Speech Writers, Plagiarism, and the Trumps

The first two days of the 2016 Republican National Convention produced just as many case studies in plagiarism: first Melania Trump's appropriation of words and themes from Michelle Obama's speech to the DNC eight year earlier and then Donald, Jr.'s recitation of words that had recently appeared in The American Conservative by another author both raised the specter of plagiarism, but they both produced ironies that undercut their very messages about work and integrity.

In the case of Melania Trump, journalists quickly came to her defense of having been done in by a careless speechwriter or a saboteur. The point being, "of course, she didn't write that speech herself." The plot thickened, however, when Ms. Trump explained that she had largely written the speech herself and the assisting speechwriter in question protested that the controversial parts of the speech delivered were not in his speech draft; in fact, the speech writers suggest little of what was written was in the final speech. Perhaps Ms. Trump read Ms. Obama's remarks in preparation—not a bad idea, by the way—and succumbed to a bout of cryptomnesia, when persons forgets having read/heard an idea and believe it to be their own. Regardless, Ms. Trump was accused of plagiarism, and we started getting details about her use of speech writers.

Further, the irony of the words stolen is its own problem. When Ms. Trump says, "the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them," as a riff on Ms. Obama's, "the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them," she plagiarizes a proclamation about working hard. When Donald Trump's campaign has had to frame a billionaire and his family as akin to the hard-working, blue collar workers, stealing words about hard work is ironic and counterintuitive.

Mr. Trump—the junior—has a related, if different, problem. When the reports came out that a passage from his speech matched a passage from a recent article by F. H. Buckley, stories quickly accused Mr. Trump of plagiarism. Not to worry, Mr. Buckley defended, "I was a principal speechwriter for the speech. . . . it's not an issue." But it is.

First there is the minor matter of self-plagiarism—reusing/recycling one's own words—that can be offensive for different reasons: at colleges and universities, it is frowned upon by faculty as an act of a student short cutting an assignment's goals; legally, it can be a violation of the copyright authors often hand over to their publishers who thereby own the words written; and intellectually, it suggests a limit to one's creative abilities. Let's ignore all that, if for no other reason than any of those claims are more on the speechwriter than the speech giver.

The second, and more problematic issue is the stepping out of the speech writer from behind the curtain. Mr. Trump's speech emphasized that he and his siblings understood hard work because they had worked on job sites and could do the nitty gritty themselves; except the speech reminds us that's not entirely true. I'm hardly condemning any of the Trumps for using speechwriters; speechwriters are a well accepted part of public politics and largely beneficial to help people express their ideas as effectively as possible. Rather, I am pointing to the irony in the Trumps' desire to project the image of themselves as wealthy but not having become successful by using what money can buy when, in fact, we have been reminded twice in as many days that they do buy help.
 
The Trumps' speeches, like those we will hear the DNC next week, have professional help from hired hands. As we heard Mr. Trump talk about the more valued advice of the construction site workers over "the guys from Harvard and Wharton locked away in offices away from the real work," we are hearing the words written by an accomplished law professor from George Mason University. He essential eschewed "egg heads" and "stuffed shirt advisers" by having one write the dis for him.

I suggest these stories about plagiarism are embarrassing because the events have forced the Trumps to discuss their use of speechwriters, that they rely upon skilled, educated professionals to craft words  for them and that they too lean on the crutch of the professional politicians—as we are often led to think about speech writers. When the Trumps have been wanting to brand themselves as self-sufficient and hardworking without the use of money, the reminder of the help money buys is a little ironic and not exactly on message.

A Gift from My Mom

On this Mother's Day I find myself thinking about what my mother did for me. As you might suspect, she fed me, bathed, me comforted me, and all that. Further, she kept me alive through infantile pnemonia followed by asthma, the first seeing me in oxygen tents and the second making for midnight runs to the ER some forty minutes from home. All that aside, she taught me some valuable lessons. I think the most valuable meant to make me a good citizen with fulfilling relationships: you are not the center of the universe. 

My mother often pushed back against becoming a martyr to her children. There were nights she slept on my bedroom floor monitoring my breathing (asthma, see above) and plenty of times she went the extra mile to make a day special. Even still, she often refused to suffer in silence for our own stupidity or selfishishness, though she did often suffer or endure unnecessary burdens of her children, like last minute notices of needed school supplies. 

