Thursday Thirteen

1. I am too depressed by the state of the country to be into writing a Thursday 13.

2. Because we're not the America I thought we were. I suspect we never were.

3. Propaganda is everywhere, man. It has been all along. Only now it's got a fascist tone.

4. I'm watching my own personhood be destroyed as the rights of women decline and erode.

5. Today I realized that the new "REAL ID" that the state and feds are requiring in order to fly is actually going to cause a lot of women and poor people to be unable to jump on a plane if their mom who lives in Oregon dies.

6. The reason for my outrage are the requirements. A deed, or mortgage payment statement. What if the property is only in one spouse's name? It requires a paycheck stub or a W-2. What if you're a homemaker, and you don't work?

7. That's just one of the many outrages that I find frustrating about living in this country now.

8. Don't tell me to leave, either, if that's what you're thinking. I can trace my family roots back to the Revolutionary War. I belong here.

9. I wonder where we are going to end up. A Christian theocracy, run by the oligarchy, looks like.

10. We'd deserve to be called the American Taliban in that case.

11. I know there are some people out there who would like that. I'm not one of them.

12. Guess it is a good thing I am old enough to die.

13. At the rate things are going, I suspect that will happen sooner rather than the later it would have 10 years ago. I know there are people who prefer that happen quickly, too. They're not the kind of people I associate with.

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 606th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

A Baby Shower

Sunday I went to a baby shower for my new niece, who is due to have a little girl in June. The shower was at the Salem Red Sox stadium in a sky suite. First time I'd ever been to the stadium or in a sky suite. There was a game going on at the same time so some people elected to go watch the game rather than join the party.

I gave the baby a little outfit and a little pair of pants, along with two books by Margaret Wise Brown, a Hollins alumna. The books were Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny.

Anyway, here are some photos.

Lots of presents.

The happy couple.

Outside of the sky suite at the stadium.

Team mascot stopped by for a visit.

Mom-to-be and mascot.



A calendar for guessing the birth date of the newborn. Oddly no one chose the actual due date.

An A is an A is an A

Yesterday I visited my father, and we played a little music after dinner.

We do not have similar tastes in music and we don't play together much. Actually I don't play with anyone often, something that shows in my timing. Lately I've taken to playing with the songs as they come over my Alexa so I can get my timing back in sync with the world instead of the beat that rests inside of me.

While my father was trying to let me lead the music, he was having trouble watching my fingers as they changed chords. For one thing, I've always been very quick to change chords on the guitar. I remember him complaining about that when we played together when I was 12 years old. So that is nothing new.

I was playing Peaceful, Easy Feeling by the Eagles - it's a relatively easy song, in the key of E, with chord changes of A, F#m, and B. Nothing too hard.

He couldn't figure out my A, though. I play it in the second fret, first, fifth strings open, 6th string untouched, a finger each on the second, third, and fourth strings. Like this:

But my father makes an A chord by barring the second, third, and fourth strings, and stretching his little finger out to the fifth fret to turn the lower E string into an A. (I actually cannot find an example of that on the Internet. I think it's an old-school A. Still an A, just not the most obvious one.)

There are so many ways to make a single chord on a guitar that there is no "right" way to do it. Dad wanted to tell me that I wasn't making an "A" chord until his own chord chart showed the above.

Here is A in the fifth fret, using a barre chord:

It's basically an "E" chord moved down five frets on the guitar fret board. You can do that with any position. You can use the D position and move it down to the 9th fret and you'd have an A (you wouldn't play the 4th, 5th, and 6th strings, though, unless you barred the chord).

This is all basically guitar theory, and once I grasped it when I first started playing I didn't have much trouble moving over the fretboard. I am not a lead guitar player - I prefer simply strumming and singing, with an occasional lick thrown in but not often. I also like to finger style and not use a pick, which makes the guitar hard to hear sometimes. I don't need to move all over the fretboard but I like to if I can.

Anyway, we had a nice time playing. He had a new guitar, a Guild, which was a smaller body than most of his dreadnought guitars and I could play that better. He uses a heavier gauge string than I do - I prefer light gauge strings -  so my fingers tired a little more quickly than they do when I'm playing on my little Taylor, but it was a good reminder that I need to keep those callouses forming on the ends of my fingers on my left hand.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

You'd think that as an avid reader and a writer, I'd love questions about books, but I don't. I don't have favorite books or authors, (aside from Tolkien), and I have a difficult time with questions about books. I keep a list of books I have read, one that I started about 10 years ago with around 600 books on it, so I will refer back to that for some of these answers.

