Happy 50th

Happy 50th anniversary to my second youngest brother and his wife. They are celebrating by going to South America, bird-watching.

The main photo was taken in a restaurant near their home, in 2008. The photo in the window was taken by the brother between the honoree and me, at their wedding, which took place during a snowstorm in Wisconsin. Let's put it this way -- the bride's party had to wait an hour after the scheduled wedding time for the groom and party to arrive.

All the best to both of them. Many marriages don't last 50 weeks, in this day and time.

Happy Birthday, older daughter

My wife and I have been blessed with two daughters. One of them has a birthday today. We thank God that she is good daughter, a good wife, a good sister, a good mother, a good church member, and a competent professional. God's best to you, child. May you be happy long after your parents are gone, and in the hereafter.

One reason why I read fantastic literature

Today would have been my father's 103rd birthday. (He's been dead for quite a while now.)

I grew up in rural Sawyer County, Wisconsin. My parents were able to acquire a dairy farm, with a few cows. Until my brothers and I were old enough to do the milking, my father did it. (This was all by hand.) He had a radio in the barn, and he would also do something that must have been very rare -- he read while he milked. He propped a pulp fantastic magazine on one leg, milked, and read, and turned the pages as needed. I got to read some of what he did, and it was mostly science fiction and fantasy. This was back in the middle of the twentieth century. A. Merritt was one of the authors I remember. A. E. Van Vogt was another. I'm sure that there were lots more.

I'm sure that there have been other influences, such as finding Tolkien while I worked as a student library assistant while in college, and finding the Narnia books while looking for something to read while a science graduate student, but my father's influence was part of it.

Thanks for reading.

Honoring three women

I have been to three funerals in a little over a week. I'm honoring the deceased here briefly. Their memories deserve more.

One of them was my wife's first cousin. She died from breast cancer, which she had battled for several years. One thing that stuck out, on one of our visits, is that she was very concerned about the things she might have said to those caring for her, nurses and family. We, and others, told her not to worry about it, but she did, anyway. People can say things they wish they hadn't, and normally wouldn't, when in extreme pain, or when medicated, and she had had both of these. This indicated to us that her spirit was tender and open to the Holy Spirit's promptings. I hope mine is.

Another was my wife's aunt. She was a widow for nearly twenty years. She was always concerned for her large family, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I need to be, too.

The third was in charge of the dining room at the college I have retired from. That's never an easy position, but she handled it with grace and diligence. The food was good, too. (We have now gone, like many colleges, to a contracted organization that takes care of feeding students and others.) When I first came on campus, over four decades ago, she and her husband invited me for my first Sunday meal in the area. I was young, and single, and I lived on campus and ate with the students. Some of us started throwing ice cubes at each other, which we thought was harmless fun. It could have caused problems, though. She took me aside once, and asked me to watch out for such behavior. I'm sure she knew full well that I was one of the participants.
She was a woman of prayer, and she was participating in a plan to read the Bible through in a year, almost to her dying day.

I'm going to die, too. So are you. I'm sure someone can find something good to say about me. I'm also sure it won't be the whole story. Will others look back on my life, and say that I lived for others? That I lived for God? That I tried to have a kind, friendly attitude toward everyone, even when I was in pain, or on medication? I hope so.

Thanks for reading.

Happy Birthday, brother

Happy Birthday to my brother. Here's a bit of a tribute.

He knows who he is (so far -- so do I -- so far). I've got two other brothers, just as deserving of tributes, to say nothing of our four wives, who deserve tributes more than we. There are also my wife's brothers, and their wives, each deserving, too, but it's his birthday.

He's a good man.

He's a good father. He and his wife have raised three sons, who are a credit to them. God willing, in a week, all three of them will be married, to good women who are also a credit to my brother, and to themselves. Although there have probably been some slips, maybe some serious ones, and there have certainly been some falls, and problems, all three young men are now, or will, fill respectable positions in this life, and all, I believe, are followers of Christ. A father could ask for little else.

He's a good farmer. At a time when farms (haven't they always) are the center of various kinds of storms, he goes out there and works hard, feeding the rest of us, helping cut down on the trade deficit, and doing something useful. He could have retired by now, but he likes farming, and does it well.

