Senior Women Web

Author: SeniorWomenWeb

  • Outsourcing the Local Library Can Lead to a Loud Backlash

    Fargo Library Children's Room

    By Melissa Maynard, Stateline Staff Writer, Pew Center on the States

    Hardly anyone in the general public realizes it, but LSSI, which runs 68 branch libraries in California, Kansas, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, is now the fifth largest library system in America.Last month, three public libraries in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita ditched the L.A. County public library system, the biggest in the nation. To save money, they turned instead to a little-known but fast-growing private competitor, the Maryland-based Library Systems and Services International (LSSI).

    Quiet though it has been, the rise of LSSI has attracted its share of critics, not just at the local level but in the increasingly nervous network of public library systems around the country. As city budgets tighten and privatizing services becomes more politically acceptable, LSSI keeps attracting interest from cash-strapped communities searching for ways to keep their libraries in good working order without spending more than they can afford. LSSI so far has no competitors in the private sector because, according to CEO Brad King, no other company has dared to go “where angels fear to tread.”

    Indeed, there’s something for them to fear. LSSI has received consistently icy receptions in most of the places where it has come in and taken over. Every community has its share of library users who believe that a library system is a core function of local government, regardless of what the budget situation is. Some are turning to state lawmakers to pass legislation that would make library privatization more difficult.

    Stockton, California, ultimately decided to continue running the Stockton-San Joaquin Public Library as a public entity earlier this year because of stiff local opposition to the concept of privatizing it. LSSI had promised to spend at least $800,000 more each year on books and materials while improving customer service and expanding operating hours by “as much as 47 percent” — a tempting offer for a library with few attractive options. But local residents either didn’t believe that or didn’t see it as sufficient incentive to take the library out of public control.

    Some communities have tried going private and then changed their mind. The city of Fargo, North Dakota, signed up with LSSI but was dissatisfied and eventually reverted back to public-sector management. But it’s probably fair to say that most of the privatizations have gradually won public acceptance, especially when libraries have lengthened hours and expanded services and collections under LSSI management.

    Challenge to unions

    The American Library Association has had an official policy statement in opposition to library privatization on its books since 2001, but ramped up its involvement in the issue this year. Many in the profession were rankled by a quote in a 2010 newspaper article from LSSI co-founder Frank Pezzanite: “LSSI has a track record of re-hiring staff from the libraries that it takes over, and claims to offer industry-competitive wages. But union protections and defined-benefit pension plans usually disappear, with a company-matched 401(k) plan in its place. A lot of libraries are atrocious. Their policies are all about job security. That’s why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement. We’re not running our company that way. You come to us, you’re going to have to work.”

  • Can You Rely on Restaurant Calorie Counts?; The What I Eat Book

    An  examination of the calorie content of food from about 40 fast-food and sit-down restaurants in 3 states finds that overall the stated calories of items on the menus of the restaurants are accurate, although there was substantial inaccuracy for some individual foods, with understated calorie figures for those items with lower calorie contents, according to a study in JAMA:  Accuracy of Stated Energy Contents of Restaurant Foods.

    “The prevalence of obesity in the United States increased from 14 percent of the population in 1976 to 34 percent in 2008, during which time both self-reported and per-capita energy intake increased. Reducing energy intake by self-monitoring or selecting foods with lower energy contents is widely recommended for the prevention and treatment of obesity. However, the feasibility of reducing energy intake using these approaches depends in part on the availability of accurate information on the energy contents of different foods,” according to background information in the article. “Foods purchased in restaurants provide approximately 35 percent of the daily energy intake in US individuals but the accuracy of the energy contents listed for these foods is unknown.”

    Lorien E. Urban, Ph.D., of Tufts University, Boston, and colleagues conducted a study to evaluate the overall accuracy of restaurant-stated energy contents and examine factors associated with the accuracy of stated energy contents of individual food items. Food from 42 restaurants, comprising 269 total food items and 242 unique foods, were ordered as a take-out meal and subsequently analyzed at a laboratory for caloric content. The restaurants and foods were randomly selected from quick-serve and sit-down restaurants in Massachusetts, Arkansas, and Indiana between January and June 2010.

