Gettysburg Events Seldom Mentioned
When we think of the Battle of Gettysburg we think of Lee versus Meade, Pickett’s Charge, Sickles’ screw up, Lee getting away, and the movie. What many or most tourists miss is what precipitated the events and the arguments between historians of what caused what and why this and that happened. Here are a few things to consider if you ever visit the battlefield.
When Lee gave General Stuart permission to ride around the Army of the Potomac he was basing this decision on Stuart’s past endeavor when he successfully road the army in three days in 1862. Several things occurred. First, Stuart took three of his seven cavalry brigades thus leaving Lee four two of which were irregular and two regular cavlary brigades. The two regular brigades, one of which led by General Grumble (almost wrote grumpy) Jones and the other Beverly Robertson were left guarding the line of supply, thus missing the battle. The two irregular cavalry brigades, commanded by Jenkins and Imboden, were not used by Lee because he distrusted them, hence the reason why Lee was “blind”. Why were the more “reliable” brigades in the rear? Glad you asked, Jeb Stuart had issues with the men and wouldn’t want to achieve glory. Robertson at one time courted Stuart’s wife Flora, and Grumble Jones and Stuart strongly disliked each other. As for the reason it took Stuart to travel around the Union army much longer than either he or Lee anticipated, the Army of the Potomac was not stationary as before as they were moving northward toward Pipe Creek early on before ending up in Gettysburg.
Dan Sickles loved to tell his side of events at the Battle of Gettysburg. We even have people engaging in what ifs and wondering if Sickles moving forward helped rather than hinder. Well, Sickles determined it was not necessary to attend the meeting of corps commanders and Meade to discuss Meade’s plan as it war more important to move his corps foward onto what he considered was prime high ground. Not being military trained he was unable to recognize that he made the Federal reserve artillery a spectator instead of a participant as he in his stupid action negated their ability to fire their guns as Sickles and men were now in the way. Let us not give Sickles ability as a military leader. Instead champion the fact he helped make Gettysburg what it is today.
Did Lee invade Pennsylvania for supplies or to threaten the North enough to end the war? Both. Lee’s army was in bad need of supplies with horses dropping dead and men practically starving. This is the reason why Longstreet missed the Battle of Chancellorsville as his men were in another part of Virginia so as to get some type of supplies. If you think the Confederates were suffering then you need to look at Meade’s position when he took command of the army. He requisitioned around 50,000 or 60,000 pairs of shoes for an army of around 90,000. His horses were in bad need of shoes, too, as well as fodder to feed. The supplies Meade ordered was captured by Stuart in Frederick, MD, thus depriving them of supplies. The Army of the Potomac were in desperate need of supplies and near to being unable to respond to Lee’s movement.
The battle at Gettysburg was never supposed to happen as Reynolds was to pull back to Emmitsburg if attacked. He never did this and the battle was fought. Meade had a supply train running from Baltimore to Westminister, so supplies were going to come until the battle started and Meade halted supply shipments in order to prevent their being possibly captured. As Westminister was to be the supply depot for Pipe Creek which is 7 miles distant, Gettysburg becomes a distant place at 22 miles. So, the Union fought the battle in want of supplies from shoes to food. By July 1, Lee’s army was actually in better condition than the Union as they had pillaged so much from Pennsylvania with wagon trains up to 60 miles long and 30,000 head of cattle. Keep in mind that at the Battle of Monterey Pass, cattle would get in the way during the battle which shows you the Confederates were better fed than the Union. Once Pickett’s Charge failed, Meade’s army was not in a position to follow up and finish off the Confederates. The Union army was spent. That is until supplies arrived and that would be supplies for the horses in terms of fodder, shoes, coal, and forges. July 4 and 5 was spent taking care of the animals and then the troops.
Meade’s intention was to meet Lee at the Potomac by following Lee’s army in parallel. Thus on July 6 the army begins their march to meet Lee with the idea of crossing Turner Pass. He crosses the mountain on July 12 and was never in a position to fight Lee at Falling Waters on the 14th. The Union army loses 14,000 horses during the campaign. 1,900 were killed during the fighting. End result, 12,000 horses died pursuing the Confederates during the Gettysburg campaign, so the army still isn’t in the best condition confront Lee. It was impossible for Meade to stretch out his hand for the energy was not there.
