Bettina Network's Blog - Table Talk at a Bettina Network Home

A Poem from A Bettina Guest

January 2nd, 2013

“I have really enjoyed, learned from and look forward to reading Bettina Network’s Blog. My contribution to the blog – as a member of the Bettina Network Community (that’s a great idea and I love it – am I going to get a membership card?) – is the following poem. I keep it all over my house – on the refrigerator, in the bedroom, in my pocketbook, because I need this kind of reminder and inspiration a lot. I do often take my environment with all of its goodies for granted. Hope it helps someone else.”

A Thanksgiving Prayer – by Samuel F. Pugh

 Oh, God, when I have food, help me to remember the hungry

 When I have work, help me to remember the jobless.

 When I have a warm home, help me to remember the homeless.

 When I am without pain, help me to remember those who suffer.

 And remembering, help me to destroy my complacency and bestir my compassion.

 Make me concerned enough to help, by word and deed, those who cry out for what we take for granted.

I found this in a pamphlet put out by the Salesian Missions in New Rochelle, New York

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Community Poetry, Salesian Missions
Posted in Guest comments, Holiday Greeting, Poetry, Reader Feedback | Comments Off on A Poem from A Bettina Guest

Happy New Year! 2013

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?

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?

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?

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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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, 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?

Estate Sale Finds!

December 9th, 2012

Estate Sales are one of my passions. I have been involved with them since about 1965, having owned an Auction Gallery in the Sheraton Ritz Hotel years ago and have barely missed a weekend without some stop at an estate sale in some city.

I haven’t been to a mall nor any other kind of retail store spending money for a very long time and we are doing quite well, thank you. My money goes further and the ‘things’ that I have acquired are much higher quality than I could afford otherwise.

In spite of that long history, it never ceases to amaze me when I find something extraordainary – like this weekend.

Saturday was full of stopping at different sales in the Greater Boston area. My best find was in Belmont where I bought a basket full of stockings – not knowing if they would fit, but knowing they were all still in their original plastic wrappers and I know enough people of different sizes that I could share what I couldn’t use.

Going over the packages – which cost about fifty cents each – there were several under the “Sears” name. Therein was my amazement. They were called “Cling-alon”. Now, as old as I am and having seen as much as I have seen in life, I had never come across stockings which one could wear out to an event, find a run in one leg, change that leg with a “replacement nylon” and keep going. Did women have these replacement legs in their pocket books in case one leg got a run and they didn’t want to look kind of messy?

There were two kinds of nylons in my many “Sears” packages. One kind was called “Replacement Hose” – those are one leg and the original cost on the package said $1.47 with a sale price of $ .49. So the woman who bought these originally – now dead – must have bought stockings by the gross. Another package is called “Spare Parts” and cost $1.35 originally with a sale price of $.69.

The marketing plug on the package says “if one hose runs re-match with hose from another pair. Reversible and interchangeable to fit either leg. Two separate seamless hose with opaque panty-type panels…open at front and back.”

Where were these panti-hose all of my adult life, especially my young adult life when I was raising three children and scrapping every penny to make ends meet? Going without stockings in a Minnesota winter because it was either my stockings or something my daughters needed was no fun. Could these stockings have eliminated a few of the colds I caught in that horrendous weather?

And why did the industry give up these kind of panti-hose to give us two legs permanently attached to the panti part of the hose necessitating our buying a new pair if we get runs on only one side of the panti-hose, which is often what happens to me. I suspect it happens to a lot of women because we tend to be harder on one side of our bodies than the other.

Before this “find” I didn’t even think of such a possibility. Now, I want to know why the panti-hose industry is making me spend money unnecessarily so they can make more. I can’t think of any other reason as to why they would integrate both legs into one panti and make me buy ‘new’ before I had totally worn out the ‘old’ because they found a new-fangled way to create an expensive and short-lived necessity for women.

I notice they are reversible – neither todays’ panti-hose nor stockings are reversible. If you wear them on the wrong side you have an obvious seam at the tip of your toes where it will show if you are wearing open toe shoes. How come with all of our technological advances there could be “reversible” stockings years ago and today only stockings with the seam on the ‘wrong’ side and the smooth finished part on the ‘right’ or outside side?

A second pair of these panti-hose is a replacement for the panti-part of the hose. Were women more conscious of what they spent on such things years ago and were not ready to throw out a perfectly good panti-hose just because the left leg or the right leg had a run in it?

I remember girdles with the hooks on the bottom for stockings to be hooked to so they wouldn’t fall down, but I don’t remember anything like this. What a fantastic find!

Now, maybe it is time to get these modern companies to become more cost conscious about women’s underwear. They are fast becoming the most expensive part of a woman’s wardrobe and the part of our wardrobes which wear-out, break, run very quickly necessitating immediate replacement.

Panti-hose can range from about $4.50 all the way up to $20-30.00 and beyond and you can’t take off one leg of those expensive hose and replace them with another leg at a fraction of the cost if you run or poke a hole in only one leg.

Sears, Roebuck and Company was very popular at one time. With this estate sale find, I understand why. These stockings were sold by – Sears in Chicago, Ill. 60607. The package for the two parts has an original price of $2.27 on sale for $ .49.