"I'm not your maid," seemed her favorite refrain. My mother cleaned with an uncommon fervor, but she didn't care for our laziness increasing the job. She chose to clean the refrigerator weekly and kitchen cabinet shelves at least once a month, but she balked at us making for more work by being too careless to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher. 

The exchange that sticks out in my mind comes from my first day of work. I came home from the farm tired and a little dusty. As I sat down on the step of our sunken living room she asked me to get up, shower, and put clean clothes on. I had no mud or oil on me and had been working since 7 AM that morning, so I wanted to rest: "I'm tired from work; just let me sit for a minute." Rather than a marytyr's sigh or infantilizing acquiescence she retorted, "And I've been working all day cleaning house, so go shower and change your cloths."

That moment captured my mother's philosophy for her children to learn: yes, you're tired (hurting, scared, or whatever) but so is everyone else; it's not an excuse. Further, from my mom we learned that we give for those we love, but we also have the right and duty to stick up for our limits. She taught us it's ok, even necessary, to tell people how you feel and what you need for your sake and the future of the relationship. Looking back that was a brave lesson but a good one. 

Maybe Don't Take Mom out for Mother's Day

I'm encouraging people to not take their mother out for lunch/brunch on mother's day. Of course, do what you want: maybe going out to that "one place" is really special to your mom and because it is such a drive, so expensive, or whatever, that going to "the place" is a special thing to her. Many times, I dare to opine, going out for Mother's Day is just the lazy way out.

What lucky mom wouldn't feel special?

I admit to not being a huge fan of restaurants and being more of an eat-at-home kind of guy (even as someone who does a considerable amount of cooking in my household, I would often rather eat in). Even still, Mother's Day seems like the time people just shrug their shoulders and say, "I guess I'll just take her some place for lunch." Based only on my own experience, it seems to me that restaurants are crazy busy on Mother's Day but less so on Father's Day? Do fewer people celebrate dads? Maybe. I would venture that also many times they (often read as moms) put on something at home for Dad, serving his favorite food(s), making a real "thing" of his day.

Once while waiting interminably for a table on a Mother's Day (not my idea, thank you), I saw a car pull up and from the backseat a woman hopped out, as her husband and son sat in the front; she checked with the hostess to see about the wait, finding it too long. On her way out she remarked to a friend who happened to be waiting there, something to the effect, "I guess we'll just drive around until we find something else." What a delightful prospect! She shall spend a yet-to-be-determined amount of time in the back seat of the car as her husband and adult son try to figure out where in the hell to take Mom on this special day. Lucky her! Of course, I have only sparse details on the story, but the scenario I spelled out here hardly seems difficult to imagine.

I have heard mothers say—my own, even—how much they enjoy just having their family together (often a reference to having multiple children). That's fair enough, but it seems that for all the talk of moms and how loving, giving, sacrificing they are, a number of people essentially write a check to a restaurant just to get the thing done with. I mean, who wants to go to all the trouble of planning, shopping, cleaning, making, and then cleaning up? Gosh, so much work! Mom does it of course; she's so great; let's just take her out for Mother's Day to show her we appreciate all she does.

It's true, my mother enjoyed going out to eat pretty much any time because she was glad to not have to cook the meal; then again, my mother refused to complain about airline food because "at least I didn't have to make it," so we're talking about a pretty low bar. I also remember comments about dining out in her honor being commended by my mother as saving her from having to clean house after her own party. Again, that just sounds like we ran down the poor woman into being glad she didn't pay for the flowers we gave her (fun fact, we rarely gave her flowers).

Perhaps a person wanting to honor one's mother or the mother of one's child(ren) could, say, put in the effort to plan and put a bit of a day together for mom, maybe a meal, maybe not, but something that requires the kind of forethought and effort that embodies the words of gratitude otherwise said so easily in a greeting card . . . written for you by somebody else.

A Pragmatic Argument for Organics in the Garden

I will make no argument here about the need to buy and eat organic foods. If you can afford it, that's nice; I'm talking about something else, though.

