Taylor Wilhite had been diagnosed with leukemia at age 8, and her treatment -- rounds of chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant, long hospital stays -- had been stupendously expensive.
"No one tells you that you have a cap" on coverage, says Amy Wilhite, Taylor's mother. When a social worker warned the Wilhites that they should check, they learned their limit was $1 million. By then, they had spent $770,000. Taylor's father's company managed to negotiate the maximum up to $1.5 million, but Taylor's oncologist said the cost of her care could hit $3 million to $4 million. "I was just frantic," Amy says.

As the cap got closer, the Wilhites began to put off care for conditions that weren't life-threatening, but the bills kept mounting. "The cost of medicine, you just wouldn't believe," says Amy. And hospital room charges -- "you'd think she was in a resort."

The options for people near the limit weren't pretty. Cancel all but essential treatment, scramble for charity care, or contemplate bankruptcy. But then came a reprieve. The health reform legislation, which President Obama signed into law a year ago today, contained a provision that barred insurance companies from setting lifetime limits.

The provision took effect last September, and suddenly, one huge concern was gone. Taylor, now 12, isn't entirely out of the woods; her leukemia is in remission, but she needs continuing care and monitoring, and a hip that deteriorated during her procedures requires that she use a wheelchair to go long distances. But the Wilhites no longer have to worry about hitting the insurance limit -- and, from now on, other people struggling with their own or a loved one's devastating illness won't have to endure the added anxiety that the money will run out.

Two Monumental Films -- And One You Can Skip [Bryan]

2011-03-23T12:57:00.001-07:00

Ellie and I have been trying to catch up on watching all the critically acclaimed movies that we have intended to see, but haven't gotten around to yet. Here are our short reviews. (Note that Ellie's reviews are my reconstruction of her reaction, not her own words. She can clarify later if she wants.)

Mystic River:
Ellie = Boo!
Bryan = Meh.

The Social Network:
Ellie = Very good!
Bryan = Very good!

The King's Speech:
Ellie = Very, very good
Bryan = Unbelievably, stupendously good.

The last two movies, though, do present something of a dilemma for me. Making movies about historical events always leads to the misrepresentation of facts for dramatic effect. This was true for Frost/Nixon, one of our favorite historical films, and it also seems to be true of The Social Network and The King's Speech. Sometimes, I wish those historical nit-pickers would just let me enjoy my ignorance once in awhile. Or, alternatively, I wish Hollywood would be more careful about the facts. Either option is fine with me.

Jimmered [Bryan]

2011-03-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

So, I'm a big University of Utah fan. As such, I don't like BYU sports. BYU blue makes me want to vomit. I have to say, though, that I would pay a lot of money to watch Jimmer play ball. Amazing.

Something you won't hear everyday... [Bryan]

2011-03-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

My federal taxes are too low.

I just finished my taxes (really late for me, actually, because of the basement). Now, we are probably not rich compared to other U.S. citizens, but we make a comfortable income. Our total federal tax bill came to about $500. For all the benefits that come from the federal government -- health insurance for grandma and grandpa, arts funding, PBS Kids, cancer research, Pell Grants, roads and infrastructure, the Center for Disease Control, Head Start, and so forth -- this seems like a ridiculously small amount. I benefit greatly from all of this, both directly and indirectly. I am willing to pay more.

It is finished [Bryan]

2011-03-13T19:46:00.000-07:00

The work on the basement is now done. The painting and finish work are complete, and the carpet has been installed (not by me, thankfully). Really, all that is left is the final city inspection. I guess it is time to get reacquainted with my family, to return to productivity at work, and to rebuild my somewhat depleted bank account -- and, of course, to resume blogging with regularity.

The stairs leading down.

The completed half-wall.

The doorway nook.

Nora's room (small and hard to get a picture of).

Our new sofa sleeper.

Bloody Knuckles [Ellie]

2011-02-23T06:02:00.000-08:00

This morning when I awoke there was still a little blood. Overnight, an angry, purple bruise the size of a silver dollar had bloomed over the knuckles of my right hand.

Last night, I was in a fight.

With my friend Annie and a punching mat.

Last night our Relief Society group hosted a self defense class. It was much more physical than I'd expected. We were punching, elbowing, kicking and making growling and hissing noises. Annie was my partner, and of her I'll just say that every time she wound up to deliver a blow, I wanted to run. Don't mess with her.

I don't think I worry more than the average woman about being attacked, but I do worry. Every time I walk to my car alone at night, I think about it. I feel a brief stab of fear, that could be me, every time I read about a lone woman being attacked.

I'm really proud of my bruise. I'll show you if you ask. Probably even if you don't. There was something very empowering in throwing those punches, so I threw them hard, and I liked it. It may be that I am getting old now and bruise more easily, but it also may be that I was KICKING SOME SERIOUS MAT.

Anyone know where I can find a used punching bag? I think I have some stored up aggression to get out. :-)

Thoughts on North Africa [Bryan]

2011-02-13T12:14:00.001-08:00

It has been fascinating to watch the developments in North Africa this past month. I'm not sure how I should feel about any of it, considering my knowledge of Tunisia is basically nil, and my little knowledge of modern Egypt stops around the Carter administration. Who knows how it will all turn out (not like Iran, I hope). Still, it is hard not to be moved by the spectacle of courageous people working for real freedom. I think Will Wilkinson at the Economist sums up my feelings:

I admit that I am more than a little tempted to rain on the parade and note that Mr Mubarak's departure guarantees nothing and that it is not unreasonable to fear a turn for the worse. There's a tiny, stability-loving Burke on my shoulder, and I'm afraid he's no devil. All the same, for now I'm not listening. Well, I did listen a little, but I've heard enough. It is partly due to my Burkean worries that I feel the pessimist in me should just stuff it for now. Whether or not Egypt flowers into a model democracy, whether or not Egyptians tomorrow live more freely than Egyptians today, today they threw off a tyrant. The surge of overwhelming bliss that has overtaken Egyptians is the rare beautitude of democratic will. The hot blush of liberation, a dazzled sense of infinite possibility swelling millions of happy breasts is a precious thing of terrible, unfathomable beauty, and it won't come to these people again. Whatever the future may hold, this is the happiest many people will ever feel. This is the best day of some peoples' lives. The tiny Dionysian anarchist on my other shoulder is no angel, but I cannot deny that there is something holy in this feeling, that it is one of few human experiences that justifies life—that satisfies, however briefly, our desperate craving for more intensity, for more meaning, for more life from life. Whatever the future holds, there will be disappointment, at best. But there is always disappointment. Today, there is joy.

Others see this as a diplomatic masterpiece of the Obama administration:

At times I've been fairly critical of this president's handling of foreign policy, but credit must be given -- this Administration handled this situation about as deftly as possible. This was truly an American diplomatic tour de force.
From the beginning the White House was caught betwixt and between -- not wanting to be seen supporting the status quo, particularly when the winds of change seemed to be blowing in the direction of reform and yet at the same time not be seen as throwing a key ally under the bus.

And while obviously critics can point to individual mistakes ... on the whole this Administration did a really excellent job -- sending public signs that a crackdown would not be acceptable, working the military behind closed doors, trying to ensure a soft landing that wouldn't lead to violence, but still never backing down from the public position that an immediate transition to democracy (and not one in September) was the only acceptable course....

In a sense we helped throw Mubarak under the bus without directly delivering the push.

Giving exams [Bryan]

2011-02-07T14:32:00.001-08:00

As I write this, my students are taking their midterm exam. It is fascinating to watch them as they are tested. You can see in their faces their trials and agonies, their epiphanies and ecstasies. You can see their thought processes, their minds churning. You can see when they remember the answer. Or when they give up. Some enter with confidence, and you can watch as their bravado disappears confronting the unexpected reality of the test. Others enter awash in apprehension, but work steadily and surely, with grim determination, to completion. As the students turn in their exams, some don't even want to look at you, out of shame, spite, or resentment, while others are beaming with accomplishment. Others, most really, just seem relieved to have it over.

It is strange knowing that you, a mere teacher, have dictated how these students have passed their last few days of study and toil. You have determined the level of their stress, you have tried their hopes, multiplied their sorrows. Such a work and a wonder.

I've joined the baking elite [Bryan]

2011-02-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

I've always wanted to make my own bread, but have been rather intimidated by the whole endeavor. I remember my mom, covered in flour, laboring for hours on her bread, kneading the dough over and over with a rhythmic thump. Although her bread was truly wonderful, it seemed like a lot of work and time. We have a bread maker, to be sure, but I've never really been a huge fan of the bread it has produced.

This weekend, however, I took the plunge and baked some bread from scratch. It was a huge success. The crust was soft, crispy, and flaky, with great flavor and a substantial crumb. It was golden brown and possessed a wonderful, meaty texture. In short, it turned out just like what you would expect from a fine artisan bakery. I did it all without any stress or rhythmic thumping. (I have several witnesses, and they are free to comment here and verify that this is all true. If they do not agree, of course, and did not like my bread, they are NOT invited to comment.)

So, after baking just one loaf, I have joined the baking elite.

