LOCAL
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Books examine what it’s like to be an outsider Roswell Daily Record
LORETTA CLARK ROSWELL PUBLIC LIBRARY
The first week in December celebrates Recipe Greetings for the Holidays and Cookie Cutter Week. Memories last a lifetime and the recipe to recreating some delicious memories for your family may be by sharing old (or not so old) menu masterpieces. Cookie cutters are delightful devices used to cut cookie dough into seasonal and imaginative shapes. Bakers are encouraged to head to the kitchen with the family and friends to enjoy some cookie baking and decorating fun. Cookie cutters could also be used to shape tea sandwiches for that special get-together. The Roswell Public Library, 301 N. Pennsylvania Ave., offers books and other materials for ideas on creating holiday gifts, festive foods, decorations and fictional fun fulfillment.
Book Talk
The ter m cookie cutter also denotes something mass-produced or lacking any distinguishing characteristics. Many young people feel like they don’t fit in and it can be hard to cope when feeling like a misfit. They may have an unconventional fashion sense, have an unusual way of thinking, or maybe they live in a
LETTERS
unique family. However, teens are not meant to be stamped out in cookie cutter shapes and they are not all alike. To better understand the young people with these misfit feelings, Robert Briggs, Circulation Department supervisor, suggests books about those who feel or think or dress differently, but eventually learn to appreciate themselves. In David Walliams’ “The Boy in the Dress,” the mother of 12year -old Dennis is absent, and his father has instituted a “no hugging” rule. Dennis finds reprieve from his boring life in his passion for soccer and fashion. Fearing that nobody would understand if they knew about his love of fashion, he keeps a stash of Vogue magazines hidden away in his room. When his new friend Lisa discovers his magazines, she talks him into wearing a dress to school. Dennis pulls off being a girl quite effectively, but chaos ensues when his secret is found out. Though it may seem like there is a political motivation involved with the book, the story is told quite charmingly. The dialogue is witty and the book never takes itself too seriously while
At the cliff’s edge
Dear Editor: If you want to destroy a nation, destroy the currency. Since 1966, our national debt has increased every year and last year reached $12.4 trillion. About $2.6 trillion of that is owed to Social Security. In August an attempt to stop the raising of the debt limit was aborted with a compromise to let a super committee in Congress make a budget decision by last week which will upset about half of Congress. Whatever is decided, spending cuts and revenue increases will not become effective until 2013, over a year away. Earlier this month, the $15 trillion mark was passed. Due to the inability of Congress to bite the bullet as proven in August, we can expect the national debt to go right up to the legal limit, around $16 trillion. Congress is already talking about raising the debt limit next year. There is no top in sight. Last year, the interest cost of the federal debt, figured with an average interest rate of only 1.5 percent on $12.4 trillion, was about $200 billion, about 16 percent of total tax revenues. At $16 trillion, the interest bill will be about $260 billion, or about 20 percent of tax revenues, assuming the interest rate is still 1.5 percent. About half of this cost goes overseas to Japan, China or Europe. It is no longer available to grow our economy unless we borrow it back with more debt. Budget deficits require that we sell more debt, so our interest bill will increase every year until we balance the budget. Congress refused to pass a balanced budget bill. In August the compromise reached over the debt limit wasn’t much of a compromise. After raising heck for a few weeks, the tea party contingent of Congress took its finger out of the dike when outvoted by the rest. The debt quickly zoomed right past the old limit. Let’s be perfectly clear here. President Obama didn’t seriously try to limit the debt. Neither did the Democrats or most Republicans. The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators weren’t there. Only the tea party caucus in the House made a serious attempt to control the limit on national debt. No one else. Thank you, Steve Pearce, for your effort.
