Putz Pomade

Putz Pomade, used by the subjects of Emporer Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodsman, in "The Marvelous Land of Oz' to polish his wonderful nickel-plated body.

Said the Scarecrow to his personage:
"Show us at once to your master, the Emperor."
The man looked from one to another of the party in an embarrassed way, and finally answered:
"I fear I musy ask you to wait for a time. The Emperor is not receiving this morning."

"How is that?" inquired the Scarecrow, anxiously. "I hope nothing has happened to him."
"Oh, no; nothing serious," returned the man. "But this is his Majesty's day for being polished; and just no his august presence is thickly smeared with putz-pomade."

Still in use 100 years later by citizens of the real world to polish printing plates to remove small abrasions before printing. It is also used for cleaning other printmaking equipment and for deep cleansing before color changes on a printing press.

Commercial printers use Putz Pomade to maintain expensive printing equipment that uses etching processes similar to what fine artists use in etching and intaglio methods. Putz Pomade is available in past and liquid form. A 15 ounce tin costs between $12 and $25, depending on source. Valley Litho Supply seems to have the best price.

Sold First Copy of my Kindle-formatted Wesley Sermons book

I sold the first copy of my Kindle-formatted book, "Sermons of John Wesley," the collected 141 sermons of John Wesley, father of the Methodist Church. Sermons are indexed by number, title, and scriptural reference. Over 1,000 pages long, this document is not available in print and is a valuable reference for anyone who preaches the Gospel, is a United Methodist, or is interested in furthering their Christian education.


Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device

The Door

The outside air is cool,
a gentle breeze from the north,
all the way from the arctic circle,
or so it seems.
Birds sing, everything is green, damp, cool.
Opening the door, I step into the house,
and my senses flood with the smells of cooking -
Simmering, garlic-laden sauces -
and I am hungry.
A house, when it smells good, is home.

Fathers Day Gift Ideas

Fathers Day Gadgets

Something for Dad's Kindle

My Life Theme Songs, updated

Theme songs for my life, in approximate life order:

The Joker • Steve Miller
She Blinded me with Science • Thomas Dolby
The Boys of Summer • Don Henley
The Coldest Night of the Year • Bruce Cockburn
Lord of the Starfields • Bruce Cockburn
All the Ways I Want You • Bruce Cockburn
Someone I Used to Love • Bruce Cockburn
Deepest Part of Me • Dougie McLean

Dream Series: Dream 01 • Flying

Flying • Sacramento, circa 1970

Flying is a common dream among humans. More than a third of the dreaming population reports having had at least one flying dream^†. I recall reading this fact when I was around 10 and deciding to try to fly in a dream. After that, I had at least several flying dreams. In my dreams of flight, I would have to kick my feet like a swimmer and struggled to reach the height of telephone poles and power lines. I don't remember how many of these dreams I had, but I think I more or less intentionally gave them up since kicking my feet to fly was a lot of work and I was never able to freely soar at will.

I have a related memory recall of dreaming of a western meadowlark sitting on a split rail fence in the midst of wide open green fields. I seem to recall that I was standing or walking along a dirt road, maybe a string of power lines running along the roadside, as well. I believe this dream is from the same time period, if not part of a flying dream. This may even be one place where I "flew," kicking my feet to reach the level of just above the power lines. In addition to flying in the vicinity of this rural pastoral scene, I flew around the Sacramento suburbia where I lived.

At the time, we lived near the edge of suburban development and my friend & I would often ride our banana bikes to undeveloped and developing areas nearby. We would explore the open framed, partially constructed homes, jump our bikes over ditches and dirt piles, and requisition wood scraps to build street racers. We'd borrow money to buy wheels and casters from the local hardware store, attaching them to cross-pieces of 2x6 planks at either end of a 2x12. The front plank was attached to the center frame with a bolt. We could steer the rig with a rope tied to eyebolts on each end of the front plank.

