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Posts Tagged ‘Making Connections’

Giordano Bruno – A Talk by Alan Powers

Thursday, October 3rd, 2013

Alan explores the life, writings and legacies of Giordano Bruno. Powers has an addendum to his book on early efforts to map the moon. He calls Bruno “The Man Galileo Plagiarized and having written 26 books Bruno lost a University post to a man who had written a small pamphlet – you have to see the video to know who was this person who had the influence to get such a job on such a small academic amount of publishings.

Bruno is also the man who claimed there were billions of stars in the inhabitable part of the universe. He didn’t fare too well with the inquisition, but is still important today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCaC-VexYoY&feature=youtu.be

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Tags: Alan Powers, breakfast table talk, Giordano Bruno, Making Connections
Posted in Alan Powers, Breakfast Table Talk, Giordano Bruno, Guest comments, Guest comments and talents | Comments Off on Giordano Bruno – A Talk by Alan Powers

The Next Republican Presidential Campaign has started and it ain’t pretty!

Tuesday, October 1st, 2013

What is this government shut-down about?

Don’t even mention Obamacare because that has nothing to do with all of this hullabaloo. Obamacare is really only a distraction and something on which to hang the proverbial hat of those who have done this. They are really into red herring when they throw in Obamacare and how big business will be reduced and controlled by this shut down and how members of Congress should be treated like everyone else. That will never happen and that is clearly not their goal. They are not interested in any of the above, they are moving themselves into the public eye to be in a position – they hope – to be elected for higher office.

This is the new way to get your MAN into the presidential office if he is a Republican. After all, didn’t such a shutdown and impeachment of a president result in the election of a Republican – one George Bush?

The way to fight for power and control is to close down the government of the Democratic President and then impeach him. It was new with Clinton, but today it is clearly the way the Republicans are running their campaigns. Any issue around which they could drape emotional appeals connected to this new political campaign would do. And a secondary result – scare away all the good candidates, who are not Republican candidates. To become President of these United States you have to be ready and willing to give up a hard-earned reputation; be ready to accept crap thrown at you without cause; and have mud slung at you on a daily basis. Who would want to risk that?

Will an attempt to impeach Obama follow?

“Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me”

The government was shut down in the Clinton era by Republicans. It is now shut down in the Obama era by Republicans. You can quote Obamacare as the reason or any other reason you want to pull up. That is totally irrelevant. Obamacare has nothing to do with this government shut-down. It is just convenient. What is really going on is the Republican swarm of those who want to be president or important to who they think will be the next Republican president.

If you believed in conspiracies you could see the meetings during which this strategy was discussed and the decision taken for all to act in concert to bring down the government, the economy and middle-class America. Any discussion in those meetings about the possible harm this would do to the American people? Don’t be foolish – those vying for power never consider such. They consider only what they think they have to do to satisfy their hungering after power.

The guy who read from “Green Eggs and Ham” was showing the American public how competent he would be as president. He could read to them each evening so they could go to bed hearing his voice reading one of the childrens’ classics. A child reading to children while trying to manipulate the American Public into thinking he would be the next really great president. Look at what he has accomplished – hours in front of a microphone during which time he either had on a diaper or he paraded his bladder for all to see how long he could hold his need to go to the bathroom. Truly a requirement of a good potential presidential candidate. He clearly cares – not at all – about the people being hurt through this process. His care is about setting himself up to run for President and using this opportunity to do so. Sort of an application process during which he put forth his credentials.

The woman talking head in Congress is probably setting herself up for a ministerial position or the head of a major non-profit when she leaves Congress, if she can’t be a part of what she believes will be the new Republican Administration. I had to give her a really good look because the way she was dragging out her responses were right up there with the best African American preachers. She diverged from the ringing tones and singing quality of the Black preacher with her message.

Joe – from MSNBC is just being Joe – obnoxious, opinionated, totally biased and an anointed follower of Trump. He just wants to be who he is with the show he now has. I don’t think he realizes how horrible he comes across to thinking people- those trying to understand the news of the day and the market of the day in ways other than through such a bigoted and intransigent lens.

If all of you let this happen – shame on you!

In an elected government you get who you deserve as a leader. In this case, several areas of the country have gotten what they deserve in their representatives. The rest of the country – the majority – have shown they want something different. Is this going to continue to be a case where the minority destroys the majority for very mean spirited reasons and because their imagination and ability to run a winning political campaign is limited?

I am a Republican. I have been a Republican since I registered to vote. I have cousins – long dead – and other relatives who lived in Louisiana and who were head of the Louisiana Republican party and/or were pretty high up in the firmament – African Americans all. If you were African American and you wanted to vote back then you had to be Republican because the Democrats were off chasing and trying to keep the Ku Klux Klan in their fold, doing whatever they had to do to let them know the Democrats were just one of the KKK guys.

Times have changed and the Democrats, seeing the handwriting on the wall, started chasing after the NAACP, NOW, etc. The Republicans – who have shown their new constituents don’t get it – have been chasing the KKK guys and their successors. It was clear in the 1970’s when Reagan was nominated and the four years prior to his nomination when he lost the Republican nomination that a movement had started which was very well funded to do exactly what is happening today. Make a home for the Neo-cons in the Republican Party and change its image and what it is about. It is amazing what lots of money and very few people can accomplish in these United Sates.

Well today, things have changed mightily. I understand why so many have left the Republican party. If you are active, just about any place in the country, and you are not one of those Germany would classify as one of the Neo-cons, but who we call the Tea Partry, you are treated pretty shoddily by all of these recent converts from the Democratic Party claiming to be Republicans. Is the racism in this country so great that you will allow such to happen to bring down the country because you want Honorary Oppressors to deal with and maintain the racism that has been so traditionally practiced in the United States? Are you, White America, so hard up to be ‘better than’ by virtue of your Whiteness that you will let such a small group shut down the entire government and threaten the economic recovery which the Obama administration has worked so hard to bring about? Why aren’t you in the streets in protest? Why are you so quiet? Quiet acknowledges acquiescence and that is the message I am receiving. This closing down of the government is not just a Tea Party action – it is being led by the Tea Party and tacitly agreed to by the majority. What is there to lead me to believe otherwise?

If you folks don’t take hold of your party and bring it back from this incredible precipice we will read about Republicans in the history books and no one will be able to say we know or knew one. And me? Everytime I venture out to any Republican event I am so beat up and wounded it takes a while of staying away and licking my wounds before I have the courage to venture out again. Maybe if I were not so aware of history it might be different. After all, even the Klan had its favorite Blacks – included in their activities. If I could just smile and acquiesce in what I don’t believe maybe I too could be financially substantial with a brighter economic future because I allowed myself to be used.

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Tags: Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, bed & breakfast table talk, Democrats, Government Shut Down, Making Connections, Political Campaigns, politics, Racism, Republican Presidential Campaign, Republicans, Sexism
Posted in Bettina's Hall of Shame, Breakfast Table Talk, Historical Support, Making Connections, politics | Comments Off on The Next Republican Presidential Campaign has started and it ain’t pretty!

The March on Washington

Wednesday, August 21st, 2013

This coming week we will remember one of the highlights of the Civil Rights Movement which changed so much in this country. It is such an emotional time that I have barely started to write this and the grief, tears and overwhelming feelings take over.

I was very young during the Civil Rights Movement – it took my life from the early 1950’s until today.

As I go back to remember all of those years – from my teenaged years on – several of Dr. King’s words come flooding back. The strongest in my memory is the quote “You will be judged not by the color of your skin but by the content of your character.” During my darkest days that will pop up in my mind as I experience the racism, sexism and now ageism of even my closest friends and sometimes, my family.

On Wednesday, August 28 at 3pm, the time and date of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, houses of worship across the country will ring their bells in honor of the anniversary and will play hymns and spirituals. It should be an awesome moment! I want to be standing outside where I can hear all of them!

To contrast that to what was happening in the 1950’s and 1960’s is a stretch very few of us can make. People were being beaten, killed, maimed and the young were being denied freedom and equality. What young people had equal access to were the dogs, the hoses, the hostile and vicious law enforcement people who then worked hand and glove with the Ku Klux Klan.

Opportunities which these United States gave in its written documents were taken away at birth in the actual living out of life if you were the wrong race and sex. There has been no giving back. In fact, we still practice and allow others to practice the denial of the experiences of racism and sexism and we still strongly support the right of those engaging in such denial to be able to continue it. The denial that was so prevalent at the time is still hanging on with much tenacity and with no sign of the structure which accepts and promotes that denial being taken down. It is one thing to suffer the indignities and pain of racism and sexism; it is quite another to suffer those indignities and have those perpetrating them stand in front of you and deny their actions. —it has to do with the content of their character.

So many groups will be leading marches in Washington, D. C. from the Lincoln Memorial to the Martin Luther King Memorial. Around the country other groups will be leading marches to other places in their cities, towns, villages which have meaning in the context of this Movement.

Where will you be? What will you be doing? How will you contribute to the possibility that on August 29th you have helped to bring about some change which will make this a country more receptive to seeing everyone as equal?

The Bettina Network, inc. does its part – as a corporation – small though we may be – to help bring about moving us from a world of individuals, maybe even families, tribes, neighborhoods who see ourselves as better than those others out there – to a group of people who have an ethical commitment to dismantling the racism even further; to eliminating the sexism; to addressing the ageism and to reducing our thoughts about the culture within which we were raised away from a culture that is greater than, better than, more important than, to a culture which is different from but equal to all others. From that stance we are about giving, sharing, taking care of others as well as ourselves, and treating even the lowest and most tread upon of our brothers and sisters as equals and with respect.

The other quote from Dr. King which I hear often is “We must all learn to live together as brothers (and sisters) or we will all perish together as fools.”

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Tags: African American history, bed & breakfast, Bettina Network Information, Civil Rights Movement, Jr., Making Connections, March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Memorial, New Orleans Creole, Racism, Sexism
Posted in An editorial just because, Bettina Network Info, Historical Support, Making Connections, Memorials, Preserving Family History and Stories | Comments Off on The March on Washington

A Bettina Guest Comments on Zimmerman-Martin

Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

You don’t have to copyright my comment! It is free to whoever wants to use it.

