Living in Interesting Times

"May you live in interesting times." (Old Chinese blessing)

Actually, we all live in interesting times. But most of us don't stop to notice history as it happens.

I've taught family heritage journaling now for years, and I'm often astonished by how people concentrate on the past--and how easily they forget to record the times they live in. People tend to underestimate the changes that they've seen.

To point out how fast life is moving, I ask them to consider how telephones and telephone services have changed in their lifetimes.

For example, I remember growing up with a wall-mounted black Bakelite rotary-dial phone in our kitchen. We were on a party line. If you picked up the phone quietly, you could overhear your neighbor's most private conversations! Push-button phones were an amazing and modern upgrade, as was a private line. The first mobile phone I ever saw had to be carted around in a large bag that you wore over your shoulder. Then we upgraded to a phone in the car that was bolted to the floorboard. And my first cell phone was, well, large.

You see? It's so easy to convince ourselves that THESE times--and our reactions to them--don't matter. That our insights are insignificant. But, just imagine if Samuel Pepys had felt the same!

Tomorrow our nation will inaugurate its first black president. I challenge you to record this historic time--if only for your own eyes.

Here are some questions to get you started:

Will you be celebrating?
How will you spend the day?
Will you watch the ceremony?
Did you watch or listen to the gathering today on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial?
What are your hopes and dreams for this new administration?
What are your fears?
In your opinion, are we one? Has our country come together?
Or are our divisions too deep?
Can we overcome the prejudices and problems of our times?
Did you vote for Biden and Obama? If not, why not? If you did, why did you?

And don't forget to record your emotions: What will cause you to despair? What will move you to tears? What will lift your heart?

History isn't just about the distant past. It's also about what happens in our lives right here, right now.

Dead Men Don't Crochet

Tuesday was the official release date of Dead Men Don’t Crochet. It turns out that bookstores don’t like to do author events in December - that is unless you’re a superstar which I’m not.

But drop ins to sign stock or okay, so that is what I plan to do while I’m in icy Chicago.

57th Street Books was my first stop and they were expecting me. I’ve mentioned this bookstore before. It’s located in the basement of an apartment building and I set some of the action in my YA mystery Blue Schwartz and Nefertiti’s Necklace there. I also wrote an article about it for the Another Great American Bookstore feature in Byline Magazine.

These days 57th Street Books has a whole new identity going. Not only is it my favorite bookstore, but the Obama family’s as well. Actually my whole neighborhood is going through a flurry of excitement. There have been lots of Nobel Prize winners around here and well known writers like Saul Bellows, Sara Paretsky and the woman who wrote the Mrs. Pickerall Goes to Mars series. I can’t remember her name, but she lived in our old building. And my high school French teacher wrote the children’s classic Mr. Popper’s Penguins. But having a President- Elect seems to have turned a special spotlight on Hyde Park.

Laura Prail brought out a stacks of Hooked on Murder, Dead Men Don’t Crochet and Blue Schwartz and Nefertiti’s Necklace for me to sign. While I signed I asked her about the Obama effect on the bookstore. Of course, business was up and she said some people just came in wanting to buy a book from the store the President-Elect shops in. I thought it was kind of cool that without even knowing he was doing it, Obama was helping authors.

When all the books were signed, Laura showed me the poster of my bookcover hanging on the wall. She said she was going to make a display of my books below it. All I could think was wow. And as an afterthought I wondered if Michelle likes cozy mysteries.

Our President-Elect’s Promises

Our country is set to have lots of changes in the White House. We have a new president-elect, who’ll move in there in January with his wife and two young daughters.

And a puppy.

I’d heard during President-Elect Barack Obama’s campaign that his daughters had requested, and he had promised, a new puppy once the campaign was over. Obama has won the presidency. And it’s great to learn that he does, indeed, keep his promises. Or at least he mentioned this one in his acceptance speech. I’ve seen that part of his speech reported quite a few times in the news, too.

So what kind of a puppy will the Obama family adopt? Ah, that is an interesting question. A controversial one.

News has reported that his 10-year-old daughter Malia, who has allergies, has requested a "goldendoodle," a hypoallergenic hybrid of a golden retriever and a standard poodle. In a poll taken by the AKC, the public has voted on a purebred poodle instead. But will the Obamas alienate a lot of other members of the American public by adopting a purebred or designer dog instead of rescuing a mixed breed? Undoubtedly.

But at least they have a logical reason behind it: Malia’s allergies. Without being certain of a mixed breed’s heritage, they couldn’t be certain it was as hypoallergenic as some known purebreds.

