Cards

Many of my friends know that the postal service is my friend. I love getting mail and also send a great deal of mail. It is unusual for a day to go by without sending at least one piece of mail and it is very rare for the post person to pass our house without something to drop off and most of them it is a bundle. I have the elastic bands from the mail to prove it.

I buy cards but the past few years, I have started to make my own cards using my photographs. The positive comments have which inspired me to continue making the cards and then sending them or sometimes giving cards as gifts and hopefully brighten some one's day with a card(s).

I was reminded how much cards mean when I went out for dinner with my husband at a Kelsey's. We chatted with our waitress and the end of the dinner not only did she drop off a bill but also a card wishing us a nice evening and commenting on the activity we were going to be involved in that evening. I know that the card was from the restaurant and there is probably a campaign on the part of the restaurant to have the staff chat with patrons but the card works and indicates that the wait staff listened and paid attention to the patron. Nice touch. I would go back and the food was good as well.

I know that postage costs but try it send a card or a note and brighten some one's day, let them know that you are thinking of them. I am always surprised and pleased when someone tells me many months and sometimes more than many months how much my cards meant to them. It encourages me to keep it up.

Nursing Homes

The events of this summer have made me more aware of the level of care available to those in need in Ontario. Nursing homes are funded to the tune of $3.5 billion a year and this still only guarantees 3 hours of care per day. Think of your day and how much time that means. Based on the level of care that a person needs, feeding and bathing are part of the three hours. The question is what happens the rest of the day? Who is observing the resident? What level of care is being given? Is the time spent sitting in a chair in front of a nursing station part of the three hours? Time to start thinking of the future. There is much planning to be done.

CFL's

I am a firm believer in trying to be environmentally friendly; I recycle, compost and reuse. One look at my wardrobe will convince you that I try to wear things until they are well and truly worn out. Long ago, I gave up trying to be in style, if it fits, is comfortable and clean it works for me. Yup, some of the clothes that I wear are very old!
My many attempts to be a good steward of the environment have taught me that it is important to examine all sides of issues. For example, CFLs, compact fluorescent light bulbs are not living up to their claims of lasting a great deal longer than regular bulbs. CFLs cost 6 times what regular bulbs do and some have lasted half as long as incandescents! Apparently, the tests on CFLs were only done on table lamps not the many uses that people have for lights. Turning CFLs on and off speeds up their demise. What are we to do? Keep the lights on? CFLs emit frequency harmonics and its infared light interfere with many electronics. You have to wonder what they do to computers!
In Europe, CFLs are branded dangerous waste because they contain mercury which is something that has caused me concern and wonder about the claims about their environmental impact.
Let this be a reminder that we must examine products carefully and their impact through their complete life cycle.

Many facets of people

Again, I am reminded that there are many facets to the people we meet. We know them in one capacity but they are often involved in other activities that can sometimes be most unexpected. Yesterday, I found out that one of the people who I play tennis with belongs to a theatre company that we have a subscription to. The East Side players has been putting on plays for many years at Todmorden Mills and are an excellent community group with some excellent productions. My friend is auditioning for Noel Coward's Waiting in the Wings, hope that she gets a part.
Another tennis player is an avid concert goer and visits art galleries regularly. She has been to concert with performers who I wish I had heard. I usually just picture her as a very athletic person but did not imagine that she had an appreciation for the arts.
On Friday, I am attending a pottery show that another friend is taking part in. She teaches ESL at a community college and was in management before that.
This reminds me that there is more depth to the people we meet than we assume at first encounter. Pealing away the layers takes time but is the enjoyable part of relationships with others. . We must take the time to get to know them and learn about them and their interests. People can be very fascinating and are in turn engaged in many activities in their various communities.

Health

For many reasons, I have been more conscious of good health lately: I appreciate my good health physical and mental. On Monday, I met some new tennis players who commented that I hit the ball hard and noticed that I do not seem to have any injuries; it is true so far all my joints are pain free. No sore elbows, knees or shoulders and not torn muscles. Don't know if my peasant stock is saving me from these problems. Most of my tennis buddies have complaints or have had to stop playing.

