Accessible Gardening: #5 - still laughing with joy

Why isn't there a Loch Lomond monster? Lomond and Lamont are derivatives of each other--in Scotland it's pronounced LAMBunt whereas we pronounce it laMONT. So we have our own tartan and everything, our own song (The Campbells Are Coming, hurrah, hurrah, and they routed us out of Scotland), our own Loch (Bonnie Loch Lomond, hurrah, hurrah), why can't we have our own monster? Equal rights for Scots, at least for people with a drop of Scottish blood and a good story!

Thank you, Kay, and I would rather have had my pancakes DRY! But mostly because I can't partake of diet stuff--whatever they put in it makes me sick to my stomach.

Here's my story: when I was a kid we went to this very nice dentist, and nothing hurt that much, I don't know how he did it, but i don't remember dentist visits as being painful (and I DID have a lot of cavities).

The only horrible thing about going to the dentist was at the end they would paint your teeth with this DISGUSTING fluoride stuff in some nauseating flavor, and you couldn't eat or drink for 30 min. or something and I would be SO sick to my stomach, not actually vomiting but queasy. So I always figured it was something to do with fluoride (which makes no sense when I think about it now because I drink fluoridated water without any problem, this was just a visceral I HATE FLUORIDE kinda thing).

Always when I had my teeth cleaned, even as an adult (which was not frequent), if they did the fluoride it was the sweet artificially flavored crap and I would get sick afterward .FINALLY as a gift one year, my mother sent me to her dentist. At the end when they were going to paint the fluoride on I said "here we go; this always makes me sick. What flavor is it, strawberry banana?" And they said it wasn't flavored or sweetened at all and some people found it a little tart, or salty, or something. So I prepared for that awful seasick feeling and I felt FINE. It just tasted neutral, like ... not like anything. Like egg white, or iceberg lettuce, the way they lacks a strong flavor, not like something I needed to get out of my body ASAP!

And I can't drink diet soda or anything like that either, so I figure that all those years ago i was reacting to the SACCHARINE, not the fluoride!!! The only artificial sweetener I can stand to date is stevia - the plant, not the product. I eat very little sugar as it is, so I'm not too worried. But why saccharine AND aspartame AND whatever else they'll invent next, I don't know.

Carrie, EVERYONE should have their own monster! It is like having a signature fragrance or color. Do you know what the Lamont monster looks like?
The Irish have St. Patrick’s Day. Scots should demand equal rights. I think we should have a St. Angus’s Day or something. We would have to create an appropriate mythology for St. Angus that could compete with St. Patty. Do you think it could have been St. Angus who drove all the rabid kangaroos out of Scotland? That sounds like something St. Angus would do. Obviously, he was just as successful at evicting those mad kangaroos, as Patty was getting those snakes out of Ireland.
I can already imagine it. On St. Angus Day people will wear depictions of the Scottish thistle (or the real thing, if they are hard-core.) No one will have to worry how many leaves it has and I think it has far more character than that old shamrock. We will let everyone be of Scottish descent on St. Angus Day, just the way everyone has a little Irish blood on March 17th. They will have to wear plaid to avoid being pinched. PJ says February 30th sounds like the perfect date. I was thinking April 1st. Mama Kay says a holiday abbreviated SAD should logically come in the dark days of winter.
I dragged out the sewing machine and have started making plush toys from scrap material which is how my mind turned to monsters. I’m trying to come up with inexpensive Valentine’s Day gifts for little boys in the gruesome stage. I’m told they must be “good monsters” that are cool looking enough to share your bed with, but scary enough to keep away the “bad monsters” that live in the closet and under the bed. ~Nadine~

Nadene, Why not a good ole Scottish monster dragon? Made of plaid of course. No, plaid is too hard to match up. So just a little plaid patch somewhere.
Well of course Jim would say Feb.30th. LOL
Now what day could the French claim. St Joan of Arc day? or Bastelle day?

Dragon wearing a kilt?

Fer shure.

My ex-husband used to tell a joke about a fellow who was half-Scot and half-Irish, The Irish half wanted a drink but the Scots half wouldn't pay for it. Ha. Ha.

Double duh-h-h, I should have researched it first! There REALLY is a St. Angus! I thought I was making him up. Angus
was simply the most Scottish name I could think of. That will teach me! St. Angus MacNisse feast day is Sept. 3rd and, according to legend, he was baptized by St. Patrick. That would definitely not work for our purposes. If we are going for the real deal, St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. His feast day is Nov. 30. We will just have to get people, other than devout Catholics, to celebrate St. Andres's Day. I wonder how St. Patrick's Day went from one of many saint's feast days, remembered only by devout Irish Catholics, to a nationally recognized celebration of American Irishness?
Vickie, can I be French on St. Joan's Day? (Officially, May 30, BTW) That is the one saint I actually do know something about. I even read a time-travel story not too long ago about a feminist who went back through time to save Joan. She didn't succeed, but the villains got what was coming to them. It was a good story.
~Nadine~

Och aye, St. Andrew!