I surprised myself when I made the change to organic chemicals in the yard and garden. Rather than arguments about the bad, bad people who make chemicals (as though organic compounds are not chemicals, somehow), my change to primarily—not entirely, alas—organic products came from pragmatics, less money and work for at least as good an outcome.

Long-term benefit: Feed the soil, not the plant

Fertilizer bags list the ratio of three main components: nitrogen (for big and green), phosphorus (for blooming and root development), and potassium (for overall plant health and endurance). Inorganic fertilizers include those three in larger amounts than organic fertilizers and for cheaper, so organics seem like a total rip—but wait! Those will be the only nutrients found in inorganic fertilizers, with the rest being inert material used to spread out the other stuff easily over a broad area (otherwise you would be putting a teaspoon of fertilizer over a broad area). Giving your plants (including lawn) a straight diet of the three main nutrients seems good enough, but I ask you to consider a broader, longer term game.

Some berries from a bed I rarely fertilize.

Inorganic fertilizers contain a number of micro nutrients. Think of the comparison of inorganic and organic fertilizers to the comparison of a vitamin and fresh fruit: the vitamin has the main element you want (e.g., vitamin C), but you miss the many other nutrients there (e.g., an organge's folate, fiber, copper, etc.). Likewise inorganic fertilizers give your plants a healthy diet of the innumerable nutrients of life.

Paul James (of HGTV's now cancelled Gardening by the Yard) used to say that inorganic fertilizers turn your plants into junkies, looking for their next big fix. I think of it like people who consume energy drinks rather than having a balanced diet, a quick fix over sustained health. Further, those micro nutrients create healthy soil, encouraging beneficial microorganisms to grow that naturally resist disease and keep all organic things in balance. Having healthy soil means plant life has a greater chance of being happy and healthy. It's about a long game.


Also, can we talk about not working against yourself? Inorganic fertilizers have the very bad habit of leaving salt in the soil, which kills off the good bacteria and microorganisms and squelches the other nutrients present. By using an inorganic you create a weakened (though green) plant and destroy the colonies of good stuff in the soil all of which then requires you to add in more fertilizer.

For the lawn, keep an eye out for organic fertilizer with corn gluten: it keeps weed seeds from germinating (actually, all seeds, so don't use it when reseeding). It will cost more than the regular weed and seed products, but you don't have to worry about burning your lawn or applying as often (I find, anyway). Just try spending as much on organic as inorganic fertilizer for a season (probably applying less for the season) and see if you are as happy: seriously, try it!

Cheaper:

First, organic products can be cheaper in the end because as you build up soil and plant health, you need less of them. I have found that my lawn stays green and the plants bloom well even though I fertilize rarely. I add organic fertilizer only occasionally and otherwise leave nature to keep itself in balance. I have few under-performing plants in the yard (only my azaleas come to mind), but even they could easily be improved by a little organic fertilizers I have on hand (there, fish emulsion) if I were to remember.

Also, some organic products are already pretty cheap. My favorite organic cure all is fish emulsion:  it's about as pleasant as it sounds, fish leftovers emulsified into a smelly, thick liquid. Fish emulsion does not cost much off the shelf, and diluted one tablespoon to the gallon it goes a long way. Straw, which can be lovely in your edible garden (especially strawberries) to lighten and enrich soil as it breaks down, comes pretty cheap for a whole bale.

Additionally, you can find some great organic products to get rid of pests that are way cheaper than inorganic. Insecticidal soap, which I buy in concentrate and dilute in a spray bottle every season, works well on some of my regular garden pests (especially earwigs). I found a popular inorganic pesticide stunted and about killed some of my annuals where the organic options never have (replacing plants=more money). Diatomaceous earth, as another example, comes in small cheap bag and got rid of my grub problem, saving me $40 dollars over my neighbor's solution to her infestation—also, I had some leftover (ha!).

Mouth Table Ready

If you are growing edibles, organics give you the greatest joy of gardening, eating the fruit of your labor right there in the yard. I'm sure I risk some serious gastrointestinal illness from eating cherry tomatoes off the vine, but when they are shining red at me, warmed by the sun, which brings out their sweet flavor, golly, I'm powerless—same for strawberries.


