Beginning ~ with the author's goal

Beginning = Tom Rath's goal

"In 1998, I began with a team of Gallup scientists led by the late Father of Strengths Psychology, Donald O. Clifton.  Our goal was to start a global conversation about what's right with people.  We were tired of living in a world that revolved around fixing our weaknesses" (p. i).

StrengthsFinder 2.0 ~ by Tom Rath, 2007, self-help, 183 pages, 10/10

Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?  Chances are, you don't.  All too often, our natural talents go untapped.  From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths.  To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced the first version of its online assessment, StrengthsFinder, in 2001.  That ignited a global conversation and helped millions to discover their top five talents.  In its latest national bestseller, Strengths Finder 2.0, Gallup unveiled the new and improved version of its popular assessment, with 34 themes.  You can read this book in one sitting, but you may use it as a reference far longer.

My own five strengths (with a snippet from each category) are:

1.  Communication (pp. 65-68) — "You will always do well in roles that require you to capture people's attention" (p. 66).

2.  Connectedness (pp. 73-76) — "Explore specific ways to expand your sense of connection and purpose in everyday life" (p. 74).

3.  Empathy (pp. 97-100) — "You can sense the emotions of those around you.  You can feel what they are feeling as though their feelings are you own.  Intuitively, you are able to see the world through their eyes and share their perspective.  You do not necessarily agree with each person's perspective" (p. 97).

4.  Includer (pp. 117-120) — "You want to include people and make them feel part of the group. ... you actively avoid those groups that exclude others" (p. 117).

5.  Intellection (pp. 129-132) — "Take time to write.  Writing might be the best way for you to crystallize and integrate your thoughts" (p. 131).

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

How did you "do school"?

"Doing School": How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students ~ by Denise Clark Pope, 2001, education, 240 pages

Since this book is almost a quarter of a century old, I googled the author.  Her faculty page says that she is a senior lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Education.  This book follows five successful high school students in their often stressful journey through class work, grades, and tests, all of which contribute to the lack of performance of even our top schools, according to this author.

I was an adjunct professor at a couple of community colleges, so I was curious to see what Denise Clark Pope has to say about the students in this book.  The last chapter in the book is entitled The Predicament of "Doing School," followed by an epilogue and information about the students in her study.

Annual inspection

My apartment will be inspected today.  This happens every year.  They want to see what shape it's in.  It means I'd better do things like be up and dressed and make my bed.  But it always feels like I will fail some exam I did not study for.

Two things ~ a book and a place

House of Shades ~ by Liane Dillsworth, 2024, literary fiction (London), 256 pages

London, 1833.  Doctress Hester Reeves, a Black female doctor, has been offered a life-changing commission.  But it comes at a price. She must leave behind her husband and their canal-side home in Kings Cross and move to Tall Trees — a dark and foreboding house in Fitzrovia.  If Hester can cure the ailing health of its owner, Gervaise Cherville, she will receive payment that will bring her everything she could dream of.

But on arriving at Tall Trees, Hester quickly discovers that an even bigger task awaits her.  Now she must unearth secrets that have lain hidden for decades — including one that will leave Hester’s own life forever changed.

Where is Fitzrovia?

Google tells me that it is a district of central London, near the West End.  I had no idea where it was, since I live in the middle of the United States.

It's Sunday again

101 Things You Need to Know ~ by Scholastic staff, 2003, nonfiction, 64 pages

What's the difference between heat and temperature?  Who was our twenty-sixth president?  How do you figure out the circumference of a circle?  Who made the first national flag?  What is a bar graph?  Where do you place the colon in a business letter?  Why do earthquakes happen?

One of my grandchildren was actually born on this day.

1. On Monday, I was feeling frustrated, HERE.
2. On TWOsday, I had two subjects, a book and a word, HERE.
3. Wednesday's Word was "sidetracked," HERE.
4. Thursday's thoughts were about all the friends who joined me while eating in the Cafe, HERE.
5. Friday's "book beginning" was from a book I found "blowing in the wind" on our outdoor patio, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Wayside or sideways?

Beginning

Sue was very excited to be at Wayside School in Mrs. Jewls's class!  She was surrounded by all the kids she had read about in her favorite book, Sideways Stories from Wayside School.

Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School ~ by Louis Sachar, 1994, children's (ages 7-9), 90 pages

"Everyone take out your spelling books," said Mrs. Jewls.  "It's time for arithmetic."  Sue is so excited for her first day at Wayside School.  But things at Wayside are far from normal — and Sue's teacher, Mrs. Jewls, is completely wacky.  She expects the students to add and subtract words!  Sue has never heard of anything so ridiculous.  She knows adding apples plus oranges is impossible . . . or is it?  Anything can happen at Wayside School.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

The Thinker is thinking thoughts today, and so am I

It is supper time, and I haven't yet posted my thoughts for today.  The Thinker is reminding me to share some thoughts.  Okay.  Sue and I planned to have lunch together, but I decided to go down to our Circle@Crown Cafe early to have my breakfast when they opened at 8:00 a.m.

Alice McC. joined me at my table.  When Sandy M. showed up, I invited her to sit with us because today's her birthday.  Sue arrive a little before 11:00, as she had planned to do, and joined those of us already sitting there.

When I got a call from Sandra H. asking if I'd like to meet her in the Cafe (she lives in the neighborhood near here), I told her I was already in the Cafe, so come join us.  She was coming to the Crown Center for a program that met at 1:00, but she had time to eat with us before it started.

So my friends from here and there just came and went all morning, and I ended up being in the Cafe with various people as they met each other and left for their own activities.  Do you wonder how long I was in the Cafe?  From 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. as those folks chatted and ate together.

When I finally headed home, after walking around the block (going the long way home to get in my steps, in other words), I ran into Dora H. sitting in the lobby and sat down to talk to her awhile.  Other friends stopped to speak to us as they passed by us, like Alyssa with her dog Hazel, and Betty B. who sat down to talk.

I think I got in a good day's worth of socializing:  Alice, Sandy, Sue, Sandra, Dora, Alyssa, Hazel (yes, dogs count), and Betty.  And these don't count the ones we said hello to as they came and went through the lobby.

Sidetracked

The Little Book of Answers: The How, Where, and Why of Stuff You Thought You Knew ~ by Doug Lennox, 2003, non-fiction, 191 pages

These easy to read vignettes are bite-sized chunks of wisdom on topics like people and places, pop culture, customs, sports and leisure, politics and history, war and military, holidays, animals, superstitions and beliefs, words, expressions, and trivia.  I knew the chapter on words would be a favorite, so I flipped to that section.  This is the part (from page 139) that convinced me I would love this book:

Why do we say someone diverted from a goal has been "sidetracked"?

Early railroads had only a single track between destinations.  Problems arose when a train was met by another goin in the opposite direction or was overtaken by a faster one.  This dilemma was solved with the creation of sidings, short lengths of track built parallel to the main line where one train could pull over while the other went by.  The train had been "sidetracked," meaning that, for a time at least, it wasn't going anywhere.

Two subjects = a book and a word

How to Speak Midwestern ~ by Edward McClelland, 2016, linguistics and cultural anthropology, 199 pages

In this book on Midwestern accents and sayings, Edward McClelland explains what Midwesterners say and how and why they say it.  He provides humorous definitions of jargon from the region.  The glossary even has a section about St. Louis (pp. 53-57), where I currently live, roughly two miles from"the Loop."  Did you know that people here call St. Louis "the Lou"?  Actually, I live among people from all over the world:  Vietnam, Russia, China, Britain, Germany,, and many parts of the United States.  I have been told I have a Southern accent, so I wanted this book when I came across it recently.

Word of the Day

lin·guis·tics /liNGˈɡwistiks/ noun = the scientific study of language and its structure, including the study of morphology, syntax, phonetics, and semantics.

I'm frustrated

I took 20 books to trade in at a nearby bookstore and got all of $5.00.  That is the last time they will ever see me, especially since they kept ALL of the books that I brought.  Why?  Because they "donate" them.  If I had been thinking rationally, I would have said, "I choose to donate them to the Crown Center library."  Why do they think they have a right to decide what to do with my books?

A memoir

The Beauty in Breaking ~ by Michele Harper, 2020, memoir, 304 pages

Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white.  Brought up in Washington, D.C., in a complicated family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband.  They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn’t move with her.  Her marriage at an end, she began her new life in a new city, in a new job, as a newly single woman.

In the following years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, bringing insight and empathy to every patient encounter, she came to understand that each of us is broken — physically, emotionally, psychically.  How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process.

The Beauty in Breaking is the story of Harper’s journey toward self-healing.  Each of the patients Harper writes about taught her something important about recuperation and recovery.

1. How to let go of fear even when the future is murky.
2. How to tell the truth when it’s simpler to overlook it.
3. How to understand that compassion isn’t the same as justice.

As she shines a light on the systemic disenfranchisement of the patients she treats as they struggle to maintain their health and dignity, Harper comes to understand the importance of allowing ourselves to make peace with the past as we draw support from the present.  In this book, she passes along the necessary lessons that she has learned as a daughter, a woman, and a physician.