1. Authors you never get tired of reading.

A. Tolkien. Janet Evanovich. Juliet Marillier, J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter books only), Sue Grafton, Nora Roberts, Adriana Trigiani, Fannie Flagg.

2. A book you bought for the cover, and discovered it was better than you thought.

A. The All Girls Filling Station Last Reunion, by Fannie Flagg

3. A book that made you laugh and cry, and made you depressed.

A. In Pieces, by Sally Field

4. A book that was a pleasant surprise.

A. A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness

5. A book everyone loves that you don’t.

A. Most of Barbara Kingsolver's books. The only one of hers I really liked was Flight Behavior. She writes well but something about her style does not make me happy when I'm reading.

6. A book with a great sidekick that you like more than the hero.

A. The Harry Potter books, by J. K. Rowling. I loved Hermione way more than I loved Harry.

7. A book that helped you through a difficult time.

A. The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd

8. A book that taught you something valuable.

A. The Tao of Writing, by Ralph Wahlstrom & The Writing Diet, by Julia Cameron. (I read them both around the same time.)

9. A book or series that it took you awhile to get into.

A. Anything by Stuart Woods. My husband loves his books, especially his Stone Barrington series, but it took me a long time to come around and listen to them with interest. It helps that they are audio books and thus I only hear them in the car. I do not think I could actually read one of these books.

10. A fictional character you’d love to have to dinner.

A. Galadriel, from Lord of the Rings. For those who don't know (I'm looking at you, Gal, non-reader of fantasy),  Galadriel was a royal Elf. She was one of the leaders in the rebellion of the Noldor and their flight from Valinor during the First Age, and she was the only prominent Noldo to survive and eventually return, at the end of the Third Age. Towards the end of her stay in Middle-earth she was co-ruler of Lothlórien with her husband, Lord Celeborn, and was referred to variously as the Lady of Lórien, the Lady of the Galadhrim, the Lady of Light, or the Lady of the Golden Wood. Tolkien describes Galadriel as "the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth" and the "greatest of elven women".

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: God Bless America

Saturday 9: God Bless America

Unfamiliar with Deanna Durbin's rendition of week's tune? Hear it here.

Memorial Day is the federal holiday designated to honor American service people who died in battle.

1) Memorial Day was introduced after the Civil War. Originally called Decoration Day, this is when memorials, as well as the graves of veterans, are to be decorated with flags and flowers on this day to show our appreciation. Is there a war memorial in your neighborhood?

A. Yes. We have an obelisk on the county courthouse lawn. It's a Confederate memorial but I consider it one of the more tasteful ones. This monument to the county’s war effort does not single out any one person, and lauds the efforts of all men and women who survived that harrowing time in our nation’s history. The obelisk is pointing towards the heaven. Similar geometrical shapes grace the graves of many Civil War veterans.

The statue was erected in 1904 to commemorate “the deeds and services of the twelve volunteer companies … that went to the war from Botetourt County,” the statue reads, and “in memory of our brave and loyal officers and enlisted men who were killed in battle and who died from wounds and disease, during the war, and of our faithful comrades who have died since the war.”
It also says, “In honor of those men of Botetourt,- of the period 1861-1865 - who faithfully did duty in the civil and military service of Virginia, and of the Confederate States.  In recognition of those who gave, and of those who worked and served, to support our soldiers, and for the comfort and safety of their families."
The monument has a side dedicated to women, which is unusual. It says, “To the women of Botetourt in remembrance of their constant encouragement, steadfast devotion, tender in ministrations and unfailing providence and care, during the war and in the dark reconstruction years.”

The obelisk outside of the county courthouse.

2) Andrew Johnson, our 17th President, was in office the first time Memorial/Decoration Day  was celebrated. Have you ever met one of our 45 Presidents?

A. No.

3) According to the AAA, more than 30 million Americans will hit the road this weekend and drive more than 50 miles. Will you be traveling far from home this weekend?

A. No.

4) Memorial Day kicks off the summer season. What's your favorite picnic food?

A. Watermelon.

5) As you answer these questions, is there an air conditioner or fan on?

