Schooled by My Daughter

09 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by Richard in Articles of Interest, Family and Friends, The Outer Loop

Tags

Amazon, Amazon's Smile Program, Embedded Contributions, Luch Bernholz, The Sunlight Foundation

Those of you who have nothing better to do than read MillersTime may have seen my post last week (Shameless Promotion) where in I touted my wife’s Sunlight Foundation. I wrote about how anyone can designate her organization to receive 0.5% of the cost of all eligible purchases from Amazon (or these contributions could be directed to any of the more than one million organizations participating in this Amazon Smile ‘give back’ program).

A number of you objected to supporting Amazon in any way, writing that this mammoth organization’s business practices among other things contribute to putting independent bookstores out of business, hurt local taxation, and take traffic away from local businesses.

My view was that as long as people are buying from Amazon, why not have some of the cost of those purchases, even though it is a very minor amount, be contributed to local or national charities?

It did not take long for one of my daughters (ERM) to set me straight on Amazon’s Smile Program and this issue. In an email the day I posted Shameless Promotion, she told me to read the first four paragraphs of a post by Lucy Bernholz of Philanthropy Wonk, which I quote here:

I’ve been on a bit of break from my years of pointing out the foibles of #embeddedgiving – or what the industry calls cause marketing. Two things bring it back to my attention:

1. Amazon’s gotten into the game. This is huge because Amazon is, well, Amazonian. Earlier this week the online retailing behemoth announced that it’s AmazonSmile program would let shoppers donate 0.5% of their purchase price to the charities of their choice. That’s nice. But why don’t they just give you the discount, let you donate the money to the charity of your choice, and let you keep the warm glow, credit, and tax break for yourself? By funneling it through Amazon are you making your life easier or are you just letting Amazon take credit for your largess?

Why do you need an intermediary to give away your money? Just about any organization you want to support has a Donate Now button of their own.

When you take Amazon up on its 0.5% donation, guess who gets credit for the donation? Amazon. Credit for your spending your money. Hmmm. And the costs Amazon incurs to run this program? Where do you think they’ll show up and to whom will they be passed on? What an irony – call it a discount, take all the credit, and pass on any additional costs for running the program to customers somewhere else. This is what really happens with embedded giving.

Guess my “I have a deal for you” wasn’t such a deal after all.

Guess it makes more sense to contribute directly to those efforts in which we believe, either by clicking on their contribution buttons or making direct donations.

Shameless Promotion

03 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by Richard in Articles of Interest, Family and Friends, The Outer Loop

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Amazon's Smile Program, Charitable Giving, Ellen Miller, Money and Politics, Open Govenrment, Open Secrets, Public Campaign, The Center for Responsive Politics, The Sunlight Foundation, Transparency

Have I got a deal for you!

If you use Amazon for on-line shopping, you can have them automatically support your favorite charity (their participating charities now number almost one million). They will contribute 0.5% of your eligible purchases to the charity/charities you so designate.

So at no further cost to you than what you are already spending, why not take the simple step of having them contribute this small portion of your purchases to a group you support/would like to support?

You can go to About AmazonSmile to read about the specifics of this program.

The ‘Shameless Promotion’ to which I refer in the title of this post is my suggestion that you designate The Sunlight Foundation as one of the charities you consider supporting.

As many of you know, my wife Ellen (Miller) has been involved for more than 30 years in a non-partisan effort to understand and to report the role of money in politics and to shine ‘sunlight’ (the best of disinfectants) on this issue.

The first organization she built and headed for many years was The Center for Responsive Politics, an organization whose mission is tracking the effects of money and lobbying on elections and public policy. It’s OpenSecrets.org website is still one of the most authoritative and respected online database information sources on this subject.

The second organization she founded was Public Campaign, whose mission was and continues to be a non-partisan effort for campaign reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics.

Her current efforts are through her third organization, The Sunlight Foundation, where for the past seven years she has directed a campaign “to use the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency.”

