holidays

The Integrative Biology of Exercise VII - Day 2

dr. dolittle — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 00:16:17 +0000

The Integrative Biology of Exercise VII - Day 2

Mitochondria produce more than just ATP

Anatomy of a mitochondrion from Wikimedia Commons

Pinchas Cohen from the University of California - Davis presented data showing that mitochondria produce more than just ATP. They also make several peptides that can each affect our physiology. Some help cells respond to insulin better, some help with weight, some regulate cell metabolism. What is even more impressive is that some of these peptides have been shown to slow down the development of atherosclerosis or Alzheimer's, and some even help prevent side effects from chemotherapy in animals. Maybe some day we will see mitochondrial peptides on the market to treat various diseases.

Good news for caffeine drinkers?

By Takkk - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8508887

Boyett et al. (James Madison University) presented a poster showing that when ingested in the morning or evening, caffeine helps improve cycling performance in most people. Although for trained athletes it was only effective in the morning.

Blame it on your genes if you don't like exercise

By Apers0n, via Wikimedia Commons

Rodney Dishman (University of Georgia) presented research showing that genes involved in regulating levels of dopamine in the brain could be to blame for exercise avoidance in some individuals. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that signals pleasure, reward and drive. According to a press release from the American Physiological Society, Dr. Dishman stated, “Our current field trial with humans suggests that variations in genes that encode for dopamine and other neurotransmitters linked with physical activity account for low or high physical activity directly.”

Exercise may protect us from the holidays

By Ben Franske (Own work) - via Wikimedia Commons

Ludzi et al. (University of Michigan) presented a poster showing that people who do not exercise regularly develop increased signs of inflammation in their fat tissues after just one-week of excessive calories. In contrast, exercise was shown to protect our fat tissues from developing inflammation even after a week of overeating.

dr. dolittle Thu, 11/03/2016 - 20:16

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Tradition!!!!

gregladen — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:43:29 +0000

Tradition!!!!

Tradition. Not just a song from Fiddler on the Roof.

You know the refrain: "The Papa, the Papa! Tradition." It's a great play but it is firmly rooted in the patriarchy, as "tradition" often is.

There are many ways to define "tradition" and we can look it up somewhere and have a flameware over dictionary meanings if you want. But instead I'll tell you what I think the word means, roughly, generally, and subject to revision.

First, "tradition" is a feature of culture that simply refers to practices that are habitual. A subset of "traditions" are formalized or regularized, like holidays in many cultures (not all cultures have holidays or annual traditions). "Tradition" also refers to some sort of time depth ... something can be thought of as traditional if it is something that has "always" been done a certain way. More to the point, however, is that the way something IS done (or is planned) is a certain way by reference to prior practice. We will put the Christmas Tree in that corner of the room because we've always put it in that corner of the room. And in this context, some traditions are quite labile while others are not. You can actually move the Christmas Tree around all you want in most Tree-using households, but perhaps you would have a much harder time not putting one up at all. Or, perhaps you can change up the exact way you cook the food for the annual feast, but the Papa still gets to decide whom his daughter marries. "The Papa, the Papa! Tradition."

The time depth aspect of "tradition" is well understood in the context of archaeology. Many archaeologists use words like "horizon" for a thing they see across a large space but not with a lot of time depth. Things that are maintained through long periods of time ... certain pottery decorative motifs, certain kinds of stone tools ... may be called "traditions."

I have three small personal observations to make about traditions that serve to expose some important aspects of them.

When I was planning to work with the Efe (Pygmies) in the Ituri Forest some years back, I read everything written about them (there is actually not that much compared to, say, The Maya or Justin Beiber or something). One of the things that was recorded by several different ethnographic observers (anthropologists, missionaries, etc.) was how they bury their dead. In many societies, including many (more or less) Western societies, how you bury your dead is pretty strictly determined, and highly "traditional" as you know. And, if you ask any group of Efe, you might infer that their "tradition" is also fairly strict, and you might assume that they have been burying their dead the same way for a long time.

However, among the half dozen or so historical accounts and the three or four modern accounts (including my own) of how an Efe Pygmy is buried, in three different areas of the Ituri Forest covering almost a century of time, no two accounts were the same. At all. It would appear that Efe burial practices vary considerably across time and space, while in other cultures, burial is quite "traditional" in the sense of prescribed, determined, and time-deep.

Conclusion: The KINDS of things one may think of as typically traditional (marriage, burial, life-stage transitions, etc. etc.) may actually not be across cultures. It is not safe to extend one's own view of how things are done outside one's own culture without actually looking at other cultures.

(As an aside, I'll mention that attention to the dead in both severity and regularity among Native American groups in the US shifted to be much more homogeneous when cultural patrimony became a powerful political tool. I believe something similar happened in Australia as well. I suspect those two cases are not isolated in the history of humanity.)

My second observation is less about cross cultural aspects of tradition, but rather, on how the heck traditions emerge to begin with. When I graduated with my PhD from a small eastern college, I noticed that the people up on the stage ... the official people, like the President and the major Deans ... were decked out in Edwardian Garb including top hats and so on. The college itself was over 300 years old, so this was not the dress of the earliest days of the school (though the graduate school's graduation suit was Renaissance style). I wondered ... did they decide during the Edwaradian period to update the stage dress, then forget to keep it updated? Or did they decide during the 1960s or some other later time period to go retro, and happen to like top hats in a foreshadowing of Steampunk Fashion? The point is that this was an obvious case, because of the time-trip nature of it all, of manufactured tradition rather than tradition just happening because you do something long enough.