A. Yes.

6) Though she's belting out one of America's best loved patriotic songs, Deanna Durbin was born in Canada. Is there anyone in your family or circle of friends who wasn't born in the USA?

A. I have a pen pal who lives in England. We've been emailing nearly every day for 20 years.

7) No longer a household name, Ms. Durbin was once one of the biggest stars in the country. One of her most popular films was 1937's One Hundred Men and a Girl, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Recommend a movie that you really like, but don't think many Saturday 9ers have seen.

A. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

8) Back in 1938, Deanna Durbin had her handprints cemented in front of the TCL Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd. Have you ever visited that Los Angeles tourist attraction?

A. No.

9) Random question: What food did you hate as a child, but enjoy now?

A. I still eat like I'm seven years old, so I continue to not eat foods I didn't like as a child.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.

Thursday Thirteen

I have a brother. We are good friends now. As siblings do, we share a history that no one else has, a bond that reaches across miles, issues, and concerns that keeps us connected to one another.

That doesn't mean he wasn't a brat when I was growing up, though.

1. He cut all the hair off of my Barbie and Midge dolls.

2. When he was around two years old, he turned on the oven eye and caused my Mrs. Beasley doll to go up in flames. (This was technically my mother's fault; Mrs. Beasley had been attacked by the neighbor's dog and needed stitches in her leg. My mother laid her close to the oven so she wouldn't forget to fix her. After the fire there was no fixing poor Mrs. Beasley.)

3. He also swallowed an entire bottle of aspirin around the same time. Fortunately for him I saw him do it and had the sense to go tell my mother, even though I was only five years old.

4. When my parents killed chickens for freezing, I found it gross and abhorrent and could scarcely eat chicken for a year. My brother, on the other hand, chased the flopping, headless chickens all over the yard, having the time of his life. I think he was about five.

5. We used to fight on the bus. Once, in a fit of rage, he called me a "Playtex deodorant tampon" in front of everyone on the bus. (I can even point out to you the spot in the road where this happened.) The bus went quiet and the older girls were appalled. "Does he even know what he said?" one of them exclaimed. I nearly died of total embarrassment.

6. When I was dating my husband, my brother came into the living room and told him that when I sneezed, I opened up the tissue paper and looked at my snot. I don't know how he got out of that one alive.

7. He put a smelly sock in my pillow case.

8. He always woke before I did and urged me to get up and go see what Santa had left under the tree for us, much to my parents' dismay. They told us every year not to get out of bed until they called us, and every year we disobeyed.

9. He rode my bicycle and left it behind my father's truck. My father proceeded to run over it, and then spanked me for not taking care of my things, even though I had no way to know my brother had been riding my bike.

10. He and a neighbor boy asked me to count out my savings one day, and I obliged. He went and told my mother I was showing off even though I was only doing what they asked. She took it all away from me. It was about $200 worth of birthday money, etc. (I have always been thrifty.) About four years later, Mom found the box of money in a closet and couldn't remember where it came from until I reminded her it was mine. She gave it back to me then.

11. One day he left his jacket in the classroom. He asked the school bus driver if he could go get it, and she said yes. Then she drove off with out him, even though I protested. This was in the 1970s - no cellphones, etc. My parents both worked a good 30-minute drive away. I was stuck on the bus. I was in the 7th grade. When I got off the bus, I told the school bus driver off in no uncertain terms, calling her a liar and evil and everything else I could think of because my head was filled with visions of my brother alone at the school, crying. I am not sure how he made it home, but he did. The next day I went straight to the principal's office to report the bus driver. She had, of course, already reported me to the principal. Given the circumstances, I received no punishment, although I was admonished to watch what I said to adults.

12. A boy named Johnny Crowe kept picking on my brother and wouldn't leave him alone. I was a senior; my brother was a freshman. I confronted Johnny Crowe in the hallway. He taunted me and asked me what I was going to do about it, so I slapped him across the face. (Actually, I think I punched him. I seem to remember blood.) I received detention for that.

13. My most favorite memory of my brother, though, is something he said when I was about 11 and he was 8. While we were at the bus stop one morning, I asked him what he would do if something happened to me and I was no longer around. "I would cry until I died," he said.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 605th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

Too-Late Tom

Mating season for turkeys is nearly over, but this poor tom hasn't picked up on the hints yet. He has been strutting in my backyard every morning for a week. This morning I saw a hen walk past him as if he wasn't standing there in all his glory, doing his best Elvis impression to woo the ladies.