Why did the Union not pull back to where they were ordered by Meade? Reynold’s was killed and Doubleday makes the strange decision to stay by saying he though Reynold’s changed his mind and decided to stay and fight. This comes from a letter that was or still is in a private collection. Meade had to fight there and recognize his left was a weak spot that threatened the Union. Now we get a better understanding why the battle was fought in Gettysburg.
When you visit the battlefield and listen to the ranger talks and read the tour stop signs think about the condition of the two sides and remember the Confederates were in better condition than the Union. Another thing to consider is do not believe the propaganda put out there based on the perceptions of those who weren’t there… like Lincoln. Finally, remember that a person always places their personal issues ahead of what is best for all.
Spring Mornings, Coffee, And A Book
Having to work prevents many of the joys I beg to do, but work provides the future opportunity for me to achieve most these joys while some will remain un-endeavoured. This morning is one such moment that I am reminded of the joys I patiently await. When the opportunity presents itself one must seize it with all the vigor they have.
It is amusing to look around my house and see multiple books in process of being read. There is a book by Jim Papendrea that sits on my nightstand waiting to be moved to another room to be read. I resides there 2/3 of the way finished. A second book sits next to my couch in my living room in a type of book slumber waiting to have the remaining 80% of it to be read. Then comes my library where I have multiple books just waiting to be picked up once more. Several are digital while a few others are the perfect real book. This is where my reading stands. With all of these books, not one is fiction.
Opening the window to the outside, grinding and pouring for my freshly made coffee, and selecting a book of my choosing is my goal for the morning as I await the sun to rise enough for reading. Shall it be the book about Sgt. York? What about Papandrea’s book? I could grab the waiting book on Custer. Maybe I’ll grab Cancer as a Metabolic Disease by Thomas N. Seyfried for light reading. I would prefer the beyond very late graphic novel In Search of Hannibal, but after seven years I’m not holding my breath. Whatever I select will work well with the morning.
I may not be able to routinely do this, but just having the occasional opportunity is nice, and I plan to take full advantage of it. Read in the morning and tackle the rest of the day doing whatever needs to be done whether it is work or pleasure. With an estimated 3,000+ books, my retirement future mornings are booked.
Today I learned of a new but wrong way of pronouncing Appalachian.
Having lived in the region of the Appalachian mountains, I learned several facets about the mountain range and people and more specifically how non-residents of these mountain ranges view everything related to the mountain. There is one that I just learned of and find it quite strange.
The Appalachian mountains was the first barrier encountered by European settlers or colonists if you need to signal. This mountain range was also a difficult barrier for goods transporting where I was taught that western Pennsylvanians would convert their grain to alcohol as it was easier to transport east. It was part of the Whiskey Rebellion education I briefly received. That was one of America’s continued resistence to taxation. The government won and the people suffered. This is actually an interesting part of American history that I need to spend time studying in the future.
The mountain was a problem for commerce to solve which is why we have the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site to visit. Look it up. I believe Charles Dickens was on that. There is the C&O canal and one of my favorite places to visit back in the day, Horseshoe Curve just west of Altoona. I used to go there before the touristy buildup. That was when you could get close to the trians. Then you have other neat places to visit.
When it comes to the people living on this range we get the hillbilly ideas from such ideas as Dilverance and my favorite is from a university professor at UMBC who referred to those living in western Maryland (Garrett, Allegany, and likely Washington counties) as uneducated hicks who were very backward. She also stated a few other derogatory sayings wholly displaying her own ignorance and lack of education along with a huge bias. Her PhD allowed her to make opinionated statements appear as fact even in her field of “expertise”. Never just believe someone with a PhD in some field.
Having been in the Appalachian regions of Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, I noticed different cultures even though many held the same ethnic background. Each area evolved based on what they had there whether it was coal mining, steel town, or simple farming. There was one thing, however, that was rather common in those areas I was in, and it was a common pronunciation of the word Appalachian. Rather I should say two common pronuncations.