Yesterday, I went to a workshop about getting your written work published. I have managed to have a number of articles published and was actually paid for one. I must keep working at it and hope that I will be able to have more work completed and get paid. During one of the breaks at the workshop, I spoke to some of the people at my table and was surprised at their comments about aches, pains, headaches. Now one of them should be examining her diet: potato chips, chocolate milk and a muffin a meal do not make. I think that Country Style donuts offered a bagel which would have been better for her. The chocolate milk was probably not too bad but there are better choices.

After all is said and done, we must all do all we can to maintain good physical and mental health. Some problems are not of our making but others might be avoided with care.
Enjoy your health and do everything you can to maintain it.

Six Million Trees

This is community involvement!
Thousands of Macedonians took to the hills and forests yesterday to plant six million trees in a single day as part of a mass reforestation drive in the Balkan Country. "Our goal is to make Macedonian 'greener' and make people more aware of the needs of this plant." said Macedonian opera singer Boris Trajanov, who initiated the project. Thousands of people were bused to the planting sites, including more than 1,000 soldiers who planted some 200,000 seedlings. Trajanov said he hoped to spread the campaign across the whole Balkan region next year.
Wonder who donated the trees or if a fundraising campaign as well as awareness campaign was held. This is an outstanding idea. More ideas like this which involve people would be ideal.

Money

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend whose son who is in university told her that money would disappear in today's economy. An interesting theory which I had difficulty accepting. There was a reason that money developed. We have difficulty carrying the goods that we might want to barter and the exchange process for the house or car might be very difficult. We do not all have goods that the next person wants to trade.
Money has a long history. Humankind started out with barter. What do you have that I need? It went with specialization of labour. If someone makes arrowheads all day, how are you going to get the arrowhead from him? You're probably going to trade something you've just hunted with an arrowhead he made. Money comes into the picture as a way of solidifying the power of the state. That's why the Sumerians, the first agricultural urban society, were the first to adopt a concept of money. In other words, I've got a lot of stuff stored, I 'll give you something that says you now own it. In effect, it's a form of deed.

We come forward from coins to paper money and finally the thing that enables all modern economies, the concept of fiat and credit currency, which was developed in late medieval Europe, in which letters of credit and letters of mark allowed us for the first time to bank on the power of the state itself rather than on the value of the coinage.

Money will not disappear completely but the use of debt cards, credit cards, and the Internet has allowed us to complete transactions without the presence of physical money. It will be fascinating to see what the present economic crisis does to the value of money and our understanding of its value.

Obama's Arts Platform

Now that Barack Obama has been elected, he has the difficult task during this challenging economic time of delivering his promises. He writes poetry, has contact with Bruce Springsteen, Jay-Z and had a far reaching arts plank as part of his platform.
He advocated for increased support for arts education and the National Endowment for the Arts to changing the U. S. federal tax code for artists.
Echoing a comment in today's Globe and Mail about possible cuts to the arts in Ottawa, Elizabeth Currid, an expert on urban policy and the economic impact of the arts at the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning and Development said "In a time of economic turmoil, the arts is the last thing on any one's mind and yet it's the most important time to support the arts."
Obama began forming his culture plank in the spring of 2007, long before winning the Democratic nomination. He brought together a committee of artists and arts professionals, headed by Hollywood writer, director and producer George Stevens Jr. and Broadway producer Margo Lion.
The Committee's members include novelist Michael Charbon, Broadway director Hal Prince, musicians Eugenia and Pinchas Zukerman ( music director of Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra), Museum of Modern Art president emerita Agnes Gund and Lynch of Americans for the Arts.
The committee developed a program that advocates: the creation of an "Artists Corp" of young artists trained to work in low-income schools and communities, the expansion of public-private partnerships to increase cultural-education programs; increased funding for the NEA; a commitment to "cultural diplomacy"; attracting foreign talent to the arts; and providing health care to artists.
While he was developing this plank, our present prime minister was and continues to find ways to cut support to the artists and all its support structures. What stark contrast!