I had written a long reply but it got deleted somewhere along the way. Oh well on to better things.
I came across a 1991 Readers Digest. Came cross some goodies. Here's one for Debra.
Regional Wisdom

On a visit to East Texas, I planned a day of fishing on Lake Livingston and stopped at a weather worn bait shop. A lanky, white bearded Texan clad in denims and cowboy hat waited on me. As he was getting the 50 cents worth of worms i'd ordered,I began to worry I might not have enough bait. "How many worms do i get for 50 cents?" I asked.
I'll do right by you, son. He drawled. Lifes too short to be counting worms.-by J Rutledge

LOL life is DEFINITELY too short to be counting worms!

Come to think of it, Counting worms in a fishing factory might be a good job if you could get it. LOL

Happy late Valentines or Singles Awareness Day everybody

Hope all had a good day. Walmart did. I went to get some yarn after the doctors visit.It took 30 minutes to get 1/2 mile from the parking lot.
53 years ago today DH and i were married at Fort Devens Mass. Guess i miss him today.

Vickie, of course you are going to miss him. Something wrong if you didn't. :-) Here is an anniversary flower for you. Struggled and drooped through all the snow, ice, and below freezing temperatures. But perked right back up with just a little sunshine.

Debra

Love that little pansy. She's a tough little booger. Got to be a moral to that picture somewhere.

Happy Anniversary, Vickie! Happy Singles Awareness Day, Nadine! I just wanted to mention that in yesterday's article (by moi) I mentioned katie and Jim (by DG name) and I realize I should have asked first. I'm sorry; I hope nobody minded.

I've passed my annual (some years) physical, a gyn exam and a Medicaid reevaluation to see if I still need PCAs all with flying colors. DH did not die at his stress test but his PCP told him to lose 70 lbs! 70 lbs lighter he'd be a skeleton! He said I haven't been that weight since I was eleven years old... Oh well. It's a long hard road/row to hoe.

I've had the flu so I missed it but it's ok, if I'm the katie you meant.

kb

Carrie, I have the opposite problem. You did'nt mention ME.
I'm the brillent young savy granny goon.LOL
Congrats on the good report. the American Health Care is on a lose weight fad right now as if it will cure all ills. The next 10 years will probably be a you gotta gain weight fad. Eat your veggies and don't worry about it.LOL
Katie, The flue bug is in Okla right now and i hope it stays there. Drink your orange juice and don't get a secondary infection.
Vickie

No problem here, Carrie. It was a fun read. I especially liked the dogwood pictures.
Temps are in the mid-70's here during the day. Kay has been sowing furiously. I swear, if she keeps planting at this rate. we are going to have enough vegetables to supply the county. I mean I can understand the carrots and spinach and sweet peas. We can freeze and can the extra, but what are we going to do with all the lettuce she is planting? Feed an army of rabbits?
Sometimes I think a person's age is the number doctors really base their weight recommendations on. Kay complains when the doctor gives her a hard time about a few extra pounds, but doesn't say anything to Nadi or I about our weight. (Jim)

LOL Jim. It had better be a skinny doctor that mentions my weight.How many skinny doctors do you know? ROFLO
Kay plans on everyone eating a lot of salads this year. I love raw sweet peas.

I foresee lots and lots of BLTs.
My GP is a reasonable (and well-padded) man, but the bone and joint specialist came out of sports medicine. Gr-r-r-r!
Yes, I'm sure the stress on my knees would not be so great if I weighed 145 lbs. That would make me a size 6. Look in any clothes catalog for tall women and see how many things you see in a size 6. There is a good reason for that. A 6' woman wearing a size 6 is not a pleasant sight. Been there. Done that.
Kay*

My eldest DD is a size 11 and an alcoholic and too thin. A size 6 must be very thin.
Kay, Tell your "sports" doctor
You have dreams of being a linebacker.LOL The Granny Goons could use a linebacker or two or three.
Having said that, At 70 i'm not going to worry about my weight. I take medical advice with a grain of salt at this age also.
Glad you took a break from planting.

DH's new MD is a tall thin masculine woman! But he really is unhealthy, he has heart pain and NEVER eats vegetables or fish and has swollen feet every night and has arthritis in every single joint so right there, losing some weight would make his life less painful. His blood work wasn't great either.


I heard Marilyn Monroe was a size 14!