I wish I could take credit for any of it. Here is the secret recipe, though, and the accompanying article. The trick has to do with time and baking procedures. To get the crispy crust, apparently all you need to do is bake the dough sealed in a big pot. The pot lid keeps the moisture in, thus keeping the crust dough wet (as everyone knows, this moisture is the key to that crispy crust that all good bread has). Also, if you let the dough rise for a long time, apparently you don't have to knead it at all.

The Real Story [Ellie]

2011-02-04T12:49:00.000-08:00

Eighteen months ago, my sister Anna and her husband Spencer and daughter Grace moved here to Columbus so Spencer could attend OSU. A lot of people have asked me longingly, when they find out I have a sister in town, what it's like. This expose--the real story of what it's like to have a sister living 10 minutes away--is long overdue.

Here's what it's like:

*It's having a running buddy/cheerleader/personal trainer all in one.

*It's being able to call someone because you're bored or lonely or frustrated and have them come over just to give you a hug.

*It's having someone to share dinner with when your husband works late.

*It's having family to visit with on Sunday nights, Thanksgiving, Christmas, baptisms, blessings, and birthdays for the first time in 10 years.

*It's learning, on a daily basis, what it's like to be someone else--someone like you, yet not.

*It's having someone around who loves your kids almost as much as you do and is more willing to play with them than you are.

*It's having a park date any afternoon you want one.

*It's talking every day with someone who's known you your whole life and still likes you.

*It's having someone who will come to your kids' soccer games and cheer.

*It's having someone to go shopping with.

*It's having someone who's willing to listen to every mundane detail of your life with interest and input.

*It's having someone who'll share with you the mundane details of her life.

*It's like having someone around who's always willing to help your husband move heavy objects and wire circuits (Bless you, Spencer!)

*It's having someone who will produce more babies for you to love when you are done producing them yourself.

*It's having someone who will tell you the truth about yourself.

*It's having another family to vacation with.

*It's almost like having a brown-eyed, brown-haired second daughter to love. (Grace, you're adorable!)

*It's having a built-in emergency babysitter.

*It's having someone who is interested in overanalyzing everything about your upbringing with you because they were actually there.

*It's having someone around who forgives you for being a jerk because, hey, you're in this for eternity.

*It's getting to talk on the phone with a toddler, whenever I want.

*It's having someone to confide in about the icky things in life--baby poop messes, bloating, birth control, times I have disappointed myself and others, runny noses, cramps, and vomit.

*It's someone around to share memories with--past, present, and future.

So, the real story is that I LOVE IT. I am so grateful that the Bardsleys made the decision to come to Columbus. My life, and the life of my family, is blessed every day because they are here.

Basement update [Bryan]

2011-01-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

Ellie and I have described a certain neurosis that has developed in me while I've been working on my basement. It is "irrational, unattainable, perfectionism." My perfectionism is "irrational" because I've stressed about perfecting even aspects of the job that no one will ever see. For example, I really tried to make sure my wiring was tidy and straight, even though this will forever be hidden from human eyes. My perfectionism is "unattainable" because, with my skill set and experience, doing things perfectly was not really an option. One can never reach perfection, after all, the first time one has ever done something, like drywalling. I have often reached the end of a job wishing I could start over, knowing much better what to do at that point than I did when I started. Of course, trying to save money on tools and materials doesn't help the perfectionist cause much, either.

Anyway, I have finished drywalling! It was a long, hard slog. I hung 5/8" drywall on the ceiling because the joints are 24" apart, and 1/2" drywall on the walls. The one exception was the soundproof wall around Nora's room, which was also 5/8" for sound control. The drywall is fire and mold resistant. I managed to hang most of the drywall on the ceiling myself, with the help of a rented drywall lift from Home Depot (best $37 I ever spent). This will go down, in my own mind, as one of the most amazing things I feel I have ever done, since drywall is very heavy and awkward. I worked from 7:00 AM one morning to 2:00 AM the next morning (I had to get the lift back in 24 hours). One of the hardest days of work I have ever done. Please feel free to congratulate me profusely.

The last couple weeks have been consumed by taping, mudding, and sanding. I even "skim coated" the entire project, because I heard on Home Time that this is the way to give your mud job that extra bit of quality. Still, there are little imperfections throughout, since, as I said, this is the first time I have drywalled anything.

This was messy, tiring, tedious work. The dust from the sanding alone seems to have destroyed several things, including our furnace. Despite my efforts to seal off the basement, dust managed to enter our furnace room and clog the filter, thus leading the furnace to overheat and destroy the gas flow switch ($300 repair bill). Cleaning up all the slopped, hardened mud was a two-day task in itself. I had to scrape much of it off on my hands and knees with a wire brush. I'm glad I did the drywall, but I'm not sure I want to do this part of the job again.

(Thanks to Ellie, Anna, and Spencer for helping me sand. Thanks to the Mannings for loaning out some sanding implements.)

The half wall leading to the stairs, drywalled, and primed to paint.

The hall nook to Nora's room, drywalled, primed, and ready to paint.

On to floorboards, painting, and door installation.

Three achievements [Bryan]

2011-01-14T12:33:00.000-08:00

There have been a three articles published in the last few months, from fairly conservative sources, grudgingly admitting that President Obama may have been right about certain things, after all.

First, an article from Forbes Magazine, pointing out that the small business tax credit already seems to be working really well to help small businesses give health insurance to their employees:

The first statistics are coming in and, to the surprise of a great many, Obamacare might just be working to bring health care to working Americans precisely as promised.

The major health insurance companies around the country are reporting a significant increase in small businesses offering health care benefits to their employees.

Why?

Because the tax cut created in the new health care reform law providing small businesses with an incentive to give health benefits to employees is working.

Second, an article from the right-leaning Economist magazine, admitting that "an apology is due to Barack Obama" when it comes to the "bailout" of the auto industry. The magazine opines:

The doomsayers were wrong. Unlike, say, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy, who used public funds to support Renault... on condition that they did not close factories in France, Mr Obama has been tough from the start. GM had to promise to slim down dramatically—cutting jobs, shuttering factories and shedding brands—to win its lifeline. The firm was forced to declare bankruptcy. Shareholders were wiped out. Top managers were swept aside. Unions did win some special favours: when Chrysler was divided among its creditors, for example, a union health fund did far better than secured bondholders whose claims should have been senior. Congress has put pressure on GM to build new models in America rather than Asia, and to keep open dealerships in certain electoral districts. But by and large Mr Obama has not used his stakes in GM and Chrysler for political ends. On the contrary, his goal has been to restore both firms to health and then get out as quickly as possible. GM is now profitable again and Chrysler, managed by Fiat, is making progress. Taxpayers might even turn a profit when GM is sold.

Third, an article from the conservative Frum Forum, arguing that the President's successful unwinding of the bank bailouts proves he is "no socialist."

The Obama administration just announced its plans to sell off the government’s majority stake in the bailed-out insurance company AIG. The government also has been unwinding its positions in Citigroup and other banks, and is preparing to sell off its shares in GM as well.

The AIG rescue and the other TARP bailouts, initiated by the Bush administration with support from then-candidate Obama, were never popular in general and are anathema among Tea Party voters. But these bailouts seem to have worked out pretty well. The cost to taxpayers looks likely to be modest (it’s possible the Treasury will profit on AIG overall). A reasonable concern — that the government had no clear exit strategy from its crisis-driven role — has turned out to not be a lasting problem.

I have always thought that Obama's rhetorical skill was overrated. It is really his policy and managerial skills that have set him apart so far.

Book Review: Seven Fires [Bryan]

2011-01-09T18:06:00.000-08:00

I received many great Christmas and birthday gifts. Perhaps the best gift, though, was a book from Ellie: Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way. It's a cookbook that I've actually read cover to cover!

The reason why it is so meaningful to me, of course, has to do with my Mormon mission, which I served in Buenos Aires. Over my two years in South America, I grew to be fascinated by Argentina. The Europeanesque streets of Buenos Aires, its cocky but friendly people, its dark and tragic history, its huge mansions and its extensive slums. The thing that I grew to love most, I suppose, was its cuisine. Simple. Straightforward. No frills. Largely just meat and an open wood fire. The Argentinians know how to cook beef like nothing I have ever experienced.

The book was valuable because it tells me how to cook the stuff I ate, and cook it right. It also captures the connection between food and culture. It is not just backyard grilling. It explores the way of life as it connects to the cooking.

Now, the philosophy of food in the book is simple. You need to char food, even burn it. You need to produce a dissonance, two tastes fighting each other. The author, esteemed chef Francis Mallman, writes, "As you'll see in many of the recipes in this book, charring and burning adds an extra dimension to breads vegetables, and fruit. The right amount of burning and charring can be delicious and seductive...I believe that many chefs and cookbooks make entirely too much of harmony." I agree. The dissonance of the food, I should point out, captures many of the dissonances I experienced in Argentina (South American v. European, First World v. Third Word, Rich v. Poor, etc.).

Oh, and it also has a recipe for "una vaca entera" -- an entire cow. The recipe calls for "1 medium cow, about 1400 pounds, butterflied." The cooking of the cow, "a cross between a banquet and a construction project," calls for "1 heavy-duty block-and-tackle attached to a steel stanchion set in concrete" and "1 two-sided truss made of heavy duty steel." The book includes the two-day, step-by-step instructions, and photos of an enormous cow carcass hoisted above an open fire.

