Author: hollyfrostgoldportpress

by Holly the Assistant

It’s that time of year: last minute shopping, shipping, etc. No worries, just busy. Sarah says to let y’all know because you do fret.
Please deck the blog comments, but not Holly, thank you. See you in a bit.

By Holly the Assistant

“I want to spend the day writing, can you post something cute tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

It’s tomorrow, and I realized I don’t do cute. I do snark, puns, occasional humor, and sometimes, if I’m lucky, beauty, but cute? Cute is for fluff-brained small animals. Wait, I have some fluff-brained small animals around this place! But are they being cute?

I don’t remember the part of the Bethlehem story when Gertrude sat in the manger, do you?

The orange and white NEVER holds still unless she’s being held. Quicksilver the ADHD kitty, and her brother The Wolf. (That’s the feeding station for gooshy food. Which is why she wasn’t moving very much.)

“Dere’s a Caw yellin at me!” Rocket says.

And then there’s The Wolf, posing for all he’s worth, because he knows he’s Living Art.

Still Life, with tomatoes and The Wolf.

The rest of the menagerie didn’t manage to pull off photogenic yet this fall. (And honestly, Quicksilver’s only in there because her parents’ and siblings’ humans read here, and these weird cats actually look at pictures of their family on screen. I don’t want to worry her mom by only showing her brother.)

Cute? I don’t know, you tell me! Now soliciting cute critter stories in the comments.

(Sarah is en route home, and you will hopefully return to your irregularly regular blog tomorrow or the next day. This has already been the sort of road trip that will have stories about it told for years, so please pray for no more interesting events. Now let’s see if I can make the blog sit up and tap dance today or not, or if it’s going to misbehave at me. –Holly the Assistant)

I’m still mired deep in writing, though the treacle has got somewhat less sticky and I can see the end from where I am.

However, for several days now, I’ve had this song stuck in my head:

Riding on the City of New Orleans,
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields.
Passin’ trains that have no names,
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.

Good morning America how are you?
Don’t you know me I’m your native son,
I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

I know the song echoes of bitterness and all that, but the thing is, I’ve always loved that opening because I’ve always loved early morning America seen from car or bus.  The little houses by the side of the highway, the fast foods opening up, traffic slugishly trickling out onto the highway.

Continue reading “Blast from the Past-Jan 20, 2009” →

By Holly the Assistant

(Sarah’s well, I spoke with her earlier today. You might just be stuck with me through the weekend, but at least this time I’m not also traveling.)

Interesting time of year in America, isn’t it? A rather interesting and very commercialized holiday, harvest has wrapped up or is wrapping up, children scrambling for costumes or begging for boughten costumes, creativity on high display, sugar highs . . . memento mori . . .

My travels a couple weeks ago included accompanying my mother to graveyards where some of her ancestors, and my father, were laid to rest. A lot of interesting and not always nice family history came up, and I’ve written it down with relevant photoes for my kids, the great-great-great-great (counts on fingers) grandchildren of the perpetrators. I don’t mind graveyards: they’re very empty and quiet, a nice place for an introvert, but I know a lot of folks do mind them. Most of the old family houses are gone, no living relatives remain in the area in close enough degree for us to know of them, but her childhood church and the graveyards remain.

We’re coming up on an off year election here, and it’s been interesting seeing all the local political kerfluffles and drama. Oh yes, this town has pulled off as much drama about a mayoral election as you’d expect in a presidential race. No one has been arrested . . . yet . . . This is your reminder to go look up your local candidates before the vote, and also any ballot measures. (Assuming your candidates have not been putting on the show ours have, in which case you already know far too much of the dirt.)

Once the sugar rush is over, it’s worth taking a few moments to think about those who came before and how we ended up where we are today, and to talk about it with the next generations. Whether that’s the families moving to find work or congenial neighbors that led us to the places we live in, or the politicians they chose to fix the most urgent problems of their time and place, which fixes have led to the problems of our times and places, we, and our world, did not spring fully formed from nothing. We come from the past, including the past we do not know, and we’re going to the future, which we also do not know, but have great hopes and dreams for. Being mindful of the past and the ideas passed along to us, and who gave them to us and why, and after due consideration discarding those that are harmful, is only wise on this one-way trip.

Have a safe, sugary, and peaceful holiday.

By Holly the Assistant

Well, Sarah left me in charge again, and let me just tell you she’s traveling far too much, if necessarily so, this fall. Please to not do anything we’d have to explain when she gets back, such as taking over large countries or painting the blog pink. Exploring the floating mountains is fine, or even investigating what the heck is up with what appears to be a very odd celestial body or two in that sky. (Is it one or two? Is the AI high?)

And since I used an earworm for a title, well, yes, I think she spends enough time making music with the clanker to count for the purpose of lyrics, don’t you? Here, have an Elly tune to tide you over.

