Priceless Moment

We went to the Winter Market this morning, and saw a group of people out front holding signs reading FREE HUGS. Naturally, we took them up on it, and were happy to accept their cards, inviting us to join them at Northwest Hills Community Church for their young couples' ministry (nice of them to invite us, in spite of not being in their target demographic :-).

By the time we left, John had rubbed all of their shoulders, and we had bought them a plate of crepes from the crepeurs who were selling them by the door.

We talked with the huggers briefly about Ernest Mann's "Priceless Economic System", which proposes that people give away as much of what they produce as they can give or can bring themselves to give -- we're totally in favor of a revolution, especially one that does not involve shooting people, taking over the government or even organizing a movement.

Mystery Meat: The Mystery Deepens

I have bad news, and possibly-less-bad news, about domestic American meat products.

And the bad news comes with bad news and worse news.

The bad news: fast food retailers are extending their regular ground beef, with all its attendant horrors, with a product known cheerfully within the trade as "pink slime": beef leavings mixed with ammonia in the hope that this will kill the bacteria that swarm in it, as well as the bacteria already present in ordinary ground beef.

The worse news within the bad news: purchasers complained about the latrine stench of pink slime, so the manufacturers reduced the quantity of ammonia, thereby reducing the (possible) bacteria-killing effect.

But despair not, there is some hope for your meat habit: there has been recent progress in culture-growing animal muscle tissue. True, it's squashy and low in protein, but no animals suffered in growing and harvesting it, and it will be a lot cleaner than meat from a slaughterhouse (provided the vats the cultures grow in are kept sanitary, and surely that will be the case).

We still aren't vegetarians in this house, but news like this isn't helping.

Besides, we know where this sort of thing can lead.

Airborne Terrorism: The Shocking Truth About YOUR Chances of Becoming a Victim

http://gizmodo.com/5435954/the-true-odds-of-airborne-terror-chart

Contact Light 2009

[If all goes well, a slightly different version of this newsletter will accompany our year-end cards]

Contact Light 2009
A Blackberry House Production by John M. Burt, 960 SW Jefferson Avenue, Corvallis, Oregon 97333 USA
john_m_burt@hotmail.com // katheburt@hotmail.com // burtfamily@live.com // john_m_burt.blogspot.com // thesweater.blogspot.com // johnandkathe.blogspot.com //

It's been a pretty good year, over-all. We're living together and having fun, in a variety of ways. Kathe continues to work as a process server. John continues to work as a caregiver and massage therapist, and hopes soon to be working as a phlebotomist (that's the person who draws your blood when the doctor sends you to the lab for a test). He took the course and passed with outstanding grades, but hasn't yet landed a job. We are continuing to work on one of our long-term project, the Coffee Shack Book, a task which is made easier by Kathe's job, which allows scouting the entire mid-valley area for new coffee shacks, and also allows John to ride along when he's not otherwise occupied,

Our son Walden and our grandson Richard Loy Gentry are both living in Corvallis. We don't see a lot of Walden and even less of Dick, but they both seem to be doing well.
Our daughter Asnakech is living in Portland. Our daughter Mestowet is living in Georgia near Atlanta. There is more we could say about family matters but...they are family matters. Here and now, let it be enough to say that there are other people we hold in our hearts, also.

We have no pets unless you count the elderly cat we feed in the shed. We inherited her from a former neighbor, and I don't think of her so much a pet as a feral animal we feel sorry for. It's hard not to, looking at her. She's more or less friendly and appreciative, but she will never be a house cat. Last winter she disappeared for several days and returned minus her tail. We think maybe the local raccoon ate it.

John's father remains in poor health, but his mother looks after him diligently and with energy. John helps out a lot, and is grateful for the opportunity.

As always, we continue to work on the house. And, as always, it is not finished. The roof, foundation and exterior walls are sound, though and those are the most important parts.

The community art theme for da Vinci Days this year was fish. We disdained the precut fish patterns the organizers offered, opting instead for our usual contribution, a collage, assembled on our usual schedule, atthelastminute. We've done worse. http://www.davinci-days.org/

After years of hearing compliments on our "signature" sweaters, and telling people as much of the backstory as they would hold still for, we decided we needed to have cards printed up telling the tale. We still don't have the cards, but at least we can give them the Web address of the sweaters' blog: http://thesweater.blogspot.com

We are so sorry we missed the chance to pick up the "Rude Hippy" story from Craigslist; it would have been an excellent addition to the sweater blog.

Oh, you haven't heard it?

Apparently, we offended someone by not talking to them long enough when they commented on the sweater (there was just one, until last year), and they posted on the Craigslist rant page. A wonderful rant, about how we were probably liberals, and self-centered, like all liberals, and didn't have time to be polite to someone who stopped us on the street to comment on the sweater (described as "technicolor barf"), and besides, I was too thin and John was too fat, and so on and on. Probably they said "That's an ugly sweater" and we replied, "Sorry you don't like it," and walked on, entirely unaware that they wanted us to stay around for further derision. Rude us. Actually, the community appreciation seems to be picking up.

We didn't really observe Christmas this year, but we did mark New Year's with, among other things, a new digital camera, with which we took the attached photo.

Well, here's hoping next year will be even better. Especially that health-care thing.

From John to Kathe, With Love

Irresistible Igor

John, David and Tom absolutely adored the character roles of Dwight Frye such as Fritz, assistant to Dr. Frankenstein (and yes it was Fritz, not "Igor" -- that was another assistant to another Frankenstein) and Renfield, servant of Dracula. We impersonated Frye so often that when Tom was cast as Renfield in a high school production of Dracula, it must have been the easiest part he ever had to rehearse for.

For the Lego fans

Brickipedia!

http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/LEGO_Wiki

Actually, we were looking for information about a Lego beetle we saw on Shakesville*, but it looks like that was a new creation by some Lego fanatic, and not available as a kit.

*http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/12/open-thread_19.html