My opinion? They should do what they want. I love all dogs, hate the idea of so many being housed, or euthanized, in shelters. On the other hand, I fell in love with Cavalier King Charles Spaniels many years ago. Each one who’s adopted me has had a different personality, including my current loves, my dearly adored Lexie, whose counterpart is the star of my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mysteries, and her nutty puppy friend Mystie. Their basic characteristics and, in general, their kinds of health concerns, are a known quantity. That’s one advantage of purebreds, at least as long as they are acquired from reputable breeders and not pet stores that get their pups from puppy mills.

Sounds to me as if the Obamas have excellent reason to choose a purebred, or a designer dog of known heritage like a goldendoodle. I’m sure, if that’s their choice, there will be plenty of people who object to it. But if that’s the worst controversy that occurs during Barack Obama’s administration, we’ll all be better off!

Dare I ask your opinion on what kind of puppy should be the White House’s newest canine occupant?

--Linda

Blocked No More

What is my blog going to be about this week? The blinking curser moves on the blank screen and I watch with my blank mind. Whenever I feel so-called writers block, there are two ways out. They both start with E, and are sort of complimentary and opposite at the same time.

What are they? Eating and exercise.

Since I’m in Chicago, eating means a short trip across the street to a neighborhood restaurant. I have my notebook and pen. Sure enough, as soon as I order, the doors in my mind open up and ideas begin to tumble out. My french toast comes and I balance my notebook on my knees and write between bites. I’m not a syrup person. The ball of butter melts and slides over the triangles of grilled bread and I know the other E will come in handy to take care of all those calories when I finish.

This restaurant is filled with memories as is everything else in my old neighborhood. This particular spot used to be a different restaurant where I waited tables when I was in college. Random thoughts and memories pour out of my pen. Though I have lived far longer in Los Angeles than in Hyde Park, between growing up here and maintaining a connection, it still feels like home.

The french toast is gone in no time. If I were in L.A., I’d head for the gym for the exercise part of the unblocking, but here I just hit the streets. No car, all feet. There are choices about where to walk. I could go to the beach and walk along the jogging- bicycle path that leads toward downtown. I could go to the Museum of Science and Industry and walk around inside and see cool things like a giant heart and hatching baby chicks. Instead I head along 57th Street toward the University of Chicago campus.

As usual there is lots of action on the street. Is it my imagination or is there a higher level of excitement in the air. It’s not just my old neighborhood, but Barack Obama’s current one. Though I think he’s off somewhere else just now. When I look in the window of the Medici bakery, the counter staff are wearing shirts that say Obama Eats Here.

He’s not the only famous name connected with this piece of real estate. When I was a kid the bakery and the Thai restaurant next to it were Steinway’s drugstore. It had a small cafeteria and was where we went for cokes after school. There’s an oft repeated story connected with that cafeteria. It seems that one day a group of men were huddled in one of the booths, talking and scribbling on napkins. Apparently, they had been sitting there too long and the manager threw them out.

Who were they? How about Enrico Fermi and his colleagues. And their napkin scribbles were the atomic bomb.

Their lab was a few blocks away tucked under the athletic field stands. The stands and field are gone, replaced by a library.

It is quiet inside the confines of the campus. The students aren’t back yet. I stop at Botany Pond. And sit on the arched bridge that was a gift of some graduating class. Another spot loaded with memories. I used to bring my fox terrier here when I was a kid. He loved to go wading in the water. Much later, I brought my son here when he was small and he fell in. It’s only about a foot deep, so he was more embarrassed than in danger. My YA mystery BLUE SCHWARTZ AND NERFERITI’S NECKLACE is set in Hyde Park and has several scenes at this lovely little pond.

I pass through the heart of the campus and exit onto 58th Street. The Oriental Institute is open so I stop in. A lot of Blue Schwartz takes places in this museum and I remember stopping by and checking out the exhibits when getting the book published was still just a hope. I have spent so much time imagining Blue and all the action that goes on in this small museum that even now when I look around, I half expect to see her sneaking through a door.

On the way back, I swing by 57th Street Books. As you can see by the photo, it is located in the basement of an apartment building, but don’t let that fool you. Even though the windows offer a view of people legs as they go by, the inside is inviting and goes for rooms and rooms. Okay, I admit it, I checked the mystery section for HOOKED ON MURDER. A copy was sticking out as if someone had just looked at it. And I went in the kid’s section and made sure they had a copy of BLUE SCHWARTZ. Of course, I didn’t leave empty handed. I really did need another crochet book. This one even had a pattern for crocheted sushi. How can you pass that up?

By now ideas for all sorts of things beyond this blog were floating around in my head. Between the notes I had and all the ideas, I couldn’t wait to get home to the blank screen of my computer so I could fill it up. The double Es always work.