Here are some ways to help or contact victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and others throughout the Pacific:
CONSULATE GENERAL OF JAPAN AT CHICAGO — For information on Japanese citizens or loved ones and links to area mobile service providers’ Emergency Message Lines. Visit www.chicago.us.emb-japan.go.jp/
AMERICAN RED CROSS — U.S. mobile phone users can text REDCROSS to 90999 to add $10 automatically to your phone bill. Or visit http://www.redcross.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS.
SAVE THE CHILDREN — The relief effort providing food, medical care and education to children is accepting donations through mobile phones by texting JAPAN to 20222 to donate $10. People can also call 1-800-728-3843 during business hours or visit www.savethechildren.org/japanquake to donate online.
Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture
GLOBAL GIVING — The non-profit which works through grassroots efforts says Americans can text JAPAN to 50555 to give $10 through their phone bill. Or visit http://www.globalgiving.org/
Sendai City, (AP/Kyodo News)
INTERACTION — The group is the largest alliance of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations and lists many ways to help on its site, http://www.interaction.org
NETWORK FOR GOOD — The aggregator of charities has a list of programs and ways to donate to relief efforts. Visit http://www.networkforgood.org
Elementary School in Sendai City (AP/Kyodo News)
And, if nothing else...please follow this young man's example:
At prayer in ManamiSoma, Fukushima Prefecture (AP/Kyodo News)
Fudging the vanilla What other flavors can replace that essential extract in a fudge recipe? The Daley Question offers options By Bill Daley, Tribune Newspapers March 8, 2011
Q: I want to make fudge but I don't have vanilla—is there anything else I can use? And which milk is better, condensed or evaporated?—Shayna Bracha Farber, Skokie
"I'd suggest she add a little, taste and then decide if she wants more,'' Greenspan said.
"If she uses an oil, like lemon or orange or peppermint, she should use even less."
And when it comes to liqueurs, a little can go a long way, too.
Another instance in which it's best to taste as you go.
"As for choosing either condensed or evaporated milk, up to you.
...as the throat is sore, the glands are swollen, and the nose seems to want to run through every street in Chicago...so much for a very compromised immune system, thanks to the bacteria Cryptosporidium and John Norquist, the former Mayor of Milwaukee, WI (my hometown) who eventually resigned.
Sooooo, I wrote, as I am apt to do:
Day and night
Sirens scream in the night: Up and down this street Of this, the northernmost neighborhood Of Chicago.
I wake, though, Knowing they aren't coming for me.
For which I thank the Creator: Once. Twice. And again.
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist, born near Clarksdale, Mississippi. Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark. Though similar to the early Delta blues, his music was metrically free. John Lee Hooker could be said to embody his own unique genre of the blues, often incorporating the boogie-woogie piano style and a driving rhythm into his masterful and idiosyncratic blues guitar and singing. His best known songs include "Boogie Chillen'" (1948) and "Boom Boom" (1962).
Hooker's life experiences were chronicled by several scholars and often read like a classic case study in the racism of the music industry, although he eventually rose to prominence with memorable songs and influence on a generation of musicians.
For those of you who might find it significant for yourselves to call me a 'racist, I truly wish Mr. John Lee Hooker and Mr. Cab Calloway--two of my 'idols' whom I was fortunate enough to meet and spend some time with--were still around to trounce you into the ground. They would have. Believe me.
