Fullerton Voting Guide

Edited 10/27/2010 to add: For my 2010 Fullerton Voting Guide, click here.

I know, this is probably too late for all of you awesome people who vote by mail or voted early. If you have, please leave a comment describing why you voted differently from what follows so others might be more fully informed. Maybe this will help the few folks who have held out until Election Day to cast their votes.

For a PDF of the Official California Democratic Party Voter Guide for all the races in Orange County, click here. After the jump, please find the Democratic Party's official recommendations on the statewide offices and propositions with links to candidates' websites, the Orange County Democratic Party's endorsements for almost everything on the ballot in Fullerton with links to candidates' websites, my personal recommendations in the few places they differ from the Dems (i.e., why you should vote NO on Prop. 10 and YES on Prop. 11), and a rant on Orange County Measure J (in sum: vote NO on O.C. Measure J).

If you're voting anywhere in California, here are the California Democratic Party's official recommendations on the propositions (which you can verify here):

Prop 1A: vote YES - Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century.
Prop 2: vote YES - Will stop cruel, inhumane treatment of farm animals and improve our food saftey.
Prop 3: vote YES - Funding for children’s hospitals.
Prop 4: vote NO - Don’t put our teens at risk. Reject this threat to a woman’s right to choose in California.
Prop 5: vote YES - Rehab for nonviolent drug crimes.
Prop 6: vote NO - Expensive prison expansion.
Prop 7: vote NO - Hurts small renewable energy providers.
Prop 8: vote NO - Will eliminate the fundamental right to same-sex marriage in California.
Prop 9: vote NO - Costly, misguided prison reform.
Prop 10: Neutral $5 billion in energy bonds. [See why you should vote NO below)
Prop 11: vote NO - Redistricting. Constitutional Amendment and Statute (See why you should vote YES below)
Prop 12: vote YES Helps veterans buy farms & homes.

Here is the California Democratic Party's endorsements for all California districts in the United States House of Representatives.

Here is the California Democratic Party's endorsements for all districts in the State Senate.

Here is the California Democratic Party's endorsements for all districts in the State Assembly.

If you're voting in Fullerton, California, here are the California Democratic Party's endorsements with links to the candidates' websites:

United States Representative for the 40th District: Christina Avalos

State Senator for the 33rd District: Gary Pritchard

Member of the State Assembly for the 72nd District: John MacMurray

If you're voting in Fullerton, California, here are the Orange County Democratic Party's endorsements (which can be verified here) with links to the candidates' websites:

Judge of the Superior Court, Office No. 12: Debra Carrillo

North Orange County Community College District, Governing Board Member, Trustee Area 4: Molly McClanahan

City of Fullerton, Member, City Council: Karen Haluza and Sharon Quirk

Where I Differ from the Dems

Proposition 10: Dems - Neutral vs. Sarah - No
I can't find anything on Prop. 10 on The California Democratic Party's website other than the unsupported statement that they're neutral. Some blogger named Jim has a nice collection of resources on Prop. 10. He and I came to the same conclusion: This appears to be T. Boone Pickens' personal ballot initiative. In reading the Official Arguments & Rebuttals I found it odd that a proposition about alternative fuel vehicles wouldn't be endorsed by an environmental group. Then I checked out the opposition's website, which I understand is usually a bit melodramatic, but it did lead me to some more reliable sources. For example, the California League of Conservation Voters opposes Prop. 10 and gives a very persuasive explanation:

A fossil fuel corporation owned by Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens spent $3 million dollars to put Proposition 10 on the ballot. That same corporation will almost certainly reap the rewards if Prop 10 passes. California taxpayers will be stuck subsidizing big trucking companies at a cost of $335 million per year; they’ll shell out a total of $2.5 billion in subsidies to trucking companies to purchase “clean” vehicles. Prop 10 does not require any reduction in global warming emissions for trucking companies that get “clean” vehicle handouts of up to $50,000 per truck – and Prop 10 excludes hybrids from its definition of a “clean” vehicle.

The bottom line: California already faces a $15 billion budget deficit crisis, and Prop 10’s raid on the state’s coffers will mean cuts to our schools, our public safety and our health programs. Prop 10 is biased towards investments in natural gas technology— over cleaner alternatives such as wind and solar technology—while draining California’s already over-committed general fund. Although perhaps rooted in a commendable goal of environmental progress, Prop 10 is bad policy for California’s taxpayers and California’s environment.

The Sierra Club of California also opposes Prop. 10, as does the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. These are my usual go-to resources for green issues, so I take their collective opposition to Prop. 10 seriously.

While I watched Who Killed the Electric Car? thus discovering the group Plug In America after I mailed in my ballot, I find their opposition to Prop. 10 to be highly persuasive. While the broad spectrum environmental groups might not have alternative fuel vehicles as their number one priority, Plug In America does.

