There are many types of intelligence, according to Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University. Bodily-kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Verbal-linguistic, Logical-mathematical, Intrapersonal, Visual-spatial, Musical, Naturalistic, Spiritual, Existential and Moral intelligence may be some of these. An important part of understanding the world around us is knowing who we are and what we can do… Or cultivate our talents to strenght.

More:
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences>

If you have time, watch “My Brilliant Brain” documentary by National Geographic.

1. My Brilliant Brain – Born Genius

2. My Brilliant Brain – Accidental Genius

3. My Brilliant Brain – Make Me A Genius

Hope you ‘ll like it.

                                                                                                                                                                                       (Ideal  Divorce)   (Realistic Estrangement aka good reason) (Pathological Alienation, same as Gardner’s findings) 

A Graduate Student’s Reformulation & Parental Alienation: A Parent’s Rationale by Monika Logan (See link below for  Johnston’s  article)

Caveat: Jimmy is fictitious. The target parent, as understood by those in professional circles, could be male or female; the narrative however, could be real.   

Child Prefers Contact with Both Parents:  Little Jimmy Jr. Shares similar disposition with his father & enjoys all the same sports. He really likes being around his Dad, but has no problem being with mom (affinity for Dad). Mom admits to feeling a little jealous but has kept busy after the divorce and is adapting well. She joined a singles group.  

Child Prefers One Parent:  Jimmy Jr. was a teen when mom & dad divorced. Mom & Dad are both okay, but his friends are first. He would rather hang out and shoot some hoops than have a sit down family dinner. He feels a little more comfortable talking with his father.  

Realistic Estrangement: During the marriage mom had been diagnosed with a major mental illness. She self medicated and never sought help. For a while when she was upset, she would shove Jimmy around. One time she slapped his face really hard to the point it left a mark. Some days she would sleep the entire day and never cook, clean, or help him with homework. Other times she would be in a terrific mood (but he does not remember too many of those good moods). Jimmy remembers one time she really embarrassed him in front of his friends.  When his parents divorced, Jimmy did not want to be around his mother. 

Child Rejects One Parent, No Ambivalence:  Jimmy throws fits when he is “forced” to see his awful mother. He cannot stand “the little things that she does.” When she taps her nails on the countertop he just wants to knock the hell out of her.   He is eight and insists that she is a slut and a whore. Darn her for being late on the child support. Now he cannot have a new cell phone. She is immoral with all those men she dates. The school counselor inquired about his behavior and the grown up words he used about his mother at school.   No one told him that; he maintains he knows these things on his own. At age 13 he feels very close with his father when they discuss bad things about his mom. His aunt does not like his mom either. When they all get together they have a great time! Sometimes he gets to watch R rated movies.  Bad-mouthing becomes bonding. Jimmy does not understand the dynamics, but other things go on that will eventually lead to a lost relationship.   

Parental Alienation: Jimmy now age 25 does not have a relationship with his mother. His mother tried to get help. She cries as she recalls all the lost time she cannot get back. She never understood why Jimmy treated her so badly during their visitation when he was younger.  She asked some professionals and described this situation, but no one bought into all that PAS “junk science.” She felt powerless to reverse the process. One professional told her it is not real because it is not in the DSM.  She thinks another one might have mentioned something about unknown etiology. A few years forward Jimmy is now age 35. He wonders about his mother. He searched for her whereabouts. He eventually found her last residence, but discovered that she suffered from a stroke did not survive.  Maybe, at 35 Jimmy found her. It took about five years but he realizes that everything he was told about her was a lie. He wishes he could get back all the lost time. She is not perfect but he really feels close to her now. He wishes he had his mother when he was younger. He wonders why he does not relate too well with women.

Please see Rethinking Parental Alienation And Redesigning Parent-Child Acess Services For Children Who Resist or  Refuse Visitation, Johnston, J.

There are   23   Articles by Richard A. Gardner, M.D. on parental alienation syndrome that have been published in professional outlets, the majority of which are referreed journals in which a panel of peer reviewers judged the article worthy of publication in a professional journal (see Dr. Warshak for articles)

131 Articles and chapters in edited books, by authors other than Dr. Gardner, that discuss parental alienation syndrome. (see Dr. Warshak)

48 Additional publications with material relevant to pathological alienation. (see Dr.Warshak)

11 items Reviews of Dr. Gardner’s books on parental alienation syndrome. (see Dr. Warshak) 

The Frye Test is the standard by which a court can determine whether a scientific contribution has gained enough general acceptance in the scientific communityto be admissable in a court of law. The Frye Test criteria for admissability were applied to The Parental Alienation Syndrome in the following cases:

• Kilgore v. Boyd, 13th Circuit Court, Hillsborough County, FL., Case No. 94-7573, 733 So. 2d 546 (Fla. 2d DCA 2000) Jan 30, 2001.
• Boyd v. Kilgore, 773 So. 2d 546 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000) (Prohibition Denied)
• Court ruling that the Parental Alienation Syndrome has gained general acceptance in the scientific community and thereby satisfies Frye Test criteria for admissibility.
• Bates v. Bates 18th Judicial Circuit, Dupage County, IL Case No. 99D958, Jan 17, 2002.
• Court ruling that the Parental Alienation Syndrome has gained general acceptance in the scientific community and thereby satisfies Frye Test criteria for admissibility.[excerpt]

The American Psychological Association has published guidelines* for child-custody evaluations in divorce proceedings. These are the guidelines The American Psychological Association proposes that examiners use when conducting such examinations. The Guidelines provide another index of the value of the PAS concept to child custody evaluators. The Guidelines conclude with a highly selective reference section titled “Pertinent Literature.” Three of the 39 references are books by Dr. Gardner; one is titled “The Parental Alienation Syndrome” and the other two include discussions about PAS.