He looks pretty handsome to me.

I love this shot with the sun on his tail feathers.

His head thrusts out when he goes to gobble.

Dance! Dance! Dance!

Every year my niece has a dance recital and most years I go. There is also a part called the "dad's dance" wherein the fathers of daughters in the recital do a dance and finally end up dancing with their daughters at the end.

So Saturday I sat watching dancing. The theater is dark, and I sometimes do well with photos and sometimes I don't. This year I did not do so well. But here are photos anyway:

My niece on the right, laying a bell hop.

This one came out ok.

No clue who these little ones are, but they were adorable.

More adorableness.

My niece in a cheerleader routine.

More adorable.

My niece on the left there.



More adorable.

My brother in the turquoise and black.

Brother in the back there.

Whee! Go cowboy!

This one is a little out of focus.

My brother had a little solo of his own.

More cowboy antics.

My niece comes out. Giddy up!

An overview shot of everyone doing their dance thing.

My niece doing her cow girl thing.

Wish I could have gotten a better shot here.

She looks good in a hat.

Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing

I say ... and you think ... ?


    Hurry! :: House is on fire!

    Dumb :: as a bag of hammers.

    Fudge :: Best stuff ever made.

    Sturdy :: Husband.

    Printing :: Wish it was my book that I've not written and probably never will.

    Itch :: Poison oak!

    Creaks :: Steps.

    Paste :: First grade.

    Waste of time :: Trying to change someone else's mind.

    Let down :: 2016.

    Cancellation :: Didn't want to go anyway.

    Suspect :: Probably a white male with a gun.

    Fireplace :: Where I burned my first diary and $200 in $20 bills. The first was intentional; the latter was not.

    Spring :: Flowers, pollen, allergies, warmer weather.

    Commute :: Glad I don't have one.

    Places :: Ireland, New Zealand, somewhere over seas.

    Fraud :: Oh jeez.

    Adoption :: Not economically feasible for us but I am glad others can manage.

    Election :: Vote blue in 2020!

    Moving day :: I will be older than dirt and maybe even that dead.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: Secret Love

Saturday 9: Secret Love (1953)

Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it here.

Rest in peace, Doris Day (1922-2019)

1) In this song Doris admits she's spoken to the stars, "the way dreamers often do." Do you often daydream?

A. All the time. Staring out the window and losing myself is a constant past time.

2) What's the last secret you kept? (It doesn't have to be romantic.)

A. If I put it out here for the world to read, it wouldn't be a secret anymore.

3) While "Secret Love" was one of Miss Day's best-selling records, and the song won an Oscar, she did not perform it at the Academy Awards Ceremony. She said she was just too nervous to sing it live before an international television audience and an auditorium full of entertainment professionals. When did you last suffer an attack of nerves?

A. When I went to a supervisors' meeting after having sent them a Freedom of Information Act concern because they'd messed up and I caught it. I wasn't sure of my reception.

4) Doris' well-publicized attack of Oscar stage fright was unexpected because she began her career as a band singer, performing before live audiences every night. But she reportedly did develop more phobias over the years, including a fear of flying. Is there anything that scares you now, as an adult, that didn't frighten you as a child?

A. White evangelical males with big egos frighten me more now than anything ever has.

5) Doris Day made 39 movies between 1948 and 1968. She said one of her favorite things about filmmaking was working with costume designers on her wardrobe. Do you enjoy shopping for clothes?

A. Not particularly.

6) Doris confessed that when she had to lose weight for a role, she gave up ice cream. If we checked your freezer, would we find any ice cream?

A. No. You might find frozen yogurt, though.

7) In 1985, she hosted a cable show called Doris Day's Best Friends. She used the show as a platform to promote pet adoptions and animal welfare. Most of the guests were  celebrity friends who reportedly donated their salaries for appearing on the show to Doris' pet foundation. Did you more recently ask a friend for a favor, or perform a favor for a friend?

A. I have halfway performed a favor; I found the paperwork a friend asked about but I haven't taken it to her yet.

8) For more than 20 years, Doris co-owned the Cypress Inn in Carmel, CA. The Inn expects to continue on without her, and maintain the pet-friendly policies she introduced. Have you ever traveled with your dog or cat?