In the end, however, it looks as though both kinds of panti-hose were sold for the same amount when they went on sale, with the “Spare Parts” being a bit more expensive. As I take the packages apart, the “Spare Parts” is more flexible because you can either use them as one side of the panti-hose or they are stand alone with the panti part of the panti-hose being replaced. One can hook these “Spare Parts” onto the panti part of the panti-hose or onto your girdle with what looks like some kind of precursor to todays’ velcro.

I paid fifty cents each for these stockings at the sale. They are worth the money. I will probably never wear them, but I will put them in my ‘clothes history’ file which I have put together for my grandchildren so they can see a bit of what was, to judge for themselves the value or lack of value for what is. Did we live up to our history and move onward and upward or did we learn from that history how to rip-off the next generation.

At the risk of being trashed I will speak truth to power by saying – todays’ fashion industry is about as bad as todays’ food processing industry. All for the company – taking as much money as possible from the consumer, while giving them either the ridiculous or the empty. With the cost of the equipment today to get into either industry it is unlikely that a competitor with the real deep-down interest in the consumer will surface.

Because we follow a leader like sheep, such outrageousness by such industries are not only possible, but thrive. All they have to do is spend millions on marketing to get all of us sheep to follow their latest trend. They can tell us we are not ‘smart’ ‘fashionable’ ‘one of the beautiful people of the world’ if we don’t follow and we go crazy with the amount of money and time we will spend trying to imitate.

Our paths do diverge however. They go to the bank where they are welcomed with smiles and open arms, we go to the poor house where everything we have managed to accumulate, save, keep, is stripped from us so we can start all over again trying to dig out of an unnecessarily deep hole. Who are you? Want to wear ‘replacement parts nylon hosiery’ or content with more expensive and easily ripped contemporary hosiery?

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, estate sale, Making Connections, nylon hosiery, nylon stockings
Posted in Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Historical Support, Making Connections, Shopping | Comments Off on Estate Sale Finds!

A Guest Responds to Rice and Kerry

November 29th, 2012

I read your blog on the Secretary of State fiasco and I am so glad someone has put out there what is actually happening. I am especially distressed about what I am seeing in the media and hearing about this Susan Rice thing. Imagine putting such a lovely young woman through such trials because they need to clear a path for a WUCM member to become Secretary of State. It is criminal! Almost reaches the level of Depraved Indifference to who she is – how hard she worked to gain her credentials – how even harder she worked to serve the United States for a lot of years – to serve all of us – and now the reward for her hard work is this treatment which brings to my mind ‘Depraved Indifference. ‘ A legal terms, but fully adequate in this context. And that legal terms brings Philippa Schuyler – another African American woman – to mind.

If we had a media which published the truth over the decades and generations our ruling White Upper Class Males would not have been able to buy the election for Ronald Reagan – which all of us saw, but none reported. Now, Republicans are coming to the fore to attempt to insure that their group is not left out of power – not their Republican group, but their WUCM group. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Tea Party etc. all belong to this group.

The media in Massachusetts is becoming confident and putting its toe in the water and beginning to talk (3:45am Channel 6) about how to persuade Governor Patrick to appoint Scot Brown to the seat that will be vacated by John Kerry when he is appointed Secretary of State. If that doesn’t confirm your breakfast blog, nothing will.

The media is clearly complicit in all of this and their tom-toms ring out around the world heralding what they are all in agreement with and see as their vested interest to the continued sharing of power.

There was or is a group researching Philippa Schuyler, to keep her memory alive and her accomplishments in front of the public. I think that is a laudable effort, especially at times like this when one can see similarities. To put what is happening to Susan Rice in a historical context brings a total different picture to the forefront.

Philippa Schuyler was a young African American woman, killed by what some of us believe was first degree murder i.e. Depraved Indifference. I’ve heard more than one person lately agreeing with me and I believe some information from the Philippa Schuyler committee also said the same thing.

The parallel to the way Susan Rice’s reputation is being ‘killed’ by a group trying to maintain the WUCM’s control is startling.

With Philippa Schuyler, there was a total ignoring of what happened to her by some and an attempt at public justification by the WUCM. There was a Congressional Hearing. No charges were brought even though clearly there should have been charges of Depraved Indifference and the culprits should have been brought to trial, but Congress held a hearing which they thought and apparently accurately so, would defuse any problems from the African American community following her death. Not a peep since. Not a peep from the minority and women groups about what is happening to Susan Rice, either. Does that show how far outside African American women are? Who are your defenders?

Ms. Rice, apparently, must be sacrificed so John Kerry can have his day in the sun as Secretary of State? Where is the African American, Latino American, Women’s groups on what is happening in front of your faces. The quiet from you is deafening. Have you not heard – ‘if they come for me in the morning, they will return for you in the afternoon?” Certainly, an outcry behind what happened to Philippa Schuyler might have changed the world for minorities and especially women – but there was none.

What is interesting about the Philippa Schuyler parallel – Philippa and her father were very conservative in their thinking and writing, except where it came to reporting on events and issues where their main criteria was the truth. They were conservative to the point of being involved with the then John Birch Society. That didn’t, however, save Philippa’s life. Liberal or Conservative doesn’t really matter does it! Isn’t that what this bit of theatre is saying? The WUCM Republicans ignore party lines when it comes to some things – and maintaining and increasing the power of two of their own is paramount. The WUCM Democrats have and will in the future, return the favor.

Philippa drowned and her parents suffered the extreme loss and grief that happens under those circumstances.