The most common pronunciation is apəˈlāSH(ē)ən with the ‘sh’ sound for the “ch”. The second most common pronunciation is apəˈlāCH(ē)ən where you get the ‘ch’ sound. I cannot even pinpoint a specific region in the Appalachians that I have visited with the ‘ch’ sounding version is most common even though I am familiar with the term and will use that pronunciation from time to time even though the ‘sh’ version what I most often say because I hear it the most. I think the ‘ch’ sound tends to come from regions farther away from the mountain chain much like how people that do not live near the Monongahela River continue mispronounce the river’s name much like Gila monster. It is pronounced Mononga-HAY-la and not Mononga-HEE-la. I know there are people from West Virginia and Pittsburgh that may do the ‘hee’ but they are wrong. I can also muddy this river up like it actually does during the rainy season and introduce the Lenape version of Mo-noun-GEE-ha-la. Unless you’re from the Lenape tribe, pronounce it with ‘hay’, but the river isn’t what I want to finally mention. There is a third pronunciation of Appalachian that I just learned of.
Living on this planet for as long as I have and having living in the Appalachians mountains as well as passed through, this pronunciation is a very first to me. apəˈlāk ən with ‘lake’ for the CH. I’ve been to Bristol,Morgantown, Pittsburgh, Dubois, State College, Lock Haven, Corning, Binghamton and other places and no one ever used this pronunciation. I am here to say the first two versions of Appalachian, ‘sh’ and ‘ch’ are correct but the ‘lake’ is outright wrong.
Today I learned of a new but wrong way of pronouncing Appalachian.
Sharks of South Carolina
What person doesn’t have some fascination with sharks? For me, sharks represented instant death should I just dabble a toe in the water. Any water. This is why I was highly recruited to join swim teams as being in a pool I expected a James Bond villian to push a button and sharks would enter the chlorinated pool to voraciously consume me. To this day I state that only Jesus and I can walk on water or more accurately, I can run on water. This irrational fear of my has led me to tell my wife if either of my sons were in need of help while in the ocean then it was nice knowing them. I even had an ongoing five year nightmare about a tiger shark biting me. None of this fear has stopped my fascination with sharks or my quest to learn about them, and that is why I watched abookolive’s Youtube video on books about sharks or more accurately two books.
The first thing I dislike about the books she mentions are the people who wrote them. When it is a conservationist I go elsewhere. I am not in the mood for emotional writing. I am tired of the old line of we are more of a threat to sharks than they are of us. If I want a conservationist style recording then I’ll watch TheMalibuArtist and his videos of sharks. Let’s face, I also love the gore of shark attacks like most other people. It is part of that attraction to horror entertainment. This is why I love the book Sharks of South Carolina.
Published in 2004 by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, this book isn’t going to provide you stories of shark attacks or how humans are hurting shark populations. The book provides the reader with the biology and some history of the sharks found off of South Carolina. The book briefly discusses the dangers of sharks, fishing for sharks, and a few other tidbits on sharks, but the main component is the identification of sharks. You’re not going to read it beginning to end but if you’re visiting South Carolina you can find it useful in identifying a shark you see.
To me, I find this an enjoyable book while I sit on the beach watching giddy beachgoers move to the bait fish jumping out of the water. I wait to see what type of shark it may be that is feeding. Also, to be able to see a shark swimming six feet from you (I was in ankle deep water) and then try to identify it is quite entertaining. I just like this book and I must thank the likely now defunct marine museum that was in Port Royal, SC.
This book isn’t going to play on your emotions to save the sharks and nor will it give you gory shark attack incidents, but it will help you identify sharks, learn about sharks, and maybe identify shark teeth you may find. For me, this is a book worth owning if you vacation in South Carolina or just like sharks.
Dungeons & Dragons and Led Zeppelin
Growing up there was a hobby shop in the next across the river from where I lived. It was always a treat to visit the hobby shop where there were all types of models to buy, trains sets, board games, and a slot car race track. It was this place where I purchased my first Dungeons & Dragons TSR set. It was shortly after Christmas and I would lay nearly under our Christmas tree reading the rules by the Christmas lights as the Lionel train rambled past every ten seconds. Led Zeppelin was still way off for me. D&D was relatively young and Led Zeppelin was near their end. My D&D days were about over when Led Zep crossed paths with me and I instantly recognized a relationship.