Which leads to my third observation: With a new child in the house, Amanda and I are staring to talk about "traditions" we'd like to start. I've always thought that the best, most ancient, and reliable traditions are the ones you just thought up and pretend you've always been doing. Easier to keep the story straight, at least in the beginning. When Julia was little, she did not like cake (still doesn't) so the tradition emerged to have pie instead for her birthday. With Huxley, we are hoping to completely eliminate both pie and cake and have him enjoy something healthier, such as a pineapple. You can stick a candle in a pineapple, right? The interesting thing about this is the push back we may (or may not) receive from others. If we are really going to have birthday-cake free parties for him on his birthday, we're basically going to have to not ever invite anyone (except Julia) in order to avoid all the crap we'll have to take for not providing Huxley with an opportunity to smear frosting all over his head.

The reason I point out this observation is that it is a fairly mild but still instructive example of the conflict that can occur around tradition. We will be starting, any day now, The War on Christmas, during which Atheists such as myself are accused of being Nazis because we prefer to say "happy holidays" ... thus being more inclusive ... over some other greeting. There will be conflict over this. I will have to decide in a couple of weeks if I'd like to go on the local FOX news station and debate this as I've done before (I'm thinking of suggesting someone else to do this ... I'm growing tired of manufactured arguments like this one.) Large and seemingly influential non-profit churchy groups have held major corporations hostage over this issue. Fights over tradition can get quite nasty.

Tradition is probably a good thing when it tells you what to do and how to do it in a good way. Tradition tells us to not eat the paint, but instead, the pancakes. It reminds us of certain obligations that are probably important. And so on. But tradition can also be uncritical and misleading, facilitating some rather dumb behavior. But at its worst, it can be, and often is, a tool of those in power used to keep control over important aspects of life: which person, or which kind of person, to love or marry; whom to treat as a superior; who gets to kneel on a carpet and who does not while being beheaded. Well, maybe not that last one so much anymore (except metaphorically, of course).

Tradition. "The Papa, the Papa! Tradition."

_____________________
The next edition of Skeptically Speaking will consist of a panel of individuals led by Desiree Schell talking about tradition. I hope you can join us! And if you missed it, you can certainly catch the podcast.

gregladen Fri, 11/18/2011 - 17:43

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Greg,
The tradition thing you are planning for Huxley (good luck with that) is more akin to programming or an experiment. I applaud the effort but expect mixed results at best. Many shifts in tradition would certainly result from changes in external conditions. Like burning bodies rather than burial if conditions got too wet or firewood became scarce.

The war on christmas is a joke so I understand the inertia WRT yet another debate. I laugh at the 'Reason for the Season' campaigns. The reason for the season is a retail one, not a religious one. Happy holidays is respectful, inclusive, and celebratory. Perfect.

I believe I know where the picture you included at the top of the post was taken. It appears to be the train room at the Franklin Institute. We used to have sleepovers there with the cub scouts.

@MikeMa

"The reason for the season is a retail one, not a religious one."

Perhaps the cry of "Happy shopping!" or "Happy Xmas shopping" should replace "Happy Holidays"?

MikeMa: It is the Franklin Institute.

I guess I disagree with you somewhat. What I'm saying here, in part, is that a) the strength of some traditions is actually much lower than we might expect, and others at a higher level than we might expect. (Or sometimes, what we expect/know, but the point is, variable.)

I'm pretty sure, for instance, that some of my inlawas will be much more annoyed that there will not be a cake at the 2yr old's birthday than they would be if, say, I refused to wear a Yamaka at a sader (sp?).

In the case of the burial practices, the Pygmies a) have a practice and b) could care less. That's fairly counter-intuitive for a Westerner. It would't not take much of a change in conditions.

Greg,
My experience is that the strength of the tradition is in almost direct proportion to the amount of their life a person experienced it and it matters much less what happened before they were aware of it (ancient history). So if you make a tradition for your family, they will accept is as such without much reference to its age. We had many such traditions and modified them frequently to meet circumstances so, yes they are easily changed to meet many conditions, mostly convenience. Saying, "That's how we always did it" in my work (IT) is usually a warning that means it is time to look for a new tradition.

I think it is spelled Seder and yarmulke. At least according to my memory and the spellchecker isn't arguing:)

@jrkrideau,
I have heard "Happy shopping" often. Pragmatism prevails!

Good on you for changing cake to something healthier (you do realize you could pull a Congress move though and proclaim cake is a vegetable). It is interesting to see the kind of push-back you get from changing relatively unimportant traditions--it is a litmus test that reveals what kind of person you are dealing with.

I constantly not only break with traditions, but in many cases just don't have any. I would get all sorts of flak from my wife for not having a Christmas evening tradition, an opening presents tradition, a visiting relatives tradition, etc. Why? If I want to give presents, I'll give them during the year. If I want a present, I'll buy it for myself (that way I get what I want and don't have a bunch of crap given to me that I give away to the local Thrift Shop or SallyAnn).

If I want to visit relatives, I'll visit them then. Why wait till one select day to give presents, go visiting--how you going to feel if you're holding out for a couple of months and they die on you? You'll have a closet of presents and you'll wish you'd gone to visit.

To me, it makes perfect sense. I explain this and the only consistent response is, "It makes sense to you, but you're you're not like other people" (if I'd have been born in the 90s, I'd have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder--or sociopathic tendencies according to some disgruntled relatives).

So for me, a war on Christmas isn't about what greeting to give to people--I just don't care about that. The war is why do we have Christmas in the first place? Peace on earth, goodwill to man, give out presents, receive presents, visit family, laugh--those all sound like worthwhile things to pursue all year. Besides, the crass commercialism and naked greed of the season turns me right off, and I feel tainted participating in it.

