of High Heels and Shampoo

I just found these fun cartoons at Parade.com/cartoons and thought I would share them. I don't know the proper way to give credit as it is due to the artists, but...

Dave Coverly

Gary McCoy

Dewey's Catechism (get your cup o' coffee and plan to stay a while, this one's long)

Our home school group visited a local public library today to learn about what the library has to offer and how it is organized. The library manager talked to the kids briefly and gave them a "tour" of the library; "This shelf holds our biographies and this shelf is the inspirational fiction. Yada, yada, yada..." My children were rather bored with this exercise, and I can't say I blame them. I had higher hopes myself.

The librarian explained how to find materials quickly and gave a brief history of the Dewey Decimal System to which I had not heretofore been exposed, despite being a graduate of public school and an English major from an accredited liberal arts college with the emphasis on liberal. She asserted that Mr. Dewey had arranged his entire system from the viewpoint of a caveman.

What, you say? Yes, that's what the lady said. Naturally, I found this to be rather disturbing and determined to check up on this theory for myself.

At home, I googled old Mr. Dewey and found that he was a man whose phone number would not have been in my speed dial. I did find it interesting, however, that he is credited with having invented hanging files. Next, I googled Dewey and caveman together...this led to a long list of sites waiting to tell the following: (For sake of brevity, I have cut a bit of it.)

Dewey's Caveman
The Dewey Decimal System - Non-Fiction Arrangement
To create his system of classification Melvil Dewey imagined how a caveman would view the world and asked himself a series of questions. This became the framework for the ten Dewey classes that help keep information about the same topic shelved together.
Who am I?
100 Philosophy and psychology
How man thinks about himself
Who made me?
200 Religion and Mythology
Man thinks about God
Ancient myths and modern practices
Who is the man in the next cave?
300 Social Science
Man thinks about other people.
How does man get along with others in a family or community? What we need to make communities work; “community helpers"; police and fire departments...
How can I make that man understand me?
400 Language
Man learns to communicate with others through words.
Dictionaries, word and phrase origins, sign language, parts of speech.
How can I understand nature and the world around me?500 Natural Science
Man learns to understand nature on the land, in the sea, and in the sky.
Experiments; math; astronomy; chemistry; geology; weather; seasons; fossils; habitats; plants and animals.
How can I use what I know about nature?
600 Applied Science and Useful Arts - Technology
Primitive men learned about fire and how to make weapons. Man through the ages learned about the wheel, medicine, ...and how to make all the things we use.
Inventions; medicine; human body; cars; trucks; ships; air planes; gardening; cooking; manufacturing; construction; pets.
How can I enjoy my leisure time?
700 Fine Art and Recreation
By this time, primitive man had more time to do things he enjoyed. He learned how to paint pictures and to create music. He also learned how to dance and play games.
Architecture; drawing; painting; crafts; music; jokes and riddles; sports.
How can I give my children a record of man's heroic deeds?
800 Literature
Man became a storyteller. He created sagas, fables, epic poetry, and plays about his ancestors and the people he knew. Later he put these into writing for all people to read.
Poetry and plays.
How can I leave a record for men of the future?
900 Geography, History and Biography
So man began to write about events that had occurred everywhere and about people who had participated in these events.
World history; countries of the world; Native Americans; biographies (92)
000 General Works
... bibliographies, books about books, and...reference books.

In looking at the questions, I was struck by how man-centered this system is and how much it reminded me of the questions found in our children's catechism. All of the questions posed by Mr. Dewey are answered in one Book, God's Perfect Library, the Bible.

I do not know if this story is accurate, but it was all over the place on sites recommended to librarians and teachers. The system works well enough, it's just the foundation for it that bothers me.

The librarian also cautioned the children not to believe everything they read on the Web because so much is biased...implying that the books in her library contained only truths. Just because someone types something doesn't make it so applies equally to computers and books.

Points to Ponder

There was an insert in my newspaper today that had interesting things in it. One sidebar had this little blurb called "Things to Ponder." (The author is not named, just so you know it wasn't me.)

1. Isn't making a smoking section in a restuarant like making a urinating section in a swimming pool?
2. If four out of five people suffer from diarrhea...does that mean that one enjoys it?
3. If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?
4. Why do croutons come in airtight packages? Aren't they just stale bread to begin with?
5. Whatever happened to Preparations A through G?

Ponder away!

Book Report

This week was a writing week for all the kids in English. Trevor has to write a historical fiction, Trent has to write a tall tale and Heather has to write a book report. Trevor has chosen the "historical event" of the blizzard of 1978 as his starting point, practically ancient history to him. Trent is writing the story of Sneaky Snake, the spy who captures bank robbers. Heather is doing a book report on Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre." An ambitious choice for a seven year old, I think.

The revising, proofreading and final drafts will be done next week. The stress these writing projects puts on me is almost more than I can bear. Now I know how my mom felt when I expressed so much frustration at writing papers throughout high school. How I ended up an English major is certainly a wonder.

I was reminded of a special song as I encouraged each child in his/her writing and I have included it here for your enjoyment.