In sum, don't think that organic gardening has to be expensive or labor intensive; it can actually be the opposite of that. All your answers to what to use and when are generally just a Google search away.

In Defense of Weeds

I'm not talking about pot. 

I love my yard. I love being able to work in my yard. Perhaps my pleasure in the yard has to do with my heritage of farmers. Regardless, I enjoy the effort to tend a green lawn. 

My mother spent countless hours every week when the weather warmed nurturing and discipline her lawn into an unblemished field of green hybrid bermuda grass. She fertilized the grass, sprayed for disease, and meticulously hand plucked any weeds that squeezed they're way in; my mother's dedication to manually removing lawn intruders with the point of a screwdriver seemed legendary to me as a child, later reminding me of Buddhist monks that make art with colored sand. Our lawns were beautiful green, my mother's verdant masterpiece. 

When I bought my first house the yard was a veritable tabula rasa, nothing but an expanse of dirt covered in straw with grass seed underneath (the common planting method for where I live). Looking at the expanse I proclaimed, "Thick green grass shall I have!" I was wrong, not just because it didn't happen but because that's not a very good goal. 

Having a thick green lawn is fine, but I erred by wanting to replicate what my mother had achieved. Aside from taking hours to achieve that I don't have to spare, her craft, a solid, homogenous sprawl of grass has negative ecological and psychological impact—I might be overstating the latter.

Here's the ecological bit on the perfect, weed-free lawn: Weeds provide biodiversity. Disease spreads fastest where bio homogeneity exists. A fungus, bacteria, or insect will decimate an entire hedge of one shrub species hopping from one plant to the next; so too with grass. A few weeds or even the mix of grass species decreases the likelihood of that happening. Granted, I'm a sort of sloppy gardener, but I have not had disease issues with my lawn whereas my mother often had to watch out for issues. Maybe the reason is related to our grass species, but I'm willing to bet the random blend of grasses caused by my patching efforts and the presence of weeds drastically reduces the chance of a grass disease taking hold.

A flattering view of my lawn

That's a nice science argument for calming down about weeds, but here's the one that means the most to me: Learn to enjoy what you have. Here's this lovely shot of my lawn from just last week. It's an enjoyable rug of green, but there's at least couple types of grass in there along with some weeds and plenty of clover

I should add that I do not consider clover a true weed, rather a beneficial. Clover is a legume (in the family of beans, peas, and peanuts), which means it grabs nitrogen (the element needed for green) from the air and not the ground, so the grass doesn't compete with clover for nutrients. Also, clover fills in and shades bare or thin spots to help young grass seedlings stay shaded and moist, and it keeps back other weeds (a little). Most importantly, it's green.

When I look at my lawn I try to enjoy what I have, something green and soft to look at and walk on. I could obsess over the purity of grass in the lawn, but I choose to enjoy it for being green. The money, stress, and (most importantly) time I could put into making my lawn look like a Scott's commercial would be taken away from other things.

If you stare at it, the patchwork quality comes out. Eh.

"But I want a field of green like you would find in nature!" Then even my lawn is too homogenous; nature has weeds and variation, that's part of its beauty. Here's another view of my lawn, the hodgepodge and weeds stands out a little better. Again, it's green, so I'll take it.

I make peace with the weeds and accept the lawn for what it is. Don't get me wrong, when some neighbors had their lawn sodded last year I was as green with envy as the emerald carpet we stood on. The weeds do sort of annoy me, mocking my hope of green perfection, but through learning to accept their presence I let go of the insistence on things being as I imagine them rather than as life presents them.

For the Mowers

My baby: I admit to being the odd bird who likes

to mow the lawn. The day I got married I rose
early enough to to relax a little by getting one last
cutting in before leaving for a week.

Yesterday I got in the first mow of the year. It felt good. All day, it seemed, you could hear lawn mowers around the neighborhood running, the sounds of warm weather in suburbia, I suppose.

In the spirit of mowing season, here is my advice on lawnmowers (in rank order):

Raise it up!

Absolutely, my number one piece of advice—nay, plea—raise your lawnmower's cutting height. Most of us cut our grass too low. Want to keep down weeds, have the greenest lawn possible, reduce water use, and maintain healthy grass? Cut your lawn higher.