A. No, nor would I, and I do not believe people need to be traveling with their pets. I am highly allergic to all of them and this love-affair thing about pets has made the world a very unfriendly place for me. If I end up in a nursing home I will probably die of asthma complications brought on by someone's dog.

9) Random question: What's the last thing you complained about?

A. I went to the drugstore to pick up my medications and they gave me the generic of a drug that I only take name-brand of. They wouldn't give me the name brand (even though that was what I last had) because my doctor had sent in a new prescription and for whatever reason I ended up with the generic. Even though I said I would pay for the name brand they wouldn't give it to me. I was pissed. I might change drugstores. And this has nothing to do with the ACA; I'm on private insurance. This was some stupid insurance rule or some deal the drugstore had made with the insurer or some such bull crap. Then I came home and discovered they'd substituted generics for another one of my medications, and that doesn't always work out well for me.

Stupid capitalism. Values a stupid dollar bill over my life and well being. Fuck that.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. (#285)

Thursday Thirteen

1. So Thursday rolls around and I'm not ready for it. No 13 things in my brain, no great thoughts, no wonderful experiences to relay.

2. But the blank spot on the blog sits there, staring at me. And I've been doing this for years, real years, and spent a lot of time writing 13 things on Thursdays.

3. I think about my life, and how it isn't what I thought but it's not the worst it could be, I could be paralyzed or even sicker than I am. I still do things. Sort of.

4. Then I think about my guitar and for some reason I want to stop writing and play Sound of Silence in the midst of trying to think of 13 things, so that is what I do. I pick up the guitar and I play the song in B minor.

5. Then I put the guitar away and come back to look at the page, and write #4. Then I think, now what? What? What? Maybe I could write What? 13 times. But that would be pretty boring in the end, wouldn't it?

6. Then I think about how I have historical writing to work on, my magazine project, and I wonder if maybe I shouldn't be doing that. However, I'm tired because I've had a long morning. I spent hours at the doctor's office and then I saw my chiropractor, so I'm beat.

7. I could write about how my doctor wants me to go back to physical therapy because, "as we both know, Anita, you don't do pills very well, you simply can't handle a lot of medicines," says she. She is correct.

8. The physical therapy office, though, has been painted somewhat recently, apparently with oil paint, because when I dropped of my orders for physical therapy, I smelled it. I'm allergic to oil paint. Before I got out of there, which was only a few minutes, my lips were tingling. That's what happens when I get around paint. My lips start tingling and eventually swell. So now I'm not even sure I will be able to go to physical therapy because they painted. (Why would you use oil based paint and not something that doesn't smell in a health facility, for goodness sake?)

9. That makes me sad for some reason, so I go back to the guitar and I play Vincent, or Starry Starry Night, in the key of G. My husband hates to hear me play that song because he knows it means I'm feeling sad. He isn't here, though. So I play it through a second time and then come back to write #9.

10. The only theme I see so far is guitar playing and music. And thinking. I seem to be doing lots of thinking.

11. I think thinking is a good thing until you do too much of it and then maybe you become bogged down and stuck in the thought process, and you're sloughing around like a bug in mud, trapped because of the weight of the slosh on your feet. (Did I use the word "sloughing" correctly? I'm not sure. Don't care.)

12. I need new pants. That has nothing to do with anything at all but there you go. I need new pants because I've gained weight and nothing fits me anymore. I don't know why I've gained weight except I think my thyroid is out of whack a little. The doctor is checking on that because she thinks so, too.

13. I wonder if there is a song out there about needing new pants. I can't think of one but then the song Coat of Many Colors comes to mind. I remember learning it a very long time ago and I haven't thought of it in years. I wonder if I could still play it on the guitar. I think I will go see.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 604th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.

A Flat Earth, The Handmaid's Tale, and Science

If someone had asked me even 20 years ago if I knew I would on this date be reading an article in Newsweek about people who believe the earth is flat, I am sure I would have said no. I might have even laughed.

If someone had asked me 20 years ago if I thought states would be curtailing women's rights and working hard to ensure that the white race has babies by manipulating settled constitutional law and creating challenges sure to head toward a loaded, political Supreme Court, I would've thought about it a bit but rejected the idea, ultimately. But here it is. It's here. And here. And here. How long before it comes to my state?