Plug In America opposes California Proposition 10, the so-called "California Renewable Energy and Clean Alternative Fuel Act." Don't be suckered -- Prop. 10 is a sham that would commit $10 billion in public money primarily to enrich investors in natural gas, especially T. Boone Pickens, without doing much for consumers or the environment. Under Prop. 10, a "clean alternative fuel vehicle" doesn't have to be any cleaner than current gasoline or diesel vehicles! It would divert precious resources away from better alternatives like plug-in vehicles. And that's just the start of the problems with Prop. 10.

After reviewing all the statements from respectable resources in opposition to Prop. 10, I'm really disappointed in the California Democratic Party for not opposing it. I'm going to have to write my state party chair.(back to list of California Democratic Party proposition endorsements)

Proposition 11: Dems - No vs. Sarah - Yes
I mailed in my ballot a relatively long time ago and when I discovered that the California Democratic Party opposes Prop. 11, I was unsure whether I did the right thing on this one. Then again, that same blogger named Jim has a lovely collection of resources regarding Prop. 11 and he and I agree. Finally, I went to the Yes on Prop. 11 website and was reminded of all the very good reasons I had for voting yes on Prop. 11 and how, unsurprisingly, the California Democratic Party is on the wrong side of this fight.

Currently, state representatives draw their own voting district lines. These elected officials have incentive to draw those lines in such a way as to assure their re-election. In California that has lead to a 99% re-election rate in state legislative races. Essentially, this system has turned the office of state representative into a lifetime appointment. Without the check of reelection these representatives are not responsive to the needs of their constituency and are not held accountable as there is no threat that they will not be re-elected. Systems like the one currently in place in California undermine democracy. Why vote when the system is rigged?

Proposition 11 will create a 14-member independent citizens commission to redraw state legislative district lines based on strict non-partisan rules. Unlike the current process, Proposition 11 will ensure that the redistricting process is open and transparent and will respect existing city and county boundaries and communities. It will exclude individuals with obvious conflicts of interest, including elected officials and their staff, from serving on the Commission.

The League of Women Voters of California sponsored Prop. 11. California Common Cause, a non-profit working "to strengthen public participation and to ensure that the political process serve the public interest, rather than the special interests," supports Prop. 11, as does the ACLU of Southern California. Like the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Union of Concerned Scientists are my go-to resources for green issues, The League of Women Voters, Common Cause, and the ACLU are my go-to resources for voting rights issues. I take their collective support for Prop. 11 seriously. (back to list of California Democratic Party proposition endorsements)

Orange County Measure J
I couldn't find the OC Dems' or the Cali Dems' position on Orange County pension benefits, Measure J, which asks, "Shall the ordinance amending the County Charter to require voter approval for certain increases in retirement benefits for County employees and officials be adopted?" I voted no for a multitude of reasons.

First, what the heck do we elect county officials for if not to deal with the mundane issues of governance like retirement benefits for County employees and officials? Voting yes on Measure J sets us on a slippery slope which ends in deciding which pot holes to fill by ballot measure.

Second, for the most part these benefits are negotiated as part of collective bargaining between the county and the county employees' union. A vote for measure J is a vote against organized labor, . . which is probably not the argument to raise in pro-business Orange County.

Third, every time retirement benefits might be raised, Orange County would have to put one of these measures on the ballot, which would cost the taxpayers between $100,000-$160,000 EVERY TIME, according to the official fiscal impact statement. What a waste of money. If you don't like the way the county handles retirement benefits, don't vote for Measure J. Instead vote for someone else next time a county official is up for election. Running a county by ballot measure is a waste of time and money.

According to the L.A. Times, I'm in the minority: Orange County's Measure J foes not even bothering. Nonetheless, the L.A. Times editorial page opposes J: No to Measure J in Orange County. The conservative local paper, The O.C. Register, supports Measure J: Do you want to OK county pensions?

Copy and paste the following into the word processor of your choice, print it, and take it to the polls:

President and Vice President: Barack Obama/Joe Biden
United States Representative, 40th District: Christina Avalos
State Senator, 33rd District: Gary Pritchard
Member of the State Assembly, 72nd District: John MacMurray
Judge of the Superior Court, Office No. 12: Debra Carrillo
North Orange County Community College District, Governing Board Member, Trustee Area 4: Molly McClanahan
City of Fullerton, Member, City Council: Karen Haluza, Sharon Quirk
Prop. 1A: YES
Prop. 2: YES
Prop. 3: YES
Prop. 4: NO
Prop. 5: YES
Prop. 6: NO
Prop. 7: NO
Prop. 8: NO
Prop. 9: NO
Prop. 10: NO
Prop. 11: YES
Prop. 12: YES
Orange County Measure J: NO

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Hoodwinking Slate Flier

Originally this post was going to be titled "Too Late" and focus on (1) the fact that I didn't get this mailer until after I'd mailed in my ballot and (2) the differences between who and what I voted for and the slate presented in this flier. Then I did the standard blogger's due diligence: I googled the name of the organization that sent the flier "The Team for Democratic Voters." Up popped this handy article from The Sacramento Bee, "Political Mailer Misleading."

