GDPR - WTH?

(image courtesy of Pixabay)

The clock is ticking. I have only 2 more days to figure out how the European Union’s new GDPR policy will impact my little blog beginning May 25, 2018. I vacillate between thinking, “Don’t get your pants in a bunch” and “Get your head out of the sand!”

GDPR stands for “General Data Protection Regulation.” Its purpose is to protect the personal data of citizens in EU countries, but the regulation has a far reach. Regardless of where they are based, businesses and blogs that attract EU users must comply or face heavy fines. Up to two-million euro has been a number bounced around quite a bit causing one of my blogging friends to block readers from EU member countries and another to shut down her blog altogether.

Both of those responses seem drastic to me. I’m just a little hobby blogger, not a business. However, I do not want to be the one to test whether the EU will come after a small blog either. In a recent thread on Facebook, one blogger said she thinks the EU will be watching big companies that unscrupulously use visitor information and that the real threat - if any - will be the unscrupulous EU citizen suing the heck out of us claiming we violated his privacy by not being GDPR compliant.

My blog does not have international appeal, but I do occasionally have readers from Spain and Luxembourg. Most of my foreign visitors are from Canada, Australia, and the UK. How the recent “Brexit” affects GDPR is unclear but the UK is committed to comply. So I am too.

What makes complying fairly easy for me is that

• I do not sell anything nor make money with this blog in any way
• I do not accept advertising
• I do not sponsor give-aways
• I do not ask readers to subscribe to a newsletter
• I do not ask readers to join a mailing list
• I do not collect or store reader information from comments
• I do not write about the living except for an occasional reference to my immediate family and cousins who are not named or personally identifiable

A few issues of concern are cookies, those bits of text strings sent from a website and stored on the user’s computer. Most cookies are good. They are harmless. They make traveling through the Internet easier. However, cookies are now getting a second look as the culprits that help Big Bad Businesses and Big Bad Blogs monitor visitors’ behavior in order to manipulate them.

Just to be safe - or at least I hope so - I have removed social media buttons, Pinterest and Twitter. I also removed “Follow by Email,” a gadget provided by Feedburner and available through Blogger. Feedburner is known to be non-compliant and has not been updated in years. Unfortunately I do not know what removing the gadget will do to current subscribers.

There are some cookies that are out of my control. Because my blog is hosted on Blogger which is owned by Google, information about your use of this site will be shared with Google. I can’t stop that. Google uses cookies to deliver its services, personalize ads, and to analyze traffic. Readers who are now wondering what information Google collects and stores can read the updated policy HERE.

The good news is that Google has taken care of the cookies issue for bloggers. Visitors entering Jollett Etc. from outside the United States will see this message:

I suppose clicking the “Got it” button implies acceptance of Google’s policy. The other option to “Learn More” takes the reader to an explanation of what Google does with its cookies.

As GDPR gets closer to becoming our new normal, I am remembering the big Y2K scare. Remember that? It was the “Year 2000 Bug” or “Millennium Bug” that everyone thought would wreak havoc on computers and computer networks worldwide. It had to do with a problem in the coding of dates after December 31, 1999. Would computers be able to roll over to 2000? I distinctly recall that on January 1, 2000, the world kept turning. We did not die. Very few computer failures were reported. 

I hope that come Friday, GDPR will be much ado about nothing for most of us.

Wendy

© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Book Review: The Wicked Trade by Nathan Dylan Goodwin

Disclosure: While I was given this book for free in exchange for a review, I was under no obligation to like it. The opinions expressed are my honest views. I will not receive any commission on sales of books by this author. There are no affiliate links in this post.

I was honored when Nathan Dylan Goodwin contacted me several weeks ago offering a copy of his latest genealogical crime mystery The Wicked Trade, number 7 in the Morton Farrier series. Heck yeah! I love everything about these books. There is a crime and there is genealogy, two of my favorite topics. The books are a “series” in that each one is a story of the latest research project undertaken by Morton Farrier, a professional genealogist, but they can stand alone, so if you haven’t read any of the others, you will not miss a beat starting with the latest one.