Online comment:  "Overall, the author tells an incredible story of overcoming her childhood trauma, dealing with racism and sexism, and growing into an ethical human being."

1. On Monday, I wrote about the tittle (dot) over the letters i and j, HERE.
2. On TWOsday, I was thinking about okra and walking, HERE.
3. Wednesday's Word was "remit," HERE.
4. Thursday's subject was the Book Bike visit to the Crown Center, HERE.
5. Friday's "book beginning" was from Tom Brokaw's memoir, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ with America's land rush

Beginning

In the late nineteenth Century, in the Great Plains of Middle America, the American savanna, the land rush was on.  It was a vast swath of real estate that was low on water and rich in challenges — from brutal winter seasons to scorching summers.  Until recently it had been the home of enormous herds of antelope and American bison, the magnificent beast prized for its rich pelts and thick cuts of red meat.

Never Give Up: A Prairie Family's Story ~ by Tom Brokaw, 2023, memoir (South Dakota), 139 pages, 10/10

Tom Brokaw’s father, Red, left school in the second grade to work in the family hotel — the Brokaw House, established in Bristol, South Dakota, by R. P. Brokaw in 1883.  Eventually, through work on construction jobs, Red developed an exceptional talent for machines.  Tom’s mother, Jean, was the daughter of a farmer who lost everything during the Great Depression.  They met after a high school play, when Jean played the lead and Red fell in love with her from the audience.  Although they didn’t have much money early in their marriage, especially once they had three boys at home, Red’s philosophy of “Never give up” served them well.  His big break came after World War II, when he went to work for the Army Corps of Engineers building great dams across the Missouri River, magnificent structures like the Fort Randall and the Gavins Point dams.  Late in life, Red surprised his family by recording his memories of the hard times of his early life, reflections that inspired this book.

Tom Brokaw is known as one of the most successful people in broadcast journalism.  Throughout his legendary career, Brokaw has always asked what we can learn from world events and from our history.  Never Give Up is a portrait of the resilience and respect for others at the heart of one American family’s story.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Pedal power

Yesterday, the Book Bike came to the Crown Center from one of our nearby libraries, bringing some free books for the residents and some books that we could check out using our library cards.  I added two free books to my own shelves and checked out another one using my library card.  I will tell you about them over the next few days (one is a novel and the other two are memoirs).  Our local book bike looks a lot like this one in Los Angeles.

At the moment, I am struggling through a very confusing book with alternating chapters about two characters (both women) on different sides of a war, and it's hard to keep up with the two different sets of people.  I may give up and throw it across the room.  (Well, not really, but I am feeling very annoyed.)

Today, I was out walking in the neighborhood just before time for our August "Birthday Bash" with a singer and cake and ice cream.  I didn't plan to go, but I decided "if someone invites me as I pass through the lobby after my walk, then I'll go."  One of my Russian friends said, "Come go with me."  So I went, and I did enjoy singing with everyone when the singer told us to join her on a few of the songs.

The word for today is REMIT

remit (/riˈmɪt/) verb = send back.  If you remit payment, you send it back to the person you owe it to.  This is why I am pondering the word "remit" in the first place:  I got a bill in the mail from my doctor, which included these words (in all captal letters, by the way):

MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE AND REMIT TO:

So I'll set this to post for Wednesday Words, then go put the envelope in the outgoing mail.  I will also be getting in some more steps for today.

Two thoughts for today

Yesterday, I left my bag at the restaurant after lunch, taking my leftovers in one hand and my drink in the other.  Hours later, I was in a panic, realizing I had forgotten it.  So Jane, who had driven us to lunch, rushed me back over there.  As I came in the door, the woman who had taken our order was walking toward me with a great big smile on her face, holding out my bag.  Thank you so much, Patrice!

I have been doing a lot of walking in recent years, and it seems to be keeping me healthy.  However, my step-counter has a mind of its own, only counting the steps it decides to count.  If you use a pedometer you really like, would you please tell me what kind?  (I am 85, so one designed for runners is not for me.)

A tittle or two for today

tit·tle /ˈtid(ə)l / noun = a tiny amount or part of something.  The dot over the lowercase "i" and the lowercase "j" is called a tittle.  It may be a blend of "tiny" and "little."