I think the love for low lawns comes from my home state. In southern California, hybrid bermuda grass reigns supreme. Many lawns in that region have common bermuda, but hybrid bermuda, which requires a reel mower rather than rotary, has no equal. You see hyrbrid bermuda on golf greens, cut to within half an inch of the ground, forming a dense, green turf. I think we have come to associate closely shorn lawns with civilization and the utter mastery of nature's wildness. Ecofeminism aside, most grasses should be cut higher than we do or have done by professionals (i.e., random people who own a lawnmower and a truck). Find out what kind of grass you have and cut it to the higher end recommended.

Here's the why for having a taller lawn: 1) research has shown a significant reduction in incidence of weeds (well over half, though I couldn't locate the university study I had seen) by choking out weeds; 2) higher lawn shades the ground more, which reduces the need for water; 3) taller lawn leads to deeper roots, which allows for stronger and more drought tolerant grass with better disease resistance.

4 strokes are better than two

If you should buy a power lawnmower and you're not going electric, about which I know nothing, look for a four-stroke engine, not two. Here's the key difference between them: two stroke engines burn oil and gas at the same time (often with a mix poured right into the gas tank); four stroke engines, like car engines, burn gas and consume very little oil at a time. Mechanics aside—especially since I can't hardly explain it—think about a small canister of oil burning into the air every time you mow the lawn: two stroke engines are that bad. Trashing the environment while you tend to your yard seems like a bad pairing.

Be like a hippie, compost

I'm not talking compost piles/bins, though those are lovely. If at all possible, don't bag your lawn clippings, use the composting mechanism the mower likely came with. When composting, the grass swirls around inside the cutting chamber longer, getting diced into smaller bits than usual and falling back onto the lawn. Why would you care? Two reasons. First, 50% of the nitrogen in the lawn clippings (the element that keeps grass green) will be reabsorbed by the lawn; it's like a self-fertilizing lawn. Second, if your city doesn't have green recycling, then that grass eventually sits under a tarp in a landfill next to cast off cathode ray tube televisions.

I admit, if the grass gets too tall between cuttings, this goes slowly or not at all because it clogs the mower. Just keep up with the mowing and mow half a strip at a time if need be. You, the lawn, and the earth benefit.

Treat your baby right

Maintenance: annual and weekly. Annually, check to see if you need to add or replace the oil. If you don't have much to mow, you may get away with biannual maintenance. I believe that if the oil is just barely brown and not black then you can skip one year (that is based on nothing but me). Also, check your air filter and replace it every year or so. Many times you can buy a kit at your local hardware store that has the oil, air filter, and spark plug in it; just note the make of your engine (not the mower) and look at the general shape of the air filter to figure out which kit you need.

Annually, remove the blade and have it sharpened, if you can't sharpen it yourself. It costs me about $4 a year to have it done. A sharp blade cuts cleaner, which has many benefits such as reducing lawn disease, slowing grass moisture loss, improving the look of the lawn (my mother can spot white tips on badly cut lawn at a glance), and making it easier for your mower to compost the grass without clogging.

After each use, make sure grass isn't stuck on the underside of the deck (the housing for the blade). Use a plastic putty knife, wire brush, or whatever (not a water hose!) to keep the damp lawn clippings from rusting out your lawnmower from the bottom, which I allowed to start happening. It's a simple thing that will prolong the mower's life.

Try to end the mowing season with an empty tank to keep the lines clean and water from ruining the insides. Alternately, buy some fuel stabilizer that you add to the gas to keep the inside from deteriorating while the snow starts falling.

Use a ruler not a calendar

Last, mow the lawn when it reaches mowing height. Rather than just mowing on Saturday—but if Saturday is your only day, then do that, of course—mow when you will only be cutting 1/3 of the height or less. If your lawn has gotten to four inches, and you must cut it, take no more than one and a third inches off. If you have a fescue, as I do, when it gets to four inches, cut it an inch or less, to keep the grass decently tall and to make composting easier. In ideal grass-growing weather I have to mow every four days, when it gets hotter and drier, I only need to mow my cool-weather lawn weekly.

That's it, now go love your lawn!