Philippa was a great child prodigy and pianist who was outstanding and traveled the world playing concerts on many world stages. She composed symphonies by the age of six. If she had lived, I think her journalistic talent would have dwarfed her music. Some of us believe it was her journalism which caused her death. But she was both and it took both sides of her to produce the articles she wrote.

She was the only one to stand tall and write the real story of what happened in Africa decades ago in the death of – oh my, was it Lumumba! Every other journalist got the story wrong, but they were consistent in what they reported. So their story came from where? to be so consistently wrong? “Intel?” Did all of the journalists who engaged in that bit of conspiracy lose their jobs? Miss promotions? etc. etc. Maybe they need to step back and take another look at this Susan Rice scenario.

Philippa, who kept her contacts with those low on the economic totem pole, had ways to find the truth and she wrote about what she found and it was accurate and truth and her parents then had to deal with her death from, what some of us believe was purposefully negligent, – depraved indifference.

How does that relate to Susan Rice? Yet another African American woman is being slaughtered for things which are minor especially when compared to things the WUCM group has done and suffered no career set-back from. Yet Ms. Rice is being set-up to lose a possible appointment as Secretary of State because the WUCM group has a member – John Kerry – who wants to be Secretary of State. And here we also have some Congressional involvement. Not the Democrats, that would be too clear, but we don’t need to be led to see through a mirror darkly, we need to see face to face.

Through the mirror darkly we see the Republicans fighting Ms. Rice – White Males all, except for the involvement of the White Woman who looks like a parallel to the African Americans who worked with the KKK. All helping their brother WUCM members by attempting to take care of two of them – Scot Brown and John Kerry. I can’t believe how this stuff happens over and over and over again and a story is spun by the media which has nothing to do with reality, but is throwing smoke in your face so your eyes sting and you can’t see what is in front of you – and throwing the work over to the other side so the WUCM can say – see, its not us – bring us that bowl of water so we can wash our hands clean and prove to you we were not involved! Whose hands are being washed here? The Republicans? No – its the good ole Democrat boys looking out for their own.

Thanks again for the breakfast article. I wish others had the guts to write the truth. Sitting around Bettina Network breakfast tables I have heard some incredible talk and hope to continue. It certainly cleared my head and got my thinking straightened out.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Governor Patrick, John Kerry, Making Connections, politics, Scot Brown, Secretary of State, Susan Rice
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Historical Support, Making Connections, Reader Feedback | Comments Off on A Guest Responds to Rice and Kerry

Lemon Pudding Cake

November 27th, 2012

A guest wrote to us with the following request:

“We had the perfect breakfast dessert at one of your homes. It was called a “Lemon Pudding Cake”. Could we have the recipe? Didn’t think of asking the host family for the recipe until we got home and destressed from the trip. Would you believe one of the highights was that cake!”

The recipe as it was given to us:

2 eggs, separated (eggs laid by organic, free range chickens)

2/3 cups milk (organic milk – preferably raw, organic milk)

1 teaspoon lemon rind (organically grown lemons)

1/4 cup lemon juice( from organically grown lemons)

1/4 cup flour (organic, stoneground, whole wheat)

1 cup sugar (organic, turbinado sugar)

1/4 teaspoon salt (himalayan salt)

Please make all of the above ingredients organic. We think that is the secret to many of the dishes served in the Bettina Network. The difference in taste is amazing.

Set the oven at 350 degrees and bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

Bea egg whites until stiff

beat egg yolks slightly, add milk, lemon rind and juice to egg yolks

Mix flour, sugar, salt and add to egg yolk mixture

Fold this into egg whites and pour into baking pan.Serve warm or cold

This will be cake with a pudding inside, which is great with coffee or tea at the end of breakfast, especially if you want to sit and talk and enjoy the last vestiges of a great meal.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Lemon Pudding Cake, Organic Dessert, Organically made breakfast dessert, Recipe
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A Larry Hagman breakfast!

November 25th, 2012

Such a discussion. We need to express sympathy to Larry Hagman’s family on his death. By all accounts he was a fun, lovely person who has done much good for those around him. We hope his soul rests in peace.

However, a breakfast conversation about Hagman was kind of different. Everyone was, at first, expressing what they had read in the media, heard from the media or saw on the internet. Somehow, the conversation turned to what Hagman was really about – looking at him from the perspective of the body of work he left behind.

The general expressions were about how skillfully and completely he had taken in an entire society and projected onto all of us a lethal kind of sexism, which influenced a generation of impressionable young people. How many are watching re-runs of “I Dream of Jeannie” and “Dallas?”

“I Dream of Jeannie” was a sitcom which I thought was cute, although I didn’t really watch more than one episode. It wasn’t described as “cute” around the table. Jeannie was described as a blond, Middle-Eastern belly dancer who was so into her inferiority and her role as fulfiller of this man’s needs, wishes and dreams that she even called Hagman ‘master’. It was a complete rolling out of a sit-com which fulfilled most mens’ dreams and which negatively paralleled the women’s movement – re-enforcing and making even worse, stereotypes which the women’s movement was trying to counter with an image of woman as equal. Was it coincidence that such a show was rolled out when the Women’s Movement was becoming an important force in American Society, Business and Culture?