He's a churchman. He and his wife have been members of a small church for years, holding various offices, and weathering a storm or two. They've been loyal and faithful. He's a good Sunday School teacher. He has used his talents in God's service, in many ways.

He's a military man, retired. Although he was never called on to serve the rest of us overseas, he did service during the Cold War, sitting in silos, waiting for the President to call, or working as an administrator, or teaching in one of the service academies.

He's a good son. My parents moved near him and his wife over twenty years ago, and he and she have had a lot of responsibility that I haven't.

He's a good brother. He remembers to send greetings, hosts us when we come to the area where he lives, and loves his nephews and nieces. He also roomed with two of his brothers (not at the same time) while in college, which required special grace, no doubt. He was best man for two of our weddings.

God's best, brother, on your 66th birthday!



I try not to identify living private persons on this blog, unless they have publicly identified themselves, although I may have violated that rule yesterday.

A tribute to a military wife

I don't expect her to see this, and I'm not naming her, but she (and, no doubt, many other military spouses) deserves a tribute. I know that whether war can be just at all, and whether this particular one is, are subject to debate. I'm leaving that aside.

She came to SWU from a place far away. She was a good student, and graduated, then went back to her home area. Eventually, she married, and her husband was sent to Iraq, from a military base a couple of time zones from the rest of her family. He is now about to finish his second tour of duty. While he has been gone, She has raised three children, the youngest of which has yet to see his father, and, somehow, taken the oldest to school, gone to the doctor, etc., all the little things that have to be done, all by herself. God bless her, her children, and her husband.

Travel Summary: Ohio, Michigan, Ontario

Lest there be any doubt, I claim no expertise in all of the areas listed in the title. All I can write about is my own experience.

My wife and I travelled to this area, and within it, for a few days in late June and early July. (We have done this several times previously) The previous post indicates the reasons. We are grateful to God for safety, and enjoyed our travel. Near Knoxville, TN, a pickup truck lost a clothes dryer in the freeway. A larger truck swerved to avoid hitting it, and came into our lane. I was able to avoid a collision. I don't know if everyone suddenly confronted with that clothes dryer in the road was also able to. I hope so.


This is me, my mother, holding our grandson, and his mother, taken in my mother's house in Michigan. I don't recall what he was looking at.

My only other post on travel was on a much more limited scale.

Ontario is large
A word about Ontario. Probably most of my few readers are US citizens, and from the South, and have little experience with this Canadian Province. Ontario is large. It is adjacent to much of New York State, and continues along, and above, the US border all the way West to Minnesota. Its area is not as great as that of Alaska, but it is roughly ten times as large as Ohio, for example. Ontario borders on all of the Great Lakes except Lake Michigan. Toronto, the largest Canadian city, and Ottawa, the Canadian capital, are in Ontario. It's big, and has a lot of variety.

Travelling to Canada
US residents travelling to Canada should take birth certificates or passports (within a year or so, passports may be required--they aren't now) for re-entry into the US. US customs apparently looks at documentation for all persons entering the country. Canadian customs asks questions, but, in our experience, doesn't usually require documentation. Generally, transportation of alcoholic beverages, firearms, and live plants across the border are restricted, and you may be asked about these and other items in your possession when you cross, in either direction, or about what you have purchased. Under some circumstances, you can get a refund on tax on purchases in Canada when crossing back into the US.

It's probably a good idea to have your auto insurance company give you documentation of coverage for Canada before driving there. Ours, at least, will do so, free. I don't know what happens if you need to see a doctor in Canada.

Flatness
Much of Ohio and Michigan, and the area of Toronto adjacent to the lower part of Michigan, are flat.

The Interstate highway system requires traffic exchanges, so that one road can go over or under the Interstate. In order to do this, it was necessary to create artifical hills. Often, this also resulted in the creation of artificial lakes and ponds, from which the hills were dug. You can see many of these in Michigan and Ohio (and elsewhere). I suppose that ecologists have studied these artificial bodies of water. If not, someone should. Many of them are beautiful. You can often see that they are used for fishing or swimming. The fish, if any, must have been introduced by humans on purpose.

