13: This and That
1. I didn’t leave the neighborhood this weekend because my five-year old grandson Bryce and his 3-year old brother Liam slept over, but I still took in some art when I picked Bryce up at my neighbor Elisha’s house, where he was playing with her five-year old son. Elisha has a straw bale home that she’s decorating the outside base of with a mosaic of broken dishes and whimsical knickknacks, most of which have personal stories.
2. Bryce: Blue and red are good favorite colors because when blood is inside you it’s blue and outside blood is red. Me: Is that why red and blue are your favorite colors? Bryce: I liked them before my teacher told me that.”
3. Facebook status update by my friend Lora: “I just saw a dude with a tee-shirt that said, “Fighting Solves Everything”. Ironically, I wanted to whack him upside the head, but decided to let this one pass, realizing that fighting does not solve everything. I believe what is due to this dude will come and I need not force the matter.”
4. I went from researching Ron Woodroof of Dallas Byers Club fame to Tonsillectomies in children, from reading about the CDC announcement of the rise of autism diagnoses to watching a youtube clip of Dumb and Dumber (requested by my grandsons). 
5. Saying that vaccines are definitively not a factor in the holocaust of autism (now one in sixty children) is like saying the Big Bang rules out the existence of God when they can both easily exist together.
6. Now there are reports saying that children with autism show abnormalities in the brain that were likely to have taken place before birth, which is being presented as another argument that vaccines don’t play a role in the prevalence of the disorder. But that information only makes me think all the more that some children are more vulnerable and susceptible to the onslaught of vaccines given. The more the vaccine regimen increases, so do autism diagnoses (49 doses of 14 vaccines before the age of 6). It’s also possible that the increase of routine prenatal ultrasounds are related to the rise in autism, as reported HERE.
7. I saw a sign on Facebook that said, “The concept of prisons for profit is wrong because it creates a demand for prisoners, which made me think, “The concept of health care for profit is wrong because it creates a demand for sick people.
8. You can’t talk about mudslides without also talking about clear cut logging: It is human nature, if not the American way, to look potential disaster in the face and prefer to see a bright and shining lie. The “taming” of this continent, in five centuries and change, required a mighty mustering of cognitive dissonance. As a result, most of us live with the danger of wildfire, earthquake, tornado, flooding, drought, hurricane or yet-to-be-defined and climate-change-influenced superstorm. A legacy of settlement is the delusion that large-scale manipulation of the natural world can be done without consequence.” Read more from the New York Times Op Ed “A Mudslide Foretold” HERE.
9. Bryce making signs for a Zombie game: “If Hopa (Opa) presses the Bryce button, hearts fall out of the sky.” 
10. Liam gave me a big compliment. While watching the Dumb and Dumber clip, he saw Lauren Holly, pointed and said, “That’s you, Nana.
11. I woke up wanting to see / the crane migration in Nebraska / or at least an ostrich in the zoo / Clouds swept past my window / like a clock unwinding / like the ghosts of lost loved-ones departing … Read the rest of Morning Commute HERE.
12. Honey-colored paper cradles, archetypical arks carrying milkweed seed pods, an installation of maple bark pieces created from storm fallen trees, a branch where exhibit-goers leave handwritten messages are all part of the exhibit. Most of the displayed sculptures are two-sided, such as an egg-shaped piece that features a fern embedded photograph on one side and a shadow box holding river rocks and other found objects on the other. Searching, devotion and connection are some of the photograph subject matters that are depicted by models representing “every man and woman.” More from my story on Gibby Waitzkin’s art HERE.
13. I still feel sad that the mirrored mosaic wall created by students on the Food Time gas station in Blacksburg was torn down. I’m glad I took some pictures of it before it went. See HERE and HERE.
______Thirteen Thursday
April 2nd, 2014 4:01 pm
Both points in #7 are so absolutely right!
7. I saw a sign on Facebook that said, “The concept of prisons for profit is wrong because it creates a demand for prisoners,” which made me think, “The concept of health care for profit is wrong because it creates a demand for sick people.”
April 3rd, 2014 6:11 am
I hope nobody’s paying Bryce’s “teacher.” Blood is red. Sometimes bright red, sometimes dull red–depending on oxygen concentrations–but it’s never blue.
April 3rd, 2014 8:18 am
I wasn’t sure it sounded right, should have checked. I looked it up and indeed it’s true that it’s red (dark or bright depending on oxygenation). It looks bluish viewed through the veins under the skin so maybe that’s were the confusion comes from. There are still people online saying blood is blue when it’s inside you.
Bryce also likes blue and red because when he draws he makes the bad guys red and the blue guys good.
