Just Because

Just Because it is cold outside and I don't like the snow and ice and crummy Iowa winter. I want to remember what it was like a few months ago around here and to give me something to look forward to some pictures I took around here along with some pithy statements I have collected.  Just because..

 If you would lift me you must be on higher ground - 

 Emerson

 He who is sure of himself is deeply willing to let others be themselves -

 J. L. Liebman

 We enjoy thoroughly only the pleasure that we give. 

 Alexander Dumas

 The lion is not so fierce as he is painted - Thomas Fuller

 Animals are such agreeable friends - 

They ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.  

George Eliot

Do you think you are a mistake, just because you made one?

Hugh Prather

These Are A Part of Me

Prayer

Forgive my reticence, Father
It is a long way
to reach across and around
all these centuries
and to see through
the stained glass windows 
of all those churches

I try to read the words
but the words are worn
with traveling through
several languages, reading
at the edges, torn by idiom
and stretched to fit tradition

But the strength
of the fabric 
is there, weathering
like faded blue denim ...

Forgive my reticence Father
I am a slow learner - - -
We are all slow learners
when it comes
to love - - -

Clovita Rice

 

Festive Board.

My Letter Opener

 This is my letter opener.  It used to belong to my grandfather.  He was the head of the Hog Cholera Research Station which was on East 13th Street here in Ames (picture below).  I used to go there when I was younger and this was on his desk.



                                                                                    I do not know if he and my grandmother went to the Pan American Exposition or not (I doubt it) but my grandmother was an antique collector and later had an antique shop in her home. She probably acquired the letter opener and gave it to him to use.
Over the years it has become somewhat   misshapen but that does not matter to me.

 I love the buffalo head and used to use it to pound on the pipes that ran the length of the Research Station.  When I hit the pipe with the head of the buffalo it made a really nice sound.


Poor thing.

The Pan American Exposition was a World's Fair held in Buffalo, New York.  It was from May 1 - November 2, 1901.  It is notable as the place where President William McKinley was assassinate by anarchist, Leon Czoigosz at the Temple of Music on September 6, 1901, he died 8 days later.,  

I was reading the book The Fifth Assassin when I read about the McKinley Assassination. That got me to thinking about the letter opener.  I read until 3 AM and so things are a bit "off" right now.  I imagine I shall nap today.

 My grandfather's office was on the right hand end of the building.  The left side was where they performed autopsies on the dead hogs.  I can still call up memories of him opening up an animal to study it.  The work that was done at the station developed Crystal Violet Vaccine which eradicated the disease in the United States.

Hog Cholera was eradicated in the United States thanks in part to the work done here.  My grandfather - Dr. C. G. Cole is mentioned in this article

Department scientists realized that a control method involving use of the live virus offered no hope for eradicating hog cholera. So they began work toward a protective vaccine made with killed virus. Research of Drs. Dorset and McBryde, and C.G. Cole at Ames culminated in the development of the crystal violet killed vaccine in 1935. An initial problem of contaminants in the vaccine was overcome when F.W. Tilley patented a procedure 10 years later for preparing a consistently sterile crystal violet vaccine.

I remember Dr. Tilly.  These guys put up with me. There was also Clarence Cameron who worked there. He went by Cameron - He and my grandfather both had the same first name and neither of them liked it. My grandfather was called "Doc" or "Dig" - They called each other P. T.   Since my grandfather was the head of the station he got to live in the farm house on the property.  It was a great place to live and play as a kid as it was surrounded by woods.  but I digress.  Have a great day ARTYAL.

Molly on Monday

 Molly here,
   The B G took a lot of head shots of me this week.  He thinks my head is nice.  He also got me a new collar and the old one was frayed.  I kind of like it.

This one is leather so it won't wear out.

Jon sent two pictures of Miles this week.  I miss him.

 My "throne" is nicer than his...

We both like this one.

He tried getting all "artsy" and took a close-up or two.

Here are a couple of me staring out the window through the curtains.  I was watching the water freeze.  When I went outside I slipped and slid down the ramp.  It was a little scary but I am sure-footed.

 All of this has worn me out.  It is nap time.  I love my "throne!"

Have a great week and stay warm.  Molly.

Sunday Salute XLV

George and Joy Adamson are forever linked in my mind for the work they did with animals. I first became aware of them with the book written by Joy - Born Free.  It was later made into a movie.

I have always had a love of animals and in particular lions.  (I was pleased when I found out that the Underwood family motto was Noli Irritare Leonem) I collected lions at one time and still have a great many of them around the house. The work that they did with lions and other animals inspired me and make them worthy of a Sunday Salute.

Joy Adamson (20 January 1910 – 3 January 1980) (born Friederike Victoria Gessner) was a naturalist, artist, and author of the book, Born Free, which describes her experiences raising a lion cub named Elsa.Born Free was printed in several languages, and made into an Academy Award-winning movie of the same name.