Modern Houses

During these challenging economic times, some of us start to examine many aspects of our lives more closely. Recently, I read that people are looking at cheaper cuts of meat- no more filet mignon? Another thing that is being examined is the large monster homes that many people covet. A major change from the 1950's when the average home was 1000 square feet. Now homes are over 2000 square feet. Families were large in the 1950's but we managed.
I grew up in a 1950's bungalow as did many of my friends. We did not seem to suffer at the time. We had one television that we all watched. At the beginning of the hour or half-hour, we would agree which show we were going to watch together. There was no remote so once the choice was made we settled into our various spots and watched the black and white screen-remember trying make the horizontal hold work?. There were no arguments despite the fact that sometimes we hated the choice that our youngest brother made. He wanted to watch the Bishop Sheen Show each week and we would agree in return for our choices. Yes, there was a show with a Bishop on prime time, each Thursday at 7 p.m. if I remember correctly.
My brothers shared a room with bunk beds and there were no major complaints. There was a recreation room to escape to but it was not a private room.
People were more energy efficient because they were using less room and they did not have the large appliances that many people have today and not as many.
Guess there were some good things in those days and there were some happy moments. It was not all as bad as the media would like us to believe- not everyone was a Mad Man.

Writing and technology

Apparently the blog-cyber-mediashpere is making us stupid. A study published in 2005 by the King's College London suggests that the distractions of e-mail and text messaging effectively rob your functional IQ of 10 points. Another, conducted at Kansas State University, suggests that watching "the crawl-the stream of headlines scrolling across the lower portion of the television screen-reduces memory retention by roughly 10%, and a brain imaging study at Carnegie Mellon showed that when performing two tasks at once, a person's brain activity is 56% of what it was when that person focused on the two activities separately. ( Wonder if the distractions of e-mail and text messages cause permanent loss of intelligence?) Memory retention is serious; I have reached the point when I do worry about seniors' moments. No more watching the scroll.

If we want to be writers, there is another perhaps more important consideration for writers: the loss of creative space. In his book Hare Brain, Tortoise Minda: How Intelligence Increases When You Think Less (Ecco 1999), Guy Claxton cites several studies that point to an "unconscious intelligence" that works while our mind is disengaged or working on something else entirely. Ideas emerge from a kind of creative womb, one that works while we are focused on mundane physical task, like walking, or riding a train, or staring at the ocean. Just letting the the mind run.
If simply staring at the ocean and allowing your unconscious intelligence to do its work is difficult in this age of too much information, there is another state beyond that, which has become even harder to obtain: flow. It's a state of mind in which your are so engaged in an activity that you lose track of time-even lose track of yourself. You forget about everything around you and wake up kind of surprised to find yourself back in your room. The state of flow is when your best work gets done and when writing becomes really fun.
Right now, I am going to engage in the really mundane- laundry. Not sure if it will get me into flow but I will try and hopefully get some ideas for the writing that I enjoy doing. Avoiding the distraction of e-mail is hard. The phone with call display is easier, at least I am able to avoid nuisance calls. (Please if I do not answer you call, it is not because I am screening the call; I might be practising or writing.) TV is not a great hardship since I find less and less that I enjoy watching. Time for that load of laundry and hopefully I will get some ideas. Not sure about the flow but aim to reach that state.

No Failure

I guess teachers and administrators in one school in Saskatchewan have not heard about the self-esteem study. Nutana C. I. which celebrated its centenary is about to embark on a new philosophy about achievement.