Due to interference from Indiana. But wouldn’t you be delayed due to one handed typing if this handsome fellow needed you to pet him?

Holly

By Holly the Assistant

THWACK!

This meeting of the Huns and Hoydens will come to order. Mr. Vice President, are all present members of the Huns and Hoydens and entitled to participate in our meeting?

Thank you. All present will join me in pledging allegiance to the flag of our country.

Mrs. Secretary, you will call the roll.

Familiar cadence, isn’t it? Some of you are frowning because I didn’t call for the Opening Prayer, or the Motto, or some other bit that, in the group you know best, belongs between the question of if those present are properly voting members or not, and calling the roll. We learned it in 4-H, or in a collecting club, or scouting, or any number of youth organizations. Some of us honed our illegible handwriting by repeatedly getting stuck in the job of secretary as kids.

This is not, i was informed in the early years of our marriage by my husband, a matter learned worldwide. But Americans, Americans may do it badly or wrong, but we have a concept of making a motion and seconding it burned into us pretty early on. We might have to look up if five people vote in favor, four against, and two abstain from voting, if the motion has achieved a majority or not. And most of us have at least a passing familiarity with the existence of Robert’s Rules of Order (and how Gen. Robert came to write it is worth reading https://robertsrules.com/our-history/) and probably in any given organization someone has a copy and can find and look up the question.

We can pretty easily put together a legislative body that can more or less function, and almost draw straws for who has to open the first meeting and run elections to get a chair or president or whatever we wish to call the leader, and get by, in a pinch. And we very nearly do govern our country that way: we make our county commissioners do it, our school board, our library board, our fire board . . . (No, I had not read Alpheus’ guest post when I decided to write this for . . . whatever day it is, in the weirdness that is travel, but it rhymes.)

You know, and I know, and the fifteen-year-old 4-H club president knows, how to run a meeting by parliamentary procedure. It’s not that hard, once you’ve done it. And if you haven’t, go find a local club for whatever you are interested in, and let them teach you how. It’s one of our basic civics skills in the USA.

I will entertain a motion to adjourn.

Thank you, and a second?

Thank you. it has been moved by the dragon and seconded that we adjourn. Is there any discussion? Are you ready for the question? All in favor will raise their right hand or forefoot. All opposed same sign. The motion is carried.

This meeting of the Huns and Hoydens is adjourned.

THWACK!

Guest Post by By Alpheus Madsen

A little while ago, I attended an Experimental Aviation Association meeting at the Heber Valley Airport in Heber, Utah.  While I am not a pilot, I have had a lifelong interest in aviation, starting with a desire to follow in my Grandpa’s footsteps, who liked to make model airplanes and helicopters, and even made and flew an ultralight airplane at one point — and while I have never made progress in my efforts to design and build models, I was nonetheless very excited when I learned about the Experimental Aviation Association a couple of years ago, and have been able to attend meetings whenever I can!

Thus I found myself sitting in this particular meeting, expecting it to be kindof boring, because it was a panel of candidates for Mayor and City Council of a city I didn’t live in, and thus had no voting power for them; I was “merely” there for “moral support”.  Nevertheless, I quickly found it fascinating!  The pilots in our group asked pointed questions about the future of the airport, concerned with the monopoly of fuel that made prices too high, and worried about possibly losing hangars to construction as the airport is expanded to be able to accept the new traffic that has increased over the years.  The candidates passionately answered the questions, often expressing frustration with a 7-year lawsuit that had held everything up and with a City Council that far too often voted to take no action rather than risk another lawsuit.  It was interesting to see some of the political dynamics that affected the airport!

This meeting also reinforced some lessons I have learned over the years about Civics Activism.  Sarah has rightly mocked the notion recently expressed by an anonymous-to-me post suggesting that “ways to take action” should be things like “touch grass” — things that undoubtedly help with peace of mind, but don’t really do all that much for the advancement of our cause!  There are a lot of little things we can do to be active!

In this EAA meeting, for example, one of the candidates talked about how important it was for City Council to hear from the pilots.  In particular, there is a committee or organization among the pilots who have regularly expressed their ideas to the City Council.  Apparently, however, due to the inaction caused by the lawsuit, this pilot committee had become somewhat lax in their meetings — so she emphasized that now that the City Council is in a position to take action, the pilots need to rev up their meetings again and make sure their ideas are regularly shared!

But this isn’t just something that pilots can do.  Several years ago, the Provo City Council tried to pass a local law making truancy illegal in City limits, in a way that would potentially interfere with home schooling parents, or parents bringing kids from out of town for a funeral visiting a park, or for parents who have an autistic child who had wandered from them, among other things.  We showed up at City Hall and made our voices heard!  In the aftermath, we discussed strategies for watching the City Council and making sure this didn’t happen again.  One simple option we had was to have someone attend every City Council Meeting — after two or three meetings, someone from the Council would inevitably approach that person and ask “who are you, and why are you watching us?”  Apparently, the Heber City Council isn’t the only council afraid of lawsuits and other controversies!

