The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
My mom has been holding down the {b&p} fort lately, as I imagine you've noticed. I'm finally back in a routine, after the holidays!
I say “after the holidays” because things have quieted down and yes, it's technically Ordinary Time. We had our travels and we had our 2nd annual hot cocoa gathering and we even celebrated The Artist's birthday, which comes in early January as a kind of wrap-up-the-feasting sort of deal.
But we'll be hanging on to our Christmas cheer until the Feast of the Presentation (also known as Candlemas)! People may call us curmudgeons for keeping an Advent observance that involves no Christmas carols until Christmas actually arrives — but darn it if we don't party hard on the other end!
I actually have to keep stopping myself at my instinctive desire to adopt any and all Christmas trees I see out on the curb: “Why would they get rid of that? It's a perfectly good, shapely Christmas tree! This waste is madness – quick! I have to stop the next passing car to see who will help me haul this up to my apartment?” Oh right. It is well into the new year and I don't actually have the space for that (no doubt extremely dry, needle-shedding) vegetation…
In the meantime, the days are lengthening again. A strange January thaw and some sunny days have had me reveling in early afternoon sunlight flooding my kitchen.
And I'm back in the Daedalshop, as I like to say (code: back at my kitchen table), returning to the routine of making pysanky after a Christmas hiatus. I just got the most glorious yellow on these duck eggs and I'm planning them to be a set for a giveaway for my Instagram followers, so do get on there and keep an eye out for me if you're interested! I think they'll make exciting Easter decorations, just to think ahead a little to the next liturgical feasting season!
And yesterday morning, early in my 3rd trimester, we finally got around to an ultrasound for Chickapea, who seems to be doing well! I would share a picture of that, too, except that The Artist accidentally pocketed the photos on his way into the studio so I didn't have them around when I was writing this. Maybe next time.
Spoiler: This mom thinks: Baby is cute.
On to this week's links!
- This week's headliner, because it is fascinating: That Time I Turned a Routine Traffic Ticket into the Constitutional Trial of the Century. I was so excited to read this, because I've felt a general uneasiness about traffic cameras (I mean, they are objectively just rather Orwellian, aren't they? is there any arguing that?), but didn't know how to articulate it on any constitutional terms; and a specific uneasiness about the time that one nabbed us back in Montgomery County, where the story of this article takes place. Let me give you a few juicy excerpts to help convince you to read it and perhaps share it:“I then asked the question one is taught never to ask on cross—the last one. “So, you signed an affidavit under the pains and penalties of perjury alleging probable cause to believe that Adam MacLeod committed a violation of traffic laws without any evidence that was so?”Without hesitating he answered, “Yes.” This surprised both of us. It also surprised the judge, who looked up from his desk for the first time. A police officer had just testified under oath that he perjured himself in service to a city government and a mysterious, far-away corporation whose officers probably earn many times his salary.
“… One might say that the traffic camera is a sign of our times. Its widespread use and acceptance reveals how far we have drifted from our fundamental commitment to self-government.” - Speaking of personal freedoms, I just got an alert from a friend about the option to opt out of FamilyTreeNow, a new website that has personal information stored and collected on all of us. I appreciated knowing that this was out there and having the chance to say, “no thank you,” so I thought you might as well.
- Care to see photos of some very tiny boxwood carvings from the early 1500s? I would love to see what tools were used for this beautiful, intricate work!
- A fun and beautiful pastry – the Brioche Star. From my mom: “I made this recipe for the Epiphany. I posted it on Instagram and many asked for the recipe. Here it is — it's not hard! But it does use a lot of butter and eggs — oh well, we just have to sacrifice ourselves. I put lemon oil in the dough and used one jar of Bonne Maman wild blueberry preserves for the filling.”
From the Archives:
- 12 Things to Stash that Will Help you Get Supper on the Table – have you read this one already? I remember that something truly “clicked” with me when I read it. Obviously I grew up watching my mom pull these things out of the freezer and whip dinners together, but somehow it made things come together for me when I read them all laid out in a list, now that I have my own kitchen to manage.
- Laundry Problems Start with Clothes: an explanation of how to tackle the problems of laundry systems before they start. (Auntie Leila says that she keeps getting emails from gals who are drowning in laundry; this post is the essential first step to getting control of the situation!)
In the Liturgical Year:
- Today we remember St. Felix (who, as it happens, is a patron saint against perjury! See excerpt from first article linked, above!)
~We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).~
Nancy says
Thank you for your links. We have traffic cameras all over Jacksonville & the city keeps adding more. Also, during Advent season, by my front porch, I have a seasonal garden flag with seasonal flowers. My Advent flag remained the entire season amidst neighborhood (huge) Frosty and Santa blowups with music flowing through their yards, huge ornaments hanging from outdoor trees, with wooden cutout displays of Charlie Brown, etc. Ninety-five percent of the Christmas trees were on the curbside the day after Christmas. The times we live in.
DeirdreLMLD says
Aw, those poor trees! Sigh.
Mrs. B. says
Deirdre, that yellow on the eggs is wonderful! Very Easter-like!
Most traffic cameras are notoriously a shake-down/money-grabbing operation: in the DC area there are places with completely unreasonable speed limits, and cameras ready to click (the one I hate the most is right by the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and Catholic University!)