George Adamson (3 February 1906 – 20 August 1989), also known as the Baba ya Simba (“Father of Lions” in Swahili), was a British wildlife conservationist and author. He and his wife,Joy Adamson, are best known through the movie Born Free and best-selling book with the same title, which is based on the true story of Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lioness cub they had raised and later released into the wild. Several other films have been made based on Adamson’s life.

George lived in a remote area of Kenya, East Africa.
He was 'gentleman', who was courageous, caring, and no person that has ever lived knows Lions on a more personal, intimate basis than this remarkable man.


You can read the Wikipedia articles about their lives and deaths here.  George and Joy.  And you can learn more about them from the words and pictures posted on the "Father of Lions" Web Site,

"Who will now care for the animals, for they cannot look after themselves? Are there young men and women who are willing to take on this charge? Who will raise their voices, when mine is carried away on the wind, to plead their case?"

"I really have no patience with people who maintain that an animal's life and actions are governed by pure instinct and conditioned reflexes. Nothing except reasoning powers can explain the careful strategy used by a pride of lions in hunting, and the many examples we have had from Elsa of intelligent and thought out behaviour."    George Adamson

Since we humans have the better brain, isn't it our responsibility to protect our fellow creatures from, oddly enough, ourselves?      Joy Adamson

Later in his life George helped with the rehabilitation of Christian, the lion. Video here.

Previous Salutes George and Joy Adamson Maya Angelou Rachel Carson    Jimmy Carter  Bill Clinton  Matt Damon   Ellen DeGeneres  Princess Diana  Marion Wright Edelman  Dwight Eisenhower Richard Engle Sally Field  Mohandas Gandhi   Whoopi Goldberg Jane Goodall Dag Hammarskjold Helen Hayes  Audrey Hepburn    Lyndon B. Johnson  Helen Keller Edward "Ted" Kennedy  Martin Luther King, Jr

Dalai Lama   David Letterman Rachael Maddow   Nelson Mandella   The Masons  Paul Newman Michelle Obama   Sean Penn   Brad Pitt   Martha Raye Bishop Gene Robinson Eleanor Roosevelt    Jehan Sadat   Beverly Sills  John Shelby Spong Barbra Striesand Elizabeth Taylor Danny Thomas Harry S Truman    Bishop Desmond Tutu              Betty White

Apiarian VI

Click here for an explanation of the title.

Remember, we are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we're so deeply interconnected with one another. Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is the supreme creative act.

~Ram Dass

Wonder...

People travel to wonder 

at the height of mountains, 
at the huge waves of the sea,
at the long courses of rivers, 
at the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars;
And they pass by themselves without 

wondering.

~St. Augustine

Proof

 One of my favorite things to do is to go to Specialis Procer Lodge and then out to eat afterwards.

We have moved back upstairs in the Consistory building for our meetings and we really like the more intimate atmosphere of the Scottish Rite Classroom.  The Blue Lodge Room was just to large for our small Lodge.

Our meetings are purposely short and we accomplish our business in right around an hour

Picture from Proof Web Site.

After the meeting we choose a place to go and have supper.  This is where the real fellowship of our Lodge takes place.  The Brethren sit, eat and discuss many topics.  Sometimes jokes are told but we always have a good time.  Friday evening we went to Proof.

Brothers on my right.

and left.  One a lawyer and one in law school...They always have an interesting discussion.

 Proof has an interesing menu.  I started with cheese.  This was the finest blu cheese I have ever eaten, drizzled with Iowa Honey (for my allergies -which I don't have) and home made crackers.
 Roasted beet salad with beet/balsamic marshmallow, pistachio piccada, and goat cheese cream.
This was my salad and I had duck.  I don't usually eat duck but the server recommended it and it was wonderful. Kevin said that his scallops were perfectly prepared. Their menu changes from time to time.  I was very satisfied as were most of the Brothers.  One of them had a little difficulty with the slowness of getting the check and I do have to admit that they did not bring the silver out in a timely manner. (We had to ask for it.)  I was trying to figure out how I was going to eat the salad with the knife from my cheese.  But  they did bring it and since I was in no hurry I was not as upset as he was.

The food was really well presented and it was delicious.  I would recommend going back there again.  I found the place on my phone app.  One of the brothers looked it up on his phone app and saw that it had an 89% rating.  I have no problem with that.  Food was great  -  atmosphere perhaps a little sterile for my taste (I like opulence) -  staff - welcoming and pleasant (could have been just a little more attentive) - chairs - not quite as tall as I need for my long legs but adequate. Company - tremendous.  I had a good time.

Oh on a side note.. Someone came up to me as I sat down. I had my hat on as there was no place to put it.  He said he thought I looked like John Huston.. Not sure I should be flattered as he is dead.  Later one of the women who was with him came over and asked me if I was a client at a Des Moines Firm...They must have been discussing who I was as she was from the same table as the guy who said I looked like John Huston.  She got my name...Weird..