Apparently "The Team for Democratic Voters" is a for-profit company from whom candidates and proponents of propositions can pay to be included on mailings designed to appeal to members of a particular party. Apparently something similar is happening with misleading fliers aimed at Republicans.

Here in Fullerton, City Council candidate F. Richard "Dick" Jones and Superior Court Judge candidate Kermit Marsh felt that deceptive campaign mailers were worth their campaign's dollars. Thank goodness I didn't vote for either of them. In fact, based on my research, F. Richard "Dick" Jones was the first candidate that I crossed out to indicate "Do not vote for this bad guy." And did the Democratic Party of Orange County even endorse him? No. The OC Dems endorsed who I voted for: Karen Haluza and Sharon Quirk. (Click here to see my comprehensive Fullerton voting guide - which is solely my own doing and is in no way supported by any political party.)



And you know what really gets my goat about Kermit Marsh's blurb on the mailer? It says, "Opponent: Long-Time Criminal Defense Lawyer." (A) Like that's a bad credential for a superior court judge. (B) His opponent, Debra Carrillo, is currently a Deputy District Attorney, so she's not exactly a hug-a-thug. If anything, having been on both sides of the criminal justice bar will make her a fair-minded judge. Oh, yeah, and by the way, if you want to know who the Democratic Party of Orange County actually endorsed in this race: Debra Carrillo.



But the first clue I had that something was rotten in Denmark was that the mailer suggested I vote yes on Proposition 10, which is pretty well known as one natural gas billionaire's personal proposition of doom (though, interestingly, the OC Dems were neutral on it). Also the criminal justice propositions the mailer advocated were internally inconsistent. You probably would not vote yes on Proposition 6 (Police and Law Enforcement Funding/Criminal Penalties and Laws) and Proposition 9 (Criminal Justice System/Victims' Rights/Parole Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute) AND vote yes on Proposition 5 (Nonviolent Drug Offenses/Sentencing, Parole, and Rehabilitation).

What do I have to do to get a proposition banning misleading political mailers on the next ballot?

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You've Still Got to be Taught

I posted this in a comment to this Matt Yglesias post. As I usually do (shameless plug here), I copied it to the "Halfwit on Blogs" blog. Usually, I leave it at that but (a) I haven't posted on Gnomicon in ages and (b) this might induce some nostalgia-trippin' in certain Sarahs.

It's like the song says: you've got to be carefully taught.

Hearing that ("You've Got to be Carefully Taught") from the Wee Kids on the Kid Power album is surely before Matt's time.  (To be fair, I never saw the show on television, since it was a little before _my_ time too.  Still have the album though.)

And that seems like a harsh reminder that progress is won only inch by inch.  The same sentiment that was an indictment of racism in 1949, and bore repeating in 1974, is equally appropriate regarding homophobia in 2008.

The more things change, the more ... we must fight for change.

Halloween Furrday: The Doghair Witch Project

I am so scared! I don't know if anyone is ever going to play fetch with me again. No one throws the red ball! I am so scared!
I'm afraid to close my eyes, because the food I see could go away. When I close my eyes I dream of food, so I'm afraid to open my eyes.

Color Theory Update

I've continued color theory exercises on another blog and Rebecca found a couple of awesome color-related posts, too. I've already added them to the Color Theory Index. But in case you don't check that every day, I've collected them for you hear after the jump.

The Color of Heartache
Munsell Exercise 1.3: Determining Values of Colors
Munsell Exercise 1.3: Determining Values of Colors - Checking My Work
Color Theory: Value

Idée Labs' Multicolr Search Lab lets you pull up a set of images from Flickr based on their color content. "We extracted the colours from 10 million of the most “interesting” Creative Commons images on Flickr. Using our visual similarity technology you can navigate the collection by colour."

Rubitone (Rubik's Cube + Pantone) is a great idea for the design minded '80's-phile.

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Furrday: Fall Portrait

"We sat still for like two WHOLE seconds. Now give us cookies!"

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Jay McCarroll Fabric

Jay McCarroll, winner of the first season of Project Runway and subsequent professional disappointment, has come out with a fabric line of 100% cotton fabric for quilters through FreeSpirit. Via True Up. I was so excited to hear this news. Yet, just like my friend who bought like everything he sold on the Home Shopping Network and had to return all of it because it was manufactured so poorly, utterly disappointed to see it up close. Tell me in what kind of quilt one might be able to use this albino bunny post-cosmetic testing print? Close up after the jump, because it may not be suitable for some readers, like those who are opposed to animal testing, Gentle Reader.