April 3rd, 2014 8:38 am
(ron – maybe the discussion was atually about arteries and veins and the roles they play. those colors are often used to display the circulatory system on charts.)
i won’t go into specific discussion, but yesterday’s commentary about autism/vaccines drove me CRAZY. it came to mind when i read #3! ;D
denial is alive and thriving. #8 brings to mind how much i wish those who claim there is no such thing as climate change/global warming would be around to see for themselves what the world will look like 50 years from now! sadly, most will be long gone, lifted by their fantasies into a make believe world they’ll leave behind smiling.
April 3rd, 2014 8:46 am
I was thinking about the denial of triggers of autism like vaccines as the ice glaciers melting and people still being in denial about global warming!
April 3rd, 2014 8:51 am
1. Never throw away broken dishes!
2. Don’t tell Bryce just yet, but I think blood is red, inside and out.
3. The dust never settles back the same way after a fight.
4. The many, many environmental hazards may also play a part in the increase in autism… along with vaccinations which can surely add to the problem.
Hopefully they’ll figure this out as they have finally begun to admit that amalgum (sp) fillings can cause medical problems.
5. Here’s a quote I like regarding this subject: “THE ONLY WHOLLY SAFE VACCINE IS THE VACCINE THAT IS NEVER USED.” written in 1955 by Dr J. Shannon of the National Institute of Health.
I was going to post this to your FB conversation yesterday, but I never got to it.
6. I was persuaded after reading, “Confessions of a Medical Heretic” by Dr. Mendelson, years ago.
7. And with all those damn ads about this or that sickness, ill health will surely rise to ridiculous heights.
8. Great pictures there.
9. cute!
10. Very neat.
11. there’s no 11.
12. I love the tree with the leaves she created.
I’m falling in love with art that is inspired by nature and or her creatures.
Here’s something I saw today by someone named Tracy Lynch. I thought was extra cool:
http://www.visi.co.za/content/article/1829/maison-objet-in-snaps
13. Art is often not appreciated 🙁
April 3rd, 2014 9:29 am
12. Not surprising that your artful eye is attracted to fabric covered sculpture. How did I forget 11?! There was one. I’m going to add it. Thanks for pointing that out and for visiting.
April 3rd, 2014 10:53 am
I love this life mosaic and want to do it
April 3rd, 2014 12:23 pm
Fighting doesn’t solve most things. I tried to convince my son that karma will get you if you insist on fighting. He said he considered himself a tool of karma because he only fights idiots.
April 3rd, 2014 12:30 pm
You found some good stuff on FB this week (numbers three and seven). Good points in both cases! LOL! 🙂
April 3rd, 2014 12:48 pm
# 7 is definitely right on.
April 3rd, 2014 2:10 pm
Number 4… Isn’t it amazing sometimes where the tangents we follow take us? My T13
April 3rd, 2014 3:29 pm
The mosaics are gorgeous. What a great way to personalize a space.
April 3rd, 2014 4:29 pm
I’m glad you took pictures of the mirrored mosaic wall, too. Thanks for sharing.
http://otherworlddiner.blogspot.com/2014/04/in-celebration-of-ask-again-later.html
April 4th, 2014 3:31 am
Great idea to decorated à house with broken crockery. Autisme is à hot item here in my country as well. Btw I stayed in a strawbale appartment in Israel. It was a good solid building.
I love the way your grandson explained things! One of my grandsons is like that.
Thanks for sharing.
April 5th, 2014 5:58 am
I love the mosaic of broken dishes and whimsical knickknacks, especially since most of them have personal stories. Now all I have to do is build a straw house so I can try out the idea…
April 8th, 2014 1:23 am
Unfortunately there’s a rise in certain childhood diseases so now there’s a campaign to get all children vaccinated, which would be fine if done properly; i.e., guarantee that the vaccines they are using are safe and present the proof that they have been cleaned up. Instead there’s an emphasis on discrediting the people who are anti-vaccination, basically by calling them names like “ignorant.”
Did you see the research pointing to Tylenol as a cause of autism? One theory is that since it was (until very recently) recommended to parents to ease the discomfort of vaccination, it was used at the same time and caused injury in combination with other toxins (mercury?), setting off the events resulted in autistic disorder. This would explain who autism does not coincide with autism in some populations, say in Cuba where Tylenol is not available.
April 8th, 2014 9:17 am
I didn’t read about the possible tylenol link but will. I thing the ultrasound connection is interesting and would also explain why countries not so tied into high-tech would not have high autism rates. I believe vaccines have a place but they also require caution and a look at the collective effect of adding so many on top of each other.