Cat sayings on bookmarks

1.  Every day is Caturday.

2.  Stay paw sitive.

3.  You are purrfect.

4.  You are the cats pajamas.

Beginning ~ with a mention of Narnia

Beginning

My second-grade son, already an avid reader, has been living in Narnia for weeks now.  He has one book going on his own; we read chapters from another aloud at bedtime.  He is challenged and delighted by C. S. Lewis's language and imagery; for the first time, a flashlight shines from under the bedclothes.  But on one recent night Prince Caspian was set aside in favor of a storybook we used to read together when he was three.  Afterward, he gave a deep, nostalgic sigh.  "I remember when we first read that book, a long time ago," he said.  "Even though I'm old now, I still like it.  It reminds me of being young."

The Best American Short Stories ~ edited by Garrison Keillor, 1989, short stories, xvii + 315 pages

This 1998 volume is full of humor and surprises by new and familiar voices.  The Best American Short Stories every year offers the finest works chosen by a distinguished, best-selling author.  These stories were Garrison Keillor's choices, but the beginning above was from the foreword by Katrina Kenison, the editor of the series of annual short stories.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

I shudder for these poor mistreated books

Take a look at this "shelf of unfinished books" that I found HERE.  How many do you see?  Oooh, I could never do that to my books.  Doesn't that person have any bookmarks?  Or even a scrap of paper to mark the place where they quit reading?  With their spines cracked like that, I would bet those books feel worse than an old lady with arthritis in her spine.

Today's word is spud

spud / spəd / informal noun = a potato.  Spuds (the plural) are potatoes.  The popularity of the potato remains steady, thanks to its nutritional value and how relatively easy it is to grow.  It ranks fourth among the world's most important crops.

The illustration I found shows potatoes growing in a Gro-Sack, which I know nothing about.  Yesterday was National Potato Day, so I'm still thinking about potatoes.  Click HERE, if you would like to read what I posted yesterday.

It's National Potato Day

National Potato Day is celebrated on August 19th every year to honor the favorite food of many people ― potatoes.  Whether they are roasted, fried, boiled, or mashed, potatoes are the perfect side for any dish and everyone's favorite comfort food.  This fan-favorite root vegetable is a significant part of cuisines across the world and is enough to make people feel full.

Today, let's be grateful and appreciate potatoes, a vegetable that has been a part of people's meals for centuries with the first potato crops planted dating back to 5000-8000 BC in Peru and Bolivia.  It spread all over the world from there and is now a staple in several cuisines across the globe.  The versatility of potatoes allows them to be cooked in different ways and paired with almost anything.  They can be used not only as a side, but also as a key ingredient in pancakes, bread, soup, and even drinks.

Potatoes have been the primary source of sustenance for many populations over the years.  It is also so full of nutrients that people can live off only potatoes for months.  In fact, between 1845 and 1849 a plague in the potato crops left some of the population of Ireland without potatoes for 4 years, and millions lost their lives due to starvation.

French fries are one of the most popular ways to prepare potatoes.  In one year the average American eats 30 pounds of French fries.  French fries arrived in the United States in 1784 when James Hemings, Thomas Jefferson's slave, traveled to France with Jefferson so he could learn how to cook them the French way.  After returning to the United States, Hemings used to cook French fried potatoes for Jefferson's guests.  When the recipe was shared in a cookook in 1817, they quickly became a hit that spread through the country.

A majority of Americans also consider potatoes to be among their favorite comfort food, but fried isn't the only way Americans like their potatoes.  They also have them mashed or baked.  Most people like to slather their spuds with butter.

On National Potato Day you can really go all out and eat potatoes for every meal.  You can use regular potatoes or sweet potatoes for any of these:  (1) hash browns ~ maybe alongside eggs, bacon, or avocado; (2) potato pancakes are also a good option for your first meal of the day; (3) tater tots; (4) potato chips; (5) chips and dip; (6) French fries.

Our Circle@Crown Cafe will be serving a variety of potatoes today, so you may want to pick more than one kind.  See you there?

Added later:  Since today is also TWOsday, I've decided to have at least TWO kinds of potatoes.  Hmm, which variety am I in the mood for right now?

Musing about food

Yellow watermelon is a variety of watermelon with yellow flesh, naturally occurring and as natural as the more common red-fleshed watermelon.  It is known for its sweetness, sometimes described as honey-like or even with hints of apricot.  While it lacks the lycopene found in red watermelons, it offers other nutrients like beta-carotene and is a good source of vitamins A and C.  (I found this llustration online.)

You may wonder why I'm writing about yellow watermelons today.  On Friday, a neighbor wanted to share some chicken with me, which she put on a plate.  Then she started cutting up a yellow watermelon, which I tasted the minute I got in my apartment door because I have never even seen yellow watermelons, much less tasted one.  My Friday dinner was chicken and yellow watermelon, which I now highly recommend.  (Thanks, neighbor!)