I just want to buy that bunny some eye drops and tell it to have a good night's sleep, lay off the meth, and take it one day at a time.

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Irrational Crafting Urge

I don't know if it's my current bout of insomnia or what, but I've got an urge to make irrational crafts.

For example, water balloon luminaries via CandleTech via Whip Up. I want to make like a zillion of them for a friend's wedding. But I won't. Nor will I make said friend a custom wedding runner. Via One Pretty Thing. So just forget I ever mentioned it.

Another example, along with all of the fabric beach balls I'm going to make to go with all of the baby quilts I haven't finished, now I want to make growth charts too, via Unraveled via Whip Up. Oh, but that growth chart involves upholstering lumber. In my imagination the growth chart is just a quilted wall hanging type deal. Easier to pack and ship with the quilt and the beach ball. All of which are entirely fictitious given the belated state of my baby blankets in progress. Oh, yeah, and now I want to make light-up firefly baby booties to go along with the baby quilts, fabric beach balls, and growth charts. Via CraftGossip. Oh, and one or more of these delinquent baby quilts, I mean delinquent quilts for babies, not that your babies are delinquents, I mean who am I to say, but still, anyway, is going to be based on this nursery art by Homemade by Jil. Via One Pretty Thing.

Oh, and in case there is any pumpkin carving in my future, I want to make mine an election-themed Barack-O'-Lantern. Via One Pretty Thing.

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Bob Gets Sentimental

Here's Ta-Nehisi Coates, contemplating "Obama's campaign and the values of parenting:"

Obama's mother, a relatively young woman when he was born, will not be here to see him inaugurated, should he win. Whenever, I think of that I just get sad--mostly because she did know the rewards of parenting and threw herself at her kids. There's something unjust in the fact that she won't get to see the results of all her work.

Here's the thing, and I hope it offers Ta-Nehisi some solace -- I disagree. I think she did see the results of all her work. Her son grew up to be a good and mighty man. That we are electing him to be President is just our recognition of what she already knew.

Everything I Needed to Know about Economics I Learned in Daycare

Yesterday on Talk of the Nation Joseph Stiglitz, University Professor of Economics at Columbia University and winner of the 2001 Nobel prize in economics, discussed the U.S. economy. In particular he discussed misplaced incentives, like government distortion of the real estate market through tax rebates for relatively wealthy mortgage payers. Bob has raised concerns regarding this particular misplaced incentive in previous posts. Prof. Stiglitz went on to describe regulation in terms of behaviorism which reminded me of Terri's comment to my post Corporations as Voldemort.

Specifically, Terri, so insightfully stated,

I agree with the soulless definition, but I also think of it in terms of strict behaviorism that you may use on a child without the development yet for empathy and long term planning. It seems that positive or negative reinforcement would be the only way to regulate the system as it is. Right now, the government seems to be giving positive reinforcement for screwing up, though. Clearly the wrong thing to do to change any behavior.

Stiglitz echoed Terri's analogy when he said,

If you don't change incentives you're going to wind up having very similar behavior to what we've had in the past. Many of us expected the sort of bonfire we've been having. We had distorted incentives. Incentives that encouraged short sighted behavior and excessive risk taking. And we got what the incentives encouraged. We have now given the banks a lot more money to play with, $250,000,000. But if we don't change incentives, we don't change regulatory constraints, why should we expect their behavior to be any different.

Stiglitz emphasized the need for regulation at the individual level, in terms of accountability for financial managers, as well as at the level of corporate governance. As an example of individual incentives encouraging short sighted behavior and excessive risk taking he described how fund managers receive huge bonus pay for one year's success, but suffer no repercussions in the years when their funds lose all of those previous gains. He recommends, among other things, regulating the form of pay (i.e., not accounting fudging stock options) and the rate of pay of corporate executives.

How else could we apply the lessons of early child development to address the failings of corporations?

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Round Up

In this round up: hipsters in NYC, everyone deserves defense, color IQ, Denyse Schmidt quilts for Obama, Ikea fabric, backyard chickens, alternative dog poo disposal.

P.S. I've added a new link or two to the Color Theory Index.

I'm going to NYC on my east coast tour in a week and I am, perhaps not shockingly, too cheap to get a hotel room. So I'm staying with my friend Elisa and her roommate. I am SO not cool enough.

Over dinner at my brother's wedding, my mother's significant other decided to drill me about who I would defend if I were a criminal defense attorney. My mom's S.O.'s radical inappropriateness aside, my answer was something like Peter Keane's piece in the This I Believe series on NPR: Everyone Deserves Defense.