    Of the 269 food items, 108 (40 percent) had measured energy contents at least 10 kcal (calories)/portion higher than the stated energy contents and 141 (52 percent) had measured energy contents at least 10 kcal/portion lower than the stated energy contents. Nineteen percent of foods contained greater than 100 kcal/portion more than the stated energy contents. The researchers found significantly greater variability in the discrepancy between the stated and measured energy contents in all foods from sit-down restaurants compared with all foods from quick-serve restaurants.

    In an analysis of 10 percent of foods  from both quick-serve and sit-down restaurants with the highest positive discrepancy between measured and stated energy contents, these foods had an average difference between measured and stated energy contents of 289 kcal/portion, and there was a similar discrepancy in a subsequent re-analysis of 13 of these foods (258 kcal/portion). “Considering the first and second sampling of the 13 foods together, the 26 foods had a mean [average] measured energy content of 273 kcal/portion higher than the stated energy content, representing a 48 percent discrepancy,” the authors write.

    “In addition, foods with lower stated energy contents contained higher measured energy contents than stated, while foods with higher stated energy contents contained lower measured energy contents.”

    The authors suggest that a reason why individual foods have inaccurate stated energy contents (especially in sit-down restaurants) may be poor quality control of portion size.

    “The results of this study have implications for pending implementation of new legislation requiring more restaurants to document the energy content of their menu items,” they write. “Although our study showed that stated energy contents in restaurants are relatively accurate on average, thus supporting greater availability of this information, projected benefits for preventing weight gain and facilitating weight loss are likely to be reduced if restaurant foods with lower stated energy contents provide more energy content than stated. Additional portion control in restaurants has the potential to facilitate individual efforts to reduce energy intake and to help resolve the national obesity epidemic.”

    Before watching the video, consult the What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets photographic exhibit that’s on view at Boston’s Museum of Science.

  • Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations

    From the weekly shopping list to the Ten Commandments, our lives are full of lists — some dashed off quickly, others beautifully illustrated, all providing insight into the personalities and habits of their makers. An exhibition at The Morgan Library &  Museum celebrates this most common form of documentation by presenting an array of lists made by a broad range of artists, from Pablo Picasso and Alexander Calder to H. L. Mencken, Eero Saarinen, Elaine de Kooning, and Lee Krasner. Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art is on view through October 2.

    Realist painter Adolf Konrad

     

     

     

     

     

     

    With examples such as Picasso’s picks for the great artists of his age (Gris, Léger, etc.), H. L. Mencken’s autobiographical facts (“I never have a head-ache from drink”), and Robert Smithson’s collection of quotations about spirals, the items on view are intriguing, revealing, humorous, and poignant.

    The exhibition, which is organized by the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, presents some eighty lists, including “to-dos,” paintings sold, appointments made and met, supplies to get and places to see, and people who are “in.” Some documents are historically important, throwing light on a moment, movement, or event; others are private, providing an intimate view of an artist’s personal life. Eero Saarinen, for example, enumerated the good qualities of The New York Times art editor and critic Aline Bernstein, his soon-to-be second wife. Oscar Bluemner crafted lists of color combinations for a single painting. Picasso itemized his recommendations for the ground-breaking 1913 Armory show, and Grant Wood listed previous economic depressions, perhaps with the hope that the Great Depression would soon end.

    “This exhibition provides a revealing glimpse into the everyday world of great artists by presenting items of the most common type,” said William M. Griswold, director of The Morgan Library & Museum. “Lists are both practical and personal. They record momentary working concerns, while also offering insight into an artist’s private observations and recollections. They provide biographical context and reveal details about personal taste and opinion.”

    Sculptor Alexander Calder lived in Paris from 1926 to 1933. He kept an address list of his French connections in his handmade address book. On view in the exhibition are multiple pages, which include contact information for Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, German photographer Ilse Bing, and American composer George Antheil, among others.

    Perhaps the most famous list is Pablo Picasso’s recommendations for the 1913 Armory Show, the first international exhibition of Modern art in the United States. He names Marcel Duchamp, whose Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) would cause an uproar in the American press, Fernand Léger, and the Spaniard Juan Gris as candidates to be included in the exhibition. All would later become modern masters.Picasso list for the 1913 Armory Show

    On a different level, lists can be task oriented. Jeweler Margaret De Patta kept a list of orders for her Modernist creations — rings, earrings, pins, pendants, bracelets  — with the name of the piece and purchaser.