(You can learn more about each of these organizations by clicking on the links in the paragraph above. Also, there is an earlier MillersTime post (How Come She Doesn’t Give Up?) where Ellen talks (12 minutes) about her efforts at making our government more open and transparent.

The pitch: If you want to support Ellen and Sunlight’s work, Click on This Link, and you will be able to have 0.5% of your eligible Amazon purchase(s) contributed to The Sunlight Foundation, with no cost to you. It is a one time set up that will only take you a few moments to complete and will result in continuous giving (to Sunlight or to whatever charity you so designate).

Thanx.

Ellen’s Photo’s from England

24 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Photos, Photos by Ellen Miller, UK Photos 2013

Here are a dozen of Ellen’s favorite photos from a recent trip we took to England. We spent four days on the southern coast of England and then returned to London so Ellen could work, and I could play.

If you would like to see the entire group of pictures, click on the link at the end of these 12 pictures.

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England.12 England.11 England.10 England.9

Click on this link to see all 67 pictures. They are much sharper than the ones I was able to put on this post.

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” – Abraham Lincoln

20 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

Books, Books You've Enjoyed in 2013, Favorite Books, Reading

Calling for Books You’ve Most Enjoyed Reading in 2013

For four years now, readers of this website have kindly sent in their lists of books they’ve particularly enjoyed over the previous 12 months. I’ve then compiled those lists and posted them at the end of December in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. The result each year has been a list of widely varying fiction and nonfiction books that has been a useful reference for many of us.

As I ask for favorite reads again this year, here are a few guidelines that may help in drawing your list and in making my compilation easy:

Abby: “I’m Three!”

12 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends

≈ 2 Comments

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Dear Eli, (cont.)

01 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends, Go Sox

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

2013 World Series, 2013 WS Winners, baseball, Boston Red Sox, Red Sox, Rob Goodman

First Game: 7/09

Most Recent: 9/13

Dear Eli,

My grandfather, Pappy (Rob Goodman, your great, great grandfather), was the person who introduced me to baseball and to the Red Sox. In all of his years going to Fenway Park (he was a season ticket holder, nights and weekends), he never saw the Sox win a World Series. (He might have seen them play in the World Series one time as the Sox did make it that far in 1946. But he never saw them win because they lost to St. Louis that time.)

The Sox didn’t get to the WS again in Pappy’s life time and so he never got to see what his grandson (me), great granddaughters (your mother Annie & auntie Elizabeth), and great great grand son (you) have had the good fortune to experience.

Dear Eli

20 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends, Go Sox

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

ALCS, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Playoffs, St. Louis Cards, World Series

game6-26

(Shane Victorino hits a grand slam home run to put the Sox ahead, 5-2 in the the sixth and deciding game of the 2013 ALCS playoffs.)

Dear Eli,

The last time you spent the night at our house, you said, “Tell me how well the Red Sox are doing?”

Well, while you were asleep last night and I was worrying about the game, a Red Sox batter hit a grand slam home run, scoring all three runners who were on base, plus himself. That put the Sox ahead of the Tigers, 5-2, and shortly thereafter, the game ended.

“Worst. Dad. Ever” ?

14 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends, Go Sox

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

ALCS, baseball, Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Detroit Tigers, Parenting

No doubt if you’re reading this post, you know of the Sox 8th inning comeback last night from a 5-1 shellacking with an Ortiz grand slam to tie the game and then the win in the bottom the 9th.

Some Answers

27 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by Richard in Articles of Interest, Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Ashley Merryman, The Washington Nationals, Thomas Boswell, Winning and Losing

Two recent newspaper articles seem to give some answers to questions raised in several of my recent posts.

A couple of months ago I wondered about how to respond to my 4 1/2 year old grandson when he asked me if it was OK to lose at a game. A number of you wrote thoughtfully, either in the Comment section of the post, A Question From a 4 1/2 Year Old, or in an email to me.

Thanks to tips from readers HS and BT, I draw your attention to this article, Losing Is Good for You by Ashely Merryman. While the article focuses on the ‘folly’ of giving trophies to every one who participates in a game, a sport, it also speaks to the larger issue of praise, over praise, and what that does to kids. This issue has deservedly received a good deal of attention recently, and I find I am guilty of erring in this regard too.