"Failure may no longer be an option at a Saskatchewan high school. To spare students' hurt feelings and damaged prospects, Nutana Collegiate in Saskatoon is considering no longer issuing failing grades starting at the end of January. Instead of grades below 50, students would receive "incomplete" or "no mark" on their report cards and transcripts ( How is this not a failure?) said Nutana principal Shirley Figley. If the school makes the change, which is still under discussion with the school division, parents and students, Ms. Figley believes it will be the first high school in the country to do away with failing grades on a school-wide basis. "Failing marks do not encourage student engagement with school," she said yesterday, pointing to the permanent scar on a student's transcript, as well as negative effects on motivation and self-esteem. ( There it is the self-esteem word.) Teachers are also demoralized when they hand out failing grades because many see it as indicative of their own efforts, Ms Figley said. " Just like doctors don't want patients to die, teacher don't want their students to fail." The death of a patient is beyond a patient and doctor control but failure is not necessarily beyond the control of the student.
This is staggering that the principal actually buys into to what she is saying.

Self-esteem vs. achievement

My career as an educator started in the late 1970's, the same time that the self-esteem movement emerged. I was very old school and believed that self-esteem would develop with real and measurable achievements. Every one is capable of achieving realistic goals which help create a real sense of self worth. Over the years, I encountered many students who had been praised for being. Because of past educational experiences, they did not believe that it was necessary to achieve anything, the mere fact that they had arrived at school was enough and they did not always have to be on time. These praise junkies could be very belligerent if criticized for lack of real achievement and accomplishment. A adjunct to the issue of self-esteem was the practise of project centred learning at the elementary level. Students would be praised for working well with others, cooperating- both good skills but there seemed to be a failure to asses the final product. Process is definitely important and students need to be taught how to create the final product and with out parental help but the final assessment should consider the product and also that is was actually completed with real and definable goals.

Friends who had just arrived from Europe did not understand the self-esteem movement when I discussed it with them. They believed self-esteem would come from achieving and producing real results.

Researcher, Ellen Greenberger, ( has found that most students at the university level who have been taught under the auspices of the self-esteem movement do not understand that actual achievement is the most important measure of what their marks should be not just attendance and that the mark is not just a reflection of effort.

It is surprising that this research has just been done. I guess that it has taken time for this movement to spread across the continent and for its impact to be felt at the post-secondary level. Hopefully, educators examine the impact of the self-esteem movement and will start expecting children and others to actually produce results, encourage them to enjoy the process of learning and achieving at what ever level they are capable of reaching, and have them realize that not every one's results are the same despite the same effort.

We are different and have different skill levels which can be modified with time and effort. 10,000 hours of practise of a skill are needed for a level of excellence at any skill; time and dedicated effort are needed.

Do Good

This week, the Toronto Star continues to focus on the aging population and the challenges, the aging population faces and the care givers who want to help them. An article this morning mentions a east Indian scholar who says that his reason for living is to do good each day.

Recently, a Venezuelan choral scholar and director and woman who does a great deal of good, Maria Guinand http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Guinandvisited Toronto to spread her gospel of music. Guinand brings hope to children living so far below the poverty line that they do not even show up in official stats. She does it with music and her foundation, Construir Cantando based in Caracas.

She set up a choir, the Schola Cantorum and many satellite groups in the slums and hinterlands of Venezuela, Columbia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Her belief is "We are here to push them to the highest of their possibilities artistically. Full stop."

Guinand and her organizations aren't just training future musicians and teachers but are helping to raise "human beings who are certain that they can reach places they thought that could never reach. Her choirs travel the world proving that even lives can be changed and not just the lives of the choiristers but whole communities.

I hope that she will be able to continue to illuminate the lives of her choristers for many years to come and to demonstrate that having high standards and goals is not a negative.