I’ve been a guest at Bettina homes for many years. My regret is that I was not at the home in Harvard Square to be a part of the discussions that I know took place over this trial and its verdict. They have some really unbelievable conversations – especially on race. So, I have to join the conversation via email. I understand,as a former guest in the network, my comments are accepted for Bettina Network’s Blog? If not, let me know. If yes, I will see it published – except, like most people, please don’t publish my name. I am not afraid of backing up my comments, I just don’t want anyone to pick up my name and start to harrass me.

My contribution to the conversation comes from listening to the juror. It was clear racism was deeply embedded in the jury deliberations. In the USA denial is the way racism continues and the way folks are able to go to Church on Sundays and feel good about themselves even when they have participated in some really low-down racism. They neither own up to nor are they even conscious of their sin. In this case, I think they were – the tears show some unconscious understanding of what they were doing. The juror saw Zimmerman very positively and could relate to him. Martin, however, in her comments, deserved what he got. How dare a Black man think he could question being stalked and treated in a demeaning way by someone like a Zimmerman. Afterall, Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch person – Martin was the hoodie wearing ‘punk’ – according to Zimmermans description. She said, she felt he was fully repentant and would be careful with his gun in the future. I wonder if that is true – or if he got the taste of celebrity from killing a Black man and will want more? So he becomes even more reckless and irresponsible with his gun. There are always two sides and her and the jury’s racism only allowed them to see the side which cast Zimmerman in a positive light and Martin as a stereotype. Her comments about Martin, as she quoted Zimmerman, were of a man looking in windows and clearly as someone who did not belong in the neighborhood because he was Black. Has anyone explained to her and the rest of the jury the definition of profiling? By the way, how could she quote Zimmerman who he did not testify at trial?

If you had any doubts that the Martin-Zimmerman decision was racist,or that the make-up of the jury was crucial to getting Zimmerman exonerated by the State of Florida, her comments erase those doubts.

I think this was a done deal before the trial – and I am not alone in that opinion. The Department of Justice was considering filing charges against Zimmerman because the State of Florida was refusing to do so (by dragging its feet). I think when they discovered the DOJ was coming, the State of Florida got its act together and started this trial, but did not intend for it to be a fair trial. A public show so DOJ didn’t come in to get a conviction after they covered for this neighborhood watch person for almost two months. To go forth with the kind of jury they picked – and to look at the history of convictions of Blacks in Florida and the refusal of the Florida prosecutors to charge some Blacks under the ‘Stand your Ground’ law – I don’t see how Trayvon Martin could get any kind of justice. It was a clear stacked deck before the case even started to be tried.

Thanks for the platform!

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Tags: African American history, bed & breakfast, Bettina guest comments, breakfast table talk, Making Connections
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Making Connections | Comments Off on A Bettina Guest Comments on Zimmerman-Martin

Please ask your readers to sign the petition

Monday, July 15th, 2013

Thank you for your writings about the Trayvon Martin – George Zimmerman encounter. It was special and I learned a lot. You said everything I wanted to say.

The NAACP has a petition on its web site which you can sign asking that the Department of Justice file a case against George Zimmerman, who violated Trayvon Martin’s right to life.

You can sign this petition at

www.naacp.org/page/s/doj-civil-rights-petition

you may have to go back to the site several times because it has been overloaded with people trying to sign the petition. Be persistent – don’t give up – keep going back to the site until you are able to sign the petition.

All of Us At Bettina’s

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Tags: African American history, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, George Zimmerman, Making Connections, NAACP's DOJ Petition, Trayvon Martin
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments | Comments Off on Please ask your readers to sign the petition

Martin-Zimmerman and they Followed Historical Patterns

Sunday, July 14th, 2013

Don’t you know, just about every table talk conversation today is about the Zimmerman/Martin case and practically every sermon in many different denominations and religions includes some reference to it.

This is our contribution to the conversation:

1) George Zimmerman was not tried by a jury of his peers. Wasn’t it in the 1960’s and 1970’s that lawsuits abounded because Blacks were tried by all-White juries and those law suits proved that the results of such cases had nothing to do with justice and more to do with allowing the racism of the society penetrate and skewer Court decisions?

Lawsuit after Lawsuit proved that and change happened – until now!

How is it then, that a jury of five white women with white children and one minority woman who the press has never identified as to race – sometimes she was Black, sometimes she was Hispanic – is a jury of Zimmermans’ peers. This decision had nothing to do with justice and this jury did nothing except let the racism and sexism of this society enter the Court system through the front door with a special escort to make sure those twin isms knew where to go.

When one reflects on the fact that the children were White and the women were going to consider this case from the biased perspective not of – what if your child was Black and went to the local grocery store wearing a hoodie or just went to the grocery store in his neighborhood where there was an overzealous, out-of-control neighborhood watch person out there on the street; but what if your child was the White kid named some form of Zimmerman who had to go through a trial because he was doing what he claimed was his job and felt perfectly justified in shooting Trayvon Martin to death after the neighborhood watch person provoked the incident which allowed him to do this huge violence against another human being?

Zimmerman was not charged for 45 days after the fact. Who said “justice delayed……………” What happened in those 45 days? When someone confesses to shooting someone to death, there is an immediate arrest in this system because the evidence is subject to be skewered, disappear, witnesses tampered with and on and on and on.

2) George Zimmernan was a neighborhood watch person. There were many comments that he was a wannabe policeman, but those comments from the media seemed put out there only to cover the ugly facts of what happened. Why is a neighborhood watch person in the street in his car watching for ‘trouble’ with a gun? Was he trained in the use of a gun? Did he have to make regular trips to the shooting range to make sure he knew how to shoot a gun and his skills were up to where they should be? Was he ‘fit’ in the way police and other law enforcement officers have to be, in addition to keeping up their skills with their weapons? Had he been vetted psychologically to know he was able to be responsible with a gun in this neighborhood watch job? Was he encouraged to carry a gun by law enforcement? Why was he not immediately removed from this neighborhood watch duty when it was clear he was not sure of his own ability to fight off any possible attack on himself without the use of a gun? I didn’t hear any of these questions raised.

Zimmermans’ personality – character – ethics – kept him from following orders from those who knew better and advised him as to what to do. To ignore those orders, get out of his car to stalk a Black man in a ‘hoodie’ after telling the police who this Black man was using very negative racist and demeaning terms is a personality, character and ethics exposure. This could not have been the first time this side of Zimmerman was exposed to those who elected him or allowed him to be the neighborhood watch person. What was their motive to ignore these warning signs and allow him out with his gun.

Zimmerman is a man whose own defense witnesses said could not fight – he was too fat to defend himself in a fist fight on the street. He couldn’t punch, etc. He must have been very insecure being a neighborhood watch person – why else was carrying a gun? He knew his limits and he knew his temper – is that what made him so quick to pull the trigger? That is a very insecure person who is looking for trouble when he goes out on a job where he is supposed to be simply a neighborhood watch person observing the neighborhood for signs of trouble and if he saw possible problems, his ‘job’ was to alert the police.

With a gun, Zimmerman was not an ‘observer’ who would quickly alert the real police to trouble. He was someone who was armed and ready and willing to use his weapon at the least provocation. He has shown that is true by his actions against Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was ready to use his weapon and to provoke an incident during which he could use his weapon – which he did. In the Mafia he would be a made man. In the gang world, he would be welcomed as a member, in the Florida police force ………………?

Has Zimmerman now overcome his half-breedness and is now welcomed into the arms of the majority group? Is this what it takes for a half-breed to become a full-fledged accepted White Person? Zimmerman didn’t make it by birth, but he has absolutely shown he is ready to take his place in a racist, sexist, classist system which is prone to violence against its minorities and is against giving its minorities justice in its court system. Review cases over the past years and see what you come up with! When the jury has spoken, justice has been served. No one commentating on this case has been willing to say other than the jury system has delivered justice. A jury system has delivered that kind of justice to a whole lot of Black folks over the generations – are we dissembling to take attention away from that fact? Are we throwing out a red herring to get folks to look in every place except at the truth?

3) We are all being told the jury has spoken and justice has been served because we are the best nation in the world and our justice system is the best there is!!!!!!! Tell that to the generations of African Americans who have been through our justice system and have seen results come through like Plessy vs Ferguson and a whole lot more. I could go on here and take time to list pages of such cases in which the same kind of justice we have just seen is traditional in this country when African Americans are involved.

When has this country’s justice system ever convicted a White man for the murder of a Black man? And clearly Zimmerman was White. His mother may have been hispanic or some other kind of minority, but his father was White and that is the determination in this country. He stands up as a White man and is respected as such.

4) This great system of justice will now reward Zimmerman and he is the man of the hour – he will shortly be the multi-millionaire of the hour as the offers pour in. I heard talk that his brother may even benefit since the media is talking up how ‘professional’, how ‘well spoken’ is his brother. All we could say is – how self-serving was his brother and how unbelievably horrible in the way he mocked what happened and put himself and his family on that top line where we are the best, most caring people in the world. A family that has produced a George Zimmerman has lots of problems the brother has not let slip out.

All on the back of Trayvon Martin. Trayvon Martin’s life was taken so this man can succeed. Zimmerman followed the book, written over the generations – the racist, ugly names; the provoked violence for which the Black is blamed, the holier than thou attitude at the end, that the Zimmerman family seems schooled in………………. This name calling and showing the spite and vicious racist attitude the Zimmermans have towards African Americans has been slathered over and will soon be buried deep under everything else. Just the fact that the arguments in court were around who was the aggressor says the red herring had already been thrown and Zimmerman was a free man. After Zimmerman started the fight – the court argument takes up at the point where they could picture Martin as the aggressor and all is well – the jury acquits and justice is served. For who? Certainly not for the African Americans in this country. This was a case about racial profiling which resulted in the death of an African American and the courts’ have said ‘ justice was served because the African American was the ‘aggressor’ – and now let the real aggressor go free.