The second article, A Season of Tough Lessons for the Nats, by Thomas Boswell, addresses not only the Nats but also all those of you (90+%) who predicted last year’s National League darlings would continue and perhaps do even better this year.

As is often the case in a Boswell article, he seems to nail not only the specific issue he is addressing, in this case, why the Nats failed to live up to expectations, but also has some good advice that goes beyond just the Nats and baseball in general.

The Humble Bloggers Garden & The Fragrant Reader’s Garden

17 Tuesday Sep 2013

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

"Divine Culture Insider", "The Fragrant Reader's Garden", "The Humble Administrator's Garden", "The Humble Blogger's Garden, Chinese Classical Gardens, Mureen Neuman, Suzhou, Thomas Virnston - Landscape Gardenr

The Humble Blogger’s Garden, pix by Maureen Neuman

It’s probably no surprise for those few of you who follow MillersTime closely (a couple of loyal family members and several other friends who have nothing better to do with their time) that I am thoroughly enjoying my retirement with its freedom from the care taking at The Frost School and of my parents and that I am loving the freedom to choose each day what to do with my time.

But I have to admit that I somewhat frequently get the questions, “Don’t you miss working and what do you do with your time?”

The answer to the first question is an unequivocal “No,” even though those ‘working’ years were wonderful.

The answer to the second question is a bit more complicated, as no two days are similar. I might choose to read an entire day, go to a mid day movie, or work on my second ‘work’ love, writing a post for MillersTime. Or I might focus on the Red Sox (Spring Training for example) or even attend a Nationals’ game with a friend, which is much less stressful than watching a Sox game. Then there are my daughters and whatever is occupying their lives. Trying to keep up with the grand kids has become even more interesting with the addition of a third (see the post, Three Is Much More Than Two). And, of course, there is always travel as I am free to join Ellen on any of her many work trips around the country and around the world, where I spend part of a day observing her world, then explore whatever place she has taken me, before we both add on a few days of langiappe, exploring wherever we are.

All of the above is a somewhat meandering introduction to today’s post.

Another activity that I have been able to undertake has been the two-year planning, development, and creation of two Chinese Classical style gardens in the two small spaces beside and behind our house. Actually, as you will learn from the attached link, I have been thinking about Chinese gardens ever since Ellen, my father, and I first went to Suzhou in the 1980s. Something about those gardens grabbed me and has stuck with me for more than 30 years, even tho I have never thought I had much interest in plants, flowers, and gardens in general.

Anyway, with the completion of a makeover for our kitchen and an upgrade of our study/library and sun porch (another two-year project that I was able to oversee), I turned my attention to the two contiguous outdoor spaces, one next to our kitchen and one next to our sun porch, which I have long been thinking about as possibilities for replicating some of the delights of the Classical Chinese Gardens.

With a wonderful partnership with a landscape gardener, Thomas Virnston, (click to link to his website and a video of the two gardens), we are nearing the completion of these two spaces, which, with the help of our long time friend Ping, we’ve named them The Humbler Blogger’s Garden (after The Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou, one of China’s best classical gardens) and The Fragrant Reader’s Garden.

Through a friend of Thomas’, an article on the creation and completion (mostly) of these two gardens was just ‘published’ on the website Divine Culture Insider: A magazine about traditional culture and contemporary society inspired by the performances of Shen Yun.

The author and photographer for the article, Maureen Neuman, has restored my faith in reporters as I think she has captured the essence of what we’ve tried to create.

If you are using a laptop or desk computer, click on the link below this paragraph and have some patience as the PDF of Maureen’s article may take a few moments to load.

Divine Culture Insider, Fall 2013 Suzhou Gardens – High Res.pdf

It’s also possible to simply read the on-line article from the link below this paragraph, but you will miss the wonderful graphics and some pictures. If you chose this link, be sure to click on the two links below the article as Terri’s reporting in this version is split into three parts.