    She obviously derived great satisfaction from finishing projects: when she completed an order, she crossed off the name of the buyer and the item, transforming her to-do list into a done list. Artist N. C. Wyeth made a list of the titles of the watercolors created by his son, Andrew, for the latter’s first one-person gallery show in New York.

    Lists also tell us what we have done or what we hope to do. Artist Janice Lowry’s elaborate illustrated journals are peppered with to-do lists. The recurrent tasks (pay bills, make doctor’s appointment) are interspersed with her dream recollections and random thoughts, each page thick with collaged images, stamps, and stickers —a vivid backdrop for her daily tours.

  • Helen Mirren and Other Women of Note

    We just heard that actress Helen Mirren, who won an 2007 Academy Award for Helen Mirrenrepresenting another older woman in The Queen, has now been chosen over Jennifer Lopez as having the best female body by an Los Angeles fitness poll of 2,000 people, according to Sky News.

    >Helen Mirren’s talents and good taste are on view often and she has won numerous acting awards. The other Academy Award nomination for Best Actress was in 2009 for The Last Station, and for Best Supporting Actress for The Madness of King George and in 2001 for Gosford Park.

    Mirren’s title role of The Queen earned her numerous acting awards including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, as well as the Academy Award, among many others. During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign as Queen.

    Mirren is well-known for her role as detective Jane Tennison in the widely viewed Prime Suspect, a multiple award-winning television drama that was noted for its high quality, higher popularity and its unique format, in that it ran for seven seasons in seven extended multi-act episodes rather than in a traditional seasonal schedule. Her portrayal of Tennison won her three consecutive BAFTA awards for Best Actress between 1992 and 1994. Nancy Pelosi

    Another striking woman we’ve noticed is Nancy Pelosi. She is continually in the public eye, photographed under the most difficult circumstances who manages to remain extremely attractive, well-dressed and poised — as well as powerful and a woman who rarely forgets the women she represents. She is in her eighth decade.

    Ms. Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011. She was the first woman to hold the office and to-date has been the highest-ranking female politician in American history.

    Perhaps the oldest working model is Carmel Dell-Orefice, at age 80. Most recently she has been known for being one of those people who trusted Bernard Madoff with her investments. But having worked in the modelling field since age 15, she remains what few can surpass her for, a supremely beautiful woman, regardless of her age.

    In 1947, Carmen got a raise to $10 — $25 per hour. She appeared on the October 1947 cover of Vogue, at age 15, one of the youngest Vogue cover models ever (along with Niki Taylor, Brooke Shields, and Monika Schnarre). Carmen was also on the November 1948 cover of Vogue. She worked with the most famous fashion photographers of the era including Irving Penn, Gleb Derujinsky, Francesco Scavullo, Norman Parkinson, and Richard Avedon. Carmen was photographed by Melvin Sokolsky for Harper’s Bazaar in 1960.  She also became Salvador Dali’s muse.

    Carmen Sell'Orefice

    Pictures: Helen Mirren, age 66,  by Caroline Bonarde Ucci, 2007; Nancy Pelos, age 71; Carmen Dell’Orefice, age 80, in a picture taken in 2007

  • Ovarian Cancer Genome Mapped, Opens Door to Personalized Medicine

    Scientists have developed the first comprehensive catalog of the genetic aberrations responsible for an aggressive type of ovarian cancer that accounts for 70 percent of all ovarian cancer deaths.

    Hundreds of researchers from more than 80 institutions, including scientists from the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), deciphered the genome structure and gene expression patterns in high-grade serous ovarian adenocarcinomas from almost 500 patients. They also sequenced the protein-coding part of the genome in about 320 of these patients. The result is the most expansive genomic analysis of any cancer to date and a major step toward the personalized treatment of ovarian cancer. The research is described in the June 30 issue of the journal Nature.

    Picture 3

    Ovarian cancer accounts for about three percent of all cancers in women. This histopathological image shows serous adenocarcinoma in bilateral ovaries. (source: Wikimedia)

    Their work could lead to a day in which doctors treat high-grade serous ovarian cancer by detecting the aberrant genes in a patient, and targeting these genes with therapies that are most effective against the specific mutations. It could also guide the development of new pharmaceuticals that are specially tailored to fight mutations that cause ovarian cancer.

    The project was conducted under the auspices of the The Cancer Genome Atlas, an effort led by the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute and National Human Genome Research Institute to improve cancer care by understanding the genetic causes of the disease.

