Image courtesy Kare11 News


I haven't been up on a roof in a while but I especially remember enjoying the get-away properties inherent in our flat-roofed house in Palma Sola, Florida. My older sister called in vain for me to come and do the dishes. I was happily ensconced  with a blanket and book and wouldn't reemerge for hours (or until the dishes were done without me). I also had a favorite tree that I climbed that combined the same escape advantage with an excellent reading perch.

Well here is a story about a dog here in Minnesota whose love of climbing up on roofs lies in far more industrious motivations. Hayley, a golden retriever feels that she is part of the DeMars construction crew and 'climbs a ladder as well as any other member of the crew.'

Kare11 News reports:

MANKATO, Minn. — It's the slow time of year for the construction business, but when your public relations representative is a Golden Retriever named Hayley, jobs for DeMars Construction in Mankato seem to come a little easier.

No short of unusual, Hayley brings to the table a skill unlike any other dog-gone carpenter.

Hayley is able to climb up a ladder as well as any other on the team.

"She's one of the guys, part of the crew," said owner Max DeMars, who by the way is not directly related to the author of this story.

And like the crew, Hayley too can handle a two-by-four.

Since she was a pup, Hayley, now 10 years old, follows the crew wherever they go.

"One day we were up on the roof and there she was," explained DeMars.  "Saying what about me."

After hundreds of jobs over the years, she's got a pretty good handle on climbing up the ladder, even when nobody else is up on the roof.

One cold January day her solo trip nearly got her in some hot water.

The crew was working on an addition for the Hosanna Lutheran Church in Mankato when a neighbor spotted her on top of the building.

The neighbor called police and a short time later an officer arrived.

Continue reading the story
Watch the video

Links of interest:
Rooftop Ice Skating Rink
Rooftops and Urban Agriculture
Lyrics to 'Up On the Roof' sung by James Taylor, Lyrics by Gerry Goffin - Carole King

        

USA Today reports:

U.S. group held after fleeing Haiti with children

American church members say they were saving orphans. Haitian officials allege an adoption scheme.

Members of a church group that tried to take Haitian children out of the country may have succumbed to an urge many humanitarian groups feel but resist, aid organizations say.

Ten American Baptists were scheduled to have a hearing today in the Haitian capital after trying to take 33 children out of Haiti at a time of growing fears over possible child trafficking.

The church members, most from Idaho, said they were trying to rescue abandoned and traumatized children even though they lacked the proper paperwork to do so.

"The instinct to swoop in and rescue children may be a natural impulse," Deb Barry, a child-protection expert with Save the Children, said in a statement Sunday. "The possibility of a child being mistakenly labeled an orphan in the chaotic aftermath of the disaster is incredibly high."

Instead of ferrying children out of Haiti, Save the Children and UNICEF say they're working to register children, including the 33 traveling with the Baptist group, to reunite family members who may be looking for one another.

The incident comes after Haiti's government halted adoptions over concern that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to child trafficking.

Social Affairs Minister Yves Cristallin said the Americans were suspected of taking part in an illegal adoption scheme.

The group said its "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission" was an effort to save abandoned children from death by taking them to an orphanage across the border in the Dominican Republic. The church members were arrested Friday night on a bus traveling with earthquake survivors ages 2 months to 12 years.

"In this chaos the government is in right now, we were just trying to do the right thing," the group's spokeswoman, Laura Silsby, said at the judicial police headquarters in the capital where the Americans were being held. No charges had been filed.

"Just because it's a natural disaster doesn't mean you can cut corners under what is under normal circumstances a legal and well-thought-out process," Patrick McCormick of UNICEF said.

Read the entire article here.

Hastiness and ill-conceived actions

The plans of the diligent one surely make for advantage, but everyone that is hasty surely heads for want. — Proverbs 21:5
(Link to various translations of Proverbs 21:5)

However sincere and well-meaning the group of Baptist Americans may have been in their adoption fiasco, they would have done well to apply the above cited biblical scripture to their church organized actions. Anyone can identify with the desire to help the afflicted and save the distressed, but helping and saving have to be done in accordance with well-established rules and protocol.

Like the man from UNICEF said, "You can't just go and take a child out of a country no matter what country you're in. This is not what is done. There are processes that need to be followed. You can't just pick up a child and walk out of the country with the child, clearly, no matter what your best intentions are." — Kent Page, spokesman for UNICEF in Haiti.

Quote source: ABC News


Widows and fatherless boys
Annette Marie Hyder

Were our clothes old
hand-me-down, second time around
G/goodwill leftovers?

Did we feel the same?

You gave us your
glances down noses
picked clean of any
imperfections,
your shoulder stiff
from the effort of saying
rejection with embrace.

Did we notice?

Your exhortations
to live and be content
with little
came speckled with fat,
with cream, with gravy
from your food heavy mouth.