Basement update [Bryan]

2010-12-19T15:08:00.000-08:00

The basement is about half done. Here is an update on the work so far.

First step: Drawing plans and securing permits
We decided to use the space in our basement to create a new rec room and bedroom, adding about 400 square feet of finished space to our home. The complicating factor was a beam that bisects the space, supported by two steel pillars. It made perfect sense to try to hide all of this behind a wall, but this would mean making Nora's future bedroom to be a bit smaller than we wanted (tiny -- about 80 square feet). The codes governing bedrooms are very strict, we found out, and making this an official bedroom would mean adding an "egress window." We figured we could simply call it an "office" and use it as a bedroom, but having Nora trapped down there in the middle of a fire was a frightening thought. So, we decided to bite the bullet and make it an official bedroom. I drew up some plans, paid a lot of money for the building permits ($600), and got to work. Below is a copy of the plans I drew up.

Second step: Waterproofing
We sealed up cracks in the walls and coated them with white, DryLock Masonary Waterproofer. Controversy rages on the Internet about whether this stuff works and for how long. I figured it couldn't hurt and our basement was almost completely dry anyway. Whatever the case, this stuff was really thick and hard to apply and ended up being much more work than I intended. Ellie helped out considerably here.

Third step: Installing the egress window
We had a contractor install the egress window for us. Cutting through the foundation wall is considerably outside my comfort zone and tool capability. That work alone, though, cost $2500, which about doubled the cost of the finishing the basement.

Fourth step: Adding insulation
Once that was in, we added the pink extruded polystyrene insulation to the basement walls. It used to be that people would finish their basement by simply putting up stud walls directly against the foundation wall, insulating the stud cavities with fiberglass insulation, and then covering it all with a plastic vapor barrier. This led to all sorts of problems with mold, I'm told, since the moisture coming from the cinder blocks would get trapped in the insulation areas. Gluing on this pink foam insulation, first, and then building the wall 1 inch away from the insulation prevents this (or so I'm told). The hardest part of this was bringing the pink foam home on top of my car -- let's just say that now I know what not to do. In the picture, you can see the foam and the egress window in the background.

Fourth step: Planning and marking walls
This was fun. I bought myself a blue chalk line and had a great time measuring out the walls, snapping the line, and marking out the future space. It was great to get a first glimpse of what things would actually look like. Below, you can see the chalk outline of Nora's bedroom wall.

Fifth step: Framing
This was the part I was most looking forward to. I love working with wood, measuring, sawing, and hammering. The first step involved a wonderful new tool purchase, my now beloved "powder actuated nailer." This was to nail the bottom lumber plates into the concrete. It works basically like a gun with the nail being the bullet. You put in a powder charge and nail, and then strike it on top with a hammer. It shoots the nail into the concrete with a loud explosion. This was great fun, and even a little scary to use. The most useful tool I had during this process was my miter saw, though, which I received for my birthday a few years ago and never used much. I'm not very skilled with a regular circular saw, so this really helped me make nice, straight cuts. I could have used a nail gun, but hammering and screwing everything together turned out okay.

I was in rapture seeing the new basement world coming together around me. I think the framing looked pretty good in the end. I'm not going to lie, there were some major goofs along the way, and the finished project would never be mistaken for the work of a real carpenter (off plumb here and there, for example). But I had a great time, and only once slammed my thumb. Below, pictures of a finished wall, Nora's closet, and the half wall leading up the stairs (my favorite feature).

Sixth step: Electrical and Mechanical
These were both enjoyable, but for opposite reason. Electrical was interesting because I've never run any wire before. I know now about 20 times as much about electrical stuff as I did before, so it was a major learning experience (having a brother-in-law who knows something about electrical was a big confidence boost here). Running the heating ducts was fun because it took me back to my summers at Christensen Heating and Air Conditioning. In a sense, running the duct work allowed me to reconnected with my past self. Below are pictures of (a) a fairly complicated switch box with two, 3-way switches (one being a dimmer), (b) my canister lighting, and (c) one of my heating ducts.

I'm on drywall now. Stay tuned!

Holiday performances [Bryan]

2010-12-19T11:58:00.000-08:00

Three holiday performances, from the most talented (and cutest) children ever to appear on the planet. First, Nora playing "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing."

Second, Andrew singing "Up on the Housetop," complete with sign language actions.

Third, Stephen singing (more or less) "Once There Was a Snowman," complete with actions. Actually, this is a duet with Ellie, but she asked not to be included in the video. Too bad. She, too, makes a wonderful melting snowman, or snowperson, or whatever.

Family Pictures [Ellie]

2010-12-18T19:11:00.000-08:00

A good friend and amazingly talented photographer, Kellie Anderson, took our family pictures for us this fall. (Check out her blog at kellieanderson.net. She's incredible.) We're thrilled with them!

Jury Duty [Bryan]

2010-12-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

I am currently sitting on the 9th floor of the Franklin County Municipal Court Building. I've been called to serve for two weeks as a juror. At least I think I have -- I've been here three days and I haven't been on a trial yet. In fact, not one of the 75 of us potential jurors has been on a trial. There have been about 300 cases processed since we've been here. All of these cases have been resolved through plea bargaining or other means. Since a jury at this municipal court level only has eight people, I'm starting to doubt that I will serve on an actual jury.

I have mixed feelings about this. Participating in public/civic/political life, including jury duty, is an important part of a complete human existence. I'm not sure my life would be complete if I never served on a jury. I'm interested to see how I would react. (At this point, I should say that the hero of the excellent movie 12 Angry Men is one of my favorite movie characters.)

And yet...this jury lounge is a great place. I have WiFi and all the hot chocolate I can drink (amazingly, they recognize that some people drink something other than coffee). They have magazines here, computers, and movies. Most important, it is actually a great place to work and I think I may actually finally finish my book. Not any needy students,colleagues, children, or wives making requests, after all.

One more week! [Bryan]

2010-12-10T09:14:00.001-08:00

One more week until the release of Tron: Legacy. Frankly, I can't see how the actual movie can be any better than the trailer.

Absurdity exposed [Bryan]

2010-12-07T10:26:00.001-08:00

Well, we seem to have got ourselves a compromise on tax policy for the next two years. In reaching the compromise, the absurdity of Washington D.C. was exposed in all its glory. Consider that we have recently been having two debates in this country. The first was about how many billions we can cut off taxes, particularly for those who are well off. The second was about how we are going to go about cutting the yearly budget deficit -- we even had a nifty commission and everything. It rarely received much attention in the popular press, as far as I can tell, that these two debates were pointing in opposite directions.

First, the absurdity of the "deficit hawks" was exposed. Many of those same people, Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats, who have wrung their hands about any form of deficit spending, are now celebrating the tax cuts that will add $800 billion to the deficit. The next time any of these people pretend to care about short term spending that isn't "paid for" we should collectively laugh. We should all just admit that deficits are a good thing right now.

The absurdity of many of the Democrats was exposed. In fighting so hard for their proposal to let the taxes return to the level of the 1990s for the rich, they were fighting a battle that was only a little bit more responsible, long term, than what the completely reckless Republicans were proposing. They chose a rather arbitrary line to make a stand, and now they look like losers, as usual.

Finally, the moral corruption and intellectual bankruptcy of many on the Right has been exposed. Recently, the Senate Republicans, united as a caucus, sent a letter to Harry Reid saying that they would filibuster literally everything until the tax debate was resolved to their liking. In effect, this meant that nothing could even get a vote until those making more than $250,000 got their extra tax cut. Nothing -- not nuclear weapons treaties (START), not the defense appropriations bill (in the middle of war!), not the extension of unemployment benefits -- would get a hearing. Everything was held until the Republicans saw more money in the hands of the wealthy. It was impressive in its own way, hardball, no-compromise politics at its most extreme. It seems to be the one thing they care about, and they got their way.

Out of all this absurdity, we have a policy that is .... not all that bad in the short term. The key problem right now is still the economy and job growth. Short term, we do need to run big deficits. Short term, many forms of tax cuts are good (a category that does not, unfortunately, include tax cuts for the wealthy that the Republicans were so dogmatic about -- these are very poor stimulus). Interesting how such an inane discourse can produce a outcome that is not all that inane.

Obama caves [Bryan]

2010-12-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

I knew it would happen eventually:

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – In his latest effort to find common ground with Republicans in Congress, President Barack Obama said today that he was willing to agree that he is a Muslim.

Differences over his religious orientation have been a sore point between the President and his Republican foes for the past two years, but in agreeing that he is a Muslim Mr. Obama is sending a clear signal that he is trying to find consensus. “The American people do not want to see us fighting in Washington,” Mr. Obama told reporters at the White House. “They want to see us working together to improve their lives, and Allah willing, we will.”

But Mr. Obama’s willing to back down on his claim of being a Christian does not seem to have satisfied his Republican opposition, as GOP leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) today insisted that the President must also agree that he was born in Kenya.

RIP: Leslie Nielson

2010-12-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

I was sad to see Leslie Nielson recently died. Nielson's movies were a huge part of my young life. I can't tell you how many times my friends ordered a pizza and watched The Naked Gun and I can't tell you how hard we laughed every time. Same goes for Airplane during my early teenage years. These are two of the dumbest, and funniest, movies ever made.