5) The aggressor was clearly George Zimmerman. Trayvon Martin was going home from the store – he was not breaking into a neighborhood where he did not belong, he was going back to his father’s house. This 17 year old child, who had never been in trouble of any kind, had an exemplary record, was going home and was followed and threatened by one George Zimmerman who then shot and killed him and there was a question in the trial as to who was the aggressor! Well – who was the African-American! In this society, in its criminal justice system, there is no question that in that circumstance the Black man was the aggressor – let the facts be selectively chosen to prove this case – AND THEY WERE.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: African American history, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, George Zimmerman, Making Connections, politics, Racism, Sexism, Trayvon Martin
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Making Connections | Comments Off on Martin-Zimmerman and they Followed Historical Patterns

Open That Car Door Wide before Entering

Thursday, July 4th, 2013

We had a guest recently, a frequent visitor from Turkey, who was going with us to an estate sale. His area of expertise – both education and research – is in materials.

He got to the car door, opened it and stood there for a minute or two. I wasn’t sure what was causing his hesitation. I thought maybe he was having second thoughts about going or not, thus his hesitation to get into the car.

When I asked if everything was alright, he said fine, but with the materials they use these days on the inside of cars I hold the car door open a minute or two before getting in because I want to make sure there is an exchange of air before getting into a car.

Wow! That took some thought. Hadn’t ever considered off-gases in cars from the materials used in making them as being harmful. Nor had I ever thought to open the doors and windows before getting in and breathing in all of what would be in the air inside the car.

It has taken a couple weeks, but I am now pretty proficient at opening the car door – waiting a minute or two – and then getting in and going about my business.

It took that long because a lifetime habit of opening the car door, jumping in and going off to wherever is hard to break. That moment of thoughtfulness had to be programmed into my brain and set as a habit.

I now notice when I get into a car that the air coming in feels fresh – so something was going on before I opened the door that the difference in air would feel so dramatic. To stay healthy one must always be vigilant and aware of everything going on around us. The difference these days is with health and lack of health that a few moments over many years in the wrong place can cause.

We pass this along for your consideration and use. This is just one more good bit of information coming from the experience of bed & breakfast.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Network Information, estate sale, health, Making Connections
Posted in An Estate Sale, Guest comments, Health, Making Connections | Comments Off on Open That Car Door Wide before Entering

Dr. Oz – Breakfast Conversation

Monday, June 24th, 2013

Considering we are a network which tries hard to be as organic as possible – which means in food, lifestyle, building structures, etc. – it was quite something to be a part of a breakfast conversation which resulted in all saying they were turning off Dr. Oz and his television program and anything he says.

This came from a television program in which he talked about Alzheimer’s and about metals as being looked at as possible causes and naming those metals – iron, zinc, copper – and – another program in which he dissed supplements.

Why did those two things cause so much conversation? It wasn’t about the organic things he talks about, but by the fact – as this group took it – that he galvanized many who were looking for information on how to live more organically and is now using that group to promote the agenda of the worst of those who brought us to this impasse of much money spent and no results, – or rather, much profits being pocketed by a few who leave the many ill, troubled and in dire circumstances.

Let me summarize the conversation:

It started because of conversation about aluminum and its being one of the possible causes of Alzheimer’s. We were talking about the fairly controversial Bettina Network blog suggesting that we all give up deodorants and anti-perspirants because they work by clogging our underarm pores with aluminum, etc. – read that blog for more information. One person let loose because she was fairly angry at Dr. Oz and felt he had led her down the ‘primrose path’ only to misuse her following of his programs to promote himself and get lots of money from the large corporations and big pharma. She talked about this program in which he attributed the increase in Alzheimer’s to our use of Zinc, Iron and Copper and that he and his invited guests strongly advised that we stop using iron and copper pots and use very little zinc. Her point was that no one uses copper pots in which to cook foods; iron pots have been used for generations with no increase in Alzheimer’s; and zinc has been great whenever she threatens a cold or other such infection and why was he so intentionally silent on aluminum.

The conversation was heated: Copper is used on the bottom of pots to make the heat more even and outside some other kinds of kitchen utensils, but copper would not withstand being used on the inside of a pot for cooking. So what did using those kind of copper utensils have to do with Alzheimer’s, since we didn’t have direct contact with the copper used on pots and besides, she said, he totally made no mention of what we believe to be the main cause of Alzheimer’s, which is our overuse of Aluminum, especially in pots – in which we directly cook foods which are in direct contact with aluminum and add to that all of the aluminum products which our bodies take in like deodorants and anti-perspirants. To totally eliminate aluminum from such a conversation when the research shows it is probably implicated was a real clue that maybe Dr. Oz isn’t as free of taking support, in exchange for protecting those from whom he takes it, as most of us think.

There was – especially- a lot of response to his including iron pots since iron pots have been used for generations – hundreds of years – without any indication that using these iron pots was increasing Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s did not become a problem until recently and the time line for the increase in Alzheimer’s totally lines up with the introduction of those Aluminum pots into general use in the 1950’s. A set of such pots were a great wedding present and many people still use the pots given to them decades ago when they married.

The second irritation that came out, as the conversation heated up, was Dr. Oz’s show on supplements. What made lots of people deride Dr. Oz and where he is coming from were those who knew that supplements were coming up for a vote, in the U. S. Congress, just days after Dr. Oz’s show dissing them and talking about how dangerous some could be and how useless were others and intimating that we needed a doctors advice or prescription for supplements and the FDA’s regulation of them. The claim that supplements should be regulated – is an old story – and Dr. Oz giving the case in favor of such regulation, in that time frame, showed exactly where he is coming from and the interests with whom he is aligned. The time frame in which his show discussed supplements looked to us as another political outlet for the arguments for doctor and FDA intervention. We know about budgets being allotted for such political issues and apparently, Dr. Oz was included in that budget.

That was a total misuse of his audience – both those physically present and his television viewers.

His show should start each segment by acknowledging to whom he owes allegiance and what he has been paid by the industries being touted – and that payment in any form.

We all agreed to lock out his shows and most of us had been Dr. Oz devotees. We felt used, abused, sold-out and that done under the table.

Good-bye Dr. Oz. You were great for awhile, but the public is a lot more astute than given credit. It may take a while, but we do catch on and move on. So many has-beens, and if we have our way, that will also be your road – a dead-end constructed by an intelligent, astute, understanding world-wide public.

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Tags: Anti-Perspirants, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Deodorant, Dr. Oz, health, health and beauty, Making Connections, Metals and Alzheimer's, Vitamin Supplements
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Health, Health and Beauty, Making Connections | Comments Off on Dr. Oz – Breakfast Conversation

The Morning After

Monday, April 29th, 2013

Estate Sales should be staffed by psychiatrists and psychologists who are looking for material to use in writing a book about all of us.

At some time or other we all pass through – either an estate sale or a bed & breakfast. We pass through as a guest or as proprietor of a bed & breakfast (defined in the old fashioned sense of a private home which welcomes guests) or the owner or executor of items sold via some kind of estate sale.

Our goal, the Bettina Network’s goal, in this business as in our lives is to be truly responsible to the environment; to quality in all our offerings and the way we offer them; to diversity, acceptance, equality and especially respect of others.

That said – we would like to pass on to you some of the lessons we have learned – and we will certainly take them to heart and do our best to incorporate them in our lives going forward.

One incontrovertible fact – the estate sale, scattering sale, antique sale, moving sale, art sale are social events. Many people come to meet and greet; to see what is offered; to talk about themselves and their lives; to travel-in-place exploring the neighborhoods around the sales finding new places to eat – to visit – to enjoy. What has been obvious to us for decades is the fact that antique people, estate sale people, artists, bed & breakfast people have some very similar personality and character traits in common. So much so you can spot a ‘newbie’ in a few seconds. Interestingly, that ‘newbie’ gains experience and moves up in the ranks very quickly.

Estate sales have three kinds of merchandise – the ‘real’ antique and old masters art, the collectible items, the new stuff being sold so it can be replaced with more new stuff. Mostly, or should I say historically, those items are segregated into “classes” and sold separately in different sales. Our way of doing business is to offer them all at once so you have the experience of seeing what one person has deemed important and collected over a lifetime or over the time they have spent in a particular house or profession. One of our goals is to break those barriers and offer a Rembrandt and stainless steel spoon in the same sale. We now have enough appraisers, art historians, consultants who are expert in just about every item out there working with us to be able to do that with confidence. We hope as we move forward, you will gain enough confidence in us and in our ability to bring to you the best way of selling your art, furniture, collection, musical instruments, jewelry, cars, houses, stocks, bonds, other financial instruments and more, that we are the first and last people you call to engage to sell any and all of your earthly possessions.

Currently, the ‘real’ antiques and old masters art works are the joy of every collectors heart. They don’t even have to be able to afford the prices, they just like to look – to touch – to feel – to smell the items they have read about, would love to own but can be satisfied just being there to hear about the owners – where the items came from – how they were acquired – how they were taken care of, etc. These folks love a bargain, but will pay a fair price because they know what they are buying will only increase in value over the years and they hope it will become a family heirloom and their inheritors will cherish those items left to them and will pass the stories surrounding the items down through the generations. These are the dream clients.

The collectible items in sales appeal to a whole other group of people. These are the people who are looking for that big score. Finding that item for $1.00 which will sell for $100,000, but they will be content adding the 999th item to their collection of Disney, or old spoons, or interesting picture frames, or Victorian furniture which used to be in their grandmother’s house or….. These are good clients, but their conversation is very different and their approach to an estate sale is very different from those looking for that exquisite work of art. You don’t have a community forming with this group. That strong bond forms with those looking for the antiques and old masters art works. But you also don’t have the intense competition and extreme jealousies which can form around those looking for those antiques and art works even as their sense of community forms. You do, however, have a lot of bragging going on about 195 items collected with only 804 to go to have an entire “collection”. Out of this group can come those in whom a switch is flicked and the hoarder appears.

The third group is problematical – both those who own what is being sold and those who buy. These are the people looking to furnish and add some luxury touches to their homes and generally they want to do it as cheaply as possible. No problem with that, nor is that a negative. Some of the people selling have bought items for their own comfort and enjoyment and want to recoup some of what they spent as they move on. Others have done the same but want those buying this used merchandise to pay close to full price because they have their faces turned around and are so focused on ‘taking’ that ‘sharing’ is an unknown and unknowing concept to them. There is not often a two way street here and there is very little recognition of anything except their need to squeeze everything and everyone around them dry, leaving nothing behind and even taking from those who don’t have much to give. These tend to have bought and are selling poorly manufactured merchandise, have lived with it very hard so it can be quite damaged and want others to pay a lot of money for their – no longer new and well worn goods.