When it comes to fantasy there is one band that I immediately think of and that is Led Zeppelin. It may be the fact that some of the songs were related to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, but I will always connect Zeppelin to this type of fantasy because of some of their songs. “Ramble On” is one such song where a line of lyrics is, “’T was in the darkest depths of Mordor I met a girl so fair But Gollum, and the evil one Crept up and slipped away with her.” You can’t miss that relationship to LoTR. Next is “The Battle of Evermore” with its lyrics mentioning ringwraiths and Dark Lord. Then we have “Misty Mountain Hop” which has a Middle Earth location in the song title. The Misty Mountains are a mountain range within Middle Earth running north to south. “Over the Hills and Far Away” evokes a sense of adventure which adds to the Tolkienesque element even though I do not believe it is in reference to anything LoTR but possibly influenced by the story. The “Immigrant Song”, no relationship to Tolkien, has the sword element in it with the invocation Valhalla which tells us this song is referencing Norse raiders and we all think vikings with the false idea of horned helmets, sword, maille, raiding, warfare, and violence all of which can be found in D&D. Finally, you have the style of which some of the songs are written by Led Zeppelin that gives you the folk music feeling.
Led Zeppelin is made for the fantasy or heroic fantasy; I’ll admit the first album less so than the others. I think back to my D&D playing time and wish we could have been playing Zeppelin as we rolled our dice for our characters. In fact, there are times where I think about playing Zeppelin when I am reading or re-reading some fantasy books. In fact, when I am reading academic books on ancient warfare even those preceding the medieval period or as I still like to use the Dark Ages I think about playing Led Zeppelin. As for the term Dark Ages, it aptly fits the D&D world and I like the term even though that period wasn’t so dark. If I were to play D&D again I’d definitely have Zeppelin playing, and there is some coffee shop that, in the evenings, did do D&D or may still do.
For me, Led Zeppelin is the official band and music for the sword and sorcery genre just as I would say Holst’s The Planets for for Sci-fi in space. It is made for it, but that is only a single album about our solar system. If there is one song that I would attach to sci-fi it would be Don Felder’s “Heavy Metal (Takin’ a Ride)”. Of course, I’d be constantly reminded of the movie it was in, Heavy Metal, as well as the South Park episode “Major Boobage”. Sadly, today’s songs are nowhere as great as Felder’s song and songs of that era and before. Taylor Swift is nothing more than the same old song on continual play, so maybe her songs can go with the Hallmark Christmas movies that are all the same.
I think I’ll spend my day listening to Led Zeppelin and leave the D&D gaming to others. It was fun when I was young, but now, I want to do other things, and Zeppelin can still follow me. If you play D&D then I suggest adding Led Zeppelin while you play.
Cabrini
I do not go to the cinema very often but every once in a while a movie attracts me or one of my family members interests me enough in order to drag. The latter is this instance. All I knew was that of a nun who became the first American citizen to be canonized. Beyond that is this movie which is to be taken with a grain of salt as the the writers intended. “… we balanced the historical record with the art and craft of filmmaking.” There are factual elements but a lot of it is stretched and the rest is fiction.
Let’s begin with some facts, “Go West, not East.” Yes, that actually happened and if you watch the film you’ll hear it and understand. There is even a seen with a cardinal that is based on facts, “There has never been an independent Order of missionary women!” to which her reply is “Mary Magdalen brought news of the Resurrection to the Apostles. If the Lord confided that mission to a woman, why should he not confide in us?!” Yes, Five Points was real and that bad as was the discrimination against Italians. In fact, legislation was put in place that ended the Italian immigration. The names and hostility Mother Cabrini is experiencing was common for Italians, so much so that there was pseudo scientific theories that “Mediterranean” peopl were inferior to northern Europeans. Good facts must come to an end where truths would be condensed and in some cases made up.
Now for issues with the movie. First, what Cabrini actually accomplished is very condensed and was done with intent in order to tell a story. Sadly, you have fictional characters playing major roles that is unnecessary such as the prostitute. Second and the largest issue is this movie appears to be written by a Protestant with no understanding of Catholicism and nuns. Then there is the I am woman hear me roar moment where the mayor says she’d make a good man and her reply is something about women are stronger which doesn’t fit the character, so use it in another movie. All of this is a huge detractor as I am stuck with a woman power movie and not a religious movie that Saint Cabrini would ever approve of. Think religious movie without God.