More Whitman [Bryan]

2010-12-01T12:03:00.000-08:00

Another poem by Whitman (Leave of Grass, 166). As usual, publishing this because this is my blog and I can post whatever I darn well please.

O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill'd with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew'd,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring--What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here--that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

Thanks in Old Age [Bryan]

2010-11-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

Thanks in Old Age

Thanks in old age - thanks ere I go,
For health, the midday sun, the impalpable air - for life, mere life,
For precious, ever-lingering memories, (of you my mother dear - you, father - you brothers, sisters, friends,)
For all my days - not those of peace alone - the days of war the same,
For gentle words, caresses, gifts from foreign lands,
For shelter, wine and meat - for sweet appreciation,
(You distant, dim unknown - or young or old - countless, unspecified, readers belove’d,
We never met, and ne’er shall meet - and yet our souls embrace, long, close and long;)
For beings, group, love, deeds, words, books - -for colors, forms,
For all the brave strong men - - devoted, hardy men, -- who’ve forward sprung in freedom’s help, all years, all lands,
For braver, stronger, more devoted men - (a special laurel ere I go to life’s war’s chosen ones,
The cannoneers of song and thought - the great artillerists - the foremost leaders, captains of the soul:)
As soldiers from an ended war return’d - As traveler out of myriads, to the long procession retrospective,
Thanks - joyful thanks! - a soldier’s, traveler’s thanks.

~ Walt Whitman (1888)

The circuit of my expanding life [Bryan]

2010-11-21T19:28:00.000-08:00

I am prepared to admit that finishing my basement is something of a mid-life crisis for me. I've been engrossed by it. I have preferred working on the basement to eating and sleeping (ask Ellie), reading and writing. I think about little else. I haven't let anybody else help. This is behavior that goes beyond the motive of simply wanted more finished space.

Let me give you some semi-serious reflections about all this. I recently read that some people run marathons "as a testament to the fact that there is still substance and life in them." Similarly, after getting tenure and after the necessary narrowing of focus and personality that comes with that, I am finishing the basement as a testament to the fact that I am still "alive" in the sense of developing my skills, my personality, and my substance. I will literally saw my way out of the narrow box that I may have constructed for myself. Only by continued learning do we become and remain fully human.

Some of you know I'm a huge fan of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson said it best:

"There goes in the world a notion, that the scholar should be a recluse, a valetudinarian, — as unfit for any handiwork or public labor, as a penknife for an axe. As far as this is true of the studious classes, it is not just and wise. Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. Without it, he is not yet man. Without it, thought can never ripen into truth. Inaction is cowardice, but there can be no scholar without the heroic mind. Only so much do I know, as I have lived. Instantly we know whose words are loaded with life, and whose not.

The world lies wide around. Its attractions are the keys which unlock my thoughts and make me acquainted with myself. I run eagerly into this resounding tumult. I grasp the hands of those next me, and take my place in the ring to suffer and to work, taught by an instinct, that so shall the dumb abyss be vocal with speech. I pierce its order; I dissipate its fear; I dispose of it within the circuit of my expanding life. So much only of life as I know by experience, so much of the wilderness have I vanquished and planted, or so far have I extended my being, my dominion. I do not see how any man can afford, for the sake of his nerves and his nap, to spare any action in which he can partake. It is pearls and rubies to his discourse. Drudgery, calamity, exasperation, want, are instructers in eloquence and wisdom. The true scholar grudges every opportunity of action past by, as a loss of power. It is the raw material out of which the intellect moulds her splendid products."

Posting this because I can [Bryan]

2010-11-14T18:57:00.001-08:00

Oddly cool video from that "Blast" thing from a few years ago. It is called "Color Wheel."

How I would balance the federal budget [Bryan]

2010-11-14T18:34:00.001-08:00

The New York Times has a fun interactive piece allowing you to balance the federal budget. If you are weird like me, you will actually have a lot of fun. Here is my budget. 40% of my plan comes through spending cuts, 60% through tax increases. Mostly I cut defense, raised retirement ages, eliminated certain tax loopholes, and went back to Clinton-era tax levels (which would still be fairly low historical standards).

1. Discretionary spending: Eliminate farm subsidies. (Easy call -- massive waste here.)

2. Military spending: Reduce military spending in nuclear arms, Air Force, and Navy; cancel some weapons systems; reduce presence of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan more quickly. (Fairly easy call -- no need to have a huge navy, for example, in current threat environment.)

3. Entitlements: Increase medicare eligibility and social security eligibility to age 68; reduce social security benefits for those with high incomes; tighten eligibility for disability. (This was a very hard call.)

4. Taxes: Return estate tax to Clinton-era levels, increase income tax for those making over $250,000, increase payroll taxes for those making over $106,000, reduce mortgage deduction, implement millionaire tax and carbon tax. Maintain tax cuts for those under $250,000 and for investment income. (Fairly easy call, though my own taxes would go up a bit under this plan.)

Thoughts on the election [Bryan]

2010-11-05T07:01:00.001-07:00

Some people have asked for my thoughts on the election, so I guess I will bore you with some post-election analysis. I don't have too much to say. The majority always loses a lot of seats in the midterm after a presidential election, especially under a weak economy -- happened to Reagan in 1982, Clinton in 1994, etc. This explains 90% of what happened on Tuesday. Still, there were many odd things about election day. Ohio voters, for example, supposedly furious, just furious, about "bailouts" and the economy, elected Rob Portman, who was the chief architect of the Bush economy, and John Kasich, who was a big shot Wall Street banker over at Lehman Brothers, to U.S. Senator and Ohio Governor, respectively. U.S. voters, supposedly furious about the deficit and tax increases, took it out on Democrats even though Democrats have both cut taxes to record lows and also cut the deficit since Bush's final year (down to $1.29 trillion from Bush's $1.4 trillion). Weird.

Surprisingly, though, I would say I feel actually kind of proud to be a Democrat this week -- prouder than I usually feel. The reason is this: Democrats had to make a lot of tough calls and cast tough votes over the past two years. They voted on health care, economic recovery, credit card regulation, spending cuts to Medicare, and so forth, votes that are easily vilified by powerful interests groups and that are based on long-term policy impact over short-term political calculation. When a party has control over Washington, you can see what the party actually cares about, and I think the Democrats come out looking pretty good. The Republicans used their power, when they had it, to give the wealthy tax cuts, to cut regulation for corporations, and to start stupid wars. The Democrats used it to try to give health care to children with preexisting conditions, to help women get equal pay for equal work, to revive the American auto industry, to take care of veterans, and so forth. Rachel Maddow sums it up well:

Democrats had a choice when they became the governing party. When they won those last two elections and they took control of the two branches of government that are subject to partisan control in our country, they could have governed in a way that was about accumulating political capital with the primary goal of winning the next election. They could have governed in constant campaign mode. Or they could have governed in a way that was about using their political capital, not accumulating more of it, about spending the political capital they had to get a legislative agenda done, to tackle big, complex, longstanding problems that had languished.
The record of legislative achievement of the last 21 months was not designed to win the midterm elections and it will not win the midterm elections. The pendulum will swing back toward the Republicans and we'll go back to divided government again. The legislative agenda of the last 21 months was policy, not politics. It was designed to get stuff done for the country. And in that sense, it's an investment in long-term political reward, not short-term political reward, as Democrats expect after a list of accomplishments like this to be judged as the party that took on problems when it had the chance, even if they had to pay a short-term political price....The fact is, that Democrats got a lot done, a lot of hard stuff done on hard problems in a short amount of time.

If you have the time, you should watch Maddow's full set of comments here:

Patch-Up Work by the Sub [Ellie]

2010-11-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading our blog lately, you know that the primary blogger, Bryan, is currently down in the basement making regular, terrifying pounding noises. This blog is not meant to replace anything the aforementioned Dr. Warnick might produce. Your humble servant is merely attempting to fill in a few important gaps emerging in the Warnick record due to his absence.

Where Bryan is.

While Bryan has been down in the basement, Halloween happened.

The lion roars.

A Halloween party distracted Nora and Andrew from the fact that
we made them wear the same costumes as last year.

Bryan briefly emerged from the basement to join me for my first OSU football game. Anna and Spencer graciously let us have their tickets to the Purdue-OSU Homecoming Game. We did lots of cheering at first, until we realized our cheers were pretty much unnecessary--the Buckeyes had demolished the Boilermakers by halftime, 42-0 (final score 49-0). At that point we almost started cheering for the other team. "Go, Purdue. Make a game of it, PLEASE!"

The prize for most exciting part of the game goes to the Ohio State Marching Band, which performed a half-time tribute to Elvis, complete with a human guitar, marching hearts, and the famous "dotting of the I"--the I in Elvis, that is.

October's been a thriller!

The misinformant [Bryan]

2010-10-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

Jack Black gives a little therapy for those of us depressed by how quickly misinformation propagates and spreads. Also, reminds me of Jack Black's cinematic masterpiece, School of Rock. Part 1 is good, part 2 even better.