For an additional up-to date list of peer review studies & Parental Alienation please see   References Relevant to Parental Alienation Syndrome , Dr. Warshak

I love having such beautiful babies to photograph. Owen and Rylie are the sweethearts I get to take care of along with my own.

And my own little Christmas Bear…

]]> http://jagsays.com/2009/12/20/joseph-gardner-raped-second-child-while-out-on-bailupdate/ Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:26:08 +0000 JAG http://jagsays.com/2009/12/20/joseph-gardner-raped-second-child-while-out-on-bailupdate/

This guy is a peice of work. News this week looks better for the children in his area as reports are he is being held (this time) for at least 90 days.

I’m just going to post the link to the news article about the moms testimony and how she waited 6 HOURS before taking her child to the hospital after being raped….Oh and how she almost accepted hush money from Gardner.

Make from it what you will….

Patriot Ledger

By Monika Logan

Similar to my hair, times have changed and I may not have not kept up. My terminology lags; I realized it is not politically correct to use the “syndrome” part of PA. I was out of the loop for good cause; I have been busy wondering what changes should come about for parents who are rejected and children that are taught adult concepts. I also have been concerned about the disrespectful tactics children are taught for the rejected parent. In addition, I admit I also feel dismayed for the many e-mails I read consisting some variation of, “I have lost contact with my child; my ex-turned our kid against me.” The point is: PAS is not politically correct, but hurting parents and adult children of PAS, honestly do not care.

As the paradigm shifts so does the terminology. In working with individuals living with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), I have observed the lingo change. IDD to some is known as mental retardation (MR). Yet, for others, IDD is the proper term. According to Merriam-Webster’s, MR is sub average intellectual ability that is equivalent to or less than an IQ of 70, is present from birth or infancy, and is manifested especially by abnormal development, by learning difficulties, and by problems in social adjustment. Thanks to the media and other sources, MR is associated with negative images. Obviously, some find the use of MR as acceptable while others are offended. Still regardless of the word, the bottom line is that those living with MR or IDD have one thing in common– an IQ below average. Similarly, PAS is not used among the well versed; it is not in their vernacular. PAS raises red flags and other colors resembling warning. One I recently came across was caution: “PAS is used in court as proof by an abusive parent.” Or, other groups stopped reading past Gardner’s original works, and associates PAS as a slander against women. As noted by Rueda (2004), “ Initially, the main focus of resistance came from the feminist sector, which felt particularly targeted by Gardner’s proposition that PAS was more commonly found in women than in men (p.392). I conclude that currently, for some, the main focus is fuzzy; the real issue at hand is lost in a sea of terminology.

Similar to IDD and MR, Parental Alienation and Parental Alienation Syndrome, share a commonality. One term has become appalling and the other is now first-class. As a caveat, the term PAS means one thing to professionals and quite another to parents. The bottom line is that for many parents, PA and PAS indicate one thing — a child that once loved them, now refuses visitation. Or, stated another way, a kid that once adored his or her mom or dad suddenly hates the once loved parent, without a good reason. As not to misguide the readers, an upgrade for terminology is needed. Parental Alienation Syndrome is specific; it is a subcategory of Parental Alienation. First, we need to know exactly what a syndrome is. A syndrome is a group of symptoms that together are characteristic of a specific disorder, disease, or the like. It is also known as, a group of related or coincident things, events, actions, etc. Most parents that inquire for help and demand justice report common themes. The cries for help from parents’ all around the world share similar patterns and characteristics. I agree with Clarkson & Clarkson (2007) in regards to if or if not the syndrome is valid, “This debate is, in many ways, a pity since the outcome is not necessarily of any great significance.” I deem it is a pity as help is limited.

The word syndrome as one of the many examples is thrown aside because PAS is not in the DSM-IV-TR. I prefer Bernet’s (2008) simplicity, “The essential feature of parental alienation disorder is that a child—usually one whose parents are engaged in a hostile divorce—allies himself or herself strongly with one parent (the preferred parent) and rejects a relationship with the other parent (the alienated parent) without legitimate justification. He goes on to note that, “the primary behavioral symptom is the child’s resistance or refusal to visit or have parenting time with the alienated parent (p.350). This definition sums up parents’ that report they are victims of “PAS” or if they are politically correct, will state they are victims of “PA.” The point is Bernet’s description is a frequent complaint of a world wide problem. Parent’s grievances on the PAS side are not extended along a continuum. On the contrary, those that share the aforementioned features are at the receiving end of hostility. Children that temporarily show affinity toward one parent are at the happy beginning of the continuum (if that is possible) and are not in need of much more that some love, guidance, counseling, and time to heal. Lastly, we must address another term, Parental Alienation Disorder. As many may know, syndromes once accepted into the DSM, are frequently denoted as a Disorder. A disorder is a disturbance in physical or mental health or functions; malady or dysfunction. As noted by Gardner (2002) the “DSM-IV states specifically that all disorders contained in the volume are syndromes or patterns (p.xxi), and they would not be there if they were not syndromes (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).

Gardner, 26, had been arrested and charged with the rape of a five year old child. Judges set his bail at $10,000 and on Oct 8th, his mother posted the bond.