None of this affects me personally right now, but it makes me sad. Under some of the bills, procedures I endured while trying to have a child, birth control pills I took to control endometriosis, and other drugs given me could have sent to me to jail. Or they might have simply allowed me to die instead of operating. So if you're one of those applauding these laws, please leave my blog now. Because essentially you're saying you want me, and thousands of other women like me, to die or be locked up to ease your conscious and so you can hold up your illogical and mythological religious beliefs front and center. Screw that. And screw you for thinking that.

I grew up knowing the earth was round. I do think we have been up in space. I believe my body is mine not my husband's or anyone else's for that matter. Opinion is not fact. The Bible is a book of stories, it's not fact in my mind. You might not like the color blue but I love it.

So back to the article on flat earth believers. Just like people who do not believe vaccines work, these are folks who do not respond to rational arguments. Their views are not based on anything rational in the first place.

These are people not convinced by research or data. They are convinced by people who reach them at some visceral gut level of trust (like a preacher might). Denouncing them is to threaten them. It's the same with anyone who has a different view. If you call names or do as I did above and simply say, "screw you" you're not really going to change any minds.

I am pretty sure I am not going to change any minds anyway, but it would be nice to know how to make an honest effort. I give up quickly because I don't like to argue. I have discovered, though, that in this day and age if you can't engage people on topics besides their job or maybe something like food (and not how climate change affects your dinner), you quickly run out of conversation.

How do you engage or converse with people one finds irrational? I think hearing them out is a good way to start, and then challenging them. It takes patience, though, and a bit of internal fortitude, because these folks are brazen and feel they have the Bible at their back (in many instances) and who are you, woman (with a little "w") to challenge anything anyway?

I think starting at the top of the scientific method might be a good way to begin. Ask the question. Why do you believe the earth is flat? Why do you believe women are inferior to men? Why do you believe life begins at conception and not at birth? How do you know you really have a soul? Why do you believe in goblins?

Here's the scientific method, for those who might have forgotten:

I don't think "because the Bible says so," is a reasonable, logical, and researched answer. So that might mean more questions. It might mean a great many questions, and lots of thrusts and parrying in a conversation.  

"All science deniers use roughly the same reasoning strategy. Belief in conspiracy theories, cherry picking evidence, championing their own experts. These are also the tactics used by deniers of evolution, climate change, and the recent spate of anti-vaxx," according to the Newsweek article.

So what to do? What scientists, and regular folks who believe in science, can do is this: "say much more than they do about the importance of likelihood and probability, to puncture the myth that until we have proof, any theory is just as good as any other. Scientific beliefs are not based on certainty but on "warrant"—on justification given the evidence."

Science is NOT based on certainty. Science is based on predictions, tests, etc. You are reading this on a technological device of some kind, and that didn't happen without science. People don't just magically produce cell phones or PCs or the Internet, for that matter.

Certainty cannot be the basis for comprehension and understanding. If that is the standard, "science deniers may feel justified in holding out for proof. So let's explain to them that this is not how science works. That certainty is an irrational standard for empirical belief," says Newsweek.

Science, "does NOT pretend that it has all the answers. It is open to new ideas, but also insists that these must be rigorously tested. In science there is a community standard to enforce this, based on data sharing, peer review, and replication. The scientific attitude exists not just in the hearts of individual scientists, but as a group ethos that guides empirical inquiry in a rational way," says Newsweek.

"It is reasonable to expect more interactions between scientists and science deniers, as is now happening with the measles outbreak in Washington state, where public health officials are holding workshops to talk with anti-vaxxers," Newsweek says.

It's also reasonable to have conversations about women's rights, the law, health, the judicial system, and the definition of theocracy, which is not the same as democracy in any sense of the word.

Science and scientists know that sometimes their theories are wrong. Maybe there is string theory or maybe there isn't - it's not a proven theory yet. But we have more technology in our hands in a cellphone than it took to send a rocket ship into space in the early 1960s, so why would you not believe that to be possible?

And if you believe that possible, then why would you insist that the photos taken from space are all one big conspiracy theory, and the world is really flat?

The existence of your cell phone, your car, electricity, and the gazillion other things that make up modern life - and the things that made up the agrarian life (like something simple, such as making fire) - prove science has its uses and its theories and hypotheses and those put into action are generally correct.

Otherwise we'd all still be walking, and I'd be beating a drum to send a message over to the next hill instead of picking up my cell and making a call.