I have often thought about the time my wife, brother-in-law, and I were disappointed that the libertarian-ish person we voted for our Neighborhood Representative didn’t win that election over someone who was popular but less libertarian-ish in the community.  On reflection, if we had known about this little “technique” and were motivated enough, we could have created our own “neighborhood” and gotten our own representation on City Council.  I would even argue that this “representation” is far more representative of the organizers than elections of “representatives” based on geographical regions.

So, one important way we could affect things is to attend our local City Councils, School Boards, and other public meetings, and when necessary, make sure our voices are heard on controversial topics.  But beyond that, there are so many more things we could do.  We could run for School Boards and City Councils.  We could sniff out all those little positions, like Library Activities Coordinator or City Festival Organizer, some paid, some volunteer, and serve in these positions — do not underestimate the importance of these positions, for enemies of America like to sniff out even the smallest positions of power, so they could push their anti-American agenda in even the most pro-American places — and as we fill these positions ourselves, we crowd out these other people.

And even more basic than all these, we can vote — especially in our local elections — and we can encourage others to vote.  We could donate money to those we agree with, particularly in races where the major Political Party have given up on their own candidates as they ignore the importance of pushing against the opposition, and planting seeds that may later grow into future success.  I have seen a lament over the inability to vote for a particular candidate for Sheriff who is running because he was charged for the “murder” of the guy trying to kidnap his daughter — and I have seen the observation that “you might not be able to vote for him, but you could always donate $20 for his campaign!”

Again, do not underestimate the importance of these small, local steps.  Local politics is the politics that affect us the most, yet it’s the most neglected as well!  And what’s more, it is our local politicians who “bubble up” into our State Houses and Senates, who go from Mayors to County Commissioners to Governors, who then go on to into our Federal House and Senate and Presidency.  Our local positions are where our “champions” cut our teeth — and where we can become our own “champions” for our own causes!

Indeed, as much as I’ve both appreciated and admired the efforts of the Libertarian Party over the years (at the very least, in the years they haven’t been too crazy) — one of my greatest laments is how they have always neglected the State for the National positions, and the Local for the State.  This has kept the Libertarian Party from growing its grass roots, and has prevented their influence from affecting the levels that affects us the most.

So start small!  Grow where you can!  And nourish our “sapling” politicians all around the country to become the “trees” of our philosophical “forest”!

(Thank you very much for the guest post, Alpheus. Sorry to get it up so late. –Holly)

Hello, lovely readers. Some of you know me but others may not — I am a frequent reader but only sometimes commenter. I’ve become friends with Sarah over the years through our mutual connections in the SFF community, and I can even credit her for a major role in the chain of events that led me to meeting my husband. But that’s a longer story, for another time.

Today’s topic addresses a pet peeve, which is how every single time some human-shaped monster attacks a school in America, the resulting commentary heavily features the line: “This never happens anywhere else!!” Really? Nowhere else? In no other country, in the entire world.

To be clear, I know what they’re really doing is limiting it only to shootings when for all practical reasons, what matters is if someone died, not what kind of weapon did it. The next line in the argument is usually something about how okay okay, there are other ways to murder, but guns make for larger victim counts. When it happens in other countries, there are only one or two victims.

Well then. I have a story for you.

Setting this up requires a bit of autobiography. I lived in China for the latter part of my childhood, which consisted of the years 2008-2013. (I do apologize for any gray hairs that spontaneously generated among the audience just now.) My parents worked as teachers at an English-language international school, set up by and for the expatriate community, which in our area consisted mainly of foreign business executives and their families. As a benefit to their employment, my siblings and I attended the same school. However, Chinese law left us limited in our ability to interact with locals in a meaningful way, and that had a deep effect on our experience. Even in the years before Dictator Xi took over (he came into power less than a year before I left) Chinese citizens were restricted, and sometimes outright prohibited, from being involved in our schools, churches, and other social environments. Most of the time they surveilled us in a hands-off way that you could get by without noticing if you didn’t pay close attention, but it was always there. I’m told that in the decade since I’ve left, it’s gotten far worse, and I believe it. Chinese leadership is increasingly Maoist and with the prevalence of inexpensive security cameras and digital tracking technology, Big Brother is more possible than ever.

But that’s getting into the weeds a bit. I can continue ranting about China and the Damned Commies all day if you let me. Instead, our question: “This never happens outside of America,” right?