Just my two cents...but I'm "special" (so one of my morbidly obese diabetic neurotic relatives tells people behind my back). Hmm, maybe I'm more annoyed that I'm expected to visit some in-laws than I am about the other traditions of Christmas. Who wants to be around a person who has lifestyle-induced diabetes and other health problems and still eats far too much--like watching a slow suicide, and I ache for my nephews who are going to lose a parent far too early. And she has fed my once very athletic brother this crap too and he's now teetering between being overweight and obese (so the kids may be orphans before they get married).

I think this year I'm going to ask them both why they want to die, and why are they so selfish* (then I'll rub salt into the wound and tell them the earth is older than 6000 years and dinosaurs actually existed).

*I did tell my brother once he wasn't thinking about his family and that he was selfish by not taking care of himself. His response was, "I am not selfish, how dare you suggest that, and it doesn't matter if I die because I know where I'm going". sigh. Not a trace of irony. Who cares about what happens to those left behind when I die because I know where I'm going. Like I said, selfish, so much so he's completely unaware of it.

Sorry for ranting on your blog. It's that time of year.

MikeMa,

My involvement in Jewish culture is broad and deep via marriage, association, school, etc. (though almost entirely atheistic Jews) and in New York the term was generally Yamaka, though I now see that Wikipedia prefers Kippah, which is how we pronounce that particular fish in Boston. It is also Kippa or Kipa, or Yarmulke according to Teh Wiki.

If you look up Yamaka in Wikipeda you don't get the hat, and Yamaka is not mentioned in the Kippa entry at all. I wonder why that is the case. There isn't even a disambiguation. According to sources outside of Wikipedia, and therefore not part of our modern tradition of knowledge, "Yamaka" is a mispronounciation of "yarmulke" Yarmulke is, probably, also derived, possibly from Polih (jarmulka, or "hat").

I'll try saying "pass the kippah" next holiday and see if I get a hat or a fish!

It was "sader" I was checking the spelling on and I think I got that right. You never know if there is an extra "h" floating around

Daniel,

you could pull a Congress move though and proclaim cake is a vegetable

Actually, we may take that idea and revise it slightly, and declare that a pineapple on a plate with a bunch of other fruit is a cake!

In fact, now that I think about it, I may just go and make a thing that looks exactly like a cake but has no cake in it.

"It makes sense to you, but you're you're not like other people"

Hmmmm... possible facebook status. Possible bumper sticker. Maybe even a coffee cup slogan...

Translations or, more precisely, transliterations from Yiddish do tend to be less rigid in both spelling and pronunciation. Regional effects are highly pronounced and conserved as well. You might get fish if you ask for kippa or you might not. I ask for kippered salmon so that there are no mistakes in something so delicious.

Memories of a cafe in Paris; My friend ordered a "Croque-monsieur" (a form of ham sandwich) from the waiter, and got a "Coke" becuase the waiter thought she said "A Coke, Monsieur"

Several soda's later and a shift change, and we finally got our grilled cheese and ham sandwiches.

Our tradition for Christmas for the last 5 years is to start playing all the H P Lovecraft Historical Society solstice carols: Tentacles!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2csnVNai-o

The axial tilt is the reason for the season!

More generally, I am an avid breaker of traditions. I find tradition offensive because often it flies in the face of logic.

Here is another example of a changing tradition: Chinese weddings. It used to be standard for the bride to wear a red dress, since red symbolizes happiness in Chinese culture. But in recent years many Chinese brides (even in China, not just expats) have adopted the Western custom of wearing white. I encountered a wedding party when I was in Beijing a few years ago (the reception was at the hotel where I was staying), and not only was the bride wearing white, but the signs in the lobby indicated the way to the reception by showing a couple in Western wedding garb.

I am flexible with traditions: I will go along when it is convenient to do so and break them when it is more convenient for me to do so. I do Christmas because I get holiday/vacation time around then anyway whether or not I try to get together with family. But I have not had Thanksgiving with my family in many years: I have no immediate family close to where I live, and it is an inconvenient time of year for me to travel. (I generally see the family at Christmas anyway, which is only a month later.)

Love: A Four-Letter Word

milhayser — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:01:17 +0000

Love: A Four-Letter Word

For the last few years, Claire L. Evans and friends have been producing a television show designed to teach computers about the human experience. On Valentine's Day, the term technophile got a new meaning on Universe. Claire explains, "we made some valentines for you and your computer to share. After all, you do spend all day staring at each other." On Pharyngula, PZ Myers looks at love throughout the animal kingdom, including among tortoises and penguins who look downright ecstatic in their couplings. Meanwhile, Mike the Mad Biologist encourages forethought before foreplay, showing us a pie chart of all the services that Planned Parenthood provides. Contraception and STD testing take up equal slices; so be smart, and be safe, or just take it slow. Brush up on the science of kissing on Page 3.14, where Dean Toney shares insights on Sheril Kirshenbaum's new book. Then visit The Thoughtful Animal for Jason G. Goldman's latest article in The Guardian, which outlines seven scientific strategies to seal the deal. And remember, no matter who (or what) you love, today's as good a day as any to tell it how you feel.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER on Universe
Valentine's Day Video: Penguins and Tortoises on Pharyngula
Why Planned Parenthood Matters to Me on Mike the Mad Biologist
The Science of Kissing on Page 3.14
Happy Valentine's Day! on The Thoughtful Animal

milhayser Mon, 03/07/2011 - 05:01

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behavior

holidays

Depression Holidays - Not So Depressing After All!

sastyk — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 07:53:19 +0000

Depression Holidays - Not So Depressing After All!