Could we hear you
through that mush?

The chill of our want
pricks along my mind
goose flesh the cloth
we had in common —
deprivations bind.

We see your shoulders breaking
in the vise of your hypocrisy.

Your teeth are soft now
like mushrooms
from the decay you spout.
We watch them fall
out of your mouth
that has been as used
as a cliché.

        

By Annette Marie Hyder

This snow — pushed to the sides of the highway
lumpy and looking like batting, like long crib bumpers
for the cars racing around the cradle shaped highway —
is so dirty it looks purple. Not a deep royal purple
but a gray dingy purple that hints at bruises, crashes
and permanent cots.

        

Would you like to attend a day of FREE panels from The Feminist Art Project? Here's all the information you need. Check it out!

___________________________________________________________________

Saturday, February 13, 2010
9am - 5pm
Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago

The Feminist Art Project (TFAP)announces the schedule for its special Day of Panels at the 2010College Art Association (CAA) Annual Conference in Chicago in February 2010. TFAP will present a series of extraordinary forums on Saturday, February 13th,9am -5pm. The annual day of panels is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

The TFAP Day of Panels is organized by Maria Elena Buszek, Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art, School of Liberal Arts, Kansas City Art Institute. The Day of Panels will address pressing feminist issues concerning contemporary feminist practices for artists, critics, and scholars,featuring collaborations between speakers from these fields, presented as dialogues and performances that would otherwise rarely find a comfortable space in the traditional CAA conference sessions.

All events will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Acapulco, Gold Level,West Tower, 151 East Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60601.

Schedule for The Feminist Art Project Day of Panels, February 13, 2010

9:00-10:30am  When No Means More Than No
This panel will evaluate instances wherein “no” might mean more than no—or less.

10:45am-12:00 pm  Feminist Artists and Feminist Curators: AConversation About Collaboration
This round table conversation featuring feminist curators and artists will address the challenges, pleasures, and workaday details of contemporary feminist creative and curatorial practices.
 
12:30-1:45 pm  Wandering Uteri, de/reConstructed Vulvas, andArchitectures of Hospitality
In this provocative presentation, cyberfeminist artists/health activists/scholars combine research, on-the-ground activism, and artistic production to illuminate contemporary and historical representations of medical interventions into female/male/transgender reproductive functions and healthcare.                      

2:00-3:30 pm  Feminist Painting
What does it mean to paint “like a woman”—and how might that differ from painting as a feminist? This session brings together four artists of different generations to discuss the political ramifications of applying pigment to surface.

3:45-5:00 pm  Push and/or Pull: Trans and Gender-VariantArtistsDiscuss the Role of Feminism in Their Work
In recent years debates have raged over the place that transgender,gender-variant, and genderqueer people occupy in contemporary feminism. This panel will feature three artists who will discuss their work and how they negotiate feminism; ways that feminism is exclusive or inclusive and how they contribute to the evolution of contemporary feminist theory and praxis.

For more details of the TFAP Day of Panels click here.
For more information on TFAP click here.

        

Image courtesy of Boston.com


"I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddamn cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody." — J.D. Salinger


The Associated Press reports:

J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91.

Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author's son said in a statement from Salinger's literary representative. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in the small, remote house in Cornish, N.H.

"The Catcher in the Rye," with its immortal teenage protagonist, the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield, came out in 1951, a time of anxious, Cold War conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence. The Book-of-the-Month Club, which made "Catcher" a featured selection, advised that for "anyone who has ever brought up a son" the novel will be "a source of wonder and delight - and concern."

Enraged by all the "phonies" who make "me so depressed I go crazy," Holden soon became American literature's most famous anti-hero since Huckleberry Finn. The novel's sales are astonishing - more than 60 million copies worldwide - and its impact incalculable. Decades after publication, the book remains a defining expression of that most American of dreams - to never grow up.

Read the entire article here.

Links of interest and updates:
J.D. Salinger: a gift of words and silence, By David L. Ulin
What's in J.D. Salinger's safe? Unpublished manuscripts?
Unspoken in Salinger obits: the term 'mentally ill'

        

If it's true that Drew Peterson murdered his fourth wife after she found out that he murdered his third wife, this real life account has shadows of the folktale Bluebeard clinging to it. Bluebeard is a tale in which a husband kills one wife after another when they discover their predecessor's fate as they give in to their feminine curiosity. In the Bluebeard tale feminine curiosity is punished and in the Drew Peterson case it is alleged that the fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, learned the truth about the disappearance of third wife, Kathleen Savio, and for finding out the grisly truth she in turn was murdered.