It was alleged in Aug, Gardner broke into the five year olds grandmother house through a bathroom window and raped the child as the family slept. The girls mother has stated that the investigators have his fingerprints and eyewitness accounts tying him to the Aug rape.

Prosecutors asked for $200,000.00 bail.

Gardner began dating a woman with two children, whom he went to high school with. They spent the night this past Friday with Gardner and his 4 year old son. Now, that begs the question on why he still had custody of his child with these charges pending, but it seems this court wasn’t on the ball with such a low bail amount to begin with.

Anyway, this woman and her two children had a sleepover with Gardner and his child last Friday. The mother states the lil one cried during the night, but she ignored this as the girl often cried out at night. The next morning, mom noticed the little girl was minus the pull up she had put on her at bedtime and asked her about it. It was then the girl told her mom what Gardner had done. The mother took her daughter to the hospital and charges were again filed on Gardner for rape of a child.

Gardner says the charges are false:

“She accused me of this yesterday and wanted money so I gave it to her,” Gardner told police, according to court records. “She must have heard about my other case.”

Yeah…ok then. I’m sure thats it.

The courts have now decided to hold a dangerous person hearing on Gardner before placing bail. Seems they should have done this to begin with. If they had, the second lil one may have been safe.

Source/Source

i am in the midst of one of the biggest brain knots in recent times, but i’m not interested in thinking bout that right now.  in fact, i’m sure a strong case could be made for me to let my subconscious work through it as i engage my conscious efforts on something else…so here i am.  i was looking through my professional books when i came across a book i hadn’t looked at in a while, but happens to be one of my favorites.  if someone asked me for a book to read regarding gifted education, there is a strong chance i would pull this one, it’s just a great read and talks about issues in such an easy way to engage your mind.  the book is barefoot irreverence and is written by a guy who was someone whose thoughts i really connected with many years ago when i began my work in gifted education, jim delisle…or James Deslisle, Ph.D. as the cover reflects (credit where credit is due).  anyhow, he has a position in regards to multiple intelligences that you don’t often run across and i suspect that is because we don’t think of what the theory of multiple intelligences “does” to the view of gifted education.  carol dweck, a behaviorist, tells us that the way we perceive things will strongly influence the way we act.  if a teacher gets a hold of howard gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence and connects with the idea of asking the question how are you smart as opposed to the question of how smart are you, there probably isn’t a crime committed.  however, and this is a big however, if a teacher takes the theory and then translates that into the idea that somehow everyone is gifted in someway, then i am going to stand shoulder to shoulder with mr. delisle and say something is seriously wrong here.  i have always believed that adopting gardner’s views is like looking at people half-full; that there is something that everyone is strong in and as a teacher allowing students to play to their strengths, at times, can be beneficial.  i have never adopted the idea that somehow being strong in a particular area of MI makes you gifted, let alone in that area.  to be honest, until i read delisle’s article i never thought about it in those terms, but i realized others might.  look out your window and you’ll find lots of people who see gifted education as elitist.  these people have a very narrow understanding of what it means to be gifted and the social/emotional baggage that can come with it.  delisle makes a great point in regards giftedness not being a skill that can be nurtured, rather a characteristic that needs to be recognized and honored.

Jumpstart time: this blog has been dormant for five long months, so I’ve decided to do something a bit more engaging (hopefully) to relaunch it.

I’ve been busy on the newly retooled and refangled 19: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, which is now live in an OJS template, with essays available in html and integrated with Nines. We’re all rather proud of it.

Since finishing my contract there at the end of October, I’ve been catching up with my own research, long overdue (I’m sure my supervisor would agree). I’m still working on a second draft chapter, and should be doing so right now. BUT…

The catalogue cube Nala as detailed in A New Era of Thought

A section of this chapter is going to be devoted to Charles Howard Hinton’s system of cubes. The cubes are the foundation blocks – pretty much literally – of Hinton’s approach to thinking higher space and I am keen to meet them head on, because I’m convinced that they’re highly significant with regard to the writers who follow him. But they’re a wee bit daunting. The second half of A New Era of Thought is devoted to describing the construction of the cubes, a system for naming them, and various exercises for conducting with them.

It was written by Alicia Boole Stott, Hinton’s sister-in-law, who is the best advert for the effectiveness of the system, as demonstrated by her intuitive work with higher dimensional mathematics, published in a series of three papers 1900, 1908 and 1910, and discussed by HSM Coxeter, among others. But what mght have come readily to Alicia is not necessarily straightforward. The lists of names for the cubes alone deflect casual attention.

A table of Latin names for identifying the different sides of cubes in a 36-cube system

A few lines printed in A New Era urged readers to contact the publisher to buy readymade sets of the cubes, but this didn’t quite work out as smoothly as planned. Correspondence from Swan Sonnenschein to Howard’s friend and editor John Falk shows the rocky ride. On 21st September 1888, some months after publication, SS received an inquiry about the cubes. Sonnenschein wrote: “It would perhaps be as well, should this gentleman give an order for a set, to have two sets made, as it looks rather bad to have to admit that inquiries for them are unusual.” Another inquiry was received in January of 1889, but it wasn’t until February that Falk provided the first sets to the publisher, who returned them, writing: “The workmanship of the cubes is so rough it would affect sales very badly.” It took Falk until November to source improved sets, with the price set at 17/6 for trade plus 20% for public sales.