A Washingtonian’s Suzhou Gardens

Enjoy.

We certainly are.

And consider coming to see the two gardens yourself.

Three Is Much More Than Two

13 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends

≈ 3 Comments

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So in a moment of weakness, my wife Ellen and I agreed to move into my elder daughter (Annie) and son-in-law’s (Danny) house a couple of weekends ago to take care of the three kids for 24 hours. Annie was surprising Danny for his upcoming 40th birthday with a night ‘on the town’ in DC with their friends.

Promises have a way of coming due, and so we kept our word.

As you can see from the picture above, the kids are getting to be a handful. But we all survived, and I don’t even have my usual list of ‘disasters’ to write about.

But I did get to thinking about the differences between one child, two, and three.

I’ve always felt that two kids were not just one more than one kid. And that three kids simply multiplies the possibilities – joys, opportunities, challenges, etc…

For example, with just one kid, there are only four possible combinations (groupings) that have to learn to get along: Annie + Danny + Eli (1); Annie + Danny vs Eli (2); Annie + Eli vs Danny (3); and Danny + Eli vs Annie (4).

When you add another child, Abby, for example, the combinations, groupings jump to 8.

When you add a third child, Ryan, for example, the combinations jump to 16.

(Not being sure of my math skills, I checked with my numbers’ cruncher (btilis) whose first response was a request for more information (could there only be two separate groups or could there also be a group of all individuals). Then he responded, “I really don’t know. I tried writing them out and can’t come up with a pattern (my brain is fried). The multiple teams really throws things off for me.”

(So I tried to simplify it for him (and he’s the numbers guy, not me), saying just groups, no individuals. His response, I’ll spare you the details, matched mine from above if you also allow for one grouping of all the individuals.)

Bottom line: the difference in the combinations of groups jumps from 4 to 8 to 16, which are multiples, confirming my instinct that having two or three kids is not like adding one or two more. Its a geometric increase, not an arithmetic one.

But then any of you who have more than one kid certainly doesn’t need this posting to confirm that.

Pictures probably say it better:

1. With one child, there are only four possible groups (groupings) that have to learn to get along:

2. With two children, that jumps to eight:

P1050380

3. With three, the combinations double to 16:

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Lagniappe

29 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

"Thirsters", Chinese Classical Gardens, Lagniappe, Lan Su Yuan, Portland, Portland Chinese Classical Garden

Lagniappe: n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi

1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.

2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit.

I’ve just returned from a week on the ‘left’ coast, where everyone is younger, smarter, more beautiful, more athletic, and more hip (do people still use that word?) than those of us back east. I went to visit some friends and to cheer on my Red Sox in their games against the Giants and the Dodgers (my heroes did well for those of you who do not follow such important events).

But this post is not about baseball. It’s about an unexpected, and delightful, discovery.

Since I had a few days between games in SF and LA, I went to Portland to visit a friend and to observe the Thirsters, a group that has been meeting (almost) every Thursday of the year for the past 10 years to talk about whatever interests them. I had wondered about the possibility of getting such a group underway in DC.

It was in Portland that I received a lagniappe, an unexpected gift, a benefit: an afternoon at Lan Su Yuan, The Portland Classical Chinese Garden.

More than 25 years ago, on the first of several trips to China, I fell in love with the gardens of Suzhou and classical Chinese gardens. Tho I’ve never been particularly interested in plants, flowers, and the like, there was something about these gardens that fascinated me. So much so, that for the past 25 years I’ve thought about importing some aspects of these classical gardens to the two outdoor spaces at our home in DC.

When we recently redid our kitchen, I took the opportunity to create here something along the lines of what I found so pleasing about the gardens of Suzhou. With the work of a wonderful landscape gardener, Tom Virnston, and the help of my wife and several friends, we are nearing completion of our very own two Chinese-like gardens, The Fragrant Reader’s Garden and The Humble Blogger’s Garden. (In another post, at another time, I will write about what we have created and have Ellen take some pictures of it.)