Interested in quantifying your ability to arrange color? Got things to do that you really don't want to do? Need to look busy on your computer without actually doing anything too taxing? Test your color IQ via True Up. Beware: the graph at the end comparing your results to other folks of your age and gender is completely f--ed. Certain mathematicians, who we'll just call "Bob" for the sake of argument, would call said graph an example of innumeracy.

Check out dogged's post about an eye-bending Obama quilt designed by the very popular quilt designer Denyse Schmidt to be auctioned off to benefit the Obama campaign. Via Dogs and Laughter.

I am seriously contemplating Ikea's $5.99 per yard Inger fabric. It's 59 inches wide, so it would make a great backing fabric. And I've got some projects that are looking for some oversized black and white prints to be overdyed, so this might be just the thing. The only thing giving me pause is the extremely low thread count of some of the Ikea cloth goods I've purchased in the past. I better go check these out in person. And maybe have some Swedish meatballs and a cinnamon bun while I'm at it. Via Domino via Design*Sponge.

More support for backyard chicken coops via the Organic Consumers Association.

Another alternative to plastic grocery bags for dog waste disposal: Skooperbox Biodegradable Poop Scoop Boxes via Re-Nest.

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Who Killed the Electric Car?

Who Killed the Electric Car? is a documentary film primarily focused on the short-lived success of the electric car in California and the multitude of forces that lead to its untimely demise. But even if you're not so into cars or California or the environment, the film provides an excellent illustration of how corporations control both consumers and government.

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.

I'm not going to focus on the frustration of not being able to buy an electric car or a plug-in hybrid. I'm not going to focus on the bait-and-switch called the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. These are all important and aggravating concerns that the film covers sufficiently. The film's website provides an excellent list of resources on these topics.

The real revelation in the film comes from the evidence supporting the conspiracy among car manufacturers and gas companies to covertly kill a perfectly viable technology while purportedly supporting it. It's one thing for Wal-Mart to unabashedly exploit its suppliers, employees, and the environment in the name of low prices. It is entirely different when a corporation takes on a product line with all the appearances of enthusiasm while simultaneously trying to destroy that same product.

If corporations are rational, if soulless, actors, how does this sort of self-cannibalization take place? Following a rational actor model, car manufacturers alone would have nothing to lose by shifting to another fuel source for their vehicles. It is the gas companies who would lose. If your car is powered by electricity, you never have to buy gasoline or engine oil again. That sends chills up the spines of petroleum corporations, if they had spines. So the destruction of the electric car is evidence that the petroleum companies have HUGE influence over the automotive industry. And not just in the U.S. Honda and Toyota, purveyors of those popular hybrids, also cannibalized their electric car fleet.

The question then becomes how can you extract the petroleum companies from the decision making process. Can politicians and policymakers stand up to this lobby? The film implies that legislative and regulatory action requiring the automotive industry to reduce emissions to zero could work, as it did work to introduce the electric car to the California marketplace. But how do you convince an industry that got California to repeal those laws and regulations once that this time we're really not going to take it back. Why won't they just drag their feet, produce too few to meet demand, inflate the sales price, install less-than-state-of-the-art technology to lower performance and reputation, promote using the unattractive counter-message advertising, and donate to the campaigns of politicians willing to take it back? And unlike politicians or consumers, corporations never die. Corporations never leave to spend more time with their families. If politics is a waiting game, corporations will win.

Who Killed the Electric Car? illustrates that corporations control the government. The United States is a corporatocracy. The real question it poses is can the American people rest control of their country from the corporations and restore democracy.

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ACORN is Not a Bad Seed

In the Orwellian world of the Republican campaign machine, ACORN is a bad seed. Just as black is not white and up is not down, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, a.k.a. ACORN, is not a bad seed.

Today FactCheck.org issued a very even-handed assessment, as usual, of the McCain campaign's claims regarding ACORN.

In sum, ACORN does the good work of helping folks register to vote. Some of its employees faked voter registration forms to get paid for work they didn’t do, NOT to cast fraudulent votes.

Making unfounded accusations of voter fraud intimidates the very real voters ACORN reached. Additionally, these false claims are part of the Republican machine's move for more hoops for voters and local election officials to jump through, which waste time and resources and erect barriers to free and fair elections. Arguably, the Republican machine's intentional dissemination of this false information in order to disenfranchise potential voters is a more clear cut case of voter fraud than anything done by any ACORN employee.

The Republican party has made a concerted effort to paint anyone helping people register to vote as perpetrators of voting fraud. This is patently false. The prosecutors who have attempted to follow up on these outrageous claims have universally found them to be false. For example, Dan Satterberg, the Republican prosecuting attorney in King County, Washington, where the largest ACORN case to date was prosecuted, said

[A] joint federal and state investigation has determined that this scheme was not intended to permit illegal voting.