Planning

As I work my way through the documents that I need to file as executor and also as Power of Attorney which I am going to invoke in order to fill out the documents that I know that my friend's wife is not capable of understanding and filling out, I am amazed at how organized we should be in order to aid others. One of the booklets that I was given by the funeral home should actually be given to people when they pre-plan their funeral and to people when the prepare their will. Lawyers and homes should give them out or charge a small fee for them. The booklet outlines very clearly what information will be needed and how to insure that your wishes are carried out.
Sad to think about this but I guess since I just found out that another friend has terminal cancer and is going to discuss how many months she has left with her oncologist , I am thinking about this.
I am also thinking about making sure that life is lived to the fullest. There is a great deal to enjoy. I won't bore you with a list and each of us has our own list but we should make sure that we enjoy the time we have-complete your bucket list.

Quick Curried Chicken

In case, you were wondering about the main course for last night's dinner, I made one of our favourite a Quick Curried Chicken with fresh tomatoes and coriander. Best to make this when there are lovely fresh tomatoes but it is so aromatic that it is hard to resist any time of year. Love the Cardamom and cinnamon. .

Quick Curried Chicken with Fresh Tomatoes and Coriander

Ingredients:
2 tsp/10 mL Curry Powder, medium
1/4 tsp/ 1 mL each Ground Cinnamon and salt
1/4 tsp/1 mL Ground Cardamom (optional)
Pinch Ground Nutmeg
4 Skinless Boneless Chicken Breasts
Cooking Spray
1 tbsp/15 mL Fresh Minced Ginger
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
3 or 4 Plum Tomatoes, diced (about 2 cups/500 mL)
1/4 cup/50 mL Water
2 tbsp/30 mL Cilantro, chopped
1 tsp/5 mL Lemon Juice

Method:
1 Combine spices and pat into both sides of chicken. Spray and heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook chicken until golden brown, about 4 minutes per side reducing heat if necessary (it doesn't need to be completely cooked through). Remove to a plate.

2. Reduce heat to medium-low, add ginger and garlic and stir-fry for 30 seconds, adding a little water if sticking. Stir in tomatoes and 1/4 cup (50 mL) water, and simmer until tomatoes soften, about 5 minutes.

3. Return chicken and any juices to pan. Cook, uncovered, turning chicken in tomato mixture until chicken is no longer pink in the center and sauce is thickened, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir cilantro, lemon juice and salt to taste.

Serves 4
per serving/ calories 179/protein 31.4 g/ total fat 3.1 g/saturated fat 0.7g/carbohydrates 5.9 g
Ontario Chicken Lover Wing Magazine- Made July 16 2004

Happy cooking.

Harvest Grape Cake

We have a friend who loves Amaretto and sometimes we try to find recipes that includes Amaretto which means most of them are desserts, not a bad thing. Yesterday, we had a friend from France over for dinner before the concert that I performed in. I have been baking again now that it is cool-weather wise. Made one of our favourites: Harvest Grape Cake.

Harvest Grape Cake

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
5 tbs. sweet butter, melted
5 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
zest of 1 orange
2 tbs. Amaretto
1 tsp. baking powder
2 cups small wine grapes, stemmed and rinsed plus cup (pinot noir or cabernet)

Butter and flour a ten inch cake pan. Preheat oven to 375 F. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar to thick golden ribbons, 20 to 3 minutes. Add butter, olive oil and milk. Add flour, orange zest, Amaretto and baking powder and stir together (do not over mix). Stir in the grapes, breaking a third of them with forceful strokes, leaving most whole. Pour batter into prepared pan, place in oven and cook 40 to 50 minutes, until pierced toothpick exits clean. Cool, carefully turn out right side up. sprinkle with powdered sugar and with remaining grapes.

Mario Batali - Food Network

Enjoy this easy to bake cake.

Graduations

Yesterday, I was honoured to participate in a high school awards assembly and in the evening grade 12 graduation. During the awards assembly, it was my honour to present an award to the outstanding grade nine student from last year who was the best musician. The award has been named for me. It is an honour to be recognized while still a live. Usually, this happens when you are no longer able to enjoy the moment. I told my husband that he will have to attend when I am not longer able to be present.