The models seem to have been more trouble than they were worth as a commercial venture, particularly when Charles resumed correspondence with his publishers upon his arrival in the USA in 1892: a alrge proportion of the correspondence mentions them. They sold very slowly but continued to pique interest. In 1903, SS wrote: “Can you send me one set of your models which a lady resident in Nice is very anxious to purchase?” In 1904 a Mr Dyson returned his set. Mr Dyson had possibly bought a copy of The Fourth Dimension, published in that year, in which a refined version of the system was presented, and clearer instructions provided for DIY cubesters. The naming system had been done away with as unworkable, and colour-coding was now the way forward. The colour plates presented in this book can be seen by clicking through the banubula and Greylodge links below.

'Kindergarten cubes': suggested activities do not include mind-destruction

It’s been helpful for me to review Hinton’s work and to reconstruct his bibliography. The sixth of the Romances, ‘On the Education of the Imagination’, issued as a pamphlet in 1888 with a brief endnote by Falk, also deals with the cubes, and was probably composed sometime in the early 1880s, despite its later publication. The endnote states that it was written ‘some years ago’ and ‘contains the germ of the work, which is more fully illustrated in his more recent writings, and thus in some respects forms a good introduction to them’. It describes the development of the cube system and its use in the classroom. It underlines Hinton’s role as a professional educator, and his approach to the aquisition of knowledge that comes from this job. And of course the cubes are in some way a game: an educational game, certainly, but a game none the less. I want to disinter the ‘ludic’ aspect of the cubes so I’ve decided to make a set for myself. I’ll blog about my progress (doubtlessly slow), here.

First step was to buy a set of ‘kindergarten cubes’, as recommended by the authors. They’re a natural wood colour so I can colour-code them myself.

Not quite Farrow and Ball

I had initially thought I’d go with Farrow and Ball colours, because being a good middle-class, South-West London homeowner, I have a stack of Farrow and Ball sample pots, so I figured I could reproduce some faux-authentic period colours, like Bourgeois Blue, Nostalgia Rouge and Opium Ochre. Sadly, this collection of samples has been loaned to a neighbour’s sister, so I’ve gone with what I had in the house – children’s paints.

If these end up being washed out, I’ll retrieve the F&B house paints and use those (decorators assure me that Dulux are better quality paints and that anyway, you can reproduce any colour with Dulux colour match, but I’m sure the inferior F&B should suffice for this).

There has been some interest in Hinton’s cubes online in recent years. There were a couple of posts on the now defunct blog banubula, showing scans of the coloured plates from The Fourth Dimension. Greylodge onlined a tidied-up  [pdf] instruction sheet, which is very useful – I would have used this, but getting my colours to match would be too tricky.

This took me back to airfix days, when the parts would become glued to the paper

I think a contemporary legacy for the cubes has been assured by a letter received by Martin Gardner, a popular science writer of the mid-century who wrote about higher space puzzles in the Scientific American. The letter from Hiram Barton, “a consulting engineer of Etchingham, Sussex, England” responded to an account of Hinton’s cubes, and was published by Gardner on p.52 his book Mathematical Carnival (and reposted by Banubula, and cited also by Rucker).

Dear Mr. Gardner:

A shudder ran down my spine when I read your reference to Hinton’s cubes. I nearly got hooked on them myself in the nineteen-twenties. Please believe me when I say that they are completely mind-destroying. The only person I ever met who had worked with them seriously was Francis Sedlak, a Czech neo-Hegelian Philosopher (he wrote a book called The Creation of Heaven and Earth) who lived in an Oneida-like community near Stroud, in Gloucestershire.
As you must know, the technique consists essentially in the sequential visualizing of the adjoint internal faces of the poly-colored unit cubes making up the larger cube. It is not difficult to acquire considerable facility in this, but the process is one of autohypnosis and, after a while, the sequences begin to parade themselves through one’s mind of their own accord. This is pleasurable, in a way, and it was not until I went to see Sedlak in 1929 that I realized the dangers of setting up an autonomous process in one’s own brain. For the record, the way out is to establish consciously a countersystem differing from the first in that the core cube shows different colored faces, but withdrawal is slow and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to play around with the cubes at all.

Frances Sedlak probably used old copies of The Theosophist instead of The Guardian

The sensational tone of this letter falls in line with a current of response to higher dimensional thinking that is seeded with the anti-Zollner propaganda in the early 1880s and emerges more consistently at the fin-de-siecle: the idea that  thinking higher space results inevitably in madness. What Barton doesn’t mention is that Sedlak was also, unsurprisingly, a Theosophist, contributing frequent articles to The Theosophical Review from 1906-1908 and to The Theosophist in 1911-1912. He later also contributed an article to Orage’s The New Age disputing Einstein’s Theory of Relativity on the grounds that Einstein was insensible to the dictates of “Pure Reason”. His partner in a “free union”, Nellie Shaw, wrote an account of their life together in the Whiteway Colony in A Czech philosopher on the Cotswolds; being an account of the life and work of Francis Sedlak. Shaw’s account of Sedlak’s interest in the cubes gives it an altogether more positive spin, and beds into the utopian Theosophical verison of higher spatial thinking:

Some readers may be acquainted with a book by C. Howard Hinton, entitled The Fourth Dimension, which contains a coloured diagram representing twenty-seven cubes of various colours. This idea was [108] seized upon by Francis, who adapted it to his own ideas.

