The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Lynn C:

I'm with the person that thinks it is set up to go across the country and push poll the association with Obama and an unpopular idea - it's like those emails that are scams that are set up to look like they got sent to you by mistake.

Rayon is almost all cellulose and burns to almost nothing-- fine ash. Although a lot of rayon is treated to reduce flamability. Smells like paper.

Differentiation Tests
Fabrics made of cotton and linen do not have the full properties of pure linen. Doubtful material can sometimes be tested by dropping water on it and noting way the water spreads and the material dries. Moisture spreads rapidly on linen and soon dries but a drop of water will often lie some time on the cotton before being absorbed and the material will remain wet for some time afterward. Ink can also be used as a test. It must be remembered however when cotton and linen goods are heavily dressed with sizing water does not spread as easily. Glycerin is considered more successful test than water It causes linen to appear transparent but has not this effect on cotton.
Textiles A Handbook for the Student and the Consumer By Mary Schenck Woolman, Ellen Beers McGowan
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZM4oAAAAYAAJ

Leah Miller @ 17

Um - I too do the "my fingers know" but besides the burning test there is the water test. The way in which a drop of water affects particular fabrics of similar weaves is fairly distinctive. I'll take a crack at describing it.


You dip your finger in water (well, really you spit on your finger, but you can't say that in public, except I am) and apply it to the back of the fabric. Poly and artificial blends the water doesn't come through the same way (or at all).

If you are trying to make a cotton/linen determinations the water distribution is fastest on linen.

Silk changes texture when you moisten it in a way most artificial fabrics don't.

They also taste different, but I can't begin to describe how.

Linkmeister @ 96: As Melissa says, very old Singers (are we talking mechanical old or motorized old) are more or less immortal. If you have a mechanical one, and don't want it, pass it on.

(I still have my greatgrandmother's portable chain stitch travel Singer sewing machine, and was boggled when I saw one in a museum. Of course it also was identified as a toy, and I'm not convinced that that was its primary use, although similarly sized working machines were sold as toys later.)

Jacqueline Harris of Galveston, whose "Bring it on" provided the title of this thread has been interviewed and observed something to the effect of "we must have been out of our minds" although they did ride out the storm successfully.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6000366.html

has a story from Galveston of non-evacuees. Including a 79 year old in a wheelchair. Somehow the "registered for .... assistance" and the "increasingly frantic" telephone calls don't sound like someone who didn't want to evacuate.

I just keep having this thought, without some facts that are probably known (but I don't know them) and some information that almost certainly is not known at this time.

Some number of people chose to stay on Galveston Island. (My mother lived in Houston in the early 50s and observed that they were nuts, by the way and she's a big "property and MY house" type.) For purposes of discussion, let's assume that number is 10,000.

There was some sort of official pronouncement made that to stay was "certain death."

Before we know what the death toll is, I can't help wondering what number/percentage of deaths would make that statement a reasonable one. If the percentage of those who stayed and died is 100% then it was obviously a terrible choice. But at what point does that become a "Well, they were lucky that the death toll was only -- what?"

I don't know the answer, but I'd like to have some clarity in my mind on that before the death toll really becomes known. 1%? 100 deaths? 10%? 1000 deaths?

Since I did see a news story that said that one land of the damaged bridge off the island had been cleared for outbound traffic only and people were leaving, it obviously isn't 100%. But what is the number that justifies mandatory evacuation? (I think it stands at somewhere over 10 deaths, but if it is over 100, then it should have been forced.)

And you do have to factor in that the evacuations themselves may cause deaths in certain vulnerable populations.

I just don't know, but I really didn't like the phrase "certain death" unless it was qualified in some way that I'm not aware of.

All that said, I'd be so gone. Actually, I'm absolutely sure I wouldn't even want to live in such a place.

19th century Biblical proof texting in Unitarian and Universalist writing in Google books to refute Biblical literalists.

This is response to really distressing posts on news stories about the shootings at the Knoxville UU church (Tennessee Valley UU Church.) The posts were working from an assumption that Unitarian and Universalist views on the bible and finding wisdom in various sacred scriptures was somehow new. Found a 1889 article in "The Unitarian" in about two minutes.

Sherrold@239 There are approximately 7000 positions that are filled by the President.

You can find them in the "Plum Book"
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/plumbook/index.html

I will echo what a number of people have said -- 32, 54, 77 and 115 above.