To us, at least, flatness makes it harder to stay alert when driving.

Agriculture
The flatness of the land is advantageous to farmers, making plowing, planting, harvesting and cultivation easier. The soil in this area is usually good. There's a lot of farmland.

I was struck by the prevalence of members of the pea and grass families. We saw many fields, but only a few of these had crops other than corn, wheat (both grasses) alfalfa, and soybeans (both peas). My wife thinks she saw sugar cane growing near Findlay, Ohio, and is probably correct in her diagnosis, but sugar cane, too, is a grass. We did see a field of asparagus near Stratford, ON, but much of this area of North American is planted in grasses and peas.

Flowers
Many flowers, as well as trees and animals, are found throughout much of North America. We hear mourning doves here in South Carolina, and have heard them in California. They are found in Michigan and Ontario, too. So are flowers, such as Queen Anne's lace and trumpet vine. Biology doesn't usually follow political boundaries, and, if it does, it's becaus the boundaries follow features of the land and water.

Beauty
There are many homes that are a century or so old in towns and farms in Ohio and Michigan. Often these have character and are quite attractive.

Farmhouses and houses in towns in this section of Canada tend to be two or three stories tall, and brick veneered. Canadian homes and towns use flowers a lot. Canadian towns are, to us, more attractive than most small towns in the US. They don't seem as likely to have ugly areas.

Fast Food
Tim Horton's is apparently the most popular fast food chain in Eastern Canada. (There are nearly 1400 in Ontario, including four in Stratford, a town of about 30,000. There are some in the US) They are open around the clock, and serve coffee, muffins and doughnuts, cookies, sandwiches, salads and soup, as well as other items. They have more items than, say, McDonald's.

Thanks for reading. I expect to post about Stratford, ON, next.

Travel Hiatus over

In my last post, I declared a travel hiatus.

For the present, that hiatus is over.

My brothers, my mother, and I, July 05

(A larger version of the above picture is available to Flickr members--click on it, and select the larger size--or from me, if you ask for it. Flickr membership is free)

One of my brothers suggested, many months ago, that my parents' descendants get together in the area of my mother's home, in Southern Michigan, over the July 4th weekend. It was a good idea--thanks! One reason was to celebrate our mother's 95th birthday, which was actually two months earlier.

My mother, my three brothers and their wives, and eight of our ten combined children, most of them with spouses, plus our grandson, who is my mother's only great-grandchild, and some cousins, were able to get together for meals, showing slides, church--the three brothers present sung together, and fireworks. There were other activities. Our daughters, for example, decided to go canoeing with one of my brothers and one of our sons-in-laws. It was our younger daughters' first canoe trip, and, among other things, she and my brother overturned, and she lost her glasses. These were replaced the next day, and she seemed to enjoy the experience.

My wife took her turn in being responsible for a meal, and she and I and our offspring shopped for it. I bought some jicama, which I introduced to a brother, a sister-in-law, and my mother, while I was preparing it as a salad ingredient. They all said, as did the Wikipedia, that it was like apple in texture. Another brother, who has lived in Venezuela and Costa Rica for extended periods, was already familiar with it. The meal, of course, was excellent, and not because of the jicama, as were the other meals we had together.

My wife, our daughters and one son-in-law, and our grandson, then drove to Stratford, Ontario, where we met our other son-in-law, who had been unable to attend the gathering in Michigan. Our second son-in-laws' brother and his girlfriend, and his parents, were also in Stratford. We enjoyed five nights together with various combinations of extended family.

We are now back at home, where we expect to stay for several days. There is to be more travel later.

One comment on lodging: Our daughters are big fans of Bed and Breakfast lodgings. My wife and I had never, until this trip, experienced such. Like most things, they have plusses and minuses. Speaking from our meager experience, namely five different rooms in three B&B's in two municipalities, in two countries, one plus is breakfast. One minus is, so far, Internet access. There was none available in these establishments, not even dial-up. (My wife would say that this is also a plus!)