Finishing the basement as an existential project [Bryan]

2010-10-19T18:13:00.001-07:00

We've decided to finally finish our basement. There are many practical reasons: We need the extra bedroom to accommodate our growing family; we need a nicer place for guests to stay when they come, we need a place to send the kids when they are annoying their mother, and so forth. I am going to be doing most of the work. The biggest reason for this is that I want to test myself. Call it a midlife crisis if you want. In my mind, though, real men build things. It has always been so and will always be so. I want to test myself again the world in a new kind of way, against wood, steel, and concrete. I also want to develop a side of me that has been dormant for awhile now, the side of me that loves the smell of freshly cut lumber and the feel of a circular saw whirling in my hands. I love it so. Heaven help me, I do love it so. Now, excuse me while I heroically descend to the basement.

What will our grandkids say? [Bryan]

2010-10-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

Things were accepted in the past that are not accepted now, things like slavery, burning witches, and so forth. So, is there anything that is commonly accepted today that future generations will condemn us for? An interesting article published a few days ago asks precisely that question. The author, philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, argues for the following candidates: Our breathtakingly enormous prison system, the ugliness and brutality of industrial meat production, the way we ignore and institutionalize our elderly, and our destruction of the environment.

Seems like a good list to me.

Pink goo -- Updated [Bryan]

2010-10-05T09:35:00.001-07:00

Try to guess what the below substance is...

And the answer is...Chicken McNuggets. Apparently they grind up the meat material and it comes out looking like pink goo. Then they have to dye it back to a more edible color. Yuck. Not sure I'll be eating any more of those.

Update: The American Meat Institute chimes in, claiming that this stuff isn't in all chicken nuggets, only some of them. I guess that is comforting. I guess.

The hero and the storm [Ellie]

2010-09-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

The kids and I and some friends were at a park in the late afternoon on Wednesday. The sky was gray, but darkening quickly. At one point I looked up and at the edge of the dark clouds was a deep turquoise color--that tornado-green kind of sky. I mentioned that things were looking ominous and no sooner had I said so than the wind started to blow hard. We said goodbye and headed to our car. Nora and I were laughing as the wind blew us along, but Andrew was very disturbed by it. He was worried about a tornado, and crying he was so afraid and anxious to get home and into the basement where he felt we'd be safe.

In the car on the drive home, Andrew made each of us say a prayer that we'd get home safely. We did, and as we pulled into the garage, it started to rain hard. Nora and Andrew got out of the car, and I set Stephen down in the garage so that I could bring things in from the car. Stephen started wandering out of the garage and into the storm. Andrew was frantic with fear for Stephen, and went over and picked him up, crying, "No! No, Stephen! Tornado! Danger" and carried him to safety. Later we talked about what a hero Andrew was to "save Stephen from the storm." Andrew liked the idea of being a hero and has been going around telling people about the time he was a hero. It's nice to have some evidence that he really does love Stephen, since it's not always obvious.

Pledge to America? [Bryan]

2010-09-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

The Republicans have published a new document, Pledge to America, where they stipulate all of the things they would do differently. I've read it through and I am not very impressed by it. Some whoppers:

1. The document promises that it will implement or continue massive tax breaks. At the same time, it talks about reducing the deficit. This means, of course, that spending would need to be slashed significantly. The Republicans promise, however, that all cuts to defense, Social Security, veteran's programs, and Medicare are off the table (see page 11), thus eliminating any of the spending areas that really matter to the deficit (these areas account for about 70% of the federal budget). So the Republicans are basically promising to lower taxes, to continue higher spending, and at the same time to cut the deficit and pay down the debt. This just doesn't seem very serious to me, a fantasy. They seem to want us to believe we can have something for nothing.

Update: It seems that, even the Republicans make all the cuts they are promising, their budget deficit would still be higher than what Obama is proposing:

2. The Republicans are currently voting against some of the very things they are now promising to do. In their economic plan, they promise to "give small businesses a tax deduction" and "repeal small business mandates," while voting against these exact provisions just in the last few days (see here and here). This doesn't seem very serious to me.

3. The Republicans promise to repeal health care reform, while at the same time promising to follow the Democrats in making it illegal for insurance companies to deny you coverage for preexisting conditions. In their plan, however, the Republicans ignore the fact that, if you regulate the insurance industry this way, you need to make sure people buy insurance before they get sick (otherwise they will just buy insurance when they are ill and the system will collapse). They would need to include a further law, as the Democrats did, that everyone needs to buy insurance. They do not; indeed, the requirement to buy insurance is one of the things they angrily promise to repeal. Again, not serious.

4. The Republicans pledge to "end TARP once and for all." TARP, of course, was the so-called bank bailout. Setting aside for a moment that TARP was passed by a Republican president with substantial Republican support (and thus a pledge to reverse their own policy), this makes no sense. As I understand it, TARP isn't paying out much money anymore. In fact, banks are now repaying the money and the government stands to make a profit, at least on the bank portion. TARP is actually a story of bipartisan success. Politicians did an unpopular thing and it turned out to be the correct decision.

5. The chart on page 7 is very misleading and reflects how badly the document misconstrues economics. In this chart, they show that unemployment is worse now than the Obama administration had predicted it would be under the stimulus package. This, they say, is evidence that the stimulus package is a failure. In reality, though, all this shows is that the recession was much worse than predicted. The true comparison is with how bad unemployment would have been without the stimulus package. Most independent economists believe the stimulus has created about 3 million jobs and played a significant role in turning back the recession. It just wasn't big enough to bring back full employment (a fact for which Obama deserves criticism). The chart on page 17 is even worse -- it makes a 3% increase look like Obama is doubling the size of government. The whole discussion of stimulus and budgets seems deceptive to me

Meanwhile, unbelievably, not a word on Afghanistan, Iraq, or Pakistan. Not a word on global warming. Not a word about energy policy or decreasing our dependence on oil. Not a word on the oil spill or drilling policy. Not a word on Israel and Palestine. It is simply not a document that seems very serious. And we need a serious opposition party in this country.

Checking in on the continuing debate -- Updated [Bryan]

2010-09-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

Remember the debate last year about health care reform? It seems like that debate in some ways was just beginning. Now we can start asking: What's working? What isn't? What needs to be changed or fixed? What are the unintended consequences? This means I can continue with my obsession for years to come. I'm not sure I should be happy or sad about that.

If you want to keep track of the real debate about health care reform, and not just hear partisan spin, you can check in at the Kaiser Family Foundation's Health Care Reform Gateway website. They've created this good (and slightly funny) video explaining the new law, what it is supposed to do, how it will be paid for, and what some of the areas of uncertainty are:

They also have this nifty timeline, which allows you to see what change is supposed to occur and when. Some of the provisions I'm watching:

September 23, 2010 (TODAY!!!). Consumer Protections in Insurance. Prohibits individual and group health plans from placing lifetime limits on the dollar value of coverage, rescinding coverage except in cases of fraud, and from denying children coverage based on pre-existing medical conditions or from including pre-existing condition exclusions for children. Restricts annual limits on the dollar value of coverage (and eliminates annual limits in 2014)

January 1, 2010: Small Business Tax Credits. Provides tax credits to small employers with no more than 25 employees and average annual wages of less than $50,000 that provide health insurance for employees. Phase I (2010-2013): tax credit up to 35% (25% for non-profits) of employer cost; Phase II (2014 and later): tax credit up to 50% (35% for non-profits) of employer cost if purchased through an insurance Exchange for two years.

Beginning fiscal year 2011: Medical Malpractice Grants. Authorizes $50 million for five-year demonstration grants to states to develop, implement, and evaluate alternatives to current tort litigations.

January 1, 2010. Medicare Beneficiary Drug Rebate. Provides a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries who reach the Part D coverage gap in 2010. Further subsidies and discounts that ultimately close the coverage gap begin in 2011.

January 1, 2010. Comparative Effectiveness Research. Establishes a non-profit Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to conduct research that compares the clinical effectiveness of medical treatments.

October 2011. Medicare Independent Payment Advisory Board. Establishes an Independent Advisory Board, comprised of 15 members, to submit legislative proposals containing recommendations to reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending if spending exceeds targeted growth rates.

January 1, 2011. Medicare Premiums for Higher-Income Beneficiaries. Freezes the income threshold for income-related Medicare Part B premiums for 2011 through 2019 at 2010 levels resulting in more people paying income-related premiums, and reduces the Medicare Part D premium subsidy for those with incomes above $85,000/individual and $170,000/couple.

Update:
A nice analysis of the early roll out of health care reform by Jacob Hacker. He gives the process so far a "B."

Behold a Talking Head [Bryan]

2010-09-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

I've turned into a talking head! Last week, I got a call from a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch wanting to know how teachers are being prepared to live in an environment full of social-networking pitfalls. She was curious about what we should think of teachers who get in trouble when pictures are posted of them on the internet in compromising positions, when they say something dumb on Twitter, or when they become overly friendly with students on Facebook. I had a fairly long conversation with her in which I said many true, important, provocative, and interesting thing (at least I thought so). Alas, when the final piece was published, my rich contribution was reduced to a rather cryptic sentence at the end. You can read the story here. Then, just today, I got called from a reporter for Voice of America who is doing a story on a similar topic. I will probably never know if my wisdom fared better in that interview, since the segment will probably air in Chinese or something. I do wonder, though, what the people in North Korea will think about my take on this all business.

Anyway, like I said, I'm turning into a real talking head. Regional newspapers and short wave radio today, the New York Times and The News Hour tomorrow!