“Jeannie” also parallels the stereotype of the Middle-Eastern male warrior dreaming about dying to reach his virgins. Jeannie herself, could very well be almost number one in that dream sequence – yet this was an American not a Middle-Eastern show. Hmmmmmmm!!

And then there was “Dallas”. Wow! This was the sit-com which made Hagman into a multi-millionaire on the backs of women – helping to make their lives difficult by depriving them of any vestige of equality, dignity, responsibility, etc., having to fight off other women falling all over themselves to hook up with the most machismo of men – looking to cash in on the power of the men in the show! It didn’t come in for any good comments. Nor did Hagman at this point. He lived well at a woman’s expense. May he rest in peace and the body of work he helped produce be buried with him.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Dallas, I Dream of Jeannie, Larry Hagman, Making Connections, Memorial, Sexism, sexism in television
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Happy Thanksgiving!

November 21st, 2012

“Thou has given so much to me,” poet George Herbert wrote,

“Give one thing more, – a grateful heart.”

A quote in Samuel T. Lloyd’s Thanksgiving message in the Trinity Church newsletter.

Some things say it all – there is nothing more to add except the wishes and prayers we send to you and your family for a Thanksgiving which brings up old memories and shows you all sides; which makes wonderful new memories to carry you through this life wrapped in their warmth and love, and which brings truth, wisdom, and wonder into your life and the lives of your family!

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Happy Thanksgiving, Samuel Lloyd, Samuel T. Lloyd, Trinity Church Copley Square
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Secretary of State???

November 18th, 2012

Lordy – what did that guy say? ‘Much ado about nothing’? Well, this is NOT much ado about nothing. This is as much ado as possible to drown Susan Rice and make sure John Kerry is the next Secretary of State.

Nothing personal Susan. And it has nothing to do with what you said or didn’t say, your qualifications, your color, your sex…….It is simply the old boys rushing to protect the next step up of one of their own.

See, we can cross the aisle to attempt to accomplish something. Now if you guys would make this crossing party lines to work for real issues wouldn’t that be nice!

Sorry Susan – if you have to lose your reputation as they all strive to stomp all over you. It isn’t personal – just politics as usual.

What a hilarious route mimicing the ‘good old boys’ as they try to hide their real agenda! We should have many more such breakfasts.

And who said one should never talk about politics or religion. What else creates such a fun and interesting time. I won’t go into detail – you wouldn’t believe it anyway.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, John Kerry, Making Connections, politics, Racism, Secretary of State, Sexism, Susan Rice
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Veterans’ Day – 2012

November 17th, 2012

Memorial Church – Harvard University

We celebrated Veterans Day by piling all of our guests into our car and their car and going to Memorial Church in Harvard Yard.

It was a great day for everyone. Memorial Church was dedicated in 1932 to the memory of the Harvard dead of World War I and now also contains memorials of the dead of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the graduates of Radcliffe College who died in World War I. So it was the 80th anniversary of Memorial Church.

There were prayers for many illustrious names which you can recognize as being solidly a part of the New England Establishment – we prayed for Coolidges, Appletons, Nobles, Peabody’s, Woodworth’s, Ferris’ and of course, Gomes, Pusey, and Lowell, among others. I prayed for Mary Daly, whose sermon on a Sunday in Memorial Church caused many to rethink and changed lives, for Benjamin Mays from Morehouse College and so many more who chose uncomfortable – sometimes painful lives instead of comfortable existences which they could have had but for the prophetic pull which determined their life’s path and brought them to the pulpit of Memorial Church. Each, out of their own lives issued challenges from that most traditional of Churches.

President Drew Faust was present because it was also the day of the Institution Service for the new minister of Memorial Church. Rev. Peter Gomes died last year and his loss was huge. Rev. Jonathan L. Walton is the new minister and if the few remarks he made during the service were any indication of what to expect in the future his should be an interesting and thought provoking ministry, challenging many. He started his sentences with “We come to honor a Palestinian Jew who was executed…..” If that is any indication of his preaching, pastoring and prophetic sides his tenure at Memorial Church should be inspiring and challenging.

The bell tolled “In Memory of Voices that are Hushed” and in the process an honor guard of Harvard ROTC students placed a wreath of laurel in the Memorial Room.

After the service, the reception was right where you were seated in the Church. We just mingled while Harvard students who worked as waiters and waitresses served wonderful small edibles – savory and sweet along with drinks. It was an unusual ending since such receptions are held in another room or in the basement or someplace out of the way. To just stand-up at the end of the service to see Harvard students serving you as you greeted those you haven’t seen in a long time or talked about the service, or listened to others talk about the new minister was a new and different ending. Hopefully, the spirit which filled Memorial Church on November 11th will continue.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, breakfast table talk, Harvard University's Memorial Church, Making Connections, Mary Daly, Memorial, Memorial Church, Peter Gomes, Veterans Day
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Petraeus over Breakfast

November 13th, 2012

Just when you think things are calmer, up comes a topic of conversation over breakfast which could have fried the organic, free of the cage eggs.

The conversation was basically – don’t you think this was a last stand to unseat Obama and turn the election victory over to Romney?

Not having listened to the news, we were floored to learn that the woman who started this Petraeus mess – a Ms. Kelly – has a good friend at the top in the CIA, or was it the FBI, or was it both? We love gossip, but don’t always get it straight, especially when sitting with mouth open listening to the latest. Apparently, that friendship is what started this investigation, not any concern from either the FBI or the CIA about ‘security leaks’ or other possibilities which fit within their commission to do such an investigation, but they carried on anyway and we will now be regaled more with the infractions of those who tried to manipulate than with the core event which started it all. Sound familiar – AGAIN!