The rosary is meant for prayer and not to be used a jewelry. When sitting in a church Mother Cabrini would not simply be sitting and staring but in prayer. She is not motivated by God or her love of God but by a prostitute. Religious people can be beaten down, yes, but God is who brings them back up and God is missing in this movie. I guess he wanted too much. The priest come across as slovenly and less religious than what you would expect. Yes, priests are not perfect but can be very flawed, but in this movie everyone has nothing but flaws even Cabrini as she doesn’t rely on God. This is why it seems to Protestant to me.
Before ending, I think it is interesting to note that apparently Calloway’s article was based off of a real article where the first lines of the article, “Over the last few months, a group of dark-eyed nuns…” was used in the movie. I do like these tidbits of facts, but this is not enough to show the viewer what really happened. As one person states that is makes a nice biopic, but I strongly disagree that it captures the essence of Cabrini the person. In fact, as I stated earlier, she would be most disappointed in this movie as her life was about God and not being a strong woman in a man’s world.
My final thoughts on this movie is one that is more secular than religious which makes it fictional. I somewhat suspect the writers purposely did this for several reasons. First, they believe a secular movie is more attractive than a religious movie. Second, they may have thought that so much of what Cabrini did was never captured that focusing on elements like her visiting the Italian senate was important to show not Cabrini’s determination but to show the power of a woman which fails Catholics and Cabrini. If you’re looking for a factual movie then it fails completely. If the intent is to put Saint Cabrini in the mind of people then it succeeds but in a flawed way. You can root for the underdog nuns fighting against the WASPs, but in the end you should be left diappointed as you will never see the real Cabrini and those who were very helpful to her. Playing Roger Ebert, I give it two out of four stars.
Ravioli and Spaghetti
Last fall my wife and I took a trip to Ohio primarily to look at furniture, but cheese was involved as well in order to get my attention. While there I saw, in one store, different types of flour and semolina flour caught my attention. I recall needing it for something I wanted to try but couldn’t remember on the spot and just told my wife that there was something I was going to make with it. So it sat until March all the while my wife looked at this senseless purchase. Then came ravioli.
My wife wanted me to cook an Easter dinner for her family and we had to come up with an idea. I am so tired of ham and actually ham is not my meat of preference as I tend to not really like it. It’s just above fish. Continuing with themes, she suggested an Italian dinner. My focus was going to be on desserts and then I’d throw in spaghetti as an afterthought as you really can’t go wrong with spaghetti. Hard to screw up and isn’t time consuming or so I thought. Her next idea was ravioli and she planted a seed in me. It was a challenge and that is all it takes. The last time I tried pasta it was a miserable failure and I created rubber bands or gum bands for those that prefer that term. True that this was a special type of pasta that was used without real flour, but it pushed me away. Now I make different types of dough from pie dough, to pasty dough to dumpling dough, but pasta is a little different. With the challenge accepted, I searched for a recipe and discovered they’re basically all the same: flour, egg, and salt. The salt can be optional.
Attempt one was educational. Since my wife never wanted my mother’s bread, we were left with a granite countertop which I do not care for. That will change if we continue to do this. The idea was to make two batches of ravioli and the two we did and the day was lost. Hand rolling the dough is laborious and time consuming. I’ll admit I was half hoping this would deter my wife’s plans but at least I will have succeeded in making ravioli. Taking the entire day to make nearly 50 ravioli, we learned much. First, pasta maker. Second, the riccotta spinach filling needs a bit more work and wasn’t a favorite. My four cheese was a huge hit and is the reason why we would purchase a pasta machine. Third, rolling out the dough didn’t provide us with a thin enough dough. Four, even with a machine, we should limit batches to two a day. Five, mixing semolina with 00 flour offered no advantages. Six, we needed an assembly line set up to be more efficient. Finally, any small change with the recipes had no noticeable changes. We were set to waste our Sundays until Easter.
We chose a hand cranked pasta maker over the Kitchen Aid pasta maker, though I have not reall issues with it. That is a long story. These manual pasta makers haven’t changed since the beginning as that single locking mechanism is poor and your machine tends to move. Also, my countertops are not to handle these locks, so I have to use a wooden cutting board. There is a learning process to using these machines and it less about operating it than how you handle the process before turning the crank and after turning the crank. That became my wife’s job. My task was making the dough, the filling, and making each individual raviolo as we were using an ravioli cutter my mother had. The process worked though I am certain we can improve things but for now, we are good and now that we did our final batch for the dinner, I do not want to eat ravioli or make any for a while.