    Paul Spellman of Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division is the corresponding author of the Nature article. Several other Berkeley Lab scientists contributed to the research, including renowned cancer researcher Joe Gray, a guest senior scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Life Sciences Division. The project required collaboration among experts across the nation in tissue analysis, genome sequencing, cancer genomics, and data analysis.

    “The Cancer Genome Atlas is about giving a parts list to the cancer community. Clinicians can use the data to propel the next wave of discoveries, such as new cancer therapies and early-detection methods,” says Spellman. “We are the first to systematically catalog the genetic mutations associated with ovarian cancer.”

    Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among women in the US, with almost 22,000 new cases and 14,000 deaths estimated for 2010 according to the National Cancer Institute. High-grade serous ovarian cancer, which begins in the cells on the surface of the ovary, accounts for 90 percent of all ovarian cancers and often remains undetected until it’s quite advanced.

    The standard of care is aggressive surgery followed by platinum-taxane chemotherapy. After therapy, however, platinum-resistant cancer recurs in approximately 25 percent of patients within six months and the overall 5-year survival rate is 31 percent. Because of this, scientists are seeking potent and targeted ways to fight the disease, which requires a thorough understanding of its genetic roots.

    To do this, The Cancer Genome Atlas program brought together scientists from a wide range of disciplines and research institutions. More than two dozen sites provided tissue samples of ovarian tumors. Scientists at other sites performed gene expression analysis, DNA sequencing, and other analyses. The resulting data was fed to two repositories and analyzed by members of the network including Berkeley Lab scientists.

    Among their many findings, the team determined that the causes of ovarian cancer are not confined to changes affecting individual genes. Large structural changes in a cancer’s genome — in which genes are erroneously deleted or duplicated — are also important. Scientists knew that ovarian cancer genomes have gene copy errors, but they didn’t know these hiccups are such a big driver of the disease.

  • I Kissed the Hibiscus

    by Ferida Wolff

    Hibiscus

    It’s hibiscus season again. The plants in my yard are in full, incredible bloom! I have seen various flowering plants — I understand there are over 200 varieties — but when I bought these several years ago I didn’t know that. I bought them because they were so vibrant and exciting. I knew I had to add them to my garden.

    So much energy is put into the plant’s flowering. The flowers are nine or ten inches each! And an enticing red. Each spring as I look at the bleached remnants of last years stalks, I wonder if the plants have used up their vitality in last year’s growth. But then they are sending up green shoots and buds appear and wow, the blossoms open and once again they knock my socks off. It’s quite a display for a plant whose name means “delicate beauty.” Perhaps that refers less to the physical characteristics of the hibiscus than to its essence. Lots of benefits have been ascribed to the hibiscus.

    Have you ever had hibiscus tea? I must have. It’s pretty hard not to have tasted it. Hibiscus is in lots of herbal teas and comes available with blueberry, coconut, vanilla, pineapple, even sangria flavors among others. Yogi Tea, Tazo, Republic of Tea, Stash, even Lipton all have hibiscus varieties.

    Have you shampooed with the flower? I haven’t but it is tempting. It supposedly nourishes hair and slows premature graying (a little late for me, there). I wonder if it colors the hair. This might be something to experiment with.

    Have you eaten hibiscus? I never knew the plant was edible, though I have eaten nasturtiums, taken from my flowerpot one year. It had a peppery taste. I’ve been reading that the hibiscus flower can be added to salads, is available as hibiscus honey and syrup, and can be made into tea at home.

    Have you used hibiscus medicinally? Can’t say I have. This needs looking into. The plant has a long history of medical use. Claims have been made for its use as an antioxident, as a help in keeping the digestive tract functioning regularly, is a help in weight loss, etc. There’s quite a long list of healthy possibilities.

    There are so many aspects to this plant. But I guess that goes for all of nature, people included. There is no point in taking anything for granted because there is usually something unexpected, un-thought of, surprising, enlightening, fascinating, helpful about everything if we remain open to it. I find that exciting.