Once you walk out of that nicely decorated store with its offer of interior decorators to help you place the items, choose colors, materials, window treatments which they make and more, the value of what you have bought and are probably having delivered drops immediately in value by at least 50% and each year thereafter that you keep that new merchandise, the worth of it drops ever more sharply. The penalty for purchasing merchandise which is not beautifully crafted; not able to withstand the test of time over its design attributes; is poor material camouflaged to look like something it isn’t is the low price you get on the resale market.

To not recognize that fact and want others to pay for your enjoyment of goods you purchased which are not worth what you paid for them in the first place and which you have worn hard is a very unrealistic place to be and is either a naive or ignorant expectation. This group is usually made up of those who are up-from and who turn a hard cold face to the world – responsibility and respect are not attributes which can be used to define their character.

And then there are the customers. These are the ones who make psychiatric history. Some of the antics we have observed should only be in books – fantasy books, unreal books, novels when one needs to create drama, or really – Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

The customers who are most intriguing are those who come in to a home, find what they want, take out cash – usually about 10% of the price of the item – and wave it around in front of your face saying something like ‘look, I have cash money for you right here, right now”. I am never sure of their expectations. Is the response to that supposed to be one where you put your tongue out as you hyperventilate because you are so eager to grab the cash you will do anything? Are you supposed to follow their waving the cash around with longing looks in your eyes? Do you faint on the spot because you are so close to cash and its affect is so overwhelming you just lose all control and all consciousness so they can rip you off before you can recover? Or maybe you are expected to dance around them excitedly because they are so willing to pay so little to get so much? Whatever the expected response, what they are showing are the really negative character traits we all recoil from and what is so, so sad – they don’t even realize – the emperor has no clothes and his/her real ugliness, rudeness, arrogance, disrespect of self is showing and neon signs are flashing out all kinds of messages for the world to see.

It gets even better! An estate sale is the place to go to understand what large retail corporations have done to American Society and to other societies around the world in the name of competition, branding, marketing, advertising, selling strongly to people who don’t need what you are selling -can’t afford what you are selling – have lost the ability of discernment in things they think they need and struggle to buy and don’t know about the secrets some retailers are hiding behind those fancy packagings. The need to bring non-profits into the picture, which is so commonly done today, blows smoke into your eyes. You need to gain back that lost discernment, but not yet – this feeling of your giving to those in need while buying what you think you want continues to cover the emptiness in you with the money you are spending for so very little in return. The non-profts, in return, are losing their soul and their mission in that same process. Their real, direct contributions drop. The number of people knowing about their mission, committed to it, working to help bring about their goals drops dramatically in this process, but the mirage has been created and we all fall for it like 16 year olds whose hormones are raging.

It is at the estate sale where the customer goes to project upon those selling their feelings of anger, anxiety, being ripped off which they acquire when they are buying retail. Some go to the estate sales to gain back the power they have lost in the greater society by parading around like the great and powerful of yesteryear, treating others as though they are the servants and have the job of mopping up what they leave behind. It is to the estate sale we go to crap on the people selling because we can’t do the same to the large multi-national retailer ripping all of us off in the name of making a profit, because we don’t have the strength of character to be able to put blame where its due.

At the same time, the loveliness of shopping happens at estate sales because they are very personal and at the sales are the customers who have beautiful spirits and share some of their lives. They share who they are, what they are looking for and why and who want to stay within their budgets and pay as little as possible but also want you to thrive and make sure, as best they can, that what they are buying and what they pay for what they are buying seems fair to all. Sometimes, they share some of their dreams and visions of the future, what the world could be like, their problems, their great families, their ungreat families who have sent them out to strangers to share what’s in their hearts and I could go on for quite a few paragraphs.

Accordingly, having learned these lessons and a whole lot more, we are responding in a way which lessens the pressure on those selling with us (our staff) and which makes our days in this business much less stressful:

1) We have established a “watch list”. No we aren’t watching for thieves, they are the least of our worries. We put on our watch list those who are ugly in spirit and want everything for themselves and enjoy ripping off others to get it. They can’t do this in a larger context because it would be defined as a criminal act and they would have penalties to pay through loss of their freedom. So we will use our “watch list” to exclude them from all future sales; spend no time with them and discourage them from coming to Bettina Network Sales.

2) The only people we will put on our ’email’ list, a list of those to whom we send notices of our sales – invitations to special events – invitations to previews of sales before they are open to the general public – will be people who are fully human; who understand and promote equality and diversity; who have reasons for buying other than to hit the jackpot by ripping off others. How will we know these people? Experience. Work an estate sale for a few hours and you will also know!!!

3) The last day of our sales will be split in two. The first half, items left will be half-price to those who have previously purchased items from our sales and the second half will be entertainment, refreshments and what is left given free to those who have receipts for having purchased previously or who have checked with us about people they know who are in need and who could use some of what is left.

4) As time goes on, this list will get longer. But for now it is a beginning. We hope it is a beginning of the Reformation of retail in this world. I can’t say in this American Society because it is not limited to the U. S. A., it goes across the world and is getting stronger. An ethical, responsible, strong and good character is what is needed to overcome the greed, avarice, jealousy, obscene profits, now driving this and other industries. If that is what you have – join us! We would love to manage your sale; house your travelling guests; be a lifestyle reference.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: antique sale, art sale, bed & breakfast, Bettina Scattering Sale, character, estate sale, lifestyle, Making Connections, Moving Sale, Scattering Sale
Posted in A Scattering Sale, An Estate Sale, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Making Connections, Moving Sale | Comments Off on The Morning After

More Comments on Marathon Bombing

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

“Thanks for this blog. And thanks to the reader who responded. I am sick and tired of the media. There is nothing on television except the bomber story all day everyday and that has been the way of the media since this happened.

It isn’t as if they have something to say – they basically show they are like sheep – they repeat the same thing all the time on every channel – they have engaged outrageously in reporting rumor. They are reporting on things which are ridiculous and the most aggrecious is the way they are trying this case in the press without any regard to anybody’s rights. Are we following them into this ugly new world where no one thinks – no one reads – everyone simply repeats what they hear on the tellie?”

Do we need to send our press people through remedial school to learn about reporting, etc.? Things come to mind like – rush to judgment; laziness; even possibly ignorance; inability to understand the profession they have chosen; no standards. The shallowness of our media is on display more so than is the Boston Marathon Bombing incident. This happens everytime anything happens which lets them showboat and in a second there they are. Or is this how the media management and ownership cuts cost? They can put their anchors and supporting reporters in front of the camera for days and not pay for programming for days. This is also attempted mind control and if there is a trial about all of this they have created a foul jury pool.

Ed Note: This is one of many responses we received along the same lines. We took out one and put it on the blog as representative of what many said over breakfast or wrote to us.

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Tags: Boston Marathon, Making Connections
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To Sara – Vinegar Pumps

Thursday, March 28th, 2013

Hi Sara,

Thank you for your telephone call. It has taken a while for us to research your question, but your question opened other doors and presented information to us we weren’t looking for – so thank you and we enjoyed the research and hope this helps.

You wanted to know about finding “pumps” for your Organic Apple Cider Vinegar bottle as talked about in our blog on “More on Apple Cider Vinegar” published Monday, July 23rd, 2012.

It said “I put the second bottle in the bathroom after I found a pump which fit the top and which made my Apple Cider Vinegar bottle ‘pumpable’ for cosmetic purposes.”

We went back to the person who wrote the blog and found the following:

Such pumps are common. We found them all over the place. The person who wrote the blog used to buy lotion which came with a pump. Since she saves everything she had a supply of the pumps which had been in her lotion bottles which she cleaned, stored and saved. She told us how excited she was to find a use for the pumps she thought might languish on the shelf for years. (A true hoarder in the making). You might look around to see if you have such bottles to use their pumps when they are empty.

Lacking that we went looking other places:

Frontier Co-op has pumps in their catalog – try www.frontiercoop.com

Home Depot has pumps which can be used for all kinds of bottles.

The vinegar we use – Bragg’s Organic Apple Cider Vinegar with mother, quart size – is 2 centimeters around the top and most pumps will fit for whichever size vinegar you buy. We buy the quart size, which is the 2 centimeters (We called Bragg’s to make sure of the size of the mouth of the bottle).

Sometimes you can find a pump which fits the top of the bottle, but which you need to cut because it is too long to fit. We would suggest you cut the bottom stem on the diagonal.

We also found pumps in CVS, Walgreens and more. All of them were really inexpensive.

Hope all of the above helps. If we come across a very elegant pump we will let you know!

In our quest for your pumps we came up with some interesting information.

We found one person, who bought her pumps from Frontier Co-op, who puts a quart-size bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar in her bathroom with a pump, but she also uses a pump on the olive oil mixture we suggested in another blog. She pumps it out onto her rag to clean her floors. In addition, she uses the same mixture as a lotion and since she doesn’t get what is in the bottle contaminated because of the pump, she uses the same mixture after her bath and to clean her wood floors.

That sounded a bit much for us, but we pass it along if you want to try this.

The Olive Oil mixture for cleaning floors is – one quart bottle Olive Oil (or whichever size you want to buy); add the juice from one or two organic lemons, depending upon the size of the bottle of Olive Oil; and to this add several drops of essential oil of whatever you like best. We recommended organic essential oil of lavender because in a house that is a really soothing smell to come home to – you can almost become addicted to the smell.

If you want to also use that recipe for your body lotion, you might want to change the oil – roses, gardenia’s, every kind of flower or mix a couple essential oils as you put in a few drops of each into the bottle.

You can also use this on your hair for a little oil treatment or a bit on your hands after you wash your hair. However, we prefer sticking to coconut oil for the hair because that seems to help control the curl. If you have straight hair you might want to change that to the olive oil because it gives some curl – some people would say frizz.

Enjoy!

Call again if you can’t find the pumps.

All of us at Bettina’s

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Tags: Apple cider vinegar, bed & breakfast, food shopping, health, health and beauty, Making Connections
Posted in Health, Health and Beauty, Housekeeping, Reader Feedback, Shopping | Comments Off on To Sara – Vinegar Pumps

Gluten Problems??????????