As for the semolina, I decided to make spaghetti and found it to be easy. We are just talking semolina, water, and salt. I found a use for my semolina other than using it with pizza. The most difficult and long part of it is kneading the dough and then resting it. Cranking it through the machine is simple enough and with the attachment we have we get spaghetti, though thinner than I would like. All of this now creates more of a problem for me. We are going to make five pounds of semolina spaghetti for Easter.
As I review everything we have done so far and are going to do, I do admit it is worth it and will make a huge taste difference. There is nothing that beats fresh, homemade pasta. The first time I ever had fresh pasta was in the middle of nowhere on the mountain overlooking Uniontown, PA when my wife and I were visiting Fort Necessity. This was a dumpy looking place but had great pasta. Now that is going back over 30 years ago, so it is likely not there anymore, but that is where I had fresh pasta. What is nice is that making the semolina pasta is rather quicker than I realized and if I were hankering for spaghetti I could make it for dinner on a weeknight.
Throw into a revamped marinara sauce this upcoming dinner should be good. My sauce is rather simple with tomato, olive oil, garlic, and salt the main ingredients and fresh basil finishing off the flavor. It is simple but good. My only issue are the quality of canned tomatoes, so I may have to throw in paste in order to reduce the amount of water you can have from the cans. With a 28oz can you just throw in 1/4 C of olive oil or less if you prefer, three to four cloves of minced garlic and salt to taste. Finally, as you’re sauce is on the last of its 45 minute slow simmer throw in two or three sections of basil.
For the semolina pasta dough, this is the recipe I went with:
- 2 C semolina flour (~350 to 356 g)
- 2/3 C water
- salt (I never measured, so maybe 1/2 t)
Just do the standard pasta dough procedure of the well and then mixing followed by kneading 10 – 15 minutes. Your dough should bounce back if you push your finger in it. Wrap it with plastic and allow it to rest for at least 25 minutes.
As for the egg noodle dough I used with my ravioli my recipe is:
- 2 1/4 C (~270g) 00 flour (You could use AP flour)
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 t salt
- 1 T olive oil
Work this dough just like the semolina dough I mentioned above.
You can roll either of these by hand or use a pasta maker. Rolling by hand takes a little more time to do, but the end result should be the same. If you do not like olive oil in your dough you can omit it or even add an additional egg or egg yolk. Everyone has a version of this recipe, and this is the one I used and cannot change it for now. Do expect this to take some time when rolling it out by hand.
Overall, eating fresh pasta is far better than the box. You only need to cook the pasta 3 to 4 minutes when fresh or even if you allowed it to dry some. Frozen ravioli need about 4 to 5 minutes to cook. In my testing, 3 minutes left me with luke warm filling. I’ll have to write a recipe for the cheese filling, but I do not have one with measurements at this point as I just added rough measurements and all versions were good. My wife and son loved the ravioli.
Retirement Social Interactions
I am still some distance from retirement as is my wife. This doesn’t prevent us from thinking about our future and planning for the day we quit. Ignoring the obvious factor, we have to think about what we will do and how we will do. Listening to one retiree talk about his experience is socialization. A commenter below even mentioned about those retiring that committed suicide. From my perspective of having retirees living around me and interacting with me I found several truths that should make my wife and me think about.
First, religion is very important in retirement when it comes to social interactions. Recently, we were invited to a breakfast with some retirees who meet about their church service. What I discovered was a social discourse between six or seven retired couples where the food wasn’t importatn but the social intercourse was. Furthermore, I find these couples are active within their church and support each other in various ways. Their church is the focal point where they meet for events and the service. Listening to them talk, I saw a connective relationship between all of them that helped to strengthen their psychological state and all were active.
When it comes to my atheist friends I do not see that level of support. My neighbors near me that we routinely would interact with pre-2020 are now more isolated than ever. We do not interact that often as my wife and I are busy on projects on our property and we have expanded our activities. This couple show depression and look for ways to interact with people. My youngest son visits the husband, but even my son is busy with his work, girlfriend, and activities. This couple have nothing and what they do have isn’t enough. Most of these friends relied on non-family and a specific type of interaction and the events of 2020 changed it forever for them. Some have adjusted while others have not, and this isn’t to say all atheists are struggling with socialization. Far from it, but in general this is what I am seeing.
