One of a few of Sophie's Alaskan Ice Memories

When Sophie was melancholy, she would seek to hang out with other melancholy people for the emotional sympathy that came with a good old Alaskan drinking night. This was a particularly melancholy night for her as she'd found her life had dropped her in the middle of frozen tundra at 26, a lonesome Christmas, a life of uncertainties, and 6 weeks of difficult work without a break finally letting her have a few days to herself to reflect.

The bar was a typical Anchorage hangout with dusty undergarments stapled to every square inch, on the Spenard strip, a historical area famous by the amount of brothels that used to line it, delineating the path between the airport and the military bases in the 40's and 50's. A Spenard divorce was code for 'shooting the bitch'... it was a rugged and blue collar kind of unique place that Sophie found herself, pondering the strange series of affairs that led her to wind up here.

Sophie was dressed to the 9's for her weekend escape. Fresh from the couture and life of  a Los Angeles music industry lifestyle, she wore Cowboy boots, a stylish skirt and sweater combo, all covered up with a silver fox coat that was that was brand new, a reward for her hard work and the struggle that her life had been prior to acquiring it. The downside was that there was no sanity in dressing this way in -80 F. You couldn't tell that to Sophie tho... she was 6 weeks into a new reality and the practicalities hadn't sunk in yet.

This was what led her to leave the bar a few hours later, with a friend she'd met, intending to head to a car that would take the two women to a nearby restaurant. What she didn't expect was that the ramp just outside the bar's parking lot access door was coated with sheer ice and that her trendy and expensive cowboy boots had a slick bottom... There was about a decade that went by in the time between sliding down the slope,  losing her balance and landing on the ground and in that slow motion distortion, Sophie was able to think about how she would probably never walk again, how she really had to review her wardrobe choices, how she was gonna cry over spilt milk this time. She thought about how the fox fur coat was BRAND new and if she landed on her elbows she was going to tear the sleeves!

There's no rationality for some things we do, and this was no exception. In that long fall from 6'4 in her cowboy boots, our current day version of Calamity Jane crashed to the ground with her arms in the air over her head, taking the brunt of the fall on her tail bone. There was providence in her destiny as the woman she was having dinner with was a registered nurse, who was able to calmly assess Sophie laying there on the hard ice, the blizzard building all around them. After about another eon, with snow settling on her precious coat, Sophie realized she wasn't paralyzed and painfully got up to head for home instead. The damage to her tail bone, it was later medically discovered, was that her tiny coxxyx had been shattered, leaving a little shamrock of blasted bone in there where her previously unknown tail had been, that serves to vex her well into her advancing age.

Sophie had to experience a humbling few days, where moving was ok but transitioning from not moving to moving was excrutiating. It made life very 'interesting' in the Chinese sense of the word... But heal, she did, and weeks later, that same parking lot led her to another exciting contribution to her eclectic collection of memories. That will have to have its own dedicated blog installation...

Sophie had one of those interesting incarnations that rivalled fiction at the best of times.

*Sophie is the alterego of the Resourceress

Merlin Stone Memorial Sunset by a distant admirer

So here's the deal. Take a listen to this song and if you like, think about where you were when the philosophies and concepts of Merlin Stone began teaching you so much.

Then have an idle wander through the pictures of tonight's dazzling sunset here in frozen Esquimalt. I will leave you to your thoughts. Enjoy my little memorial to Merlin Stone for what having her enlightenment shine did for my evolution.

Perhaps you watched it with tears in your eyes wherever you were, perhaps you captured it and could share in your blog as a way of celebrating the passing of a cultural icon and a true goddess in real life...

Feel free to link to here or to my fb page.

Click here for a lovely youtube vid of a goddess singing 'May the Circle be Open'

sung by the lovely young goddess, Hartemia... I am so enthralled with her beautiful gift of these songs to Youtube.

And now for something completely different... three banned cartoons from 50+ years ago...

Here is an old cartoon with the Flintstones, an ad for Winston cigarettes. Have a look and then read my commentary if you like. Feel free to ponder and muse and reflect in our comment section.

Flintstones ad from circa 1965


Here's what I think. I know you wanna know.


Fred and Barney are loafing while Betty and Wilma are doing house and yard work. Then Fred and Barney decide to smoke some delicious Winstons and Betty and Wilma are not amused. This smacks of an undercurrent of feminist thought, as though there was an influence already on Madison avenue, here in the 3rd decade of advertising since the advent of television.