The fatal effects of feminine curiosity have long been the subject of story and legend. Lot's wife, Pandora, and Psyche are all examples of women whose curiosity exacted dire consequences. In an illustrated account of the Bluebeard story by Walter Crane, when the wife is shown making her way towards the forbidden room, there is behind her a tapestry of the Serpent enticing Eve into eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. — Wikipedia

The Bluebeard tale, an Aarne-Thompson type 312 folktale, has many variations. Here is a short one from Professor D. L. Ashliman's library of Electronic folk texts:

Blue-Beard
North Carolina, USA

He had a big basket he car'ed on his back. He'd go to people's house an' beg fur something to eat; an' when de pretty girls would come out an' gi' him something to eat, he grabbed 'em in the basket an' run away wi' them. He had a fine large place he car'ed 'em to — to his kingdom. He gi' 'em de keys. He tol' 'em everything there belonged to them but one room. "Don't go in there." He tol' 'em the day they went in that room,they would be put to death. Married seven times, an' all was sisters.The seven wife one day, when he was gone away, she taken the keys an 'looks in dat room. Finds all her sisters dead in there in a pile. She is so excited, she dropped the keys an' got them bloody. So he comeback an' call for his keys. She kep' them hid from him for several days, didn' want him to see 'em. At las' she brought them out an' give them to him. He tol' her to say a prayer. She prayed seven times. An' her seven brothers came jus' as he went to kill her. An' he ran away into the woods, an' never been seen since.

Read more variations here.

The Peterson case does not have the happy ending that the folktale does but it will have the happy (and eerie) occurrence of one of the alleged victims speaking — from the grave.


Victim speaks from the grave

The Herald Review reports:

Six years after she mysteriously drowned in a bathtub, Kathleen Savio is finally getting her day in court.

Savio essentially will testify from the grave today, with witnesses expected to tell a judge in Illinois how Savio discussed and wrote about her fears that her husband, former Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson,would kill her.

The hearing is expected to provide the first detailed look at evidence prosecutors contend ties Peterson to Savio's death. It stems from a state law that allows a judge to admit hearsay evidence - testimony from witnesses who recount what they heard from others - in first-degree murder cases if prosecutors can prove a defendant killed a witness to prevent him or her from testifying.

The Illinois Legislature passed the law after authorities named Peterson a suspect in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, then exhumed the body of Savio, his third wife, and reopened the investigation into her 2004 death. Though the bill's sponsors were careful never to link the law publicly to Peterson, it has been referred to as "Drew's Law,'' and his attorneys have long suggested it was passed to put Peterson behind bars.

During the hearing,which is expected to last three weeks, prosecutors will present to Will County Judge Stephen White about 60 witnesses to testify about 15hearsay statements. White will then decide if the jury can hear any or all of those statements when Peterson stands trial. Peterson has pleaded not guilty to murdering Savio, whose body was found in a dry tub. A trial date hasn't been set.

While neither side has talked much about the evidence in the case, from the day Peterson was arrested, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow has made it clear that allowing Savio to tell jurors why Peterson wanted her dead is crucial to his case.

"In essence, what you're basically allowing the victim of a violent crime to do is testify from the grave,''Glasgow, who pushed for passage of the bill, told reporters in May shortly after Peterson was arrested.

Continue reading article here.

Bluebeard by Gustav Doré, public domain

Archetype Enablers
Annette Marie Hyder
From the book The Real Reason the Queen Hated Snow

His beard was ghostlight blue,
blue like veins
seen through too thin skin
and pale, like small albino things
with no eyes to see in the dark.

His beard was ghostlight blue.

Lamentations seeded fear.
And it was said
that each hair grew from sorrow,
Sorrow being the name he christened
every new wife with.
How many wives would that be?
And how many sorrows passed away
to his joy and bristling beard?

Lamentations seeded fear.

How did he win them?
His mouth teemed with terroring teeth
above his cudgel-like chin
and the hands that partnered
his lamprey mouth
were long nailed; bent odd at the wrist.
But that mouth won at wooing
youngest-prettiest-most-dear.
His hands caressed the corpses
to be.

How did he win them?

There is a need in some
of the purest
to immolate themselves
to the strong.
Each Sorrow feared
to let herself fear
for fear that would
make fears come true.
And each Sorrow's footsteps
trailed unerringly
to Bluebeard's awful room.

Some immolate themselves to the strong.

The final Sorrow
was a special sorrow
a sorrow just for him
his best beloved
and tenderly cherished
cozen coddled victim.
She beat the archetype beast
she bested the brute in the test
of curiosity's punishment. And yet

who was the cozened
who was the coddled
who the cherished victim?


Links of interest:
Drew Peterson Wikipedia entry
Bluebeard Wikipedia entry
AT Types of Folktales
Professor D. L. Ashliman
Project Gutenburg: The Seven Wives of Bluebeard by Anatole France
SurLaLune Fairy Tales: The Annotated Bluebeard

        

Photo taken at Barnes & Noble, Minnetonka, MN


Three things

• Look at how many Rolling Stone magazines there are.
• Notice how this issue's cover "model" is not moving the mags here in Minnesota — at least at the book stores I've been to.
• Observe the pristine, untouched appearance of the magazine. No dog ears. No sign of being picked up and leafed through — no indication of interest at all.