The best of the retiree group are those with family nearby whether they are religious or not. That is family they get along with. I have neighbors down the road with children next door and several houses away that watch their grandchildren and get together frequently. They are quite active with their family.
Second, when it comes to social interactions there really isn’t a huge difference between those who are religious and those who are not. The difference is the point of social interactions. Religious people who attend a church have a rather static position they can attach themselves to. People come and go but the church remains and gives them a location to develop friendships or interactions. Those relying on other activities are in a less stable situation. My wife and I dance, but we recognize this is rather temporary. Even interacting with my neighbors is temporary as our life schedules change or those neighbors depart whether by choice or time. Volunteering is also temporary as the function could disapear or you have to change because of health or other reasons.
As the image from someone who retired recently shows, “limited human contact” is a big issue. For some of us, these three words are a good thing but for most people it is torture. With everyone thinking about whether or not they have enough money to retire or the health insurance, they forget about what they will do for socializing. A friend that I work with recently retired and we haven’t talked to each other since. Our connection has been broken even though we are friends. For a decade or more, we conversed every day and now it is gone. When you retire or are planning to retire plan for some activity where you engage with people whether it is religion related, club related, hobby related, or volunteering.
Writing up Quantitative Research in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Today’s book is less of a review than one can help you write research especially when you’re taking some college course. It does not reside on my shelf but in a book purgatory in my basement. It is not worthy enough like my Turabian book that sits on my shelf. Instead, this book is with hundreds and hundreds of others sitting in bins begging to be used or read. The book on the supreme court is calling me as I can see it but it resides in a bin underneath which deters me from grabbing it.
This book introduces humour while teaching you how to communicate which makes it a great book for college students learning how to communicate through their “research” or paper pretending to be so. What is this book like?
The book is broken into three sections with chapters within discussing the section topic. Opening a random page I come to Chapter 3which is the last chapter in the first section and I see, “Myth: Good Writers Do Not Share their Writing with Others.” This discusses feedback and why a good writer would seek feedback while others avoid it because they are smart or threatens their self-concept. For me, I hated seeking feedback because I thought I was horrible at writing and my position was weak. Graduate school forced me to seek feedback. The feedback I received showed me that I could write and my position was strong, though I needed to re-align and plumb my foundational argument. In other words, I needed to provide more clarity or remove certain writing habits. Incidentally, the best feedback I ever had was from a professor that in the kindest way said my final paper for the course was unacceptable and just bad. That hit hard, and I thought I had failed, but ended up writing an entirely new 40 or 50 page paper in less than 48 hours. The toughest professor became my favorite, and I sought her out when I was taking other classes. Classmates oftentimes provided tidbits of feedback that helped me while most didn’t understand their peer reviewing. The worst I had was a professor who had considered me to be very right wing leaning and ended up insulting everything I did. This jackass made the class miserable for me, but I still got the A and I had learned to set up my arguments and prove them. His reason for disliking me? He thought I focused on the battles of the American Civil War too much. I wasn’t the only person he was a jerk to. Military or former military people were aggressively attacked. This man’s arrogance was the reason I got the A as once I figured him out I could counter him each step of the way. I would not back down.
The author’s humour comes into play, too, as I randomly opened to Chapter 7 and read the section “Your Data Partially Support Your Predictions.” The first line goes, “Like a teen breaking curfew, you have a lot of explaining to do.” When the author inserts these moments of humour it can keep the student involved and not have to deal with a dry book relaying information.
The book does well in relaying information and instructing. The humour within the book is what makes the book rather enjoyable to read. It is an excellent requirement for college classes needing to teach students about writing quantitative research. I guess it doesn’t hurt for anyone else than needs a refresher.
I will reference the book from time to time when I am doing some work that requires care in writing unlike these blog posts where I just write in one take. When writing research or something similar I’ve done many versions before the final one and even then I am never happy with what I wrote. Unlike the author, most of what I write cannot include humour as it doesn’t fit, but I do agree with her statement, “Humor, more than any other rhetorical device, requires bravery.”
pyritewealth 