Now let's venture to the political, with a cartoon that is from the '50's and is propaganda... or is it?


US Government predicts the future of American interests and ventures


Listen past the guy's commentary at the beginning although his introduction to the clip is appropos.


So the snake oil salesman's pitch is kind of eerily depicted with the creepy predictions of business, property owning, farmers etc. If man can see this kind of thing coming, why are we collectively so powerless to subvert it?






And one last ponderance, here is a video done by RKO in the early 40's when Hitler first arrived on the scene. Take a look at what early movie theater propaganda was depicted as.


Its called 'Education for Death' and is meant to explain Hitler and the Nazi to children in a cartoon format.


Lots of hmmm in this one. That democracy is depicted as the wicked witch, (the goddess) and demonized to create an obedient Nazi population of breeders of soldiers for the Hitler army... eerie? I think so. Being German this holds a special kind of creepiness, knowing it's in my genes to be this distorted.


'Education for Death' clip here.


Hope I've provided you with some tasty food for thought. I just discovered these interesting cartoons and wanted to share them with my friends and followers.

This is going to make me cry to write, but I'm going to write it anyways. True blue blogging here.

Sometimes I have to write from the heart about things that are important enough to share, and aside from all my other random ponderings, this story is one of those heartwarming events that show what is so good about humanity.

When we went for our cruise to the Mediterrannean, I met a riveting, warm, smart, funny, confident woman and her daughter. When the cruise was over we stayed in touch in spite of her being from another country, on Facebook.

This past month, there was a tragedy in my region as one of the beloved daughters of the Cowichan First Nation was missing and found murdered. I was posting the search on my facebook when my friend from the cruise saw it on her page as she follows me there periodically, and was moved enough to contact the newspaper editor for the Cowichan paper. She's been in touch with the family through a close friend and has passed on her intentions in regards to the tragic loss of their daughter.

My friend from the cruise is setting up a scholarship fund in the murdered woman's memory so that her life will not be for nothing.

My condolences are empty in comparison to the surging need of the family, to heal from this horrendous experience, for the mother, for the family, for the community and for the entire region. Cowichan is 'the Warm Land' but it should not be warm because the blood of its women runs across it.


For time immemorial, there will be a scholarship fund set up so that young people in the Cowichan nation can become the people who make the differences when it comes to stewardship and overcoming challenges.

I am so in awe of my friend. The heart it took to extend herself to this level ... a scholarship fund in the name of the lost daughter. :(

Told you you'd cry.

A little booklet thanking Ron's mom for saving our Ciao furbaby.

When Ciao came down with crystals a month ago, Ron's mom put her credit card on the line and saved our little guy's life. I can't convey how much gratitude I have for this woman's kindness. As a way of saying thank you, I created this little booklet to send to her. She has scaled down a lot and I wanted her to know how much I appreciated her and to give her a little momento that she can keep in her pocket for when she misses family.

I found a tutorial on the internet (Stumbleupon) that showed me how to cut a sheet of scrapbooking paper so that it folds down into this little 3 x 3 booklet.

I picked out a bunch of photos that I wanted to add and had them reduced and printed on regular paper.

I have a lot of scrapbooking doodads, I collect them all the time.

Not bad! That's my handsome Ron... whatta man...

Ron loves summertime and cemeteries, old Churches too.

 Mt. Baker is in the background if you look closely. The other photos shows Ron at the top of the stairs on the walking route back to the tiny town of Portofino, Italy.

What can I say?

The last page, with my fave pic of Ciao and Grace, both of them laying across the top of the chair with both arms and legs hanging down.

The little booklet closed, in Alva's favourite colours of purple and red, like the Red Hat ladies, of which she's a member.

Bella likes it too.

The little book laid out.

I wanted to make a bit of a documentary of it before I popped it into the mail tomorrow. If Bonnie can show this to Alva before she gets it, she might be miffed. LOL. But Alva's not exactly what could be considered 'user friendly', so I suspect it will be cool.

Thanks for enjoying.

Afterwards:

My buddy Tanis came over for dinner tonite and she made a little book too. So cute! (No photos of it tho unless she takes it, she made hers for her mom. :)

What is BPA and why should it have my attention?

There is a chemical that is in a lot of the things we use daily that is another estrogen mimicker and has connections to various cancers. The chemical I'm talking about it BPA...   The initials are short for bisphenol-A. It is used as a softener to make plastic pliable or harden it (as in the baby bottles that the Canadian Govt' banned from the country in 2006 because of BPAs) and up till now, I was aware that it was in Crocs, Holey Soles shoes, water bottles, supermarket shopping bags and sex toys to name a vast spectrum of places we can find it.