A little while ago a fellow blogger and friend posted some information about high heels and their extremes. Well, we saw them in action at the actual graduation- one young girl fell- not hurt. She did not land on the bottom step properly and leather soles are very different from athletic shoes. Another young lady, landed on a step with the edge of her heel and it broke off, the presenter had to get the heel for her and help her down the rest of the stairs. One more young girl tripped by no serious problems.

I used to tell my students to practise walking in their shoes because they would feel different and they are not so easy to walk in and proved by many models who fall on runways. Non of the staff fell, we are more cautious although I did notice some of the young women had very high narrow heels. I think that they probably changed their shoes as soon as possible. I can not imagine spending all day in them.

Looking forward to next year's graduation and seeing many students who I first taught in grade 9 go across the stage.

Memories of cooking

Found a course that would suit me: " Stories from Your Kitchen". This weekend, there will be a workshop which combines recipes and writing. The recipes are a launching point for memories and I would agree that certain foods take me back to the kitchen of my youth. Weekends baking cakes, my mother made a cake every weekend and no mixes for her and most of the time no recipes- she just knew what was needed by sight, touch and texture. It was amazing and helped make me a good baker. I know when more liquid or dry ingredients are needed by sight, touch and texture. Also, we did not use any electric mixers-you can develop very strong arms baking without today's appliances. I miss her strudels, Christmas baking which would start in November and take a couple Saturdays to complete because she made a wonderful variety. It was necessary to hide the cookies or we would well before Christmas.
Picnics or visits to the a beach which she loved included chicken schnitzel and potato salad and the cake of course.
I don't think that I need the course to get me started but it is interesting to reflect about the memories that emerge.

Tango for exercise

Now that we are all watching Dancing with the Stars (sad that Cloris Leachman was eliminated-but I was not watching or voting so I did not help her), and You Say you can Dance and other similar shows- I have lost track), the Tango is becoming a craze for seniors who would like to regain lost balance.
Lack of balance is a problem for seniors and some of them are turning to Tango lessons for help. After reading an article in yesterday's National Post, it seems that taking Tango lessons is much more fun than regular exercise which is just as beneficial. Women attending the tango lessons replaced their sweats and sensible shoes with dresses, jewellery and heels. That counts me out. I gave up heels many years ago when I first started working and found that I preferred comfortable shoes to aching feet after a day of standing.
Many years ago, I tried dancerize for exercise when it first came out and found out that it really was not for me. I could not figure out the routines quickly enough. Hi or low impact fitness classes are my speed. When this warm weather ends and I can not get out everyday for some tennis- yes you read correctly, still playing tennis outdoors, I will head back to the gym. A group of us are making sure that we enjoy everyday in the fine weather that we are experiencing.
Guess the message from the article is that you can Tango or walk or as Nike says Just do it but make sure that you keep moving so that you don't loose your balance and fall.

History

Another lifetime ago, I studied history and yesterday history was made! There were comments last night that we will all remember where we were when we found out that yes we can- people can create a movement. We know this from the past and other grass roots movements but there were people who worried that the Bradley Effect might take place or that the polls were not accurate and that McCain who was Bush's man might actually win.

I must say that McCain was gracious in defeat, a wonderful example of how to acknowledge your opponent's achievement graciously and to move on. McCain has given much to his country even if I do not always agree with all his principles but he does have principles.

There was a striking contrast in the crowds that gathered for McCain and for Obama. Obama as he acknowledged in his speech, ( yes I stayed up that late!) has many challenges ahead of him. His transition team will hit the ground running today. I do not envy him and the others the work ahead of them. I think that Obama is hoping to establish some kind of Peace Core and also national core- I do not remember what the organization that works within the United States boundaries trying to help U. S. citizens is, I am sure that it will experience a revival.

We are going to experience interesting times and have a window on history.