During a three month period, between September 9 and December 16th, we have Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchas Torah, Asher's birthday, Simon's birthday, Thanksgiving, Isaiah's birthday and eight nights of Chanukah. It was manifestly poor planning on my part to produce three kids between Rosh Hashana and Chanukah, but it also means I don't have the luxury of slacking off on holiday prep - not if I want to do them sustainably.

Now on the one hand, I think most of us realize that the traditional Western holidays and birthdays are kind of ridiculous. Less is good for our kids, good for adults, good for our personal economies. Most of us need to shift from a consumptive relationship to celebration to focusing on other pleasures - connection and experiences, rather than things. We are drowning in things. And now that many of us can't afford them, we panic - because our holidays are so deeply associated with material goods.

On the other hand, I also think gifts can be important - they play an important role in our culture, and in difficult times, they may provide the only luxury items in our lives. The idea of scrimping and saving to be able to afford one thing that our partner or grandkid or friend wants and needs, to offer a little beauty when really there has only been enough for necessities - these are good things, they have value. Our present model of excessive, debt-based gift giving has been perverse and excessive is bad, but it doesn't erase the value of all gifts. Instead, what we need are Depression gifts, the ability to give what is needed without spending a lot of money.

And on a purely practical level, it is important to think about gift-giving well ahead (ideally well before now, but all is not lost, if you are just getting to it) if you are going to give handmade, recycled, yard saled or homegrown (I could have just said "cheap" here ) gifts. I discovered this during the year we went without buying anything new - let's just say that the term "IOU" appeared more than a couple of times at our family gift exchange.

So I encourage people to think now about gifts, and about their role in your family. Do you exchange gifts? What kind? Is this something you are happy with, or unhappy about? Is there a way to shift your family's gift giving to a kind that feels enriching and positive? How? What, exactly, can you give? If budgets are tight, how can you overcome economic constraints?

On a practical level, my kids usually get one gift each for their birthdays from us, and one group gift (much wanted toy, experience) along with a couple of books I want them to have each for Chanukah and maybe a blanket or new pair of pajamas. I buy the books over the course of the year, along with books for my nieces and for our friend's kids, birthday party gifts, etc... Being a book person, that's my favorite gift, and I spend a lot of time hunting for appropriate choices. Perfect condition children's books are pretty easy to find used, or new but at wildly discounted prices. Plenty of wonderful adult books appear that way. Books are so undervalued in our society - even if the books are clearly used, the value of good reading material is in no way undercut. If money is tight - or even if it isn't - used books make terrific presents.

It helps if you begin thinking long in advance - and occasionally really long. No one tell Simon and Isaiah, but for several years, I have been picking up inexpensive superhero comic books at local library sales. Some of them probably have collector value, but that's not why I want them - I want my kids to enjoy them. Right now, they are about ready to have them - when I started they were young not to wreck them and a bit too young for this sort of comics. But this year or next, they will receive them as a Chanukah gift. I don't think they'll be less appreciated because Mom paid 10 cents apiece for them.

I don't run across many trash-picking opportunities out where I live, but my family that lives in suburbia often finds wonderful trash pick gifts. My kids have long loved a wooden, rideable airplane, an absolutely beautiful toy that my sister trash picked for my oldest son when he was two. My nieces play in a trash picked toy kitchen my step-mom rescued and restored - it is beautiful, huge and fancy, and my son rides a bike his aunt and uncle saved from the dump and painted purple. Check your dump, freecycle, garbage bins, etc... If you have prejudices against trash picked articles, get over them - the kitchen pretend cooks just as well as a new one, the airplane rides beautifully and the bike is the best one ever, according to Simon, particularly since my son's uncle spray painted it really bright purple.

Ebay, Craigslist, Freecycle, barter networks, Goodwill, the Salvation Army, Thrift Shops - these are good places to get used and high quality toys, clothes and linens - sometimes still in the packages. I also have seen good tools there, at reasonable prices. My Goodwill routinely has brand new clothing of extremely high quality for very little money. My own professional wardrobe comes from there, and I have bought gifts for kids and adults through them.

Homemade gifts are terrific - jams, jellies, baked goods, homemade treats of all kinds including liqueurs, candies, and dairy products are wonderful gifts. Then there are hand knitted and crocheted, handsewn and homebuilt projects of all sorts. Remember, they don't have to be made from new or expensive materials. Consider unravelling woolen thrift shop sweaters for yarn, or making mittens out of felted wool sweaters (cut out a mitten shape, sew the ends together and flip it inside out). Build with scrap wood, repair broken goods, make quilts from old fabric.

Or give the gift of service - help your Mom clean out her attic. Give your son a month of daily baseball practice with you. Give your children a "get out of chores free" card. Babysit for the new Mom, make dinner for the busy family, do some chore for your wife or husband, or fulfill a favorite fantasy.

Charitable gifts are especially important now that safety nets are being overwhelmed by increased need. My children give an animal to the Heifer Fund several times each year, and one year, everyone in my family got something poultry related plus a donation to Heifer. We also give to relief groups, food pantries and Doctors without Borders as holiday and birthday gifts.

There are tons of options out there - no matter how poor we are, there's almost always something to give. I know there are people out there who really can't have anything under the tree or on a birthday, but most of us, given a little time and thought, could find a gift that was appreciated and free, or very nearly so.