What I didn't know up until recently is that it is also hiding in another place. While there are minute traces of this horrendous substance in these items I listed, it's mind boggling to find out that there is one place where there a thousand times more of the stuff. Heat treated receipts are the culprit. Easily half the receipts you handle are stockpiling a chemical in your body that is quietly undermining your health and you dont even know it.

Cashiers handle them all day. Not only are clerks in stores dealing with the carcinogens contained in the gasses that have inundated the clothes in the ready to wear industry that they must unpack to place on hangers for sale, (a plethora of carcinogenic chemicals that come under the category of 'Mildew retardant' as the huge cargo ships bring the stock from the free trade zones of the far east), but now they must find out that for their minimum wage job that is not even a living wage, they are dealing with an even more intrusive element that has every indication it will be responsible for the shortening of those very lives they are struggling to maintain.

These days, I am working to help a friend at tax time and am learning the ropes about bookkeeping. All day long as I work for this friend, I handle receipts. I realize what dire dangers I am doing to myself yet, instead of finding rubber/latex gloves to protect myself, I act as if I can't see it, it must not be there.

This is a discovery so heinous that pregnant women are now being warned that handling ONE receipt puts her foetus at risk and to wash her hands as well as keep her receipts encased in a ziplock (plastic!) bag.

I am including a few links at the end of this warning so that if I don't have you convinced, perhaps authors with the correct credentials will succeed where I've failed.

I'm not trying to be Chicken Little, all 'sky is falling!' about things. I believe that knowledge is power and with understanding comes the responsibility to share the information with others. I don't live in fear of the HFCS in food today, I avoid it when at all possible. I won't live in fear of this either, but I WILL become less stupid about my exposure to it.

BPAs are in the plastic tupperware that we put our hot food in. This causes the plastic to degrade, the heat creates an oil to extrude from the plastic over time and that oil is laden with BPAs. If you nuke your food in plastic, you are ingesting BPA's.

I remember my time in university, in the cafeteria, lined up waiting for my food,  looking through the pass window into the kitchen where students prepare food and seeing them use yogurt containers for containing hot butter. Back then, I had to wonder where people got so lackadaisical about accepting plastic as being harmless when in reality, it is far from it.

In one article, John Warner, a prof teaching green chemistry, explains.

'When people talk about polycarbonate bottles, they talk about nanogram quantities of BPA [leaching out],” Warner observes. “The average cash register receipt that's out there and uses the BPA technology will have 60 to 100 milligrams of free BPA.” By free, he explains, it’s not bound into a polymer, like the BPA in polycarbonates. It’s just the individual molecules loose and ready for uptake.

As such, he argues, when it comes to BPA in the urban environment, “the biggest exposures, in my opinion, will be these cash register receipts.” Once on the fingers, BPA can be transferred to foods. And keep in mind, he adds, some hormones — like estrogen in certain birth-control formulations — are delivered through the skin by controlled-release patches. So, he argues, estrogen mimics like BPA might similarly enter the skin.
Moreover, there are all kinds of materials(on and) in the skin that might selectively degrade or alter this hormone imposter as it passes through.' (1)

How often have I sat at the desk over the past two weeks and eaten something in the midst of recording the endless stream of receipts? So now, I'm eating BPA as well as getting it into my bloodstream through my fingers. Good to know!

Another article from the CBC News desk claims:
"It's a concern that retail workers who are handling receipts all day long would be exposed to higher amounts.
According to the Centers for Disease Control in the U.S., 93 per cent of Americans over the age of six have BPA in their bodies. People working in the retail sector had 30 per cent more BPA on average than other Americans.
The EWG recommends people minimize the number of thermal receipts they collect at retail outlets ATMs and other machines where possible."(2)

Here is another quote from an article, the link of which I'm posting at the bottom as well.