Fast Food Slows Down

Have you ever wondered what would happen to a MacDonald's hamburger is you just left it on a shelf? Karen Hanrahan did just that. She bought a a hamburger at a Chicago area McDonald's in 1996. Consumer awareness of environmental issues and organic foods have grown at the cost of fast food's esteem. Meanwhile, the number of Internet users has expanded exponentially. what has not changed much over the past dozen years is Hanrahan's hamburger.
Recently, Hanrahan posted her favourite prop for her nutrition lectures, the hamburger from 1996 on www.bestwellnessconsultant.com.
When she bought the hamburger, she took it home and put it on a plate without the bun and then stored it in her cupboard. Later she transferred the hamburger to a plastic sandwich box. She has done nothing to preserve the hamburger! She uses the hamburger in her presentations to prove that McDonalds is serving food that has no nutrition. Mcdonald's is not amused.
Wonder how long it will take for some scientists to discover her website and decide to study the hamburger. (Maybe McDonald's will consider doing the study.) I am not a fan of McDonalds anymore which does not mean that I don't crave a quarter pounder once in a while but I also realize that the many calories that it offers are not good for my figure or health. Like to spread my calorie intact out over the day and stop my hips from spreading more than they are. However, McDonalds is serving food with too many calories! Those are not the only issues that I have with McDonalds but that is another entry.
Hanrahan is a Shaklee product sales person-personally, I question the use of vitamins that are not in food. We should attempt to eat foods that provide our dietary needs and if possible not use vitamin supplements.
Some food for thought!

Crickets for lunch?

I love to try new foods and will try most things once but having tried blue cheese- sorry never again. I also have quite a collection of recipes and cookbooks but one that I do not plan to add to she shelf is The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook http://www.olympus.net/dggordon/EatABug.htmby Seattle entomologist David George Gordon who believes that omnivores should open their minds to what Gordon euphemistically calls "charismatic micro fauna". Occasionally, David George teams up with chef Meeru Dhalwala to cook and preach the Eat-a-bug gospel, most recently at the Vancouver bookstore Barbara-Jo's Books to Cooks. (Wonder if my friend Krista attended?)
"We have an real inordinate distaste for insects," Gorden says of North American consumers. Bugs, he points out are packed with protein, amino acids and vitamins. And while it takes 100 pounds of grain to produce 16 pounds of steak, the same amount of grain will produce 50 pounds of crickets. In terms of environmental impact, "Eating a bug is the equivalent of riding a bicycle," Dhalwala says, paraphrasing an article from The New York Times, "Eating beef is the equivalent of driving a big SUV?"
Wonder how many of us will be convinced to eat a beetle for the environment?
November is prime time for grasshoppers, katydids, saturniid moth pupae, termites, ants cockroaches, scorpions, meal worms wax moth larvae, sow bugs and by crickets! Yum! You don't have to hunt the bugs- there are companies that raise them commercially: Grubco; Waxworms Inc; Hatari Invertebrates and Hot Lix. Have to watch for the IPO for these companies, their time will come.

Want to live longer?

Want to know what research has revelled is the secret to a long life? Good old fashioned hard work. "I was right- hard work never killed anyone!' According to a study published in the September issue of Health Psychology and conducted by Howard Friedman and Margaret Kern at the University of California at Riverside, highly conscientious individuals live an average of two to four years longer than their sedentary, unmotivated counterparts. Top achievers, such as Olympic athletes, corporate executives and world leaders, have the highest life expectancy, followed by the well-organized and reliable.
Why are conscientious people living longer? Because they make better choices in most areas of their life-from better health habit to less risk taking. Conscientious individuals are less likely to smoke or drink to excess; they're the type to insist on a helmet( yes, I have a yellow one) and avoid swimming with sharks.
Not only do they have healthier habits but they also gravitate toward healthier psychological environments and therefore tend to have more stable jobs, more stable marriages and the kinds of social relationships that are known to protect health and promote longevity.
Being a Type A personality is not bad. Those who tend to live longer are people who are able to take control of their lives and accomplish the things they want, are motivated, and can form stable relationships in doing that- it doesn't really matter who much work they have.
Have to get back to work.