Instead, the defendants [people ACORN paid by the hour to canvas] cheated their employer, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (or ACORN), to get paid for work they did not actually perform. ACORN's lax oversight of their own voter registration drive permitted this to happen. ... It was hardly a sophisticated plan: The defendants simply realized that making up names was easier than actually canvassing the streets looking for unregistered voters. ...

[It] appears that the employees of ACORN were not performing the work that they were being paid for, and to some extent, ACORN is a victim of employee theft.

Democracy Now had an excellent interview with Bertha Lewis, the Chief Organizer for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, ACORN, and Cleta Mitchell, an attorney specializing in election law for Republican clients (and Samantha Bee interviewed her on The Daily Show in the 2004 election cycle about how to start her own 527 group and what content her 527's attack ads could get away with - it's all on DVD The Daily Show: Indecision 2004: Disc 3).

For other examples of systematic insidious voter deception, check out this article in the Miami Herald.

Full Disclosure: during the 2004 election I volunteered for Election Protection, a subsidiary (?) of People for the American Way, to monitor polls in Atlanta, Georgia. I have NO idea if Election Protection or PfAW have any connections to ACORN. But I do believe everyone who is eligible to vote should be registered and should vote without duress. If that makes me guilty of voter fraud in the eyes of Republicans, then so be it.

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Furrday: Izzy Archives

This is from one of Izzy's first stays at Wag-a-lot, our favorite doggy daycare/boarder EVER.

Covered in Bees

The Organic Consumers Association had a web forum discussion titled "Honey Bee Deaths Reaching Crisis Point: How to Have a Bee-Friendly Yard." One contributor, Honey Gal, had excellent suggestions which I plan to implement in our yard with the next planting season.

I'm a beekeeper and teach classes in bee stewardship. One thing folks can do to help, even if you aren't a beekeeper, is to make your yard bee friendly. Plant a flowering herb garden. Bees use herbs medicinally and your plants can help make a difference. I suggest rosemary, sage, THYME (lots of it), marjoram, chives, basil, all the mints and other herbs with flowers. Bees will find them. To do more, plant native flowering bushes, too. In our area (WA) spirea and goldenrod are bee magnets. Try to have flowers in bloom through into fall. Put out a big shallow dish of water with sticks or moss in it (so they don't fall in) and keep it moist. If you can get seaweed, bees are particularly fond of the minerals so I keep a little pile of seaweed in the "bee pond." All these small actions add up and make it a little easier on your local bees.

I am entirely charmed by the idea of a bee pond.

Interior Design at the W San Diego

As I have thoroughly cataloged in earlier posts, the weekend before last we went to San Diego to hang out with the in-laws who were in town for a conference. We got to stay at the W Hotel, which is full of fun interior design stuff that was totally inspiring. So I thought I'd share a few pictures of my favorite things about our room, including the above picture of the view from our window straight down into the pool.


Continuing the beach theme - a beach ball-esque pillow, usually poised in the middle of our bed when housekeeping had their way. It totally reminded me of the recent how-to on Purl Bee that made me want to make fabric beach balls to go with every baby quilt I make - if I could ever finish another baby quilt. Also the solid fabrics on all the pillows were like shot cotton (though they didn't feel cotton - I'm referring more to the textile manufacture process) in that the warp thread color differs from the weft thread color. The resulting fabric appears almost iridescent and the color seems to change as the fabric conforms to different shapes. So that cornflower blue fabric has orange highlights not because my camera flash was orange, but because the warp threads are orange.

David and I are complete suckers for window seats. Other than the bed, desk, and deskchair, this built-in window seat was the only other furniture in the room. It made so much more sense than the usual single upholstered chair in rooms this size. I developed a nonsensical crush on the breakfast tray. I actually spent much of an afternoon sitting in the window seat with that tray over my lap, soda can in the soda can shaped cutout, Kindle in the newspaper depression, staring out the window at the beach balls floating around the pool. I have spent the subsequent weeks trying to figure out how to incorporate a navy, cornflower, purple, and white color scheme into our house.

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Joe the Quilter

Sunday I took an awesome workshop with Joe Cunningham, a.k.a. Joe the Quilter. Seriously, it's changed my entire approach to quilting.

The workshop was put on by the Flying Geese Quilters Guild. Honestly, seeing Joe on their schedule of presenters was one of the reasons I joined this particular guild. The fact every single guild member at the class was super friendly to a new kid like me was just icing on the cake.

The workshop took place at Material Possessions Quilt Shop, which is HUGE. I suspect it has as good if not better selection of quilting fabric as G Street Fabrics in Rockville, Maryland. And the classrooms were spacious, well-lit, well-equipped, and well-organized.