Happy Easter (Menu)

I began this blog before the holiday, but between cleaning the house for company, preparing a meal, and getting a 55 gallon fish tank set up in our living room (because, why not?) this is more retrospective.


I'm preparing an Easter dinner for my family today, so all I have to share today is the menu:

Appetizers

I staffed it out mostly, because you should try to not worry about at least one course of a meal.

Deviled Eggs

It's on theme and my mother-in-law does a killer job of them. They're simple and tasty; no minced scallions or obscure seasoning, just enhanced eggy goodness.

Dip and Bread

We are those people who buy dry dip mixes at regional festivals, so this seemed a good time to break one out. These usually are mixed with mayo, sour cream, cream cheese, or a combination thereof. The contents of the plastic baggy you mix in are just flavored excuses to eat something smooth and creamy (with a good bit of sodium), so don't over think it. For bread, I sliced a challah loaf toasted a white batard. I consider this staffing it out, because my partner took care of the dip and the bread took me five minutes.

Random Snack

I think appetizers—and maybe dessert, maybe—are the place to embrace hodgepodge. A guest asked what she could bring. I told her we were having dip and deviled eggs and to do what she would from there. Low expectations and no chance of disappointment for anyone; it was yummy!

Salad

I strongly considered a spinach and strawberry salad, but I decided to pass on that. I served iceberg lettuce wedges with a homemade buttermilk ranch dressing that came out more like a homemade buttermilk dill dressing because I never account well for the use of dry herbs instead of fresh; even when I think I'm scaling back I'm heavy handed. Served with a diced tomato garnish it was pretty on crystal dishes, but as I ate it I felt that it looked like I was too lazy to tear lettuce for a salad so I just made a few cuts and stopped. Ah, well: it was easy, and the dressing was made the day before. Good enough, I say!

Main Course

Sugar Cured Ham. Done! I believe in serving them at room temperature to really taste the play of sugar and pork. I was underwhelmed by the brand I used this year, so I'll go back to old reliable next time. Either way, a main course that takes five minutes to plate (and that's it) can't be too bad. I have basted my own ham before, but I found the professionals (aka, a pork factory) does the job just fine. Also, can we just save ourselves the hassle some times? My mother offered to buy a ready to serve ham for me—she didn't know I had already purchased one—just to make my life easier. Seriously folks, these things make the day so much better.

Side Dishes

Scalloped Potatoes

I would usually make Julia Child's Gratin Dauphinois. I made the recipe from America's Test Kitchen instead, which can be easily made the day before (so can Julia's, actually) and makes a thicker casserole that would serve more from a single oven dish. I was uncertain of the choice until I saw the authors' note cautioning substituting half-and-half or milk for the cream; then I realized they took the dish seriously. I made it a little thyme heavy (see note about me and dry herbs), but I liked it.

Oven roasted parsnips and multicolored carrots.

I'm pretty new to parsnips, but this is lovely. Peel, slice, toss with olive oil and salt, and shove them in the oven. They're pretty on the table and tasty.

Green Beans, from a can.

I served blanched haricot vert (thin, French green beans) last year, which I enjoyed. It would have been a little more trouble than I really had time for and only a few of us enjoyed it last time. This year I was just getting a green on the table; leave me alone.

Bread

King's Hawaiin Rolls
Let me explain! They are in a bag. All I have to do is toss them in a bowl to serve. Also, the sweetness works well with the meal and will be lovely for mini-sandwiches the week after. Lastly, a small confession, I care little about bread at meals. A hot baguette and cold butter with a white wine and maybe fruit or strong cheese is one thing, but bread on the side of my plate usually gets little notice from me.

Dessert

Nana Kate's Lemon Cake

Many people call it a poke cake, but I only know it as Nana Katee's Lemon Cake. This, dear reader, is my reward for the meal. It's moist, sweet, lemony, and my breakfast for the next three days. I think it actually fits with the time of year and the meal, but I don't care; this one's for me.

Brownies

I bought what looked like a decent boxed mix that also had the virtue of a middling price. I liked the choice even more as my partner made it the day before. They turned out well, so that's nice (not that I'm a brownie fan).

In short, I am ever trying to put on a meal that makes the day special without killing me in the process. I call today a win.