Hearing that recently, I had another flashback to my time in China. Our school had fairly robust security already — walls around the entire campus, and gates with full-time guards. At one point, the guards started watching much more closely when we came and went. They checked IDs, and sometimes inspected bags or other items being carried in. I was a teenager and paid enough attention to what the adults were saying. A series of knife attacks had taken place at schools around the country. Everyone in China was terrified. Fortunately I never saw an attack take place, but I absolutely recall the atmosphere of fear that resulted.

For many years, this memory felt like a fever dream. I’d never heard anyone talk about it outside of those of us who were there for it, and was sure that I’d never be able to find any articles or proof that it actually happened. Fortunately for me, some of my friends are much better at digging up old news articles than I am! Even more surprisingly, some mainstream Western publications put out articles, though I am sure they were buried enough that most people missed them unless they knew exactly where to look. Usually when I’ve mentioned this story, I get people doubting that it’s real, so I really have to conclude that it was barely reported overseas.

One from the Atlantic, “Why the Rash of Attacks on School Children in China?” from April 2010. This would have been my second year abroad, which fits perfectly in my memory. The article describes three incidents. Fifteen wounded, knife attack. 28 wounded, 4 dead, knife attack. Five dead, killed with a hammer. All victims were children. All perpetrators were adult men from elsewhere in the local community. Another article from the BBC in 2023 (describing yet another attack on a school) states that a total of 17 children died in Chinese school massacres during 2010.

Going through our search results, we see other school attacks in places like France and South Korea and Japan, all countries with stricter gun laws than America, if not as strict as China. Knives are most common, but some incidents used blunt weapons, bombs, acid, or incendiary devices. All of these are problems and in my mind, equally awful. Why does it matter if your loved one was killed with a gun, a knife, or a bomb? Dead is dead.

But here’s the linguistic game they play. Any time an incident involves a gun, it’s no longer a massacre. It’s a shooting. I insist on pushing back with that one. Of course they can say “it never happens elsewhere” if they make sure that it exclusively refers to only one specific type of massacre.

As for the argument that it makes the killing easier, therefore there will be more killings — that presumes some population of people who are a hair’s trigger away from killing everyone they see, but only stopped by the fact that they don’t have an “easy” way to do it. No, I argue that the important part is the line between “peace” and “killing”, and that once someone crosses that line, the weapon matters little.

Don’t believe me? Why did Ted Kaczynski mail homemade bombs from a rundown cabin near Lincoln, Montana, when he also owned guns? Why did Darrell Brooks kill six people and injure 62 by driving a car into the 2021 Waukesha, Wisconsin, Christmas parade? He was legally barred from owning a firearm due to past felonies, but that didn’t stop him from shooting a family member the year prior. He could have gotten guns if he wanted to. He really just wanted to hurt people and didn’t care how.

Heck, just this past week I’ve seen people argue that Charlie Kirk could have been saved by gun control. But go back only a few years, and Shinzo Abe was killed in Japan with a homemade shotgun. Go back much further, and Margaret Thatcher was dodging car bombs. It’s always something. Evil finds a way.

We have a violence problem in the world right now, absolutely. If you ask me, I’d say we need more religion and less paranoia. Better family connections. Less doomscrolling on the internet and more fresh air. I spend a lot of my free time watching true crime content, especially from a criminal psychology perspective, and I’m convinced that a lot of our societal issues come from people who are rootless and directionless and who have been convinced by the doom-and-gloom peddlers that nothing they can do will improve their situation, so now they just want to hurt as many people as possible before they go.

That said, some violence will always exist. Human beings are NOT SANE as a general rule and sometimes insanity leads to serious problems. Being a god-fearing woman, I turn to prayer and hope that things will work out, Lord willing, here or hereafter. If you don’t have your own source of faith, I implore you to find some philosophy that helps you stay grounded. When we talk ourselves down into that depressive spiral, that’s when we get closer to justifying evil behaviors. 

As for the issue of safety, do what you can to make reasonable decisions, then take care of yourself and your family. Find a community that supports you and be good to them! And try not to lose your head, literally or figuratively.

Sources:

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2010/04/why-the-rash-of-attacks-on-school-children-in-china/345763/

https://www.newyorker.com/news/evan-osnos/why-are-chinese-schools-under-attack

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-66151247

https://time.com/archive/6949952/chinas-alarming-spate-of-school-knifings/

Note from Holly: Emma blogs at https://sverizona.substack.com/ about things that catch her interest, often including historical clothing, fabrics, and domestic economy. You should go read her blog!

By Holly Frost

Hi Huns, Hoydens, and other creatures,

I have a lovely guest post . . . and I don’t know what name the author wants on it! Darn (checks notes) authors and their pen names.

It will be up by and by when the author gets back to me.

All are well on the Hoyt end of the blog: a little frazzled by the existence of global rotation and the resulting differences in night and day. As happens.