Thursday, March 7th, 2013

Many years ago I worked for The Pillsbury Company – for a brief time – with a long following law suit – which is the stuff of legend around my neighborhood. I offer that fact to you in the interest of full disclosure.

One, of the many things that upset me, happened when I was moved to International Marketing with one of my responsibilities being over the Silos. It wasn’t something I actually did, it was an old hangover from another time, but the job description was never amended.

In the process of this tenure, I received a telephone call from the real manager of the Silos, the one who had been at Pillsbury for many years and who did the day to day managing of the Silos. He informed me there was an infestation of bugs in the Silos and asked what he should do about it.

My immediate response was – throw out the flour in the Silos – you can’t sell flour to people which is or has been full of bugs.

He thanked me and hung-up.

Shortly thereafter my boss came along and said “Marceline, we can’t throw out the flour. He wasn’t calling to actually get input from you on what to do, he has been doing this job for many years and knew what to do. With your new job description he needs your signature and go ahead to proceed.”

Well, what did that mean!

It means his procedure, set up by who knows, was to spray the flour in the Silos with pesticides to kill the bugs.

Being confused, I asked my boss how did they get the pesticides out of the flour and how did they make the flour clean again from bug feces, etc.

He told me they didn’t. The FDA said the pesticides were not enough to negatively affect human health and by the time the flour was packaged and reached the grocery store shelves no one ever questioned what those little black specs were or where they came from.

Being really mind blown, I checked around the industry and discovered that was common practice and why did I have a problem with it? It was normal – everybody did it – and given that fact, they wouldn’t do such if it was problematical or would cause the public health problems.

Well, I didn’t sign off on it – the job description was finally adjusted and we all settled down to a very uncomfortable co-existence.

From that time onward, whenever I go to the store for flour I buy organic whole wheat or organic some other kind of flour whichever has minimum processing of the flour. That has been my practice since that time in early 1970. And given the fact that I bake quite a bit, it is possible to make extremely delicious breads, cakes, etc. using only organic whole wheat flour. All those recipes and comments from Chefs which say you have to add White Flour or your baking won’t come out right are a lot of baloney. Most recipes, which call for White overly processed flour translate on a one to one basis – they were probably translated from the organic whole wheat lightly milled flour to what we have today. – who said “Without a knowledge of history, we are really seriously handicapped in the way we live.”

We have had several people for breakfast lately who’ve said they don’t eat wheat because their doctor said they were ‘sensitive’. They didn’t have celiac disease – full blown- according to them, but their ‘sensitivity’ to wheat made them – on their doctors’ advice – eliminate wheat from their diet.

It has occurred to me to question if they are ‘sensitive’ to wheat or if they are ‘sensitive’ to and/or ‘allergic’ to the chemicals used to debug the flour.

I’ve raised the issue, but this pesticide treatment of flour has been a closely guarded secret of the flour processing companies for decades.

There was not this ‘sensitivity’ to flour when I was growing up. Its only recent that we are running into people who refuse to eat wheat because of it.

Since their doctors have no idea what’s in the wheat – they, I am sure, as well as everybody else have no clue as to this treatment of wheat. So, why would they test their patients for a sensitivity to the pesticides sprayed on the wheat before it is packed and shipped. Why would they look at whether their patients are allergic to the bugs and bug droppings in the wheat when they don’t know that such exists.

It really should be investigate to determine its real affect on humans and investigated by scientists other than those related to the flour industry.

This is one of many stories I have about what happens to our flour. We all need to be vigilant and on our toes about the food we eat, especially the food which has been processed. The FDA doesn’t seem to have done such a great job. But then, maybe I am confused as to whose interest they are protecting!

If you’ve stayed in our home you know some of the other stories about the wheat and the FDA – especially the strawberry story. I won’t bore you with repeating them.

Good eating!!! And stay responsible for your health and therefore your diet. What you eat determines who you are and your present and future health. Exercise is fine, but it is only about 10 percent of the equation – and – is it so highly touted to be the red herring to throw you off looking at the real problems.

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This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge MA, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, breakfast table talk, Flour, food shopping, Gluten, Gluten Free, health, Making Connections, prevent obesity, Wheat Flour
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Food Shopping, Health, Historical Support, Making Connections | Comments Off on Gluten Problems??????????

Health and Beauty Tips – Who Holds Truth?

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

We had a wonderful breakfast with a small group of ladies all over 80 and I am under 35. It was not what I was used to, but I am going to change my lifestyle. I learned a lot, laughed harder than I ever have in life, and have some new values to put in place.

I wanted to take notes to write a blog about this breakfast, but didn’t want to offend the ladies or look too commercial or whatever was going on with me. I am new at this blog business – I can write, but how do you get the information without being obvious?

What I learned is that you can’t.

I kept running back and forth from the kitchen to the dining room and back, trying to make notes. As really great things came up, I would run into the kitchen to add the discussion to my notebook. I don’t know how reporters cope. I wanted to be a part of the conversation, yet I also wanted to document it.

We did talk about everything. On one of my trips to the kitchen, when I arrived back in the dining room, one of the women presented me with a pencil and paper and suggested I stay at the table and take my notes. They didn’t mind, but my back and forth was maddening. They were laughing uncontrollably and had been since I started these back and forths, but I didn’t realize they were laughing at me and my antics.

Relieved – what follows is that breakfast:

I loved the way one of the women – at 83 years old – had almost no wrinkles and more energy then I have ever had. I sat next to her because I wanted to know her secrets. She said she didn’t have any. She just kept the lifestyle she had as a young person and didn’t take part in the food, cosmetic, housing revolution which she witnessed over her lifetime. She thought it was all quite dangerous to one’s health.

She smelled of roses – and there was her first secret. She used organic essential oil of roses and no perfume. The oil was in her rinse water when washing her clothes and not on her skin when she got dressed. I will probably never be able to pull that off because a quick trip to the internet and Yahoo-ing ‘Essential Oil of Rose” put me into a state of money shock. Organic Essential Oil of Rose I didn’t even bother Yahoo-ing because I knew that would be even further out of my financial reach.

So what else could I copy?

None of the ladies used commercial cosmetics – no lipstick, no lotions, no makeup – like foundation, etc. They took care of themselves out of their refrigerators and their cabinets. I knew that was the coming thing – I didn’t know that was the past thing. I knew my grandmother used stuff out of her kitchen, but I didn’t pay attention to what she was doing or using.

One lady used beta carotene capsules for lipstick and a little red for her face here and there. She clipped a capsule of the beta carotene and used it on her finger. I knew about that from an article on Bettina Network’s Blog about using beta carotene to color your hair, but hadn’t thought about it for lipstick. She gave me a couple capsules and I tried it. The color was a bit orange. It looked great on me so I am a convert. I don’t know if it would do well on everyone, but it is going to be my choice from now on. I notice it changed colors as the day progressed and didn’t last all day, but then neither did the lipstick I wore. I carried the lipstick in my pocket book and reapplied it during the day. I don’t know how I can do that with beta carotene, but necessity is the mother of invention and this is all new to me so let’s see what happens. It is worth the effort to get this down to a great new habit.

The comments and sharing I liked best were from the woman with almost no wrinkles and some 83 years old. She did this “hot and cold” thing. She splashed water on her face in the mornings when she woke and it was first warm to hot water and then very cold water. When she took her shower in the morning, it was without soap – in fact, none of the ladies used soap or soap substitutes – water was all they used on their bodies. She said she showered in the mornings, first in a warm shower and while standing in the shower she gradually turned the water to cold – showered a few minutes under very cold water and then turned it back to warm again.

Her friend objected because she used this hot and cold water thing, but she got out of the shower after turning the water to cold.

Apparently, this was big when they were my age, which is when they got these beauty tips. One read – and had her collection of Prevention Magazines in her basement. Hers are from the time before Prevention Magazine was sued and taken over by the Meds (their words, not mine). They all used to read the magazine religiously, but cancelled their subscriptions after the law suit and it became, according to them – “an arm of the AMA.” The hot and cold business was something either someone wrote in about or the magazine wrote an article on and it became big in their circle at the time. Not many people they know today still adheres to the regime, but they do and they look fantastic.

My great-great grandmother used to do this – but that was because she didn’t have hot and cold water in her bathroom. She lived well into her 90’s and looked great. I don’t know why I didn’t follow her example – probably because I was quite young and not worried about health or beauty. My mother clearly did not follow the family example and today one hears all kind of ugly comments made during many commercials about looking like, acting like, wearing clothes like your grandmother. The one that comes to mind is “your grandmother’s jeans”. I guess I was made for this breakfast conversation because I like Jeans that fit and don’t hang around my hips on their way to below my butt. Isn’t there somewhere a history which says the Jeans being foisted on young people today are clothes that were worn in jail to let your fellow inmates know you were up for prostitution? When we lose our history, we lose ourselves.

We acknowledge that it looks obscene when we see young men in the “ghetto” wearing pants which show the crack in their butts, but nothing is said when young white women wear the same jeans which show the crack in their butts. That is considered high fashion. As a young white woman, keep those butt-crack showing jeans and all those marketing promotions away from me. I will look to my grandmother for advice, hints and more.

All of that – plus more – which would take me a book to write about – made me think about all the marketing that goes on around products that cost a fortune and deliver next to nothing. I have been going along with their story and buying some of their products because the ads attracted me. After using ”stuff” for a few months and having nothing except buyers remorse. I think before I do anything else I am going to look at the person recommending some kind of cosmetic to me to see if they use it and how they look as a result. The people I look to will not be the 13 year olds who model these products – I want to know what the 80 year olds are doing when they look fantastic, healthy and full of energy with few wrinkles. There is nothing holding truth like seeing results and I have not been getting any from the $300-$400/month I have been spending on cosmetics because I saw an add which made me think it was truth – and finding out it was clearly hype.

This was my first morning on my new regime. I splashed my face with warm to hot water and then a lot of cold water before I had coffee. A nice feeling – and I looked better than the person who usually straggles down for coffee early in the morning.

I also took my first hot/cold shower this morning. After I finished my coffee I tried standing in the shower under warm water, gradually turning the temperature up to hot (but not too hot, I am no martyr for beauty) and then turning it all the way to cold. It was an unusual experience. It takes a little getting used to, but I thought of those women and how great they look. I am going to slug it out until this is as normal to me as it is to them. They are going to be my inspiration. And – the biggy – the cost is only of the water, which I would have to pay for anyway.