In Illinois it isn't quite that simple... There are some profoundly corrupt Democrats here as well as Republicans. if the model was throw the bastards out, Daley and Stroger and Blagojevich are the people in power and at least some of the people in power probably should be thrown out.

That said, I did hold my nose (the gas mask might have helped more) and vote for Democrats who I sincerely believe to be corrupt for the reasons outlined above. But I don't feel that for local elections it necessarily means that voting against Republicans for offices like county treasurer just because they are Republicans is usually a good idea. I made an exception this year, but only this year. (For example the Democratic candidate for county treasurer is not particularly qualified, and is pretty much a sacrificial candidate. I voted for her anyway.)

I'm also not particularly a fan of a township resolution that we should withdraw from Iraq. Yes, I agree, but it strikes me as an exercise in pointlessness.

I have a friend who used an IBM 850 word processor to write her dissertation who still has the 8" floppies. She also still mourns, some 25 or 30 years later, the touchpad it had instead of a mouse. It was rectangular, and she felt it was superior for document navigation.

My mother is 83 and still has her correcting Selectric and no desire to give it up.

Anyway, what's the point at which something starts to be litigation. Lawyer's letters, or going to court for a writ, or what?
--------------
IANAL but, I believe standard for the parties directly involved is "reasonable anticipation of litigation" triggers the requirement to preserve all documents in your own possession, which includes not allowing normal destruction cycles to take place. Concept in question is "spoliation."

Serge asked "A question for literary historians... Nancy Drew's first story was in 1930. Before she came out, were there other series about girl detectives?"

There were a number of girls adventure books, similar in spirit to the Nancy Drew books.

My personal favorites were the Outdoor Girls, which I loved.

Gutenberg has so far:
The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake
Or, the stirring cruise of the motor boat Gem
The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House
Or, doing their best for the soldiers
The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge
or, the Hermit of Moonlight Falls
The Outdoor Girls in Army Service
Or, doing their bit for the soldier boys
The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale
Or, camping and tramping for fun and health

But there were lots more Outdoor Girls, and there was ususally some sort of mystery involved.

And there were many many others along the same lines, and many of them, to my eye have at least some protofeminist leanings.

First, the lists. I am a fast reader who is the daughter, granddaughter, and great granddaughter of readers.

Skimming those lists I'd estimate I currently own either my own copy or a purloined copy from my parents/grandfather of at least one best seller from any given year, and I'd estimate I've read another 2 or 3 from most years.

I may fool around with that in more detail on my own LJ.

Second, another note on the number of books read. In my family I'd say we start reading at five and live to be 85 (both my parents are still living) or 90 (age of my grandfather at his death, and 92 great grandfather.) Assuming we don't start H. Rider Haggard until 8 or 9 that's still 80 years.

Even working full time, I know I consume more than a dozen books a week (commuting both ways on the train helps, plus lunch.) Not counting binges - I recently succumbed to the Sharpe books by Cornwell and went through all of them in less than a week. So maybe 600 a year times 80 years? 48,000 books lifetime? Sounds about right. even 300 a year...

I own about 12,000 books and stand to inherit another 10,000. It's a little alarming, and the other 10,000 include a lot of those best sellers, including a bunch I haven't read.

I cook a fresh natural Ho-Ka turkey, courtesy of Ream's Meat Market in Elburn, Illinois.

Several of my preferences are mentioned above, most notably cooking the bird breast down, quoting my grandfather, "cook the bird as it was in life" so all the fat on the back ends up self basting the breast.

I use an adjustable vee-shaped rack to hold the turkey.

I dry the skin, and butter the outside, stuff both ends with a bread stuffing (white & wheat, celery, onion, garlic, butter & broth with fresh sage and some poultry seasoning. For a 16 pound turkey, I roasted it 5 1/2 hours stuffed and it was almost perfect, although I should have left the 4 inch by 4 inch foil tents on the wings and the stuffing cavity skin a little longer.

I was in second grade and my school made no intercomm announcement, and we found out (specifically *I* found out) from the crossing guard, who had been crying and started crying again when asked why the flag was at half mast. (2nd graders had just done flag etiquette).

My other memory is that my mother and our immediate three neighbors were none of them people who kept a radio or television on, and no one believed me. First my mother and grandfather, who thought it was a joke

"the president was shot"
"Who, Lincoln?"

and then being sent to tell neighbors and them not believing me either and the recurring motif here of adults starting to cry, even staunch Republicans like my parents.

And the one set of neighbors from Lithuania being both upset and frightened since they had only been in the US for a few years.

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