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The term skeleton key perhaps stems from such keys' resemblance to a skeletel figure, with the circle at top..., resembling a stylized skull.  Wikipedia

George pulled his hat off and sat down on the rotting wooden steps of the Adobe House.  Gillian had gone off to find a bush or an Andy Gump.  He was exhasted from the heat and the long walk down the trail from the road, and furious with himself for asking her to meet him here. [read more]

       Sage, or Salvia officinalis , a wild undershrub, has long been credited as a charm against evil, snakebites, and more.

Clifford’s hands fascinated her when he filled her glass…strong and broad, with an odd scar on the back of the left one. 
“Bad burn when I was a kid,” he said.
“Oh god,” she said.  “I’m sorry for staring.  It looks like that symbol for infinity.”
“Yeah, it does—or a lazy eight.  You okay?”
What had made her reveal so much?  Why did she feel she could tell him everything, anything?  He must have listened for an hour, nodding and refilling her glass, and offering her another napkin when she started to cry again.  Finally he ordered a cheese plate and some fruit, insisting she eat. [read more]

CHAPTER ONE

  Adobe House San Fernando Canyon, built circa 1849

Kate drank her morning coffee standing in front of the TV, transfixed by a boa constrictor crushing a small pig.  The pig was suffocating, its little legs frantically rowing the air.  When the struggling stopped, the boa moved into position, fitted its jaw around the pig’s head and began to swallow.   Before long the shape of the entire pig was visible inside the snake. “This process can take several hours or even days. We have used time lapse photography so you can see the entire feeding cycle,” announced a detached male voice.

Kate felt a great deal of sympathy for the pig.   She took several deep breaths before snapping off the TV. 

Well, snakes have to eat.  [read more]

Stumbling, tripping, slipping – or how about just doing a face-plant?

When you are in a liminal place, on the edge or the verge or perhaps standing in a doorway, you must be cautious.  Stepping into new space is always something that should be done thoughtfully, carefully, and maybe even reconsidered before you do it.  And I do believe this applies to every age, although maybe age should be part of the equation. [read more]

The dust seems to have settled over last week's infighting about Mitt Romney's wife—whether she ever "worked a day in her life".

So it's time we took a look past the political games on both sides, and asked ourselves about the deeper values issue hidden in the subtext.

The first conversation, boiled down to its essence, went something like this:

Hilary Rosen: "Ann Romney has never worked a day in her life."

Barack Obama: "That's not fair. Being a stay-at-home mom is very hard work."

Mitt Romney: "How dare Obama claim that women are lazy?"

It's tempting at this point to explain how our political rhetoric became this silly, but that's another post. For exampe: the context of Hilary Rosen's remark. She was discussing Romney's use of his wife as an expert on the opinions of American women about the job market. She was not calling Ann Romney lazy, but pointing out that she had no experience in the job market.

The bottom line to take from this exchange is what both sides agree on: no matter how many au pairs, nannys, housekeepers, cooks, or maids you have to help you, being a stay at home mom is valuable, difficult, and dignified work—completely worthy of society's respect and support.

Which, of course, is why Mitt Romney, like most Republicans, has been such a strong advocate for all of those poor stay at home moms, who didn't happen to marry a millionaire, and have to do this tough job without a staff: [read more]

This is important!  We need to keep our bees happy.

There are many issues intertwined in the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin—race, gun control, the entire question of why the NRA would go out of its way to encourage so-called "stand your ground" laws—but there is one point about such laws that needs to be clearly made.

When a state passes a law which says, as the Florida law does, that a person can use force with immunity simply because he or she "reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent...great bodily harm," it runs the risk of causing the very situation it is trying to address.

Let me explain.

The law is intended, if we take it at face value, to discourage attacks on innocent citizens by emboldening those same citizens to be more aggressive in their own defense.

In order to do that, it gives them a free pass to use violence simply because they "reasonably believe" themselves to be in danger.

But it ignores the fact that the "attacker" is covered by the same law. [read more]

Whenever I feel a need for a change, I rearrange furniture or clean out cupboards.  When we were first married, this used to cause my poor husband some concern.  He couldn't rely on where the couch or the coffee table might be at any given time.  He pretty much likes things to stay where they are.  I pretty much like to move stuff around.

In any case, we have been in the same house for almost 40 years, and I have made at least one hundred changes during that time.  It works out mostly okay for him, since we are still in the same house.  However, he still can't count on where the furniture might be or what room is currrently our bedroom, or where I've relocated the big pots.  Marriage is compromise, though, so it is all good for both of us. [read more]

I have been having lots of trouble adjusting to retirement.  I am 70 years old, and I know that I retired when it was time for me to move on to something else.  But so far, I've been so caught by an identity crisis after "quitting" -- that I can't move on.  I quit.  And I had some good reasons for doing so.  But that doesn't mean I'm sure what's next. 