My first Bettina Network Blog! Hey editors – you don’t have to copyright this under my name, its a gift. My next blog, however, will be a different story. Although, maybe I would like the term I just coined under copyright or whatever I need to do to claim it!!!! I think Yahoo-ing will give Google a run for its money in the search world. I love Marisa Meyer.

Ed Note: The highlighting of “Yahoo-ing” was done by the editor. It was an interesting word and since our author saw it as her creation we thought we should give it a boost.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, growing old, health and beauty, Making Connections, Marisa Meyer, Yahoo-ing
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Growing Old, Health | Comments Off on Health and Beauty Tips – Who Holds Truth?

A Tribute to The Rev. Patricia Riley Colenback (1931-2013)

Sunday, February 24th, 2013

taken from “Alla Bozarth-Campbell’s – From Womanpriest: A Personal Odyssey, Paulist Press 1978

Bakerwoman God

Bakerwoman God,

I am your living Bread.

Strong, brown, Bakerwoman God.

I am your low, soft, and being-shaped loaf.

I am your rising bread,

well-kneaded by some divine

and knotty pair of knuckles,

by your warm earth-hands.

I am bread well-kneaded.

Put me in fire, Bakerwoman God,

put me in your own bright fire.

I am warm, warm as you from fire.

I am white and gold, soft and hard,

brown and round.

I am so warm from fire.

Break me, Bakerwoman God!

I am broken under your caring Word.

Drop me in your special juice in pieces.

Drop me in your blood.

Drunken me in the great red flood.

Self-giving chalice swallow me.

My skin shines in the divine wine.

My face is cup-covered and I drown.

I fall up

in a red pool

in a gold world

where your warm

sunskin hand

is there to catch and hold me.

Bakerwoman God,

remake me.

And how many times, Pat, did you say these words over others…………………..

“Give rest, O Christ, to your servant Pat with your saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.”

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Tags: Alla Bozarth-Campbell, bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, breakfast table talk, Episcopal Church, Friendship, growing old, Making Connections, Poetry
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Growing Old, Making Connections, Memorials, Poetry | Comments Off on A Tribute to The Rev. Patricia Riley Colenback (1931-2013)

2013 The Jubilee Year

Friday, February 8th, 2013

We declare the year 2013 to be the Year of the Jubilee and a holy, joyous, history making, sin forgiving year!

By whose authority? – by our own. Isn’t that how such things happen!!!!

Generations from now, the historical cry will be reported and everyone will forget it was declared by one little person in a tiny corner of Massachusetts in danger of being crushed by Harvard University.

Why 2013? —————– Why not 2013!

The year Barack Hussein Obama was re-elected president of these United States. A man of African and Colonial American origins. He not only models what African Americans can accomplish, he also models that ‘half-breeds’ can be brilliant, successful, achieve beyond everyone’s expectations and really – how can you tell his racial background from just meeting him? Doesn’t his smile wipe all of your doubts away?

His election – his person – does not go through years of ancestors stolen from Africa and forcibly put into slavery. He comes from the combination of the Africans who escaped being brought over as slaves and the very middle-class White Americans who brought some of his family/tribe/countrymen over to do their work for them – for free. And, in spite of that ancestry he is just as nice and kind and smart and thoughtful and….as he can be. The progeny of the original enemies in these United States – the original American oppressed and oppressors – those who stole the freedom of generations of human beings so they wouldn’t have to do their own menial work and those who were stolen and lived for generations outside their own country, culture, language, until they no longer could recognize from whence they had come.

This Jubilee Year, which we are declaring, also comes 50 year after Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement which broke out in this country and partially freed some of us from sitting behind signs on buses; drinking from water fountains which were never clean; going to the back door of restaurants and paying the same price for contaminated food handed to us out the back door which we then had to find a place to eat; travelling and wondering just where we were going to sleep the night because hotels, motels, inns, were not welcoming and did not allow Blacks to register; going to inferior segregated schools; not being allowed into institutions of higher learning except for those established ‘for colored patrons only’ and on and on and on.

We are a step beyond slavery, but still not free! A more qualified African American woman was passed over for Secretary of State in favor of a qualified, but less qualified White Male from a very Patrician American family – complete with trust fund, hundreds of millions of dollars and a phalanx of supporters in his chosen profession protecting him and making sure anyone threatening his path to his chosen goal was dutifully destroyed – or at the least – with reputation mangled.

With BHO’s election to the presidency we should proclaim this a great year of celebration. No, he is not perfect. No, I don’t agree with all of his stands on things. No, I suspect he has more than a little bit of sexism in his soul and it has popped out and will probably continue to do so. No to a lot about BHO, but YES, I will shout and loudly proclaim this celebration and the debt we owe him for stepping out and moving all of us out of a less equal time. If I knew about ram’s horns I would probably continuously bother all of my neighbors by playing several, all year.

This Jubilee Year, which we are proclaiming, is a year of unmitigated joy, but also a year of universal pardon for all of the sins of the past. It is time to put slavery, its manifestations in today’s society, its ruination of the lives of some of my and your ancestors (be they White, Black, Green, Pink, Brown or Purple) in the past and look to the future which this year proclaims possible. A future that is about all of us – that sees us working together to bring about a world free of the horribleness of the past.

In this Jubilee Year:

We need to call on our brothers and sisters to stop manufacturing foods and other processed goods which are harmful to us!

We need to call on our brothers and sisters to take global warming seriously and stop polluting the planet and to stop doing all the other things which are turning our living rooms into our toilets and our bodies into garbage disposals and composters at the expense of our health!

We need to call on our brothers and sisters to learn to settle their grievances without resorting to killing another human being – raping women and children – blowing up buildings out of their self-righteous hatred – playing games which hurt others, but relieves their own anxieties and covers from them the fact that they are mortal and one day will die.

We need to call on our brothers and sisters to take responsibility for each other. No one should sleep on the street or in other than a bed, have warm clothing, enough food to eat and be able to live without the fear of another human being. We are, afterall, more alike than different. We are our brothers and sisters keepers. We have heard those messages from childhood as have our parents, grandparents, great grandparents and much further back into history, heard them also, but we still have not put them into practice in our lives.

We need to call on our brothers and sisters to do at least one good deed each day for someone in need.

We need to dismantle our class structure which raises us up to believe some of us are better – as a part of a group – than others of us.

We need to dismantle what is left of racism.

We need to dismantle what is left of sexism.

We need to totally dismantle ageism.

And we need to do all of that and more before December 2013 so we can all end the year feeling great about ourselves and each other. So that no matter where we are in the world it is a safe place and if we need anything the people in that place will move to supply whatever ‘it’ is.

According to Leviticus 25:10 “Thou shalt sanctify the fiftieth year and shalt proclaim remission to all the inhabitants of thy land; for it is the year of the Jubilee.”

This needs to be a year of great goodness – great deeds – great acknowledgement of our common and shared humanity each one equal to the next, no one greater than another. We should work hard to keep this Jubilee Year and at the end, maybe we will have created habits which carry over into 2014.

50 years ago – at the beginning of this cycle of this Jubilee year –

John F. Kennedy and Medgar Evers were assassinated and W. E. B. DuBois dies!
Martin Luther King, Jr. writes his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ and later in the year gives his famous “I have a Dream Speech”, during the March on Washington.
Hoses and Police dogs turned on protestors and are nationally televised for the first time
Children’s crusade brings about a form of settlement – Birmingham juvenile court inundated with African-American children and teenagers arrested while protesting
16th Street Baptist Church bombed killing four young girls – out of which came Condoleeza Rice

and out of all of this and much more in the celebration year, the sabbatical year, has come Barack Husein Obama.

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Tags: 16th Street Baptist Church, African American history, Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Children's crusade, Condoleeza Rice, I Have a Dream, John F. Kennedy, John Kerry, Jr., Jubilee Year, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Making Connections, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Racism, Secretary of State, Sexism, Susan Rice, W. E. B. duBois
Posted in Bettina's Hall of Fame, Breakfast Table Talk, Historical Support, Making Connections, Preserving Family History and Stories, Press Release from Bettina Network | Comments Off on 2013 The Jubilee Year

Conversations about “The Flu”

Monday, January 21st, 2013

It is amazing how we could be taken over by serious and urgent conversation about something that used to be so common and harmless. A little worse than a cold, but tolerable and aren’t you glad its over. A couple days off from work; lying in bed – reading, eating, sleeping and then all is well.

Today, it is a major catastrophe. An epidemic of gargantuan size. A threat to civilizaiton. The end to life as we know it.

Most of the conversations over breakfast lately have always included something about the flu. In fact, we have had a couple guests who arrived with the flu who we had to offer to serve them breakfast in bed so the other guests would not revolt and run screaming out of our houses:)

In spite of all the talk, we have not had the flu – or a cold – in three or four years. Can’t brag about it because that’s when it happens. However, reflecting on the conversations and seeing how most of it was people who wanted to know how to strengthen their immune systems rather than whether or not they should get a flu shot, we are convinced society will survive this threat.

One thing we have changed in our lifestyle and recommended it several blogs ago – was to give up anti-perspirants and deodorants because we believe they are wicked bad. Trying to do just that we had about a one month time of being very careful when around other people – not because of the flu, but because we didn’t want to share any obnoxious odors we might generate from having given up antiperspirants and deodorants. We went around smelling under our arms constantly when out and about; getting a bit perplexed when the organic apple cider vinegar we talked about using instead of the anti-perspirants, etc. gave us a hard time because it didn’t hold.

Well, that all worked itself out. We now don’t even have to think about it. Taking a shower in the morning – without soap, just plain warm water over the body to get rid of the overnight smells and then splash a little Bragg’s Organic Apple Cider Vinegar with the Mother under our arms we are good to go for the day.

Something must happen – the body must adjust and need a couple weeks to get over its dependency on having its under-arm pores plugged with aluminum to keep from smelling, because after a couple weeks I can go two days without showering and without additional apple cider vinegar and smell just as nice and fresh.