Just like the other novels, it is a story within a story with chapters alternating between the past and present. Always in the “present” chapters is the story of Morton researching the question he has been hired to answer along with the backstory of his journey tracing his own family history as an adoptee. In the “past” chapters is THE MAIN MYSTERY unfolding just as Morton learns it by following clues to cemeteries, archives, museums, libraries, historical societies, and significant sites.

In The Wicked Trade Morton is hired by the great-grandson of Ann Fothergill to learn more of her life, how she went from being a drunk and a vagrant with a criminal record to an educated business woman in seven years. A secondary request was to learn if the family legend about barrels of gold guineas being hidden were true, and if the barrels might still be there, wherever “there” was in the 1820s.

Morton’s challenge would be finding genealogical records as the 1820s pre-dated census records and civil registration. If you have done any family research, you can feel his pain. But Morton is truly the man for the job, and he gives us amateur genealogists hope that we can solve our difficult puzzles too. With only a letter, a newspaper clipping dated 1820, and names gathered from later census records, Morton sets about following the bread crumbs that lead him to suspect Ann Fothergill had been involved with the Aldington Gang, a notorious band of smugglers along the Kent and Sussex borders of England. Possibly she was involved in a murder as well.

The social history that Nathan weaves into this story makes heroes of “the bad guys” and villains of the ones upholding the law. Those of us who have a horse thief, a bootlegger, or some other “black sheep” in the family can appreciate how the legal system of the times could make a man feel so defeated that resorting to a life of crime might be the only way to keep food on the table and his family out of the workhouse.

I am always sad when the story ends, but at the same time I look forward to the historical notes that Nathan includes at the back of the book. As he so often does, he inserts his fictional characters into real events and allows them to interact with real people documented in the very sorts of records that Morton Farrier uses in his research. Like a magician revealing his secrets, Nathan takes the reader behind the scenes to show how the book came together.

Now the wait is on for another Morton Farrier mystery to solve. And I want to know how he will get on with his half-brother.

Related Review: The Spyglass File

Wendy

© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: Z is for ZZZZZZZ

When my sister and I cleaned out our parents’ home, we had to make many decisions about what to do with all the stuff. Which things are truly “valuable” and which have only sentiment in their favor? Should we sell it, keep it, or throw it away? To help ensure a future for our family’s heirlooms, I plan to leave a booklet for my daughters telling the stories of what they will inherit one day. (Not TOO soon, I hope!) With this challenge I begin my book of Heirlooms.

is for the ZZZZZZZ we enjoy when sleeping in high back oak beds inherited from my grand aunt Violetta Davis Ryan. I do not recall ever seeing them in her home, but I do recall her saying she had old beds in a shed behind one of her apartment buildings. Something about former tenants leaving them behind, maybe? Or maybe they had been in her family? I really don’t know.

I only know that my mother was the next owner. She used the beds in her guest rooms. Now I have them. After my girls moved out, the beds moved in to make pretty little guest rooms.

However, like most antique beds, they are full size (also known as a double bed). I know of no married couple that owns a full bed anymore. Queens and kings are what modern couples are used to. That is why I bought a new queen bed for one guest room. The other rooms with the high back oak beds are fine for children.

Whew - that room was a mess!
I do not know what memory I was trying to capture here.

In addition to these two beds, we have another high back and a cannon ball rope bed in the attic. The ¾ rope bed was my daughter’s “big girl bed” after she graduated out of her crib to make room for her baby sister. The bar at the foot end rolled so that people could roll their blankets and quilts onto it.

The bed frame has knobs around which ropes originally were tied to support a mattress. People routinely tightened the ropes for better support. The expression “Sleep tight” comes from these beds. Of course, we didn’t use ropes – we attached metal braces to hold the box spring and mattress which we had cut down from a full to ¾. When she was little, we used a safety rail since that mattress was pretty high off the floor.

*    *    *    *    *    *

OK, I have completed the challenge. Now give me that A-to-Z Survivor Badge. It’s time to catch some zzzzzzzzzs.

Wendy

© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved. 