Watch closely which Congressional people and other talking heads come forth quickly to turn this into an anti-Obama thing instead of bringing out the truth. When, O Lord, will truth prevail in our society instead of the push for power?

The push for power is an ugly thing and we have experienced it big time throughout this election cycle – and – if we don’t all, as a large United States of America community, push for something better, this is what we will continue to get. Folks are getting rich on these schemes. Don’t we have many ‘nouveau’ multi-millionaires running around stuffing their bank accounts with much dirty money from coming up with such schemes?

Kelly got an FBI investigation into Petraeus and his ‘friend’ Broadwell through her friendship connections with the CIA and FBI and according to our breakfast conversations, this whole thing was to break open just before the election to help end any hopes the Obama Campaign may have had of winning. Amazing! Wish we had such connections – we could put them to much better use. The only FBI connections we have are the spam emails we get supposedly from the FBI and CIA – oh well, such is life.

According to our breakfast conversations, thanks to the bungling and messiness of bureaucracies, that attempted influence into the presidential election didn’t happen, but it came close. Did folks really use the FBI and CIA to attempt to influence a United States Presidential Election? Don’t you think its time for us to demand that our elections be better than what they’ve been? We’ve had Florida, Arizona and now Petraeus?

Now – do we – as a Bettina Network community have such connections? Okay folks, cough them up!!! We can then bring them all together and use them for good! Well, for good maybe after we all become billionaires and are happily roaming the world in our own planes. We can then justify what we did to get there with talk amongst ourselves about our good ‘intentions’ to save the world and make this a better place for ‘our kind.’

But for the Grace of a forgiving God…………

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Tags: Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Making Connections, Mitt Romney, politics
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Vote Today – My Opinion, et tu?

November 6th, 2012

By: Marceline Donaldson, 2012

Hope everyone gets out to vote. I still can’t believe the race is so close. When you think of people supporting and giving money to elect an Archbishop of the Mormon Church for president of these United States is unbelievable in a country which believes in and has a constitutional amendment against bringing together Church and State and there is no question Mitt Romney will not and has not separated Church and State. He is one of the two to three top people in his Church – the equivalent of an Archbishop in the Catholic Church – he has not resigned nor has he said he would resign if elected president and we have never asked the question.

The theology of the Mormon Church, to which he has pledged to be totally committed and to believe everything it teaches clearly does not believe and does not allow its members to see women and African Americans as equal. What’s wrong with all of you folks!Romney is not a member of the Church – in the pew – maybe taking in everything the Church teaches and maybe not – do all of you understand he is and has been a pastor in the Church – a Stake President (which means he is over several Mormon Churches) and to be in the position he is and has been in for over 10 years is one in which he must pledge that he believes everything the Church teaches and will work to bring in and proselytize the world bringing them around to becoming members of the Mormon Church because if he doesn’t these folks out there – these non-Mormons will be damned for an eternity. Romney believes that! That is what he thinks of you and me. And you are putting up your money, time and effort to help elect him President?

I can’t see Americans voting for the equivalent of an Archbishop of any religion – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc. Take a look at what happened in Massachusetts. The large number of people converting after Romney became Governor and the huge growth in Mormon Community Centers in Massachusetts coming directly from Romneys time as Governor. He wasn’t standing back and keeping his religion to himself before during and after his time as governor, he was proselytizing and Americans are now backing him for president. I heard Ray Flynn – a big time Democrat go on television in an ad to back Romney. That was scary.

Does the Catholic Church really think they can partner with the Mormons to bring about their beliefs and then what? Watch their members convert? Or will they hear themselves be talked about as among the damned and the lost? Get real folks.

A man who goes to Church – and when he enters his Mormon Church takes off his street clothes and puts on the white robes that Mormons put on in their churches to set themselves apart from the rest of the dirty bedraggled sinful world is running for President of these United States.

I’ve talked to too many Mormons who were told what to do and who knew they had to do it and there was no room for ‘back talk’. Do you really think with that way of dealing that Mormons have not been told to vote for Romney? I’ve talked to several people who were told how to vote. If I found them – without looking for any such person – why hasn’t the media done an investigation into that kind of vote tampering?

Other kind of voter tampering? Where else would you find one person running for office and his son owning and controlling the voting machines used to count the votes for his father and his fathers’ adveersary in the race?

I’ve talked to too many African Americans who were disinvited from some Mormon Community Centers and asked to go to others. They were told they were not being asked out of the Church, but they would be more ‘comfortable’ in a Church with others like them rather than the White Church they were attending.

I look at Romney and hear the lies he has been telling. Even the media and others have had to call him out on lying – and we are looking at a close vote? It is unbelievable! However, we get who we deserve.

Looking at Massachusetts, Romney was governor of Massachusetts and he is further behind in Massachusetts than in any other state. What does that say about his governorship? He got out of it what he wanted – lots of converts in Massachusetts to Mormonism.

Who has he run against while in politics? A woman and an African American. That says a lot about a man who clearly shows he thinks very little of women and minorities. These are the people he sees as not having a chance against a White Male, so he has taken them on. Would he have run for Governor of Massachusetts or President of the United States if his opponents were other than a woman or African American?