Now on to the class itself. Its title was "You Maverick, You", though the current partisan use of the term "maverick" might have inhibited Joe from referring to the title. If you look at the origin of the term "maverick" and Joe's philosophy of quilting, it's actually quite an appropriate title for the class. Conveniently enough, the New York Times addressed the history of the term in a recent piece.

In the 1800s, Samuel Augustus Maverick went to Texas and became known for not branding his cattle. He was more interested in keeping track of the land he owned than the livestock on it, Ms. Maverick said; unbranded cattle, then, were called “Maverick’s.” The name came to mean anyone who didn’t bear another’s brand.

Joe's philosophy of quilting is based on his search for the origins of what is considered "traditional" quilting. Antique quilts do not conform to the forms and techniques commonly accepted as "traditional" quilting. The rules enforced by present day "quilt police" seem to have coalesced in the patterns and kits made available in the 20th century. Patterns and kits were designed with control and efficiency in mind so quilters could predict the amount of fabric they would need for a particular project and predict the appearance of the end product.

Basically, (and I might be taking this idea farther than Joe himself might be comfortable with) what is commonly accepted as "traditional" quilting is really a set of patterns and techniques created by the quilting-industrial complex. These "traditional" patterns and techniques are like branded cattle, they can be traced back to their owners, purveyors of 20th century quilt patterns and kits. A maverick approach to quilting eschews these "traditional" patterns and techniques, it does not bear the brand of the quilting-industrial complex (unless you consider Joe, who does make his living teaching, among other things, this approach, a part of said complex - though arguably his is such a loose approach that you couldn't look at someone's quilt made using it and know for certain that it was the result of his approach - so the individual quilter's end product does not bear even Joe's brand).

In a sense, this approach harks back to pre-20th century improvisatory quilting in which women created without patterns or techniques beyond those they shared with one another on an interpersonal level. As a guild member noted at his lecture Monday evening, this process is very similar to that of the Gee's Bend Quilters. It strikes me as the type of approach that would appeal to the anti-corporate craft movement that all the lip-ringed, tattooed knitters and Threadbanger fashionistas are into these days (Of course that could be the result of my delusion that my inability to knit does not prevent me from being a cool crafter - quilting can be cool . . . really).

Perhaps most importantly for me, abandoning the pre-planning injects creativity into each step of the process. Making a quilt from a commercial pattern doesn't appeal to me because as far as I can tell, it's just manual labor. Designing an entire quilt and then making it front loads the creativity, which explains why a lot of my quilts stall out between the design phase and the execution phase. Once the quilt is all planned, it's just manual labor.

So what's the approach? It's a lot like Mona Brooks' Abstract Design Warm-Up from page 68 of Drawing with Children. Basically, you start with a piece of fabric approximately the size and shape of the quilt block you desire. We used a square, but I see no reason you couldn't start with a diamond or a triangle or a hexagon - any shape that can be tessellated. Then Joe presented two simple modifications to the block which totally reminded me of the Abstract Design Warm-Up's instructions,

Turn your paper in any direction you want.
Make three straight lines anywhere you want on the paper, but start the line on the edge of the paper and run it off another edge of the paper when you are done.

But where Abstract Design Warm-Up would just have you draw lines, in an exercise like Joe's each line would be cut with a rotary cutter and strips of fabric would be added before the next cut. Each cut is a creative act. Each fabric choice for a strip is a creative act. The only thing that repeats with each block you make is the set of "rules" Joe set out for us (or that you've set out for yourself). How you execute that set of rules can vary with each block - so each block requires a set of creative decisions. Once you've squared up (or diamonded up or triangled up or tesselated shaped up - which, given the sort of odd shape you get from the improvisatory piecing stage, turns squaring up into another creative decision), the process of laying out the blocks was a heckuva lot more interesting than your usual quilt design as each block was unique. And Joe spent time with each student working through their layout. How rarely do quilt students get to that stage in the process so they can really get some practice?



Everyone in the class was amazed at how far they got on their quilts in what was basically a six-hour class. Many people finished their whole top. Clearly this technique can produce creatively satisfying results in record time.

More generally, the lessons learned from this approach - even if the abstract "modern" quilts that result may not be your cup of tea - can be applied to other quilt projects. It can be a lesson in working with a limited color palette (many students, including myself, used only three fabrics). I found it to be one of the most relaxing times I've had quilting in a class, which is particularly impressive given that it was my first class with this guild, I didn't know anyone there, and I had never been to this shop before. The class sparked ideas for ways to incorporate improvisation at every stage of the quilt making process, which should help jump start my projects that are stalled at the design stage by injecting creativity into their manufacture. The practice arranging completed blocks can certainly inform the arrangement of any quilt where the blocks aren't all identical - like those with scrappy fabric choices or a sampler of many different kinds of blocks.

