Thanksgiving Survey 2023 - Wheel - Responses

The subtitle for this survey should probably be "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles".  This year there were a vast multitude of responses from many family members.

Survey Question 1.

What is a type of wheel, or a specific wheel, for which you are thankful?

 Family responses:

A.  steering wheel

B. Wheeling, West Virginia.  Per wikipedia, the name comes from the Lenni-Lenape phrase 'wih link', which meant "place of the head". This name refers to a white settler who was scalped, decapitated, and his severed head put on display.

C. The wheels on my suitcase

D. The Wheel of Time, which I have enjoyed talking about with my spouse because it is their favorite fantasy series. 

E. I am quite thankful for the little hamster wheels inside my computer – I don’t know of any other way my computer would possibly work!

F.  The Wheel of Time book series. It will always be one of my favorites and my partner just finished the series recently. So now we can share in it together.

G.  I am thankful for wheels of cheese because they are large and delicious.

H.I am thankful for the two wheels I had on Mariah, who was the Raleigh bike I rode through Europe in 1953.  I never had a flat tire.

I. The cam in a ballpoint pen.

J. The bicycle wheels on my Christmas present.

K.  My Cheerios.

L.   I am grateful for the roller wheels inside the DS200 machine. which pull the voter’s ballot in so it can be scanned and counted.

M.  I am most thankful for the pottery wheel

N. The wheels on the bus. (Great kids song)

O.  Color wheel

P.  I am thankful for my car tires. I am able to get to work to provide for my family as well as go to fun places where we make great memories. 

Bus at American Visionary Art Museum
in Baltimore, MD

Survey Question 2.

What is the earliest wheel that you can think of?

I purposefully left the question vague - some answered about the earliest wheel in their own life, and others attempted to answer about the earliest wheel in history, or in the universe. Some of these things are not actually wheels, in my opinion.

 Family responses:

A.  bacterial flagellum

B.  The spiral wheel of the Milky Way.  It formed not long after the universe formed,

about 13 billion years ago -- even older than Wheeling West Virginia, which formed

in 1793.  Wheeling West Virginia rotates around the Milky Way

every 212 million years.

C. The "Wheels on the Big Rig" song we would listen to as kids

D. I'm feeling like the Sumerians made giant stone wheels, but I wasn't there.

E. The earliest wheel I can think of is the First Wheel. I can easily imagine that

some wheel was the first one, and if I can think about that wheel, then it’s

automatically the answer!

F. The solar system, everything spins around the center point, our sun.

G. The wheel of time represented by the circular Mayan Calendar

H. I think I have some perception of the wheels on the baby carriage that my

sister and I rode in.  They were big wheels.  The carriage was in the attic until

we sold it to an antique store.

I. Ea-nāṣir's copper wheeling and dealing.

J. The car wheel

K.  My Cheerios.

L.  Obviously, the earliest wheels in history were the ones on Fred Flintstone’s car.

M. The earliest wheel I can think of is an animal with radial symmetry- such as

jellyfish and other cnidarians- just spinning really fast 

N.  Chariot wheels.  ( in Prince of Egypt… a must see)

O.  Toy car

P.  The earliest wheel I can think of is a wooden wheel that was used a zillion

years ago. I’m not great with history 😂

Thanksgiving Survey 2023: Wheel

This is the flat tire on my car
on Election Day 2017.
I was thankful when it was fixed.

Just what you all have been waiting for - the Common Household time-honored tradition of the Thanksgiving Survey!  Because another poll is what we all need.  This one is the twelfteenth survey (but the eleventeenth one that I have published on this blog).  Thanks to Rabbi E.M. whose Kol Nidre sermon provided inspiration for this year's theme.

Thanksgiving survey:  

WHEEL

1. What is a type of wheel, or a specific wheel, for which you are thankful?

2.  What is the earliest wheel that you can think of?

Please participate by giving your answers in the comments.  Happy Thanksgiving Preparation Week!

Ferris Wheel within miniature railroad

First Lines: October 2023 edition

Below are the first lines of the 6 books I finished reading in October.   This month started with two  books with very difficult topics, followed by children's lit and a light romance.  It’s a heavy time.

Two of this month's books took place in medieval times.  When I searched my photos for “medieval” this is what came up:

 

Hogwarts at Universal Studios, Florida.
yours truly as a band chaperone

A gun sense rally outside a church in Pittsburgh.
The building looks plenty medieval but it dates
to 1902 and the congregation began in 1836.

Without further ado, the first lines:

 

Book 1

Chapter 1: The Cabin

My daughter learned to walk in a homeless shelter.

 

 

Book 2

Almost everyone in Utah county has heard of the Lafferty boys.  That’s mostly a function of the lurid murders, of course, but the Lafferty surname had a certain prominence in the county even before Brenda and Erica Lafferty were killed.

