Ravens and Birches and Rickshaws in Calcutta

It's about ten below zero degrees outside this morning. Schools were closed Friday which worked out for Ianniq, Natasha, Elmira and I to keep our scheduled visit to Clarion University. I liked it there, although we heard pretty much the same old spiel already heard from the other state universities we've visited. The cost factor might figure a little lower than IUP or Slippery Rock. Clarion is the smallest of those three we've visited. We were glad the baseball coach made plenty of time to talk with Ianniq, and it seems like Clarion might be a good fit for him in that regard.

We stopped at Dunham's sporting goods in Dubois on the way home. Elmira needed a pair of snowboarding boots. It was nice to see they had the step-ladder out and were busy hanging an Albert Pujols poster and preparing to set up their baseball equipment displays. Pitchers and Catchers report in three weeks. Spring can't be too far behind.

Remember the Frost poem "Birches", about young life testing limits, and a boy climbing high upon their narrow birch trunks until they bend and gently bring him back to earth? Evidently, Natika has become a swinger of birches as she has continued to test the limits of her school, her scholarship and her parents' sanity. Of course, these behaviors are nothing that I haven't done multiple times in my own life, testing limits of all those who care about me from time to time through the years. Remember the poem's ice imagery? When you're young, everything looks bigger and shinier and irresistible to the touch as the ice coated branches of young birches about which Frost writes. You want to reach out and grab hold of their shimmering surface, smooth like crystal, beautifully glazing over the real wood of the matter. Fool around too much, the ice shatters, and the inner dome of heaven falls in. Sometimes the weight of the ice causes limbs to bend or break. Sometimes they bend and spring right back up. Sometimes they bend and stay bent over like, as Frost describes, a young girl drying her hair in the sun. This limb isn't broken yet, but it's pretty hard to spring happily back up when she calls. These days, I find great comfort in Frost's closing truth, "One could do worse than be a swinger of birches."

I think of the US government's auto industry bail-out. The big three auto-makers have been slapping together inferior gas guzzling cars for most of the past few decades, and testing the limits of the American consumer for even longer than that. Of course, plenty of red, white and blue die-hards still insist on purchasing a two-and-a-half-ton gas-guzzling American SUVs to transport their sorry two hundred pound ass (average) to and from Walmart. This was the vogue for the early years of the W administration. To criticize the wastefulness of these consumers meant being ridiculed as a tree-hugger with a liberal agenda hell-bent upon taking away your right to own an SUV! Who couldn't have predicted the day would soon come when the new car lots are overflowing with Hummers and the big three auto makers are asking the taxpayer for a zillion dollar bail-out? The inner dome of the-good-old-days-of-ripping-off-the-American-consumer-with-second-rate-automobiles heaven has finally fallen in.

I heard about this rickshaw driver in India, who peddled commuters and tourists through the streets of Calcutta for a living. He made about 40 US cents per day, or just enough money to live in a wood shack and feed his family. The man's father was also a rickshaw driver who made about the same money. But the city had recently introduced motorized rickshaws, with a plan to phase out bicycle rickshaws within the year. Bicycles had become too slow for the hustle of the big city. It was thought that motorized rickshaws would help alleviate some of the severe traffic congestion. When an interviewer asked the rickshaw driver, who could never afford to purchase a motorized rickshaw, how he and his family would survive when the government essentially banned their livelihood, the rickshaw driver sort of shrugged his shoulders and responded that it was just something that he and his father would have to accept. Although he had no other skills, and his future was uncertain, he said the new law made him feel hopeful because he knew motorized rickshaws would help people to get around much faster, which would be better for his country.

Clearly, this civic minded rickshaw driver is unqualified to join the American Auto Workers Union. Ask an American auto-worker to sacrifice for the good of his company or country? I really shouldn't be judgmental, because I don't know what he'd say, but I can pretty safely surmise that he'd mutter something about how that $76 per hour he earns for mounting rear view mirrors was not enough for him to keep up with inflation last year.

Here's an idea for an economic stimulus package. Gather up every GM, Ford and Chrysler product in the country, melt them down and manufacture them into Japanese cars. Drive through a low income housing project parking lot sometime. Take note of all the Dodge Neons, Chevy Cavaliers, Pontiac Grand Prix and other such cheap and unreliables parked there. Each of these mobile trash heaps needs frequent repair and drains the already stretched-to-the-limit budgets of the poor who live there. It's not a coincidence that a Japanese vehicle is a rare find in a housing project. I suspect the reliability of Japanese vehicles has helped more people out of poverty than any American Auto worker is willing to admit. Perhaps nowhere else will you see such a direct link between poverty and American made cars. Dodge Neons and many of the Pontiac cars are practically disposable after 85 or 100 thousand miles. One last stop before the scrap yard, these inferior pieces of junk wind up in the hands of the low income housing dwellers who keep them for about six months, during which time they pay and pay for repairs. When the Neon blows up, the cycle starts again. The poor must replace it with another American junker with standard equipped firmly attached rear-view mirror. No doubt, these American disposables are a big part of what keep the poor, poor.

A HITLER UPDATE AND OTHER ODDS AND ENDS

Little Adolf Hitler and his baby Nazi siblings are safely in the custody of New Jersey Child Services. Trust the caseworkers that yanking these three kids from their parents care had nothing to do with the names they were given. It seems a little intervention known as planned ignoring might have gone a long, long way in this case. Generally speaking, social workers are knee-jerk alarmist idiots. Remember the Mormon commune debacle last year?

A first grade boy said to me the other day, "Santa brought me Destroy All Humans 2." Perhaps we need a game more specific to destroying all social workers...and American auto workers.

Elmira is a little too fascinated by this death row inmate who gouged his own eye out and ate it. Do you think she might need a check-up?

This afternoon we will find out who goes to the Super Bowl. Tasha wants to have a little party to watch the game. I hope the Steelers win, but I am a bit concerned about the way the stars seem to be aligning this year. Abe Lincoln turns 200 in February and Barack Obama, a descendent of slaves, will be inaugurated on Tuesday.
This might be a stretch, but Charles Darwin also turns 200 this year and the big three automakers (with or without a government bail out) are on the verge of extinction.
And finally, Edgar Allen Poe turns 200 on Monday. Could this mean the Ravens are also going to win this year?

I am happy with all four teams in the championship this year. Of course, an all PA Super Bowl would be an exciting thing. I know the Eagles have a long history of disappointing their fans. However, I recall thinking during the game the Eagles beat the Steelers early this season, that I hadn't seen a team dominate Pittsburgh like that in a long, long time. They sacked Big Ben eight times, and they really looked unstoppable that day.

I've been a long time fan of the Cardinals. I used to route for them when they were in St. Louis when they had one of the most under-rated quarterbacks in modern history, Neil Lomax at their helm. It seemed the Cards were always tough to beat, and they always gave NFC powerhouses of the day, the Cowboys and Redskins fits, but the Cards rarely made the playoffs. So if the Cards get in, good for them. They are long overdue.

I hope the Steelers can win tonite. I'm sure things will be pretty rowdy here when they do. This quote from John Mehno's column this week reminds us of the downside:
"The Steelers are one victory away from this region being buried in an avalanche of homemade Steelers novelty songs.

Success is not without a price."