He is in a religions – to which he is devoted – which has been very clear that they think women are inferior and it is against their theology for women to come close to equality and African Americans were not allowed into the Mormon Church until the civil rights movement showed its strength. The Mormon Church claimed African Americans carried the mark of Cain and therefore were unredeemable and not proper people to join their Mormon Church.

I remember Mormon women coming forward in the 1970’s when the women’s movement was very strong and very vocal and when they did join the Women’s Movement they were excommunicated from their Mormon Church. And we are today looking at the possibility of a Mormon Bishop for President of the United States? Absurdities abound here. Is this who you Tea Party folks are going to make a deal with to keep your race pure? And White? Now that’s funny!

I could go on for pages, but that wouldn’t produce anything. I just can’t understand why this campaign is so close given the facts of who Romney is – given the horrible state of the United States at the end of the Bush administration – listening to Romney talk about and drop the blame for the slowed economy on Obama and expecting people to believe him. Is our memory so short? Do we not remember when this country almost tanked? Do we not remember when Obama was inaugurated President of these United States the economy and the country was in far worse shape than any of us thought possible and he had to bring us all back from the edge of that cliff?

Romney talks about his ‘experience’ and how he can turn this country around quickly because he is so good at doing such. But I also remember Romney saying he didn’t do any of that – he was simply an investor in the businesses to which he attached his name. What is it – the one or the other? It is the one most expedient to argue at the moment.

I understand how Germany could have been taken in by Hitler in his early days. Human beings are very gullible. We somehow don’t see the monster standing in front of us until he has ripped us to pieces. And then we don’t understand what happened.

This was written by a lifelong, but today disaffected, disappointed, disbelieving Republican. I was a Republican when Strom Thurmond was a Democrat. Wow how life changes! Do you think Abraham Lincoln would be able to vote for Mitt Romney? I don’t think so.

Marceline Donaldson

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Tags: Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, breakfast table talk, Making Connections, Mitt Romney, politics
Posted in An editorial just because, Making Connections | Comments Off on Vote Today – My Opinion, et tu?

Dr. Alice Amsden’s Commemoration at MIT

November 3rd, 2012

Dr. Alice Amsden, Barton L. Weller Professor of Economic Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Over the weekend of October 20, 2012 MIT held a commemoration/memorial for Dr. Amsden and it was recorded and published. One of the Bettina Network Community members called to ask that we post the email on Bettina Network’s Blog that we sent to those who purchased at Dr. Amsden’s Scattering Sale. She had forwarded the link to a couple friends and they said the content of the weekend should have a wider ciculation and encouraged her to have the commemoration put on the blog.

In that spirit, the link follows and we invite you to take a look. It was a tremendous couple of days and an opportunity to both pay tribute to Dr. Amsden and to learn about her ideas, work and family. We came away with a much greater understanding of what she was about and a different set of ideas about how the world could work.

We sent the following message to those who purchased items at this sale and decided to share it with the Bettina Network’s world.

http://amsden.mit.edu/program/

http://ttv.mit.edu/videos/21431-alice-amsden-commemoration-part-1

“A couple months ago you purchased items at a Bettina Network Scattering Sale which were from the estate of Alice Amsden.

There was a memorial service for Ms. Amsden at MIT recently, which is now on-line. We have included, at the top of this email, the link for you to use to see this service. It is a fantastic tribute to Dr. Amsden and it gives you an idea as to who she was, her work, ideas, colleagues and more.

Some of us keep as much of a provenance of the items we buy as possible. We assume you are one of us and would like to have this information that you can peruse as you wish. There are six parts to the video and it is excellent.

Thank you for being a part of the Bettina Network Community and for the purchases you made at the Alice Amsden Sale. We hope this video becomes a part of your collection and you keep it with the items you purchased from Dr. Amsdens estate.

At Bettina Network we are working on building a research library which would include such information on all the items we sell so the next generation will be able to search for and find the art, furnishings, everyday items and more of those who meant a lot to them. I still wonder what happened to some particular items from my grandmother’s estate. I would very much have appreciated being able to search for those items, so we are working to give others that opportunity.

We also hope the research library will be used by researchers, appraisers, historians and others to gain an idea into who owned what, why, its value when it was sold and its history before it was acquired by that particular person.

We hope this video is as meaningful to you as it was to us. Besides the ideas and discussion in this Commemoration, the video about Alice Amsden from baby to the end of life was beautifully done as was the tribute to Dr. Amsden by her family.

We commend it to you with our best wishes and thanks!”

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Tags: Alice Amsden, bed & breakfast, Bettina Sales, Bettina Scattering Sale, Economics, Estate Sales, Making Connections, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Scattering Sale, Urban Policy
Posted in A Scattering Sale, Bettina Network Info, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Making Connections, Memorials, Preserving Family History and Stories | Comments Off on Dr. Alice Amsden’s Commemoration at MIT

Ultra-Pasteurized = Ultra-Junk-Milk

November 2nd, 2012

Today is very discouraging. I spent yesterday looking for organic milk and am discovering the good milk is being replaced all over the city by the ‘ultra-pasteurized’. It is as though stores are saying ‘we will carry organic milk, but we don’t think it will sell so we will stock the ‘ultra’ kind and therefore it will last for years on the shelf waiting for buyers.’