I remember a time in the United States, when I was little, that people went a week without bathing. Saturday night was the big ‘clean-up’ night. You bathed – you soaked – you washed your hair – you defoliated and anti-perspirants were not around. You just didn’t smell bad all week. Today, with the diet changes, the heavy processed foods we eat, the change from having heavy proteins as another spice in the food to having it as large hunks of meat and all the rest of our new lifestyle, you can’t go a day without a shower – and bathing seems to have gone completely out of style.

There was much talk around the breakfast table about how apple cider vinegar works to quell your underarm odors. To smell – you perspire and you have all those bacteria on your skin under your arms. They drink up the sweat and then have to go to the bathroom. They don’t have constructed houses under your arms with toilets which flush to send their excretions someplace else so you smell the result of their having gone to the bathroom under your arms. Antiperspirants eliminate that because they plug your pores with aluminum. Isn’t that supposed to be one of the causes for Alzheimer’s? Don’t know if that is true, but it was certainly discussed as a causative factor. Apple cider vinegar works because it is anti-bacterial and probably kills the bacteria so they have no need to go to the bathroom under your arm pits.

The most common vinegar talked about was Bragg’s Organic Apple Cider Vinegar. They have a health program and someone from the company who goes around and gives talks about staying healthy the “Bragg” way.

The television commercials are all cautioning you to wash your hands and showing people with piles of soap suds on their hands over a sink. We don’t wash our hands with soap and water. That makes things worse. All of your protective oils are washed away and for minutes after your fervent washing of hands all the germs in the world can come and find a home on your unprotected skin. We ‘wash’ our hands with Organic Apple Cider Vinegar and it works wonders for the skin. Sometimes, we even splash a little on our face taking care not to get it in the eyes because the burning will be fierce – we know because we’ve been there – done that.

Other than the vinegar as deodorant – the rest of the conversation was about the changes in our lifestyles and our environment, which seem to be breaking down our bodies at a very rapid pace, while we engage in denial. Others are worried about global warming – we are worried about poor health becoming a way of life in these United States and then around the globe since we seem to export our lifestyle universally.

We wish you good health and hope you avoid this ‘epidemic’. We also hope you will continue to read Bettina Network’s Blog and pass it around to all of your friends, colleagues, family and those you wish well.

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Tags: Anti-Perspirants, Apple cider vinegar, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Deodorant, Flu, health, Making Connections, Preventing Flu and Colds
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Health, Making Connections | Comments Off on Conversations about “The Flu”

Happy New Year! 2013

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

All of us at Bettina Network, inc. wish all of you a very Happy New Year!

Our wish for you in 2013 is for much joy – the company of caring people – problems which are immediately solvable – new friends and experiences you would not have dreamed about – the discovery of great books, an increasing knowledge of the past to understand and learn from our ancestors mistakes – and the very best food with dishes from other cultures infiltrating the list of what you consider ‘comfort food’. All organic – of course.

We have dealt with myth vs truth all year. This has been a counterpoint in the business, at breakfast, meeting friends, from the media. Wherever we have gone we have had to counter the over-romanticized sayings, misinterpretation of feelings, bad advice from our store of mythology that we give to others and more.

Each time we encountered such, it required us to have a bit of a conversation to work through the why of such passings along and what it achieves for us as a society.

Not having great wisdom to pass along to you we will just wish that in 2013 you will be able to instantly see myth for what it is ; to understand the function it is serving at the moment and can keep it separate from reality – both the established myth and myth in the making.

For Example: the ‘myth’ or ‘wish’ that we heard frequently this year was “I hope God gives you roots and wings. Roots so you are firmly anchored and Wings so you can take flight.

That always struck us as strange. We now use it as a joke. When we want to wish someone ill – we wish them roots and wings. Why? Because if you receive that gift you will be torn apart the way the soul is torn apart after death in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Roots anchor you and the deeper and stronger the roots the more excruciating is the tearing apart of the body and the soul when you sprout those beautiful wings. Is that what keeps us away from one another?

So, we have roots, then we grow wings – huge, beautiful, elegant wings. When you use those wings and you are fully anchored with your roots deep in the soil where they have been nurtured by generations of ancestors, comes the incredible tearing apart. We see it all over society. Those who have tried to soar, but were held back by their ‘roots’. They become dysfunctional, confused, a caricature of who they could be. They have sprouted wings, but their ‘roots’ have them totally anchored to the earth. As human beings it is only a short jump from our own cultural ways to our own cultural ways which are better than anybody else’s and therefore we are better than those who are different, who hold different values, look different, relate differently.

We wish for you a year of understanding the intent of those who pass along these kind of myths – and the reality of what they are saying.

The media has contributed greatly to our being totally ‘rooted’ in these sayings which become mythology – their cute headlines, like ‘we are about to fall off the cliff’ – really? If I hear that one more time when I turn on the television or read the paper or magazine I will probably throw up. There is no cliff to fall off – the financial matters which they have created into this ‘cliff’ image will be resolved in time for the disaster they are predicting to be averted and the media can then to go back to reporting on real news. Well, sort of real news. The media has begun to repay its debt to the politician for bringing their publication into a more profitable position by the money the politicians spend on ads, etc. during campaigns. They have had good exposure and have had time to posture in front of the cameras for quite a long period of time.

This is not the politician and their funders total pay back – you will see more of this media-covered and promoted grandstanding as the year progresses.

We have heard this ‘falling off the cliff’ image before – especially as it relates to something Congress is or is not doing and the dreaded disaster never happens. When the whole story comes out and we realize what they have turned into this ‘cliff’ never was a threat and we have been “taken to the cleaners” – this is never a great and glorious moment.

Have you noticed that this kind of constant non-stop reporting on one topic for days and sometimes weeks always seems to come when there are traditionally no headlines to grab your attention as the media fights to be the first with the flawed story? Remember Y2K? That was reported on endlessly with talking heads going on ad nauseum and then the story died because the time came and went and the disaster they were predicting didn’t happen AND if you listened closely you knew it was not going to happen. It was a flight into nothingness that would occupy lots of air time, thousands of pages of paper and endless photographs which didn’t match the story. The ‘talking heads’ make out quite well because they are always in demand to keep the story going around the round table – or horseshoe shaped table – or rectangular table, depending upon which show you watch.

We wish for you the ability to see truth every day of your life. We wish for you the ability and the need to strip away all of the maudlings, the overly romanticized, the propaganda, the flights of fancy meant to take your mind off what is happening, so power and control is not diluted by John and Jane Q. Public.

We wish for you the ability to be able to stand on your own two feet where you see truth even if you are the only one speaking it – in a crowd going along with the program.

We wish for you the inner strength to endure all of the pain and agony of this life and the ability to use the lessons and turn that pain and agony and those hard times into something beautiful which you can share with us all.

We wish for you such joy that when you enter a room it lights up and fairly glows because you are there.

We wish for you total involvement in LIFE – in which you are a very integral part of what is happening and not a bystander watching the lives of others march past, totally missing your own.

We wish for you the wisdom to know that you are human and what that means with its strengths and weaknesses, its joys and sorrows, its ups and downs, its truths and lies.

We wish for you a turning away from seeing yourselves as greater than the homeless on the street with the need to turn towards them and not away from them because they and you are the same – only on a different journey.

We wish for you the ability to see others, who may look and act differently from you, as one with you.

We wish for you the ability to create businesses, families, communities, political structures which are inclusive and which unite rather than divide.

We wish for you the knowledge and love of a great God who has created all of us even though we call God by different names and give God different attributes, and sometimes even try to create God in our own image.

We hope 2013 brings you closer to yourself -able to see and live with your flaws, your greatness, your talents and to see them as gifts – given to you by a great God, who gives gifts to others, different from but just as important as the gifts given to you.

We hope 2013 will bring you closer to being able to accept yourself without needing a scapegoat to project onto and to blame when things don’t go the way you think they should. Such a need for escape through the use of a human scapegoat created the Holocaust – we hope you will be one of those who does everything they possibly can to bring this universe to a different place. We can’t all be God, we can’t all be gods, but we can all be warm, loving, caring, giving human beings – all equal, all different, and all accepting of the good, the bad and the indifference of others.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

From All of Us At Bettina’s

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, equality, Fiscal Cliff, Homeless, Joy, Life, Making Connections, Media, New Years Greeting 2013, Political, politics, Truth
Posted in Holiday Greeting, Making Connections | Comments Off on Happy New Year! 2013

Benghazi Tells the Future?

Thursday, December 20th, 2012

Ed Note: Yes, we had a breakfast conversation – several, in fact, – about the Sandy Hook massacre. It is too early and people are too tender to join the media massacre of our collective psyche as they posture and jump on this with both feet for days and days and days. So we will keep the notes we were sent and write about Sandy Hook after a few weeks.

Benghazi, however, is a different story. There was conversation about John Kerry and Hillary Clinton and none positive nor complimentary.

I am still smarting at the way Susan Rice was treated so to hear others talk about John Kerry’s lack of ethics in chairing this committee hearing on Benghazi while he is looking to be the next Secretary of State warmed my heart. I had always liked and respected John Kerry – always voted and campaigned for him, in fact. I don’t think I would again.

After watching and listening to his Republican friends diss Susan Rice so the path would be clearer for their long-time friend and colleague John Kerry made me more than a little sick to my stomach.

Given my horror at what happened with Kerry/Rice I thought my horror at John Kerry chairing the committee on Benghazi may have reflected my left over feelings about that conflict, however, the breakfast conversations about Benghzi and Kerry backed up my feelings. How can the truth come out when the chair of the hearing is trying to be nice to the State Department employees and others on that side of the fence because he doesn’t want to go into the State Department as Secretary of State with anyone miffed at him about how they were treated, questioned, etc. at the hearing.

Whether those were his feelings or not, the ethics are clear and are like the elephant in the room. I was amazed at the intensity of the feelings around this. Americans are really angry about the quality and lack of ethics among its politicians. One hears such comments in passing, but to see and hear the feelings that this Benghazi hearing can engender confirms that we want something different from what has happened in the past. At one time, such a breach of ethics would go unnoticed. Today, the media will probably ignore the ethical implications and push John Kerry for Secretary of State, but the rumblings in the general public will not. They will go along with the program, but its going to cost and surprise someone down the road when those resentments pop out.