If you are going to buy something new, buy something with real longevity. Spend your money carefully on things that will last, that have permanent value. Choose nice clothing that will last your lifetime, tools that you will pass on to your children, toys your grandkids can play with. And remember, you don't have to fit it in a box - if you are saving for a piece of land, needed health treatments, some other piece of security - that's a gift too. Give your children the chance to give the whole family a gift (small children probably won't get this - a certain amount of abstract reasoning is required) - that is, to put the resources you would have spent on Christmas towards paying off the house, getting your land, making sure Grandma is healthy for the holiday. Even children are more moral and generous than they are often asked to be.

If you are facing birthdays or the holidays in despair, wondering how you will pay for it all, stop. It will be ok. Instead of seeing a well into which you must plunge your remaining financial security, start looking for ways to make holidays and birthdays inexpensive, comforting, and simple.

Sharon

sastyk Fri, 09/17/2010 - 03:53

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holidays

children

gift economy

Backing away from excessive consumer culture as a family has meant scaling back from cultural expectations of gift-giving excess, as well. There's so much positive to this but one unexpected plus has been NO HOLIDAY STRESS. It's been amazingly freeing and our holidays (throughout the year) are focused on more than acquiring or gifting more stuff. We make gifts or buy used or simply send well wishes. I think we're perceived as "cheap" but I simply cannot feel good about participating in the craziness of consumer culture.
-Lisa

My eldest brother gives my children books or magazine subscriptions at birthdays and Christmas - and he loves doing it. From us, he receives handmade art from the children, and a plate of homemade fudge, and another of tollhouse cookies, from me. He gives gifts from his abundance, and we from ours. It all works!

We can power down our consumer instincts and still give generously of our time, effort and thought when we select gifts that tred lightly on the earth. It sometimes will be hard - many folks adhere to inflexible traditions, and have actual prejudices tied up in their conception of what is "right" for the holidays. One of my relatives objected strenuously to our greeting cards! I just took them off our list. Others were grateful about the amount of thought that went into our admittedly modest offerings.

I love looking through thrift stores for special gifts for friends and loved ones. It's an adventure! Thanks for the timely and lovely post! J

Although I am solidly atheist, I have long envied the depth and richness of the Jewish tradition. Long after the expensive gifts have been tossed, your family will remember the gifts you gave them of yourself. Don't teach them to take these things for granted. If you sit down to meals as a family, before you start eating thank each of them for a special gift they have given you today. (Children are ungrateful because they've damn well been TAUGHT to be ungrateful!)

Lovely. My husband and I especially like to give each other good quality, long-lasting tools we know the other will use for years to come, and sometimes count items for the house as gifts -- such as the lovely bathroom medicine cabinet he built secretly and "gave" me last Christmas.
A friend has been giving dishcloths and towels she knitted herself as gifts, and goodness, they are beautiful, and it's moving to know how much time she put into them.
My own knitting is pretty primitive and I have yet to finish a project; I give a lot of food gifts and home-canned goods, and sometimes sewing projects -- quilts, shirts. One year, we gave homemade beeswax candles. A basketful of homemade jams or selection of catsups, salsas and chutneys can be a wonderful gift, selected from among items you made anyway, to see your own family through the winter.
A cousin sometimes offers to help with a purchase -- one year, she gave me a discount from one of her paintings that I was buying, as a birthday gift; this year, part of the cost of an especially beautiful skirt I admired at an art fair. It's quite a lovely, thoughtful gift.
Many of the above do cost money, and we do them because at the moment we can afford to. But all Sharon's suggestions are wonderful. My husband has worn into rags a tee-shirt I found for him one year at Goodwill, with a picture of cats imitating a dalmation (we had a dalmation), and I will always treasure the memory of the hand-carved beeswax candles he gave me once when he had no money, but did have wax from his own beehives. You can sew beautiful things from rags -- aprons, pot-holders, quilts, cozies for everything from hot water bottles to toasters, market bags -- and end up with gifts more unique, beautiful and thoughtful than anything you could have bought.

If you are buying new, I have another suggestion. For one of our grandmother's each year at Christmas we buy her as much as we can afford (last year it was a 6 month supply, other years its been a 30day supply) of an expensive OTC medication she needs daily. This allows her to spend her money on something she'd prefer to have. It can be nice to have someone "free up" some of your income (whether it's in the form of meds or something else you use regularly) that's not necessarily a "gift item".

Most people I know like luxury foods! Homemade sweets and baking go down well for groups (like classmates or co-workers); for family and friends I've found that pitching the presents at their own culinary preferences is better. One thing that's pretty cheap is to make up seasoning mixes for people who're too busy to cook (or simply less confident handling complex seasoning) tailored to their tastes, with instructions for one or two simple recipes on a card with them. Something as simple as chilli seasoning is good (and can include instructions for either beef or veggie dishes), and there's a humungous variety of Indian mixes suitable for long storage and easy cooking.

Superb piece. Alas, my two families have opposite outlooks on gift-giving, but one thing they firmly agree on is that doing used and handmade gifts would be, as they say here in St. Louis, hoosierly. I have hand-made a few Christmas and Chanukah presents (knit scarf or hat, sewn pillows) for people to whom I wanted to express extra-special thanks and love for some reason. Because I am clumsy at crafts, these gifts cost me far more hours than it would have taken just to earn the money to buy something nice from the store, so they're intended to convey a very high level of caring. (Whether the recipients realized that, while looking at my blobby knitting, is another question.)

Be careful on what you trash-pick. One of my friends had neighbours telling her that she had thrown away some great toys- their kids had fished them back out and were having great fun. The reason they were thrown out is because rats had been living in them, and they had been covered in the various leavings of the rodents.