It is amazing to me that any store would carry ultra-pasteurized. People who are into the organic movement, or are concerned about their health and want to maximize the nutrients they take in are those who know a lot about food. Very few of us will buy anything off the shelf without first reading its ingredients. And many of us subscribe to that new adage, if you can’t pronounce one or more of the ingredients leave it on that shelf.

So why would anyone replace organic milk with organic ultra-pasteurized? That is a contradiction in terms. I would never spend my very hard earned money on such a product and neither would anyone I know.

So – take that stuff off the shelf. Complain about it wherever you see it and demand that store owners/managers/buyers get real and start producing quality organic products for the money they charge.

I will pay – but not for junk-milk or junk anything else, organic or otherwise. Hope you are with me and let it be known that you will not tolerate being asked to buy junk-food. Hmmmmm! That ultra-pasteurized milk would go well with hamburgers made of pink slime, —-on buns made with white flour left in silos and then sprayed with pesticides to kill the bugs and then sold without either removing the pesticides or the bugs (they decay – every notice the little black/brown specs in your white flour?) and without noting the pesticides on the list of ingredients in the flour, ——–french fries soaked in beef stock and sold as a vegetarian product ——and etc. etc. etc.

We are putting “ULTRA PASTEURIZED MILK’ in Bettina’s Box of Shame.

Get out there – be vigilant – protect our food supply.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge MA
Posted in Bettina's Box of Shame, Food Shopping, Health, Making Connections | Comments Off on Ultra-Pasteurized = Ultra-Junk-Milk

Cleaning Wood Furniture

October 31st, 2012

I read and followed your blog on Cleaning Wood furniture from February, 2010. If you want to refresh your memory the address is https://www.bettina-network.com/blog/?m=201002 or check on the left side of this page and click on February 2010. I would like to make a suggestion for change. We started using your method and got great results. Recently, we talked to friends of ours who suggested we substitute Walnut Oil for the Olive Oil or add half and half – half Olive Oil to half Walnut Oil and then add the lemongrass oil.

We tried this with a soft cloth on a piece of wood furniture and it worked really great. We also tried plain Walnut Oil instead of Olive Oil and that worked just as well.

Because I like Walnut Oil better than Olive Oil I think I will continue to use the Walnut Oil for cleaning and polishing wood furniture. My friend cautioned me against using Walnut Oil because she said it ‘stinks.” Nothing could stink as badly as the petroleum derivative oils that most use on their wood furniture. It is amazing what we humans can become accustomed to as normal and refuse to change or find the change inferior.

I tried using lemon juice and that was phenomenal, but I don’t always feel up to squezing a lemon and mixing it with the oils. Using just a few drops of essential lemongrass oil was simpler. The essential oil was one addition that I thought was super.

Thanks for your blog. It causes me to experiment and I have found several new possibilities which are healthier than what I was doing. This Walnut Oil – Olive Oil – Essential Lemongrass Oil is one of the best I’ve found. Its quick, easy, much cheaper than the commercial preparations – which I believe are harmful to your health and certainly ruin your hands. What makes me angry is that I have to pay much money to have my hands and health ruined while they spend my money on marketing to get me to buy an inferior product. This made my hands soft and beautiful as a result of oiling my furniture – who knew! It might even mitigate my getting a manicure so often!

If your readers have a hard time finding essential lemongrass oil they might try Frontier Co-op. Aura Cacia, whose products are offered through Frontier, sells essential lemongrass oil. Instead of the .5 bottles, you might contact them for 4 ounces, which makes more sense with this use for the essential oil. I love essential oil of lavendar and maybe one day I will try that when I oil my wood furniture, but for today I will stick with essential lemongrass oil.

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Tags: bed & breakfast, health, house cleaning, Making Connections
Posted in Health, Health and Beauty, Housekeeping, Making Connections, Reader Feedback | Comments Off on Cleaning Wood Furniture

The “Perfect” Storm

October 28th, 2012

How does a Bettina home survive a storm which threatens to down power lines, flood areas and generally disrupt life as we are accustomed to living it with all that we take for granted?

To give you an idea of how we do it, what follows are a few tips from a couple of Bettina Families:

1) We discourage your buying water in those plastic water bottles, for all the reasons articulated many places. We notice when you go to the store, just before a storm, the aisles are full of boxes of those water bottles, just waiting for you to come and spend a small fortune stocking up.

What to use instead? Try natural, organic, unadulterated coconut water. It is good for dehydration, will give you a small amount of nutrients and keeps your thirst quenched longer than plastic water and it won’t add chemicals to your system, which the plastic bottles can do by leeching out some of their troublesome chemicals into the water. That happens especially when the plastic bottles of water are stored in warehouses at too high a temperature, which facilitates their discharging a bit of their plastic into the water and you don’t know which are or were not so stored.

2) For food – try the simple things, which your parents and grandparents probably knew by instinct. Buy several dozen organic eggs (without the ‘Omega 3 added’ label. Just plain organic eggs from cage free chickens which roam around in the sun pecking as chickens do. Hard boil a dozen or so, depending upon the number of people in your home during the storm and put them aside in case you need nourishment without electricity.

3) Try wild canned sardines in olive oil. Several cans with great organic crackers as a treat. You can also add dry organic cereal – lots of fruit – organic nuts, raisins, dried cranberries and other such foods, which are good to eat after and don’t introduce problems into your body which you will regret after the storm passes.