A box of children’s playing blocks was obtained and each one painted a different ad nameable shade. So far as I am able to understand, the idea was to build up from the whole twenty-seven cubes one cube, each separate colour being in a particular relation to the next one, and then to gaze fixedly at it until the whole was mentally visualised. This accomplished, the cube was unbuilt and then rebuilt with a different combination of colour, and visualised mentally as before.

This amazing performance required hours of time at first, but gradually the speed quickened, until eventually it became focused upon the mind, and Francis was able to review the blocks in all their twenty-seven positions so swiftly, that it became almost like seeing the cube from all sides at once.

It will be realised that the changes of position were almost innumerable. At first a very hard laborious task, it became an absorbing occupation, to which was given every spare moment. Many persons, not understanding, looked on it as a most unproductive way of spending time. Others admired the wonderful patience, but could see no useful result.

Just as the would-be athlete twists and turns on the parallel bars, using time and energy to develop his muscles and gain strength which can be used later in any direction which he may desire, so Francis assumed that this power gained by practice in visualisation, seeing mentally the block of cubes on all sides simultaneously, could also be used in any sphere and on any subject; in fact, it was ability to see through anything, and must eventually lead to clairvoyance.

This study of the cubes was followed intermittently, [109] since it was not a mental exercise calling for philosophic reasoning or mental effort whatever. So, after devoting many months to the cubes and having an urge in another direction, Francis would drop them again for several years.

The extraordinary thing was that afterwards he could resume the practice without difficulty. He did not lose the power; indeed, he seemed to have a positive affection for these bits of wood, which he would tenderly dust and preserve.

Towards the end of his long and trying illness, when terrible coughing prevented him from sleeping at night, the long silent hours seemed interminable. On my enquiring one morning as to what sort of a night he had had, he said almost joyfully, “Oh, being awake does not trouble me now. I do the cubes, and the time flies.” So I thanked God and blessed the cubes, for which had been found a utilitarian use at a most desperate psychological juncture. Power won cannot be lost, and will some day be utilised.

So I’m hoping, really, to achieve a new mental power before I get bored. But not to go mad. That wouldn’t further the research, I don’t think. My next post will probably look more closely at the theory presented in A New Era, which makes clear an interesting nexus in Hinton’s thought that is also significant. I’m hoping in future posts to develop the varied and playful cultural legacy of Hinton’s cubes, and pledge to make sure there are no more five month lapses.

Mark: How are you?
Anna: A little frustrated at the moment. Also equally depressed and pessimistic about our date tonight.
Mark: Sure.

I just went on a movie date with Gardner to see The Invention of Lying. Although the trailers hadn’t exactly jumped out at me or made me feel like I just HAD to see this movie, I like Ricky Gervais so I had slight hopes that this movie would be as entertaining as Ghost Town. Gardner and I had made plans to see the movie last week, but due to an unexpected meeting at work, he had to cancel somewhat last minute. We made new plans to see the movie tonight and met at the theater about 10 minutes before the show started. I wasn’t sure how I felt about meeting a guy for the first time at a movie theater, but the types of movies a person likes says a lot of him so I decided to just go with it.

In case you haven’t seen The Invention of Lying and don’t know anything about it, the movie is about a man, Mark, who lives in a world where everyone tells only the truth all the time. Until the day that Mark lies to a bank teller about how much money he has in his bank account. Mark is in love with Anna, a beautiful, smart, rich girl who also happens to be very shallow and only interested in finding a man who is as beautiful, smart, and rich as her. Mark obviously doesn’t fit the profile for Anna’s future husband, and although the two become best friends, Anna just can’t break that barrier of seeing Mark for something other than his appearance. Despite the fact that Anna thinks that Mark is the sweetest man in the world and would make a great husband/father, she insists that she doesn’t want “fat, snubby-nosed children” and never gives Mark a real chance.

This movie had a lot of application to tonight’s date. Gardner is a landscape management student at BYU who loves the outdoors and sports. He has a good sense of humor and good taste in movies, as evident by tonight’s choice which I happened to love. He seems like a smart guy and appears to have a close relationship with his family. We can chat online for hours with ease and his emails always have me laughing.

The problem: I’m just not attracted to him. He’s not as tall as I’d like. His teeth are kinda funky. He has a big nose. His hair is a little out of control. Overall, he’s just kinda goofy looking. And although he has a decent voice, his manner of speaking kinda drives me crazy. In Utah a lot of people will have their normal voice and their prayer voice. I think guys have their normal voice and their I’m-trying-to-be-smooth voice. I don’t like the I’m-trying-to-be-smooth voice. It sounds so fake and it grates on my nerves. Gardner used his I’m-trying-to-be-smooth voice all night long, which in reality was only about 17 minutes of actual conversation. But if I can’t stand listening to him for a mere 17 minutes, we’ve got issues.

So what do I do? Am I being too picky? Do I have unrealistic expectations and standards? Am I too shallow? I really don’t feel like physical attraction is too much to ask for, but apparently it’s pretty difficult to come by these days. On a side note, I don’t think this whole online dating thing is working out for me. I’ve met a handful of guys from the dating site and almost none of them have lived up to their self-proclaimed awesomeness or their photos. I may have one or two more to meet but after those I might be done with the whole online gig.

And this is when I hate dating.

xoxo Lorelei

Hey guys! I know I’ve been a little long posting this, but I had papers and imminent exams.

So anyways…on the 24th of November, Gardner Hall had an awesome, sick, rad-tastic coffeehouse!