The funniest comment was the one about Hillary’s ‘Benghazi flu and subsequent concussion’, which no doctor can cure. These were not Republicans these were Democrats who were looking at Hillary as a possible candidate for President in 2016. This, however, had them angry moving away from Hillary. If this keeps up and spreads, her top numbers today are going to slowly slide as more surfaces about Benghazi and people start to wonder out loud what is she afraid of or hiding. If these breakfast were any indication, it looks as though she may be headed into a small storm of having her management abilities questioned – at the very least.

John Kerry should have either renounced any interest in being Secretary of State if he was going to chair this hearing or declined to chair the hearing in favor of someone who could be impartial in trying to get out what actually happened and if there was blame where did it lie. None of that will surface during this hearing with its obvious political interferences which question the objectivity and impartiality of the chair and/or the committee’s ablility to do its job because of its chair waiting to be nominated Secretary of State. John Kerry should be sitting where? – with the questioners or with those being questioned?

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Benghazi, breakfast table talk, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Making Connections, politics, Secretary of State
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Walnut Oil on Furniture?

Sunday, December 16th, 2012

From a guest and blog reader:

Thanks for your blog on using Walnut Oil on wood furniture. I tried it and it works phenomenally! I used the Olive Oil and Walnut Oil – half and half. A friend of mine used Walnut Oil straight from the Spectrum bottle. She loves her way, I love mine.

She uses hers on her wood chopping block and wood bowls she uses for mixing salads. The Walnut oil dries hard – but you have to let it sit a couple days – and it lasts awhile. She used to use Mineral Oil and I gave her a hard time about that because Mineral Oil is a petroleum derivative (ed note: from Wikipedia “mineral oil is a liquid by-product of the distillation of petroleum to produce gasoline and other petroleum-based products from crude oil.”)and I don’t think it should come in contact with food. Although with all the medicines made from petroleum derivatives and other things we use coming from distillates of petroleum we should be immune – still, I tried her straight Walnut Oil on my chopping block and it was great.

I used the mixture of Olive and Walnut Oils on my antique wood furniture and the shine is unbelievable. It also looks as though nothing will penetrate or cause the furniture harm. I even used it on my grand piano. I did take an additional step. After I oiled the furniture – which was rubbing in a half and half mixture with a few drops of an essential oil – I let it sit for a couple days and then rubbed it again with just Olive Oil.

I did this by accident trying to undo what I thought was a great mistake. The furniture was very sticky and yukky after oiling it and days later it was still sticky and yukky. I didn’t know what to do and thought I had ruined my furniture. I went back to the Olive Oil, rubbed the furniture with Olive Oil on a soft rag and couldn’t believe the results. The furniture is beautiful. The shine is incredible and old looking furniture now looks soft and with a beautiful sheen.

I put essential oil in the mixture because I would like my house to have a faint smell of lemon oil and essential oil of lemon does the trick. I might try organic rose oil next time – even though it is wickedly expensive. The smell of roses through the house should be great.

What fun to experiment like this. I lost interest in cleaning and caring for my house. I have now regained that because it has become a creative endeavor and with the products you are talking about I am not worried about giving myself a serious disease from my cleaning products. I wouldn’t even let the woman who helps me clean use products she has been using for years. She thought I was being silly, but has since changed her mind and won’t use anything else. I am sure the other people she works for are happy with the change.

I don’t know where you get his stuff from but wherever, keep those great tips coming. I am guessing, from breakfast conversations.

When I stayed at XXXXXXXXXXXX in the Bettina Network we talked about recipes for making banana bread. I expected to talk about solving the huge problems in the world. Maybe next time. My banana bread, however, is great! Your guests were right about the ingredients making the difference. I used the same ingredients that I used before that conversation, in the same amounts, but they are now organic and the best I can find and the difference is astounding. Worth the few extra quarters. I eat less of it because the taste satisfies and doesn’t leave me craving white sugar, lard and flour. We didn’t solve the worlds’ problems at the breakfasts I had in the Bettina Network, but the new discoveries around banana bread is a start. And – my now using Walnut Oil instead of XXXXXXXXXXXXX means a minute amount of petroleum is no longer being used and maybe that is also a different kind of start to solving some of the world’s problem. Who said to the flower “bloom where you are planted.”

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Tags: Banana Bread, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Cleaning Wood Furniture, Essential Oils, health and beauty, house cleaning, Making Connections, Oiling Wood Furniture, Olive Oil, Walnut Oil
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Was Susan Rice Used?

Friday, December 14th, 2012

RICE = ROGERS = GUINIER. What do they have in common besides all being African Americans!

Was yet another woman used? – misused? – abused? in this political process?

Looks to us as though Ms. Rice’s name was thrown out and then reeled in to get the deal President Obama wanted from Congress – and it looks as though not only was it a successful ploy, but he knows the political process very well and is not above playing the game. After all, he is now one of the big boys. I just hope he has not become one of the ‘good ole boys.’

Looks like something Bill Clinton did years ago when he was president and the woman used – abused – misused – was Lani Guinier . In 1993 Ms. Guinier was nominated by President Bill Clinton to be Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Just like Ms. Rice, Ms. Guinier was eminently qualified – Radcliffe College, Yale Law School, Assistant to the then Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights – a really brilliant and accomplished Black Woman. One of the Clintons’ Yale Law School classmates.

Congress jumped all over Bill Clinton demanding her nomination be withdrawn and who was one of those who counseled him to withdraw the nomination? – none other than Ted Kennedy (genuflecting – of sainted memory), among others, including the Black Female who we will only identify with the nom de plume “turn coat” – “sell out without knowing how much you were selling out for”. So, of course, Ms. Guinier’s nomination was withdrawn. The Wall Street Journal called her one of “Clinton’s Quota Queens” (remember the title of Welfare Queen)?. The racism and sexism of that was overlooked and instead of articulating what this was about and going ahead to back-up and support his nominee, Clinton succumbed to the pressure, even though it looked as though Ms. Guinier would be confirmed. The loud, racist and sexist voices won the day.

The claim made to derail Ms. Guinier’s nomination – at the end of the day – turned out to be false, but the media proclaimed it loudly and kept the drum beat going so Ms. Guinier would be taken down – doesn’t that sound familiar? In small print after the fact, it was acknowledged that the loud drums beat out the wrong message. Now, isn’t that what they are doing to Ms. Rice? Even louder, because they have had more experience beating drums to drum out Black women!

And then there was Desiré Rogers. Another tremendous African American woman from New Orleans. I knew her parents and her grandparents. They were very substantial people and Ms. Rogers had a very solid and ethical upbringing.

Partially because of that New Orleans upbringing, -after what she went through in Washington, D. C. – Ms. Rogers was able to continue her life almost without missing a beat and moved right on up! And Condoleeza Rice – the horrible Republican who many can’t stand to even see or speak about – gets a standing ovation from any Republican group she appears in front of. Is that some kind of contrast? Takes me back to the days of Walter L. Cohen, African American who was head of the Louisiana Republican Party!

All three Black women were charged with things which were blown out of all proportion and all those charges and innuendos were kept going by the media who turned crap, half-truths and more into something which sounded real, substantial and reason for them to be not considered, re-considered, removed. Two were exonerated in the end when things quieted down and the racist sexist goals had been achieved. Ms. Rice will also be so exonerated. That will take awhile since we saw the news people this morning showing signs of relief that Ms. Rice would not be considered for Secretary of State. One news reporter woman let out an audible sound of relief. Although in Ms. Rice’s case it looks more like racism and sexism were used to reach a political goal and not a very big one, considering the price being paid by Susan Rice.

With Susan Rice,

Should be next Secretary of State

the forces of Congress came out once again to attempt to destroy an African American woman.- the Republican forces came out against her because the Democratic forces could not. They would have been accused of pushing for the appointment of a friend – which was, in fact what the Republicans were doing. What we have just witnessed on the political stage could be called “A Time of Surrogacy” with John McCain being the star of the play.

The good ole boys coming out to make sure one of their own got what he wanted. The price someone else paid for that is really irrelevant and not to be considered. That will just go down in the books as a debt to be repaid and they will look to John Kerry, at some point down the road, to repay the debt – and he will.

This time, it looks as though President Obama threw Ms. Rice to the Congressional Wolves so he could negotiate and get what he wanted from them if he withdrew her name from the short list and went back to John Kerry instead. The games boys will play.

Don’t you think it is time we elect men – or – a woman?

Was this the same John Kerry who was President Obama’s coach for that first memorable debate – which came close to blowing Obama’s chances for re-election and at the very least promoted Mitt Romney’s campaign to a higher level?

It seems to me Mitt Romney should be the one promoting John Kerry to higher responsibilities not President Obama – but then, we don’t know what goes on behind those closed political doors. And then I could be wrong – but have you read the Bettina Network’s Blog on “Rice and Kerry”?

And – in an aside, which probably had nothing to do with deals being made – Scot Brown, solely because of his ESP – and having nothing to do with games being played, started his campaign as early as December 4th. What did he know that the rest of us didn’t? He is getting ready to run for John Kerry’s seat. We think that seat should go to Martha Coakley – or – preferably to an African American woman as an appointment. If games are going to be played – set better ground rules fellows, this is a society full of diversity with a diversity mind set. To replace a White Man whose hands are unclean with another White Male whose … tsk tsk tsk!

Our breakfast table guests are seldom wrong. They seem to have that inside track which comes out over those really scrumptious breakfasts served in the bed & breakfast homes in the Bettina Network. Maybe its the coffee which brings out such great conversations. Check them out, especially if you have conversation to share!

If John Kerry has any sense of decency he will withdraw his name from consideration. It is the only decent and ethical thing he can do and it is the only way such games will begin to cease. But then, he has moved far away from the days in which his actions and youthful ideology first got him elected to Congress. How the mighty have fallen! Or – is it that power corrupts?

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Tags: African American history, Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Desiré Rogers, John Kerry, Making Connections, Mitt Romney, New Orleans Creole, politics, Racism, Secretary of State, Sexism, Susan Rice
Posted in Bettina's Hall of Shame, Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Historical Support, Making Connections | Comments Off on Was Susan Rice Used?

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Happy New Year! 2013

Benghazi Tells the Future?

Walnut Oil on Furniture?

Was Susan Rice Used?

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