Good male dancing [Bryan]

2010-09-12T18:39:00.001-07:00

Via Andrew Sullivan, I learn that researchers have done studies about what moves women like in a male dancer. The researchers write, "We found that (women paid more attention to) the core body region: the torso, the neck, the head. It was not just the speed of the movements, it was also the variability of the movement. So someone who is twisting, bending, moving, nodding."

So this is what women like in a male dancer:

And this is what they don't like:

At this point, I guess I should admit that even the bad dancer dances way better than I do!

Provocative Prose [Ellie]

2010-09-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

I just finished my book club book for this month: A Woman of Independent Means by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey. The book is comprised entirely of letters sent to various people by the main character, Elizabeth Alcott Stead, or Bess, as she signs most of her correspondence.

What makes this book worth a blog post to me are the pointed reflections on life made by Bess throughout the book. With some of her reflections, I agree deeply, and am surprised to hear thoughts I’ve had myself, and some I wish I’d had, put to paper so eloquently by someone else. With others of her reflections I deeply disagree. I thought it might be fun to share here some of her provocative insights and hear your responses to them.

1) [after the death of her husband] I am so weary of people asking if there is anything they can do for me. Of course I always answer with a polite no, and they go away satisfied at having done their duty. . . . nothing frightens people more than undisguised need. I have kept all my old friends through this difficult time by never demanding the dues of friendship. Not that I doubt they would be paid--but only once. Friendship to me is like a capital reserve. It pays dividends only so long as the principal remains
intact. . . .

2) Alone on a train, I feel my life could go in any direction and at journey’s end when I rejoin my family, I am filled with elation at the wisdom of my choice. Though they never know it, I have considered every possibility and once again chosen them. Of course I realize I am only playing a game; my choices were made long ago. I wonder how many other times when I truly thought the choice was mine I was playing the game without realizing it.

3) An act as unselfish as yours carries within it the seeds of future unhappiness. To me the only viable transactions are ones in which both parties have something to gain.

4) I realize more and more that we have to work at making friends with members of our family the same way we do with strangers, by asking them questions and relishing their answers.

5) Until now my purpose in life has been provided by the needs of other people but I am beginning to realize none of us is really necessary to anyone else. There is always someone to replace us.

6) It occurs to me we are all capable of adding another dimension to our daily lives if we would but look upon the people around us as characters in a drama devised for our own amusement. There is no life too dull to be transformed into art by a lively imagination.

7) [I] invariably find a letter more revealing than a face-to-face conversation. . . . There is something about the process of writing--perhaps because it usually takes place in the privacy of one’s room--that allows and indeed encourages the expression of thoughts one would never say aloud.

8) It seems unreasonable to expect--or indeed even to want--to share every experience in life with the same person. We are more complicated than that and capable of pledging lifelong devotion to any number of people of different sex and age. Why does society restrict a man and a woman to only one such pledge per lifetime?

9) The best dowry a woman can bring to a marriage is a set of memories she acquired alone.

10) Sometimes being a good mother gets in the way of being a good person.

11) [after the death of her son] At his death I still cherished the illusion that a mother could shape the destinies of her children, could will them into attaining their full growth as individuals. But with each passing year you expect less from them until one day you find you are asking for nothing more than their physical appearance at regularly appointed times. . .

12) Sometimes I think the primary division in the world is not between male and female but between people who travel and people who stay home.

Anybody want to weigh in?

How to study [Bryan]

2010-09-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

There was a good article in the New York Times yesterday summarizing some of the latest research on study habits. Highlights:

1. There is no such thing as a "learning style." NYT: "Take the notion that children have specific learning styles, that some are “visual learners” and others are auditory; some are “left-brain” students, others “right-brain.” In a recent review of the relevant research, published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team of psychologists found almost zero support for such ideas."

2. If you want to learn something, try studying in different places. NYT: "For instance, many study skills courses insist that students find a specific place, a study room or a quiet corner of the library, to take their work. The research finds just the opposite."

3. Mix up the things you are studying, don't concentrate only on one thing. NYT: "Varying the type of material studied in a single sitting — alternating, for example, among vocabulary, reading and speaking in a new language — seems to leave a deeper impression on the brain than does concentrating on just one skill at a time."

4. Test yourself often. NYT: "That’s one reason cognitive scientists see testing itself — or practice tests and quizzes — as a powerful tool of learning, rather than merely assessment. The process of retrieving an idea is not like pulling a book from a shelf; it seems to fundamentally alter the way the information is subsequently stored, making it far more accessible in the future.

5. Disperse your studying over a longer period of time; don't cram it all at once. "An hour of study tonight, an hour on the weekend, another session a week from now: such so-called spacing improves later recall, without requiring students to put in more overall study effort or pay more attention, dozens of studies have found."

More Glacier Indulgence [Bryan]

2010-09-07T19:41:00.000-07:00

More photos from Glacier, in no particular order. Be warned: these photos were taken with a very crappy disposable camera (Ellie wouldn't let me take our nicer one). And yes, I did wear the same shirt almost every day. So?

We started out the trip with Huckleberry pancakes. For those of you who don't know about huckleberries, they are a fruit that seem to grow mostly in the alpine meadows of the mountain West. They taste like a mix between blueberries and cranberries. They are delicious in almost anything -- milkshakes are my favorite.

At the top of Red Gap Pass. Elizabeth Lake, where we camped the second night, is at the bottom right.

Here we are, heading out to Helen Lake.

Wanna-be stud shot, part 1.

Wanna-be stud shot, part 2.

Poia Lake. Alas, there are no fish in it.

Helen Lake, where we camped the third night.

Waterfall below Helen Lake. I had a nice little swim at the bottom.

At the top of Ptarmagin tunnel, looking down at Ptarmagin Lake.

Wanna-be stud shot, part 3.

Here we are taking precautions against bears -- hanging out backpacks. Must be 10 feet off the ground and 4 feet from the sides.

Up in the Air? [Bryan]

2010-09-05T18:25:00.000-07:00

This week our Netflix film was Up in the Air, a film starring George Clooney. The story revolves around a business executive who specializes in firing people and who spends nearly all his life jumping from one airport to the next, one city after another. The film really got me thinking about the idea of home, family, and community, something that has been on my mind a lot lately.

At first, I found myself derisively laughing that this character's lifestyle. I fly a moderate amount, usually three or four times year. I like to travel, but I hate flying. I hate the crowds, the lines, the delays, the stress, the cramped quarters, the semi-nausea. I hate the grumpy people, the loud complainers, the expensive airport food, and the endless shuttles and taxis. The George Clooney character seemed to embrace this lifestyle, however, at peace in hotels and in restaurants, hooking up with any attractive person crossing his path. This was a character with no "home" to speak of, with no family or community connections. He himself eventually becomes disenchanted with his lifestyle and tries to return to something more real.

I have come to realize that this seemingly strange lifestyle isn't so far away from my own life and the life of many other "professional" people I know. We also are "up in the air." We have chosen to leave our homes and the communities, communities that, in my case, were forged by the sweat of people who sacrificed everything they had to realize a prophetic vision of community. What would they think of me, up and leaving like I have? ... And all in search for personal success and fulfillment?

To make matters worse, I feel that I have not completely committed to staying where I now find myself, in the Ohio. True, I find myself identifying more with Ohio every day. Yet, in my office, in the middle of an overcast and dark Ohio winter, I can still be found looking at job postings, curious to see if there are greener pastures somewhere else, wondering if we would not be a better fit at another university or in another city. Seattle would be nice. And Boulder, Colorado -- gosh, I think, how I would love to live and teach in Boulder.

There is a part of me that hates this about myself. This meandering mind, this restless searching for some better place, seems to go completely against what I believe is important. People need to put down deep roots and commit themselves to living in and improving the local communities that surround them. Doing this, living a committed life beyond the call of personal success, enriches both the life of individual and the life of the community. And this act of commitment, I believe, should happen sooner rather than later.

Perhaps George Clooney and I are not so different, after all.

Time to Break with Beck [Bryan]

2010-08-31T19:37:00.000-07:00

It does not serve my beloved Mormon Church well to have Glen Beck as currently its most prominent member. The guy fosters hatred and fear and turns it all into personal profit and career advancement.

And it is odd, to say the least, to see him try to adopt the Civil Rights Movement as his own, while at the same time pushing the loathsome political ideas of Cleon Skouson and a young Ezra Taft Benson -- both of whom denounced the Civil Rights Movement as a "communist conspiracy." Beck sees himself as the new Martin Luther King. Too bad he is in love with people who hated everything MLK stood for.

Life's little pleasures [Bryan]

2010-08-31T18:48:00.000-07:00

I listed some overrated things a few weeks ago. Now let me list some of my life's little pleasures:

1. I love drinking cool water from a garden hose on a hot summer day.

2. I love the moment when the alarm goes off, but you then suddenly realize you don't need to get up. (I actually used to set my alarm on Saturdays so I could wake up with normal dread and then feel the joyous sensation that came with remembering I didn't need to get up for two more hours.)

3. I love peeling off the protective tape after I've painted a room to reveal all the clean edges.

4. I love nose kisses from Nora.

5. I love new, fluffy towels. (We recently bought new towels after using our old ones for 12 years -- they were like sandpaper.)