One of my funniest (to me, anyway, and I can say this, because I didn't write most of it) posts was an attempt to find out, from my ISP, if I could access the Internet from Stratford, Ontario. Yes, I did, but from the excellent connection available in the Stratford Public Library, not directly through my ISP, because of lack of connection in the B&Bs.

God willing, I will post about travel to the area in general, and Stratford as a travel destination, soon, then will return to more usual fare--books I have read, etc.

Thanks for reading.

Four Fathers

My late father-in-law, probably about 11 years ago

Since my name is on this blog, I named my father, but, as his name isn't, I won't name my father-in-law.


My father was a quiet man, usually. He was a city boy, but spent his honeymoon in northern Wisconsin, far enough from towns of any size that, when I was born, my mother didn't go to a hospital, but to a midwife. My parents never returned from their honeymoon. As they said, they couldn't afford to go back. So they stayed, and raised us. They worked hard. My father built a log cabin for us to live in. He went off to work in the shipyard at Superior, and on the Alcan highway, during World War II, as his service. I suppose he was too old, and had too many sons, to be drafted. We boys, and mother, stayed behind.

He learned to farm. I suppose he was never great at it, but the land we tried to work wouldn't have let anyone be. He was good (with my mother) at being a dedicated churchman, at imparting a love for music, and a love for books.

My parents gave land for a church, and my father helped move an old schoolhouse to the location. It's still there, about 50 years later, and still used as a church. He taught Sunday School, and sung, and gave, and worked, and prayed. He wasn't showy at any of this--he just did it.

My father played the violin. I don't know if he did it well, but we thought so. He didn't have much time to play, with parenting and farming. We often fell asleep hearing him play, and Mom accompanying on the piano, with the sound coming up the stairs. He and my mother played for church, my mother often, he occasionally. One of my brothers has been a professional musician. The other two, and I, have been involved in church music in various ways, and one of us has been involved in quite a bit of music in other ways, too. Some of the grandchildren could have been professional musicians, but, so far, none has. None of us has really taken to the violin, but to music, yes.

He also listened to the radio, sometimes to classical music, I believe, while we were milking the cows.

Another thing he did while milking was to read pulp fantastic magazines. He'd place the magazine carefully on one leg, sitting holding the milk bucket between both legs, and milk. I suppose it wasn't too efficient, because he had to stop every few minutes to turn the page and fold the old page under, but some of his offspring still read fantastic literature, and none of us milk. (He did other kinds of reading, too.)

He encouraged us to be what we wanted to be, whether it was high school athletics or career. He and mother came to visit us, in one case even in Venezuala, after we left home.

We loved him, and he loved us. Thank you, God, for a good father.


I didn't know my father-in-law for as long as I knew my father, and I wasn't around him during my formative years. I did get to know him well. He, like my father, loved his children, and his grandchildren. He would have loved each of the three great-grandsons he has now.

My father-in-law had hard times when he was growing up. His family did some share-cropping. He probably wasn't able to spend a lot of time in school, because of work. He may have had a head injury which interfered with some of his ability. He never really learned to read, but he had a love of learning. He would browse the newspaper, and usually had a fairly good idea of what was in it, from the pictures, and the occasional word he knew. His own father died when he was about seven. His mother wasn't well for much of her life. The family moved from the farms of north Georgia to the mill villages of upstate South Carolina, and he worked in textile mills for many years. He and my mother-in-law took care of their three children, and also of her parents in their last years, without much money or room to do it. I doubt if they complained.

My father-in-law was good to me. He was a friend. He was funny--often on purpose, but sometimes not. Probably because he felt self-conscious about not having much formal education, he compensated by acting as if he knew everything. It didn't matter what anyone asked him, he would come out with an answer. Many of them were correct, of course, but some were ludicrous. He could also say some things that were exaggerations, sometimes big ones. I honestly think that, most of the time, at least, he thought he was telling the truth, even if we knew that he wasn't.