Except by me. And my interest is of a documenting sort. I am happy to have been able to capture these gleefully observed indications of what I'd like to call "Mayer-malaise".

John Mayer's clownish, misogynist comments about women make him eminently worthy of disdain.  His posturing (he's been trying to position himself as heart-breaker extraordinaire and Jennifer Aniston life-ruiner) makes him eye-rollingly ridiculous. I bet Jennifer Aniston, in the privacy of her home, is tossing her signature locks in abandoned joyous celebration at being free of the pathetic attention-cubus that is John Mayer.

In the Rolling Stone interview, John Mayer talks about masturbation, trying to find someone he can admire more than he admires himself, and how he can't fathom explaining himself to somebody who can't believe he'd be interested in them (this after he disingenuously talks about girls brushing him off at clubs).

I picture a cartoon of a soulful looking parrot with a guitar over its feathered shoulder and one claw around its feathered man part. The parrot is in a cage. The door to the cage is wide open. The bird is too preoccupied to fly away. It is peering into a round bird-mirror which is clipped to the inside of the cage and the parrot is squawking — "I want you!" —  to the rapturous image before its love-struck eyes.


Links of interest:

John Mayer's Dirty Mind, Lonely Heart: February issue of Rolling Stone
Jezebel has five theories on the singer's 'interior life...or lack thereof'

        

Cartoon courtesy of Confessions of a Writer  

I love you bubble wrap!

50 years ago today bubble wrap burst onto the pop culture scene. A wallpaper wannabee, bubble wrap went on to be so much more than mere surface decoration. From packing material to artistic muse and enveloping such things as fashion, fun and therapeutic activities in between, bubble wrap went on to become an iconic product. There are over 250 Facebook pages devoted to bubble wrap.

But the best thing about bubble wrap, of course, is popping it!

Being destructive was never so much fun. It's like being allowed to jump on the bed, run down the stairs, yell in the house and track mud on the floor — all rolled up in the pleasure-packed finger fun of bursting bubbles!

USA Today reports:

Today marks an essential day in pop-culture history: Bubble Wrap's 50th birthday.

Where would we be without these protective, oddly addictive plastic orbs of sealed air? (Actually, we might be in a healthier environment with more recyclable packaging materials, but we'll overlook this fact for the moment.)

The term "Bubble Wrap" was coined in 1960 by engineers Marc Chavannes and Al Fielding who came up with the stuff in Hawthorne, N.J., "with the intent of creating a trendy new textured wallpaper."

Today has been dubbed Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, so pop a few in their honor. And if you'd like to be green about it, just use some virtual Bubble Wrap.

Links of interest:

Free bubble wrap iPhone app
Compulsion, obsession, possession
Heart-shaped bubble wrap

        

Purple and gold

What the New York Times called "a fight song by Prince for his hometown team" sounds more like a spiritual to me — a church hymn. I think it's awful as a fight song for the Minnesota Vikings and I can't see people getting all revved up and rah-rahing when they hear it. I can see this song getting people to shuffle their feet though — in vicarious embarrassment.

What do you think? Check it out below:

YouTube video


New York Times reports:

Prince, whose hits have included “Little Red Corvette” and “Purple Rain,” is continuing on the color spectrum with a tribute to the Minnesota Vikings called “Purple and Gold.”

The rock star, originally from Minnesota, wrote the tune to cheer on the Vikings, who will play the New Orleans Saints on Sunday in the National Football Conference championship game, with the winner going to the Super Bowl. “Purple and Gold” had its debut this week on the 9 p.m. newscast of the Fox affiliate KMSP-TV in Minneapolis.

Prince said he was inspired to pick up his pen after watching in person as the Vikings beat the Dallas Cowboys, 34-3, last weekend, after not seeing the team play in years until this season. The song (with Prince’s own brand of spelling) says in part: “as we approach the throne we won’t bow down/this time we won’t b denied/raise every voice and let it be known/in the name of the purple and gold/we come in the name of the purple and gold/all of the odds r in r favor/ no prediction 2 bold.” The Vikings wide receiver Bernard Berrian used his Twitter page to thank Prince. “He is definitely one of my favorites,” Mr. Berrian said.

Controversy

Local radio personality, Sheletta Brundidge, has an interesting observation about this song: she thinks it's a rip-off of the Negro National Anthem, aka "Lift Every Voice and Sing..."

Check out her blog post, here, where she invites you to compare Prince's song with the Negro National Anthem, side by side.

(I love the pic of Prince she used for her post.)

        

Best of InTheFray A 2009 retrospective. [ read more ]

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