6. I love finally swatting a fly after missing it ten straight times and then screaming in triumph as man conquers nature.

7. I love the moment, at the end of a workout, when you realize you can finally, gasp, stop exercising for the day.

8. I love the feel of a fish taking my fly.

9. I love coming home and hearing Stephen yell "Daddy!" in delight.

10. I love making neat patterns in the grass as I mow the lawn. My favorite: diagonal slashes across the front lawn.

Trip to Glacier [Bryan]

2010-08-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

We returned Sunday from a long trip back to Utah and, for me, a trip backpacking in Glacier National Park. It would be impossible to tell you about all our adventures (and misadventures). I will let Ellie write, if she wants, about how the children suffered a Grade-A, first class meltdown while I was away in the wilderness for seven days, complete with vomiting, fevers, sobbing, staff infections, and all manner of uncontrolled bodily fluids. Overall, though, we were overwhelmed by how welcoming and generous everybody was who shared their time, homes, and food with us, a strange family from Ohio. Highlights included bike rides, eating, swimming, eating, hiking, eating, museums, eating, and getting to know better family and friends.

Now, Glacier was beautiful in a way that is hard to describe. Many of you know that I've been backpacking with my brother and uncle for over twenty years. We've explored many of the great mountain ranges of the West, including the Tetons, Wind Rivers, Sawtooths, Rubies, Uintahs, and so forth. This year we scheduled a trip to the Many Glacier section of Glacier on the east side of the park, a place none of us had ever been.

Overall, we were on the trail 4 days and covered a respectable 37 miles. Glacier is an interesting place in that it felt more alive than most of the other National Parks I've visited. We saw, up close, plenty of big horn sheep, mountain goats, deer, and moose, along with furry little critters of all shapes and sizes. We heard wolves howling at night and, although we didn't see any bears, their presence was obvious from reports of others along the trail, manifestations of bear poop, and so forth. We were armed to the teeth with bear spray and took all sorts of precautions (including hanging our toothbrushes along with our food). We camped at 3 campsites, each more spectacular than the last. Our last night, we camped at Helen Lake, a beautiful green glacier lake surrounded by towering cliffs, multiple waterfalls, and distant mountain peaks. I don't think it is inappropriate to call such a place "sacred."

One of the great things about backpacking is, ironically, how horrifically terrible it is. I won't lie, some of the ascents (including a 2500 foot climb up to Ptarmigan tunnel) kicked my butt, big time. I could barely put one foot in front of the other, and cursed the day I decided it would be fun to strap a 40 lbs pack on my back and go march around the wilderness. The hardness, though, makes is satisfying in a deeply fulfilling way. At the end of the ascent, as you conquer a hill, approach an incredible vista, or simply realize you've survived, you find that there is something strong inside you, something inside you that is worthy of admiration. And the scenery always makes everything worth it. Fishing was good, too.

I don't have any of my own pictures yet. I actually used something called "film" that is being "developed." I stole a few off my brother's Facebook page, though, and here they are (until he calls his lawyers).

Here we are at Ptarmigan Tunnel after climbing 2500 feet.

Nice, fat 14 inch Rainbow.

At Red Gap Pass -- Mountain peaks surrounding us in every direction.

Derek at Helen Lake

Overrated things [Bryan]

2010-08-02T18:18:00.001-07:00

1. Thick milkshakes are overrated. You should be able to drink a milkshake with a straw.

2. Making your bed is overrated. You are just going to mess it up again in 12 hours. (Sorry Mom!)

3. The Sunday comics are overrated. They are almost never funny.

4. Things that are "organic" are overrated. I love buying fresh and local, but "organic" has almost no meaning.

5. Coming to a complete stop is overrated. You can almost always adequately survey an intersection rolling slowly.

6. Flossing is overrated. A dentist told me he can't usually tell if someone flosses by looking at their teeth. And he told me that most dentist don't floss regularly, either.

7. Breakfast is overrated. I like pancakes as much as the next guy, but the food traditionally served at breakfast is uninspiring and dull.

8. Fertilizer that claims to prevent crabgrass is overrated. Never seems to work.

9. The United State Senate is overrated. The rules of the Senate seem designed to thwart democratic accountability and reward egoistic grandstanding.

10. Bacon on hamburgers is overrated. Doesn't add much except fat and calories.

Review of Inception [Bryan]

2010-07-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

[Spoiler alert! Don't read this if you plan on seeing the film.]

Ellie and I went to see Inception last night. It was great fun, a really imaginative film, a wild and dark ride. Of course, half of the time I wasn't sure what was going on or why, whose dream we were in, and what the rules were governing the dream world. I'm not sure the logic of the world made sense, but I suppose that is to be expected.

What interested me most was the idea of a "totem," an object that the characters use to determine whether they are dreaming or whether they are awake. The main character, for example, uses a top that he spins whenever he needs to distinguish his dreams from reality. In his dreams, apparently, the top never falls over; it just keeps on spinning. Why he can't simply dream of his top falling over is never explained.

In philosophy, finding a "totem" is the Holy Grail of intellectual achievements, although no one calls it that. The "totem" is a criterion that helps us distinguish between reality and fantasy, between the world as it is and what the mind creates. How can we know for sure that we are not dreaming? How can we distinguish the world "out there" from our biases, wishes, and fantasies? Many philosophers have tried to create such a totem. Indeed, one might say that scientific method is really just one big "totem" that attempts to do precisely this -- distinguish the "real world" from our mind's creations.

[At this point, a real philosopher would give you a long discourse on Immanuel Kant, who argued that concepts like time and space were really just creations of the mind, but I will spare you that particular lecture.]

The film calls into serious question the idea of a totem. Remember, no justification is given for why the totem works as it does; it is something the characters simply assume. Of course, I wanted to shout, you could dream of a top falling over -- why not? But I came to realize that the failure of the totem is precisely the point. At the end of the movie, the hero seems to make his final break with his fantasy world, but the ambiguous ending alerts us to the possibility that no break has been made, and that he may have simply moved from one fantasy to the other. In the last moments, the hero gives up on the idea of his totem: he has found a reality he desires and, as he rushes to his children, does not wait to see if the top falls or if it continues spinning. He has either (a) given up on his totem or (b) he no longer cares about distinguishing fantasy from reality.

So, obviously, the question of the film is whether we can ever find a totem, that is, whether we can ever distinguish reality from our dreams and mental creations. But it also questions whether we should want to find such a thing: Do we not need our fantasies, myths, and dream creations? Could we ever survive without them? The film seems to say no and in that sense, it echoes the philosophy known as Pragmatism, which basically posits that no totem is possible, that human beings construct a world to serve their interests, and that we should judge our discoveries not by how they relate to an unknowable truth but by how they serve human interests. We should embrace our dreams if our dreams can survive the test of human life.

There is a lot to be said for that position. But I guess I still cling to my totems as a matter of faith. Perhaps, for me, the idea of a totem, of being able to distinguish the real from the imagined, is precisely the fantasy I need to believe in.

Origin of the phrase "hue and cry" [Bryan]

2010-07-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

Some people have asked me where the phrase "hue and cry" comes from. The Columbia Encyclopedia says:

The "hue and cry," formerly, in English law, is the pursuit of a criminal immediately after he had committed a felony. Whoever witnessed or discovered the crime was required to raise the hue and cry against the perpetrator (e.g., call out "Stop, thief !") and to begin pursuit; all persons within hearing were under the same obligation, and it was a punishable offense not to join in the chase and capture. The perpetrator was promptly brought into court, and if there was evidence of his having been caught red-handed, he was summarily convicted without being allowed to testify in his own behalf. The hue and cry was abolished in the early 19th cent. Possible modern survivals are the obligation to serve on a sheriff's posse and to assist a police officer in pursuing a suspected culprit.

So, there you have it. What this has to do with our family, I have no idea, other than it is a phrase suggesting clamor and chaos. I thought it would be a fun name for a blog. At the very least, it is much better than the name of YOUR blog.

Trip to Pennsylvania

2010-07-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

We spent last weekend in our neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Activities included visiting the interesting town of Hersey ("the sweetest place of earth"), hanging out with Ellie's brother Sam and wife Emily (who live in Allentown), and touring the historic district of Philadelphia. Pictures below:

Stephen ready for adventure.

Nora and Andrew at the Hersey amusement park. The scale of rides was only matched by the scale of the crowds.

Here, Andrew is able to combine his two passions in life -- candy and cars.

At the Hersey "World of Chocolate" tour.

Independence Hall.

Here is a bell of some sort. Not a good one. There is a crack is on the other side.

Sam is interning for Air Products -- the biggest company you've probably never heard of. Very impressive operation they have going there -- even a waterfall!

We finished with a Philly steak sandwich at Jim's Steaks. Yummy.

Here are our intrepid and patient hosts. Thanks Sam and Emily for treating us so well!

Some consistency, please -- UPDATED with new chart [Bryan]

2010-07-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

The next time people start complaining about the budget deficit, ask them whether they support the extension of President Bush's 2001 tax cuts for wealthy Americans. If they say yes, something is obviously amiss in their reasoning. As you can see below, nothing has increased the deficit over the past years more than Bush's tax cuts . Strange how, for some people, we can't afford to help the unemployed or to help states retain school teachers, but we can always afford wars and tax breaks for the wealthy.