Basically, a coffeehouse is essentially a talent show with coffee. But, being Gardner, we had to go further than *just* coffee… So, I talked to Sevan Istanboulian, the owner of Café Mystique, a roastery in Montréal, and he (very generously) set us up with  – GET THIS: An espresso setup!! That’s a machine, a grinder, and coffee! He also gave us coffee for French Press and loaned us 4 presses for the evening! Bottom line: he’s awesome, a really cool and colourful guy, and you should try his coffee because it’s flippin’ FANTASTIC!

(The lovely lady standing beside me is Stef, fellow barista and VP Internal)

All in all, it was an amazing evening. We had everything from acting, to music, to the McGill Improv Team (!!), to stand-up! Here’s some more shots:

The one on the left is none other than the (in)famous Tyler Lawson, president of Gardner Hall!

(That would be me. Still not sure how I sounded.)

The coffee was by donation – all proceeds went to Old Mission Brewery, a food kitchen for those in need. Thanks for helping out Gardner!

And that was coffeehouse! All in all, it was a massive success. Gardner continues to show that it has the spirit! Great job to everyone who came out.

In closing, I’d just like to thank some special people:

• Sevan Istanboulian of Café Mystique for the coffee
• Moog Audio for the sound system
• and Cheri Hessami for the photography! So far, Cheri’s become the de facto photographer of Gardner Hall events. She’s doing a brilliant job to say the least. There’s also a video coming that’s to be compiled from the footage from Coffeehouse. It’s still in edits, but stay patient

LOL,

Tim

Pictured above is an ex-Northampton Corporation Daimler CV6G in May 2009. Along with many other classic vehicles, it was providing an intensive bus service on routes in and around Minehead, Somerset. Click on the picture for a larger view. Photo © Bob Brimley.

My driver and I were relief crew on that day and the cameraman has caught us as we took the Daimler on its next duty while its rostered crew had a lunch break.

Although of a traditional design, this bus was actually built well into the era of rear engined buses. Supplied to Northampton Corporation in 1967, the Roe body on this Daimler includes teak framing and is one of the last buses built to this longstanding method of construction. It is powered by a Gardner 8.4 litre 6-cylinder engine, driving through a 4-speed preselector gearbox.

It is often said that municipal operators would specify a preselector gearbox to save the expense of training its ex-tram drivers to drive a manual gearbox bus. There was no clutch on these, just a gear-change pedal in addition to the normal brake and accelerator pedals. The gears were selected in advance using a lever mounted on the steering column and pressing the gear-change pedal initiated the change.

Some car manufacturers in the inter-war years also offered a preselector gearbox.

My driving assessment, due to take place tomorrow, has been postponed so you’ll have to wait until next week to find out how I got on.

My Grandmother, Elizabeth Ellen Druce’s  (nee Gardner), final Food Rationing Book.

All Food Rationing ended in the UK on 4th July 1954 after fourteen years.

Here you can see that some of the stubbs for cheese and bacon have been used.  The name of the supplier is recorded.

© Karen Taylor 2009

The keyword, the crypt-word, of Whitman’s Civil War prose, so far as I can see, is “convulsiveness.” It comes toward the end of memoranda that he puts at the center of his autobiography, Specimen Days. In the original Memoranda During the War, the section shows up in an introduction, warning the reader of the “convulsive” character and condition of the writing to come. Here is the passage, in total [from the UVA e-text of Memoranda]:

DURING the Union War I commenced at the close of 1862, and continued steadily through ‘63, ‘64 and ‘65, to visit the sick and wounded of the Army, both on the field and in the Hospitals in and around Washington city. From the first I kept little note-books for impromptu jottings in pencil to refresh my memory of names and circumstances, and what was specially wanted, &c. In these I brief’d cases, persons, sights, occurrences in camp, by the bedside, and not seldom by the corpses of the dead. Of the present Volume most of its pages are verbatim renderings from such pencillings on the spot. Some were scratch’d down from narratives I heard and itemized while watching, or waiting, or tending somebody amid those scenes. I have perhaps forty such little note-books left, forming a special history of those years, for myself alone, full of associations never to be possibly said or sung. I wish I could convey to the reader the associations that attach to these soil’d and creas’d little livraisons, each composed of a sheet or two of paper, folded small to carry in the pocket, and fasten’d with a pin. I leave them just as I threw them by during the War, blotch’d here and there with more than one blood-stain, hurriedly written, sometimes at the clinique, not seldom amid the excitement of uncertainty, or defeat, or of action, or getting ready for it, or a march. Even these days, at the lapse of many years, I can never turn their tiny leaves, or even take one in my hand, without the actual army sights and hot emotions of the time rushing like a river in full tide through me. Each line, each scrawl, each memorandum, has its history. Some pang of anguish — some tragedy, profounder than ever poet wrote. Out of them arise active and breathing forms. They summon up, even in this silent and vacant room as I write, not only the sinewy regiments and brigades, marching or in camp, but the countless phantoms of those who fell and were hastily buried by wholesale in the battle-pits, or whose dust and bones have been since removed to the National Cemeteries of the land, especially through Virginia and Tennessee. (Not Northern soldiers only — many indeed the Carolinian, Georgian, Alabamian, Louisianian, Virginian — many a Southern face and form, pale, emaciated, with that strange tie of confidence and love between us, welded by sickness, pain of wounds, and little daily, nightly offices of nursing and friendly words and visits, comes up amid the rest, and does