 

 

Book 3

Robin drew the coverlet close about his head and turned his face to the wall. He covered his ears and shut his eyes, for the sound of the bells was deafening.

 

 

Book 4

This is for the unforgettable.

The swift and sweet ones

Who hurdled history

And opened a world

Of possible.

 

The ones who survived

America

by any means necessary.

Book 5

“You’re free!”

“That’s one way of looking at it.”

“Oh, come on,” said Hannah.  “You were buried alive in that place.  How long’s it been?  Ten years?”

 

 

Book 6

The Dung Heap

When animal droppings and garbage and spoiled straw are piled up in a great heap, the rotting and moiling give forth heat.

 

 

Did not finish 

World of oil

If history is seen as a sequence of progressively more remarkable energy conversions then oil, or more accurately a range of liquids produced from it, has earned an incomparable place in human evolution.

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

Stephanie Land.  288 pages.  Published 2019.

Difficult topic; eye opening.   This book has been made into a TV series, which I haven’t seen but my husband has.  Based on our comparisons, it seems to me that the TV series vastly exaggerates the conditions described in the book.  Those conditions are bad enough and don’t need exaggeration to be horrifying.  I think everyone at book club  appreciated the chance to read this book.

 

Book 2

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, by Jon Krakauer 

432 pages. Published 2003.

A violent and disturbing non-fiction account of men who engage in abuse, rape, incest, and misogynist treatment of women and girls, using their religion to justify their detestable, evil  behavior.  I read it for the other book club, to be discussed later in November.

 

 

Book 3

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli. 120 pages.

Newbery Medal winner in 1950

This book is about a boy in the Middle Ages who becomes incapacitated after an illness – he can’t walk.  He was supposed to be a gallant knight but now that path is not open to him anymore.  With the help of a kind monk and some other folks, he manages to help save the castle and the village.  It’s a fine story, but seemed a little scant to be a Newbery winner.  It was the right book for me this month.

 

Book 4

The Undefeated, by Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson (illustrator). Caldecott Medal book.  23 pages.  Published 2019.

I had thought that this was a Newbery Medal book, but instead it was a picture book.  A good one, though.

 

Book 5

The Littlest Library, by Poppy Alexander.  323 pages. first pub 2021.

Light, romantic, cozy lit.  A bit repetitive, as most books in this genre are, but I enjoyed it. I had need of this book, after reading Maid and Under the Banner of Heaven – brutal descriptions of life – and needing to deflect pre-election woes.  The book contains some drinking of hot tea, quite a lot of alcoholic drinking, the presence of bats and cats.  The plot totally overinflates the influence of a little free library, but, hey, an author can dream.

 

Book 6

The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman.  Newbery Medal winner in 1996.   128 pages. 

Yet another Y.A. story set in the Middle Ages in England, this time about a pre-teen girl called Brat who has no family, no home, and no purpose in life.  She finds a new name and makes a purpose for herself.   Recommend.  (Just a note - contains plenty of birthing scenes, which might not be for everybody.)

 

Did not finish 

Oil: a Beginner’s Guide, by Vaclav Smil.  224 pages Published 2010.  Second edition

I made it to page 125.  Good general description of the plusses and minuses of fossil fuels, how they affect the earth and the economy.  That was Chapter 1.  But in Chapter 2,  I couldn’t make it through all the alkanes and alkenes, anticlines and diapirs.  I want to better understand how renewable diesel is made and how it works, but I now doubt my ability to grasp such things.  Maybe after I’m done thinking about and working on elections.  Which, given the current state of things, will be never.

First Lines: September 2023 edition

  

Art at our local library - 
a book tree!

Below are the first lines of the books I finished reading in September.  Includes one memoir, one Y.A. lit, one Bible book, two history books, one mystery, and one dystopian novel.

 

Book 1

“Work hard, kid, and you will be rewarded with a piece of the American Dream.” 

- Every suburban dad born between 1939 and 1963.

It came from a good place.  They wanted you to follow the path that had worked for them – the path that got them the home and the midsize sedan and the patch of lawn they’d constantly bitch about having to maintain. 

 

Book 2

Case 1: Till Death Us Do Part

Saturday, June 6, 1812

We were to meet him at midnight in the Dark Walk.  It was not an ideal arrangement: two unaccompanied women confronting a blackmailer in the most ill-lit, deserted part of Vauxhall Gardens.

 

 

Book 3

Grand Failure

Eleven-year-old Virgil Salinas already regretted the rest of middle school, and he’d only just finished sixth grade.

 

 

Book 4

The beginnings of this story lie far back in time, and its reverberations still sound today.

 

Book 5

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,  ….

 

 

Book 6

One morning Anders, a white man, woke up to find he had turned a deep and undeniable brown.