But back to Portland and last week.

I had forgotten that in Portland, OR there was what is probably the most authentic example of a classical Chinese garden that exists anywhere outside of China. Portland, as a result of being a sister city to Suzhou and through the vision of its citizens, businessmen, and politicians, raised the money, brought artisans from Suzhou, and turned a former block long parking lot in the middle of the city into Lan Su Yuan.

It’s simply superb.

In fact, for me it had the one element that was missing from my visits to the gardens in China, the ability to get a feel of what these gardens are truly like. Because of their popularity in Suzhou, the gardens there are filled with visitors, and I always found myself wishing everyone would leave so I could experience them as they were meant to be.

While the replica in Portland was not devoid of visitors, it was possible to get a sense of the peace and harmony and splendor of a classical Chinese garden.

A few pictures below from my iPhone can serve as an introduction (Ellen was not with me so I didn’t have the benefit of her wonderful photography, tho I do plan to return there, with her and her photographic skills.)

If you’re ever in or near Portland, consider spending a morning or afternoon at Lan Su Yuan. You’re in for a treat.

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To see more of Lan Su Yuan, check out this 2:34 minute YouTube video.

To read more about Lan Su Yuan and visiting it, check out their website.

A Few Pix of the 3rd Grandchild

12 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Ryan Samuel Orgad

You can blame/thank our friend FH for this post.

She correctly wanted to know why I had not posted any pictures (other than those when he was born) of Ryan Samuel Orgad, the third grandchild.

Ellen has continued to take endless pictures every time we’re together, but I guess I have been a bit remiss in not posting them. So that’s my excuse for these pictures, taken when Ryan was one and two months old (the good ones are by Ellen, of course).

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Ryan.1

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RAM_Ryan Eli_Ryan

If You Have Texted Even Once While Driving…

11 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by Richard in Articles of Interest, Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends, The Outer Loop

≈ Leave a Comment

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"From One Second to the Next", Texting & Driving, Werner Herzox

…consider spending the 34 minutes and 56 seconds it will take to watch this video, From One Second to the Next.

It was made and directed by Werner Herzog, the accomplished German filmmaker, at the request of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile.

From One Second to the Next will be shown to school groups and government agencies across the country.

But it seems to me that it is also worth all of us seeing this ‘scared straight’ documentary, whether we are an invincible youth, the 24/7 texting millennial generation, or the older and more experienced driver who also thinks that every text message needs to be read and answered upon receiving it or that we must call home to say we’ll be there in five minutes.

A few statistics:

In 2011, 23% of all auto collisions involved cell phones. That equals 1.3 million crashes.
Five seconds is the minimal time your attention is taken away when you’re texting. That means if you’re driving 55 mph, you go the length of a football field without looking at the road.
Text messaging makes a crash up to 23 times more likely. Dialing increases your chances of crashing 2.8 times. Reaching for your cell phone 1.4 times, and talking or listening 1.3 times.
48% of young drivers have seen their parents talking on a cell while driving and 15% have seen them texting. It is not just a young person’s activity or problem.

(For more statistics and what the current laws are regarding this issue, see this link.)

I now put my cell phone away when I get in my car to drive. So far, I’ve done this for four days and hope to do so permanently. But I may have to see From One Second to the Next again every so often.

The Death of a Parent

29 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by Richard in Family and Friends

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Scott Simon, The Death of a Parent, Twitter

Update: 7/29/8:52 PM: See below Scott Simon’s last four tweets about his mother’s death.

* * * * *

I suspect most readers of MillersTime are not ‘on’ Twitter, do not know much about it, or perhaps are disdainful of what they might believe is a waste of time or of a self-indulgence in which they do not wish to participate.

Perhaps.

But I have been drawn to something on Twitter over the past few days that I want to mention and that reminds me of something from my own recent life, experience, and learning.

Scott Simon, journalist and host of NPR’s Saturday’s Weekend Edition, has been live tweeting the last days of his mother’s life. He is doing so from her ICU hospital room (see pix above).