Hope these few tips help you prepare for the storms coming up.

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Tags: Apple cider vinegar, bed & breakfast
Posted in Food Shopping, Health | Comments Off on The “Perfect” Storm

Poetry – Valerie Gillies

October 16th, 2012

We experienced a wonderful, brief, impromptu concert of troubador harp music by daughter accompanying her mother’s poetry recitation. It was a magical time. We thought we would share with you a small glimpse of Valerie Gillies’ poetry. She has several books of poetry, if you are interested and would like to read and know more about her work. “Her poems are rooted in an elemental world, and take from nature a lightness as well as a terrestrial substance. At the technical level her experiments with the musical dimension of poetry increase its diversity and resonance: she sees message and form as indivisible.”

They were in Cambridge for a Celtic Conference which brings in the most interesting, talented and gracious people. We look forward to their arrival every year.

FRUID WATER

Tune: “Logan Water”

“Fruid Water, furthest of all from the sea,

yours is the voice that means far more to me

than the salty wave flowing up the beach

of a great stretch of ocean I may never reach.

Little I care for foaming breakfers on the shore

or the surface calm that moves so much slower

if I hear your notes that are sweeter than the surf

of all the different waters of the earth.

I don’t need to see the whale or sea-wrack,

the flight of the gannet, the diving of the shag,

I long to watch your trout or your owl flying low,

on your banks I hear the sudden hooves of the roe.

Each of us finds that you can quench our thirst,

stream and surrounding terrain belong together from the first.

In the face of the light you become, through your quality,

like an eye reflecting us in transparency.

Huge masses of water roll in the oceans,

deep currents circulate, of gigantic proportions,

but where you flow freely and trickle over stones

you play with waves in rhythm, vibrate and sing along.

Out of vapour you have come back to liquid,

you return in your course every time to Fruid.

Evaporting, loop with air currents and precipitate:

between earth and heaven you mediate.

Your moving form issuing from the hills

twists in strands of water changed like turning veils;

they make a rope that spirals down the glen,

new water falling through it to refresh men.

I can tell by the current as it swirls along

where it comes from, what rocks cause its tensions,

and I praise your wave shape through which the water flows,

for they remain the same, and rarely go.

From “The Chanter’s Tune” a book of poetry by Valerie Gillies Published by Canongate Publishing Limited Edinburgh Scotland

Republished here with permission of the author/poet

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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge MA, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, Bettina Community Poetry, Harp and Poetry, Making Connections, Poetry, Valerie Gillies
Posted in Bettina's Hall of Fame, Guest comments and talents, Poetry | Comments Off on Poetry – Valerie Gillies

Thanks for your Presidential Post!

October 3rd, 2012

I would like to add just a couple things, which I think need to be highlighted:

We read lots about minorities playing the “race card.” No one has said one word about the races taking place today – presidential and otherwise where one person running is blatantly using the ‘race card’ against their opponent. For example, in Massachusetts Scott Brown is heavily using race in all of his campaign ads and rallies. So much so that his staff has taken to making tomaawk chops and the supposed Indian war cry at his rallies. They have picked up what is really being said and they are letting the rest of us know what’s really going on by their actions.

Romney’s campaign is doing the same thing. It was much discussed after Obama won the presidency that racism would intensify in this country because of his win. But, no one said why or how and this election cycle we are seeing why and how. When your opponent is minority or part minority, use the race card to highlight their minority status or do other things to incite the racism which is either active or latent in these United States. It is how many politicians in the deep south in the 1940’s stayed in office and won office. They kept their voting populace stirred up over race.

Your breakfasts sound fantastic. Keep up the good work. When I retire I am going to put my house in the Bettina Network. I have to keep active and ageism has made me much aware of racism and sexism. I must confess I ignored it before I started to realize my age would keep me from credit, jobs and more. Amazing when things come home to where you live how sensitive you become to others suffering that you hadn’t even noticed before. Forgive me my transgressions! I am sure I was one of those letting my racism out against others without realizing it and without taking responsibility for it to make the effort to change. Well, now I get to fight ageism because I didn’t help lessen the ‘isms in this society.

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Tags: ageism, Barack Obama, bed & breakfast, Elizabeth Warren, growing old, Making Connections, Mitt Romney, politics, Racism, Scot Brown, Sexism
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Growing Old, Guest comments, Making Connections, Reader Feedback | Comments Off on Thanks for your Presidential Post!

A Poem from A Bettina Guest

A Thanksgiving Prayer – by Samuel F. Pugh

Happy New Year! 2013

Benghazi Tells the Future?

Walnut Oil on Furniture?

Was Susan Rice Used?

Estate Sale Finds!

A Guest Responds to Rice and Kerry

Lemon Pudding Cake

A Larry Hagman breakfast!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A quote in Samuel T. Lloyd’s Thanksgiving message in the Trinity Church newsletter.

Secretary of State???

Veterans’ Day – 2012

Petraeus over Breakfast

Vote Today – My Opinion, et tu?

Dr. Alice Amsden’s Commemoration at MIT

Ultra-Pasteurized = Ultra-Junk-Milk

Cleaning Wood Furniture

The “Perfect” Storm

Poetry – Valerie Gillies

Thanks for your Presidential Post!

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