  • CBO’s Director On the Debt Ceiling: Defaulting “a dangerous gamble”

    The Debt Ceiling

    July 27th, 2011 by Douglas ElmendorfCongress

    In less than a week, according to projections from the Treasury Department, the US government will begin defaulting on some of its obligations unless the Congress and the President increase the statutory ceiling on federal debt. (CBO doesn’t analyze the Treasury’s daily cash management, so we have no independent projection of the date.) The continuing debate about alternative approaches to raising the debt ceiling is taking place against a backdrop of serious ongoing problems with the federal budget and the economy that raise the stakes for decisions about the debt ceiling and budget policy. As CBO provides objective, nonpartisan information and analysis to assist the Congress during this crucial period, I’d like to highlight some of CBO’s work that bears on the various issues at hand.

    To begin, the federal government has ongoing obligations under current law to pay money to various people and organizations: the holders of Treasury debt, Social Security beneficiaries, hospitals providing care through Medicare, states expecting matching payments for Medicaid, large and small firms that have provided goods or services to the federal government, federal workers, and many others. (As I’ve discussed earlier, in calendar year 2010, nearly half of federal spending was in the form of transfer payments, with grants to state and local governments and purchases for defense accounting for another one-third between them; the remaining one-fifth was a combination of interest payments and purchases of nondefense goods and services.)

    In response to a question in June, I said that defaulting on those obligations of the federal government would be a dangerous gamble. Here’s why:

    • It is difficult to know exactly what would happen if the federal government were to default on its obligations to debt holdersbecause we have no recent experience of doing so. However, a government that owes as much as ours does, and will need to borrow as much as ours will need to borrow, cannot take the views of its creditors lightly. Even a slight increase in the perceived risk of US government securities would probably raise interest payments by a lot for years to come. If Treasury rates were pushed up by just one-tenth of a percentage point, the government would pay $130 billion more in interest over the next decade (given CBO’s projected path of revenues and non-interest spending under current law, as explained in our January Budget and Economic Outlook). If, instead, Treasury rates rose by four-tenths of a percentage point, the government would pay more than half-a-trillion dollars in additional interest over the next decade.
    • Moreover, public statements by many financial-market participants and experts have made clear that default by the federal government on obligations to debt holders would be a significant shock to the global financial system and economy. That shock could trigger large swings in stock prices, private interest rates, and the value of the dollar relative to other currencies; it might also generate massive disruptions and damage to the payments system and the flow of credit; and it would probably weaken the economy and reduce output and employment relative to what they would otherwise be. Indeed, the lack of a plan for increasing the debt ceiling may already be hurting household and business confidence, and default would reduce confidence further and increase uncertainty about future government policies, which would lower spending even apart from the effects of changes in asset prices and interest rates.
    • It is also unclear what would happen if the federal government were to default on obligations other than Treasury debt. As I said in June, debt holders might be unconcerned because the payments due to them would not be directly affected; however, debt holders might conclude instead that if the government is willing to default on some obligations, it could default on its obligation to them next. In any event, the individuals, businesses, and state governments that are owed money under current law and are counting on receiving it would clearly need to deal with sudden and unexpected shortfalls in their own finances.

  • FactChecking Dueling Debt Speeches

    In opinion-filled statements, Obama and Boehner also went beyond the facts.

    July 26, 2011

    Summary from FactCheck.org:

    The president and House speaker restated familiar positions in their dueling debt ceiling speeches, but they took their points too far at times or made them without enough context.

    • Obama described raising the debt ceiling as historically “routine.” It is true that every president, with the exception of Truman, has signed such a bill since the 1940s. But this request is the largest in history, even in inflation-adjusted dollars.
    • The president also accused Republicans of favoring tax breaks for oil companies and private jet owners at the expense of Medicare beneficiaries. But those populist tax hikes would not reduce the deficit by even 1 percent.
    • Boehner claimed Obama is adamantly against “fundamental changes” to entitlement programs. In fact, the president has proposed $650 billion in cuts to the future growth of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
    • Similarly, Boehner said Obama “wants a blank check today” just as the president did six months ago. It’s true that six months ago Obama wanted the debt ceiling to be raised without cutting spending. But the president has now offered spending cuts of between $1.5 trillion and $1.7 trillion over 10 years, including the entitlement cuts we just mentioned.
    • Boehner touted the “bipartisan support” for the Cut, Cap and Balance Act of 2011. But the bill got only five Democratic votes in the House and no votes in the Senate.

    For the most part, the two men stuck to the facts or offered their opinions. In our Analysis, we provide details on where they did stray too far from the facts.