One interesting fact about flying dreams to which I relate is that creative people (poets, writers, musicians, painters, graphic designers, etc.) and people who do public speaking are more likely to have flying dreams than the average population.^†.
_____
Coming up next in the Dream Series: Dream 02: Pursuit and dim lights, Dream 03: Repeat Dreams - Exploring a large building, its attics, stairs, and basements
______
^† Flying Dream FAQ by Linda Lane Magallón
Image: "The Flying Dream" by Jarrod Russell, MorgueMart
Click on the bird picture to hear the song of the Western Meadowlark
Image: House under construction - photo by Dean Terry (web site, flickr source), from the documentary film "Subdivided"

Tales from the Glens Falls Rest Area

I am reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan & The Jungle by Upton Sinclair on my Kindle, resting from the road, spitting sunflower seed shells out the window, watching the people go by.

Hippy girl, hair piled high, wonderful buns rock to & fro in light cargo pants as she walks down the sidewalk. (sigh)

Two old ladies with creamsicle hair & flowery hats rise from a picnic table and wobble back to
their car.

Man stands at my front bumper and stares for a long time - I watch him in my peripheral vision hoping he'll move on - until I finally have to look up from my reading as he walks nearly up to my open window just so he can strike up some banal conversation relating tangentially to the company lettering on my Pathfinder. "So, you work in Saranac? Going camping in July? How's the fishing?" etc. etc.

Aw, hippy girl is leaving, and looks healthy from the front as well. She climbs into a small blue car with pink stripes with her tall, bearded companion, who, by the way, has jammed an McDonald's bag into the refuse bin - not exactly the granola diet of my hippy chasing days.
OK, I never chased any hippies. In college - UNH Durham - we had granola girls, but I wasn't exactly in their circle. Rumor had it that nearby Newcastle NH was the granola girl haven. In typical oblivous fashion, the potential love of my life was very much in my cicrle of friends & I didn't even know it -- shades of high school band all over again (and THAT is story for another day!).

(this is an expansion of several twitter posts from this afternoon - follow me at twitter.com/cedareden)

Working on a book

I started working on a book this week, with the working title "Some Summer Days in the Adirondacks: A Natural History in the Northern Adirondack Mountains." I got the idea after downloading several free public domain books to my Kindle by Frderick John Lazell with titles like Some Spring Days in Iowa written around 1908.
There is a pretty large selection of Adirondack books, but very few titles present an overview natural history book for the area and none approach the subject in this way. I will talk about what is happening in the woods and waters of the northern Adirondacks, including trees & flowers, animals and birds, over time as the summer progresses. It will be written in a conversational style akin to being on a series of nature walks taken throughout the area in the months of June, July, and August.
Look for postings of draft sections as the work progresses. Sure beats watching endless hours of TV, although I'll have to cut back on my voracious reading as well.

Michael

Operator

Almost invariably, the person operating the equipment thinks he is smarter than the person who designed the project.

ps (I used "he" because I'd like to think the female operators are not as described in this, my observation - and I just haven't had the opportunity to observe any female heavy equipment operatos though I know they exist)

Sewer

Rats roaming down here.
Water flowing like music from the oboe.
Dangerous gasses float in the air
Down here underground.

Poem by Jack Baker, age 7, from Denver, Colorado. Grand Prize for Category I, grades K-2, of the River of Words contest.

Visit http://riverofwords.org/ to read other environmental poems written by today's youth and to view creative and inspiring environmental artwork as well.

Changing diapers

Bumper sticker I saw today:
Men who change diapers change the world

It should read:
Men who change diapers should wash their hands

I mean, come on, you want an award or something for doing what you should be doing anyway? Think that makes you somehow special? How about doing the laundry? The dishes?

People are idiots!

Spring - Columbia County

Whistle pigs pitching woo on a rough stone wall.
Red-winged blackbirds staking out their little wetland territories, staring each other down.
Apples in bloom,
poplar popple drifting on a light breeze.
Gnats flitting about, sunlit against a clear blue sky.
New leaves popping on countless stems, ochre & virulent green.