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not mar, but rounds and gives a finish to the meditation.) Vivid as life, they recall and identify the long Hospital Wards, with their myriad-varied scenes of day or night — the graphic incidents of field or camp — the night before the battle, with many solemn yet cool preparations — the changeful exaltations and depressions of those four years, North and South — the convulsive memories, (let but a word, a broken sentence, serve to recall them) — the clues already quite vanish’d, like some old dream, and yet the list significant enough to soldiers — the scrawl’d, worn slips of paper that came up by bushels from the Southern prisons, Salisbury or Andersonville, by the hands of exchanged prisoners — the clank of crutches on the pavements or floors of Washington, or up and down the stairs of the Paymasters’ offices — the Grand Review of homebound veterans at the close of the War, cheerily marching day after day by the President’s house, one brigade succeeding another until it seem’d as if they would never end — the strange squads of Southern deserters, (escapees, I call’d them;) — that little genre group, unreck’d amid the mighty whirl, I remember passing in a hospital corner, of a dying Irish boy, a Catholic priest, and an improvised altar — Four years compressing centuries of native passion, first-class pictures, tempests of life and death — an inexhaustible mine for the Histories, Drama, Romance and even Philosophy of centuries to come — indeed the Verteber of Poetry and Art, (of personal character too,) for all future America, (far more grand, in my opinion, to the hands capable of it, than Homer’s siege of Troy, or the French wars to Shakspere;) — and looking over all, in my remembrance, the tall form of President Lincoln, with his face of deep-cut lines, with the large, kind, canny eyes, the complexion of dark brown, and the tinge of wierd melancholy saturating all.More and more, in my recollections of that period, and through its varied, multitudinous oceans and murky whirls, appear the central resolution and sternness of the bulk of the average American People, animated in Soul by a definite purpose, though sweeping and fluid as some great storm — the Common People, emblemised in thousands of specimens of first-class Heroism, steadily accumulating, (no regiment, no company, hardly a file of men, North or South, the last three years, without such first-class specimens.)

I know not how it may have been, or may be, to others — to me the main interest of the War, I found, (and still, on recollection, find,) in those specimens, and in the ambulance, the Hospital, and even the dead on the field. To me, the points illustrating the latent Personal Character and eligibilities of These States, in the two or three millions of American young and middle-aged men, North and South, embodied in the armies — and especially the one-third or one-fourth of

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their number, stricken by wounds or disease at some time in the course of the contest — were of more significance even than the Political interests involved. (As so much of a Race depends on what it thinks of death, and how it stands personal anguish and sickness. As, in the glints of emotions under emergencies, and the indirect traits and asides in Plutarch, &c., we get far profounder clues to the antique world than all its more formal history.)Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background of countless minor scenes and interiors, (not the few great battles) of the Secession War; and it is best they should not. In the mushy influences of current times the fervid atmosphere and typical events of those years are in danger of being totally forgotten. I have at night watch’d by the side of a sick man in the hospital, one who could not live many hours. I have seen his eyes flash and burn as he recurr’d to the cruelties on his surrender’d brother, and mutilations of the corpse afterward. [See, in the following pages, the incident at Upperville -- the seventeen, kill'd as in the description, were left there on the ground. After they dropt dead, no one touch'd them -- all were made sure of, however. The carcasses were left for the citizens to bury or not, as they chose.]

Such was the War. It was not a quadrille in a ball-room. Its interior history will not only never be written, its practicality, minutia of deeds and passions, will never be even suggested. The actual Soldier of 1862-’65, North and South, with all his ways, his incredible dauntlessness, habits, practices, tastes, language, his appetite, rankness, his superb strength and animality, lawless gait, and a hundred unnamed lights and shades of camp — I say, will never be written — perhaps must not and should not be.

The present Memoranda may furnish a few stray glimpses into that life, and into those lurid interiors of the period, never to be fully convey’d to the future. For that purpose, and for what goes along with it, the Hospital part of the drama from ‘61 to ‘65, deserves indeed to be recorded — (I but suggest it.) Of that many-threaded drama, with its sudden and strange surprises, its confounding of prophecies, its moments of despair, the dread of foreign interference, the interminable campaigns, the bloody battles, the mighty and cumbrous and green armies, the drafts and bounties — the immense money expenditure, like a heavy pouring constant rain — with, over the whole land, the last three years of the struggle, an unending, universal mourning-wail of women, parents, orphans — the marrow of the tragedy concentrated in those Hospitals — (it seem’d sometimes as if the whole interest of the land, North and South, was one vast central Hospital, and all the rest of the affair but flanges) — those forming the Untold and Unwritten History of the War — infinitely

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finitely greater (like Life’s) than the few scraps and distortions that are ever told or written. Think how much, and of importance, will be — how much, civic and military, has already been — buried in the grave, in eternal darkness !……. But to my Memoranda.

I key in on this vision of “stray glimpses” and convulsive writing: of representation that not only has limitations, but wants somehow to preserve them. It seems to me it has much to do with what Whitman means by ‘the real war will never get in the books.’ I have also argued that this has something to do with Whitman’s photographic vision of the war that comes through this prose–which can be contrasted with the actual photographs made famous by Brady and Alexander Gardner (image here: Harvest of Death).