I'm not saying all of the Bush-era tax cuts are necessarily bad, or that they should not be temporarily renewed during this recession. I'm just pointing out the inconsistency of championing both deficit reduction and the extension of massive tax cuts.

Meanwhile, Obama signed into law the Wall Street reform bill today. This brings the list of his legislative accomplishments to: Wall Street reform, health care reform, stimulus package (too small, it turns out, but still very important), the much-needed overall of the student-loan system, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, new credit card industry regulation, a national service bill, expanded stem-cell research, and the land-protection act. Not bad, not bad at all. Of course, if we don't get more jobs soon, nobody will care.

Calling Doctor Scott [Bryan]

2010-07-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

When we arrived in Columbus, we needed some quick medical care and we looked up the closest family doctor we could find. We found one, a male doctor in his fifties, a few miles from our house in a rundown part of town. He works out of a grungy basement practice, which serves, as far as we can tell, mostly lower-income, Medicaid patients. Since then, we have been too lazy to change our provider, and have stuck with this fellow. On the plus side, this doctor has not qualms about bending the rules for our benefit. "Now, I can't tell you that your wife can take some of the medicine from this extra-large bottle of pink eye medication I just prescribed," he will say with a wink. "It would be against the rules," he will repeat, "so I can't tell you to share it when she comes down with it, as she will." Of course, I would then share, thus saving us money and an extra trip to the doctor. A doctor who cares more about patients than rules is a valuable thing.

On the downside, this doctor reminds us both of the Michael Scott character from The Office. He is loud and obnoxious, with an hugely inflated sense of his own sense of humor. He can be heard shouting things to his nurses down the hall that border on impropriety. Every once in awhile, I have to stop and think, "Did he really just say what I thought he said?" Not an office visit goes by without us coming home with new stories of our doctor's antics.

I'm thinking we might change soon. Or not.

Well, how was it? [Bryan]

2010-07-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

If you are a guest at somebody's house, and you like the food, you really should say so. Unless you didn't like it, I suppose. Or, unless you ate so much that your actions speak louder than any words. Otherwise, you should always praise the food. The less you eat, the more praise you need to give. Also, don't assume that the woman has done all the cooking!

Just had to get that off my chest.

Appreciating the BOM [Bryan]

2010-07-01T21:13:00.000-07:00

I have a strange relationship with the Book of Mormon (BOM). It has been one of the most important books in my life, a book I consider to be a sacred text. And yet, I have sometimes felt uncomfortable, even a little ashamed, of some aspects of it. It really is a strange book, sometimes awkwardly written, full of seemingly simplistic didactic moral tales ("be good and God will protect and reward you"). Its picture of human life, where angels constantly visit people and where the good prosper while the wicked are justly punished, often doesn't square with life as I experience it.

Enter Grant Hardy's new book, Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide (Oxford University Press, 2010). This book has given me a renewed appreciate for the literary qualities of the BOM. Hardy's idea is that we should focus more on the three major internal editors: Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni. If we do this, the literary complexity of the book emerges. What has impressed me most about Hardy's work is that it has allowed the BOM to better speak to life as I understand it.

Consider the following example. The major editor of the book, Mormon, presents himself as a historian who uses history to teach moral and religious lessons. Now, in my experience, it is often very difficult to draw lessons from the past. There are always holes in the stories we want to tell, exceptions to the lessons we want to draw. Often, history shows that the distinction between "good guys" and "bad guys" gets blurry and that human success is always intermingled and often inseparable from human failure.

Mormon, for his part, wants to teach us a lesson that wicked people meet a bad end. To make this point, however, Hardy shows how Mormon has to edit out certain events that don't seem to fit his moral story. Take one example, of many. The people of Ammonihah are portrayed as some of the greatest villains of the BOM -- their biggest crime is burning innocent women and children in a orgy of religious bigotry. This evil people eventually meet their just end as their city is conquered and annihilated by a Lamanite army. This all supports Mormon's thesis: bad guys meet a bad end. The problem is, though, that other people were conquered by the Lamanite army at that time, as well, as Mormon briefly notes. "Some around the borders of Noah," he notes, were also killed (see Alma 16:3) What about these people? Did they deserve it, too? Later, we hear only that they were strategically "weak." Nothing is said about this city being particularly wicked. If they were wicked, presumably Mormon would have told us since this data could have been used to support his point. The reality, it seems, was a bit more messy than his simple lesson would admit. Hardy shows us many examples like this of how there exists a complex reality behind the lessons the BOM editors want to teach. They are trying to construct a comprehensible story in the face of a complex reality that sometimes escapes their finite human understanding. As Paul says, we all see through a glass, darkly.

This realization about the BOM editors made me feel a closer connection to the book and its very human (and now more true-to-real-life) characters. The world that exists behind the scenes of the BOM matches more closely the murky world as I experience it. The editorial lessons are helpful, inspired, and true, but these glimpses of the underlying complexity open the door for continued searching, continued meditation, continued grasping for greater light and knowledge. In this sense, the Book of Mormon invites us to enter a world, not only of eternal truths, but also of continued questions; a world not only of inspired words, but also of a need for personal inspiration; a world not only full of simple moral tales, but also full of the tragic richness of human life.

Salt Lake City reborn [Bryan]

2010-06-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

When I was a student at the University of Utah, I had an art professor who always talked about a great urban tragedy. The tragedy was the Salt Lake City had taken most of its beautiful mountain streams and channeled them into pipes underground. He had this idea of letting the rivers flow more freely through the valley. It would, he argued, create that waterfront ambiance that most great cities have (think Paris, London, Chicago, etc.). I came to agree with him. In that context, I was excited to see that the "City Creek" project, which involves letting that river emerge from underground, is becoming a reality. Salt Lake is becoming one cool city. Check out this tour of new downtown development project:

Bad day on the hill - updated [Bryan]

2010-06-20T18:18:00.000-07:00

Today, 42 senators will filibuster the so-called "tax-extenders" bill. The bill would extend unemployment benefits, would protect doctors from a 21 percent pay cut for Medicare patients, would close tax loopholes for companies that move jobs overseas, and would provide billions in aid to state governments. Without the aid to states alone, there will be 900,000 public- and private-sector layoffs, mostly teachers, police officers, and fire fighters. The cuts to unemployment benefits will reduce demand in the economy, thereby making more businesses cut back on hiring. The Republicans, who were fine with running huge budget deficits during the Bush years, won't even let this bill come up from a vote. If you are a looking for moment when the U.S. economic recovery died, this could be it.

Reminds me of a story. Once upon a time, in 1937, a country was on the verge of coming out of the Great Depression. The country had spent a lot of money of programs designed to improve unemployment and, because of this, it was running big budget deficits. Employment was slowly improving and economic growth was returning. All the politicians, however, including a president named FDR, started to feel guilty about all that spending and decided to prove how tough and fiscally virtuous they were by cutting the budget, raising taxes, and tightening the monetary supply. The result was four more years of depression and continued human suffering. Read about the "Roosevelt Recession" here.

We seem to be going down this same path again. This is bad news.

Update: Yup, conservatives blocked the bill from even coming up for a vote. Apparently, it only takes 42 out of 100 senators to bring an economic recovery to its knees. I should point out that Harry Reid cut the spending on this bill in half, and cut the deficit spending to a quarter of what was originally proposed. All in a vain effort to compromise with people who simply will not compromise on anything.

Tales of a stay-at-home dad [Bryan]

2010-06-19T07:36:00.001-07:00

I just finished with three days of being a single, stay-at-home father. Whew! I escaped with my sanity (barely) and a renewed appreciation for Ellie. I also enjoyed spending the time with my kids, particularly talking to them and getting a glimpse of the thoughts that rumble around in their little minds. Take the following instance, when I was stalking a fly with a fly swatter.

Nora: Daddy, don't kill that fly.

Dad: Huh?

Nora: You shouldn't kill any animals unless you have to. You should catch it and let it go.

Dad: It's just a fly.

Nora: It is still something that is alive.

Dad: Why do you think it is wrong to kill things that are alive?

Nora: Because nature is important. It is even more important than television. And ice cream.

Fascinating stuff.

Perfect cookies - Updated [Bryan]

2010-06-14T06:17:00.000-07:00

My quest for the perfect mashed potatoes has been well-documented on this blog. Less known is my obsession with finding the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. I thought I had found it in the New York Time's Jacques Torres cookie. I have recently uncovered a recipe from America's Test Kitchen (the best source of recipes ever) that might just give it a run for its money. The secret to this recipe seems to be browning the butter and adding dark brown sugar. I'm worried that the salt content is too low (chocolate chip cookies need a salty overtone) and that there is no time for chilling, but we'll see. I'm trying them tonight for Family Night. I will let everyone know how they turn out.

RESULTS: The America's Test Kitchen recipe did indeed make yummy cookies. In fact, the dough was probably the best testing dough I have ever sampled, with deep caramel and toffee flavors. Still, something was lost during the baking process and those flavors didn't come out as strongly in the finished cookie. Further, the taste was not as sophisticated as the New York Times cookie and I think the coarse sea salt in that recipe creates a complexity of flavor that the Test Kitchen cookie does not match. Edge: New York Times.