 

Book 7

Chapter 1: The Gas Man

If you want to get to the beginning of the shale revolution, pick up Interstate 35E out of Dallas and head north forty miles and then take the turnoff for the tiny town of Ponder.  Pass the feed store, the white water tower, the sign for the Cowboy Church, and the donut store that’s closed down.

 

Did not finish 

Understanding the Contours of Africa’s Past

The stories of entire continents cannot adequately be told in single-volume histories.

Altered Book
by artist Chris Fondi, August 2019

The titles and authors revealed:

 

Book 1

American Grunt: Ridiculous Stories of a Life Lived at $8.00 an Hour, by Kevin Cramer.

Local author!  354 pages. Published 2023.  

This book is funny and poignant all at the same time.  This fascinating memoir gives us a first-person look at what it is like to work at certain jobs, and especially reminds us to be very kind to the person who cleans out our rental cars.  Or who clean out anything.  Plenty of cuss language but it is all warranted and effective.  I recommend this book, especially if you have lived in SWPA.

 

 

Book 2

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (The Ill-Mannered Ladies #1), by Alison Goodman.  464 pages. Published 2023.

This book is essentially Woke Jane Austen.  Interesting characters, clever and unlikely plot twists.  I enjoyed it.  I have yet to find the existence of Book #2 in the supposed series.

 

Book 3

Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly with Isabel Roxas (Illustrator)  320 pages.  Published 2017.  Y.A. lit.  Winner of the Newbery Medal.

Quirky but lovable characters, except for the bully, who does not get his comeuppance, which makes the ending slightly unsatisfying, but more realistic.  Includes some scenes which were truly scary to me.

 

Book 4

King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild.  376 pages (text thru page 323; the rest is end notes). Published 1998.  With an intro by Barbara Kingsolver (which I did not read).

I feel that this is a book that a certain governor-running-for-president would not want people to read.  This book is not for the squeamish, but delves into an important part of history.  There is one part where the King of Belgium carries out exactly the same public relations move done by one Atty General William P. Barr, getting in front of a potentially damaging government report.  This is a well-written book on a disturbing topic.

 

 

Book 5

Letter to the Romans, by Paul.  Yes, that Paul.   20 pages.   First published about 58 CE.

I did a speed reading of this difficult biblical text.  There’s a fair amount of contradictory stuff in this letter.  You are saved by God’s grace, not by your acts, but also Do good acts so God doesn't punish you.  One very touching part is the mention of a whole bunch of women, presumably leaders in the early groups of Christians, at the end of the book.  What impressed me most was how little snippets of the book were extremely familiar, as this book is often quoted in short spurts, but most people, including me, have little understanding of the context for those snippets.

 

Book 6

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid.  180 pages.  Published 2022.

This short book presents an interesting dystopian scenario. The opening is reminiscent of Kafka’s Metamorphosis.  The writing style, mostly lengthy sentences that wander all over the place, conveys uncertainty, which may have been the best for the subject matter (but I am not certain!).  I kept thinking that the scenario was meant to be a stand in for the pandemic, decided against it, only to revert to my original thought.  Its main concern is racism, but I feel it just stayed on the surface of that complicated societal ill.  In short, an unsettling book. 

RE the writing style:  The first sentence (above) is probably the shortest sentence in this book.  The second sentence is:

This dawned upon him gradually, and then suddenly, first as a sense as he reached for his phone that the early light was doing something strange to the color of his forearm, subsequently, and with a start, as a momentary conviction that there was somebody else in bed with him, male, darker, but this, terrifying though it was, was surely impossible, and he was reassured that the other moved as he moved, was in fact not a person, not a separate person, but was just him, Anders, causing a wave of relief, for if the idea that someone else was there was only imagined, then of course the notion that he had changed color was a trick too, an optical illusion, or a mental artifact, born in the slippery halfway place between dreams and wakefulness, except that by now he had his phone in his hands and he had reversed the camera, and he saw that the face looking back at him was not his at all.

Book 7

The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations by Daniel Yergin.  512 pages, but not all of that is text.  Published 2020.

I read this because I wanted an overview of the energy market, including the onset of fracking.  This is a good overview, although I found the author too dismissive of Native American needs and wants.  He gave a flippant treatment of the protest at Standing Rock against the oil pipeline.  The book did not include anything about renewable biodiesel, which I want to understand better.

 

Did not finish 

A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present (Second Edition, published 2012) by Richard J. Reid.  448 pages.  The first edition was published in 2009.  

The first lines of this book counseled me not to read this very book!  So I didn’t.  I wanted to learn more about Africa.  This book probably would have partially met my need, but I chose to finish reading King Leopold’s Ghost instead, going for depth instead of breadth.  This book was not available for kindle, so I would have been required to read it on my tablet - another thing that helped me decide not to read it.  I might come back to this one.