'Another recent study out of Harvard University found that, out of 389 pregnant women, those with the highest BPA levels in their bodies worked as cashiers. The findings are disturbing, considering that a growing body of evidence suggests that BPA does most of its damage to the reproductive system when babies are exposed in utero.' (3)

'Thermal cash-register receipts are the norm now, and many of them are coated with high levels of BPA. Researchers of this new study, published in the journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, found BPA transferred from paper the skin after handling a receipt for just a few seconds. And the longer the hands went unwashed afterwards, the more researchers say was absorbed through the skin into the body. (Two hours after handing a receipt, nearly 75 percent of the BPA on the skin was gone, leading researchers to believe it was absorbed.) Interestingly, researchers found that when hands were greasy from body oils or other moisturizers, BPA transferred from receipt to skin was 10 times higher.' (3)

' until manufacturers collectively stop using it in food cans and packaging and stores stop issuing BPA-laced cash-register receipts we'll likely continue to hear about its links to infertility, sperm damage, heart disease, obesity, and other problems.' (3)


 Not only do all thermal receipts look alike, there is no way yet to know if the receipt you are holding is or isn't inundated with BPA. So what can you do to limit or avoid your exposure?

I strive to write a solution-based blog, not just problem-oriented. Having said that, here are some steps you can take to avoid handling the little bits of paper spit out by cash registers, and what you can do if you DO have to handle them...

• Avoid toxic receipts like the plague. Complicating matters, an Environmental Working Group study found that when looking at chain stores, there doesn't seem to be an across-the-board BPA-free policy. Chains in one region had receipts that contained BPA, while in another, the same chain's franchises did not. When you order a simple coffee or everyday grocery order, you may want to just say you don't want a receipt. At the gas pump and ATM machine (the receipts could contain BPA), you usually have the option to say no thanks to a receipt. If you need to take a receipt, store it in a folder or envelope, not in your wallet.

• Wash with soap and water. Use regular soap and water (avoid toxic antibacterial soaps containing triclosan) after handling receipts. If you're a cashier, push your manager to convert to paperless receipts, and until then, you may want to wear non-vinyl gloves to protect yourself.

• Pressure your favorite retailers to go with paperless receipts. Although BPA-free receipt paper is available, it costs more. If retailers want to save money, they can forgo paper receipts altogether by choosing an electronic receipts system. Implementing paperless receipts gives companies a legit reason to say they're going green. (3)



Today, I handled receipts for four hours straight, came home, lightly washed my hands and made supper. I have no way of knowing if I contaminated the meal with my laziness. I probably did. After reading all this research on the effects of BPA on our bodies, I feel REALLY grimy. I think I'm going to go have a shower now.


Lastly, do not think that by using alcohol based hand sanitizer, you are eradicating the chemical from your skin. Far from it, hand sanitizer SPEEDS up the absorption.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/07/29/con-bpa-receipts.html#ixzz1DLeUWTah


(1)   http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/48084/title/Science_%2B_the_Public__Concerned_about_BPA_Check_your_receipts

(2)   http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/07/29/con-bpa-receipts.html


(3)    http://www.rodale.com/bpa-receipts

My Imbolc Posting

I can hear the little fronds of nettle from here, rustling in the otherworld as they line up their molecules for their hasty process in a few weeks. Even though the little patch is cold and littered with flattened grass and decaying leaf litter, there is a throbbing feeling when you take a minute to notice. It is Brigid's heartbeat, turning the wheel  of the year and promising tiny buds that erupt into lifesaving medicines and delicious, nutritious food.

My little netbook is so small that my tummy tries to type all the time, when I rest it on my thighs at a comfortable arm's length. I can be typing for a couple of minutes before I find that the wrinkle of my clothing and the insistence of my belly, have moved the cursor in the body of work and I am making no sense at all. I love my little netbook, its size is usually convenient, however... I should try using a regular keyboard with her when I have a lot of text to upload...

I am watching the world closely these days, as I see Australia dealing with the dangers of cyclones that threaten to be bigger than anything they've ever seen before. I have people on that side of the world that matter to me and it is unnerving to be so far away. I would really be stressed if I couldn't find out more online. When I searched for info, I found satelite maps, radar maps, web cams and on the spot postings from people that really brought me to feeling like I had a handle on the pulse of what was going on. I am relieved it wasn't the storm of the century after all. The information is still coming in as there have been power cuts in the northwestern areas of Queensland as to storm damage, and there is devastation in some regions, but nowhere near what officials had been dreading.

Hop around the planet to Egypt and Mubarak has apparently gotten on the entire country's last nerve, with street protests the like of which has never been seen before. Unrest, protest, death and the possibility of a democratic Egypt are all in the balance right now, and I watch with bated breath as that unfolds, my prayers with the innocent people there, too.