Try to pick washable stuff, or stuff you know wasn't thrown out for a similar contamination reason (or because it was dangerous in some way).

re dewey: until I moved to St. Louis, I thought Hoosier was a resident of the state of Indiana. My native-son DH set me straight right quick. ;-)

A few weeks back, my mom called and asked if I would mind if we stopped giving each other Christmas gifts this year. Not only did I not mind, but I was hugely relieved! My parents live 1200 miles away and I don't see them at Christmas (we spend it here with my in-laws), meaning that for quite some years we've just sent each other gift certificates. I'm fortunate to have a practical mom who realizes that we're both better off to save that money, particularly since I can then put it toward the once every year or two visit. My siblings and I had agreed not to gift each other years ago, and more recently I have stopped gifting their children in favor of using that money toward occasional visits.

A gift my DH and I like to give each other is to go to a longstanding local bookstore and have the one being gifted pick out however many books fit into the budget, for which the other pays. We both love to read, and we both enjoy the particular bookstore and want it to stay in business.

It's one of those innocently picked up locutions that I fear may someday get me punched out by an Indianan.

I realize also that when Sharon writes "It was manifestly poor planning on my part to produce three kids between Rosh Hashana and Chanukah," we have so far all missed the opportunity to say ah-hah, so THAT'S how she stays warm January through March. ;-)

Noticed, did you, Dewey ;-)?

And I still don't know what "Hoosierly" means other than "from Indiana."

Whether or not the H is capitalized makes the meaning. Hoosier with a capital H is a resident of Indiana, with the -ly added might then be an adverb pertaining to Indiana. With a small h, hoosier is the St. Louis term for which others might use hillbilly instead. Don't ask me why, it's just one of the weird things about St. Louis is the best I can tell.

My sister and I have been trying for years to get our parents to pull back from the orgy of excess they call christmas. We have discovered it is impossible - so we banded together and decided we are willing to be perceived as cheap or miserly - as long as we do it together. The last few years, she has given handmade soaps and felted toys or jewelry, and I have given thrift store finds like cashmere sweaters and home canned goodies. It might be having an effect - last year my mom gave us donations made in our name to health clinics in poor countries. We were thrilled.
As far as my own children go - I try to give them experiences. I might spend just as much money (or more!) on a trip to the art museum or the zoo as I would have spent on a toy, but I consider it money well spent. It gives them what they truly want more than anything - time alone with their parents.
That said, I think it is not always a bad thing to buy well-made, imaginative toys that will last. One year I made a very big purchase of a child sized wooden table and chairs (including high chair) made by a local artisan. That toy has been a major hit and I expect to hand it down to my grandkids.

It is absolutely crazy how people get into that gift buying around Christmas, who knows why?! Feed the poor instead or take some cheap vacations away from it all so that you don't have to buy anything : )

It's Rough Being the Easter Bunny

grrlscientist — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 02:59:36 +0000

It's Rough Being the Easter Bunny

tags: cartoon, easter, humor

I know this cartoon is as old as I am so you've all seen it a hundred times already, but it never fails to make me laugh, so I am sharing it with you anyway.

grrlscientist Sat, 04/03/2010 - 22:59

Tags

http://www.snorgtees.com/mybutthurts-p-279.html?osCsid=7473271

Armeen von Schokoladenhasen

grrlscientist — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:59:45 +0000

Armeen von Schokoladenhasen

tags: Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Armeen von Schokoladenhasen, easter, springtime, holidays, photography

Armeen von Schokoladenhasen.

Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Image: GrrlScientist, 24 March 2010 [larger view]

Easter is coming, and vast armies of chocolate bunnies are massing in the grocery stores, waiting to invade your homes and waistlines.

grrlscientist Thu, 03/25/2010 - 16:59

Tags

Frankfurt through my eye

my pictures

Photography

Armeen von Schokoladenhasen

Frankfurt through my eye

my pictures

Photography

The Serious Eats blog posted the results of their taste test of chocolate bunnies today. See's was the best (significantly better than Lindt), and relatively cheap too.

How to Wrap a Cat for Christmas

grrlscientist — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:59:52 +0000

How to Wrap a Cat for Christmas

tags: How to Wrap a Cat for Christmas, holidays, christmas, funny, weird, silly, cats, pets, streaming video

This silly and amusing video is a little late for christmas, but it's still the holiday season, more or less (especially considering the mountains of snow that people in much of the Northern Hemisphere are dealing with right now), so it's appropriate.

grrlscientist Sat, 01/09/2010 - 00:59

Tags

Actually, that is a great wrapping job. I usually just use bags because I am an awful gift wrapper. Boxes are as complex as I get when it comes to paper.

well, put the cat in a box and wrap it, before sending it to that nice Prof. SchrÃ¶dinger. He can worry about whether it'll be alive when it arrives.

speaking of schroedinger's cat, my little chirp thinks she might be: http://realistatlarge.blogspot.com/2009/11/chirp-schroedingers-cat.html :)

all proceeds go to keeping her in the manner she would like to become accustomed :)

That is one laid-back cat!

If I tried that on my Manx, I wouldn't have a face left.

Having a giggle can warm you up, let it snow let it snow let it snow!

My cat, Buddie, would have unwrapped too enthusiastically to achieve a parcel.

Warm now
x

Ha, travelgirl! I love it!

The Beast could be wrapped like that, as long as you left the paper out for him to fall asleep on.

That is one uber-mellow cat.