I understand cameras at traffic light intersections (though there was a story some time ago that in a city they had rigged the cameras so that it was sufficient for a car to go beyond the stop line on the street to get photographed!), but the other ones are hardly justifiable. The article takes one small episode, and transforms it into another proof that our relationship with the government is in bad shape: now most of the time “civil servant” and “public service” sound bitterly ironic. It’s another consequence of the mentality that Experts should rule everybody’s life, and the ruled should be grateful and keep quiet.
As for Christmas, my Advent compromise is to skip the carols that refer to the Nativity as having just happened, so to speak. So, no Joy to the World until Dec. 25th, no Hodie Christus Natus Est or chants from Christmas Masses, no Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, or Angels from the Realm of Glory and similar. Meditations on the Nativity are admitted, like O Magnum Mysterium and Silent Night: these carols help you prepare more than celebrate, so I think they are appropriate for Advent.
I am taking our decorations down today, as in the old calendar yesterday was the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, the octave of the Epiphany and last day of Christmastide. We will keep a Nativity icon on our little oratory until Candlemas. I still have one Trader Joe’s panettone left – maybe I’ll make a baked French Toast with it! And I better try my hand at that Brioche Star, before Lent comes…. it could be my birthday breakfast in a few weeks!
Michelle says
As someone who walks and bikes for transportation I consider traffic cameras to be an essential safety tool in our poorly designed transportation system. In a misunderstood attempt at safety for people driving, our streets, especially suburban streets, turn out to have a design that encourages speeding. Any place with a “completely unreasonable speed limit” is likely a poorly designed street but with enough people around to make a slow speed limit necessary for their safety. Enforcement is necessary until all of our streets are redesigned with people in mind, rather than cars. Police enforcement is spotty, biased, and expensive – better to automate enforcement of laws.
Seattle has had great success with traffic speed cameras in school zones. Speeding is way down, crashes are down, and the revenue is dedicated to Safe Routes to School projects. Win-win-win.
Speed kills. A person walking who is hit by a person driving at 20mph has a 10% chance of dying from the collision. At 40mph, that chance is 80%. When we drive, we don’t usually think about the fact that we are wielding a multi-ton weapon. A moment of inattention can have horrific consequences. 38,000 people were killed on United States roads in 2015. This is a horrible and unnecessary public health crisis.
Leila says
Michelle, the problem you have identified is a real one. The question is whether the solution violates due process.
DeirdreLMLD says
I can definitely relate to the anti-speeding sentiment you’re expressing, Michelle. I live on a street that is thickly settled with residences, many of which have children. It’s a very quiet street, but when cars do come down, they BARREL down. By appearances it is such a peaceful place, but in reality the street is very scary because of irresponsible driving! I definitely appreciate the concern.
But yes, as my mom mentions above: due process is worth the fight. We don’t want to trade liberty for security — better find another way to approach the matter, in my opinion (in the case of my street, one well-placed stop sign or speed bump would make a world of difference!).
Michelle says
Absolutely, engineering is much more effective than enforcement! It’s a long process to fix the engineering, and many places haven’t started, or recognized that they need to.
Honestly, driving needs to be a bigger deal than it is. Countries that are safer have many more restrictions on who they allow to drive. We wield a huge amount of power in a car. Giving up some liberty for the privilege of driving sounds totally reasonable to me. Don’t want to be caught by a speed camera? Don’t drive.
Leila says
So you are saying that you regard due process (a right found in our Constitution) to be dispensable if you feel the situation is unsafe?
Sorry, we don’t agree.
Mrs. B. says
Michelle, my comment was not about speeding. Of course it is a problem, and precisely because it is we should be all the more angry when municipalities play tricks (both technically and legally) with speed limits, for the sake of a quick dollar. The City Attorney in the article doesn’t display any kind of civic concern: she’s annoyed that the city’s revenue process has seen a wrench thrown into it – why can’t the man just pay and stop being a nuisance? This is what my comment was about – clearly I’m not encouraging nor condoning dangerous driving.
Elaine says
Re traffic cameras and aggressive policing: Please warn your readers to be aware of potential costs when opposing unjust powers of the state. Unless you are a law professor or a member of a wealthy, prominent, politically powerful family, it is easy to win the skirmish but lose the war. I know a young man who successfully defended himself in court against several minor driving citations (accused of driving5-10 mps over speed limit) with the result that the poice started following him back and forth to work, stopping him for repeated warrentless vehicle searches (in which nothing was ever found), etc. It did not end well for him. BTW, this was in a VA suburb of DC–one that keeps electing right wing “law and order” types who have the attitude that if you have a problem with the police you must be a criminal.
DeirdreLMLD says
That is awful! I’m so sorry to hear it.
Elaine says
That is awful! I’m so sorry to hear it.
Mrs. Bennett says
I am not seeing a big red button to delete my information from FamilyTreeNow. Did anyone else have that problem?
Tamara says
When I did it, I had to select the record and then click “view full details”. The red button appeared for me after that. I hope that helps!
Deidre, thanks for posting about the FamilyTreeNow. I find that very disturbing and really appreciate being able to opt out.
Jayne says
Thanks for the heads up about Family Tree Now. How unnerving to see all that personal information displayed! Seems like it is a threat to identity security. I wonder how it was all obtained so completely and legally…
Loved the links, especially the old post “12 Things to Stash.” I just have a 6 month old, but unfortunately must work… So, dinner times sometimes feel like a scramble. Thanks!