Is this a different Whitman–this vision of limitation? Perhaps. But there is also a parallel for us to consider from Emerson. The apparent shift that Emerson seems to make around “Experience.” This too seems to focus more on limitation and suffering–and presumably for good reason. But is the writer’s recognition of that limitation completely foreign to the celebrated singing of “Song of Myself”?Yet again, I think the concept of metonymy holds for us a key. The vision in the war memoranda (as throughout Specimen Days) is thoroughly, sometimes disturbingly, metonymyic. The effects of war represented best (after all) in the “parts of the actual distraction” as Whitman puts it in the “Convulsiveness” chapter of SD. And we know that vision is not new to Whitman–also characterizes the poetry. And it is the same metonymy that shows up in Emerson’s thinking (early and late) and figured in this line from “Experience”: “I know better than to claim any completeness for my picture. I am a fragment and this is a fragment of me.”

The difference to consider, rather, is the way Whitman’s Civil War poetry (so it seems to me) is not as thoroughly metonymyic. In fact, seems much more interested in metaphor, and in producing metaphors of war, and war as metaphor.

What?

Alright, so A.J. Burnett brought it tonight. I’m guessing that means he gives up six runs in three innings next time out. The jackass righty won his first playoff game in four times out tonight, putting the clamps on Philly to lead the Yankees to a 3-1 lead and a series split through two. Burnett struck out nine and gave up just one run in seven innings in the most important start of his career. Man, this 32-year-old has potential.

The Phillies scored the game’s first run in the second on a two-out RBI single by Matty Stairs — a ball that went under the glove of Alex Rodriguez, who also went 0-for-4 with three Ks for the second night in a row. Keep bringing the playoff magic, big boy.

New York struck back with solo homers from real playoff hero Mark Texeira in the fourth and Hideki Matsui in the sixth, and added some insurance when Jorge The Rat drove home Brett Gardner with a single in the seventh. Pedro Martinez was charged with all three runs in six-plus innings of work, which certainly left Don Zimmer laughing, wherever he is these days.

Oh well, I picked the Yankees to win three times this series, so they might as well have taken this one. To my liking, it was a relatively contested game and hopefully a sign of more to come over the next week. Go Phillies!

Game 3 goes Saturday at Citizens Bank Park, with Little Andy (2-0, 2.37 this postseason and 119-1 in his playoff career, or so it seems — you know, because he’s so great) matching up with last year’s World Series MVP Cole Hamels (1-1, 6.75).

” A Pale Green Mermaid Blog “

A GARDNER’S HAND

Red berry resting in a mud encrusted palm,

Sound of nothing rustling in my ears,

Lost in the dirt wind wet… heaven.

Image from Google images /   www.bluejake.com

PEACE

Sometimes I think that. I get ready to write a post and think, “But everyone already knows that.” I think, “But that is summarized in a bunch of places.” I think, “It must be summarized somewhere, right?”

I’m sure it is.

But maybe someone reading your posts, listening to your teaching, working in your office has never heard of what you are saying.

For example, everyone knows that there are seven different intelligences, right? Some people are word smart. Others are math (logic), or people, or body, or music smart. Others learn best by talking to themselves or by seeing diagrams.

And everyone knows that if you want to help people who are people smart learn, you won’t put them in a lecture, you’ll put them in a study group. Right? And if you want to help people who think visually, you will give them a picture, help them create a diagram, show them a photograph and given them silence to let them listen to it.

And everyone knows that you aren’t weird just because you have to take a walk after listening to three conference presentations in a row, just because walking helps you figure out what someone just said.

Everyone knows that stuff, right?

Which is why no one makes the primary way to deliver content in a  conference the words anymore, right? Which is why no one ever says, “I know that I should have more interaction, more movement, more scent or music or poetry…but in the interest of time I’ll just talk.”

Which is why if you are teaching people about loving one another, you would always actually help people to sing together and work together and play together and listen together and talk together and see together and dance together.

Everyone knows that we shouldn’t do that, right?

So I suppose it shouldn’t trouble me that the measure of knowing is a change in behavior.

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If you don’t know that, here’s Howard Gardner’s “theory of multiple intelligences”.

And for a previous post in this series on learning and teaching, see “so what, exactly, do you want them to learn?“

Tex wins it

Unbelievable. Major League Baseball goes the extra step to provide left and right field umpires for playoff games, and then one goes and makes the most blatant blown call in the history of the game, in extra innings too. In case you missed it, Phil Cuzzi botched a Joe Mauer double to start the top of the 11th in tonight’s Minnesota-New York game, costing the Twins a run before Mark Texeira ended it in the bottom with a homer. Mauer’s slicing fly ball glanced off Melky Cabrera’s glove and landed at least three feet fair, all with Cuzzi standing about 10 feet away. Nice call, pretty boy.

Anyway, excuses excuses. The Twins still managed to load the bases with none out in the inning before a pair of washouts — Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez — wasted at-bats with first pitch infield outs. David Robertson was then able to get Brendan Harris to fly out and end the inning to set up Texeira’s blast.

Prior to Tex’s heroics, Alex Rodriguez did his part to suggest he’s finally getting the hang of this playoff thing. A-Rod singled home the Yankees’ first run in the sixth and hit a two-run homer off Joe Nathan in the ninth to send the game to extras. New York also had a chance to put it away in the 10th, but Brett Gardner was caught way off third and doubled up on Johnny Damon’s one-out liner to short.

Anyway, a mind-blowing loss for any Yankee hater such as myself. The win gives them a 2-0 series lead heading back to the Metrodome, where Little Andrew Pettitte (14-8, 4.16) and former Yankee legend Carl “Buttocks” Pavano (14-12, 5.10) hook up Sunday.