Jingle Farts

grrlscientist — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:59:11 +0000

Jingle Farts

tags: Jingle Farts, Holidays, humor, funny, silly, streaming video

Here's a silly holiday greeting and song especially for all my readers who appreciate such things.

grrlscientist Thu, 12/24/2009 - 23:59

Tags

Love it!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

awild — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:49:19 +0000

Ho, Ho, Ho!

awild Thu, 12/24/2009 - 04:49

Tags

I want this to be a Christmas card.

This NEEDS to be a Christmas card.

*LOVE*

Nice sANTa! Many researchers Photoshop the old Santa hat onto their study animals at this time of year, but none as skillfully as you.

Nice! I'd even say, brilliant!

May your holidays be fantastick and not at all louse-y!

/OK, OK, I'm done with the puns

Fantastic photo Alex! I agree ... it needs to be a Christmas Card! Merry Christmas to you and your wife. May your New Year be Happy, Healthy, and filled with many any projects!

Perfect holiday card, Santa should use these instead of those damn elves.

Great job, you are very talented. Merry Christmas and great blogging.

Keith

Definitely needs to be a Christmas card!

Alex and Jo-anne

A Merry Christmas and Happy New year

must not leave Mingus out tooo

CYA

Nice doctored ant. ;) It reminded me of my old captions:

1. http://antfarm.yuku.com/topic/5671

2. http://antfarm.yuku.com/topic/5500

3. http://antfarm.yuku.com/topic/5501

Oh and I agree on an ant-theme Christmas cards!! Myrmecos could make easy money. ;)

No Beard! What kind of Pogonomyrmex santa is that!?

I agree with MrILTA -- Needs an exaggerated white psammophore!

Hope you're having a wonderful season (and putting up with this God-awful Midwestern weather well!)

Maybe I'm wrong and it's Messor clause.

that explains why my presents were so TINY this year!

You could use:

http://www.myrmecos.net/myrmicinae/PogMar6.html

for Easter!

GrrlScientist's Christmas/Holiday Feast: What Are Your Favorite Recipes?

grrlscientist — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:59:00 +0000

GrrlScientist's Christmas/Holiday Feast: What Are Your Favorite Recipes?

As you know, I recently married a British nutter and relocated to Germany, where I assume we both will remain for a significant period of time. Like most newlyweds, we wish to start our own traditions for the holidays, but since our possessions have not arrived yet, we are living in a nearly empty flat.

No seriously: our flat is nearly empty. For example, in Germany, when people move into their own flat, it is empty of all furnishings -- including the entire kitchen. Most Germans design and purchase their kitchen before moving in -- refrigerator, stove, range top, microwave, dishwasher, counters, cabinets and lighting ..

Currently, our kitchen consists of white tile walls and floor, nine outlets (one specifically for the stove), one water fixture (split into two so half of the water can be sent through a small water heater wall unit -- which is sitting on the floor at the moment), and one large drainpipe with paper stuffed into it.

After a lot of agonizing, lots of trips to appliance stores, and meetings with several experts, my spouse and I finally managed to design and order our kitchen from IKEA, and now we are waiting for it to arrive and be installed. Originally, it was supposed to be delivered and installed on the afternoon of 30 December, so of course, we would be without a full kitchen for the holidays. (We did purchase a beautiful, super-energy efficient refrigerator ten days ago, and a microwave that also works as a small convection oven). So we were making plans for that unfortunate situation, but this morning, IKEA called and asked if we would like our kitchen to be delivered and installed tomorrow morning!

Of course!

So it looks like my spouse and I will have a brand-new fully-functional kitchen in time for Christmas! This past weekend, we reserved a hen duck that we will cook for our Christmas meal (it will be small enough to fit into our microwave/oven) but now it looks like we will be able to do more cooking than that. All we have to do is clean the space that will be our kitchen (I refer to it as "the hole in the wall" because it is long and narrow and dark and not perfectly square) and tomorrow, it will be magically transformed from a dark, narrow alcove into a bright, functional kitchen. Already, I am planning to photograph the kitchen before, during and after the installation, so I can share it with you.

As we prepare to finally have our own kitchen, I am thinking of all the foods we can now prepare ourselves. I am very interested to know which foods you especially enjoy during your Christmas/holiday celebrations. If you have favorite recipes to share, I'd be most grateful, and I will probably end up preparing at least some of these foods. I have only a few days to find all the ingredients (stores close early in Germany), so I need to get started with purchasing ingredients immediately.

There are two things on the menu so far: roast duck stuffed with a mango-based dressing, and a fruit salad consisting of a variety of tropical fruits, and perhaps some cooked and mashed sweet potatoes with pineapple chunks mixed in, but I am certainly interested in any recipes you have that you would like to share. If you have a recipe for duck with mango dressing, I'd sure appreciate it if you share that, since I've never prepared duck before (my cookbooks and recipes are all in transit, so the best I can do is Google a recipe and modify it as I prepare it).

I am interested in a recipe for hot buttered rum, eggnog and GlÃ¼hwein, if you have favorites for those drinks that you'd like to share.

grrlscientist Mon, 12/21/2009 - 02:59

Tags

Another British nutter writes ...