A to Z April Challenge: Y is for Yard Tools

When my sister and I cleaned out our parents’ home, we had to make many decisions about what to do with all the stuff. Which things are truly “valuable” and which have only sentiment in their favor? Should we sell it, keep it, or throw it away? To help ensure a future for our family’s heirlooms, I plan to leave a booklet for my daughters telling the stories of what they will inherit one day. (Not TOO soon, I hope!) With this challenge I begin my book of Heirlooms.

is for yard tools. I did not inherit my grandmother’s green thumb, but I did get her grubbing hoe and watering can.

My maternal grandmother Lucille Rucker Davis always had beautiful flowers and delicious tomatoes growing side by side. Her garden was not the beautifully planned and dedicated space that drives aficionados of Pinterest to pin and repin. But she did know the value of digging a $5.00 hole for a 50¢ plant.

As I looked for pictures to show off Grandma’s beautiful camellias and peonies, I just laughed at the sorry state of her flower beds.

Sadly, we didn’t catch them in their glory. Our pictures are of beds that needed weeding and a little mulch. In my mind’s eye, though, I see the sparkle of white Spirea in bloom. Camellia bushes bursting with pink and red blooms. Blue hydrangea bending under their own weight. Tulips and daffodils. Tall gladiolas in pink, purple, white, and yellow held upright with a stick. Forsythia in March. Azaleas in April. Creeping Phlox and Candy Tuft dotted here and there to mark the outer limits of foundation beds. 

Me in Grandma's backyard

Grandma didn’t invest a lot of time in a vegetable garden. She simply made room in the flower beds for a few tomato plants because even in the 1960s good tomatoes, “real” tomatoes, were not to be had in the grocery store. She also had a reliable fig tree that supplied all she needed for everyone’s anticipated gift of fig preserves. 

I’m no master gardener, but I like changing my flowers out with the seasons. Grandma always emphasized the importance of frequent watering to get new plants established, and so I try to follow her advice. Admittedly the watering can requires more trips than the garden hose, but I do believe flowers prefer its soft rain. And the hoe - it is always by my side if I need to chop out a stubborn root or dig that $5 hole.

Wendy

© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved. 

A to Z April Challenge: X is for X-tra Punch Cups

When my sister and I cleaned out our parents’ home, we had to make many decisions about what to do with all the stuff. Which things are truly “valuable” and which have only sentiment in their favor? Should we sell it, keep it, or throw it away? To help ensure a future for our family’s heirlooms, I plan to leave a booklet for my daughters telling the stories of what they will inherit one day. (Not TOO soon, I hope!) With this challenge I begin my book of Heirlooms.

is for X-tra punch cups. Not only do I have a punch bowl with matching cups, I have EXTRA punch cups. Yes, cups that do not match anything else.

I display my punch bowl in the dining room. The Jeannette Glass Feather pattern is a common one in the punch bowl world.  (This is the same pattern as my pink party plates featured on Day J, only clear.) Maybe that is why eBay has 2 complete punch bowl sets like mine (bowl and 10 cups) - one for $32 and one for $50. Meanwhile at Replacements, the bowl is $70 with cups selling for $8 each. Yeah, they’re dreaming!

The 12 blue punch cups resting on top belonged to my paternal grandmother. The pattern is Radiance Ice Blue by New Martinsville.

The rest are odds and ends, mostly singletons, but no more than 2 or 3 of the same pattern. Some fit in the punch bowl but others are stored in a plastic bin to be called on as needed.

Column Thumbprints by Westmoreland

Cosmos by Imperial Glass

Fruit by Jeannette Glass

Shuttle by Indiana Glass

One unidentified

Most of the punch cups came from my grandaunt Violetta Davis Ryan, which means some might have belonged to her sister or mother. Equally possible is that someone just picked up individual cups at thrift stores or antique shops in order to have enough cups for some upcoming party. Punch was ALWAYS served at weddings, showers, retirement and birthday parties, right?