And let's not forget Mae West. :-)

Yeah! Thin was not the in thing untill The model "Twiggy"
(an apt name) came along.
I was a size 12 and that was considered normal.
LOL Carrie, Does your DH come from the south? Your description sounds Southern man to me. No Jim, you don,t count. You're from Penn. Wonder if meat eating is a survival thing. If man loved only veggies they never would have hunted. LOL

Yeah, Mae West!!! When PJ was hunting for interesting quotes, the ones that made me laugh were from Mae West.
I would be thrilled to be a size 12. The women in classic statuary and those
painted by the Dutch master certainly weren't thin. My BF calls me "Rubenesque." lol. He does have his moments, but I'm not interested in getting married at this point in my life.
Carrie, did your DH get the pain meds he needed? It can be rough when everyone in the house is in pain. ~Nadine~

Yes, but they knock him out so he sleeps all the time. ;( He needs a smaller dose but they're closed today.

I read an interesting article once about how the history of art's idea of woman's beauty corresponds to anthropology - I don't know if that's what it is - but anyway this theory was that to begin with, the big question was whether a woman was fertile and would be able to conceive, for which she just needed to be healthy and of normal weight. Next she needed to be able to carry a pregnancy, so say in the Middle Ages, the stomach was more emphasized. Finally more live births were occurring, so people became more interested in breasts, indicating an ability to suckle the kid once it survives being born. So art then focuses on breasts. I think Ruben's women ALL look terribly fertile, say compared with some of the earlier ladies. Some even propose that after fertility and infant survival are taken care of, people preferred women with slimmer hips indicating that they could earn a living, but I think that last part is a little far fetched.

hmmmmm, Thats something to think about for awhile. Wonder if i could google it. China is overcrowded and has a limit of one child per couple. Supposedly.

I sure hope the Chinese have also started programs impressing the value of women along with that one child per couple thing. In a culture where having a son has always been much more prestigeous, I'm afraid things could be unpleasant for a girl child when a father has no possibility of a son to follow.
I think the change in what we consider a beautiful form has had to do with status too. In times when an abundance of food was not a sure thing, looking well fed was a mark of wealth. Now, when food is abundant and readily available to almost everyone, being plump is no longer a mark of high social status. Healthy, good-tasting, low-fat food is expensive so now being able to afford that food is the mark of status. Food that allows someone to survive is cheap. Food that keeps you fit and healthy isn't. ~Nadine~

Vickie, that's true about one child per couple in China - it's been true for a generation. And the amazing Carrie Lamont predicted this and it's come true: often if a Chinese couple was limited to one child they wanted it to be a boy, to the point where selective abortion and infanticide were not at all uncommon. So the generation that is now wanting to marry is like 80% boys/young men, 20% girls/young women. All of a sudden it's flipped again, GIRLS are at a premium. (I predicted the part that if they killed all the baby girls, they would miss them at some point!)

Vickie, THANK YOU for what you said on that horrible thread! What I want to know is, that one person who said I proved my ignorance once again - when was the other time?

I missed the article, Carrie. Can you send the link?

Ummm you don't want to read it, really Debra. It's not one of my finer concoctions; the only things that are good are the pictures.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/3118/

I tried so hard to be non-controversial that everyone was offended.

Carrie, I think lots of people have cabin fever from being indoors from all the storms. I liked the article. Have you read Michael Chriton's book "State of Fear"?

Guess I'm just too tired to get torqued about the subject. Or much of anything else.

hugs, katie

So what's wrong with the article? It asks fair questions, presents multiple theories and ideas, and is not arrogant or presumptuous. What in the world would offend ANYONE? Sheesh, people are dumb. :-)

Katie, glad you chimed in. We've missed you.

I've had the flu for about ten days. No fun at all.

kb

People got offended. People thought I should have used my bully pulpit to explain why everything is the way it is/isn't. I wasn't trying to explain the meaning of Life, for crying out loud. Just I've actually heard people say outloud "see, it's snowing again. Obviously global warming is Leftist propaganda." So I was trying to explain how they were not mutually exclusive. At least I got a lot of clicks!

LOL, loved your post, Vickie.
Carrie, the article gave a simple, understandable hypothesis to a simple question everyone and his brother is asking. Something that was needed. No one KNOWS exactly what is happening or why or how it will all turn out. Some people just can't emotionally handle the not knowing, not being in control thing. They need to BELIEVE they know exactly what is happening and BELIEVE that assumed knowledge will give them control. The unknowns of climate change scare people and a precentage of such people will lash out when they are afraid. But, remember how Vickie and Kay were talking about how if they could understand the why of things it helps them cope. Most people are like that. You helped more people grasp what is happening and they had a few smiles while their minds were being opened. There are those who only feel safe when their minds are tightly closed. You did a good job with a tough subject under a lot of editorial constraints. Way to go! (Jim)

Thanks, Jim! (Big grin!) Now I feel like a million bucks!

Thanks Jim, Kay and i realize that there are somethings no one can understand. But think about it, How terrible it would be to know everything and know there is nothing left to learn. Horrors!!!