Although we've been married 30 years (this is our 30th Christmas together! Eeekkkk!) we've never really developed any Christmas food traditions, except that we don't eat the ubiquitous turkey every year. Some years we do; just as often we don't. And as we have a really good "free range"/"organic" butcher if we do have turkey it will be a select variety like Norfolk Bronze. No, we tend to eat whatever meat we decide we fancy about 3-4 weeks before Christmas; this year it will be roast pork. With the roast, which we nowdays always have in the evening of Christmas Day, there will generally be at least two of: roast (like potatoes) Jerusalem artichokes, fennel (roast like any other veg or cook in a foil parcel) and red cabbage. And as often as not we eat just the one course, with a good bottle of wine and a liqueur. Of recent years Christmas Day lunch has been smoked salmon sandiwches and chanpagne - now there's a tradition to start! And Boxing Day lunch is cold meat, hot mashed potato (and/or bubble & squeak) with pickles and a beer.

We do however have one or two non-food Christmas traditions of our own. We've adopted my parents' present opening tradition: "main" presents opened round the fire on Christmas morning accompanied by a gin & tonic (or a start on the champagne) and "tree" presents (which are supposed to be small, trinkety things or chocolate etc. which will fit under a modern small tree) on Christmas Day evening.

We also put up some Christmas lights in our window on the feast of Christ the King (Sunday before Advent 1) and leave them up until Candlemas (2 Feb) to light our way through the worst of the winter darkness - very pagan! And there's always a wreath on the front door. And you have to put a sprig of holly on the clocks to keep the devil away (I can't remember where that one came from). I'm sure we have others, but they escape me for the moment.

One tradition we had when I was a kid (late 50s to 60s) was to alwys go for a walk round the housing estate on the evening of Christmas Day or Boxing Day to look at other peoples' lights and Christmas trees.

But basically I'd say make up whatever tradition you want to for yourselves. All you need to do is to add to it a little mystery or myth (like our lights). And it doesn't have to make sense or even be sane!

I'll let you in on my secret ingredient for mulled wine: I add black peppercorns to the spices to help give depth to the flavour. Use whole spices because they're easier to strain out of the drink afterwards, and blend to taste from cinnamon, cloves, allspice, mace, and the non-traditional pepper. Use a rough, cheap wine (not one that's actually off, but the sort that you speculate could be used to unblock drains) as a wine that's palatable out of the bottle will taste bland sweetened. Make sure your lemon and orange are unwaxed (shell out for organic if necessary). Go easy on the sugar and brandy at first, as they can overwhelm the rest - you'll want less sugar if your wine is less rough to start with.

Put your spices with a small amount of wine to heat and steep (it's very hard to overspice, and if you manage it, you can pour some of the spice-concentrate into the fridge for tomorrow, or add another bottle to the pot). Slice the citrus fruits and start dissolving your sugar in some of the wine. Once you're ready to go, put everything into a pan with a lid on, and gently heat it (the lid is to condense the ethanol fumes). Taste it before you serve it! and adjust sweetness/fortification.

The brandy is traditional, but rather dangerous if people are going to have ad lib access - the stuff goes down like lemonade. If you suspect your guests are getting too drunk, heat the next batch a bit hotter (or even let some of the ethanol boil off), but be sure to have the window open or you'll end up falling-down drunk!

French Canadian Christmas Carrots

3-4 slices of good smoky bacon, chopped in 1/4" strips
1 small onion, chopped
6-8 smallish carrots, sliced thinly (about 1/8")
freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a pot that has a tight fitting lid sautÃ© the bacon until almost crisp, add onions and carrots, stir to coat everything with bacon fat, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add pepper just before serving.

My family makes cream puffs for dessert on Christmas Day. Weird, but we've been doing it for years! We fill them with peppermint ice cream and top with chocolate sauce. And the next day if there's any leftovers, they make awesome vehicles for sandwich fillings.

CREAM PUFF PASTRY

1/2 c. butter
1 c. boiling water
1 c. pre-sifted flour
1/4 tsp. salt
4 eggs

Put butter and water in small saucepan; stir over high heat until melted and liquid is boiling rapidly. Add flour and salt at once; raise saucepan a few inches above heat. Stir briskly. Mixture will come away from sides of pan and form a ball in center.

Cook and stir 30 seconds more. Remove from heat. Break 1 egg into the paste; beat fast until smooth and fluffy. Repeat until all the eggs are used.

Drop by whatever size you want (1/4 cup) onto ungreased cookie sheet 3 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees until puffed and golden 35-40 minutes. Cool away from drafts. Cut off tops and fill with filling or ice cream.

You will never want the store-bought stuff again!

Aunt Jennyâs Egg Nog

Makes 4 qts. 1 qt. serves approx. 9 punch cup

9 eggs, separated
1 pt. heavy cream
1 C sugar
1 pt. brandy
1 C rum
1 Â½ qt. Milk
1 very large container
freshly grated nutmeg

Beat egg whites until stiff; set aside.
Beat cream until whipped; set aside.
In a large container, beat egg yolks to a cream. Add sugar and beat again. Add liquor slowly. Add milk. Fold in whipped cream and then the egg whites. Mix all (it will be somewhat lumpy).

Let stand in refrigerator, or very cold space, for 24 hours before serving.

Top each serving with grated nutmeg.

Â½ recipe

5 eggs, separated
Â½ pt. heavy cream
Â½ C sugar
1 C brandy
Â½ C rum
Â¾ qt. milk
1 large mixing bowl

! measure tonic water, 3 measures gin, 1 slice lime, 1 hand full of ice. Stir gently. Enjoy.

I like mocular's recipe: I'll be able to follow it.

i made aunt jenny's egg nog today and put it into the coldest place i knew of. later, after a few hours, i went back for a taste and found it had become alcoholic ice cream. yum!

OH!OH!OH!

How do you describe the bestest Snoopy Dog Dance evah?

GrrlScientist is drinking my eggnog on her first Christmas-in-love!!!

My Best Christmas Present Ever!