Not only did the Mona Brooks'-style design prompts remind me of my first and favorite quilt instructor, Jeanne Benson, like Jean, Joe established a very positive and open classroom environment. He set every student at ease by introducing himself individually. His comfort in front of the class, and in the presentation in front of the whole guild on Monday, really allowed the focus to be on learning rather than on the performance. He provided unconditional positive constructive feedback even in the face of die-hard pattern followers who were expressing a lot of self-doubt about their own creativity. He spent time at each stage of design with each student. And he encouraged group affirmation and participation in the design process by calling our attention to each student's work on the design wall. If you're looking for a guild workshop that isn't just another pattern or technique, i.e. that appeals to all tastes and skill levels, I highly recommend Joe Cunningham's "You Maverick, You."

FYI: The three fabrics I used in my blocks are Kaffe Fasset's Pansy in blue, Luana Rubin's Honey Bees and Clover in Lemonade Yellow from her Joie De Vivre line, and FunQuilts' bilaterally symmetric light blue print 1122-215.

Updated 10/18/08 to add: Joe blogged about the class and included a picture from the guild meeting of six completed tops from the workshop. It's a great picture that shows how different each quilt turns out even though they all started with the same design prompts.

Updated 1/26/2009 to add: If you'd like to read more about my impressions of Joe the Quilter's take on creativity and see individual pictures of each block I made in class, check out this post at my other blog.

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Cupcakes Not from a Box

Due to my stunning NYTCCC failure, I had to come up with an alternative dessert for dinner at friends'. So Saturday I made cupcakes from scratch. I didn't like grow the wheat and mill it myself or anything. But I did make both the batter and frosting from recipes not boxes. More specifically, I made the cake batter from the awesome recipe I found from Bake and Shake via Not Martha. The Quick Buttercream Frosting is from an ancient New York Times cookbook. Both got RAVE reviews. The male of the pair we dined with actually did a little dance in his chair, and he really didn't seem like the dance in his chair type.

Cookies of Doom!

I just made the worst batch of NYTCCCs ever. They came out too crunchy, grainy, and with air pockets like a meringue. The culprit: Arrowhead Mills Organic Pastry Flour. The recipe calls for 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour. I had been using the only cake flour I could find: Pillsbury Softasilk Cake Flour. But then I went to the Henry's Farmers Market in Yorba Linda (which is much less sketchy than the one in Fullerton), and they had a wide array of organic flour options and though none of them were billed as "cake flour" I did find a number of pastry flours which claimed to be, to quote the Arrowhead Mills Organic Pastry Flour bag, "perfect for flaky and delicate pastries and CAKES." [Emphasis Added] This implies, to the unwary, that it might be substituted for cake flour. This I have found to be A WEB OF LIES!

It wasn't just the claim of cake-appropriateness that led me down the primrose path to cookie doom. The bag also explained that the flour had a "finer texture," "lighter consistency," and "lower gluten" - all admirable traits in a cake flour. So how did this substitution go so wrong?

I didn't even use a whole 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) Arrowhead Mills Organic Pastry Flour. I still had some Pillsbury Softasilk Cake Flour. So it was probably like 1/2 cup Pillsbury Softasilk Cake Flour and 1 1/2 cups minus 2 tablespoons Arrowhead Mills Organic Pastry Flour.

The dough was a little drier than usual. I noticed when I was cleaning up that there was some raw egg white on the counter - like when I cracked the egg some of the white didn't make it into the bowl. Could a 1/2 teaspoon of egg white contribute to this cookie tragedy?

Usually after I add the dry ingredients I only run the mixer on low and only until the dry ingredients are combined with the wet. Then when I add the chips I just run the mixer on low for maybe one or two rotations. This time, because the dough was a little drier than usual, I had to run the mixer a little longer after I added the dry ingredients just to get them to combine. And I think I ran the mixer a few more rotations than usual after adding the chips. Could this account for occasional air pockets like a meringue in some of the cookies?

Any thoughts on this tragedy?

Update: Dough of Doom Batch 2 was not nearly as horrible as Batch 1, but still not nearly as good as the usual dough. I baked them for 15 minutes instead of my usual 18. Extra crunchy edge, but soft enough in the middle. No air pockets like a meringue and slightly better texture, i.e. ever so slightly less grainy. Dough of Doom Batch 3, which had rested in the fridge for 48 hours, was even less grainy than Batch 2, which had only rested 24 hours. I bet between the advice in Rebecca's comment about sifting before measuring (or weighing) and letting the dough sit for a full 48 hours, this flour might totally redeem itself. I'll try that next time and let you know.

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Furrday: I am SO Fluffy