Dr. K
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mother is not depressed. In fact, some research indicates postpartum depression is more common in men than women. If you think you have postpartum depression, be sure to seek help. Lack of treatment can take a toll not only on your mental health, but also on the way your baby develops. Fortunately, there are many types of treatment for you to consider, ranging
Get Cl as s i fie d
from psychotherapy to antidepressant drugs. Some of these can be taken safely even while a woman is breast-feeding. In severe cases, electroconvulsive therapy can work faster than drugs. The stresses of motherhood may never fully go away, but your feelings of depression can and should be treated. (Dr. Komaroff is a physician and professor at Harvard Medical School. Go to his website to send questions and get additional infor mation: www.AskDoctorK.com.)
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
maintaining an emotional connection with Dennis. Peter Cameron’s “Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You” can be described as sort of a modern day “The Catcher in the Rye.” James is an 18-year-old New Yorker who is discontent with society. He has been accepted to Brown University, but thinks that running a store in the Midwest sounds more appealing. Scared to death of the fact that he doesn’t quite know what he wants out of life, he takes a liking to only a few people. James spends his time working at his mother’s art gallery, visiting his eccentric grandmother, ex-Dlist actress, and going toe to toe with his psychoanalyst. James doesn’t quite connect with the world around him and often times he is misunderstood by his family. Though negative at first glance, “Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You” is both witty and humorous. No conclusion is made about the future of the character, but the book does show that sometimes uncertainty is OK.
What’s Happening?
Cold weather causes many animals and birds to either hibernate or to migrate to warmer climates. The Wednesday story and craft hours begin at 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. and will explore hibernation and migration through stories and activities. The books could
feature “Bear Snores On,” “Who Is Sleeping” or “Bird, Butterfly, Eel” as well as a puppet presentation of “Time to Sleep.” After the program, precut craft materials will be provided for those in attendance. The crafts may include constructing an action figure bear; creating a toilet tube groundhog; making a butterfly mask and a 3-D bird. The stories may vary between programs and the quantities of some craft items may be limited. Cold weather and yummy gingerbread are a delicious combination and kids will relish the 2 p.m. Saturday story time featuring gingerbread in stories and crafts. Of course, “The Gingerbread Man” will make an appearance, along with the books of “The Library Gingerbread Man” or “Cookie Count.” After the program, precut craft materials will be provided for those in attendance and may include assembling a lace up gingerbread man, decorating a picture frame gingerbread house or creating a gingerbread man clothes pin decoration. The quantities of some craft items may be limited.
Andy Mason Christmas tribute
Mark your calendar for next Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 6:30 p.m. The whole family is invited to come
When a nation’s debt reaches a level where it appears to put stress on its ability to pay interest, the market of lenders will require higher interest rates as is happening in Greece, Spain, Italy and France, where new debt is auctioned off at 5 percent to 10 percent. Since the average turnover of U.S. treasury bills is only three years, interest cost can increase quickly. If money markets require higher rates, new bonds or reissued bonds sold by the Treasury will quickly show it. A very small rise from 1.5 percent to 3 percent would force our interest cost to more than triple in three years to over $600 billion, consuming 35 percent of all tax revenue. Can you imagine what a normal rise in Treasury bill rates to 5 percent would do? History shows that there are four options: 1. Raise taxes big time, so get your wallet out. 2. Grow the economy at a record setting pace to match growth in interest expense, but this has never been done for this magnitude in the past by any economy or government. 3. Cancel all debt. That would include erasing $2.6 trillion of Social Security funds and bankrupt almost every insurance company, pension fund, and bank in the country. Instant depression. It might even start a war because it would probably bankrupt Japan and cause riots worldwide. No overseas American would be safe. However, before this happens, sometime in the next three years, with or without President Obama, Congress will notice the riots much worse than Occupy Wall Street, and will try to appease everyone by printing as much money as needed to cover all federal checks such as military expenses, medicare, food stamps, HUD and Social Security, including yours and mine. The Federal Reserve will create trillions of dollars out of thin air. This will be required every year. If you think this idea is silly, then consider that the Federal Reserve has already
LETTER POLICY
The Daily Record welcomes and attempts to publish all letters to the editor that meet guidelines. To be published, letters must include the writer’s first and last name, address and telephone number. Addresses and telephone numbers will not be published unless the letter asks for a response. Addresses and telephone numbers are used for
Hinojosa Continued from Page A4
Books Again
Books Again, the used book store operated by the Friends of the Library, offers books that are priced at least 75 percent of f original retail price. In order to help stretch those Christmas dollars, during December all books will be available at a buyone-and-get-one-free sale. Books are affordable, and they provide hours of surprise, escape and discovery. And as Amy Sedaris says, “Books make great gifts because they’re easy to wrap!” The store has fiction and nonfiction books for teens, for adolescents, for younger children, and of course for adults. Books Again, 404 W. Second St., is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Parking is located behind the store. Stop by and shop for gifts for family and friends; or even for yourself.