He was very reluctant to commit himself. My wife says that, if she or her siblings asked him anything, they expected a "No." I heard one of my brothers-in-law, his son, ask him if he would be best man at his wedding. His response was, "well, if I don't have anything scheduled." We all knew that he had retired, and had only one thing scheduled in his life at the time, namely his death, and there wasn't any sign that that was imminent. We all also knew good and well that he wouldn't have missed this opportunity unless roped, tied, and hospitalized. But he wouldn't commit himself. He did it, of course.

He could figure out how to fix stuff, and how to make stuff. My wife still misses his abilities in fixing and making. I don't have them.

If it troubled him that I had a Ph. D., it didn't show, and I don't think it did. It didn't trouble me that he couldn't read. We got along well.

The most important thing he did for me, I guess, was to show how to die. He, let's face it, was sometimes cranky. He'd fuss over the way food was cooked, or over various things that didn't seem important to some of the rest of us. When he was diagnosed with cancer, we all worried that we were in for a difficult time. We really weren't. Oh, it was hard enough, and none of us would want to go through it again, but it wasn't because of my father-in-law's attitude. He was living evidence of God's grace. He was patient, and kind, and grateful, more than he had been before. He was really no trouble. God was good to him, and to us, in his decline and passing. I hope any survivors I have can say the same of me.



I have two son-in-laws, but only one of them is a father, at least so far. He's a good one. He is good to our daughter, and to our grandson. Beginning today, he will be taking care of his son, not yet nine months old, and teething, by himself (except for some daycare) for a week, while our daughter fulfills a military obligation. He works hard, and loves our daughter and his son, and is good to us and the rest of the family. He gives of himself for others, in time, in effort, and in money. He has thrown himself into the life of the churches they have attended. He is good at his work. Like my father-in-law, he is good at figuring things out.


I thank God for my Heavenly Father, and for these three good fathers (and others, too, including my brothers and brothers-in-law, and more). There are some terrible fathers out there. I haven't really known such a one in my life, and I hope I haven't been one. Being a father is the most important thing I've done. My wife, and my daughters, have made it easy. I've made some mistakes, of course, but God can cover up for those, and has.

Honoring two people

I am trying not to embarrass my family, at least not directly, with my blogging. So I won't give her name, her age, or her picture, but my wife's birthday is today.

Two days ago, February 25, 2005, my father, William Franklin LaBar, who can no longer be embarrassed, would have been 100 years old.

Social and writing skills of scientists; more

A widespread misconception is that great scientists tend to be loners. Actually, outstanding success in most areas of science requires outstanding social skills, as illustrated by Mayr's relationships with a wide variety of people. He achieved such good understanding with New Guinea and Solomon tribespeople in the 1920s that they not only led him in and out of areas where other Europeans feared being killed, but they also taught him their local names for birds and brought him hundreds of specimens of bird species missed by other European collectors. He once explained to me that a secret of living happily past age 90, after most friends of the same generation have died, is the continued willingness to forge friendships with younger people.

- Jared Diamond, "Obituary: Ernst Mayr (1904-2005)" Nature 433:700-701, February 17, 2005. Quote is from p. 701. Mayr was born July 5, 1904, and died February 3, 2005, and was one of the two or three most important philosophers of biology at the time of his death. He is considered to be the chief architect of the current concept of species. Mayr's last book, What Makes Biology Unique? was published in 2004.

"Watson himself regards his writing, which could not have been done by anyone else, as an even greater achievement than his work on DNA that led to a Nobel prize." Lewis Wolpert, "Watson's way with words," review of The Writing Life of James D. Watson, by Errol C. Friedberg, Nature, 433:686-687, Feb 17, 2005. Quote is from p. 687. Watson wrote The Double Helix, a popular account of the Watson-Crick discovery, which made the best-seller lists, and was made into a movie. He also has written influential textbooks, which is probably what is being referred to in the quote above. He is still alive, and, I believe, active. Crick passed away last year.

The sources for the items above are not freely available on the Internet.

Nature News reports that a galaxy with no visible stars in it has been discovered. The claim is that this is a "dark matter" galaxy.

Nature News also reports that termites use sound to select their next meal:

"It seems that these insects choose what to eat according to the way each piece of wood vibrates in response to their gnashing jaws."

The article goes on to point out that humans also use sound in food selection. Not as much, I'm sure.