I love this song! I was first exposed to it 40 years ago, this week! Dad took me to the stage version of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" in Cleveland, OH, on my third birthday. Mom was amazed that I still have a memory of this event.

I played the song for the kids and asked them which character they believed they were most like...I definitely have my opinion of which ones they are. To all my literary friends out there in bloggerland I pose this question, "Which character are you?" Send me your comments.

Gettin' It Done

It’s amazing what you can do in an hour and a half when there are no kids around to keep you from doing it. Even little jobs become laborious when you are constantly being interrupted to settle this or that squabble, find some missing item or answer an odd question.

Troy took the kids out to the library so I have accomplished quite a list of chores. I have washed the dishes, read up the kitchen, dining room and living room, folded laundry, got another load in now, washed the kitchen and bathroom floors, and vacuumed the carpets. Now I can enjoy a cup of Suisse Mocha while I wait for them to come home for lunch…homemade pizza rolls!

Lest anyone think I am bragging…never fear. There are still many things to do. I am simply enjoying seeing my list of “finallys.”

Things Heard While Driving the Car

Sung by Heather last spring: “There are blossoms on e-ver-y tree, tra-la…” (Sounded Gilbert and Sullivanish)

Trent instructing Heather in the use of a magnifying glass to look at Trevor’s rock collection: “Specify this.”

Speaker unknown: “What was the name of that dinosaur we learned about? Diplomaticus?”

Heather discussing the number of teeth each child has lost so far: “I have minus two teeth.”

Heather explaining why she hadn’t mentioned last week seeing the sight someone else just noticed this week: “I just didn’t feel like talking then.” (Like anybody believes that.)

Trent: “Mom, when you die, you could leave a will that Heather gets all of your cook books, Trevor can have all of your other books and I can have all your money.” (Does that seem fair? Trent is probably getting the raw end of the deal there.)

Foot Where?

Though I am in danger of folks thinking I have some sort of foot fetish thing going on here, I can’t help what happens around here to write about so here’s another blog about things foot related. Sister who abhors feet be forewarned: this may contain objectionable material.

On Saturday I found myself taking the kids shopping for new Sunday shoes. Somehow the tongue of Trent’s black shoe was amputated last Sunday at church. Nobody seems to be able to identify the circumstances around which this occurred, nevertheless, it did necessitate looking for new boy’s church shoes. Trevor’s pair were on their last legs as well, so off to the mall we went.

For some reason, boys’ sneakers can be found in any store, at any time, ad infinitum. Boys’ dress shoes, however, are only available in limited locations, in limited quantities, as long as supplies last. This usually means a pair or two may be found around Christmas or Easter time. (Oddly enough, the same thing was true of rocking chair cushions when I was shopping for them some years ago…according to the Walmart sales associate… Where was I? Oh, yeah…)

Naturally, we first checked the shoe store where we were overwhelmed with two selections in a limited number of sizes…not the ones we needed. The styles were undesirable to both boys and the prices were undesirable to me. Next we went to the department store, where they had no children’s shoes whatsoever, unless you consider Crocs to be shoes. That was the extent of shoe selection in the whole mall. We would be forced to search at one of the two other stores in town that might carry shoes.

Before we left the department store I remembered that I was in need of some tights, as the fashion police have declared war on pantyhose. They expect everyone to run around bare-legged, but have given permission for tights to be worn by those people unfortunate enough to reside in colder climates. I like tights but they also can be tricky to find. I dragged the kids to the hosiery department to check out the selection. There were several color options, only a few of which were acceptable to my wardrobe, and several textures and patterns. If I were younger (or Katy) I might invest in some of those others, but I’m not. I chose two fairly conservative pairs and headed off to the counter, only to realize just before paying that they were stirrup style. What is the point of that? I had to go back to the racks to choose again.

Just around the corner from the hosiery, another interesting event was taking place. Someone had set up a mini beauty salon where they were giving free facials, manicures and (get this) pedicures, right in the middle of the store. The kids were fascinated. I was whatever the opposite of fascinated is. It is one thing to allow someone to apply a little color to your eyelids, which it may be noted, are regularly on view to the public. It is, in my opinion, a whole other issue to be confronted with one’s pasty-white, in-the-bleak-mid-winter, potentially-odiferous feet, freshly unshod for the purpose of another person’s hands to massage and tend to their every need. Ewww. Heather inquired as to her chances of having said services applied to her. Absolutely not! Sorry, gotta go. Now.

We ended up going back to our old stand-by Meijer’s, where I do my weekly grocery shopping. It never ceases to amaze me that we live in a day and age where shoes and clothing can be purchased in the same store as milk, bread and eggs. We did find two different styles of boys’ casual shoes. Trent made a quick decision to go with the brown pair in size 5. Trevor took much longer to finally settle on the black size 4 because they did not “push (his) toes down.”

In the meantime, Heather was carefully checking out all the choices available to girls. She had many more options, but she did not need any more shoes. I had to keep telling her, “Put them back. We aren’t getting any for you today.” She kept whining, “But you always want me to get new Sunday shoes. I don’t understand.” Oh, please.

Thankfully, everyone is now well-shod, that is until Troy sends me out to buy his next pair of work shoes…