doubled the nation’s money supply in the last three years by manipulating the dollar with low interest rates. Historically this causes substantial inflation in the following years. One indication of worldwide price inflation is the increase in the prices of gold and silver, doubling in three years in all currencies, worldwide. Inflation will eventually hit with a vengeance. Not just 6 percent, but more like 15-20 percent, maybe more. Every year. Are you ready for $10 gas? Unless we limit the deficit soon, interest expense will exceed all federal revenue within 10 years. Any plan that goes out 10 years is designed by a fool. That includes the Congressional Budget Office. All fixed income retirees will get the shaft, courtesy of people who are trying to save our economy and the world by increasing debt and dooming our children. Government checks will not buy much since the dollar will be losing value. If you think conditions are bad now, wait a few years until the pied piper leads us all over the cliff. He has no idea what he is doing and is surrounded by those who think like he does, including his hand picked economists, so he is not likely to change. We are well on our way to national destruction, not just pain and suffering, and a community organizer with no experience in leadership or economics is in charge. Good luck to you all. If you feel this is a little too gloom and doom, please refute my numbers. It is basic math. If Obama has experience in leadership or economics, please show me where. Neil Martin Roswell
verification or to contact the letter writer for more information. All letters except those sent by e-mail must be signed. Letters which are libelous, written in poor taste, promote or attack individual businesses or concern active civil court cases will not be published. Letters must either be typed or written or printed legibly.
zonas in the future. (That prediction a year ago was right — look at Alabama, where less than 3 percent of the population is Latino.) Hearing those words come from someone in my own family was hard, but I didn’t want to have a political battle during a family holiday meal. So even though I always encourage dialogue and the search for common ground through words and actions, I held my tongue. I chose to “respetar el derecho ajeno” — to respect the rights of the other person to be free — at that moment. And there was peace during the holiday as I thought about how divisive immigration issues can be, even in
listen and participate in Andy Mason’s musical tribute to Christmas. A Brief History of Christmas Music will present fascinating Christmas history and trivia through music. It’s an opportunity for the whole family to sing along to their holiday favorites and get in the mood to celebrate the season.
Because of limited space, letters should not exceed 600 words. Because of the large volume of letters received, those unpublished may not be acknowledged or returned and a maximum of two letters a month will be printed by any individual writer. The Daily Record reserves the right to reject any letter.
my own family. This year during the holiday, I shared the photo of that bumper sticker with my family. Like the sage words of Benito Juarez, the message of the bumper sticker was deep: Respect each other’s rights, and then you will be able to coexist, and therefore there will be peace. In the world, in cities and towns, and in our own homes with the people we love but also disagree with, we have to give respect in order to get peace all year ’round, and especially during the holiday season. Maria Hinojosa is an award-winning broadcast journalist. She hosts the Emmy Award-winning “Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One” on PBS, and is the anchor and managing editor of her own NPR show, “Latino USA.” Contact her at mh@futuromediagroup.org. © 2011 by Maria Hinojosa