    Analysis

    President Barack Obama was the first to speak, delivering a 15-minute speech to the nation on July 25 — just three days after the White House’s debt ceiling negotiations with House Speaker John Boehner collapsed. The president’s speech was quickly followed by a brief response from Boehner. Both blamed the other for failing to negotiate in good faith, as the country draws closer to the Aug. 2 date when the administration says the U.S. will not be able to borrow any more money and will not be able to pay all of its bills.

  • An Old Story and a Cautionary Tale

    by Joan L. CannonYale Sterling Library

    There are those who fade like cut flowers when they retire, there are those who won’t even try to stop working because they don’t know what to do with themselves other than labor for a living, and there are those who can hardly wait for the free time and lightened pressure of unlimited leisure.

    We belonged to that third class. One of the things we looked forward to was giving up the ever-increasing number of voluntary commitments we had been making for over 40 years together, and that doesn’t count time before we married. At a distance of nearly 800 miles from where we had grown up and reared our own children, there was a sense of adventure for a new place, a new culture to be learned (south vs. north), a new landscape to familiarize ourselves with, adjusting to all strangers in a community well established before we ever saw it. 

    Once before I’ve mentioned the challenges of entering a “retirement community.” For us there was a novel lift in being the youngest people on the census list — for a while. We heaved a kind of psychic sigh, and prepared to play away our golden years within our limited budget.

    Nothing like the flattery of being considered some kind of authority. I suppressed my determination not to be persuaded and agreed. My husband, once he had added all the small conveniences to our cottage (think cup hooks, extra shelving, programmable thermostat, etc., etc.) agreed to help out with a small task in the health care center. In short order, we had been photographed by the then owner of our community and provided with badges and uniform jackets. In a matter of months, we were futilely trying to stick our fingers in the dyke of our autonomy. The result was predictable.

    That turned out to be one of those proverbial “best laid plans.” Within days (literally), I was summoned by a resident who had been taking care of cataloguing for the library. Here I must say that we had even then one of the best in any such facility in North Carolina, but that’s another story. Somehow this lady had discovered (I suspect from the Marketing Department) my past working in our small town’s public library. After seven years, she was tired of doing the cataloguing and strenuously urged me to take it on.

    When there’s a lot to do that has to be done by those who feel it’s needed or essential, and when there are simply not enough able bodies to get everything done, it takes a stern character to refuse to help. Neither of us possessed that attribute of selfishness or self-preservation — whichever definition suits — and we were caught up in the flood of responsible citizenship.

  • Swinging from the Branches of My Family Tree

    by Roberta McReynoldsMadame Royal

    I’ve been spending 3 — 5 hours a day researching a specific branch of my family tree for six weeks. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this would be so addicting, frustrating, fascinating, educational, and … well … the words that come to mind vary in direct relationship to scale of my success-to-failure ratio. My husband has gotten so used to hearing me muttering, that he barely notices when I’m actually speaking directly to him instead of a long-dead ancestor.

    The genealogy bug bit me when I was exposed to this ‘illness’ through my Aunt Bessie. She would spread out her albums of family research at annual family reunions, hoping to deliberately infect the younger generations. I honestly don’t know if my elders would be more pleased or horrified at the results; research inevitably digs up surprises and secrets … but more about that later.

    I remember looking at those albums as a teenager and marveling at the far-reaching roots in the family tree. Aunt Bessie must have seen the faint glimmer of a future genealogist in my dark brown eyes (an inherited trait, no doubt, mirrored in those old photographs). It’s an odd affliction, often taking many years to develop full blown symptoms. First there is mild interest, then a few casual questions, followed by probing interviews with older relatives. One day you happen to realize there is an entire shelf devoted to albums of your own, taking up premium space on the bookcase.

    Aunt Bessie gave me a test assignment when I was in my early 40’s; find the Civil War records of my paternal great-grandfather. I signed up for a bus trip with the local genealogical society to the archives in San Bruno, California. I was the youngest person on the field trip by at least two decades, which probably worked to my advantage. My fellow researchers took me by the hand and initiated me into the world of microfilm and sound-ex. There were volunteers at the archives who gave a quick lesson on what was available and how to get started and offering individual guidance to anyone who, like me, was still standing there looking bewildered.

    Since I identified myself as a novice, I needed to be indoctrinated on how to locate promising microfilm. The volunteer who rescued me asked a couple experienced questions and nudged me in the right direction. I had a roll of microfilm in my hands within minutes, learned how to load the projector and began scrolling through the film.