Swingers

Sour grapes you can say, but I’m tired of being ignored in the presidential election. Just because I don’t live in a “swing” state means I don't get my fair share of the campaigning attention I feel I deserve. Looking at the map included here (from Wikipedia) shows fairly dramatically how much attention and money is paid to swing states. The data is from the last 5 weeks of the 2004 election. The data comes from the site http://www.fairvote.org/presidential/?page=1677www.fairvote.org. On the map on the left each waving hand represents a visit from a presidential or vice-presidential candidate during the final five weeks of the election. On the map on the right, each dollar sign represents one million dollars spent on TV advertising by the campaigns during the same time period.

In per capita terms, the states receiving the most attention were Iowa, Ohio, and New Hampshire. In absolute time, the three states receiving the most attention were Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania. So there you are.

Door-to-Door Magazine Sales

It hasn’t happened for a while, but today I popped out front to do a little yard work and wham, a young door-to-door salesperson showed up selling magazines. You’ve heard the story, a young person trying to earn points to get a job, or scholarship, or something else. To do this, they must sell magazine subscriptions. In this case this young person whose name was Jessica and was from Texas and was working for the firm http://www.dntconnections.com/. She told me that they send “kids” like her around the country to get “experience”. Why would they spend the money (and risk) to send a single mother (she told me she was) to live in a hotel in a far away city to sell magazines doesn’t make sense to me.

Type of questions I was asked: “Are you a generous person?” and “Do you believe in second chances?” My response to both was “no”.

So, I told her I would not write a check or give money, but would consider logging on to a Web site and ordering and trying to give credit to her. The company DNT Connections exists, but you can’t order anything that I could tell. Figures.

After a little more digging (see resources below), I realized that yes, these magazine crews do go around the country and that all not all is well in this little-understood industry (i.e., deaths and exploitation). The lesson I’m coming away with is that trusting your first instinct to be very wary is okay and if you want to help people in this age bracket do it locally through other more reputable organizations. Be on the watch for emotional questions like the ones given above. It’s rehearsed.

Resources

Government site that has some good information in case you did buy and need to know your rights
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/tmarkg/magzn.shtm

An exposé from the Portland area from two young women who spilled the beans:
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=115501199061804400

A site dedicated to exposing this industry:
http://www.travelingsalescrews.info/mainpage.html

True stories from people who worked on magazine crews:http://www.magcrew.com/

Frye Art Museum: Napoleon and the Egyptian Campaign

We popped in the Frye Art Museum to see what was going on yesterday and caught Napoleon on the Nile: Soldiers, Artists, and the Rediscovery of Egypt (August 30 – January 4). The show was about Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign from 1798 – 1801. Napoleon went to Egypt to protect French trade interests and disrupt British trade routes. While in Egypt, 150+ savants (scholars and scientists) and 2,000 artists and technicians came along to document ancient and modern Egypt. Though the campaign was ultimately unsuccessful and the French pulled out, all the scientific research and observations and engravings were published in Description de l’Égypte from 1809 to 1828. Pages from this publication made up the bulk of the exhibit.

There was also a free lecture on this particular day called The Cinematic Emperor: Images of Napoleon on Film where two experts showed clips of movies about Napoleon and discussed them.

When You are Engulfed in Flames

The latest book by David Sedaris is called When You are Engulfed in Flames. It’s a quick read, funny enough, and designed to please his fans looking for material similar to his previous books. But honestly, I was wishing for him to cover some new territory. Also, the rhythm for each chapter – a separate story – is a bit overused: start out the chapter with a fact, followed by several seemingly non-related ideas, and the viola back at the starting fact to close down the chapter. There were stories where interesting issues are raised e.g. perceived roles in relationships (All the Beauty You Will Ever Need) or ostracized people (The Man in the Hut) where I was looking for a little more heft but it wasn’t there.

The image on the jacket cover is Vincent Van Gogh’s Skull with Burning Cigarette (1885-6).

Knitting with Balls: A Hands-On Guide to Knitting for the Modern Men

We received the book Knitting with Balls by Michael Del Vecchio as a gift the other day. There are some fun project ideas inside and quick overview of the knitting basics. The author is co-founder of the site menknit.com.

Lake Ann Hike

We hiked about 9.5 miles rountrip to the Lower Curtis glacier via Lake Ann. We originally thought about just stopping at Lake Ann, but the 1/2 mile or so to the glacier (near it, not on it mind you) was worth it. We started at 11:30am and came back at 6:00 pm. We weren’t racing, but we weren’t going slow either. We started at the Lake Ann trail head on route 542 just before you come to the Heather Meadow Visitor Center. This a popular hike, but worth if for the views of Mount Baker (10,778 ft) and Mount Shuksan (9,127 ft). It’s not a straight up and straight down type of hike. You start by going down, then up to a saddle and then down to Lake Ann. If you continue on to the glacier you climb a bit more. For details about this hike, see the Lake Ann Trail #600 description.

The definite highlight for us was going past Lake Ann up to the Lower Curtis Glacier. The glacier is getting smaller and is in a disequilibrium which means it will probably disappear. It is likely responding to the climate of the last 30 years. Many of the North Cascade glaciers are in trouble.