My job required a lot of travel -- I live in Northridge and I had to be in Sacramento at least a third of every working month, even though I was connected by computer, cell phone, fax machine, and every other more immediate method of staying on the job.  That meant that I was away from home a lot.  And although my dear husband was supportive and tolerant, it wasn't easy to have a sometimes-wife only sometimes in residence.  This is an issue for lots of folks these days, and I hope that when you are young it is easier.  But I doubt it. [read more]

When I first heard Rick Santorum's recent comments on Obama's "bad theology" I was ready to write a quite different post.

Here's what he said, on separate occasions:

President Obama believes in "some phony ideal, some phony theology...not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology."

“We were put on this Earth as creatures of God to have dominion over the Earth, to use it wisely and steward it wisely, but for our benefit not for the Earth’s benefit.”

As most readers of the daily mull know by now I have a doctorate in theology from an evangelical seminary, and a core topic of my dissertation was the legitimate interpretation of the Bible. Hence all the posts about the meanings of various passages, such as this and this and this.

So, as odd as it might seem coming from someone who currently bills himself as a pantheistic atheist, my first instinct was to expose Santorum's unbiblical theology.

I envisioned a comprehensive analysis of what the Bible actually does say about protecting nature—which, it so happens, is a lot closer to Obama's position than it is to Santorum's.

It would be like shooting fish in a barrel. For a start, check out Genesis 2:15, Leviticus 25:23-24, Numbers 35:33-34, Deuteronomy 20:19, and Ezekiel 34:17-18.

But then I noticed something else—something more basic, and much more important.

Something that helps explains such diverse issues as Republican positions on taxes, worker's rights, voting rights, local democracy, and even contraception. [read more]

Jigsaw puzzles are often found spread out in various stages of completion or disarray at our house.  We clean around them, try not to knock pieces onto the floor, try to keep the grandkids from walking off with bits or disassembling what has been assembled.  They sometimes serve as coasters for a cup of tea or coffee, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a piece in the dishwasher as a result of this somewhat unorthodox treatment.

Most of our friends pitch in when they visit.  One family actually couldn't stand to leave the puzzle unfinished, so they took it home with them as it was midnight and we wanted to go to bed.  I can't remember what elaborate system we worked out so that it would travel without falling apart, but I guess it worked well enough. I think it involved a cookie sheet and some cling film. [read more]

I've been thinking about all of the uproar over Obama's recent decision, and compromise, concerning birth control and the Roman Catholic Church.

The controversy takes me back to two central issues in the culture war—the issues of freedom and power.

The two are intimately connected, of course. The more power I have, the more freedom I have. And, on the other hand, the more power you have, when it's power over me, the less freedom I have.

The ancient, traditional, approach to power and to freedom—invented and perfected by our hunter gatherer ancestors—was to deny anyone power over anyone else.

If one person tried to order another around, his or her orders would be ignored.

If that person persisted anyway, he or she would find themselves ignored by the entire community, until they stopped. [read more]

The conclusion of the exclusive daily mull interview with Johnson N. Masters, which began here, follows:

JNM: On the other hand, the Bible says almost nothing about a glimpse of a breast, or the use of four-letter words, or abortion, or gays, and yet those issues will mobilize the troops on a moments notice.

TDM: And this told you?

JNM: It was our first decent estimate of the epicenter. What do all of those issues have in common?

TDM: They're against sex?

JNM: That's what we thought at first too. But it turned out to be something else. Banning talk about sex, making people hide their bodies, actually encourages interest in sex. So their positions on those issues didn't really make any practical sense from that angle.

TDM: I hadn't thought of that. [read more]

The second part of the daily mull interview with Johnson N. Masters picks up where Friday's post left off:

TDM: Doesn't that require you to be something of a fortune-teller?

JNM: It would be impossible if I hadn't developed the Heuristic for Understanding Moral Patriotism.

TDM: And that is...

JNM: It's a tool for predicting the direction the collective conservative psyche is taking. I used the Northridge earthquake as a model.

TDM: The Northridge earthquake?

JNM: I was living in this very house. Did you know that we are sitting directly over the epicenter?

TDM: Really?

JNM: It was quite a ride. Talk about the earth moving.

TDM: And this led to the Heuristic for Understanding Moral Patriotism? [read more]

This interview is a special report, only for readers of the daily mull. It ran a bit longer than I expected, so I'll be releasing it in three parts.

Johnson N. Masters is a compelling personality, in spite of his diminuative appearance. From his understated comb-over to his crisply pressed polyester sportscoat, he is the model of the insider conservative academic.

We chatted in his spacious and well-appointed home in the San Fernando Valley.

TDM: I feel privileged to get this inside glimpse into the top secret braintrust of the conservative movement.

JNM: This interview is completely off the record, right?

TDM: Absolutely.

JNM: And You-know-who has really okayed it?

TDM: Of course.

JNM: I just wouldn't want to jeopordize our funding. [read more]