Wendy

© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: W is for Wash Stand and Washbowl

When my sister and I cleaned out our parents’ home, we had to make many decisions about what to do with all the stuff. Which things are truly “valuable” and which have only sentiment in their favor? Should we sell it, keep it, or throw it away? To help ensure a future for our family’s heirlooms, I plan to leave a booklet for my daughters telling the stories of what they will inherit one day. (Not TOO soon, I hope!) With this challenge I begin my book of Heirlooms.

is for wash stand and washbowl set. In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the days before indoor plumbing, these were found in bedrooms, or at least among folks that could afford them. The washbowl set was the forerunner of the bathroom sink allowing people to wash themselves in the privacy of their own room. Usually water was carried by bucket to fill the pitcher and then poured into the bowl or basin where one could wash his hands and face. Afterwards the bowl was emptied either by throwing the water out a window or by dumping it into a “slop jar” to be carried away for more discreet disposal. Sets were made in plain white ironstone as well as fancy hand-painted china.

When my parents gave me and my husband a washbowl set for Christmas 1973, it was complete. The large pitcher was for cold water and the smaller one was for hot water; the bowl or basin was for washing. Completing the set are a small bowl with lid which held a cake of soap, a shaving mug, a toothbrush holder, and a chamber pot or “slop jar."

Unfortunately the toothbrush holder and lid to the chamber pot are broken thanks to little children throwing a ball in the house. (GRRR)

But back to the story. Washbowl sets were almost always placed on a small piece of furniture called a wash stand. Some had marble tops to protect the furniture from water stains.

Some had a rack for towels; some people used to hang a small quilt to protect the wall from water splashes. Almost all had a drawer for towels and a storage area large enough to hold the chamber pot.

In the 1970s and 80s, antiques were very popular but very expensive. On weekends Momma, my sister, and I scoured many a thrift store and antique shop in search of a bargain. Wash stands were high on our list, and we found quite a few.

 

This wash stand in my dining room
holds serving pieces and candle holders.

Momma gave new life to an array of stands from the primitive to the more refined, although none with marble tops as those were too expensive. However, I inherited a walnut wash stand with marble top from my grandaunt Violetta Davis Ryan.

 

Walnut wash stand with marble top
from Aunt Violetta
Notice this one has a large back splash
plus small shelves to hold parts of the
washbowl set.

The wash stand currently in one of our guest rooms was in pieces when Momma found it. The top was separated from the rest and the doors were stacked inside. The towel rack was in pieces as well, and the rod for holding a towel was missing. The cost - $4. Since this project required quite a bit of gluing, Momma went to Sears to buy some clamps.

 

Bedroom wash stand in oak
is the most rustic piece.

The clerk was surprised that a woman was clamping anything. He obviously had not met my mother! She owned a drill as well as a belt sander, jig saw, and a host of smaller tools like screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches, chisels, saws, and hammers.

Wash stand made of poplar in the family room is just big enough
for a 52" tv. The drawer holds some DVDs, and the bottom part
of the cabinet holds the DVD player. 

Our neighbor once said, “It wasn’t officially summer until the garage door was open, old furniture was in the driveway, and Mary E. was in her white work shorts.” Those shorts were so covered in paint and wood stain that they probably could have stood on their own.

Oh, how clearly I remember those summer days as Momma’s assistant, both of us in rubber gloves with putty knives, a wire brush, and paint remover scraping through layers of paint to find that beautiful oak or poplar. My clearest memory, though, is that flicks of paint and chemicals STING!

Wendy

© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

A to Z April Challenge: V is for Vaseline

When my sister and I cleaned out our parents’ home, we had to make many decisions about what to do with all the stuff. Which things are truly “valuable” and which have only sentiment in their favor? Should we sell it, keep it, or throw it away? To help ensure a future for our family’s heirlooms, I plan to leave a booklet for my daughters telling the stories of what they will inherit one day. (Not TOO soon, I hope!) With this challenge I begin my book of Heirlooms.

is for vaseline glass. It is actually glass that contains uranium. The most popular color of uranium glass is this yellow-green. It was nicknamed “vaseline glass” in the 1920s because of its resemblance to petroleum jelly as it was sold at that time.

To be honest my Vaseline glass is not an heirloom at all. These are pieces I bought at antique shops specifically to fit the color scheme of one of our guest bedrooms. However, I need to include the story in my book of Heirlooms so that my daughters will know that there is no family history and certainly no sentimental value attached to these bowls and cup.

Wendy

© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.