Bringing it home, our family is in turmoil. My sweetheart, Ron has a dear old mom who isn't doing so well. Her gruff exterior hides a core that is growing increasingly more defensive and fearful about what is to come as her body has started to show signs of wear and tear. The ever-present responsibility of my Ron, who is the best son imaginable is crushing but he has so much more on his shoulders than the needs of an 82 year old woman. A 40+ year history of soldiering is coming to an end and he has bureaucratic departments of all manner feverishly pulling all the necessary paperwork together that will facilitate his retirement, pensions, prospective reeducation and other related items.

We are also looking at moving in a couple of months, larger digs that will release us from the demon of the storage place, that sucks money from us monthly.

I have started working on the Ragology, the combined collection of works gathered over 10 years of the Moonwit Collective, the beginning of which was over 20 years ago, when there was little menstrual education to be had. For those of you who aren't aware of this, Moonwit is the acronym for Meeting Our Own Needs With Imagination and Tenacity, and is the name of a collective I created in the late '80s. I was selling washable cloth menstrual pads at fairs, events, through magazine ads and had been noticing that my pad customers were a very unique demographic that caused me to want to collect them. I didn't just want to be in touch with them during a transaction, I saw that they were collectively a treasure trove of wisdom, sustainable understanding and permaculture education that it would be wise to learn from. At the time, people would pass me information and artwork, poetry, stories, articles until I had a milkcrate full and finally, I compiled it all into a single sheet newsletter. The subscribers to this little sheet, affectionately called 'An irregular periodical - The Rag', were my customers. I had figured out how to collect them!

In the days before the world wide web and computers, MW grew through the use of what technology was available at the time. Photocopiers, typewriters, an old gramma sewing machine. The second issue was more sophisticated, and by the time MW grew to 700 subscribers and the editorial team consisted of many amazing people, we had a 36 page, full size magazine style underground 'zine that targeted an incredible market of conscious people.

Moonwit became too much for me as parenting, then my degree and further foster parenting took over my life. I trend watched the evolution of the alternative menstrual / wise woman/ woman's wisdom industry as it developed on the internet and have grown very heartened to see the leaps and bounds this kind of education has taken by incredible inspiring women who have found a way to help women facilitate the shifts they need in order to have a more easily managed womanhood.


Now, I have my degree behind me yet business doesn't appreciate an educated crone. I rest on laurels that widen by the day. What's wrong with this picture? I have decided that there is indeed a market for the Rag in all it's forms, the individual sheets and the anthology that I am starting to bundle up into a fun compilation of old and new.

Ragology is the tentative name for the project, and it will contain the works of all 14 issues of the Rag, plus back story and updates about involved members, kids that were little at the time, and anecdotes about my process of creating the Rag uneducated, then gaining a Woman's studies and First Nations studies perspective and revisiting the body of work I created two decades ago to reflect on those observations as well. It will have my works in it and with permission, that of others. Artwork that is shocking and fierce, gorgeous, funny and hersterically appropriate will adorn the pages as will the incredible poetry of our former Moonwit Mavens. Even the Guy's Eye will be represented as updates and back story from that may be forthcoming as well.

I know that we are all bearing our burdens. Family, health, finance, faith problems abound for everyone, and I don't mean to complain. When I bring up my struggles, its not for sympathy, but for a sense of the timing of my life, maybe even a bit of a warning about how things could change drastically any moment and share that its good to know in case I fall off the radar for a few days.

The global warming problem is starting to become apparent as extreme weather has become a part of our daily news fare. The economic situation has become so out of whack in many parts of the world that the ripples begin to affect our lives here and I watch a military cutting the bones and brains out of its promises to protect. I see a church through Ron's involvement, that is splintered, kneecapped and treated like a product rather than a living, breathing community of parishioners.  I am watching my kids go through their challenges, each one as critical to their future as the next. Some are excelling, some are in a crash course of adulthood, some are licking their wounds and some are still off on their own tangents, I'm sure that eventually they will surface again.

Just before Xmas, my boy cat Ciao got crystals backing up his urethra and it cost Ron's mom a fortune as she stepped forward to help save his little furry behind. I can't believe how much vets cost these days! That's just the icing on the cake.

My ramble is done and I'm getting off the soapbox now. I'll leave you with a fun little video that I found by Old Spice. (I know, parfum/fragrance is not a good thing and its packed with it, but its a funny commercial...) and the actor...well... he's... *fans self* kinda tasty.

http://www.oldspice.com/videos/video/34/questions/

Hope your Imbolc is a happy one. Mine consists of memories aplenty as I anthologize The Rag, set up new altars for spring and generally try to be the best spider in the middle I can be. Do share what you're up to!